1 . What kind of people can become scientists? When a group of researchers posed that question to ninth-and 10th-graders, almost every student gave such responses as “People who work hard” or “Anyone who seems interested in the field of science.”
Many of these same students struggled to imagine themselves as scientists, citing concerns such as “I’m not good at science” and “Even if I work hard, I will not do well.” It’s easy for them to see a scientist’s work as arising from an inborn talent.
But for high school students, learning more about some struggles of scientists can help students feel more motivated to learn science. Researchers at Teachers College, Columbia University and the University of Washington designed an intervention to change students’ beliefs that scientific achievement depends on ability rather than effort by exposing students to stories of how accomplished scientists struggled and overcame challenges in their scientific efforts.
During the study, the students read one of three types of stories about Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Michael Faraday. Intellectual(智力的)struggle stories: stories about how scientists “struggled intellectually,” such as making mistakes while addressing a scientific problem and learning from them. Life struggle stories: stories about how scientists struggled in their personal lives, such as not giving up in the face of poverty or lack of family support. Achievement stories: stories about how scientists made great discoveries, without any discussion of coexisting challenges.
Researchers found that students who heard either type of “struggle stories” improved their science performance after-intervention, compared to students in the control group. The effect was especially pronounced for lower performing students, for whom exposure to struggling stories led to significantly better science-class performance than low-performing students who read achievement stories. In addition, students who read struggle stories reported feeling more personally connected to the scientists. By recognizing a scientist’s struggles and introducing the growth mindset he or she applied to accomplish great works, the students were able to empathize(共情)with the scientists during their own struggles.
1. Why do students fail to imagine themselves as scientists?| A．They lack interest in science. | B．They are short of confidence |
| C．They don’t have inborn talent. | D．They have no ability to study science |
| A．To introduce some inspirational stories to students. |
| B．To expose students to scientists’ great achievements. |
| C．To ensure students will become scientists in the future. |
| D．To clear students’ misunderstandings of scientific work. |
| A．minimal | B．noticeable | C．doubtful | D．long-lasting |
| A．Science ability has nothing to do with efforts. |
| B．Students are more motivated by achievement stories. |
| C．Scientists’ struggle stories can influence readers’ beliefs. |
| D．Low-performing students tend to feel connected to scientists. |
2 . Rick Guidotti put aside his career as a fashion photographer to turn his lens to people living with genetic, physical and behavioral differences.
He says what changed his perception of beauty was a chance encounter with an albino (患白化病的) girl. “I was just tired of people telling me who was beautiful. Every season that face would change but I was always told who was beautiful. As an artist, I don’t see beauty just on covers of magazines. I see it everywhere. So that was my original intention—that opened my eyes a little wider and wider.”
Guidotti has created Positive Exposure, a not-for-profit organization that uses photography and video to transform public perceptions and promote a world where differences are celebrated. Guidotti and Positive Exposure are featured in a new documentary called On Beauty.
One of the women featured in the film is Jayne Waithera. “I never thought I was beautiful because nobody said that to me, but meeting him was my profound moment. I remember that particular day. He took my picture and I felt so good like I felt there’s somebody who, like, really loves me and sees me for who I am and who sees me more than my condition.”
Guidotti is traveling from city to city to promote On Beauty. He says his tour is not about money; it’s about the message. “As I travel from community to community,I’m taking photographs and I’m empowering individuals with a positive sense of who they are. They’re seeing beauty in their reflection but I’m also empowering their families and they in turn are empowering their communities as well. All is based on the philosophy of change—how you see, how you change.”
1. Why did Guidotti change his career?| A．Because he wanted to create his own company. |
| B．Because the beauty on covers of magazines is not beautiful. |
| C．Because he couldn’t earn enough money from his former career. |
| D．Because his comprehension of beauty changed owing to an albino girl. |
| A．It makes the public more beautiful. |
| B．It brings a lot of money for Guidotti. |
| C．It welcomes differences in the world. |
| D．It makes photography more popular. |
| A．Jayne was beautiful indeed. |
| B．Jayne’s picture was more beautiful than herself. |
| C．It was unfair that nobody discovered Jayne’s beauty. |
| D．Photographs gave Jayne a positive sense of who she was. |
| A．We should travel frequently. |
| B．Communities have a great influence on everyone. |
| C．We should make contributions to our community. |
| D．Your attitude to seeing the world decides your behavior. |
3 . Whenever my nine-year-old daughter approached me, eyes wide, with a notebook and a pen, telling me she wanted to engage in a game of school, something inside me froze. There was a mental block so huge that it felt like I was being asked by Elon Musk to make a presentation about artificial intelligence. So, nine times out of ten, I made an excuse.
