1 . Living Well with Others
A good life is one that is beneficial to living well with others, while living comfortably and honestly. However, not everyone can deal with the relationship well with others.
This article will cover some ideas you may want to consider.
Smile at those around you. It’s often been said that a smile is catching. Research suggests that’s true. Studies suggest that friendly engagement (交往) with others improves happiness levels, at least in part.
Help others. Studies have shown that helping others has a direct relation to individual happiness.
Value your friendships with others. The quality of a person’s friendship has a direct effect upon their well-being. Friends can increase a sense of your sense of belonging and purpose.
A.Taking time to care for others has been important to understand “the good life”. |
B.They’re looking to explore new ways to make their life better. |
C.When meeting someone for the first time, shake hands with them. |
D.Treat others with honesty, respect and kindness. |
E.People are more likely to treat a smiling person better than a non-smiling person. |
F.Treat others how you wish to be treated. |
G.They will also help prevent you from developing bad habits. |
2 . Adding to the achievements of a remarkable year, Taylor Swift has been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2023.
Already a superstar before 2023, Swift’s career has reached new heights thanks to the beginning of her Eras Tour that brought her 3.5-hour performance to 66 shows in 23 cities across North America, Argentina and Brazil. Promoted by her tour, Swift has been named the most-streamed female artist in the history of Spotify and Apple Music. According to Billboard, the tour made about $900 million (about 6.4 billion yuan) in 2023. In addition, the tour’s movie Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour became the biggest concert movie of all time, taking more than $250
million globally.As she was declare a billionaire by Bloomberg in November, a hidden “Taylor Swift economy” also promoted sales for business owners across the US. From soaps to a cruise inspired by her different “eras”, interest in Swift-related products went way up.
Apart from her financial contributions, Swift made a significant cultural impact by taking back control of her music. In 2019, her old record label, Big Machine, sold the master tapes of her first six albums (专辑) to Scoot er Braun. The sale meant that she didn’t have the rights to the albums. In response to this, Swift began re-recording her first six albums, tagging (加标签于) them “Taylor’s Version”. This move stressed her belief that artists deserve to own their work. “It’s all in how you deal with loss,” she told Time. “I respond to extreme pain by resisting.”
Heading into 2024, Swift will start the Eras Tour again in Japan and Australia. As USA Today noted, “Her current top has been a long time coming, but it may also be just beginning.”
1. What do we know about Taylor Swift?A.She broke a new record on her tour. | B.She toured South America before 2023. |
C.Her achievements received great recognition. | D.Her performance began with the Apple Music. |
A.She proved herself to be an artist. | B.She learned to make some products. |
C.She had influence on music culture. | D.She sold her master tapes to a company. |
A.She will end her music career. | B.She will continue her Eras Tour. |
C.She will reach her top in Japan. | D.She will make a record in Australia. |
A.Admirable. | B.Uncaring. | C.Doubtful. | D.Critical. |
Nowadays, it is common that more and more high school students open their own micro blogs on the Internet. For one thing, it can provide a colorful platform to show their talent. For
In my view, I am greatly in favor of this activity. Today the Internet is playing
In fact, micro blog
1. 人物简介;
2. 尊敬或爱戴的理由。
注意:1. 写作词数应为80个左右;
2. 请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
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5 . In the rich countries of the West, the electric vehicle revolution is well occurring. Climate-conscious consumers drive Teslas or Polestars for reasons of morality (道德) and fashion. Poorer countries are also experiencing a wave of electrified trend. In Bangladesh, electric three-wheeler taxis, known as tuk-tuks, are rapidly replacing gas-powered ones on the streets. Such electric vehicles are climate friendly, cost effective, and help reduce air pollution.
Yet a glance under the hood (引擎盖) of these vehicles shows a poisonous secret: each tuk-tuk runs on five massive lead-acid batteries (铅酸电池), containing almost 300 pounds of lead (铅) in total. Every year and a half or so, when those batteries need to be replaced and recycled, about 60 pounds of lead leaks into the environment. Battery recycling, often at small-scale unregulated factories, is a highly profitable (高利润的) but deadly business.
Lead is dangerous, and any exposure to it is harmful to human health. Lead that has entered the environment hurts people on an unexpected scale. The numerous ways lead enters air, water, soil, and homes across the developing world and the enormous damage it does to human health, wealth, and welfare cause one of the biggest environmental problems in the world yet receives little attention.
The World Bank estimates that lead kills 5.5 million people per year, making it a bigger global killer than AIDS, malaria, diabetes, and road traffic deaths combined. On top of the shocking deaths, the social burden of lead poisoning is heavy, as is its contribution to global inequality — our research on the cognitive (认知的) effects of lead poisoning suggests that it may explain about one-fifth of the educational achievement gap between rich and poor countries.
