1 . In October 2023, 3-year-old Journey Castillo completed a quest to visit all 63 of America’s national parks. Her parents, Eric and Valerie Castillo, said she is likely the youngest person to reach that milestone.

The family, from San Antonio, Texas, ended their travels with a trip to Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. “Mission complete,” they wrote on Instagram. “After three years of adventure, countless logistics work and not giving up, we could not be more proud to share the conclusion of our quest.” Journey hasn’t been officially verified as the youngest traveler to visit all 63 parks. But more important than the title, her parents say, is the experience.

“Our thing was: ‘Let’s… inspire in Journey a passion for nature, inspire in her that she can handle the strenuous parts of the traveling: the environments, the weather changes, different cultures.” Valerie Castillo told The Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas.

Before she could walk, Journey Castillo’s parents set out to visit every national park in the U.S. They hiked up Pikes Peak and explored Rocky Mountain National Park, all with an infant in tow. As far as they could tell, Journey seemed to enjoy herself.

“We could see her little eyes open and take it all in,” Valerie Castillo told the San Antonio Express-News last year. “She was so aware, even being a few days old. She’s adapted so well.”

They then ventured to Grand Canyon National Park — and decided to keep going. They set a goal of visiting 21 parks by Journey’s first birthday, then 42 parks by her second birthday. Eventually, they decided to go for all 63 parks. The family has been documenting every step of the way on Instagram and their website, Journey Go Explore.

Reaching the last few parks on their list — all in Alaska — required lots of logistical management, including renting flights, ferry rides, and even special permission from the National Park Service to visit a seasonally closed park. Though their visit was challenging at times, the Castillos say it helped their daughter develop confidence. Journey walks fearlessly through airports and happily greets park rangers. “When she’s out at these parks, she comes to life, and her personality brightens up,” Eric Castillo said.

1. Why did Journey Castillo’s parents take her to visit all America’s national parks?

A．To inspire others to be more active.

B．To document their travels on Instagram.

C．To inspire a passion for nature in Journey.

D．To break a record as the youngest traveler.

2. What does the underlined word “strenuous” probably mean in the third paragraph?

A．identical

B．appealing

C．mild

D．challenging

3. What did the parents perceive about Journey during their visits to national parks?

A．She was uninterested in the surroundings.

B．She adapted well and seemed to enjoy herself.

C．She preferred staying indoors with her parents.

D．She only enjoyed specific environments and attractions.

4. How did Eric Castillo describe Journey’s personality during those travels?

A．Shy and introverted.	B．Reliable and anxious.
C．Fearful and splendid.	D．Enthusiastic and confident.

2 . Forgiveness is often defined as a deliberate decision to let go of feelings of anger toward someone who you believe has wronged you.     1    . The following advice may help you learn how to forgive yourself.

Understand your emotions. Becoming aware of the emotions you are experiencing is an important part of learning to forgive yourself.     2     and can help you better regulate emotions.

    3     Forgiving yourself is about more than just putting the past behind you and moving is about accepting what has happened, which is the first step toward self-forgiveness. It’s also the hardest step. Do not make up excuses to make your actions seem acceptable.

Treat yourself with kindness and compassion (同情). The key to self-forgiveness lies in treating yourself with the same kindness that you would show to another person.     4    . Instead, be compassionate while still acknowledging that you made a mistake and want to do better in the future.

Express regret for your mistakes. As a result of taking responsibility, you may experience a range of negative feelings, including guilt and shame.     5    . They can serve as a springboard (跳板) to positive behavior change. Understand that making mistakes that you feel guilty about does not make you a bad person but help you do better in the future.

A．Accept responsibility for your actions

B．Make an effort to do better in the future

C．You should try to avoid being self-critical

D．It’s completely normal to have such feelings

E．A little self-forgiveness also goes a long way

F．Research has found that identifying your emotion helps reduce its strength

G．However, while you may be quite generous to forgive others, you may be much harder on yourself

3 . The two Greek words — “philo”, which means love and “Sophia”, which means wisdom, are the beginnings of the word we use today: Philosophy, the love of wisdom.

