1 . The ancient Egyptians thought so little of the brain that when a king died, they removed the brain from his body and threw it away. The Egyptians assumed, like many people before and after them, that consciousness — your mind and your thoughts existed in the heart.

Now we know that the mind is a product of the brain, but how exactly does this 1.5-kilo piece of matter create a mind that allows you to think about yourself, experience happiness and anger, or remember events that happened 20 minutes or 20 years ago? This isn’t a new question. Today, however, powerful new techniques for visualizing the sources of thought, emotion, behavior, and memory are transforming the way we understand the brain and the mind it creates.

Have you ever stopped and thought, “What’s wrong with me today? I just don’t feel like myself”? Perhaps you were more tired or worried than usual — but somehow, you knew that something was different about you. This self-awareness - the ability to think about yourself and how you’re feeling-is an important part of being human.

This part of of your mind has its origins in the prefrontal cortex — a region of your brain just behind your forehead that extends to about your ears. Before this area began to function (around age two), you didn’t understand that you were a separate individual with your own identity. As this part of your brain developed, you became more aware of yourself and your thoughts and feelings.

Though humans may share certain emotions and recognize them in others, we don’t all have the same emotional response to every situation. In fact, most emotional responses are learned and stored in our memories. The smell of freshly cut grass, for example, will generate happy feelings in someone who spent enjoyable childhood summers in the countryside, but not in someone who was forced to work long hours on a farm. Once an emotional association like this is made, it is very difficult to reverse it. “Emotion is the least flexible part of the brain,” says psychologist Paul Ekman. But we can learn to control our emotions by becoming consciously aware of their underlying causes and by not reacting automatically to things in our environment.

For centuries, people have studied the brain, but it is only in recent years that we have really started to learn how it works. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go before we understand our mind’s many complexities.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

A．How we create and control emotions.	B．How the mind works.
C．How human beings are distinct.	D．How emotions are processed.

2. Why does the author mention the ancient Egyptians’ practice in the very beginning?

A．To illustrate the importance of the heart in ancient Egyptian culture.

B．To introduce the core theme of the mind-body connection and evolution.

C．To provide an example of how the brain has been misunderstood throughout history.

D．To contrast the ancient Egyptians’ views on the brain with the modern one.

3. Which of the following statement is NOT true?

A．Self-awareness develops before the age of two.

B．The prefrontal cortex affects a person’s emotions.

C．The prefrontal cortex is located at the front of the brain.

D．Self-awareness strengthens with the development of the brain.

4. What does the passage suggest about the flexibility of emotions?

A．Emotions are universal and do not change over time or with individual experiences.

B．Emotions are generally learned and stored in our memories, making them quite flexible.

C．Emotions are influenced by our personal experiences and can vary from person to person.

D．Emotions are the least flexible part of the mind, and they cannot be controlled.

3 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Vertical Farms: Is the sky really the limit?

At a hyper-controlled indoor farm in industrial South San Francisco, four robots carefully transfer seeds from barcoded trays into 4.5-meter towers that then are hung vertically (垂直地) inside a 445 sq metre grow room. Workers in branded jumpsuits     1     (inspect) the greens for imperfect produce, but there is almost     2    . Then the pesticide-free product is packaged and put on a truck     3     (deliver) to a local market where the customer becomes the first person to touch it. With the world’s population expected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, most of     4     will be living in cities, experts say a 70% increase from current levels of global food production will be needed. But agricultural land is     5     short supply thanks to the climate crisis and urbanization.

Indoor farming raised more than $1 bn in 2021, exceeding the combined funding in 2018 and 2019. But critics say the massive energy costs     6    (need) to run vertical farms and greenhouses make the practice far less eco-friendly than their branding suggests.

Designed to produce yields hundreds of times larger than traditional outdoor farming, vertical farms occupy spaces such as buildings or shipping containers while using 70 to 95% less water     7     they can recapture and recycle rather than waste it due to poor irrigation (灌溉) or evaporation. Products are fully traceable from seed to shelf, stay fresher longer and there’s little risk of bacteria, infected animal faces (粪便) or     8    (have) to transport them long distances in trucks and planes.

Entrepreneurs like Irving Fain, CEO and founder of Manhattan-based Bowery Farming, say that they’re gathering knowledge about plant growth and agronomy (农学) that     9     take traditional farmers outdoors hundreds of years to accumulate. The possibilities raised by vertical farms have also captured the imagination of a number of large venture capitalists and private equality funds. “While it is still too early to tell     10     these high-tech, high-rise growing machines will become a real estate asset class in their own right, some investors are starting to take a serious look at vertical farming as a possible new asset category.” said Fain.

