1 . Social media can be a convenient way to extend your network, staying in touch with your grandma, or sharing photos of your new puppy. Nevertheless, social media can be temible for your health. It’s our use of it that’s out of control.
British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar developed the idea that 150 people is the maximum number of meaningful connections anyone can have. You may have 800 friends on Wechat, but we’re not connecting with them in person. Your QQ connections may be vast, but how many of them do you have meaningful interactions with?
If you’re using social media to feel more connected, a recent study published in the American Joumal of Health Promotion suggests that it’s not working, and it an also contribute to unfavorable connections and even depression. Positive interactions on social media don’t help people feel happier. Negative interactions, on the other hand, bring more feelings of sadness. The same goes for comparison, which social media encourages. Another study, published by the American Psychological Association, shows comparing yourself to others via social media also has negative effects, leading to symptoms of depression.
Reaching for your cell phone as a mental break is also a bad idea. Research by Rutgers University compared participants in the midst of completing a task who took a break with their cell phones, with paper and pencils, and who took no break at all. Those who used their cell phones during their break solved 22% fewer problems and took 19% longer to complete their tasks than those under the other two conditions.
So how should you manage your social media usage?
First, know your time and purposes of use. Use the tracking function on your device to find out how much you’re using it and what you’re using it for. After this, get away from your device unless you have to use it. As tough as it might be, turn off and tune into the world around you.
Then, be in charge of your device, rather than let it be in charge of you. Your phone s rings or vibrations don’t mean you must respond to them. Remind yourself that you’re in charge, not your device or the people on the other end of it who’ve just contacted you.
Finally, consider using your device as a relationship builder. Use your apps to find your friends and make your dinner reservation so you can catch up face-to-face your favorite restaurant, where you’ll keep your phone out of sight.
When you’re in control of your digital consumption, social media becomes a tool to enrich your life and not a distraction (分心) that makes you feel miserable.
1. The author might agree that ________.| A．social media is immediate and interactive |
| B．it is hard to live without digital devices |
| C．friends on QQ are not friends indeed |
| D．improper social media use is harmful |
| A．can’t promote your expected connections |
| B．breaks up the meaningful communication |
| C．causes the unnecessary comparison |
| D．can’t bring more positive interactions |
| A．participants without cell phones had quicker and deeper thinking |
| B．using cell phones couldn’t give participants mental breaks |
| C．cell phone users couldn’t complete their task successfully |
| D．mental breaks reduce efficiency of solving problems |
| A．call your friends to play online games together |
| B．book movie tickets for family time through apps |
| C．look through WeiBo when you have a family reunion |
| D．reply messages on We Chat while having dinner with friends |
| A．Is social media killing your health? |
| B．How does social media affect your life? |
| C．Social media: to be or not to be? |
| D．Social media: use it wisely! |
In the United States, over 25 percent of senior citizens (people over 65) live alone. Without friends and family nearby, seniors are at risk of
Many communities are trying to deal with this problem. Providence Mount St. Vincent, a retirement home (退休疗养院) near Seattle, Washington, has
The program has clear advantages. For the older people, their social life improves (改善); they read to and play games with the children, and encourage
The children also get a lot from the program. They have
Now, there are many programs like the one at Providence Mount St. Vincent.
The Teacher-Student Relationship
A good teacher-student relationship will make learning enjoyable and interesting for the students.
To set up a good teacher-student relationship, a teacher’s
As for the students, they must always respect their teachers. Students should be eager to learn as well as willing
Above all, both students and teachers have to focus on
4 . You return from work on a muggy(闷热的) August evening. Your unwashed teenage son is on the sofa playing the game Fortnite, as he has been doing for the past eight hours. Not for the first time, you ask yourself: why are school summer holidays so long?
This is a more serious question than it sounds. Many children will return from the long break having forgotten much of what they were taught the previous year. One study from the American South found that this summer learning loss‖ could be as high as a quarter of the year’s education. Poor children tend to be the worst affected, since rich ones typically live in homes full of books and are packed off to summer camp.
A study from Baltimore found that variations(差别) in summer loss might possibly account for two-thirds of the achievement gap between rich and poor children by the age of 14-15. Long holidays definitely tighten the budgets of poor families, since free school meals stop and extra child care kicks in.
Youngsters will hate the idea of a longer school year. Many grown-ups will object to it, too. It would cost taxpayers more, since teachers would have to be paid for the extra days. Schools in hotter areas would spend a fortune on air-conditioning. Skeptics(怀疑者) also note that, although those rarely rested South Korean pupils do well in exams, they are often unhappy. Is that really what you want for your darlings?
