My parents were always against me owning my own pet, afraid of the mess it would make or that I would quickly lose interest in taking care of it, but we made a compromise: I could volunteer at a local pet shelter on the weekends to test my sense of responsibility and dedication. That was how I first came to volunteer at the Avondale pet shelter and—more importantly—where I met my future best friend, Chocolate.
One hot August afternoon, my boss Charlie told me that they were bringing in a young black Labrador Retriever and that I’d be its primary caretaker. An hour after our conversation and in came Chocolate—a beautiful dog with shining brown fur and amazing blue eyes. At about 3 months old, I expected him to be a lot more energetic and playful, but he immediately backed and lay down at the back of his pen (围栏).
I asked Charlie what was the matter with him. He replied that Chocolate had a genetic problem which caused him to be born with a short tail, leading potential owners to think there was something wrong with him; so the breeder felt that they had no choice but to give up the puppy to the shelter.
He was overlooked and underappreciated. I felt very angry at the thought that an otherwise healthy dog could be thrown away so easily. At the same time, I felt a deep sympathy for this dog who had been cheated out of the love and attention he deserved. It was at this moment that I resolved to give Chocolate as much love and attention as I could while working as a volunteer.
Although Chocolate was reluctant and shy at first. eventually through enough treats and play he slowly came around and warmed up to me. Soon enough, whenever I came around his pen to let him out for his turn of walks and play, Chocolate was always excited and jumping with joy.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
As time passed by, the connection between Chocolate and I grew stronger and stronger.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
One day, Charlie said Chocolate must find a home soon or he would be removed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In front of a packed hall at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on Friday, dancer Hao Ruoqi
Based on the beloved folklore of family devotion, loyalty and love, Mulan tells the tale of a young woman in ancient China who disguises herself as a man
This modern interpretation re-imagines the classic tale of the
Hao, a member of the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater, said there might be a thousand
Lisa Richards Toney, president and chief executive officer of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, said
The story of Hua Mulan
3 . Your manager stops you and says she needs to have a word about your performance in the recent project. She begins by praising you for the good work you’ve done on the project, and you wonder if this is the praise that starts off the typical “feedback sandwich”.
However, when feedback becomes such a routine, employees can start to perceive positive feedback as simply a form of sugarcoating the negatives, thus decreasing its value. Instead, positive feedback should not simply be seen as something to cushion the negative.
Cultivate a “growth mindset”. Many of us tend to focus our praise on the end result and seeming inborn talents. For example,
Create a culture of offering positive feedback. Make giving positive feedback part of your team culture. Don’t just wait for special moments to give feedback. Offer informal positive feedback when making small talk.
| A．you have a real talent for organizing events. |
| B．You know how the feedback sandwich goes. |
| C．Attempt to inject some positivity into negative feedback. |
| D．you really put a lot of effort into making this event a success. |
| E．Don’t always follow positive feedback with negative feedback. |
| F．Feedback doesn’t have to only come from the higher ranks either. |
| G．It should also be delivered so as to reinforce and encourage good performance. |
4 . There is a benefit in acknowledging the fact that our brains are born with a negativity preference that serves to protect us from potential harm. We would not have lasted very long as a species if our ancestors had kept optimistic in the face of a charging tiger rather than thinking the worst and allowing the natural response of fight-or-flight to kick in.
The psychological technique of using a negative outlook for personal growth is known as defensive pessimism (DP). Rather than forcing oneself to adopt a positive mindset, DP focuses on preparing for worst cases, thereby reducing anxiety. Let’s face it: Telling an anxious mind not to worry is as useless as trying not to get wet in a rainstorm by thinking sunny thoughts; better to take shelter. Many people have used this technique in their daily lives without giving it a name. COVID-19 gave us all a chance to practice DP as we look precautions to decrease our chances of becoming infected.
This psychological mind trick is not without its drawbacks. Applied too often, life can become a series of setbacks, only taking discomfort in the fact that one’s prediction of the worst case came true. Personal relationships may also suffer, as the optimists in one’s life grow weary of the glass always being half-empty and will, at times, take to ironically singing “Don’t worry, be happy” as payback.
