1 . China has set new rules limiting the amount of time children can play online games. The rules limit children to just three hours of online game playing a week. That is one hour between 8 p. m. and 9 p. m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday most weeks.
Li Zhanguo has two children aged 4 and 8. Even though they do not have smartphones, they enjoy playing online games. Like many other parents. Li is happy with new government rules. But experts say it is unclear if such policies can help prevent addiction to online games. Children might just get addicted to social media instead. In the end, experts say, parents should be the ones to set limits and support good practice.
There has been a growing concern in China about gaming addiction among children. Government reports in 2018 found that about one in ten Chinese children were addicted to the Internet. The new rules are part of an effort to prevent young people from spending too much time on unhealthy entertainment. That includes what officials call the “irrational fan culture”
Under the new rules, the responsibility for making sure children play only three hours a day as largely on Chinese gaming companies like Net Ease and Ten cent. Companies have set up real-name registration systems to prevent young users from going past game time limits. They have used facial recognition technology to check their identities. And they have also set up a program that permits people to report what is against the law. It is unclear what punishments gaming companies may face if they do not carry out the policies. And even if such policies are performed, it is also unclear whether they can prevent online addiction.
A specialist treating Internet addiction expects about 20 percent of children will find ways to break the rules by borrowing accounts of their older relatives and find a way around facial recognition. In his opinion, short-video alps such as Douyin and Kuaishou are also very popular in China. They are not under the same restrictions as games.
1. When can children play games according to the new rules?| A．Between 8 p. m. and 9 p. m. On Friday. | B．Between 8 p. m. and 9 p. m. On Tuesday. |
| C．Between 10 p. m. and 11 p. m. On Saturday. | D．Between 10 p. m. and all p. m. On Thursday. |
| A．the new rules can stop children’s addiction to social media |
| B．companies are more responsible for kids ‘ obeying the rules |
| C．the new rules will help prevent children playing online games |
| D．parents play a greater part in limiting the time of online games |
| A．Design an advanced program. | B．Use facial recognition systems. |
| C．Set up real-name registration systems. | D．Borrow accounts of their older relatives. |
| A．Rules Limiting Short-video alps | B．Rules Limiting Video Game Time |
| C．Rules Banning Irrational Fan Culture | D．Rules Breaking Addition to Social Media |
2 . According to a survey in the UK market, British families are throwing away 1.4 million bananas that are perfectly good to eat every day.
Supermarket Sainsbury’s has found that one in three British people throw away bananas if there is a single bruise (擦伤) or mark on the skin. More than one in ten customers also admit throwing away the fruit if there is any green on the skin. The supermarket is making efforts to reduce food waste. It’s pushing British shoppers to make bread and desserts (甜点) out of bruised and blackened bananas.
Starting from this week, Sainsbury’s will launch hundreds of “banana rescue” stations to encourage shoppers to give bruised bananas a chance. The stations will provide tips and ideas on how to bake with bananas or use them in drinks, and the stations are already set up in 500 stores nationwide.
The supermarket’s boss, Paul Crewe, said Sainsbury’s wants to encourage customers to use the fruit in different ways. “We are determined to help shoppers reduce the number of bananas going to waste at home too,” he said. “61% of Britons admit they never use the bruised bananas in baking, so we also want to encourage customers to use their fruit in different ways,” he added.
1. What ’s the percentage of the British people throwing away bruised bananas according to the Supermarket Sainsbury’s?| A．About 20%. | B．About 33%. | C．About 66%. | D．About 90%. |
| A．Send. | B．Sell. | C．Start. | D．Release. |
| A．British people don’t like eating bananas. |
| B．Bruised bananas can be stored in the supermarkets. |
| C．Paul wants to sell more bruised bananas to his customers. |
| D．There is no need to throw away the bruised bananas anymore. |
| A．Banana Rescue | B．Banana Harvest | C．How to Cook Bananas | D．How to Sell Bananas |
3 . 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.
