1 . “Pop” stands for popular, and a pop singer has to work very hard to stay popular. He must either give the public what they want, or he must find a new way of singing that will attract their attention. Even when he has succeeded, and his records are sold everywhere, he cannot relax. Then he must work harder than ever to remain popular, because there are always younger singers trying to become famous and to steal some of the popularity.
The life of a successful pop singer isn’t easy at all. He can only relax when he is alone, because everything he does is watched and reported in the special newspaper written for the fans. The fans are the most important people in the world for the singer. They buy his records, they go to his concerts, and they make him rich and famous. But they can be very annoying, too. Sometimes their enthusiasm (热情) is so hysterical (歇斯底里的) that they do anything to get a souvenir (纪念品). They steal handkerchief, they tear off buttons, and they even cut off pieces of unfortunate singer’s hair. Many singers have been forced to hide, and some who have not been so lucky as to escape have been stripped (剥) practically naked by their fans. A pop singer has to spend a lot of money on clothes because he must always look smart, or at any rate, different. He must have a luxurious (豪华的) car. And most importantly, he must always keep smiling for the benefit of his public.
1. Pop singer works very hard ___________.| A．to get attention |
| B．to stay popular |
| C．to get more money |
| D．to sell more records |
| A．lovely | B．friendly | C．boring | D．angry |
| A．smart and the same |
| B．smart and different |
| C．healthy and young |
| D．rich and strong |
| A．The Way to Become a Pop Singer |
| B．The Fans of the Pop Singer |
| C．The Pop Singers |
| D．The Success of Pop Singers |
2 . There’s a song in your head. You keep hearing it repeatedly. You can’t make it stop, and it’s driving you crazy! Has this happened to you? Maybe you have suffered from an earworm, which is a memory of a song.
Earworms are common. A study showed that 90 percent of people experience them. Why do we get earworms? According to neurologist Oliver Sacks, music affects us whether we pay attention to it or not. We’re surrounded by music all the time in our everyday lives. Sacks wonders if there is a higher incidence of earworms today because of all this music in our environment.
Research on the primary auditory cortex supports Sack’s ideas. The auditory cortex is the part of the brain that processes sound. It’s a short-term storage system for small amounts of auditory information. Some of this auditory information is forgotten, and some of it goes into long-term memory. However, songs appear to stay in the auditory cortex for a long time.
James Kellaris, a professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati, thinks that only certain types of songs become earworms. These songs are repetitive, simple, and incongruous — something unexpected such as uneven rhythm. Your brain pays a lot of attention to a song like this, Kellaris says. Because it is repetitive and unusual, it stays longer in the auditory cortex. At that point, Kellaris believes, it becomes an annoying earworm.
Advertisers often use jingles — short songs that are easy to remember to promote sales. Advertisers want jingles to stick in people’s minds to keep them thinking about their products. It seems that advertisers have learned what Kellaris has found out in his research.
Is there any way to get rid of an earworm? Here are some tips Kellaris collected: replace the earworm song with another song, try to distract yourself by doing an intense activity such as exercising, or tell someone about your earworm. What if none of these strategies work? Then perhaps you should just sit back and try to enjoy the music in your head!
1. How does the author lead to the topic?| A．By giving a definition. | B．By describing a phenomenon. |
| C．By drawing a conclusion. | D．By clarifying a question. |
| A．The mechanism of earworms. | B．The lasting effect of memory. |
| C．The necessity of the research. | D．The significance of music. |
| A．Paragraph 2. | B．Paragraph 3. | C．Paragraph 4. | D．Paragraph 5. |
| A．Earworms — the Songs in Your Head | B．Jingles — the Typical Earworms |
| C．How Do Earworms Change Our Life? | D．How Do We Live with Earworms? |
3 . Gather together a couple of good friends and take a leisurely stroll through the streets — this is what many youngsters in China enjoy doing when they visit a new city.
To them, Citywalk means “roaming around the city” on foot. Participants can follow a distinctive urban route, soaking up the atmosphere, exploring old buildings, browsing boutique shops, sipping a cup of coffee, or indulging in authentic local snacks.
