The buzzwords (时髦术语) “brittle college students” have gone viral on the Internet recently among mounting concerns over
Such comments have caused heated discussions over the declining physical
“These young people were mainly diagnosed (诊断) with trauma, abdominal pain, chest tightness, hyperventilation, acute alcoholism, and cholecystitis. Most cases were caused by
A report pointed out that unhealthy lifestyle is common
下图反映的是网络时代所出现的一种问题，有些孩子沉溺于网上交流而忽视了与父母的沟通。请你根据对该漫画的理解用英语写一篇短文。该文应包含以下要点：
1.你对此现象的看法。
2.我们该如何主动和父母亲沟通。
3.文中不得出现任何个人信息。
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3 . We often share images or thoughts on social networks. Now, researchers at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) have developed an algorithm (算法) that can analyse the content people post online.
According to William Glasser’s Choice Theory, there are five basic needs: Survival, Power, Freedom, Belonging and Fun. “These needs even have an influence on the images we choose to upload to our Instagram page,” explained Mohammad Mahdi Dehshibi, a researcher at the UOC.
The research team has spent two years working on a deep-learning model that identifies the five needs described by Glasser. For the study, which has been published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, the researchers analyzed 86 Instagram profiles, in both Spanish and Persian (波斯语), and developed an algorithm to identify the content of the images and categorize textual content by assigning different labels.
Glasser’s theory argues that each choice users make on social media does not respond to just one basic need — the multi-label approach of this study helps to clear it up. Dehshibi uses an example to explain this: “Imagine that a cyclist is riding up a mountain, and at the top, he can choose between sharing a selfie (自拍照) and a group photo. If he chooses the selfie, we perceive a need for Power, but if he chooses the other option, we can conclude that the person is not only looking for Fun but also a way to satisfy his need for Belonging.”
“Studying data from social networks that belong to non-English-speaking users could help build inclusive and diverse tools and models for addressing mental health problems in people with diverse cultural backgrounds,” Dehshibi adds.
The research team believe that their study can help improve preventive measures, ranging from identification to improved treatment when a person has been diagnosed (诊断) with a mental health disorder.
Back in 2019, University of Vermont researchers developed an artificial-intelligence-based system that can detect signs of anxiety in the speech patterns of young children. Meanwhile, computer scientists from the University of Alberta, Canada, have developed algorithms that can detect and identify depression through people’s voices.
1. What can the algorithm be used to do?| A．Introducing William Glasser’s Choice Theory. |
| B．Creating different databases for the research team. |
| C．Identifying users’ basic needs from the content they share online. |
| D．Giving people a tool to post images or thoughts on social networks. |
| A．By providing data. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By quoting sayings. | D．By giving examples. |
| A．It can suggest ways to improve social networks. |
| B．It is useful in handling mental health problems. |
| C．It is helpful in changing online users’ bad habits. |
| D．It can link people with diverse cultural backgrounds together. |
| A．Summarize the previous paragraphs. | B．Provide some advice for the readers. |
| C．Add some background information. | D．Introduce a new topic for discussion. |
4 . A worldwide shift from fossil fuel-powered cars to electric vehicles (EV) could significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that humans emit to the atmosphere. But the vehicle electrification can also shift some pollution to communities already suffering under higher economic, health and environmental burdens, researchers warn.
California is seeking to reduce its carbon footprint and has made great increases in the promotion of electric vehicle purchases. One tool the state has launched is the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, or CVRP, which offers consumers money back for the purchase of new EVs.
Now, an analysis of the CVRP’s impact on the state’s air quality from 2010 to 2021 reveals both good and bad news, researchers report May 3 in PLOS Climate.
The good news is that the CVRP is responsible for reducing the amount of the state’s overall CO2 emissions, reducing them by about 560,000 tons per year on average, says environmental scientist Jaye Mejia-Duwan at the University of California. In 2020, transportation in California produced about 160 million tons of CO2, about 40 percent of the total emitted by the state that year.
