4 . My husband and I just spent a week in Paris.    1    So the first thing we did was rent a fantastically expensive sixth-floor apartment the size of a cupboard. It was so tiny that we had to leave our suitcases in the hallway.

The place wasn’t entirely authentic, though. Unlike a normal Parisian apartment, the plumbing (水管) worked.     2    Our building even had a tiny lift with a female voice that said, “Ouverture des portes,” in perfect French. That is the only French phrase I mastered, and it’s a shame I don’t have much use for it.

Parisians are different from you and me. They never look lazy or untidy. As someone noted in this paper a couple of weeks ago, they eat great food and never gain weight.     3     French strawberries do not taste like cardboard. Instead, they explode in your mouth like little flavor bombs.

    4     On our first morning in Paris, I went around the corner to the food market to pick up some groceries. I bought a handful of perfectly ripe small strawberries and a little sweet melon. My husband and I agreed they were the best fruit we had ever eaten. But they cost $18!

In France, quality of life is much more important than efficiency.

You can tell this by cafés life. French cafés are always crowded.    5    When do these people work? The French take their 35-hour workweek seriously — so seriously that some labor unions recently struck a deal with a group of companies limiting the number of hours that independent contractors can be on call.

A．Not all the customers are tourists.

B．The quality of life in France is equally excellent.

C．There was a nice kitchen and a comfortable bed.

D．The amazing food is mainly consumed by local farmers.

E．That’s not the only reason the French eat less than we do.

F．Our aim was to see if we could live, in some way, like real Parisians.

G．The food is so delicious that you don’t need much of it to make you happy.

5 . Popularization has in some cases changed the original meaning of emotional (情感的) intelligence. Many people now misunderstand emotional intelligence as almost everything desirable in a person's makeup that cannot be measured by an IQ test, such as character, motivation, confidence, mental stability, optimism and “people skills.” Research has shown that emotional skills may contribute to some of these qualities, but most of them move far beyond skill-based emotional intelligence.

We prefer to describe emotional intelligence as a specific set of skills that can be used for either good or bad purposes. The ability to accurately understand how others are feeling may be used by a doctor to find how best to help her patients, while a cheater might use it to control potential victims. Being emotionally intelligent does not necessarily make one a moral person.

Although popular beliefs regarding emotional intelligence run far ahead of what research can reasonably support, the overall effects of the publicity have been more beneficial than harmful. The most positive aspect of this popularization is a new and much needed emphasis (重视) on emotion by employers, educators and others interested in promoting social well-being. The popularization of emotional intelligence has helped both the public and researchers re-evaluate the functionality of emotions and how they serve people adaptively in everyday life.

Although the continuing popular appeal of emotional intelligence is desirable, we hope that such attention will excite a greater interest in the scientific and scholarly study of emotion. It is our hope that in coming decades, advances in science will offer new perspectives (视角) from which to study how people manage their lives. Emotional intelligence, with its focus on both head and heart, may serve to point us in the right direction.

1. What is a common misunderstanding of emotional intelligence?

A．It can be measured by an IQ test.	B．It helps to exercise a person’s mind.
C．It includes a set of emotional skills.	D．It refers to a person’s positive qualities.

2. Why does the author mention “doctor” and “cheater” in paragraph 2?

A．To explain a rule.	B．To clarify a concept.
C．To present a fact.	D．To make a prediction.

3. What is the author’s attitude to the popularization of emotional intelligence?

A．Favorable.	B．Intolerant.
C．Doubtful.	D．Unclear.

4. What does the last paragraph mainly talk about concerning emotional intelligence?

A．Its appeal to the public.	B．Expectations for future studies.
C．Its practical application.	D．Scientists with new perspectives.

6 . By day, Robert Titterton is a lawyer. In his spare  time though he goes on stage beside pianist Maria Raspopova — not as a musician but as her page turner. “I’m not a trained musician, but I’ve learnt to read music so I can help Maria in her performance.”

Mr Titterton is chairman of the Omega Ensemble but has been the group’s official page turner for the past four years. His job is to sit beside   the pianist and turn the pages of the score so the musician doesn’t have to break the flow of sound by doing it themselves. He said he became just as nervous as those playing instruments on stage.

“A lot of skills are needed for the job. You have to make sure you don’t turn two pages at once and make sure you find the repeats in the music   when you have to go back to the right spot.” Mr Titterton explained.

Being a page turner requires plenty of practice. Some pieces of music can go for 40 minutes and require up to 50 page turns, including back turns for repeat passages. Silent onstage communication is key, and each pianist has their own style of “nodding” to indicate a page turn which they need to practise with their page turner.