Citywalk can be a special guided trip for a small group of people, or simply a leisurely stroll for one or two to explore new areas, sticking to the key point: avoiding famous scenic spots and big crowds to gain a more inclusive experience of the places you visit. Besides interacting with a city, Citywalk provides young people with a new social scene, where they who share the same interests and ideas can easily make friends.
In China, the Citywalk trend is spreading from first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai to second and third-tier cities, encouraging more participants and event organizers to get involved. Some organizers invite folk culture researchers and enthusiasts to act as tour guides. Xiao Yiyi, a young entrepreneur in Changsha, recently launched six Citywalk routes in different cities on her social media account, with the aim of providing experiences for visitors to “walk in open-air museums”. Her Changsha route features more offbeat sights like historical architecture from the 19th century, artsy old alleys, and even a stop-off to sample the local spicy crayfish specialty.
Even though Citywalk is a relatively new phenomenon, it is offering a positive change to urban travelers as they can better choose the experiences based on their interests and needs. At the same time, Citywalk represents an opportunity for tour guides and travel service providers to offer a more tailored, professional service to meet with ever-changing market demands.
1. Why do young people choose Citywalk?| A．To enjoy a guided tour. |
| B．To cut down expenses. |
| C．To dig deeper into a city. |
| D．To make new friends. |
| A．Doing sightseeing on foot. | B．Avoiding hot scenic spots. |
| C．Taking a local tour guide. | D．Keeping a fixed urban route. |
| A．A tour guide | B．A culture researcher. |
| C．A Citywalk enthusiast. | D．An event organizer. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Dismissive. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
4 . Caviar (鱼子酱) is typically associated with sturgeons swimming in the Caspian Sea, but the Mexican version is made from the tiny eggs of ahuautle, an insect also known as “bird fly”. For Juan, a farmer, cultivating and collecting the tiny insect eggs known as ahuautle is a way of life. “It means tradition,” said Juan, one of the only six people known to still harvest ahuautle. They fear they may be the last.
The painstaking collection of “Mexican caviar” is threatened by the drying out of Lake Texcoco, development around the lakeshore and decreasing interest in the ingredient among younger generations. The dish’s survival is seen as an example of “community resistance”, similar to the way in which inhabitants around Lake Texcoco have managed to preserve other traditions, festivals and ceremonies.
For Juan, it’s hard. Dressed in shorts and rubber boots, Juan walks with an effort through the calf-high waters to collect pine branches he has pushed into the muddy lakebed the week before. The branches serve as an anchor for the bird-fly bugs to deposit their eggs. After about two hours, Juan has gathered a pile of sticks covered with thousands of bird-fly eggs. He returns to the edge of the lake to lay the sticks out to dry in the sun, which can take several hours or days, depending on the weather.
“Eating this is like revisiting the past,” said restaurant owner Guerrero, 61. He says the flavor of the ahuautle reminds him of his childhood. But Guerrero acknowledges that “Mexican caviar” is at risk of disappearing because younger generations aren’t familiar with the dish, and ever-fewer people harvest it in the scarce remaining lakes where it is found.
Edday, an entomologist (昆虫学家), said there are more than 430 species of eatable insects in Mexico. He said native people living around the lakes adopted the insect eggs as a source of protein because prior to the Spanish conquest of 1521, they had few domesticated (驯养的) animals. But now, Edday said, the dish “is associated with the countryside, perhaps with poverty, as if it were an undesirable protein.”
