1 . In agricultural, pre-industrial Europe, “you’d want to wake up early, start working with the sunrise, have a break to have the largest meal, and then you’d go back to work,” says Ken Albala, a professor of history at the University of the Pacific. “Later, at 5 or 6, you’d have a smaller supper.”
This comfortable cycle, in which the rhythms of the day helped shape the rhythms of the meals, gave rise to the custom of the large midday meal, eaten with the extended family. “Meals are the foundation of the family,” says Carole Counihan, a professor at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, “so there was a very important interconnection between eating together and strengthening family ties.”
Since industrialization, maintaining such a slow cultural metabolism has been much harder, with the long midday meal shrinking to whatever could be stuffed into a lunch bucket or bought at a food stand. Certainly, there were benefits. Modern techniques for producing and shipping food led to greater variety and quantity, including a dramatic increase in the amount of animal protein and dairy products available, making us stronger than our ancestors.
Yet plenty has been lost too, even in cultures that still live to eat. Take Italy for example. It’s no secret that the Mediterranean diet is healthy, but it was also a joy to prepare and eat. Italians, says Counihan, traditionally began the day with a small meal. The big meal came at around 1 p.m. In between the midday meal and a late, smaller dinner came a small snack. Today, when time zones have less and less meaning, there is little tolerance for offices’ closing for lunch, and worsening traffic in cities means workers can’t make it home and back fast enough anyway. So the formerly small supper after sundown becomes the big meal of the day, the only one at which the family has a chance to get together. “The evening meal carries the full burden that used to be spread over two meals,” says Counihan.
1. What do we learn about people in pre-industrial Europe?A.They had to work from early morning till late at night. |
B.Their life was much more comfortable than that of today. |
C.They were so busy working that they only ate simple meals. |
D.Their daily routine followed the rhythm of the natural cycle. |
A.It enabled families to save a lot of money. |
B.It was characteristic of the agrarian culture. |
C.It brought family members closer to each other. |
D.It was helpful to maintaining a nation’s tradition. |
A.Pace of life. | B.Changes in lifestyle. |
C.Social progress. | D.Evolutionary adaptation. |
A.They were expert at cooking meals. | B.They enjoyed cooking as well as eating. |
C.They ate a big dinner late in the evening. | D.They ate three meals regularly every day. |
The Internet is an
3 . Tourism can be both good and bad. Yes, it brings in money for the local economy and creates jobs for locals, but it may also bring some problems.
One growing problem is tourists who want to prove that they have visited a destination. Tourists have used paint, rocks, or even keys to write on the Luxor Temple in Egypt, the Colosseum in Rome, Stonehenge in the UK, memorial stones at the bottom of Qomolangma, and many, many other places. Thousands of tourist site s are being destroyed by tourists who “love them to death”. I have three words for people like this: please stop it. If you want to leave a mark on the world, do it by changing someone’s life with kindness and love. Pass kindness along to future generations, not destruction.
Another big problem in some places has been tourists disturbing the local people and life. Some tourists wander around and take pictures of local people without asking for their permission. For example, Chiang Mai University in Thailand and Yonsei University in South Korea have great numbers of tourists visiting their campuses and walking through their libraries and other public areas, taking pictures of students, and disturbing their studies. Another example is Sanlitun, a neighbourhood in Beijing, China. Some tourists love to party there late into the night, making it difficult for locals to sleep. I have three words for tourists like this please be considerate. Have fun in a way that does not disturb others.
The number of problems from tourists is endless: walking in large groups without considering others who need to walk by, crossing roads without thinking of local traffic laws, and many more. The only way to solve the problem of the terrible tourist is to make sure that you are not one! Be the best, kindest, most polite tourist possible, Remember, whenever you step outside your country’s borders, you are representing your country to the rest of the world.
1. What does the underlined word “destruction” mean in the second paragraph?A.Breaking. | B.Creation. | C.Construction. | D.Writing. |
A.People travel to different places of the world. |
B.Tourists love to party there late into the night. |
C.Tourists take pictures of local people without asking for their permission. |
D.Tourists disturb the local people and life. |
A.To explain the problem. | B.To suggest a proper solution to the problem. |
C.To introduce the importance of traveling. | D.To call on readers to love their countries. |
A.Tourism Can Be Both Good and Bad. | B.Pass Kindness Along to Future Generations. |
C.Tourists Are Troublemakers. | D.Be a Good Tourist. |
4 . Sharing a bed with a pet at night is a common feature of nighttime routines in the United States. According to a 2021—2022 survey, 43 percent of pet dogs in the United States and 49 percent of pet cats sleep on their owner’s bed. When it comes to the perks of sharing your bed with your favourite furry friend, however, experts are divided.
