1 . It’s no secret now that the more time we spend on social media, the more we feel dissatisfied with ourselves. We tend to compare ourselves to influences and celebrities- so it’s easy to understand how that can affect our confidence.
But, how often have you found yourself comparing your life to your friends? Engaging with social media shared by our friends can be more damaging than looking at content shared by celebrities, new research has found.
The study looking at how social media affects body image found that any social media engagement was significantly associated with lower “appearance satisfaction”. Additionally, it found that engaging with content posted by people the participants knew was more than twice as damaging as looking at content posted by strangers, including celebrities.
Viren Swami, Professor of Social Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, believes this is partly because we know it’s hard to attain the lives of celebrities or influences, but when we’re comparing ourselves to our friends, it feels like we should- or could-live the way they do.
“One possible explanation is that people may perceive a post showing appearance as being much more attainable if it comes from someone they know, adding expectation or pressure on the person engaging in the post, ” he said. “At the same time, people may be more critically engaged with posts by the likes of models and celebrities, and therefore perceive the images they share to be more unrealistic."
This is not just confined to body image though. We all have one area in our lives that triggers(触 发)us. Maybe you’ve been searching for a new job for months and you find yourself on social media, envying your school friend who just landed their dream role. Maybe. . .
All this is to say the obvious: we only see part of people’s lives -and if it’s getting you down, you’re probably comparing your insides to other people’s outsides. Everyone has their struggles and life is indeed not perfect for anyone. So, put down your phone, get offline, be thankful and try to live your own life.
1. What did the new study find?| A．Social media invites unfavorable comments. |
| B．Friends’ posts affect us more than celebrities’. |
| C．Celebrities have a negative influence on our life. |
| D．Body image causes more concern than social life. |
| A．They serve as role models. |
| B．We know the way they live. , |
| C．Their lifestyles are accessible. |
| D．We are curious about their life. |
| A．Restricted. |
| B．Related. |
| C．Devoted. |
| D．Exposed. |
| A．Find your dream and fight for it. |
| B．Stop comparing and be yourself. |
| C．Be grateful and lead a perfect life. |
| D．Stop complaining and get down to work. |
2 . Several weeks ago, I pulled an old road map out of the glove box and passed it to my children. They had never seen the province of Ontario laid out like that before. They stared at the map, asking about all the towns, parks, and other landmarks we’d visited, and I pointed them out on the map.
Digital maps and GPS are modern wonders that have gotten me out of many confusing places, but paper maps still have a role to play in our lives. Most of us adults learned to read them out of necessity, but it’s up to us to pass on that skill to children whose need may not be so obvious, but who still will benefit from it.
As Trevor Muir wrote in an article on this topic, “When kids learn how to create and use paper maps, they are doing more than just learning how to get around. They are actually developing a fundamental skill that they will use for the rest of their lives. Map skill still belong in today’s classroom.”
As a child, I had National Geographic Maps taped to my bedroom walls. This aroused my curiosity and imagination about those places and thus made me eager to remember my geography and history lessons because they were tied to places I’d “seen”. Even now as a mother of four, I’ve also spared time to travel to many of the countries whose maps I studied as a child.
Additionally, in this fast-changing world, unexpected events can rapidly influence one’s usual way of life. When GPS satellites or Internet connections are affected, this old-fashioned skill can get you out of a mess without requiring a smartphone. Last but not least, paper maps arouse big picture thinking, showing kids that there’s a much bigger world out there and helping to direct them within it.
So, now is a good time to pull out those dusty old maps and lay them on the kitchen table.
1. How did the children react when they were given the paper map?| A．They showed great curiosity. |
| B．They seemed totally confused. |
| C．They found it less convenient than GPS. |
| D．They refused to read it without hesitation. |
| A．Neutral. | B．Negative. | C．Supportive. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．Paper maps are already out of date. |
| B．Internet connections are always reliable. |
| C．Paper maps provide kids with a grand vision. |
| D．GPS will sooner or later replace paper maps. |
| A．Time to Encourage Kids to Explore a Real World |
| B．How to Teach Kids to Survive in the Wild |
| C．How to Teach Kids to Recognize Strange Places |
| D．Time to Teach Kids to Read Paper Maps |
3 . In the social media age, teenagers are sharing more information about themselves on social media sites than ever before.
