1 . Twelve-year-old Catherine has a lot of friends—632, actually, if you count up her online friends. And she spends a lot of time with them.
But is it possible that Catherine’s online friendships could be making her lonely? That’s what some experts believe. Connecting online is a great way to stay in touch, they say. However, some experts worry that many kids are so busy connecting online that they might be missing out on true friendships.
Could this be true? During your parents’ childhoods, connecting with friends usually meant spending time with them in the flesh. Kids played Scrabble around a table, not words with friends on their phones. When friends missed each other, they picked up the telephone. Friends might even write letters to each other.
Today, most communication takes place online. A typical teen sends 2,000 texts a month and spends more than 44 hours per week in front of a screen. Much of this time is spent on social media platform.
In fact, in many ways, online communication can make friendships stronger. “There’s definitely a positive influence. Kids can stay in constant contact, which means they can share more of their feelings with each other,” says Katie Davis, co-author of The App Generation.
Other experts, however, warn that too much online communication can get in the way of forming deep friendships. “If we are constantly checking in with our virtual world, we will have little time for our real-world friendships,” says Larry Rosen, a professor at California State University. Rosen also worries that today’s kids might mistake the “friends” on the social media for true friends in life. However, in tough times, you don’t need anyone to like your picture or share your blogs. You need someone who will keep your secrets and hold your hand. You would like to talk face to face.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To tell about true friends. | B．To start a discussion. |
| C．To encourage online friendships. | D．To summarize(总结) the text. |
| A．In any case. | B．In public. | C．In person. | D．In advance. |
| A．Unconcerned. | B．Positive. | C．Worried. | D．Confused. |
| A．Teenagers need to focus on real-world friendships. | B．It’s easier to develop friendships in real life. |
| C．It’s wise to turn to friends online. | D．Social media help people stay closely connected. |
Highland barley (青稞) has been a main food of Xizang for thousands of years. Recently, it has helped Chinese bakers win international awards in Europe.
Lin Yeqiang and Feng Yingjie
The event was held at the Baking Exhibition Center in Munich,
“This shows that highland barley has been recognized by the international baking industry, and that it provides a new alternative to high-end baking flour,” said Wang Zi, coach of the Chinese bakery team. Highland barley has
“Using highland barley to make fermented seeds integrates traditional Chinese cultural elements with their baking and gives the world a better understanding
3 . Finding a California condor in the wild would be the most unusual treat. perhaps even more unusual than finding a wolf in Yellowstone National Park. In fact, the wolf was what opened my eyes to the fact that humans could bring an animal back to the place where it had disappeared.
In 1987, there were only 27 California condors left, none of which were in the wild, only in captive breeding programs, It was those breeding programs that contributed to their population rise, enough that by 1991 some of them could be freed into the wild.
Still, the hope of seeing a California condor, which remains an endangered species, is very low, let alone getting a photo of one. California condor population dropped mostly due to human factors, such as poaching and living areas destruction-these are challenges California condors still face today.
Although this is just a bird’s-eye view of the challenges California condors face and there are many others, it is part of why the opportunity to work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service team and their partners helping their recovery is so special to me as a photographer. I am not only able to photograph the birds in their wild living areas, but also understand and record how difficult the work is of those people on the front lines of the protection.
I am grateful for the work of the team, and my hope is that California condor population will continue to rise allowing future generations an opportunity I never had when I first got here-to look to the sky and see one flying around.
1. What helped the increase of the California condor population in 1987?| A．Rules for hunters. | B．Captive breeding programs. |
| C．The improved natural environment. | D．The enlargement of wild living areas. |
| A．It is difficult. | B．It is easy. | C．It is boring. | D．It is dangerous. |
| A．He guided ways for them. | B．He made records by photos. |
| C．He helped the birds to recover. | D．He rebuilt the birds’ living areas. |
| A．New Way, New Hope | B．Wolves and California Condors |
| C．A Photo of a California Condor | D．The California Condor’s Coming Back |
4 . A lot of people find it difficult to do exercise regularly, even though they know it’s good for their physical and mental (身心上的) health. Yet keeping on a workout routine doesn’t necessarily go to the gym or run around your neighborhood. Gardening is a great example of a popular hobby that can be used as a workout.
Nashville resident Tom Adkinson, 72, is on board with the idea of gardening to stay fit. He has three gardens, which he uses primarily to grow tomatoes, sweet banana peppers and okra. Like traditional exercise, Adkinson does a lot of preparation before gardening, and then he spends hours watering and weeding (除草) all three gardens, involving bending and stretching, which he compares to performing garden yoga.
“It is wise of Adkinson to do so. Even though gardening may not appear difficult, using the body in new ways can make you hurt if you don’t warm up beforehand,” said Zeller, who teaches at the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cape May County in New Jersey.
Working in your garden just two hours a week could improve your mood. And the communal gardening, which is done by a number of people as a group in communities and schools, provides social benefits that can reduce stress and help fight against loneliness and even dementia according to studies.
