Sports Day was getting close in the school. All the children were very excited and were practicing for the big race. John, one of the fast runners of the school, was confident that he would win for he was not doing anything at all. “You have to work hard to come first in the race John. You are not practicing at all,” said John’s mother.
“Mom, you know how fast I am! Why should I waste my time running? Only I will win; no one else will win!”said John. “John, you may be right but talent (天赋) without hard work is not good at all. This laziness of yours will cost you greatly,” his mother warned him. John just laughed. He was so confident that he would win the trophy (奖杯) as no one else in his class was as fast as he was!.
Tim, a classmate of John, was also participating (参加) in the running race. He was not a fast runner. However, he practiced till late at night and had developed great endurance (持久力) to run the race.
There were a few days left for the Sports Day but John did not practice at all. On the other hand, Tim practiced day and night.
The Sports Day was almost around the corner but John was confident that no one could beat him and had not practiced at all. But Tim with his hard work had become a very great runner.
At last, the Sports Day arrived. All the students showed up on the ground to cheer their favorites. The coach blew the whistle (口哨) and everyone began to run toward the finishing line. It was so exciting. John and Tim left all the racers far behind. Both of them were neck to neck.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Suddenly, John went ahead of Tim.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________John’s mother came up to Tim and praised him for his hard work.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . It is a bright cold day in April and Paul Blachut is busy as usual. From behind the bar of a restaurant, he has a good view of the river. He can see that, along the shore, many visitors are cooling their feet in the river.
Among those are a mother and her two teenage daughters. They’re standing on the edge of the riverbank, playing with an inflatable (充气的) tube when, suddenly, the girls lose their footing and are caught in the river’s current. It all happens so fast. The girls desperately grab on to the tube, which their mother is sitting in, dragging her into the river, too. Now all three are being carried away by the fast current.
A bystander races to the restaurant and shouted for help. Despite having no lifesaving training, Blachut rushes to the riverbank, quickly pulling off his T-shirt. Then he jumps into the river. He doesn’t care about the cold; all he can think about is saving the women.
As Blachut gets closer to them, he can tell that the mother seems to be in the most trouble; her head is now submerged. He recalls how a lifeguard saves people in a movie so he tries this, but in vain. Without hesitation, Blachut dives under the drowning woman, pushing her upward and using that momentum (冲力) to push her toward the shore. Then he dives into the current again, swims quickly downstream and manages to get hold of one of the teenagers, and get her out in the same way he did her mother. He is out of strength and luckily, the girl’s sister is helped out by someone else.
Several onlookers express their admiration for Blachut following the incident, but he is modest about his role. “The whole rescue only took two or three minutes” he says today, adding that he is happy to have received high praise from his boss for his courage. Indeed, it was a job very well done.
1. What might Blachut be?| A．A visitor. | B．A waiter. | C．The boss. | D．A lifeguard. |
| A．She loses her footing while playing. | B．She is dragged into the river by accident. |
| C．She jumps into the river to save her daughters. | D．She loses control of the tube and flows with it. |
| A．Blachut’s rich lifesaving experience. | B．The method Blachut recalls in a movie. |
| C．The slow speed of the river current. | D．Blachut’s ability to make quick decisions. |
| A．Health. | B．Travel. | C．Inspiration. | D．Entertainment. |
3 . Learn about programs, events and much more for students of your age to get opportunities.
Youth and Non-Violent Direct Action
Time: October 18 and November 1,2023
Contact: Robert Croonquist
This interactive workshop for school groups will teach how to appeal to the government for change and how to create safe, non-violent direct action. Students will meet in small groups to discuss issues that are important to them. The fee to participate is $5 per student.
Attend a FREE Architecture and Design College Fair
Time: October 28,2023
Contact: Mary Lib Schmidt
High school students are invited to learn more about applying to architecture school. Representatives from over 30 colleges, universities, and design programs will meet with students and answer questions. The event will be held from 11am-3pm.
Seeds of Knowledge: Teen Tour and Natural Bath Bomb Making Workshop
Time: October 26,2023
Contact: Nicole Leist
Participants will look at 15th- to-17th-century printed herbals on display and learn how modern practitioners （医师） create beneficial natural products today. Teens will create bath bombs using all organic materials. This program is intended only for teens aged 13 to 18. FREE with advance registration.
FREE Saturday Leadership Program for Hispanic Youth
Time: November 2023 through March 2024
Contact: Lisa Pineda
It is a FREE Saturday program serving 100 students. It offers various leadership opportunities and resources with the goal of affirming students in cultural pride and increasing the Hispanic voice in government, community, and institutional spaces. Seats are limited.
