1 . “Did you write your thank-you notes?” I asked my younger son, Jon, “No, not yet, Mom,” Jon replied,
“Sorry, that’s not going to happen!” I said. “You’re not leaving this house until you’ve written a note to everyone you came in contact with during your
“Even the receptionist who was
Jon
A few days later, Jon received a call from the company. They
I smiled, glad that Jon was starting to understand the
Jon nodded, now fully appreciating the value of those
| A．fixing | B．rolling | C．opening | D．parting |
| A．ceremony | B．vacation | C．project | D．interview |
| A．cold | B．kind | C．polite | D．grateful |
| A．insisted | B．hesitated | C．whispered | D．protested |
| A．apology | B．sympathy | C．curiosity | D．gratitude |
| A．laughed | B．cheered | C．sighed | D．shouted |
| A．stubborn | B．initial | C．constant | D．precious |
| A．tearing | B．reading | C．crafting | D．throwing |
| A．desperately | B．quickly | C．casually | D．carefully |
| A．offered | B．denied | C．lent | D．sold |
| A．annoyed | B．amused | C．depressed | D．delighted |
| A．impression | B．discovery | C．profit | D．mistake |
| A．length | B．power | C．courage | D．price |
| A．working out | B．standing out | C．picking up | D．making up |
| A．curious | B．major | C．small | D．awkward |
2 . Remote work has become the norm for millions of white-collar workers in the United States after the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered offices four years ago. However, employers have begun asking workers to return to physical offices amid fears that remote and hybrid work reduces productivity. A study recently published in the scientific journal Nature suggests that the hybrid model makes workers happier, less likely to quit, and has no impact on productivity.
Stanford University economics professor Nick Bloom and colleagues conducted research on the effects of hybrid working on 1.612 employees at Trip, com, a global travel agent site based in Shanghai. The researchers surveyed the employees, who all worked in engineering, marketing, and finance in the company's airfare and IT divisions, between 2021 and 2022. They found that the company’s hybrid work schedule improved job satisfaction and decreased quit rates by 33%, especially among non-managers, female employees, and those with long commutes (通勤).
The study also revealed that employees working in-office or in a hybrid model did not experience a notable difference in performance reviews or promotions between the two years. “This is an important result given the evidence that fully remote working can damage employee development and promotions,” the study reads. Moreover, workers had the same productivity rates regardless of whether they worked in-office or at home under the hybrid model. To determine employee productivity, the researchers analyzed scores workers received in categories like innovation, leadership, development, and execution (执行) of projects in performance reviews. They found no difference in the reviews among employees who worked solely in the office and those that were hybrid.
Employees who participated in the research were surveyed twice on their views about how working from home impacted productivity. The first survey was conducted when executives first decided to experiment with a hybrid model in 2021, and the second was at the end of the researchers' time analyzing worker productivity in 2022. Bloom and his colleagues found that the experience of hybrid working led to a small improvement in average employees’ beliefs about the productivity impact of hybrid work.
1. What does the underlined word “shuttered” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Decorated. | B．Expanded. | C．Closed. | D．Ruined. |
| A．The research findings. | B．The research purpose. |
| C．The research subjects. | D．The research process. |
| A．The hybrid work model was initially suspected by companies. |
| B．The employee productivity declined during the hybrid work experiment. |
| C．The hybrid work model changed employees’ beliefs about when to work. |
| D．The surveys showed a positive change in employees’ views on hybrid work. |
| A．The Struggles of Returning to Physical Offices |
| B．The Advantages of Remote Work for Companies |
| C．The Popularity of Remote Work After the Pandemic |
| D．The Impact of Hybrid Work on Employee Productivity |
3 . You know you need good sleep. Research shows it improves brain performance, enhances physic health and makes us more attentive to the people around us. But actually getting it is the tricky part. Sometimes we’re too stressed to fall asleep. Or we get distracted by our phones. Or we wake up feeling tired.
That’s why Life Kit created our Guide to Better Sleep, a limited-run newsletter series that launches today. Over the course of a week, we’ll send you science-backed strategies to help you sleep better. beeper and longer.
