C
Do you find it difficult to put down your mobile phone?
If yes, you're not alone. These days, many people suffer from the stress of FOMO (fear of missing out). They reach for their mobile phones when they wake up in the morning, and for the rest of the day, they constantly scroll down the timelines of their social media apps to get the latest updates.
Despite the convenience smartphones bring, many people struggle with their digital habits.
As Sameer Samat, US tech company vice president of product management, said in his speech at the 2018 Google I/O developer conference on May 8, 70% of people don’t want to spend so much time on their phones.
This is why during the conference Google introduced an app called Dashboard for the new version of its Android operating system. This new app includes well-being functions that aim to help users manage the time they spend on their digital devices.
It all starts with a bird’s-eye view. Dashboard allows users to look at all the details of their phone habits. For example, users can see how many times they’ve unlocked their phone and how many times they’ve checked their social media apps, as well as how much time they spend on each app every day.
Once the users see this information, they'll be able to make some changes. With the App Timer functions, users can set a time limit for how long they can use each app for every day. After they've hit the limit，they won't be able to launch the app until the next day.
But even if users become more mindful of their usage, they’re still likely to be drawn in by notifications (通知). This is where the Shush feature comes in. It automatically silences incoming calls and notifications when a user puts his/her phone face down.
If people truly want to make full use of their free time instead of losing hours using their smartphones, these new functions are just one way of doing that.
After all, who needs to use an app to stop you from using other apps when the easiest answer would be just to use your willpower?
28. People under the pressure of FOMO may________.
A. have trouble with their sleep B. find it hard to focus on anything
C. be addicted to their mobile phones D. prefer to download the latest apps
29. What inspires Google to launch Dashboard?
A.The limited functions of current Android system.
B. People’s complaint about their smartphones.
C. Samat’s impressive speech at a conference.
D. Mobilephone users’ great demand.
30. ________ can track users’ phone habits in detail.
A. Android B. Timer C. Shush D. Dashboard
31. What can be learned from the passage?
A. Dashboard turned out to be popular.
B. Dashboard is a perfect choice to manage time properly.
C. Strong willpower is the easiest way to avoid smartphone addiction.
D. People are exploring other ways to stop overusing smartphones.
D
Wild animals are known to listen to each other for warnings that predators are near. Some birds, for example, flee when neighbors make a loud noise to announce a snake's presence.
The fairy wren is a small Australian songbird. It is not born knowing the "languages" of other birds. But recent research says it can learn the meaning of a few important sounds.
Andrew Radford is a biologist at the University of Bristol in England and co-writer of the new report published in early August in the journal Current Biology. He told the Associated Press, "We knew before that some animals can translate the meanings of other species' ‘foreign languages,' but we did not know how that ‘language learning' came about."
Birds have several ways of learning life skills. Some knowledge is genetically passed down by their parents and some comes from direct experience with the world. But Radford and other scientists are exploring a third kind of knowledge: information from fellows.
Radford and researchers at the Australian National University carried out the study in the country's National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. They attached to their bodies specially-designed, sound-producing equipment called "tweeter speakers." They wanted to see if fairy wrens would react to sounds of other birds even if they could not see them.
The scientists first played the birds two recorded sounds that they likely had never heard before. One was a warning cry of a thornbill, a bird not native to Australia. The other was a computer-generated bird sound called "buzz."
When the 16 fairy wrens in the study first heard the sounds, they had no special reaction. The scientists then tried to train half of the birds to recognize the thornbill's cry as a warning sound. They tried to train the other half to recognize the computer-generated "buzz" as a warning call.
After three days, the scientists tested what the birds had learned — and their students passed the test. The fairy wrens trained with the thornbill's cry, fled when they heard it. The group trained with the buzz, fled when they heard that sound. Neither group reacted to the sound taught to the other.
32. What does the underlined word “predators” in the first paragraph mean?
A. enemies B. neighbors C. birds D. snakes
33. Which is the right order of the experiment?
a. The fairy wrens were divided into two parts.
b. The fairy wrens made no reaction to the strange sounds.
c. The fairy wrens wore sound-providing equipment.
d. The fairy wrens were trained separately.
e. The fairy wrens passed the test successfully.
A. a b c d e B. c b a d e C. c e b a d D. a c e d b
34. It can be learned from the study that the fairy wrens _______.
A. were not good “foreign language” learners
B. made no reaction to the sounds all the time
C. took both of the sounds as warnings
D. fled when hearing the sound trained with
35. The passage is probably taken from________.
A. A biology textbook B. A science magazine
C. A science fiction D. A wildlife brochure