2 . Back in the day when I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, I was studying to become a firefighter. As a firefighter, you’re constantly thinking of other people and trying to help children. It’s the mindset, that is the most difficult part in this job!

One night I was heading home and decided to stop off at a burrito (玉米饼) place. I was approached by a homeless man. He was very dirty and obviously hungry. He asked me for some change to buy a little food. As I was pulling some change out, I had an idea.

I decided to see if he wanted to eat a real dinner, so I asked him to follow me back into the burrito joint to order. When he followed me in, the people behind the count er refused to let him in. After some arguing, so I had to encourage him to order whatever and however much he wanted. He ended up ordering enough to fill his stomach at least 3 times over!

For someone who has been on the edges of society it seemed like he was very surprised at my kind behavior. But to me, it was what any “human being” should do or at least offer. I know we see these people every day asking for money but you had to be there to see the look in his face. To me it reminded me when I was young and my mom brought out a big birthday cake for me on my birthday, with all the candy, getting to experience a big meal. And I think he felt special, like he was getting attention. Again something that I could see he hadn’t experienced in a long time.

I often think about this story, because to me it’s not just about helping someone out by feeding them, but giving him the respect of being a human being and allowing him to feel good about himself was very rewarding.

1. What’s the hardest part of being a firefighter according to the author?

A．Learning to be a good firefighter.

B．Deciding what to do in the future.

C．Dealing with the brother’s relationship.

D．Developing the mindset of helping others.

2. What do we know about the homeless man?

A．He was grateful for the author’s kindness.

B．He ordered whatever he wanted the moment he was in.

C．He asked the author to buy a burrito to fill his stomach.

D．He was not welcomed by those running the burrito joint at first.

3. What is the author’s purpose in mentioning the birthday cake?

A．To think back to his own birthday at a young age.

B．To explain the reason for the values he holds onto.

C．To show the similar experience of the homeless man.

D．To tell the difference between him and the homeless man.

4. Which of the following words can best describe the writer?

A．Caring and humorous.

B．Selfless and determined.

C．Kind-hearted and thoughtful.

D．Considerate and Hard-working.

4 . Learn about programs, events and much more for students of your age to get opportunities.

Youth and Non-Violent Direct Action

Time: October 18 and November 1,2023

Contact: Robert Croonquist

This interactive workshop for school groups will teach how to appeal to the government for change and how to create safe, non-violent direct action. Students will meet in small groups to discuss issues that are important to them. The fee to participate is $5 per student.

Attend a FREE Architecture and Design College Fair

Time: October 28,2023

Contact: Mary Lib Schmidt

High school students are invited to learn more about applying to architecture school. Representatives from over 30 colleges, universities, and design programs will meet with students and answer questions. The event will be held from 11am-3pm.

Seeds of Knowledge: Teen Tour and Natural Bath Bomb Making Workshop

Time: October 26,2023

Contact: Nicole Leist

Participants will look at 15th- to-17th-century printed herbals on display and learn how modern practitioners （医师） create beneficial natural products today. Teens will create bath bombs using all organic materials. This program is intended only for teens aged 13 to 18. FREE with advance registration.

FREE Saturday Leadership Program for Hispanic Youth

Time: November 2023 through March 2024

Contact: Lisa Pineda

It is a FREE Saturday program serving 100 students. It offers various leadership opportunities and resources with the goal of affirming students in cultural pride and increasing the Hispanic voice in government, community, and institutional spaces. Seats are limited.

1. What can you learn about Youth and Non-Violent Direct Action?

A．It lasts a fortnight.	B．It is free of charge.
C．It is organized by the government.	D．It teaches legal ways to communicate.

2. If you want to learn how to make a natural product, who should you contact?

A．Robert Croonquist.

B．Mary Lib Schmidt.

C．Nicole Leist.

D．Lisa Pineda.

3. Which activity limits the number of participants?

A．Youth and Non-Violent Direct Action.

B．Attend a FREE Architecture and Design College Fair.

C．Seeds of Knowledge: Teen Tour and Natural Bath Bomb Making Workshop.

D．FREE Saturday Leadership Program for Hispanic Youth.

5 . According to a study published this week, habitual napping (打盹) appears to be associated with a large brain volume in adults although experts stressed that further research was needed. It reduces the cost caused from the lost time and the fatigue-related errors. The work followed previous studies that suggested a brief doze could improve people’s ability to learn.

