1. Who is Dave Godber?
| A．A manager. | B．A director. | C．A footballer. |
| A．Surprised. | B．Confident. | C．Upset. |
| A．Attend a match. | B．Take a holiday. | C．Look for another job. |
Sara was always fascinated by art. From a young age, she would spend hours painting, lost in her colorful world. However, growing up in a small town, opportunities to learn and grow as an artist were limited. Her art teacher, Mrs Thompson, saw great potential in Sara and believed she could achieve something extraordinary. Mrs Thompson was more than just a teacher; she was a guide, teacher, and friend to Sara. She recognized Sara’s talent and dedication to art and decided to help her reach new heights. She arranged extra classes, provided art supplies, and even introduced Sara to local artists.
As the town’s art fair was approaching, Mrs Thompson encouraged Sara to submit her work. Sara was hesitant at first, doubting her abilities. But Mrs Thompson’s faith in her was firm. They worked together, choosing the best pieces, creating new works, and preparing for the fair. The weeks leading up to the fair were filled with excitement, hard work, and some anxiety. Sara put in long hours, and Mrs Thompson was always there, offering guidance, encouragement, and a listening ear. Slowly, Sara’s confidence grew.
The town’s art fair was a significant event, drawing artists and art enthusiasts from nearby areas. It was a chance for Sara to showcase her talent to a broader audience and possibly open doors to new opportunities.
Finally, the day arrived, and Sara’s art was displayed. People were drawn to her unique style and emotional depth. The local newspaper even covered her story, highlighting the young artist’s journey and her dedicated teacher’s role. The experience was transformative for Sara, not only as an artist but as a person. She had faced her fears, embraced her passion, and taken a significant step toward her dreams, all with her teacher’s unselfish support.
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。
The art fair was a turning point for Sara.
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_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . 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。
Being a train driver, I must concentrate on my driving when working. And on that particular day, I was glad for my outstanding attention.
From a distance, I spotted a small figure like a thin kid on the train tracks. Immediately, I rang the alarm, but no response. Observing carefully, I saw a boy lying on the tracks, unable to escape from my train, as his foot was stuck. I pulled the brakes with all my might as soon as I could. Luckily, the train stopped a few inches from the boy, who was crying loudly in fear.
I approached him, asking how he felt and whether I could give a hand. After getting his permission, I cautiously checked how his foot was stuck in the tracks. And after a few pulls, the boy's foot came out finally. Hugging him and making sure everything was okay, I asked whether I needed to call his parents. To my astonishment, the child said nothing, just looking at me with his tearful eyes. Considering it was dangerous to leave the boy alone, I decided to take him to my home after work.
Arriving at my home, I introduced him to my wife, Amelia. She looked at the child in surprise for a while, but she calmed down quickly and asked whether the boy remembered her. The boy nodded. Amelia explained to me that she had just walked out of the supermarket with some bread and vegetables the other day, when a group of bad guys blocked her way. Just then, a little boy ran toward them and screamed to attract the police, which at last saved her. Here stood the brave boy.
In the following hours, we chatted with each other, and thus we knew that the kid was named Tom and he was abandoned by his parents and became an orphan who had been alone on the streets for years. As we didn’t have any children, we were determined to adopt Tom.
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。
I told Tom our decision, waiting for his answer.
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The next morning, we opened our bedroom door and saw Tom standing there.
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4 . Do you have a suit or dress in the closet that you haven’t worn for years but are reluctant to get rid of? Maybe you say, “I can’t throw that away because I paid good money for it?”. If you recognize this in yourself, then you are suffering from commitment to the sunk cost fallacy (谬论). It occurs when we feel that we have invested too much to quit. This psychological trap causes us to stick with a plan even if it no longer serves us and the costs clearly outweigh the benefits.
Arkes and Blumer conducted a survey showing that people are influenced by sunk cost fallacy in their decisions. Participants imagined spending $100 on a ski trip to Michigan and $50 on Wisconsin, realizing later they were for the same weekend. They were told Wisconsin would be more enjoyable. When asked which trip to take, 54% chose Michigan despite the reasonable choice being Wisconsin, because they had made a greater initial investment.