How to sign up
To sign up for this one week newsletter series, click here and enter your email address. You’ll get a welcome email from us, followed by three emails packed with tips to improve your sleep that very night.
Sleep strategies, straight to your inbox
Life Kit spoke to over half a dozen sleep researchers, physicians and psychologists to gather science-backed tips. Our newsletters will cover:●Bedtime routines to help your brain unwind. In this email, we’ll share wind-down activities to help you release your day and prepare you for sleep.
●Lifestyle and sleep. This newsletter will cover diet, exercise and substances like alcohol and caffeine, which can all impact the quality of our rest.
●Setting realistic expectations about nightly screen time. Sleep experts discuss the use of electronic devices before bed. How does the light affect our sleep?
Better sleep is possible
We hope our Guide to Better Sleep inspires you to try something new in your sleep routine. Start small, says sleep specialist Dr. Fariha Abbasi-Feinberg. “Emphasize one or two habits to change,” she says. “And think of these changes as little sleep experiments. Every day gives us a chance to either make life better or not.”
After this newsletter series ends, you’ll receive weekly emails from Life Kit on lifestyle topics like health, money, relationships and more.
1. Who is most likely to sign up for the newsletter series?| A．A doctor content with his sleep duration. |
| B．A student addicted to playing computer games. |
| C．A writer interested in learning about sleep disorders. |
| D．A professor seeking ways to improve her sleep quality. |
| A．How to use technology to track sleep patterns. |
| B．The role of physical exercise in improving sleep. |
| C．The impact of excessive caffeine intake on health. |
| D．The importance of a consistent morning routine for sleep. |
| A．A website. | B．A report. | C．A travel guide. | D．A biology textbook. |
1. What is a wise decision of the school according to the man?
| A．They will start a new project. |
| B．They will not plant potatoes. |
| C．They will improve soil conditions. |
| A．To promote the school. |
| B．To improve local farming. |
| C．To draw on farmers’ experience. |
| A．Online. | B．By phone. | C．In person. |
One Thursday, my classmates, teachers, and I went to Dahu Park to study nature. Dahu Park’s Moon Bridge is one of the most famous places in the whole world. That’s because, at night, it shines bright like the moon! On the bridge, I saw something huge floating on top of the water. I wondered what it was, so I went down to look. When I saw what it was, I wished I hadn’t. There was a rotting, dead, ugly fish floating in the pond. My friend Jasper came over to see what I was looking at and he almost threw up.
I asked him if he needed medicine. He said he needed me to get that fish as far away from him as possible. I poked it with a stick, I realized that it was hard and its eye was missing. I was totally disgusted. I lost my appetite. Our teacher, sensing what was about to happen, took us away from the pond.
We walked for a while and kept exploring Dahu Park. As we crossed over a bridge, I tried not to look into the water. Then, I saw three old men fishing. Two looked annoyed and nervous, but the other was calm. They looked like they were competing. I got closer. The calm one patiently waited for a fish to fall into the trap.
When he finally caught a fish, I was so happy I could have jumped into the lake. But the fish was really small. I expected him to put it in a container or something, but no, he threw it to a nearby bird. It swallowed it happily. The other birds looked at it with jealousy, and then moved closer to the old man. I was shocked. He worked so hard and finally caught a fish, and he threw his first one to a bird!
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。
I thought maybe the disgusting fish I saw earlier had something to do with this old man’s actions.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Hearing what they talked about the seriousness of water pollution, I understood why.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Spy Run
“It can’t be done!” Mr. Geiger hit the table with his fist. “I’ve carried messages for the captain before. But not this time! The enemy soldiers crowd into the woods. Our rider will be caught.” Emily watched her father as he paced the floor. Two neighbors nodded.
“Could a girl? Maybe they wouldn’t stop me?” asked Emily.
“You’re a child, Emily,” one man said gently. “You would be afraid.”
“I am not a child!” Emily cried out. “I’m thirteen, and I’m not afraid!”
“You don’t understand the danger.” said the other neighbor. Emily shook her head. She knew how risky the trip could be. The Geigers and their friends wanted to protect their country and drive the enemy away. But there were some enemy soldiers disguising (乔装打扮)themselves and spying in the surrounding areas.