There is likely to be a day when the glass-half-empty/half-full debate is replaced by the realization that optimism and pessimism don’t oppose each other, they support each other. and trying to have one without the other is like trying to have a one-sided coin.
1. What would defensive pessimists do in wet weather?| A．Picture sunny days. | B．Open an umbrella. |
| C．Feel the rainstorm. | D．Run through the rain. |
| A．make a comparison | B．propose an argument |
| C．introduce a topic | D．clarify a concept |
| A．Whatever will be, will be. | B．Every cloud has a silver lining |
| C．Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. | D．The glass is half full not half empty. |
| A．In defense of pessimism | B．The exploration of psychology |
| C．Pessimism: a one-sided coin | D．Negativity: tricky in psychology |
5 . It was a sunny winter day. I had gone up and down the tower when, outside the little door at the foot, a blind man came toward me. He was a pale, thin man with dark glasses. He kept close to the inner wall of the courtyard. On reaching the door, he touched it and sharply turned inside. In a moment, he disappeared up the staircase. I stood still, looking at the little sign that said “To the Tower… ” I felt obliged to follow.
I didn’t follow closely. I caught up with him in the ticket office. There I was surprised to see the attendant selling him a ticket as though he were any other visitor. With the ticket in one hand and touching the wall with the other, he reached the staircase leading to the hallway.
“That man is blind,” I said to the attendant, but he showed no concern. “He’s blind,” I repeated. He didn’t answer, looking at me vacantly.
“Perhans he wants to jump,” I said. But his chair was too comfortable. He didn’t stir. He still looked down at a crossword puzzle he had begun. I turned toward the staircase.
“The ticket,” the attendant said, rising from his chair. It seemed the only thing that could move him. After purchasing my ticket, I hurried up the staircase.
The man hadn’t gone as far as I imagined. After ten minutes, I approached him. “Excuse me,” I said as politely as I could, “but I am very curious to know why you came up.”
“You’d never guess,” he said.
“Not the view, I take it, or the fresh air on this winter day,” I said.
He smiled. “Coming up the stairs, one can feel the change-the coo staircase suddenly becomes quite warm, —and how up here behind the wall there is shade, but as soon as one goes opposite a narrow window one finds the sun. In all of Siena there is no place so good as here.”
He moved into the sunlight. Then he stepped into the shade. “Light, shade, light, shade,” he said, and seemed as pleased as a child who, in a game of hopscotch, jumps from square to square.
We went down the tower together. I left him, gladdened as one can only be by the sunlight.
1. Why did the author follow the blind man?| A．To offer timely help. | B．To satisfy his curiosity. |
| C．To teach him a lesson. | D．To prevent him from climbing up. |
| A．Enthusiastic. | B．Concerned. | C．Indifferent. | D．Skeptical. |
| A．The fresh air on the top. | B．The pleasant childhood memories. |
| C．The fantastic view from the tower. | D．The striking contrast between light and shade. |
| A．Nature is the best gift for humanity. |
| B．When one door shuts, another opens in life. |
| C．Every individual can appreciate beauty in life. |
| D．The disadvantaged deserve care from the society. |
6 . ......
What makes modern science uniquely powerful is its refusal to believe that it already possesses ultimate truth. The reliability of science is based not on certainty but on a complete absence of certainty. As John Stuart Mill wrote in “On Liberty” in 1859, “The beliefs which we have most warrant (依据) for, have no safeguard to rest on, but a standing invitation to the whole world to prove them unfounded.”
......
What is the main idea of paragraph 4?| A．It is unwise to believe in science. |
| B．Too much uncertainty lies in science. |
| C．The foundation of science is unfounded. |
| D．The lack of certainty makes science credible. |
7 . ......
Assuming alcohol does enhance the likelihood of a person interacting with someone they find attractive. Bowdring believes her findings could reveal one process supporting the rewarding yet potentially dangerous nature of alcohol - including its impact on risky behaviour.
