1 . Many of us live with a roommate at some stage. Sometimes, there can be problems. Who hasn’t had an argument about whose turn it is to take out the rubbish or who should be the one to clear up after dinner? However, living with another person also comes with many benefits.
You know that there’s always someone else around, which can help you feel safer. There is always someone to talk to, so you never feel lonely. Besides these obvious benefits, there are some you may not notice. For example, we’re actually more likely to eat healthier food when living with others.
To examine the effect of living alone, Australian university researchers did much research and found that people living alone tended to eat less fresh food, which can have a significant negative effect on long-term health. However, those living with others generally benefited from a more varied diet compared to those living alone.
What could explain these findings? The researchers believe the social and cultural roles played by cooking, food preparation and eating may be important considerations. For example, those living with friends have someone else to go shopping with, and thus are likely to buy higher-quality fresh food regularly.
Cooking skills may be another factor. If people living alone find they do not have the knowledge required to prepare a particular dish or cook a certain food, they may fall back on ready-made, less healthy food. However, if they live with at least one other person, they may be able to ask for help.
In addition, people living alone can eat whatever they want at any time of the day or night. However, it’s helpful to have someone around who questions your decision to eat frozen pizza at 3 am. In other words, roommates can draw your attention to unhealthy routines.
So, if you now live alone and find yourself fighting a losing battle against poor eating habits, why not consider sharing a home with someone else? You could encourage one another to be healthier and more well-being.
1. The author uses the first paragraph to________.| A．introduce the topic of the text |
| B．remind readers of their roommates |
| C．show the problems of living with others |
| D．recall the experience of sharing a room |
| A．the reasons for living with others |
| B．the benefits of having a roommate |
| C．the way of dealing with a roommate |
| D．the importance of communicating with others |
| A．hunt for | B．cut down on |
| C．depend on | D．give up |
2 . We know that bully (欺凌) happens a lot and that it can make people feel miserable. And school violence happens all the time.
Bully is where a person or a group exercise control over another against their will, often leaving the victim feeling powerless and alone. Bullying can take many forms. Children, young people and adults can instigate bullying and be bullied in schools. Bullying is harmful to all involved, not just the person who is bullied, but to those who do the bullying and those who stand by. It can lead to self-doubt, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, self-harm and sometimes even suicide. Children might bully because they may not have been taught that it is wrong to bully.
How does bullying affect people?
New research has found that more than half of young people in the UK have been bullied. Of those who have been bullied, 58 % said it made them want to miss school, 44 % said it made them avoid social events, and 37 % said it had affected their school work.
What can I do to help?
| A．What is bullying? |
| B．What is cyberbullying? |
| C．They may think that it is just a bit of fun. |
| D．You should tell them that they're not alone. |
| E．There's no shame or harm in being different. |
| F．The study also found a big problem with racism. |
| G．There are many things you can do to fight against bullying at school. |
3 . Less than a quarter of families in Britain sit down for a “screen-free” dinner together every day away from TVs, phones and devices(设备), according to a research. The research was carried out to mark the launch of Vodafone Pro Broadband with Alexa, featuring a unique “Dinnertime” function which allows families to have 30 minutes of digital downtime.
A study of 1,600 parents, with at least one child at home, found six in ten admit getting children to switch off their devices is the biggest cause of disagreements in their household, leading to an average of two quarrels a day. The research also found it takes almost ten minutes for a child to switch off their devices after being asked.
Almost all parents feel having a break from technology is important for family relationships. And 86 percent think dinner time is an important part of the day for spending quality time together. However, despite this, 93 percent of parents believe technology is important for a child’s development, with 98 percent using digital devices to aid their learning.
Dr. Anna Colton, clinical child psychologist, commented, “Technology plays a huge part in all of our lives, and improves our work, learning and leisure.” She added, “However, it is vital to take time away from our screen and connect with family and friends face to face, particularly at mealtimes—both for oursetves and for our relationships with loved ones, to develop relationships.”
Max Taylor, consumer director at Vodafone UK, said, “30 minutes is the proper amount of time for families to reconnect with one another away from screens, because it’s long enough to have meaningful conversations, a meal or play a game—but not so long that it feels worrying or stressful.”
1. Why do children often quarrel with their parents according to the text?| A．They are unwilling to help with housework. | B．They are urged to turn off digital devices. |
| C．They are late for dinner with their parents. | D．They are stressed with too much homework. |
| A．Technology enables families to spend quality time. |
| B．Screen time is of importance to children’s learning. |
| C．Face-to-face communication helps build good relationships. |
| D．30 minutes is a proper time for mealtime communication. |
| A．By providing some data | B．By giving some examples. |
| C．By making a comparison. | D．By analyzing the cause |
| A．A textbook. | B．A science report. | C．A fashion magazine. | D．A travel brochure. |
Recently, Chinese people from all walks of life
Our society is becoming increasingly competitive when population outgrows resources. Accordingly,
Netizens now use involution to describe their current conditions, especially in the study of children. Parents feel stressed
Too much pressure is bound to do harm to children physically and mentally. Parents should cool down firstly and relieve their own anxiety, taking
5 . Have you ever looked at a fashionable item of clothing and felt confused? If so, your confusion may have made sense.
