1 . Thirteen-year-old Kaylee has a lot of friends — 532, actually, if you count up her online friends. And she spends a lot of time with them.

But is it possible that Kaylee’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 platforms (平台).

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 words, 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 someone 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.

2 . Every festival has its own meaning. Labor Day, for example, celebrates the value of hard work. Thanksgiving is about showing thanks to people around you. And Valentines’ Day is a time when you express love to your loved ones. But somehow it now seems that all festivals we just care about one thing — shopping. And that can be a big problem.

“In a way, over-consumption (过度消费) is the mother of all our environmental problems,” Kalle Lasn once told CNN. Lasn is the organizer of Buy Nothing Day, a day set up in Canada in 1992 to fight against unhealthy spending habits, and has now become an international event. It’s held on the day, which is known as Black Friday — a famous shopping day in the US and Canada.

You can see the irony (讽刺) here.

Even though the idea of Buy Nothing Day was brought up 26 years ago, we seem to need it now more than ever. It’s just as Lasn said, all the different kinds of pollution in our lives today — bad air quality, the reduction of forest area, endangered animal species, and plastic bags found in the ocean — seem to be the same cause: over-consumption.

The latest example is the Singles’ Day shopping craze of Nov 11, which saw a new sales record. But as Nie Li, a campaigner at Greenpeace, told Reuters, “Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste.” And it was reported that last year the Singles’ Day packages left more than 160,000 tons of waste, including plastic and cardboard. The Collins Dictionary has also just named “single-use” its Word of the Year, pointing out the problem that there’re too many things we tow out after only using them once.

So, Buy Nothing Day might only be here for one day a year, but it’s not just to remind us to the a break from shopping on that day, but to change our lifestyle completely, focusing on fun “with people we care about” rather than wasting money on useless things.

3 . In the past decade, the use of social media has grown in a way that no one could have guessed. It has turned some teenagers into celebrities (名人) and turned the famous into the infamous, overnight.

A key feature of social media, however, is its volatility. Trends come and go, disappearing almost as quickly as they appeared. So, what were the key social media trends of 2019?

Short video apps such as TikTok and its Chinese equivalent Douyin, took the world by storm. The Telegraph reported that TikTok was ranked 8th on Apple’s App Store in April. And Douyin had more than 300 million domestic monthly active users in June, CNBC said.

Why are these short videos — which are rarely longer than a few minutes — so popular? Jiang Yige, Singapore-based analyst at FengHe Fund Management, has a theory. Short videos are “just right to fill in the little gaps in our busy schedules”, he told CNBC.

These videos — apart from being very convenient — are important to teenagers because they allow them to express themselves, according to Teen Vogue.

The sense of community that users of short video apps get is another appealing feature. Liza Koshy, a user of the US app Musically who has over 2 million followers, said that she was thrilled when anyone said that her video had “inspired” him. “It’s really cool...because I think that as short video creators that’s what we all expect,” she added.

Live streaming is another feature of our social media life that now seems as natural as sunrise. It’s a pretty neat idea: You can watch anyone, anywhere, live.

However, China has taken live streaming to a whole new level. In China, more than 100 million viewers monthly watch a live streaming video. Forbes thought that a number of factors had led to the popularity of live streams. Among them is viewers’ ability to interact while remaining anonymous.

However, the boom in social media may be having side effects too. Fake news is one serious problem it arguably causes. Material shared on these platforms is often not checked for accuracy. The most basic content can be false and can sway users one way or another. We use social media all the time; that doesn’t mean that we understand the influence it is having on us. We should be mindful of both the time we spend on it and its impact on our minds.

4 . By now, we are all aware that social media has had a tremendous influence on our culture, in business, on the world-at-large. Social media websites revolutionized the way people communicate and socialize on the Web. However, aside from seeing your friend’s new baby on Facebook, or reading about Justin Bieber’s latest conflict with the law on Twitter, what are some of the real influences?

Social networks offer the opportunity for people to re-connect with their old friends and acquaintances, make new friends, share ideas and pictures, and many other activities. Users can keep pace with the latest global and local developments, and participate in campaigns and activities of their choices. Professionals use social media sites like LinkedIn to enhance their career and business development. Students can work together with their peers to improve their academic and communication skills.

Unfortunately, there are a few downsides too to social networking. If you are not careful, immoral people can target you for cyber bullying and disturbance on social sites. School children, young girls, and women can fall victim to online attacks which can create tension and suffering. If you are a victim of cyber bullying, do not take it lying down, but try to take appropriate legal action against the attacker.

Many companies have blocked social networks as addicted employees can distract themselves on such sites, instead of focusing on work. In fact, studies show that British companies have lost billions of dollars per year in productivity because of social media addiction among employees.

Also, what you carelessly post on the Internet can come back to trouble you. Revealing (泄露) personal information on social sites can make users vulnerable (易受伤害的) to crimes like identity theft, stalking, etc. Many companies perform a background check on the Internet before hiring an employee. If a potential employee has posted something embarrassing on social media, it can greatly affect their chances of getting the job. The same holds true for our relationships too, as our loved ones and friends may get to know if we post something undesirable on social networks.

