1、The following passage is incomplete with one paragraph missing. Study the passage carefully and write the missing paragraph in about 100 words. Make sure that your tone and diction are in unity with the passage provided. Smartphone Mania Did your father's old car just blow two rear tires on a rural dirt road? Don't worry, pick up your smartphone and open a car service app. Whether you are stuck in a horrendous traffic am or relaxing in romantic restaurant, the smartphone, one of the world's latest high-tech gadgets, may be either the answer to your prayers or a major thorn in your flesh. Like it or not, the smartphone is indispensable in your life. While this technological device positively affects society by providing instant communication it also dehumanizes(使失性) relationships and threatens an individual's right to privacy. The smartphone's positive effect on society stems from its ability to provide instant communication. The device is invaluable to car owners. Nothing makes a motorist with a defective engine happier than opening an app on his smartphone and receiving message, "The tow truck should arrive in ten minutes." Besides, smartphones help keep friends family members in touch. For example, a minute before midnight, the parents of a 16-year-old can video call their son and gently shriek, "Get home now, or you will be grounded for the next six months."In short, the smartphone's ability to allow anyone to be reached at any time is a great comfort. Ironically, the technological device that binds society together also threatens to destroy it through the process of dehumanization. Just stride down the main street in the city and in less than five minutes you will observe a hundred passers-by ignoring each other as they mindlessly browse their Wechat moments. Literally, smartphones are replacing living,breathing human beings. Some phone owners, for example, can be heard whispering sweet nothing, such as "Where are you, darling?"to their beloved smartphones. The smartphone, along with other technological advancements, removes the "human"element from society. ( ) So, your boyfriend tried to pop the big question but you couldn't hear him, because another diner's smartphone conversation drowned out his soft, romantic words. Then,Why did you kiss your phone yesterday after searching the map online when you were hopelessly lost in the center of the city? Even though smartphones, the great communicators, dehumanize relationships and threaten our privacy, they are too deeply embedded in today's society to become obsolete. 简答题 20分
2、Read the following passage carefully and compose a "Topic Outline" for it. Knowledge About Different Cultures Is Shaking the Foundations of Psychology Psychology was developed largely in North America and Europe. Some would argue it's been remarkably successful in understanding what drives human behavior and mental processes, which have long been thought to be universal. But in recent decades, some researchers have started questioning this approach, arguing that many psychological phenomena are shaped by the culture we live in. Consider which two of these objects go together: a panda, a monkey and a banana. Respondents from Western countries routinely select the two animals. This indicates an analytic thinking style, in which objects are largely perceived independently from their context. In contrast, participants from Eastern countries often select the monkey and the banana, because they share a relationship (monkeys eat bananas). This is a holistic thinking style, in which object and context are perceived to be correlated. In a classic demonstration of cultural differences in thinking styles, participants from Japan and the USA were presented with a series of animated scenes. Lasting about 20 seconds, each scene showed various creatures, vegetation and rocks in an underwater setting. In a subsequent recall task, both groups were equally likely to remember the larger fish. But the Japanese participants were better at recalling background information, such as the color of the water. This is because holistic thinking focuses on background and context just as much as foreground. The way Westerners describe themselves seems to be culturally bound. They tend to view themselves as free, autonomous and unique individuals, possessing a set of fixed characteristics. This feature regarding self-knowledge has even been demonstrated at the brain level. In a brain-scanning study, American participants were shown different adjectives. They were asked how well these adjectives represented themselves and how well these adjectives represented their mother. The study showed there was a clear difference in brain responses between thinking about the self and the mother. However, in many other parts of the world, people describe themselves primarily as a part of different social relationships and strongly connected with others. This is more prevalent in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The brain-scanning study with Chinese participants showed little or no difference between the self and the mother, suggesting that the self-presentation shared a large overlap with the presentation of the close relative. Clearly, the way we define ourselves is linked to differences in social relationships, motivation and upbringing. Culture has a massive effect on how we view ourselves and how we are perceived by others. The field, now known as "cross-cultural psychology", is increasingly being taught at universities across the world. With more research, we may well find that cultural differences pervade into even more areas where human behavior was previously thought of as universal. But only by knowing about these effects will we ever be able to identify the core foundations of the human mind that we all share. 简答题 20分
3、Are you sometimes bothered by peer pressure, the strong feeling that you must follow the footsteps of other people of your age? What are the advantages or disadvantages of peer pressure? Write a 300-word expository essay to get across your idea. 简答题 60分
0人学习
0人学习
6008人学习
6008人学习
6008人学习