Most people have a philosophy on life. Everybody has an idea of what is right and what is wrong, and why things are the way they are, and who they are and who to trust. A lot of people believe somebody else’s philosophy. That person may be a religious or political leader, or anybody you look up to. Some people have their own philosophy on life which might be a mixture of theories. Others are philosophers: people who want to know the truth about life for themselves and spend their time studying, thinking and asking questions.

Today philosophers are still encouraging people to think. Schools in some countries teach philosophy to children. Reading books written by old philosophers can be difficult because the language is from the past. So stories are used to help schoolchildren make their own decisions about what is right and wrong and think about the best way to solve problems.

Why do we need philosophy? There are plenty of people who think that killing animals is cruel, but eating animals is fine. If you are one of these people, you should ask yourself why. Why is killing animals cruel? Why is it okay to eat animals? You might find that the answer to each question is very different and you could have an argument by yourself using your own ideas! Go on and argue — you will understand more about what you believe. You will begin to understand the subject more deeply. And this helps you to feel comfortable with it. And you might change something or you might not. When we ask ourselves questions, we start to understand ourselves and our lives, and it’s up to us to make changes or not. If the ideas in your head agree, this means you have integrity. What you say and what you do are the same. Everyone respects someone who has integrity!

By thinking and questioning, we can understand more and maybe prevent problems caused by misunderstanding. But philosophy can also cause problems and conflict when people don’t agree. When one group of people choose one philosophy to believe and another group of people choose a different philosophy, when they need to think or make a decision together, they start trying to change each other instead of working together on bigger ideas about life.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The main conflicts among philosophers.

B．The application of philosophical beliefs.

C．The definition and function of philosophy.

D．The pros and cons of philosophical discussions.

2. What’s the meaning of the underlined word “integrity” in paragraph 4?

A．Honesty.

B．Connection.

C．Belief.

D．Unity.

3. Why do we need philosophy according to the passage?

A．To prove our own ideas.

B．To bring about disagreements.

C．To reduce cruel deeds in the world.

D．To inspire thinking and seek answers.

4. What can be inferred according to the last paragraph?

A．Misunderstanding helps prevent problems.

B．Different choices make different philosophy.

C．Philosophy can be both positive and negative.

D．Conflicts and disagreement result from philosophy.

4 . New Year’s resolutions have a bad reputation, at least in part, because people tend to grade themselves pass or fail when, in reality, they’ve made key improvements in various areas of their lives by mostly sticking to a resolution, experts say.     1     Of those surveyed who made resolutions, about 16 percent kept all their resolutions and about 44 percent kept at least some but not all of them by the end of the year — meaning nearly 2 out of 3 people achieved some level of success. Try these tips to increase your chances of success.

    2    “When we plan for the future, there is often what we refer to as the ‘empathy gap.’ We don’t quite imagine what it would feel like to be hungry when we’re full or sweaty when we’re not sweating,” said Ayelet Fishbach, a professor of behavioral science and marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and author of the book “Get it Done.” “If your New Year’s resolution is going to involve a lot of sweating, make the plan while you are exercising.”

Make a detailed plan for achieving your goal.     3     If your resolution is to exercise more, make a plan now for which days you will exercise, where you will do it and how you will get there, as well as how to deal with child care and meals.

Choose a goal you’ll enjoy. You’re more likely to succeed if you pick something you like to door if you can find a way to make it more fun. Research shows that people have more success achieving goals if they use a method known as “temptation bundling.”     4     If you’re trying to eat more healthfully, take a cooking class or make a plan to prepare a healthful recipe (食谱) with a friend.

Forgive failures. Don’t define success as pass or fail.     5     “If you’re setting tough goals, there will always be failure,” Milkman said.

A．Set your New Year’s resolutions at the right time.

B．Give your New Year’s resolution a cheerful start.

C．A survey showed that about 4 in 10 made New Year’s resolutions.

D．Other holidays, birthdays and even Mondays can be fresh starts.

E．This includes thinking through ways to get over potential difficulties.

F．Celebrate small successes even if you don’t achieve 100-percent success.

G．If your goal is to get more exercise, do it with your favorite music on.