1. What’s the authors purpose of writing the first paragraph?| A．To express the people’s love for all festivals. |
| B．To talk about the meaning of the festivals. |
| C．To appreciate the value of the festivals. |
| D．To bring out the topic of the passage. |
| A．To help people save money. | B．To cut the cost for daily life. |
| C．To prevent over-consumption. | D．To set up a new sales record. |
| A．Opposed (反对的). | B．Supportive. |
| C．Unknown. | D．Neutral (中立的). |
| A．Creating a New Lifestyle | B．Buy Nothing Day |
| C．Festivals Around the World | D．A Change in People’s Life |
4 . Large numbers of employees in the United Kingdom will begin a four-day work week from Monday without cutting their pay in the largest trial of its kind. The pilot, which will last for six months, involves 3,300 workers spanning 70 companies, ranging from providers of financial services to a fish-and-chip restaurant.
During the program, workers receive 100% of their pay for working only 80% of their usual week, in exchange for promising to maintain 100% of their productivity. The program is being run by not-for-profit 4 Day Week Global, Autonomy, a think tank, and the 4 Day Week UK Campaign in partnership with researchers from Cambridge University, Oxford3 University and Boston College.
Sienna O’Rourke, brand manager at Pressure Drop Brewing, an independent brewery5 in London, told CNN Business that the company’s biggest goal was to improve the mental health and well-being of its employees. “The pandemic has made us think a great deal about work and how people organize their lives,” she said. “We’re doing this to improve the lives of our staff and be part of a progressive change in the world.” Given the company manufactures and ships products, workers have less flexibility about when and where they work, O’Rourke said. But any difficulties in navigating holiday and sick leave would be tackled as a team.
Until now, Iceland had conducted the biggest pilot of a shorter working week between 2015 and 2019, with 2,500 public sector9 workers involved in two large trials. Those trials found no corresponding drop in productivity among participants, and a dramatic increase in employee well-being.
Calls to shorten the working week have gathered steam in recent years in several countries. As millions of employees switched to remote work during the pandemic — cutting onerous commuting time and costs — calls for greater flexibility have only grown louder.
Government-backed trials are set to take place in Spain and Scotland later this year, the 4 Day Week Campaign said in a press release.Joe O’Connor, CEO of 4 Day Week Global, said that the workers have shown they can work “shorter and smarter.”
1. What does the underlined part refer to in paragraph 1?| A．The trial to carry out a four-day work week in large scales. |
| B．The trial to cut workers’ pay. |
| C．The trial to increase workers’ productivity. |
| D．The trial to defeat the pandemic. |
| A．To allow workers to work more flexibly. |
| B．To decrease workers’ time and costs in traffic. |
| C．to improve workers’ mental fitness and boost their happiness. |
| D．To cut workers’ work hours and pay. |
| A．UK | B．Scotland | C．Spain | D．Iceland |
| A．culture | B．society | C．politics | D．sports |
5 . Liu Shuqi broke up with her boyfriend two months ago and has now found a new companion.
The handsome “man” is dressed in a white suit with a stylish haircut. He understands her emotions and feelings perfectly and gives her comfort, encouragement and support. “He is very humorous and offers some comfort when I am in a bad mood,” the 26-year-old bank employee said. The only problem is he is a virtual being and not a real boyfriend.
Liu is not alone in her choice of companion. In a digital era where people are heavily reliant on their smart devices, many of those who live alone increasingly turn to the virtual field to seek companions.
The artificial intelligence-powered digital humans, who are similar to real humans in appearance and behavior, are capable of providing 24-hour online companionship, humanlike conversation and emotional support.
They will likely become an essential part of people’s daily lives, industry experts said. Lin Kaikai and Ye Youyou, two companion-oriented virtual beings, were recently launched by Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc. Powered by Baidu’s Plato, an AI model for dialogue generation that is trained on over 10 billion parameters collected from social media conversations in both English and Chinese, the two digital humans have a smooth, more humanlike interaction.
For instance, they can participate in conversations through various forms such as texts, voice and emojis. They offer customized wake-up call services and learn about the preferences of their users, mainly through increased frequency of chats and interactions, Baidu said.
Other tech companies have also jumped on the companion-oriented virtual being trend.
Xiaoice is an AI-powered chatbot that seems to redefine the conceptions of romance and relationships among young Chinese. It has helped to comfort lonely hearts through more than 17 million virtual “girlfriends” and “boyfriends” in China.
