1 . Luminous Soul

This project encourages disabled people to feel contemporary dance and to consider the possibility that with training they could become professional. Helen is one of the project’s real success students. “For me, I’ve got loads out of this. I have actually decided to go back and study dance as a mature student at Belfast Metropolitan College, because I want to keep going further and further with it.” Helen said.

Imagine Action

Imagine Action brings together sport and art. Over three years the project has trained 75 young people in drama, dance and song. One participant, Erin Quinn, was a shy 13-year-old girl when she began, but three years later she has grown in confidence hugely and is hoping to make a career in drama. “I had an interest in music, but nothing compared to sports, and then I found Imagine Action,” Erin said.

Falkirk’s Future Stars

Falkirk’s Future Stars is about inspiring local athletes to achieve their potential by putting them into a class or club environment. Alistair Fraser is a young basketball player taking part in this project. Alistair said, “After I got involved with the programme I gained a lot of confidence not just in my basketball but as a person who could go out into the local community and speak to children about my story, and see how it inspired them in their sport or other activities.”

Challenge Your Boundaries

This mountain biking project for disabled riders provides equipment, coaching and leadership to enable a wider group of riders to hit the trail (上路). The project manager Graham O’Hanlong is carrying out a series of guided rides for disabled riders. Graham said, “The project is about promoting participation. It is also concerned with providing coaching opportunities and quality outdoor experiences.”

1. The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 1 refers to __________.

A．college

B．the project

C．dancing

D．the story

2. Alistair’s words show that __________.

A．he achieves personal growth after the programme

B．he performs pretty well when he’s in a class or club

C．he becomes an excellent player in the community

D．he encourages young children to play basketball

3. What do Luminous Soul and Challenge Your Boundaries have in common?

A．Both offer students outdoor experience.

B．Both are for professionals.

C．Both connect sport with art.

D．Both are designed for the disabled.

2 . A total solar eclipse (日食) of the sun will have millions of people from Texas to Maine gazing up at the sky on the afternoon of April 8. If you can’t make it outside, here are some apps to track the eclipse on your computer or mobile device.

Total Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse is an “innovative” app developed by the Exploratorium, a museum of science, technology and arts in San Francisco, in partnership with NASA, according to app’s description in the Apple App Store. The app has a 3.8-star rating on the App Store and is designed exclusively for iPads and iPhones. You can download it here.

Eclipse 2024

This app, designed by developer Saira Creations, allows people to tap a marker anywhere on a map to see if that location will experience a total eclipse, in addition to the start time and duration. The app has a 3.1-star rating on the Apple App Store and is designed exclusively for iPads and iPhones. You can download it here.

One Eclipse

One Eclipse is an app designed by Simulation Curriculum Corp in collaboration with Astronomers Without Borders. It has a 4.7-star rating in the Apple App Store and you can download it here.

The NASA App

According to the AAS, the NASA App allows you to watch live streams of the eclipse. In addition to livestreams, the NASA App also offers the latest NASA images, news, mission information, podcasts and interactive augmented reality experiences to explore. It has a 4.8-star rating and you can download it here.

1. Who created the app Eclipse 2024?

A．The Apple APP Store.	B．Saira Creations.
C．Exploratorium.	D．Simulation Curriculum Corp.

2. Which of the following apps tops the ratings in the Apple App Store?

A．Total Solar Eclipse.	B．Eclipse 2024.
C．One Eclipse.	D．The NASA App.

3. Where is the passage probably taken from?

A．A textbook	B．A newspaper
C．A science journal	D．A website

3 . How many advertisements have you seen in your life?     1     Advertisements are a great way to make people aware of products, issues, and more. But has advertising become a problem for society? If let me rate the current online advertising risks, I would probably give 2 points.     2    

Advertising makes us associate happiness with consumerism (消费主义). After they’ve achieved to ruin our self-esteem (自尊), advertisements are trying to fool us into thinking that only products and services can make us feel better.     3     What is it? You guessed right: Shopping. Once they achieve to make you feel ugly, they sell you beauty products so you can improve on your ugliness. Once they manage to make you believe that you are not important, they sell you expensive clothes so you can attract the attention of others. And so on and so forth.

