1 . Buying clothes for special events, hiding the price tickets and returning them to the store the next day has for years been the method of money-saving shoppers. Today people are doing it just for social media.

A survey conducted by the credit card company Barclaycard showed that nearly one in ten UK shoppers admits to buying clothing only to post photos on social media for likes. After the “outfit (装束) of the day” (OOTD) makes it online, they return it back to the store. According to Barclaycard, the “try before you buy” policy of online retailers (零售商) — where people pay for clothing they order online after they try it on at home — could be leading to this rising trend.

But the rise of social media means that everyone, not just superstars, expects to build and maintain a personal brand. Since we’re recording our lives and posting them online for public judgement, getting caught in the same outfits more than once should be avoided. And the cost of all those outfits of the day adds up, which makes returning a popular way.

There are brands that make clothes specially for social media shoppers, like Fashion Nova. “These are clothes made for social media: meant to be worn once, photographed and abandoned,” Allison P. Davis wrote in her report about the brand. Another favourite of the social media age is Rent the Runway, which lets customers rent designer clothing for a fee.

Some, however, are moving in the opposite direction. Groups promoting “work uniforms” have increased greatly in recent years, aiming to free women from “the trouble of clothing decisions”. The concept of the “capsule wardrobe (胶囊衣橱)”, which calls for purchasing a small number of high-quality pieces instead of lots of trendy throwaway clothes, is also making a comeback.

1. What does the survey by Barclaycard suggest?

A．Britons follow the fashion stars closely.

B．Some Britons over-order and return clothes.

C．Britons try on clothes before online purchases.

D．Some Britons send outfits back after taking pictures.

2. What’s Fashion Nova’s special service?

A．Renting top designers’ clothes.

B．Offering customers single-use clothes.

C．Creating unique shopping experiences.

D．Helping shoppers improve their clothing style.

3. What’s the idea behind the “capsule wardrobe”?

A．Better fewer, but better.	B．Less addition, but more enjoyment.
C．Less uniform, and more freedom.	D．More choices, and less trouble.

4. Why does the author write the text?

A．To compare different wearing trends.

B．To introduce Britain’s new wearing trend.

C．To support buying high-quality clothes.

D．To criticize the “try before you buy” policy.

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.

2. What might have caused the “lying down” lifestyle among the young?

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.

3. What’s the scholar’s attitude toward the “lying down” group?

A．Understanding.

B．Intolerant.

C．Supportive.

D．Unclear.

4. What can be inferred about the young generation from the text?

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 . There is a popular saying in the English language: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Well, that is not true. Unkind words, name-calling or even the so-called “the silent treatment” can hurt children as much as being physically hit, sometimes even more so. A recent study of middle school children showed that verbal (言语的) abuse by other children can harm, the development in the brain. The study was a project of researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. Researcher Martin Teicher and his team studied young adults, aged 18 to 25. These young men and women had not ever been treated in a cruel or violent way by their parents. The researchers asked the young people to rate their childhood exposure to verbal abuse from both parents and other children. Then the researchers performed imaging tests on the brains of the subjects.

The images showed that the people who reported suffering verbal abuse from peers in middle school had underdeveloped connections between the left and right side of the brain. The two sides of the brain are connected by a large bundle of connecting fibers called the corpus callosum. This was the area that was underdeveloped.

The middle school years are a time when these brain connections are developing. So, unkind, hurtful comments from children or adults during this period have the greatest effect. The researchers tested the mental and emotional condition of all the young people in the study. The tests showed that this same group of people had higher levels of fear, depression, anger and drug abuse than others in the study.

The researchers published their findings online on the American Journal of Psychiatry's website.

Parents cannot control what other people say to their children, but they can prepare their children.

1. Why does the author use the popular saying at the beginning?

A．To show the power of words.

B．To introduce an opposite view.

C．To prove the author's argument.

D．To show ancient people's wisdom.

2. What did the people studied in the research have in common?

A．They were hurt by unkind words.

B．They performed poorly in imaging tests.

C．They had their brain slightly damaged.

D．They experienced no physical abuse at home.

