1 . Encourage Your Teens to Play More
Parents are generally aware of the importance of play for younger kids. But when kids hit the teen stage, it can be confusing to know what play looks like because kids of this age don’t engage in“play“the way younger kids do. Obviously, play changes as kids grow. And parents begin to wonder whether they should continue to encourage their teens to play.
Playfulness doesn’t go away in childhood; creativity is just as important in adolescence. Adolescence is a time of rapid brain development and self-inquiry — a stage where people can figure out who they are and where the opportunity to stretch in different directions really builds intelligence.
How to Encourage Play in Teens? Teens feel the tension of being pulled toward adulthood while also wanting to regress (退回) toward childhood.
| A．Mental health is another benefit of play for teens. |
| B．When engaged in play, teens typically feel joyful. |
| C．In the end, play will look different from teen to teen. |
| D．Sometimes it’s like they need permission to be silly again. |
| E．In addition, parents can offer up raw materials and the time and space to use them. |
| F．During this period, play can help teens grow and discover things about themselves. |
| G．Actually, people of all ages benefit from play, including and especially teenagers. |
2 . Dreaming appears to have little connection to work. However, new research shows that when dreams are first recalled, people often draw connections between their dreams and waking lives, and the connections they draw alter how they think, feel and act at work.
The team performed the studies that collectively captured approximately 5,000 morning reports of dream recall among full-time employees. The researchers issued morning field study, a single-day morning-to-afternoon study, and a twoweek experience sampling study.
“An awe-inspiring dream is highly impactful and memorable, often involving extraordinary experiences or interactions. For example, we arrive at work shortly after interacting with deceased (逝去的) loved ones, narrowly escaping or performing arts of immeasurable ability,” Belinda, the chief of the study, said. “Regardless of our personal beliefs about dreams, these experiences bleed into and affect our waking lives, including how productive we are at work.”
Say you recall an awe-inspiring dream in the morning, and, then later in the afternoon, your boss tells you to conduct 10 more interviews than you were expecting to do. You might now think that it’s not that big a deal because your awe-inspiring dream just put everything into perspective. You have a greater realization that there’s a bigger world out there and you’re just part of it or that you’re connected to everything.
“So, get a good night’s sleep for waking wonder!” Belinda added. Studies show that dreams occur in all stages of sleep and are impactful regardless of sleep habits. However, the most vivid dreams — those most likely to have meaning and create waking wander — occur during REM sleep. Because REM sleep takes place late in a given sleep cycle, getting sufficient, high-quality sleep will help you get the most out of your dreams. Sleep tracking devices can indicate when and how much time you spend in REM sleep, which help improve sleep schedules to increase the chance of having awe-inspiring dreams. For both managers and employees, how much or how well people slept really means a lot, which can increase productivity at work.
1. What is paragraph 2 intended to explain?| A．Why a dream is recorded. | B．How the study is conducted. |
| C．What the study revealed. | D．Who joined in the research. |
| A．Failing a tough test. | B．Meeting with strangers. |
| C．Being stuck in a traffic accident. | D．Saving people like a superman. |
| A．Productive sleep. | B．Sleep-tracking study. |
| C．Good REM sleep. | D．Healthy living habits. |
| A．Dreams impact all sleep stages. |
| B．Dreams can be channeled for productivity. |
| C．Dreams contribute to one’s mental health. |
| D．Dreams are attracting greater attention worldwide. |
“I want a friend!” my five-year-old’s clear blue eyes showed the pain of rejection. Noah is deaf, and the past couple of years have begun to show what the future holds for my little guy.
The first few years of his life, Noah had many friends in our neighborhood. Small children don’t talk a lot and are content to simply play. As time passed and Noah got to the age where speech and hearing were a noticeable part of “hanging out”, his friends started realizing he was different. Soon, no one came to play with my tiny son, and he too began to understand he was different. My heart has ached, and I have spent endless hours in tears, begging God to send him a friend. But the children at school come from everywhere, and none live near enough to “hang out” .