But like all performances, there are moments when things go wrong. “I was turning the page to get ready for the next page, but the draft wind from the turn caused the spare pages to fall off the stand,” Mr Titterton said, “Luckily I was able to catch them and put them back.”

Most page turners are piano students or up-and-coming concert pianists, although Ms Raspopova has once asked her husband to   help her out on stage.

“My husband is the worst page turner,” she laughed. “He’s interested in the music, feeling every note, and I have to say: ‘Turn, turn!’ Robert is the best page turner I’ve had in my entire life.”

1. What should Titterton be able to do to be a page turner?

A．Read music.	B．Play the piano.
C．Sing songs.	D．Fix the instruments.

2. Which of the following best describes Titterton’s job on stage?

A．Boring.	B．Well-paid.
C．Demanding.	D．Dangerous.

3. What does Titterton need to practise?

A．Counting the pages.	B．Recognizing the “nodding”.
C．Catching falling objects.	D．Performing in his own style.

4. Why is Ms Raspopova’s husband “the worst page turner”?

A．He has very poor eyesight.	B．He ignores the audience.
C．He has no interest in music.	D．He forgets to do his job.

7 . A couple of days ago I unexpectedly lost my job. It wasn’t anything too important: I was just a carrier for the Scarborough Mirror, delivering newspapers every Wednesday and Friday. But it brought in a good amount of pocket money for a student like me.

During the first week of September I planned to stop my job, as I wanted to focus on my academics with school to start. I found a family on my street who were willing to take over and so I took their names anti numbers and turned them in to my district representative along with my resignation.

That was last week. This Tuesday came and I was supposed to get the newspapers to deliver on Wednesday. They didn’t come. I just assumed there probably wasn’t much to deliver so they would just give me everything tomorrow. It'd happened before so I wasn’t too worried. There was a seed of doubt, however, in my mind, that maybe the handover of this job was misunderstood. But I pushed that thought aside and just went on as usual.

Wednesday morning came and the papers weren’t lying on my driveway as they’d done for the past 9 months. My mom reminded me to call my district representative, who told me the route had indeed been turned over to the other family. She couldn’t have understood my message when I said I would work until September. So much for 2 more weeks of work!

In a way, I’m glad because I don’t have to worry about delivering newspaper in the burning sun. On the other hand, I wasn’t ready to give up my job so early, so the unexpected loss was a tiny blow to me.

Despite these negative feelings, I’m looking forward to the next summer when I’m getting promoted and my wage will rise from what I had with the job, which gave me good experience about hard work and chances to meet my neighbors.

1. Why did the author plan to quit the job?

A．He could barely put up with its hardship.	B．He hoped to shift his attention to studies.
C．He had earned enough to afford schooling.	D．He desired to turn it over to a needy family.

2. What does the underlined word “they” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．The family to replace me.	B．Messages of my dismissal.
C．The papers to be delivered.	D．The district representatives.

3. What do we know about the author?

A．He got fired on account of his own fault.	B．He didn’t have his potential appreciated.
C．He didn’t submit his resignation as required.	D．He had intended to stop the job in late September.

4. In which aspect did the author benefit from the summer job?

A．Learning to live with his personal imperfection.	B．Establishing a closer tie with his community.
C．Facilitating his organizational skills.	D．Breaking the habit of laziness.

8 . School is still out for the summer, but at Eastern Senior High School in Washington, D.C., students are hard at work outdoors. In a garden filled with flowers and beds bursting with vegetables and herbs, nearly a dozen teenagers are harvesting vegetables for the weekend’s farmers market.

Roshawn Little is going into her junior year at Eastern, and has been working in this garden for three years now. During the summer, Little gets paid to work Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a. m. until 2 p.m. with City Blossoms, a nonprofit that brings community gardens to schools in urban areas. She believes that working in the garden has taught her to try all sorts of new things, like eating different kinds of vegetables more often. And she’s taken those healthy behaviors home with her and her eating habits have encouraged her family to buy more fruits and vegetables.

City Blossoms is one of many groups across the country teaming up with local communities to build school gardens, like the one at Eastern. It works with schools to create learning gardens and trains teachers on how to use them to get students engaged and boost academics. These gardens are really outdoor classrooms. For example, the gardens can be used for math lessons, like calculating the area of a plant bed or learning the science of how plants grow.

For the students, the experience can be a nutritional eye-opener, which has totally changed their perceptions of where food comes from, and what it takes to produce food. Partner schools have also seen a 12 to 15 percent increase in the number of students passing standardized tests and 94 percent of teachers reported seeing increased engagement from their students, according to an independent evaluation conducted by PEER Associates.

