1 . Nothing succeeds like success, as every parent of a straight-A student knows, but trying to stress academic excellence by telling your child, “You’re so smart!” may be counterproductive. Why? According to a 2017 study, children who think their intelligence is fixed are less likely to pay attention to and bounce back（重新振作）from mistakes than children who think intelligence can grow and change.
In the study, researchers looked at 123 children. The team assessed the children to determine whether they had a “growth mindset”(believing that you can work harder to get smarter), or a “fixed mindset” (believing that your intelligence is unable to change). They then asked the children to complete a fast-paced computer accuracy task while their brain activity was recorded. During the recording, researchers noted that brain activity stopped within a half-second after making a mistake, as children became aware of their mistake and paid closer attention to what went wrong. The larger the brain response was, the more the child focused on the mistake. Based on the data, they concluded that children with a “growth mindset” were much more likely to have a larger brain response after making a mistake. While children with a “fixed mindset” were able to “bounce back”, only if they gave their full attention to the mistake.
For parents, the lessons are clear. Don’t pay your children compliments that suggest that intelligence is fixed. If your child hands you an A+ score, don’t say, “You’re so smart!” Instead, say, “Wow, that studying really paid off!” or “You clearly mastered this material-way to go!” Note the effort, not the intelligence.
Besides, many parent shy away from addressing a child’s mistakes, telling them “It’s OK. ”You’ll get it next time. ” without offering them the chances to figure out what goes wrong. Instead, it’s better to reassure your children that mistakes happen, and work to figure out where and how they make the mistake.
1. Which of the following best explains “counterproductive” underlined in paragraph 1?| A．Opposite | B．Competitive |
| C．Successful | D．Unknown |
| A．They made fewer mistakes. | B．They tried to avoid mistakes |
| C．They had smaller brain response | D．They focused more on the mistake. |
| A．You are so careless |
| B．Paying compliments to children |
| C．You’ll get it the next time |
| D．Let’s find out how you made it. |
| A．Overstressing the intelligence. |
| B．Pay compliment to children. |
| C．Addressing children’s mistakes. |
| D．Offering chances to find mistakes. |
2 . Digital technology（数字技术）has made life easier for most people. With a smartphone in hand, people can shop online, watch TV shows and arrange a taxi.
Zhu Yiwei, 17, from Anhui province, wanted his grandfather to have access to this convenience, so he bought him a new phone as a gift. But his grandfather still uses the phone just for calling and messaging. “He said other functions make him confused, ”said Zhu.
This is a common problem faced by the elderly in the digital age.
Although China already has more than 900 million internet users, among them, those aged 60 and above make up just 6.7 percent, according to the Statistical Report on Internet Development.
Even though the elderly have access to the internet, they mainly do it for communication and information acquisition（获取），according to a survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Other services are still strange to them. That’s why elderly people are sometimes called “digital refugees（难民）”.
For example, since the COVID-19 pandemic, people are often asked to show a green health code on their phone to get into public places. But most elderly people don't use smartphones. Even if they have one, many don't know how to operate it, People's Daily noted.
“We have made a lifelong contribution to society, but now we feel abandoned by it,”a 75-year-old Beijing resident surnamed Bai told the Global Times.
For the elderly, one way of mastering digital technology is to learn from younger family members. However, not all of these younger people have the patience or time to teach the elderly. In addition, aging results in many physical problems, such as weak eyesight and bad memory. This makes it harder to use smartphones.
The government and other organizations in China are trying to help. See Young, a Beijing-based NGO, aims to help China's elderly use mobile services. Student volunteers have been providing free computer and smartphone training for elderly people in over 200 communities across the country.
Zhao Jingchuan, 17, from Xi'an Gaoxin No 1 High School, and his team members also tried to help. This year, their draft proposal（草拟提案）was brought to the two sessions. They suggested more ways to help introduce the technology to the older generation, including sending manuals(手册），offering technical support, and cybersecurity(网络安全）education.