Several months ago, high fashion brand Balenciaga released a “T-shirt shirt”, which is a shirt sewn on the front of a T-shirt. The unusual design has certainly confused a lot of people.
But the “double shirt” isn’t fighting alone on the frontier of strange fashion. Ever since US shoe manufacturer Crocs released its famous hole-filled foam shoes, the so-called “ugly fashion” hasn’t showed any signs of slowing down, the Business of Fashion website noted.
British designer Paul Surridge believes that the rise of ugly fashion is a sign that people are bored with looking perfect all the time. “Fashion thrives(蓬勃发展) on novelty”, he told the Financial Times.
Indeed, fashion is all about changes. Something that’s considered uncool one minute can then turn out to be the latest must-have fashion item the next.
And in the eyes of US fashion writer Megan Collins, ugly doesn’t necessarily mean the design of the item is ugly. After all, ugly is something subjective. “Ugly fashion means ‘not the mainstream’——it is not what everyone’s wearing; it is not what the general population considers as ‘in’ right now,” she told style news site Fashionista.
But throughout the history of fashion, when any new trend appears, most people tend to hate it, before it eventually becomes loved. As Italian designer Miuccia Prada told The New York Times, “Maybe because it is newer, ugly is attractive. Ugly is exciting.”
Meanwhile, popular social media fashion bloggers also help people to pick up new ugly fashion trends. These bloggers express themselves through their clothes, showing their unique personalities and making comments on their clothing choices. However, as Clever-ish Magazine noted, just being comfortable in your own skin could actually be “the best look”.
“I personally love having a unique expression because without ugly fashion and diversity, we’d all look the same,” Australian fashion influencer(网红) and model Zanita Whittington told Fashionista. “I appreciate anything that’s out of the norm(规范).”
1. How does the author lead to the topic of the passage?| A．By telling a funny story. |
| B．By asking and answering questions. |
| C．By asking questions and giving examples. |
| D．By giving different comments from different people. |
| A．ugly | B．fashionable |
| C．affordable | D．expensive |
| A．They will dress themselves to look perfect. |
| B．They will try some new and exciting clothes. |
| C．They will make comments on others’ clothes choices. |
| D．They will express themselves by wearing ugly clothes. |
| A．She is fond of ugly fashion trends. |
| B．She doesn’t care about fashion at all. |
| C．She hopes to be the same as others. |
| D．She wants to look ugly as a model. |
6 . The thought of low material need and being unwilling to work, marry and have children, is described as a “lying down” lifestyle recently. It creates an emotional reaction among many young Chinese who are eager to take pause to breathe in this fast-paced and highly competitive society.
Many young people complained to the Global Times that duties, including work stress, family argument and financial pressure, 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 stuck in an endless competition against peers(同龄人).
“Instead of always following the ‘good quality’ of struggle and sacrifice to bear the stresses, they prefer a temporary(暂时的) lying down as release and adjustment,” said an expert. “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 young people, who claim to be big fans of the lying down philosophy, admit 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 ashamed about their constant loss of morale (士气).
“Young people have both ambition and confusion about their future, but most of us have refused 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. Which of the following is NOT a “lying down” lifestyle according to the passage?| A．Being uninterested in material enjoyment and refusing to shoulder duties. |
| B．Being involved in various social activities. |
| C．Stopping to breathe in a stressful life. |
| D．Giving up struggle and sacrifice. |
| A．Poor health from working so hard. | B．Increasing material wealth from families. |
| C．Growing pressure from family and social life. | D．Temporary adjustment to failure in competitions. |
| A．Understanding. | B．opposed | C．Supportive. | D．Unclear. |
| A．They would rather escape than take challenges. | B．They really enjoy the “lying down” lifestyle. |
| C．They find their dreams far beyond their reach. | D．They never really drop their responsibilities. |
7 . Happiness is not a warm phone, according to a new study exploring the link between young life satisfaction and screen time. The study was led by professor of psychology Jean M. Twenge at San Diego State University (SDSU).
To research this link, Twenge, along with colleagues Gabrielle Martin at SDSU and W. Keith Campbell at the University of Georgia, dealt with data from the Monitoring the Future (MtF) study, a nationally representative survey of more than a million U. S. 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders. The survey asked students questions about how often they spent time on their Phones, tablets and computers, as well as questions about their face-to-face social interactions and their overall happiness.
On average found that teens who spent more time in front of screen devices — playing computer games, using social media, texting and video chatting — were less happy than those who invested more time in non-screen activities like sports, reading newspapers and magazines, and face-to-face social interactions.
