1 . When given the choice, about 85% of people say they would not want to know about some negative event far in the future. Yet recently millions around the globe have downloaded FaceApp, which allows users to see how they might age in real life.
Many had fun with joking that they love the FaceApp old filter (滤镜). Beneath the humor is a serious subject: How do we learn to relate to our future selves? It’s important that we try to because it could help strengthen the long-term decisions that we make. However, we often fail to make sacrifices for the older versions of ourselves.
More than half of the respondents in a recent survey of 2, 800 Americans said they rarely or never thought about what their lives might be like 30 years from now. This isn’t surprising, since most of us are firmly rooted in the present and thinking about the distant future can seem like a distant priority. My ongoing research might also offer an explanation: We tend to think about our future selves as if they are someone different from who we are today. In an effort to narrow these empathy (共情) gaps, my research workmates and I have tried to humanize (使人性化) people’s future selves in the same way others have tried to humanize charity receivers. Given that a photograph of one hungry child can spark emotional reactions, and cause viewers to donate, we have provided participants with vivid images of their distant selves.
That seems helpful. In a recently completed project in Mexico, we found that exposure to future-self images led more people to add to their pensions (养老金). Despite this research, I’m not sure that the app users will suddenly increase their pension and care about their health. The silly app isn’t paired with an immediate opportunity to change any of these things.
The lesson from FaceApp shouldn’t be that we need to combine hi-tech visuals with savings for retirement. The lesson, then, leads to a question: What more can be done to urge us to think about, care for who we will one day become?
1. What can we learn about FaceApp?| A．It provides future-self images. | B．It is the most downloaded app. |
| C．It helps people make decisions. | D．It makes people age in real life. |
| A．They have known future life from FaceApp. |
| B．They fail to make sacrifices for their future. |
| C．They pay more attention to the present. |
| D．They consider future selves the same as today’s. |
| A．Completing a project in Mexico. |
| B．Offering aging images of participants. |
| C．Raising reflections among viewers. |
| D．Giving a photograph of a hungry child. |
| A．Positive. | B．Objective. |
| C．indifferent. | D．Unfavorable. |
2 . Are we in the middle of a workplace revolution?
Pool tables, nap-pods and free food. They sound like things at an all-inclusive holiday resort (度假胜地)rather than in an office. However, digital tech companies have redesigned the office and provided unusual benefits to make the workplace a more pleasant and productive place to be. For these companies, the days of individual work area where people would work on their own for eight hours a day are no more.
This trend is now spreading outside Silicon Valley. Bob Randell, director of MiCareer, says, “Everyone’s realizing that tech companies don’t provide fancy benefits or games areas in order to seem cool and trendy. They want their staff to feel good about themselves and their jobs. Happy employees are less likely to leave to work for a competitor and, most importantly, they are more productive.”
This new kind of workplace also encourages people to cooperate and to be creative. Playing table tennis with league you rarely work with can lead to new ways of working and fresh thinking. Thinking over a problem while lying in a hammock (吊床)might be the best way to find its solution.
However, this doesn’t mean employers should immediately offer free ice cream, replace desks with sofas or let staff bring pets to work. “Firms have to make sure their benefits are of real interest to their employees, and that they can afford them for the long term. If a company stops offering a benefit, staff happiness goes down and people are less satisfied,” says Anna Tang, head of HR at DigitalFore.
We advise our managers to monitor the effects of the benefits carefully. We now offer free breakfasts instead of free lunches. This persuades people to arrive early and to start work with good energy levels, which makes them more productive. Large free lunches just made them feel sleepy.
This revolution in the workplace is unlikely to slow down. As Randell says, “All businesses can improve by increasing creativity, cooperation and happiness at work. The most successful ones do exactly that, and which companies don’t want to be successful?”
1. What trend is spreading among tech companies?| A．Expanding businesses outside Silicon Valley. |
| B．Improving managers’ working conditions. |
| C．Bettering workplaces for employees. |
| D．Reducing daily working hours. |
| A．Increasing people’s productivity. |
| B．Stopping people leaving their jobs. |
| C．Attracting high quality people to the company. |
| D．Encouraging sharing ideas with different people. |
| A．Serve the staff once and for all. | B．Keep offering short-term returns. |
| C．Control the costs of extra expenses. | D．Provide benefits employees really want. |
| A．Why office life is changing and how to manage it |
| B．Why workplace revolution is unlikely to take place |
| C．Why digital technology companies are so successful |
| D．Why modern offices and unusual benefits are bad for business |
3 . The Internet plays a big part in human life. We use it for work and pleasure. We use it to learn a new language. We find advice on it. We use it to connect with family and friends. We use it to stay in touch with events we care about.The list goes on and on.