1. Why is Zhu Yiwei's example mentioned in the second paragraph?| A．To praise him for caring for the elderly. |
| B．To show how the elderly use phones. |
| C．To tell about how the young and the elderly get along. |
| D．To present the topic of the difficulties elderly people face in the digital age. |
| A．they hardly have opportunities to use the internet |
| B．they have trouble using digital technology |
| C．they are unwilling to use new technology |
| D．they don't have suitable digital products |
| A．Attacked. |
| B．Defeated. |
| C．Left behind. |
| D．Held back. |
| A．The expectations of the elderly in the digital age. |
| B．The advantages of digital technology for the elderly. |
| C．The efforts made to help the elderly use technology. |
| D．The help young people provided for the elderly. |
3 . Being trapped in an elevator(电梯) can be one of the worst experiences of one’s life. Some people who have such experiences may be afraid to use elevator again. In fact, there are some useful tips to follow when people are in trouble with the elevator.
First, take deep breaths and keep calm. Too much fear will add to your panic(恐慌) and make you too nervous to think clearly. Tell yourself to be patient and believe that nothing is impossible.
Secondly, use the emergency(急救) call inside the elevator or your mobile phone to let people outside know your are stuck in the elevator. There is an emergency call on the wall of each elevator. You may use your mobile phone to give light and find it. The phone number can be found around it.
Thirdly, putting on messages on Wechat(微信) is also a good idea to allow more people to find you are in need of help. If help hasn’t come, knock the door hard to get attention from other people in the building.
Fourthly, move less and try to relax. Even if the workers have known your situation, it may take them a long time to repair the elevator and bring you back to safety. Instead of keeping moving all the time, you are advised to keep still and relax yourself as much as possible, or you will make yourself tired out. Make sure that you are fine when the door is open.
1. According to the passage, when in trouble with an elevator, you should________ first.| A．Keep calm and think clearly | B．do nothing but wait |
| C．shout out for help | D．try to break the door open |
| A．tired | B．kept |
| C．troubled | D．trapped |
| A．they can spend their time easily |
| B．their situations can be known by more people |
| C．they can become less nervous |
| D．they can make more friends |
| A．To introduce how to use an elevator. |
| B．To teach us how to save ourselves when trapped in an elevator. |
| C．To warn us not to take an elevator. |
| D．To tell us an elevator often goes wrong. |
4 . One rainy afternoon, I was on a cross-town bus when a young woman jumped on. She had a child with her who must have been about 3 or 4 years old.
The bus was full, bumpy, and it soon got noisy as her kid began crying because he couldn't sit next to his mother. There were a couple of open seats, but they weren't together. She was flustered and looked embarrassed.
Then another woman, a little older, stood up and moved so that the mother and child could sit together. The mom smiled as a thank-you. And then three words came out of the older woman's mouth that elevated the entire energy of that bus ride:“I've been there”.
Simple, undramatic and honest. In that moment, it seemed to unite people. Why? Because almost all experiences are shared human experiences. We forget that, as we forge (前进) through life, focused on our own troubles and needs—which are actually less unique than we think. How can these three words create more connection in your life? Ask yourself: “Where am I holding back?”
One thing I know for sure is this: Healing others helps heal yourself. I noticed this recently with my friend, Tracy, who took a new friend who had suffered miscarriage under her wing. Tracy had three of them before having her daughter two years ago. Our intellect needs a doctor to explain the medical side of things, yes. But our souls need human connection to help us along. No one can do that better than someone who has been exactly where you are.
Can the essence of these three words help you make a small difference right now? It can be as simple as volunteering your seat, sharing some helpful advice or even lightening the mood with a joke when you notice that someone's uncomfortable -because we're all in this together.