5 . Stepping outside the railway station early on an morning, visitors are met with the view of the cold air joining the water, forming a thick, soft blanket of fog over the Grand Canal (运河), the “main street” of Venice. The church of San Simeone Piccolo and the neighboring buildings appear to be floating on the water of the lagoon. It’s a sight that has welcomed millions of visitors from all over the world since the great days of the Serenissima, when the city ruled as one of Europe’s economic superpowers.

Yet, the breath-taking beauty that inspired countless painters, writers and artists over the centuries remains at risk of being lost forever. Like the Abu Simbel temples, the city’s survival is threatened (威胁) by rising water levels. The increase in sea level has caused flooding to be a regular thing.

After 1966, the year of the worst flooding in Venice’s history, UNESCO and the Italian Government started a major project to save the city. Huge movable flood gates were used to protect the lowest areas from flooding. Thirty years later there is agreement on the successful results both of the technical achievements and international cooperation.

But Venice still needs attentive care, and its continued survival calls for careful watch. The city remains threatened on several aspects -mass tourism, the potential damage of city development and the steady stream of large ships crushing its weak foundations.

International pressure around the status of Venice led to the Italian Government’s decision in2021 to ban large ships from the city center. This decision came a few days after UNESCO announced its decision to put the city on its World Heritage in Danger list. Until a suitable docking place (码头) is developed, large ships will be allowed to pull up in Marghera, an industrial suburb of Venice. Such decisions show the difficulty of protecting historic cities and cultural heritage urban centers, which in this particular situation called for specially-made measures and techniques different from those made for the safeguarding of the Egyptian temples.

1. What can we learn about Venice from the first two paragraphs?

A．Venice is Europe’s economic superpower.	B．Many artists are natives of Venice.
C．The lagoon is a church in Venice.	D．The “main street” of Venice can be foggy.

2. Which of the following can best describe the project mentioned in paragraph 3?

A．A celebration of life.	B．A painful lesson for all.
C．A reflection of human nature.	D．A result of joint efforts.

3. Which of the following is threatening the survival of Venice?

A．Technological advancements.	B．Tourism overload.
C．The popularity of water sports.	D．Rising local population.

4. What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A．The safeguarding of Venice is in process.

B．UNESCO called for immediate Venice Ship Ban.

C．Italian government was struggling for protection measures.

D．The measures to protect Egyptian temples are copied in Venice.

6 . A series of frog like crouches (蹲). A personal best time of four hours on a typically 15-minute road. This is how Julya Hajnoczky describes her slow and unusual way of hiking. For weeks each year, the photographer walks along footpaths in some of Canada’s most amazing wild spaces. She takes a close look at moss (苔藓) or mushrooms while other visitors speed by. “It must be how cyclists feel on the highway when they’re getting passed by trucks,” she says. Sometimes, though, hikers stop and ask what she sees that they don’t. She’s happy to explain-after all, that’s the point of her project.

In 2017 Hajnoczky designed and built an eight- foot-long movable “home”, which was named the Alfresco Science Machine. Painted forest green, it houses almost everything needed for fieldwork: a bed, a camp kitchen, binoculars and hand lenses, collection permits, field guides, small bottles and specimen (标本) — collection tools, sunscreen, bug repellent. Also Hajnoczky’s searching rules: Pick a minimal amount of plentiful, dead, or abandoned things—never rare species or live animals—and return them when finished.

The resulting photos are the small models of Canadian landscape and make up her ongoing project: At the Last Judgement We Will All Be Trees. Deeply worried about humanity’s relationship with the environment, Hajnoczky describe the images as “elegiac, dark, sorrowful,” as still lifes (静物) created while there’s still life. Yet they’re also fascinating. Slow down, they seem to say. Look with amazement at the natural world and see the importance to protect it.

1. Why are cyclists mentioned in the first paragraph?

A．To highlight the popularity of cycling.	B．To vividly show her pace of hiking.
C．To suggest an unusual way of life.	D．To stress environmental protection.

2. What does Hajnoczky do in her project?

A．Record the lives of rare species.	B．Collect as many plants as possible.
C．Feed the live animals along the way.	D．Take pictures of a forgotten part of nature.

3. Which of the following can best replace the underlined word in the last paragraph?

A．Deep.

B．Sad.

C．Delightful.

D．Bright.