“With all these benefits, gardening for fitness will be a trend (趋势) in the coming year,” announced Mandal, CEO of the fitness coaching app Future, “Our users at Future have already been asking their coaches to add gardening and landscaping activities into their routines because it’s easy to get and fit into their lifestyle.”
1. What do the underlined words “on board with” mean in paragraph 2?| A．In support of. | B．At the risk of. |
| C．Under the control of. | D．In opposition to. |
| A．Having a good rest. |
| B．Getting enough water ready. |
| C．Doing warm-up exercise. |
| D．Preparing tools for weeding. |
| A．Tips for gardening. |
| B．The benefits of gardening. |
| C．The process of garden management. |
| D．The difference between personal and group gardening. |
| A．Running. | B．Yoga. | C．Gardening. | D．Walking. |
Denia Escutia, born in Pajaro, dreamed of moving to Southern California to learn how to care for sick kids in University of California at Los Angeles(UCLA). But when a river swallowed her town and destroyed her home, she delayed those dreams to take care of her family instead.
Escutia, who is 18, is a recent high school graduate. In the predawn hours of March 11, Escutia woke up to find flood water in her room, which was ankle-deep in just a few minutes.
Ecutia’s family, scared and panicked, unplugged appliances and threw anything they could onto tables, counters and beds. But Escutia’s family didn’t feel like they needed to leave.
Her mom was shocked by electrical currents in the water. That’s when her family decided to flee, escaping in waist-deep water to an apartment building across the street. A few hours later, they caught a ride out of the town in military rescue vehicles. On the way to her grandmother’s, Escutia wondered if she would ever call Pajaro home again.
When she returned to Pajaro in late March, she found her house was filled with mud. A photo of her in a blue and black dress still hung on the living room wall. But the house was not fit to live in.
Leaving the house she grew up in, Escutia locked the door. Officials hung a yellow and black sign from the house that read: “Lawful only to enter for permitted cleanup purposes. ”
Escutia had just been admitted to UCLA. She had not yet shared the good news with her family. After the flood, her happy secret quickly transformed into a burden. She couldn’t decide between pursuing her dream in Southern California and staying to help her family.
“I haven’t told my parents yet, but I was planning on telling them,” she said to her teacher. “All I can think about is how I’ m going to be able to help my parents through this, especially financially.”
Escutia’s mother searched all over the area to find a new home to rent but she didn’t find any in her price range. The family were in a seemingly endless search for affordable housing.
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作答。
At last, one of Escutia’s teachers invited her family to live in her house.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Escutia finally told her parents that she had been admitted to UCLA.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1. 比赛介绍；
2. 作品要求；
注意：1. 写作词数应为80个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Murphy,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
7 . If you want to do well in class, studying is one of the best things you can do to boost your grade. The following tips will help you do your best in class.
·Study in 1-hour blocks.
·Plan regular breaks.
Step away for a few minutes every hour so you don’t feel overworked. Since studying takes up a lot of energy and brainpower, schedule in 5-10 minutes every hour when you just relax.
·
Work on difficult concepts when you have the most energy. It might sound like a good idea to save tough subjects for later, but you won’t feel as motivated to learn about them. Instead, choose the class or subject you have the most trouble with and work on it right away when you sit down to study.
·Rewrite your notes in your own words.
Organizing your notes helps you keep information a lot easier. Go through all of the notes you’ve taken and pick out the information you think is most important. Rewrite the notes on a separate page or in a different notebook.
•Reward yourself when you finish.
Treat yourself to something small when you reach your study goals.
| A．Focus on hard topics first. |
| B．Schedule time to study every day. |
| C．Avoid working through the breaks you’ve scheduled. |
| D．Keep your study sessions shorter so you don’t get worn out. |
| E．In this way, all of the similar information is organized and easy to read. |
| F．Find a place where you won’t have trouble concentrating on the material. |
| G．Give yourself something to look forward to when you finish your studies. |
8 . As the planet gets hotter, the need for cool living environments is becoming more urgent. But air conditioning is a major contributor to global warming since units release powerful greenhouse gases and use lots of energy.
Now, researchers from McGill University, UCLA and Princeton have found in a new study an inexpensive, sustainable alternative to mechanical cooling with refrigerants (制冷剂) in hot and dry climates, and a way to relieve dangerous heat waves during electricity blackouts.
The researchers set out to answer how to achieve a new benchmark (基准) in passive cooling inside naturally conditioned buildings in hot climates such as Southern California. As an attempt, they examined the use of roof materials that radiate (辐射) heat into the cold universe, even under direct sunlight, and how to combine them with temperature-driven ventilation (通风). These cool radiator materials and coatings are often used to stop roofs overheating. Researchers have also used them to improve heat rejection from chillers. But there is untapped potential for integrating them into architectural design more fully, so they can not only reject indoor heat to outer space in a passive way, but also drive regular and healthy air changes.