“If you’re going to consume alcohol, I think it is worth reflecting on how can you do it in a way that’s safe and consistent with your goals,” Bowdring said. “People may benefit by recognizing that valued social motivations and intentions change when drinking, in ways that may be appealing in the short term but possibly harmful in the long term.”
What does Bowdring mainly talk about in the last paragraph?| A．The significance of her research. |
| B．Reflection on her previous research. |
| C．The negative effects of drinking. |
| D．Social morality and standards. |
8 . ......
In my twenties, when I was almost constantly in a state of anxiety, I never went on holiday. I was scared of flying, scared of my boss noticing how much nicer life was without me in the office. I thought not going on holiday made me a harder worker,when actually it just made me a more tired one. Then, a boss pulled me aside to tell me that he wasn’t going to thank me for not taking my holidays. I then booked a cheap beach holiday with a friend, and was genuinely amazed to find I felt much better for it.
......
What is paragraph 4 mainly about?| A．The benefit the author obtained from travelling. |
| B．The source of the author’s stress during office hours. |
| C．The change of the author’s attitude to taking holidays. |
| D．The reason why the author tried to be a harder worker. |
9 . The term “beer goggles” is said to have been coined by male North American university students in the 1980s. Yet despite unconfirmed evidence for the phenomenon, the link between alcohol intoxication (醉酒) and physical attraction has not been systematically studied.
Prof Bowdring of the University of Pittsburgh invited 18 pairs of male friends into the laboratory to rate the attractiveness of men and women they viewed in photos and videos. On one occasion, both men were given enough cranberry juice to raise their blood alcohol concentration to about 0.08% - the legal limit for driving in England — and on the other occasion, they both received a non-alcoholic drink. After providing attractiveness ratings for the photos, they were asked to select which of these individuals they would most like to interact with in a future experiment.
......
What is paragraph 2 of the text mainly about?| A．The comparison of two experiments. |
| B．The process of Bowdring’s experiment. |
| C．The underlying logic of beer goggles effect. |
| D．The methods of appreciating attractiveness. |
10 . A 14-year-old teenager was named “America’s Top Young Scientist” after winning this year’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge, a national science competition. He was given the title for creating a bar of soap (肥皂) that fights low-grade skin cancer and also awarded $25,000 for his research.
Heman Bekele, who is a freshman at WT Woodson High School, moved to Virginia from Ethiopia, where he observed people constantly exposed to the sun and suffering from skin cancer. While he didn’t initially give it much thought, as the competition drew near, he remembered his experiences in Ethiopia and decided to focus his research on skin cancer.
Heman started doing experiments at home and doing testing on digital models. He learned much about dendritic cells (named for their tree-like branches), which boost human immune (免疫的) responses. In his submission video to 3M, Heman explains, “When skin cancer cells develop, they weaken dendritic cells in the body, allowing the cancer to take over.” He said the soap contains agents that could potentially reactivate dendritic cells that help eliminate the cancer cells.
The soap can be applied to the skin every couple of days and then the person with skin cancer will start to see progress. “The average price of skin cancer treatment in the US alone is almost $40,000, but my bar of soap only costs $8.50 to create, and it can have the same effects as something that people would pay thousands and thousands of dollars to try to get,” Heman said.
For now, Heman said he has a five-year plan. At the end of it, he hopes to have created a nonprofit organization where he can provide accessible skin cancer treatment to as many people as possible. But to achieve his goal, he would have to get his treatment through clinical trials and have it certified by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), he said.
1. What does the author intend to tell us about Heman in paragraph 2?| A．The memory of his childhood. | B．The inspiration for his invention. |
| C．The spread of skin cancer in Africa. | D．The reason for his moving to Virginia. |
| A．Avoid. | B．Remove. | C．Awake. | D．Balance. |
| A．It is more affordable. | B．It takes effect at once. |
| C．It has fewer side effects. | D．It is suitable for all skin cancers. |
| A．Starting a nonprofit enterprise. | B．Distributing his soap to patients. |
| C．Obtaining a drug production license. | D．Applying to perform human trials. |
