1 . China’s generation-Z is not “lying flat”, an expression forgiving upon hard work, as is often claimed, and making an effort is still the mainstream of a group who believes success should be achieved by solid effort, Chinese officials said at a press conference on Thursday, in response to a question on how younger generations should achieve balance between a lifestyle of “lying flat” in face of great pressure and “involution,” which refers to severe internal competition that does not lead to productivity gains.
“Most Chinese youth hold an optimistic view on the future, and the saying’ lying flat’ is more of a joke to release pressure and express their feelings,” He Junke, a government official said at a press conference on Thursday.
At the press conference, China released the first nationwide whitepaper on youth development titled “Youth of China in the New Era,” which showcased achievements linked to the country’s youth development in the new era and reflected the spirit of younger generation. The whitepaper was also released ahead of the 100th anniversary of the founding of CYLC (共青团).
He said China has attached great importance to deeper issues reflected by talk of “lying flat”, which emerged as young generation is subject to increasing pressure across work, study and life amid China’s unique demographic (人口统计学的，人口学的) structure and highly competitive labor market.
“Some in the younger generation feel confused or lost. In response, authorities have scaled up the amount of support available to help solve their issues in education, employment, marriage and child raising,” He noted, while urging the whole society to support the mental development and psychology of generation-Z.
He pointed out that it is also important for certain young people to realize that it is unrealistic to build a career without taking responsibility and making endeavor. “All happiness is achieved through devoted effort, and making endeavor itself is also a kind of happiness,” He stressed.
1. What is He Junke’s attitude towards “lying flat”?| A．Objective. | B．Subjective. | C．Opposed. | D．Favorable. |
| A．More and more young people choose to lie flat in China, |
| B．Young people face great pressure in their study, work and life. |
| C．China’s population structure affects the supply of labor market. |
| D．The government needs to celebrate the 100th anniversary of CYLC. |
| A．Young people should take responsibility and make efforts to achieve success. |
| B．The whole society should care about young people’s physical and mental health. |
| C．Authorities should help young people and give them support in many aspects of life. |
| D．All of the above. |
| A．To call on a low carbon lifestyle. |
| B．To inform the latest research on the social development. |
| C．To set a goal for the young people who are under pressure on study. |
| D．To address a social problem among young generations in the newer era. |
2 . Young adults in Singapore can often live with their parents into their 30s. They are encouraged by the government, which is fond of praising family values. Housing policy makes it difficult for young people to live independently. Almost 80% of Singaporeans live in subsidized (补助的) public housing. They cannot have a flat of their own until they marry or turn 35.
Yet a small but growing number of Singaporeans are resisting the nanny state (保姆式国家): Between 1990 and 2020, the number of those under 35 who lived alone or with non-family members grew from 33,400 to 51,300. Since they do not qualify for public housing, they must rent in the private sector. One factor is that Singaporeans are getting married later. In 1980, the average ages at which men and women married were 27 and 24; today, they are 30 and 29. A growing number choose not to marry at all. For others, it was COVID-19 that pushed them out of the nest. Serene Chee, a 25-year-old lawyer, did not greatly mind living with her parents until travel restrictions and work-from-home policies kept her stuck at home all the time. In June, Ms Chee and a friend moved into an apartment together.
Living on your own is not easy. First, you must inform your parents. It took Lydia Yang, an illustrator who was then 28, three months to gather the courage Then you must learn to pay bills and do basic chores. When Lenne Chai, a photographer, moved out seven years ago at the age of 23y she did not know how to cook.
Life on your own can be lonely. Ms Yang found it “a bit depressing”, particularly during the lockdown. But living apart may improve relationships. Both Ms Yang and Ms Chai said that they got on better with their parents after moving out. When living together, they paid each other little attention. Now their weekly visits are “quality time”, said Ms Chai. When Ms Chee’s parents came to her flat for dinner recently, they were impressed by how tidy it was.
1. What’s the attitude of the government to family values?| A．Negative. | B．Supportive. | C．Objective. | D．Subjective. |
| A．Housing policy. | B．The spread of COVID-19. |
| C．Parents’ disagreement. | D．The limited private apartments. |
| A．A growing number of people have enough money to hire nannies. |
| B．People need to rent houses because they have qualification for public housing. |
| C．More and more people don’t want to get married because of economic pressure. |
| D．COVID-19 is one of the reasons why many people don’t want to live with their parents. |
| A．The definition of “quality time”. | B．The positive effect of living alone. |
| C．The loneliness of living independently. | D．The parents’ attitude to children’s independence. |
3 . “One day I went to a Swedish friend’s and while we were playing in his room, his mom yelled that dinner was ready. And check this. He told me to WAIT in his room while they ate!” an Internet user shared on a media platform. Consequently, there was a lot of criticism of the Swedes. Many said they wouldn’t dream of being so mean in their culture. Would a host in Sweden really not invite a guest to join their meal if it’s dinnertime?