The bad news is that the most disadvantaged communities in the state didn’t see the same overall improvement in air quality. Those communities didn’t have the same decreases in CO2 — and in fact saw an increase in one type of air pollution, tiny particulates (颗粒) known as PM2.5. “These particulates are small enough to go deep into the lungs, increasing the risk of cancer, heart problems and cognitive decline,” Mejia-Duwan says.
“Electric vehicles are often referred to as ‘zero-emission vehicles,’ but in fact, they’re only as clean as the underlying electric grid (电网) from which the energy is sourced,” Mejia-Duwan says. EVs tend to be relatively heavy due to their batteries. And “heavier vehicles can produce more particulate matter than equally sized fossil fuel-powered cars, due to brake, tire or road wear,” Mejia-Duwan says.
1. California launched CVRP to ________.| A．save money for consumers | B．encourage the purchase of EVs |
| C．promote selling traditional cars | D．add to the profit of car industry |
| A．The seriousness of CO2 emissions. | B．The increasing popularity of EVs. |
| C．The present situation of environment. | D．The positive effect of CVRP. |
| A．Fuel-powered cars are relatively environment friendly. |
| B．There are more EVs in disadvantaged communities. |
| C．Electric vehicles can reduce the amount of emission. |
| D．Heavier vehicles do less damage to the environment. |
| A．Objective. | B．Supportive. | C．Opposed. | D．Indifferent. |
5 . Farming is destroying the planet, but there could be a much more environmentally friendly way to feed ourselves: using renewable energy to turn carbon dioxide into food. “This is becoming a reality,” says Pasi Vainikka at Solar Foods, a company that is building the first commercial-scale factory that will be able to make food directly from CO2.
There can be no doubt that immediate attention to find greener ways to grow food is required. Conventional agriculture, including organic farming, causes damage to the environment in many ways. It requires a lot of land, leading to habitat loss and deforestation. It is also the source of a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and releases other pollutants. It isn’t very efficient, either. Crops typically transform less than 1 percent of light energy into usable biomass (生物量).
Instead, Solar Foods plans to avoid photosynthesis (光合作用) altogether, and grow bacteria that use hydrogen as their source of energy. At the factory, renewable electricity will be used to split water to produce hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen will be added to large containers, where the bacteria grow, along with CO2 and ammonia (氨气). The end result will be a yellow powder called Solein.
Solein is made of bacterial cells and is up to 70 percent protein. It can be used as an ingredient in all kinds of foods. “We are aiming at replacing animal-sourced proteins, which we think have the highest environmental impact,” says Vainikka.
Compared with plant crops, Solein will use 100 times less water per kilogram of protein produced, 20 times less land and emit a fifth as much CO2, according to Solar Foods. There are other benefits, too: factories could be situated anywhere in the world and production won’t be affected by weather conditions.
“With Solar Foods and other companies scaling up their systems, this is truly beginning a new era of agriculture,” says Dorian Leger at Connectomix Bio in Germany. “I think these trends are exciting and will help bend the carbon curve as well as lead to improved global food supply security.”
1. What is the author’s purpose in mentioning conventional agriculture in paragraph 2?| A．To demonstrate its influence on crops. |
| B．To compare different farming methods. |
| C．To provide an example of agricultural types. |
| D．To highlight the urgent need for alternatives. |
| A．Its storage condition. | B．Its production process. |
| C．Its ingredient materials. | D．Its investment potential. |
| A．it is protein-rich |
| B．it is resource-efficient |
| C．its production is weather sensitive |
| D．its production is location-independent |
| A．The prospect of Solein remains to be seen, |
| B．Solein can help achieve global food safely. |
| C．Solein will dominate the agricultural development. |
| D．The use of Solein may help reduce carbon emissions. |
6 . Mu Sa, a livestream host of the Hui ethnic group from Zhongning, Ningxi a Hui autonomous region, demonstrated how the Internet had transformed many young unemployed people into useful talents contributing to society.
