New trend to explore ‘city’ China making waves on social media
The catchphrase “city 不 (bu) city,”
It was created by a TikTok vlogger @baobaoxiong and his
As the summer travel season approached, many people started to use “city不city” to express their feelings about a new place on social media and it became an
Since China announced the 72/144-hour visa-free transit policy last November, it
144-hour visa-free transit and China travel have also become trending topics on TikTok and YouTube. @PASSPORT VISIONZ, a TikTok vlogger, came to China with her husband and filmed a series of videos recording their
Many
2 . Facebook's recent admission that social media may be making its users feel bad in some cases is a significant milestone. So far, the technology industry hardly has talked about the disadvantages of their products.
Academic research in a Facebook blog post in December documented that when people spend a lot of time passively consuming information, they feel worse. For example, clicking or liking too many links and posts can have a negative effect on mental health. Some researchers also believe that reading rosy stories about others leads to negative comparisons about one's life and that being online too much reduces in-person socializing. Social media may well be making many of us unhappy, jealous and anti-social. Although Facebook said that, as a result of the assessments, it would make some changes to its platform. It also emphasized some of the benefits of using the social network. It explained that “sharing messages, posts and comments with close friends and recalling about past interactions” can make people feel better. “The research and other academic literature suggest that it’s how you use social media that matters when it comes to your well-being,” Facebook said.
But that approach doesn’t seem to be an effective solution for those who can’t remain aloof from such platforms. The Pew Research Center estimates that 24 percent of teens go online “almost constantly”. It is becoming a matter of addiction.
We need to be aware of what we are up against. Remember when we would just pick up the phone and call someone rather than email them and create greater misunderstandings. This may be an old-fashioned choice, but the right one. And maybe we should just turn away from our screens sometimes and meet our friends and family in person.
1. Why is Facebook’s recognition considered as a milestone?| A．Facebook has come to admit their products' negative effects. |
| B．The recognition has drawn a wide public attention. |
| C．The technology industry has made progress in mass production. |
| D．The technology industry has never brought bad feelings to users. |
| A．Socializing in person. |
| B．Reading others’ rosy stories. |
| C．Liking your friends’ links and posts. |
| D．Sharing messages with close friends. |
| A．involved | B．indifferent | C．disheartened | D．devoted |
| A．How to Use Social Media |
| B．Acknowledgement from Facebook |
| C．Off Screens Whether Change Or Not |
| D．The importance of Social Media Detox |
3 . What do you do with money? Do you spend it or save it? Do you get pocket money from your parents or do you work to earn money?
Pocket money
Most teenagers in Britain receive pocket money from their parents. They might have to do chores to get their pocket money, helping at home with tasks like cleaning, cooking, washing up, taking out the rubbish and ironing.
Different families give different amounts and the average for eight-to-fifteen-year-old teenagers in the UK is about ￡6 (53 yuan) a week. A report found that many children save at least a quarter of their weekly pocket money and that more boys than girls save their money.
Part-time work
A part-time job is an option for teenagers who don’t have pocket money or who want to earn extra money. About 15 percent of teenagers have a job. Only children over 13 can work but there are some exceptions, for example, for actors. Popular part-time jobs for teens include babysitting, delivering newspapers, shop work and restaurant or café work.
There are strict government laws about children working. They can work a maximum of two hours a day on a school day but not during school hours. At weekends and during school holidays, they can work longer hours. As for wages, the national minimum wage for under-18s is around ￡4 per hour and it increases every year. Its minimum wage is higher if you are older.
Banks
In Britain, some children and teenagers have a bank account. There is no legal (法定的) age limit at which you can open a bank account, but a bank manager can decide whether to allow a child or young person to open an account. Parents can put pocket money directly into their child’s bank account.
So, many teenagers are getting experience of working part-time, dealing with banks and deciding whether to save or spend their money. These are all steps towards becoming a financially independent adult and earning and looking after your own money.
