1 . Everyone, at one time or another, has experienced some challenges in friendships and relationships with family members. We might find ourselves frustrated(懊恼的) or angry with other people, or even find that we argue with them. The reality is that nobody is perfect and we need to realise that we should find ways to live happier and less stressful lives. Here are some tips on how to make relationships happier and healthier.
Respect other people and accept themThis is the most important point. If we want to show someone we love them, we need to first respect who they are and show them we accept them for who they are: Everyone is unique with different experiences and lives. By always remembering this, we will be able to develop and maintain strong relationships.
Be interested in others’ interestsWe might have friends who are crazy about sports, while we prefer reading. Or perhaps a parent’s hobby seems boring to us but it is something they love. If we want to keep our relationships strong and positive, we should at least take time to listen to them and talk about what matters to them. By doing this, we show them that we care about them and their interests
Apologise when you make a mistakeThis is the hardest thing for most of us to do, yet a simple “I’m sorry” can undo a lot of tension. By being humble when you make a mistake, you can fix any problem you may have caused and also show that you are a mature person
Stay connected through communicationGood communication is a fundamental part of a healthy relationship. When you experience a positive emotional connection with your partner, you feel safe and happy. When people stop communicating well, they stop relating well, and times of change or stress can really bring out the disconnect. It may sound simplistic, but as long as you are communicating, you can usually work through whatever problems you’re facing.
So, try and follow the advice and you will find that you have happier and stronger relationships with your friends and loved ones
1. What can be concluded from Paragraph 2?| A．We need to realise that others are often wrong in our dealings with them. |
| B．Our friends and loved ones can cause us stress by being wrong. |
| C．Everyone can be right and wrong at times and we need to remember that. |
| D．We should accept the people we love and respect them. |
| A．be positive and confident |
| B．discuss our partner’s concerns |
| C．put our friends’ interests first |
| D．be familiar with our parents’ hobbies |
| A．Ignore our friends’ preferences. |
| B．Never apologize for our mistakes. |
| C．Check in with our friends regularly. |
| D．No need to be mature. |
| A．Being mature and admitting our mistakes when we make them. |
| B．Respecting the fact that others may not appreciate our hobbies and interests. |
| C．Showing our love for others when they hurt us or disrespect us. |
| D．Accepting that our friends will eventually grow apart from us. |
| A．To offer some tips on making healthier relationships |
| B．To remind us about the challenges in friendships and relationships. |
| C．To help us maintain relationships with family members. |
| D．To share ways to live happier and less stressful lives. |
When my husband Ash told me he was planning to turn down some perfectly good job offers and start his own business, I was surprised. I advised against it. But Ash’s mother, who had run her own business, said: “Why not give it a go?”
My mother-in-law was right. Ash started Present Model Management. He loves it: the pressure (压力) he has now is lower. Plus, he can take the kids to school if he wants.
Watching him succeed inspired me to take my own leap. After 12 years of working as a childminder, I knew that something had to change. I loved the kids, but I’d been singing “Twinkle Twinkle” for 12 years. I only became a childminder in order to be home with my own children. Now that they are more independent, I have time to try something more exciting.
I set up @family_feasts to record what our family eats: healthy, tasty meals on a sensible budget (开支). From there, I started a WordPress blog to hold the recipes (食谱). When I started sharing weekly meal plans, the feedback (反响) was amazing. That’s what people want: inspiration.
At first I wanted to teach workshops for parents. To prove that I could teach, I started a cooking class for 8-10-year-old children at my daughter’s primary school.
It sold out overnight. A year later, I have a long waiting list. It’s so meaningful to watch the kids learn: they’ve burnt and cut themselves, but they’re really starting to understand flavors.
The next thing that took off was children’s cookery birthday parties. People have booked those through word of mouth. From the strength of my blog, I’ve published recipes with the BBC and Co-op Food Magazine. My final dream is to write a family cookbook one day.
I’m so glad that Ash and I took this leap. We plan our work around the kids. We pay ourselves less than before, but we also spend more sensibly. I love the freedom of our life, the time we have together, and the excitement of building a community of kids who will be able to feed themselves.
