1 . Social media can lead to mental exhaustion (疲惫). And when mentally exhausted, you are more likely to be influenced by a high number of likes on posts - even to the point of clicking on ads for products you don’t need.
As a professor of advertising, I have studied social media behaviors for years. In late 2022, my colleague Eric Haley and I conducted three online studies on Americans aged 18-65 to test how people under various mental loads respond to ads differently.
The control group in each study were given no introductory task- we just had them look at an ad. A second group had to memorize a nine-digit number and then look at the ad. The third group looked through the Internet for 30 seconds and then looked at the ad. Participants randomly saw an ad with a few hundred likes or tens of thousands of likes. After viewing the ad, each participant rated how willing they would be to buy the product, and how much mental effort it took to think about the information.
The group that used the Internet first were the most likely to want to buy the featured product when there were lots of likes or comments, and they also reported using the most mental effort to assess the ad. Researchers refer to this mentally exhausted state as “cognitive (认知的) overload”. Using social media puts them in this state because they are constantly evaluating different types of texts, photos and video posts from so many different people. All of this evaluating leaves them feeling frazzled.
Imagine asking your roommate if they want to get pizza. Under normal conditions, the roommate might consider several factors such as cost, hunger, timing or their schedule. Now imagine asking your roommate the same question while they are on the phone with a sick relative. They no longer have the mental energy to logically consider whether pizza for dinner is a good idea. They might just yell “Yeah, sure!” while running inside to clean their shoes.
By understanding how social media influences them, consumers can be more thoughtful in regulating their use and hopefully will not buy yet another water bottle they don’t need.
1. How did the author conduct the studies?| A．By questionnaire. | B．By interview. | C．Through the Internet. | D．Through observation. |
| A．Excited. | B．Depressed. | C．Annoyed. | D．Tired. |
| A．To further explain cognitive overload. |
| B．To stress the importance of relationships. |
| C．To strongly call on people to eat healthily. |
| D．To remind people not to rely on mobile phones. |
2 . Every one of us may have been hurt by others — either by their words or actions. The best way to deal with the problem is to “forgive and forget”.
“It is well established that learning to forgive others can have positive benefits for one’s physical and mental health,” Saima Noreen, a scientist at the University of St. Andrews, UK, told the Huffington Post.
Recently, Noreen and her research team have found one more reason that you should stick to this principle — forgiving somebody who has hurt you makes it easier for you to forget the unhappy memory, according to their new study.
In the study, researchers asked volunteers to read descriptions of 40 different situations that contained bad actions such as stealing, lying and cheating. Imagining being the victims (受害者) , volunteers then had to decide whether they would be able to forgive. Two weeks later, volunteers took part in a memory test. In the test, they were shown a series of words related to the situations they had read about and then were asked to recall certain ones.
The results showed that people were less likely to remember the details of the unpleasant experiences if they had found forgiveness in their hearts. In contrast, if they hadn’t forgiven the mistake, they could always remember what had happened.
However, forgiving someone who has hurt you is always easier said than done. So Noreen hopes that one day in the near future research will give rise to powerful therapeutic (有疗效的) tools that will enable people to “forgive and forget” more effectively.
1. What have Noreen and her team found recently?| A．They have found no reason to hurt other people. |
| B．A memory test is necessary to help people forgive. |
| C．An unpleasant experience can be easily forgotten. |
| D．Forgiving helps us to forget unhappy memories. |
a. Take a memory test. b. Imagine being a victim.
c. Decide whether to forgive or not. d. Read descriptions of 40 different situations.
| A．d→b→a→c | B．d→b→c→a | C．a→b→d→c | D．a→d→b→c |
| A．Remember. | B．Translate. | C．Choose. | D．Explain. |
| A．It’s impossible to forgive someone. | B．Noreen has finished her research report. |
| C．There may be some therapeutic tools soon. | D．The therapeutic tools have been invented. |
3 . Facebook Is a Big Waster
During the first decade of the 21st century, a popular and new word has come into our vocabulary—Facebook. This is the most popular social networking website on the Internet. The main idea of Facebook is that you can keep in touch with all your friends around the world who have Facebook. You can send messages to your friend’s electronic wall, put up a status saying something like “Going to the mall, I need to get a new pair of shoes” or “it’s finally the weekend!”
In spite of the benefit it does on common people, it is true that this social network is a big waster. There are about 350 million active users on this website and 67% of them are between the ages of 13-25. More than 35 million users update their status every day.
