1 . In the days before the Internet, critical (批判性的) thinking was the most important skill of well-educated people. But in the digital age, according to Anastasia Kozyreva, a social scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Human Development, an even more important skill is “critical ignoring”.
As the researchers point out, we live in an attention economy where content producers on the Internet compete (竞争) for our attention. They attract us with a lot of emotional and eye-catching stories while providing little useful information, so they can expose (暴露) us to money-making advertisements. Therefore, we are no longer customers but products, and each link we click is a sale of our time and attention. To protect ourselves from this, Kozyreva calls for learning the skill of critical ignoring, in which readers control their information environment on purpose to reduce exposure to false and low-quality information.
According to Kozyreva, critical ignoring includes three strategies. The first is to design our environments, which involves getting rid of the low-quality yet hard-to-resist (抵制) information from around. Successful dieters need to keep unhealthy food out of their homes. Similarly, we need to set up a digital environment where attention-grabbing items are kept out of sight. As with dieting, if one tries to depend on willpower not to click eye-catching “news”, he’ll surely fail. So, it's better to just keep them out of sight in the beginning.
The next is to make a judgement about whether the information is reliable, so that you can be protected from false and misleading information. It can be realized by checking the source in the top news media which is widely considered as being trustworthy.
The last goes by the phrase “do not feed the trolls”. Trolls are actors who spread false and hurtful information online on purpose to cause harm. It may be appealing to respond to them to set the facts straight, but trolls just care about annoying others rather than facts. So, it’s best not to reward their bad behaviour with our attention.
By improving our critical ignoring skills in these ways, we can make the most of the Internet while avoiding being hurt by those who try to control our attention, time, and minds.
1. What is “critical ignoring”?| A．The process of spotting and analyzing poor quality data. |
| B．The skill of not paying attention to online information. |
| C．The ability to analyze information to come to a conclusion. |
| D．The art of choosing what information you let into your life. |
| A．To discuss the quality of information. | B．To prove the benefits of healthy food. |
| C．To show the importance of environments. | D．To explain the effectiveness of willpower. |
| A．Expose their intention. | B．Turn a deaf ear to them. |
| C．Correct their behaviour. | D．Send hard facts to them. |
| A．Importance of critical ignoring in online search. |
| B．Ways to practice critical ignoring in the digital age. |
| C．Benefits of critical ignoring in the attention economy. |
| D．Strategies to improve critical thinking among online users. |
2 . The Global Food Donation Policy Atlas has issued a recent report in order to recommend ways to increase food donations, reduce food waste, and fight hunger, which may help Kenyan leaders meet 2030 food waste reduction goals.
Food donation can reroute eatable food—that would otherwise give off greenhouse gasses in a landfill—to those experiencing hunger. According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, 3.5 million Kenyans, roughly 37 percent of the population, face severe hunger. At the same time, the Policy Atlas reports roughly 40 percent of food produced within Kenya goes to waste. But Broad Leib, Deputy Director of Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC), sees some promising changes. “While progress is not happening as quickly as needed, Kenya’s food loss index has been steadily reduced from 1,744 metric tons in 2017, to 1,531 in 2018, to 1,446 metric tons in 2019, indicating a steady improvement and national commitment to food loss reduction,” reports Broad Leib.
According to the Policy Atlas, motivating food donation with rewards is particularly important, which helps food donors and food recovery organizations make up for costs necessary for recovery, storing, processing, and transporting food for donation.
“A major driver of food waste is inconsistent or unclear date labels that cause confusion among all actors along the value chain and limit the ability of businesses to donate food. This increases the likelihood that much safe food will go to waste,” Broad Leib tells Food Tank. However, he acknowledges Kenya’s current dual (双的) date labeling laws. While food may lose its freshness over time, it is still eatable before expiration (到期). Dual date labeling on packaged foods reduces bewilderment by defining dates for both safety and quality. This helps reduce considerable waste and responsibility for donors.
Broad Leib believes that the private sector can also play a significant role in decreasing food waste in Kenya. It is vital for consumer education campaigns. FLPC’s research shows that public-private initiatives can help raise awareness among consumers and donors around issues of food waste and food donation.
1. What changes does Broad Leib see?| A．People in Kenya no longer suffer hunger. |
| B．Kenya has gradually reduced its food waste. |
| C．Kenya is not committed to reducing food loss. |
| D．Progress in reducing food waste is happening quickly. |
| A．Sadness. | B．Convenience. | C．Confusion. | D．Emotion. |
| A．By increasing storehouses. |
| B．By fighting hunger with rewards. |
| C．By reducing food produced within the country. |
| D．By using double date labeling on packaged food. |
| A．Consumer education campaigns are the most important. |
| B．Only the private sector is helpful in reducing food waste. |
| C．Private and public joint efforts matter around food issues. |
| D．Broad Leib doesn’t agree with FLPC on food waste reduction. |
3 . Smoking is even a tradition in Chinese celebrations. At my wedding, we handed out the traditional candies to people who came. I had said to my wife, Ellen, that handing out packets of cigarettes was wrong, as it just encouraged people to continue a deadly habit. “But it’s traditional,” she replied, “People would think we were mean if we don’t!”
