Today’s Teens in No Hurry to Start Driving

The legal age to drive a car in the United States is 16. Obtaining a driver’s license on the day you turn 16 has long been     1     major life event for many young people in America.

But interest in driving among today’s teenagers     2    (drop) sharply over the past 35 years. In 1983, 80 percent of 18-year-olds in America had a driver’s license. By 2018, that number had reduced to 61 percent. Among 16-year-olds, the number decreased from 46 percent in 1983    3     25 percent in 2018. Those    4    (figure) come from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.

Young people say they have many reasons for delaying or avoiding     5    (get) a driver’s license. Some choose more environmentally friendly transportation choices. Others find driving     6    (stress). And some     7    (simple) do not care about cars at all.

Carmakers want to make their vehicles more appealing to young people. They seek to make cars more interesting to a generation     8    (bring) up on technology. Some believe a big screen is     9    today’s teen drivers want. The vehicle is an    10    (extend) of their iPhone or their screen device.

5 . In the past, video conference technology was mainly used for just a few elements of business meetings or hangouts with friends and family. Now, video conference tools are essential for our productivity, learning and social interaction. We use them not only for fun, but mainly as a meaningful part of our work.

However, once we start to join endless video calls for a few hours each day, we become very tired. This term is called “zoom fatigue”, and it’s related to overusing virtual communication platforms.

There are some advantages of using video conferencing tools. Without them, it might be impossible for us to work from home. But what we haven’t expected is a price that we need to pay for that sort of convenience.

When we are having a face-to-face conversation with others, everything seems pretty natural. While speaking, you look into the eyes, sometimes slightly moving your stare onto something else. You know when to stop talking and when to speak up. Even if you’re in a conference room with 10 people, you don’t have a terrible feeling of being observed all the time. You notice that people mostly look at the person who is speaking, and then they move their attention onto someone else. But when you use a teleconferencing tool, things are different. Being physically on camera makes you very aware of being watched all the time, because you don’t know who is looking at you. You just see many faces on your screen.

Marissa Shuffler from Clemson University once said, “When you’re on a video conference, you know everybody’s looking at you; you are on stage, so there comes the social pressure—a feeling like you need to perform. Being performative is stressful.”

Moreover, there is another interesting tendency as far as video calls are concerned. Who are you looking at most of the time? The answer is yourself. For most people, it’s hard not to look at their own face if they can see it on the screen. We are likely to make sure that our head is at the right angle and that our shirt isn’t creased.

6 . “The really frightening thing about middle age,” the actor Doris Day is said to have joked, “is that you know you'll grow out of it.” We may bravely try to claim that life begins at 40- but for many people，it can feel more like the beginning of the end.

Mid life wasn't always seen this way. It isn't clear why we have a more negative view today, but Margie Lachman, director of the lifespan development lab at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, suggests it may be linked to the pressures that begin piling up in our 30s. “Midlife is a period of high stress today, more so than in the past,” she says. “One is exactly in the middle of work and family careers. This can affect one's ability to focus on one's own well-being.”

There are, however, many reasons to feel positive about this crucial period. In a series of experiments, Laura Germine at Harvard Medical School has tested tens of thousands of people to examine the differences in cognitive abilities between age groups. Germine's studies have included the famous “mind in the eyes” test, for instance, which gets people to infer emotional states from small differences in facial expressions. She found that people in their late 40s scored highest. This may be due to practice, she suggests. “When you think about the amount of social differences that one has to learn across the lifespan- that's where we think that comes from.”

Germine found similar patterns in a task demanding continuous attention. In this, the participants had to watch different scenes fade into one another and adapt their response according to what they saw-pressing a button when they saw a city and releasing it when they saw a mountain. 40-somethings found it much easier to “get into the zone” than younger people.

It is interesting to note that middle-aged people frequently bring in the most supplies in traditional hunter-gatherer societies. According to various studies, hunter-gatherers often take decades to learn their skills, and these abilities continue to grow into their 40s.

There are some downsides to hitting this age, of course. Our skin tends to become loose and our body fat starts to be redistributed around the midriff. But after a drop in life satisfaction, happiness is already set to rise at the end of this decade and the beginning of the next.

Contrary to popular opinion, humans seem to have evolved to flourish into middle age and beyond.

7 . Each day, 10-year-old Seth asked his mom for more and more lunch money. Yet he seemed ________ than ever and came home from school hungry. It   ________ that Seth was handing his lunch money to a fifth-grader, who was threatening to beat him up if he didn’t pay.