As far as the Internet being a part of our lives, well, that train has left the station. There is no going back to an Internet-free life. But can using the Internet too much be bad for our health? It might be, say researchers. A new study finds that heavy Internet use may be connected to high blood pressure in a young group: teenagers.
The study results show that teens who spend at least 14 hours a week only online may cause high blood pressure, which makes their hearts and blood vessels(血管) work too hard. Over time, this extra pressure increases the risk of a heart attack. High blood pressure can also cause heart and other diseases.
The Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan did the study. 335 young people, from 14 to 17 years old, took part in it. 134 of the teens were described as “heavy Internet users”. And researchers found that out of these 134 teens, 26 had high blood pressure. The researchers said the study was the first to connect heavy Web use with high blood pressure.
The lead researcher is Andrea Cassidy-Bushrow. She says, “Using the Internet is part of our daily life, but it shouldn’t ruin(毁坏) us.” Ms. Cassidy-Bushrow adds that it is important for teens to stop to have a rest regular from their computers or smartphones and do some kind of physical activity. She also suggests that parents shouldn’t let their children use the Internet for more than two hours a day, five days a week.
1. What does the underlined part “that train has left the station”mean in Paragraph 2?| A．The train has changed its course. |
| B．Life without the Internet is nowhere to be found. |
| C．The Internet brings great changes to people’s life. |
| D．The Internet has improved people’s life. |
| A．There was no similar study like it before. |
| B．Most of the young people had high blood pressure. |
| C．Adult people aged above 17 took part in the study. |
| D．Over half of the teens in the study were heavy Internet users. |
| A．That teenagers shouldn’t use the Internet. |
| B．That the Internet will ruin human life in the future. |
| C．That smartphones are more harmful than computers. |
| D．That regular breaks are necessary when using the Internet. |
| A．Heavy Internet users are mostly teenagers. |
| B．Every coin has two sides—so does the Internet. |
| C．Too much Internet use may be bad for teenagers. |
| D．How to prevent teenagers from using the Internet. |
4 . Although problems are a part of our lives, it certainly doesn't mean that we let them rule our lives forever. One day or another, you'll have to stand up and say—problems, I don't want you in my life.
But good news is that all problems can be dealt with. Now read on to know how to solve your problems.
Talk, it really helps. What most of us think is that our problem can be understood only by us and that no talking is going to help.
Write your problems.
Don't lose faith and hope. No matter what you lose in life, don't lose faith and hope. Even if you lose all your money, family…you should still have faith.
Your problems aren't the worst. No matter what problem you get in life, there are another one million people whose problems are huger than yours.
Go about and solve your problems because every problem, however big or small, always has a way out.
| A．Of course, we've been fighting troubles ever since we were born. |
| B．When we have a problem, a pressing, critical, urgent, life-threatening problem, how do we try and solve it？ |
| C．Having a personal diary can also be of huge help if you don't want a real person to talk with. |
| D．But the truth is that when you talk about it, you're setting free the negative energies that have been gathering within you. |
| E．We can often overcome the problem and achieve the goal by making a direct attack. |
| F．Tell yourself：when they can deal with them, why can't I？ |
| G．With faith and hope, you can rebuild everything that you lose. |
5 . For several months, Cara has been working up the courage to ask her mother about what she saw on the Internet. Not long ago, the 11-year-old found out that her mother had been posting her photos in her blog, without her agreement, for much of her life. "There are pictures I don't like of myself. It would be an embarrassment(令人尴尬的事)if my friends see those photos online," she said. "Now I'm even worried anytime someone has a phone out around me. I'm afraid that my photos could be taken and posted somewhere."
Not all kids feel the same when finding out they've been living a life online. Some are happy. In the fourth grade, Nate searched his name and found that he was in a news report about his making a beautiful kite in his third-grade class. He was really happy with that and he decided to search online every few months, hoping to find other things about himself online.
"I was surprised, really surprised," he said. "It made me feel famous."
He even kept saying, "Oh, I'm in a news report online." Although his friends knew that, many of his friends refused to stay close to him.
Like most other kids, Cara and Nate grew up in a society rich with social media. While many kids may not yet have accounts(账户)themselves, their parents, schools, sports teams, and organizations have been building an online presence for them since their birth. According to a study from the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida, 92 percent of kids under the age of 2 already have their own life online.
"The blog posts are sure to follow the children into adulthood," says the study. "Therefore, we have to be careful about putting the children's personal information online."
