In recent years, much of my life, as a consumer has shifted to what I like to call background spending. As I’ve subscribed to more apps and streaming platforms, significant sums of my money tend to slip away each month without my ever thinking about it.
Think of it as automated trade. Spending without the trouble of spending. Acquisition without action or thought.
But while this flood of subscriptions was sold to me on the condition that it would make my life more trouble free, there was a certain shock I felt upon discovering how much I was spending without realizing each month ($179.45).
You see, the thing about background spending is that it tends to happen, well, in the background without your full attention. And there lies the point.
“Hand over your credit card details and let us take care of the rest,” these companies promise us. But by agreeing to this trade, we’ve become lazy passive consumers. And this laziness breeds more laziness because most of us can’t be bothered with conducting regular reviews of our subscription spending. We’re too lazy to even notice or cancel!
I know it’s not just me who is suddenly living life as a smooth-brained subscriber. The average consumer spends $273 per month on subscriptions, according to a 2021 study of 2,500 by digital services firm West Monroe. Not a single person surveyed knew what his actual monthly spending was.
It’s understandable why this model is so attractive to businesses. As companies questioned traditional advertising models, subscriptions offered the promise of “selling once and earning forever.” And while subscription services have been around for decades (think Wine of the Month Club), more customers have been willing to sign up thanks to the widespread availability of smartphones and the increasing ease of home delivery.
While these subscriptions promise ease and happiness, not all of us are satisfied. Last year, the Kearney Consumer Institute found 40 percent of consumers believe they have too many subscriptions. Almost half of us also think we pay too much for streaming video-on-demand subscriptions.
1．What can we know about background spending in paragraph 2?| A．Its purpose. | B．Its feature. | C．Its procedure. | D．Its requirement. |
| A．Its attractive price. | B．Some people’s poor habit. |
| C．Its secure service. | D．Some people’s addiction to it. |
| A．It offers good home delivery services. |
| B．It is like traditional advertising models. |
| C．It is popular among smartphone producers. |
| D．It brings repeated profits through a single sale. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Optimistic. | C．Critical. | D．Unclear. |
Handwritten notes in class might seem outdated as digital technology involves nearly every aspect of learning. But a steady stream of research suggests that compared with typing, taking notes with pen and paper is still a better way to learn. And scientists are zeroing in on why.
In a recently published study, scientists found that those writing by hand had higher levels of electrical activity across many interconnected brain regions. They added 256 sensors into a hairnet, which helped monitor 36 students’ brains as they wrote or typed words displayed on a screen. When students wrote by hand, the sensors picked up widespread brain connectivity including visual regions, regions that receive and process sensory information, and the motor cortex (运动皮层) . Typing, however, resulted in minimal activity in these brain regions.
Across many contexts, studies have shown that students appear to learn better when they’re asked to produce letters or other visual items using their fingers and hands. The educational neuroscientist Sophia Vinci-Booher says the recent study highlights the clear tie between motor action and conceptual recognition: “As you’re drawing a letter or writing a word, you’re taking this perceptual (感知的) understanding of something and using your motor system to create it. That creation is then fed back into the visual system, where it’s processed again — strengthening the connection between an action and the images or words associated with it.”
The new findings don’t mean technology is always a disadvantage in the classroom. Laptops, smartphones, and other such devices can be more efficient for writing essays and can offer fairer access to educational resources. But people now increasingly tend to “offload” mental tasks to digital devices, such as by taking a photograph instead of committing information to memory, says Yadurshana Sivashankar at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. “If we’re not actively using these areas, then they are going to worsen over time, whether it’s memory or motor skills.”
1．What is the function of the sensors in the recent study according to Paragraph 2?| A．To record brain activity. | B．To activate brain waves. |
| C．To connect visual regions. | D．To process sensory information. |
| A．One’s motor system boosts his creativity. | B．One’s writing action enhances his perception. |
| C．Learning performance relies on visual memory. | D．Concrete images contributes to comprehension. |
| A．Owe. | B．Link. | C．Shift. | D．Bring. |
| A．Note-taking: the key to a good grade | B．Digital learning: beneficial or harmful |
| C．Typing vs handwriting: efficiency counts | D．Handwritten notes: conventional but effective |
Notice
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Students’ Union
Huangmei Opera is one of the five major
During the late Qing Dynasty, the Caicha Tune of Huangmei County
Being responsible outside of class
Manage your time wiselyManaging your time will greatly help you become a better student and a more productive worker. Time-management skills are highly valued by teachers.