Arianna Huffington, a co-founder of Huff Post and the founder and chief executive of Thrive Global, said, “Given the latest science on the effectiveness of napping and the clear link between employees feeling well rested and their productivity, it’s long past time that businesses embrace short naps at work.”

Some businesses, including Thrive Global, have already introduced facilities for employees to take naps. Google introduced sleep pods as far back as 2014 and companies like Nike and Ben & Jerry’s introduced nap rooms. The practice has even been adopted by the NHS, with a growing number of hospitals introducing sleep pods for staff in an effort to help them get more rest. Employees, it seems, are enthusiastic. Sean Greenwood, of Ben & Jerry’s, said, “If a quick nap gets employees more involved and creative, we’re happy to provide that for our team members.”

Unfortunately, the practice of napping still suffers from our collective concept that sleep equals weakness and laziness. However, the performance-enhancing benefits of naps have been no secret to many leaders throughout history. It also gives the higher-ups the chance to acknowledge the 24/7 culture and come up with top-down   solutions that encourage workers to take care of themselves in and out of work.

While sleep experts stressed that a daytime doze could be beneficial, they said it was crucial to get enough shut-eye at the end of a day. It is the late stage of sleep, sometimes missed by early risers, that strengthens the nerve circuits that make for learning and memory, allowing the brain to make and consolidate new neutral connections. Additionally, prioritizing sufficient sleep during the regular nightly sleep period is essential for overall well-being.

1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?

A．Work stress.	B．Learning abilities.
C．A research finding.	D．The brain volume.

2. What is Arianna Huffington’s attitude toward napping?

A．Dismissive.	B．Approving.
C．Unclear.	D．Critical.

3. Why are so many companies mentioned in the passage?

A．To advocate enough rest.	B．To praise creative employees.
C．To compare the differences.	D．To present the current situation.

4. What will possibly be discussed in the paragraph that follows?

A．The approaches to shut-eye.	B．The importance of napping.
C．The secrets to well-being.	D．The benefits of memory.

6 . Now, new research suggests frequent exercise might help you live well in another meaningful way—that is, in terms of income. Researchers investigated whether individuals who stayed active would earn more money as a result of their active lifestyle. It revealed that staying active not only resulted in higher present earnings, but also predicted increased future income throughout one’s life.

The researchers set out to explore three key correlations (相互关系)：How mobility-the ability to move, affected income, how mobility influenced income overtime, and whether exercise could help people maintain their mobility as they aged. The team analyzed data from Health and Retirement Study(HRS), the largest study tracking changes overtime in Americans aged 50 and above. This study takes into account various life aspects, including work, social status, health, psychology and family matters, as individuals age.

To evaluate the impact of current mobility on income, the researchers examined data from over 19, 000 respondents (调查对象) to determine how well they could perform simple tasks, such as climbing stairs, or moving around a room. Each person received a score, with 5 indicating full mobility and 0 indicating difficulties with these tasks. The researchers found that for each decrease in the mobility category, individuals lost out on an average of $3, 000 in annual income compared to their peers. Those who were active were also significantly more likely to remain working for longer than the other group. It appeared that engaging in exercise enabled individuals to maintain mobility and engage in professional life for a longer period of time than those who were less active.

Looking at earnings overtime revealed even more substantial benefits for those who remained active throughout their lives. Active individuals showed an overall income level that was $6, 500 higher, along with higher rates of employment. For the third part of the study, it’s not surprising that those who engaged in exercise continued to maintain their mobility after the age of 55 and had higher employment rates. Even exercising just one day a week showed improvements in mobility outcomes.

While this study doesn’t definitively prove that leading a healthy lifestyle directly leads to higher earnings, it strongly suggests that staying healthy and mobile brings benefits beyond just lower levels of disease.

1. What didn’t researchers take into consideration when designing their experiment?

A．Family matters	B．Work and social status
C．Health and psychology	D．Educational background

2. According to paragraph 3, what’s the impact of current mobility on income?

A．Increased mobility slightly reduces annual income

B．Greater mobility is closely related to higher income

C．Decreased mobility greatly increases the overall income

D．Maintaining mobility has nothing to do with the income

3. What’s the author’s attitude towards leading a healthy lifestyle?

A．Favorable

B．Indifferent

C．Opposed

D．Doubtful

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

A．Exercise Lowers Levels of All Diseases

B．Exercise Promotes Work Efficiency

C．Exercise Helps to Make More Money

D．Exercise Ensures A Longer Lifespan

7 . How to communicate complex information?