    4     We have an economic system in which people have to make money in order to survive — and this can be clearly seen in the advertising industry. By showing you what the ideal life is supposed to be, and then making you compare your ordinary life to it, they slowly lead you to believe that you’re not beautiful, intelligent, confident, and so on, until they fully convince you that you are basically not good. The reason? To make you feel insecure so that they can then emotionally control you.

In short, advertisements promise you happiness, provided that you spend money in return. The result?     5    

A．Advertising pushes us to make money.

B．Advertising makes us feel that we’re not good enough.

C．So what exactly are the main problems of advertising on society?

D．The average person sees between 280 and 310 advertisements per day.

E．Without shopping, advertisements tell you that you can’t find happiness.

F．In other words, advertisements create a problem and then offer us a solution to it.

G．Consuming stuff you don’t even need and leading to waste that is pollution our planet.

4 . 假设你是李华，你的爱尔兰好友Jim发来邮件说爱尔兰人微信群里多数人用真人照片做微信头像（profile photo/picture），觉得这样更能让别人信任自己，他想知道为什么多数中国人不用本人照片当头像。请你用英文给他回复，内容包括：
(1) 分析可能的原因；
(2) 给出你的观点；
(3) 期待回信。
注意：1. 写作词数80左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 . Zhang Xiqing is an outlier in Chinese society. At 33, she is happily unmarried, has no plans to have children with her boyfriend, and left her job at Tencent for a start-up because she wanted to “try something new”. But Zhang faces immense pressure from her family. She does her best to deal with the pressure to break convention but it can be a lonely path to follow. Now, however, she is drawing inspiration from a reality show that has become a hit on Chinese television.

Instead of giving young girls a shot at fame, Sisters Who Make Waves, produced by Hunan Television, has invited established actresses and performers over 30, and some in their 50s, to compete for a spot in a five-member band. The show has been a hit, especially among women, since it started airing in June. For women like Zhang, the attraction is that it shows more experienced women using their confidence and expertise—rather than youth—to get what they need.

“Seeing them on stage, I am no longer anxious about my age,” one viewer, who is attracted by the show commented on Weibo. A blogger who goes by the pen name Shaoxi said the overwhelming popularity of the show reflected the desperate need for women in China to see themselves pictured in a different light. Other viewers resonated (共鸣) with the setbacks of some of the stars, who battled personal and professional difficulties with the images of sparkling versions of themselves.

But some critics say the show falls short of its ideals. Wu Changchang, an associate professor of journalism at East China Normal University, wrote that the show was “hollow feminism (空洞的女权主义)”. However, Shaoxi said, “judging an entertainment show on what degree of feminism it contained was missing the point.” It’s popularity said something about the female audience. “It means that compared with the past, more are favoring strong, independent women. I hope I can be more like them”, she said.

1. Why does the author mention Zhang Xiqing in paragraph 1?

A．To express a view.	B．To make an argument.
C．To introduce the topic.	D．To provide the evidence.

2. What can we learn about the show?

A．Its winners would form a band.	B．It was produced in Hunan TV in June.
C．It invited famous actresses in the country.	D．It attracted little attention at the beginning.

3. What does paragraph 3 focus on?

A．The various suggestions for the show.

B．The positive comments from viewers.

C．The negative influence of the show on the society.

D．The close connection between the show and the reality.

4. Why did the show become so popular among women?

A．It spoke highly of feminism and self-discipline.

B．It highlighted the importance of beauty and experience.

C．It inspired women to be themselves and pursue their dreams.

D．It stressed the courage to fight against professional difficulties.

7 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What does informative advertising focus on?

