1 . Having hundreds of friends online is no substitute for a handful of close friends in real life. Researchers discovered that people with only a few friends were at least as happy as those with far more if many of theirs were online. The number of ''peripheral others'', someone connected with online — former classmates and coworkers, for example — had no connection with how satisfied they felt.
Scientists did their study using data from two online surveys conducted on 1,496 people by a non-profit research organization. People taking part in the study revealed their ages, the make-up of their social networks, how often they had different types of social interactions, and their own feelings of well-being. They included details of how often and how they interacted with family or neighbours, and whether they included people who provided services for them in their networks. The number of close friends someone had was the only thing that influenced how satisfied they were with their social life.
''Loneliness has less to do with the number of friends you have, and more to do with how you feel about your friends,'' said Dr Bruine, an expert of the study. ''If you feel lonely, it may be more helpful to make a positive connection with a friend than to try and seek out new people to meet.''
In the study, they found older people tended to have smaller social networks. Younger people's were larger but this was mostly made up of ''peripheral others'' — not true friends, just people they knew — and did not contribute to their happiness.
Even variations in the number of family members or neighbours somebody spent time with did not affect how happy they were with their social life. Dr Bruine said her research echoed other findings showing people would be happier if a larger proportion of their online friends were actually their friends in reality.
She added, ''Stereotypes of aging tend to paint older adults in many cultures as sad and lonely. But the research shows that older adults' smaller networks didn't weaken social satisfaction and well-being. In fact, older adults tend to report better well-being than younger adults.''
1. What has a good influence on one's happiness according to the study?A.Having impersonal networks of friends. |
B.Meeting with close friends face to face. |
C.Helping familiar coworkers. |
D.Keeping in touch with family members online. |
A.Keep off using the Internet. |
B.Show their attitudes to happiness. |
C.Reveal their social life thoroughly. |
D.Find ''peripheral others'' from their friends. |
A.Parents living with their children. |
B.Older adults with fewer friends online. |
C.Those having fewer relatives or neighbours. |
D.Young people without friends in reality. |
A.treat | B.draw |
C.describe | D.criticize |
2 . In 1973, I was teaching elementary school. Each day, 27 kids entered “The Thinking Laboratory.” That was the name students voted for after deciding that “Room 104” was too dull.
Freddy was an average student, but not an average person. He had the rare balance of fun and compassion(同情). He would laugh the loudest over fun and be the saddest over anyone’s misfortune.
Before the school year ended, I gave the kids a special gift, T-shirts with the words “Verbs Are Your Friends ” on them. I had advised the kids that while verbs(动词)may seem dull , most of the fun things they do throughout their lives will be verbs.
Through the years, I’d run into former students who would provide updates on old classmates. I learned that Freddy did several jobs after his graduation from high school and remained the same caring person I met forty years before . Once, while working overnight at a store, he let a homeless man sleep in his truck. Another time, he lent a friend money to buy a house.
Just last year, I was conducting a workshop when someone knocked at the classroom door. A woman excused the interruption and handed me an envelope. I stopped teaching and opened it up. Inside were the “Verbs” shirt and a note from Freddy’s mother. “Freddy passed away on Thanksgiving. He wanted you to have this. ”
I told the story to the class. As sad as it was, I couldn’t help smiling. Although Freddy was taken from us, we all took something from Freddy.
1. What do the underlined words “The Thinking Laboratory” in paragraph 1 refer to?A.The elementary school where the kids studied. |
B.“Room104”in which the kids studied. |
C.The workshop in which the kids carried out experiments. |
D.The high school which was fun as well as dull. |
A.She hardly kept in touch with her former students. |
B.She wrote the passage in 2013 or so. |
C.She was very strict with her students. |
D.She gave the kids special gifts after the school year. |
A.modest and daring. | B.outstanding and calm. |
C.generous and creative. | D.warm-hearted and caring. |
A.Cautious. | B.Disapproving. |
C.Uninterested. | D.Appreciative. |
3 . Jake and Max Klein are twin brothers who have a passion for volunteering. Their family have always done community
So, Kids That Do Good was
Jake and Max are
A.surveys | B.services | C.duties | D.businesses |
A.sort out | B.play with | C.give up | D.put away |
A.travelling | B.volunteering | C.cooking | D.recycling |
A.Unfortunately. | B.Happily | C.Honestly | D.Gratefully |
A.shy | B.awkward | C.weak | D.young |
A.task | B.ability | C.chance | D.determination |
A.public | B.similar | C.sharp | D.direct |
A.joked | B.blamed | C.denied | D.praised |
A.advised | B.allowed | C.named | D.created |
A.judgment | B.difference | C.comment | D.decision |
A.plan | B.effort | C.project | D.experiment |
A.pleased | B.satisfied | C.amazed | D.interested |
A.connected | B.exposed | C.contributed | D.attracted |
A.familiar | B.patient | C.busy | D.content |
A.remembering | B.describing | C.celebrating | D.building |
4 . How to Keep a Relationship Healthy and Strong
Are you new to experiencing relationships? Well, let me give you advice on having a healthy and possibly longterm relationship.