After graduating from university majoring in sociology, Mu worked as an office clerk in Shanghai, a marketing assistant in Beijing and a data analyst in Hangzhou. Each time he struggled to realize his dream in big cities. Mu returned home at 25 after losing his job during the COVID-19 pandemic in November 2021.
However, he was not overcome by his failures and quickly lifted himself up. Mu decided to pick up his cell phone and begin creating short videos about local people's daily lives at home and uploading them online.
A video clip showing his mother cooking local food turned out to be a surprise hit. Even his mother was shocked that so many viewers, who commented that the video aroused memories of their own moms and hometowns, could be interested in a daily routine.
Mu said it was the success of this video clip that inspired him to carry on. He gradually found that village-related content was popular among his followers. “The more local the content, the more universal its appeal is,” he said. Mu started promoting local specialties on his account on April 1 last year, which turned out to be another success.
Ma Rui, a middle school classmate of Mu's, also posted about local life on his social media, which had 150,000 followers. He helped Mu with framing, composition, transitions and music.
Apart from his rural angle, Mu also attributed the popularity of his short videos to the empathetic effects they produced in the viewers, particularly young people. “The uncertainty of the future often makes young people feel confused to varying degrees,” he said. “I gave my answer to the confusion with my own practical actions: There is not a uniform norm of life for young people, including college graduates. Dreams will lead everyone to where they should go.”
1. What is the direct reason for Mu Sa to start creating short videos?| A．His strong interest in sociological major. | B．His unemployment due to the pandemic. |
| C．The popularity of village-related content. | D．The success of a video clip about his mother. |
| A．By shooting the videos for him. | B．By producing music for the videos. |
| C．By promoting the videos on social media. | D．By providing assistance in making videos. |
| A．There is no regular formula for success. |
| B．Short videos should be centered on rural life. |
| C．Influencers should show pity for the viewers. |
| D．The young are supposed to experience hardship. |
| A．Assistance from friends ensured success | B．Videos about farmers gained popularity |
| C．An unemployed man became a local hit | D．A live streamer turned failure into success |
7 . Of the endless troubles that come with being driven from one’s home country, losing educational certificates may seem small. But it isn’t. Refugees who settle in other countries often find themselves unable to continue on their previous career path due to a new set of employer standards or skills requirements. To solve this problem, the U.S. State Department is posing a solution: online learning.
The State Department will announce a partnership with an online education platform called Coursera. The platform will allow refugees worldwide to take thousands of online courses for free. “Coursera for Refugees” will be available for any non-profit group that supports refugees in any country, as well as individual refugees. They can apply for fully funded access to Coursera’s course catalog, which means they can take all of the platform’s classes and obtain professional certificates for free. The platform currently offers professor-led lectures on a broad range of topics, from data science to fashion design.
As the world migrant crisis worsens, employment is becoming a global concern. The new program aims to aid refugees by offering “important kills that will help them in the global economy,” Evan Ryan, U. S. assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, said on a press call last week. “What we don’t want to do is not act,” added Coursera chief operations officer Lila Ibrahim.
The idea isn’t without problems. For one, starting a new career path isn’t as simple as watching a few videos and obtaining an online certificate; even those looking to continue previous careers can’t simply rely on an online lecture to get them up-to-date on standards, policies, and practices. For another, most of the classes on Coursera are in English, and though there are plans to add translations, language barriers can be a big problem. Then there are the questions over the value of massive open online courses (MOOCs) themselves — both for refugees and for average learners.
But it’s still early days and there are signs of hope. In 2015, a joint study found 72% of people taking the MOOCs saw career benefits afterwards.