The highest age group who use Facebook are teenagers. Most of them keep the website running whenever they are using the computer. if they aren’t in school or when they aren’t asleep. Facebook is just changing the new generation of youngsters unconsciously. The teenage life is one of the most important stages of life.
Facebook is also where people can see the gossip among their friends, virtual arguments, relationship status and updates, who is in whose “top friends”, you can become fan of anything, join groups, post pictures and videos, play childish games, invite friends to parties or events and a lot more. Generally, all these would just disturb (扰乱；妨碍) people into living life to the fullest. It’s not just teens who become addicted, even grown-ups do. An average person spends about 55 minutes on Facebook.
| A．And 2.5 billion photos are added each month. |
| B．Wasting it on Facebook is not encouraging in any way. |
| C．As a result, the average Facebook users have 130 friends who they share links with. |
| D．This statistic isn’t that bad but some people spend about 3-5 hours. |
| E．It is time people should take a break from Facebook once in a while. |
4 . As computers become all the more popular in China, Chinese people are increasingly relying on computer keyboards to input Chinese characters. But if they use the computer too much, they may end up forgetting the exact strokes（笔画） of each Chinese character when writing on paper. Experts suggest people, especially students, write by hand more.
Do you write by hand more or type more? In Beijing, students start using a computer as early as primary school. And computer dependence is more widespread among university students. Almost all their assignments and essays are typed on a computer.
All the students interviewed say they usually use a computer.
It’s faster and easier to correct if using a computer. And that’s why computers are being applied more and more often to modern education. But when people are taking stock in computers increasingly, problems appear.
“When I’m writing with a pen, I find I often can’t remember how to write a character, though I feel I’m familiar with it.”
“I’m not in the mood to write when faced with a pen and paper.”
Many students don’t feel this is something to worry about. Now that it’s more convenient and efficient to write on a computer, why bother to handwrite?
Many educators think differently. Shi Liwei, the headmaster of a famous primary school in the capital said, “Chinese characters enjoy both practical and aesthetic（审美的） value. But those characters typed with computer keyboards only keep their practical value. All the artistic beauty of the characters is lost. And handwriting contains the writer’s emotion. Through one’s handwriting, people can get to know one’s thinking and personality. Beautiful writing will give people a better first impression of them.”
To encourage students to handwrite more, many primary schools in Beijing have made writing classes compulsory（必修的） and in universities, some professors are asking students to turn in their homework and essays written by hand.
1. Which of the following can best serve as the title of the passage?| A．To Type or To Handwrite |
| B．The Value of Chinese Characters |
| C．The Importance of Handwriting and Typing |
| D．Writing by Computer Will Replace Writing by Hand |
| A．Students think typing is more efficient. |
| B．Handwriting contains the writer’s emotion. |
| C．A lot of Chinese people don’t write Chinese characters. |
| D．The writer’s thinking and personality are shown in his or her handwriting. |
| A．getting bored with | B．getting dependent on |
| C．becoming crazy about | D．becoming afraid of |
| A．writing by hand will give way to typing by computer one day |
| B．the typed article better expresses one’s emotion and quality |
| C．more and more students will give up writing on a computer |
| D．more and more students will pay attention to handwriting |
In America,
6 . Tiredness May Lead to Snacking
Staying up late doing homework is always tiring. Perhaps when we are tired, we feel the need to eat unhealthy snack food. Recently scientists have been investigating tiredness and snack food.
According to a study in the Journal of Neuroscience, people are more likely to crave snacks when they don’t get enough sleep.
For the study, researchers from University of Cologne in Germany gave the same dinner to 32 healthy men aged between 19 and 33. Half of the men were then sent home to bed, and the other half were kept aware in the laboratory all night.
The next morning, the participants were asked to consider how much they would be willing to pay for snack food items shown to them in pictures.
According to the researchers, all were similarly hungry in the morning, and had similar levels of most hormones and blood sugar.
However, brain scans showed that when the sleep-deprived participants looked at the pictures of junk food, they released more of the “hunger hormone”. This is the hormone responsible for increasing the appetite, and making us consume more.
Asked about how much they would pay for snacks, “participants with sleep deprivation were more willing to overspend on food items than those with a good night’s sleep,” researchers said.
Researchers also observed that among the people who hadn’t slept, there was greater activity in the part of the brain where food rewards are processed.
Scientists think that sleep-deprived people experience changes to the hunger hormone and the brain’s reward system that leads to a stronger desire to eat snacks with high fat and calories.
“This brings us a little closer to understanding the mechanism behind how sleep deprivation changes food valuation,” Professor Jan Peters, a co-author of the study from the University of Cologne, told The Independent.