Sunk cost fallacy takes place when we let emotions cloud our decisions. Once we’ve invested in a choice, we feel guilt or regret if we don’t follow through. We fail to realize that past costs won’t be recovered. Instead, we base decisions on past costs, ignoring present and future costs and benefits. This may be due to loss aversion (厌恶), where losses feel worse than gains. We avoid losses, making choices based on avoiding the “loss” of our past investment instead of considering the benefits gained if we don’t continue our commitment.
No one can deny the fact that we benefit a lot from perseverance. So our society loves to emphasize perseverance. Never give up! Don’t waste. But only you know the right path for you. Sometimes walking away is the hardest choice of all. You might realize a path you’re on is no longer the right one or never was. That’s a painful realization.
1. What phenomenon does the author describe at the beginning of the text?| A．People benefit from sticking with a plan. | B．People’s consumption view has changed. |
| C．People refuse to give up the past commitment. | D．People’s clothes are becoming more expensive. |
| A．To save more of the loss. | B．To appear more reasonable. |
| C．To make a greater investment. | D．To enjoy more of themselves. |
| A．When we don’t follow through our choices. |
| B．When we don’t continue our commitment. |
| C．When we stop feeling guilty and regretful. |
| D．When we make decisions based on past costs emotionally. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Objective. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
Sam Meadows was on the sofa watching the wrestle. This was how he spent most of his evenings. When he had finished watching that week’s shows he would watch a DVD of a classic main event. His focus on the action on screen was disturbed when his mobile phone rang. He paused the television. On the screen the wrestler was frozen mid-air, drop-kicking his opponent. Sam’s friend Phil was on the phone, a boy he’d known for over ten years and who was counted as one of his closest friends.
They made the usual football chat. Sam didn’t really care for football, but kept up the pretence (假装). He told nobody of his lack of interest in the so-called beautiful game. He pretended to be into football to be one of the boys. Sam would keep an eye on the score, and he would even join his mates in the pub to watch important football matches.
Sam had never told anyone his addiction with wrestling. His friends had progressed and grown out of wrestling, gone on from sports-entertainment to so-called real sports like football. By the time he’d left high school, he had learned not to mention his interest in wrestling. To mention his interest in pro-wrestling would bring ridicule (嘲笑). Even now, in his late twenties, if any of his friends or family were to discover his interest, he would be laughed at mercilessly. They would tell him to grow up, and ask if he was eight years old or twenty-eight. When buying wrestling DVDs he would feel his cheeks redden as he approached the check-out. Did the person on the counter know the DVD was for him not a gift for a young niece or nephew?
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。
Around half an hour after he hung up the phone, Sam was shocked by a knock at the door.
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Phil turned on the television, and it came back on to the same channel it had been on.
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6 . Recent research has revealed that people with hearing loss are more likely to develop dementia (痴呆), yet only 15% to 25% of adults benefit from hearing aids. Hearing loss often comes on so gradually that many ignore it.
In July, at the annual meeting of the Alzheimer’s Association, Frank Lin from Johns Hopkins University presented results from a random clinical trial of 977 adults between 70 and 84 with untreated hearing loss. One group received good hearing care, including hearing aids, and another group took part in a program about successful aging. Three years later hearing aids didn’t make much difference to the healthiest participants. But those at the higher risk of dementia because of age and health conditions saw a 48% reduction in cognitive (认知的) worsening when they got hearing aids.
When hearing loss is untreated, the brain’s organization changes. Adults with hearing loss need to make extra efforts just to listen, which may overly consume cognitive reserves, says Anu Sharma of the University of Colorado. Hearing loss is also associated with more falls, higher healthcare costs, and increased loneliness. “Hearing is fundamental to healthy aging.” says Nicholas Reed, who worked with Lin on the cognitive-decline study.
These consequences of hearing loss contributed to the government’s decision last year to create a category of over-the-counter (非处方的) hearing aids. Traditional aids averaging $4,700 a pair aren’t covered by Medicare or private insurance. It’s too soon to assess whether the new devices will close the yawning gap between the large need for hearing aids and the smaller demand for them. In one survey, only about half of non-users said they would use hearing aids even if they were free. The key to getting around that dilemma will be “the common desire of wanting to hear well” and the sense that “everyone is doing it”, Lin says. If “wireless earbuds also become hearing aids, that changes the whole perspective of what it means to use hearing technology.”
