1 . The Benefits of Digital Art

Digital art is the process of creating artwork using computers and software.     1     Lets have a look.

Digital art is often quicker to finish.

Take oil paintings for example. If you create one in the traditional way, you will need all kinds of tools like paper, water, paints, etc.     2     But with my computer and the right software, I can start a digital oil painting in less than 10 seconds.

    3    

A computer with the right apps and software might cost you $1, 000, but physical art is pretty expensive. Pencils, paper, paints, paintbrushes and all of the other things you need soon get expensive. And they all need replacing — things can easily reach that $1, 000 and beyond.

Digital art avoids using much space of your room.

Drawings and paintings can take up lots of physical space. I have many physical drawings which are stored in boxes in my room. Some of the drawings took me weeks to complete.     4     It sounds crazy to say this but they just kept building up. Joyfully, digital art will not take up much space of the room.

Digital art makes it easy to deal with mistakes.

Digital art gives you the wonderful ability to correct your mistakes. Any time you make a mistake, you can step back from it right away with a push of a button. As for traditional art, it’s not easy to correct a mistake. For example, when your pen accidentally falls on your painting, you may not be able to deal with it.     5    

A．Digital art helps save money.

B．These tools can be very important.

C．It takes time to prepare all of these.

D．And your painting will be destroyed.

E．Digital art will never be a paper killer.

F．But they never see the light of day now.

G．Compared with traditional art, digital art has some advantages.

2 . “Your mind is a garden; your thoughts are the seeds. The harvest can either be flowers or weeds,” William Wordsworth wrote. In the above quote, William suggests that the process of gardening mirrors human life. Depending on what we “plant” in our lives, we bloom (生长茂盛) or don’t. Before you start to work in your garden, it’s necessary to have a vision for it. Thinking of what you want to grow in your garden and how to lay it out is a good first step in making your vision a fruitful reality. In life, you should consider what you want to create and what you want to achieve, because your mind-garden is like the white paper and the possibilities are endless.

Regardless of what you choose to plant, poor soil isn’t suitable for growth. This is why gardeners take the time and energy to upgrade the soil before planting. So, creating the right soil is important to the realization of your goals and dreams. Fortunately, there are countless ways to make your personal bedrock better. Getting an education is one of the most effective ways, which can help you enrich your life’s soil.

You don’t have to be an enthusiastic gardener to understand the meaning of “You reap(收获) what you sow.” When a gardener wants tomatoes, they just need to plant tomato seeds. It’s a very clear act that produces an expected result. Each of us has the power to decide which “life seeds” to plant. For example, if you plant ill seeds, it's likely that you’ll experience pain in return. Contrarily, if you plant seeds of kindness and understanding, your life will bloom with happiness and love.

A gardener’s truly arduous work begins after the seeds are in the ground because a garden requires a lot of care and attention. Regular watering and weeding are required for a healthy garden. So, to ensure your dreams take root, you should be devoted, aware, and present. After countless hours and energy spent, the crops have grown well and are finally ready to be harvested.

1. What is important before gardeners break ground in their gardens?

A．Receiving some training in planting.

B．Drawing up a good plan for their gardens.

C．Having the courage to accept the worst outcome.

D．Doing research on the common local garden plants.

2. What is compared to getting education by the author?

A．Improving the condition of the soil.	B．Growing your most favorable plants.
C．Taking care of the plants in your garden.	D．Selecting proper goals in gardening work.

3. What does the author want to express in Paragraph 3?

A．Your quality of life depends on your positive action.

B．Your experience can help you understand plants better.

C．Your choice of soil is an important part in your gardening.

D．Your knowledge of planting will make you a successful gardener.

4. What does the underlined word “arduous” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Beneficial

B．Creative

C．Boring.

D．Tough

3 . As people get older, the types and numbers of friends they have tend to change. As young adults, humans have large groups of friends. With age, they often prefer to spend their time with just a few close, positive individuals. Researchers long believed that this aging attraction toward meaningful relationships was unique to humans, but a new study finds that chimps (大猩猩) also have similar tendencies.

Rosati and her colleagues used 78,000 hours of observations made over 20 years from the Kibale Chimpanzee Project in Uganda. The data looked at the social interactions of 21 male chimps between 15 and 58 years old. The researchers only studied male chimps because they show stronger social bonds and have more social interactions than female chimps.