“The rise of digital humans that serve as emotional companions is a result of technological innovation, such as the improvement in appearance, functions and interactive experience of digital humans, fueled by the enhanced deep-learning capacities based on massive user data,” said Chen Duan, director of the Digital Economy Integration Innovation Development Center at the Central University of Finance and Economics.
A set of problems though have also emerged. They include ethics, morals, data security and personal privacy protection in the industry, Chen said, while calling for efforts to formulate relevant laws and regulations on the ownership of digital characters and standardizing their behaviors.
1. What is Liu’ new companion like according to Liu Shuqi herself?| A．Handsome and stylish | B．Humorous and helpful |
| C．Perfect and supportive | D．Clever and understanding |
| A．Because virtual companions look very like real humans. |
| B．Because virtual companions can offer a whole-day online companionship. |
| C．Because these people rely on their digital devices heavily. |
| D．Because these people need emotional support very much. |
| A．Texts | B．emojis | C．voice | D．eye-contact |
| A．Making relative rules and laws. | B．Regularize the behaviors of virtual companions. |
| C．Stop producing virtual companions. | D．Both A and B. |
6 . Chinese are very generous(慷慨的) in educating their children. Not caring about the money, parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad to England, the United States and Australia. They also want their children to take extra-course activities such as musical instrument learning or ballet (芭蕾) classes, or other classes. They think these will give them a good future. The Chinese believe that the more expensive an education is, the better it is. So parents will spend much unreasonable(不合理的) money on education. Even poor parents will buy a computer for their son or daughter.
However, what most parents fail to see is that the best early education they can give their children is usually very cheap.
Parents can see that their children are very good in some areas while poor in others. Parents also can see some children are good at these skills and others do well in others. Most parents fail to realize that today’s children lack(缺乏) self-respect and self-confidence.
The problem is that parents are only educating their children on how to take tests and how to study well, but parents are not teaching them the most important skills that they need to be confident, happy and clever.
Parents can achieve this by teaching skills like cooking, sewing(缝纫) and doing other housework. Teaching a child to cook will improve many of the skills that he will need later in life. Cooking needs patience and time. It is an enjoyable but difficult experience. A good cook always tries to improve his cooking, so he will learn to work hard and finish his job successfully. His result, a well-cooked dinner, will give him much satisfaction and lots of self-confidence.
Some old machines, such as a broken radio or TV set that you give your child to play with will make him curious(好奇心) and improve his interest. He will spend hours looking at them, trying to fix them. Your child might become an engineer when he grows up. These activities are not only teaching a child to read a book, but rather to think, to use his mind. And that is more important.
1. Parents in China, according to this passage, ____________.| A．are too strict with their children | B．are too rich to educate their children |
| C．are too poor to educate their children | D．have some problems in educating children correctly |
| A．Education is very important to children. |
| B．Today’s children lack self-respect and self-confidence. |
| C．Today’s children lack of skills for tests. |
| D．Taking extra-courses is useful for children’s future. |
| A．come from their parents | B．have nothing to do with their education |
| C．may be different from child to child | D．have much to do with their marks in the exams |
| A．learn how to serve their parents | B．learn how to become strong and fat |
| C．learn to work hard and be full of confidence | D．make their parents believe that they are clever |
| A．the parents’ ideas of educating children | B．the country’s education system |
| C．the children’s skills | D．the children’s hobbies |
7 . You’ve probably thought about taking a break from social media from time to time, but can you imagine living without social media or cell phones entirely? This small town in West Virginia, USA, does just that. For the 182 residents of Green Bank, West Virginia, modern conveniences like Wi-Fi, smartphones, microwaves, and even digital cameras are a thing of the outside world.
This town neighbors a large radio telescope — a piece of technology that allows scientists to observe everything from the formation of stars to the remains of the Big Bang. And in order for these devices to listen to the most “remote whispers of the universe”, they require no interference (干扰) from the ground. To protect the sensitive technology, a National Radio Quiet Zone was established, covering an area of 13, 000 square miles and enveloping the town of Green Bank.
In the name of science, Green Bank has committed to living a lifestyle with limited digital connections. In the absence of Wi-Fi, this town has returned to a type of community connection that was common in the not-so-distant past. And though far from the digital world, the residents can sometimes be connected more closely. A report from the New York Times takes a look at the positive but complex impact Green Bank’s disconnected community has on its teenagers. The views they bring up about teens’ mental health, social skills, and a deeper connection to the natural world are thought-provoking.
