1 . If you look at the dynamic “Global Temperatures” map on NASA’s website, you can see the historic temperature change over time across the planet as the timeline goes from 1880 to the modern day. By 2019, the entire planet is in red, orange, and yellow colors, indicating temperatures much higher than the historical average in every country and human inhabitance.
If the timeline went to 2023, the map would look even worse. That’s because the summer of 2023 was the hottest ever, according to ocean monitors. July was the hottest month in recorded history. Next July could be worse. Unless we do something quickly, we face dealing with more and more dangerous and expensive natural disasters in the future.
Forest fires sent smoke from Canada across the North American continent, causing New York City to have the worst air quality in its recorded history. Heavy rainstorms fell on Vermont and the Northeastern United States in just a couple of days in the middle of July, which exceeded the amount that area would usually receive in two months and caused extreme damage to homes and businesses. Around the same time, flash flooding in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — north of Philadelphia — killed nearly a dozen people.
Erich Fischer, a researcher specializing in climate studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is concerned that natural disasters could get much worse in the future—and in ways we cannot predict. He called for a “strike for climate justice,” which actually took place on Sept. 15, 2023. “The strategy needs to be twofold (双重的) . We need to decrease carbon emissions as much as realistically possible. That is already happening with people using electric cars and other green technologies. At the same time, we also need to find ways to predict the risk of natural disasters ahead of time,” said Erich Fischer.
1. Why does the writer mention the data on NASA’s website in paragraph 1?| A．To explain a concept. | B．To introduce a topic. |
| C．To provide a solution. | D．To make a prediction. |
| A．The severity of natural disasters. | B．The worst air quality in New York City. |
| C．The extreme damage by flash flooding. | D．The cause of the forests fires in Canada. |
| A．He advocated a twofold strategy. |
| B．He suggested forbidding carbon emissions. |
| C．He required people to use more electric cars. |
| D．He emphasized the awareness of climate changes. |
| A．The Hottest Month in History | B．Natural Disasters in the World |
| C．Extreme Weather Could Get Worse | D．Green Technology Would be Needed |
For many, an act of kindness is its own reward. But Eva Hachey found her selflessness answered in ways she could never have imagined.
For weeks, Eva Hachey had imagined adopting a golden Chihuahua with a white spot on its forehead. And there he was, at her local SPCA in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The dog had been abused by his previous owners and was timid. “He’d come to me, then back away and growl, then come back to me,” Hachey said. “After 15 minutes, the attendant picked him up and put him in my lap. He started giving me kisses. He stole my heart in that moment.” She adopted the ten-month-old puppy on the spot and named him Bruno.
Bruno lived happily with Hachey and her 35-year-old daughter, Angel Hutchinson, for five months. Then, on the evening of September 26, 2016, Hachey, 52 at the time, returned home as usual at 8 p. m. from her job as a chiropractic assistant and office manager. And as usual, she ate supper in front of the TV in the living room. Around 10:30, a friend called, just as Bruno went into Hutchinson’s room to go to sleep for the night. Hachey and her friend chatted a bit, and as Hachey hung up, she noticed the time was 11:08.
“The next thing I remember was a male voice saying, ‘Eva, Eva, wake up.’ It was an emergency doctor,” said Hachey. “I looked around, and the room was just full of people. And I said, ‘What are you doing in my house?’”
What they were doing was saving her life. By the time Hachey had hung up with her friend, Hutchinson was fast asleep in her bedroom and Bruno was in his usual spot next to her under the blankets. Hachey believed Bruno heard something odd then and possibly went to the living room to investigate.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右;2.请按如格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Unexpectedly, Bruno ran back to the bedroom and tried every means to awaken Hutchinson.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A year later, Hachey finally fully recovered.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . In an increasingly globalized business world, companies demand Human Resources (HR) leaders who can overcome cultural barriers to achieve key goals. This year, students in the Master of Human Resources and Industrial Relations (MHRIR) Program will get hands-on experience leading multicultural teams as they work together with peers (同辈) from all corners of the globe.
“Our students get firsthand experience on global teams, which helps them understand the challenges and the opportunities they will face in the business world,” said MHRIR Program Director Stacy Hove.
Elishka Correa joined the program to explore how HR leaders can help businesses grow quickly in the global marketplace. “Companies appreciate diversity — not only in terms of products and markets, but the people they hire — so that they can expand their business and reach customers in different parts of the world,” she said. “When I go into an organization, I’m not only going to work with Indians or Americans, it’s going to be a mix of people. That trend is beginning to grow, so I think it’s very important to appreciate people from different backgrounds.”