“We found we could maintain air temperatures several degrees below the current surrounding temperature, and several degrees more below a reference ‘gold standard’ for passive cooling,” said Remy Fortin, lead author and PhD candidate at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture. “We did this without sacrificing healthy ventilation air changes.” This was a considerable challenge, considering air exchanges are a source of heating when the aim is to keep a room cooler than the outside.
The researchers hope the findings will be used to positively impact communities suffering from dangerous climate heating and heatwaves. “We hope that materials scientists, architects, and engineers will be interested in these results, and that our work will inspire more complete thinking for how to integrate breakthroughs in radiative cooling materials with simple but effective architectural solutions,” said Remy Fortin.
1. What might cause researchers to look for an alternative to air conditioning?| A．The severe shortage of energy. | B．The greenhouse effect of air conditioning. |
| C．The increasing dangerous heatwaves. | D．The need for cool living environments. |
| A．To obtain ideas for their research. | B．To prevent roofs from overheating. |
| C．To find the best material for roofs. | D．To make roofs well ventilated. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Disapproving. | C．Positive. | D．Worried. |
| A．An effective architectural solution |
| B．A major contributor to global warming |
| C．A sustainable alternative to air conditioning |
| D．A more complete thinking for cooling materials |
9 . What is the happiest age? An evaluation of over 400 samples shows how subjective well-being develops over the course of a lifespan.
In their study, the researchers examined trends in subjective well-being over the lifespan based on 443 samples from longitudinal (纵向的) studies with a total of 460, 902 participants. “We focused on changes in three central components of subjective well-being: life satisfaction, positive emotional states and negative emotional states,” explains Professor Susanne Büeker, who initially worked on the study in Bochum.
The findings show that life satisfaction decreased between the ages of 9 and 16, then increased slightly until the age of 70, and then decreased once again until the age of 96. Positive emotional states showed a general decline from age 9 to age 94, while negative emotional states waved slightly between ages 9 and 22, then declined until age 60 and then increased once again.
The researchers owe the slight decline in life satisfaction between the ages of 9 and 16 to, for example, changes in the body and in the social life that take place during puberty (青春期). Satisfaction rises again from young adulthood onwards. Positive feelings tend to decrease from childhood to late adulthood.
In very late adulthood, all components of subjective well-being tended to worsen rather than improve. “This could be related to the fact that in very old people, physical performance and social contacts decrease, and health often deteriorates, not least because their peers pass away, ”guess the researchers.
The study highlights the need to consider and promote subjective well-being with its various components across the lifespan, as the authors of the study conclude. Their findings could provide significant guidance for the development of intervention programs, especially those aimed at maintaining or improving subjective well-being late in life.
1. What is mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．The focus of the study. | B．The significance of the study. |
| C．The result of the study. | D．The purpose of the study. |
| A．Their decreased social contacts. |
| B．Their physical and social-life changes. |
| C．The wave of their emotional states. |
| D．The influence from their school performances. |
| A．Improves. | B．Maintains. | C．Recovers. | D．Worsens. |
| A．Career guidance. | B．Intellectual development. |
| C．Senior health. | D．Public education. |
10 . As children, our mother always taught my brother and me the value of acquiring life skills. “It sets you apart,” she would say. While my brother chose the path of mastering musical instruments, I gravitated towards the field of languages. Growing up in a multilingual household where Mandarin, Cantonese, and English mixed, I felt it natural to continue exploring new linguistic possibilities.
Languages fascinated me. I was attracted by the way words gracefully rolled off tongues and how each language seemed to unlock a door to an entirely new world, no matter how challenging they were to learn.
Eager to try beyond Asian languages, it was my mother who suggested French as a suitable starting point. The elegance and poetic charm of the language quickly attracted me. The melodic flow and the way the words effortlessly danced off my tongue caused a thrilling feeling, fuelling my desire to explore deeper into its complexity. Interestingly, despite my passion and talent for it, French proved to be the language that took the longest to fully grasp. Nevertheless, I insisted and never gave up expanding my linguistic arsenal (宝库).
After realizing that Spanish wasn’t the right fit for me, I found myself addicted to the fascinating world of German. Being enrolled in a German-speaking school speeded my progress, and when two years, my command of German surpassed (超过) my years of studying French. As time passed, I added Latin, Ancient Greek, and Japanese to my linguistic arsenal.
It fact, speaking multiple languages is not a mere accomplishment; it is a joyous celebration of the richness of human expression. For me, it serves as a powerful tool to develop connections with others on a great level, where humanity unites in a shared pursuit of compassion, harmony and mutual respect.
1. Why did the author’s mother value acquiring life skills?| A．It contributes to future success. | B．It is a tradition in their family. |
| C．It is part of making a living. | D．It makes an individual outstanding. |
| A．It widened his world. | B．It was necessary for his future. |
| C．It was a valuable part of his life. | D．It boosted his confidence. |
| A．He showed little interest in it. | B．He found it challenging. |
| C．He considered it unsuitable. | D．He quit it halfway. |
| A．Organized. | B．Reliable. | C．Creative. | D．Determined. |