According to a Common Sense Media research study, more than eight in ten teenagers have visited a social networking site like Facebook, and three out four teenagers now have an account on a social networking site.
However, while social media sites can improve teenagers’ communication abilities, experts say that social networking could be harmful to healthy teenage self-esteem. Health educator and motivational speaker Scott Fried began working with teenagers 22 years ago. He recently developed a new lecture, “Broken-Heartedness and Intimacy in the Age of Social Media,” to discuss with teenagers the differences between their personalities online and their true selves.
“The definition of growing up is bringing together many different parts of your personality,” Fried said. “As you grow, they turn into one whole personality. Now, you have a personality at school, at home, and online. The goal of being a teenager is to bring together all these different parts that are shown online in a complete way.”
Fried uses the phrase “compare and despair” to describe the bad effect of social media / on teenage self-esteem. you compare yourself to someone else, you’re usually going to end up despairing.”
Fried said, “One of the problems with social media is that we throw our best selves out there, or what we like to think of as our best self.”
Psychologist Nadine De Ciordany says that teenagers who already have low self-esteem can get easily depressed and give others their low self-esteem. She thinks social media is causing more and more depression. She adds that parents should educate their children early on social media.
“Teenagers can use a whole lot of resources that affect the way they deal with peer pressure,” De Giordaiiy said, “As the child is growing up, supervise(监督) what it is that they have access to. There is an age that social media is appropriate for and there is an age that isn’t appropriate for.”
1. What does the research find?| A．About 75% of teenagers have a Facebook account. |
| B．Teenagers like to share opinions with others on social media. |
| C．Social media users generally have better communication skills. |
| D．Over 80% of teenagers have access to a social networking site. |
| A．Teenagers like to compete with others on social media. |
| B．Teenagers often get rid of their true selves on social media. |
| C．Teenagers present the same personality in different situations. |
| D．Teenagers like to show the greatest parts of themselves on social media. |
| A．Social media should set a minimum age limit. |
| B．Teenagers should have right to any social networking sites. |
| C．Parents should monitor what is accessible to their children. |
| D．Teenagers should be free to use social media for their problems. |
| A．Social media have bad effects on teenagers. |
| B．More and more teenagers use social media. |
| C．Social media promote teenagers’ communication skills. |
| D．Teenagers have better developed their personalities online. |
4 . Several days ago Spanish fashion brand Zara sparked a fierce debate after releasing its latest campaign featuring a Chinese model with freckles (雀斑). Actually, there are some different beauty standards between the East and the West.
In East Asia, freckles might be considered a “destructive weakness” for celebrities, especially actors or singers. Although normal people don’t care that much, subconsciously they might prefer a “clean” face. Generally speaking, freckles are more likely to appear if people are out in the sun frequently, and most East Asian women avoid the sun as best they can.
Having freckles, instead, is a trademark for unconventional beauty in the Western world, and some call freckles “angel kisses”. For most westerners, having freckles is no longer just something you have to live with; instead, it is something to be desired. After all, not everyone is lucky enough to have freckles.
When it comes to eye shapes, it seems Western and Chinese beauty standards don’t see eye-to-eye. Many Chinese think girls with big eyes are the most beautiful. If their eyes have a double-fold eyelid, that is considered perfect. However, most foreigners seem to prefer Chinese girls with slanted (斜的) and narrow eyes and eyebrows. Chinese known model Lyv Yan is often considered the country’s most beautiful by foreigners, while quite a few Chinese people think her appearance doesn’t fit with traditional beauty standards.
Young, girly feature or hot and mature feature? Zhao Liying from China, Aragaki Yui from Japan and Lim Yoon-A from South Korea enjoy high popularity in Asia, as they boast bright faces with warm smiles, which win them lots of male fans. The three young celebrities represent Asia’s beauty standards: women with cute, girly features. Most women in Asia try their best to stay young accordingly. Unlike Chinese girls, Western girls think a more mature look shows independence and uniqueness. The superhero Wonder Woman is an ideal type for most.