As they progress through the program, the students are discovering unexpected challenges as they work on projects in diverse teams. Each contributor brings a different approach to solving problems, communicating, and challenging one another’s opinions.
Devin Roll, a student from North Dakota, appreciating the unique views his classmates share, said, “The benefits of having cross-cultural experiences go far beyond the classroom. Diverse teams and companies outperform their competitors, and HR leaders act as a vital partner in acquiring and maintaining diversity in the workforce.”
Many of the international students in the program said they would return to their home countries after graduation and bring along connections to their classmates, who would build careers (职业) in countries around the world. They hope to stay in touch, and share their expert knowledge.
1. What is the aim of the program?| A．To help students to set clear goals. |
| B．To provide jobs for foreign students. |
| C．To teach students to run their own business. |
| D．To train students to build multicultural teams. |
| A．It prevents social advance. | B．It makes it easy to hire people. |
| C．It can help business growth. | D．It can put an end to the conflict. |
| A．It is predictable. | B．It is short-lived. | C．It is unidentifiable. | D．It is far-reaching. |
| A．Work for the university. | B．Keep closely connected. |
| C．Stay in their home countries. | D．Reform teaching methods. |
4 . When children are growing up, what they see in their families is what they tend to consider normal. That means family traditions and other activities are generally seen as just normal. If a family eats dinner together or spends time talking with each other, that’s what the child absorbs and internalizes.
Our family traditions are declining as we move toward a more isolated (孤立的) society. How many families no longer share meals around the dinner table, instead choosing to watch TV or text friends on their phones? This tends to isolate and disconnect family members from each other. It also stops families from communicating and catching up on each other’s lives.
For those of us who grew up in a household where families shared meals together and spent time talking with each other, chances are that we are passing along those traditions to our own families. The problem is, children today often want to spend their time in front of screens rather than people. Cell phones, computers and other attention-grabbing devices often mean parents get resistance to traditional family togetherness time. This pressure can lead to parents giving in and letting children do what they want rather than fight with them over sitting at the dinner table. This creates a new normal that no longer values the idea of families and the society at large, connecting with each other.
Family and community traditions are important, not just for the current shared experiences, but for the future as well. Since children internalize their experiences, that means generations to come may not know what it’s like to sit together around the dinner table and truly connect as a family.
That is why it is so important that parents and caregivers create boundaries of behavior that help to keep family traditions alive. If you remember the shared experiences you had with your parents and grandparents, you know the important bonding that took place during those times. It is this shared experience that brings people closer together and is well worth preserving.
1. What is the phenomenon the author describes at the beginning of the text?| A．The increase in shared family meals means a shift towards isolation. |
| B．Increased use of technology replaces traditional family interactions. |
| C．More and more children prefer to spend quality time with the family. |
| D．Family members are more likely to share their updates with each other. |
| A．The inability of parents to understand technology. |
| B．The challenge of preserving traditional family values. |
| C．The influence of technology on children’s education. |
| D．The necessity of controlling children’s digital devices. |
| A．They will be more addicted to advanced technology. |
| B．They will maintain stronger and closer family bonds. |
| C．They may create new and irreplaceable family traditions. |
| D．They may not understand the value of family gatherings. |
| A．Insignificant | B．Irresponsible |
| C．Crucial | D．Overemphasized |
5 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。
It was a Saturday in May. It was my third Mother’s Day. The air was warm, the sun was bright, and I spent the morning leisurely drinking coffee and getting ready with my daughter. My husband returned home from his shopping trip, giving me a Mother’s Day gift.
Afterward, I needed to head out and go to the grocery store. But I decided to take my daughter to play at the park first. She ran and played until she grew sticky with sweat and exhaustion (筋疲力尽). At that moment, I realized I had forgotten to pack any snacks. So I promised her I would buy her snacks at the store.
Thirty minutes later, we parked and headed in. I kept thinking about the gift my husband had given me, a dress for my cousin’s wedding the following month. My daughter was going to be the flower girl, and we still didn’t have a dress picked out for her. So I decided to check out the children’s clothes next door before buying groceries. In my excitement, I’d forgotten about the promised snacks. However, my daughter hadn’t.
We just spent two minutes looking at the girl’s section before my daughter began to scream. It felt as if her lungs could break glass and puncture (刺穿) the eardrums of everyone inside. I tried to help her calm down and allow us to look a little longer, but her scream deepened in volume.
We quickly made our way out of the store, with eyes following us as my daughter proved her vocal strength. We stopped just outside of the doors because my daughter began to lie on the floor and scream her heart out as the rest of the world looked on. Really, it was embarrassing and frustrating (令人沮丧的).
