1 . You can tell a lot about people’s general state of mind based on their social media feeds. Are they always tweeting(发微博)about their biggest annoyances or posting pictures of particularly cute kitties? In a similar fashion, researchers are turning to Twitter for clues about the overall happiness of entire geographic communities.
What they’re finding is that regional variation in the use of common phrases produces predictions that don’t always reflect the local state of well being. But removing from their analyses just three specific terms -- good, love and LOL - greatly improves the accuracy of the methods.
“We’re living in a crazy COVID-19 era. And now more than ever, we’re using social media to adapt to a new normal and reach out to the friends and family that we can’t meet face-to-face.” Kokil Jaidka studies computational linguistics at the National University of Singapore. “But our words aren’t useful just to understand what we, as individuals, think and feel. They’re also useful clues about the community we live in.”
One of the simpler methods that many scientists use to analyze the data involves correlating words with positive or negative emotions. But when those records are compared with phone surveys that assess regional well-being, Jaidka says, they don’t paint an accurate picture of the local zeitgeist(时代精神).
Being able to get an accurate read on the mood of the population is no laughing matter. “That’s particularly important now, in the time of COVID, where we’re expecting a mental health crisis and we’re already seeing in survey data the largest decrease in subjective well-being in 10 years at least, if not ever.”
To find out why , Jaidka and her team analyzed billions of tweets from around the United States. And they found that among the most frequently used terms on Twitter are LOL, love and good. And they actually throw the analysis off. Why the disconnect?
“Internet language is really a different beast than regular spoken language. We’ve adapted words from the English vocabulary to mean different things in different situations.” says Jaidka. “Take, for example, LOL. I’ve tweeted the word LOL to express irony, annoyance and sometimes just pure surprise. When the methods for measuring LOL as a marker of happiness were created in the 1990s, it still meant laughing out loud.”
“There are plenty of terms that are less misleading,” says Jaidka. “Our models tell us that words like excited, fun, great, opportunity, interesting, fantastic and those are better words for measuring subjective well-being.”
1. The researchers turn to social media feeds to ________.A.help with the analysis of people’s subjective well-being |
B.integrate into a mainstreamed lifestyle more quickly |
C.prove the disconnect between language and emotions |
D.collect specific terms associated with specific zeitgeist. |
A.It didn’t reflect the mood of the entire geographic community |
B.It didn’t match the assessment result of the phone surveys. |
C.It didn’t consider the features of Internet language. |
D.It didn’t take the regional variations into account. |
A.Face-to-face communication is never replaced to ensure happiness. |
B.Internet use is to blame for the decrease in subjective well-being. |
C.Internet language should be originally used as a source of scientific analysis. |
D.Less misleading words should be used in assessing subjective well-being. |
A.Internet Shock Need A Break | B.Underlying LOL Never Fade Away |
C.Virtual Mirror Of Era Being | D.Gulf Between Old And New |
2 . The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was invented by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers. It is a self-report questionnaire indicating differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. The MBTI personality inventory (量表) sorts people into 16 type categories, each of which is represented by four-letter codes such as INFP and ESTJ. Every year, about 1.5 million people have enjoyed discovering their personality type by completing the MBTI. Many companies, as well as hundreds of universities, use it in hiring and training.
Nevertheless, the MBTI has received a noticeable criticism from the academic community. Some research suggests the MBTI is unreliable because the same person can get different results when retaking the test. Other studies have questioned the validity of the MBTI, which is the ability of the test to accurately link the “types” to outcomes in the real world -for example, how well people classified as a certain type will perform in a given job.
Merve Emre, a professor a Oxford University, points out that it would be more scientifically advisable to score the MBTI scales continuously to show people the degree to which they resemble the types. Even when the MBTI’s results don’t quite match your intuition (直觉) about yourself or are just wrong, they can still provide self-insight and insight into differences and similarities between people.
Scoring and interpreting the MBTI the way other personality inventories are scored and interpreted might be less fun than finding. All of the folklore (民间看法) about INFPs, ESTJs, etc. would have to be dismissed. But, in the end the MBTI is sufficiently reliable and valid enough to be useful in a number of real-world contexts.
