1 . Jaw-dropping architecture isn’t new. We’re still fascinated by the Great Pyramid built 4,500 years ago! Read for more recent examples of innovative buildings constructed using modern technology.
Crooked House (Poland)
COMPLETED: 2004
With its curved (弯曲的) walls and roof, it is popular with photographers. However, staring at it for too long might make you dizzy! Inside is a typical mall and office building. A favorite feature is the Wall of Fame, with signatures from Polish celebrities (名人). It’s modeled after the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Cube Houses (Netherlands)
COMPLETED: 1984
The Cube Houses are a popular attraction, but they are also real houses that people live in! The furniture is tailor-made to fit the strange angles where the walls meet. Architect Piet Blom designed the homes based on the idea of “living as an urban roof,” with the housing above and the courtyards, shops, and even a chess museum below.
Wonder Works (US)
COMPLETED: 2006
Looking at the cracks in this building, you might think, is it about to collapse? But it’s all an illusion (幻觉). This indoor amusement park is actually pretty normal. The upside-down features are just for show. Inside are more than hands-on science exhibits and activities, including a laser-tag zone and a hurricane-force wind tunnel!
Guangzhou Opera House (China)
COMPLETED: 2010
It was designed by Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid. She said she let natural places inspire her buildings, such as this opera house on the Pearl River. She used latest construction and design methods to make her design a reality. GPS positioning and laser techniques helped shape the structure, which includes tons of steel and glass.
1. What makes Cube Houses different from the others in the list?| A．Its latest techniques. | B．Its residents inside. |
| C．Its famous signatures. | D．Its upside-down features. |
| A．Crooked House | B．Cube Houses | C．Wonder Works | D．Guangzhou Opera House |
| A．To introduce amazing architecture. | B．To advertise specifically-designed programs. |
| C．To inspire students to make innovations. | D．To urge people to protect historical buildings. |
2 . It was July 15, 2021, and my friends had helped me celebrate my 31st birthday in the basement apartment of my sister’s home, where I lived.
Earlier in the day I had prepared for the unlikely event of a flood. We are about a third of a mile from the banks of the Ahr River. It had been raining that week, and authorities had issued a flood warning, though not for where I was. Still, I’d placed sandbags on the floor outside my garden door and piled clothing on tables. Before my friends left, they laughed at me for doing that, but I thought, “Why take a chance?”
As I went to sleep, I was awakened by the sound of rushing water. When I swung my legs off the bed, I was shocked by the sensation of cold-water lapping against my knees and rising fast. The Ahr River had violently burst its banks. And I had to get out fast!
The water was now up to my waist. I started to wade to my only escape: the door that leads upstairs to the rest of the house. Finally, I made it to the door. I managed to make a gap of about a foot, just wide enough to squeeze through and make it into the hallway. I leaped onto the stairs and ran to the third floor.
The river had drowned the neighborhood. What was once a lovely, cozy street was now a waterscape. More than 180 people died, and parts of villages were entirely washed away. Many of the houses around us were destroyed. Not everyone got out.
I came close to drowning that day. But rather than dwell on that, I prefer to recall what my mother told me afterward, “Christian, don’t remember the day when you lost everything. Remember the day you survived.”
1. What does the underlined word “that” refer to?| A．Celebrating a birthday. | B．Managing the garden. |
| C．Warning friends of a flood. | D．Preparing for the flood. |
| A．To let the water out. | B．To keep things being swept away. |
| C．To reduce the flow of water. | D．To escape to the upstairs. |
| A．Its cause. | B．Its damage. | C．Its scale. | D．Its process. |
| A．To show his hope for the future. | B．To indicate the loss of everything. |
| C．To highlight the power of flooding. | D．To stress the role of good luck. |
3 . I’m in a coffee shop in Manhattan and I’m about to become the most disliked person in the room. First, I’m going to interrupt the man reading quietly near the window and ask for a drink of his latte. Next, I’m going to ask the line of people waiting to pay if I can cut to the front of the queue. This is how I chose to spend my last vacation. Here’s why.
Growing up, all I ever heard about was “EQ.” It was the mid-1990s, and psychologist Daniel Goleman had just popularized the concept of emotional intelligence. Unlike IQ, which tracked conventional measures of intelligence like reasoning and recall, EQ measured the ability to understand other people — to listen, to empathize (共情), and to appreciate.