1. What can you learn about Youth and Non-Violent Direct Action?| A．It lasts a fortnight. | B．It is free of charge. |
| C．It is organized by the government. | D．It teaches legal ways to communicate. |
| A．Robert Croonquist. | B．Mary Lib Schmidt. | C．Nicole Leist. | D．Lisa Pineda. |
| A．Youth and Non-Violent Direct Action. |
| B．Attend a FREE Architecture and Design College Fair. |
| C．Seeds of Knowledge: Teen Tour and Natural Bath Bomb Making Workshop. |
| D．FREE Saturday Leadership Program for Hispanic Youth. |
4 . A new study in the journal of Tourism Analysis shows frequent travelers are happier with their lives than people who don’t travel at all.
Chun-Chu Chen, an assistant professor at Washington State University, conducted a survey to find out why some individuals travel more frequently than others and whether or not travel and tourism experiences have a lasting effect on happiness and wellness.
The results of his analysis show individuals who pay more attention to tourism-related information and frequently discuss their travel plans with friends are more likely to go on regular vacations than those who aren’t constantly thinking about their next trip. Additionally, participants in the survey who reported regularly traveling at least 75 miles away from home also reported being about 7% happier when asked about their overall well-being than those who reported traveling very rarely or not at all.
“While things like work, family life and friends play a bigger role in overall reports of well-being. The accumulation (积累) of travel experiences’ does appear to have a small yet noticeable effect on self-reported life satisfaction,” Chen said.
Participants in the study were asked about the importance of travel in their lives, how much time they spent looking into and planning future vacations, and how many trips they went on over a year. They were also asked about their life satisfaction. Out of the 500 survey participants, a little over half reported going on more than four pleasurable trips a year. Only 7% of respondents did not take any vacations.
As travel restrictions (限制) due to COVID-19 pandemic begin to relax in the future, the research could have important effects on both tourists and the tourism industry. Based on the results of the study, Chen said travel companies, resorts and even airlines, could launch social media campaigns, such as creating signs about the scientific benefits of vacation, to spark people’s interest in discussing their opinions about travel.
1. What is the benefit of frequent travelling according to the study?| A．Getting more tourism information. | B．Making more friends. |
| C．Bettering tourism industry. | D．Improving one’s well-being. |
| A．Why the professor carried out the study. |
| B．How the participants felt about the survey. |
| C．What the participants were interviewed about. |
| D．What the participants panned to do in the future. |
| A．Tourism industry should improve their service. |
| B．The results of the study will benefit tourism industry. |
| C．COVID-19 pandemic will be more serious in the future. |
| D．People will live a happier life after COVID-19 pandemic. |
| A．Travel more and be happier | B．Make good use of travelling |
| C．Prepare for the tourism development | D．Make travel plans with friends |
5 . It is generally assumed that one can’t have too many friends. But it seems that there is a natural limit to the number of people we stay in touch with. A study found that when we make new friends, by starting a new job or going to university, we downgrade or even drop old ones. And while the friends may change, the number stays almost the same.
Oxford University researcher Felix Reed-Tsochas asked 24 students in the final months of school to list all their friends and relatives and say how close to them they were. The pupils filled in the questionnaire (问卷) twice more after starting work or going to university. They were also given free mobile phones and agreed that researchers could use their bills to work out who they called, when and for how long.
Putting the two pieces of information together showed, unsurprisingly, that most people have a small circle of close friends, who they spend most of their time talking to. This inner circle is surrounded by group after group of ever more distant friends. As the volunteers’ lives changed, this overall pattern, including the number of best friends, remained almost the same, meaning that some close friends from childhood were dropped or downgraded as new friendships were built.
Dr Reed-Tsochas said, “Maybe my best friend is no longer the same person but the amount of time I allocate (分配) to my best friend is still the same.” He added that this finding suggests that even with the coming of modern technology we are only capable of forming a limited number of true friendships.
Chester University researcher Dr Sam Roberts said, “Our results are likely to reflect limitations in the ability of humans to keep emotionally close relationships both because of limited time and because the emotional capital (情绪资本) that individuals can allocate between family members and friends is limited.”
1. According to Paragraph 1, what is a popular belief about making friends?| A．A friend in need is a friend indeed. | B．We should treat friends as our family. |
| C．The more friends we make, the better. | D．A friend to everybody is a friend to nobody. |
| A．Checking the volunteers’ call records. | B．Learning about the volunteers’ hobbies. |
| C．Tracking the volunteers’ job performance. | D．Interviewing the volunteers’ schoolmates. |
| A．One’s attitude to friendship remains the same. |
| B．People attach great importance to friendships. |
| C．People rarely drop their old friends to make new ones. |
| D．The number of one’s best friends doesn’t change much. |
| A．To add background information. | B．To give a possible explanation. |
| C．To offer some suggestions. | D．To introduce a new topic. |
6 . A new trend called “praise groups” or “in-need-of-praise” chat groups has become popular on Chinese social media. In Chinese culture, where modesty (谦逊) is valued, openly seeking and giving praise is uncommon. These chat groups provide a platform for people to receive compliments (赞扬) and encouragement, which are often lacking in their daily lives.