Make sure you give them respect. Now respect isn’t just simply treating her or him nicely. There’s a lot more to it. You have to learn to adjust to their liking.
Make sure you have a good sense of humor with them. Laughter is the key to happiness. Laugh a lot with them, joke with them. Laughter may seem silly, but it’s the secret to a lot in life. It will keep the sparks alive.
Make sure the communication is good. This goes along with trust, but always communicate how you feel, even if it’s something that upsets you. Instead of screaming, talk to them.
A.Show them your personality. |
B.Be an honest person with them. |
C.Make sure you are encouraging to your partners. |
D.Laughter keeps the relationship strong and lasting. |
E.Don’t start to neglect them and make them feel unwanted. |
F.Basically, learn to study your partners’ moods, wants and needs. |
G.If they did something that made you unhappy, tell them about it in a respectful manner. |
5 . We need to vent(发泄)about the place we work sometimes. Whether it is the long hours you put in ,an unreasonable boss, or lack of recognition for your efforts-every workplace has enough fuel to lighten the frustration(挫折).
Whether it’s politely debating the effectiveness of how an office runs, or complaining about the bosses, Pouthier found that the complaining session served as bonding function.
“It allows people to recognize how similar they are in the challenges they are facing every day and how they feel about them,”she says.
A.However, few people know how this happens |
B.No matter what kind of environment you work in |
C.It can even help staff to work through their negative feelings |
D.Whether bosses accept complaints from their employees or not |
E.But this common activity in every workplace was so under -researched |
F.It was found that there’s actually benefits to these kinds of complaining session |
G.Good news is, this workplace complaining is actually beneficial to your mental well-being. |
6 . In the tenth grade,I began working for free at a vet’s that was run by a friend of my parents.I wanted to get experience for what I thought would be my future job.However,on one particular Saturday morning I learnt something perhaps more important.
The hospital was in the middle of one of the poorer sections of the city and some people could only pay for the most basic treatments.On this Saturday,a man and his young son,who was probably about 7 years old,walked in with a small cat in a cardboard box.There was something wrong with the cat’s left eye.But the man could not afford to pay for the cost of the medicine.He kept quiet for a while,and then he asked where the nearest animal shelter was.Hearing this,his son cried and started to argue with him.All of a sudden,an older woman who was sitting in the waiting room stood up,walked up to the counter,and told the man that she would pay for the cost.The man thanked her and the son got to keep a healthy cat.
I always thought it was the right thing to help out a needy person,but I only saw people do acts of kindness on TV or in the movies.What the woman did made me believe that these things do happen in real life,and quite often.
Now,when I can’t decide whether to help someone who is in need,I think of this woman,and then I have the courage to step up to the plate sometimes other people follow.
1. We can infer that a vet’s is most probably a hospital for .A.kids | B.the poor |
C.animals | D.women |
A.To help his parents’ friend with his work. |
B.To make some pocket money. |
C.To learn more about society. |
D.To gain some work experience. |
A.Give it up. |
B.Take it home without treatment. |
C.Give it to the woman. |
D.Give it to someone on the street. |
7 . Teenagers do not always agree with adults.
Each summer 200 teenagers and 50 adults are invited to join the program.
There are a few free hours each day, and weekends are free, too. During the free hours, some of the teenagers learn to take photos or paint pictures. Some sit around and talk, sing or dance. All in all, each teenager has his own way to spend his free time.
One teenager talks about his experience. “You stop thinking only about yourself.