More time in school doesn’t necessarily mean repeating the same old lessons. But for those falling behind, the summer could be a time for different kinds of learning: critical thinking, practical skills, financial literacy, work placements with local firms—schools should be free to experiment. Space should not be a problem. Many school buildings sit idle(闲置的) in the summer.
Well-off children often already use the summer to broaden their minds or doing summer jobs found through connections. Schools should help the rest catch up. Other public services do not simply disappear for a quarter of the year. It would be unthinkable for hospitals or the police to do so. So why do schools get away with it? Their responsibility to educate does not end when the temperature rises.
1. With the example in Paragraph 1, the author intends to .| A．show the author’s bad mood |
| B．lead in the topic of the passage |
| C．criticize the son’s bad behavior |
| D．prove the harm of long holidays |
| A．have them learning the previous lessons |
| B．pack them off to various summer camps |
| C．offer them various chances of learning |
| D．provide summer jobs in public services |
| A．The school summer holidays should be shorter. |
| B．Students are suffering summer learning loss. |
| C．Schools should arrange more practical learning. |
| D．The achievement gap between students is widened. |
5 . As data and identity theft becomes more and more common, the market is growing for biometric(生物测量) technologies—like fingerprint scans—to keep others out of private e-spaces. At present, these technologies are still expensive, though.
Researchers from Georgia Tech say that they have come up with a low-cost device(装置) that gets around this problem: a smart keyboard. This smart keyboard precisely measures the cadence(节奏) with which one types and the pressure fingers apply to each key. The keyboard could offer a strong layer of security by analyzing things like the force of a user’s typing and the time between key presses. These patterns are unique to each person. Thus, the keyboard can determine people’s identities, and by extension, whether they should be given access to the computer it’s connected to—regardless of whether someone gets the password right.
It also doesn’t require a new type of technology that people aren’t already familiar with. Everybody uses a keyboard and everybody types differently.
In a study describing the technology, the researchers had 100 volunteers type the word “touch” four times using the smart keyboard. Data collected from the device could be used to recognize different participants based on how they typed, with very low error rates. The researchers say that the keyboard should be pretty straightforward to commercialize and is mostly made of inexpensive, plastic-like parts. The team hopes to make it to market in the near future.
1. Why do the researchers develop the smart keyboard?| A．To reduce pressure on keys. | B．To improve accuracy in typing. |
| C．To replace the password system. | D．To cut the cost of e-space protection. |
| A．Computers are much easier to operate. |
| B．Fingerprint scanning techniques develop fast. |
| C．Typing patterns vary from person to person. |
| D．Data security measures are guaranteed. |
| A．It’ll be environment-friendly. | B．It’ll reach consumers soon. |
| C．It’ll be made of plastics. | D．It’ll help speed up typing. |
| A．A diary. | B．A guidebook | C．A novel. | D．A magazine. |
6 . The meaning of the word “volunteer” may be a little different in different countries, but it usually means “one who offers his or her services”. There are many different ways in which people can volunteer, such as taking care of sick people, working in homes for homeless children, and picking up garbage from beaches and parks. Volunteers may work within their own countries or in other countries. They are often people with a strong wish to help those who are less fortunate than themselves. Volunteer don’t expect any kind of pay.
At the root of volunteering is the idea that one person may have the ability to offer services that can help other people. Tracy, a good friend of mine, however, recently came back from India with a new idea of what being a volunteer means. She worked for two and a half weeks in one of Mother Teresa’s homes in Calcutta. The following is her story.
“I first heard about Mother Teresa in my high school. We watched a video about her work in India and all over the world. I was so moved by her spirit to help others and her endless love for every human being that after I graduated from high school, I also wanted to try her kind of work. So with two friends, I flew to Caltutta for a few weeks.”
“I was asked to work in a home for sick people. I helped wash clothes and sheets and passed out lunch. I also fed the people who were too weak to feed themselves and tried to cheer them up. I felt it was better to share with them than to think that I have helped them. To be honest, I don’t think I was helping very much. It was then that I realized that I had not really come to help, but to learn about and experience another culture that helped improve my own understanding of life and the world.”
