修改时间:2024-07-13 浏览次数:286 类型:期末考试
Children moving from primary to secondary school are ill-equipped to deal with the booming of social media, as it is playing an increasingly important role in their lives, and is exposing them to significant emotional risks, according to a recent report by the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England.
The report shows that many children in year 7 – the first year of secondary school, almost everyone in the class will have a phone and be active on social media – feel under pressure to be constantly connected.
They kind of (worry) about their online image, particularly when they start to follow celebrities on Instagram and other platforms. They are also upset about "sharenting" – when parents post pictures of them on social media without (permit) – and show the concern their parents won't listen if they ask them to take pictures down.
The report, based on group interviews with 8- to 12-year-olds, shows that most social media sites have an official age limit of 13, an (estimate) 75% of 10- to 12-year-olds will have a social media account.
Some children are almost addicted to "likes", the report says. Aaron, an 11-year-old in year 7, told researchers, "If I got 150 likes, I'd be like, that's pretty cool, it means they like you." Some children described feeling (confident) than those they follow on social media. Aimee, also 11, said, " (compare) yourself with them, you might feel devalued because you're not very pretty."
Children's Commissioner for England Anne Longfield is calling on parents and teachers to do more to prepare children for the emotional impact of social media as they get older. "What a child has learnt at primary school does not guarantee he can protect from the risks that social media will present."
"It means a bigger role for schools in making sure children (prepare) for the emotional demands of social media. And it means social media companies are supposed to assume more responsibilities." Longfield said.
A. similarly B. potential C. restricting D. sense E. evidenced F. influential G. crowned H. fairly I. emerging J. terms K. contexts |
Cambridge Dictionary's Word of the Year 2020
Quarantine has been named Word of the Year 2020 by Cambridge Dictionary, a website where editors use data from the website, blogs, and social media to identify and prioritize new additions. On the New Words Blog, new additions are posted weekly for readers to cast their votes on whether they feel these words should be added. Surprisingly, "Quarantine" has defeated "lockdown" and "pandemic" to be Word of the Year 2020 after data showed it to be one of the most highly searched for on the Cambridge Dictionary.
The Cambridge Dictionary editors have also tracked how people were using the word quarantine and discovered a new meaning : a general period of time in which people are not allowed to leave their homes or travel freely, so that they do not catch or spread a disease.
Research shows the word is being used to lockdown, particularly in the United States, to refer to a situation in which people stay home to avoid catching the disease.
This new of quarantine has now been added to the Cambridge Dictionary, and marks a shift from the existing meanings, which relate to a person or animal suspected of being infectious.
Neither corona virus nor COVID-19 appeared among the words that Cambridge Dictionary users searched for most this year. We believe this indicates that people have been confident about what the virus is. Instead, users have been searching for words related to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, as not just by quarantine but by the two runners-up on the shortlist for Word of the Year: lockdown and pandemic itself. This interest in quarantine and other related was reflected not only in our search statistics, but also in visits to this blog.
Cambridge Dictionary is the top dictionary website for English learning. The dictionary not only shows how words are used in real-world but also gives out their definitions.
Why liars lie: What science tells us about deception
We all do it sometimes, even though we know it's wrong. But here's the problem with lying: research shows that the more you lie, the easier it gets, and the more likely you are to do it again. "The dangerous thing about lying is that people don't understand how the act changes us," said Dan Ariely, a behavioral psychologist at Duke.
Psychologists have documented children lying as early as age 2. Some experts even consider lying a 1 milestone, like crawling and walking, because it requires complex planning, attention and the ability to see a situation from someone else's 2 to effectively control them. But for most people, lying gets 3 as we develop a sense of morality and the ability to self-regulate.
A 2010 study on the frequency of lying in America found that in a given 24-hour period, most adults reported not telling any lies. Almost half the lies recorded in the study could be 4 just 5 percent of participants. And most people 5 lying when they could, turning to deception only when the truth was troublesome.
Harvard cognitive neuroscientist Joshua Greene said, 6 , for most of us, lying takes work. In studies, he presented study subjects with a chance to deceive for monetary gain while examining their brains in a functional MRI(核磁共振) machine, which 7 blood flow to active parts of the brain.
Some people told the truth instinctively. But others 8 opted to lie, and they showed 9 activity in their frontal parietal (额顶叶) control network, which is involved in difficult or complex thinking. This suggests that they were deciding between truth and 10 – and ultimately opting for the latter.
For a follow-up analysis, he found that people whose neural reward centers were more active when they won money were also more likely to be among the group of liars – suggesting that lying may have to do with the 11 to resist temptation.
