1 . Here’s a quick quiz. Person A does a favor for you. Person B asks you to do a favor for him. Who do you tend to like more? Surprisingly, the answer is Person B. This quirk (怪癖) of human nature is known as the Ben Franklin Effect.
Benjamin Franklin came across the phenomenon in 1736 when serving as a clerk to the Pennsylvania Assembly. A powerful member didn’t care for Franklin and threatened to make life miserable for him. What to do? Instead of winning him over with sweet talk, Franklin asked if he could borrow a rare and valuable book the man owned. This request altered the man’s attitude and paved the way for their friendship. Franklin’s takeaway: “He that has once done you a kindness will be ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.”
Several studies have confirmed this. But how can we explain the Ben Franklin Effect? Some psychologists refer to cognitive dissonance (失调). It’s difficult to hold two contradictory thoughts at the same time. It makes us uncomfortable. We resolve this tension by changing our mind. “I don’t like Joe, but I am doing him a favor,” we might think. “So maybe I do like him.”
While cognitive dissonance explains a lot, it alone doesn’t explain the Ben Franklin Effect. One 2015 study found that it was, rather, the affiliative (亲和的) motive that the requests convey. That is, we humans want to maintain good relations with other humans, and one way to achieve this is by doing favors for others. This explains a lot about altruistic behavior. We like being useful and, by extension, we like those who give us the opportunity to do so. It’s in our genes.
Yet there is much we still don’t know about the Ben Franklin Effect. Does it apply equally across cultures? Is there a point beyond which asking a favor makes you less, not more likable? Asking to borrow a book is one thing; asking to borrow a car is another.
1. Why does the author mention Benjamin Franklin’s experience?| A．To illustrate a dilemma in making choices. | B．To suggest a way of striking up friendships. |
| C．To stress the importance of strategic requests. | D．To introduce the origin of the Ben Franklin Effect. |
| A．Reducing the tension caused by social contact. |
| B．Increasing the chance of getting help in return. |
| C．Avoiding the discomfort from conflicting thoughts. |
| D．Establishing a cooperative community of shared trust. |
| A．Selfless. | B．Impolite. | C．Aggressive. | D．Responsible. |
| A．It makes little sense. | B．It applies to most cultures. |
| C．It has situational limitations. | D．It has great practical significance. |
I am the kind of person who is shy and doesn’t express himself much among others. I spend a significant amount of time on introspection (内省). I lack the ease to engage in conversations with others. But I find this, on the other hand, can be an advantage.
Once, as a school boy, I wondered if I, such an introverted (内向的) person, would be considered eccentric (古怪的). And I was even afraid that I could possibly get nowhere in my study.
I went to school, where I was just an average student and struggled with shyness. My parents had high expectations, hoping I would finally be able to secure the first position at the end of the sixth grade. However, achieving that was no easy job. Given the keen competition between classmates and my then situation, it was challenging to stand out. I inquired with my friend, Tom, who consistently ranked first, and he revealed that his two aunts had been helping him, providing tutoring support.
Asking for help was never easy for me; my shyness stopped me from seeking assistance. I believed that I had to depend on myself — it was my sole responsibility to learn and educate myself. This mindset surprisingly ignited (激发) a race within me to claim the top position in my class. However, I realized there were barriers on my path — several subjects troubled me. And I understood that achieving the first position would take a couple of years of hard work.
I embarked on (开始) this journey when I was in the fourth grade. Attention focused in class and more time spent after class, I found I was gradually on the right track. By the fifth grade, work on my study was progressing steadily and improvement was obvious. Even Tom showed his surprise or I could say envy. But I knew my performance in writing still needed improving. And I knew, though without additional support, I could count on myself.
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。
The journey continued into the sixth grade.
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The day arrived when the headmaster declared the exam results.
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3 . When I was young, my family had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I used to listen with
Then I discovered that inside the wonderful
My first personal
“Isn’t your mother home?” came the question.
“Nobody’s home but me.”
“Are you bleeding?”
“No.” I replied.
“Can you open your icebox?” she asked. I said I could. “Then
After that I called her for everything. I asked her for help with my geography and math. She even
As I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood
| A．respect | B．sincerity | C．fascination | D．caution |
| A．driven | B．pushed | C．opened | D．fastened |
| A．hole | B．device | C．home | D．community |
| A．supply | B．change | C．delete | D．guess |
| A．meeting | B．experience | C．interview | D．cooperation |
| A．approval | B．confidence | C．sympathy | D．comment |
| A．pressed | B．fixed | C．replaced | D．lifted |
| A．ordered | B．cheered | C．yelled | D．declared |
| A．teacher | B．audience | C．partner | D．assistant |
| A．heat up | B．slip on | C．put away | D．chip off |
| A．informed | B．showed | C．warned | D．inspired |
| A．conversations | B．injuries | C．pains | D．dreams |
| A．glory | B．kindness | C．doubt | D．anger |
| A．admitted | B．appreciated | C．wondered | D．estimated |
| A．optimistic | B．ambitious | C．disciplined | D．understanding |
“MEATLOAF AGAIN?” I stared at the plate with a feeling of disappointment.