The lives of the residents of Green Bank remind us of what we may be missing out on in our digital world. What could we gain if we spent more time just in the quiet presence of others or just ourselves and a good book? Maybe we don’t want to disconnect from the Internet, but maybe, we can experiment with disconnecting for a few hours a day and see how we feel. Perhaps we could discover a new way of living that better serves our mental health and our relationships with one another.
1. What is the purpose of the question in Paragraph 1?| A．To imagine a traditional life. | B．To introduce a small town. |
| C．To comment on social media. | D．To promote smartphones. |
| A．Function of the world’s largest radio telescope. |
| B．Lives of the residents of Green Bank. |
| C．Reasons for Green Bank’s absence of Wi-Fi. |
| D．Benefits of a National Radio Quiet Zone. |
| A．Distant. | B．Complex. |
| C．Mysterious. | D．Close. |
| A．It’s colourful. | B．It’s rewarding. |
| C．It’s modern. | D．It’s dull. |
8 . How much money is time worth? The question really matters, especially for the government. Before pursuing projects, governments weigh costs and benefits. And for many projects, especially those having to do with roads or bridges, one of the biggest benefits is time saved.
A new study sponsored by the rideshare company Lyft conducted experiments on 3.7 million customers in nine American cities. They adjusted prices and wait times to test when users requested and didn’t request rides. Then, they were able to figure out how much people are willing to pay to wait less for their rides.
For a long time, researchers have relied on surveys in which they asked questions like “How much would you pay to save five minutes?” People in these surveys may not accurately give the value of their time because it’s hypothetical (假设的). But Lyft’s data has information on the actual decisions that people make about how they value their time. If Lyft makes you wait five minutes more for your ride, will you take it? What if it charges you more for a shorter wait?
After analyzing the numbers, the researchers found a precise estimate for the average value of time: $19 an hour. They’ve also found that people’s value of time shifts throughout the day. The value of time is 50% larger in peak commute (通勤路程) time than in non-peak commute time. During commute time, minutes matter. People don’t want to be late for work. The value of saving minutes on rides increase when it’s raining or snowing.
Regarding their overall estimate, we should note that their experiments were conducted in nine of the richest urban areas in America. These are busy areas where being five minutes late for business meetings or dinner reservations can matter. Plus, the residents there are the type of people who pay for taxis. The researchers said they took pains to address these by adjusting their samples to match nationally representative surveys done by the government, and that they were confident in their findings. Maybe more research is needed to prove their findings.
1. What did the researchers do in the study?| A．They asked some Lyft customers questions. |
| B．They monitored some Lyft customers’ behavior. |
| C．They analyzed previous data on Lyft customers. |
| D．They tested their assumptions on Lyft employees. |
| A．They included too many questions. |
| B．They made the participants wait too long. |
| C．They collected assumptions instead of facts. |
| D．They failed to win the participants’ full support. |
| A．After enjoying the snowy scene. | B．After attending a business meeting. |
| C．When on holiday in the countryside. | D．When riding to work in the rush hour. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Critical. | C．Approving. | D．Unconcerned. |
9 . Are you planning to eat out tonight or are you going to stay in to save the pennies (省钱)? A meal out at a good restaurant or even a pizzeria can cost you a small fortune, so cooking for yourself makes financial sense. But with the rise in food prices, it’s important to be a wise shopper to keep your food bill in check.
These days our supermarket shelves are packed with tempting food items, from the daily staples, like bread and milk, to the exotic, like mangoes and kiwifruits (猕猴桃). There’s also the option of buying ready meals — convenient food that comes at a price. However, if you’re feeling hard up (拮据), there are things you can do to make the money you spend on food go further.
According to the BBC Food website, it’s all about changing your habits. It claims that cooking fulfilling and tasty meals on a budget is easy. It suggests a number of “tricks” such as using cheaper cuts of meat, “choose small amounts of meat with less expensive proteins” and “transform small quantities of leftovers into a heavy meal”.
