1 . Gratitude, which is a positive emotional state, can have a profound impact on our mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
Gratitude offers us a way of embracing (拥抱) all that makes our lives what they are.
Robert Emmons is one of the world’s leading experts on the science of gratitude.
In one study involving nearly 300 adults seeking counseling services at a university, one group wrote a gratitude letter each week for three weeks. The gratitude group reported significantly better mental health (compared to the control group), 12 weeks after the last writing exercise.
A.He defines gratitude as having two parts. |
B.A little gratitude can do wonders for your mood. |
C.Gratitude isn’t just a happy feeling for our present lives. |
D.However, many people don’t realize the power of gratitude. |
E.Another type of written gratitude practice is counting blessings. |
F.Gratitude doesn’t necessarily mean showing appreciation for the things that are around you. |
G.In other words, gratitude helps realize they wouldn’t be where they are without the help of others. |
2 . The Ark
Shanghai International Dance Center Theater will present “The Ark” this weekend, a two-dance performance by Chinese and foreign female choreographers (编舞者).
“Build Beauty” by Chinese choreographer Gong Xingxing and “Last Man Standing” by German choreographer Sita Ostheimer, comprise “The Ark”. Artists from Xiexin Dance Theater will perform both works.
Time: December 23, 7:30 pm
Admission:180 — 580 yuan
Venue: Shanghai International Dance Center Theater
Belt and Road Initiative
The exhibition narrates the history of the ancient Silk Road and Shanghai’s modern development. It features over 250 documents, artifacts, photos and videos. About 80 percent of the exhibits are on display in Shanghai for the first time. Highlighted items include a tiny replica (模型) of the treasure ship of Zheng He and some historical documents.
Time: Through late April, 2024
Admission: Free
Venue: Shanghai Archives
Live in Love!
The Shanghai Rainbow Chamber Singers will lead audiences to welcome the New Year with a concert “Live in Love!”
Starting at 10:00 pm on Sunday, the concert features RCS’s original compositions covering the themes of love, memory, and farewells. The concert will end with the title song “Live in Love!” Audiences will be invited to stand up and set their emotions free together with the singers to welcome the New Year.
Time: December 31, 10:00 pm
Admission:180 — 1,080 yuan
Venue: Shanghai Oriental Art Center
Inside No. 9
The popular British TV series “Inside No. 9” has been adapted into an immersive (沉浸式的) live theater performance. Three “Inside No. 9” stories will be performed live for the audience. The specially designed seats and stages will provide audiences with a one-of-a-kind immersive theater experience.
Time: Through February 29, 2:50 pm/7:30 pm/8:20 pm
Admission:489 — 589 yuan
Venue: Shanghai Grand Theater
1. What is special about “The Ark”?A.It will contain dances from the East and the West. |
B.It will be composed all by German choreographers. |
C.It will provide specially designed stages. |
D.It will offer an immersive theater experience. |
A.Some brilliant dances. | B.Some operas with the theme of love. |
C.Some performances based on a TV play. | D.Some videos about the ancient Silk Road. |
A.The Ark. | B.Live in Love! | C.Belt and Road Initiative. | D.Inside No. 9. |
3 . Climate change causes tens of billions of dollars in economic damage in the United States every year. Climate change is expensive, deadly but preventable, according to the new National Climate Assessment, the most sweeping, sophisticated federal analysis of climate change compiled to date.
“Climate change affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us all equally,” says climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, one of the authors of the assessment.
“The research indicates that people with lower income have more trouble adapting to climate change, because adaptation comes at a cost,” says Solomon Hsiang, a climate economist at the University of California.
For example, one of the simplest ways to adapt to severe heat waves is to run your air conditioner more. But “if people can’t pay for it, then they can’t protect themselves,” explains Hsiang.
Weather-related disasters in the U. S. cause about $150 billion each year in direct losses, according to the report. That’s a lot of money and it’s only expected to go up as the Earth gets hotter. And the hotter it gets, the more profound the economic harm. Twice as much planetary warming leads to more than twice as much economic harm, the assessment warns.
But it also points out many successful efforts underway to adapt to the new reality and to prevent worse outcomes. “It’s not the message that if we don’t hit 1.5 degrees, we’re all going to die,” says Hayhoe. “It’s the message that everything we do matters. Every 10th of a degree of warming we avoid, there’s a benefit to that.”