Why is it so hard to play with my child? I realize this is because I have no idea how to play. I have many happy memories of my youth, but absolutely none involves playing dolls or building blocks with my parents. I don’t blame them because they were never played with as children either. When I ask them what their own childhoods were like, my dad tells me a story about being locked in a cupboard, while my mum recalls the box of buttons she was told to amuse herself with.
There are studies showing how important play is for a child’s growth, and no end of people campaigning for our young to get more of it at school. The poet Michael Rosen, in his Book of Play, argues play is not an extra and all of us, whatever age, could do with more silliness in our lives.
As Rosen explains, “The need for adults to be productive member’s of society means we end up thinking of things that make us laugh, or which are fun to do, as not being very significant or having very little value.” This is exactly why we need to play more. It lightens the load of life and allows us to get back to a childlike state of wonder.
Play is vital to health. And it is why I’ve started playing school games with my daughter. I managed an entire hour and a half the other day—and afterwards, I felt happy. A good 20 years younger.
1. How did the author use to respond to her daughter’s request for a game?| A．She pretended to be surprised. | B．She apologized for being busy. |
| C．She chose to avoid involvement. | D．She turned to artificial intelligence. |
| A．The game category. | B．Memory strategies. | C．The generation gap. | D．Childhood experiences. |
| A．Laughter is the best medicine. | B．Play is not only intended for children. |
| C．Thinking like a kid frees people of stress. | D．Staying curious makes a productive worker. |
| A．Children grow up well in a fun environment. |
| B．Family interaction strengthens the parent-child tie. |
| C．Parents owe it to their children to play more with them. |
| D．Games are essential for children both at school and at home. |
4 . Fun things to do in high school
Learn another language
Your school might be holding foreign languages classes, so this is a great way to start your language learning journey! If you want more self-paced learning, apps like Duolingo are easily accessible (可使用的) on our mobile phones. As our world becomes more interconnected, it’s always good to learn another language or two.
Aim for a semester (学期) of straight A
This can be a difficult task but not impossible to achieve, as long as you put in the right amount of work and effort. If you are struggling(挣扎)with your grades, you can host or join group studies with your classmates!
Don’t be disheartened if you are not able to get an A in a semester. What’s important is having the drive to go forward. As a famous person once said, “He who would climb a ladder must begin at the bottom.
Experience another culture
Culture and tradition are something that all humans share. No matter where we come from, we always bring our culture with us. People coming from different cultures may be among your friends or neighbors.
You can go to a museum, read a book, or try new food in your area. Remember to keep an open mind and take the time to learn about them.
Bring a shareable treat to class
If you know your way around the kitchen, you can impress your class by making and bringing them a delicious treat! Not only will this make their stomachs happy, but you’ll also bond (联系) the whole class together. Just don’t forget to check with your teacher first before bringing one.
1. What should you do if you want to learn a language at your own speed?| A．Go to a museum to read books. | B．Attend another language class. |
| C．Learn it on an app like Duolingo. | D．Join group studies with your classmates. |
| A．Keeping an open mind. | B．Asking your teachers for help. |
| C．Changing your study method. | D．Having the drive to go forward. |
| A．Experiencing different cultures. | B．Making your teacher angry and anxious. |
| C．Making some students have a stomachache. | D．Making your classmates happy and united. |
5 . People will tell you the only way to really learn a language is to completely immerse(浸入)yourself in a country where that language is spoken. Not all language learners, of course, will have the opportunity to spend some time in an immersion environment. But if you can't actually fly across the world to learn a new language, you can always create an immersion environment where you can talk to native speakers.
That's where Babbel comes in. Babbel is one of the most popular language learning apps on the market for studying new languages at your own pace. The app emphasises real-life conversational skills, so you won't be stopped by grammatical structures and verb patterns.
And right now, you can get 15%off a lifetime subscription (订阅)to Babbel Language Learning（$150; stacksocial. com）.A lifetime subscription is huge when it comes to getting the most out of the app, since you'll be able to return to lessons time and time again and brush up on whichever section or topic you might need.
So how does it all work? First, you'll choose one of the 14 languages. While Babbel offers familiar languages like Spanish and Italian, it also offers less commonly studied ones like Polish, Indonesian and more. Once you pick your language, you'll choose a wide range of real-life topics. Each course takes about 10 to 15 minutes, so you can pick one up on the way to work, during your lunch break, or really at any point you have some time to kill.
Beyond this, Babbel includes a ton of additional features tailored to making sure you learn the language in a real, practical and accurate way. The app uses speech recognition technology to make sure your pronunciation is accurate compared with how native speakers would say certain words.