1. What was Ash’s mother’s attitude towards his plan? (no more than 5 words)2. Why did the author want to change her job as a childminder? (no more than 10 words)
3. What was the author’s third business? (no more than 15 words)
4. What does the underlined words probably mean in the last but one paragraph? (1 word)
5. What benefits has the author gained from setting up her own business? Please explain. (no more than 20 words)
3 . Westsider Rare & Used Books bookstore is a big name on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. It’s the type of old shop where you can wander narrow walkways for hours while looking through towering shelves stuffed with books ranging from cheap, used copies to rare collections. The store has even been used as a setting in several films.
In January, a neighborhood resident Bobby Panza, saw the Westsider was having a going-out-of-business sale. He also read a story on a local blog in which store owner Dorian Thornley made an “off the cuff (即兴的)” remark that the store could stay open if it could raise $50,000 — “don’t see that happening, though,” Thornley mentioned at the time.
Panza, who had never formally met Thornley but had shopped at the store for a decade, started a GoFundMe campaign. In just four days, 850 people donated from $5 to thousands of dollars each and raised $54,000.
With the money, Thornley updated (更新) the store’s selection of used and rare books and reorganized the interior (内部) of the bookstore. Thornley also intended to buy advertising for his store, but the publicity from the GoFundMe campaign has helped raise awareness and helped boost (提高) Westsider’s sales by nearly 25%. Thornley has saved some of the money to ensure Westsider won’t fall behind on its rent again.
Thornley found out about the crowdfunding effort the day after it started when a customer asked whether Thornley was serious about keeping the store open for good if $50,000 could be raised. When he told her he was serious, the customer — a local writer named Sally Klingenstein Martell — donated $10,000 to get the effort off the ground. Thornley calls Martell’s significant donation “the motivator for everyone else donating”.
Whether the money will be enough to permanently save the business remains to be seen. But now that Westsider has avoided the worst, Thornley is trying to make that happen.
1. What do we know about Westsider Rare & Used Books?| A．It has sponsored several old shops. |
| B．It is hardly known by local residents. |
| C．It is decorated to look like a cinema. |
| D．It sells both cheap books and rare collections. |
| A．Hopeless. | B．Ashamed. | C．Confident. | D．Enthusiastic. |
| A．A regular customer successfully organized the donation campaign. |
| B．Panza has been friends with the store owner for ten years. |
| C．Thornley wanted to transfer the possession of the bookstore at first. |
| D．The donation can make Westsider survive permanently. |
| A．He paid for his daily expenses. |
| B．He bought advertising for his store. |
| C．He rented a new place to sell books. |
| D．He improved customers’ shopping experience. |
| A．It was extraordinarily generous. |
| B．It was done before the crowdfunding effort. |
| C．It excited other people’s donations. |
| D．It raised Thornley’s hope to open a branch store. |
4 . BBC Young Reporter Competition
If you are 11-18 years old, tell us about a story you think the BBC should be reporting.
What is the BBC Young Reporter Competition?
It is a yearly opportunity for 11- to 18-year-olds across the UK to submit (提交) an original story idea to the BBC. BBC Young Reporter Competition winners will have the chance to tell their story on TV, radio, online or on social media with the help of BBC journalists, producers and program makers. We are not looking for finished reports but entries should just be an outline of a story idea. This can be submitted as a written description or videos.
Entries will be judged in two age categories: 11-15 and 16-18. There is one entry category: Me and My World. Entries should be an original and true story about your life, or the world you live in. It could be about your own identity or experience that impacts you or your community. You need to show how your report on this story can reflect the wider situation. Entries will only be considered when submitted via the online mechanism (机制). No other method of entry is permitted (this includes email or post).
Judging process
Stories will be judged on editorial merit (优点) — that means the strength of the story, originality, and the personal story or background related to it. Judges will be looking for 40 winning stories from across the UK. Judges include editors from across the BBC as well as presenters and reporters. Stories will not be broadcast until all the judging is completed and the winners are announced in June.