It does happen, says Richard Tellstrom, a food historian at Stockholm University. He says this so-called “non-hospitality” was customary when he was a kid in the ‘60s and ‘70s. If he was over a friend’s house and it was time for dinner, he would go back to his own house to eat. Or he would stay and wait in another room while his friend finished his meal. Then they’d continue playing.
“Some Swedes think feeding a guest creates a sense of duty.” explains Tellstrom. “And in a society that values equality and independence, people don’t want to put a burden on someone or feel like they owe someone something.” However, it wasn’t a universal rule. Families in the countryside, for example, were more likely to feed guests. People lived farther apart, so it wasn’t as easy for people to go home and eat. The “no dinner for you” policy has slowly faded, says Tellstrom. “Since the 1990s, food has become a new symbol in society. We have open kitchens. People like to dine there and show off their cooking.”
But non-sharing hosts haven’t entirely disappeared, says Mohini Mehta, a food scholar. She admits she had a tough time adjusting to life in Sweden when she moved there in 2020. She was used to cooking dine every day for friends and hosting dinner parties almost weekly in India. She learned that in some cultures, like her own, sharing a meal with someone is a way to break the ice—but this isn’t always the case for Swedes.
1. For what purpose is Paragraph 1 is written?| A．To introduce the topic meal-sharing. |
| B．To release the netizen’s bad feelings. |
| C．To offer a platform to generate ideas. |
| D．To compare some foreign food cultures. |
| A．Particular. | B．Optional. | C．Normal. | D．Unreasonable. |
| A．Because food represents a symbol of social status. |
| B．Because they don’t want to show off their cooking. |
| C．Because it is wildly acknowledged across the country. |
| D．Because their culture values equality and independence. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By analyzing reasons. |
| C．By providing statistics. | D．By making comparisons. |
4 . Carmakers, including BMW, Fiat, Chrysler and Peugeot, warned that the worldwide semiconductor processor shortage will continue in 2021 and beyond. The shortage has affected both production and sales of automobiles.
Automobiles have become increasingly dependent on processors, also known as chips. They are needed for computers to help engines with better fuel economy and assist drivers in emergency braking. Without a good supply of chips, carmakers have centered production on higher-profit models. The higher prices keep their businesses going even though they are selling fewer cars.
Richard Palmer is the chief financial officer of Stellantis. The company sells cars, under 14 brands including Fiat, Chrysler and Peugeot. He said the company did not expect chip supply to improve before the last three months of the year. That would mean a production loss of around 1.4 million vehicles for 2021.
The German carmaker warned that there will be more problems during the second half of this year. "The longer the supply bottlenecks last, the more tense the situation is likely to become," BMW chief financial officer Nicolas Peter said in a statement. “We expect production restrictions to continue in the second half of the year. Those restrictions will cause a lower number of sales,” he added.
German chipmaker Infineon Technologies confirmed the shortage. The company said the latest wave of COVID-19 cases slows the production of materials in Asia. And the amounts of goods available have now hit all-time lows. Reinhard Ploss is the Chief Executive Officer of Infineon. He told economists that a sharp limit of supplies is hurting the recovery of worldwide car markets. He observed that "it will take time to get back" to a balance between supply and demand. "In our view, this will take until well into 2022," he added.
1. How do carmakers deal with reduced sales?| A．By improving production technology. | B．By selling cars with lower fuel consumption. |
| C．By offering better emergency braking systems. | D．By producing high-priced cars. |
| A．To stress the seriousness of the present situation. |
| B．To provide a solution to the reduced sales. |
| C．To convey their expectation of the car production. |
| D．To highlight the importance of chips for carmakers. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Indifferent. | C．Worried. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．The Decline of Car Sales | B．Chip Shortage and its Influence |
| C．The Restrictions of Production | D．The Balance between Supply and Demand |
5 . Staying with family members or receiving professional care? Seniors in Harbin have a new choice to enrich their life in retirement(退休), as harbin.dbw.cn reported.
The seniors can take a bus to a day-care nursing home every day between 8 am and 5 pm, just like others go to work, and go back home to be with their families in the evening.
In the nursing home, they will receive professional care, have lunch, take part in activities such as calligraphy(书法) and singing, and take university courses designed for them.
According to a research, there were 1.75 million seniors by the end of 2015. Less than 10 percent choose to stay in the nursing home while most live at home. Loneliness and shortage of care are the major problems facing the stay-at-home seniors.
"After my mother passed away, I struggled to take good care of my father," said Zhou, an office worker.