1. What does the recent research find about people with hearing loss?| A．They can recover with the help of technology. | B．They can ignore the problem as they get older. |
| C．They have more chances of getting dementia. | D．They’re increasingly helped by the government. |
| A．Their aging process slowed owing to a program. | B．Hearing aids proved a help to cure their illness. |
| C．They saw a slight boost in their overall health. | D．Decline of their cognitive abilities was relieved. |
| A．Its cognitive reserves will be overused. | B．Its aging process will be slightly delayed. |
| C．Some of its functions will be in disorder. | D．Its fundamental abilities will be harmed. |
| A．Complicated. | B．Large. | C．Irreplaceable. | D．Appealing. |
On the weekend, I went shopping and after walking around for a while, I felt tired so I decided to get a cup of coffee. As I was making my way to the coffee shop, I noticed an older gentleman rather poorly dressed sitting on a bench nearby. I knew from first sight that he was in need of some kind of help. He had a little lunch put in front of him and was wholeheartedly enjoying it. It was also rather clear that he had a problem with his right eye and probably couldn’t see out of it. I wasn’t thinking about it any more, and then joined the line, waiting to be served.
Then it happened---one of the most beautiful gestures I have ever seen in my life.
There was a young man in front of me in the line who was also waiting to be served. As the young man approached the counter to place his order, he noticed the older gentleman sitting on the bench nearby. Without hesitation, he turned back to the cashier and asked if they could provide a free cup of tea for the elderly man. The cashier was surprised by his sudden request, hesitating for a moment and nodding in agreement.
The young man then went on to pay for not only his own drink but also another one, which he handed to the older gentleman with a warm smile. The older man looked up, surprised and grateful, as the young man sat down beside him on the bench. They began to chat, and I couldn’t help but feel touched by this simple act of kindness.
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。
As I received my tea, I decided to join them.
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As we continued to talk, more people heard about it.
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There was a story that all the kids told at my school. I don’t know if they believed it but some of them certainly acted as if they did. On the way from my home to school there was a little old cottage. You could only just see the cottage, as if it were trying to hide itself behind the lemonade trees and bushy garden. At times, but not very often, the children had seen a little old woman make her way along the cracked leaf-covered path from the front door to the mailbox. Her fingers were twisted in funny shapes, her body was bent over and her back hunched (弓背). If she lifted her head to look at you, her face was all wrinkly. “The witch (女巫) at Number 97” was how most kids spoke of her. “Don’t look in her eyes,” you could hear them say. “She’ll capture you in a magic spell, take you into the house and never release you again.”
In the mornings and at the end of the day, my friends and I would pass Number 97 in a group. We felt safer and more secure in numbers. But now, I played the recorder so well that I was asked to join the school band, and that meant staying after school one afternoon a week to rehearse (排练). So I had to walk home all by myself.
I set out as I normally would but as I began to approach the little old cottage it looked scarier than ever. For a while I hesitated, not knowing what to do. I wanted to run but felt I really needed to just walk my way through the experience. I took some deep breaths and tried to think of something different: Home, supper and my bed. While thinking of those things, the dreadful look of the old cottage seemed to fade. When I started thinking about the witch again, the cottage loomed big and frightening in my thoughts. “No,” I said to myself, “Concentrate on how good it will feel to get home,” and with that I started to feel easier.
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。
But as I reached the front gate to Number 97, my heart almost stopped.
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One day, I asked the “witch”, Mrs. Walcott, if I could know her story for homework.
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9 . Plastic, which is now common, contains endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs (内分泌干扰物), that has been linked to increased risk of many chronic diseases. Parental exposure to EDCs, for example, has been shown to cause metabolic (新陈代谢的) disorders, including obesity and diabetes, in the later generations.
Led by Changcheng Zhou, a professor of biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of California, the researchers investigated the impact of fathers’ exposure to a phthalate called dicyclohexyl phthalate, or DCHP (邻苯二甲酸二环己酯), on the metabolic health of first generation (F1) and second generation (F2) in mice. Phthalates are chemicals used to make plastic more durable.
