1 . Questions 11 through 13 are based on the following passage. 1.

A．It varies from person to person.

B．It is decided by the most healthy lifestyle.

C．It needs some tests and comparison to the standard.

D．It is based more on individual needs than personal goals.

2.

A．Strength.

B．Endurance.

C．Flexibility.

D．Health.

3.

A．The variety of fitness in the future.

B．The importance of three basic factors concerning fitness.

C．The new concept of fitness and its essential factors.

D．Training effects of some sports on people.

2 . For the arts “to mean more, to more people,” as Arts Council England (ACE) argues that they should, would be excellent. Music, drama, dance, visual arts, poetry and literature are among the most precious human achievements. To live in a country in which these are more widely shared and enjoyed would be proof that we are making progress. The point is not to entertain or educate people, or bring communities together. Nor is it all about boosting jobs and investment. Imagination has intrinsic (内在的) value, and research carried out by ACE in the course of preparing its 10-year strategy showed that people from all walks of life value and get pleasure from cultural activities.

Positioning itself as a development agency, ACE will now hope to win government backing for a change of direction that orients it away from the biggest and most prestigious national institutions and towards the towns, villages and grassroots organizations that should be similarly deserving of attention. There, it envisions a role for itself “building the identity and prosperity of places,” bringing professional artists together with voluntary groups, particular in areas that have previously not been well represented on the cultural map.

ACE’s chair, Sir Nicholas Serota, quotes the first world war centenary (百年纪念) project devised by the artist, Jeremy Deller, and theatre director, Rufus Norris, as the model of what he wants his organization to be about. By dressing up volunteers as soldiers, and orchestrating their encounters with members of the public in settings across England, the artists succeeded in “dissolving the barriers between artists and audiences.”

The emphasis on participation- on culture as something that more people should actually do- is newer. This is the difference between being in a play or a band and buying tickets to watch them, and for ACE to play a more active role in promoting the former would be beneficial. This begins in childhood, and ACE clearly hopes that the government will think again about policies that have seen music, drama and other arts subjects systematically downgraded in favour of science, technology and maths.

To what extent the vision is realized will depend in part on whether ACE’s ambitions catch the government’s interest sufficiently to influence the upcoming spending review, and provide a counterweight to the scorn (轻视) that is regularly poured on the humanities. Around £400m has been cut from local government arts budgets since 2010, and ACE cannot plug this gap. The closure of youth clubs and live music venues, and growing financial pressures linked to the property market, are among other reasons for this worrisome narrowing of opportunities. So far Boris Johnson has offered few signs that he has in mind a starring role for the arts in post-Brexit Britain, although 2022’s Festival of Brexit is one such event. ACE’s plan should boost the profile of all those, in government and outside, who are arguing for more.

1. The purpose of making arts available to more people is to __________.

A．enlighten people from all walks of life

B．consolidate various communities

C．create job opportunities for artists

D．maximize the natural value of art

2. According to the passage, ACE is most likely to promote the arts of ___________.

A．national institutions

B．commercial centers

C．local governments

D．towns and villages

3. Which of the following statements would Sir Nicholas Serota most probably agree with?

A．Audiences with little education can also gain pleasure from cultural activities.

B．Artists and audiences can create and enjoy the arts together without barriers.

C．The soldiers and volunteers should vividly show scenes about the First World War.

D．Science, technology and maths are more important than humanities and arts nowadays.

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．For the arts to get revitalized more extensive efforts are needed.

B．The current British government has done enough to promote arts.

C．ACE should narrow the financial gap left by the local government.

D．Many performing venues have closed due to the rising property market.

3 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
A Sip Through Time: The Rich History of Chai

No doubt you’ve enjoyed a delicious chai latte at your local coffee shop, but do you know where your drink comes from? Chai, an aromatic beverage enjoyed worldwide, has a history as rich and diverse as its flavour profile.     1     (originate) from the Indian subcontinent, chai has evolved over centuries. In this journey through time, we explore the fascinating history of chai.

We can trace the roots of chai back to ancient India. The earliest form of chai was     2     mixture of herbs and spices. As trade routes flourished, so     3     the exchange of exotic spices, which eventually found their way into this ancient medicine.

The Silk Road played a core role in the evolution of chai. The spices used in chai became valuable commodities     4     (trade) along these routes, influencing the recipes and flavours of local brews.

