1 . Our culture is the system we use to build our identity. All living things are part of a culture. Even animals have a culture! So what is culture? It’s the way we behave in a group. It begins with each individual family. Within our families we do things to build relationships with each other. This can include routines like daily housework and weekly shopping. It also includes traditions. Traditions are activities that are repeated on a regular basis.
Culture is not limited to individual family groups. The real strength of culture is in larger community groups. These larger groups are called societies. Every society makes rules for itself. It decides how people should act in different situations. Some of these rules are written down. Some are just things that are naturally expected of all members of that society.
Often, cultures can be recognized by what the people believe. Cultures are also known by what they choose to include in their art. Sometimes a society forms around people who speak the same language. Cultures may also be known for their customs, including the foods they make and the things they do.
Our cultures help us understand who we are and what we believe. There are very strong feelings connecting us to our own society. Two different cultures may disagree on something, especially if they both feel strongly about it. When that happens, war is a common result.
People are learning better ways to communicate with each other. The more we learn, the more we appreciate the differences in cultures.
1. The underlined word “routines” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______.| A．personal hobbies | B．personal behaviors |
| C．family activities | D．daily activities |
| A．In arts. | B．In societies. | C．In families. | D．In languages. |
| A．Culture doesn’t exist in animals. |
| B．Culture is the way we behave. |
| C．Culture may not agree with each other. |
| D．Culture help us understand ourselves. |
| A．By building a wall. | B．By preparing to fight. |
| C．By communicating. | D．By making friends. |
2 . Turning soil, pulling weeds, and harvesting cabbage sound like tough work for middle and high school kids. And at first it is, says Abby Jaramillo, who with another teacher started Urban Sprouts, a school garden program at four low-income schools. The program aims to help students develop science skills, environmental awareness, and healthy lifestyles.
Jaramillo’s students live in neighborhoods where fresh food and green space are not easy to find and fast food restaurants outnumber grocery stores. “The kids literally come to school with bags of snacks and large bottles of soft drinks,” she says. “They come to us thinking vegetables are awful, dirt is awful, insects are awful.” Though some are initially scared of the insects and turned off by the dirt, most are eager to try something new.
Urban Sprouts’ classes, at two middle schools and two high schools, include hands-on experiments such as soil testing, flower-and-seed dissection, tastings of fresh or dried produce, and work in the garden. Several times a year, students cook the vegetables they grow, and they occasionally make salads for their entire schools.
Program evaluations show that kids eat more vegetables as a result of the classes. “We have students who say they went home and talked to their parents and now they’re eating differently,” Jaramillo says.
She adds that the program’s benefits go beyond nutrition. Some students get so interested in gardening that they bring home seeds to start their own vegetable gardens. Besides, working in the garden seems to have a calming effect on Jaramillo’s special education students, many of whom have emotional control issues. “They get outside,” she says, “and they feel successful.”
1. What do we know about Abby Jaramillo?| A．She used to be a health worker. | B．She grew up in a low-income family. |
| C．She owns a fast food restaurant. | D．She is an initiator of Urban Sprouts. |
| A．The kids’ parents distrusted her. | B．Students had little time for her classes. |
| C．Some kids disliked garden work. | D．There was no space for school gardens. |
| A．Far-reaching. | B．Predictable. |
| C．Short-lived. | D．Unidentifiable. |
| A．Rescuing School Gardens | B．Experiencing Country Life |
| C．Growing Vegetable Lovers | D．Changing Local Landscape |
3 . The research by OECD that was analyzing the homework of 15-year-old school kids has shown that Italian children are busy with homework as they have to spend over 9 hours on it weekly. The other countries where children have to work over 6 hours on their tasks are Ireland, Poland, the USA and Australia.
Additional practice
It teaches students responsibility
When students only visit classes they have no idea how difficult it is for teachers to prepare for the lessons and may behave badly.
It teaches important life skills
When we say that students do their homework we add many meanings in this phrase. Pupils learn to manage time effectively, set priorities, and improve self-discipline.