Contact us
If you have any questions about the BBC Young Reporter Competition, please contact a member of the team by emailing youngreportercompetition@bbc.co.uk.
1. What do we know about the competition?| A．It is hosted every two years. |
| B．It is for professional journalists. |
| C．It includes three age categories. |
| D．It invites participants to present story ideas. |
| A．your life and your experience | B．the secret of your parents’ success |
| C．protecting the environment | D．public hygiene and health |
| A．By posting their works to the BBC. |
| B．By following the online mechanism. |
| C．By contacting a member of the competition team. |
| D．By emailing youngreportercompetition@bbc.co.uk. |
| A．They will finish all the judging in July. |
| B．They will be selected from school teachers. |
| C．They will select 40 winning stories for broadcasting. |
| D．They will judge participants based on their reporting skills. |
| A．fax | B．email |
| C．visiting their official website | D．leaving a message through calling |
Alice Moore is a teenager entrepreneur (创业者), who in May 2015 set up her business AilieCandy. By the time she was 13, her company was worth millions of dollars with the invention of a super-sweet treat that could save kids’ teeth, instead of destroying them.
It all began when Moore visited a bank with her dad. On the outing, she was offered a candy bar. However, her dad reminded her that sugary treats were bad for her teeth. But Moore was sick of missing out on candies. So she desired to get round the warning, “Why can’t I make a healthy candy that’s good for my teeth so that my parents can’t say no to it?” With that in mind, Moore asked her dad if she could start her own candy company. He recommended that she do some research and talk to dentists about what a healthier candy would contain.
With her dad’s permission, she spent the next two years researching online and conducting trials to get a recipe that was both tasty and tooth-friendly. She also approached dentists to learn more about teeth cleaning. Consequently, she succeeded in making a kind of candy only using natural sweeteners, which can reduce oral bacteria.
Moore then used her savings to get her business off the ground. Afterwards, she and her father secured their first business meeting with a supermarket owner, who finally agreed to sell Moore’s product — CanCandy.
As CanCandy’s success grows, so does Moore’s credibility as a young entrepreneur. Moore is enthusiastic about the candy she created, and she’s also positive about what the future might bring. She hopes that every kid can have a clean mouth and a broad smile.
Meanwhile, with her parents’ help, Moore is generally able to live a normal teenage life. Although she founded her company early on in life, she wasn’t driven primarily by profit. Moore wants to use her unique talent to help others find their smiles. She donates 10% of AilicCandy’s profits to Big Smiles. With her talent and determination, it appears that the sky could be the limit for Alice Moore.
1. How did Moore react to her dad’s warning? (No more than 10 words)2. What is special about CanCandy? (No more than 10 words)
3. What does Moore expect from her business? (No more than 10 words)
4. How do you understand the underlined part in the last paragraph? (no more than 5 words)
5. How does Moore’s story inspire you to achieve success? Put it in your own words. (No more than 20 words)
6 . Compared to most people with disabilities, Zhao Hongcheng is lucky.
Born in 1990, a wheelchair has been part of Zhao’s life since she was 1 year old due to the aftereffects of poliomyelitis(小儿麻痹症).However, it did not stop her from completing her college and graduate studies before becoming a white-collar worker in Shanghai. And now, as a video content creator who has over 84, 000 followers on the video-sharing platform Bilibili, Zhao wants to be a bridge between the disabled and the rest of society.
First attempt
“I made my first video in 2019,” Zhao says, adding that it was also the years he moved to Shanghai. “My original purpose was to find an emotional outlet. I always encountered inconvenience caused by my wheelchair when going out, which made me feel sad. However, I barely had any disabled friends, so I had no one to talk to. I felt quite lonely,” Zhao explains. In 2019, the rising popularity of short videos inspired Zhao.
Under the username Da Chengzi Hao Meimei on Bilibili, her first vlog about a trip to Guangzhou with friends was viewed more than 2, 000 times on the first day, which surprised Zhao. “This made me feel that there were many things worth sharing in my life, and it also gave me a sense of mission,” she explains. That first video has since been viewed over 48, 000times and her fourth video, displaying how she got to work in a wheelchair, made her even more popular.