1. Why is the US State Department launching an online learning program for refugees?| A．To enable them to settle down in host countries. |
| B．To help them to meet new employment standards. |
| C．To offer them a platform to pursue advanced degree. |
| D．To allow them to learn as many job skills as possible. |
| A．It supplies refugees with many job opportunities. |
| B．It offers free online data services for all refugees. |
| C．It allows refugees to obtain degrees in various fields. |
| D．It gives refugees a wide range of courses free of charge. |
| A．Increased instability. | B．More deaths of refugees. |
| C．Difficulty in getting a job. | D．Worsening economic crisis. |
| A．Cultural environment. | B．Lack of language skills. |
| C．Changed academic requirements. | D．Difference in teaching platforms. |
8 . From AI-made jokes to Harry Potter fashion videos, AI can be used to make funny stuff. But can it be as funny as a human? And if it can, does it present a danger to comedy writers in the future? That’s something performers have been looking at in this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, running from Aug. 4 to Aug. 28.
Anyone can put on a show at the Fringe, and this year even robots were getting in on the act. One of Fringe’s big shows used a small robot to come up with jokes from audiences’ suggestions, which were then performed by humans. The results could be very funny, but sometimes they weren’t funny at all. That was part of the point, explained Piotr Mirowski, the show’s co-maker. “We do not use humans to ‘show off’ AI; instead, we use AI ‘to show’ its limitations, to showcase human creativity on the stage,” said Mirowski, according to The Guardian.
Comedian Pierre Novellie said that it will take a long time for AI to get good at creating comedy. “Comedy is the last thing that AI is going to get near,” Pierre told Sky News. “Even normal human comedians struggle to ‘tune’ their jokes ‘for’ the right crowd at the right time, every time. But that’s what’s interesting about stand-up (独角喜剧) and fun.”
But Peter Bazely, a performer at the Fringe, said he’s using AI to make jokes for him because he’s out of ideas. One of Bazely’s shows had him playing a supporting role to “an entirely computer-generated comedian” called AI Jesus.
The Fringe review website, Chortle, talked about today’s AI concerns: “In a world where artists are worried that AI could end up doing their jobs for them, Bazely is said to be praying this one will do exactly that.”
The reasons for companies wanting to use AI are certainly understandable, but the dangers they present to many people’s jobs are becoming more and more real, and that’s not very funny. In May, leaders in the AI industry signed a document warning that AI could present an extinction-level danger and “should be a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war”.
1. What does the underlined “That” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Performing jokes made by robots. | B．Robots’ jokes are very popular. |
| C．Robots’ jokes sometimes are not fun. | D．Using humans to show off AI. |
| A．AI limits the creativity of humans. |
| B．It is not easy for AI to replace comedians. |
| C．AI responds well to audiences’ suggestions. |
| D．The audience of comedy is hard to appeal to. |
| A．He has got difficulty in making comedies. |
| B．He doesn’t want to play supporting roles any more. |
| C．He believes AI Jesus won’t replace human comedians. |
| D．He thinks jokes made by AI can make his shows popular. |
| A．To promote the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. |
| B．To display the joys and sorrows of comedians. |
| C．To warn the public of the existing danger of AI |
| D．To raise public concern for the possible threat of AI. |
9 . In 2022, campaign group Fashion Revolution Chelsea dye a garden for its Chelsea Flower Show presentation. An ancient craft, natural dyeing is a practice whose time has come again, with hand tie-dyed fashion also making a comeback in recent years.
The revival has been encouraged by Covid lockdowns, “which allowed people to explore the craft at home, says natural-dyeing enthusiast and teacher Susan Dye. It’s unlikely, though, that the practice would have caught on in quite the same way if not for a continually growing discomfort about fashion’s heavy footprint. From carbon emissions to animal cruelty, fashion is under considerable inspection. “Put it this way, 97% of dyes used in the industry are petrochemically (石油化学产品) based,” says sustainable fashion consultant Jackie Andrews, who helped advise the UN Ethical Fashion Initiative. We’ve got net zero targets which mean we’re going to have to remove all those petrochemicals from the manufacturing cycle.