4 . On March 16th I left the offices of The Economist to head home. That was the last day when all editorial staff assembled in our London office. And, at the time of writing, no date for a return to the office is in _______

It is remarkable how quickly we have adapted. The newspaper has been written, edited and produced from couches and kitchen tables. January and February seem like an ancient era — the BC (before coronavirus) to the new AD (after _______).

The shift may _______ great workplace transformations in the 19th and 20th centuries, and it has been a much more sudden transition than occurred with factories, enabled by advanced economies that revolve around services instead of manufacturing. Back in the 1970s, when Britain adopted a three-day week (to commit a miners strike), there were power cub and TV stations had to close down early. This pandemic has not turned the lights _______

Not only that, it has made remote work seem both normal and acceptable. In the past employees who stayed home had to overcome the _______ that they were bunking off (偷懒). Now those who insist on being at the office sound self-important.

Things are _______, of course. Video calls Jack the spontaneity of a normal meeting; no off-the-cuff (即兴的) remarks to lighten the mood. Distance makes it difficult to generate camaraderie. Creativity is probably harder to foster. Experts say new ideas come from weak links in networks — i.e., people you meet occasionally. Such “ _______ collisions” have become rarer.

Yet _________ offices will not disappear, it is hard to imagine that working life will return to BC ways. For more than a century workers have stuffed themselves onto crowded trains and buses to get into the office. For the past two months they have not had to commute. _______, for their part, have maintained expensive offices in city centers because they needed to gather staff in one place. The rent is only part of the cost; there are the cleaning, lighting, printers, catering and security ________.

Another aspect of the AD era may be the disappearance of the five-day working week. Even before the pandemic many workers became used to taking phone calls or answering emails at the weekend. In the AD era, the ________ between home and working life, a useful way of relieving stress, will be even harder to sustain.

In future employees may work and take breaks when they please, with the company video call the only ________. The downside, however, is that the rhythm of life has been disrupted and new ________ are needed. Looking further out, the AD era may bring other changes. Some may decide to live in small towns where housing costs are lower, since they have no need to commute. Men will have ________ excuses to skip cleaning or child care if they are not disappearing to the office. In a sense, this is a(n) ________ to normal: until the 19th century most people worked at or close to their homes. But social historians may still regard 2020 as the start of a new age.

1.

A．doubt

B．sight

C．mind

D．hope

2.

A．domestication

B．transition

C．isolation

D．pandemic

3.

A．affect

B．shape

C．arouse

D．rival

4.

A．on

B．off

C．over

D．down

5.

A．suspicion

B．difficulty

C．prejudice

D．disadvantage

6.

A．advancing

B．reversing

C．interfering

D．missing

7.

A．remote

B．intense

C．casual

D．novel

8.

A．now that

B．in case

C．even though

D．as long as

9.

A．Commuters

B．Legislators

C．Executives

D．Employers

10.

A．in demand

B．beyond reach

C．at issue

D．on top

11.

A．balance

B．barrier

C．connection

D．conflict

12.

A．fixture

B．engagement

C．priority

D．interaction

13.

A．perspectives

B．routines

C．regulations

D．equivalents

14.

A．better

B．harder

C．more

D．fewer

15.

A．access

B．progress

C．return

D．contrast

5 . We all have friends that need a little advice, but one of the problems with those types of conversations is that it’s really easy to come off as a know-it-all when you’re offering help. When you do that, nobody’s going to listen.

    1     But it’s not an easy conversation to have someone, especially when you know all the extenuating circumstances of the situation. I talked with relationship and family therapist Roger S. Gil to get some advice for dealing with these situations.

Obviously not everyone is looking for your advice. Before you go offering up your point of view, make sure they’re interested in hearing it. As Roger Gil points out, often friends aren’t looking for you to solve a problem. They just want you to listen and maybe ask some questions. So, ask if they’d like to hear your input or insights on a problem, but also ask questions about why thee feel a certain way. If they say “no”, let them finish their story and listen politely.     2     Just wait for them to finish complaining before offering advice (or asking if they want). Sometimes the best way to figure something out is to do it on their own.

Speaking of listening. It’s also a good idea to figure out right away what your friends want from you. Gil describes this as differentiating between opinions, expert advice, and being a “sounding board”. Essentially, don’t pretend like you know something you don’t.     3    

Now that you know whether or not your friends or family actually want your advice, it’s time to learn how to advise without sounding like a know-it-all. This is a lot harder than you might think. As Gil points out, one way to offer advice without sounding pretentious (自以为是的) is to avoid “You should” statements.     4     By offering up your opinion clearly defined as your opinion, you remove the implication that “you know best”.