1. According to the text, a volunteer refers to a person who_______.| A．is willing to help those in need without pay | B．can afford to travel to different places |
| C．has a strong wish to be successful | D．has made a big fortune in life |
| A．She liked to work with Mother Teresa. |
| B．She had already had some experience. |
| C．She was asked by Mother Teresa. |
| D．She wanted to follow Mother Teresa’s example. |
| A．Going abroad to help the sick. | B．Working in Mother Teresa’s home. |
| C．Doing simple things to help the poor. | D．Improving oneself through helping others. |
| A．How to Be a Volunteer. | B．Voluntary Life in India. |
| C．A Different Meaning of Volunteer. | D．Inspiration from Mother Teresa. |
7 . A bargain is something offered at a low and advantageous price. A more recent definition is: a bargain is a dirty trick to force money out of the pockets of silly and innocent people.
The cost of producing a new-for example - toothpaste would make 80p the proper price for it, so we will market it at £1.20. It is not a bad toothpaste, and as people like to try new things it will sell well to start with; but the attraction of novelty soon fades, so sales will fall. When that happens we will reduce the price to £1.15. And we will turn it into a bargain by printing 5p OFF all over it.
Sometimes it is not 5p OFF but 1p OFF. What breathtaking rudeness to advertise 1p OFF your soap or washing powder or whatever! Even the poorest old-age pensioner ought to regard this as an insult(侮辱), but he doesn't. A bargain must not be missed. People say one has to have washing powder (or whatever) and one might as well buy it a penny cheaper.
The real danger starts when unnecessary things become ‘bargains’. Many people just cannot resist bargains. Provided they think they are getting a bargain they will buy clothes they will never wear or furniture they have no space for. Once I heard of a man who bought an electric saw as a bargain and cut off two of his fingers the next day. But he had no regrets: the saw had been truly cheap.
Quite a few people actually believe that they make money on such bargains. A lady once told me: “I’ve had a lucky day today. I bought a dress for £120, reduced from £400; and l bought a beautiful Persian carpet for £600, reduced from £900.” It will never occur to her that she has actually wasted £720. She feels as though she had made £580. She also feels, I am sure, that if she had more time for shopping, she could make a living out of it.
Some people buy in large quantities because it is cheaper. Once a couple bought enough sugar for their lifetime and the lifetime of their children and grandchildren. They thought it a bargain not to be missed. When the sugar arrived they didn't know where to store it - until they realized that their toilet was a very spacious one. So that was where they piled up their sugar. Not only did their guests feel rather strange whenever they were offered sugar to put into their coffee, but the toilet became extremely sticky.
To offer bargains is a commercial trick to make the poor poorer. When greedy fools fall for this trick, it serves them right.
1. Which word best describes the language style of the passage?| A．Polite. | B．Foolish. |
| C．Humorous. | D．Serious. |
| A．Good quality. | B．Low price. |
| C．Curiosity. | D．Newness. |
| A．It’s a gift for poor people. |
| B．It’s an offense to shoppers. |
| C．It’s a bargain worth trying. |
| D．It’s a real reduction in price. |
| A．Bargains are things people don’t really need. |
| B．Bargains are often real cheap products. |
| C．Bargains help people make a living. |
| D．Bargains play tricks on people. |
8 . Why do you go to the library? For books, yes—but you like books because they tell stories. You hope to get lost in a story or be transported into someone else’s life. At one type of library you can do just that—even though there’s not a single book.
At a Human Library, instead of books, you can “borrow” people. People with unique life stories volunteer to be the “books.” For a certain amount of time, you can ask them questions and listen to their stories, which are as fascinating as any you can find in a book. (If you attend, be sure to review the habits that make you a good listener.) Many of the stories have to do with some kind of depressing topic. You can speak with a refugee, a soldier suffering from PTSD（创伤后遗症）, a homeless person and a woman living with HIV. The Human Library encourages people
to take time to truly get to know and learn from someone they might otherwise make a snap judgement about. According to its website, the Human Library is “a place where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered.”
The Human Library Organization came to be in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2000.Romni Abergel and his colleagues hosted a four—day event during a major Northern European festival. After the success of this event, Abergel founded the Human Library Organization, hoping to raise awareness among youth about depression, which has been growing ever since.
Though there are a few permanent human libraries, most aren’t places at all, but events. Though many do take place at physical libraries, you don’t need a library card—anyone can come and be part of the experience. There have been human library events all over the globe, in universities and in pubs, from Chicago to Tunis to Edinburgh to San Antonio. Check out the organization’s Facebook page to see when the Human Library might be arriving near you.
