1 . Ready for a creative journey like never before? Welcome back to Axis Bank Splash! We are excited to invite you to dive into a world of imagination, where colors, words, and creativity come to life. But this year promises to be more exciting as entries showing your talents in drawing, craft, and literature are highly anticipated.

Themes

Choose the themes suiting yourself.

Group	Theme
Kids 7—10	Helping One Another
Kids 11—14	Making The World A Kinder Place

Prizes

The excitement doesn’t end with just showing your creativity. Winners in each age group have the chance to win fantastic prizes.

Cash Rewards: A generous reward awaits those whose creativity stands out.

Customized Campus Tours: Absorb yourself in the creative environment with a customized tour of noted art and design campuses.

Virtual Workshops from NID: Learn from the best! Winners will have the opportunity to attend virtual workshops conducted by the National Institute of Design (NID), a celebrated institution in design education.

Registration

Click on “Register”, add your phone number, and fill in the OTP (One-time Password). Fill in the “Submission Category” and attach your creative file. Need guidance? If yes, check out the sample submission here.

Don’t miss the chance to make a hit with your creativity. We are waiting for your masterpieces!

1. What is Axis Bank Splash?

A．An organization.

B．An art museum.

C．A tour.

D．A contest.

2. What will the winners get?

A．A check reward.	B．Admission to NID.
C．A visit to art colleges.	D．Access to design studios.

3. What is required for submission?

A．Completing the submission category.	B．Changing the password first.
C．Submitting the work by email.	D．Referring to the given sample.

2 . Vegetarians would rather not be forced to eat meat. Yet the reverse compulsion is hidden in the proposals for a new plant-based “planetary diet.” Nowhere is this more visible than in India.

Earlier this year, the EAT-Lancet Commission released its global report on nutrition and called for a global shift to a more plant-based diet and for “substantially reducing consumption of animal source foods.” In countries like India, that call could become a tool to aggravate an already tense political situation and stress already undernourished populations.

The EAT report assumes that “traditional diets” in countries like India include little red meat, which might be consumed only on special occasions or as minor ingredients in mixed dishes.

In India, however, there is a vast difference between what people would wish to consume and what they have to consume because of innumerable barriers around class, religion, culture, cost, geography, etc. Policymakers in India have traditionally pushed for a cereal-heavy “vegetarian diet” on a meat-eating population as a way of providing the cheapest sources of food.

Currently, under an aggressive Hindu nationalist government, Muslims, Christians, disadvantaged classes and indigenous communities are being compelled to give up their traditional foods.

None of these concerns seem to have been appreciated by the EAT-Lancet Commission’s representative, Brent Loken, who said “India has got such a great example” in sourcing protein from plants.

But how much of a model for the world is India’s vegetarianism? In the Global Hunger Index, the country ranks 102^nd out of 117. Data from the National Family Health Survey indicate that only 10 percent of infants of 6 to 23 months are adequately fed, which is why calls for a plant-based diet modeled on India risk offering another whip with which to beat already vulnerable communities in developing countries.

A diet directed at the affluent West fails to recognize that in low-income countries undernourished children are known to benefit from the consumption of milk and other animal source foods, improving cognitive functions, while reducing the prevalence of nutritional deficiencies as well as death.

EAT-Lancet claimed its intention was to “spark conversations” among all Indian stakeholders. Yet vocal critics of the food processing industry and food fortification strategies have been left out of the debate. But the most conspicuous (明显的) omission may well be the absence of India’s farmers.

1. What is more visible in India than anywhere else according to the passage?

A．People’s positive views on the proposals for a “planetary diet”.

B．People’s reluctance to be compelled to eat plant-based food.

C．People’s preferences for the kind of food they consume.

D．People’s unwillingness to give up their eating habits.

2. What would the EAT-Lancet Commission’s report do to many people in countries like India?

A．Radically change their dietary habits.	B．Keep them further away from politics.
C．Make them even more undernourished.	D．Substantially reduce their food choices.

3. What do we learn from the passage about food consumption in India?

A．People’s diet will not change due to the EAT-Lancet report.