Noah recently began the heartbreaking hobby of writing and leaving mail on the porch (门廊) for his “friends” . He sticks his own toys to the notes, thinking that he can somehow make friends this way. I often have to retrieve (取回) his notes so that he thinks someone is getting his messages of friendship. His excited trips to the front porch the next morning would sometimes net him a feeling of having an unseen pen pal. It breaks my heart.
But today was different. I got a miracle—in fact, three of them.
My phone rang, and I was distracted with a long-distance friend, catching up with each other’s lives without noticing Noah slipping out the front door. It wasn’t until Nick, my sixteen-year-old son came home for lunch that Noah’s absence was known. Panic-stricken, Nick and I searched the house, yard, and garage ... no Noah.
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。
As I searched the house again, a million frightened thoughts came through my brain.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I let them play until lunchtime, at last walking down the street to retrieve my child.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Ming City Wall Ruins Park, one of the best parks in Beijing,
The Ming Dynasty City Wall from Dongbianmen to Chongwenmen is one of the only two remaining Ming Dynasty City Walls in Beijing.
Using a simple design, the park highlights the beauty of the
5 . The Post-holiday Blues
The holiday season—from Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day—can be a joyful and relaxing time for many people, but once the festivities wind down, sadness and loneliness can creep in.
After an exciting event like the holidays, there is often a feeling of disappointment or let-down. Looking ahead to something like the holidays can feel exciting.
What can cause the Post-Holiday Blues? The reasons for the post-holiday blues can vary from person to person. Some people may have trouble with the holidays themselves—the grand expectations, reminders of lost or estranged loved ones, financial burdens.
If any feelings of post-holiday blues begin impacting your daily functioning, like making it hard to get out of bed, go to work or school, leave the house, spend time with others, or accomplish small tasks. Besides, it may be worth checking in with a healthcare provider.
| A．What are the post-holiday blues? |
| B．Some people may dislike holidays. |
| C．It’s an idea known as the post-holiday blues. |
| D．What can we do to deal with the post-holiday blues? |
| E．It is important to recognize that this phenomenon is not uncommon. |
| F．But when the event has passed, the loss of that excitement can feel bad. |
| G．Others may receive a boost of happiness after spending time with friends and family. |
6 . A worldwide shift from fossil fuel-powered cars to electric vehicles could significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that humans emit to the atmosphere. But current strategies for vehicle electrification (电气化) can also shift some pollution to communities already suffering under higher economic, health and environmental burdens, researchers warn.
California, which leads the United States by a mile when it comes to EV adoption, offers a window into this evolving problem. The state is aggressively seeking to reduce its carbon footprint and has made substantial increases in wind and solar power generation as well as in the promotion of electric vehicle purchases. One tool the state has used is the California Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, or CVRP, which kicked off in 2010 and offers consumers money back for the purchase of new EVs.
Now, an analysis of the CVRP’s impact on the state’s air quality from 2010 to 2021 reveals both good and bad news, researchers report May 3 in PLOS Climate.
The good news is that the CVRP is responsible for making a dent in the state’s overall CO2 emissions, reducing them by about 280,000 metric tons per year on average. The bad news is that the most disadvantaged communities in the state didn’t see the same overall improvement in air quality. Those communities in fact saw an increase in one type of air pollution, tiny particulates known as PM2.5. That increase may be indirectly related to putting more EVs on the road. Although electric vehicles themselves don’t produce PM2.5 from their tailpipes, increased electricity generation, if it’s not fossil fuel-free, can. Renewable resources, including rooftop solar cells, supplied about half of California’s electricity in 2022. But natural gas-fired power plants still provide a large part of the state’s power.
“Electric vehicles are often incorrectly referred to as ‘zero-emission vehicles’, but they’re only as clean as the underlying electric grid (电网) from which the energy is sourced,” Mejía-Duwan says. The most disadvantaged 25 percent of the state’s communities also contain 50 percent of the power plants, the team found.