Kill the cravingListen to some soft music to relieve your tiredness.
Do some slight exercise for a short time when you’re tired.
Eat yogurt or fruits to replace snacks with high fat and calories.
Distance yourself from the craving.
1. People are more likely to crave snacks if they don’t get enough sleep because they ______.| A．have high levels of most hormones and blood sugar |
| B．release more of the “hunger hormone”, making them consumer more |
| C．are extremely hungry in the morning |
| D．are attracted by the snack food items in the pictures |
| A．Hunger hormone can increase people’s appetite and let them eat more food. |
| B．Participants without sleep deprivation may spend less on food items. |
| C．The brain’s reward system will lead to craving snack food. |
| D．Greater activity will appear in certain part of the brain among those who sleep well. |
| A．Listening to Rock & Roll. | B．Walking out for while. |
| C．Ordering a McDonald’s Big Mac. | D．Drinking black coffee. |
7 . In early 2023, OpenAI’s ChatGPT brought a new age—one in which artificial intelligence (AI) went from a dream to an issue for workers. Many workers may have believed that burger-flipping (翻汉堡包的) robots in fast food restaurants would be the first to be replaced by AI tools. Yet the light-speed use of AI tools may now mean knowledge-work jobs that were long considered “safe” could be endangered even faster than workers expected.
Robots that act like AI coworkers are on the way—and in some cases, they’re already here. In early December 2023, Artisan AI—a startup founded by Jaspar Carmichae-Jack—showed its first “Artisan”, an AI-powered digital worker called “Ava” who will work as a saleswoman. “She can make suggestions, edit campaigns, join meetings and take notes,” Carmichael-Jack says. “Our goal is to have Artisans working alongside humans directly and have cohesion (凝聚力), and we want the boring work to be moved onto the Artisan, which doesn’t have feelings about whether something is boring or difficult.”
Although AI technology is already shaking the workforce, “we’re still at the beginning” when it comes to AI fully combined into the workplace, says Erik Brynjolfsson, a Stanford University professor. He says as AI plays a more important role in economical fields, it should increase output and money for businesses. The question, however, is what the human toll of that growth will be, particularly in terms of job losses.
Whether the workers are reduced by AI technologies will be a choice. Workers will need to have the right to decide how AI is introduced and used in some industries. One example of this is the agreement between the Screen Actors Guild and Hollywood studios that sets limits on the use of AI in film and television production. The question is whether other industries will follow the example to protect their workers’ living.
1. What can be learned about knowledge workers?| A．They have experienced greater creativity. | B．They have used the AI at the speed of light. |
| C．They may be at the risk of replacement by AI. | D．They may have a safer working environment. |
| A．They will assist salesmen in their daily work. | B．They will become members of a human team. |
| C．They will assess the difficulty level of a task. | D．They will make boring work more interesting. |
| A．Interest. | B．Contribution. | C．Action. | D．Suffering. |
| A．AI should be forbidden in movies and television production. |
| B．Workers should have a say when using AI in some industries. |
| C．Industries should work hard to protect their workers’ living. |
| D．AI-related agreements should be reached as soon as possible. |
8 . Twelve-year-old Catherine has a lot of friends—632, actually, if you count up her online friends. And she spends a lot of time with them.
But is it possible that Catherine’s online friendships could be making her lonely? That’s what some experts believe. Connecting online is a great way to stay in touch, they say. However, some experts worry that many kids are so busy connecting online that they might be missing out on true friendships.
Could this be true? During your parents’ childhoods, connecting with friends usually meant spending time with them in the flesh. Kids played Scrabble around a table, not words with friends on their phones. When friends missed each other, they picked up the telephone. Friends might even write letters to each other.
Today, most communication takes place online. A typical teen sends 2,000 texts a month and spends more than 44 hours per week in front of a screen. Much of this time is spent on social media platform.
In fact, in many ways, online communication can make friendships stronger. “There’s definitely a positive influence. Kids can stay in constant contact, which means they can share more of their feelings with each other,” says Katie Davis, co-author of The App Generation.
