1 . I was about 13 when an uncle gave me a copy of Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World. It was full of ideas that were new to me, so I spent the summer with my head in and out of that book. It spoke to me and brought me into a world of philosophy (哲学).

That love for philosophy lasted until I got to college. Nothing kills the love for philosophy faster than people who think they understand Foucault, Baudrillard, or Confucius better than you — and then try to explain them.

Eric Weiner’s The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers reawakened my love for philosophy. It is not an explanation, but an invitation to think and experience philosophy.

Weiner starts each chapter with a scene on a train ride between cities and then frames each philosopher’s work in the context (背景) of one thing they can help us do better. The end result is a read in which we learn to wonder like Socrates, see like Thoreau, listen like Schopenhauer, and have no regrets like Nietzsche. This, more than a book about understanding philosophy, is a book about learning to use philosophy to improve a life.

He makes philosophical thought an appealing exercise that improves the quality of our experiences, and he does so with plenty of humor. Weiner enters into conversation with some of the most important philosophers in history, and he becomes part of that crowd in the process by decoding (解读) their messages and adding his own interpretation.

The Socrates Express is a fun, sharp book that draws readers in with its apparent simplicity and gradually pulls them in deeper thoughts on desire, loneliness, and aging. The invitation is clear: Weiner wants you to pick up a coffee or tea and sit down with this book. I encourage you to take his offer. It’s worth your time, even if time is something we don’t have a lot of.

1. Who opened the door to philosophy for the author?

A．Foucault.	B．Eric Weiner.
C．Jostein Gaarder.	D．A college teacher.

2. Why does the author list great philosophers in paragraph 4?

A．To compare Weiner with them.

B．To give examples of great works.

C．To praise their writing skills.

D．To help readers understand Weiner’s book.

3. What does the author like about The Socrates Express?

A．Its views on history are well-presented.

B．Its ideas can be applied to daily life.

C．It includes comments from readers.

D．It leaves an open ending.

4. What does the author think of Weiner’s book?

A．Objective and plain.

B．Daring and ambitious.

C．Serious and hard to follow.

D．Humorous and straightforward.

2 . Rome can be pricey for travelers, which is why many choose to stay in a hostel (旅社). The hostels in Rome offer a bed in a dorm room for around $25 a night, and for that, you’ll often get to stay in a central location (位置) with security and comfort.

Yellow Hostel

If I had to make just one recommendation for where to stay in Rome, it would be Yellow Hostel. It’s one of the best-rated hostels in the city, and for good reason. It’s affordable, and it’s got a fun atmosphere without being too noisy. As an added bonus, it’s close to the main train station.

Hostel Alessandro Palace

If you love social hostels, this is the best hostel for you in Rome. Hostel Alessandro Palace is fun. Staff members hold plenty of bar events for guests like free shots, bar crawls and karaoke. There’s also an area on the rooftop for hanging out with other travelers during the summer.

Youth Station Hostel

If you’re looking for cleanliness and a modern hostel, look no further than Youth Station. It offers beautiful furnishings and beds. There are plenty of other benefits, too; it doesn’t charge city tax; it has both air conditioning and a heater for the rooms; it also has free Wi-Fi in every room.

Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes

Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes is located just a 10-minute walk from the central city station and it’s close to all of the city’s main attractions. The staff is friendly and helpful, providing you with a map of the city when you arrive, and offering advice if you require some. However, you need to pay 2 euros a day for Wi-Fi.

1. What is probably the major concern of travelers who choose to stay in a hostel?

A．Comfort.	B．Security.
C．Price.	D．Location.

2. Which hotel best suits people who enjoy an active social life?

A．Yellow Hostel.	B．Hostel Alessandro Palace.
C．Youth Station Hostel.	D．Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes.

3. What is the disadvantage of Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes?

A．It gets noisy at night.	B．Its staff is too talkative.
C．It charges for Wi-Fi.	D．It’s inconveniently located.

3 . My life as a tax-paying employed person began in middle school, when, for three whole days, I worked in a baking factory.

My best friend Betsy’s father was a manager at Hough Bakeries, which, at Easter time, _________ little bunny (兔子) cakes for all its _________throughout Cleveland. It happened that the plant downtown needed eight kids for _________ help during our spring break, for which I had no_________ beyond listening to my favorite records. I’d _________ minimum wage. I’d see how a factory_________. My parents thought all of this was a grand idea and called Betsy’s dad with their _________.