A．Telling the details of the product.

B．Giving information about related industries.

C．Introducing special functions of the product.

2. What products is informative advertising often used for?

A．Clothing.

B．Household products.

C．Office supplies.

3. What does the second type of advertising highlight?

A．The benefits of the products.

B．The good name of the company.

C．The key functions of the products.

4. What is said about the third type of advertising?

A．It is banned in some countries.

B．It is not allowed to be used for some products.

C．It can’t refer to competitors’ names in some countries.

8 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

On Wednesday, an English teacher-turned livestreamer Dong Yuhui invited two writers and the editor-in-chief of Harvest magazine, Cheng Yongxin to his Douyin program, Time With Yuhui.

The enthusiasm the writers brought to the livestream was     1     heated and continuous that Dong extended the one-hour program to 150 minutes.

Cheng Yongxin, said throughout the hard times facing all printed publications, the magazine, without running any advertisements,     2     (boost) contemporary Chinese literature since the 1980s. “    3     brought us to this livestream is that things have changed and we’re being challenged,” Cheng added.

Roughly a month ago, Dong also had     4     hit sitting with the editor-in-chief of People’s Literature magazine and writer Liang Xiaosheng.     5     (found) on October 25, 1949, the magazine sold 992,000 issues that night,     6     (generate) a profit of 17.8 million yuan. The success led media critics to see a light in the future of serious writing.

Dong remembers the attention he received can partly     7     (owe) to his past readings of literature. “Literature brings us     8     (close),” Dong said.

“Nowadays, it’s important that literary creations shouldn’t be only restricted     9     ‘a celebration of the selected enclosure (圈地)’. They need to step out and greet mass     10     (consume) in the way they like and accept. Dong is their preferred choice and a deserving host,” Guangming Daily website wrote.

10 . What’s new to watch on TV

All Creatures Great and Small Season 4

The beloved British TV series, “All Creatures Great and Small”, is set to return for its fourth season on January 7. Executive producer Colin Callender expressed excitement for the new season, promising more heartwarming family stories, community spirit, and of course, delightful animal adventures. The show is based on the best-selling books by Alf Wight, writing under the penname James Herriot, describing the lives of three animal doctors in rural Yorkshire. The upcoming season will be set in 1940, during World War Ⅱ, offering a unique mix of warmth and drama.

Echo

“Echo”, the latest Marvel series on Disney+, follows the story of Maya Lopez, a deaf martial (武术的) artist with the ability to copy any move she sees. Played by Alaqua Cox, the character seeks vengeance (复仇) for her father’s murder at the hands of the criminal boss, the Kingpin. The series promises a more mature tone, offering a more grown-up kind of show than what we’ve seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before. Cox’s acting of Echo brings diversity and representation to the screen, adding depth to the character’s appealing storyline.

Masters of the Air

Coming to Apple TV+ on January 26, “Masters of the Air” is a highly anticipated miniseries recording the heroic efforts of the 100th Bomb Group, a US Air Force unit during World War Ⅱ. The show is based on historian Donald L. Miller’s book, displaying the courage, loss, and triumph experienced by the men as they carry out dangerous bombing missions over Nazi Germany. With emotional depth and a strong sense of brotherhood, this series promises a moving portrayal of the human experience during wartime.

1. What is “All Creatures Great and Small Season 4” mainly about?

A．The challenges faced by animals.

B．Stories about rural animal doctors in Yorkshire.

C．A group of animal doctors living in a city environment.

D．A story about the lives of animal trainers in the modern era.

2. What do we know about “Echo”?

A．It is written by Alaqua Cox.	B．It is a movie starring Maya Lopez.
C．It is more of a show for kids.	D．It is a story about revenge.

3. What do “All Creatures Great and Small Season 4” and “Masters of the Air” have in common?

A．Both are adapted from books.	B．Both are available on Apple TV+.
C．Both are seasonal series.	D．Both are about war stories.