In the 19th century, the British East India Company wanted to establish dominance in the trade. Part of this involved     5     (bring) tea to India. Tea plants had been growing in the wild in the Assam region of India for a long time, of course, but typically tea was viewed as a herbal medicine rather than a recreational beverage.

The East India Company introduced tea to India as a recreational drink, and soon the drink was adapted to Indian tastes,     6     milk, sugar and various spices added. This cultural exchange gave birth to a unique fusion—masala chai.

After India’s independence, chai became deeply rooted in the land. Street vendors and small tea stalls became cultural hubs     7     people from all walks of life gathered to discuss politics, share stories, and savour a hot cup of chai. Chai’s accessibility and affordability made     8     a democratic beverage, breaking down social barriers and fostering a sense of community.

In recent decades, chai has gone beyond its cultural origins and become a global phenomenon. Its distinctive flavour profile, combining the richness of black tea with the warmth of spices and milk,     9     (capture) the taste buds of people around the world. Chai latte has become a popular choice in coffee shops and cafes, adapting to different tastes     10     maintaining the essence of its Indian heritage at the same time.

4 . The ancient Egyptians thought so little of the brain that when a king died, they removed the brain from his body and threw it away. The Egyptians assumed, like many people before and after them, that consciousness — your mind and your thoughts existed in the heart.

Now we know that the mind is a product of the brain, but how exactly does this 1.5-kilo piece of matter create a mind that allows you to think about yourself, experience happiness and anger, or remember events that happened 20 minutes or 20 years ago? This isn’t a new question. Today, however, powerful new techniques for visualizing the sources of thought, emotion, behavior, and memory are transforming the way we understand the brain and the mind it creates.

Have you ever stopped and thought, “What’s wrong with me today? I just don’t feel like myself”? Perhaps you were more tired or worried than usual — but somehow, you knew that something was different about you. This self-awareness - the ability to think about yourself and how you’re feeling-is an important part of being human.

This part of of your mind has its origins in the prefrontal cortex — a region of your brain just behind your forehead that extends to about your ears. Before this area began to function (around age two), you didn’t understand that you were a separate individual with your own identity. As this part of your brain developed, you became more aware of yourself and your thoughts and feelings.

Though humans may share certain emotions and recognize them in others, we don’t all have the same emotional response to every situation. In fact, most emotional responses are learned and stored in our memories. The smell of freshly cut grass, for example, will generate happy feelings in someone who spent enjoyable childhood summers in the countryside, but not in someone who was forced to work long hours on a farm. Once an emotional association like this is made, it is very difficult to reverse it. “Emotion is the least flexible part of the brain,” says psychologist Paul Ekman. But we can learn to control our emotions by becoming consciously aware of their underlying causes and by not reacting automatically to things in our environment.

For centuries, people have studied the brain, but it is only in recent years that we have really started to learn how it works. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go before we understand our mind’s many complexities.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

A．How we create and control emotions.	B．How the mind works.
C．How human beings are distinct.	D．How emotions are processed.

2. Why does the author mention the ancient Egyptians’ practice in the very beginning?

A．To illustrate the importance of the heart in ancient Egyptian culture.

B．To introduce the core theme of the mind-body connection and evolution.

C．To provide an example of how the brain has been misunderstood throughout history.

D．To contrast the ancient Egyptians’ views on the brain with the modern one.

3. Which of the following statement is NOT true?

A．Self-awareness develops before the age of two.

B．The prefrontal cortex affects a person’s emotions.

C．The prefrontal cortex is located at the front of the brain.

D．Self-awareness strengthens with the development of the brain.

4. What does the passage suggest about the flexibility of emotions?

A．Emotions are universal and do not change over time or with individual experiences.

B．Emotions are generally learned and stored in our memories, making them quite flexible.

C．Emotions are influenced by our personal experiences and can vary from person to person.

D．Emotions are the least flexible part of the mind, and they cannot be controlled.

5 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Vertical Farms: Is the sky really the limit?

At a hyper-controlled indoor farm in industrial South San Francisco, four robots carefully transfer seeds from barcoded trays into 4.5-meter towers that then are hung vertically (垂直地) inside a 445 sq metre grow room. Workers in branded jumpsuits     1     (inspect) the greens for imperfect produce, but there is almost     2    . Then the pesticide-free product is packaged and put on a truck     3     (deliver) to a local market where the customer becomes the first person to touch it. With the world’s population expected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, most of     4     will be living in cities, experts say a 70% increase from current levels of global food production will be needed. But agricultural land is     5     short supply thanks to the climate crisis and urbanization.