1. What do we know about the MBTI from the first paragraph?A.It is a personality-testing tool. | B.It is divided into 16 categories. |
C.It is a study of personal preference. | D.It is a questionnaire on four-letter codes. |
A.It performs badly in job interviews | B.Its reliability has been questioned. |
C.It requires people to retake the test | D.Its advantages are not fully shown. |
A.It is beyond criticism. | B.It is a more scientific test. |
C.It is less fun than other tests. | D.It is useful for self-exploration. |
A.How Can We Use the MBTI? | B.Why do We Criticise the MBTI? |
C.Is the MBTI Totally Meaningless? | D.Is Scoring the MBTI Really Necessary? |
3 . There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the influence of media is growing stronger and stronger as time passes. If you have noticed, the speed at which news travels around the world has become faster with the development and advancement in technology. Media are actually influencing people in different ways.
Whether you admit it or not, watching movies and programs on the television or our laptop, ipad and other mobile devices as we relax takes us away into this different kingdom — that is, there are parts in our being that feels we are the ones in the movie and sometimes we even feel what they are feeling as we get caught in the emotional excitement. The effect of media does not stop when the movie or program ends. And this effect might just be the cause of behavioral changes in people.
With action films, children tend to follow the movie hero, engaging themselves to violent acts thinking that it is acceptable because his hero became successful in the end. There are cartoon programs that show acts of violence and dishonest acts against others. In return, children tend to copy the characters and think that cheating other people is a way to deal with their problems. They learn to transfer these ill behaviors to friends.
There are some television shows and movies that attempt to create an atmosphere to change the view of people towards social issues such as racial discrimination (歧视). In the minds of other people, the effect can be for the better, but some unfortunately for the worse.
There had been examples in the past that young people drunk driving imitating (模仿) their favorite actress. There was also a case where somebody set a subway ticket booth on fire because he saw it in his favorite film. These are just a few examples of the disturbing influence of media on people’s behavior.
An explanation to these bad acts is that these people could not distinguish fantasy from reality. They get caught up in the kingdom of what they had been watching and the images and scenes become deeply rooted in their minds.
So the media is largely responsible for giving people false ideas and unhealthy pictures, which lead to misbehavior against other people, and can create a dangerous cycle among individuals as they attempt to do the same or even worse things to others. The sad reality is, no one is turning off their televisions or disconnecting from these influences. The only way programming of this sort will change is when people no longer buy into it, demand it, and watch it.
1. What does the author want to tell us in Paragraph 2?A.What it is that changes our emotion. |
B.How media affect people’s behavior. |
C.Why we are attracted by movies and programs. |
D.Whether people feel being taken away from the reality. |
A.生病的 | B.不吉利的 | C.不良的 | D.难受的 |
A.They are just the violent people. |
B.They hope to solve social problems. |
C.They actually can’t tell fantasy from reality. |
D.They want to change people’s attitudes towards media. |
A.Sympathetic. | B.Critical. | C.Supportive. | D.Cautious. |
4 . As more people move into their golden years, many families are welcoming their senior parents into their homes. While most seniors claim to prefer to age in their own homes, safety and health concerns don’t always make this possible.
If you are preparing to welcome a senior parent into your home, everyone will have an adjustment period. This type of move will have physical, emotional, and mental influences for the whole family. Here’re a few tips to help you open your heart and home to your senior parents.
You may be excited about having your senior parent move in, but that doesn’t mean they will share your enthusiasm. Being asked to move out of their own home can be very upsetting for your parents. So it’s important to be patient with them and allow them the time to adjust to their new environment.
It’s also important to give your parents a space of their own. Before you decide to bring a senior parent into your home, you need to consider if you have enough space for them.
Then, for adult children, offering a senior parent a safe home is a priority. Before moving, you will need to make some changes around your home to help your parents stay safe. For example, install grab bars in the bathroom, repair all stairways, add anti-slip mats to the kitchen and so on. And arm yourself with knowledge like First Aid courses.
In addition, your senior parent will be used to being in charge of their own home and is likely to feel like a bother as they begin to settle in your home. One effective way is to assign them a household responsibility. Ask your parents to look after the dog or cook a meal to make them feel like an active and important part of the family.