1. What do we know from paragraph 2?| A．California takes the lead in environmental protection. |
| B．Wind and solar power generation has dominated California. |
| C．California’s carbon footprint has been reduced as planned. |
| D．The launch of CVRP is intended to promote electric vehicle purchases. |
| A．adjustment. | B．shift. | C．reduction. | D．increase |
| A．Putting more EVs on the road. | B．Increased electricity generation. |
| C．Warming climate. | D．Increased rooftop solar cells. |
| A．Zero emission for EVs can’t be ensured nowadays. |
| B．‘Zero emission’ isn’t good enough to describe EVs. |
| C．EVs, with no zero emission, shouldn’t be advocated. |
| D．EVs have a promising future as zero emission vehicles. |
7 . Zibo has long sought to publicize its unique idea on roasted skewers (串肉扦) of meat, vegetables, seafood and other foodstuffs in the hope of attracting business. But it was only in March, when college students tried the barbecue food, took videos of themselves enjoying it, and posted the clips on social media that it went viral. Since then, young people from across the country have flocked to Zibo to try its barbecued food.
During weekends last month, Yang Benxin, who has run a barbecue restaurant in the city for nearly three decades, used a loudspeaker to tell people waiting in line for a table to choose another restaurant because the meat at his business had sold out. Yang’s restaurant has 200 tables, which can accommodate about 1,000 diners. But almost every weekend for the past month, the number of people visiting the restaurant rose beyond its capacity, forcing him to tell those waiting to try elsewhere.
In Zibo, the food on barbecue skewers is 70-80 percent precooked before it is brought to the table, where diners complete the cooking process on small stoves fueled by hot coals. Zhang Hanzhe, 27, who visited Zibo with friends from Jinan, capital of Shandong, during the May Day holiday to try the city’s barbecued food, said, “We prepared the food according to our own tastes, and it’s also affordable.”
The authorities in Zibo have been quick to gain a further advantage from the sudden inflow of visitors. The market supervision and public security authorities acted to ensure food safety and reasonable pricing in the barbecue sector, while the city’s public transportation company launched bus routes especially for people visiting barbecue restaurants. The city issued a notice ahead of the May Day holiday, warning that hotels in Zibo that raised their room rates by more than 50 percent during the holiday would be punished.
Qu Chuang, a professor at Shandong University’s School of Economics, doubted whether the barbecue craze in Zibo would last long, but said the city’s biggest gain is that it is now known by more people.
1. What made the barbecue in Zibo go viral?| A．The government’s efforts to publicize it. |
| B．College students’ videos of themselves enjoying it. |
| C．Young people’s craziness about Zibo’s culture. |
| D．Zibo’s specially tailored policies about it. |
| A．To prove the popularity of Zibo’s barbecue. |
| B．To highlight the poor capacity of Zibo’s restaurants. |
| C．To call for improvements in Zibo’s services. |
| D．To warn potential visitors of the inconvenience. |
| A．Its advantages outweigh its disadvantages. | B．It might cool down eventually. |
| C．It is of no benefit in the long run. | D．It is of little help in Zibo’s popularity. |
| A．Zibo sets hot pace with economic transformation |
| B．Zibo unintentionally draws eyes to its economic transformation |
| C．Zibo achieves its goal of economic transformation |
| D．Zibo starts heated arguments about economic transformation |
8 . HONG KONG — At the school where Ko Cheuk-kiu works, there are neither school bells ringing nor students running around the playground. “You look good today. Shall we review the text together?” After greeting her student Hei Hei, Ko, in a light blue uniform, turns on her tablet computer and begins to teach at the bedside.
Founded in 1954, the Hong Kong Red Cross Hospital Schools initially provided services in only one public medical institution. Now, it is a special education institute funded by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, with 26 school units attached to 19 public hospitals. Its services are mainly divided into three fields — general specialty, psychiatry, and homebound teaching programs. The first two provide services for hospitalized students to reduce their difficulties in returning to school, while homebound teaching is aimed at students who need to stay at home to recover for a long period. Teachers are assigned to different hospitals or students’ homes and shift on a regular basis. Depending on the situation, teachers will carry out small group or one-on-one bedside teaching, and each session lasts about 30 minutes.