"The key to digital media use and happiness is limited use," Twenge said. "Aim to spend no more than two hours a day on digital media, and try to increase the amount of time you spend seeing friends face-to-face and exercising — two activities reliably linked to greater happiness."
Looking at historical trends from the same age groups since the 1990s, it's easy to find that the increase of screen devices over time happened at the same time as a general drop-off in reported happiness in U. S. teens. Specifically, young peopled life satisfaction and happiness declined sharply after 2012. That's the year when the percentage of Americans who owned a smartphone rose above 50 percent. By far the largest change in teens' lives between 2012 and 2016 was the increase in the amount of time they spent on digital media, and the following decline in in-person social activities and sleep.
1. Which method did Twenge's team use for the study?| A．Calculating students' happiness. |
| B．Asking students certain questions. |
| C．Analyzing data from a survey. |
| D．Doing experiments on screen time. |
| A．By making a comparison. |
| B．By giving an example. |
| C．By making an argument. |
| D．By introducing a concept. |
| A．To draw a conclusion from the study. |
| B．To offer some advice to the readers. |
| C．To prove social activities' importance. |
| D．To support the researchers' finding. |
| A．Quitting Phones Equals Happiness |
| B．Screen Time Should Be Banned |
| C．Teens' Lives Have Changed Sharply |
| D．Screen-addicted Teens Are Unhappier |
8 . People are making more and more demands on the world’s natural resources. If babies born in 1991 live for eighty years, the human population of the world may be anything from twice to three times the present total by 2070. In other words, they will have to share what is left of the earth’s resources with 15 billion other people. But hopefully there will be a significant decrease in the growth of population. What if this does not happen? The answer is that by the time before the babies born in 1991 reach the age of 40 they could be sharing resources with as many as 10 billion other people.
Limiting the pollution of water and the atmosphere, controlling the output of the chemicals that may be causing the global warming and climate change, and eating less meat may go some way to help, but can anyone seriously imagine that these are going to solve the problems of the“baby class”of 1991?
There is no getting away from the fact that people are responsible for the present state of the world, and only people can solve the problems. The decisions have to be taken by people as members of national and local governments, as leaders and decision-makers in industry; as scientists and technologists; as professional engineers and designers; as religious leaders and individual citizens.
1. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?| A．Making More Demands on the Natural Resources. |
| B．Limiting the Pollution of Air and Water |
| C．Reducing the World Population |
| D．Saving the Babies of 1991 |
| A．A large number of babies will be born after 1991. |
| B．Babies born in 1991 won’t live a long life. |
| C．The children of 1991 are not given good education. |
| D．The problems caused by babies born in 1991. |
| A．a news report |
| B．a science fiction |
| C．an article by a medical worker |
| D．a government report |
| A．Officials. | B．Industrialists. |
| C．Businessmen. | D．Scientists. |
9 . You might think male models lead glamorous lives, filled with endless travel and invitations to socialize with the rich and beautiful. Almost everyone has formed an unrealistic picture of their lives, believing that they spend one afternoon beside the Mediterranean Sea sipping coffee and getting suntanned and the next moment they are on board flying to Rome. However, according to a 2016 documentary made by the pop culture news site Fusion, the financial reality of male models is not very pretty.
The main subject of the documentary, titled Unglamorous, is a male model named Cameron Keesling who went to New York to start his career, hoping to make a fortune in the world of models. Keesling is not a supermodel but he has certainly made his name known in the industry. He was “working in the industry for about a year before landing the cover of Italian Vogue” in 2014. But “Keesling and his companions were paid nothing for the efforts”, Fusion reporter Nikita Redkar wrote.
Keesling also appeared at Paris Fashion Week and won lots of praise, while his compensation wouldn’t even cover the cost of traveling to and from Paris.
According to the documentary the most common way models get paid is by receiving free clothes, rather than money. In order to make ends meet, consequently, many of them have to take another job simply to make a living. Many of these models are in debt. Once they find an agency to represent them, a living income is provided by the agency to accommodate their rent, food, clothing and other expenses. Models are expected to pay off these costs once they find work, but many of the industry’s jobs don’t pay at all. Believe it or not, there is a pay gap between male models and female counterparts. Based on a survey conducted by Fortune.com, female models can make millions more than males, especially if you compare the top ten earners of each gender.
1. In common people’s eyes, male models are living __________.| A．a busy and simple life | B．a tiring and dull life |
| C．an easy and comfortable life | D．a hard and embarrassing life |
| A．To introduce his real life |
| B．To explain why he went to New York |
| C．To illustrate the hardship of male models’ lives |
| D．To encourage models to make a fortune in New York |
| A．Friends | B．Peers |
| C．Schoolmates | D．Opponents |
| A．Supportive | B．Doubtful |
| C．Critical | D．Objective |
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