1 . We often find ourselves struggling to control our thoughts, but why is it so hard to stop our minds wandering? Research found our thoughts are less focused and under less control than we realize. In a 1996 study, participants reported more than 4,000 thoughts daily, each lasting no more than five seconds. In a 1987 study, people regarded 22% of their thoughts as strange, unacceptable or wrong. Then, is it possible to avoid unwanted thoughts, whether it’s an upcoming exam or an unpleasant conversation? The answer is: maybe.
In a 2022 study, the researchers showed paid volunteers a series of slides displaying different nouns. Each noun was repeated on five different slides. As they viewed the slides, the participants wrote down a word they associated with each given noun — for example, “road” in response to “car.” Only the experimental group were told they wouldn’t get paid for repeated words. With this method, the researchers sought to create a situation when someone experiences unwanted thoughts.
When the experimental group saw each noun for a second time, they took longer than the control group to come up with a new association, suggesting their first response popped into their mind before they replaced it. However, they got quicker each time they viewed the same slide, indicating that their association between the given word and their first response — the thought they were trying to avoid — was weakening.
“We didn’t find evidence that people can entirely avoid unwanted thoughts,” said research leader Isaac Fradkin. “But the results suggest that practice can help people get better.”
Not everyone agrees that a slideshow of random words can tell how people stop emotional thoughts. Other research suggests that avoiding thoughts can backfire. When we do it, we’re sending our brains a message. This effort labels them as something to be feared, making them more powerful.
In the end, it might make more sense to take a mindful approach. “We can allow these thoughts to just be in our minds, not holding onto them too tightly and not trying to fight them,” said Fradkin.
1. What can we learn about our thoughts from paragraph 1?| A．Most of our thoughts are valueless. |
| B．We tend to focus more on negative thoughts. |
| C．Our thoughts can occur and disappear easily. |
| D．We can’t keep our thoughts for over five seconds. |
| A．To collect more associations. |
| B．To make the task more challenging. |
| C．To create a competitive atmosphere. |
| D．To set up a desired experimental environment. |
| A．Have an opposite effect. | B．Take back the wrong message. |
| C．Reveal hidden problems. | D．Cause a mental breakdown. |
| A．Drive them away. | B．Try to understand them. |
| C．Leave them alone. | D．Learn to control them. |
2 . Dreams of world peace are as old as wars. But as the women of Wales were recovering from World War I, they demanded peace in droves.
Still sorrowing the husbands, sons, and loved ones who fought in the war, in 1923 the Welsh League of Nations United (WLNU) drafted a petition (请愿书) at Aberystwyth University calling for a warless world.
The petition was signed by roughly three quarters of all the women in Wales and was said to be seven miles long. The document was then packed in a large oak chest and sent across the Atlantic.
It was the WLNU’s hope that America would join in their mission for peace, and so they toured with the petition across the country before President Calvin Coolidge gave it to the Smithsonian for preservation.
As the centennial anniversary of World War I approached, a plaque was found in the archives at the Temple of Peace in Cardiff mentioning the petition, but nobody knew what it was, says Mererid Hopwood, chair of the Women’s Peace Petition Partnership.
So in 2017, an email was sent to the Smithsonian inquiring about the status and location of the chest and its petition.
Having arrived at the National Library of Wales on March 29 this year, Hopwood received it along with other members of the Peace Petition Partnership and described opening the chest and finally getting to see its contents (内容) as an emotional moment.
Hopwood is hoping more Welsh citizens will have similar experiences now that the petition has returned to its original home. The petition will be digitized, along with all signatures and addresses, so the public can view it online and see if their grandmothers or previous tenants of their homes signed 100 years ago.
Clearly the world has not yet achieved the petition’s great goals, but Hopwood said the signatures gave her hope.
1. What was the petition meant for?| A．A thirst for peace. | B．An end to WWI. |
| C．A fight for Wales. | D．A call for apology. |
| A．Most Welsh signed on the petition. | B．Welsh asked for Americans’ help. |
| C．Welsh women wished for peace. | D．Welsh women honored the war. |
| A．She could lead the petition. | B．Her hope for peace is on fire. |
| C．Welsh could be free of wars. | D．It would cause a big storm. |
| A．To memorise World War I. | B．To remind to value peace. |
| C．To prove Welsh bravery. | D．To inform reappearance of a petition. |
3 . San Francisco Park ranger Amanda Barrows, who registered in City College of San Francisco (CCSF)’s Poetry for the People class, began to place a nightstand (床头柜) in Golden Gate Park with a note “take a poem, leave a poem” in December 2022. Since then, over 100 handwritten poems have been placed in the nightstand. “It’s completely unexpected,” said Barrows. “I’m really taken aback by the outpouring of support.”