3. What will be discussed in the next paragraph?

A．Comments on the findings.

B．Approaches to further studies.

C．Suggestions to parents.

D．Different opinions on the matter.

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Unkind words hurt the brain.

B．Verbal violence should be stopped.

C．The way we speak matters.

D．Words are worse than sticks and stones.

6 . Today it is common to see people who walk about with colored wires hanging from their ears wherever they go. They move about in their personal bubbles，sometimes unaware of what’s happening around them.     1     Outside life is shut out. So are you one of “them”?

For me, walking around in my own personal bubble is perfect.     2     What’s even better, wearing earphones seems to give a signal to people which says：“I'm not available for chatting at the moment.”

Suppose you’re at work and about to make an incredible breakthrough，but a colleague suddenly turns up. At this precise moment，the slightest disturbance would break your concentration.     3     Once again，those wires hanging from your ears would be sure to give that “Go away!” signal.

    4     It’s probably part of the growing up stage when they just want to ignore their whole family. While their mothers give them lectures about why they should do their homework，they can just turn up the volume on their MP3 player, smile and say “Yes, Mum.” Problem solved.

Pretty soon，not only will we have pretty colored wires hanging from our ears，but also our brains will be directly plugged into some new high-tech instrument. We’ll be in a virtual world，communicating with everyone else，as we like. In this world，we will all be permanently plugged in.     5     And they are changing our social habits along the way.

In the end, there is a thin line between using technology as a tool for making life better and being a slave to it! It’s so strange—suddenly. I don’t feel like wearing my earphones anymore.

A．Our instruments are changing quickly.

B．I also have wires hanging from my ears.

C．In the home situation，teenagers love these wires.

D．I don’t have to deal with the noise from the environment.

E．After all，I am listening to my favourite music and would rather not be disturbed.

F．They walk around in their own spaces, with their personal “digital noise reduction systems”.

G．Listening to music through earphones is one of the perfect ways to ignore such interruptions.

9 . Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopian novel by George Orwell, was set in a totalitarian state where even the language they use is controlled. Adjectives are forbidden and instead they use phrases such as “ungood”, “plus good” and “double plus good” to express emotions. As I first read this I thought how impossible it would be in our society to have such vocabulary. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realised in its own way it's already happening. I type messages to my friends and alongside each is the obligatory (惯用的) emoji. I often use them to emphasise something, or to not seem too serious, or because this specific GIF conveys my emotions much better than I ever could using just words. And I wonder, with our too much use of emojis, are we losing the beauty and diversity of our vocabulary?

English has the largest vocabulary in the world, with over one million words, but who's to say what it'll be like in the future? Perhaps we will have a shorter language, full of saying “cry face” if something sad happens or using abbreviations like LOL (laugh out loud) or BRB (be right back) instead of saying the full phrase. So does this mean our vocabulary will shrink? Is it the start of an exciting new era? Will they look back on us in the future and say this is where it all began—the new language? Or is this a classic case of the older generations saying, “Things weren't like that when I was younger. We didn't use emoticons to show our emotions?”

Yet when you look back over time, the power of image has always been there. Even in the prehistoric era they used imagery to communicate, and what's even more incredible is that we are able to analyse those drawings and understand the meaning of them thousands of years later. Pictures have the ability to go beyond the usual limits of time and language. Images, be it cave paintings or emojis, allow us to convey a message that's not restrictive but rather universal.

1. Why does the author mention Nineteen Eight Four?

A．To introduce the topic.	B．To show an example.
C．To give the reason.	D．To describe a phenomenon

2. Why does the author like using emojis?

A．To reduce the use of words.	B．To save time of typing.
C．To express naturally and casually.	D．To make fun of friends.

3. Which of the following can best replace the underlined word “shrink” in Para 2?

A．Disappear.	B．Lower.
C．Reform.	D．Change.

4. Why can we figure out the meaning of the pictures drawn long time ago?

A．We can recognise the pictures' time period with technology.

B．We have kept the same vocabulary since the prehistoric era.

C．Pictures is an only way to record history.

D．Pictures can express human feelings accurately and vividly.