1 . Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has long worked to make her city less dependent on cars. She wanted to see more people using bicycles to get around. Over a number of years, the city government set limits on cars and increased the amount of bike paths from 200 kilometers to over 1,000 kilometers.
This year, Parisians are not complaining about too much automobile traffic. Instead, they say there are too many bikes. “Now, it’s really like a bike traffic jam(阻塞),” Thibault Quere, a spokesperson for France’s Federation of Bicycle Users, said. ”It’s kind of a good difficulty to have, especially when we think about what Paris used to be.”
Some famous roads along the River Seine are completely closed to cars. Now you see people riding bikes, running and walking with their families along the river. In another part of Paris, a bike path on Sebastopol Boulevard is one of the busiest in Europe, after opening in 2019. In one week in early September, it reached a record high of 124,000 riders.
The city will host the Summer Olympics in 2024 and plans to add more bike paths by then. Paris wants to reduce its pollution by half during the games, even as visitors from around the world will be in the city for the event. Organizers say all of the competition sites will be reachable by bike through a 60-kilometer network of bike paths.
The change to Paris, however, has not been easy. With more people using bikes, more people are making mistakes. Some of them are new to cycling and disobey traffic rules. But the environment may be improving. Cycling is good exercise and helps reduce pollution, which is still a problem for the large city. The French government blames atmospheric pollution for 48,000 early deaths in the country each year.
Hidalgo was re-elected in 2020 and plans to keep making what she calls a “Paris that breathes”. Her newest five-year bike plan includes over $250 million for more bike paths and bike parking. The new budget is an increase of over $100 million from her first five-year plan.
1. What can be learned from the second paragraph?| A．Hidalgo’s effort has paid off. | B．Parisians prefer to travel by car. |
| C．Parisians find it difficult to ride bikes. | D．Quere disagrees with Hidalgo. |
| A．To compare the famous roads in France. |
| B．To praise people enjoying riding bicycles. |
| C．To stress the importance of France in Europe. |
| D．To show how busy a cycle path is in Paris. |
| A．Tour local bike shops. | B．Ride to competition sites. |
| C．Promote the sights in France. | D．Support the athletes around the world. |
| A．Friendly. | B．Helpful. | C．Determined. | D．Honest. |
2 . Born in 1926, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was not originally chosen for the special position. However, that changed in 1936, when her father’s brother Edward Ⅷ gave up being the king and her father, George Ⅵ, took his place as the king. Suddenly, the 10-year-old was the heiress(女继承人).
Elizabeth’s royal(王室的)duties didn’t stop her interest in technology. During World War II, the princess wanted her father to allow her to do something for her country. Her father finally agreed to let her volunteer for the British Army, where she became a driver and trained in auto mechanics.
It was a pioneering move: Not only was she the first member of her family ever to serve in the military, but the sight of a woman taking apart engines and changing tires signalled a sea change in social and gender roles that would continue throughout the future queen’s lifetime.
In 1952, Elizabeth became queen of her country upon her father’s death. Her rule was modern from the very start. The new queen’s birth had roughly happened at the same time as the development of television, and during planning for her coronation(加冕礼)she broke with tradition and allowed the BBC to broadcast the event over live TV. It was the first coronation ever televised, and it literally created must-see TV.
Elizabeth came to power as the atomic age kicked into full swing, and she helped introduce the nation to those nuclear advances. In 1956, she opened the world’s first complete nuclear power station, Calder Hall. But the technology came with risk: The next year, a reactor at a nearby nuclear power plant, Windscale, caught fire, which was Great Britain’s worst nuclear disaster.
The queen also launched live broadcasts of royal addresses and permitted royal use of the Internet. Besides, she was one of the first people to ride through the Channel Tunnel, the undersea railway linking Britain to the rest of Europe.
1. After World War Ⅱ broke out, how did Elizabeth support her country?| A．By encouraging women to volunteer. | B．By using her influence to stop the war. |
| C．By getting away from her royal duties. | D．By joining the army to serve her country. |
| A．Normal. | B．Significant. | C．Unnecessary. | D．Unreasonable. |
| A．She didn’t really want to be queen. |
| B．She loved watching TV very much. |
| C．She liked adopting new technology. |
| D．She didn’t consider her coronation modern. |
| A．She considered nuclear power important for her country. |
| B．She was satisfied with her country’s nuclear advances. |
| C．She didn’t show much interest in nuclear power. |
| D．She considered nuclear power dangerous. |
3 . Coined as “deliveryman by day, poet by night,” 55-year-old Wang Jibing earns a living as a delivery person in Jiangsu Province. He started writing poems online in the 2000s, and later expanded to different social media platforms. He also came under the spotlight as his name was on the 2023 list of new members for the Chinese Writers Association, igniting (点燃) praise and discussions among Chinese netizens.
