1 . Where did the idea of “white bikes” come from? In the 1960s, a group of cycling fans came up with an idea. They believed that it would be better for everybody if cars weren’t allowed in the city centre and only bicycles were. They were hopeful that this would help to save energy, reduce pollution and provide free public transport. The group painted hundreds of bicycles white and placed them in many areas around Amsterdam for people to use. Anyone was allowed to take them and use them for short journeys. People would leave the bike in the place where they finished their journey, so that someone else could then take it and use it from there. Soon after, however, problems came up and the “white bikes” all disappeared — thieves stole them all in a matter of weeks!
Why did the group come up with the idea of “white bikes”?
| A．To ensure traffic safety. | B．To reduce transport costs. |
| C．To encourage physical activity. | D．To promote green transport. |
2 . Studying and passing your classes can be difficult, and finding effective ways to study may seem impossible.
● Choose an aerobic (有氧的) exercise
There are so many activities you can do for aerobic exercise. You can swim, jump rope, or hike with a heavy backpack.
●
Sit down and list all your commitments, activities, and study hours. Don’t forget to list sleep times, meal times, and time for other things, like showering. Look for places where you can put in exercise. Or you can break up exercises into smaller parts, such as three 10-minute fast walks.
● Focus on consistency (连续性)
Consistent daily workouts are more effective than trying to get 150 minutes of physical activity in on the weekend.
● Make the exercise an enjoyable experience
| A．Make time for your workout. |
| B．Determine an appropriate amount of exercise. |
| C．Exercise is great for relieving stress and reducing anxiety. |
| D．Doing some exercise may be more effective than hitting the coffee shop. |
| E．Stick to spending half an hour exercising after school throughout the week. |
| F．You can also play doubles tennis, go ballroom dancing, or do general gardening. |
| G．Luckily, studies have found strong links between exercise and study effectiveness. |
3 . A few years ago, I stood underneath a red overhanging cliff (悬崖) near my husband’s hometown, Carbondale, Colo. I was tied in, ready to climb.
Just as I was about to climb, nerves in my body said hello. That’s not good for any athlete.
Desperate, I painted a coat of confidence on my inner walls of doubt.
“You can do this,” I told myself determinedly. “If you believe, success is certain.”
I visualized myself at the top, celebrating.
It didn’t work. I fell near the top. Defeated, I lowered to the ground and realized, powerfully, that the desire to climb the route had kept me from doing it. My self worth was linked at that moment to my success or failure, and that set off a chain reaction: unnatural desire, pressure, performance anxiety, expectation, a mind fixed on the top but a body struggling below, bad decision-making, irregular movement, distraction, disappointment. All in that order, too.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, I told myself that on my next attempt, success or failure was irrelevant. “Make one move at a time. That’s all.” I gave myself a pass from whatever would happen. Case closed.
It worked. I reached the top.
That moment got me thinking, and then researching. At some point, I described this experience for myself in terms of simple mathematics: When I added (determination, courage, self-confidence, desire), I failed. When I took away (the desire for success), my body moved with greater naturalness. I improved. I enjoyed it more as well, which, as an athlete of 30 years, I didn’t think was possible.
I discovered the power of subtraction (减法).
The French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote one of my favorite books Wind, Sand and Stars. In it, I found one of the smartest lines ever written on the human condition: “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away.”
1. What happened to the author at her first attempt to climb the cliff?| A．She got nervous. | B．She quit out of fear. |
| C．She made it to the top. | D．She was full of confidence. |
| A．Not important. | B．Not certain. | C．Not final. | D．Not optional. |
| A．Never stop trying. | B．Always stick to your goal. |
| C．Don’t care about the results. | D．Be confident no matter what happens. |
4 . I arrived in Idaho from California on my 28th birthday for my first Ironman triathlon (铁人三项), dreaming of this moment for years. When I was picking up my race
The next day, on my way to the swimming pool, I heard, “Felix!” It was Deborah. It was such a surprise that she
On race day, Deborah and her family were at Mile 50 of the bicycle race, holding the
As if her being out there all afternoon wasn’t
Deborah made a complete
| A．partner | B．coach | C．number | D．bike |
| A．shy | B．friendly | C．familiar | D．humorous |
| A．discussion | B．conversation | C．project | D．survey |
| A．late | B．again | C．alone | D．straight |
| A．abilities | B．mistakes | C．wrongdoings | D．weaknesses |
| A．recognized | B．phoned | C．convinced | D．reminded |
| A．photo | B．cap | C．flag | D．sign |
| A．obviously | B．especially | C．probably | D．simply |
| A．enough | B．expected | C．important | D．true |
| A．treat | B．identify | C．congratulate | D．comfort |
| A．created | B．started | C．realized | D．recalled |
| A．stranger | B．youngster | C．athlete | D．mother |
| A．promises | B．powers | C．wishes | D．duties |
| A．money | B．encouragement | C．praise | D．protection |
| A．invitation | B．gifts | C．payment | D．pictures |
5 . The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide study of 15-year-old school pupils’ scholastic performance in maths, science, and reading. A closer look at the reading tests shows the interesting fact that girls are outperforming boys in reading and that reading for enjoyment rather than simply for study or school work purposes has a positive impact on reading performance. The PISA study found that in all countries assessed (apart from South Korea), girls read for enjoyment more than boys. The study found that in all the countries assessed, just over half of boys (52%), but almost three-quarters of girls (73%) said that they read for enjoyment.