Rising ambition
After her fourth video went viral, she continued to make short videos and, in 2021.became a full-time content creator on Bilibili. In her video about an accessibility bus tour in Shanghai, she put forward a piece of advice for such facilities. Fortunately, her proposal was adopted by the city and is currently being optimized. Zhao’s other videos, including a list of praise and criticism for various daily travel experiences in Shanghai, have also received wide attention.
“One of the great things about being a content creator is that I feel like I have the initiative of discourse-that is, (talking about)the real difficulties and pains that a disabled person faces,” Zhao says.
Long way to go
Zhao says education and employment are the two major hurdles for the disabled group around her. She explains that she has heard many stories about disabled people dropping out of school and that some students with good grades were rejected by their chosen universities or were persuaded to change majors. Beyond that, some people with minor disabilities, which may not affect their daily life at all, were being dismissed by companies, due to their physical examination reports reflecting their issue.
Zhao says she has developed a new perspective for her videos. “I hope to be a bridge between the wider society and the disabled. I want people to be able to truly experience the life of the disabled and to develop a greater understanding of the group,” she says.
Now Bilibili star uses her platform to promote greater understanding of the lives and needs of disabled people.
1. Why does the author say Zhao Hongcheng is lucky?| A．Because she recovered from her illness under the help of her doctor. |
| B．Because she won great acclaim and support from the disabled. |
| C．Because she successfully completed her college education and obtained a job. |
| D．Because her family and friends loved her very much when she was a child. |
| A．To find a way to express her emotion. | B．To fulfill her mission to assist the disabled. |
| C．To arrest people’s attention. | D．To obtain sympathy from society. |
| A．Putting forward proposal to offer financial support for the disabled. |
| B．Helping the disabled to live optimistically on their own. |
| C．Sharing the her stories from the perspective of a disabled person. |
| D．Offering advice to the disabled to tackle their problems in their daily life. |
| A．Lack of education and job opportunities. |
| B．In different attitude and unfair treatment from family. |
| C．Physical and mental sufferings caused by disabilities. |
| D．External criticism and internal loneliness. |
| A．A disabled person. | B．A positive influencer. |
| C．A video content creator. | D．A storyteller. |
7 . “Robot, stand up” — Oscar Constanza, 16, gives the order, and slowly but surely a large frame (支架) lifts him up and he starts walking. Fixed to his shoulders, chest, waist, knees and feet, the exoskeleton (外骨骼) allows Oscar — who has a genetic neurological condition that means he was unable to move — to walk across the room and turn around.
“Before, I needed someone to help me walk ... this makes me feel independent,” said Oscar, as his father Jean-Louis Constanza, one of the co-founders of the company that makes the exoskeleton, looked on.
“One day Oscar said to me: ‘Dad, you’re a robotic engineer. Why don’t you make a robot that would allow us to walk?’” his father said in Paris. “Ten years from now, there will be no, or far fewer, wheelchairs,” he said.
Other companies across the world are also making exoskeletons, competing to make them as light and usable as possible. Some are focused on helping disabled people walk, others on applications, including making standing less tiring for factory workers. Wandercraft’s exoskeleton, an outer frame that supports but also simulates (模仿) body movement, has been sold to many hospitals in France, Luxembourg and the United States, for about 150,000 euros a piece. It cannot yet be bought by private individuals for everyday use — that is the next stage the company is working on. A personal skeleton would need to be much lighter, Wandercraft engineers said.
Just outside Paris, 33-year-old Kevin Piette, who lost the ability to walk in a bike accident 10 years ago, tries one on, walking around his apartment, remote controller (遥控器) in hand. “In the end, it’s quite similar: instead of having the information going from the brain to the legs, it goes from the remote controller to the legs,” he said, before making his dinner and walking with it from the kitchen to the living room.