To join a praise group, users can pay a fee on e-commerce sites, starting at 50 yuan for five minutes of compliments. The group members will then show the person with praises and kind words. The compliments can be designed for a friend or loved one as well. Participants have found that being praised by strangers can help lift their spirits and improve their self-confidence.
For example, Meng Zha, a student at Shanghai’s Tongji University, tried the service and found it amusing and uplifting. She received compliments on her appearance and even quotes (引用) from popular songs. Ms Meng couldn’t help but laugh at the compliments and expressed her desire to post such high-quality praises in the future.
Praise groups have appeared as a way for people in China to seek and receive compliments and encouragement that may be lacking in their daily lives. It provides a positive and uplifting experience for participants, improving a sense of happiness and self-worth.
Those who support the groups, see them as an antidote to extremely bad moods (情绪) which are often associated with things happening on the Internet. “At first, the purpose of this group is to make us learn to praise others and accept others’ praises confidently. Here we can drop everything, and use our heart to praise and support others,” one member said. But the life journey is long and there are some unexpected situations that we can only count on ourselves to face when there is no one out there to offer help.
1. What is the purpose of praise groups?| A．To make praise popular. | B．To have everyone supported. |
| C．To share common interests. | D．To give people hope and happiness. |
| A．She was not strong enough. | B．She was under working stress. |
| C．She was satisfied with the service. | D．She was a gifted singer in her area. |
| A．A way of making new friends. | B．A kind of medicine. |
| C．A method of being confident. | D．The wisdom of solving problems. |
| A．Objective. | B．Critical. | C．Supportive. | D．Unclear. |
7 . Bartek Ostalowski lost both his arms in a terrible aceident in 2006, but that wasn’t enough to kill his dream of one day becoming a professional race-car driver. Finding himself armless at just 20 years old and faced with the difficult task of learning to drive a car on a race circuit (赛车道) must have been quite the shock for Bartek, but he gathered the courage and the drive to push on. In three years, he became a master of driving a race-car with his feet. Today, Bartek Ostalowski is the world’s only professional sport driver who drives using his feet.
In order to deal with his physical limitations, Bartek transformed (改装) his race car according to his needs, adding a new engine, and stronger transmission (变速器). The ambitious Polish driver uses his right foot to control the pedals, while moving on with his left one. The race car is controlled with the shoulder.
“After my accident, I was looking for a solution. I asked myself if I wanted to race again what would I need to do?” Bartek told the reporter of Business Insider. “I heard about someone in Poland who, like me, had no arms, but he drove a car on a daily basis with no problem. After meeting him, my dream and passion for motor sports were alive and strong, and I made the decision to return to racing one day.”
In 2019, Ostalowski finished in ninth place out of 50 drivers in the Polish Drift Championship, one of the most competitive championship series in all of Europe, and the year before that, he won the international Czech Drift Series, beating dozens of other professional sports drivers.
“Of course, I encourage other people with disabilities to get involved in motor sports. It’s a beautiful passion and I think a great form of recovery too. So make your dreams come true,” the Polish driver said.
1. What is special about Bartek Ostalowski?| A．He lost his arms. | B．He is a race-car driver. |
| C．He drives the race car with feet. | D．He becomes a master of driving a race car. |
| A．A driving master. | B．A disabled driver. |
| C．A great champion. | D．A newspaper reporter. |
| A．Admiring. | B．Frightening. | C．Interesting. | D．Embarrassing. |
| A．A Moving Story about a Dream Coming True |
| B．A Great Man Rising from a Terrible Accident |
| C．The Only Man with Courage and Drive on a Race Circuit |
| D．The Only Armless Professional Sports Driver in the World |
8 . In an ideal world, we would be able to devote as much time to sports as we feel we need. But in reality, with growing demands in both work and family, we can only jump at the chance for our physical exercise when we can. Making the most of that time to practice Yin Yang yoga, which mixes the dynamic and slow-paced elements of yoga, helps keep you active and relaxed.
Yin and Yang are the Taoist concepts representing a balance of opposite forces which are also interconnected. Yin is inactive, cooling, and negative, associated with the female force. Yang is active, warming, and positive, associated with action and movement. They are complementary to one another, as one cannot exist without the other.