What does the PISA study imply?
| A．Reading for study purposes helps with learning. |
| B．Reading for pleasure affects overall academic success. |
| C．Reading for pleasure contributes to improving reading skills. |
| D．Reading for study purposes does no good to reading performance. |
In a wooden fan workshop in Jiangxi Province, Yu Xiuying is busier than usual. As she paints, bright flowers
The fans Yu painted in Ganzhu Township will be sold to Spain. The small town has an increasing handmade fan industry, with
The town’s fan industry
7 . How would you feel if moving to a new town meant losing touch of your friends? What if the only way of getting news from faraway friends was writing letters that took a long time to arrive? This was how things worked not very long ago. Thanks to advances in technology, how we make friends and communicate with them has changed greatly.
Nowadays, we can move around the world and still stay in touch with the people that we want to remain friends with. Social media tools let us see what our friends are up to and maintain friendships. All you need is a Wi-Fi connection.
The digital age also enables us to find people who share our interests, such as collecting model cars. Whatever our hobbies, the Internet can connect us with others who also enjoy doing them, even if they live on the other side of the world.
But when you “friend” people online, does this mean that they really are your friends?
It depends.
If people always exchange true personal information online, then yes, these friendships can be real and meaningful. ① But we need to keep in mind that what we see on social media is often not the whole truth about a person. ② On social media sites, people tend to post only positive updates that make them appear happy and friendly.③ Remember the saying: On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. ④ A young person could be old; a woman could be a man; we could even be sharing our information with criminals.
But this doesn’t mean that we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. Although technology has changed the way we make friends, the meaning of friendship and our longing for friends remain the same. As Aristotle said, no one would choose to live without friends, even if he or she had all other goods.
1. How does technology impact friendship according to the passage?| A．It allows people to maintain friendships easier. |
| B．It helps people find less like-minded friends. |
| C．It enables people to write more letters to friends. |
| D．It makes online friendship better than traditional one. |
But smiling photos can hide real problems.
Where would the sentence best fit? 上面的句子还原，应该放在哪个序号处?
| A．Choice ①. | B．Choice ②. | C．Choice ③. | D．Choice ④. |
| A．Maintaining traditional friendships. |
| B．Rejecting online friendships completely. |
| C．Valuing friendships more than anything. |
| D．Making new friendships despite risks. |
| A．To prove that making friends was easier in the past. |
| B．To show how it is better to make friends online. |
| C．To advise people to give up traditional ways of making friends. |
| D．To discuss the advantages and disadvantages of making friends online. |
Lucy Black recently became the youngest person
At first, Lucy used planes, boats and trains to get around. It was not all easy sailing and there were many difficulties she met, including
Lucy enjoyed meeting a variety of people and exploring varied cultures. But the most
For Lucy, nothing compared to the joy of traveling. She described it
9 . The 1975 film Jaw s tells the story of a great white shark that attacks and kills swimmers. Jaws was a great success. It strengthened people’s long-held idea of the great white shark as a dangerous animal.
People have always been scared of sharks, but Jaws made things worse. It made people frightened of sharks. Many people started to believe that sharks were bad animals that ate humans. Some people stopped swimming in the sea. Other people started fishing for sharks, killing as many as they could. At that time, nobody cared if sharks were killed, or how many were killed. People just wanted them killed.
After 1975, the number of large sharks around America fell quickly, and soon fell around the world. This was not only due to fear of sharks, but also finning. Finning is a type of fishing where sharks are caught and their fins are cut off. The sharks are thrown back into the sea where they die slowly and painfully. Finning kills millions of sharks a year.
Finning would have an unexpected effect upon Peter Benchley, the man who wrote the book that the film Jaws was based on. In 1980, Benchley was diving when he came across an awful sight. It was an area where fishermen were finning, and the sea floor was covered with dead sharks. Benchley saw sharks being killed and this caused a deep change in him. He came to see people as a danger to sharks, rather than the other way round. From that day on, he fought to protect sharks. He admitted that his book was wrong about sharks’ behaviour. “Sharks don’t target humans,” he said. Experts have proved that sharks do not see people as food, and they attack us by mistake.
Fortunately, not everyone who watched the film Jaws became afraid of sharks—some became interested in understanding them. Today, as we learn more about sharks, more people than ever want to protect them from extinction.
1. How have people’s attitudes towards sharks changed after the film Jaws?| A．They become proud of sharks. |
| B．They are more frightened of sharks. |
| C．They begin to realize their importance. |
| D．They have the same attitude to sharks. |
| A．He became more afraid of sharks. |
| B．He continued to support shark finning. |
| C．He recognized humans as a danger to sharks. |
| D．He understood sharks are dangerous to humans. |
| A．To comment on Peter’s book. |
| B．To tell the success of the film Jaws. |
| C．To recommend a film to readers. |
| D．To raise awareness of shark protection. |
A. Unfortunately, during one of her challenging workouts, Emily suffered an injury. She had to shift her focus from intense physical activities to leisurely exercises that allowed her body to recover.
B. Emily was a senior high school student with a passion for sports. She had always been participating in various sports in secondary school. With a busy schedule, she would wake up early in the morning and hit the gym before her classes started. This routine not only helped her stay fit but also improved her confidence and competence.
C. As she gradually regained her strength, Emily revised her workout schedule and aimed for a balanced lifestyle. She started doing yoga for stress reduction. She attended regular class and set achievable goals, making sure to listen to her body.
D. During her recovery period, Emily turned to the Internet for guidance. As a digital native, she knew how to surf the Internet to find expert advice on staying fit during downtime. Meanwhile, she joined a voluntary organization that offered fitness programs for people with injuries. She connected with other injured athletes and found support in their shared experiences.
E. Emily’s journey showed the importance of adaptability in sports and fitness. Setbacks were not the end but rather an opportunity to grow and strengthen oneself both physically and mentally.