A．Definitely don’t act like you’ve been in a situation you haven’t been in.

B．Different situations require different approaches so we need to know what we should contribute.

C．Gil also adds that even when you know the answer to something, you might want to keep your mouth shut.

D．Gil’s advice, seems obvious, but it’s incredibly easy to get on your high-horse and use “You should” if you’re not careful.

E．When you have a friend who’s stuck in trouble, it’s normal to want to provide some type of insight to get them out of it.

F．However, the key is to make sure you stay in “listening mode” for as long as possible, and you don’t push your advice when it isn’t wanted.

6 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage cohcrent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

We Britons have about 60 words for happiness: blissfulness, ecstasy, pleasure, delight...The list is as varied as it is surprising, given that we only just scraped into the top 20 happiest countries in the world this year. Finns, who     1     (name) the happiest nation for the sixth year running, are either onnellinen or iloinen. The latter roughly translates as joyful or glad: you might be iloinen that you’re heading off on boliday. Onnellinen, on the other hand, speaks to the notion of being content with your life,     2     describing a fleeting feeling.

In the decade     3     the first World Happiness Report was released in 2012, four countries have held the top position: Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now Finland. It’s based on an evaluation in which respondents are asked to assess the overall happiness of their current lives on a scale of one to 10.

For the fourth year running, the UK has slipped down the global happiness rankings,     4     (drop) two places to number 19. Even more worryingly, however, the 2022 global Oracle happiness report for the UK specifically found that nearly half of Britons have not felt true happiness in two years. We’re currently behind the US, Israel, New Zealand and Luxembourg, but mercifully ahead of the likes of Afghanistan and Lebanon-currently the two     5     (happy) countries in the world. This persistent decline in British contentment is concerning.

    6     (find) out what we miserable Britons can leam from the Finns, I went to Lake Saimaa — a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Helsinki —   to take part in a masterclass in happiness. It is a resort designed around taking things slowly. Each villa has its own sauna (桑拿浴),     7     (set)in a fragrant pine forest.     8     many friends rightly pointed out, how could anyone not be happy here?

In many ways, though, my admittedly luxurious stay revealed to me     9     the Finns approach happiness for everyone. There’s no doubt they have got a lot of things right — their love of saunas, for one. Known for their health benefits, saunas are fantastic for calming the mind. And with     10     estimated 3 million saunas for a population of just over 5.5 million, they are certainly integrated into everyday life.

7 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. adaptable B. capacity C. complicated D. decline E. demand F. evaluating G. highlighted H. impacts I. occurs J. pursuing K. survive

Economics survive by continually responding to the world around them. This means employing new technologies or exploiting new international markets when     1     growth. Today, these global shifts — dramatic shocks to economies — occur more frequently, are more     2     and, in knowledge-based economies are more dependent on talent than ever. In countries where a workforce lacks the skills that are suddenly in     3    , we see a skills gap emerge. This leads to higher unemployment rates while vacancies increase and productivity and growth decline.

So how can economies     4    ? By adapting. However, unlike the macro-strategies of the last century, people — not just policy — must drive today’s adaptability. Employers and policymakers have long     5     the importance of a flexible workforce, but until now it has been difficult to isolate the human element — the willingness and ability of employees to seek out and find opportunities across multiple employers, locations and industries. Our new ability to measure it and analyse talent adaptability — and to start to understand what drives it — are crucial steps forward.

The     6     of a market to match supply and demand efficiently depends on the ability and willingness of employers and employees to adapt to changing circumstances and align (使一致) skills with available opportunities. If this alignment is less than perfect, a mismatch     7     and optimum productivity can’t be reached.

Adapt to Survive for the first time brings together the two most comprehensive sources of talent data in the world: the real-time behaviours drawn from LinkedIn’s 277 million members and employer information from PwC’s Saratoga database of people and performance metrics (指标) which covers more than 2,600 employers across the globe. This report sets a new benchmark for     8     a country’s ability to match talent with opportunity and the movement of people between industries — the Talent Adaptability Score. This score is given to 11 countries. For each country, we evaluate how the Score     9     economic performance. Our recommendations are organised around four groups:

● Individuals — Prove your adaptability.

● Employers — Seek out, nurture and reward talents who can adapt.

● Educators — Offer courses and job training that produce     10     people.

● Governments — Create a climate of adaptability.

8 . 毋庸置疑，空气污染是一个极其严重的问题，但令人欣慰的是，政府正采取有力措施来解决它。 (deny) (汉译英)
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10 . 当你下定决心要帮助那些陷入困境的人时，考虑到对方的感受是必要的，以免伤害到他们的自尊心。(account) (汉译英)
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