1 . A perfect performance of Chinese Shaolin Kung Fu amazed hundreds of audiences in Bowers Museum in US Southern California on Sunday.
This Kung Fu demonstration by Shaolin monks (僧人) was a highlight of the 2023 Shaolin Cultural Day, a rare cultural event for the Orange County community in Southern California.
“The event offers a unique opportunity for the Orange County community to actively engage with Shaolin culture and gain firsthand experience in various Shaolin activities,” said Anne Shih, chairwoman of the Board of Governors of Bowers Museum. “Whether it’s learning from Kung Fu masters or enjoying interactive Shaolin activities, these experiences will help audiences to experience the Chinese culture and better understand Chinese traditions,” Shih said.
With a history of over 1, 500 years, Shaolin Kung Fu is one of China’s most treasured cultural heritage items, and has been practiced by Kung Fu lovers around the world.
Larry Lee, a 72-year-old resident of Orange County, said he has been practicing Kung Fu for over 50 years. “The traditional Chinese martial arts have deep intelligence in it. They relate to a way of life that goes much deeper than just fighting.” Lee said besides Kung Fu, he is also interested in Chinese medicine and other elements of the Chinese culture.
The 2023 Shaolin Cultural Day served as a fitting finale (场) to the 2023 Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, providing a platform to honor and appreciate the contributions of the AAPI community.
“The event will help people of other communities to be better informed about China and the Chinese culture, and therefore developing understanding and friendship,” said Cultural Counselor (参赞) of the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles Wang Taiyu. “We hope through such activities, we can promote friendship between Chinese and American peoples, and contribute to China-US relations.” he said.
1. What can we infer about Shaolin Kung Fu from paragraphs 1 and 2?| A．It was performed on a school’s playground. | B．Orange County didn’t enjoy it often. |
| C．Its performance lasted two weeks. | D．Its attracted vistiors all over the world. |
| A．Helping Southern Californians learn Chinese quickly. |
| B．Helping audiences become Kung Fu masters through practice. |
| C．Helping audiences have a better knowledge of Chinese traditions. |
| D．Helping Orange County attract more Kung Fu lovers around the world. |
| A．They include wisdom in them. |
| B．They focus mainly on fighting. |
| C．They represent Chinese culture and history. |
| D．They inspire you to be expert at Chinese medicine. |
| A．To stress the importance of communities. | B．To advise how to understand each other. |
| C．To compare different cultures. | D．To build up better friendships. |
2 . When you look up at the blue sky or gaze across blue ocean, you might think that the color blue is common in nature. But among all the colors found in rocks, plants and flowers, or in the fur, feathers, scales and skin of animals, blue is surprisingly scarce.
But why is the color blue so rare? The answer stems from the chemistry and physics of how colors are produced — and how we see them. Were able to see color because each of our eyes contains between 6 million and 7 million light-sensitive cells called cones (椎体). There are three different types of cones in the eye of a person with normal color vision, and each cone type is most sensitive to a particular wavelength of light: red, green or blue. Information from millions of cones reaches our brains as electrical signals that communicate all the types of light reflected by what we see, which is then interpreted as different shades of color.
When we look at a colorful object, “the object is absorbing some of the white light that falls onto it; because its absorbing some of the light, the rest of the light that reflected has a color,” science writer Kai Kupferschmidt said.
“When you see a blue flower — for instance, a cornflower — you see the cornflower as blue because it absorbs the red part of the spectrum (光谱),” Kupferschmidt said. Or to put it another way, the flower appears blue because that color is the part of the spectrum that the blossom rejected.
In the visible spectrum, red has long wavelengths, meaning it is very low-energy compared with other colors. For a flower to appear blue, it needs to be able to produce a molecule (分子) that can absorb very small amounts of energy, in order to absorb the red part of the spectrum.
Generating such molecules — which are large and complex — is difficult for plants to do, which is why blue flowers are produced by fewer than 10% of the worlds nearly 300,000 flowering plant species.
1. What does the underlined phrase “stems from” probably mean?| A．Varies from. | B．Results from. | C．Leads to. | D．Amounts to. |
| A．Cones divide colors into three types. |
| B．The colors are divided into three types. |
| C．Part of white light is absorbed by the object. |
| D．Light-sensitive cells are most sensitive to dark colors. |
| A．Its wavelengths are shorter. | B．It can be seen everywhere. |
| C．It seems more vivid than others. | D．It has low-energy relatively. |
| A．To reflect most red light. |
| B．To blossom in the shade. |
| C．To avoid generating large molecules. |
| D．To produce molecules to absorb red spectrum. |
3 . It is difficult for a teacher to decide whether to allow students to listen to music in the classroom. Every time students need to write an essay or work on a problem, they say, “Can I put my headphones on? I think better that way.” But is that really true? Does music help concentrate?