4. Which can be a suitable title for the text?

A．An Insightful Documentary of Wilderness	B．Speedy Adventures in Canada’s Wild Spaces
C．The Benefits of Hiking in Nature	D．A Slow Journey through Nature’s Wonders

7 . Being a Good Holiday Party Guest

When attending holiday parties hosted by friends and loved ones, many of people really want to be “good” guests. But sometimes well-meaning “helpers” can sometimes cause more trouble and stress for a host.     1    

Reply the invitation quickly.

    2     If the invitation (whether it comes in the mail, over email or through text) asks you to reply, do so well before the host has to reach out to confirm your participation.

    3    

Respect the event’s start time and arrive within 10-15 minutes of the time on the invite. If the invitation says 7:15 p.m., guests should arrive between 7:25 and 7:30. If you turn up early, the hosts may not yet be dressed or be trying to take a 10-minute break after last-minute preparations.

Offer help respectfully.

It’s fine to offer help during the event, but don’t insist.     4     A true host wants their guests to enjoy themselves and not be working, so the insistence might make your host uncomfortable.

Don’t stay for long.

At the end of the evening, you can make one last offer to help the host tidy up the space. But if they refuse, don’t stay. Many hosts are too polite to tell people it’s time to go. Watch out for clues that the hosts wish to end the evening’s enjoyment, like yawning, turning off the music, turning up the lights.     5    

A．Don’t turn up early.

B．Create a positive schedule.

C．Respect the host’s wishes if they refuse your help.

D．Being a good guest begins long before the party begins.

E．Here are some tips to ensure you leave a good impression.

F．They can suggest that the happy gathering is coming to an end.

G．By following these guidelines, they can spare some time helping the host to stay lively and fun.

8 . Katalin Karikó, a Nobel Prize Winner of this year, has had an unlikely journey. The daughter of a butcher in postwar communist Hungary, Karikó grew up in a home that lacked running water, and her family grew their own vegetables. She saw the wonders of nature all around her and was determined to become a scientist. That determination eventually brought her to the United States, where she arrived as a postdoctoral follow in 1985 with $1,200 sewn into her toddler’s teddy bear and a dream to remake medicine.

Karikó battled cockroaches (蟑螂) in a windowless lab, and faced being laughed at open and direct from her bosses and colleagues. She hesitated as prestigious research institutions increasingly combined science and money together. Despite setbacks, she never doubted her belief that an underappreciated molecule   (分子) called messenger RNA could change the world. She sacrificed nearly everything for this dream, and the obstacles she faced only motivated her, so eventually she succeeded.

Karikó’s three-decade-long investigation into mRNA would lead to a surprising achievement: vaccines that protected millions of people from the most serious consequences of COVID-19. These vaccines are just the beginning of mRNA’s potential. Today, the medical community eagerly awaits more mRNA vaccines — for the flu, HIV, and other emerging infectious diseases.

Breaking Through isn’t just the story of an extraordinary woman. It’s a charge of closed-minded thinking and a demonstration to one woman’s commitment to laboring intensely in obscurity — knowing she might never be recognized in a culture that is driven by prestige, power, and privilege — because she believed her work would save lives.

1. What do we know about Katalin Karikó?

A．She disliked her journey to the US.

B．She grew up in a go-green family.

C．She tried to get a doctor’s degree.

D．She chased her dream with $1,200.

2. What was a problem facing Karikó when she worked in the lab?

A．She had to do experiments on cockroaches.

B．She was not well received in the lab.

C．She couldn’t get along well with others.

D．She had to quit for lack of money.

3. What do the underlined words “in obscurity”   in the last paragraph mean?

A．Unknown to public.

B．Second to none.

C．In an emergency.

D．At a loss.

4. Where is text most probably taken from?

A．A speech at Nobel awards ceremony.

B．A scientist’s autobiography.

C．An essay on mRNA vaccines.

D．An introduction to a book.

9 . 去国外教汉语这个想法特别吸引我。 (appeal)
The idea of teaching Chinese abroad really ________________________________.

10 . Lord Slynt sat at the end of the table, nodding with a__________ (赞同) every time the king pronounced a sentence. （根据中英文提示拼写单词）