1 . When I was in third grade, my family and I took on an unforgettable trip across the country. It turned out to be more than just a/an
One day, while hiking through the Grand Canyon, I
As Dad showed me footholds, Mom coached me with calming
From then on, every evening, we’d gather around a campfire for what we
The trip taught me that the true meaning of travel isn’t merely about reaching the destination but about the personal growth that happens on the route, and the family bonds formed when facing
| A．crowded | B．physical | C．creative | D．necessary |
| A．relationships | B．potentials | C．dreams | D．inspirations |
| A．guided | B．encouraged | C．comforted | D．attracted |
| A．events | B．stations | C．locations | D．shows |
| A．cultures | B．landscapes | C．groups | D．countries |
| A．imagined | B．constructed | C．smoothed | D．encountered |
| A．froze | B．flew | C．fell | D．forgot |
| A．reached down | B．stood aside | C．stepped in | D．turned back |
| A．words | B．worries | C．noises | D．thoughts |
| A．lost | B．maintained | C．demonstrate | D．restored |
| A．left | B．broke | C．found | D．dug |
| A．nicer | B．tougher | C．braver | D．closer |
| A．originally | B．affectionately | C．frequently | D．simply |
| A．sympathy | B．conflict | C．tears | D．profits |
| A．challenges | B．defeats | C．opposition | D．uncertainty |
2 . Weald & Downland Living Museum
Fun fact
Over 50 historic buildings from across the Weald and Downland area have been dismantled (拆除) and then reconstructed across a lovely 40-acre site in the South Downs national park. The collection of buildings represents almost a thousand years of rural life in south-east England: furnished just as they would have been in the past — complete with the homes, farms and public buildings. There’s a sense of exploring a real village as you wander between them along green paths, stopping to climb the stairs of a 17th-century craftsman’s (工匠) cottage to lie on the straw bed or sheltering from a shower in a smoky, 14th-century hall.
Getting there
The Stagecoach 60 bus service from Chichester to Midhurst stops just five minutes away at Grooms Yard, Singleton. The nearest railway stations are Chichester (2 miles) and Haslemere (7 miles). The museum is on Town Lane in Singleton, reached via the A286 from Chichester to Midhurst. Parking is free and there are disabled parking spaces opposite the museum shop.
Value for money?
Yes. It’s not cheap but it’s a special experience that easily fills a day. Plus, it’s a valuable cause worth supporting. Adults ￡14, children 5-17 and students ￡6.50, under-4s free, family ￡38 (two adults and two children) or ￡25 (one adult and three children).
Opening hours
Daily 10am-5pm (last entry 4pm).
1. What can visitors do in Weald & Downland Living Museum?| A．Take a shower in the hall. |
| B．Stay overnight at a cottage. |
| C．Learn construction techniques. |
| D．Explore rural life centuries ago. |
| A．￡25. | B．￡34.5. | C．￡38. | D．￡41. |
| A．It charges parking fees. |
| B．It has varied opening hours. |
| C．It is inconveniently located for bus riders. |
| D．It offers the disabled thoughtful service. |
3 . I used to believe that only words could catch the essence of the human soul. The literary works contained such distinct stories that they shaped the way we saw the world. Words were what composed the questions we sought to uncover and the answers to those questions themselves. Words were everything.
That belief changed.
In an ordinary math class, my teacher posed a simple question: What’s 0.99 rounded to the nearest whole number? Easy. When rounded to the nearest whole number, 0.99=1. Somehow, I thought even though 0.99 is only 0.01 away from 1, there’s still a 0.01 difference. That means even if two things are only a little different, they are still different, so doesn’t that make them completely different?
My teacher answered my question by presenting another equation (等式): 1= 0.9, which could also be expressed as 1=0.99999.... repeating itself without ever ending.
There was something mysterious but fascinating about the equation. The left side was unchangeable, objective: it contained a number that ended. On the right was something endless, number repeating itself limitless times. Yet, somehow, these two opposed things were connected by an equal sign.
Lying in bed, I thought about how much the equation paralleled our existence. The left side of the equation represents that sometimes life itself is so unchangeable and so clear. The concrete, whole number of the day when you were born and the day when you would die. But then there is that gap in between life and death. The right side means a time and space full of limitless possibilities, and endless opportunities into the open future.
