MANY of us enjoy doing it: you turn on the camera on your mobile phone and hold it at a high angle , making your eyes look bigger and your cheekbones more marked out. You turn to your best side and click. There it is - your selfie. Over the past year, "selfie" has become a well-known term across the globe. This August the Oxford dictionary added the word to their online dictionary and defined it as: "A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website." Today it's not difficult to find social networking pages full of photos people have taken of themselves and their friends. And selfie culture has become especially related to young people. As many as 91 percent of teenagers have posted photos of themselves online, according to a recent survey by the US Pew Research Center. So what are the reasons for the rise of selfie culture? "The cult of the selfie celebrates regular people," Pamela Rutledge, a professor at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, told Vogue magazine. "There are many more photographs available now of real people than models." Posting selfies also allows you to control your image online. "I like having the power to choose how I look, even if I'm making a funny face," Samantha Barks, 19, a high school student in the US, told Vogue. In addition to self-expression and documentation , selfies "allow for an close friendship for long-distance friends, because you can see each other's faces every day", wrote Casey Miller at The Huffington Post. But US psychologist Jill Weber is concerned that selfies might lead to social problems. "There's a danger that your self-esteem may start to be tied to the comments and 'likes' you get when you post a selfie, and they aren't based on who you are - they're based on what you look like," Weber told Vogue. "When you get nothing or a negative response, your confidence can " What is Jill Weber's opinion about selfies? A) Comments on selfie are based on who you are. B) Selfies have more disadvantages than advantages. C) Others' response to selfies might affect one's self-esteem. D) Selfies shouldn't be encouraged for they lead to social problems.
C
(Question)
Is it worth it to go to college? This has been questioned a lot recently in America. According to a new survey released by the Pew Research Center, only 40 percent of Americans felt that colleges provided a good value for the cost. At the same time, 86 percent of college graduates still felt it was good for them. There are a number of reasons for such dissatisfaction with college. First, there are plenty of problems with higher education -- poor quality and out-of-control costs are two of the biggest. Second, it is true that college is not for everyone. Plenty of rewarding and important careers do not require college. And due to the slow economy, there may in fact be more graduates than the current job market needs. Besides, anti-college feelings are nothing new. Today, Microsoft's Bill Gates or Apple's Steve Jobs -- both college dropouts -- is often held up as evidence of why all that time sitting in class is better spent elsewhere. However, getting a college education is still a good idea. College graduates earn more, and are more likely to have a job in the first place. According to the statistics last year, the average weekly earnings for someone with some college education but no degrees were $712, compared to $1,038 for a college graduate. That is almost $17,000 over the course of a year and there is an even bigger divide for those with less education. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate was 9.2 percent for those with only some college education and more than 10 percent for those with just a middle school degree, but it was 5.4 percent for college graduates. The economic gaps between college completers and those with less education are getting larger. Although most Americans surveyed by Pew feel doubtful about the value of a college degree, an overwhelming majority of parents Pew surveyed still expect their children to go to college. "It can be inferred that the increased doubt has not significantly influenced decision making." Pew's Taylor says, "Despite the concern about rising costs and other problems,... What's the main idea of this passage? A) Poor quality and high costs make college less popular among the Americans nowadays. B) Despite the dissatisfactions with college, most Americans still favor college education C) People with a college degree earn better money in America than those who don't D) American students are getting tired of college education.
(Answer)
B
My daughter Allie is leaving for college in a week. Her room is piled with shopping bags filled with blankets, towels, jeans, sweaters. She won't talk about going. I say, "I'm going to miss you," and she gives me one of her looks and leaves the room. Another time I say, in a voice so friendly it surprises even me: "Do you think you'll take your posters and pictures with you, or will you get new ones at college?" She answers, her voice filled with annoyance, "How should I know?" My daughter is off with friends most of the time. Yesterday was the last day she'd have until Christmas with her friend Katharine, whom she's known since kindergarten. Soon, it will be her last day with Sarah, Claire, Heather... and then it will be her last day with me. My friend Karen told me, "The August before I left for college, I screamed at my mother the whole month. Be prepared." I stand in the kitchen, watching Allie make a glass of iced tea. Her face, once so open and trusting, is closed to me. I struggle to think of something to say to her, something meaningful and warm. I want her to know I'm excited about the college she has chosen, that I know the adventure of her life is just starting and that I am proud of her. But the look on her face is so mad that I think she might hit me if I open my mouth. One night -- after a long period of silence between us -- I asked what I might have done or said to make her angry with me. She sighed and said, "Mom, you haven't done anything. It's fine." It is fine -- just distant. Somehow in the past we had always found some way to connect. When Allie was a baby, I would go to the day-care center after work. I'd find a quiet spot and she would nurse -- our eyes locked together, reconnecting with each other. In middle school, when other mothers were already regretting the distant relationship they felt with their adolescent daughters, I hit upon a solution: rescue measures. I would show up occasionally at school, sign her out of class and take her somewhere -- out to lunch, to the movies,... What Allie reads to the author is _ . A) the tips to parents on how to educate their children B) the suggestion on how to deal with the generation gap C) the tips to parents on when they depart with their children D) the suggestion on how to ease the homesickness of children
D