1 . My 15-year-old boy is a high achiever. He is very bright, pursuing everything he does with devotion and determination. And he is a great kid: honest, kind, faithful and caring.

Like a lot of kids who are high achievers, he is a perfectionist and very easy to fall into anxiety. That is manifested in his study, and other things he does as well. For example, he loves tennis but he often worries about losing in the game. Now he has to stop competing because the pressure he puts on himself is becoming unhealthy. He still plays, but playing socially rather than competitively means that it’s an outlet (发泄方式) for him rather than a source of stress.

He does not manage stress well. He puts so much pressure on himself to the point of worrying himself sick over just about every assessment. And he gets so negative about it, everything I say to him is met with negativity, every suggestion with a response that it won’t work, and honestly it’s depressing and tiring.

To help my son, I have a patient conversation with him. He finally follows my advice about physical exercise to ease stress. Whenever he is under a lot of pressure, I will run with him for half an hour and do some push-ups to relieve pressure. Gradually, he becomes less nervous in the later exams and his scores become more and more stable.

Pressure from grades and perfectionism can be really hard to manage when it comes to schooling. As kids, what they need is effective communication and sincere encouragement. So I have always told and shown my son that I’m proud of him, and that pride doesn’t merely depend on top grades.

Students of a Nanjing senior high school brought joy to the elderly and brightened up their day by     1     (volunteer) at a local nursing home last weekend. The nursing home,     2     (locate) on a housing estate, has more than 150 senior citizens, some of     3     are over 90 years old.

Though it was the first time that many of the students     4     (take) part in a volunteer programme like this, they were eager to share various interesting topics     5     the residents, such as how to use mobile phones and go online on the computer. After lunch the residents and the young volunteers amused themselves with art     6     (activity) which included Chinese painting and calligraphy. They enjoyed each other’s company so much that Su Ming, 16, said he hoped to return to the nursing home     7     (regular) to spend time with the seniors that he made friends with.

Wang Hong, the programme organizer, said, “I was     8     (concern) that the students and the senior residents wouldn’t get along easily, but it turned out     9     (be) the exact opposite. I can say that today’s activities have made     10     big difference to the lives of the residents as well as the students.”

3 . In recent years, traditional Chinese culture and art has gained a foothold on short video platforms and attracted a large number of young followers thanks to the explosive growth of the short video industry. Relaxing, emotional and fragmented, these video contents perfectly match the demands of the users. With the application of new technologies such as social communication and immersive experiencing, short video platforms are seeing more users, becoming a shining spot of new Internet media.

Recently, Huangmei Opera Female Consort Prince became a hit on short video platforms as a lot of young users covered the aria (咏叹调) in their own way and showed great artistic talents. The interactive platforms are expanding the charm of the traditional opera among young people.

Peking Opera was also well-received on short video platforms thanks to a series of AR effects. Users love to film clips with a set of virtual facial makeup, headwear and costumes. Statistics indicate that these effects were applied by more than 18 million users, most of whom were young people.

In addition to Chinese operas, intangible cultural heritage items, such as embroidery, paper-cutting, printing and dyeing, shadow play works, oiled paper umbrella making, and bamboo weaving are also actively promoted on short video platforms. In a word, short video platforms are becoming an important channel to display China’s intangible cultural heritage.

Short video platforms, offering a fun, popular and easy way to explore the traditional art forms, are receiving a lot of positive feedbacks from China’s young generations. The seconds, or minutes long videos have produced remarkable achievements in promoting traditional Chinese culture.

4 . Ants have the ability to find out cancerous cells in humans, a new study has discovered. Researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) discovered that ant species — Formica fusca — has a well developed sense of smell. So it was able to distinguish cancerous cells from healthy cells in humans, limited trials revealed. “But more tests must be carried out before they could be used in settings like hospitals.” the team said.

To conduct their research, the scientists performed tests with 36 ants, smelling cells under a laboratory setting. First, the specialists exposed the ants to the smell of a sample of cancerous human cells. This smell was then associated with a reward of sugar solution. In a second step, the researchers exposed the ants to two different smells. One was a new smell and the second was the smell of the cancerous cells. Once this test was successful, the researchers exposed the ants to different cancerous cells. As such, the scientists found that ants distinguish between cancerous and healthy cells and between two cancerous lines. After training, Formica fusca ants are able to detect organic compounds (化合物) given off by cancerous cells.

“This first study shows that ants have high potential, are capable of learning very quickly, at lower cost, and are efficient,” points out CNRS in a news release.