1. What is a cause of the decline of the dish in Mexico?| A．Expansion of the lakeshore. | B．Difficulty in cooking the dish. |
| C．Young diners’ lack of interest. | D．Overexploitation of the ingredient. |
| A．To help collect ahuautle. | B．To help dry sticks in the sun. |
| C．To protect the edge of the lake. | D．To be an anchor for farmers working there. |
| A．Why ahuautle is a good source of protein. |
| B．Why Mexicans should give up eating insects. |
| C．Why ahuautle was popular in the past but not now. |
| D．Why Mexicans prefer to eat insects rather than animals. |
| A．A popular traditional pet in Mexico. | B．A way of harvesting ahuautle easily. |
| C．A current social phenomenon in Mexico. | D．An attempt to preserve Mexican tradition. |
5 . “The new normal” is one of those phrases that can accurately apply to a wide variety of life situations, including a medical diagnosis, death or change in life and work. The phrase implies both the newness of each of those circumstances, as well as the necessity that they will need to be normalized, integrated into the reality of our daily lives. Once we’ve settled into new routines and emotional patterns, our “normal” won’t be quite so new anymore, will it? The question is a subject of debate.
There is a large middle ground between the event that increases the need for “the new normal” and its final acceptance. Some people think it can’t handle tragedies. But the phrase keeps coming up in conversation, and it has made me realize that“normal”is the last word I would use to describe the fragile place I currently occupy. I find myself there as I mourn the loss of my grandfather, who died in September. For example, the new normal is to have Thanksgiving without Grandfather, then to remember him on what would have been his 75th birthday just a few days later. In other words, during this year of firsts, the new normal is a time of transition, not of arrival.
It strikes me that this is something to be celebrated, not worried over. Part of living positively is meeting ourselves wherever we are. And as I continue to navigate this in-between time, this period of slowly accepting my father’s absence from the Earth, I recognize that each step along the way is a worthwhile part of a healthy grieving process.
The same idea would apply to more positive changes, like a new home or job, as well as the challenges of the end of a relationship or a difficult medical reality. The new normal isn’t something any of us step into all at once. It’s something we become, move toward, and, eventually, accept. Let’s not be in a rush to reach that destination. The journey has much to teach us.
1. Which occasion should “the new normal” be applied to?| A．A person’s illness outbreak. | B．A person’s routine working. |
| C．A person’s constantly normal life. | D．A person’s annual birthday celebration. |
| A．The fear of it. | B．The attitude to it. |
| C．The reason for accepting it. | D．The difficulty in describing it. |
| A．Forget the dead. | B．Live optimistically. |
| C．Treasure the process over the result. | D．Mourn over a family member’s absence. |
| A．To tell us to value our past challenges. | B．To tell us some meaningful life stories. |
| C．To teach us how to handle our tragedies. | D．To teach us how to cope with life changes. |
6 . Want to help fight global warming? Take off your tie, says the Italian health ministry. It has urged employers to let their staff dress casually at work in the summer so that the air conditioning can be turned down.
“Taking your tie off immediately lowers the body temperature by 2 or 3 degrees centigrade,” the ministry said in a statement. “Allowing a more sensible use of air conditioning brings about electricity savings and protects the environment.”
It called on all public and private offices to let employees wear no tie during heatwaves like the one that has brought Africa-like temperatures to many parts of Italy this week.
The move reacts to a similar action from Italy’s biggest oil group, ENI, which told its staff earlier this month they need not wear a tie at work. The tie makers, however, were left hot under the collar.
“Italy confirms (证实) that it is a strange country,” Flavio Cima said angrily in a letter to financial daily IL Sole~24ORE under the headline: “I, tie maker, am responsible for global warming.”
“We can now happily continue with our lifestyle, using cars, consuming fuel, heating and cooling our homes at leisure. On one condition: we should not wear a tie while we do so,” he wrote.
“I should have listened to my friends and become an oil producer instead.”
Italy is one of the European Union’s worst performers on the pollution front and is among the EU countries expected to exceed (超出) their greenhouse gas emission (排放) targets.
1. What’s the purpose of the move of taking off ties?| A．To dress casually. | B．To fight global warming. |
| C．To keep the body temperature. | D．To improve working conditions. |
| A．ENI. | B．Flavio Cima. |
| C．A financial daily. | D．The Italian health ministry. |
| A．Angry. | B．Speechless. |
| C．Delighted. | D．Puzzled. |
| A．He stands by the oil group. | B．He agrees with the ministry. |
| C．He admits his responsibility. | D．He argues against taking off ties. |
7 . We have all been in situations where we have had to talk to people that we didn’t know before. This could be because we are in a lift with them or standing next to them in a line. Generally the situation is more uncomfortable if no conversation is made, so to avoid this we make what is called small talk. Today we will look at when to use small talk and what kind of things are proper to say and what we should avoid at all costs.