A favorite entertainment of mine to help when money is tight is to stock up on items that are on special offer-such as BOGOF deals(Buy one, get one free).However, this is more of a problem when it comes to perishable (易腐烂的)items like fresh fruit and vegetables. In the UK, about 39% of household food waste is fruit and veg. So it’s a good idea not to stock up on too much of these things. Store them carefully and make the most of them in all your recipes.
Food waste is a big problem generally, so shopping carefully can also reduce the amount we throw away. And in Edinburgh in Scotland, it’s possible to reduce waste and not break the bank by visiting a recycled food shop, which has been set up to prevent extra food from shops ending up in the bins (垃圾桶).
Of course, the biggest thing you can do to help your cash flow is to cut back on take-away coffees and lunches.
Cooking your own meals is usually healthier for you and your finances.
1. According to the author, which of the following ways cost the least money?| A．To have meals at a good restaurant. | B．To cook meals for yourself at home. |
| C．To buy exotic fruit and vegetables. | D．To buy ready meals or convenient food. |
| A．He chooses small amounts of meat with expensive proteins. |
| B．He transforms large quantities of leftovers into a heavy meal. |
| C．He stocks up on items of special offer -such as BOGOF deals. |
| D．He makes all the perishable fruit and vegetables in all his recipes. |
| A．They often visits recycled food shops. |
| B．They store most of their food carefully. |
| C．They buy take-away coffees and lunches. |
| D．They only throw away the perishable food. |
| A．Ways to Cook Tasty Meals at Home | B．Ways to Cut Daily Expenses on Meals |
| C．Ways to Buy Food in the Supermarket | D．Ways to Store Fresh Fruit and Vegetables |
10 . It seems like people today are more easily offended than ever before.
If smoking in an elevator or talking in a movie theater were normal in the past, they are considered to be rude today. We used to be obliged to answer whatever questions a family elder asked, but now when a prying relative asks about our test grades or dream university — information that we’d rather keep to ourselves — we feel offended, even if they mean well.
The boundary between “politeness” and “rudeness” has changed over the years, especially among young people.
But this change doesn’t just go one way — things that used to be considered rude may also go across to the other side of the boundary. For example, to stand up for themselves, some youths may try to make statements by using phone cases printed with phrases like “Leave me alone” or “None of your business”. In their eyes, this is more like being independent than being rude.
“These phenomena involve rejecting previously moral order to ignore insults, recognize the good intentions of those who accidentally give offense, and be charitable toward those with whom we disagree,” wrote Time. “They suggest a new morality.”
And this fresh morality is introduced by a new group of people. According to The Economist, young people, or millennials, are “the best-educated generation ever”, which is why they tend to be more conscious about their privacy and personal space. They are also freer than previous generations, more eager to explore the world and refuse to be tied down by elders’ rules.
But there are, of course, people who think that millennials have gone too far to defend their own needs. An earlier Time article called millennials the “Me Me Me Generation”, saying that they are self-involved, less grateful and less tolerant of people.
But Lauren Martin, a lifestyle writer in the US, and a millennial herself, has a theory.
“Our generation is an anomaly (与众不同的事物),” she wrote on Elite Daily. “We refuse to do things their way, so they call us entitled. We refuse to sit in cubicles, so they call us spoiled. We refuse to follow their plans, so they call us stubborn. What they are slowly realizing, however, is we’re not lazy, stubborn or entitled. We just refuse to accept things as they’re given to us.”
1. What is the article mainly about?| A．Why people today are more easily offended. |
| B．The definition of “politeness” and “rudeness”. |
| C．The morality of millennials and some views on it. |
| D．Key characteristics of the millennial generation. |
| A．A prying relative always makes people feel offended. |
| B．Many young people can’t tell politeness from rudeness. |
| C．Young people today don’t care what people think of them. |
| D．Traditional morality has been rejected by some. |
a. are more curious about the outside world
b. are less thankful and understanding
c. are more concerned about their privacy
d. are more likely to challenge elders’ rules
e. enjoy more freedom and are self-involved
| A．a, b, c | B．a, c, d | C．b, d, e | D．c, d, e |
| A．They are too stubborn to listen to others. |
| B．They cannot get along well with others. |
| C．They have their own ways of viewing things. |
| D．They should adjust their way to defend their own needs. |