1. What does Paragraph 1 mainly tell us?| A．The terrifying experiences of travelling. | B．The importance of language learning environment. |
| C．Different ways to learn a new language. | D．Opportunities to communicate with native speakers. |
| A．It's a tool for learning languages. | B．It is designed in various types. |
| C．It focuses more on grammar structures. | D．It's the most popular app in the market. |
| A．Choose the place to learn a course. | B．Pick the language they want to learn. |
| C．Calculate the reading time. | D．Choose a proper topic. |
| A．To represent its additional features. | B．To meet the needs of native speakers. |
| C．To compare differences between words. | D．To make the pronunciation correct. |
6 . Amy Jandrisevits knows the value of a good doll (玩具娃娃). “Dolls have a
Seven years ago, a
Jandrisevits went about
Word
In all, she’s made more than 400 dolls. The waiting list is long but Jandrisevits is
| A．power | B．theme | C．system | D．fashion |
| A．lesson | B．inspiration | C．reward | D．experience |
| A．turn to | B．adapt to | C．realize | D．ignore |
| A．worker | B．patient | C．volunteer | D．friend |
| A．unforgettable | B．challenging | C．complex | D．impressive |
| A．natural | B．generous | C．helpful | D．hard |
| A．confidence | B．connection | C．trust | D．communication |
| A．following | B．blessing | C．explaining | D．changing |
| A．took | B．sent | C．saw | D．posted |
| A．came | B．failed | C．spread | D．read |
| A．loved | B．quit | C．began | D．lost |
| A．charged | B．gone | C．asked | D．paid |
| A．tired | B．curious | C．determined | D．famous |
| A．regardless of | B．instead of | C．apart from | D．according to |
| A．restored | B．beautified | C．sweet | D．funny |
7 . Valerie Bolduc is exploring a path under a four-lane highway to fit wildlife cameras, when she gets stuck in the mud. “I am really stuck,” says the road ecology student, trying to pull her feet out of a streambed that travels through the concrete culvert (涵洞) of Quebec Route 117. “I do not want to be a deer going through that.”
Bolduc’s dilemma makes evident the risks for wild animals using the same path.
A warming climate is pushing many animals to migrate toward higher latitudes (纬度) to remain within their desirable environments, but that comes with risks as they cross dangerous areas, such as highways. In eastern Canada, Bolduc and other researchers and conservationists are trying to preserve safe corridors (走廊) for wildlife.
The motion-activated cameras they have brought will record which species are using the tunnels. An outward-facing camera will identify what animals approach but do not enter, perhaps prevented by traffic noise, the tunnel’s size or other factors.
Bolduc explains that this highway running through southern Quebec separates a series of Canadian national and regional parks on either side, along with their animal populations. “It’s super important,” she notes, “because the animals want to move north and they encounter these and then can they move through? Will they get hit by a car? We’ll need to figure that out. And we need to help them, at least I want to help them.”
After finishing fitting their cameras on the northbound side of the highway, Bolduc and her team decide they need an alternate path to the other side to avoid another misfortune in the mud. “We’re generally trying to be safe,” Bolduc says, “but for the animals, this is their life!”
1. What can we learn from Bolduc’s experience of being trapped?| A．It is difficult to fit wildlife cameras. |
| B．She is out of luck during the exploration. |
| C．Road conditions of the highway are unexpected. |
| D．It is dangerous for wild animals to cross this area. |
| A．Less traffic noise. | B．Warmer climate. | C．Safe corridors. | D．Favorable environments. |
| A．To record the changes in traffic flow. | B．To figure out difficulties wild animals face. |
| C．To track animals in and around the tunnels. | D．To photograph the living environment of wild animals. |
| A．High Tech Protects Wildlife | B．Animal Migration Is under Threat |
| C．Ecologists Fear the Future of Wildlife | D．Researchers Seek Paths for Animals to Migrate |
8 . There is more of a connection between food and culture than you may think. On an individual level, we grow up eating the food of our culture. It becomes a part of who we are. Many associate food from our childhood with warm feelings and good memories and it ties us to our families, holding a special and personal value for us. Food from our families often becomes the comfort food we seek as adults in times of frustration and stress.
On a large scale, traditional food is an important part of culture. It also operates as an expression of cultural identity. Immigrants bring it wherever they go, and it is a symbol of pride in their culture and means of coping with homesickness.
Many immigrants open their own restaurants and serve traditional dishes. However, the food does not remain exactly the same. Some materials needed to make traditional dishes may not be readily available, so the taste and flavour can be different from what they would prepare in their home countries. Additionally, immigrants do not only sell dishes to people from the same countries as them, but to people from different countries. Therefore, they have to make small changes in the original dishes to cater to a wider range of customers. Those changes can create new flavours that still keep the cultural significance of the dishes.