Those who have retired parents agree that their parents spend a boring and lonely day at home, watching TV all day and filling their stomach with food. The situation becomes worse in winter when elders are unable to go out due to the cold.
However, the cost of such nursing homes is different from person to person but stands at around 2,000 yuan ($290). Another problem is the shortage of facilities (设施). Even if two seniors share a room in the nursing home, the city still lacks(缺少) at least 100,000 such rooms.
1. In the day-care nursing home, the seniors can ________.| A．go to work | B．stay with their families |
| C．attend university | D．get professional care |
| A．A lot of seniors choose to live at home. |
| B．They are lonely and short of care at home. |
| C．Their children won’t take care of them. |
| D．They are unable to go out especially in winter. |
| A．People have no trouble attending their retired parents. |
| B．The day-care nursing home is getting popular among seniors. |
| C．The price of staying in the nursing home remains the same. |
| D．Two seniors must share one room in the day-care nursing home. |
6 . When I was a child, I often saw my Grandma throwing bread that was no longer fresh to birds. Not surprisingly, this attracted few birds. Later on, we discovered bird food at the local store. Feeding garden birds in the UK has come a long way since then. Today, the birds can enjoy many kinds of food: from plant seeds to sunflower hearts and from cakes to meat balls. All this comes at a huge cost of about £200m a year. Sometimes, I wonder if we might be feeding our garden birds better than our kids. But maybe it’s worth it. Our generosity is having an important effect on the behavior and even evolution of these birds.
Take the goldfinch for example. In the 1960s, this was a rare bird. Today, goldfinches can be seen in many gardens. Other new visitors include the spotted woodpecker, which has left its usual woodland for food on bird tables. Evolution is meant to progress slowly: over thousands of years. Yet during the past few decades, the beaks of many kinds of birds have become longer because birds with longer beaks can get more food, and then are more likely to live on.
Actually, the British habit of feeding garden birds goes back much further. During the sixth century, St Serf of Fife fed a robin in his garden; during the winter of 1890, workers in London were seen giving their lunches to songbirds. The real change took place in the 1980s, when a few farsighted businessmen realized that encouraging the British to be more generous to garden birds can help them make money. Therefore, various kinds of bird food and modern bird feeders were produced. As a result, the number of species using garden feeding stations increased very quickly, from about 10 to over 100. Then, in 2005, Springwatch came, which turned our love of garden birds into an entertainment show.
Is bird feeding completely good for birds? Not everyone thinks so. Studies by the Zoological Society of London have shown that by bringing together many birds, bird feeders may help the spread of disease. In Australia, some bird experts believe—probably wrongly—that bird feeding creates a “dependence culture”.
But we shouldn’t forget one major benefit of feeding garden birds—it connects millions of people to the natural world. This is especially important for people who seldom reach the wider countryside. As I write this, there comes some noise outside my window: several birds were singing and flying around in my garden. It’s a sight I could only imagine years ago, when feeding garden birds just meant throwing hard bread to them.
1. What does the author mean by saying the underlined part in Paragraph 1?| A．Feeding garden birds is a huge waste of money. |
| B．We spend quite a lot of money on the food of garden birds. |
| C．We should care more for our kids rather than garden birds. |
| D．Feeding garden birds can bring more joy than feeding kids. |
| A．These birds have given up traditional woodland. | B．Food for these birds becomes richer and better. |
| C．Longer beaks mean more chances of survival. | D．These birds grow faster than ever before. |
| A．It is completely good for birds. |
| B．It may help the spread of disease. |
| C．It connects more and more people to the natural world. |
| D．It may reduce birds’ ability to find food by themselves. |
| A．Annoyed. | B．Pleased. | C．Surprised. | D．Bored. |
7 . A few years ago, my sister-in-law started to feel concerned about her teenage daughter. What was she doing after school? Where was she spending her time? My niece was an excellent student, and took part in all kinds of after-class activities. Even so, her mom decided to put a tracking app on the kid’s phone.
At first, this made my sister-in-law “feel better”. Then the good situation suddenly ended. She recalled, “I found out that she was someplace that she said she wasn’t. I went out in the middle of the night and found her walking without shoes in the middle of the street with some friends.” Things went quickly downhill for the mother and the daughter after that.
With 73% of teens having their own smartphones now, according to a 2015 Pew study, more and more of their parents are facing the question: To spy or not?
Ana Homayoun, founder of Green Ivy Educational Consulting, has advised many parents and their kids about this. “I’ve found teens are more receptive to tracking apps when it is included as part of a family use agreement to improve safety than when it is placed as a secret tool to watch them,” she said.
Mark Bell, a father of a teenage girl, said, “We don’t have tracking apps, but we have set some ground rules that my daughter must follow in exchange for us providing a smartphone,” he said. For example, his daughter must “friend” him on social media accounts so that he can review posts, and must share all passwords.