Researchers found that wild chimpanzees share a similar pattern of social aging with humans. Rosati says, “They prefer strong, mutual social bonds and interact with others in more positive ways as they get older.” The older chimpanzees preferred spending more time with chimps that they had become friends with over the years. They would sit close to these long-time companions and groom (梳毛) each other. By contrast, younger chimps had more one-sided relationships where they would groom a friend, but the action wasn’t returned.

Older male chimps were also more likely to spend more time alone. The researchers said that they showed a shift from negative interactions to more positive ones, preferring to spend their later years in nonconfrontational (非对抗性的), positive relationships. Researchers call the preference a “positivity bias”.

Researchers theorize that chimps, like humans, are able to change their social focus as they age. “We propose that this aging pattern may be the result of shared changes in our abilities to regulate our emotions with age,” Rosati says. “This shared pattern between chimpanzees and humans could represent an adaptive response where older adults focus on important social relationships that provide benefits and avoid interactions that have negative consequences as they lose competitive fighting ability.”

1. What does the new study find about chimps?

A．Male chimps show more interactions than females.

B．Old chimps don’t care about friends as much as young ones.

C．Chimps concentrate more on meaningful relations with age.

D．Chimps share aging problems similar to human beings.

2. How did Rosati and her colleagues conduct their research?

A．By studying the data provided by other researchers.

B．By making scientific investigations and observations.

C．By setting up models on the computer in the lab.

D．By monitoring both the humans’ and chimps’ behavior.

3. What do researchers think causes this aging attraction to meaningful relationships?

A．Inability to regulate emotions.

B．Eagerness to build closer relationships.

C．Loss of competitiveness in strength.

D．Failure to adapt to the changeable nature.

4. Where does this text probably come from?

A．A short story collection.	B．A popular science magazine.
C．A graduate research paper.	D．A biology textbook.

4 . Farming is a tradition among many in South Dakota, one that is not always easy to keep in the family. But one family has survived four generations and hopes to continue long into the future.

The year was 1933 when Ed VanderWal’s father first stepped onto the farm. Now 80 years later, Ed carries the passion his father gave him for farming every day while working the fields on the family farm in Volga.

“Well, I was in the first grade when my dad moved here to this farm and I grew up on the farm. And that's what I was interested in doing more,” Ed said. But that love of working the land didn't stop with Ed. He’s passed it down to his six sons. Some of them run farms of their own now, but two of them, Scott and David, still work side by side with their dad every day.

Some people might worry that working sun up to sun down with family seven days a week would lead to a few family spats. But for the VanderWals, the constant time together works just fine.

“When families work together on a farm, it’s a challenge at times getting along. Everyone has to pull their weight and do their share. And that, of course, transfers from one generation to the next,” Scott said.

And while they all get along like any family, with good days and bad, it's tradition that keeps each generation teaching the next.

“But we taught them to work with animals at a young age, like most farmers do. So it’s nice to be able to pass that tradition onto the next generation,” Scott said.

The youngest generation of the VandcrWals, Ed’s three grandsons and a granddaughter, all started learning farming techniques at a young age.

1. Why did Ed VanderWal devote himself to the farm?

A．Because he grew up on the farm.

B．Because he was affected by his father.

C．Because he could do nothing but work on the farm.

D．Because he wanted to set a good example for his sons.

2. What does the underlined word “spats” in the fourth paragraph mean?

A．Panics.

B．Shifts.

C．Quarrels.

D．Blames.

3. What can we infer from the passage？

A．Ed’s farms have no lack of successors (继承者).

B．The VariderWals have strict family rules.

C．Ed’s tradition has great effect on the local.

D．Ed’s grandchildren will drop out of school.

4. What’s the passage mainly about?

A．A farming family.	B．A successful farmer.
C．The agricultural generation.	D．The agricultural tradition.

5 . 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.

6 . 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

7 . 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-

8 . 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

9 . Guanmei, a 65-year-old woman of the Dong ethnic group, is the inheritor of the Grand Song of Dong (侗族大歌), a national intangible cultural heritage in China. Her hometown Zaidai Village in Guizhou, southwestern China, is home to the Grand Song of the Dong ethnic group.