We should not only embrace our heritage (传统) through our culture’s food, but also become more informed about other cultures by trying their food. It is important to remember that each dish has a special place in the culture to which it belongs, and is special to those who prepare it. Food is a window on culture, and it should be treated as such.
1. What’s the function of food mentioned in the text?| A．To help motivate homesickness. |
| B．To show cultural identity. |
| C．To reflect a country’s history. |
| D．To show a community’s superiority. |
| A．The specific traditional food. |
| B．The national culture. |
| C．A traditional expression of food. |
| D．The old-fashioned taste. |
| A．To attach cultural importance to their dishes. |
| B．To announce the beginning of their life on foreign soil. |
| C．To make the dishes popular among customers. |
| D．To present their own food culture in a new way. |
| A．Negative. |
| B．Balanced. |
| C．Unfair. |
| D．Unchangeable. |
9 . Earth Day is April 22. Every year, people around the world observe the day by helping to care for the environment. They carry out all kinds of activities in an effort to better the planet’s heath.
One way to support this goal is to grow plants native to your area. This helps wildlife like birds and insects that evolved alongside native plants. For many of these animals, plant pollen (花粉) is their food. Native pollinators often cannot recognize non-native plants as food. This means they do not collect the pollen or spread plants’ seeds. Planting non-native species creates so-called “food deserts” for pollinators including bees, birds, bats, butterflies and more.
Doug Taamy is a professor of entomology at the University of Delaware. Entomology is the study of insects. He found that non-native plant species can harm the natural food chain, which can lead to a collapse of the environment. “Plant choice matters,” he said. “The plants we choose to landscape our properties should be determined by how much life can live there.”
Humans depend strongly on insects. Without them, we would have no flowering plants, which would harm the food web that supports important animals. Birds, for example, depend on plants for food and spread their seeds while keeping the populations of harmful insects down.
Insects support plants that provide oxygen, clean our water, capture carbon and add nutrients to the soil. That builds topsoil and prevents flooding. Without insects, the biosphere — the living parts of the Earth — would rot because of the loss of insect decomposers. Humans simply could not survive that, Tallamy said.
In addition to providing food and habitat for insects and other wildlife, native plants are able to grow easily and do not require much care. That means less watering and less fertilizing. The situation is a win-win for gardeners and pollinators.
1. Which section of a website is the text probably taken from?| A．Around the globe. | B．Technology report. |
| C．The secret of nature. | D．Healthy Lifestyle. |
| A．They attract more insects. | B．They do harm to native plants. |
| C．They turn soil into desert. | D．They break the balance of nature. |
| A．They produce more oxygen. | B．They prevent flooding more effectively. |
| C．They need less care. | D．They add more nutrients to the soil. |
| A．Take effective measures to protect insects. |
| B．Raise environmental awareness on Earth Day. |
| C．Make great effort to better the planet's health. |
| D．Plant native plants to support local environment. |
10 . Travel has become increasingly inconvenient and sometimes impossible over the last couple of years. However, museums around the world are digitizing their collections, enabling people to tour the museums from afar.
The British Museum, London
The British Museum contains objects from around the world, including the Rosetta Stone, with three versions of a text that helped researchers learn to read ancient Egyptian. The Great Court’s ceiling, in the middle of the museum, is composed of 3212 pieces of glass, none of which are alike. The virtual tour of the museum offers a 360-degree view of the room, allowing visitors to look at every piece.
MASP, S ão Paulo
The first modern museum in Brazil, the Museu de Arte de São Paulo includes art from the 14th to the 20th centuries. The paintings, which are placed on glass panels, appear to be floating in mid-air. This setup, included in the virtual tour shows, makes the art appear almost magical.
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
This Korean museum includes four branches in different cities and features works of art from Korea and around the world. The art includes a variety of media such as print, sculpture and photography. There are also online exhibitions such as “Artists in Their Times” which traces trends in Korean art since the late 1970s.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County
This museum, with locations in two different places, features art going back to The Neolithic Period. Its virtual tour, accessible through Google Arts & Culture, offers views of more recent works, including some by van Gogh and Renoir. Another platform, Xplorlt, also features views of some of the museum’s outdoor spaces.
1. What can we learn about The British Museum?| A．It is best known for the Rosetta Stone. | B．It tells the changes of ancient Egyptian. |
| C．It is made up of several pieces of glass. | D．It houses exhibits from different countries. |
| A．The British Museum. | B．MASP, São Paulo. |
| C．National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. | D．The J. Paul Getty Museum. |
| A．They have several branches. | B．They display their paintings in mid-air. |
| C．They can be visited in your own home. | D．They are accessible on Google Arts & Culture. |