Over the years I’ve been given cigarettes as gifts and have always handed them straight back. This might make me look ungrateful in Chinese eyes, but I can’t understand the logic behind handing someone a gift that will cause them to smell terrible, have awful breath, and even worse, kill them.
This year the university I work at has taken the bold step of making the entire campus “smoke free”. As my students are either doctors doing postgraduates studies, or medical students on their way to being doctors, I thought they would be in favor of such a move, but I was wrong. Many of them have complained to me that they see this as depriving them of their civil rights and that they should be allowed to smoke when and where they like.
When I pointed out to them that cigarettes do harm not only to those smoking themselves, but even to those breathing in second hand smoke, the argument was dismissed with a wave. “Those studies aren’t conclusive”, one doctor replied. “Besides, my grandmother told me that smoking is manly.” Tempting(诱人的) as it was to ask if she was also a doctor, I let the argument go and went off in search of some fresh air.
1. Which of the following is a consequence of smoking according to the author?| A．It will leave you breathless. | B．People believe you are mean. |
| C．People think you are ungrateful. | D．It will make your smell unpleasant. |
| A．Objective. | B．Unconcerned. | C．Negative. | D．Positive. |
| A．Robbing. | B．Accusing. | C．Informing. | D．Reminding. |
| A．Technology. | B．Entertainment. | C．Art. | D．Life. |
4 . Each year, backed up by a growing anti-consumerist movement, people are using the holiday season to call on us all to shop less.
Driven by concerns about resource exhaustion, over recent years environmentalists have increasingly tamed their sight on our “consumer culture” with Groups such as The Story of Stuff and Bay Nothing New Day growing as a movement that increasingly blames all our ills on our desire to shop.
We clearly have a growing resource problem. The products we make, buy and use are often linked to the destruction of our water ways, biodiversity, climate and the land on which millions of people live, but to blame these issue on Christmas shoppers is misguided, and puts us in the old trap of blaming individuals for what is a systematic problem.
While we complain about environmental destruction over Christmas, environmentalists often forget what the holiday season actually means for many people. In fact, for most, rather than an add-on to an already heavy shopping year, Christmas is likely the only time of year they have the opportunity to spend on friends and family, or even just to buy the necessities needed for modern life.
This is particularly true for Boxing Day, often laughed at by ant i-consumerists the most. While we may look down on the queues in front of the shops, for many, those sales provide the chance to buy things they’ve needed all year. As journalist Neigh Phillips argued, “This is one of the few times of the year that people can even hope to afford such’ luxuries’ the Christmas presents their kids are asking for, or just an appliance that works.”
Indeed, the richest 7 % of people are responsible for 50% of greenhouse gas emissions. This becomes particularly harmful when you take into account of our consumption “problem” anyway. Why are environmentalists attacking these individuals, while ignoring people like Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who has his own f 1.5 bn yacht with a missile defense system?
Anyway, anti-consumerism has become a movement of wealthy people talking down to the working class about their life choice, while ignoring the real cause of our environmental problem. It is no wonder no one is changing their behavior— or that environmental destruction continued without becoming any less severe.
1. What can be inferred about the environmentalist movement from Paragraphs 2 and 3?| A．It has targeted the wrong persons. | B．It has achieved its intended purposed. |
| C．it has solved the environmental problems. | D．It has persuaded consumers not to shop any more |
| A．A trap for consumers. | B．A tough problem to deal with. |
| C．A precious shopping opportunity. | D．A positive contribution to the economy. |
| A．sadness about life choice | B．discontent with rich lifestyle |
| C．disrespect for holiday shoppers | D．ignorance about the real cause |
| A．The environmental problems are very serious. |
| B．Less shopping can’t solve the environmental problems. |
| C．Resource are becoming fewer and fewer on the earth. |
| D．Measures should be taken to protect the environment. |
Chinese people have spent more time on leisure activities this year compared with the period before COVID-19 pandemic
The academy said that urban residents' leisure time is
The time that people in rural areas spend enjoying leisure activities
Shopping at physical
A recent survey
1. Who are called senior citizens in the USA?
| A．People over 55 years old. | B．People over 60 years old. | C．People over 65 years old. |
| A．They have more free time. |
| B．They live with their families. |
| C．They always have part-time jobs. |
| A．Their health. | B．Their wealth. | C．Their safety. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Optimistic. | C．Cautious. |
7 . We all know it is important for students to get a good night’s sleep every night. They aren’t able to do their best unless they sleep well. Most experts agree that the proper number of hours is eight, and this has been accepted as common sense for as long as I can remember. However, I was young once and I know that most of you get much less sleep than that-and sometimes this affects your schoolwork.
I read an article in a teachers’ magazine recently. They did a study of 848 students in a senior school. Worryingly, the results suggested that teenagers are facing a new problem. They may go to bed and get up at proper times but a growing number wake up in the middle of the night, not to use the bathroom or have a snack but because of FOMO-the fear of missing out!