1. What difficulty did Oscar face?| A．He didn’t get along well with his father. | B．He didn’t get the right treatment. |
| C．He failed to invent a robot. | D．He lost his ability to walk. |
| A．Support his dream of being an engineer. | B．Help him get away from the wheelchair. |
| C．Stop limiting his freedom. | D．Set up a robot company. |
| A．Other companies. | B．Exoskeletons. |
| C．Disabled people. | D．Factory workers. |
| A．They are affordable for most disabled people. | B．They will have a big market. |
| C．They have reached the common family. | D．They are not as useful as expected. |
| A．It is difficult to control. | B．It is worse than real legs. |
| C．It can satisfy his daily needs. | D．It helps him follow his dreams. |
8 . It all started with a tweet from a social media influencer Jérôme Jarre on March 15 after he was on a call with a volunteer in Somalia who had just seen a 6-year-old girl die after walking 90 miles with her mother in search of water. In Somalia alone, 6.2 million people are in need of help.
In his video, Jarre says that everyone is on social media from food and water companies to airlines. What if they could find an airline willing to send food and water to Somalia?
With Turkish Airlines being the only airline that flies to Somalia, he started a GoFundMe campaign (活动) called “Love Army for Somalia” and challenged viewers to post on social media #TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia to get them to set aside one of their flights to Somalia for food.
The campaign took off, and other social media influencers joined the movement to help spread the word. Within days, many famous people joined the cause. Turkish Airlines listened and came back with an answer, saying they would keep donating (捐赠) a plane to be filled with food until the end of the famine (饥荒). This campaign received $1 million within 24 hours with the average (平均的) donation being around $28 — the highest donation of $50,000 came from Alex and Ani, a jewelry company.
The goal was to reach $1 million in 10 days and the amount (数量) of money raised in such a short time by so many people surprised Jarre. However, they don’t want this to be a one-off campaign, and to keep the campaign going they’ve come up with another hashtag, #NominatedForSomalia, and ask each donor to encourage three friends to donate through social media.
Jérôme Jarre is in Somalia right now and sharing wonderful images that will put a smile on your face and make sure help is reaching the right people.
1. What happened to the 6-year-old girl?| A．She lost her way. | B．She lost her life. |
| C．She failed to be a volunteer. | D．She failed to stay close to her mother. |
| A．To set up an organization. | B．To give up using social media. |
| C．To raise money from the public. | D．To apply for a job in an airline. |
| A．Paragraph 2. | B．Paragraph 3. | C．Paragraph 4. | D．Paragraph 5. |
| A．It was a great success. | B．It drew little attention. |
| C．It fell short of its goal. | D．It was questioned by viewers. |
| A．Hopeful people in bad situations |
| B．Huge social influence of famous people |
| C．The big change social media makes in our life |
| D．A powerful story on using social media for good |
9 . My name is Jaimic Eckert and I’ve been into volunteer work since childhood. As a girl, I volunteered at animal shelters, played music at nursing homes, and helped with community cleanup after disasters. In college, I volunteered heavily at a large yearly conference for young adults, which is where I fell in love with my husband-to-be, who was on my team of co-volunteers. Since getting married in 2013, we’ve been living in Beirut, Lebanon. I actually have an online coaching business but I’ve had many opportunities to volunteer with projects for Syrian refugees (难民) and youth education.
I enjoy volunteering because most of the time, I do feel that I’m making a difference. Once I was leading out a project that provided food boxes to Syrian refugee families. When it was nearing Ramadan, the biggest holiday season in Islam, I literally stuffed the food package with extra treats...dates, nuts, olive oil and sweets. We took the package unannounced and ended up arriving just as the Syrian family was sitting down on their floor for breakfast. They had nothing more than a few pieces of bread and a pot of tea. The mother was in tears as she received us. I’ll never forget their gratitude.
