1 . The Nobel Literature Prizes are awarded to the persons who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction. The followings are some famous female winners in recent years.

Herta Müller (from Germany)

The Nobel Prize winner in Literature 2009. Her works are rooted in her experiences as one of Romania’s German-speaking racial minority. Muller describes how dictatorship(独裁)causes a fear and sense of distance that stays in an individual’s mind. With precise language, she recalls images from the past.

Svetlana Alexievich (from Belarus)

The Nobel Prize winner in Literature 2015. Svetlana Alexievich represents life during and after the Soviet Union(苏联)through the experience of individuals. She uses interviews to create a picture of a wide range of voices. Her books are a combination of oral history and deeply psychological literature, composed of stories collected on a simple tape recorder.

Louise Glück (from America)

The Nobel Prize winner in Literature 2020. The prize committee stressed “Her unmistakable poetic voice with plain beauty makes individual existence universal”. Childhood, family life, the close relationships with family is a theme that has remained central to her. She seeks the universal, and in this she takes inspiration from myths and classical themes.

Annie Ernaux (from France)

The Nobel Prize winner in Literature in 2022. She usually describes the events in her life and the lives of those around her. “The courage and clinical sensitivity with which she uncovers the roots, separations and collective restriction of personal memory” is the reason she was awarded the prize according to Swedish Academy.

1. How does Svetlana Alexievich create her works?

A．By interview.	B．By biography.
C．By short stories.	D．By memoir.

2. What makes Gluck’s works popular according to the prize committee?

A．Her family life.	B．Individual existence.
C．Simple beauty.	D．Fictional structure.

3. What do the four winners’ works have in common?

A．They are rooted in life experience.

B．They create a lot of pictures for their books.

C．They bring light to the root of people’s memory.

D．They are focused on the relationship between individuals.

2 . Psychologists have long believed that personalities are relatively immune to changes following collective stressful events, such as natural disasters, but the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be an exception, said Angelina Sutin, a psychologist at Florida State University. Researchers from a new study analyzed answers from 7,109 adults in the United States, based on the Big Five personality traits: neuroticism (神经过敏), extroversion (外向), openness, agreeableness and dutifulness. The participants, aged 18 to 109, took multiple personality tests on their phones or computers measuring these traits before and during the pandemic.

In the first, “acute” phase from March 2020 to December 2020, personality traits remained fairly consistent with per-pandemic surveys, with only neuroticism slightly declining. By the second phase, defined as the “adaptation” period from January 2021 to February 2022, there were no overall shifts in neuroticism relative to per-pandemic levels, but adults had become less extroverted, open, agreeable and dutiful. Also, younger adults’ personalities changed the most, while the oldest group had no significant shifts. And no other age group saw an increase in neuroticism in the second phase, but adults under 30 did.

“The results don’t hold true tor each person. So its no surprise if you don’t see that same change in yourself or those closest to you,” Sutin said.

Although personality doesn’t directly control mental health, Sutin is advocating for more research into the impact that pandemic-related personality changes may have on well being, particularly for young adults. “We need to do what we can to help support younger adults as much as possible, so they can make better transitions into adulthood and reduce the stress that they face to help improve their mental health and long-term outcomes,” said Sutin.

Still, the study had a few downsides, said Brent Roberts, a psychologist at the University of Illinois Banana-Champaign. There was no control group of people who hadn’t experienced the pandemic, and other explanations weren’t explored, making it hard to assess if these personality changes were directly caused by the pandemic.

1. How may psychologists feel about the pandemic’s impact on personality?

A．Concerned.

B．Uninterested.

C．Unexpected.

D．Annoyed.

2. How did participants get involved in the study?

A．By responding to questions online.

B．By making some personal requests.

C．By analyzing their personality traits.

D．By recording their daily life with phones.

3. What did the findings of the research indicate regarding personalities?

A．Neuroticism remained consistent.

B．The two phases shared similar results.

C．Young adults underwent more changes.

D．The older people were, the more shifts they had.