B．Many people simply do not have access to foods they prefer.

C．There is a growing popularity of a cereal-heavy vegetarian diet.

D．Policymakers help remove the barriers to people’s choice of food.

4. What does the passage say about a plant-based diet modeled on India?

A．It may benefit populations whose traditional diet is meat-based.

B．It may be another blow to the economy in developing countries.

C．It may worsen the nourishment problem in low-income countries.

D．It may help narrow the gap between the rich and poor countries.

3 . It is not hard to learn more about a piece of famous painting, but identifying an unknown painting can be tricky. What do you need to do to get its specific information? Here are tips to identify a painting.

·Use the signature or monogram (字母组合图案) to dig online and find the image. Look in the corners of the painting to see if there is a signature or monogram.     1     If it’s harder to read, see if you can break down the letters and read them. This will let you narrow down the search and figure out who the artist is.

·Turn to an image recognition app to identify the painting immediately. If you’re struggling to remember an artist’s name or you want additional information on a particular painting, download an image recognition app designed specifically for art. There are several apps for both Android and iPhone that allow you to snap a photo of a painting to search through museum catalogues, university databases, and art history texts.     2    

·Ask an expert to identify the era, style, or painter of an image.     3     The reason is that an expert like a professor in the field of art will be able to offer insights about the period, style, and give you a better sense for where to look. He may even know who the artist is as soon as he takes a look at it.

·    4     Contemporary painters may paint people or objects from the past, but they can’t time travel. If there’s a train, company logo or some other time-specific component of it, this is a great way to set a baseline (基准) for your search.

In a word, the tips above are helpful.     5     In this way, you will effortlessly identify the unknown painting.

A．This is the easiest way to find a specific painting.

B．Locate its exact location when you appreciate the painting.

C．If the name is easy to read, search the artist’s name up online to find it.

D．Email or visit an art history professor to ask whether he can look at the image.

E．Take advantage of obvious clues in the subject matter to narrow down the date.

F．Thus, you’ll find it easier than you think to find the information you’re looking for.

G．If the professor mainly focuses on newer artists, a contemporary abstract piece is going to be easier to identify.

4 . We adopted Franny, our crazy and lovable Boston puppy, from a local rescue at the start summer in 2022. However, two weeks later she was nowhere to be found.

We often leave our yard doors open to allow Franny and our another dog, Olive, to visit enclosed backyard and lie on the deck (甲板). My heart sank severely when I failed to find any. No sooner had I sensed that than my wife and I charged to our car to comb for this missing dog swiftly. I was scanning the yards a few blocks over when my phone rang all of a sudden: A woman and her daughter had our dog. Franny had been jogging down the alley (小巷) behind their lawn when they grabbed her and called the number on her tag (标牌).

I located and blocked off the gap in the fence that Franny had squeezed through in case she went out secretly and got lost again. However, she was on the run again one month later.

This time she made it much farther — all the way to a high school, where a man found it eating lunch in the sun with some students. Franny was returned to us, her big brown eyes looking ashamed as the man handed her over to me.

These days, our backyard is secured like a maximum-security prison. We love this crazy dog more than ever, and Franny finally seems content to stay put now.

Mostly, I’m thankful for the kind folks who took the time to grab our adorable runaway and return her to us. All of them refused any recompense, regardless of how much I pushed. These minded our family that the world is filled with those who will go out of their way to lend others a hand.

1. Where did the woman first find the dog?

A．In the alley.	B．In the gap of the fence.
C．On her lawn.	D．On the deck of her backyard.

2. What did the author do to prevent his dog from getting lost for the second time?

A．He tied a tag to her.	B．He kept track of her.
C．He bridged the fence’s crack.	D．He rebuilt a firm new fence.

3. What does the underlined word “recompense” in the last paragraph mean?

A．Criticism.

B．Request.

C．Proposal.

D．Payment.

4. What is the author’s purpose to write the text?

A．To show off his puppy.

B．To extend his gratitude.

C．To call on us to care for the homeless animals.

D．To demonstrate the solutions to adopting dogs.