When you’re trying to build trust, you need to create an environment that encourages it. So, to win their trust, you always need to be straight with your children. “Parents must let children know how and when they’ll be watching them,” said Doctor Pauleh Weigle. If they’re not open about it, he warns, it can “greatly damage the parent and child relationship”.
1. Why did the author’s sister-in-law use the app?| A．She was interested in new apps. |
| B．She was worried about her daughter. |
| C．She wanted to know about after-class activities. |
| D．She wanted to teach her daughter about the app. |
| A．They doubt family use agreements. |
| B．They are worried about online safety. |
| C．They welcome the use of tracking apps. |
| D．They dislike being spied on secretly with tracking apps. |
| A．kept him out of her online groups |
| B．developed some bad online habits |
| C．allowed him to know her online behavior |
| D．wanted to put a tracking app on her phone |
| A．Tell the kid about it. |
| B．Check the kid’s phone. |
| C．Teach the kid how to use it. |
| D．Advise the kid to use his phone less. |
8 . Teenagers who travel around the world alone have been making headlines quite often. A young person alone in a dangerous situation attracts attention and sponsors. Young sailors also attract various views. For example, Jessica Watson was asked by the government to cancel her voyage, yet the Prime Minister called her “a hero for young Australians” when she returned. It seemed there is confusion about the competence and independence of young people.
The popular psychologists tell us that teenage brains are likely to make wrong judgments. But such ideas often do not apply to specific individuals. Between the ages of 14 and 18, teenagers vary greatly in their abilities. The amount of independence that each is allowed should be determined not simply by their age but by discussion with the related, responsible adults. Some teens are certainly inexperienced and capable of childish mistakes, but the ones who attempt dangerous journeys normally do so by winning the confidence of hard-headed and well-qualified adult supporters.
But it’s also wrong to think that any 16-year-old can desire to get achievements as unusual as Jessica Watson’s. Watson calls herself “an ordinary girl who had a dream”. Her intention is to encourage teenagers but this idea can have the opposite effect of making them feel not good enough because great achievements are beyond them. Should all teens have such dreams? Actually, individuals face varying circumstances that restrict their dreams.
Teenagers who travel around the world alone should not be judged by preconceived (事先形成的) views about young people. Nor should young “ordinary” teenagers feel pressure to long for extraordinary personal goals. In fact, I believe the example of solo sailing overstresses individualism. The teenage years are when most of us “ordinary” people learn that we can achieve great things in cooperation with others.
1. What can we learn about Jessica Watson?| A．She was criticized by the government. |
| B．She eventually canceled her voyage. |
| C．She has traveled around the world. |
| D．She made a successful voyage. |
| A．They have similar abilities. |
| B．They make decisions on their own. |
| C．They always make wrong judgments. |
| D．They need supports of responsible adults. |
| A．Parents. | B．Teenagers. |
| C．Psychologists. | D．Adults. |
| A．Divided Opinions on Young Adventurers |
| B．Problems Faced by Adventurous Teens |
| C．Various Ways to Become Independent |
| D．Pressure to Achieve Personal Goals |
9 . Loneliness is an unpleasant feeling in which a person experiences a strong sense of being alone resulting from low levels of social contact and relationships.
There are two types of loneliness: emotional loneliness and social loneliness. Emotional loneliness is concerned with the relationship between parents and their children. When children are separated from their parents, they show separation pain, such as crying and trying to search for their parents. Therefore, emotional loneliness is caused by a lack of a person that one is normally emotionally attached to, such as a parent. Social loneliness, on the other hand, is the loneliness one experiences through a lack of a wide social network. One does not feel that he or she is a member of his or her community, and one does not have friends that he or she can rely on in times of pain.
One way of thinking about loneliness is from the difference between one’s desired and one’s achieved levels of social interactions, while being alone is simply a lack of contact with people. Loneliness is therefore a subjective experience; if people think they are lonely, then they are lonely, People can be lonely when they are alone, or in the crowd. What makes people lonely is the fact that they want more social interaction. People can be in a party and feel lonely because they don’t get to talk to enough people. On the other hand, one can be alone and not feel lonely, even though there is no one around. That person is not lonely because he or she has no desire for social interaction at that time.
1. Which of the following description to social loneliness is correct?| A．It is a mental illness. |
| B．It is separation from one’s parents. |
| C．It is a high level of social interaction. |
| D．It is caused by the lack of a person to depend on. |
| A．They have no friends to talk to. |
| B．They feel a sense of being alone. |
| C．They have a limited social network. |
| D．They have a bad relationship with their parents. |
| A．A hot topic. | B．A special event. |
| C．A pain in the body. | D．A feeling in one’s mind. |