Fashion is a huge polluter. According to the UN Environment Program, the industry is responsible for up to one-fifth of all industrial water pollution—due to the fact that most clothes today are produced in poorer countries where regulation is weak and enforcement weaker. Waste water is dumped directly into rivers and streams, poisoning the land as well as the water sources of people and animals who rely on them.
It’s easy to see why someone who cares about people, planet and animals, as well as clothes, might turn to natural plant dyeing. From the beauty of the raw materials—often wild plants-to the property of only bonding with natural fiber like cotton and linen (亚麻布) from the minor footprint of recycling old clothing that has grayed or faded over time to the vibrant and long-lasting dyeing results, plant dyeing feels like a quiet act of rebellion. This is why, while beginners start with simply changing their clothes’ color, new worlds open. Many of today’s natural dyers grow their own dye plants, run local community workshops, and advocate for change in industrialized fashion systems and beyond.
1. What is the main reason for the growing discomfort mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．The adoption of petrochemical-based dyes |
| B．The disturbing consequences of the fashion industry. |
| C．The fashion industry’s focus on luxurious designs. |
| D．The challenging net zero targets to be achieved. |
| A．By making a comparison. | B．By listing numbers |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By introducing a new topic |
| A．A protest against turning to natural fiber. |
| B．An objection to recycling old clothing |
| C．A resistance to vibrant colors in natural dyeing |
| D．A struggle for a sustainable fashion industry |
| A．The Environmental Impact of Natural Dyeing |
| B．The Return of Natural Dyeing with Ethical Appeal |
| C．Fashion Revolution’s Dye Garden Presentation |
| D．The Petrochemical Dye Industry and Its Challenges |
10 . German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed concerns that growing Chinese competition is a threat to the local automotive industry, while welcoming Chinese carmakers to Europe’s largest auto show, IAA Mobility 2023, in Munich.
The six-day event officially opened on Tuesday. Scholz said increased competition from China was good for the German auto industry. “Fair competition stimulates business. It is in the interest of consumers,” he said, “as Chinese electric vehicle companies show eased several new fully electric models, out shining some German automotive giants.” Competition should stimulate us on, not scare us.
“The countries that have achieved great prosperity in the course of globalization, the workers there, have no less right and no less claim to the opportunities of modernity than we do,” Scholz said of China.
“In the 1980s, it was said (that) Japanese cars would overrun the market. Twenty years later, it was cars made in South Korea and now supposedly Chinese electric cars,” Scholz, who wore a black eye patch due to an injury from a jogging accident on Saturday, said.
The German chancellor also expressed confidence in his country’s strengths. “There is no question about the international competitiveness of Germany as a car country,” he said, adding that “Germany is still the linchpin of the auto industry and will remain so.”
Jun Jin, an auto industry expert, said the international market provides great opportunities for Chinese EV (电动汽车) makers, given their strength in technology and costs. “But this does not simply mean repeating their China success story; they need to succeed by adopting local practices,” Jun told China Daily.
Chinese companies, he said, still count on exports and have a long way to go before manufacturing vehicles overseas, arranging global supply chains and improving services for local customers.
1. How did Scholz view increased competition from China in auto industry?| A．Scholz thought that Chinese competition is not a threat to the local auto industry. |
| B．Scholz was not concerned about the competition from China in auto industry |
| C．Scholz thought increased competition was harmful to the German auto industry. |
| D．Scholz thought that consumers of auto industry would be interested in the competition. |
| A．Developing countries has no right to achieve modernity. |
| B．China has the equal right and claim to seek modernity. |
| C．The workers in German has more opportunities than others. |
| D．The course of globalization will favor developed countries more. |
| A．serious problem | B．noticeable weakness | C．angry consumer | D．key role |
| A．Chinese EV makers has no advantage in technology in international market. |
| B．Chinese EV makers should adopt local practices in international market. |
| C．Chinese companies still have a long way to go in manufacturing vehicles. |
| D．Chinese companies is good at arranging global supply chains and services. |