Our_________in the factory were simple: Place cakes on a moving belt. Attach icing (糖霜) ears. Apply icing eyes and nose._________ bunny from the belt. This was ____________ than it sounds.____________ a bit and the cakes pile up. As I told my parents at dinner that first night, it was all a little more high-pressure than I’d   ____________ .

Dad __________. The son of a grocer, he’d spent the summers of his childhood____________ food in Benardsville, New Jersey. This was the sort of work that made you____________ the dollars you earned and respect those who did the work, he told me.

1.

A．sold

B．ordered

C．made

D．reserved

2.

A．stores

B．families

C．schools

D．citizens

3.

A．generous

B．financial

C．technical

D．temporary

4.

A．plans

B．problems

C．excuses

D．hobbies

5.

A．offer

B．earn

C．set

D．suggest

6.

A．worked

B．closed

C．developed

D．survived

7.

A．ambition

B．permission

C．experience

D．invitation

8.

A．joys

B．ideas

C．roles

D．choices

9.

A．Save

B．Keep

C．Stop

D．Remove

10.

A．harder

B．better

C．longer

D．cheaper

11.

A．Calm down

B．Slow down

C．Stay on

D．Move on

12.

A．indicated

B．witnessed

C．expected

D．remembered

13.

A．cried

B．smiled

C．hesitated

D．refused

14.

A．tasting

B．finding

C．sharing

D．delivering

15.

A．withdraw

B．donate

C．receive

D．appreciate

4 . We live in a town with three beaches. There are two parts less than 10 minutes’ walk from home where neighborhood children gather to play. However, what my children want to do after school is pick up a screen — any screen — and stare at it for hours. They are not alone. Today’s children spend an average of four and a half hours a day looking at screens, split between watching television and using the Internet.

In the past few years, an increasing number of people and organisations have begun coming up with plans to counter this trend. A couple of years ago film-maker David Bond realised that his children, then aged five and three, were attached to screens to the point where he was able to say “chocolate” into his three-year-old son’s ear without getting a response. He realised that something needed to change, and, being a London media type, appointed himself “marketing director from Nature”. He documented his journey as he set about treating nature as a brand to be marketed to young people. The result was Project Wild Thing, a film which charts the birth of the World Network, a group of organisations with the common goal of getting children out into nature.

“Just five more minutes outdoors can make a difference,” David Bond says. “There is a lot of really interesting evidence which seems to be suggesting that if children are inspired up to the age of seven, then being outdoors will be on habit for life.” His own children have got into the habit of playing outside now: “We just send them out into the garden and tell them not to come back in for a while.”

Summer is upon us. There is an amazing world out there, and it needs our children as much as they need it. Let us get them out and let them play.

1. What is the problem with the author’s children?

A．They often annoy their neighbours.	B．They are tired of doing their homework.
C．They have no friends to play with	D．They stay in front of screens for too long.

2. How did David Bond advocate his idea?

A．By making a documentary film.	B．By organizing outdoor activities.
C．By advertising in London media.	D．By creating a network of friends.

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “charts” in paragraph 2?

A．records

B．predicts

C．delays

D．confirms

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Let Children Have Fun	B．Young Children Need More Free Time
C．Market Nature to Children	D．David Bond: A Role Model for Children

5 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Stop Asian Hate

During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City saw a sharp increase in harassment and violence against Asian people and communities, especially Asian elders. Discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, age, and disability, including having or     1     (perceive) to be exposed to COVID-19, is illegal under the Human Rights Law.    2    the start of the pandemic, there has been a significant, troubling increase in anti-Asian hate crimes and bias incidents. These have been verbal attacks, physical and even things like the tragic shooting of eight Asian-American spa technicians in Atlanta, Georgia. Beginning in February of 2020, we received a sevenfold increase in reports of anti-Asian harassment, discrimination, and violence. It is crucial to note that hate crimes and bias incidents have been found to be vastly under-reported     3    these numbers reflect just a fraction.

We all want to live in a world that is free from prejudice and    4    everyone has the right to be proud of who they are. Unfortunately, this is a pretty tough ask. We’ve joined forces with other establishments to bring you some resources of the movement of Stop Asian Hate,     5    the aim is to an end to the rising tide of racism against east and south east asian (ESEA) people.