Whether you miss an important class, have trouble with certain concepts, or are dealing with a stressful family emergency, there’s a chance that your grades might fall at some point.
If you fail to finish your homework, turn in a paper on time, or show up to your task on time, it’s no one’s fault but your own.
| A．Try to stay balanced |
| B．Never excuse for your behaviour |
| C．Take responsibility for your words and actions |
| D．Every teacher designs tests and exams differently |
| E．If this happens, it’s important to get help right away |
| F．You don’t have to write out every word your teachers say |
| G．They can help ensure that you never miss a time limit or prepare for an exam |
The World’s Most Amazing Caves
Humans have been drawn to caves for thousands of years. Here are four of the world’s biggest caves.
Son Doong Cave, VietnamSon Doong Cave in the remote (偏远的) forests of Vietnam holds the title of the largest cave in the world. Son Doong is a spreading network of tunnels and caves, the largest of which could contain an entire New York City block with 40-story buildings. Parts of the cave’s top have fallen down, creating vast skylights that allow life to grow to a height of hundreds of feet beneath the forest floor.
Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, the United StatesMammoth Cave in Kentucky is the longest cave system in the world, with 426 miles explored and scientists guess another 600 miles have yet to be discovered based on measurements of air movement within the caves. Mammoth Cave has drawn visitors since the 1800s and 10 miles of underground passages are accessible to tourists today.
Sac Actun, MexicoThe longest underwater cave system in the world, Sac Actun winds (蜿蜒) more than 215 miles under Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Adventurers can take a drop in the Sac Actun system through more than. 248 cenotes (天然井)—the natural swimming pools that form when sinkholes connect the surface to the underwater caves.
Veryovkina Cave, Abkhazia, GeorgiaVeryovkina Cave is the deepest cave in the world, spreading 1.4 miles beneath the surface. It takes professionals a week to make a round journey to Veryovkina Cave. They have to brave waterfalls, tight presses and sharp drops. But the payoff is excellent--Veryovkina Cave’s end is a beautiful blue lake about 50 feet long and 25 feet wide surrounded by black rocks.
1．What is special about Son Doong Cave?| A．It has lots of tall plants growing. | B．It lies far away from the forests. |
| C．It is the longest cave in Vietnam. | D．It is the highest cave in the world. |
| A．They attract few adventurers. | B．They have long cave systems. |
| C．They stay unexplored at present. | D．They end up with beautiful lakes. |
| A．Over two week. | B．Half a week. | C．One week. | D．Two week. |
No matter where you live in the world, natural disasters are always a threat. Of course, we humans take steps, both at an individual and social level, to prepare ourselves for the possibility of natural disasters. But preparing for these events requires understanding the types of natural disasters, what causes them, and the dangers they cause.
A technical term for a period of very cold weather, a cold wave is a type of natural disaster where the temperature drops rapidly over the course of 24 hours. While cold weather in itself isn’t necessarily enough to cause a natural disaster, a rapid dropping of the temperature could lead to lots of problems for communities in a region.
Interestingly, there isn’t an precise temperature threshold (起点) that must reach to be. Rather, cold waves are classified (分类) by how fast the temperature falls. Since what’s considered to be “cold” varies widely from region to region, local weather services will use local weather averages to determine if a weather event is actually a cold wave.
There are many reasons why a cold wave might occur. One of the most common causes of a cold wave is the arrival of a very strong high pressure system from the polar regions. Alternatively, movement in the jet streams can also drive very cold weather southward in just a matter of hours.
The primary danger of a cold wave is, indeed, the cold weather itself. This can lead to a higher risk of hypothermia (低温症) and other cold-related injuries. Additionally, cold weather can cause ice and frost to build up quickly, damaging basic facilities. Cold waves are also particularly dangerous for aircraft and other machinery. Extreme cold can use up vehicle batteries or cause petrol to come together. So, whenever in extreme cold weather, people need to be careful.