1. What do we know about the pocket money children in Britain receive?| A．8- to 15-year-olds get about £6 a month as their pocket money. |
| B．Many children save over 25 percent of their pocket money. |
| C．Girls prefer to save more pocket money than boys. |
| D．Pocket money can only be earned at home. |
| A．Children working part-time should be above 15 years old. |
| B．Children should work no more than two hours each day. |
| C．Those under-18s can earn at least £4 per hour. |
| D．Children are not allowed to work during school hours. |
| A．Reaching the age of 13. | B．A bank manager’s permission. |
| C．A parent’s permission. | D．Having a minimum amount of money. |
Recent years have seen
The brief micro-dramas allow the episodes
A key reason behind the popularity of the mini-drama shows
Mini-dramas’ success can be owed to the growing habit of watching short videos in China. The vertical(竖屏的), smartphone-optimized mini dramatic episodes attract casual viewers who prefer quick and
5 . The fact that gender diversity is something that companies constantly desire highlights the problem in itself. Across industries, the workforce gender balance is still highly skewed (偏向……的), even in fields which do not traditionally involve laborious work. The tech industry is a case in point, with the workforce imbalance definitely being one of the most prominent on the list.
Diversity and inclusion need to go hand in hand, and women around the world are increasingly assuming important positions and taking core decisions in the tech sector. These women are driving technological change and innovation which impact the industry at large.
Gender diversity, like diversity in general, is important for varied perspectives and thought processes in a company. These perspectives are what help shape advancements and new ideas in technology and overall operations for the success of the business. This is especially true for technologies such as AI.
According to a 2017 report on Higher Education by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, women were at or near parity (对等) among undergraduate degrees in science IT and computer. Most women equal men when it comes to skills, but face discrimination in other areas, thus creating a gap and reducing the will to continue at the company.
According to reports, biased treatment within the workplace is the most frequently cited reason for leaving, followed by poor management. There is still scope for a shift in attitudes at workplaces, which is a major obstacle when it comes to preserving women employees. In order to retain this talent and hire more talent like this, governments, NGOs and leaders from tech organizations need to come together to help close the gender gap further by providing more flexible work options and decision-making opportunities for women.
More and more women across the world are interested in looking for tech careers or maintaining their existing ones. There is a need to encourage them to take up roles in AI and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) with opportunities that are both fair and equal. Given the computer-driven nature of AI, there is a need for women from diverse backgrounds to balance out the conventionally male-dominated profession to give an accurate representation.
1. From the first paragraph we know that ________.| A．gender balance problem remains to be solved |
| B．laborious work demands more gender balance |
| C．not all industries have gender balance problem |
| D．gender balance problem has been more serious |
| A．unsatisfying income | B．poor management |
| C．competitive workplace | D．unfair treatment |
| A．Encouraging women to take up all kinds of roles. |
| B．Treating women employees more kindly than to men employees. |
| C．Offering women diverse work choices and decision-making opportunities. |
| D．Providing a tolerant working environment combined with favorable welfare. |
| A．To appeal to women to protect their proper rights |
| B．To present the fact of gender bias in the tech industry |
| C．To call for more women representation in the tech industry |
| D．To teach the tech industry how to get rid of gender bias |
6 . In the days before the Internet, critical thinking was the most important skill that informed citizens could have. To think critically, you need to read carefully, consider the credibility of sources, and reason out conclusions on your own.
But right now, according to Anastasia Kozyreva, a psychologist at the Max Planck Institute of Human Development, and her colleagues, we live in an “attention economy” in which corporations compete for our attention, emotion and time. They lure (诱惑) us in with stories that stimulate our emotions while providing little useful information, all so they can expose us to revenue-generating advertisements.
To protect ourselves from attention manipulation online, we need to develop new ways of interacting with information. Kozyreva and colleagues advocate for learning the skill of critical ignoring, and point out that we can practice critical ignoring with the following tools.
The first strategy is self-nudging. This involves avoiding low-quality information so that we have more quality time for ourselves. It also calls for the removal of distracting and hard-to-resist stimuli from the environment around us.
Of course, we need to stay informed of world events and in touch with others, so we can’t just ignore the Internet altogether. Then when you do go into social media, you’d better set time limits. Limiting yourself in this way prevents you from losing track of time as you click on one attractive link after another. It’s also a good idea not to use Internet time as a reward so that you’ll lessen its appeal.
Another strategy is lateral reading. It involves opening up new browser tabs (标签) to find more about the source of the information, whether it is the site of a mainstream news agency or a lesser-known one, before diving into its contents. Only after consulting the open web can we determine whether expending attention is worth it.
Likewise, it’s also good to check the source of the information in an Internet post. Headlines are often deceiving. They’re designed to attract attention, not provide information. A sensational claim may provide a link with a headline that seems to support it, but a careful reading of the original source shows it doesn’t.