First, it’s worth noting that the majority of research on the topic of co-sleeping with pets has focused on dogs rather than cats. Mark Fierstein, an internal medicine specialist at NYUL angone Health in New York City, suggests this is because cats may want to play or even purposely wake up their owner. Rabbits or hamsters are also out of the question.
A benefit of sleeping with pets is that the practice may prevent loneliness, Fierstein says. “Often, people who co-sleep with pets report an increased sense of security, companionship, and relaxation,” he notes. “For some people, the dog’s warmth, steady heartbeat, and protective nature can make sleeping with them feel safe and cozy.” This may be especially true of people who are managing trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Leslie Sinn, a psychologist, says according to a survey,60% of PTSD suffers feel calm down if they wake up to see the presence of the dog.
Some research suggests co-sleeping with pets may increase mid-night awakenings for people. “If the owner is a light sleeper, he or she may not do well with a dog or cat in the bedroom,” notes Fierstein. For example, he points out that a dog who snores loudly is not an ideal sleeping mate.
Dogs may also show aggressive behaviour—such as biting. Allowing pets in the bedroom can also expose owners to potential allergens, like pet hair, as well as viruses that cause disease.
1. Which word can replace the underlined word “perks” in the first paragraph?A.disadvantages | B.numbers | C.possibility | D.bonus |
A.A newborn baby. | B.A survivor of an earthquake. |
C.An old man with a heart disease. | D.A young man suffering from lack of sleep. |
A.To relieve post-traumatic stress disorder. | B.To prevent loneliness. |
C.To get a sense of security. | D.To avoid potential allergens. |
A.Objective | B.Skeptical | C.Ambiguous | D.Approving |
5 . In the days before the Internet, critical (批判性的) thinking was the most important skill of well-educated people. But in the digital age, according to Anastasia Kozyreva, a social scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Human Development, an even more important skill is “critical ignoring”.
As the researchers point out, we live in an attention economy where content producers on the Internet compete (竞争) for our attention. They attract us with a lot of emotional and eye-catching stories while providing little useful information, so they can expose (暴露) us to money-making advertisements. Therefore, we are no longer customers but products, and each link we click is a sale of our time and attention. To protect ourselves from this, Kozyreva calls for learning the skill of critical ignoring, in which readers control their information environment on purpose to reduce exposure to false and low-quality information.
According to Kozyreva, critical ignoring includes three strategies. The first is to design our environments, which involves getting rid of the low-quality yet hard-to-resist (抵制) information from around. Successful dieters need to keep unhealthy food out of their homes. Similarly, we need to set up a digital environment where attention-grabbing items are kept out of sight. As with dieting, if one tries to depend on willpower not to click eye-catching “news”, he’ll surely fail. So, it's better to just keep them out of sight in the beginning.
The next is to make a judgement about whether the information is reliable, so that you can be protected from false and misleading information. It can be realized by checking the source in the top news media which is widely considered as being trustworthy.
The last goes by the phrase “do not feed the trolls”. Trolls are actors who spread false and hurtful information online on purpose to cause harm. It may be appealing to respond to them to set the facts straight, but trolls just care about annoying others rather than facts. So, it’s best not to reward their bad behaviour with our attention.
By improving our critical ignoring skills in these ways, we can make the most of the Internet while avoiding being hurt by those who try to control our attention, time, and minds.
1. What is “critical ignoring”?A.The process of spotting and analyzing poor quality data. |
B.The skill of not paying attention to online information. |
C.The ability to analyze information to come to a conclusion. |
D.The art of choosing what information you let into your life. |
A.To discuss the quality of information. | B.To prove the benefits of healthy food. |
C.To show the importance of environments. | D.To explain the effectiveness of willpower. |
A.Expose their intention. | B.Turn a deaf ear to them. |
C.Correct their behaviour. | D.Send hard facts to them. |
A.Importance of critical ignoring in online search. |
B.Ways to practice critical ignoring in the digital age. |
C.Benefits of critical ignoring in the attention economy. |
D.Strategies to improve critical thinking among online users. |
6 . Some pals and I were in the midst of a pinball competition at a bar the other night when the machine kept breaking down. We called over a very busy employee who’s responsible for helping keep the place running. He put everything aside to fix our problematic pinball machine twice.
My pinball wizard didn’t stretch out his hand, but how many times have we run across those payment screens that suggest a 20% tip for being handed a sandwich we ordered?
Plus, tipping is good karma (因果报应). It’s always worth it to tip in unexpected situations- ones that don’t necessarily involve a hint on a payment screen.
So next time, there must be no arguments with my friends when times come to tip.