This isn’t the first time that scientists have used the animal sense of smell to locate cancerous cells. “Dogs’ noses are well suited for medical diagnosis (诊断) and used for the detection of cancer. specific organic compounds,” the researchers explained. However, training them to do so requires several months to a year. “Ants therefore represent a fast, efficient, inexpensive, and highly accurate detection tool for detection of cancer cells,” the team explained.

The approach could potentially be adapted to a range of other complex smell detection tasks including the detection of narcotics (麻醉药), bombs, spoiled food, or other diseases.

29 outstanding Party members were conferred the July 1 Medal, one of     1     was Zhang Guimei. She founded a high school,     2    (offer) free education to girls in a less­developed area of Yunnan Province.

Zhang’s efforts helped nearly 2,000 girls go to college. She visited poor     3     (family) and persuaded them not to let their children drop out of school. This shows     4     educators should work with a greater sense of responsibility.

Another important lesson from Zhang’s story is that we should take a long­term view of rural education. Zhang has been working     5     (improve) education in rural areas because of her high degree of     6     (commit) and making the education of talents as her goal.     7    is because of the very goal that Zhang could overcome difficulties, and help the poor throw off     8     wrong idea that “education is useless”. It also reminds us that more efforts should     9     (make) to develop education in rural areas, and we should focus     10     long­term goals and interests.

6 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Ada looked through the observation window at the kids below, all waiting in line to get into the pool. She turned to her mother with an angry expression on her face. “Mom, they’re all little kids! I’m 15 already! This is ridiculous, isn’t ?”

“I know, Ada,” replied her mother, “but you’re a beginner, too, and you have to start somewhere!”

Ada had never been to a swimming lesson in her life. Between schoolwork and helping on her grandfather’s farm, she hadn’t had time for lessons. The closest swimming pool Ada had been to was the inflatable (充气的) alligator pool her mother bought her when she was five. Now that Ada was older, her mother had found a new job in the city, and Ada faced a new challenge — school field trips to the local pool.

The first day that Ada went with her class to the pool, she had no idea what she was in for. What could be so difficult about swimming? Ada confidently slipped(溜) into the water and held onto the side of the pool, expecting to be able to touch the bottom with her feet. But when Ada let go of the side of the pool, she slipped under the water—the whole pool was one big deep end! Ada threw her arm toward the side of the pool and grabbed (抓住) the ledge (池壁), out of breath. “I really can’t swim! Everyone’s going to laugh at me!” she thought to herself in a panic.

On the next field trip to the pool, Ada sat on the side of a bench, frozen with fear. She huddled (蜷缩) with a towel over her shoulders, too embarrassed to try again. When she came home, her mother noticed right away that Ada was upset. “Honey, I want you to take Bella’s swimming lessons at the local pool. Soon you’ll learn how to swim just like everyone else,” she convinced Ada, showing photos of Bella with her prize-winning students. Ada felt doubtful whether the lessons would help, but she had to overcome her fear.

注意：

1. 续写词数应为150左右；

2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Then came the time for Ada to take her first lesson.

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Soon Bella came over to where Ada sat and introduced herself.

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8 . In the first half of 2022, scientists studying animal communication discovered that some dogs connect objects with words at a similar level to babies. Then what about cats, which are commonly believed to be unconcerned about human affairs?

Saho Takagi, a researcher at Azabu University, doubted cats’ seeming unconcern. “Cats don’t appear to listen to people’s conversations, but in fact, they do.” According to a past research, cats understand human communication better than expected. Like dogs, they can use human pointing and stares to find food. They even can tell the difference between human facial expressions and attentional states, according to a 2021 study. However, cats can do more than that.

Another study showed that cats can discriminate their human-given name from the names of their cat friends (those that live in the same house). The researchers believed that cats learned to connect names with other cats by observing communication between their owners and their cat friends.

In a recently published study, Takagi and her colleagues compared two groups of cats: one group was made up of house cats and lived with at least two other cats; the other was made up of cats that lived in “cat cafés”, which had up to 30 cats. They used a simple, two-phase(阶段) test. During the name phase, the study participant(参与者) was softly placed in front of a laptop computer. Then the researcher played a recording of its owner saying the name of its cat companions(同伴).

Immediately after the name phase came the face phase. A cat’s face appeared on the monitor. Sometimes, the cat that appeared on the screen matched the name spoken; other times the name and the picture did not match. If cats knew the names of their cat friends, they would investigate by staring doubtfully at the monitor when the name and the picture did not match. House cats had a significantly longer stare than café cats, indicating that house cats generally expected an exact cat’s face upon hearing the cat’s name.

“This is the first to show that house cats link human words and their social companions through daily experiences,” the researchers wrote, “However, we could not recognize the mechanism(机制) for learning. But with more and more scientists becoming interested in cats who are much smarter than we praise them, this question is sure to be solved.”