Park ranger by day and poet by night, Barrows said she began writing and attending poetry workshops in 2020. The poetry course she attended was founded by Leslie Simon in 1975. The class advocates for a focus on the neighborhood, and the cultivation (培养) and public presentation of new poems. For Barrows, the idea that she could combine her job and her hobby by bringing poetry into parks was an inspiration. Barrows asked her friends to contribute their favorite poems to the nightstand as poems that could be taken.
Armed with an old nightstand, Barrows filled the stand with pens and paper. An added drawer at the bottom holds the poems that people “donate”. The concept reminded her of Little Free Libraries, which are fixtures across the city. “I was having anxiety. I had no idea what I was going to do; then it sort of just came to me,” said Barrows. “I was inspired by the little free libraries you see in SF, where you ‘take a book, leave a book’, and thought, ‘Maybe I could do this with poetry.’”
One of the teachers at the CCSF poetry course, Lauren Muller, told The Washington Post that “people need poetry now”, which she suggested as the reason for the success of Barrows’s project.
Past student projects included writing poetry on sidewalks in chalk and placing poems on the windshields (挡风玻璃) of cars. “It’s exciting to see the work that students are doing,” Muller continued. “My hope is that this will happen across city parks… elsewhere.”
1. What did Amanda Barrows do for her project?| A．She invited her friends to donate poems. |
| B．She gave a special poetry course by herself. |
| C．She read a lot of poems for people. |
| D．She equipped parks with many nightstands. |
| A．They made her interested in poetry. |
| B．They let her quit her job for her interest. |
| C．They gave her inspiration for her project. |
| D．They encouraged her to write more poems. |
| A．The benefits of writing poetry. |
| B．The public demand for poetry. |
| C．The help from her neighbors. |
| D．The large number of parks in SF. |
| A．The Impacts of a Park Ranger’s Poem-writing |
| B．San Francisco’s Unique Poems on a Nightstand |
| C．The Spread of Poetry Throughout the Libraries |
| D．A Park Ranger’s Powerful Poetry Project |
4 . Turning soil, pulling weeds, and harvesting cabbage sound like tough work for middle and high school kids. And at first it is, says Abby Jaramillo, who with another teacher started Urban Sprouts, a school garden program at four low-income schools. The program aims to help students develop science skills, environmental awareness, and healthy lifestyles.
Jaramillo’s students live in neighborhoods where fresh food and green space are not easy to find and fast food restaurants outnumber grocery stores. “The kids literally come to school with bags of snacks and large bottles of soft drinks,” she says. “They come to us thinking vegetables are awful, dirt is awful, insects are awful.” Though some are initially scared of the insects and turned off by the dirt, most are eager to try something new.
Urban Sprouts’ classes, at two middle schools and two high schools, include hands-on experiments such as soil testing, flower-and-seed dissection, tastings of fresh or dried produce, and work in the garden. Several times a year, students cook the vegetables they grow, and they occasionally make salads for their entire schools.
Program evaluations show that kids eat more vegetables as a result of the classes. “We have students who say they went home and talked to their parents and now they’re eating differently,” Jaramillo says.
She adds that the program’s benefits go beyond nutrition. Some students get so interested in gardening that they bring home seeds to start their own vegetable gardens. Besides, working in the garden seems to have a calming effect on Jaramillo’s special education students, many of whom have emotional control issues. “They get outside,” she says, “and they feel successful.”
1. What do we know about Abby Jaramillo?| A．She used to be a health worker. | B．She grew up in a low-income family. |
| C．She owns a fast food restaurant. | D．She is an initiator of Urban Sprouts. |
| A．The kids’ parents distrusted her. | B．Students had little time for her classes. |
| C．Some kids disliked garden work. | D．There was no space for school gardens. |
| A．Far-reaching. | B．Predictable. |
| C．Short-lived. | D．Unidentifiable. |
| A．Rescuing School Gardens | B．Experiencing Country Life |
| C．Growing Vegetable Lovers | D．Changing Local Landscape |
5 . My neighbour Orlando is a paramedic (护理人员). He and his wife are some of the nicest people I have ever met. A few years back we started this sort of “favor war”, where one of us would do something for the other, such as shoveling (铲) his driveway or helping him build a shed, and next time the other would try to top it with another favor.
Yesterday morning there was maybe 2 or 3 feet of snow on the ground and I remembered he shoveled my driveway for me last snowfall. So I took out my shovel and took care of both our sidewalks and driveways because it was my turn to do a favor back. It took a while but I finished and got into my car for work. What I did not realize was that Orlando had to work that day too.
