1 . 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。

2024 is the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese calendar and it is the first time that the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)    1     (include) the term “Chinese dragon” in its dictionary. The Chinese dragon has two definitions in the OED, with the first one about its physical image and the second one on its figurative and allusive (典故的) nature.

Emperors in ancient dynasties were dressed in a Dragon Robe, a traditional silk-woven costume with dragon designs,     2     (symbolize) imperial power and authority. Jade Seals (玉玺), often     3     (carve) with dragons, also symbolize the authority of the emperor.

Contrary     4     the Western dragon, the image of the Chinese dragon, despite undergoing constant changes, has represented various’ positive     5     (quality) including prosperity, authority, strength and good fortune.

In ancient Chinese belief, dragons     6     (associate) with the control of the weather, particularly rain. The dragon’s ability to bring rain was seen as crucial for agriculture, which made it     7     positive symbol for the fertility of the land.

With the rising China Chic trend and the country’s booming cultural creative industry, the Chinese dragon in folktale is now     8     (common) seen in creative products such as tear-off calendars, dolls, dragon-themed jewelry as well as the “dragon blind boxes”     9     appeal to young consumers.

Whether it is through the hands of a national-level intangible (非物质) cultural heritage inheritor     10     the hands of a Generation Z “blind box” designer, the Chinese dragon carries forward the Chinese cultural spirit.

2 . Have you tried to run or walk for exercise and then given up? If you answered yes, you should try a new kind of exercise: aquatic (水中的) exercise. Aquatic exercise is like exercise on land, but you do it in a swimming pool. More and more people are trying aquatic exercise now.

Aquatic exercise feels easier than exercising on land. Why? You weigh about 90% less in the pool. It is better for your knees than running or walking. Water is about 1,000 times thicker and heavier than air. To move through the water, your body has to work four times as hard. As a result, you can burn more calories (卡路里).

In fact, most people say they feel more relaxed in the water. They stop thinking about the things that make them worried. They feel in control of their bodies. The cool, quiet environment makes them feel good.

But what if you are afraid of the water? No problem! There is nothing to worry about. Aquatic exercise is safe and easy to learn. It doesn’t require any special skills. You don’t even need to know how to swim. Aquatic exercise is for everyone.

1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．Difference between air and water.

B．Weight change of one’s body.

C．The advantages of aquatic exercise.

D．The ways to do aquatic exercise.

2. What do most people think of aquatic exercise?

A．Relaxing.	B．Worrying.
C．Challenging.	D．Boring.

3. According to the passage, aquatic exercise is _________.

A．done in groups	B．fit for everyone
C．difficult to learn	D．done with special skills

4. In which part of a magazine can we read the passage?

A．Culture.	B．Health.
C．Nature.	D．Travel.

3 . There are many costs of having a negative attitude in the workplace. Employees who don't feel appreciated work less productively. They can have conflicts with other members. Negative bosses spread their bad feelings to employees. Here are some ways to develop a positive spirit in your workplace.

Be a model of kindness and respect. Employees look up to their bosses for an example of how to behave in the workplace.     1     It is far better to be patient, kind, and respectful. This is a great way to bring positivity to the workplace.

    2     When employees are thanked for their good work, it gives them a warm feeling. Everyone likes to be appreciated, and employees often toil(辛苦工作) for years without being thanked for their hard work. Even “thank you” and a hand-shake go a long way toward making an employee feel appreciated.

Make goals clear for everyone. Having a concrete goal to work toward gives employees direction and positivity in the workplace. Employees like to know that their hard work is directed toward a particular end.     3     This can be as simple as expressing your pride during a staff meeting.

Put on a smile. Even if you’re having a difficult day, you can spread positivity by smiling. When a boss is smiling, their employees find reasons to smile, too.    4    

Have an office wellness program. Have your human resources staff arrange a fitness program for your employees.     5     Don't be punitive(惩罚性的) and tiring. Letting your employees have a break to relax will make them happier and more productive.

A．Make it fun.

B．Encourage communication.

C．Have an attitude of gratitude.

D．When the goals are reached, have a little celebration.

E．When employees are not listened to, they feel unappreciated.

F．If the boss is disrespectful, that will become part of the company culture.

G．Dealing with a boss who is always serious makes the employees difficult to work with.

4 . For my daughter's 19th birthday, we bought her tickets to go and see Linkin Park, as they were playing in our city. We didn't really have the ________ but we knew how much this band meant to her.

The night before she was like a ________ at Christmas. Every so often she got up and came to ________ with us, because she couldn't ________ . On the night of the concert it was good to see her so ________ and excited, as she and her boyfriend set off.

Needless to say when they ________ after midnight, with T-shirts and lots of pictures of the band, ________ her telling about how fantastic they had been, we knew the money had been well ________ . This will be a memory she would never forget, and nor would we.

________ full of excitement from the night before, the following day they ________ to go shopping on the other side of the city. My husband and I laughed, loving the fact that she had not ________   that quality as she grew up.

Later that day they returned, with faces full of happiness and warmth. They presented my husband and me with a ________ each. On each present were the words "Because you are the ________ mum/dad in the world. "When we expressed our thanks and told her she didn't have to, we asked her why she had bought us gifts. Her answer was simply "Just because I love you."

This wasn't something ________ from our daughter; she had always given us gifts when she wanted to express her ________ , and each gift was always a welcome surprise. It could have been anything, it wouldn't have mattered, and it was the act itself and the feelings behind it.

1.

A．money

B．time

C．interest

D．news

2.

A．worker

B．baby

C．kid

D．parent

3.

A．dance

B．learn

C．walk

D．sit

4.

A．speak

B．sleep

C．stand

D．leave

5.