Research offers little to back up the idea that listening to music improves concentration. In one small study, 133 students performed reading tasks while listening to either light music, hip hop, or no music at all. Students who performed the reading tasks in silence scored the highest. Music with a higher intensity (强度) like hip hop was more distracting and had a bad effect on task performance.
Volume (音量) plays a more important role than the type of music. The study found that the louder the music, the worse the performance in concentration. The type of music didn’t matter. Data from the study showed once again that silence was the best environment to improve concentration.
However, music has a positive effect on work performance. Studies have showed that listening to music leads to positive changes in mood, as well as creativity. In fact, in music-listening cultures, which students are certainly part of, there’s actually a change in mood when the music is taken away.
It’s hard to convince my students that music doesn’t help with their concentration. Taj, a senior told me, “I wouldn’t be able to concentrate if I were listening to music and trying to read. However, when I write, I feel like music helps me concentrate deeply. I don’t have writer’s block. It’s easy for me to put my words on paper.”
“Maybe not with reading, but when it comes to math, listening to music certainly helps,” Danela told me. “You could actually be singing along with what you’re listening to and doing well in math.”
1. What does the underlined word “distracting” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Making it difficult for someone to concentrate. |
| B．Causing great excitement. |
| C．Making someone want to do something. |
| D．Making someone feel frightened. |
| A．Students do well in reading tasks while listening to music. |
| B．Music can’t improve people’s mood and creativity. |
| C．Different types of music lead to different performances. |
| D．The volume of music affects concentration. |
| A．They believe music doesn’t help concentrate. |
| B．They use music to help with their paper-writing. |
| C．They can’t focus on reading while listening to music. |
| D．They don’t listen to music while doing math problems. |
| A．Should Students Listen to Music? | B．Does Music Help Concentration? |
| C．Is Music Related to Reading? | D．Can Music Change Mood? |
4 . In 2020, Pink launched the World Regret Survey, the largest survey on the topic ever undertaken. With his research team, Pink asked more than 15, 000 people in 105 countries, “How often do you look back on your life and wish you had done things differently?” Most of them said regret was at least an occasional part of their life. About 21 percent said they felt regretful all the time. Only 1 percent said they never felt regretful.
If you are of the “no regrets” school of life, you may think that all this regret is a recipe for unhappiness. But that isn’t the case. Letting yourself be overwhelmed by regret is indeed bad for you. But going to the other extreme may be even worse. To extinguish your regrets doesn’t free you from shame or sorrow but causes you to make the same mistakes again and again. To truly get over our guilt requires that we put regret in its proper place.
Uncomfortable as it is, regret is an amazing cognitive(认知的) feature. It requires that you go back to a past scene. Imagine that you acted differently to change it, and with that new scene in mind, arrive at a different present-and then, compare that fictional present with the one you are experiencing in reality. Not all regrets are the same, of course. Pink says they come in four basic types, and an instance of regret may involve just one combination.
Many connection regrets overlap (重叠) with moral regrets, which can come about after you go against your own values. For example, you may pride yourself on being a loving person, and thus regret not living up to this image in the relationship you harmed. Moral regrets can also involve just yourself. Maybe you regret not living up to your promise to your health when you ate a whole pizza or skipped the gym.
If not analyzed(分析) and managed, any kind of regret can be harmful to your well-being. Regret is linked to depression and anxiety, and too much regret can negatively affect your immune system. But regret doesn’t have to be put aside and ignored.
1. What could be concluded from Pink’s research?| A．Half of the people felt regretful. | B．Most people lived without regrets. |
| C．None could live a life without regrets. | D．Most of the people had regrets. |
| A．Destroy. | B．Admit. | C．Treasure. | D．Experience. |
| A．The harm of moral regrets. |
| B．The importance of promise. |
| C．The relationship between regrets and values. |
| D．The connection between reality and imagination. |
| A．Types of regrets. | B．Causes of regrets. |
| C．Benefits of experiencing regrets. | D．Ways of dealing with regrets. |
5 . The idea that the standard human body temperature is about 98.6℉ (37℃) was first presented by the German physician Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich in 1851. Since then, it’s become so widely accepted that it serves as a touchstone for health—a diagnostic tool used by physicians and parents as a basic indicator if someone is sick or well.
However, it turns out that this well-established fact isn’t, in fact, correct—or, to put it more accurately, human beings have been getting cooler over the years.
Recent studies have shown that temperature records of groups of people have tended to run low compared to the accepted norm (标准), so the Stanford team, led by Julie Parsonnet, MD, professor of medicine and of health research and policy, decided to do a more in-depth study to compare modern measurements with historical records to try to identify body temperature trends and, perhaps, uncover the reason why this cooling is happening.