Just then, a grandma approached us. She wanted to pick up my sad daughter and comfort her. I had done that before, but at this point, my daughter was too far gone. She didn’t want anyone when she was angry. The grandma offered to hug her, but she refused and cried harder.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
That’s when another young mother approached.
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My daughter finally got tired of crying after a while.
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Tomato Changed My Life
Doing things-without being planned was never my strength.
As a 14-year-old, I would refuse to go for walks around the block with my friends if I was the least bit behind in my schoolwork.
Unlike most teenagers, I lived not in my room, but in an unused kitchen upstairs where I spread my books and papers on a large round table. I spent considerable time there, working continuously for hours, and my mother worried. She would try to lure (引诱) me away. “Come and watch the parade!” she would call from downstairs. “All neighbors are out there!” She thought of all kinds of tricks-the swimming pool, ice cream, stray cats and turtles-to remove me from my -studies, but nothing ever worked.
Later, in college, the pattern continued. The library and my college dorm replaced the unused kitchen at home. When spring came along friends would stop by my dorm or peer into my library room to persuade me to play Frisbee on the lawn. “No, I would almost always say.” I have too much to do.
My college study days were gone, but not my need and love for schedules. My friends and sisters tried to keep me away from my plans, but they were hardly ever successful.
This summer, though, while house sitting for my parents, I was persuaded to change my plans in the most unexpected way. The sight of tomatoes growing in my mother’s garden lured me out of my tightly scheduled world. They drew me with the power of a lover’s gaze. Hundreds of them were turning ripe and red by the minute, decorating the garden like decorations on a Christmas tree.
“If I have time, I’ll make tomato sauce (番茄酱).” I told myself. But my long week in the house by myself was already filled with things to do: writing, and finishing a project that I brought home from the office.
Then, watching the fascinating tomatoes continuously falling to the ground in ever-greater numbers, again I mentally argued about all the things I had planned and needed to do.
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。
Finally, I gave in.
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A month later, my parents came back.
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7 . Stories have long been employed to instill (灌输) moral and cultural values in young children, but there is little research exploring the effectiveness of such stories.
“As parents, we want to know how effective the stories actually are in promoting honesty.” say lead author Kang Lee of the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study at the University of Toronto and co-author Victoria Talwar of McGill University. “Is it ‘in one ear, out the other,’ or do children listen and take the messages to heart?”
To find out, Lee and Talwar conducted an experiment with 268 children aged 3 to 7. Each child played a game that required guessing the identity of a toy based on the sound it made. In the middle of the game, the experimenter left the room for a minute, instructing the child not to glance at a toy left on the table. For most children, this temptation (诱惑) was too hard to resist. When the experimenter returned, she read the child a story, either The Tortoise and the Hare, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Pinocchio, or George Washington and the Cherry Tree. Afterward, the experimenter asked the child to tell the truth about whether he or she glanced at the toy.
Contrary to the experimenters’ expectations, Pinocchio and The Boy Who Cried Wolf , which associate lying with negative consequences, were no more effective at promoting honest behavior than a fable unrelated to honesty, in this case The Tortoise and the Hare. Only the made-up tale about young George Washington seemed to inspire the kids to admit glancing: Children who heard the tale in which the future first president was complimented because of admitting his mistake and rewarded a candy were three times more likely to tell the truth than their fellows who heard other stories.
“Our study shows that to promote moral behavior such as honesty, emphasizing the positive outcomes of honesty rather than the negative consequences of dishonesty is the key,” note they. “This may apply to other moral behaviors as well.”
They also warn that more research is necessary to determine whether moral stories influence kids’ behavior in the long term. Still, they have been quick to take advantage of the findings. Talwar reports a shift in her own parenting practices: “It really seems to work. I use this now with my child.”
1. What is the aim of the experiment mentioned in the text?| A．To find out which story is instructive at school. |
| B．To make sure if the children can resist the temptation. |
| C．To see the effectiveness of stories in promoting honesty. |
| D．To ensure the precision in guessing the identity of the toy. |
| A．Criticized. | B．Praised. | C．Ignored. | D．Respected. |
| A．She will apply the finding to her child. |
| B．Her child shows a strong interest in the story. |
| C．Her parents have changed their way of education. |
| D．She perceives the positive influence on her child. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Contradictory. | C．Sympathetic. | D．Objective. |
I spotted my neighbor, Monica, working in her garden one day when I returned home from school. It was sunny, and the smell of cut grass made me feel refreshed. I popped my head over the fence, and Monica and I got talking.
“I’ve seen you’re very good at using a lawn mower(割草机) and gardening tools,” Monica said. “There’s a hedge(树篱) growing over the pathway near here. It’s so overgrown that it becomes a head ache for the passers-by. I was planning to cut it back myself. Would you like to help out?”