The most common situations where we use small talk are when we are forced to be close to people we don’t know. This could be waiting in a long line at the supermarket or sitting in a hospital waiting room. Again it is not unheard of to create small talk with someone who is sitting next to you on a plane if you are both travelling together.
There are several topics of conversation that we can touch on with someone that we do not know and are making small talk with. By far the most common topic the world over is the weather. It is so popular because it is such a simple topic to talk about that everyone notices and has an opinion to express. There are other topics for example if you are at a party and don’t know anyone, it’s likely that you could end up in a conversation with someone talking about sport or where they work.
There are some people who don’t mind talking about anything, but it is important to bear in mind that not everyone likes this. We should be careful when choosing which topics to base our small talk around. The key topics to avoid are religion(宗教)，politics and money.
1. Why do we make small talk waiting in a line?| A．To avoid uncomfortable feeling. | B．To improve communication skills. |
| C．To make as many friends as possible. | D．To change people’s idea and attention. |
| A．we are checking our change |
| B．we have to stay close to strangers |
| C．we are asking doctors about our illness |
| D．we are showing our passports on flights |
| A．Family. | B．Sport. | C．Education. | D．Weather. |
| A．The religion that you choose. | B．Your favourite sports. |
| C．Plans on this weekend. | D．Going out for a picnic. |
8 . Sending a thumbs-up can be seen as passive aggressive(冒犯的), according to Gen Z (those born between 1995 and 2009) who say they feel attacked whenever it is used. Whether the chat is informal, between friends or at work the symbol appears to have a very different, ‘rude’ meaning for the younger generation.
A 24-year-old on Reddit summed up the Gen Z argument, saying it is best ‘never used in any situation’ as it is ‘hurtful’. “No one of my age in the office does it, but the Gen X (those born between 1966 and 1980) people always do it. Take me a bit to adjust and get it out of my head that it means they’re mad-at me,” he added. Other young people agreed it is bad form, especially at work where it can make the team appear unfriendly and not easygoing.
“My last workplace had a WhatsApp chat for our team to send information to each other on, and most of the people on there just replied with a thumbs up. I don’t know why but it seemed a little bit hostile to me,” one woman said. One Reddit user also said the thumbs up actually means that “I’ve read your message and have nothing to add and I hope and pray...all the people in this group chat have nothing to say on it too.”
Older workers appear confused by the reaction, saying they use the thumbs up in work-related chats to show “I agree” or “I understood and will follow.”
Part of the issue is that young people tend to use the thumbs-up in jokes. Barry Kennedy, 24, he said he only used it to communicate with older people like his parents or older colleagues. A survey of 2, 000 people conducted by Perspectus Global showed that a majority of people between the ages of 16 and 29 believe that you are “officially old” if you use thumbs-up or heart emoji.
1. Which of the following point is not the Gen Z’s understanding of the emoji thumbs-up?| A．Being rude. | B．Being agreeable. |
| C．Being hurtful. | D．Being unfriendly. |
| A．Unfriendly and aggressive. | B．Tough and difficult. |
| C．Unwanted and unacceptable. | D．Strange and unusual. |
| A．Because of their poor communications kill. |
| B．Because of their being old with worse memory. |
| C．Because of their less communicating with the young. |
| D．Because of their different understanding of the emoji. |
| A．The Thumbs-up Emoji: Rejected by the younger generation |
| B．The Thumbs-up Emoji: Highly Welcomed by Old People |
| C．The Thumbs-up Emoji: A Sign of Generation Gap |
| D．The Thumbs-up Emoji: A Sign of Being Aggressive |
9 . From chicken feet socks to green fish head masks, from sad frog toys to dinosaur costumes, “ugly” products have become popular among young people.