Kayla, 13, thought things were going well at her new school, _________ all the popular girls were being so nice to her. But then she found out that one of them had posted _________ rumors about her. Kayla cried herself to sleep that night and refused to go to school.

In national surveys, most kids and teens say that bullying happens at school. A bully can turn something like going to the wash room or recess (隐秘处) into a/an _________ for kids. Bullying can leave deep emotional scars. And in _________ situations, it can involve violent threats, property damage, or someone getting seriously hurt. Therefore, it’s necessary to help your child identify bullying and cope with it as well as _________ its lasting impact.

Most kids have been   _________ by a sibling or a friend at some point. And it’s not usually harmful when done in a playful, friendly, and mutual way, and both kids find it funny. But when it becomes hurtful, unkind, and constant, it _________ the line into bullying and needs to stop.

It’s important to take bullying   _________and not just brush it off as something that kids have to “tough out.” The effects can be serious and affect kids’ sense of safety and _________. In severe cases, bullying has _________ tragedies, such as suicides and school shootings.

If your child tells you about being bullied, listen _________ and offer comfort and support. Kids are often _________to tell adults about bullying because they feel embarrassed and ashamed that it’s happening. Therefore, praise your child for doing the right thing by talking to you about it. Let someone at school (the principal, school nurse, or a counselor or teacher) know about the situation. They are often _________ to monitor and take steps to prevent further problems.

9 . Does reading depressing information online get you down? Put the phone away for an hour. Or, better yet, make it 24 hours--you might just get $2, 400 out of it.

RVW, a company that tests home services and products, is holding a 24-hour digital detox (脱瘾) challenge. They’ll pay their chosen challengers, who are “definitely into tech”, over ＄2000 to survive a whole day without screens.

The challenge is not as easy as it sounds. Those selected for the challenge will not only have to swear off their phones for the day, but television, gaming, computers, smart watches and smart home devices are also off-limits. However, the company clarifies, microwaves are still okay.

The challengers will receive safes to store their electronics in for the 24 hours, along with a $200 supermarket gift card to purchase a tech-free “survival kit,” the company wrote. Some survival kit suggestions from the company include a typewriter to replace computers, writing paper to replace texts, and paints and brushes to replace the fine art of the selfie. Challengers will have to review the survival kit and give feedback (反馈) on the experience after completing the challenge.

Screen time is a growing health risk. The company's challenge comes at a time when “screen time” has taken on new meaning. Nowadays, many people are forced to work remotely and students to study online, making screens more of a necessity than ever before. According to a 2019 report, US teens were spending an average of more than seven hours per day on screen media for entertainment alone. “We have a feeling someone out there needs a break,” the company wrote.

To apply, the company requests a bit of personal information and a 100-word question about why you're right for the challenge. Applications will be open until June 26 and winners will be announced on the company's website on June 29.

10 . Over half of Tokyo’s residents don’t think the postponed 2020 Olympics should be held in 2021, backing either a further delay or complete cancellation because of fears for the coronavirus, according to a poll(民意调查) published on Monday.

The survey carried out by two Japanese news organizations is only a single data point, but comes after health experts warned that even a year’s delay may not be enough to hold the Games safely.

The poll found 51.7 percent of respondents hope the Games in 2021 are postponed again or canceled, while 46.3 percent want to see the rescheduled Olympics go ahead. Among those opposed to the 2021 Games, 27.7 percent said they want them canceled altogether, while 24 percent would prefer a second postponement.

The telephone poll, conducted by Kyodo News and Tokyo MX television between Friday and Sunday, received 1,030 replies. Of those who said they want to see the Games held in 2021, 31.1 percent said the event should be on a smaller scale, while 15. 2 percent said they want to see fully developed Olympics.

Tokyo 2020 was postponed in March as the coronavirus spread across the globe, causing the worst disruption(中断) to the Olympics since two editions were canceled during World War II. The Games are now scheduled to begin on July 23, 2021, although they will still be known as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Officials from Japan and the International Olympic Committee(IOC) have warned that it will not be possible to postpone them again, and even the year-long delay has created significant financial and logistical(后勤的) headaches.

Earlier in June, the mayor of Tokyo Yuriko Koike told AFP that the rescheduled Olympics will be safe despite the coronavirus pandemic, promising to make a “120-percent effort” to ensure the first-ever postponed Games can go ahead. Koike has been heavily involved in preparations for the Games, traveling to Rio for the handover ceremony after the last Summer Olympics.