4. What is the last paragraph intended to show about the study?

A．Its prospect.

B．Its limitations.

C．Its significance.

D．Its advancement.

3 . When we married in 2007, we promised to love each other “in sickness and in health”. Over the years I shared my_________ with you. But with my full schedule and then a son, Jack, in 2008, we were very_________. Then in December 2015, a big fall _________you with stroke (中风) and speech difficulties. “Whatever, I’m here,” I comforted you. It meant that life needed a _________.

“Is now the time to realize our dream to start fostering (领养), at last?” I asked you. “Let’s go for it,” you said. I quit my job and_________a fostering charity with bases across the country. “My husband is_________. Does that rule us out?” I asked the clerk. “Not_________,” I was told. Eight months after filling in the first forms, we finally got the_________news.

In July 2020, we_________our now 15-year-old foster daughter, Millie. She was so __________that the first day as we all sat in the garden, especially nervous around men. But you__________her over. Soon she was__________along with us at your jokes! Meanwhile, we made a__________while I did her hair or when we walked our dog. With time, Millie started to see our house as her home. Now, we’re on the path to __________ more foster kids.

Thank you for helping me share the love we’ve built with__________who need it most. We’ve turned a difficult time into something beautiful.

1.

A．sorrow

B．knowledge

C．victory

D．dream

2.

A．occupied

B．free

C．careful

D．curious

3.

A．helped

B．charged

C．left

D．rewarded

4.

A．rush

B．change

C．stop

D．risk

5.

A．founded

B．declined

C．discovered

D．funded

6.

A．shy

B．disabled

C．busy

D．humorous

7.

A．necessarily

B．importantly

C．merely

D．clearly

8.

A．interesting

B．depressing

C．shocking

D．amazing

9.

A．met

B．interviewed

C．lost

D．encouraged

10.

A．curious

B．anxious

C．confident

D．energetic

11.

A．took

B．covered

C．won

D．knocked

12.

A．aiming

B．striking

C．wondering

D．laughing

13.

A．wish

B．connection

C．mark

D．preparation

14.

A．break up

B．calm down

C．agree with

D．take in

15.

A．parents

B．pets

C．kids

D．patients

4 . I started playing the piano when I was around four years old—that was 15 years ago!—and since then, the longest I haven’t touched piano keys was probably two months. This was an enormous amount of devotion to something that I wasn’t even planning to make money off of—so there must have been something worth holding on to, right?

The easy guess is that I was always so purely in love with music and piano that I couldn’t bear to let them go. However, it’s a bit more complicated than that. I struggled a lot with piano. I felt pressure to improve, innovate, and be the best in order to prove something to others. The seed of my musical interest was grown with competition and doubt.

It’s difficult to learn to love something that you didn’t choose in the first place. But somehow, sometime, love grew. And by high school, it was strong enough that I found the strength to hold on tighter, dig further, and find something of my own to grow. In a way, I had to start over.

And so, I took a pause. I switched teachers, and got incredibly lucky with one who encouraged me and helped me tunnel into what I loved, not what I was told I should learn. Anything I had was good enough to be loved.

This summer, I started learning the guitar. I deliberately wanted to learn on my own—this was just for me, to form a new relationship to music. Even though my guitar skills are miles lower than my piano skills, I feel I can express myself even more wholly through strings than keys. There’s just something about doing it all for myself that has helped me heal the damages to my relationship to music.

The love and hate I’ve had for the piano were both planted and grown. If you too have learned to hate something you once loved—or something you never chose—remember that with dedication, it can be uprooted, and love can make a home in its place. There is always time. There is always room.

1. What can we learn about the author’s experience from Paragraph 1?

A．He probably spent two months in playing the piano.

B．He began to play the piano when he was 15 years old.

C．He thought it necessary to start playing the piano early.

D．He committed himself to the piano not for financial factors.

2. Which of the following words best describes the author’s relationship with the piano?

A．Bittersweet.

B．Harmonious.

C．Painful.

D．Passive.