As ties continue to grow between China and the West, it is unavoidable that these beauty standards develop. But one thing’s for sure-no matter how you look, you are who you are, and that should be satisfaction enough.
1. What do most western people think of having freckles?| A．It is something unbearable. | B．It is a destructive weakness. |
| C．It is something to wish for. | D．It is a symbol of traditional beauty. |
| A．Have the same opinion. | B．Recognize their strengths. |
| C．Misunderstand each other. | D．Argue against one another. |
| A．They think this beauty standard is better. | B．They want to look independent and unique. |
| C．They hope to have high popularity in Asia. | D．They admire Wonder Woman very much. |
| A．What Zara’s beauty standard is. | B．Why Chinese people don’t like freckles. |
| C．What causes the different beauty standards. | D．How easterners and westerners think of beauty. |
Nowadays, we can see phubbers watching their mobile phones everywhere. They can’t stop sending messages, surfing the Internet, listening music and even taking photos by using the mobile phone.
Actually, phubbing disturbs not only our study and our life. On the one hand, phubbers waste plenty of time play cell phone games and sending messages, particularly in the class. On the other, using the mobile phone for a long time can lead to healthy problems.
As far as I am concerned, it is high time that we put down the mobile phone and raise our heads up. Do cherish that is around us and appreciate the sceneries ahead of us. Only when we use the mobile phone reasonable, can you realize the happiness of life.
6 . Life is noisier than ever before — there are louder and more TVs, speaker, and electronic device notifications in public spaces and open-plan offices. Across Europe, about 450 million people live with noise levels that are dangerous to health. All this has serious effects on our mental health, our physical health, and our ability to generate creative work.
We define “ noise ” as all the unwanted sound and mental stimulation (刺激) that interferes with our ability to make sense of the world and our ability to act upon our intentions. In this sense, noise is more than a nuisance. It’s a primary barrier to being able to identify and carry out solutions to the challenges we face as individuals, organizations, and even whole societies.
So, how can we build cultures that honor the importance of silence? At some organizations, it’s “no email Fridays” or “no meeting Wednesdays.” At others, it’s removing the expectation of being available on electronic devices during weekends or after 5 pm. For some workplaces, a redesign of the work space might help specific kinds of workers get the focus that they need. One solution might be permitting uninterrupted periods of time during the workday. Another might be giving up on the open floor plan and moving the whole office to a new building.
Across our society today, norms of noisiness run deep. In most office cultures, workers are required to stay connected all the time and they have to remain competitive. In many organizations, it’s common to interrupt workers who are absorbed in their work. All these lead to more noises. But there are simple strategies we can employ in order to find our own personal shelters and to slightly change broader cultures. By reclaiming silence in the workplace, we can create the conditions for reducing burnout and improving creative problem solving. Even in an increasingly noisy world, we can be quiet together.
1. What does the underlined word “nuisance” in paragraph 2 man?| A．Difficulty. | B．Shock. | C．Disappointment. | D．Annoyance. |
| A．Not sending email on workdays. | B．Being available for work on Sundays. |
| C．Not interrupting workers for some time. | D．Designing larger offices for workers. |
| A．Demands of constant connectivity exist. | B．Various office cultures are developing. |
| C．Workers’ attention is always well valued. | D．Personal space is often highly desired. |
| A．Noise kills | B．Let’s be quiet |
| C．A noisy culture | D．Why to be quiet? |
7 . Like most of us, I try to be mindful of food that goes to waste. The arugula (芝麻菜)was to make a nice green salad, rounding out a roast chicken dinner. But I ended up working late. Then friends called with a dinner invitation. I stuck the chicken in the freezer. But as days passed, the arugula went bad. Even worse, I had unthinkingly bought way too much; I could have made six salads with what I threw out.
In a world where nearly 800 million people a year go hungry, “food waste goes against the moral grain,” as Elizabeth Royte writes in this month’s cover story. It’s jaw-dropping how much perfectly good food is thrown away — from “ugly” (but quite eatable) vegetables rejected by grocers to large amounts of uneaten dishes thrown into restaurant garbage cans.