1. What does Kozyreva say about “attention economy”?| A．It can cause people emotional problems． |
| B．It sacrifices our time and concern for profit． |
| C．It has led to a great variety of advertisements． |
| D．It draws people’s attention to useful information． |
| A．Limit our sources of information． |
| B．Read as many books as possible． |
| C．Control our time on the Internet． |
| D．Get in touch with people around us． |
| A．Inspiring． | B．Entertaining． | C．Puzzling． | D．Misleading． |
| A．How to avoid falling victim to false information． |
| B．How to use the Internet without getting distracted． |
| C．How to practice critical ignoring in the digital age． |
| D．How to find high-quality information on the Internet． |
1. What is the main topic of the talk?
| A．Different educational systems around the world. |
| B．The disadvantages of much homework. |
| C．Children’s mental health. |
| A．2nd grade. | B．3rd grade. | C．4th grade. |
| A．Canada. | B．Finland. | C．The US. |
| A．The school should give children no homework. |
| B．The school should improve kids’ performance. |
| C．The school should work with parents. |
Every year in China, a day is set aside to honour, and show respect for, the elders and senior citizens in the entire nation. As China has more than 297 million people
In the early 1980s, the Chinese government declared that the Chongyang Festival would be the day
However, respect for the elders should
Apparently, respect for the elders is the
9 . Nowadays, the world is slowly becoming a high-tech society and we are now surrounded by technology. Facebook and Twitter are innovative tools; text messaging is still a somewhat existing phenomenon and even e-mail is only a flashing spot on the screen when compared with our long history of snail mail. Now we adopt these tools to the point of essentialness, and only rarely consider how we are more fundamentally affected by them.
Social media, texting and e-mail all make it much easier to communicate, gather and pass information, but they also present some dangers. By removing any real human engagement, they enable us to develop our abnormal self-love without the risk of disapproval or criticism. To use a theatrical metaphor (隐喻), these new forms of communication provide a stage on which we can each create our own characters, hidden behind a fourth wall of tweets, status updates and texts. This unreal state of unconcern can become addictive as we separate ourselves a safe distance from the cruelty of our fleshly lives, where we are imperfect, powerless and insignificant. In essence, we have been provided not only the means to be more free, but also to become new, to create and project a more perfect self to the world. As we become more reliant on these tools, they become more a part of our daily routine, and so we become more restricted in this fantasy.
So it is that we live in a cold era, where names and faces represent two different levels of closeness, where working relationships occur only through the magic of email and where love can start or end by text message. An environment such as this reduces interpersonal relationships to mere digital exchanges.
Would a celebrity have been so daring to do something dishonorable if he had had to do it in person? Doubtful. It seems he might have been lost in a fantasy world that ultimately convinced himself into believing the digital self could obey different rules and regulations, as if he could continually push the limits of what’s acceptable without facing the consequences of “real life.”
1. Which word can replace the underlined word “innovative” in Paragraph 1?| A．Traditional. | B．Dangerous. | C．Useful. | D．New. |
| A．Sheltering us from virtual life. | B．Removing face-to-face interaction. |
| C．Leading to false mental perception. | D．Making us rely more on hi-tech media. |
| A．Technologies have changed our relationships. |
| B．The digital world is a recipe for pushing limits. |
| C．Love can be better conveyed by text message. |
| D．The digital self need not take responsibility. |
| A．Addiction to the Virtual World | B．Cost of Falling into Digital Life |
| C．Interpersonal Skills on the Net | D．The Future of Social Media |
10 . Tackling lonely emotions
Do you feel lonely? The World Health Organization (WHO) recently addressed loneliness as a pressing health threat.
Loneliness is a state of mind marked by feelings of isolation despite wanting social connections. So people who are lonely usually experience the emotional pain of not being connected with others.
Social isolation impacts the health and well-being of all age groups across the world.
Social disconnection in adolescence can lead to poorer education outcomes, since young people who have experienced loneliness in high school are more likely to drop out of university. Lack of social connection carries a risk of early death equivalent to other better-known risk factors such as smoking, obesity and air pollution, or potentially even greater.
To tackle this crisis, the WHO launched the Commission on Social Connection, which held its first leadership meeting to outline solutions to build social connections at scale.
| A．The following aspects are something concerning how to tackle loneliness. |
| B．It called for countries and organizations to make social connections a priority. |
| C．Solitude (独处) on the other hand, is voluntary. |
| D．It can be a result of feeling stressed due to loneliness. |
| E．According to the WHO, one in four old people experience social isolation. |
| F．Loneliness cannot be identified as a fatal emotional factor, |
| G．Loneliness not only has a far-reaching impact comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day according to a 2017 study. |