Social media has its advantages and drawbacks as each coin has two sides. It is up to each user to use social sites wisely to enhance their professional and social life, and exercise caution to ensure they do not fall victim to online dangers.

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C．	D．

With the development of modern technology, people can stay     1     (connect) with their families and friends easily, however far apart they are from each other. WeChat is one of the most     2     (frequent) used means of communication in China. It is reported that the number of the WeChat users     3     (reach) over 1.1 billion so far.

Once joining the WeChat, people can find more and more people start to add them     4     fiends. They don’t have to consider time     5     (zone) when communicating. Another reason why it is so popular is that it costs nothing. It’s also very convenient for people to immediately update     6     they are doing by WeChat.

However, addiction to WeChat will rob people of the time that should otherwise     7     (spend) on something more important. And the many so-called friends on it are not really friends at all, who simply want     8     (put) ads or sell items on Moments. Besides, people on the WeChat are more likely to compare     9     (they) with others, which will make them feel bad when finding some people seem to be     10     (success).

New research shows that the average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 in China in 2021 was 485,000 yuan for a first child,     1     is far more than     2     in the United States and Japan. The high cost of child-raising is one more     3     (difficult) Chinese policymakers face while     4     (deal) with rapidly decreasing birth rates. Experts warn China’s aging population will put pressure     5     its health and social security systems. A decrease in workers could also     6     (severe) limit growth for the world’s second-largest economy in the coming years.

New policies permit     7     (family) to have as many as three children. But China`s birth rate dropped to 7.52 births per 1,000 people in 2021. That is the     8     (low) since the National Bureau of Statistics` began recording the information in 1949. The high costs of raising a child     9     (cause) officials in China to place restrictions on the private tutoring industry in the last few years. Some areas have been giving couples money for having     10     second or third child.

7 . Waste can be seen everywhere in the school. Some students ask for _______food than they can eat and others often forget _______ off the lights when they leave the classroom. They say they can afford these things. But I don’t agree _______ them.

Waste can bring a lot of problems._______China is rich in some resources, we are short of others, for example, fresh water. It is_______ that we will have no coal or oil to use in 100 years. So if we go on _______ our resources, what can we use in the future and _______ can we move? Think about it. I think we should say no to the _______ who waste things every day. Everybody should stop wasting as soon as possible.

In our _______life, we can do many things to prevent waste from happening, for example, turn off the water taps when we finish washing, turn off the lights when we leave the classroom, try not to order more food than we need, and so on. Little by little, everything will be changed. Waste can be stopped one day, if we do ________ best.

9 . Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (人工智能), also called AI, and the rapid using of robots across different industries are causing the fear of jobless growth. Reponses (回应) to these developments have focused on what to do to ensure that robots don’t steal jobs.

Bill Gates, for example, has called for the taxing of robots that take away jobs. This has led to responses from leading economists, such as Larry Summers, who argues against the idea, saying that robots are job creators and that the idea of taxing them is absolutely wrong. Another idea is to use a basic income for all—the idea that everyone receives a minimum income—to pay for the impact of technological unemployment (失业). This idea also causes arguments.

The focus on these arguments is misplaced. Jobs are not created or lost because of a single technology, but because of the business models designed to make use of the power of the technology.

Maybe, we’ve seen a similar example in history, with recorded music in the last century. It wasn’t the 1930s recording technology itself that threatened (威胁) the jobs of live musicians (音乐家). It was its combination with radio broadcasting, jukeboxes (点唱机) and the way businesses operated that led to job losses. Hotels, restaurants and bars replaced live musicians with jukeboxes. A single recording could be played over and over without requiring the appearance of musicians.

As I argue in Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies, the early recording of music destroyed the jobs of some live musicians and made them make less money than before. The social objections (反对) became larger about monopoly (垄断) power and less about the technology itself.

10 . You may know the English letters A, B and C. But do you know there are people called ABCs? Do you know there is such a thing as “a banana person”? How strange! ABC means American-born Chinese. An ABC is a Chinese, but was born in the United States. Sometimes, people call an ABC a “banana person”. A banana is yellow outside. So, when a person is a “banana”, he or she is white inside-thinking like a Westerner and yellow outside-looking like a Chinese.

Usually, ABCs know little about China or the Chinese language. Some of them don’t speak Chinese. But if ABCs cannot speak Chinese, can we still call them Chinese people? Yes, of course. They are overseas (海外的)Chinese. These people may be citizens (公民)of another country like the US, Canada or Singapore. But they have Chinese blood. Their parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents were from China. They all have black eyes and black hair.

But they are not Chinese citizens. They are people of the People’s Republic of China. For example, we all know the famous scientist C. N. Yang(杨振宁). He got the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1957. Chinese people love him. But he is an American citizen.