I loved the idea of helping Monica and our community. We agreed to cut the hedge the following Sunday. My brother Ivan, aged 10, also came along to help us. We wheeled Monica’s garbage can down to the hedge, which the community council was responsible for. All three of us cut it with shears (大剪刀) until a trouble-free pathway came in sight. Mr. Brown, a wheelchair user, was grateful that he didn’t have to make a detour(绕行) any more to pass the hedge. Encouraged by his words, I suggested doing more for our community, to make it a better place.
When we first started, we just made the best of the equipment we already had in my parents’ garage. But as time went on, donations came in from the local community. Our garage got filled up quickly with brushes, gardening tools, and even donated power tools like leaf blowers. With everything ready, our first project was to beautiful park near our houses, which looked a bit run-down. Ivan was in charge of painting the fence around, Monica cleared the lawn with a leaf blower, and I was responsible for repairing the benches where our neighbors usually sat at their leisure. After two weeks’ hard work, we felt stunned when stepping back and appreciating the clean and brand new small park. My heart swelled with pride because our efforts paid off.
注意：1.续写词数应为 150个左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I posted photos of our hard work on our local Facebook Group.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With more neighbors joining in, we headed for the flower bed near the community center.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I taught English as a Second Language (ESL) at a school. One particular sixth grader, Pablo, was struggling with fluency in reading, so after class I suggested that he get extra practice by reading aloud to his mom while she prepared dinner each evening. This was something I routinely encouraged my struggling students to do. Imagine my surprise when Pablo responded by starting to cry. He said, “My mom can’t cook dinner!” Then he cried harder. Eventually, he calmed down enough to tell me that his mom was only able to “cry in her bed” when he got home every afternoon. He said that he was caring for his six-month-old baby brother by himself from the time he got home each day. His mother, it seemed, had a bad tooth and was in extreme pain. He said that his father didn’t have enough money to get it fixed, and that there was no way for her to go to a dentist. This child’s heart was broken for his mom.
I was speechless! He was still crying when he left me that day, and I promised him I would try to help. I kept asking myself how I could help this student. How could I help his mother when we didn’t even speak the same language?
The next day, I sent a note, which a friend helped me translate, to Pablo’s mother asking if she would like me to find someone to help her. The following day, Pablo brought me a note from his mom accepting my offer to help.
Meanwhile, I had been doing some networking among my friends asking if anyone knew a dentist who might do some free work for this lady. At the time, I was not able to pay for the work to be done myself. Several friends suggested a dental office that had recently opened up in the area, thinking that they might be willing to provide the services. I didn’t want to waste a lot of time going to several dentists, so I prayed that this would be the one.
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。
Stopping by the dental office, I went to the reception desk.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Pablo’s mother came to meet the dentist at the appointed time.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The moment my son Joe knew I was going to have another baby, he tried his best to stay out of our lives. By the time our daughter Molly was due to be born, I had grown accustomed to his embarrassment and animosity (敌意). I had grown accustomed to a lot of things, not the least of which was having an unexpected child at the age of thirty-nine. My husband, to his eternal credit, was delighted. Throughout it all, Joe rarely spoke to me, except to say, “You don’t have to come to my school,” and — after a marathon baby naming conference—“Call her Molly, the name of my friend’s dog.”
When Molly finally arrived, tiny, quiet and perfect, four family arms were there to draw her close. But Joe’s remained tightly crossed over his chest, on the far side of the hospital room I signed to him to come closer but he shook his head slightly. I could see him standing there, arms still folded, staring straight ahead.
Joe stayed away at a friend’s cottage when Molly and I came home from the hospital. He was still gone ten days later when I took our daughter for her first check-up. He arrived home just as I was coming back, tears streaming down my face. “The doctor thinks she might have a hearing problem,” I sobbed. “She’s too quiet she’s not responding like she should. We have to have her tested.”
As my husband comforted me, downplaying my worry, I noticed that Joe had stopped beside the baby, sound asleep in her car seat. He reached out to her, shifting her slightly away from a bump (隆起) in the carpet. “She’s okay,” he said, looking down at her. “There’s nothing wrong with her. She’s just little.”
Three months later as I walked the floor at 4:00 A. M. with a crying and inconsolable (难以安抚的) (and otherwise perfectly healthy) baby in my arms, I dragged myself into Joe’s room and woke him up “Joe, could you take her? Just for a few minutes? I can’t settle her down, Dad’s on business, and I just really need a break.”
注意：
1．续写词数应为150个左右；
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Saying nothing, Joe took his little sister from me.
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Seeing Molly sleeping peacefully in Joe’s bed, I walked out, followed by Joe.
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