There’s been a slight shift in the report’s perspective since the last one, says Candis Callison, a sociologist and author of the report. There’s now a clear acknowledgement, development, developed through years of rigorous research, that the fossil fuel-powered society the U. S. built over generations was profoundly unjust. “Climate change actually provides us with an opportunity to address some of those inequities (不公平) and injustices — and to respond to these impacts,” Callison says. “That’s really a powerful thing.”
1. What do Katharine Hayhoe and Solomon Hsiang stress about climate change?A.It results in lower income. | B.It leads to new unfairness. |
C.It needs immediate action. | D.It causes economic damage. |
A.Heat waves can be easily defeated. | B.Climate change leads to serious heat. |
C.Adapting to climate change is time-consuming. | D.Dealing with climate change is expensive. |
A.The potential risks of the new reality. | B.The consequences of not hitting 1.5 degrees. |
C.The value of each small effort underway. | D.The achievements we have made. |
A.Optimistic. | B.Doubtful. | C.Worried. | D.Uncaring. |
4 . Do you believe that most people are greedy or generous? It is easy to come up with examples of stories that could support either conclusion if we are relying on our memories or on our guts (直觉).
Recently, a team of researchers sought to investigate this question in partnership with the TED organization. TED generously gave away $10,000 each to 200 lucky individuals (yes, you read that correctly), which essentially means these participants won a lottery. Besides, they were asked to spend all the money in three months rather than save it). These participants were from three low-income countries (Indonesia, Brazil, Kenya) and four high-income countries (Australia, Canada, UK, USA). Over the next three months, participants were asked to track their spending to examine how generously or selfishly this money was spent. They reported their spending to the researchers a few months later.
Of the $10,000 participants received, they spent $6,431 on other people. To be clear, this also included certain behaviors in which the participants themselves benefited personally (such as taking their friends out to dinner or paying for a family vacation). But still, people are very generous. Participants gave away $1,697 strictly to charity or nonprofit organizations.
The researchers expected that if people publicly shared how they spent their money, they would be more generous. To check if this was correct, they asked half of the participants to post on Twitter about how they spent the money. The other half were asked to keep their spending “private”.
Surprisingly, the researchers saw that “generous spending was similar” between Twitter and private groups. The mini lottery winners were no more or less generous depending on whether they posted their spending on Twitter or kept it to themselves. The authors admitted they expected the Twitter group to spend more generously, but this prediction was not supported by the data. People did not need to have their spending shown publicly to behave generously.
1. What’s the purpose of the researchers?A.To confirm a scientific theory. | B.To research into human nature. |
C.To analyze people’s economic behaviour. | D.To classify people’s spending habits. |
A.It was divided into two stages. |
B.It focused on low-income people. |
C.The participants were required to report their spending. |
D.The participants could spend the money without restriction. |
A.People’s sharing how they spent. | B.People’s keeping their spending private. |
C.People’s spending habits in private. | D.People’s being more generous in public. |
A.Humans are fundamentally generous. | B.Money that is easily got will be spent soon. |
C.Sharing spending online makes people generous. | D.People prefer to keep their spending to themselves. |
5 . I was sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for my annual check-up. The doctor threw in a(n)
“So Robin, what are you going to do after high school? Why don’t you go to college to become a(n)
Go to college to become a doctor? Who was this man kidding? I thought he was
The doctor immediately looked at me straight in the eyes when he said very
Even though I wasn’t college material, what the doctor said
I began
I graduated with a master’s degree in September 2023, two decades after that
A.present | B.request | C.question | D.invitation |
A.teacher | B.expert | C.doctor | D.scientist |
A.crazy | B.boring | C.strange | D.considerate |
A.stable | B.average | C.formal | D.excellent |
A.complained | B.apologized | C.lied | D.replied |
A.smart | B.careful | C.outgoing | D.patient |
A.regretfully | B.proudly | C.gratefully | D.seriously |
A.impressed | B.disturbed | C.limited | D.discouraged |
A.pointed | B.returned | C.applied | D.adapted |
A.taking over | B.breaking down | C.setting aside | D.giving up |
A.promised | B.announced | C.agreed | D.discovered |
A.understand | B.avoid | C.control | D.achieve |
A.cooperation | B.experiment | C.conversation | D.argument |
A.wish | B.think | C.insist | D.recall |
A.purpose | B.influence | C.chance | D.choice |
In July 1971, I was taking a summer class in literature on the campus of SUNY Oneonta in upstate New York. Professor James walked into the classroom and announced that he had invited a special guest to class, but his guest had been delayed.
