1 . Suppose you are making 30, 000 yuan every month. Do you think you are rich? Does your income (收入) make you feel happy?
Well, these days, not even the rich feel rich. According to a survey, only 13 percent of American millionaires (百万富翁) considered themselves wealthy. Some of them had more than 85 million, but they still didn’t feel rich. If millionaires don’t feel wealthy, then who does?
I visited Elizabeth Dunn. She is a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia. I asked her, “Once people have enough money to cover their basic needs, what would make them feel satisfied with what they have?” Dunn said she didn’t know of any studies that tried to directly answer this question. But she did point to some research that seemed to provide some possible answers to it.
First comes social comparison. Dunn says that it plays a very important role. If a person is richer than the people he compares himself with, then he is going to feel rich. In a 2005 study in Germany, people were happier when their incomes were larger than those who were similar to them in terms of age and education. Another study found that people were less happy the more their neighbors earned. Things were worse when their neighbors won the lottery (彩票).
Dunn also noted a couple of other factors (因素) that might lead people to feel richer. She brought up a 2016 study. It found people’s bank balance (账户余额) could influence their life satisfaction. Some people feel pretty good about their level of income, but it’s not because they are earning a lot. Instead, it may be because they always have at least 5, 000 dollars in the bank. That number is able to make them feel safe.
It also matters a lot what people do with their money. Spending money in certain ways can make people feel better. Generally speaking, it helps to spend more on unforgettable experiences. Paying others to do the things that one hates the most, such as cooking, also brings feelings of happiness.
“It’s not just how much you have, but how you spend it,” Dunn told me. “If you make excellent spending decisions, then you can really turn a middle income into enough happiness. ”
1. What can we learn from the survey in paragraph 2?
| A．There weren’t many millionaires in the U. S. |
| B．Millionaires usually considered themselves rich. |
| C．Many people in the U. S. had more than $5 million. |
| D．Even very rich people didn’t think they were wealthy. |
2. Dunn brought up ________ factors that might influence people’s feelings of wealth.
| A．two | B．three | C．four | D．five |
3. Dunn may agree that ________.
| A．it’s important to make enough money to cover basic needs |
| B．spending money wisely is a good way to make us feel happy |
| C．people should communicate with their neighbor as often as possible |
| D．people feel pretty good because they make 5, 000 dollars every month |
4. What is the main purpose of the passage?
| A．To share the opinions about people’s bank balance. |
| B．To describe how experiences influence life satisfaction. |
| C．To talk about the relationship between money and happiness. |
| D．To give information about millionaires from different countries. |
2 . At the beginning of August, 2021, the Chinese government set new rules limiting (限制) online gaming for people under the age of 18. Under the rules, children can only play online games for one hour a night on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. On these nights, young people can only play games between 8 p. m. and 9 p. m. What’s more, players must use their real names and birth dates.
The new rules are to protect the health of young people. The government doesn’t want young people to become addicted (上瘾的) to online gaming.
Parents and teachers welcome the new rules. They are glad that the government has taken action to help control children’s interest in online gaming.
Wu Yanlin, a teacher and mother of a high school student in Wuhan, was delighted when she heard about the news. She said online gaming is a waste of time and is not good for young students’ studies. While many schools don’t allow the use of phones in classrooms, lots of students choose to play video games at home, and their parents often find it difficult to stop them from spending too much time online.
Limiting the time children spend online is the first step towards protecting them. But to better deal with the problem of Internet addiction, more efforts (努力) are needed from families, schools, the government and society.
1. What do the new online gaming rules limit?| A．Players’ age and height. | B．Players’ skill and height. |
| C．Players’ age and playing time. | D．Players’ skill and playing time. |
| A．高兴的 | B．骄傲的 | C．遗憾的 | D．惊讶的 |
| A．Follow the rules | B．Let’s play games |
| C．Say “No” to phones | D．Against Internet addiction |
| A．Art. | B．History. | C．Education. | D．Environment. |
3 . ①When you go to the park, you might see many older people aren’t reading paper books but listening to audiobooks (有声书). Audiobooks have become quite popular these days. Why are more and more people choosing audiobooks over traditional books? Is listening to an audiobook just as good as reading a book?
②Reading needs all our focus (注意力) on the words in a book, and we also need to find time and a place to sit down and read. However, you can listen to audiobooks anytime and anywhere you like, and it gives your eyes a rest, too.
③But the big question is, do we get information from audiobooks as effectively (有效地) as we do from paper books? Researchers did a research to find the answer. They asked people in group one to listen to audiobook while people in group two read the same paper book. It turned out that people in the first group remembered as much information as the second group.
④Another study in the Journal of Neuroscience also shows the same result. In the study, researchers scanned (扫描) people’s brains when they listened to and read books. The result showed that listening to audiobooks activates almost the same parts of the brain as reading does.
⑤However, some people still believe that they learn better from reading paper books. One reason might be that when we listen to audiobooks, we are often multitasking (处理多个任务). “If you’re trying to learn while doing two things, you’re not going to learn as well,” Daniel Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, told The New York Times.