So that’s what life is. Objective but imaginative. Unchangeable but limitless. Life is an equation with two sides that balances itsef out. Still, we can’t ever truly seem to put the perfect words to it. So possibly numbers can express ideas as eually well as words can. For now, let’s leave it at that: 1= 0.99999... and live a life like it.
1. What does the author emphasize about words in paragraph 1?| A．Their wide variety. | B．Their literary origins. |
| C．Their distinct sounds. | D．Their expressive power. |
| A．The repetition of a number. | B．The way two different numbers are equal. |
| C．The question the teacher raised. | D．The difference between the two numbers. |
| A．Measured. | B．Composed. | C．Mirrored. | D．Influenced. |
| A．The Perfect Equation | B．Numbers Build Equations |
| C．An Attractive Question | D．Words Outperform Numbers |
4 . Any schoolchild knows that a whale breathes through its blowhole. Fewer know that a blowhole is a nostril (鼻孔) slightly changed by evolution into a form more useful for a mammal that spends its life at sea. And only a dedicated expert would know that while toothed whales, such as sperm whales, have one hole, baleen (鲸须) whales, such as humpback and Rice whales, have two.
Even among the baleen whales, the placing of those nostrils differs. In some species they are close together. In others, they are much further apart. In a paper published in Biology Letters Conor Ryan, a marine biologist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, suggests why that might be. Having two nostrils, he argues, helps whales smell in stereo (立体空间).
Many types of baleen whales eat tiny animals known as zooplankton (浮游动物), which they catch by filtering (过滤) them from seawater using the sheets of fibrous baleen that have replaced teeth in their mouths. But to eat something you first have to find it. Toothed whales do not hunt by scent. In fact, the olfactory bulb—the part of the brain that processes smell—is absent in such creatures. But baleen whales still have olfactory bulbs, which suggests smell remains important. And scent can indeed give zooplankton away. Zooplankton like to eat other tiny creatures called phytoplankton (浮游植物). When these are under attack, they release a special gas called dimethyl sulphide, which in turn attracts baleen whales.
Most animals have stereoscopic senses. Having two eyes, for instance, allows an animal to compare the images from each in order to perceive depth. Having two ears lets them locate the direction from which a sound is coming. Dr Ryan theorized that paired blowholes might bring baleen whales the same sorts of benefits.
The farther apart the sensory organs are, the more information can be extracted by the animal that bears them. The researchers used drones to photograph the nostrils of 143 whales belonging to 14 different species. Sure enough, baleen whales that often eat zooplankton, such as the North Atlantic right whale, have nostrils that are farther apart than do those, such as humpback whales, that eat zooplankton occasionally. Besides allowing them to breathe, it seems that some whales use their blowholes to determine in which direction dinner lies.
1. What do we know about whales’ nostrils according to the first two paragraphs?| A．They are adapted ones. | B．They are developed merely for smell. |
| C．They are not easy to detect. | D．They are fixed universally in numbers. |
| A．The teeth that baleen whales have. |
| B．The smell that phytoplankton send. |
| C．The sound waves that zooplankton create. |
| D．The chemical signals that zooplankton give off. |
| A．By quoting a theory. | B．By using examples. |
| C．By making contrast. | D．By making inferences. |
| A．The sense of smell. | B．The possibility to attract food. |
| C．The ability to locate food. | D．The ability to communicate. |
5 . Slowness has been a sweeping trend in sustainability. Slow food celebrates local produce and traditional cooking methods; slow fashion is made with a focus on people and the planet. You may have even heard of the slow city, a campaign to restore local cultures and turn cities back to their natural environments.
Slow design developed from the larger slow movement. Although the term was only recently introduced, the idea of thoughtful design looks back to a time when buildings and furniture were made with great craftsmanship (手艺) and by hand-before the mass-produced throwaway furniture took over. You can think of the term “slow” as a celebration of timelessness: both the timelessness of a piece and the timelessness of the relationship between that piece and its owner.