Did you ever have to read a presentation where you felt like you’re lost in confusing terms, data and concepts? Are you giving others this same experience?     1     But there are ways you can simplify your presentation and reengage your audience. Here’s how you can get complex information across.

Use interactive content. It gets the readers more involved in your presentation by letting them play an active part.     2     Beyond that, questionnaires and chatbots provide personalized and specific answers to readers as part of your presentation. Making your presentation interactive used to be hard, but now you can just use Storydoc. Go make your first interactive presentation. It’s easy as pie.

    3     No one will read a presentation with a thousand words. Do everyone a favor and use images. Images can be super effective at communicating complex information and save you a lot of needless text. In fact, visual representation of data and concepts can often convey what words cannot. Use diagrams and images to illustrate your points and simplify the complex.

Narrate your content.     4     Whether it’s through text to speech Al or video bubbles, centering your presentation around a story can help guide your audience through the complexity, making it more digestible, engaging, and memorable.

Use examples and fables. They can help explain clearly the complexity of ideas for they are what we’ve already known and understood.     5     More importantly, the real secret lies in selecting examples that are not just familiar but also deeply relevant-those are the ones that will truly ring with your listeners

A．Show, don’t tell

B．Make every word count.

C．This makes the complex concepts less new and more familiar

D．If you don’t sound excited, the listeners won’t feel excited either

E．Storytelling is another powerful tool for communicating complex concepts.

F．Communicating complex information is a common challenge in presentations

G．For example, allow them to choose the content route they wish to take and control the pace.

8 . Your neighbors are probably the first line of defense in case of any problematic situation.     1     It gives you an assurance that you have people close by looking out for you. Here are easily applicable tips on creating stronger neighbor relationships.

The first step is introducing yourself when you move to a new neighborhood or when a newcomer moves in. Leave them a note under their door to introduce yourself.     2     It doesn’t have to cost you a fortune and opting for a potted plant or baked biscuits will do. These actions present excellent opportunities to connect with them.

Be respectful of your neighbors. It’s in poor taste to have regular insensitive parties at your place causing disturbances. Before your party, it’s good practice to notify your neighbors. Besides, avoid chatting them up for hours on end, which may be inconvenient, especially if you don’t know their schedules.     3     When you borrow anything, return it in due time. If you accidentally break their things, replace them without being asked to.

    4     You could offer to babysit your neighbors’ kids, help with snow removals or even keep an eye on their home when they’re away. Such acts of reaching out to your neighbors make for stronger relationships.

As Emma Seppälä put it, “social connectedness generates a positive feedback loop (圈) of social, emotional and physical well-being.” It feels so easy to just stay home without having to engage with your neighbors but connecting with them is worth the effort.     5    

A．Remember every small gesture counts.

B．A crisis is a test of communication skills.

C．It can actually boost your mood in the long run.

D．Slipping it in their mailbox further solidifies friendship.

E．It’s essential to ensure you maintain decent relationships with them.

F．Alternatively, you can give them a gift while making yourself known to them.

G．Only by establishing healthy boundaries will you achieve peaceful coexistence.

9 . That dinosaurs ate the mammals (哺乳动物) that ran beneath their feet is not in doubt. Now an extraordinary fossil newly described in Scientific Reports, unearthed by a team led by Gang Han at Hainan Vocational University of Science and Technology in China, shows that sometimes the tables were turned.

The fossil -dated to about 125 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period-was formed when a flow of boiling volcanic mud swallowed two animals seemingly locked in a life-and-death fight. The one on top is a mammal. This animal is a herbivorous species closely related to the Triceratops (三角恐龙). Animal interactions such as this are exceptionally cam e in the fossil record.

One possibility is that the mammal was eating something already dead, other than hunting live prey. These days it is uncommon for small mammals to attack much larger animals. But it is not unheard of. And Dr. Han and his colleagues point out that those mammals which eat dead bodies typically leave tooth marks all over the bones of the animals. The dinosaur’s remains show no such marks. There is also a chance the fossil could be a fake. More and more convincing fake s have emerged, as this one did -though Dr. Han and his colleagues argue that the complexly connected nature of the skeletons (骨骼) makes that unlikely, too.