A.This leads to what’s been called "tipping fatigue (疲劳)” |
B.So, why am I willing to go against the trend and say yes? |
C.I suggested we tip him $10 and split the tip among all of us. |
D.There’s an argument that we should ban tipping altogether. |
E.Guess what happened next with my pinball-machine fixer at the bar? |
F.One dollar or two won’t make or break me, but it can possibly help with their rent. |
G.Should they earn far below the minimum wage, employers must make up the difference. |
7 . Have you ever taken a personality test and found the results to be scarily accurate, checked your horoscope and had everything come true or taken an online quiz that told you precisely what your favorite Disney princess means about you? Well, we certainly have done so too many times, so we decided to do a little investigation into how Internet -quizzes, magazines and horoscope books seem to know us so well.
We discovered that we’ve all been falling victim to the Barnum effect. The Barnum Effect is the phenomenon that occurs when individuals believe that personality descriptions apply specifically to them, despite the fact that the description is actually filled with information that applies to everyone. It was named after P. T. Barnum, a famous 19th century showman, who would famously say, “There’s a fool born every minute.”
Indeed, Barnum proved to be right, as pseudoscience —such as astrology and personality tests — remains popular to this day. The Bamum effect explains why extremely general statements, such as the results of your personality test, seem so specific to you. Don’t believe us? Well, late psychology professor Bertram Forer offered some proof.
In a historic study, Forer conducted a personality test to his students. Forer copied statements such as “You have a great need for other people to like and admire you.” and “You have a tendency to be critical of yourself.” from the newspaper’s horoscope column and gave a test to every student. Forer asked his students to rate the accuracy of the test from one to five, with “one” being the least accurate and “five” being the most accurate. The average rating was 4.26. The universally high ratings from students on the personality test supported the Barnum effect.
One of the most important factors when reproducing this study is to keep the statements as vague as possible, with a mix of mostly positive and some negative content. For example, using the phrase “at times” makes for a powerful Barnum Effect. See “At times you are outgoing and sociable, while at other times you are shy and reserved” who would not agree with that statement?
So, keep in mind that we are not immune to the Barnum effect. Take everything you hear with several grains of salt.
1. What is the purpose of Paragraph 2?A.To present a controversial opinion. | B.To provide an example of an idea. |
C.To offer a solution to a problem. | D.To define the meaning of a term. |
A.Potential application of the Barnum effect. | B.Further explanation of the Barnum effect. |
C.Supporting evidence for the Barnum effect. | D.A reasonable doubt of the research process. |
A.They are so specific. | B.They are unclear. |
C.They are positive. | D.They are believable. |
A.Phenomenon—analysis. | B.Cause—effect. |
C.Problem—solution. | D.Claim—counterclaim. |
8 . Since 1992, people have been talking about “Dunbar’s number,” the supposed upper limit of the number of people with whom a person can maintain stable social relationships. Named for British scientist Robin Dunbar, its value, rounded from 148 to 150, has permeated both professional and popular culture.
The Swedish taxation authority keeps offices under 150 people as a result of it, and the standard facilities of the W. L. Gore and Associates company are based around the concept. Dunbar’s number was cited in the bestselling book Tipping Point, and it also has a fair amount of academic influence.
Despite its fame, Dunbar’s number is probably wrong, according to a new study.
Less well known than the value of Dunbar’s number is how he came up with it. The value of 150 is determined by looking at the ratio(比率) between the size of a certain part of the primate(灵长类动物) brain and the average size of groups they form. These ratios were then applied to data on the human brain, and the average value of roughly 150 relationships was determined.
In the new study, the researchers did similar calculations but with updated information on the size of monkey brains and social networks. When the researchers applied Dunbar’s exact same methods to their new data, they got a 95% confidence interval(置信区间) between roughly 5 and 292 people. This is far too wide a range to be of any use.
Additionally, the researchers noted the fact that human brains often work differently than those of our nearest cousins, as evidenced by our ability to create things. The idea that we would process social information exactly like other primates do is a bold and largely unsupported claim.
So, is there a new Dunbar number? Well, this isn’t the point of this study. The researchers end their paper with: “It is our hope that this study will put an end to the use of ‘Dunbar’s number’ within science and in popular media.”
1. What does the underlined word “permeated” in paragraph 1 mean?A.Well preserved. | B.Deeply affected. |
C.Depended heavily on. | D.Take full advantage of. |
A.By giving examples. | B.By extending definitions. |
C.By drawing comparisons. | D.By making classifications. |
A.The samples were too small to be of any use. |
B.Dunbar’s number has always been the subject of debate. |
C.The calculation leading to Dunbar’s number is too complex. |
D.The ratio from primates could not be carried over to humans. |
A.To replace Dunbar’s number. |
B.To offer Dunbar’s number new evidence. |
C.To stop the spreading of Dunbar’s number. |
D.To find new applications of Dunbar’s number. |
9 . Teacher burnout (倦怠) and student stress may be linked, according to a University of British Columbia study. The study is the first of its kind to examine the connection between teacher burnout and students’ cortisol levels (皮质醇水平), which are a biological indicator of stress.
