1 . Things To Remember On Your First Solo Travel Adventure
If you’ve ever thought about just taking a trip yourself instead of waiting for someone to join you, you’re not alone.
Don’t be afraid to talk to random people. Though there is someone who poses a threat, it’s important to remember that not everyone is out to get you.
It’s okay to have bad days.
It’s okay to start small.
| A．You are the boss of your own adventure. |
| B．You need to make an unusual travel choice. |
| C．It’s no secret that solo travel is on the rise. |
| D．Sometimes things can go incredibly wrong. |
| E．People like you simply don’t know how to start. |
| F．Most of the time people are just curious and try to be friendly. |
| G．Remember, your first solo trip doesn’t have to be to a whole other continent. |
One sunny afternoon, Alice and I were walking home from school, lost in our girlish conversation. Alice, with her curious eyes sparkling, casually asked about my friendship with Judy. In a moment of thoughtlessness, I responded, “I only hung out with Judy because she asked me and I wasn’t keen on being friends with her. She was rather dull.” The unkind words just escaped my lips before I could catch them, like marbles rolling off a table.
Little did I know, Judy had been just around the corner somehow. When I glanced up, Judy appeared right in front of me, having accidentally overheard everything. All the color faded from her face. Her eyes widening with shock, without a word, she rushed off. Alice and I were left standing there, exchanging a look of shame and discomfort. I knew I should run after Judy and apologize, but with my mind blank, I was frozen. Alice’s face turned red, too. We walked home in silence, each step heavier than the last.
The following days were filled with awkwardness. I felt terrible for what I’d said and was dying to mend our friendship. An honest apology was desperately needed. But what should I say? Unintentional as I was, I indeed hurt Judy’s feelings. Every time I saw Judy in the halls or during classes, I’d quickly look away.
Fate threw me a curve ball in our speech class. On Tuesday, Mr. Thomas announced that we would be giving improvised(即兴的) speeches. He had written our topics on slips of paper and put them into a secret jar. Each of us was asked to blindly choose one without knowing what it would be about. I couldn’t say I was not nervous. As I reached into the jar of topics, my fingers closed around the slip that read, “Share your most embarrassing moment.” My heart pounded like a drum roll in my chest. It was as if the universe had come my way to give me a chance.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Knowing what I had to say, I calmed myself down and walked to the platform.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________That day marked a turning point.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________China’s new hit TV show To the Wonder has made Altay in the Xinjiang Uygur
Adapted
The grassland views and free and easy lives
The travel portal Qunar said that from May 7, flight ticket bookings to Altay rose 20 percent compared with the same period in the previous month, and hotel bookings
It is not the first time that a hit show
4 . In a small wooden sauna (蒸汽浴), a team of 14 people in costumes squeezed in, including one in a Spider-Man suit. Steam hovered overhead. Three minutes were on the clock. At exactly three minutes, everyone rushed out, found their robes and set out in the snow searching for the next stop in the winter race.
At the 13th European Sauna Marathon, teams dragged through ice and snow to clock three minutes in 18 different saunas over one afternoon. Each team is given a map and an electronic tracker to keep everyone honest on their three minutes. Some locations are nearly 30 miles away. At this year’s competition, in early February, I joined a team to complete the circuit, sweating through the steam and jumping into ice holes at top speed.
One of the competition categories is to vote on the best sauna experience. Participants vote by heat, music, snacks and novelty. This year’s winner was a sauna in the sky, equipped with a wood-burning stove lifted 50 feet in the air by an industrial crane while each team sweated inside. When the sauna hit the ground, a charming cowboy handed out ice-cold sweet drinks as a goodbye.
Most of the saunas are run by local enthusiasts, friendly families and businesses giving out pre-sauna beers and grilled meats. One was a hobbit house with a snowy roof slide that ended in an ice hole. Another served as part of the relief effort after this sauna competition.