Indoor farming raised more than $1 bn in 2021, exceeding the combined funding in 2018 and 2019. But critics say the massive energy costs     6    (need) to run vertical farms and greenhouses make the practice far less eco-friendly than their branding suggests.

Designed to produce yields hundreds of times larger than traditional outdoor farming, vertical farms occupy spaces such as buildings or shipping containers while using 70 to 95% less water     7     they can recapture and recycle rather than waste it due to poor irrigation (灌溉) or evaporation. Products are fully traceable from seed to shelf, stay fresher longer and there’s little risk of bacteria, infected animal faces (粪便) or     8    (have) to transport them long distances in trucks and planes.

Entrepreneurs like Irving Fain, CEO and founder of Manhattan-based Bowery Farming, say that they’re gathering knowledge about plant growth and agronomy (农学) that     9     take traditional farmers outdoors hundreds of years to accumulate. The possibilities raised by vertical farms have also captured the imagination of a number of large venture capitalists and private equality funds. “While it is still too early to tell     10     these high-tech, high-rise growing machines will become a real estate asset class in their own right, some investors are starting to take a serious look at vertical farming as a possible new asset category.” said Fain.

6 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage cohcrent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

We Britons have about 60 words for happiness: blissfulness, ecstasy, pleasure, delight...The list is as varied as it is surprising, given that we only just scraped into the top 20 happiest countries in the world this year. Finns, who     1     (name) the happiest nation for the sixth year running, are either onnellinen or iloinen. The latter roughly translates as joyful or glad: you might be iloinen that you’re heading off on boliday. Onnellinen, on the other hand, speaks to the notion of being content with your life,     2     describing a fleeting feeling.

In the decade     3     the first World Happiness Report was released in 2012, four countries have held the top position: Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now Finland. It’s based on an evaluation in which respondents are asked to assess the overall happiness of their current lives on a scale of one to 10.

For the fourth year running, the UK has slipped down the global happiness rankings,     4     (drop) two places to number 19. Even more worryingly, however, the 2022 global Oracle happiness report for the UK specifically found that nearly half of Britons have not felt true happiness in two years. We’re currently behind the US, Israel, New Zealand and Luxembourg, but mercifully ahead of the likes of Afghanistan and Lebanon-currently the two     5     (happy) countries in the world. This persistent decline in British contentment is concerning.

    6     (find) out what we miserable Britons can leam from the Finns, I went to Lake Saimaa — a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Helsinki —   to take part in a masterclass in happiness. It is a resort designed around taking things slowly. Each villa has its own sauna (桑拿浴),     7     (set)in a fragrant pine forest.     8     many friends rightly pointed out, how could anyone not be happy here?

In many ways, though, my admittedly luxurious stay revealed to me     9     the Finns approach happiness for everyone. There’s no doubt they have got a lot of things right — their love of saunas, for one. Known for their health benefits, saunas are fantastic for calming the mind. And with     10     estimated 3 million saunas for a population of just over 5.5 million, they are certainly integrated into everyday life.

7 . Problem-solving

Solving problems draws on two types of intelligence: crystal and fluid. Crystal intelligence involves using stored knowledge to answer questions of fact (e.g. what is the speed of light?), which relies on our ability to learn and remember information.

Fluid intelligence involves solving more creative problems, such as how to get a lion, a goat and a cabbage over a river in a single-passenger boat.     1     It is partly because solutions tend to pop, fully formed, into consciousness as “aha!” moments. It also seems that our brains use different strategies for different types of puzzle.

    2     For example, to solve “If ABC=12, then DEF =?” you need to know three things: the alphabet, the number sequence (序列), and the coding technique of linking two sequences in parallel. Once you have this knowledge, you can find the answer by matching letters to their appropriate numbers, without having to look elsewhere for any extra information. In this case, focusing attention on the problem helps you get to the right solution.

Complex problems, on the other hand, require a different approach, because the number of things you need to know and handle is greater than your consciousness brain can cope with.     3     No human brain can think through them all, let alone hold them in mind in order to compare them. Inexperienced chess players typically react to the complexity of a chess problem by concentrating hard on working out possible sequences of events. Rather than helping them, however, this intense, narrow attention can make their play worse.

The reason is that focusing attention on sequential computation, which is done by the brain’s left side, closes down areas of the right side that are concerned with taking a wider view.     4     The right-side activity produces an intuitive (直觉的) sense of what the problem is and provides context for the conscious computations occurring in their left side. This use of intuition, with years of experience, distinguishes experts from new players not only in chess, but also in every area that requires complex problem-solving.