3. What inspired the author to learn the guitar?

A．His teacher’s constant encouragement.	B．His desire for a new relationship with music.
C．His interest in strings rather than keys.	D．His talent for playing musical instruments.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Practice makes perfect	B．Love cannot be forced
C．Love is a thing that grows	D．There is no end to learning

5 . Museum lets visitors walk in the shoes of a police officer

Police shows on TV are filled with high-speed car chases and crimes solved in a few minutes. But that’s not a typical day for a real-life police officer. To get a more accurate picture, head to the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington. Exhibits there invite visitors to use their senses of sight, hearing, touch and smell to gather information the way police do.

Let’s look at a few exhibits.

K-9 Units

See a video of how dogs are trained to join K-9 Units. Test your ability to smell and identify various scents (气味). Learn which kinds of dogs are better at tracking bad persons while others are better at sniffing out dangerous goods.

The Web of Law Enforcement

You’ll quickly learn that crime-solving is a team effort, not only within one department, but among organizations across the country. Inspection Service is just one of the law enforcement groups helping local police when needed. For example, six organizations worked together on a national park graffiti (涂鸦) case.

Five Communities

Every community is different. Learn how the needs and challenges of five communities are being dealt with. These communities goals are to develop programs, while increasing trust between local people and police. What might work in your neighborhood? There’s a place for visitors to share their thoughts.

The Training Simulator

Those aged 12 and older can try the same training scenarios (方案) and equipment used in professional law enforcement classes in which police try to resolve difficult situations. Short videos test participants’ abilities to observe accurately and think quickly before reacting.

The exercises give an understanding of what officers face on a daily basis.

“Many kids first think it’s like a video game,” said Alan Davis, an educator and New York police officer. “They soon realize that real-life decision-making in a second isn’t easy, and they freeze. For real police there are no second chances.”

1. Which exhibit focuses on police dogs?

A．K-9 Units.	B．Five Communities.
C．The Training Simulator.	D．The Web of Law Enforcement.

2. What does The Web of Law Enforcement show?

A．The problems in communities.	B．The dangers of being a police officer.
C．How teamwork matters in solving a case.	D．How a policeman makes a decision instantly.

3. How may kids feel about the short video tests after taking part in them?

A．They are surprising.	B．They are difficult to understand.
C．They are the same as video games.	D．They are not real-life experiences at all.

7 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Designer Yuru Zhang recently won     1     design competition with a thin, card-like lipstick.

The lipstick tube has become so widely adopted that     2     (basic) it is the only way most of us visualize lipstick. However, the designer has come up with a design for lipstick that looks nothing like the old tube-like lipstick. Instead, he has created a card-like design     3     (inspire) by the sheets of pigment-infused(浸入颜料的) paper that Chinese women used to apply lip makeup     4     (century) ago.

Called Yanzhi, once used for lip makeup in China, the new lipstick has a rectangular design, and features a simple way     5     (push)the lipstick paper out. All the users need to do is push on the back of the container gently, and simply press their lips against the paper to apply the lipstick. After the makeup     6     (do), the lipstick can be pulled back into the container.

“I got my inspiration     7     ancient Chinese lipstick. Yanzhi is the lipstick of ancient China. Women only need to sip (抿)it to make up. Our motivation is to make this ancient product more     8     (suit) for use in modern life,” Yuru Zhang said.

It's unclear     9     the Yanzhi lipstick will ever be commercially available, but it's a fresh take on a century-old     10     (invent) in need of a refresh.

8 . Could J. K. Rowling please leave Harry Potter in peace? 2010 was a good time to move on. We all know that Harry Potter’s last adventures hit the bookstore in 2007, and three years later the Warner Bros adaptations ran their course in cinema, too. For many fans, the young wizard had worked his magic through most of their childhood. But in 2018, a new Harry Potter extended universe film, Fantastic Beasts: The Crime of Grindelwald, was out.