1. Who may be the intended readers of the text?A.People moving into their golden years. |
B.People having senior parents to take care of. |
C.People wanting to age in their own homes. |
D.Senior people having safety and health concerns. |
A.Being patient with your parents. |
B.Giving them enough space. |
C.Making sure of their safety. |
D.Assigning them a household responsibility. |
A.To make them feel like a bother. |
B.To make them think themselves useful. |
C.To make them in charge of the family. |
D.To encourage them to exercise actively. |
A.Troubles to live with senior parents. |
B.A good way to age for senior people. |
C.Take your responsibility to adjust yourself. |
D.Open your heart and home to your senior parents. |
5 . How to Stop Spam Calls for Good
If you made a list of the little things that bothered you the most, phone call scams would no doubt be at the top. Telemarketers, or more often, automated robot-callers, have tricks for interrupting you at the worst possible moment.
Fact is that robot-callers are never going to stop trying to reach you. Their schemes bring in hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars annually. And unfortunately, older people are more likely to fall prey to these scams.
Sign up for the National Do Not Call Registry
Your first move: Join the Federal Trade Commission’s National Do Not Call Registry. You can get on the list by calling 1-888-382-1222 from the phone number you want to register.
Use spam-filtering apps and tech
You probably know that a caller who insists you owe money to the IRS or says you’ll be arrested if you don’t settle a debt is a scammer. But your 10-year-old kid and your older parents and grandparents may be tricked. And remember: Knowing how to stop spam calls is just one step toward avoiding scams; don’t forget to explain how to stop spam texts to your loved ones, too.
A.Warn family members |
B.Report to the police at once |
C.Follow these steps to pull the plug on them once and for all. |
D.If you have multiple numbers to input, register them at DoNotCall. gov. |
E.Spam calls can reach you anytime and anywhere when you use your smartphone. |
F.They’re annoying, but that’s not the only reason you should know how to stop spam calls. |
G.The National Do Not Call Registry will prevent a lot of unwanted calls, but it won’t stop all of them. |
A. boom B. enthusiastically C. voiced D. finds E. sharply F. racing G. fortune H. distinctly I. venturing J. deals K. joined |
Eight months ago, Meng Hu, 27, quit her job as a flight attendant in Guangzhou, China. She is now working full-time as a live-streaming host on Taobao.
“I’ve been talking nonstop,” Hu said, laughing. “My throat gets really hoarse. You need to talk a lot, because your mood is contagious (有感染力的). Only when you talk
Hu is part of a rising class of creators in China who are
Even the Chinese government has
Live-stream shopping is a combination of entertainment and e-commerce. Viewers buy goods online from people who show off their latest
Part of the allure(吸引力) of
For people like Hu, the live-stream host in Guangzhou, the ongoing
“Viewers might have doubled, but there’s probably about seven or eight times more new live-streamers now,” she estimated. “So many people like me have
Lots of foreigners don’t understand why so many Chinese people are sorrowful about Yuan Longping’s passing away.
This reminds me
Western scholars’ prediction of China back then was indeed analyzing China’s problems, but they failed
If they had had any knowledge of Yuan who worked devotedly for our country, they wouldn’t have made such pessimistic evaluations. Why did the Chinese people make
With the International Conference on Food Loss and Waste closed on Saturday in Jinan, Shandong Province, the country has sent a signal to
The current world grain production is about 2.8 billion tons a year. Therefore, the loss of only one percentage
In recent years, China
We cannot end hunger
9 . We know that bully (欺凌) happens a lot and that it can make people feel miserable. And school violence happens all the time.
Bully is where a person or a group exercise control over another against their will, often leaving the victim feeling powerless and alone. Bullying can take many forms. Children, young people and adults can instigate bullying and be bullied in schools. Bullying is harmful to all involved, not just the person who is bullied, but to those who do the bullying and those who stand by. It can lead to self-doubt, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, self-harm and sometimes even suicide. Children might bully because they may not have been taught that it is wrong to bully.
How does bullying affect people?
New research has found that more than half of young people in the UK have been bullied. Of those who have been bullied, 58 % said it made them want to miss school, 44 % said it made them avoid social events, and 37 % said it had affected their school work.
What can I do to help?
A.What is bullying? |
B.What is cyberbullying? |
C.They may think that it is just a bit of fun. |
D.You should tell them that they're not alone. |
E.There's no shame or harm in being different. |
F.The study also found a big problem with racism. |
G.There are many things you can do to fight against bullying at school. |
Recently, Chinese people from all walks of life
Our society is becoming increasingly competitive when population outgrows resources. Accordingly,
Netizens now use involution to describe their current conditions, especially in the study of children. Parents feel stressed
Too much pressure is bound to do harm to children physically and mentally. Parents should cool down firstly and relieve their own anxiety, taking