Since the pandemic, something has been made nasty in the media by comments from Donald Trump calling it “the China virus”, and ESEA people all over the world have found that their lives have been turned upside down. In the wake of the tragic deaths in the US and several studies     6    (reveal) the real increase of racism against this minority, the Stop Asian Hate movement started a conversation about what is going on. You can find out all about it on this website, and get resources and support to help you if you are dealing with the impacts     7    racism.

Working towards a world where no racism exists is always important to us, and will always be something     8    need to strive towards. The thing is, a lot of conversations around racism fail to distinguish between the multiple groups of people who are affected, and the issues     9     (face) by ESEA people will be completely different to other people of colour.

    10    the growth of attacks and hate crimes still on the rise, we want to give you the tools to be able to understand the value and necessity of our voice, and how to stand up and fight back.

6 . 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。

In Ningbo city, a young woman has made the bamboo product brand of her family’s company famous around the world,    1    (help)a fair number of bamboo farmers increase their income.

Wang Xiaoqing, born in the 1990s,    2    (find) that in the US, Chinese bamboo products were popular among customers,    3    many of them carried foreign brands, despite China being the “kingdom of bamboos”. She decided to return to China and build a bamboo product brand after finishing her education abroad in 2013.

In 2018,a bamboo table    4    (produce) by the company of Wang’s family shined at the first Global Bamboo Congress.“    5    fascinates westerners is the Chinese bamboo culture and its long history. It provides a sound foundation for the global    6    (expand) of China’s bamboo industry”, Wang said. Her company is    7    (current) engaged in the design, manufacturing and sales of bamboo products. It produces over 10 million bamboo products each year, 85 percent of which     8     (sell) in the global market.

Serving    9    vice president of the entrepreneurship promotion association for returned overseas students in Ningbo city, Wang plans to contribute more to rural vitalization. “I hope that we can turn villages into more beautiful places and make villagers get     10     (rich),”Wang said.

7 . Plato believed that talent and intelligence _________genetically and thus _________in children born to all classes, although his proposed system of selective public education for an educated minority of the population does not really follow a democratic model.

A．is not distributed, is to be found	B．are not distributed, are to be found
C．is not distributed, has been found	D．are not distributed, have been found

8 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
“Party Cries” In Ireland
Mark Twain

Belfast is a peculiarly religious community. This may be said of the whole of the North of Ireland. About one-half of the people are convinced Protestants (清教徒) and the other half Catholics (天主教徒). Each party does all it can     1    (make) its own doctrines (信条) popular and draw the affections of the irreligious toward them.    2    hears constantly of the most touching instances of this passion. A week ago a vast crowd of Catholics assembled at Armagh to dedicate a new church; and when they started home again the roadways     3     (line) with groups of meek and lowly Protestants who stoned them     4    all the region round about was marked with blood. I thought that only Catholics argued in that way,    5    it seems to be a mistake.

Every man in the community acts like a minister and carries a brick to argue against     6    holds different ideas. The law has tried to break this up, but not with perfect success. The law says that persons uttering (说) irritating “party cries”    7    be fined forty shillings (先令) and costs. And so, in the police court reports every day, one sees these fines     8     (record). Last week a girl of twelve years old was fined the usual forty shillings and costs     9    claiming in the public streets that she was “a Protestant.” The usual cry is, “To hell with the Pope!” or “To hell with the Protestants!” according to the utterer's system of salvation.

One of Belfast's local jokes was very good. It referred to the uniform and inevitable fine of forty shillings and costs for uttering a party cry--and it is no economical fine for a poor man, either, by the way. They say that a policeman found a drunken man lying on the ground, up a dark alley,    10     (amuse) himself with shouting, “To hell with! To hell with!” The officer smelt a fine--informers get half.

“What’s that you say?”

“To hell with!”

“To hell with who? To hell with what?”

“Ah, ye can finish it yourself--it's too expensive for me!”

I think the seditious disposition (倾向), restrained by the economical instinct, is finely put in that.