If teenagers would have too much time for leisure activities, the possibility that they will be involved in some illegal or criminal issues rises greatly. Being busy with tasks they do not waste their time and spend it with the unmatched benefit.
| A．It keeps students busy. |
| B．It enriches students’ knowledge. |
| C．Therefore, it’s high time that homework should be banned. |
| D．Not all the information is grasped by students at the lessons. |
| E．That is a good preparation for future career and meeting deadlines set by bosses. |
| F．At the same time, each person realizes that homework is extremely important in studying. |
| G．When they are given assignments on a regular basis, they raise responsibility, punctuality (守时), and performing. |
1.列举你家庭的两个好习惯；
2.它们对你学习生活的影响。
注意：
1.写作词数应为80左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The good habits in my family
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Liu Qing hasn’t slept well for months. Every day, the 13-year-old middle school student
Being sad or in a low mood is a normal part of life. For example, when people face challenging events in their lives — including financial hardship — it’s common to feel down. But in most cases, the negative emotions
Depression, however, is not the same thing.
According to a 2022 report about Chinese people’s mental health, students with great academic burdens, those dealing
Experts suggested high school students and freshmen at universities should undergo
1. 劳动的意义；
2. 结合自己的经历说明劳动的益处。
注意：
1. 词数 80 字左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Be Active Laborers
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1.活动目的和时间，
2.参观的内容；
3.感悟。
注意: 1: 写作词数应为80左右；
2: 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Experience in the Museum
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
8 . 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。
Karie double-checked the words on her spelling test. If she got 100 percent today, she’d win her class’s First-Quarter Spelling Challenge and a brand-new dictionary. Plus. Ms. McCormack had promised to do a handstand (倒立) if anyone got a perfect score.
Three more words to go. N-i-c-e-l-y. Q-u-i-c-k-l-y. H-o-n-e-s-t-y. Wait! She’d spelled honesty, not honestly. She erased ty and wrote ly before handing in her paper.
“I’ll correct these while you’re at recess (休息),” Ms. McCormack said.
After recess, MS. McCormack walked to the front of the room and cleared her throat. Then, as if she were an Olympic gymnast. Ms. McCormack’s feet flipped into the air.
“Congratulations, Arie! You did it!” she announced while upside down. The whole class erupted! Ms. McCormack righted herself and presented Karie with her prize. Karie grinned as she read the label on the box:
To Karie Carter; for her perfect first-quarter score in spelling.
“Everything is OK?” Mom asked as Karie burst through the front door after school. “Everything’s PERFECT!” Karie shouted. showing Mom her spelling test and prize. Mom hugged her. “Put the test on the fridge so Dad and Kevin can see it when they get home.”
“And Casper, too.” Karie picked up her cat. “Can you spell nicely, Casper? And quickly and honestly, and...” Karie’s stomach tumbled to the floor. Honestly?
H-O-N-E-S-L-Y!
“ Karie, what’s the matter?” said Mom.
“I don’t feel so good,” Karie said, putting Casper down and stuffing the test paper into her backpack.
Soon Karie heard her dad and Kevin come in. The smell of pizza wafted (飘荡) in the air. Karie thought back to the last time they’d picked up pizza after Kevin’s school play. They almost reached home when Mom realized the cashier had given them too much change. “Let’s turn around,” Mom had said. The whole time they were driving back to the pizzeria, Kevin kept saying, “It’s not our fault. The cashier didn’t notice.” But Mom just insisted. After supper. Karie went to her room and fell onto her bed.
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。
Lying on the bed, Karie was wondering what she should do.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
When Karie got to school the next morning, Ms. McCormack was unlocking the door.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
9 . At the age of 5, most children in the USA start to go to school. Public education is free and most children go to schools near their homes. School in these early years is fun. The children learn to read and write. But they also play games and go on trips. There is no reason at such an early age for him to hit the books.
The situation changes as children become older. The subjects become more difficult. Students must learn about world history, algebra (代数), and the life sciences. Tests become more common. Pressure (压力) is growing to hit the books, study hard, and make progress. However, most serious students only really begin hitting the books for long hours when they reach high school.
High school students who hope to continue their education at a college or university must take a special national test called the S-A-T. The test has two parts. The first part tests the student’s ability with numbers and mathematical skills. The second part tests the student’s ability in the English language.
