One of those big social networking sites, Facebook, has attracted over 58 million members. Commentator Melody Cramer is no longer one of them. Here is what she shares with us about her story.
I deleted all 1,281 of my co¬workers, second¬grade classmates and people who I don’t know at all. I shut down my account, completely. I’m 30, and I’ve been on Facebook since March of 2004, which makes me one of the website’s earliest users.
At first, I used it obsessively. If I had a free moment, I’d log on to see whether my friends had updated their profiles. I’d sit alone scrolling through these updates and then run into someone at a coffee shop and have nothing to say because I already knew everything about them, and they knew everything about me.
In November, I went to my ten¬year high school reunion and was not pleasantly surprised. Lauren became a model, Josh went to law school, Dina was a teacher. I hadn’t talked to any of them since graduation, but I knew exactly what they were doing, both now and last week. But lately, I’m overwhelmed(应接不暇). Facebook opened up to everyone, not just college students, and my co¬workers started to join, which meant they now knew what I was doing when I wasn’t at work.
And as a rule: you can NOT make friends with your coworkers because then they’ll ask you the next day. But I thought we were friends. And you are friends but not the kind of friends who tell each other what they do outside of work. So now the people you work with can see what you did last night, and you’re constantlyworrying what people might say about what you did last night instead of actually doing anything tonight.So I quit. I became a 30¬year¬old Luddite, a person who is strongly against technology development. I’ve returned to how the world worked when I was 20, before I knew when my friends and co¬workers were counting down the seconds to vacation or entering a complicated relationship. I’m hoping life will be a lot simpler now. People
will be more mysterious now that I actually have to talk to them to find out their favorite books or hobbies orneurosis(神经症). I don’t know when my college roommate goes to the supermarket, and I think I’m a better person for not knowing. In fact, you could say getting off a social network was the best thing I’ve done this week.
1.Melody Cramer decided to quit Facebook mainly because ______.
A. she thought it wasted too much time
B. she was afraid of the strangers on her account
C. she was tired of exposing her life to co¬workers
D. she thought it made real¬world life less interesting
2.We can learn from the passage that Melody Cramer ______.
A. had a 10¬year membership of Facebook
B. used to be very objected to Facebook
C. was unpleasant to attend high school reunion
D. was one of the co-founders of Facebook
3. Which of the following about Melody Cramer is TRUE?
A. She owes her communication skills to Facebook.
B. She wishes she could be several years younger.
C. She prefers to face her friends and co-worders in reality.
D. She is no longer curious about anything around her.
4.The best title for this passage can be _____.
A. Addiction to Facebook
B. Farewell to Facebook
C. Friends Online
D. A Simpler Life
In my class, there was a really weak-looking guy. I don’t know if his name was Vit or Wit. I will him as Wit in this story of mine. He was a pale, thin guy. Not only his build looked weak, the way he was also weak. He walked slowly but he tried to stay off of everyone’s way. The friends in my class, Jean and Ingrid, would him. Truth to be told, I them as well. We did things like taking his stuff, like his pens and pencils, and them somewhere in the school.
Wit was also really of insects, even butterfly. Jean, Ingrid, and I often put beetle on his clothes and he would run around, trying to it off. There were many beetles in the school so that was the insect we used to scare him with. Other insects such as butterfly were hard to so we pretty much gave up on it. We would often take the when Wit was off-guard and put the insects on him. it was on him, he would run around or jump about. He was too scared to it and pull it off.
Suddenly one day, we were by the school. When I walked into the room, Wit’s mother, as well as Ingrid’s mother, Jean’s father, and mine were in the room silently. Wit’s mother said that Wit went home and the sandbag shouting “Jean!!! Ingrid!!! Archer!!!” every day. I wanted to laugh but didn’t with all the she was putting on us .She asked many things, including things I had no idea about such as “Who put Wit’s bag in the girl toilet?” Apparently, it was Jean who did it. Jean seemed to have bullied Wit quite a lot and got quite a(n) from Wit’s and her own mother.
I think it should have been quite guilty for to see us scolded by the parents. However , we decided to stop bullying Wit and be friendly to him.
1.A. briefly B. abruptly C. actually D. constantly
2.A. think of B. focus on C. laugh at D. refer to
3.A. acted B. operated C. attacked D. responded
4.A. get close to B. look up to C. get tired of D. make fun of
5.A. betrayed B. joined C. teased D. rejected
6.A. hid B. distributed C. threw D. preserved
7.A. fond B. scared C. cautious D. ashamed
8.A. see B. set C. shake D. take
9.A. only B. acute C. main D. rare
10.A. find B. recognize C. raise D. capture
11.A. chance B. risk C. trouble D. order
12.A. While B. Though C. Once D. Unless
13.A. attach B. touch C. sniff D. defend
14.A. picked out B. called in C. spied on D. kicked off
15.A. staring B. sighing C. sitting D. weeping
16.A. carried B. threw C. filled D. hit
17.A. nearly B. hardly C. merely D. approximately
18.A. burden B. pressure C. duty D. doubt
19.A. forgiving B. understanding C. praising D. scolding
20.A. Ingrid B. Jean C. Wit D. Mother
The writer conveyed a positive attitude through his works.______, his readers are motivated and are themselves becoming a source of motivation for others.
A. On the whole B. In the meanwhile
C. In the way D. On the contrary
You are to meet with frustration in the pursuit of success and through greater effort and hard work your dream will definitely come true. Put it ______ , “No pains, no gains.”
A. frequently B. firmly
C. openly D. simply
The electronic red-packet has been so ______ that AliPay and Tencent Wechat compete against each other openly and secretly since the beginning of this year.
A. popular B. convenient
C. favorable D. arbitrary
The Spring Festival is the most joyful time of the year, but it can also be ______ . With all the traveling, visiting relatives, and gift-buying, the holiday can become a tense time for many families.
A. beneficial B. optional
C. commercial D. stressful