My mother, an elementary school principal, prized brains and hard work, but she placed a special emphasis on Goleman’s new idea. To her, EQ was the elixir (万能药) that separated the good students from the great after they left school. She was determined to send me into the adult world with as much of this elixir as possible.
But when I finally began my first job, I noticed a second elixir in the pockets of some of my colleagues. It gave their opinions extra weight and their decisions added impact. Strangest of all, it seemed like the anti-EQ: Instead of knowing how to make others feel good, this elixir gave people the courage to do the opposite — to say things others didn’t want to hear.
This was assertiveness (魄力). It boiled down to the command of a single skill: the ability to have uncomfortable conversations. Assertive people — those with high “AQ”— ask for things they want, decline things they don’t, provide constructive feedback, and engage in direct confrontation (对峙) and debate.
A lifetime improving my EQ helped me empathize with others, but it also left me overly sensitive to situations where I had to say or do things that might make others unhappy. While I didn’t avoid conflict, I was always frustrated by my powerlessness when I had to say or do something that could upset someone. This is my problem and I’m working on it.
1. Why did the author act that way in the coffee shop?| A．To improve a skill. | B．To test a concept. |
| C．To advocate a new idea. | D．To have a unique vacation. |
| A．She thought little of IQ. |
| B．She popularized Goleman’s idea. |
| C．She was a strict mother and principal. |
| D．She valued EQ as the key to greatness. |
| A．EQ. | B．AQ. | C．Empathy. | D．Courage. |
| A．successful leaders | B．people pleasers |
| C．terrible complainers | D．pleasure seekers |
4 . As kids’ behaviour reaches crisis points after the pandemic, many schools are facing pressure from critics to rethink their approaches to discipline.
Approaches such as “restorative justice” were adopted widely in recent decades as educators updated the policies that cut off students’ access to learning, such as suspensions and expulsions (停学和开除). But more students have been acting out, and some school systems have faced questions from teachers, parents and lawmakers about whether a gentle approach can effectively solve problems that disrupt (扰乱) classrooms.
According to federal data, instances of misbehavior have been increasing since students returned to classrooms from the pandemic. A National Center for Education Statistics survey found 56% of respondents said the pandemic led to increased classroom disruptions from students’ misbehavior and 48%said it led to more acts of disrespect toward teachers and staff.
Rachel Perera studies education at the Brookings Institution. “There’s a lot of pressure on schools right now,” she said. “Schools also say they don’t have the resources to address more behavioral problems, and I worry that that will cause schools to fall back on old practices that are not effective in terms of supporting students in the way they need.”
Using restorative justice does not mean a school cannot remove a disruptive student from the classroom, said Thalia González, a professor at the UC College of the Law. But unlike other forms of discipline, restorative practices aim to deal with the root cause of students’ behavior and reintegrated them into classroom.
“That’s the problem with punitive discipline such as suspensions and expulsions,” González said. “You get removed and then you just come back. There’s nothing done to reintegrate into the community and rebuild the climate, the sense of safety, all the things that we know are so important to young people learning.”
1. What do we learn about “restorative justice” according to Paragraph 2?| A．It cuts off students’ access to learning. |
| B．It’s favored by both teachers and parents. |
| C．It’s less serious than suspensions and expulsions. |
| D．It’s more effective than suspensions and expulsions. |
| A．An increase in students’ misbehavior. | B．Ways to deal with students’ misbehavior. |
| C．An improvement on students’ performance. | D．Resources to address behavioral problems. |
| A．Negative. | B．Doubtful. | C．Confused. | D．Supportive. |
| A．Why are schools relying on restorative justice? |
| B．Is restorative justice an effective problem-solving approach? |
| C．How do schools make use of restorative justice? |
| D．What sets restorative justice apart from other discipline methods? |
5 . Just by typing a few keywords and waiting a few seconds, a picture comparable to that painted by a human artist appears on screen.
AI art generators have seemingly swept the Chinese Internet. In some paintings created by AI, an elderly man can be shown as a young animated image, and pets can be turned into adorable cartoon girls or boys.
