1 . ACL 500 Word Story Competition

We are pleased to announce the launch of the ACL 500 Word Story Competition. This time the theme is “Awakening”. We’re looking for our community to pen a story that quickly catches our attention and tells a great tale. You can submit (提交) an entry as an individual achievement or as a team effort — we want to read both kinds! Our judges will include a range of our experienced instructors, staff and local Essex Author Sarah Armstrong.

Sarah Armstrong is the author of three novels, most recently The Wolves of Leninsky Prospekt and The Starlings of Bucharest, the first and second in the Moscow Wolves series. She is also the author of A Summer of Spying, a book mainly about her own experience. Sarah teaches undergraduate and postgraduate creative writing with The Open University, and lives in Essex with her husband and four children.

Rules:
◆ Your story can be a poem, an essay or any other kinds of writing.
◆ Entries will need to be in a Word format. PDF files are unacceptable.
◆ Please ensure your story is suitable for all to read.
◆ Use the given submission form to submit your details and story. The deadline for submissions is 12th April.
Benefits:
◆ Prizes include a book voucher (代金券), a short creative writing course, and your work published.
◆ Discover new and exciting skills at writing while exploring your creative writing and sharing inspirational moments with others. We have a fantastic range of Creative Writing courses for you to choose from.
1. What do we know about the competition?

A．It’s organized in honor of Sarah Armstrong.

B．It looks for both individual and group works.

C．It aims to awaken an interest in writing.

D．It’s targeted at undergraduates and postgraduates.

2. Which is a requirement for the entries?

A．They should be submitted as a Word file.	B．They must be poems or essays.
C．They must be based on personal experience.	D．They should be about life in Essex.

3. What can participants get?

A．A voucher for a course.	B．An expert training class by Sarah.
C．A vast range of courses.	D．An improvement to writing skills.

3 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. When will the swim classes begin?

A．On May 1st.

B．On April 30th.

C．On April 29th.

2. How many swim classes are being offered?

A．10.

B．15.

C．20.

3. Who must come to the swim skill show?

A．Those who have no Level 3 certificate.

B．Those who want to pass the skill level test quickly.

C．Those who have never attended Community Pool classes.

4. Who will rate the students’ skill levels?

A．The speaker.

B．The instructors.

C．The local community.

5 . A healthy person is a wealthy person. Wealth is here valued in terms of the person's physical well-being so that he or she is able to go about and carry out day-to-day tasks easily.    1     To achieve this, physical exercise is a must.

    2    Modern-day diseases like heart problems, diabetes (糖尿病),and certain cancers are all caused by the shortage of exercise. Oppositely, anyone having these diseases will get well if they include exercise as part of their daily life.

Doctors think not enough exercise leads to many people having one form or another of sleeplessness. Moreover, when we sleep better, we can protect ourselves from diseases.    3     During tasks, their bodies physically become worse. Their bones, internal parts, and cardiovascular system are all badly influenced. However, it has been found that exercise reduces changes noticeably.

Another example of how exercise helps us to feel better is that it makes us lose weight. It burns off the energy. In our push-button lifestyle, we have become quite sedentary (久坐不动).   “Why walk, when we can take the car” seems to be the way of life for all of us.     4     Moreover, we seem to be only exercising our fingers as we play computer games, surf the Net, and press the keys to choose our favorite television program.

Lastly, students should exercise at least three times a week for at least twenty minutes each time, as exercise is a good stress killer.     5    One of them can make a person become less stressed and more cheerful. Students preparing for their examinations are therefore able to concentrate better. As a result, they will do better in their examinations.

In a word, regular exercise is a useful way by which we can not only feel younger, but look younger.

A．Exercise ensures good health.

B．This has been made clear by spacemen.

C．He or she will look good and feel good.

D．Students are busy with heavy homework.

E．Nowadays, even shopping is done online.

F．It is no wonder that our young are gaining weight.

G．Exercise causes the brain to produce different chemicals.

6 . Since the 1980s, Special Olympics Unified Sports has created chances for many middle and high school students that they didn’t have before. Young athletes with intellectual (智力的) and physical disabilities (缺陷) who played in the Special Olympics could now play on middle and high school teams. More than 1.6 million Unified teammates now compete in more than 30sports around the world. Unified athletes train and play with Unified student partners.

Contoocook Valley Regional High School (ConVal) has two Unified sports programs:basketball and soccer. Kevin Came, a ConVal Unified basketball coach, understands the influence that these teams have on the athletes. “Unified Sports has the same influence on the athletes as all other varsity (大学) sports,” he says. “It builds their personalities, helps build sport skills, confidence, teamwork, and gives them the honor of playing for their school. Days of playing high school sports will be long remembered by the athletes as years go by.”

Unified teams are considered varsity sports, but there are no tryouts, and the spirit around both teams is always positive and encouraging.

Steve Erdody has coached Unified basketball for 10 years. “My goal is always to make it a positive experience every time, whether it be a practice or game, and that goes for opponents (对手) too. We try to get every athlete on our team to score each game, as well as help the athletes on the other team score.”

Andres Torugee, a recent Con Val graduate, played on both the Unified soccer and Unified basketball teams. “If you are considering joining a Unified sport, you should go for it because it was so much fun playing soccer and basketball and the coaches are really good and funny too,” Torugee said. “Unified and Special Olympics taught me to play as a team and to share the ball with my teammates. It was a great way to make friends.”