One example of slow design today is what’s been dubbed the brown furniture revival (复兴). Brown furniture refers to the heavy wooden furnishings that were popular in your grandparents’ day but suddenly fell out of style at the turn of the century. Brown furniture is often associated with dark woods, such as trees like mahogany, walnut, and teak, that take decades to reach maturity and true craftsmanship to transform into functional pieces.
Today’s furniture industry is dominated by the $13.1 billion-and-growing global ready-to-assemble(RTA) furniture market. RTA furniture is usually constructed from low-quality fiberboard, which lasts a small part of traditional furniture’s lifespan (寿命).The weight of furniture landfilled in 2018 was 9. 7 million tons, 4. 5 times what was landfilled in 1960.
In a less direct way, the idea of timelessness also lends itself to a lower environmental impact. Besides their demonstrated physical durability, slow materials and design are meant to outlive trends and never be thrown out simply because they’re out of style.
As second-hand shopping becomes more appealing to today’s young generation-because of its low environmental impact and affordability-the brown furniture of yesteryear is making a comeback.
1. Why is the first paragraph written?| A．To explain a new term. |
| B．To present the topic of the text. |
| C．To provide background information. |
| D．To highlight the importance of slowness. |
| A．Known as. |
| B．Mistaken for. |
| C．Compared to. |
| D．Connected with. |
| A．It is out of date. |
| B．It has a long lifespan. |
| C．It is heavy and expensive. |
| D．It has bad effects on the environment. |
| A．Grandparents are buying new furniture. |
| B．The brown furniture will soon be mass-produced. |
| C．The young generation favors second-hand shopping. |
| D．Materials for slow design furniture are more available. |
6 . When I mentioned to some friends that we all have accents, most of them proudly replied, “Well, I speak perfect English/Chinese/etc.” But this kind of misses the point.
More often than not, what we mean when we say someone “has an accent” is that their accent is different from the local one, or that pronunciations are different from our own. But this definition of accents is limiting and could give rise to prejudice. Funnily enough, in terms of the language study, every person speaks with an accent. It is the regular differences in how we produce sounds that define our accents. Even if you don’t hear it yourself, you speak with some sort of accent. In this sense, it’s pointless to point out that someone “has an accent”. We all do!
Every person speaks a dialect (方言), too. In the field of language study, a dialect is a version of a language that is characterized by its variations of structure, phrases and words. For instance,” You got eat or not? “(meaning “Have you eaten?” ) is an acceptable and understood question in Singapore Oral English. The fact that this expression would cause a standard American English speaker to take pause doesn’t mean that Singapore Oral English is “wrong” or “ungrammatical”. The sentence is well-formed and clearly communicative, according to native Singapore English speakers’ solid system of grammar. Why should it be wrong just because it’s different?
We need to move beyond a narrow conception of accents and dialects — for the benefit of everyone.
Language differences like these provide insights into people’s cultural experiences and backgrounds. In a global age, the way one speaks is a distinct part of one’s identity. Most people would be happy to talk about the cultures behind their speech. We’d learn more about the world we live in and make friends along the way.
1. What does the author think of his/ her friends’ response in paragraph 1?| A．It reflects their self confidence. |
| B．It reflects their language levels. |
| C．It misses the point of communication. |
| D．It misses the real meaning of accents. |
| A．To justify the use of dialects. |
| B．To show the diversity of dialects. |
| C．To correct a grammatical mistake. |
| D．To highlight a traditional approach. |
| A．Learn to speak with your local dialect. |
| B．Seek for an official definition of accents. |
| C．Appreciate the value of accents and dialects. |
| D．Distinguish our local languages from others’. |
| A．Everyone Has an Accent |
| B．Accents Enhance Our Identities |
| C．Dialects Lead to Misunderstanding |
| D．Standard English Is at Risk |
7 . At a conference last week, I received an interesting piece of advice: “Assume you are wrong.” The advice came from Brian Nosek, a fellow psychology professor. He wasn’t objecting to any particular claim I’d made — he was offering a strategy for pursuing better science, and for encouraging others to do the same.
To understand the context for Nosek’s advice, we need to take a step back — to the nature of science itself. Despite what many of us learned in elementary school, there is no single scientific method. Just as scientific theories change, so do scientific methods.