The researchers found that fathers’ DCHP exposure for four weeks led to high insulin (胰岛素) resistance and impaired insulin signaling in F1. The same effect, but weaker, was seen in F2 .
“We found fathers’ exposure to EDCs may have intergenerational and transgenerational detrimental effects on the metabolic health of their later generations, ”Zhou said. “To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to demonstrate this.”
In the case of fathers’ exposure in the study, intergenerational effects are changes that occur due to direct exposure to a stressor, such as exposure to DCHP of fathers (F0 generation) and his F1 generation. Transgenerational effects are changes passed down to later generations that are not directly exposed to the stressor (for example, F2 generation).
“This suggests that fathers’ DCHP exposure can lead to sex-specific transgenerational effects on the metabolic health of their later generations,” Zhou said.
Zhou stressed that the impact of exposure to DCHP on human health is not well understood, even though DCHP is widely used in a variety of plastic products and has been detected in food, water, and indoor particulate matter.
“It’s best to minimize our use of plastic products,” Zhou said. “This can also help reduce plastic pollution, one of our most pressing environmental issues.”
1. Why are phthalates added to plastic?| A．To beautify it. | B．To make it long-lasting. |
| C．To reduce its cost. | D．To increase its weight. |
| A．Negative. | B．External. | C．Distinct. | D．Adventurous. |
| A．Bury plastic waste. | B．Watch out for the food they eat. |
| C．Use fewest plastic products. | D．Never produce plastic products. |
| A．Plastic contains endocrine disrupting chemicals |
| B．Plastic pollution is a pressing environmental issue |
| C．DCHP is widely used in a variety of plastic products |
| D．Chemicals in plastic may impact two generations’ health |
10 . Face blindness, a mystifying condition that can trick us into believing we recognize people we’ve never met or make us fail to recognize those we have, has been previously estimated to affect between 2 and 2.5 percent of people in the world.Now, a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the VA Boston Healthcare System is providing fresh insights into the disorder, suggesting it may be more common than currently believed.
Published in February 2023 in Cortex, the study findings indicate that as many as one in 33 people may meet the criteria for face blindness, or prosopagnosia (面孔失认症).“This translates to more than 10 million Americans,” the research team said.
The study found similar face-matching performance between people diagnosed with prosopagnosia using stricter vs looser criteria, suggesting that diagnostic criteria should be expanded to be more inclusive. That could lead to new diagnoses among millions who may have the disorder but don’t realize it.
The study results are based on a web-based questionnaire and tests administered to 3,341 individuals.First, the researchers asked participants whether they experience difficulties recognizing faces in their everyday lives.Then they administered two objective tests to determine whether they had difficulties learning new faces or recognizing highly familiar famous faces.
The results showed that 31 individuals out of the 3,341 had major prosopagnosia, while 72 of the 3,341 had a milder form. The researchers also observed that there were no neatly divided separate groups of people with poor or good ability to recognize faces. Rather, the ability to recognize faces appeared to lie on a continuum (连续体).
Finally, the researchers compared face-matching scores among people with prosopagnosia diagnosed using different criteria and found that using stricter diagnostic cutoffs did not correspond with lower face-matching scores.
In the new study, the researchers provide diagnostic suggestions for identifying mild and major forms of prosopagnosia based on guidelines for major and mild neurocognitive disorders in the DSM5, the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
1. Which of the following indicates a person has face blindness?| A．Failing to identify his belongings. |
| B．Being able to recognize his friends. |
| C．Mistaking a stranger for an acquaintance. |
| D．Misunderstanding ones’ facial expressions. |
| A．Do you have trouble recognizing faces? |
| B．Do you know what face blindness means? |
| C．Do you know anybody with face blindness? |
| D．Do you experience difficulties in everyday life? |
| A．It came up based on the new study. |
| B．It has experienced four revisions. |
| C．It is only used to identify face blindness. |
| D．It participated in and funded the new study. |
| A．A fiction novel. | B．A fashion website. |
| C．A health brochure. | D．A science magazine. |