1. The underlined word “flustered” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.| A．upset | B．shocked |
| C．scared | D．relieved |
| A．The woman was on the bus and saw what had happened to the boy. |
| B．The woman once had the similar experience with that mother. |
| C．The woman got to her destination and was ready to get off the bus. |
| D．The woman took the exact seat that the boy was on just now. |
| A．Everyone has his or her own unique problem that is difficult to solve. |
| B．Doctors can help us get through when we have mental or physical problems. |
| C．One can indeed make a difference to those in need of help by doing simple things. |
| D．The author's friend Tracy felt better after she was comforted by her new friend |
| A．illustrate some ways of helping others in detail |
| B．appeal to readers to give timely help to those in need |
| C．show a harmonious world by telling some touching stories |
| D．praise those who are willing to help others in emergencies |
5 . Technology is a double-edged sword(双刃剑)— while it brings convenience, it also brings new problems. The sword of “social media” even has its preference: It cuts deeper into girls than boys.
Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University in the US, recently discovered an alarming trend: Since 2010, the number of teenage girls who suffer from major depression, showing signs like self-harm and suicide (自杀), has increased much faster than that of boys. It is social media again that is to blame.
Statistically, girls use social media more than boys. Boys tend to spend their screen time on games, where they talk to their teammates through headphones. Though not directly, this still counts as real human contact. Girls, however, simply type and browse through posts, which is a much more isolated (孤立的) experience. “They're not having a real-time conversation with someone most of the time,” Mary Fristad, psychologist at The Ohio State University, told NPR.
And when it comes to online shaming, girls are also more vulnerable than boys. “Girls face more pressure about their appearance, which could be exacerbated (加重) by social media,” wrote Twenge. Shannon McLaughlin, for example, is an 18-year-old from Blackburn College in the US. She shared with the Guardian how social media made her feel depressed.
But McLaughlin found a solution. She started volunteering with the National Citizen Service, where she made face-to-face contact with people. "It's so easy to forget the importance of real connections when we have hundreds of people that we' re trying to impress at our fingertips," she told the Guardian. And she hopes that others "look up from their phones and focus more on the world around them".
1. What causes more depressed girls to harm and even kill themselves according to Twenge?| A．Social media. | B．Campus injury. |
| C．Physical image. | D．Academic pressure. |
| A．Boys tend to spend more time online than girls. |
| B．Girls experience more real human contact online. |
| C．Girls are more likely to get socially separated online. |
| D．Boys have direct human contact in playing online games. |
| A．Able to adjust oneself. | B．Easily hurt or disturbed. |
| C．Concerned about something. | D．Extremely devoted or impressed. |
| A．Focus more on the online world. | B．Connect more with the real world. |
| C．Start to take part in volunteer work. | D．Make use of phones for socializing. |
6 . For decades, Americans have been sorting their trash believing that most plastic could be recycled. But the truth is that the vast majority of all plastic produced can’t be or won’t be recycled. In 40 years, less than 10% of plastic has been recycled.
A news programme Frontline, by NPR and the PBS. found that oil and gas companies—the makers of plastic—have known that all along, even as they spent millions of dollars telling the American public the opposite. The plastics industry officials said the industry is providing money for new technology that they believe will get recycling plastic up to scale. The goal, they said, is to recycle 100% of the plastic they make in 5 years.
But the more plastic is recycled, the less money the industry will make by selling new plastic. And those profits have become increasingly important. Companies have told shareholders that profits from using oil and gas for transport are expected to decline in coming years with the increasing use of electric cars. The industry leaders expect oil and gas demands from the chemical industry will be much greater than the demand from the transport side in the coming decade. Plastic production overall is now expected to rise three times by 2050, and once again, the industry is spending money on advertisements and public relations to promote plastic recycling.
Plastic is now more common than it’s ever been and harder to recycle. Gas prices remain at historic lows, making new plastic cheaper than recycled plastic. And the industry now produces many more different—and more complex—kinds of plastics that are more costly to sort and in many cases can’t be recycled at all. Efforts to reduce plastic use are mounting nationwide, but any plan to slow the growth of plastic will face an industry with billions of dollars of future profits to lose.