A．A chess move, for example, can lead to billions of outcomes.

B．Intense attention locks both sides of the brain into a particular pattern of activity.

C．This kind of intelligence has proven more difficult to understand.

D．Master players, by contrast, use their right side as well as their left.

E．As well as looking at problem from multiple angles, brilliant problem-solving involves dismissing bad options quickly.

F．We tend to work out simple problems—those involving just a few factors—methodically.

8 . Could your dog be prone to a fatal disease? Is your new shelter pup part beagle or boxer? Many pet owners seek answers to these questions, and as a result, direct-to-consumer dog DNA testing is booming.

Human interfering with dog DNA has long been the driving factor behind dogs’ breed diversity — or lack thereof. But a dog’s DNA can also be used to confirm their lineage (血统) or identify their breed, a boon for pet owners on the lookout for breed-specific health or behavioral challenges or those looking to confirm their dog really has the heritage claimed by a breeder or seller. During DNA analysis, labs sequence the dog’s DNA and look for similarities with a dataset of identified dog breeds.

But breed identification isn’t as simple as it might seem. In a study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association last month, scientists looked into the accuracy of breed prediction in commercially available DNA tests that required a photo of the dog in addition to its DNA sample. The results were mixed, says Casey Greene, a professor who co-authored the study.

“Most tests could accurately distinguish the breed of purebred dogs,” says Greene. But the analysis suggested that some testing companies might rely on the photo more than the dog’s actual genetics — and revealed big differences between companies’ business practices and the genetic datasets they use to determine dog breeds.

The researchers submitted photos and DNA of 12 purebred dogs to a total of six commercial canine (犬的) ancestry identification services. Since each pup was purebred and possessed extensive American Kennel Club paperwork, the researchers knew their breed conclusively—but in some cases they provided a photo of a different dog to see if the photo influenced the DNA results. One of the companies misidentified a purebred Chinese crested dog — almost entirely hairless — as a long-haired Brittany spaniel, seemingly based on the photo alone. The other five did identify the registered breed correctly, but often gave different predictions for other “ancestor” breeds in dogs whose DNA suggested mixed breeding in prior generations. The researchers concluded that veterinarians and pet owners alike should “approach direct-to-consumer tests with caution” given the lack of industry standardization and at least one company’s reliance on photographs instead of DNA analysis.

Despite these concerns, though. dog DNA seems headed for a golden age — and the insights revealed through further study of Fido’s genome (基因组) have already reached far beyond the doghouse. Domesticated dogs have emerged as surprising superstars in medical research that benefits humans. According to researchers, that’s just the beginning. With implications ranging from entertaining to consequential, there’s no telling what dog DNA will continue to unleash.

1. The underlined word “boon” in paragraph two is closest in meaning to ________.

A．blessing

B．substitute

C．duty

D．struggle

2. According to the passage, dog DNA testing can serve the following purposes except that ________.

A．it assists in accurately determining the breed a dog belongs to

B．it helps to predict whether dogs are subject to certain diseases

C．it provides pet owners with insights into dogs’ behavioral challenges

D．it sequences the DNA of identified dog breeds to find their similarities

3. Which of the following statements can be concluded from the passage?

A．Photos play a more significant role in identifying a dog’s breed than its actual genetics.

B．It is a common phenomenon that the DNA analysis of dogs may yield mixed results.

C．Commercial dog DNA tests still have limitations and should be dealt with cautiously.

D．Direct-to-consumer tests overshadow DNA analysis in identifying purebred dogs.

4. What does the passage suggest about the future of dog DNA testing?

A．Controversies regarding its reliability are here to stay.

B．It is bound to make breakthroughs in the fields of medicine and entertainment.

C．It can step into a golden age as long as some research limitations are fixed.

D．It may have far-reaching significance and be applied to a wider range of areas.

9 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. adaptable B. capacity C. complicated D. decline E. demand F. evaluating G. highlighted H. impacts I. occurs J. pursuing K. survive

Economics survive by continually responding to the world around them. This means employing new technologies or exploiting new international markets when     1     growth. Today, these global shifts — dramatic shocks to economies — occur more frequently, are more     2     and, in knowledge-based economies are more dependent on talent than ever. In countries where a workforce lacks the skills that are suddenly in     3    , we see a skills gap emerge. This leads to higher unemployment rates while vacancies increase and productivity and growth decline.