But unlike many challenges faced by developing countries, lead poisoning is a problem that can be resolved through financial investment (财政投入). Better monitoring, research, and rules can help protect children all over the world from the unpleasant effects of lead poisoning and reduce the massive global costs it brings.
1. How does the author describe the lead problem in paragraph 2?A.By listing some numbers. | B.By analyzing hidden causes. |
C.By making an interesting comparison. | D.By explaining its working principle. |
A.Lead enters poor countries in one way. |
B.Lead leaking has been avoided in all the countries. |
C.Lead will definitely not harm anymore. |
D.Lead poisoning may make poor societies poorer. |
A.Fixing these used batteries. | B.Reducing the cost of recycling lead. |
C.Ignoring the illegal use of lead. | D.Putting certain effort and money. |
A.The Impacts of Lead Poisoning on Man. |
B.The Global Lead Poisoning Problem. |
C.The Ways to Solve Lead Problem. |
D.The Benefits of Using Electric Vehicles. |
6 . Time and how we experience it have always puzzled us. Physicists have created fascinating theories, but their time is measured by a pendulum (钟摆) and is not psychological time, which leaps with little regard to the clock or calendar. As someone who understood the distinction observed, “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours it seems like a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove, a minute seems like two hours.”
Psychologists have long noticed that larger units of time, such as months and years, fly on swifter wings as we age. They also note that the more time is structured with schedules and appointments, the more rapidly it seems to pass. For example, a day at the office flies compared with a day at the beach.
Expectation and familiarity also make time seem to flow more rapidly. Almost all of us have had the experience of driving somewhere we’ve never been before. Surrounded by unfamiliar scenery, with no real idea of when we’ll arrive, we experience the trip as if lasting a long time. But the return trip, although exactly as long, seems to take far less time. The novelty of the outward journey has become routine.
When days become as similar as beads (小珠子) on a string, they mix together, and even months become a single day. To counter this, try to find ways to interrupt the structure of your day — to stop time, so to speak.
Learning something new is one of the ways to slow the passage of time. One of the reasons the days of our youth seems so full and long is that these are the days of learning and discovery. For many of us learning ends when we leave school, but this doesn’t have to be.
1. What can we know about time from Paragraph 1?A.Physical time has little to do with the calendar. |
B.Physical time is distinct from psychological time. |
C.Time should not be measured by a pendulum. |
D.Psychological time is quite more fascinating. |
A.A day spent exploring something unknown. |
B.Staying with a person who you dislike. |
C.A day packed with appointments to handle. |
D.Driving to a new place for the first time. |
A.Unfamiliarity. | B.Excitement. | C.Imagination. | D.Amusement. |
A.To show the difference between physical and psychological time. |
B.To explain why time flies and how to slow it down psychologically. |
C.To describe how most of us experience time psychologically. |
D.To give various explanations about fascinating time theories. |
7 . London’s Must-See Exhibitions
This year is zipping along at quite a speed, and London’s already witnessed some great exhibitions. But big treats are still to come.
Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and Starry Night at Tate Britain
A major exhibition at Tate Britain, which examines how Van Gogh was inspired by British art, and how he in tun inspired British artists. His famous painting Sunflowers fills the gallery with joy.
The EY Exhibition: Van Gogh and Britain at Tate Britain. Until 11 August, £22.
Glass Master at Kew Gardens
Dale Chihuly creates sculptures out of glass that we would normally think impossible. With 32 of his sculptures around Kew Gardens, we’re looking forward to Kew becoming even more beautiful than it already is.
Chihuly at Kew: Reflections on Nature at Kew Gardens. 13 April-27 October, £13. 75.
More of Moore at Museum of London
Henry Moorr is best-known for his abstract figure sculptures. What many won’t know about is his obsession (痴迷) with armour (盔甲) , and the sculptures he created inspired by Renaissance armour. Actually, they’re going on display at Museum of London, next to the armour that inspired them.
Henry Moore: The Helmet Heads at Museum of London. Until 23 October, £11.
Shining a Light on Rembrandt at Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery commemorates 350 years since the death of Rembrandt with an exhibition on the man who mastered the use of light and dark in his paintings. The last Rembrandt exhibition in London was superb.
Rembrandt’s Light at Dulwich Picture Gallery. 2 October-2 December, £15.