Scientists don't really know what prevents all of us from lying all the time. Some believe truth-telling is a social norm we internalize, or a result of conflict in our brains between the things we want and the 12 image of ourselves we strive to maintain. But the curious thing about this 13 mechanism is that it comes from within.
However, external conditions also matter 14 when and how often we lie. We are more likely to lie, research shows, when we are able to justify it, when we are 15 and exhausted, or when we see others being dishonest. And we are less likely to lie when we have moral reminders or when we think others are watching.
Dandelions
I remember as a young child bringing a bunch of brilliant yellow flowers to my mother. It didn't matter that the stems felt sticky or that both my parents cursed the presence of these flowers in the lawn. I thought they were beautiful!
And there were so many of them! We spent hours picking the flowers and then popping the blossoms off with a snap of our fingers. But the supply of dandelions (蒲公英) never ran out. My father or brothers would chop off all the heads with the lawnmower (割草机) at least once a week, but that didn't stop these hardy wonders.
And for those flowers that escaped the honor of being hand-delivered to my mother or the sharp blades of the lawnmower, there was another level of existence. The soft roundness of a dandelion gone to seed caused endless laughter of delight as we unconsciously spread this flower across the yard.
As I worked in my garden last week, pulling unwanted weeds out of the space that would become a haven for tomatoes, corn, peas and sunflowers, I again marveled at the flower that some call a weed.
And I thought, if only I had the staying power of a dandelion. If only I could stretch my roots so deep and straight that something tugging on my stem couldn't separate me completely from the source that feeds me life. If only I could come back to face the world with a bright, sunshiny face after someone has run me over with a lawnmower or worse, purposely attacked me in an attempt to destroy me. If only I could spread love and encouragement as freely and fully as this flower spreads seeds of itself.
The lawns at my parents' home are now beautiful green blankets. The only patches of color come from well-placed, well-controlled flowerbeds. Chemicals have managed to kill what human interference couldn't. I hope you and I can be different. I hope that we can stretch our roots deep enough that the strongest poison can't reach our souls. I hope that we can overcome the poisons of anger, fear, hate, criticism and competitiveness.
Grand Canyon National Park
Located entirely in northern Arizona, the park covers 277 miles of the Colorado River and adjacent uplands. One of the most spectacular examples of erosion anywhere in the world, Grand Canyon is unmatched in the incomparable vistas it offers to visitors on the rim. Grand Canyon National Park is a World Heritage Site.
Park Openings and Closings
The Village and Desert View on the South Rim are open all year and park entrances remain open 24 hours a day. North Rim facilities open mid-May and close mid-October. Park entrances remain open 24 hours a day during this time. Hours for visitor centers and businesses vary throughout the year.
Park Information
The park produces a Pocket Map with a North Rim and South Rim edition that contains a map and information about services, facilities, and park ranger programs. It is available in French, German, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese. A hiking brochure is available for those planning to hike one of the park's main trails down into Grand Canyon. Obtain publications at entrance stations, visitor centers, or at go.nps.gov/136ojl.
Accessibility
Many of the facilities at Grand Canyon are historic and built before current accessibility standards were set. The terrain is rugged with narrow, rocky trails and steep cliffs. Visitors using wheelchairs or having visual impairments may need assistance. For more information about accessibility in Grand Canyon National Park, see go.nps.gov/1rtxl2.
Park Entrance Fees
Fees collected support projects in the park. Admission to the park is $35 per private vehicle; $30 per motorcycle; and $20 per person entering the park via Grand Canyon Railway, park shuttle bus, private rafting trip, walking, or riding a bicycle. The pass can be used for seven days and includes both rims. Pay fees at park entrance stations or at some businesses outside the park. Every year the National Park Service offers entrance fee free days. For complete fee information, including Annual, Active Military, Senior, and Access passes, visit go.nps.gov/y5uu6f.
Sustainability
Grand Canyon National Park incorporates sustainability into all aspects of its operations. Use your refillable water bottle to fill up on free Grand Canyon spring water at major trailheads, visitor centers and grocery stores. Please recycle – recycling containers are conveniently located and as common as trash bins. Discover what else you can do to protect the environment while traveling here and beyond at go.nps.gov/1b2rzt.
The two-hour show on March 25, 2019 put on by Tim Cook may be remembered as a milestone for the company – and the entertainment industry. Mr. Cook did not announce his company's latest device. Instead, he unveiled a set of products and services, including video streaming, news games and even a credit card.
Apple's 900 million iPhones worldwide grant it access to a massive potential audience. Analysts speculate that Apple will eventually offer them something similar to Amazon Prime, where customers pay a fixed monthly fee for some combination of news, games, cloud storage, music and video, and which could possibly connect with the company's iPhone subscriptions.