5 . Efforts to restore forests have often focused on trees, but a new study in the journal Philosophical Transactions finds that animals play a key role in the recovery of tree species by carrying a wide variety of seeds into previously deforested areas.

Sergio Estrada-Villegas, a professor at the Yale School of the Environment, led the study with Liza Comita, a professor of tropical forest ecology. The project examines a series of regenerating forests in central Panama spanning 20 to 100 years post-abandonment. “When we talk about forest restoration, people typically think about going out and digging holes and planting seedlings,” Comita says. “That’s actually not a very cost-effective or efficient way to restore natural forests. If you have a nearby preserved intact (完整的) forest, plus you have your animal seed dispersers around, you can get natural regeneration, which is a less costly and labor-intensive approach.”

The research team analyzed a unique, long-term data set from the forest in Panama, to compare what proportion of tree species in forests were spread by animals or other methods, like wind or gravity, and how that changes over time as the forest ages. It proves that in tropical forests, more than 80% of tree species can be spread by animals.

The researchers say the findings can serve as a road map for natural regeneration of forests that preserve biodiversity and capture and store carbon at a time when the UN Decade on Restoration is highlighting the need for land conservation, and the world is working to mitigate climate change stemming from fossil fuel emissions. Forests absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in biomass and soils. Tropical forests, in particular, play an important role in regulating global climate and supporting high plant and animal diversity, the researchers note.

Estrada-Villegas, says the study highlights how crucial animals are to healthy forests. “In these tropical environments, animals are very important to a speedy recovery of forests,” says Estrada-Villegas.

1. What does the study in the journal emphasize according to paragraph 1?

A．Soil conservation techniques.	B．Animal involvement in spreading seed.
C．Artificial methods of capturing carbon.	D．Planting a diverse range of tree species.

2. What does the third paragraph mainly talk about?

A．The author’s research methods and tools

B．The frequency of spreading seeds by animals.

C．The long-term data analysis by the research team.

D．The crucial role of animals in tropical forest recovery.

3. What does the underlined word “mitigate” mean in paragraph 4?

A．Reduce.

B．Increase.

C．Complicate.

D．Ignore.

4. What’s Estrada-Villegas’s attitude towards using natural regeneration methods?

A．Critical.

B．Indifferent.

C．Supportive.

D．Ambiguous.

6 . Tokyo restaurant Sushiya no Nohachi reportedly serves great sushi, but it is most famous for its gimmick—making the world’s smallest sushi with a single grain of rice.

Located in Asakusa, a slightly quieter part of Tokyo, Sushiya no Nohachi is the place to go if you want to enjoy the tiniest, most adorable sushi in the world. Each piece is made with only a grain of rice and a tiny slice of topping wrapped in the thinnest piece of nori(海苔). Every served piece is actually perfect, which hints at the amount of work and patience that Bes into making them. They are the work of Hironori Ikeno, the chef of Sushiya no Nohachi, who came up with the idea in 2002 when a client asked him how small he could make his sushi. He answered, “as small as a grain of rice”, and proceeded to demonstrate that he wasn’t kidding. Over the years, the restaurant has become internationally famous for making the world’s smallest sushi.

Despite its size, miniature sushi actually takes a bit longer to make than regular-sized me, because of the precision and concentration required to put the tiny ingredients together. That is part of the reason why the restaurant only prepares tiny sushi for customers a few times a week and no more than five times a day, although they do sometimes make exceptions for foreign visitors who travel to the restaurant just to experience the world’s smallest sushi.

“I had a client from Sweden who came just to see my tiny sushi and the moment she saw it, she literally cried with joy.” Hironori Ikeno said.

Interestingly, one cannot simply order the tiny sushi at the restaurant. It is served for f re upon request with a regular-sized sushi course. Considering the sushi served at this place is reportedly delicious, you should probably be more excited about that. Plus, it also justifies the gimmick that the restaurant is so famous for.

1. What does the underlined word “gimmick” in paragraph 1 probably refer to?

A．A class to teach cooking skills.