A.You learn to think about the group. |
B.They, at times, have their own opinions. |
C.Teenagers and adults talk with each other. |
D.The adults will teach them to make other things too. |
E.Proper rules are necessary while people live together. |
F.Some teenagers don’t know how to spend their free time. |
G.They live together for two months as members of a work group. |
As teenagers grow, it is normal for them to become
Along with these physical changes,
different in this regard. Many boys become risk-takers-they want to find their own limits and the limits of the world around them,
In the social world, as teenagers get older, they struggle to depend on themselves. They may badly want and need their
9 . One-year-old Tallulah turned purple and stopped moving after the sweet became stuck in her throat. Her mum Leigh-Anne said the drama began during a visit to her grandma’s house when her grandparents gave her older kids some sweets.
“Then at about 4:45 pm, Tallulah started to choke—we all went into a panic.”
“It seemed like it went on for ages. Not one of us knew what to do.”
“I rang an ambulance while my grandma and granddad tried to get the sweet to come up.”
“Tallulah was panicking at first but then she started to go purple—she almost had no oxygen left in her.”
With her daughter limp (无力的) and time running out, Leigh—Anne knew she couldn’t afford to wait for the ambulance to arrive.
“The only thing I could think was to go out into the street.” She said.
“I rushed out and screamed for someone to help while my grandma rushed out crying with Tallulah.”
At exactly the moment, Caitlin, who is studying public services at Redcar College, was passing by Queen Street. She said, “I was waiting to go to work when I heard someone screaming for help, so I ran straight over.”
The 17-year-old girl added, “Something just clicked and I went into auto mode. The little girl was completely limp, so I checked her airways and tilted (使倾斜) her over and started hitting her back. I turned her round and tapped on her chest, then after what felt like forever she coughed up the sweet and spat it out.
As soon as she started crying I felt a huge relief. I was just so pleased I was able to help.”
Caitlin was taught her lifesaving skills when she joined the Army Cadets four years ago.
1. When did Tallulah get choked?A.While eating sweets. | B.While enjoying a drama. |
C.While having a meal. | D.While taking some medicine. |
A.To buy some needed tools. | B.To search for timely help. |
C.To get a breath of fresh air. | D.To wait for the ambulance to arrive. |
A.Brave and selfless. | B.Kind and energetic. |
C.Determined and generous. | D.Quick-thinking and helpful. |
A.First aid skill sounds important. | B.Screaming for help makes sense. |
C.Eating sweets endangers baby girl. | D.Heroic teenager saves baby girl’s life. |
10 . Around this time a few years ago, it was common to see videos of friends on social media having a bucket of icy water thrown on them. Known as the “ice bucket challenge”, it was created as a way to raise money for the medical condition ALS. But now, there’s a new challenge and this time, no water is involved.
What is it? Well, think of a fruit that you’d never normally sink your teeth into. Perhaps you’ve got it: a lemon. While we enjoy using lemons to add flavor to dishes, very few of us would actually eat one as we’d eat an apple or an orange.
But the horrible taste is the precise reason why the “lemon face challenge” is taking off. Participants bite into a lemon, taking a selfie as they do it before posting the photo online. The fun is all about expression people make as all that citric acid(柠檬酸)hits their taste buds(味蕾). Every expression seems to say, “This is worse than freezing water.”
The serious side to this trend is the good cause it’s all in aid of. The challenge aims to raise awareness of a rare brain cancer that affects young children. It was started by Aubregh Nicholas, an 11-year-old US kid. She was diagnosed with this rare brain cancer herself in September 2017, but has since raised almost $50000 to cover her medical expenses thanks to the challenge.
If a challenge is going to raise publicity and contributions from people, it has to be something interesting and original. That way the ice bucket challenge took off in 2014 and it explains why so many people are now sharing their lemon faces. There are a lot of stories about the downside of social media these days. The charity challenges, however, show how online culture can unite the world and bring help to the people who most need it.
1. Why is the icy bucket challenge mentioned in the article?A.to show how charity gained its popularity online. |
B.to introduce a similar challenge that raises money for charity. |
C.to attract people’s attention to a rare disease. |
D.to prove its popularity around the world. |
A.It raises more money than ever before. |
B.It is started by the people who suffer rare diseases. |
C.It brings people together easily and quickly. |
D.It causes little doubt among people . |
A.go away suddenly | B.become successful and popular |
C.remove your clothes | D.take a break |
A.positive | B.indifferent |
C.negative | D.ambiguous |