Producing food that no one eats wastes the water, fuel, and other resources used to grow it. That makes food waste an environmental problem. In fact, Royte writes, “if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world.”
If that’s hard to understand, let’s keep it as simple as the arugula at the back of my refrigerator. Mike Curtin sees my arugula story all the time — but for him, it's more like 12 bones of donated strawberries nearing their last days. Curtin is CEO of DC Central Kitchen in Washington, D.C., which recovers food and turns it into healthy meals. Last year it recovered more than 807,500 pounds of food by taking donations and collecting blemished (有瑕疵的) produce that otherwise would have rotted in fields. And the strawberries? Volunteers will wash, cut, and freeze or dry them for use in meals down the road.
Such methods seem obvious, yet so often we just don’t think. “Everyone can play a part in reducing waste, whether by not purchasing more food than necessary in your weekly shopping or by asking restaurants to not include the side dish you won’t eat,” Curtin says.
1. What does the author want to show by telling the arugula story?| A．We pay little attention to food waste. | B．We waste food unintentionally at times. |
| C．We waste more vegetables than meat. | D．We have good reasons for wasting food. |
| A．Moral decline. | B．Environmental harm. |
| C．Energy shortage. | D．Worldwide starvation. |
| A．It produces kitchen equipment. | B．It turns rotten arugula into clean fuel. |
| C．It helps local farmers grow fruits. | D．It makes meals out of unwanted food. |
| A．Buy only what is needed. | B．Reduce food consumption. |
| C．Go shopping once a week. | D．Eat in restaurants less often. |
8 . Sometime in the early 1960s, a significant thing happened in Sydney, Australia. The city discovered its harbor. Then, one after another, Sydney discovered lots of things that were just sort of there — broad parks, superb beaches, and a culturally diverse population. But it is the harbor that makes the city.
Andrew Reynolds, a cheerful fellow in his early 30s, pilots Sydney ferryboats for a living. I spent the whole morning shuttling back and forth across the harbor. After our third run Andrew shut down the engine, and we went our separate ways — he for a lunch break, I to explore the city.
“I’ll miss these old boats,” he said as we parted.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“Oh, they’re replacing them with catamarans. Catamarans are faster, but they’re not so elegant, and they’re not fun to pilot. But that’s progress, I guess.”
Everywhere in Sydney these days, change and progress are the watchwords (口号), and traditions are increasingly rare. Shirley Fitzgerald, the city’s official historian, told me that in its rush to modernity in the 1970s, Sydney swept aside much of its past, including many of its finest buildings. “Sydney is confused about itself,” she said. “We can’t seem to make up our minds whether we want a modern city or a traditional one. It’s a conflict that we aren’t getting any better at resolving (解决).”
On the other hand, being young and old at the same time has its attractions. I considered this when I met a thoughtful young businessman named Anthony. “Many people say that we lack culture in this country,” he told me. “What people forget is that the Italians, when they came to Australia, brought 2000 years of their culture, the Greeks some 3000 years, and the Chinese more still. We’ve got a foundation built on ancient cultures but with a drive and dynamism of a young country. It’s a pretty hard combination to beat.”
He is right, but I can’t help wishing they would keep those old ferries.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．Sydney’s striking architecture. | B．The cultural diversity of Sydney. |
| C．The key to Sydney’s development. | D．Sydney’s tourist attractions in the 1960s. |
| A．He goes to work by boat. | B．He looks forward to a new life. |
| C．He pilots catamarans well. | D．He is attached to the old ferries. |
| A．It is losing its traditions. | B．It should speed up its progress. |
| C．It should expand its population. | D．It is becoming more international. |
| A．A city can be young and old at the same time. |
| B．A city built on ancient cultures is more dynamic. |
| C．Modernity is usually achieved at the cost of elegance. |
| D．Compromise should be made between the local and the foreign. |
9 . Every year thousands of people come to the city of Pamplona, in north-eastern Spain, for the opportunity to run for their lives as six fighting bulls are released to charge through the town. There are injuries and deaths every year, but the event is of interest to many people. A paper just published in Science describes the insight the event offers into the psychology of panicked crowds.
