Paul and I were on our school basketball team, The Lions. We loved basketball and were both huge fans of the NBA. When we weren’t playing on the court, we were watching a game on TV. My favourite player was LeBron James. Paul’s favourite player was Tyrone Bogues, a guy who played for the Charlotte Hornets, although we actually agree that they are both champions.
Bogues was only 1.6 metres tall, which made him the shortest player ever in the NBA. Guess what? Paul was only 1.6 metres tall, too! Paul knew that being shorter than other players meant that he had to practise more. During all those hours of doing jump shots on his own, he used Bogues as his inspiration. Paul once said, “If Bogues could make it, why not me?” Our coach was not so sure. Paul had to try out many times just for making the team. He was still usually on the bench, being just a replacement, which was really tough on him. I knew Paul had real skills, and was someone who worked really hard and had a strong desire to play for the team. However, Paul didn’t get a chance.
Then came the big day. We were playing our main competitors, The Bears, a team whose record of this season had been perfect. They hadn’t lost a single game. Despite our best efforts, we were still 10 points behind The Bears. Without much time left, the last quarter began. Unfortunately, our team members got injured one after another.
All hope fell on me. Unfortunately, a player and I crashed into each other. With pain racing through my body, my knee hurt badly. The team gathered around, looking worried. The doctor put an ice pack on my knee, but it was still painful. Obviously, I could not play any more. The coach gave a deep sigh and murmured in a low voice, “We have no more players”.
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。
“I think I can give it a try,” a determined voice came from the crowd.
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Paul jumped up and rushed onto the court.
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3 . “Practice makes perfect” is a very popular expression. However, can we take this saying literally?
One popular theory (理论) is that if a person practises for at least 10,000 hours, they will reach “perfection”—or, in other words, become an expert in their field. This theory was made famous by Malcolm Gladwell in his 2008 best-selling book, Outliers: The Story of Success. He gave the examples of the music group The Beatles and Microsoft co-creator Bill Gates, who clearly put in over 10,000 hours of practice before they became successful.
However, Gladwell’s book has been said by many to be too simplistic and generalising. Although Gladwell’s work was largely based on research done by Anders Ericsson, Ericsson argued that 10,000 hours was just an average figure. Some people, for example, needed far fewer than 10,000 hours, and others many more. More importantly, Ericsson said that just practising a lot was not enough; the type and quality of practice were also significant. He went on to explain the importance of “deliberate practice”, which is when a person practises a specific part of a skill in depth rather than practising a skill as a whole. Deliberate practice is said to be much more effective, though more tiring.
Many other studies argue that practice alone is far from enough. In fact, a more recent study from Princeton University stated that practice only accounted for up to 26% of reaching an expert level. Many other factors contribute to people becoming experts. Natural talent is an important factor, which is especially evident in sports. For instance, many baseball players in America have amazing vision that allows them to see the ball much sooner than others do. Besides, IQ, personality, attitude, and starting age are decisive factors, too. It is also important to note that becoming an expert doesn’t equal instant success. Success also relies on social factors, environmental factors, and even just being in the right place at the right time!
In conclusion, practice may not make perfect, but deliberate practice has been shown to lead to significant improvement.
1. Why does the author ask a question in the first paragraph?| A．To make a comparison. | B．To highlight his opinion. |
| C．To inspire a reflection. | D．To give a definition. |
| A．Gladwell’s theory is easy to understand. |
| B．Gladwell misinterprets Ericsson’s research. |
| C．Ericsson objects to deliberate practice. |
| D．Ericsson believes quality outweighs number. |
| A．Their personality. | B．Their physical talent. |
| C．Their identity. | D．Their deliberate practice. |
| A．Attitude is everything. | B．Patience determines success. |
| C．Talent counts most. | D．Practice makes a difference. |
I spotted my neighbor, Monica, working in her garden one day when I returned home from school. It was sunny, and the smell of cut grass made me feel refreshed. I popped my head over the fence, and Monica and I got talking.
“I’ve seen you’re very good at using a lawn mower(割草机) and gardening tools,” Monica said. “There’s a hedge(树篱) growing over the pathway near here. It’s so overgrown that it becomes a head ache for the passers-by. I was planning to cut it back myself. Would you like to help out?”