1. What does Roshawn Little think of the summer outdoor activity?

A．It is a good way to earn pocket money.

B．It has improved her family relationship.

C．It contributes to her healthy eating habit.

D．It is helpful to her academic performance.

2. What is the purpose of the school gardens?

A．To provide a creative way of learning.

B．To-promote teachers1 teaching skills.

C．To get students interested in science.

D．To invite students to care for plants.

3. What does the last paragraph focus on about the project of City Blossoms?

A．Its strategies.

B．Its outcomes.

C．Its operations.

D．Its participants.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．City Blossoms: Team up with Local Community Teachers

B．Happy Holiday, Sweet memory: How Kids Enjoy the Harvest

C．Outdoor Classrooms: Get out for the Weekend’s Farmers Market

D．Healthy Eaters, Strong Minds: What School Gardens Teach Kids

9 . We all do little things to boost the way we feel and think throughout the day. Something as simple as taking a walk or eating a piece of chocolate can brighten your mood almost instantly, thanks to certain chemical reactions that occur in the brain.     1    If you're going through something complex, you need a more permanent practice. That's where writing comes in.

As Mental Health Awareness Month begins,it's worth learning about the ways that you can use writing to support your mental well-being.    2    

Use writing for mindfulness. Mindfulness is a tried-and-true technique for improving mental wellness,but can writing have the same effect?     3     By focusing on a particular moment and getting it all out there on the page, you can free yourself from any of the other concerns that are crowding your mind. This way, you can use writing as an approach to mindfulness and as a way of relieving stress.

Another benefit to writing is its ability to clear your mind of worries, negative thoughts, or sources of pain.     4     Fortunately, writing can speed up the process of restoring mental clarity.

    5    People were more likely to talk to others about a painful event after writing about it privately,which powerfully suggests that writing can indirectly lead to reaching out for support, which can mean even greater healing and relief.

Through the process of populating a blank page with letters and words, writing can be a useful mental health tool that both records your experiences and allows you to work through them.

A．Become more self-aware.

B．These pleasures are just temporary, however.

C．There's real power behind the pen—here's why.

D．Writing is also the best method of self-care treatment.

E．Clearing your brain of negative thoughts can be really tough work.

F．Actually,the act of writing for a mere 20 minutes each day can work.

G．This is because writing tends to stimulate questions about your life and direction-

10 . The role of media historically has been central to the making of society and the construction of identity. It is vital in the search for information, stories and art to feed the human spirit and imagination to overcome the challenges ahead.

In an age of false news and misinformation, good quality content is more valuable than ever. History provides some context. In the UK the development of the liberal(自由的)media prior to the 1950s was characterized by a clear hierarchy(等级)when it came to the control of information. This model eventually gave way to a popular, audience-driven mass media in the 1980s, when the idea of the media as a source of popular pleasure took root.

Today, as more content is distributed via social platforms and the division between content creators and content consumers is unclear, technology companies — or “super competitors” — are taking greater responsibility for guaranteeing the quality and integrity of information. Perhaps as a reaction to this and with an odd nod to pre-1950s paternalism(家长式管理), there is a rising call for governments and regulators to take a more active role in the production and spreading of news to ensure equitable access to information.

Access to or quality of content is better than ever. But while destination media compete to become leaders in their specific areas, the tech giants are working out how to use media to dominate time, spend and data. What will be the impact of the strategies of the tech giants on the overall media landscape? The poet and novelist, Ben Okri, writes, “It may well be that it is not only science that saves us. We may also be saved by laughter, by the optimism of being able to see beyond these times, with stories, with community, with songs.”

In the absence of real contact, interaction and the consumption of experience is now mostly mediated(调解). The value and integrity of media has never been more relevant and significant.

1. What do the underlined words “some context” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．The development of the liberal media.

B．The model of the British clear hierarchy.

C．The changing of factors determining media content.

D．The idea of the media as a source of popular pleasure.

2. What is the major problem media today are facing?

A．Media are losing their roles in shaping society.

B．It’s hard to divide content creators and consumers.

C．Media are misused to dominate time, spend and data.

D．The quality and integrity of information can’t be available.

3. What does Ben Okri intend to tell us?

A．Our life lacks passion.	B．People need proper media content.
C．Science can by all means save us.	D．Media cannot change the real life.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．The Core of Media—Value and Integrity

B．The Transformation of Media Content

C．The Impact of Tech Giants on Media

D．The Ups and Downs of Media