1. What shall we do before going to the Human Library?| A．Bring a book. | B．Get a library card. |
| C．Make an appointment. | D．Go over some listening habits. |
| A．True | B．Quick. |
| C．Wrong. | D．Obvious. |
| A．He expected to answer different questions. |
| B．He successfully held an event in Northern Europe. |
| C．He wanted young people to pay attention to depression. |
| D．He had set up the Human Libraries all over the world. |
| A．“Borrow” People Instead of Books | B．Human Library Organization |
| C．Human Library Is Near You | D．A Library in Denmark |
9 . On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that 42% of Americans could be overweight by 2030. Our expanding waistlines lead to not only a medical problem, but according to a recent article In The New York Times, it could also endanger personal safety in some situations—in an airplane crash, for example.
The New York Times’ Christen Negroni reports that engineers and scientists are questioning whether airplane seats are adequately constructed to protect overweight travelers. Government standards for airplane seat strength（强度）— first set moe than 60 years ago — require that the seats be made for a passenger weighing 170 pounds (77kg). Today, the average American man weighs nearly 194 pounds (88kg) and the average woman 165 pounds (75kg). Negroni reports:
“If a heavier person completely fills seat, the seat is not likely to behave as intended during a crash,” said Robert Salazar, the leading scientist at the Center for Applied Biomechanics at the University of Virginia. “The energy absorption that is built into the aircraft seat is likely to be overpowered and the passengers will not be protected properly.”
“Nor would the injury be limited to that passenger only,” Dr. Salzar said. “If a seat or a seat belt fails,” he said, “those people who are seated nearby could be endangered from ‘the uncontrolled movements of the passenger’.”
Most complaints about airplane seats focus on their lack of comfort and high ticket price, and whether overweight passengers should be made to buy two seats. But The New York Times’ article brings up another reason to feel anxious about flying. Investigators of the issue got in touch with the airplane seat and seat belt makers, but they refused to comment on the problem. Experts agreed that crash testing should be done with overweight dummies （人体模型）. Both airplane seats and seat belts should be tested, they said.
Fortunately, however, according to Nora Marshall, a senior adviser at the National Transportation Safety Board, the board’s investigators have never seen an accident involving a commercial plane in which the weight of a passenger was a problem.
1. What is the article in The New York Times mainly concerned with?| A．The size of airplane seats and seat belts. |
| B．Safety of overweight airplane passengers. |
| C．Airplane crashes involving commercial planes. |
| D．A medical problem caused by being overweight. |
| A．overweight passengers should buy two seats |
| B．the government should help produce safer planes |
| C．standards for airplane seat strength should be raised |
| D．passengers should know how to protect themselves |
| A．airplane seat makers have taken action now |
| B．there are few complaints about airplane seats |
| C．those seate near the overweight may suffer too |
| D．only a small number of airplane accidents involve the overweight |
| A．Why Do Passengers Feel Anxious about Flying? |
| B．Will 42% of Americans Be OVERWEIGHT BY 2030? |
| C．When Will the Overweight Enjoy Their Flight? |
| D．Are Airplane Seats Safe Enough for the Overweight? |
10 . More students than ever before are taking a gap year (间隔年) before going to university. It used to be called the “year off” between school and university. The gap-year phenomenon originated (起源) with the months left over to Oxbridge applicants between entrance exams in November and the start of the next academic year.
This year, 25,310 students who have accepted places in higher education institutions have put off their entry until next year, according to statistics on university entrance provided by the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS).
That is a record 14.7% increase in the number of students taking a gap year. Tony Higgins from UCAS said that the statistics are good news for everyone in higher education. “Students who take a well-planned year out are more likely to be satisfied with, and complete, their chosen course. Students who take a gap year are often more mature and responsible.” he said.
But not everyone is happy. Owain James, the president of the National Union of Students (NUS), argued that the increase is evidence of student hardship—young people are being forced into earning money before finishing their education. “New students are now aware that they are likely to leave university up to £ 15,000 in debt. It is not surprising that more and more students are taking a gap year to earn money to support their study for the degree. NUS statistics show that over 40% of students are forced to work during term time and the figure increases to 90% during vacation periods,” he said.
1. What do we learn about the gap year from the text?| A．It is flexible in length. | B．It is a time for relaxation. |
| C．It is increasingly popular. | D．It is required by universities. |
| A．are better prepared for college studies |
| B．know a lot more about their future jobs |
| C．are more likely to leave university in debt |
| D．have a better chance to enter top universities |
| A．He’s puzzled. | B．He’s worried. |
| C．He’s surprised. | D．He’s annoyed. |
| A．Attend additional courses. | B．Make plans for the new term. |
| C．Earn money for their education. | D．Prepare for their graduate studies. |