Fast forward to this morning I got a knock on my door. It was him. He immediately shook my hand and informed me that because I shoveled his driveway and sidewalk for him, he was able to get to work earlier. As soon as he started his shift, a call came through that a young boy was in a medical emergency. Luckily he and his partner were only about 2 minutes away, but the next closest ambulance was in 10 minutes. This kid didn’t have 10 minutes. He barely had 2 minutes. Because my neighbour got to work sooner, the young boy got to live his life.
This isn’t a brag (吹嘘). This is to inform others that even the smallest favors can have the biggest impacts. It wasn’t too much of trouble to shovel his driveway for him, but because I did, the young kid got to see his family again, go back to school again, talk to his friends again and live his life.
1. What can we know about the writer and Orlando?| A．They once had a conflict. | B．They signed a favorable agreement. |
| C．They favor shoveling snow together. | D．They are always ready to help each other. |
| A．The writer. | B．The boy’s parents. |
| C．Orlando and his partner. | D．Orlando and his wife. |
| A．To tell him to clear up the snow. | B．To tell him to do a favour back. |
| C．To express his thanks to him. | D．To say he started his shift. |
| A．Never ask for trouble. | B．No favor is too small. |
| C．One cannot always be lucky. | D．Don’t lose heart in an emergency. |
6 . Last May, my 15-year-old son, Benjamin, told my wife and me that he would attend a Kendrick Lamar concert. We
Later I received a
To learn about Mr Lamar and his
The truth is the concert was really
It’s so easy to sit in our towers,
| A．convinced | B．informed | C．comforted | D．promised |
| A．refused | B．struggled | C．prepared | D．expected |
| A．notice | B．ticket | C．message | D．gift |
| A．relieved | B．guilty | C．embarrassed | D．confident |
| A．singing | B．sharing | C．planning | D．welcoming |
| A．rule | B．means | C．round | D．point |
| A．fit in | B．benefit from | C．care for | D．complain about |
| A．story | B．music | C．family | D．influence |
| A．creative | B．formal | C．noisy | D．impressive |
| A．appropriate | B．bearable | C．useful | D．convenient |
| A．As long as | B．In case | C．Because | D．While |
| A．compared | B．referred | C．introduced | D．recommended |
| A．divided | B．threatened | C．broken | D．tested |
| A．Eventually | B．Consequently | C．Gradually | D．Fortunately |
| A．hobby | B．sense | C．right | D．freedom |
7 . I’ve been working as a UN Peacekeeper in the Central African Republic for the past two years. Before this, I was a pilot and I
The Central African Republic is a relatively small country. Since it got
We peacekeepers
As a woman, I am particularly
My life is not
| A．hated | B．changed | C．guarded | D．enjoyed |
| A．gave in to | B．signed up with | C．kept up with | D．looked up to |
| A．treatment | B．inspiration | C．technology | D．independence |
| A．flee | B．return | C．sweep | D．tend |
| A．In return | B．In surprise | C．In addition | D．In response |
| A．measure | B．reputation | C．mission | D．business |
| A．monitor | B．expand | C．follow | D．block |
| A．report | B．prove | C．ensure | D．predict |
| A．bridge | B．castle | C．barrier | D．shelter |
| A．protected | B．valued | C．trusted | D．doubted |
| A．deserve | B．prefer | C．plan | D．fail |
| A．gently | B．equally | C．intimately | D．honestly |
| A．boring | B．rewarding | C．difficult | D．fancy |
| A．association | B．administration | C．accommodation | D．adaptation |
| A．available | B．worthwhile | C．ambitious | D．educational |
8 . The two-week Harvard Pre-College Program is an intense and exciting experience of the college life. The admission committee is now looking for mature, academically motivated students who will graduate from high school and enter college in 2022.
The Course Experience
With over 30 courses to choose from, you’re sure to find a topic that interests you. Although courses are non-credit and do not have letter grades, you need to attend the class in its entirety. When class is not in session, you can participate in creative and social activities. At the end of the program, you’ll receive a written evaluation from your instructor, as well as a transcript (成绩单).
Time
•July 24 — August 5
How to Apply
Complete an online application and provide supplemental (补充的) materials, including: •The＄75 non-refundable application fee.
•Transcripts from 9th grade to fall 2021 grades: This can include progress reports, report cards, and educational summaries from your high school.
•If English is not your native language, submit scores from the TOEFL IBT or IELTS language proficiency exam along with your application.
Cost & Aid
The total fee for a Harvard Pre-College Program 2022 session is＄4, 950. The program fee includes tuition, room and board, and activity costs for the full two weeks. There is also a non-refundable ＄75 application fee and ＄100 health insurance.
A limited number of scholarships are available to assist students who demonstrate financial need. Awards vary based on need, and a typical award covers part of the tuition.
How to contact us
Interested in learning more about the program? Complete our request form, and a member of our team will contact you.