1. Why does Cara want to stop her mother putting her pictures online?| A．She is not a very pretty girl. | B．Her friends keep laughing at her. |
| C．She does not like being photographed. | D．Some of the pictures are embarrassing. |
| A．They felt really happy for him. | B．Many of them stayed away from him. |
| C．Many of them did not believe him. | D．They also opened their own accounts. |
| A．parents should keep their kids away from the Internet |
| B．pictures should not be put online without kids' agreement |
| C．kids should not tell their stories of success to their friends |
| D．putting kids' information online might lead to some problems |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By reasoning. |
| C．By following time order. | D．By comparing. |
6 . Several decades ago, educators in the USA began to call attention to a national problem: most students leave American schools without the mathematical skills needed for jobs or for higher education. This was especially true for female and minority students. The Educational Testing Service reported that, in an international survey, American teenagers had the lowest math scores.
This situation has been defined as “innumeracy”, or the inability to grasp the basic idea of mathematics. Mathematicians, teachers, and scientists were alarmed by these findings. They looked for the reasons and decided that, in addition to poor education, there are many psychological blocks.
Embarrassment about not knowing math can lead to fear in the classroom. Fear can lead to silence because students do not want to draw attention to their lack of knowledge. As a result, those students fall further and further behind. Low visibility in the classroom has not always been recognized as a silent call for help.
Math educators decided to try to change that. Math reform is beginning with the educators themselves. Teachers are now being trained to recognize and to help students work through “math anxiety” — the roadblock on their way to gaining competence in mathematics. In addition, math textbooks are being updated to help students understand that math is not a sort of foreign language of numbers. Math is a tool that helps us to analyze patterns and structures, and to discover relationships.
Traditional computing skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are still being taught, of course. However, there is added emphasis on logical thinking and creative problemsolving, to which there may be several equally valid solutions.
1. What does the underlined sentence probably mean?| A．Students with low scores fear to ask their teachers for help. |
| B．Poor equipment in classrooms limits teens' chances to learn. |
| C．Math anxiety, hardly noticed, is actually a silent call for help. |
| D．Poorsighted students can't see clearly, which is a silent call for help. |
| A．The methods of teaching. | B．The difficulty of math itself. |
| C．Students’ lack of interest in math. | D．Schools’ not attaching enough value to it. |
| A．What to be taught in America’s revised math programs. |
| B．How to improve teens’ logical thinking and problemsolving abilities. |
| C．How to improve American students’ traditional computing skills. |
| D．Why traditional computing skills are necessary in mathematics education. |
| A．Improvements in mathematics education in the US |
| B．The features of America's mathematics education. |
| C．Mathematic skills needed for higher education. |
| D．The importance of mathematics education in the US. |
7 . After a lot of local state warnings, investigations and bans of hoverboards, the federal government issued a statement on Wednesday. The message: Many of the machines are a major fire risk.
The Consumer Product safety Commission (CPSC) announced the recall of more than a half-million hoverboards. The safety commission said that the battery-powered machines had been the cause of at least 60 fires. The announcement affects 10 companies that make or sell the products, including Razor and Swagway, two of the leading manufacturers.
Hoverboards, which do not actually hover or fly and bear a vague resemblance to a skateboard, have been the subject of regulatory examination in recent years. Officials have banned them from airplanes and sidewalks, and the safety commission opened an investigation last fall because of reports of fires and explosions.
The risk of fires from the machine’s electrical system and battery pack had attracted the most attention from the safety commission, which says it will now turn its focus toward the risk of falls and other accidents. The agency is worried that flaws in the board’s design could lead riders to lose their balance.
There is no federal safety standard specific to hoverboards. Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a standards-setting and testing organization, came up with voluntary electrical requirements for self-balancing hoverboards as a result of the safety commission’s investigation, said Elliot F. Kaye, the chairman of the CPSC.
He urged consumers to return any hoverboard that did not reach the standards set by the company. However, part of the problem, he explained, was that many hoverboards had been sold by temporary stands such as those in malls or college campuses—fly-by-night sellers that can be harder to track down or contact. “That is a deeply frustrating aspect of it”, Mr. Kaye said. “Somebody can just put up a stand, order a bunch of products, disappear, and there’s nobody there to take responsibility when things go wrong.”
