1 . Twelve-year-old Catherine has a lot of friends—632, actually, if you count up her online friends. And she spends a lot of time with them.

But is it possible that Catherine’s online friendships could be making her lonely? That’s what some experts believe. Connecting online is a great way to stay in touch, they say. However, some experts worry that many kids are so busy connecting online that they might be missing out on true friendships.

Could this be true? During your parents’ childhoods, connecting with friends usually meant spending time with them in the flesh. Kids played Scrabble around a table, not words with friends on their phones. When friends missed each other, they picked up the telephone. Friends might even write letters to each other.

Today, most communication takes place online. A typical teen sends 2,000 texts a month and spends more than 44 hours per week in front of a screen. Much of this time is spent on social media platform.

In fact, in many ways, online communication can make friendships stronger. “There’s definitely a positive influence. Kids can stay in constant contact, which means they can share more of their feelings with each other,” says Katie Davis, co-author of The App Generation.

Other experts, however, warn that too much online communication can get in the way of forming deep friendships. “If we are constantly checking in with our virtual world, we will have little time for our real-world friendships,” says Larry Rosen, a professor at California State University. Rosen also worries that today’s kids might mistake the “friends” on the social media for true friends in life. However, in tough times, you don’t need anyone to like your picture or share your blogs. You need someone who will keep your secrets and hold your hand. You would like to talk face to face.

Young Chinese    1     (be) fighting against society through a simple act of resistance: lying down. Examples of the “tangping”, or “lying flat”, way of life include not getting married, not having children, and refusing to work extra hours or to hold a job at all. “I stay at home and sleep and watch television series.” said Zhang, who described herself as “lying flat” for the last two weeks     2     leaving her job in the film industry in Wuxi.

“Tangping”     3     (emerge) over the last few months. Some compare them to the 1950s Beat Generation in the United States.     4     (other) call their behavior a form of nonviolent resistance. “People realize there is no upward mobility,” said Yicheng Wang, a PhD student in political science at Boston University. The term developed after     5     April post on the Tieba forum, whose author, unemployed for the last two years, described a low-effort, low-cost lifestyle consisting of just a few months’ work out of the year.

“Lying flat is my movement,” he     6     (write), referring to the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who was known for living in a large container. He posted a picture of himself lying in bed in the middle of the day with the curtains     7     (draw).

But as “tangping” gained     8     (popular), it also brought a level of dishonor. Nanfang Daily called the philosophy “shameful”. Global Times made light of it describing “lying flat” as “not a serious philosophy”.

For Zhang in Wuxi, lying flat is not about giving up or withdrawing from society. “Many people want to lie down because 996 is too     9     (tire),” she said, referring to the constant hours common in tech industry,     10     the staff are expected to work from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. , six days a week. The philosophy is also about giving oneself a break.

3 . That artificial food dyes (染料) are unhealthy is not news. Some are known to cause hyperactivity (多动症) in some children, affecting their ability to learn. But regulatory agencies (监管机构) around the world don’t necessarily agree on which food dyes are a problem, or why. That may soon change. A 2021 peer-reviewed report by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment concluded that artificial food dyes “cause or worsen neurobehavioral (神经行为的) problems in some children” and that the current levels that are regarded safe for consumption by the federal government are too high.

California is now considering requiring warning labels on food products and dietary supplements containing the seven most commonly used artificial dyes. The warning label requirement would put California on par with the European Union, which since 2010 has required food products containing certain artificial food dyes to carry warning labels about their negative effect on activity and attention in children.

Artificial dyes are used in foods for one reason: to make products look prettier. Bright colors make candies appealing, especially to kids. But dyes are also in chocolate cake mixes, salad dressings and other products that don’t seem to cry out for a color boost.

In Europe, it was the 2010 label lawmaking that triggered (引发) companies’ decisions to reformulate. “If you’re a company, you do not want to put a warning label on your product.” says Lefferts, an environmental health consultant. Warning labels are why European Starburst Fruit Chews are now colored with natural products, not the artificial dyes that brighten their North American counterparts (同类商品).