I loved the idea of helping Monica and our community. We agreed to cut the hedge the following Sunday. My brother Ivan, aged 10, also came along to help us. We wheeled Monica’s garbage can down to the hedge, which the community council was responsible for. All three of us cut it with shears (大剪刀) until a trouble-free pathway came in sight. Mr. Brown, a wheelchair user, was grateful that he didn’t have to make a detour(绕行) any more to pass the hedge. Encouraged by his words, I suggested doing more for our community, to make it a better place.
When we first started, we just made the best of the equipment we already had in my parents’ garage. But as time went on, donations came in from the local community. Our garage got filled up quickly with brushes, gardening tools, and even donated power tools like leaf blowers. With everything ready, our first project was to beautiful park near our houses, which looked a bit run-down. Ivan was in charge of painting the fence around, Monica cleared the lawn with a leaf blower, and I was responsible for repairing the benches where our neighbors usually sat at their leisure. After two weeks’ hard work, we felt stunned when stepping back and appreciating the clean and brand new small park. My heart swelled with pride because our efforts paid off.
注意：1.续写词数应为 150个左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I posted photos of our hard work on our local Facebook Group.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With more neighbors joining in, we headed for the flower bed near the community center.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . Their father passed away, their mother is laid off, and the family has no heat in their house as the winter sets in. This is just one of the
Sometimes the solution is
“There have been other needs that have come forward, like medical costs for students,” said Michael Happ, the program’s director. “So there’s a real
| A．shocking | B．pleasant | C．strange | D．unique |
| A．led to | B．come across | C．worked out | D．made up |
| A．fun | B．real | C．risky | D．simple |
| A．medicine | B．tools | C．food | D．houses |
| A．miss | B．track | C．deliver | D．prefer |
| A．concentrating on | B．going through | C．wondering at | D．finding out |
| A．deal | B．lesson | C．game | D．loss |
| A．Refused | B．Burned | C．Founded | D．Ignored |
| A．digital | B．unusual | C．informal | D．various |
| A．grown | B．hidden | C．shown | D．ended |
| A．buy | B．report | C．increase | D．describe |
| A．chance | B．hunger | C．pity | D．excuse |
| A．replaced | B．questioned | C．disliked | D．recognized |
| A．respect | B．money | C．humour | D．water |
| A．in need | B．in patience | C．in peace | D．in control |
My dad, John, was a basketball fan. He played in college and even coached a local youth team for a few years. His love for the game was unbelievable, and some of my earliest memories are of us playing basketball in the nearby court. I’ve even seen old photos of him in his college days, a proud smile on his face as he held a basketball. But when it came to my own involvement in basketball, he was surprisingly positive that I should focus only on study. “Basketball won’t pay the bills,” he’d often say, a statement that always struck me as ironic (讽刺的) given how much he loved the sport.
I loved basketball too, and I was pretty good at it. My school coach, Coach Miller, saw potential in me and encouraged me to join the school team. He said I had a natural talent that could take me far if I trained hard. But my dad was against it. He believed that sports would distract me from my studies, and with the final exam around the corner, he didn’t want to take any chances. “Your future is in the classroom, not on the court,” he would insist, dashing my dreams of following in his athletic footsteps.
This tension between us reached a peak when my head teacher, Mrs. Williams, announced a school basketball tournament (联赛). It was a big deal; students from the whole city would come to watch. My friends were excited, and even some teachers were talking about it. However, I knew I couldn’t participate without my dad’s approval. It felt like an invisible chain holding me back, a conflict between my passion and his expectations.
Then something unexpected happened. Mrs. Williams called my dad for a meeting. I was nervous but also hopeful. Mrs. Williams was not just an educator; she was also a parent and understood the balance between academics and extracurricular activities. She had seen students succeed in both, and I hoped she could convince my dad.
After the meeting, my dad seemed to be in deep thought. He didn’t speak immediately, taking his time as if weighing his words carefully. Finally, he broke the silence, “Mrs. Williams made some good points about teamwork and discipline. Maybe it’s time to rethink my stance (立场) on you playing basketball.”