“Who’s coming?” someone asked.
“Alex Haley, who is the author of one of the books you have read for this class,” he said. “I need a volunteer to meet him in the lobby of the administration building and accompany him here.”
To my amazement, my right hand shot up as though it had a mind of its own. What was I doing? I wondered. I never volunteered for anything.
“Thank you, David,” Professor James said. “You’d better leave now. He’ll be arriving any minute.”
As I walked across campus, my anxiety grew as the massive administration building appeared ahead. I feared that I was about to embarrass myself in front of this famous gentleman by asking stupid questions. I reached the front steps and climbed them slowly.
As I pulled open the heavy glass door, I realized why I instinctively raised my hand to volunteer for this job. This man was what I wanted to be: a writer. He was living my dream. I could learn from him. I paced back and forth across the polished lobby floor until a black man with a briefcase entered the building. He stopped and scanned the lobby. His gaze fell on me.
I approached him and confirmed he was Mr. Haley. We shook hands and then began our walk across campus. I was struck by how approachable this man was. My fear was replaced by curiosity and purpose.
“Do you mind if I ask you a question?” I said. “No. Not at all,” he said.
“I’d like to become a writer, but I don’t know if I have the talent,” I said. “How did you discover that you had a gift for writing?”
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位置作答。
Mr. Haley laughed and said, “I didn’t. And I don’t.”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After communicating with Alex Haley, I no longer cared whether I had the “gift”.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1.简述此事;
2.你的看法。
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。
参考词汇:第78 届联合国大会 the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Bai Tinggui, who was born in the 1990s, is
Every time she met elderly passengers
Gradually, through her work, Bai became familiar
Bai Tinggui’s story is a beacon(灯塔) of hope
9 . This year, it was harder than ever to get into Harvard University. The prestigious college announced their lowest acceptance rate ever, welcoming only 1,968 of 57,435 first-year applicants into their hallowed halls. Thanks to Abigail Mack’s moving, insightful essay, she will be one of the lucky students to matriculate this fall.
The Massachusetts high school senior used TikTok to share a part of the essay that made her one of the 4 percent of applicants who made the cut. Her essay focused on an unusual theme: the letter “S.”
“I hate the letter ‘S’,” she read aloud on TikTok. “Of the 164,777 words with ‘S’, I only struggle with one. To condemn an entire letter because of its use 0.0006 percent of the time sounds statistically unreasonable, but that one case changed 100 percent of my life. I used to have two parents, but now I have one, and the ‘S’ in ‘parents’ isn’t going anywhere.”
“‘S’ follows me,” she continued. “I can’t get through a day without being reminded that while my friends went out to dinner with their parents, I ate with my parent. As I write this essay, there is a blue line under the word ‘parent’ telling me to check my grammar; even Grammarly assumes that I should have parents, but cancer doesn’t listen to edit suggestions.”
She went on to explain that she fled that dreaded letter by throwing herself into school activities. She joined clubs, sports, and performed in theatrical productions, all in an effort to lessen the pain of losing her mom. Eventually, she realized she was hiding from her pain and decided to face it head-on. She took over the “S” for her own purposes. Now, instead of thinking about the “S” in parents, she concentrates on the double “S” in passion.
Abigail’s essay earned her a spot at several top colleges and she has officially been accepted into the class of 2025 in Harvard. In the meantime, her essay has gone viral (走红) with over 16 million views!
1. What did the letter “S” mean to Abigail Mack?A.A terrible failure. | B.An unfortunate fact. |
C.A special challenge. | D.A meaningful experience. |
A.She isn’t good at spelling. | B.She has poor grammar. |
C.She has been struggling with cancer. | D.She has lost one of her parents. |
A.By writing more and more essays. | B.By reading all kinds of books. |
C.By participating in various activities. | D.By competing with others secretly. |
A.Teen’s Special Feeling for the Letter “S” | B.Teen’s Essay Won Great Popularity Online |
C.Teen’s Secret to Achieving Academic Success | D.Teen Got Admitted to Harvard for Her Essay |
1. 活动时间、地点;
2. 活动过程;
3. 活动意义。
注意:
1. 写作词数应为80词左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________