Assuming it is genuine, the discovery serves as a reminder that not all dinosaurs were enormous during the Cretaceous and not all mammals were tiny. From nose to tail, the dinosaur is just 1.2 meters long. The mammal is a bit under half a meter in length. Despite being half the size, the mammal has one paw firmly wrapped around one of its prey’s limbs, and another pulling on its jaw. It is biting down on the dinosaur’s chest, and has ripped off two of its ribs. Before they were interrupted, it seems that the mammal was winning.

1. Which idiom is closest in meaning to underlined part “the tables were turned” in paragraph 1?

A．The fittest survives.	B．The hunters become hunted.
C．Fortune always favors the brave.	D．The truth will always come to light.

2. Why does the author mention the “tooth mark” in paragraph 3?

A．To prove the fossil was fake.	B．To show the forming of the fossil.
C．To illustrate the process of hunting.	D．To suggest the dinosaur was hunted alive.

3. What makes Dr. Han think the fossil is genuine?

A．The size of the fossil.	B．The absence of fake fossils.
C．The complexity of the skeletons.	D．The consistency of the opinions.

4. What is the function of the last paragraph?

A．It offers a cause.	B．It highlights a solution.
C．It justifies the conclusion.	D．It provides a new discovery.

10 . The 2023 Shanghai Coffee Culture Week opened on May 13, with a variety of activities integrating industry, culture and lifestyle scheduled.

Shanghai, home to more than 8,00 coffee houses, has hosted the event since 2021. This year’s Coffee Culture Week is organized by the Shanghai Cultural and Creative Industry Promotion Association, and will run through to June 2.

Coffee has become a key part of Shanghai culture, showcasing the city’s characteristics of opening-up and inclusiveness(包容),local officials said at a news conference in early May.

On the event’s opening day, Yongpu Coffee, in collaboration with the food delivery platform Eleme and China Construction Bank, offered 30,000 cups of coffee for free. Multiple coffee brands such as Luckin Coffee and McCafe will also provide free coffee and coupons (优惠券) during the event.

From May 18 to 21, West Bund International Coffee and Lifestyle Festival is taking place in Xuhui Binjiang area, involving more than 100 coffee brand outlets (销售点) located along a 5-kilometer shoreline of the Huangpu River.

It is the first time that Shanghai has launched such a large coffee-themed market, organizers said. In addition to enjoying freshly brewed coffee, visitors can attend diverse activities such as exhibitions, performances and workshops to experience coffee culture.

Many cultural sites in the city are also participating in the coffee culture week. Sinan Mansions in downtown Shanghai is holding the Bonjour Coffee Art Fair from May 19 to 21,which has attracted some 20 coffee staff members and 80artists.

The Shanghai History Museum will launch the Square Coffee Festival, inviting fans and industry experts to share their knowledge about coffee. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Books and Periodicals Distribution Association will hold a coffee-themed book fair in more than 80 stores across the city.

Organizers said they hope these events will boost the consumption of coffee and cultural products, and promote the coordinated development of the two industries.

The Shanghai Coffee Industry Summit will take place on May 26, which includes two roundtable discussions and about 10 seminars. Corporate leaders will discuss the latest consumer trends and offer their insights into hot topics.

According to data from domestic tech and retail giant Meituan, the value of China’s freshly brewed coffee industry is expected to reach 15.79 billion yuan ($2.25 billion) this year. It was valued at 8.97billion yuan in 2021.

1. Why was the Coffee Culture Week hosted?

A．To hold diverse activities.	B．To spread knowledge about coffee.
C．To show the city’s unique features.	D．To promote coffee industry and culture.

2. What can visitors do during the 2023 Shanghai Coffee Culture Week?

A．Get coupons and make freshly brewed coffee.

B．Enjoy free coffee and read coffee-themed books.

C．Visit coffee exhibitions and put on performances.

D．Share ideas about coffee and get employed in workshops.

3. What can we infer from the data offered by Meituan?

A．Coffee consumption is increasing rapidly in China.

B．Meituan has benefited a lot from coffee industry.

C．The Coffee Culture Week has boosted the coffee industry.

D．Freshly brewed coffee industry is the most promising industry.

4. In which section of a newspaper does this text probably appear?

A．Entertainment.

B．Culture.

C．Health.

D．Science.