The S-A-T test is very important. A high school student who gets a high score on the two parts of the test has a good chance to enter a top American college. For this reason, many students hit the books for months to prepare for the S-A-T.
1. The underlined part “hitting the books” in paragraph 2 probably means _____.| A．throwing books around | B．studying a subject in a hurry |
| C．reading books with great effort | D．beating books hard |
| A．have to take the S-A-T |
| B．have to work hard if they want to go on to college |
| C．don’t hit the books until they pass the S-A-T |
| D．are all free and happy |
| A．to pay for the education |
| B．to work hard at their lessons |
| C．to pass the S-A-T test |
| D．to take many tests |
| A．In America the students have to pass a certain test to continue their education. |
| B．The students needn’t spend much time preparing for the S-A-T. |
| C．Those who fail in the S-A-T may go to a top college. |
| D．Young children needn’t work hard at their lessons because education is free. |
| A．why American students needn’t work hard |
| B．how American students pass the S-A-T test |
| C．what American students do to get good scores |
| D．how American students are educated at school |
10 . While human achievements in mathematics continue to reach new levels of complexity, many of us who aren’t mathematicians at heart or engineers by trade, may struggle to remember the last time we used calculus (微积分). It’s a fact not lost on American educators, who faced with rising math failure rates are debating how math can better meet the real-life needs of students. Should we change the way math is taught in schools, or climinate some courses entirely?
Andrew Hacker, Queens College political science professor, thinks that advanced algebra and other higher-level math should be cut from curricula in favor of courses with more routine usefulness, like statistics.
“We hear on all sides that we’re not teaching enough mathematics, and the Chinese are running rings around us,” Hacker says. “I’m suggesting we’re teaching too much mathematics to too many people. . . not everybody has to know calculus. If you’re going to become an aeronautical engineer, fine. But most of us aren’t.”
Instead, Hacker is pushing for more courses like the one he teaches at Queens College: Numeracy 101. There, his students of “citizen statistics” learn to analyze public information like the government budget and corporate reports. Such courses, Hacker argues, are a remedy for the numerical illiteracy of adults who have completed high-level math like algebra but are unable to calculate the price of, say, a carpet by area.
Hacker’s argument has met with opposition from other math educators who say what’s needed is to help students develop a better relationship with math earlier, rather than teaching them less math altogether.
Maria Droujkova is a founder of Natural Math, and has taught basic calculus concepts to 5-year-olds. For Droujkova, high-level math is important, and what it could use in American classrooms is an injection of childlike wonder. “Make mathematics more available,” Droujkova says. “Redesign it so it’s more accessible to more kinds of people: young children, adults who worry about it, adults who may have had bad experiences.”
Pamela Harris, a lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, has a similar perspective. Harris says that American education is suffering from a widespread phenomenon called“fake math”-an emphasis on the rote memorization of formulas and steps, rather than an understanding of how math can influence the ways we see the world.
Andrew Hacker, for the record, still has his doubts. “I’m going to leave it to those who are in mathematics to work out the ways to make their subject interesting and exciting so students want to take it,” Hacker says. “All that I ask is that alternatives be offered instead of putting all of us on the road to calculus.”
1. What does the author say about Americans educators?| A．They are to blame for Americans’ rising math failure rates. |
| B．They are making math too complex to be taught to ordinary Americans. |
| C．They find high-level math fail to meet students’ practical needs. |
| D．They are struggling to remember how to use calculus. |
| A．Expose students to high-level math earlier in their school years. |
| B．Enable students to make use of basic math in real-life situations. |
| C．Lay a solid foundation for statistics to compensate for numerical illiteracy. |
| D．Help students to develop their analytical skills by calculating the price of a carpet by area. |
| A．options to learn high-level math should be left open |
| B．learning math is interesting and accessible to everyone |
| C．those with trouble learning math should try a new approach |
| D．the earlier you start to learn math, the better. |
| A．Numeracy 101: A Cure for Mathematical Illiteracy |
| B．No More Fake Math: How to Teach Math to Kids |
| C．Be Practical: Stop Requiring Advanced Math in Schools |
| D．To Remove or To Keep: A Debate Over High-level Math Education |