1. What do “Class Master” and “More of Moore” have in common?A.They both exhibit sculptures. | B.They have the same ending time. |
C.They share the same exhibition area. | D.They charge the same for admission. |
A.Tate Britain | B.Kew Gardens |
C.Museum of London | D.Dulwich Picture Gallery |
A.In an art textbook. | B.In a sports newspaper. |
C.In a tourist magazine. | D.In an exhibition brochure. |
In recent years, food
The spicy hot pot has aroused people’s interest in Tianshui, a thousand-year-old city. Besides the spicy hot pot, as an ancient city
9 . When Param Jaggi was five years old, he had a passion to take things apart to see what was inside. He started with toys and even broke a computer, which made his parents not too pleased. As he got older, he shifted from breaking things to building things, which greatly comforted his parents. In middle school, he started working on projects in his kitchen laboratory, and his first project was making biofuels.
Although Jaggi’s parents initially thought his experiments were just a boyhood fancy, he remained determined to make a difference to the environment. Eventually, his parents came around and started supporting his dreams. Jaggi’s interest continued as he grew up, but he focused more on solving real problems, especially those related to the environment.
At 17, Jaggi went beyond his school projects and co-founded Ecoviate, a company that uses technology to solve everyday energy and environmental problems. He planned to transform people’s idea that going green is expensive, by making available a series of affordable products that are easy to use. Through Ecoviate, he designed products that could contribute to a greener future. One of his notable inventions was the “CO2ube”, a device that could reduce carbon emissions, and it’s available to many people at low prices.
Young Jaggi, now a third-grade college student studying engineering and economics, has become a famous eco-innovator and his company is developing promisingly. However, Jaggi’s vision to save the environment goes beyond creating products. He plans to launch an online platform through Ecoviate, which will encourage young students interested in science and technology to get actively involved in innovation and invention. Students can submit a science project online, and talk about the help that they need to make the project a reality.
1. What can we learn about Jaggi?A.He dreamed to be an engineer. | B.He was curious by nature. |
C.He always annoyed his parents. | D.He was addicted to playing toys. |
A.They were fed up with Jaggi. |
B.They were satisfied with Jaggi’s experiments at the beginning. |
C.They change their mind and were in favor of Jaggi’s experiments at last. |
D.They thought Jaggi’s experiments were fantastic . |
A.His love for greener devices. | B.His pursuit of academic career. |
C.His hope to boost green industry. | D.His desire to make a difference in ecosystem. |
A.To empower young inventors. | B.To promote smart products. |
C.To provide eco-themed courses. | D.To offer environmentalists funds. |
10 . Nanjing Yunjin brocade is traditional Chinese silk art with a history of about 1,600 years. Its complex weaving (编织)techniques, various colors and patterns, and its particular choices of materials make it valuable and ancient people said, “An inch of brocade, an inch of gold.” Today, the traditional characteristics and unique skills of yunjin remain to be an award-winning art treasure. Its techniques are passed down from generation to generation by artisans.
Zhou Shuangxi, a national-level inheritor (继承人) of yunjin weaving techniques, is one of them. Back in 1973, he graduated from a mining school and was selected to become a student at the NanjingYunjin Research Institute along with five other students, just because he was “in good shape”. There were only several masters in their 70s and not even a loom (织布机) to use. “The old masters finally remembered a loom was stored somewhere. When I opened the door, I saw what seemed like a pile of wood,” Zhou recalled.
“Weaving was difficult, but different from mining. Mining requires heavy physical labor, but working with the soft and thin silk requires studying and practicing in front of a loom for decades until you master the technique. My hands became quite awkward due to mining, so I used to put my hands in warm water whenever I could. In this way, they could become softer and weave the silk more easily,” he said.
Out of the six or so students, Zhou is the only one who has insisted on the trade to this day. Having devoted the past five decades to yunjin production despite all the sweat and struggles, he has developed his techniques to the point where he can weave the antique dragon robes in all their small details. He also made various artworks that not only show China's intangible cultural heritage but also serve as Zhou Shuangxi's artistic creations.
“I am lucky to be in such a good era and I have the honor of being a representative inheritor,” Zhou said.
1. What was Zhou’s original impression of yunjin weaving techniques as a student?A.They faced an uncertain future. | B.They were popular among the public. |
C.They required much physical strength. | D.They were closely related to his schooling. |
A.To relieve the pain of mining. | B.To make them much more suitable for weaving. |
C.To gain an attractive appearance. | D.To rest his hands and draw inspiration. |
A.Determined and creative. | B.Awkward and hesitant. |
C.Encouraging and honest. | D.Adventurous and sociable. |
A.The ups and downs of yunjin. |
B.People’s appreciation of a traditional art treasure. |
C.Artisans’ struggle to pass down traditional techniques. |
D.A national-level inheritor of yunjin weaving techniques. |