Given that artificial food dyes are used far more than needed, we need to be more cautious. After all, we don’t dye fresh fruits and vegetables, but we do dye candy and sprinkles, points out Joe Schwarcz, a chemistry professor at McGill University in Montreal. “The foods in which you find food dyes are foods that are poor in nutrition,” he says. “If you limit foods that contain food dyes, you automatically make your diet better.”

4 . Technology seems to discourage slow, immersive reading. Reading on a screen tires your eyes and makes it harder for you to keep your place. Online writing tends to be more skimmable and list-like than print. The cognitive neuroscientist Mary Walt argued recently that this “new norm” of skim reading is producing “an invisible, game -changing transformation” in how readers process words. The neuronal circuit that sustains the brain’s capacity to read now favors the rapid absorption of information.

We shouldn’t overplay this danger. All readers skim. From about the age of nine, our eyes start to bounce around the page, reading only about a quarter of the words properly, and filling in the gaps by inference. Nor is there anything new in these fears about declining attention spans. So far, the anxieties have proved to be false alarms. “Quite a few critics have been worried about attention spans lately and see very short stories as signs of cultural decline,” the American author Selvin Brown wrote. “No one ever said that poems were evidence of short attention spans.”

And yet the Internet has certainly changed the way we read. For a start, it means that there is more to read, because more people than ever are writing. And digital writing is meant for rapid release and response. This mode of writing and reading can be interactive and fun. But often it treats other people’s words as something to be quickly harvested as fodder (素材) to say something else. Everyone talks over the top of everyone else, desperate to be heard.

Perhaps we should slow down. Reading is constantly promoted as a social good and source of personal achievement. But this advocacy often emphasizes “enthusiastic” “passionate” or “eager” reading, none of which adjectives suggest slow, quiet absorption. To a slow reader, a piece of writing can only be fully understood by immersing oneself in the words and their slow comprehension of a line of thought.

The human need for this kind of deep reading is too tenacious for any new technology to destroy. We often assume that technological change can’t be stopped and happens in one direction, so that older media like “dead-tree” books are kicked out by newer, more virtual forms. In practice, older technologies can coexist with new ones. The Kindle has not killed off the printed book any more than the car killed off the bicycle. We still want to enjoy slowly. formed ideas and carefully-chosen words. Even in a fast-moving age, there is time for slow reading.

9 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或用括号内单词的正确形式（不超过3个单词）或根据首字母和中文提示填写单词的正确形式。

Parents hold different opinions about students’ studying abroad. Wang Li, the mother of twin girls, believes that there is no need for overseas study. As far as she is     1     (concern), studying abroad is a bad idea because it causes both economic and     2     (academy) pressure.     3     (addition), with many great universities now available in China, young people who choose to study in our homeland also have a great future to look forward     4    .

Contrary to Wang’s opinion, Zhang Yi, the father of a boy, argues that the advantages outweigh the     5     (advantage). He holds the view     6     the experience of studying abroad not only contributes to personal growth, but also increases chances of cultural exchange.     7     (cooperate) with people from diverse cultural backgrounds can help us view the world from different     8     (angle) and have a better understanding of our own culture. He also stresses that, in the long run, studying abroad provides a great opportunity for young people to make     9     (contribute) to the development of our motherland. Though accompanied by many     10     (difficulty), studying abroad is worthwhile.

Chemical pesticides and artificial fertilisers have been     1     widespread use in farming since the middle of the 20th century. When they were first introduced, many farmers welcomed them as a great way to fight crop disease and increase     2     (produce). Overtime, however, what some scientists have found is     3     their long-term use can sometimes harm both the land and people’s health.

As an alternative, some farmers     4     (switch) to organic farming, and many customers have turned to organic food when they shop at the local grocery. Organic farming is simply farming    5     using any chemicals.

Some people would prefer     6     (stop) the use of man-made chemicals in agriculture     7     (entire). What keeps them from doing so is the fact that chemical farming serves the high demand for food around the world. Organic farming is nowhere near able     8     (meet) that need. Therefore, there is still a long way to find a     9     (suit) solution that puts sufficient food on the dinner table while     10     (keep) people and the environment as healthy as possible.