Another time, back when I was in college in the US, a group of friends and I volunteered to drive to a distant church that was way out in the suburb and had only a few elderly members. The building was in disrepair and the churchyard needed attention. We stayed the weekend in the home of one of these old ladies so we could clean and repair the church. I’ll never forget how new life sparkled in her eyes. She couldn’t repair broken doors or pull weeds, but her love for us was unmatched. It breaks my heart to remember this old lady’s broad smile for such small efforts that we made. Sometimes, volunteer work is fulfilling not because of the actual job you get done, but because of how your presence impacts the people around you.
Volunteering makes me a better person because it gets me outside of myself. It puts my focus on others. It makes me grateful for what I have.
1. In writing Paragraph 1, the author aims to .| A．provide an explanation |
| B．introduce a topic |
| C．reach a conclusion |
| D．propose a definition |
| A．We brought food to Syrian families. |
| B．Ramadan is the most important holiday season in Islam. |
| C．Volunteering affects people in some way. |
| D．Volunteering reminds Eckert of people’s gratitude. |
| A．Because finally someone came to comfort them in the church. |
| B．Because she could clean and repair the church with us. |
| C．Because of our presence and help. |
| D．Because we made efforts to entertain her. |
| A．Critical. | B．Objective. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Positive. |
| A．What volunteering means to me. |
| B．My volunteering dream. |
| C．My efforts as a volunteer. |
| D．Volunteering for Syrian refugees. |
10 . From talking robots and video phones to rovers (探测器) on Mars, technology has become so advanced that the previously impossible seems to occur on a daily basis. And yet—we still have no cure for the common cold.
Why can’t we stop the common cold? According to Peter Barlow, a scientist at Edinburgh Napier University in the UK, the main challenge lies in the many different types of cold viruses that are produced by the rhinoviruses (鼻病毒), Scientific American reported. There are at least 160 types. They mutate so easily that they quickly become resistant to drugs, or learn to hide from our immune systems. In other words, a single cure isn’t likely to work on every type of cold.
However, researchers from Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco, have found a possible answer. They discovered a protein that the viruses need. Without it, they can’t spread inside your body.
To identify the gene which produces the specific protein needed by the viruses, researchers used a gene-editing technique to test all genes in the human genome (基因组) one by one for thousands of cell.
These modified cells were then exposed to a range of enteroviruses (肠道病毒), including the rhinoviruses which cause the common cold. All the viruses were unable to replicate inside cells without a gene that produces a specific protein, called methyltransferase (甲基转移酶) SETD3. Then, they tested genetically modified mice, which were completely unable to produce the protein. The mice were able to live healthy, normal lives without the protein. “Lacking that gene protected the mice completely from viral infection,” associate professor Jan Carette, from Stanford, told the BBC.” These mice would always die, but they survived and we saw a very strong reduction in viral replication and very strong protection. “Carette said the plan is to find a drug which can temporarily suppress the protein, instead of producing genetically modified humans.
“We have identified a fantastic target that all enteroviruses and rhinoviruses require and depend on. Take that away and the virus really has no chance,” said Carette. “This is a really good first step—the second step is to have a chemical that mimics this genetic deletion,” he added.
1. What does the underlined word ”mutate” mean in English?| A．To change a new form. |
| B．To identify a new gene. |
| C．To check a modified cell. |
| D．To cure a viral infection. |
| A．Why it is so hard to cure the common cold. |
| B．The possible link between rhinoviruses and the common cold. |
| C．A possible way to stop viral infections that cause the common cold. |
| D．The functions of a protein needed by viruses. |
| A．It helps the viruses replicate inside our bodies. |
| B．It allows the viruses to change easily. |
| C．It helps the viruses become resistant to drugs. |
| D．It increases the spread of the viruses. |
| A．Genetically modified mice died because they lacked the protein. |
| B．The modified cells seemed to protect the mice against viral infections. |
| C．More methyltransferase SETD3 was produced after the cells were modified. |
| D．The gene-editing technique was more effective against enteroviruses than rhinoviruses. |
| A．Conduct experiments on genetically modified humans. |
| B．Identify a drug that can help reduce the protein. |
| C．Apply this gene-editing technique to control other viruses. |
| D．Find a chemical that can cure all enteroviruses and rhinoviruses. |