B．A trick to attract customers.

C．A plan to promote the sushi.

D．A dish to win over opponents.

2. What made Hironori Ikeno start to make the smallest sushi?

A．His pursuit for perfection.

B．The curiosity of a customer.

C．The requirement from his boss.

D．A bet he made with others.

3. Compared with the regular sushi, the world’s smallest sushi __________.

A．Take more time to make one

B．Unpopular among customers

C．costs more money to buy one

D．needs more expensive materials

4. What do Hironori Ikeno’s words about the Swedish customer show?

A．Diversity of the customers.

B．His lack of experience.

C．Special treatment to foreigners.

D．His sense of achievement.

7 . Writer Andrew Leland started losing his sight 20 years ago, when he was in high school, as a result of a progressive eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa (色素性视网膜炎). His first experience of loss of sight happened temporarily at night, in which he was confused that everyone else seemed to see in the dark so much better than he did. Over the years, his disease has progressed gradually. He’s now legally blind, although he still has a narrow field of vision, which allows him to see about 6% of what a fully sighted person sees.

Leland analogized his vision to the view you might get by looking through a toilet paper tube or a keyhole. He said, “Imagine having that toilet paper tube tied to your head and trying to walk down the street; there’s a whole bunch of things you don’t see but that you really ought to, like dogs.”

In his new book, The Country of the Blind, Leland writes about losing his vision and preparing for blindness, how his condition impacts his identity, how the world sees him and his marriage, and something valuable he has learned.

He said he was not going to try to tell people that having vision was not an unbelievably useful thing for a human being for many reasons. When talking about the experience of being alive and being conscious, he referred to James Joyce — Joyce believed that he was only losing one world among many, and that vision was only a tiny part of experiences when he was going blind.

He thought if you looked at the things that blind people were capable of imagining, like John Milton writing Paradise Lost as a blind person, there was this unbelievable richness in humans’ consciousness that vision had nothing to do with. Other realms (领域) such as the mental and emotional realms were all so rich that they could also help unfold things on earth before you.

1. What do we know about Leland?

A．He went totally blind in high school.

B．He experienced night blindness at first.

C．He was born with a narrow field of vision.

D．He was aware of his condition throughout.

2. Which is closest in meaning to “analogized” underlined in paragraph 2?

A．Connected.

B．Reduced.

C．Compared.

D．Exposed.

3. Why is James Joyce mentioned?

A．To help explain an opinion.

B．To stress the value of good vision.

C．To state his considerable influence.

D．To show the inconvenience of blindness.

4. What message is conveyed in the last paragraph?

A．Practice is the best teacher.

B．The blind have more vivid imagination.

C．Things are not set in concrete.

D．Vision is not the only window in the world.

8 . Pickleball (匹克球) is like a combination of ping-pong and tennis, and attracts many beginners.     1     Here are some pointers on avoiding injuries.

    2     Doing some types of exercise preparation beforehand makes a big difference to prevent injuries. After that, do some arm circles and shoulder rotations (旋转). Hold your arm s straight out from your sides and rotate them in small circles, and then gradually make bigger circles before rotating in the opposite direction. Finish with some leg swings. Stand next to a wall for support, and then swing one leg back and forth, then side to side.     3    

To build coordination (协调), about 15 minutes should be taken to do a few drills. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. and then quickly move side to side.     4     Cross one leg in front of the other. Then quickly move your back leg out from behind the front leg to return to the position you started in. Keep moving side-to-side, crossing and uncrossing your legs in this way.

Choose the right gear (装备), too, including a paddle that is appropriate for your strength level. You may need different shoes for outdoor and indoor play.     5     Protect yourself from the sun with sunglasses, possibly with a string or silk tape that helps keep them in place, and sunscreen of SPF 50 or higher.

A．Firstly, assess your fitness level.

B．Repeat those steps with your other leg.

C．It’s quickly becoming a sport of choice for adults.

D．Have extra socks on hand to help prevent foot injuries.

E．When getting started, remember to do warm-up exercises.

F．For the cross-step drill, put your feet shoulder-width apart.