1. What do we know about the goal of 100% plastic recycling?| A．It’s modest | B．It’s achievable | C．It’s urgent. | D．It’s unreal. |
| A．By selling electric cars | B．By adding emphasis on recycling. |
| C．By increasing plastic production. | D．By meeting the needs of transport. |
| A．Increasing. | B．Working | C．Failing | D．Decreasing |
7 . Everyone knows that death is natural, but do you have any idea of the process of dying? Modern scientists divide the process of dying into two phases---clinical or temporary death and biological death. Clinical death occurs when the vital organs, such as the heart or lungs, have ceased to function, but have not suffered permanent damage. The organism can still be revived (复活). Biological death occurs when changes in the organism lead to the “breaking up” of vital cells and tissues. Death is then unchangeable and final.
Scientists have been seeking a way to prolong the period of clinical death so that the organism can remain alive before biological death occurs. The best method developed so far involves cooling of the organism, combined with narcotic sleep. By slowing down the body's metabolism, cooling delays the processes leading to biological death.
To illustrate how this works, scientists performed an experiment on a six-year-old female monkey called Keta. The scientist put Keta to sleep with a narcotic. Then they surrounded her body with ice-bags and began checking her body temperature. When it had dropped to 28 degrees the scientists began draining blood from an artery. The monkey's blood pressure decreased and an hour later both the heart and breathing stopped: clinical death set in. For twenty minutes Keta remained in this state. Her temperature dropped to 22 degrees. At this point the scientists pumped blood into an artery in the direction of the heart and started artificial breathing. After two minutes Keta's heart became active once more. After fifteen minutes, spontaneous (自发的) breathing began, and after four hours Keta opened her eyes and lifted her head. After six hours, when the scientists tried to give her a penicillin injection, Keta seize d the syringe and ran with it around the room. Her behavior differed little from that of a healthy animal.
1. Which word can be used to replace the underlined word “ceased”____________.| A．postponed. | B．prevented. | C．stopped. | D．lengthened. |
| A．cool the organism. |
| B．bring vital cells and tissues back to active life. |
| C．slow down the body's metabolism. |
| D．postpone the coming of biological death. |
| A．By putting her to sleep, lowering her temperature and draining her blood. |
| B．By surrounding her body with ice-bags and draining her blood. |
| C．By lowing her blood pressure and stopping her heart from beating. |
| D．By draining her blood, lowering her blood pressure and stopping her breathing. |
| A．her heart beat again. |
| B．she rejected a penicillin injection. |
| C．she regained her normal breath. |
| D．she acted as lively as a healthy monkey. |
8 . If you were to throw, say, a banana skin out of your car while driving along the motorway, that would be a completely harmless action, due to the fact that it’s part of a fruit—right? Actually, no. A banana skin can take up to two years to be naturally processed, and a third of drivers confess they litter while driving, that’s a lot of thrown banana skin. An orange skin and a cigarette butt (烟蒂) have similar biodegrading (生物降解) time to that of a banana skin, but tin cans last up to 100 years; and plastic bottles last forever, as do glass bottles.
Despite the fact that longer-lasting materials will serve to damage the environment and its animals for longer, we can’t measure the danger of a certain type of rubbish by its lifetime. For example, despite having a fairly short length of biodegrading time, more than 120 tons of cigarette-related litter is thrown in the UK every day.
It’s not a cheap habit either: to keep our streets clean annually costs UK taxpayers £500 million, and when you include our green spaces, that goes up to £1 billion. So, it’s not surprising that if caught throwing rubbish, you could face a £20,000 fine or even prison time and, if you threw something dangerous, the court could give you five years to serve. Regardless of how serious these punishments might seem, however, among the reported cases only 2,000 were found guilty out of 825,000, so we still have some way to go in making sure people obey the rules.
1. What does the underlined word “confess” in Paragraph1 mean?| A．Defend. | B．Admit. |
| C．Determine. | D．Assume. |
| A．Glass bottles. | B．Tin cans. |
| C．Plastic bottles. | D．Banana skins. |
| A．The punishment for throwing rubbish illegally is rather light. |
| B．The harm of rubbish can be measured by its lifetime. |
| C．Cigarette-related litter and fruit skins can be ignored for their fairly short lifetime. |
| D．A small number of people felt guilty of illegally littering. |
| A．To call for people not to litter illegally. |
| B．To inform readers of different biodegrading terms. |
| C．To encourage people to use fewer plastic bags. |
| D．To attach significance to good behavior. |
9 . An international group of electronic music composers is taking beats from the dance club to jungles and forests and back, all to help save nature's greatest singers. A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean is a new album that includes the sounds of endangered birds. The album will come out next month, whose proceeds will go directly towards efforts to save birds.