That is a useful topic to explore. Arehitects, civil engineers and urban planners must try to work out how people will behave in the event of a disaster like a fire, a flood or a terrorist attack so they can design their creations to avoid potentially deadly collisions (碰撞). Unfortunately, solid information is hard to come by. Daniel Parisi, the paper’s lead author, realised that the Pamplona bull-runs offered the perfect natural experiment.
Dr Parisi and his team went to two different rooftop locations in Pamplona in July 2019, and filmed the runners as the animals were released, Later in the lab, they calculated the speed of the runners, the density (密度) of the crowd, the probability of a runner tripping and falling and the relationship between runner-group density and speed.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the researchers found that runners picked up speed when the bulls drew near. Less expected was the finding that the speed of individual runners increased with the density of the crowd, which was contrary to a long-held assumption in architectural and urban-design circles that people will slow their pace as group density goes up, in order to lower the risk of a collision, which could lead to a fall and, perhaps, injury or death.
Yet it seems that, in the heat of the moment, people pay little attention to the danger of colliding with each other, and do not slow down. The responsibility therefore falls upon urban designers to work out how best to plan the construction of future tunnels, bridges and other passages that restrict flow. The only option may well be to make them wider.
1. What did Dr Parisi and his team do in Pamplona?| A．They proved his theory. |
| B．They recorded a bull-run. |
| C．They watched a thrilling bull-fight. |
| D．They designed a psychological experiment. |
| A．People slowed down in crowded areas. |
| B．Tripping posed a danger to bull-runners. |
| C．Bulls coming near made people running faster. |
| D．People tended to speed up in high-density crowds. |
| A．People lose their mind in disasters. |
| B．Future tunnels and bridges may be wider. |
| C．Panicked crowds are aware of the danger of collision. |
| D．Restricting flow helps to prevent people colliding each other. |
| A．How crowds react to panic |
| B．Bull-runs caught on in Spain |
| C．Dr Parisi’s finding shocks the world |
| D．What architects can learn from bull-running |
10 . Searching online has many educational benefits. But spending more time online does not mean better online skills. Instead, a student’s ability to successfully search online increases with guidance and clear instruction. Young people often think they are already skilled searchers. Their teachers and parents often think so too. This belief means much classroom practice centers on searching to learn, hardly on learning to search. Many teachers don’t teach students how to search online. Instead, students often teach themselves. This does not result in students learning the skills they need.
For six years, I studied how young Australians use search engines. Both school students and home-schoolers showed some characteristics (特点) of online searching that aren’t beneficial. For example, both groups spent greater time on irrelevant (不相关的) websites than relevant ones and stopped searches before finding their needed information.
Search engines offer endless educational chances, but I find many students typically only search for isolated (孤立) facts, and move on. In one observation, a home-school family type “How many endangered Sumatran Tigers are there” into Google. They enter a single website where they read a single sentence. They write this “answer” down and they begin the next topic—growing seeds.
The practice means people are no better off than they were 40 years ago with a print encyclopedia (百科全书). Why not use different keywords, sites and search tabs? The student could have learned much more.
The other thing young people should keep in mind to get the full benefits of searching online is to avoid fast search. All too often we believe search can be a fast process. The home-school families in my study spent 90 seconds or less, viewing each website and searched a new topic every four minutes. But searching so quickly can mean students don’t write useful search keywords or get the information they need.
1. What does the author mainly discuss in paragraph 1?| A．The importance of teaching online searching skills. |
| B．The educational benefits of searching online. |
| C．The classroom practice centering on learning to search. |
| D．The advantage of teaching oneself about searching online. |
| A．They benefited most from using online information. |
| B．They spent little time on irrelevant websites. |
| C．They were usually experienced in using search engines. |
| D．They were often unable to find the needed search results. |
| A．To compare some popular online searching skills. |
| B．To show the important role of a print encyclopedia. |
| C．To give an example of only searching for isolated facts. |
| D．To explain a basic searching skill used by many students. |
| A．Slow down when searching online. | B．Try searching more new topics online. |
| C．Practice more to better searching skills. | D．Change search keywords quickly if possible. |