1. What do we know about Unified Sports?

A．It has spread worldwide.

B．It is open to the disabled only.

C．It includes fewer than 30 sports.

D．It has been popular for more than a century.

2. What does Kevin Came think of Unified Sports?

A．It is challenging for the athletes.

B．It is not as famous as the Olympics.

C．It has a great influence on the athletes.

D．It helps the athletes more than other varsity sports.

3. What is Steve Erdody’s goal according to the text?

A．Getting his team to win.

B．Coaching a Unified basketball team.

C．Making Unified basketball a positive experience.

D．Helping the athletes attend the Special Olympics.

4. How did Andres Torugee find Unified sports?

A．Boring.

B．Helpful.

C．Difficult.

D．Surprising.

8 . A father in Brisbane, Australia, has beaten the world record for the most push-ups in one hour.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, 33-year-old Lucas Helmke, an accountant (会计) by trade, did 3, 206 push-ups at Brisbane’s Iron Underground gym. After the November submission (提交) , Helmke’s record just officially passed. He beat the record of 3, 182 push-ups set last April by fellow Australian Daniel Scali.

In order to show his son that “nothing is impossible,” Helmke, who trained for two to three years for this moment, said he wanted to beat the old record to “provide encouragement” for his 1-year-old.

His goal in this successful record attempt (尝试) was to break the exercise down to 30-second sets, doing 26 push-ups in each. Guinness said that 34 of Helmke’s push-ups were discounted because of improper form. To count, each push-up had to be completed without bending (弯曲) the knees.

Breaking the push-ups world record is a hot ticket. The record for the most push-ups in one hour has been broken repeatedly over the past 10 years. Before Helmke and Scali, another Australian man named Jarrad Young held the title, breaking his own record three years in a row: from 2, 806 push-ups in 2018 to 3, 054 in 2021. CNN reported that a 60-year-old Florida man, Rob Stirling, did 3, 264 push-ups last month, but it has not yet been officially recognized by Guinness.

Helmke told Guinness that his achievement is just the beginning. “This will be the first record I wish to set of a number of other push-up records,” he said. “Then onto other physical records.” According to the Brisbane Times, the dad chose Nov. 11 for his record attempt. “I wanted to break the record on my son’s first birthday,” he said.

1. What did Helmke do after years of training?

A．He set a new world record.	B．He ran the largest gym in Brisbane.
C．He started a new life as a senior accountant.	D．He became his son’s push-up instructor.

2. Why did Helmke begin his attempt?

A．To improve his life.	B．To set an example to his son.
C．To encourage people to take exercise.	D．To realize his childhood dream.

3. What do the underlined words “a hot ticket” mean in paragraph 5?

A．A difficult task.

B．A long way.

C．A popular challenge.

D．A new business.

4. What did Helmke plan to do?

A．Celebrate his son’s birthday.	B．Have a meeting with Rob Stirling.
C．Get a physical check-up.	D．Beat other world records.

9 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What is the speaker?

A．A surfer.

B．A reporter.

C．A community worker.

2. Who got the first place of the competition this year?

A．Kenneth.

B．Jamie.

C．Ryan.

3. When will the next competition be?

A．In July this year.

B．In June next year.

C．In December next year.

4. Why should people hurry down to Bradley Beach this evening?

A．The surfers are meeting fans.

B．The award ceremony is going on.

C．The community is having a gathering.

10 . Anyone who’s lived through middle school knows those years can be particularly challenging. Some researches show youths across the U.S. are struggling with mental health. The physical health benefits of bike riding have been well-documented. Wilson, a researcher at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, and his co-authors carried out a new study to see if taking part in a cycling program could result in measurable changes in mind for teenagers.

The study involved more than 1,200 students, ages 11 to 14. Students participated in a cycling class for at least three days a week, for a period of 6 weeks. They learned cycling safety and practicing skills outdoors while raising their heart rate and just having fun. The students completed standardized questionnaires before and after the program designed to measure their health.

“We know cycling can benefit the body. Our research shows how it benefits the mind and social relationships as well. Bike riding can be an ideal activity for adolescents because of the benefits it offers,” said Wilson.

“Cycling engages several parts of brain function. You are looking at your hearing, you’re balancing, you’re navigating and turning. Oftentimes, you’re doing it with someone else, so there’s the positive effect of company or group activity,” said Allan Reiss, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.

While exercise has powerful mental health benefits, it’s not universal. For example, previous research has shown that teenage girls are at higher risk of mental health problems like depression and anxiety than boys. The current study found that, while middle school girls reported increased well-being after participating in the cycling program, that increase “may just reach the kind of baseline level for male students,” Wilson said. And other aspects of healthy living are also important, noted Wilson. The study found that teenagers who didn’t limit screen time to a maximum of two hours a day, or who got less than the recommended 8.5 hours of sleep, saw less improvement in their well-being, he said.

1. What does the new study mainly focus on?

A．Challenges in middle school.	B．Youths in America.
C．Physical benefits of cycling.	D．Mental effects of bike riding.

2. What did the students do in the program?

A．Attend the cycling class for a week.

B．Learn how to keep safe while cycling.

C．Raise their heart rate by cycling indoors.

D．Design questions to measure their health.

3. What is Reiss’s attitude to the result of the study?

A．Supportive.

B．Doubtful.

C．Unclear.

D．Negative.

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．Application of the research results.

B．Doubts about the research methods.

C．Further explanation of the research findings.

D．Supporting evidence from previous research.