Just 25 years ago, the top three career hopes for young people in Britain were teacher, banker and doctor.Now, they want to be sports star, pop star and actor, according to survey by the Guardian newspaper. Rachel, a character in the popular TV show Glee, may be said to speak for British teenagers."Nowadays being nobody is worse than being poor." He said. Emma Brockes, a reporter with the Guardian, believes it is "the bad influence of celebrity culture" that is to blame."When children wanted to be doctor, it wasn't because they were really more interested in the functions of human organs than they are now; you go where the respect is." She wrote. It could explain why there has been such an increase in levels of anxiety and depression.Dr Carlo Stranger, of Tel Aviv University, studied the sense of self for his new book The Fear of Insignificance: Searching for Meaning in the 21st Century.He told the Daily Mail that young people now are "affected by the close connection to the global entertainment network, which has turned ranking and rating people according to wealth and celebrity into an obsession ." "As humans, we naturally measure ourselves to those around us, but now we live in a global village.We are comparing ourselves with the most 'important' people in the world and finding ourselves wanting," he said.Today, even high achievers constantly fear that they are insignificant when they compare themselves to success stories in the media. The way out? Simply stop measuring your achievement through a fantasy of wealth and celebrity.Dr Strenger said that it is a process called "active self-acceptance through a constant search for self-knowledge through life." "The fear of insignificance can only be overcome through strong individual and cultural identity over and above measurable achievement," he said. According to Emma Brockes, what causes the increasing level of anxiety? A) Choices of future careers. B) Access to the global network. C) Bad influences of celebrities. D) Endless comparison with others.
C
(Question)
Mark Eklund was in the first third grade class I taught at Saint Mary's School in Morris, Minn. He was neat in appearance, but had that happy-to-be-alive attitude that made even his occasional mischievousness delightful. Mark liked talking. I had to remind him again and again that talking without permission was not acceptable. What impressed me so much, though, was his sincere response every time I had to correct him for misbehaving: "Thank you for correcting me, sister!" One day in class, I asked pupils to list the names of the other students on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then I told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. That Saturday, I wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and I listed what everyone else had said about that student. On Monday I gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. Several years later, after I returned from vacation, my father met me at the airport. "Mark was killed in the war," he said." The funeral is tomorrow, and his parents would like it if you could attend." I had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. As I stood there, Mark's father said, "We want to show you something. They found this on Mark when he was killed." He took a wallet out of his pocket. Opening the billfold , he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. I knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which I had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him. "Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it." That's when I finally sat down and cried. I cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again. Why did Mark's parents want the author to attend Mark's funeral? A) They wanted her to see Mark for the last time. B) They wanted to show her the lists. C) They wanted her to know how sad they were. D) They wanted to thank her for what she had done for Mark.
(Answer)
D
Ques: Turns out we aren't good at walking and talking at the same time, according to a study of pedestrians on their cell phones. Nearly one-third of pedestrians (29.8% ) were distracted by their mobile devices while crossing the street, say researchers of a study published online in the journal Injury Prevention. Just as drivers who text, talk on cell phones, or adjust MP3 players increase their risk of losing control of their vehicles, pedestrians distracted by their conversations or their devices also put themselves at higher risk of getting into an accident. During the summer of 2012, scientists in Seattle, Wash. , studied 1,102 pedestrians at 20 crossroads seeing the city * s highest number of pedestrian injuries over the past few years. They watched how pedestrians crossed the street @ whether they looked both ways or obeyed the crossroad signal @ and also recorded how long it took pedestrians to do so.Distractions included listening to music with headphones, using a cell phone or earpiece to talk on a cell phone, text messaging, and talking with another person. Overall, researchers found the most common distraction among pedestrians was listening to music (11.2%), followed by text messaging (7.3%), and using a handheld phone(6.2%). But the most absorbing distraction was texting. Compared to pedestrians who were not distracted, those who were texting took 1.87 seconds longer to cross and were four times more likely to not look where they were going, disobey traffic lights, or cross outside of the crosswalk. While the study did not track injuries related to these trends, previous studies have linked such activities to a higher risk of being injured while crossing the street. Combined with the rise in the use of mobile devices, especially smart phones, the results raise concerns that multi-tasking while walking may be a rising concern for pedestrians. And that danger may only climb, as the number of wireless devices has already _ the population of the United States. Last year, roughly 1,152 people wound up... Which might be the best title of the passage? A) Walk and don't Talk B) Prevention of Distraction C) Look both ways while crossing the street D) Cell phones lead to injuries
Ans: A
Following the success of S. H. E and Twins, another girl band . has arrived on the music scene. Eighteen-year-old Singaporean twin sisters Yumi and Miko Bai create the magic in the band BY2. The pair recently released their second album, Twins. With great voices and dance moves to match, the cute sisters have won the hearts of many fans since their first album NC-16 came out last year. At a young age,the sisters began to learn ballet dancing and the violin. When a music company wanted to work with them, the girls had to leave their home and parents to go to Taiwan for training. Miko and Yumi dropped out of school to focus on their music. This decision caused a hot debate in Singapore. Some people said that their mother was using her daughters to make money. But their father, who died of cancer when they were 15 years old, had encouraged the girls to work hard to make their dreams come true. The girls felt lonely in Taiwan when they first arrived. " We celebrated our birthday in Taiwan without any family and friends," Yumi said. " We cut our birthday cake ourselves. " The girls faced many challenges. "We had to learn Mandarin. Also, it was a killer to dance in high heels, " said the twins,who had to do so in their music videos. However,they are glad that they entered the entertainment scene at an early age. " When we are younger, we learn things faster and can gain more experience, " Yumi said. We can learn from the text that S. H. E is _ . A) a girl musical group B) the name of a cute girl C) a Singaporean twin D) the name of a dancing group
A