Huang Ge, an illustrator from Shanghai, said that it usually takes him several hours or days to complete one illustration. But with AI art generators, the efficiency is greatly improved. “Also, the generators have many modification (修改) modes, and the picture can be modified directly in the painting software,” he added. Ding Jiao, a comic artist, considers the popularity of AI art generator s reasonable as many people who are not good at drawing can create great works through them.
So is Al painting gradually replacing human painting? In the hot topic “Using a picture to prove that human artists will never be replaced by Al” online, many netizens uploaded their paintings to prove that humans are better than AI. “Though Al technology has developed rapidly, AI cannot fully replace humans. The warmth and inspiration in human creations are irreplaceable,” said Ding Daoshi, an independent analyst.
Another controversial issue is that there is no consensus (共识) of who owns the copyright of AI art. Some users have openly sold their AI paintings and earned money, but it is still a gray area about whether these artworks belong to users, the digital tool developers or even AI.
Ding Daoshi noted that the various sides should get together to debate the issue and come up with some accepted rules as soon as possible because AI is already penetrating deeply into the lives of human beings.
1. Why does the author mention “an elderly man” and “pets” in Paragraph 2?| A．To show the popularity of AI art generators. |
| B．To illustrate the disadvantage of AI art generators. |
| C．To prove the significance of AI art generators. |
| D．To present the powerful function of AI art generators. |
| A．The efficiency of AI art generators. | B．The benefits of AI art generators. |
| C．The popularity of AI art generators. | D．The functions of AI art generators. |
| A．Whether human artworks will be replaced by AI artworks. |
| B．Who AI artworks will really belong to. |
| C．Whether human artists are better than AI art generators. |
| D．How AI painting can play a supportive role. |
| A．A done deal. | B．A give-and-take attitude. |
| C．An ill-defined situation. | D．A hard-to-get game. |
6 . I was surfing the Internet, planning for our 15th-anniversary trip when a perfect spot attracted me: The Shire of Montana, a “hobbit house”, which Jim my husband had dreamed about. I knew he’d be impressed. And our six-year-old daughter, Aurora, would like it, too. I was about to book our reservation when I saw a note on the website: No kids allowed. That ruined everything!
Luckily, there was an email address on the site. I plucked up the courage to contact the owner. Soon, a reply arrived, saying, “If you promise that your daughter is responsible and will not touch, she can come.” I was relieved, thinking Aurora was a good kid. “This will be okay,” I wrote back.
The day finally arrived. We piled into the car. I couldn’t help being excited, imagining Jim and Aurora’s reactions. We passed a sign that read, “The adventure begins …” Turning onto the Hobbit Lane, I felt a pan g of anxiety. As soon as we got out of the car, I pulled Aurora aside. “Children aren’t usually allowed here,” I said. “So you have to be very, very careful. You can look at everything, but don’t touch.” I explained the rule and how terrible it would be to damage anything. Aurora’s eyes widened at my no-nonsense tone. “I promise, Mom,” she said.
Obviously, my concern was superfluous. We spent several days at The Shire. Aurora was delighted at each discovery but she never disturbed a thing. She took her responsibility to protect the owner’s work seriously. It turned out that respecting boundaries didn’t take away the beauty and wonder, it allowed The Shire to remain beautiful and wonderful into the future.
Not so different from a marriage, I thought. Now I understood why we went to this place to celebrate our fifteenth anniversary. Jim and I moved through life side by side as a couple, and we’d learned to accept each other’s individuality and boundaries as well. Marriage is full of surprises, challenges and adventures. The key to making it work is respecting each other.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．The author met a problem while planning a trip. |
| B．The author and her husband had been married for 6 years. |
| C．Aurora didn’t want to take a trip to The Shire of Montana. |
| D．The trip was ruined because the author didn’t reserve a room. |
| A．She felt it a burden to take care of her daughter. |
| B．She doubted if her daughter would behave well. |
| C．She worried her daughter wouldn’t be admitted. |
| D．She wasn’t sure whether her husband would like the place. |
| A．considerable | B．important | C．unnecessary | D．common |
| A．Don’t give up until you try your best. |
| B．Good role models are essential for teaching kids. |
| C．Respect contributes to a happy and lasting marriage. |
| D．Obeying the rules is important when dealing with people. |
7 . The pandemic has affected nearly all aspects of modern life, from the clothes we wear to the food we eat. There is one thing, however, that has remained almost unchanged: the emojis we send.