I love Harry Potter series and I always will. It’s all there in my memory: I remember the first delight at reading “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal”. The wizarding treasure hunt, thrown by my parents for my ninth birthday with my dad dressed as Hagrid in the garden, was so clear in my mind. I remember deciphering (破译) my copy of the Deathly Hallows, the first book I read in English, and having to check the French for “wand”. The 2001 trip to the cinema to see Philosopher’s Stone, and all the ones that followed are kept clearly.

However, someone needs to call a halt to the endless afterlife of Potter’s fictional universe. It was enough in the seven books and eight films. We didn’t and don’t need a community website, a theatre play, the printed script of said movie, and even more movies.

Rowling has created 21^st-century modern literary classic. I always look up to her as the textbook classy writer: respectfully drawing attention from readers, successful but wise enough to withdraw. She also cares much about the causes she holds dear. In 2011 alone, she donated 16% of her net worth to charities. Of all contemporary authors who hit gold, Rowling remains one of the very most inspirational.

The saddest thing is that Rowling helped with the writing of the Cursed Child. She regularly “revealed” new details about Potter’s magical world on Twitter. Today, I decided to give up: I don’t follow Rowling on Twitter. I don’t want to see the new film. Thank you, Joanne Kathleen Rowling. I have enough valued stories—I don’t need new ones any more.

1. The last book of Harry Potter series was published in ______ .

A．2007

B．2010

C．2011

D．2017

2. We can learn from Paragraph 2 that the author ______ .

A．felt rather easy to understand Harry Potter series

B．was quiet fond of Harry Potter series and its films

C．read Harry Potter series with the help of his parents

D．missed the time of watching Harry Potter movies with his parents

3. What does the underlined phrase “call a halt to” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Share.

B．Appreciate.

C．Stop.

D．Change.

4. What does Paragraph 4 mainly talk about?

A．The talent J. K. Rowling has.

B．The author’s praise for J. K. Rowling.

C．The influence of J. K. Rowling’s works.

D．The author’s expectations of J. K. Rowling.

10 . If you face two similar valued options for where to attend college, you have weighed the pros and cons, but you still have difficulty deciding. You decide to give it more time, and think about it a bit more.

The findings of a fascinating paper titled Irrational Time Allocation in Decision-Making suggests you might be making a mistake. Participants in the research viewed images that contained pairs of different foods and they had to choose which item they preferred to eat.

The researchers found that participants spent more time choosing between options that were roughly equal in value than between options in which there was a large value disparity. In other words, people took longer than they should have when deciding between two equally appealing choices. When shown an unpleasant food alongside a favored food, participants chose quickly. When shown a favored food alongside another favored food, people took a while.

Relatedly, there is research suggesting that people take longer to distinguish between two numbers when there is a small difference than when there is a large one. For example, people take longer to determine which number is larger between 47 vs 49 than for 12 vs 35. Perhaps this tendency explains why people take so long to choose between two options with roughly equal payoffs. In the same way that we have difficulty distinguishing numbers that are nearly equal in value, we also have difficulty choosing between options that are roughly equally pleasant.

However, there are doubts among people. Some think this seems not reasonable. If two choices are equally appealing, then the decision shouldn’t take so long. Some wonder whether this works in the opposite direction—whether duration of decision-making implies that options are equal. When options are roughly equal, people tend to take a long time to decide. Does this suggest that if people take a long time to decide, then options are roughly equal? Maybe in some instances, the longer we take to make a decision, the less it matters what we actually choose.

1. What’s people’s common practice in decision making?

A．They often rush a decision without much thinking.

B．They seldom balance advantages and disadvantages.

C．They only concentrate on their personal preferences.

D．They tend to spend too much time on their options.

2. What does the underlined word “disparity” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Difference.

B．Preference.

C．Growth.

D．Potential.

3. What does the research convey in paragraph 4?

A．It is difficult for people to value their options.

B．The value of numbers is difficult to distinguish.

C．People hesitate when facing two similar choices.

D．People prefer to take those high-valued options.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Never too late to make a decision	B．Be patient with appealing choices
C．How to handle various choices?	D．The more time, the better decision?