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。
I was thrilled but also cautious. “So, can I play in the tournament?” I asked.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________As I scanned the audience, I spotted my dad.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . Compassion has not been a traditional characteristic of sport. With its UK roots in 19th-century British public schools and universities, modern sport developed as way of creating strong military leaders, training them to develop adaptability defined in those times by iron will and biting the bullet. Fear and harsh criticism were crucial to toughening up players and soldiers alike. The “tough guy” narrative was strengthened by 20th-century media stereotypes and Hollywood’s heroes and became rooted into sport and society.
I’ve heard countless stories like the popular culture I found when I joined the Olympic rowing team in the mid-1990s. We were expected to suffer after mistakes or losses to show that we truly cared, and everyone believed coaches needed to be severe and unforgiving to get results. These approaches still exist. But an alternative approach with compassion at its center addresses aims of performance and wellbeing for those with greater ambitions.
This isn’t some soft option which plays down hard work, as supporters of the earlier traditional sporting mindset might criticize. Research across branches of psychology — behavioral, sports, positive — shows how compassion creates the strongest foundation for adaptability and sustained performance under pressure whether in sport, the military, healthcare or business. Rather than activating our threat system which began to help us survive way back, compassion helps us to feel safe and protected, leaving us free to learn, connect with others and start exploring what we’re capable of.
The continuous need to improve performance has led top coaches to appreciate that high performance requires levels of support to match the level of challenge. When you provide that, players start thriving while striving to achieve more. Rooted in compassion, a different coach-athlete relationship thus develops.
The dictionary definition of compassion includes the recognition of another’s suffering and the desire and support to relieve it. Compassion has been shown to decrease fear of failure and increase the likelihood of trying again when failure does happen. But how many talented athletes experience that depth of support in moments of crisis and failure?
1. What does the underlined phrase “biting the bullet” in paragraph one mean?| A．Commitment. | B．Ambition. | C．Suffering. | D．Toughness. |
| A．To arouse people’s interest about rowing. |
| B．To recall a painful training experience. |
| C．To draw a distinction between training approaches. |
| D．To bring out a compassion-centered training approach. |
| A．Criticism about the compassion. | B．Necessity of employing compassion. |
| C．Characteristics about the compassion. | D．Fields that compassion is involved in. |
| A．The media is active in developing tough training style. |
| B．Extraordinary athletes rarely received enough support. |
| C．The compassion-centered training is widely used in sports. |
| D．Compassion means more openness to failure and less training. |
A store owner was tacking a sign above his door that read “Puppies For Sale”. Signs like that have a way of attracting small children, and sure enough, a little boy appeared under the store owner’s sign. “How much are you going to sell the puppies for?” he asked. The store owner replied, “From $30 to $50.” The little boy reached in his pocket and pulled out some change. “I only have $2.37,” he said. “Can I look at them?”
The store owner smiled and whistled. Out of the kennel (狗窝) came a female dog, who ran out of his store, followed by five tiny balls of fur. One puppy was left behind, moving slowly. Immediately, the little boy found out the slowly limping (跛行的) puppy and said, “What’s wrong with that little dog?”
The store owner explained that the vet (兽医) had examined the little puppy and found that he didn’t have a hip socket (髋臼). He would always limp. The little boy became excited. “That is the little puppy that I want to buy.”
The store owner said, “No, you don’t need to buy that little dog. If you really want him, I will just give him to you.”
The little boy got quite upset. He looked straight into the store owner’s eyes, pointing his finger and said, “I don’t want you to give him to me. That little dog is worth every bit as much as all the other dogs and I will pay full price. I can give you $2.37 now, and then fifty cents a month until I have paid for him.”
The store owner countered, “You really don’t need to buy this little dog. He is never going to be able to run, jump and play with you like the other puppies.”