Apple TV+, which got prioritized by Mr. Cook, will offer original programming in more than 100 countries. The money Apple plans to spend on original shows – perhaps $1 billion to $2 billion thus far – is dwarfed by that of Netflix, which will spend as much as $15 billion this year on original and licensed content, or Disney, whose own video-streaming is expected shortly. But Apple's high-profile shows are for now meant chiefly to draw customers to its universe of apps and services. That includes subscription services for games, a long list of big American magazines and a few newspapers. You can pay for it all using your new Apple Card, developed with bankers at Goldman Sachs. The credit card puts Apple in direct competition with banks: it has no fees and will give users 2% cash back on purchases made via Apple Pay, the company's payments system – or 3% on purchases of Apple kit and service.
Although Apple continues to earn most of its money from devices, its business in services is growing quickly, accounting for nearly $40 billion of revenues of $266 billion in 2018. The new subscription offering, which is easier to click and buy than their predecessors, should accelerate that trend. Its new partners hope to be along for the ride. Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimated that Apple may turn 10% of the 85 million monthly users of its free News app into paying subscribers, wining a cut of newspaper and TV subscriptions sold through its services.
Some content providers are cautious. The New York Times and The Washington Post have rejected Apple's advances on behalf of its news service. Netflix and Disney will not take part in Apple TV+, which they view as more a threat than an opportunity.
How to Make a Good Cup of Tea
In his essay, A Nice Cup of Tea, George Orwell laid out 11 basic principles to make a good cup of tea, from warming the pot beforehand to stirring the leaves before pouring. He insisted that "the water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours".
"Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference," he went on to state.
However, on that point at least, it seems he was wrong. William Gorman, one of Britain's leading tea experts, has now put forward that the water used for making a cup of tea should never be boiled more than once. "Usually when people's tea goes cold they reboil the kettle and make another cup. You need freshly drawn water for a good cup because reboiling it takes all the oxygen and nitrogen out of it, ruining its layered flavor."
Besides, Mr. Gorman advocates another practice of making tea, one that Orwell would surely have protested. Mr. Gorman said, " When you microwave tea, all you're doing is just moving the molecules around and getting it back up to a decent temperature. It is not impacting the flavor at all."
In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout, to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot, it never infuses properly. They agree by doing this, you actually risk losing a good cup of tea.
A. Beware of the high temperature of a microwave oven.
B. But doing this you will give yourself a dull cup of tea.
C. What he didn't insist on was that the water should be boiled just once.
D. However, they both argue against the use of tea-imprisoning devices.
E. He said the milk should be poured into the cup last, not first.
F. A better solution is to heat it with microwave for 10s.
Population Change of European Birds
The breeding bird populations in Europe have seen a great shift over the past three decades, driven by both climate crisis and human interferences, according to one of the world's largest citizen science projects on biodiversity.
Overall, 35% of birds increased their breeding range. Dr. Iván Ramírez, senior head of conservation at BirdLife Europe and central Asia, said: "Those birds that have been legally protected have been doing better than those which are not protected. This is a really important message within the European Union. We have one of the oldest policies – the Birds Directive – and we can prove that it works."
In addition, as the climate warms, forests are stretching into northern and agricultural regions. In parts of northern Europe, there has also been tree planting (mainly for wood and paper) and land abandonment (specifically in Mediterranean areas), which benefited many woodland species such as woodpeckers and warblers but caused damage to a number of other species as well. The research shows a total of 25% of birds now occupy a smaller area.
Generally, farmland birds are bigger losers, suffering overall declines in population and reduced distribution because agricultural intensification means there is less food, such as insects and remainder from harvesting. The State of Nature in the EU 2013-2018 assessment showed 80% of key habitats were in poor or bad condition, and intensive farming is a major driver of decline. The UK's farmland birds have declined by 55% since 1970.
"Predictably, there are winners and losers. We can see how some species have expanded across the continent rapidly and have begun to colonize UK wetlands. In contrast, we can see ranges shrinking as species of northern Europe feel the impact of climate change, and species such as the dotterel are declining in numbers and range in northern Britain," he said.
李华的家乡是一个有着悠久历史和文化的古镇,但是近年来由于游客激增以及过度开发,古镇的人文环境与自然环境遭到了严重的破坏。目前地方政府正在征集各方建议以更好地保护古镇的自然与人文。
假设你是李华,请你给地方政府写一封信,谈谈你对保护家乡古镇的看法。你的信必须包括:
1)简述你对保护古镇所选择的建议。
2)说明你的理由。(信中不能提到真实姓名和学校)
试题篮