1．Why do people need to understand natural disasters?| A．To remove nervousness. | B．To encourage research. |
| C．To get ready for its possibility. | D．To build professional departments. |
| A．By an exact temperature. | B．By classified temperature. |
| C．By local climate standards. | D．By fallen temperature in summer. |
| A．Sudden big wind. | B．Heavy snow. |
| C．Rapidly rising temperature. | D．A powerful pressure system from polar areas. |
| A．A natural program. | B．A climate disaster. |
| C．A scientific method. | D．A scientific experiment. |
We have been taught from a young age that red means stop and green means go. So why were these colors chosen for traffic lights? And what’s the history behind the colors?
To trace the connection between the colors and traffic lights,we have to travel back in time to the earliest railroad signals (信号灯) developed in the 1830s. Those first railroad signals were the forerunner of our modern stoplights. Like modern traffic controls,they contained three lights:one for stop,one for caution (警告),and one for go. The original color system was different from our modern system,though. Red meant stop,green meant caution,and white meant go.
The choice of red for stop was fairly obvious,since red — the color of blood — has been associated with danger for thousands of years, long before cars were even around. Scientifically speaking,red is the color with the longest wavelength which means that as it travels,it gets spread less in different directions than other colors,so it can be seen from a greater distance.
Why green and white were chosen for the other signals remains a bit of a mystery. It’s possible that the two colors were chosen because how they contrasted (反差) with red. This system of color-coded signals remained in place (仍然有效) for several decades until it became clear that using white for go could cause serious problems. Around 1914,a train signal’s red lights broke down,causing it to appear white. As a train approached the signal,it was supposed to stop,but the driver believed the white meant go. The result was a terrible train crash. After that,the color for go was eventually changed to green.
To provide the most contrast between red and green,yellow was then chosen as the new color for caution,because it can be seen well at all times of the day. After cars were invented and went into mass production,a similar signaling system was needed to control the flow of traffic. When traffic lights were put up,it became standard for them as well.
1．How does the author describe the original traffic lights?| A．By listing an example. | B．By offering a suggestion. |
| C．By making a comparison. | D．By showing the importance. |
| A．It is the easiest to recognize all day long. |
| B．It reminds people of accidents and danger. |
| C．It spreads fastest in all directions in the air. |
| D．It has proved the least harmless to our eyes. |
| A．The driver’s tiredness. | B．The train’s high speed. |
| C．The travel system’s shortcoming. | D．The white light’s failing to work. |
| A．How did the present traffic lights form? |
| B．Why was the first traffic system invented? |
| C．Why did white disappear from the traffic lights? |
| D．How did an accident change the traffic systems? |
Mack Rutherford,born on June 21, 2005, has become the youngest person to fly around the world alone in a small plane after taking off on March 23, 2022. Five months later, he touched down in the Bulgaria (保加利亚),where his journey began, according to Rutherford’s website. He turned 17 years old during the trip.
Rutherford’s route extended 52 countries on a specially prepared plane, according to his website. His journey was tracked on his website, which showed he set off for the Mediterranean (地中海) then through the Sahara, onwards through the Middle East and then East Asia. He broke two world records, previously held by his older sister Zara Rutherford, as the youngest person to fly around the world alone and also the youngest person to do so in such a small plane. He entered his last leg through the United States, Canada and Mexico before flying back through Europe.
The teenager was just 15 years old when he received his first pilot’s license (许可证), becoming the youngest pilot in the world. “Having flown hundreds of hours with my dad, who is a professional pilot, I have known for certain I wanted to fly. I think there’s something I can actually try to struggle for and achieve,” he said. “I also want to use the opportunity to meet young people on my route who do amazing things or make a difference to their communities or even to the world,” he wrote before flying off.
There were several “hairy” moments during his journey, he said, but he never gave up. His journey even took him to a deserted island in the North Pacific after strong head winds forced him to land during a flight from Japan to the United States. “I was forced to face it on my own — but that was definitely an amazing experience,” he said.
1．What do we know about Mack Rutherford?| A．He started his journey at the age of 16. |
| B．He was forced to fly around the world. |
| C．He visited every country of five continents. |
| D．He is the first to fly around the world alone. |
| A．Losing control. | B．The final period of his trip. |
| C．Injuring his leg. | D．A dangerous situation. |
| A．Intelligent and warm-hearted. | B．Generous and hardworking. |
| C．Determined and humorous. | D．Ambitious and adventurous. |
| A．A survey report. | B．A travel guideline. |
| C．A news report. | D．A book review. |
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