So how can economies     4    ? By adapting. However, unlike the macro-strategies of the last century, people — not just policy — must drive today’s adaptability. Employers and policymakers have long     5     the importance of a flexible workforce, but until now it has been difficult to isolate the human element — the willingness and ability of employees to seek out and find opportunities across multiple employers, locations and industries. Our new ability to measure it and analyse talent adaptability — and to start to understand what drives it — are crucial steps forward.

The     6     of a market to match supply and demand efficiently depends on the ability and willingness of employers and employees to adapt to changing circumstances and align (使一致) skills with available opportunities. If this alignment is less than perfect, a mismatch     7     and optimum productivity can’t be reached.

Adapt to Survive for the first time brings together the two most comprehensive sources of talent data in the world: the real-time behaviours drawn from LinkedIn’s 277 million members and employer information from PwC’s Saratoga database of people and performance metrics (指标) which covers more than 2,600 employers across the globe. This report sets a new benchmark for     8     a country’s ability to match talent with opportunity and the movement of people between industries — the Talent Adaptability Score. This score is given to 11 countries. For each country, we evaluate how the Score     9     economic performance. Our recommendations are organised around four groups:

● Individuals — Prove your adaptability.

● Employers — Seek out, nurture and reward talents who can adapt.

● Educators — Offer courses and job training that produce     10     people.

● Governments — Create a climate of adaptability.

10 . Maps, number lines, shapes, artwork and other materials tend to cover elementary classroom walls. However, too much of a good thing may end up _______ attention and learning in young children, according to research published in Psychological Science.

Psychology researchers Anna V. Fisher, Karrie E. Godwin and Howard Seltman of Carnegie Mellon University looked at whether classroom displays affected children’s ability to maintain _______ during instruction and to learn the lesson content. They found that children in highly decorated classrooms were more distracted, spent more time off-task and demonstrated smaller learning _______than when the decorations were removed.

“Young children spend a lot of time — usually the whole day — in the same classroom, and we have shown that a classroom’s _______ environment can affect how much children learn,” said Fisher, lead author and associate professor of psychology in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Should teachers _______ their visual displays based on the findings of this study?

“We do not suggest by any means that this is the answer to all _______ problems. Furthermore,_______ research is needed to know what effect the classroom visual environment has on children’s attention and learning in real classrooms,” Fisher said. “_______, I would suggest that instead of removing all decorations, teachers should consider whether some of their visual displays do make it difficult for young children to _______.”

For the study, 24 kindergarten students were placed in ________classrooms for six introductory science lessons on topics they were unfamiliar with. Three lessons were taught in a heavily decorated classroom, and three lessons were given in a sparse (稀疏的) classroom. The results showed that while children learned in both __________ types, they learned more when the room was not heavily decorated. Specifically, children’s __________ on the test questions was higher in the sparse classroom (55% correct) than in the decorated classroom (42% correct).

“We were also interested in finding out if the visual displays were removed, whether the children’s attention would __________ to another distraction, such as talking to their peers, or the total amount of time they were distracted would remain the same,” said Godwin, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology and fellow of the Program in Interdisciplinary Education Research.

However, when the researchers totaled all of the time children spent off-task in both types of classrooms, the rate of off-task __________ was higher in the decorated classroom (38.6% time spent off-task) than in the sparse classroom (28.4% time spent off-task).

The researchers hope these findings will lead to further studies into developing guidelines to help teachers design classrooms __________.

1.

A．attracting

B．distracting

C．holding

D．paying

2.

A．confidence

B．relationship

C．consistency

D．focus

3.

A．gains

B．opportunities

C．needs

D．disabilities

4.

A．social

B．natural

C．physical

D．visual

5.

A．turn over

B．take down

C．try out

D．look into

6.

A．athletic

B．environmental

C．educational

D．communicative

7.

A．additional

B．prior

C．national

D．independent

8.

A．However

B．Besides

C．Therefore

D．Meanwhile

9.

A．stretch

B．adapt

C．concentrate

D．explore

10.

A．decorated

B．empty

C．transitional

D．laboratory

11.

A．teaching

B．classroom

C．school

D．personality

12.

A．accuracy

B．emphasis

C．impact

D．perspective

13.

A．refer

B．listen

C．respond

D．shift

14.

A．questions

B．behaviors

C．incidents

D．tasks

15.

A．originally

B．innovatively

C．appropriately

D．exclusively