Researchers collected saliva samples from over 400 elementary school children and tested their cortisol levels. They found that in classrooms in which teachers experienced more burnout, or feelings of emotional exhaustion, students’ cortisol levels were elevated. Higher cortisol levels in elementary school children have been linked to learning difficulties as well as mental health problems.
“This suggests that stress spreading might be taking place in the classroom among students and their teachers,” said Eva Oberle, the study’s lead author. Indeed, the relationship between student stress and teacher burnout is a chicken and egg question. It is unknown what came first - elevated cortisol or teacher burnout. We consider the connection between student and teacher stress a cyclical problem in the classroom.
Oberle said a stressful classroom climate could be a result of inadequate support for teachers, which may impact teachers’ ability to effectively manage their students. A poorly managed classroom can contribute to students’ needs not being met and increasing stress. This could be reflected in elevated cortisol levels in students.
Alternatively, stress could originate from students, who may be more challenging to teach because of increases in anxiety, behavioral problems, or special needs. In this situation, teachers could feel overwhelmed and report higher levels of burnout.
“Our study is a reminder of the systemic issues facing teachers and educators as classroom sizes increase and supports for teachers are cut,” said Oberle.
“It is clear from a number of recent research studies that teaching is one of the most stressful professions, and that teachers need adequate resources and support in their jobs in order to battle burnout and relieve stress in the classroom,” said UBC education professor Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, the study’s co-author and director of HELP. “If we do not support teachers, we risk the collateral damage of students.”
1. What can we learn from paragraphs 4 and 5?A.Students’ behavioral problems contribute to teacher’s higher level of burnout. |
B.Teacher burnout is the cause of the elevated cortisol levels in students. |
C.The connection between students and teacher stress is a cyclical problem. |
D.Students with higher stress level are more likely to have learning difficulties. |
A.Teachers are not well trained to deal with students’ problems |
B.There are more students in each class and less support for teachers |
C.Teachers’ income increases but teaching resources are cut |
D.There is a widening gap between students’ need and teachers’ ability |
A.Connected | B.Critical | C.Necessary | D.Physical |
A.Teacher burnout, avoidable or not? |
B.How to Relieve Stress in the Class? |
C.The Most Stressful Profession in the World. |
D.Students Stress and Teacher Burnout: A chicken and egg question. |
10 . You scroll through Instagram and like every post you see. You read an acquaintance’s story as soon as they post it. You leave a comment on a post or two. Then it hits you: Didn’t you just leave a comment on that person’s post yesterday? And the day before that? And last week?
An Instagram creep is someone who offers unprompted significant attention online to certain individuals they’ve taken an interest in. It is a strategy to send a signal of affection -whether it is to a romantic partner, or a close friend, but it can also be perceived as being too much, too interested and too involved. At worst, it might be seen as being possessive, as the person absolutely has to be the first to comment, to establish his importance in front of others.However, not every Instagram creep has the same intentions, with some lighthearted and innocent. “For example, people who have a higher frequency of being online may have a higher likelihood of seeing the posts quickly, “said Maryanne Fisher, a psychology professor at St.Mary’s University in Canada. “In a way, it could be simply an exposure effect.”
“If you feel like you’re the creeper, there’s a quick way to fix the problem. Resisting the urge to comment or like every post would be helpful,” Fisher said. It’s important to be aware that while you might be doing it to express affection, it can be perceived as being possessive. You should ask yourself what your intention is. What need is getting met by that behavior? If it makes the recipient feel uncomfortable and excessive, that should be attended to. If it’s a pattern and if it’s a “need”, then there might be something more significant going on.
All told, remember that anything you put on the Internet has consequences. If you think you’re being creepy even for a second, take time to separate yourself from it.
1. Who is likely to be an Instagram creep?A.An old man unfamiliar with social media. |
B.A young guy having a preference for a certain brand. |
C.A woman having a tendency to talk online with friends. |
D.An adult who is paying special attention to his friend’s Instagram update. |
A.Ways to fix the problem. |
B.Effects on the recipients. |
C.Possible reasons for being creepy. |
D.Differences between serious and lighthearted creepers. |
A.The person likes the behaviour. |
B.The person wasn’t aware of that. |
C.The person might not feel at ease. |
D.The person might feel like the creeper. |
A.Less is more. |
B.Look before you leap. |
C.Love me,love my dog. |
D.Put the cart before the horse. |