According to data from the Unicode Consortium (统一码联盟), nine of the 10 most-used emojis from 2019 also ranked among the top 10 this year. The tears of joy emoji ranked No.1, despite members of Gen Z deeming it uncool.
“It speaks to how many people use emojis. If emojis were a purely Gen Z thing, then you wouldn’t see it so highly ranked,” said Alexander Robertson, an emoji researcher at Google. “Because of the large number of people using emojis, even if one group thinks something is lame, they have to be a really big group to affect these statistics.”
And it makes sense that Gen Z would think that certain emojis aren’t fashionable. It’s part of the “teenager experience of creating a sense of subculture where there’s a right way and a wrong way of behaving.” Plus, there is a range of laughter that can be expressed: There’s light chuckling. There’s acknowledgement laughter, which is just a marker of empathy. Using emojis, such as the skull face (“I’m dead”) or crying face ( uncontrollable tears of laughter), can help to illustrate that range.
“It basically indicates that we have what we need to communicate a broad range of expression, or even very specific concepts,” Mr Robertson said. “You don’t necessarily need a Covid emoji.”
“We did see a rise in the use of the virus emoji. But it wasn’t made remotely into the most-commonly used ones because we still had plenty to laugh about and plenty to cry about, whether it was because of the pandemic or not,” said Lauren Gawne, a senior lecturer in linguistic at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.
“Even in the midst of this massive global pandemic that preoccupied so much of our time,” She added. “We still spent a lot of time wishing each other happy birthday or checking or laughing about some new and unexpected elements of this slow-burning weirdness.”
1. Why does the tears of joy emoji ranked No.1 despite the dislike from the Z generation?| A．The emoji is a purely Z generation thing. |
| B．The Z generation are too young to influence the rank. |
| C．Though they dislike it, the Z generation vote for it ultimately. |
| D．The Z generation take up a very small portion in emoji users. |
| A．the virus emoji | B．a Covid emoji |
| C．the use of the virus emoji | D．the rise in the use of the virus emoji |
| A．The massive global pandemic has come to an end. |
| B．The pandemic has little influence on people’s daily life. |
| C．We have a broad range of expression for communication. |
| D．Some new and useful emojis are created to replace the virus emoji. |
| A．The Pandemic and the Emoji. |
| B．Gen Z, the Emoji Generation. |
| C．The Emoji of the Year. |
| D．The Rise of Virus Emoji |
8 . When opening certain mobile apps, users often find disruptive (有干扰性的) open-app advertisements that impact their experience. Open-app advertisements are advertisements that appear in between contents or during transition screens, such as when an app is loading the next page. Some of these advertisements can redirect users to another app if the phone is shaken, causing a lot of frustration for consumers.
These open-app advertisements function as gateways and become more common during online shopping festivals, redirecting users to shopping platforms such as Taobao and JD. Most smartphones have a gyroscope sensor (陀螺仪传感器) to detect shaking, leading to unintentional redirection. Many users not only find it annoying to find themselves on an advertisements page, but also have trouble disabling the gyroscope feature since sometimes their phones lack the choice to do so to avoid this issue.
In response, authorities have introduced detailed regulations on shaking advertisements gateways. A regulation published in December 2022 outlines specific rules for the design of “shake-to-open” advertisements. It says that these advertisements can only be “clicked through” if the phone’s rotation angle exceeds 35 degrees, with an action time longer than three seconds.
Additionally, in February, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology emphasized that pop-up or open-app advertisements should not disrupt users’ experiences. A regulation introduced in May states that advertisements must include a clear button for users to close them.
Government enforcement of these regulations presents challenges, as the number of apps and developers is great. However, this should not be an excuse for internet platforms to break the rules, as this behavior causes far more harm than good. A survey by the Jiangsu Consumer Council showed that over 90 percent of users strongly dislike open-app advertisements, feeling that their rights are being threatened.
While these advertisements might lead to more clicks, the fact is that the advertisements may harm the credibility of the platforms that the advertisements lead to and weaken the users’ willingness to use the platforms. Platforms can achieve a mutually beneficial (互惠互利) solution only if they respect users’ choices and provide suitable advertisements that users are willing to accept.