Yin Yang yoga is a combination (结合体) of high-energy movement which builds energy, increases strength and promotes stamina (耐力), followed by the more restful practice of Yin to give us a deeper stretch (拉伸) and calm the nervous system.
If you have a busy and active life you may feel more in Yang, so taking some cooler, slower Yin yoga practice into your routine may help you feel calmer and more balanced.
If you are practicing for an hour, divide the time in half. Warm up with sun salutations (拜日式瑜伽), continue into a dynamic flow and then move on to some standing postures. After half an hour your heart will be pumping, muscles tighten up and you are hopefully feeling energetic, but ready for a rest. Then pick five Yin postures to hold for 3-5 minutes, or even longer if you are enjoying them!
As ever with yoga, if you are a beginner or have health issues, always attend a class with a trained instructor first to guide you safely through the yoga practice and avoid injury.
1. What can be inferred from paragraph 1?| A．Most of our sports time should be spent on Yin Yang yoga. |
| B．We’d better devote as much time to physical exercise as we can. |
| C．Busy schedule makes it impossible for us to do any form of sports. |
| D．Yin Yang yoga can be a choice of physical exercise when we are busy. |
| A．Independent from one another. |
| B．Competitive against one another. |
| C．Similar to each other but unable to work together as a whole. |
| D．Different from each other but together making a good combination. |
| A．Relaxing muscles. | B．Building stamina. |
| C．Strengthening the body. | D．Quickening the heartbeat. |
| A．Hold each Yin posture for longer than 5 minutes. |
| B．Do not practice yoga when you are not in good health. |
| C．Start your yoga practice with an expert trainer. |
| D．Spare half an hour for five Yin postures in every yoga practice. |
In a house far from the city lived John and his mother. John’s only hobby was wandering in the nearby picturesque forest. In its center was a shiny clear lake with schools of fish dancing in it. Lovely animals such as deer or rabbits were playing around and cute birds were singing in trees. Fascinated by the beauty and liveliness of nature, he desired to become a great artist and present all the breath-taking scenes to the world.
John studied in the local primary school. Life was not easy for John and his mom after his father died. Knowing what hard work his mother did to make ends meet, John really didn’t want his mother to worry. His mother knew the significance of education in life but she was against his dream of becoming an artist. “The profession of artist can’t aid a person in meeting his daily expenses,” she would say. But as each day passed, John’s dream became more passionate.
Due to the living circumstances, even buying some new colors would be a luxury. John only used the worn drawing file and limited colors for his daily practice. Though lacking fine painting materials, he never gave up drawing. He spent a significant amount of time staying in the forest, secretly perfecting his craft. With continuous hard work and a distinct gift for art, he drew beautifully.
One day John read about a competition being held in the town, whose deadline was only two days away. He got the perfect opportunity to fulfill his desire but he was in a dilemma (两难境地) as for the competition he needed special paints and some brushes. He didn’t have the courage to ask his mother for money as he knew her prejudice against art.
That evening his mom returned from work and handed him a few paper notes, saying, “This is for your lunch at school next month.” The money was enough for his desired materials! John’s face lit up.
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。
Early the next morning, John secretly left home with the money.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A week later, a phone call came to John’s home.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Jim slumped on the couch. Mother’s Day was coming up, and he didn’t have a present. “How can I buy a present without money?” he thought.
Jim picked up the newspaper that was lying on the couch. He noticed a large advertisement on the front page. The local department store was sponsoring a contest. “Tell us why your mom is special and win a shopping spree(疯狂购物) for her,” said the ad.
“This is perfect!” thought Jim. He ran to his room with the newspaper, taking a pencil and a blank piece of paper from his desk, he started to write.
“My mom is the best mother in the world. She always makes a lunch for me to take to school, and she never forgets my dessert. She reads as many books to me before bed as I want. She always remembers to check under the bed for monsters. And she gives the best hug, but never in front of my friends, who would laugh at me for hugging my mom.”
Jim liked what he had written. He copied it neatly and got an envelope and a stamp from his dad. He ran to the mailbox with his entry(参赛作品), “Mom will love having a shopping spree,” he thought.
Jim checked the mailbox every day for his prize. Days passed by, and then weeks. Soon it was the day before Mother’s Day. Jim still hadn’t heard anything about the contest.
“What am I going to do now?” he wondered. He didn’t have a present, and he didn’t have a shopping spree, and he still didn’t have any money. He had to think of something. Jim closed his eyes and curled his toes and thought so hard that his ears hurt.
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。
Suddenly he had an idea.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The next morning, Jim handed his present to his mom.
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