Other experts, however, warn that too much online communication can get in the way of forming deep friendships. “If we are constantly checking in with our virtual world, we will have little time for our real-world friendships,” says Larry Rosen, a professor at California State University. Rosen also worries that today’s kids might mistake the “friends” on the social media for true friends in life. However, in tough times, you don’t need anyone to like your picture or share your blogs. You need someone who will keep your secrets and hold your hand. You would like to talk face to face.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To tell about true friends. | B．To start a discussion. |
| C．To encourage online friendships. | D．To summarize(总结) the text. |
| A．In any case. | B．In public. | C．In person. | D．In advance. |
| A．Unconcerned. | B．Positive. | C．Worried. | D．Confused. |
| A．Teenagers need to focus on real-world friendships. | B．It’s easier to develop friendships in real life. |
| C．It’s wise to turn to friends online. | D．Social media help people stay closely connected. |
9 . It keeps what’s inside a mystery until you open it. There are usually toys in mystery boxes; but now, food has been added to the list.
Recently, the trend of “leftover mystery boxes” has become popular in many Chinese cities such as Beijing, Nanjing and Chengdu. Stores pack boxes full of unsold food or food nearing its expiration date at low prices.
“We make the leftover mystery boxes available to buy at the end of the day,” Wu Tian, a staff member at a convenience chain store in Beijing, told China Daily. The food, such as milk, bread and sandwiches, is sold at about half the original price and is usually sold out quickly. Many bakeries have also joined the “mystery box club”.
Due to their low price, leftover mystery boxes “are very promising as a new business mode” and can attract more consumers, Hong Yong, an expert at the Ministry of Commerce, told China Daily. “In addition, they follow the concept of zero-waste and environmental protection.”
In 2021, the total amount of food waste in China reached 160 million tons, with an average of 93 grams per meal per person, China Food Newspaper reported. Since the passage of China’s Anti-Food Waste Law in April 2021, people’s awareness of food waste reduction has increased. Leftover mystery boxes can be an effective way for people to deal with food waste.
However, some people have raised food security concerns. If consumers buy a food mystery box for their breakfast the next morning, even if the food looks fine at the moment, it may have gone bad overnight. Moreover, food made in the store, such as bread, isn’t labeled with the production date in many cases, according to China Consumer News. If a consumer unpacks a mystery box and discovers that the food tastes bad or has already passed the last date, then it will be difficult for them to protect their rights, such as getting money back.
Only by considering both food safety and consumer rights can mystery blind boxes achieve a win-win situation for both buyers and sellers, commented China Youth Daily.
1. What leads to the rise of the trend of “leftover mystery boxes”?| A．It offers customers lower prices for those unsold food. |
| B．Stores make the leftover mystery boxes available at night. |
| C．People feel like such food as milk and bread more attractive. |
| D．It goes against the concept of zero-waste and environmental protection. |
| A．purchasing | B．producing | C．ending | D．selling |
| A．Worldwide starvation. | B．Environmental harm. | C．Energy shortage. | D．Moral decline. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Disapproving. | C．Doubtful. | D．Objective. |
10 . Every year, some 2.3 million women and men around the world died from work-related accidents or diseases — that’s more than 8, 000 deaths every single day — and at least 402 million people suffer from non-fatal occupational injuries. The number is enormous in terms of personal tragedy and hardship. And it comes with a huge economic loss. It is estimated that occupational accidents and diseases lead to a 5.4 percent loss of annual global GDP.
A safe and healthy working environment is so important that in June 2022 the ILO (International Labor Organization) took a historic step when it added a safe and healthy working environment to its Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
Why does this matter? It matters because occupational safety and health can now no longer be viewed as an optional extra. All of the ILO’s 186 member states are now required to respect, promote and achieve a safe and healthy working environment as a fundamental principle and right at work.
This is significant for several reasons. First, it recognizes that every worker has the right to be protected from dangers and risks that can cause injury, illness or death in the workplace.
By making occupational safety and health (OSH) a fundamental right, the ILO is sending a clear message to governments and employers of all countries that they must take responsibility for providing a safe and healthy working environment for all workers.
When workers feel safe and healthy in their workplace, they are likely to be more productive and efficient. This can benefit workers, employers as well as the economy. Conversely, when workers are injured or become ill due to workplace dangers, it can have a significantly negative impact on productivity and economic growth.
A safe and healthy working environment is now a fundamental right for each and every worker. Governments, employers, trade unions as well as companies must work together to make this right a reality.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To draw a conclusion. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To warn us of the danger at work. | D．To call for the need of safety environment. |
| A．It means a basic right to the ILO. | B．It means life and death to employers. |
| C．It means a fundamental obligation to workers. | D．It means economic growth to the government. |
| A．Consequently. | B．Contrarily. | C．Conventionally. | D．Commonly. |
| A．The joint efforts by the four sides. | B．The potential improvements to make. |
| C．The history of workers’ sufferings. | D．The measures workers take to get protected. |