On the social media platform Douban, there is a group called Protection of Ugly Things with more than 200, 000 members. They post “ugly things” they see and buy in daily life. Many of the comments below the posts are “cute” and “the more I look at it, the more I love it”.
Some museums have also followed the trend and produced many “ugly” but impressive cultural and creative products. For example, on June 14, the Gansu Provincial Museum brought out a stuffed toy. It’s based on its famous bronze sculpture, known as Galloping Horse Treading on a Flying Swallow.
The toy recreates the details of the sculpture in a cute and cartoon style. The horse puts on a crooked smile, standing on a chubby green bird. This makes the toy “more fashionable and more fun”, so it can connect with ordinary people, the museum said.
In fact, some of the “ugly” products can also be useful. Yin Peixin, 11, from Hubei, has a cabbage dog toy. Unlike others, she doesn’t find it ugly. “It’s a creative design to mix cabbage with a dog. The toy makes me feel better when I’m upset. It also serves as a mini pillow to help me have a good sleep, ” said Yin.
According to Zhang Lei, a professor at Zhejiang University of Technology, the rise in the popularity of ugly things means that young people want to show that they’re different. Suffering from tiredness of “perfect” items, they hope to get pleasure and a new taste of life from something a little more “ugly”.
1. What do the members of Protection of Ugly Things mainly do on Douban?| A．They help find new members. | B．They buy daily-life things. |
| C．They put“ugly things” online. | D．They create many “ugly” products. |
| A．It is based on a golden sculpture. | B．It looks funny but not fashionable. |
| C．It is a mixture of horse, bird and dog. | D．It is recreated in a cute and cartoon style. |
| A．It changes her sense of beauty. | B．It encourages her to be creative. |
| C．It comforts her when she is upset. | D．She cannot sleep without the dog. |
| A．“Ugly things” give people a different kind of joy. |
| B．Only a small number of people enjoy “ugly things”. |
| C．People who like “ugly things” just want to draw attention. |
| D．“Perfect” items might raise people’s hatred, while “ugly things” not. |
10 . The Mandela Effect refers to the situation in which many people thought that an event occurred when it did not. We all have experienced the Mandela Effect one way or another.
The term “Mandela Effect” was coined in 2009. It all started when Fiona Broome went to a conference and began talking to other conference-goers about the tragedy of previous South African president Nelson Mandela and his death in the South African prison in the 1980s. However, with further research, you know that he passed away in his own home in 2013. Broome talked to other people about her faulty memories, but she also learned that she was not alone. The people she spoke to also remembered seeing news coverage of Mandela’s death, as well as a speech made by his widow. There was quite a shock to Broome when she realized that a large group of people could remember an identical event in such detail, but it never really happened. Fiona then began her website to discuss what she called the “Mandela Effect” and other incidents similar to this occurrence.
The popular belief to explain the effect is that the timeline has been changed as we shift between these different realities. The idea itself remains unproven and highly controversial, however, the excitement of a bit of mystery in everyday life probably comes into play for many people.
Psychologically, the concept of false memories provides a potential explanation for the Mandela Effect. False memories are defined as untrue or odd recollections of an event.
Studies have revealed a variety of factors that cause false remembering. The phenomenon of suggestibility(暗示感受性) can affect a person’s memory. Emotional and personal prejudice can also both influence memories. Telling stories by word-of-mouth is often misleading. The role of the internet in impacting the memories of the masses should not be ignored, either. It is probably no coincidence that consideration of the Mandela Effect has grown in this digital age.
1. According to the text, the term “Mandela Effect” was created________.| A．in the 1980s | B．during a conference |
| C．after Nelson Mandela passed away | D．when Fiona Broome began her website |
| A．The changed timeline. | B．Different realities. |
| C．False memories. | D．The excitement of everyday life. |
| A．The misunderstandings of memory. |
| B．The factors that cause false memories. |
| C．Different opinions about “Mandela Effect”. |
| D．The effect of the internet on people’s memory. |
| A．Future development. | B．Possible causes. |
| C．Definition. | D．Origin. |