Mr. Geiger looked at his daughter, saying nothing. He didn’t want Emily to take this risk. But no one else was more suitable. “Tell Sumter to meet me here tomorrow night.” He drew a small map, added a sentence, and handed Emily the paper. “Give this to Sumter by tomorrow noon. If you’re late, he won’t reach the captain in time.”
Ten minutes later, Emily began her ride with the map safely hidden deep inside her dress. She had never ridden so far alone. But she didn’t worry about getting lost. She was more worried that someone would stop her and grab the map.
By midday, the air grew hot. Emily stopped at a stream. While her horse grazed (吃草), Emily rested and ate. Then the sound of a deep voice made her jump and turn.
“What are you doing here?” Emily felt nervous as she stared up at two enemy soldiers. “I’m…” Emily didn’t know how to answer. If she lied, her face would turn red and they would know it. But she dared not tell the truth.
“We’ll take her to camp and find a woman to search her,” one soldier said. Then Emily was taken to their camp where they locked her in a small cottage and her horse was tied to a tree.
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。
Looking around the cottage, Emily wondered how to handle the map before being searched.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Young lady, you can leave now,” a voice called outside the cottage.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________This is the first cross-provincial ecological restoration project in China,
Additionally, this design honors the water culture of the Yangtze River. The project was created so as not to disturb the natural patterns of the fish and provide a place for native plants
Moreover, there’s a hidden flood control walkway, which combines the shoreline with plants, terrain (地形) and the
Meanwhile, the walking path
8 . Since kicking off with a colorful opening ceremony on the Seine River on 26, July, 2024, the Summer Games in Paris have already delivered several viral moments.
One photograph in particular has attracted the Internet’s attention this week. In it, Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina appears to be suspending above the ocean alongside his surfboard. With his right arm stretched high above his head, Medina raises his index finger toward the sky while seemingly floating through the air. His surfboard, which is still attached to his ankle, mirrors his body positioning above the wave.
Jérôme Brouillet, a photojournalist, caught the great moment. “I never thought it was possible that this shot would be so much appreciated, but I can understand why,” says Brouillet. The photo was taken in the waters off Teahupo’o, a tiny village with beautiful scenery on the island of Tahiti in the South Pacific Ocean — nearly 10,000 miles from the Paris games. Tahiti is part of French Polynesia, and it’s reasonable the Olympic surfing events were being held there. The 48 surfing athletes were being housed onboard a big ship. Brouillet took the picture just after Medina finished a record-setting ride on a barrel wave. He was scheduled to face off against fellow Brazilian surfer Joāo Chianca in the quarterfinals on 30th, but the events were postponed because of bad weather.
“I took four pictures and one of them was this one,” Brouillet says. “It wasn’t hard to take the picture. It was more about anticipating the moment and where Gabriel would kick off the wave.”
Even facing all the admiration and attention, Brouillet joked on social media, “Well hum. I just pushed the right button this time. To be fair, if all conditions are met — weather, waves, light, if the boat driver is in the right position, and if you know how to use your camera — you can take good images of surfing in Teahupo’o,” he says, “All the rest is experience, timing and a bit of luck. This distinguishes a good shot from a great shot.”
1. What aspect of the photo does paragraph 2 focus on?| A．Medina’s surfing poses. | B．The strong ocean waves. |
| C．The unique floating surfboard. | D．Medina’s magic floating image. |
| A．Its pleasant climate conditions. | B．Its breathtaking natural scenery. |
| C．Its status as part of French Polynesia. | D．Its large waves and complete facilities. |
| A．Determined and lucky. | B．Skilled and devoted. |
| C．Modest and professional. | D．Enthusiastic and confident. |
| A．To praise a photojournalist. | B．To introduce surfing sports. |
| C．To record an athlete’s success. | D．To promote the Olympic spirit. |
9 . When humans have conversations, we take turns speaking, sometimes even interrupting each other. Now, a study reports that chimps (黑猩猩) follow a similar communication pattern structured around back-and-forth, fast-paced turns.