1. Why do people like listening to audiobooks according to Paragraph 2?| A．Because they can not see the words clearly on the paper books. |
| B．Because they don’t have time to choose books in a bookstore. |
| C．Because they can listen to them anytime and anywhere they like. |
| D．Because they hardly have any time to read because of hard work. |
| A．We need to find time and a place to listen to audio books. |
| B．People get less information from audio books than paper books. |
| C．In the research, people need to read and listen to books at the same time. |
| D．Researchers learned how people’s brains work when they listen to and read books. |
| A．To show the good points of listening to audio books. |
| B．To tell us the differences between audiobooks and paper books. |
| C．To introduce a new way of reading—listening to audio books. |
| D．To discuss if listening to audio books is as good as reading paper books. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
4 . 阅读短文，根据要求完成文后的题目。
What color of clothes do you think will be popular in the future?
Some people think blue will be popular, because blue means peace. Everybody in the world doesn’t like wars (战争). Many people lose their family in war. Blue will make people remember to keep peaceful.
Other people think green will be popular, because they think it is the color of nature (自然). Now the environmental problem is more serious than before. Luckily, people in the world are thinking more about how to look after the environment. When people wear green clothes, they will keep the environment in their hearts and try to make the environment better.
Yellow will also be a popular color. Why will it be popular? People are very busy these days and they have a lot to do. Yellow is a soft color and it can make people feel relaxed.
Most people think black is the color that will become the most popular. It always looks cool, and men often show off their social position (社会地位) by using this color.
1. What colors are mentioned (提到) in the passage? (No more than 5 words)5 . 阅读下列短文，根据题目要求完成各小题。
Many people enjoy going on holiday. It is a good chance to relax, visit new places and see new things. But you should decide who you want to travel with.
Travelling with your family can be very cheap or even free if your parents pay. But there are many arguments (争吵). For example, on our trip to Hawaii last year, we had different ideas. Dad always wants to go to a museum. Mom would like to stay in the hotel. My sister likes to shop for clothes. As for me, the coffee shop is the best place.
It would be fun to travel with friends. When you travel with friends, you have to do more different things than when you travel with your family. It is a good way to strengthen (加强) a friendship. You can get to know more about your friends. You can become closer to each other. But money is always important. You may have different budgets (预算). There are also a lot of compromises (让步) about what to eat and where to stay.
There’s the third choice about who you travel with. That’s travelling alone. If you travel alone, you might spend less money. You can choose what you want to do and eat. It’s easier for you to make new friends.
Of course, travelling alone is not always a good idea. Sometimes you might get bored. If you need to go to the toilet at the bus station or airport, there is nobody to look after your things.
1. Why did the writer’s family have an argument on the trip to Hawaii?6 . Almost all the children love watching television, some children will spend six hours a day at school, then spent another four to six hours in front of the television set. Some even watch television for eight hours or more on Saturdays.
TV shows are like books or films. A child can learn both good things and bad things from them. Some programs help children understand the world better. Others introduce them to people and places from other countries or other times in history. With TV, a child does not have to go to the zoo to see animals or to the ocean to see a ship. Boys and girls can see plays, concerts or games at home. Television brings many places and events into our homes.
Some programs show crime (犯罪活动) and other things that children shouldn’t watch, so parents need to help their kids to find out the good programs.
1. Some children usually spend ________ a day in school.| A．four hours | B．four to six hours |
| C．six hours | D．more than eight hours |
| A．Studying | B．playing card games |
| C．watching TV | D．helping their parents |
| A．Games | B．animals | C．oceans | D．almost everything |
| A．Television is bad for children. |
| B．Television makes people love their homes. |
| C．People can learn about things without going to see them. |
| D．people can see houses and buildings on TV. |
| A．Why TV is bad. |
| B．The good and had sides of TV. |
| C．How kids watch TV. |
| D．Programs on TV for children. |
[1] 86.43 percent of Chinese college students enjoy bullet-screen comments (弹幕评论) when watching videos, as they like the interaction (互动) with others. 75.13 percent of them believe that these comments can bring them happiness.
[2] China Youth Daily has ① ________ a survey on “Generation Z bullet-screen comment culture”. 11,976 college students across the country took part in it. Generation Z often refers to people who were born between 1996-2010.
[3] The survey results showed that 61.34 percent of the students often choose to open the function (功能) of bullet-screen comments when watching videos. However, 38.66 percent choose not to; the main reason is that these comments may cover the pictures and make the experience bad.
[4] Huang Xiaobei is one of the college students. She first saw bullet-screen comments when she was watching a movie called Wolf Warriors. “I couldn’t close the comments, so I had to watch them,” Huang said. However, after this experience, Huang Xiaobei has changed from “hating the comments, being bored of them” to “thinking it to be very interesting.”
[5] According to the survey, 67.27 percent of the students ② ________ bullet-screen comments as a way to express (表达) their views; 63.05 percent of them believe that the comments serve as a good supplement (补充) to the video, and 53.19 percent of them believe that bullet-screen comments help them find like-minded people all over the world.