1. Why will so many hoverboards be recalled?| A．Because they aren’t easy to use. | B．Because they are likely to cause fires. |
| C．Because they don’t actually hover or fly. | D．Because they caused many traffic accidents. |
| A．The balance risk of hoverboards. | B．The popularity of hoverboards. |
| C．The recycling of hoverboards. | D．The testing of hoverboards. |
| A．The CPSC. | B．Razor | C．Swagway. | D．UL. |
| A．How to punish illegal hoverboard sellers. |
| B．How to improve the designs of hoverboards. |
| C．How to recall hoverboards sold by temporary stands. |
| D．How to discourage people from buying hoverboards. |
8 . One of the most common remarks about today’s emerging adults (18- to 29-year-olds) is that they’re lazy. They expect work to be fun, and if it’s not fun, they refuse to do it. It’s true that emerging adults have high hopes for work. Ian, a 22-year-old, chose to go into journalism, even though he knew that: “ If I’m a journalist making $20,000 a year, my dad ( a wealthy physician )makes vastly more than that.” More important than the money was finding a job that he could enjoy. The great majority of emerging adults spend most of their twenties in a series of dull and low-paying jobs as they search for something better. It’s unfair to consider the many hard-working emerging adults with a stereotype (刻板模式) that is true for only a small percentage of them.
Another widespread slur against emerging adults is that they are selfish. It’s probably true that most emerging adults today grow up with a higher level of self-respect than in previous generations. Their Baby Boomer parents keep telling them: “You’re special!”“You can be whatever you want to be.” Popular culture has conveyed similar messages in movies, television shows and songs. But that doesn’t mean they’re selfish. It simply means that they are highly confident in their abilities to make a good life for themselves.
Strangely, these stereotypes continue even though there is persuasive evidence to the contrary. Rates of violent crime committed by young men have dropped. Not only have bad things gone down, but good things about this generation have gone up. Nearly 90 per cent of American college freshmen reported doing volunteer work in the past year, the highest level ever. Furthermore, applications to post-college volunteer programmes have reached record levels. Young Americans are also more tolerant and accepting of diversity than older generations.
The origins of the many prejudices against today’s emerging adults are complex, but maybe one key reason is that many of their elders still use old yardsticks to measure their progress. The pace of social, economic and technological change over the past half-century has been quick, and what is “normal” among young people has changed so fast that the rest of society has not yet caught up.
1. Ian chose to be a journalist because__________.| A．he followed his father’s advice |
| B．journalists make big money |
| C．he loved the job very much |
| D．It’s an interesting job |
| A．confusion | B．confidence | C．self-control | D．self-centeredness |
| A．To support the author’s viewpoint. |
| B．To keep readers’ interest in the text. |
| C．To make a summary of the first two paragraphs. |
| D．To provide background information of the next paragraph. |
| A．think in a more complicated way |
| B．recognize they’re behind the times |
| C．believe that young people are normal |
| D．stop using old views to judge young people |
调查对象：你校高中生调查人数：200 人
调查方式：访谈
调查结果：(见下图)
注意： 1. 词数 100 左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头和结尾已给出，但不计入词数。
Whom Do You Turn to When in Trouble？
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
10 . Over 70 percent of the “double single-child couples” in China need help from their parents in taking care of their own kids, according to a recent survey.
Women of China magazine and a consulting company carried out a survey recently on young couples of the “single-child” generation, the Morning Post reports. The couples surveyed were around 29 and have been married for three years on average, with university education and monthly income of 4,000 yuan. Among them, 43.5 percent have kids.
Results show that 71.9 percent of the young couples have help from their parents in taking care of their kids.
Grown up as the “single-child”, the only child in a family since the family planning policy (政策) was adopted in 1979, this generation depends much on their parents.
The parents of the “single-child” generation focused more on their children’s physical well-being rather than their attitudes and values, according to some psychologists.
The research also found that the “double single-child couples” follow a rather traditional value system.
Survey shows that 27.5 percent of them got married after dating for one to two years, 25.2 percent two to five years, and 20 percent didn’t tie the knot until dating for five years. Also, 30 percent of the couples were schoolmates, while 43.8 percent were introduced by someone.
Since their marriage is based on enduring relationships, 65.2 percent of the husbands and 62.9 percent of the wives think that compromise and tolerance are necessary in their marriage. Meanwhile, 21.7 percent of the husbands and 37.1 percent of the wives support the idea that happiness is the key standard for a marriage.
1. The best title for the text should be ______.| A．The Problem of the Single Child |
| B．Single-child Family Planning Policy |
| C．Mom and Dad, Take Care of My Kid Please |
| D．A Recent Survey by Women of China |
| A．Most “double single-child couples” in China depend much on their parents. |
| B．Less than 40 percent of the wives think happiness is of significance in marriage. |
| C．43.5 percent of the double single-child couples surveyed have children. |
| D．The parents of the “single-child” generation care more about their education. |
| A．get tied | B．get married |
| C．have kids | D．have jobs |