“Human conversation follows very strict rules of turn-taking that are homogeneous across cultures and languages,” says Gal Badihi, the first author of the study. ”We started to wonder whether chimp communication is governed by its own rules, or if the rules are similar to human conversation.“
To figure out whether these interactions are like human turn taking, Badihi and coworkers studied hundreds of hours of videos of 8,559 gestures from 252 individuals recorded by other multiple researchers across decades of fieldwork in East Africa. The scientists studied them, describing the precise movements each chimp made when gesturing, the response of other chimps, the duration of the gestures, and other details. They found that 14% of the recorded interactions included at least one response to a gesture, while some included as many as seven back-and-forth responses.
Chimps took an average of 120 milliseconds to reply with a gesture, which is not all that different from the human average of 200 milliseconds. Chimp gestures are largely meant to convey requests, with “groom (梳理) me”, “follow me”, “give me” or “stop it” being common commands. The researchers witnessed a variety of gestured interactions, such as chimps asking to change spots during grooming sessions. They do them just like humans do. This is different from other animals like dogs, for example, because an exchange of barking could just be an automatic instinctive (本能) unlearned reaction, rather than a true response in a conversation.
Another similarity researchers noticed is the slight difference in response time between chimp communities—a variation that also exists among different human cultures. ”Amazingly, they seem to share both our universal turn-taking timing and slight cultural differences,“ says researcher Cat Hobaiter. ”In humans, it is the Danish who are ‘slower’ responders, and in Eastern chimps that’s the Sonso community in Uganda.“
1. What does the word “homogeneous” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Normal. | B．Perfect. | C．Vivid. | D．Consistent. |
| A．By training them on site. | B．By carrying out fieldwork. |
| C．By analyzing ready-made data. | D．By responding to their gestures. |
| A．They are intentional. | B．They are similar to dogs’. |
| C．They almost have no difference. | D．They are formed naturally. |
| A．They communicate more effectively. | B．They respond to others like the Danish. |
| C．They avoid face-to-face conversations. | D．They tend to learn language from humans. |
10 . Magical Cape May
Time: Thursday, December 12, 2024 — 7:00 am, to Friday, December 13, 2024 — 8:00 pm.A two-day tour offers the opportunity to experience historic Cape May and its Victorian elegance during a magical time of year.
Upon arriving in Cape May, enjoy lunch at the Washington Inn — a local landmark constructed in 1846. Afterward, meet your guide for a tour of Cape May Point to see the World War II lookout tower and 1859 Cape May lighthouse, where you enjoy the breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay. Your guide discusses the history and restoration of both sites. Spend time exploring the shops on the Washington Street Mall before checking into Congress Hall, where four 19th-century presidents stayed. Dinner is followed by a talk on Christmas traditions of the Victorian era and an evening trolley ride through the town to enjoy the holiday lights and decorations.
The next morning, after breakfast at the hotel’s Blue Pig Tavern, board the trolley for a guided tour of the historic district, featuring a variety of Victorian architectural styles. After lunch at Cold Spring Grange, explore everyday life in the 19th century at Cold Spring Village before returning to Washington, D. C.
Know Before You Go●Cost includes bus transportation, lodging, all activities, and the following meals: 1 breakfast, 2 lunches, and 1 dinner.
●Participants are advised to purchase travel insurance for overnight and multi-day tours from a provider of your choice.
●Registration for this tour will end by 2:00 pm on Wednesday, December 11, 2024.
●As we aim to move away from single use water bottles, guests are strongly encouraged to get in the habit of bringing their own reusable water bottle on tour.
1. What will the participants do after lunch on the first day?
| A．Do hotel check in. | B．Go shopping. |
| C．Visit two historical sites. | D．Attend a Christmas party. |
| A．At Blue Pig Tavern. | B．At the Washington Inn. |
| C．At Cold Spring Grange. | D．At Cold Spring Village. |
| A．Buy insurance for 2 nights. | B．Practice green tourism. |
| C．Pay for all meals in advance. | D．Register at 2:00 pm Dec.11. |