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。
The little boy stood his ground, determined to pay for the limping puppy.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Overjoyed, the little boy handed over his $2.37 to the store owner.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9 . 2023 Illustration (插画) Competition
Enter the competition most respected and admired in the industry for creativity in illustration, the Communication Arts Illustration Competition. Selected by distinguished professionals, the winning entries will be distributed worldwide in the Communication Arts Illustration Annual and on commarts. com, ensuring important exposure of the creations. Each winner will receive a personalized Award of Excellence, made from solid aluminum (铝), and an award certificate. Communication Arts’s Award of Excellence is one of the most desired awards. If chosen, winning places you in the highest ranks of your profession.
What To Enter With
Any illustration first published or produced from Jan. 2022 to Jan. 2023 is fit. Entries may originate from any country. Descriptions in English are necessary for the judges to read.
Entries Can Be Submitted In The Following Formats
Digital Images: RGB images in JPG format with a maximum file size of 2 MB. GIF images may be livelier, but would be turned down, and so would the PNG ones.
Motion Entries: In MOV, MP4 or MPG format, with a maximum file size of 500 MB.
Illustration Competition Categories & Entry Fees
Category | Single illustration | Series of illustrations |
Books (covers, jackets, interiors, etc.) | $40 | $80 (limit of five) |
Motion (media for films, videos, etc.) | $90 | $180(limit of three) |
Student Work (school assignments) | $20 (Image) $45 (Video) | $40 (Images, limit of five) $90 (Video, limit of three) |
For more categories (advertising, self-promotion, etc.), please download the category PDF.
Late Fees
Entries must be registered no later than Jan. 13, 2023. Entries registered after that date will be charged a fee of $10 each. No entries can be registered after Jan. 27, 2023.
1. What will the winner gain?| A．Exposure to world-famous works. | B．A personalized award certificate. |
| C．A bonus from Communication Arts. | D．Wide recognition in the industry. |
| A．A newly produced motion entry. | B．A student work from China. |
| C．A PNG image with a file size of 1 MB. | D．A series for covers of three illustrations. |
| A．$80. | B．$90. | C．$110. | D．$120. |
10 . It’s been nearly two decades since the traditional clothing style Hanfu first started to reemerge in China. Since then it has gone from a small cultural movement celebrating an ancient fashion to a trend that is booming on social media, having been adopted by China’s Generation Z as a means of connecting with their past. Instead of following other cultures blindly, Generation Z now have different opinions about what trend is by promoting local culture while having an objective view of exotic cultural products.
The new tastes of Generation Z—young people born after 1995—are well represented on Bilibili. In the recent New Year’s Eve gala presented by Bilibili, it attracted more than 100 million views within 48 hours with a colourful set of programmes ranging from Peking Opera to classical Chinese cartoons. The same is also true of movie industry. Last year, for the first time, the top 10 most viewed films in China were all domestic films, while the ticket sales for imported films have dropped to only 16.28 percent.
”Generation Z grew up with the rapid development of China and under good economic conditions. With the development of the Chinese Internet industry, they have more access to diverse international information and culture, which bring them a much broader vision and makes them more open and confident in analyzing foreign culture. Apart from taking pride in China’s rapid development, this generation also pursues individuality and values devotion to the country,“ Professor Zhang Yiwu said.
He also noted that the popular rock and punk culture pursued by the 70s and 80s generation is more of a challenge against real life and local culture. Some people who were born in the 1970s and 1980s did not grow up in the Internet age—they experienced the transformation of China going from poor to rich first-hand. This kind of longing and admiration of the West came from a lack of confidence.
However, Generation Z now have the confidence to look at Western culture with equal status. This kind of cultural confidence will result in China being more active and creative in its development on the international stage in the future.
1. What does the underlined word ”exotic“ in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Foreign. | B．Fashionable. | C．Traditional. | D．Elegant. |
| A．To confirm the rise of new media. |
| B．To promote Chinese Internet industry. |
| C．To highlight the popularity of domestic art. |
| D．To show the popularity of New Year’s Eve gala. |
| A．They have a stronger cultural identity. |
| B．They are longing for cultural diversity. |
| C．They have made China develop rapidly. |
| D．They are more fond of foreign culture. |
| A．Confident China, Better Future |
| B．China’s Progress Results in Cultural Confidence |
| C．China’s New Generation Redefine Local Culture as Trendy |
| D．Hanfu Style, Connector of Ancient Fashion and Modern Trend |