Dropping out of secondary school, Wang tried various jobs to make a living, such as a construction worker and working on sand mining boats, as well as a garbage collector. Now as a husband and a father of three children, the financial burden on his shoulder has become heavier and his work schedule has gotten even busier. Yet it has never stopped him from reading and writing routinely all his life. His passion for poetry has driven him to write over 4, 000 poems.
His poem titled “People in a Hurry” gathered more than 13 million views within a week. Wang gained inspiration for the poem from an unpleasant food delivery experience in 2019. Because the customer made a mistake with the address, he had to rush several times to get the food delivered on time. It led to delays with other orders, as well as punishments and a decrease in his earnings for the delivery. The government later took action to tackle this type of situation, demanding delivery firms better protect delivery person’s rights.
The subjects of Wang’s poems cover a wide range, including his memories of his family and hometown, and his observations of society and life while working as a laborer in different cities. During an interview with the media, Wang noted that delivering food allows him to interact with more people and experience more things. The job has also sparked a deeper understanding and empathy for others. Writing poetry helps him feel comfortable and find peace of mind.
1. How is Wang’s daily life now?| A．He enjoys the popularity of his poetry. |
| B．He writes at night to let go his displeasure. |
| C．He balances his responsibilities and his dream. |
| D．He struggles in speaking up for ordinary people. |
| A．Ordinary people can achieve a good living. |
| B．Ordinary people’s voice is heard by the society. |
| C．Ordinary people’s idea can be artfully expressed. |
| D．Ordinary people are eager to have a spiritual homeland. |
| A．His poems help people get more information. |
| B．His poems care about the unfairness in the society. |
| C．His poems are filled with memories of his family and hometown. |
| D．His poems are rooted in everyday life of ordinary people. |
| A．Inspiring. | B．Surprising. | C．Interesting. | D．Concerning. |
Take Up a Patience-Centric Sport
Practicing patience doesn’t have to be all hard work. You can make it fun with a sport that rewards you for perseverance(毅力). Playing sports that encourage waiting can be particularly helpful for building life hardship patience.
Keep a Journal
Humans are social creatures. Having a trusted friend, partner, family member, or coworker we can turn to when our impatience gets the best of us can help us feel better. We should try to use our support system to brainstorm how we can make things better.
Take a Break
What do you do if time management doesn’t make you feel in any less of a rush? Sometimes, feeling like you’re always in a hurry and impatient means you need a break. Hurry sickness is a non-life-threatening condition people can develop when they go non-stop.
| A．If you don’t take a break when you need one, hurry sickness could develop into burn out. |
| B．Fishing, golf, and baseball are fun sports that require patience. |
| C．Seek Out Support |
| D．Acknowledge Your Feelings |
| E．Further, patient people may also benefit from a range of health advantages, such as better sleep and fewer headaches. |
| F．These are not the types of personalities teachers would want to project when dealing with children, parents, and even coworkers. |
| G．Writing forces us to slow down our thoughts, and that’s why journaling is useful. |
— ________.
| A．After I left school | B．Before I moved here |
| C．When I went to the beach | D．Since I was ten years old |
7 . Austrian-based food-tech startup Revo Foods announced this week that its 3D-printed vegan fish filet (素食鱼片) was heading to European grocery store shelves — a first for 3D-printed food. According to the company’s September 12 press release, the arrival of the “Filet” represents a key moment in sustainable food, with 3D-printed consumables ready for industrial mass production. Revo Foods Filet is likely to be just the first of many other such 3D-printed edible (可食用的) products to soon hit the market.
“Despite dramatic losses of coral reefs and increasing levels of poisons and micro plastic polluting fish, consumer demand for seafood has skyrocketed in recent decades,” the company announcement explains, “One promising solution to provide consumers with sustainable alternatives that do not contribute to overfishing is vegan seafood. The key to the success of these products lies in recreating a real taste that appeals to consumers.”
The composition of the Filet provides a meat-like texture (口感). 12 ingredients (成分) compose Revo’s Filet, such as pea proteins, plant oils and algae extracts. With its high protein and Ornega-3 contents, eating a Revo Filet is still very much like eating regular salmon. And thanks to its plant-based ingredients, the Filet has a three week shelf life, a significant improvement over regular salmon products.
“With the milestone of industrial-scale 3D food printing, we are entering a creative food revolution, an era where food is being made exactly according to the customers’ needs,” Revo Foods CEO Robin Simsa said via this week’s announcement.
While Revo’s products are currently only available for European markets, the company says it is actively working to expand its availability across the globe, with Simsa telling PopSci the company hopes to enter US markets around 2025.