A．healthy

B．happy

C．pretty

D．surprised

6.

A．stayed

B．left

C．returned

D．turned

7.

A．worrying about

B．caring for

C．looking at

D．listening to

8.

A．lent

B．earned

C．saved

D．spent

9.

A．Still

B．Only

C．Just

D．Also

10.

A．continued

B．tried

C．decided

D．struggled

11.

A．kept

B．lost

C．realized

D．discovered

12.

A．gift

B．prize

C．ticket

D．picture

13.

A．richest

B．oldest

C．best

D．cleverest

14.

A．important

B．ordinary

C．new

D．valuable

15.

A．feelings

B．concerns

C．understandings

D．opinions

5 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

“No conversation” or “less conversation“ seemed incompatible with businesses like hair salons and barber shops, where conversation     1     (basic) is part of the service.

However, one Tokyo salon decided to implement the ”silent cut“ service     2     it proved so popular that others quickly followed suit.

“It’s great… ! I’ve been waiting for this service for 20 years. Because chatting is so depressing, I only get     3     haircut every 3 years, ” one person wrote about the silent cut service.

“I     4     (save) because the conversation with the hairdresser is troublesome,” someone else commented. A recent survey revealed that over 70 percent of respondents preferred the silent experience, with the most common explanations     5     (be) that they found it more relaxing, as they were able to rest instead of spending what little energy they had left on hearing     6     (want) information and making small talk.

As     7     turns out, hair stylists prefer the silent cut as well. “I started chatting because I was taught in my early days     8     (talk) to customers and get information about their preferences, but focusing on topics that I didn’t like     9     (make) me feel very uncomfortable, so I decided to put their     10     (private) first, ”one hairstylist said.

6 . People use laughter to connect and bond with others. It’s how we tell friends that we find their jokes funny, or how kids in a park show that they are having fun. Laughter is so important to humans, even if they belong to different cultures or speak different languages. What about animals? Scientists are studying if there is a connection between animals’ laughing and playing.

Sasha Winkler, from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), studies biological anthropology (人类学)，including the study of animal behavior. She noticed that the small monkeys she worked with, liked to play together by chasing each other. While having fun together, they made panting (喘气) sounds, almost like they were out of breath, which reminded Winkler of their quiet laughter. This made Winkler wonder whether other animals did so while they were playing.

To find out whether other animals laugh and play, Winkler teamed up with another scientist named Greg Bryant, a professor and vice chair in the Department of Communication at UCLA. Together, they found and read dozens of reports written by other scientists who study animals. Winkler and Bryant looked for any mentions in any animal of sound signaling like the panting of the monkeys during their playing.

In April 2021, Winkler and Bryant published their findings in a science journal. Through their research, they identified 65 species or groups of animals, which laugh while playing. The animals that laugh the most include primates (灵长类) like monkeys and apes, rodents (啮齿动物) like rats, and mammals that live in the ocean like dolphins. Their work won’t only help us understand animals better but it could also help us understand how humans develop or change over time. Next, they will carry on more study to find more.

1. What is the function of paragraph 1?

A．To conclude the main idea.

B．To put forward the topic.

C．To offer the supporting evidences.

D．To add the background information.

2. What are the small monkeys like when they are having fun?

A．They can hardly breathe.

B．They tend to laugh separately.

C．They laugh at a low sound.

D．They don’t laugh at all.

3. What do we know about Winkler and Bryant’s study?

A．It is great progress in the study of animals and humans.

B．It is only based on the findings in a science journal.

C．Over 65 groups of animals laugh while playing.

D．They do the research only by studying primates and rodents.

4. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?

A．Science.

B．Education.

C．Health.

D．Entertainment.

7 . When you sleep, your brain sorts through everything ________ happened during the day, trying to link new experiences to old memories. (用适当的词填空)

8 . Last summer holiday, Aunt Emily took us to a safari park (野生动物园), not far from Liverpool.

I was very happy to go as I had never been to a safari park before. It’s a very interesting park, full of wild animals running freely.

When we got there, we bought our tickets and drove into the park. We were very excited at the thought of going to see the lions. But to get to the lions’ place we had to go through the monkeys’ land first. And that was an unforgettable experience because they climbed all over the car, ate apples and bananas, and threw all kinds of things at us. They seemed very unfriendly.

Anyway, we went on our way to the lions’ place where we had to lock ourselves in the car as we knew lions could be dangerous. A lion came up very close to us. Then it was on the bonnet (车盖). It looked calm but we felt terrified. Aunt Emily, who isn’t very brave, started to call for help. The kids started crying. Only my brother, George, stayed cool. I sounded the horn (喇叭) but nobody heard us.

In the end a guard arrived in his car, and the lion just got off our car and started smelling the guard’s hand as if nothing was the matter.

1. Which animal did the author want to see the most?

A．The lions.

B．The elephants.

C．The monkeys.

D．All of them.

2. Why did they lock themselves in the car?

A．Because the monkeys might steal things.	B．Because they were afraid of being robbed.
C．Because the lions might be dangerous.	D．Because something was wrong with the car.

3. What does the underlined word “terrified” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Excited.

B．Bored.

C．Interested

D．Scared

4. Who stayed calm among the visitors when they met the lion?

A．Aunt Emily.

B．George.

C．The guard.

D．The author.

9 . ——You didn’t watch the film last night, _________?
——_________, but I missed the beginning.

A．did I; Yes, I did	B．did you; No, I didn’t
C．did you; Yes, I did	D．did I; No, I didn’t

10 . We ______ TV when the telephone _______.

A．watched; was ringing

B．were watching; rang

C．watch; rings

D．are watching; rang