This year registration sold out within two hours. The entries are capped at 200 teams. But organizers say they hold 40 places for teams from abroad to experience Estonian sauna culture. I made it to all the saunas, and my preference was beekeeper’s sauna with an ice hole. For my part, the whole journey is less marathon and more festival — celebrating all things sauna. It’s definitely worth a try after a whole day’s tiring work.
1. What can we know about the 13th European Sauna Marathon?| A．Participants are supposed to compete at will. |
| B．Participants are not permitted to team up with others. |
| C．Participants experience different saunas within one afternoon. |
| D．Participants wear identical clothes throughout the competition. |
| A．The content of the sauna competition. |
| B．Guidance on how to assess the sauna competition. |
| C．The author’s skills in excelling at the competition. |
| D．The author’s efforts to finish the sauna competition. |
| A．Panicked and frightened. | B．Satisfied and refreshed. |
| C．Astonished and embarrassed. | D．Fearful and sorrowful. |
| A．Life Style | B．Cultural Thinking | C．Sports Club | D．Fashion Costume |
I’ve always had a love for basketball, so when it came time to continue my basketball journey at Columbia High School, I resolved to make it onto the school’s varsity (校队) basketball team. Any time I wasn’t studying, I was putting on my sports shoes and hitting the school stadium. Just before bed, I’d look up videos of LeBron James and Kevin Durant, trying to learn from the professionals. Day and night, all I could think about was how to get better and how to improve.
After months and months of practice and playing on the junior varsity team, Coach Moore finally told me one day that I was going to be playing for our school’s varsity basketball team going into my junior year. Success! Time for the big league! What I didn’t know, however, was that I was going to face a pretty big challenge in the form of a new transfer student: Chet Harrison.
Harrison had just transferred from another school, Westmoreland High School, where he had already been playing for the varsity team. There were rumors floating around that he was nearly guaranteed a spot playing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association and maybe even the National Basketball League someday.
I’ll admit, the kid was a natural talent when it came to playing basketball. But Harrison’s biggest weakness was his personality. He seemed selfish and sometimes acted like a bully, always seeking attention and showing off after scoring goals. Despite his loyal following of fans, I couldn’t stand him. But after Coach Moore said that Harrison and I would be playing together, I decided to accept it and make peace with the situation.
After months of putting up with Harrison’s attitude, I nearly had enough. Just before the winter break, however, we played a home match against Harrison’s old school Westmoreland and we lost. Harrison in particular felt utterly embarrassed.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I found Harrison struggling to fight off tears in a corner of the boys’ locker room.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After months of working together, we found ourselves again facing Westmoreland on the basketball court for the finals.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In Xinjiang, China, the beautiful scenery can often take miraculous forms. Anjihai Town has become famous the world over due to one canyon (峡谷) in particular. The river,
The canyon is about 30 kilometers
7 . NASA (美国航空航天局) is looking for a new way to get its precious Mars samples back to the earth. Those samples are being collected by the Perseverance rover in Mars’Jezero Crater, which hosted a lake and a river delta billions of years ago. Getting the samples is one of NASA’s top science goals. Studying unspoiled Red Planet material in well-equipped labs around the world could reveal key insights into Mars, including whether it has ever hosted life.
The agency has had a Mars sample return (MSR) structure in place for some time now, but repeated delays and cost overruns seem to have made the original plan hard to realize. “The bottom line is that $ 11 billion is too much, and not returning samples until 2040 is unacceptably too long,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said during a call with reporters. That price tag is the upper-end estimate calculated by an independent review board. A team from within NASA analyzed those September results, determining that the agency won’t be able to get Perseverance’s samples back to Earth until 2040 with the established structure.
NASA is now seeking a new way forward in an attempt to cut costs and get the samples here sooner. Saving money will aid other agency science projects, and speeding up the timeline could help the agency plan out manned Mars trips.
The wheels on the new plan are already turning. NASA is asking the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California — its lead facility for robotic planetary exploration — and other agency research centers for innovative MSR ideas. NASA will hold an industry day and accept proposals. The goal is to have enough information on hand by late fall or early winter to begin charting a new path forward on MSR. MSR remains a top priority for NASA, despite the difficulty of the task. After all, no country has ever launched a rocket from the surface of another planet, though three countries have launched from the moon.