The Grand Song of Dong dates from more than 2,500 years ago. The way Dong singers use their vocal cords (声带) is different from how formally trained singers do. It is a folk chorus with multi-parts, no conductor, and no accompaniment. Organically growing from their natural surroundings, it is recognized internationally as “the sound of Nature.”

Before the Dong people had a writing system in 1958, the Dong culture, their history and stories were all recorded by means of songs. As a Dong saying goes, “Rice feeds the body and songs enrich the soul”. The Dong people sing right from their childhood. While not singing, they all work in their rice field.

Guanmei has been singing the Grand Song of Dong all her life, making her a famous singing teacher in her hometown and nearby areas. “The songs are our means of passing on wisdom, knowledge and life experiences to others. I will not exist in this world 100 years later, but Grand songs will. I’m honored to do this job, ” Guanmei said.

Kind-hearted, Guanmei has been volunteering to teach the Grand Song of Dong to the Dong children for over 30 years. Now she has more than 300 students. Guanmei is pleased to see the village children come to her house willingly when they have free time.

“Nowadays, more and more young people leave the village and settle in cities. Decades later, the Dong children out of the village might know nothing about Grand songs. We should do something just now. It’s our mission. What is once lost might be lost forever,” added Guanmei.

1. What makes the Grand Song of Dong known as “the sound of Nature”?

A．The outstanding conductor.

B．The special musical instrument.

C．The attractive natural environment.

D．The inspiration from nature.

2. What can we know about the Dong ethnic culture?

A．The Dong singers are professionals.

B．The Dong culture before 1958 has been largely lost.

C．Singing is of vital importance to the Dong people.

D．They have a written language with a history of over 2,500 years.

3. How does Guanmei feel about the future of Grand songs?

A．Concerned.	B．Sympathetic.
C．Optimistic.	D．Satisfied.

4. What’s the author’s main purpose in writing the passage?

A．To call on young people to return to the Dong village.

B．To guide the Dong children to learn the Grand Song of Dong.

C．To show a woman’s efforts to keep the Dong culture alive.

D．To instruct people to appreciate the Grand Song of Dong.

10 . Christo Javacheff the artist who worked to turn landscapes and buildings into massive, temporary works of art, died on March 2021 at age 84. Christo surprised the world again and again with the imagination and size of the artworks he created.

Christo, born in Bulgaria in 1935, met his wife Jeanne-Claude in Paris in 1959. Together, the two formed a strong partnership that lasted the rest of their lives. They worked as a team to create huge works of art called installations. In these installations, Christo and Jeanne often changed the way buildings or large areas of land looked — a kind of art known as "land art”.

The two were most noted for “wrapping” things so large that most people would never think to wrap them. Many of their projects used huge pieces of cloth or plastic. For example, in 1969, they wrapped 1.6 miles of rocky coastline near Sydney, Australia and it was the largest artwork ever made. In 1995, they used cloth to wrap up the Reichstag, a famous and historic building in Berlin, Germany.

Being extremely large, their art works cost a fortune to create. The artists paid for the projects themselves by selling the plans, drawings, and models they made for each installation. Many projects seemed so unusual that the couple had to work very hard to get permission to create them.

But, like almost all of the artist's work, it was only meant to last a short time. Most of the installations only stayed up for a few weeks or months before being taken down.

“I am an artist, and I have to have courage,"   Christo said. "Do you know I don't have any artworks that exist? They all go away when they're finished."   Christo himself has gone away, leaving behind an art world forever changed by the memory of his huge and daring artworks.

1. For what were the couple best known?

A．Overcoming financial problems.

B．Tearing down old-fashioned buildings.

C．Inventing innovative building materials.

D．Packaging huge landscapes and buildings.

2. Which of the following can best describe Christo?

A．Considerate and humble.	B．Creative and courageous.
C．Enthusiastic and careful.	D．Demanding and generous.

3. What did Christo mean by his words in the last paragraph?

A．His artworks were temporary.

B．His hard work didn't pay off at last.

C．He regretted exhibiting his artworks.

D．He didn't expect his works to last long.

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

A．Christo's Collection of Massive Artworks

B．Christo's Enormous Influence on Architecture

C．Christo: an Artist Who Dreamed and Built Big

D．Christo and Jeanne: a Couple Who Warmed the World