According to the article, schoolchildren suffer because of an increasing trend to wake up during the night to check social media. Afraid of missing a message or chance to take part in a discussion, teens wake up at all times of the night to go online and join up with social groups. All this happens when they should be sound asleep.
The report gives some worrying numbers. 23% of 12-to 15-year-olds wake up nearly every night to use social media. Another 15% wake up at night once a week for the same reason. As a result, one in three students are constantly exhausted and unable to do well at school.
So, I’d like to ask you to be responsible when it comes to social media. Be brave and turn off your phones and computers at night. The world won’t end and your social media will be waiting to greet you in the morning. I give you my word that you won’t have missed anything important.
1. What is the new trend among teenagers?| A．They get up too early in the morning. |
| B．They wake up at midnight to go online. |
| C．They wake up at night to get something to eat. |
| D．They have difficulty in falling asleep again at night. |
| A．A fear of going online. |
| B．A need to go out all the time. |
| C．A fear of losing touch on social media. |
| D．A need to use the latest technology. |
| A．disappointed | B．surprised | C．confused | D．tired |
| A．Uninterested | B．Supportive | C．Concerned | D．Doubtful |
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It is good to see that today more people have realized the importance exercising and are playing sports regular. But the problem is that there are not enough sports facilities to meet the public growing demand. I love playing basketball and often play with my friends on weekends. Therefore, it is difficult to rent a basketball field and possible to find a free one. It seems that all courts in the city were always full. Weather permitted, we can play in outdoors. But on rainy days or in winter we have to turn to indoor courts. There are not much in my city, and the charge is high. The government should build more public sports facilities, so easier access will encourage more people participate in sports.
9 . Parties and social gatherings no longer excite us the same way they once did.
Just as drivers dismiss the importance of focusing while on the road, many people also fail to recognize the significance of human interaction. We are starting to get used to people seemingly talking to themselves: everywhere.
As many people risk their lives and the lives of people around them just to send a text or mindlessly check their messages, smartphones are in many ways more dangerous to people. This technology is seriously preventing social achievements and weakening the value of communication.
| A．It is true that we can make new friends using smartphones. |
| B．This is not due to a lack of desire to socialize, but the smartphone. |
| C．Overdependence on the smartphone gives rise to many problems. |
| D．And they confirm that text messaging is their number one driving interruption. |
| E．Face-to-face conversations will give us much stronger communication skills in the long run. |
| F．When with their friends, some people pointlessly check or send text messages in the presence of a friend. |
| G．Not only is the smartphone affecting our desire to interact face to face but it is also lowering society’s ability to communicate. |
10 . The year 2020 marks the beginning of the decade of the yold, or the “young old”, as the Japanese call people aged between 65 and 75. One might therefore expect peak retirement for baby-boomers born in 1955-60 in the coming years, but they are not retiring quietly into the background. By continuing to work, and staying socially involved, the yold will change the world, as they have done several times before at different stages of their lives.
The yold are healthier, wealthier and more numerous (众多) than previous generations of seniors. 134million 65-to-74-year-olds account for 11% of the population in rich countries in 2020, up from 99million (8%) in 2000. Health worsens with age, but the yold are resisting the decline better than most: of the 3.7 years of increased life expectancy in rich countries between 2000 and 2015. The yold are also better off: between 1989 and 2013, the median (中位的) wealth of families headed by someone over 62 in America rose by 40% , while the wealth of all other age groups declined.
The yold are not just any group of old people. The over-60s are one of the fastest-growing groups of customers of the airline business. They are also changing education. They are challenging the traditional expectations of the retired as people who wear slippers and look after the grandchildren. That will affect consumer, service and financial markets.
The rise of the yold will be a blessing to themselves, to economies and to societies. But for all this to happen, three big things will have to change. The most important is public attitudes towards older people, and in particular the expectation that 60-somethings ought to be putting their feet up and quietly retiring into the background. Government policies will have to change, too. The retirement age in many rich countries is still below the age to which many people want to work. Public policy makes retirement a cliff edge instead of a ramp (斜坡). Third, higher numbers of healthy yold people will require great changes in health spending although the yold will still be comparative healthy and active over the next decade.
1. Why will the yold not retire quietly into the background?| A．They have a longer life expectancy. |
| B．They are richer than the other age groups. |
| C．They have an increasing population. |
| D．They can still play a vital role in society. |
| A．To stay at home babysitting grandchildren. |
| B．To get further education in universities. |
| C．To travel all over the world by plane. |
| D．To stay socially engaged in the company. |
| A．Bringing forward their retirement age. |
| B．Being age-friendly towards them. |
| C．Reducing their cost in health care. |
| D．Taking good care of them at home. |
| A．Three effective measures should be taken for the yold. |
| B．People hold different opinions over the yold’s retirement. |
| C．The yold continue to make a big difference to society. |
| D．The baby-boomers are changing our society nowadays. |