“I think it’s fair to say that we are committed to bring back the samples, for this is an important national objective.” Nelson said.
1. What’s the main function of paragraph 2?| A．To draw readers’ attention to this topic. |
| B．To warn the readers of a possible failure. |
| C．To stress the importance of Mars samples. |
| D．To introduce some background information. |
| A．Efficient. | B．Impractical. | C．Sensible. | D．Conservative. |
| A．The current method is costly and takes too long. |
| B．The current method is too risky and unreliable. |
| C．It takes a sophisticated container to convey the samples. |
| D．The samples have been spoiled and need to be handled differently. |
| A．NASA’s huge project |
| B．MSR, a promising plan |
| C．NASA’s Mars sample return plan calls for overall adjustments |
| D．NASA’s campaign to return Mars Samples to Earth is on hold |
8 . Iceberg Water, which is harvested from icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland Canada, is achieving new heights of popularity in North America.
Arthur, Von Wiesenberger who carries the title “Water Master”, is one of the few water critics in North America. As a boy, he spent time in the larger cities of Italy, France and Switzerland, where bottled water is consumed daily. Even then, he kept a water journal, noting the brands he liked best. “My dog could tell the difference between bottled and tap water.” He says.
But is plain tap water all that bad? Not at all. In fact. New York’s tap water for more than a century was called the champagne of tap water and until recently considered among the best in the world in terms of both taste and purity. Similarly, a magazine in England found that tap water from the Thames River tasted better than several leading brands of bottled water that were 400 times more expensive.
Nevertheless, soft-drink companies view bottled water as the next battle-ground for market share — despite the fact that over 25 percent of bottled water comes from tap water: Pepsi Co’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola’s Dasani are both purified tap water rather than spring water.
As diners thirst for leading brands, bottlers and restaurateurs are desperate for the profits. A restaurant’s typical mark-up (加价) on wine is 100 to 150 percent, whereas on bottled water it’s often 300 to 500 percent. But since water is much cheaper than wine, and many of the fancier brands aren’t available in stores, most diners don’t notice or care.
As a result, some restaurants are turning up the pressure to sell bottled water. According to an article in The Street Journal, some of the more shameless methods include placing attractive bottles on the table for a visual sell, listing brands on the menu without prices, and pouring bottled water without even asking the diners if they want it.
Regardless of how it’s sold, the popularity of bottled water taps into our desire for better health. our wish to appear cultivated, and even a longing for lost purity.
1. What is Arthur’s purpose in mentioning his dog in paragraph 2?| A．To indicate his own preference for bottled water. |
| B．To show the importance of bottled water to dogs. |
| C．To clarify the difference between bottled water and tap water. |
| D．To exhibit the large consumption of bottled water in big cities. |
| A．tap water from the Thames River |
| B．famous wines not sold in ordinary stores |
| C．PepsiCo’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola’s Dasani |
| D．pricey bottled water with very impressive names |
| A．Most diners find bottled water affordable. |
| B．Competition from the wine industry is fierce. |
| C．Bottled water can bring in huge profits. |
| D．Bottled water satisfies diners’ desire to be fashionable. |
| A．Tap water: why tastes better? | B．Bottled water: why so popular? |
| C．A new favorite of. restaurants; bottled water | D．A rising star: tap water |
9 . Officials in San Francisco are asking the public to help choose a waste container among several models proposed for mass deployment (部署) in the California city. It is proving to be a costly project. One of the trash cans under consideration cost more than $20,000 and took four years to make.
San Francisco began its search for the perfect public trash can in 2018. Officials decided it was time to replace the more than 3,000 cans that have served the city’s streets for almost 20 years. The current trash cans open too widely, they say, permitting people to reach in. The cans also break a lot, requiring repairs. Sometimes people push them over or mark them with words and pictures. Sometimes, the cans are set on fire.