1. What can we infer from the second paragraph?| A．Revo’s Filet will be eco-friendly. | B．Revo Foods is popular in Europe. |
| C．Edible fish have decreased sharply. | D．Most people refuse to accept seafood. |
| A．It is a kind of seafood. | B．It has a longer shelf life. |
| C．It has the same taste as salmon. | D．It has no food quality problems. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Disappointed. | C．Optimistic. | D．Worried. |
| A．A short story. | B．A research paper. |
| C．An advertisement. | D．A news report. |
8 . We are all aware of the damaging pollution that’s created by driving petrol and diesel(柴油) vehicles. Many of the world’s cities are blocked with traffic, creating fumes containing gases such as nitrogen oxides.The solution for a cleaner, greener future could be electric vehicles. But how optimistic should we be? There was much excitement last year when the UK government announced it will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. But is that easier said than done?
The road to global traffic being totally electric is still a long way off. Currently, battery life is an issue ——a fully charged battery won’t take you as far as a full tank of petrol. There are also limited numbers of charging points to plug an electric vehicle into. Of course, technology is always improving. Some of the biggest tech companies, like Google and Tesla, are spending huge amounts of money developing electric cars. And most of the big car manufacturers are now making them too. Colin Herron, a consultant on low-carbon vehicle technology, told the BBC, “The big leap forward will come with solid-state batteries, which will appear first in mobile phones and laptops before they progress to cars. “These will charge more quickly and give cars a bigger range. Cost is another issue that may discourage people switching to electric power. But some countries offer incentive, such as cutting prices by reducing import taxes, and not charging for road tax and parking. Some also provide exclusive lanes for electric cars to be driven on, overtaking traditional cars which might be stuck in jams.
These kinds of measures have made Norway the country with the most electric cars per capita(人均) at more than thirty electric cars per 1000 inhabitants. But Colin Herron warns that “electric motoring” doesn’t mean a zero-carbon future. “It’s emission-free motoring, but the car has to be built, the battery has to be built, and the electricity does come from somewhere.” Maybe it’s time to think about making fewer journeys or using public transport.
1. What can we infer from the question at the end of Paragraph 1?| A．It is not easy to obtain a greener future by means of electric vehicles. |
| B．Electric vehicles may not solve the traffic problems. |
| C．We should not be too optimistic about the future. |
| D．It’s not a good idea to replace petrol vehicles with electric ones. |
| A．permission | B．encouragement | C．admission | D．insistence |
| A．Electric motoring will create a zero-carbon future. |
| B．Putting solid-state batteries in electric cars first will be a “great leap forward”. |
| C．There are four obstacles on the road to global traffic being totally electric. |
| D．Electric cars might not get stuck in traffic jams in the future. |
| A．Electric Power or Petrol: A Tough Decision to Make |
| B．Electric Vehicles: A Road to a Greener Future |
| C．Total Electric Traffic: A Long Way to Go |
| D．Petrol and Diesel Vehicles: A Main Source of Gases |
9 . “Anxiety.” The very word causes discomfort. Its effects—shortness of breath, pounding heart, muscle tension—are upsetting. Research shows that in and of itself, anxiety is not deadly, and it certainly is not a disease.
It can build your emotional strength and toughness
Working out at the gym is supposed to be hard and uncomfortable, since it involves pushing our physical strength past what you can easily do.
Humans are social creatures. The number one predictor of happiness is not financial success, or fame. It’s the quality of our relationships. In the same way, sharing our anxieties with our loved ones is one of the most effective strategies to build connection.
It can help you readjust and rebalance
Often, all of us find ourselves at the end of our rope. Our responsibilities pile up, our resources break down, and we just don’t have enough time to get everything done. We feel uncomfortably anxious most of the time. In such cases, what we’re experiencing is called stress.
Therefore, anxiety can be a healthy, helpful emotion that is a constructive aspect of human life.
| A．Anxiety can have a more specific meaning |
| B．It’s about time we start to put it to good use |
| C．It’s no wonder that anxiety is causing us much concern |
| D．It can increase your emotional relationship and connection |
| E．Similarly, you need to face some degree of mental hardship |
| F．Quite the contrary: it is an indicator of brain and sensory health |
| G．Simply put, the demands placed upon us outweigh our available resources |
10 . Exercise is important in all phases of life, but for seniors, it’s crucial to maintaining independence. Exercise ensures that seniors can get around and continue to do the things they enjoy and helps to prevent serious health conditions.
Strength exercises are among the best exercises for seniors.
Balance exercises are good for senior citizens as well because they build up muscles in the legs and strength in the lower body. They can help a senior citizen have better stability, translating into lowered risk of serious falls.
Though exercise is good for senior citizens, it is smart for seniors to speak with their doctors before starting any new exercise program.
| A．For seniors, this may not be the top concern. |
| B．Such accidents tend to make them ill and weak. |
| C．Stretches are also important exercises for seniors. |
| D．Never exercise too much as it may have harmful effects. |
| E．They help to build up muscles and make the bones stronger. |
| F．They may suggest specific exercises and exercise frequency. |
| G．When it comes to choosing the best exercises for seniors, variety is key. |