Assuming you are right might be a motivating force, sustaining the enormous effort that conducting scientific work requires. But it also makes it easy to interpret criticisms as personal attacks, and for scientific arguments to develop into personal battles. Beginning, instead, from the assumption you are wrong, a criticism is easier to be viewed as a helpful pointer, a constructive suggestion for how to be less wrong — a goal that your critic probably shares.
Nosek’s advice may sound pessimistic, but it’s not so foreign to science. Philosophers of science sometimes refer to the “pessimistic meta-induction (元归纳)” on the history of science: All of our past scientific theories have been wrong, so surely our current theories will turn out to be wrong, too. That doesn’t mean we haven’t made progress, but it does indicate that there is always room for improvement—ways to be less wrong.
I like the advice because it builds in an awareness of our limitations and a readiness to accept the unknown (“there are things I do not know!”) along with a sense that we can do better (“there are things I do not know yet!”). It also builds in a sense of community — we’re all in the same boat when it comes to falling short of getting things right. Perhaps the focus on a shared goal — our goal as scientists and humans of being less wrong — can help make up for any harm in scientific motivation or communication.
1. Why did Nosek send the advice?| A．To express opinions about my claims. | B．To remind me to be open to criticism. |
| C．To encourage me to take up science. | D．To better my understanding of psychology. |
| A．It motivates scientists to make efforts. | B．It addresses personal attacks and conflicts. |
| C．It sets a constructive improvement goal. | D．It contributes to a deeper insight into yourself. |
| A．Dynamic. | B．Testable. | C．Pioneering. | D．Well-established. |
| A．Accept the Unknown | B．Aim to Be Less Wrong |
| C．Get Engaged in Psychology | D．Dig into the Nature of Science |
8 . My childhood was a painted picture of sunny sky and rolling green fields stretching to the horizon. It tasted of sharp berries and smelt of sour grapes. My family lived in a cabin(小木屋) in the countryside but I lived in my mother’s arms. They were so delicate but strong, her red hair falling around me like a curtain separating me from the world.
Childhood was simple. The borders of my village were the furthest my troubles went and monsters only lived in the pages of books. Every day was a waking dream of running races and muddy knees. My village was archaic, dying cabins housing dying farmers with dying traditions. There weren’t many children but me and the other boys; boys of butchers and sellers formed our own group.
They called us wild. I suppose we were. Trees and mountains formed our playgrounds and fights broke out as easily as sudden laughter. Liberated from the restrictions of society, we would bound into the woods, deeper and deeper until we found a lake which, with a wild yell, we would jump into all at once.
My most vivid memories from boyhood center around that lake. Water shone brightly and the sounds of our screams broke into the outcry from birds. The shock of cold water against sweating skin would wake every nerve in my body and my bare feet would hit the sinking muddy bottom. As we submerged(淹没)， time would suspend， movements slowing as bubbles rose around us.
I was drowning. I was living. I was living. I was drowning.
For timelessness or a second (both felt the same), we would suspend, curl up, and then be forced back out into breathing air.
We should have known that it wouldn’t last forever. Yet, even under the best circumstances, there’s something so tragic about growing up: to have your perspective on the people and life around you change;to always struggle to reach a mirror only to find yourself tall enough to see your reflection one day. And find, a different person staring back out at you.
1. What does the underlined word “archaic” mean in paragraph 2?| A．Borderless. |
| B．Valueless. |
| C．Old-fashioned. |
| D．Poverty-stricken. |
| A．They played in the woods crazily. |
| B．They tricked others purposefully. |
| C．They frequently broke social rules. |
| D．They firmly refused school education. |
| A．By sharing feelings. |
| B．By expressing ideas. |
| C．By making comparisons. |
| D．By describing characters. |
| A．Loneliness and challenges make a man grow up. |
| B．The regret of growth is that you have never tried. |
| C．Growth is often accompanied by sad goodbyes to the past. |
| D．Growth begins when we begin to accept our own weakness. |
9 . You might have heard someone say that a song changed their life. And maybe you used to hate tomatoes, but now you like it. No one doubts that we change as we grow older. But do we change in major ways? Can we really change who we are? People used to believe we stay pretty much the same throughout our lives, but researchers are increasingly finding that we can and do change in big ways.