Last month, the city deployed 15 made-to-order trash cans and 11 off-the-shelf trash cans. Attached to each was a QR code from which people could answer questions about the individual can. The city government project also created interactive maps so people can find the different models to consider. The so-called Soft Square model trash can was priced at $20,900, making it the most expensive model on the streets. It is made of light steel. A press of a pedal opens the can for hands-free operation. It has dividers so waste can be separated from materials for recycling, like aluminum and glass.
City officials say, however, that the government will not pay more than three-thousand per can once a model is chosen for mass production. Beth Rubenstein is a spokeswoman for San Francisco’s Department of Publie Works. “We live in a beautiful city, and we want(the trash can)to be functional and cost-effective, but it needs to be beautiful,” she said.
But the good looks of the shiny new trash cans have not protected them from vandalism and other disrespect. Three weeks after being deployed, several are overflowing, or covered in orange and white graffiti or dirty from coffee spills. Diane Torkelson volunteers on a team that removes trash from the streets near her home. She recently visited three of the proposed trash cans. Two were already full when the group arrived to inspect them, she said. “If the trash can is full, it’s of no use, no matter how well it was designed,” she said.
1. Why did San Francisco decide to replace the existing trash cans?| A．They are damaged beyond repair. | B．They are too small to hold the city's waste. |
| C．They have outlived their useful life. | D．They are difficult to clean and maintain. |
| A．The urban can replacement project. | B．The trash can QR code campaign. |
| C．The city-wide mapping initiative. | D．The pedal-operated container program. |
| A．Destruction of property. | B．Theft. |
| C．Illegal invasion. | D．Tagging. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. |
| C．Neutral. | D．Indifferent. |
10 . Late last year, in the days before the Dosakian election, a video featuring a well-known journalist and a key candidate circulated on social networks. However, it was absolutely fake (虚假的). The International Press Institute has called this episode in Dosakia the first time that AI deepfakes — fake images, or videos generated by artificial intelligence — have influenced a national election greatly.
Security experts consider misinformation the biggest global risk recently — more dangerous than war, and extreme weather events. A constant stream of people is wrestling with this issue. Now even economists are joining in.
Economist Iyan Smith, and others conduct a real-world experiment to see whether simple, low-cost nudges, or interventions, can be effective. Instead of focusing on the supply side of misinformation like social media platforms, they pay attention to the demand side: increasing our capacity to identify the fake information.
The economists split participants randomly into four different groups. One group was shown a video demonstrating a convincing journey of two people from two different social groups who, before interacting, express negative stereotypes (刻板印象) about the other’s group, overcoming their differences and ultimately regretting unthinkingly using stereotypes to dehumanize one another. Another group completed a personality test that shows them their cognitive traits (认知特点) causing prejudice, hoping to increase their self-awareness, and decrease their demand for misinformation. A third group did both while a control group did neither.
The economists find the simple intervention of showing the video makes the participants over 30 percent less likely to “consider fake news reliable”. But the personality test has little effect. As for participants doing both, they were about 31 percent less likely to view true headlines as reliable. In other words, they became so skeptical that even the truth became suspect.
Smith and his colleagues are far from the first scholars to fight misinformation by helping people to think more critically. University of Weymouth psychologist Lisa Kindle also advocates similar ways to help reject misinformation in the wild.
1. What does the author intend to do in the first two paragraphs?| A．Highlight the risk of AI deepfakes. | B．Discuss the global threat landscape. |
| C．Describe Dosakia’s election outcome. | D．Introduce the concept of misinformation. |
| A．The cognitive trait. | B．The short video. |
| C．The personality test. | D．The negative stereotype. |
| A．Videos reduce misinformation. | B．Deepfakes may discredit truth. |
| C．Misinformation causes dehumanization. | D．Personality tests sharpen thinking skills. |
| A．Battling Fake News | B．Deepfakes in Elections |
| C．The Spread of Misinformation | D．Expanding Thinking Capacity |