For their research, the Stanford team looked at three distinct datasets (数据集) from three historical periods. One was military service records, medical records, and pension records from Union Army veterans of the American Civil War that were compiled from 1862 to 1930. The second was from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Ⅰ collected between 1971 and 1975, and the third from adult patients visiting Stanford Health Care from 2007 to 2017.
In all, the team went through 677,423 temperature measurements, making sure that temperatures recorded were accurate rather than the result of poorly designed thermometers (温度计). They did this by looking at the change in temperature inside each group over time to ensure that the curves (曲线) showing a decrease were consistent between the datasets.
At the end of the day, the team found that men born in the 21st century had an average body temperature of 0.59℃ lower than those born in the early 19th century, while modern women showed an average decrease of 0.32℃ compared to those born in the 1890s. Together, this means that human body temperatures have fallen by 0.03℃ per decade.
1. What is Wunderlich’s achievement?| A．He was the inventor of the thermometer. |
| B．He set up a standard for normal body temperature. |
| C．He discovered humans’ body temperature trends. |
| D．He put forward the theory of normal human body temperature. |
| A．By having interviews. | B．By conducting field research. |
| C．By analyzing historical records. | D．By doing experiments in the lab. |
| A．The quality of thermometers. | B．The backgrounds of the subjects. |
| C．The sorting of the collected datasets. | D．The number of adult patients involved. |
| A．Modern women’s body temperatures have risen over the past century. |
| B．The 19th century saw the greatest increase in men’s body temperatures. |
| C．The 21st century saw the greatest decrease in men’s body temperatures. |
| D．Men’s body temperatures have fallen faster than women’s over the years. |
6 . In one elementary school, a class of four-and five-year-olds sit in rows, fascinated by their teacher. As part of the daily routine at the state primary school in Acton, West London, Ms Beshirian holds up cards printed with
This is phonics, a way of learning to read in which children are taught to decode words. Teachers have long
The shift arises from persuasive evidence. In 2005 a study in Scotland found that children who were taught using phonics were, by the end of the programme, seven months ahead of their
The
Nor must phonics kill
Arguments continue over the best way to teach phonics, and questions such as when whole words should be introduced. But
| A．familiar | B．basic | C．distinctive | D．strange |
| A．carefully | B．individually | C．previously | D．jointly |
| A．wondered about | B．researched into | C．argued over | D．focused on |
| A．whole | B．new | C．long | D．complex |
| A．Besides | B．Therefore | C．Indeed | D．Nevertheless |
| A．criticism | B．disagreement | C．complaint | D．protest |
| A．natural | B．proven | C．expected | D．respective |
| A．learning strategies | B．testing mechanisms | C．teaching methods | D．reading techniques |
| A．similarity | B．impact | C．problem | D．reason |
| A．quickly | B．masterfully | C．easily | D．eventually |
| A．common | B．large | C．advanced | D．level |
| A．freedom | B．creativity | C．fun | D．team-spirit |
| A．performances | B．instructions | C．compliments | D．dictations |
| A．by contrast | B．after all | C．beyond expectation | D．in general |
| A．admired | B．reviewed | C．initiated | D．abandoned |
7 . “When I first started learning calligraphy, I just copied the teacher’s strokes (笔画), and my work was ugly.” said Aryan from Afghanistan. He is currently a graduate student in Beijing,
During his six-year stay in China, he discovered the
To his surprise, the curriculum for foreign students in China
“Initially, I didn’t know much Chinese and thought calligraphy would be difficult,” Aryan said.” Later on, I found out that calligraphy can help me
He used to
Not only did Aryan gain a deeper
| A．majoring | B．settling | C．bringing | D．resulting |
| A．problem | B．pattern | C．richness | D．resource |
| A．native | B．official | C．international | D．formal |
| A．goes against | B．takes up | C．takes over | D．goes beyond |
| A．conferences | B．activities | C．subjects | D．competitions |
| A．economy | B．life | C．work | D．pleasure |
| A．competition | B．content | C．combination | D．contact |
| A．improve | B．recognize | C．adjust | D．find |
| A．hold | B．oppose | C．break | D．suspect |
| A．positive | B．contradictory | C．wrong | D．objective |
| A．direction | B．step | C．attitude | D．effort |
| A．supply | B．represent | C．sense | D．recall |
| A．responses | B．admissions | C．reactions | D．keys |
| A．function | B．ability | C．form | D．knowledge |
| A．stressed | B．inspired | C．determined | D．interrupted |
8 . Shyness is something that many people battle with every day. They are afraid to look people in the eyes and have a hard time speaking to new people. This makes it very hard to get ahead at work and in making new friends and business connections.