Psychologists have identified five dimensions that help us understand someone’s personality, which are called the “Big Five.” They are: 1. Openness: How open are you to trying new things? 2. Conscientiousness (尽责性): How responsible are you? 3. Extroversion (外向):How friendly, outgoing, and enthusiastic are you? 4. Agreeableness: How caring, trusting, and generous are you? 5. Emotional stability: How calm are you, especially when problems arise? Everyone has different levels of the big five dimensions. For example, Harry Potter has high levels of openness to experience, while Hermione Granger would score high in conscientiousness.
Scientists used to think that each person’s “Big Five” stayed the same their whole life, but newer research suggests that the dimensions do change. People who took a personality test as teen-agers scored very differently when they took the same test 50 years later. Three dimensions usually changed more than the others, which are emotional stability, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. In fact, most adults were more emotionally stable, more conscientious, and more agreeable than when they were younger. Researchers considered this a sign that we mature over time, perhaps learning to get along better with others.
Even though people change over time, the relationship between dimensions often remains similar. For example, someone who was very open to new experiences but who was not agreeable as a teenager was likely still more open to new things than agreeable as an adult. Scores changed, and sometimes changed a lot, but they didn’t change randomly.
1. Why does the author mention Harry Potter and Hermione Granger in Paragraph 2?| A．To identify the impact of the big five dimensions. |
| B．To stress the value of openness and responsibility. |
| C．To analyze some main characters in popular fiction. |
| D．To illustrate various degrees of personality dimensions. |
| A．Becoming more hot-tempered. | B．Becoming more considerate. |
| C．Becoming less responsible. | D．Becoming less generous. |
| A．Personality dimensions change accidentally. |
| B．One is likely to be more open than agreeable. |
| C．Relationship between dimensions stays unchanged. |
| D．Changes in personality dimensions follow some pattern. |
| A．The Effects of Changing. | B．What Are the “Big Five”? |
| C．Do People Really Change? | D．Personality Dimensions Matter. |
10 . Public health data signals a genuine crisis in adolescent mental health: rising rates of anxiety, depression, and hopelessness. But as we worry about tweens and teens who are struggling, we can’t ignore another mounting effect — the burdens that are shouldered by their friends and peers in an “always on” world.
We have studied teens and tech for over a decade. Their networks are ever-expanding, in no small part because there’s a sense that being nice means accepting fellow requests from acquaintances and friends-of-friends. And it’s not just staying connected — it’s keeping up with what others post, too.
Social media platforms thus make it technically possible to maintain more relationships than we are historically actually wired to track and manage. The result is an overwhelming wave of social information. It’s especially intense for adolescents whose developmental sensitivities drive them to care deeply about what their peers are doing and thinking.
Significant stress comes with trying to be a “good friend” in the age of social media. Friendship requires both public and behind-the-scenes support. Even before a social media post is made public, close friends can be pulled into photo selection, editing, and final examination. Besides, they need to respond in the right way and in the right amount of time, which differs from one relationship to another. Replying too quickly can be seen as over-eager, especially when the friendship is new or not close. But when it’s a close friend, too long a lag (延迟) can be hurtful.
The qualities that are key to building or breaking friendships are actually the same as they’ve always been: mutual (相互的) sharing of joys and sorrows, a give and take of acceptance and support, and an ability to weather and resolve conflicts. But technologies have transformed how friendships play out. Social media increases the burdens that come along with being a good friend. Too often, these dynamics hit teens hard in ways that are lost on adults. And that is what should be changed with the help of parents, schools and other parts of society.
1. What makes teenagers’ networks continue to expand?| A．The pressure to be nice. | B．The requests of their parents. |
| C．The need to meet more people. | D．The burden of living independently. |
| A．Exciting. | B．Challenging. | C．Money-saving. | D．Risk-taking. |
| A．The qualities of being a teen friend. |
| B．The conflicts between schools and parents. |
| C．The relations between parents and their teens. |
| D．The influences of social media on teen friendship. |
| A．Why more teens are addicted to social media |
| B．How teens nowadays gain long-standing friendships |
| C．How social media has made teen friendships more stressful |
| D．What makes teens become more sensitive to their peers’ needs |