Phone: (617) 495-4023
Email: precollege@ summer.harvard.cn
1. Which is a requirement for students attending the course?| A．Completing 30 courses. | B．Getting required credits. |
| C．Having a full attendance. | D．Prioritizing social activities. |
| A．Health certificate. | B．Academic conditions. |
| C．Financial declaration. | D．Personal integrity. |
| A．＄4,775 | B．＄4,875 | C．＄4,950 | D．＄5,125 |
9 . Have you ever had the urge to open a book and stick your nose straight into the pages? The smell of old books can refresh any book lovers. We don’t know why, but it is just pleasant to us.
Describing the smell can be a challenge. And mere adjectives will likely be of little use to future generations of historians trying to document, understand or reproduce the scent of slowly decaying books. Now, that task may have just gotten easier thanks to the Historic Book Odor Wheel.
In one experiment, researchers asked visitors at the historic library to characterize the scents they smelled. All the visitors selected words like “woody”, “smoky” and “earthy” from the list, and described the smell’s intensity and perceived pleasantness. In another experiment, the study authors presented visitors to the Birmingham Museum with eight smells — one of which was an unlabeled historic book scent and seven were non-bookish, such as coffee, chocolate, fish market and dirty clothes. The researchers then had those museum goers describe the historic book smell.
The top two responses? Chocolate and coffee. “You tend to use familiar associations to describe smells when they are unlabeled,” study author Cecilia Bembibre says.
The team even analyzed the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (挥发性有机化合物) in the book and the library. Using the data from the chemical analysis and visitors’ smell descriptions, the researchers created the Historic Book Odor Wheel to document the “historic library smell”. Main categories, such as “sweet/spicy”, fill the inner circle of the wheel; descriptors, such as “chocolate/cream”, fill the middle; and the chemical compounds likely to be the smelly source, like furfural, fill the outer circle. The researchers want the book odor wheel to be a tool that “untrained noses” can use to identify smells and the compounds causing them, which could address conservators’ concerns about material composition and historic paper conservation. And hopefully, smells of the past can be reproduced in the lab someday and museums and historians can use it to reconstruct a past we can no longer smell.
1. What is mainly talked about in the first paragraph?| A．An strange reading habit. | B．Fascination for smells of books. |
| C．Addiction to reading books. | D．A dislike for smelling books. |
| A．By referring to familiar items. | B．By using adjectives to label them. |
| C．By analysing chemical compounds. | D．By connecting them with food smells. |
| A．To record historic library smells. | B．To identify smells and compounds. |
| C．To remove the conservators’ worries. | D．To put different scents into different libraries. |
| A．Creating a whole new scent. | B．Improving the people’s sense of smell. |
| C．Restoring smells of historic documents. | D．Extracting components of “old book smell”. |
10 . The idea of low material desire, low consumption and refusing to work, marry and have children, concluded as a “lying down” lifestyle, recently struck a chord with many young Chinese who are eager to take pause to breathe in this fast-paced and highly-competitive society.
Many millennials (千禧一代) and generation Zs complained to the Global Times that burdens, including work stress, family disputes and financial strains, have pushed them “against the wall”. They said they hate the “involution(内卷),” joking that they would rather give up some of what they have than get trapped in an endless competition against peers.
“Instead of always following the ‘virtues’ of struggle, endure and sacrifice to bear the stresses, they prefer a temporary lying down as catharsis (宣泄) and adjustment,” said a scholar. “It is no wonder that some young people, under the growing pressures from child-raising to paying the mortgage (按揭) today, would try to live in a simple way and leave the worries behind.”
Interestingly, the majority of millennials and Gen Zs reached by the Global Times, who claim to be big fans of the lying down philosophy, acknowledged that they only accept a temporary lying down as a short rest. It is true that with the great improvement of living conditions, some Chinese youth have partially lost the spirit of hardship and are not willing to bear too much hard work. But in fact, lying down is not entirely comfortable. Young people who lie down always feel guilty about their constant loss of morale (士气) far beyond their reach.
“Young people on campus have both aspirations and confusion about their future, but most of us have rejected setting ourselves up in chains to waste opportunities and challenges,” a postgraduate student told the Global Times. “It’s no use running away. I have to ‘stand up’ and face the reality sooner or later.”
1. What does the underlined phrase in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Warned. | B．Punished. | C．Amused. | D．Touched. |
| A．Improvements in living conditions. |
| B．Growing pressure from family and social life. |
| C．Increasing material possessions from families. |
| D．Temporary adjustment to failure in competitions. |
| A．Understanding. | B．Intolerant. | C．Supportive. | D．Unclear. |
| A．They never really drop their responsibilities. |
| B．They really enjoy the “lying down” lifestyle. |
| C．They find their dreams far beyond their reach. |
| D．They would rather escape than take challenges. |