“Teaching children in a hospital? I was curious and keen to know more about it,” Ko recalls, explaining she first learned about the school from a newspaper report in 2009 when she had just finished her master’s degree in language. Ko, who also studied special education, applied for a teaching position at the school and was hired as a Chinese language teacher.
Teachers in hospitals have to meet students with different medical conditions and face all kinds of challenges every day, but Ko regards these experiences as training, which have led her to have a deeper appreciation of life. Over the years, Ko has received a lot of greeting cards from parents and students showing their appreciation. Looking at these warm words of encouragement, she silently sends her best wishes to the students. “I hope they can soon recover and go back to school, and continue to pursue their dreams,” she says.
1. What is Ko doing?| A．Teaching at home. | B．Teaching online. |
| C．Teaching in a hospital. | D．Teaching in a regular classroom. |
| A．It was founded by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government. |
| B．It offers teaching services for students both in hospital and at home. |
| C．It runs on money raised from the public. |
| D．It assigns teachers to the same hospitals or students’ homes. |
| A．Because she was curious about teaching. | B．Because she knew a lot about the school. |
| C．Because she just graduated from university. | D．Because she could apply what she had learned. |
| A．Passionate and dedicated. | B．Responsible and diligent. |
| C．Genuine and aggressive. | D．Self-centered and sensitive. |
9 . Once you know where you are going, arranging for the basic transportation is the next task.
Trains – Traveling by train has fallen out of favour with many travellers in North America, but trains are well worth considering when the location you are traveling to is well-served by trains. High speed train travel, when combined with rail passes, can also be a good way to get to different parts of a large country and avoid the stress of driving or flying. Be aware that long distance passenger train schedules are rarely accurate (especially in North America), so plan to give yourself a day or so before boarding and after leaving those trains.
Airlines – Airfares are usually cheaper when purchased in advance rather than at the last minute, so book your airline tickets first, then structure the rest of your trip around your arrival and departure times. Airfares vary on different days of the week and different times of the month and year, so if you’re flexible with your departure time, select that option on the booking website so cheaper fares can be found for you to consider.
Car rentals – If you are driving to a destination instead of flying, you will need to prepare for spending days on the road. It is also important to keep a close eye on car rental rates, since they can jump around based on demand, and even from location to location within a city or region.
Tours – Tours are great because everything is usually arranged for you. The downside is that you are part of a group, so no matter where you go, there is a crowd with you. You need to be flexible when traveling with a tour group because not all the arrangements (or possibly tour members) may suit you.
1. What do we know about traveling by train?| A．It’s North Americans’ favorite. | B．It is convenient in North America. |
| C．It might not guarantee your travel schedule. | D．It causes as much stress as driving. |
| A．The money charged varies. | B．Your flexibility is allowed. |
| C．Convenience is guaranteed. | D．No preparations are needed. |
| A．Trains. | B．Airlines. | C．Car rentals. | D．Tours. |
10 . All of us are afraid of something in life: moving to a new school, thunderstorms, or even a trip to the dentist. There are many scary things out there, and we should know how to overcome them.Here are some necessary steps which will help you overcome your fear and anxiety.
Notice How You Feel
You need to be able to talk about your emotions, no matter how hard it is.
When your fear and anxiety kick in, you often hear people say,“Take a deep breath”. Although you may not want to hear it, this strategy actually works. Mindfulness, meditation, breathing, and any other relaxation techniques help us calm down.
Challenge Your Negative Thoughts
You need to be able to challenge your negative thoughts. Ask yourself:“What am I afraid of really?” Make time to talk about your negative thoughts and write about what happened.
Find Value In Pain
Pain is the most effective teacher that you will come across.
| A．Breathe Properly |
| B．Own Your Fears |
| C．No one likes it but pain is necessary. |
| D．Being afraid is totally okay but we must learn to overcome it. |
| E．After all this, you need to develop a response that will make you feel better. |
| F．You need to be able to identify the feelings that clue you into your emotional state. |
| G．Once you do this, you will know whether you are creating a goal for yourself or not. |