●Remember that most people are not looking at you. When you are shy you may believe that people are constantly watching and judging you.
●
●If you do not have an exercise routine, you should start one now.
| A．Focus on your strengths. |
| B．This just is not the case at all. |
| C．Stop complaining about others. |
| D．They are brave to face any challenge in life. |
| E．Many people are shy because they fear rejection. |
| F．This will help you feel stronger and will improve your posture. |
| G．Check with your doctor if you have not worked out for a while and then get to it. |
9 . It’s been nearly two decades since the traditional clothing style Hanfu first started to reemerge in China. Since then it has gone from a small cultural movement celebrating an ancient fashion to a trend that is booming on social media, having been adopted by China’s Generation Z as a means of connecting with their past. Instead of following other cultures blindly, Generation Z now have different opinions about what trend is by promoting local culture while having an objective view of exotic cultural products.
The new tastes of Generation Z—young people born after 1995—are well represented on Bilibili. In the recent New Year’s Eve gala presented by Bilibili, it attracted more than 100 million views within 48 hours with a colourful set of programmes ranging from Peking Opera to classical Chinese cartoons. The same is also true of movie industry. Last year, for the first time, the top 10 most viewed films in China were all domestic films, while the ticket sales for imported films have dropped to only 16.28 percent.
”Generation Z grew up with the rapid development of China and under good economic conditions. With the development of the Chinese Internet industry, they have more access to diverse international information and culture, which bring them a much broader vision and makes them more open and confident in analyzing foreign culture. Apart from taking pride in China’s rapid development, this generation also pursues individuality and values devotion to the country,“ Professor Zhang Yiwu said.
He also noted that the popular rock and punk culture pursued by the 70s and 80s generation is more of a challenge against real life and local culture. Some people who were born in the 1970s and 1980s did not grow up in the Internet age—they experienced the transformation of China going from poor to rich first-hand. This kind of longing and admiration of the West came from a lack of confidence.
However, Generation Z now have the confidence to look at Western culture with equal status. This kind of cultural confidence will result in China being more active and creative in its development on the international stage in the future.
1. What does the underlined word ”exotic“ in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Foreign. | B．Fashionable. | C．Traditional. | D．Elegant. |
| A．To confirm the rise of new media. |
| B．To promote Chinese Internet industry. |
| C．To highlight the popularity of domestic art. |
| D．To show the popularity of New Year’s Eve gala. |
| A．They have a stronger cultural identity. |
| B．They are longing for cultural diversity. |
| C．They have made China develop rapidly. |
| D．They are more fond of foreign culture. |
| A．Confident China, Better Future |
| B．China’s Progress Results in Cultural Confidence |
| C．China’s New Generation Redefine Local Culture as Trendy |
| D．Hanfu Style, Connector of Ancient Fashion and Modern Trend |
10 . Next time you are struggling with the crossword, try putting the kettle on. Drinking a cup of tea can improve creativity, a study suggests.
Researchers gave participants either tea or water and then asked them to complete a word association game, which was used to measure a form of creativity known as convergent thinking (聚合思维).
In the game, the participants were given sets of words such as “same, tennis, head” and asked to find a meaningful link between them. After analyzing the results in a way that ruled out the potential effects of a person’s intelligence and language ability, the researchers found those who drank the tea performed significantly better in the word association game. The tea drinkers scored an average of 13.89 in the game compared with 12.94 for water drinkers.
The researchers said it was not clear why tea has this beneficial effect. Tea contains special components, which can improve attention, but the participants in the study drank only a small amount of tea — 90 ml, on average — and carried out the tests very soon after consuming it, meaning any effect would have been ignored. This result showed the tea drinking event itself — rather than the biological components of tea — played a positive role, the researchers said.
Previous research has found that people tend to associate tea drinking with a specific set of personality traits(特征), such as smart, creative, elegant, confident, and stable. It may be that when participants are stimulated (刺激) by tea, the mental representation of a tea drinker is also activated, and they unconsciously think that they should be smarter and more creative.
1. What did the participants have to do in the study?| A．Pair the words with each other. |
| B．Guess the meaning of the words. |
| C．Find a connection between the words. |
| D．Tell the differences among the words. |
| A．The participant’s intelligence. |
| B．The action of drinking tea itself. |
| C．The participant’s language ability. |
| D．The biological components of tea. |
| A．Drinking tea makes people more active. |
| B．Drinking tea is popular among the youth. |
| C．People tend to drink tea more than before. |
| D．People drinking tea are often thought smart. |
| A．Drinking Tea Is Good for Health |
| B．Drinking Tea Is A Popular Trend |
| C．Drinking Tea Makes for Creativity |
| D．Drinking Tea Matters A Lot in Life |