9 . During the initial stages of instructed L2 (the second language) acquisition students learn a couple thousand, mainly high frequency words. Functional language proficiency, however, _______mastery of a considerably large number of words. It is therefore _______ at the intermediate and advanced stages of language acquisition to learn a large vocabulary in a short period of time. There is not enough time to _______the natural (largely incidental) L1 (the first language) word acquisition process. Incidental acquisition of the words is only possible up to a point, _______, on account of their low frequency, they do not _______often enough in the L2 learning material.

Acquisition of new words from authentic L2 reading texts by means of strategies such as contextual deduction (演绎) is also not a _______for a number of reasons. There appears to be no _______to intentional learning of a great many new words in a relatively short period of time. The words to be learned may be _______in isolation or in context. Presentation in bilingual (双语的) word lists seems an _______shortcut because it takes less time than contextual presentation and yields excellent short term results. Long term memory, ________, is often disappointing so contextual presentation seems advisable.

Any suggestions on how to use this in educational contexts should be based on a systematic ________ of the two most important aspects of the L2 word learning problem, this is to say,   selecting the relevant vocabulary (which and how many words) and creating the best conditions for the acquisition process. This article sets out to ________a computer assisted word acquisition programme (CAVOCA) which tries to do exactly this: the programme operationalises current theoretical thinking about word acquisition, and its ________ are based on a systematic list of the vocabulary relevant for the target group. To ________its frequency, the programme was ________ in a number of experimental settings with a paired associated method of learning new words. The experimental results suggest that an approach combining the two methods is most advisable.

1.

A．inquires

B．requires

C．receives

D．inspires

2.

A．difficult

B．easy

C．possible

D．necessary

3.

A．copy

B．focus

C．find

D．clean

4.

A．however

B．moreover

C．because

D．nevertheless

5.

A．disturb

B．seem

C．occur

D．disappear

6.

A．solution

B．approach

C．problem

D．wonder

7.

A．official

B．annual

C．objective

D．alternative

8.

A．predicted

B．presented

C．postponed

D．preferred

9.

A．available

B．outstanding

C．attractive

D．evident

10.

A．by means of

B．moreover

C．in spite of

D．however

11.

A．focus

B．analysis

C．object

D．target

12.

A．describe

B．grasp

C．link

D．force

13.

A．conclusions

B．appointments

C．aspects

D．contents

14.

A．react

B．establish

C．memorize

D．leave

15.

A．enhanced

B．invented

C．contrasted

D．behaved

10 . Everyone knows what makes a good story. Our hero starts their journey as a flawed being. In scene after scene, they face challenges that push them down new paths. By the end of the talc, they overcome setbacks and become a better person in the process.

We love these plots in the novels we read but the principles of a good story offer much more than entertainment. Recent research shows that the narratives we tell ourselves about our lives can powerfully help us recover from stress. People who generate tales of struggling and turning over a new leaf from their own lives appear to have much better mental health. Professor Dan McAdams put forward this idea and discovered that whether someone can describe having had some control over events in their past is an important predictor of mental health. Another key theme involved is finding some kind of positive meaning after stressful events.

McAdams invited 14 and 15-year-olds to join in an experiment to write about their experiences of failure and success. Half of them were then given extra instructions to describe the ways they had made their success a reality and how the failure had changed them for the better. Eight weeks later, members of this group reported greater persistence and better grades in their schoolwork.

Exciting as these results are, some experts sound a few notes of caution. They worry that, hearing about the power of self-narratives, many people may feel they have to find a positive turning point in life. If they can’t, they could end up feeling guilty about having somehow “failed”.

Clearly, self-narratives aren’t the panacea. Nevertheless, if you hope for self-improvement, you can use the findings to good effect. By recognizing ourselves as the hero at the center of our own struggles, we can all become the author of our own destiny and change ourselves for the better.

1. What does the research focus on?

A．The causes of stress.

B．The principles of narrative.

C．The connection between struggle and well-being.

D．The link between mental health and self-narratives.

2. Why is the experiment mentioned in paragraph 3?

A．To give proof.	B．To make predictions.
C．To draw a conclusion.	D．To make comparisons.

3. What does the underlined word “panacea” in the last paragraph refer to?

A．Attempt to get rid of worries.	B．Means of recognizing yourself.
C．Solution to adolescent problems.	D．Guarantee to become better people.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Embrace Life Struggles	B．Be Your Own Hero
C．Ways to Make a Good Story	D．The Power of Self-improvement