Many of us enjoy doing it: you turn on the camera on your mobile phone and hold it at a high angle, making your eyes look bigger and your cheekbones more defined. You turn to your best side and click. There it is — your selfie.
Over the past year, “selfie” has become a well-known term across the globe. This August the Oxford dictionary added the word to their online dictionary and defined it as: “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and up-loaded to a social media website.”
Today it’s not difficult to find social networking pages full of photos people have taken of themselves and their friends. And selfie culture has become especially relevant for young people. As many as 91 percent of teenagers have posted photos of themselves online, according to a recent survey by the US Pew Research Center.
So what are the reasons for the rise of selfie culture?
“The cult (狂热) of the selfie celebrates regular people,” Pamela Rutledge, a professor at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, told Vogue magazine. “There are many more photographs available now of real people than models.”
Posting selfies also allows you to control your image online. “I like having the power to choose how I look, even if I’m making a funny face,” Samantha Barks, 19, a high school student in the US, told Vogue.
In addition to self-expression and documentation, selfies “allow of a close friendship for long-distance friends, because you can see each other’s faces every day”, wrote Casey Miller at The Huffmgton Post.
But US psychologist Jill Weber is concerned that selfies might lead to social problems, “There’s a danger that your self-esteem may start to be tied to the comments and ‘likes’ you get when you post a selfie, and they aren’t based on who you are — they’re based on what you look like,” Weber told Vogue. “When you get nothing or a negative response, your confidence can plummet.”
With the first paragraph, the author intends to         .

A．tell us the fun of taking a selfie

B．describe what a selfie is

C．introduce where the selfie came from

D．inform readers that the selfie is popular among teenagers

Why is selfie culture so popular according to the article?
a. It enables people to choose how they look.
b. It helps people improve their self-esteem.
c. It’s a chance for ordinary people to show off themselves.
d. It is believed to be a helpful way to develop a new friendship.
e. It is considered a good way to stay connected with friends that are far away.

A．a, c, e

B．b, c, d

C．a, b, c

D．b, d, e

What is Jill Weber’s attitude toward selfies?

A．She thinks they are a good form of self-expression and documentation.

B．She believes the disadvantages of selfies outweigh the advantages.

C．She is worried that people’s self-esteem might be affected by how others react to their selfies.

D．She thinks that selfies can help people learn about their friends based on who they really are.

The underlined word “plummet” in the last paragraph probably means         .

A．rapidly develop	B．greatly exaggerate
C．become dangerous	D．quickly fall

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