[6] So far (到目前为止), bullet-screen comments have become a way of interactive communication widely accepted by people and progressed from a simple tool to a special culture.
任务一：根据句意各填入一个最恰当的词。
1. ①
任务二：回答问题，注意词数限制。
2. Who does Generation Z refer to? (no more than 10 words)
3. Why do some students close the comments when watching videos? (no more than 14 words)
4. When did Huang Xiaobei first see bullet-screen comments? (no more than 10 words)
5. Why does Huang Xiaobei no longer hate bullet-screen comments now? (no more than 10 words)
任务三：翻译句子。
6. 将第六段中划线句子翻译成汉语。
8 . Hey kids, Chinese New Year is just around the corner. We’ve got an interesting way to remember the Year of the Rabbit and kick off the Year of the Dragon. Our readers picked one word to talk about their past year and welcome the new year.
Growth
I had a pretty cool year. I got taller, almost as tall as my mom. I’ve picked up swimming and skiing and had a lot of fun. I also found out I’m braver than I thought.
(Sheng Zhuona, 10, Dalian)
Hope
The COVID-19 pandemic ended. No more masks, no more nucleic acid tests (核酸检测) and no more studying from home. We’ve returned to school and reunited with our teachers and classmates. Everything is back to normal and everything is full of hope.
(Liu Haoran, 10, Shenzhen)
Beginning
For me, 2024 marks a beginning — it’s the year of my birth sign. A new cycle marks a new beginning. I’m going to be a middle school student. I know there will be a lot more to learn. I’m ready to become a better me.
(Shen Yichen, 11, Shanghai)
Helping
In December, it has snowed a lot in Beijing. My classmates and I built snowmen and had snowball fights. Friendship is great, but it’s not just about sharing good times. It’s more about helping each other. I want to help my classmates with their math problems. Helping others is also a wonderful thing.
(Zhang Zinan, 8, Beijing)
1. The readers of the newspaper may be ________.| A．teachers | B．primary school students | C．middle school students | D．parents |
| A．Growth. | B．Beginning. | C．Hope. | D．Helping. |
| A．Sheng Zhuona. | B．Liu Haoran. | C．Zhang Zinan. | D．Shen Yichen. |
| A．Dragon. | B．Horse. | C．Rabbit. | D．Monkey. |
| A．Sharing good times. | B．Helping each other. |
| C．Solving math problems. | D．Building snowmen. |
9 . Nowadays, there are more and more talent shows. They are very popular all over China. Here are my ideas about talent shows.
These talent shows give everyone a chance to show their talents. For some lucky people, these talent shows may make them famous, and can even make them rich. However, there are also many bad sides. First, young people spend too much time on such TV shows. They always dream of being stars, so they spend less time on their studies. Second, some young people just imitate (模仿) their favorite stars. They may forget their own styles (风格).
I think these shows are social (社会的) activities. Young people can join in these activities to get social experience. But they should know that the chance of becoming famous is very small for most people. They should know that they must work hard at something more important—________.
1. What’s the result of joining in talent shows for some lucky people? (不超过15个词)2. What will happen if young people just imitate their favorite stars? (不超过10个词)
3. What would the writer say at the end of the text? (不超过5个词)
10 . Sometimes, we see many pictures of young, tall, and very thin women on TV and in magazines. There are many articles telling people how to lose weight (减肥). It seems like becoming thinner can help people find true happiness.
But looking at those pictures can sometimes make us feel sad or want to eat in a way that’s not good for us. The good news is we don’t have to change how we look to be happy. What matters (要紧) is how we see ourselves and what we think about our own bodies.
Knowing what makes us happy and what we’re good at can make us feel strong and confident (自信的). Doing things like playing outside and eating healthy food, if you really want to, helps a lot too. The key is to feel good about ourselves. If we love ourselves, we’re more likely (可能的) to make friends and be happy.
Sometimes, the pictures we see show (表明) only one idea of what’s beautiful. But there are also companies, like Dove, that want to show real people are beautiful too. They use real women of different body sizes, skin colours and ages in their advertisements to tell us that everyone is beautiful in their own way.
So, remember, you don’t have to be like the people in the pictures to be happy. You’re already amazing just the way you are!
1. Why looking at pictures of thin women may make people feel sad?| A．Because they hope they can be taller and thinner. | B．Because they think the women aren’t beautiful. |
| C．Because they dislike the colors in the pictures. | D．Because they want to eat unhealthier food. |
| A．Eating unhealthy food and watching TV. | B．Playing outside and eating healthy food. |
| C．Changing their looks and reading magazines. | D．Losing weight and using Dove products (产品). |
| A．Only tall women are beautiful. | B．Everyone should change their look. |
| C．People are beautiful in their own way. | D．Dove only sells soap and shampoo. |
| A．How to Be Really Tall and Thin | B．Being Happy Just the Way You Are |
| C．Eating Healthy Food for True Happiness | D．The Magic of Dove’s Advertisements |