1. What does the first paragraph mainly talk about concerning open-app ads?| A．The benefits of open-app ads for online shopping platforms. |
| B．The lack of regulations governing traditional advertising methods. |
| C．The effectiveness of open-app ads in increasing users’ engagement. |
| D．The negative impact of disruptive open-app ads on users’ experience. |
| A．They can be clicked through without any restrictions. |
| B．They can only be clicked through on certain conditions. |
| C．They should have a clear button for users to close them. |
| D．They should appear for only three seconds on the screen. |
| A．By ignoring users’ choices. |
| B．By respecting users’ preferences. |
| C．By presenting more irrelevant ads. |
| D．By flooding users with more profitable ads. |
| A．The Preferences of Shopping Platforms. |
| B．The Challenges of Online Shopping Festivals. |
| C．The Role of Advertisements in Improving Users’ Experience. |
| D．The Battle against Disruptive Advertisements on Mobile Apps. |
9 . Are you an “I person” or an “E person”? These two personality labels in particular are widely discussed online. They are part of a popular personality test called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI. There are 16 personalities in all, of which “I” and “E” refer to “introverted” and “extroverted”, respectively.
Even if someone is typically quiet, many online discussions suggest that an “I person” can still act outgoing at times. For example, when an introverted person is with a group of introverted friends, they might become more social like an “E” person.
According to psychologists, this idea of temporarily switching personalities is called “masking”. That is hiding your true personality in specific situations. “Human beings want to feel they belong, and they might become people-pleasers to do so,” wrote the MasterClass website.
Thinking on this, I may actually be the kind of person that these people are discussing. Most times, I just wish to make the atmosphere more interesting and exciting and show people that I’m easy to get along with. But deep down, I mostly enjoy being alone and quiet.
Using the MBTI result to identify and describe someone’s personality seems fun. However, I went too far at one time. My sister was excitedly making a day-to-day travel plan when I remembered from an article that a “P person” doesn’t like to make or stick to plans, so I said to her, “You don’t seem like a ‘P person’”. “Why?” she asked back. “Since when do I need to follow what my personality test tells me to do?” It was then that I realized that I’d taken the result too seriously.
The MBTI personality test may show something you don’t know about yourself and can even be a fun ice-breaker question when meeting new friends. And that’s all it is—for fun. Knowing someone’s MBTI result doesn’t mean you really know this person.
1. An “I person” tends to ________.| A．reflect on problems alone | B．enjoy gatherings with friends |
| C．be active in social situations | D．try to chat with complete strangers |
| A．Because he/she wants to be like others. |
| B．Because he/she needs a sense of belonging. |
| C．Because he/she dislikes to embarrass others. |
| D．Because he/she is actually an “E person” deep inside. |
| A．She pushed her sister too much. |
| B．She failed to help her sister follow her plan. |
| C．She believed blindly the result of the personality test. |
| D．She discouraged her sister to make a detailed travel plan. |
| A．It is supposed to be strictly followed. |
| B．It tells you everything about your personality. |
| C．It’s an interesting way to start a chat with a stranger. |
| D．It’s a reliable approach to telling what type of people a person belongs to. |
10 . On several occasions, I arrived at the Starbucks drive-through window only to find my bill already paid by a kind stranger.
One morning, I spotted a (n)
When I returned to my car, the lady was there. “Hi,” she said. “Thank you for the coffee. I never
“You’re welcome. I was just ‘
Surprisingly, she
I sat in my car for a while, my heart kind of
| A．Naturally | B．Practically | C．Typically | D．Consequently |
| A．reward | B．attention | C．care | D．gesture |
| A．exhausted | B．proud | C．elegant | D．weepy |
| A．insisted | B．required | C．begged | D．claimed |
| A．mattered | B．remained | C．existed | D．succeeded |
| A．ordered | B．expected | C．proposed | D．demanded |
| A．stopping by | B．taking care | C．dealing with it | D．paying it forward |
| A．failed | B．happened | C．proceeded | D．prepared |
| A．potential | B．permanent | C．optional | D．unbelievable |
| A．treatment | B．loss | C．suffering | D．condition |
| A．belief | B．response | C．decision | D．sign |
| A．appreciate | B．ease | C．share | D．handle |
| A．stirred | B．broken | C．racing | D．sinking |
| A．duty | B．urge | C．strength | D．determination |
| A．regret | B．hesitation | C．concern | D．sorrow |