The whole project was born out of this idea of trying to combine birdsong, electronic music and conservation. A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean was organized by activist, music producer, Robin Perkins. He invited artists from each of the endangered birds 'homelands to build their own songs around the birds’ songs. There are contributions from ten artists in eight different countries.
First single Black Catbird was created by The Garifuna Collective, from Belize. Al Obando, guitarist and producer of the group, always took in national parks and viewed birds when on the road with the band. “There are no trails, and there are no signs there to tell you about what you reseeing,” Obando says. “So we're trying to do something for the birds and nature tourism.”
Another musician who responded to Robin's call is Tamara Montenegro, an artist from Nicaragua. She was shocked to hear of the serious situation of the Guardabarranco after being approached: “This beautiful creature I grew up adoring also faced the influence of the systematic human activities”. In response, she created a song inspired by this bird and the challenges it faces to live naturally.
The new album is the second edition, following on from A Guide to the Birdsong of South America, produced by Robin in 2015. That first album has raised, to date, over $15,000 benefitting conservation projects in South America. As with the first album, all of the money from the sales of the new album will support specific organizations, including Birds Caribbean.
1. What does the underlined word “proceeds” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Profits. | B．Budgets. | C．Challenges. | D．Effects. |
| A．He created a hit single himself. |
| B．He was fond of observing birds. |
| C．He was the organizer of the new album. |
| D．He did a lot for birds in South America. |
| A．It was friendly to humans. |
| B．It was beautiful in appearance. |
| C．It was losing its living environment. |
| D．It was facing challenges from other birds. |
| A．To collect money for a project. |
| B．To popularize electronic music. |
| C．To recommend some famous artists. |
| D．To introduce a new album of electronic music. |
10 . Beauty has always been regarded as something that deserves praise. Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier，have better marriages and nave more respectable jobs. Personal advisors give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants. But in the executive（主管）circle, beauty can become a liability.
While attractiveness is a positive factor for a man on his way up the executive ladder，it is harmful to a woman. ①
Handsome male executives were considered as having more honesty than plainer men；effort and ability were thought to account for their success.
② Attractive female executives were considered to have less honesty than unattractive ones；their success was attributed not to ability but to factors such as luck. All unattractive women executives were thought to have more honesty and to be more capable（能力强的）than the attractive female executives. Interestingly，though，the rise of the unattractive overnight success was attributed more to personal relationships and less to ability than that of the attractive overnight success.
③ An attractive woman is considered to be more feminine（女性化的）and an attractive man more manly than the less attractive ones. Thus，an attractive woman has an advantage in traditionally female jobs, but an attractive woman in a traditionally manly position appears to lack the “manly” qualities required.
This is true even in politics（政治）, “When the only clue is how he or she looks，people treat men and women differently,” says Anne Bowman, who recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates（候选人）. She asked 125 undergraduate students to rank two groups of photographs, one of men and one of women, in order of attractiveness. Then the students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked to rank them again，in the order they would vote for them.
④ The results showed that attractive males defeated unattractive men. but the women who had been ranked most attractive received the fewest votes.
1. The underline word “liability” in paragraph 1 most probably means| A．trouble | B．advantage |
| C．misfortune | D．opportunity |
| A．is beneficial | B．is decisive |
| C．ensures success | D．reflects honesty |
| A．① | B．② | C．③ | D．④ |
| A．demand equal rights in politics for females |
| B．give advice on how to achieve success for men |
| C．stress the importance of appearance for job-seekers |
| D．discuss the disadvantages of attractiveness for women |