G．With its wild popularity, pickleball-related injuries are growing.

9 . Tai Chi, a gentle martial art originating from China and involving slow movements with a focus on breathing and on what your body is doing in that moment, provides numerous benefits for both physical and mental well-being. Here are five convincing reasons to bring Tai Chi into your routine.

●It’s easy on the body.

Tai Chi offers gentle exercise suitable for individuals of all ages and fitness levels.     1    , as muscles remain relaxed without any stretching or straining. It’s an exercise that can be easily adapted for less able people, including those in wheelchairs.

●It could prevent falls.

A review of studies conducted in 2019 indicated that Tai Chi could lower the risk of falls among older people. Certainly, the emphasis is on balance, with sideways and backwards movements aiding in the strengthening of the muscles necessary for stability.     2    .

●It may boost brain power.   

    3    . Research shows that practising Tai Chi on a regular basis can enhance cognitive abilities in older adults, both those with and without memory issues. Given that it’s considered safe and suitable for the elderly, this is a definite win.

●    4    .

A reduction in stress and anxiety, along with an increase in confidence, is another mental health benefit of Tai Chi, as indicated by research findings, though further research is needed to comprehensively understand and confirm these effects.

●You can do it at home.

Attending classes can be beneficial for receiving structured instruction and connecting with like-minded individuals.     5     , providing an alternative for practicing at home. You’re bound to find one that matches your fitness level and exercise preferences. Practicing Tai Chi at home can also offer unparalleled convenience and flexibility.

A．It has the feel-good factor

B．It can improve heart health

C．The benefits aren’t just physical

D．But there are videos available online too

E．They also improve flexibility and spatial awareness

F．Its low-impact nature minimizes the risk of joint injury

G．You can share experiences with these people face-to-face

10 . Defeating Daniil Medvedev in New York on Sunday, Djokovic, one of the greatest tennis player, bagging 24 Grand Slam (大满贯) singles titles, equalized the record held by Australian Margaret Court, the same number of singles titles in the all-time count.

With the victory, Djokovic became the oldest US Open men’s singles champion in the Open Era. In total, he has 10 Australian Opens, seven Wimbledons, four US Opens and three Roland Garros titles, making him the only man to win all four majors at least three times. “When I realized that, I started to dream new dreams and set new goals. I never imagined that I would be here talking about 24 Slams,” he said afterwards.

Djokovic reached all finals in the Grand Slams in 2023, and the only loss was at Wimbledon, when Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, 20, brought home the champion after an intense battle lasting four hours and 43 minutes.

Djokovic, at 36, shows few signs of losing physical edge. He stays healthy, keeps exceptional skills and always desires to win more. Capturing his first Grand Slam in 2008, Djokovic bagged half of his 24 major titles after he turned 30.

“One of the biggest lessons I have learned probably mentally throughout my career is that even if you find a formula (方案) that works, it’s not a guarantee, and actually most likely it’s not going to work the next year, so I keep reinventing myself and always trying to find better ways to win,” said Djokovic.

For Djokovic, who always gets tough when the going gets tough, 24 is just a number that he can go beyond. “I’ll continue to prioritize Grand Slams as my most important tournaments and where I want to play the best tennis. That will stay the same in the next season, or I don’t know how many more seasons I have in my legs,” he added, “So, let’s see.”

1. What does the underlined word “equalized” in the first paragraph probably mean?

A．Set.

B．Broke.

C．Levelled.

D．Approached.

2. What can we know about Djokovic according to the passage?

A．He won 12 Grand Slams in his thirties.

B．He won all the finals in the Grand Slams in 2023.

C．He attached the same importance to all the matches.

D．He is the oldest men’s singles champion in the open era.

3. What seems the “secret” of Djokovic’s great achievement?

A．Losing physical edge.	B．Attending more Grand Slams.
C．Following a good formula.	D．Finding flexible and proper strategies.

4. Which of the following can best describe Djokovic?

A．Confident and emotional.	B．Ambitious and devoted.
C．Aggressive and stubborn.	D．Enthusiastic and generous.