My mom knew how to make seven meals. That was all. She kept all seven recipes labeled with a day of the week. That day was Meatloaf Monday. Again.
“It’s just, it had been Tuna Tuesdays and Spaghetti Saturdays for, like, my entire life. Not every meal had to start with the same letter as a day of the week.”
My mom’s eyes flashed. But she said nothing. I knew she didn’t consider learning new recipes due to her overwhelming stress.
The next day I was sitting next to Tania, whose dad was the best cook, in our school’s brand- new- since- six- months- ago kitchen classroom. Everything— the tables, the stove, the pots and pans—— shone and sparkled. I was about to ask Tania about a new recipe, but Mr. Bruin, our teacher, interrupted.
“I’ve got exciting news,” he said. Exciting news? The class stopped talking and looked expectantly at Mr. Bruin. “To finish off our unit on kitchen skills, we were having a competition where you didn’t have a recipe and you had to make something with whatever ingredients the judges gave you.” An eager murmur traveled through the class. “You’ve learned a lot this term— accurate measuring, food prep, cooking techniques. Just add some creativity to the mix.”
“Will there be prizes?” asked Samantha.
“Absolutely! And the first-place prize was the newest book in the Cave of the Dragons series,” said Mr. Bruin, holding up a copy for everyone to see.
The class erupted into squeals and cheers. Cave of the Dragons was the best book series ever! It had been sold out everywhere. During the break, all anyone could talk about was the cooking competition .“I’m totally going to win,” said Tania. “Genes, like, cooking was in my DNA.” And if there was some sort of cooking gene, my mom definitely didn’t have it. So, if I wanted to win, I needed to practise and innovate.
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。
Paragraph 1:
After school, I told my mom my plan.
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The day of the competition arrived, and the kitchen classroom was filled with activity.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . Ecologist Carl Safina’s latest book focuses on the chimpanzees, the sperm whale and the scarlet macaw. In Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace, he writes about culture, the structures of societies, and what makes us who and what we are.
Safina’s three animals are selected for their variety. Safina warns against thinking about chimpanzees in purely human terms. “We see in them partially formed premiumans caught between being and becoming, a forerunner of humankind,” Safina writes, noting, “Chimpanzees are not our ancestors. Chimps are our contemporaries. They are complete chimpanzees, not half-baked humans.”
The main reason for this warning is also one of the central attempts of Becoming Wild: criticize the idea of human exceptionalism. For centuries, scientists and philosophers have fixed that exceptionalism on one thing after another: Humans are the only animals that have language, humans are the only animals that make tools, etc. These have all boiled down to the same idea that only humans have culture.
Safina’s book shows that nothing could be further from the truth. Human beings have only recently begun to recognize the animal cultures around them. “Humans use language so much that it has swamped our own ability to recognize nonverbal signals that we ourselves continually display and respond to,” Safina writes. “The world is full of layers and waves of communication.”
Becoming Wild describes communication of all kinds. Sperm whales include each other in sonic webs full of vocabulary and even regional dialects. They find meaning in family and group identity by living in stable groups where individuals stay together for decades. Only in sperm whales and humans do group identities extend so far beyond relatives. Like whales, young scarlet macaws closely follow cultural practices. They spend years learning tool-fashioning and developing unique calls learned from their parents. They also learn dialects to enhance group identity. Chimpanzees mirror all the interpersonal complexity of humans. A huge part of chimpanzee life is learning how to make peace through forgiveness.
1. What does Safina think about chimpanzees?| A．They are human beings’ ancestors. |
| B．They are randomly chosen for study. |
| C．They are species independent of humans. |
| D．They are the symbol of being and becoming. |
| A．To prove an assumption. | B．To challenge a belief. |
| C．To present a fact. | D．To evaluate a statement. |
| A．Indicated. | B．Measured. | C．Tested. | D．Weakened. |
| A．The existence of animal culture. | B．The uniqueness of human beings. |
| C．The complexity of human society. | D．The importance of animal communication. |
1. What is the speaker doing?
| A．Teaching a class. |
| B．Reporting a study. |
| C．Chairing a meeting. |
| A．Reading. | B．Listening. | C．Writing. |
| A．It keeps information secret. |
| B．It leaves space for future use. |
| C．It makes key words noticeable. |
7 . If you’ve scrolled through your Facebook feed recently, you may have noticed something surprising: lots and lots of short videos.
What makes this “Reels” feature strange is that it is hugely addictive, which I know quite well from my own personal experience. Last Friday, I took a break and hit on one short clip of someone making dinner and, well, the next time I looked up it was 20 minutes later and the blank document on my computer monitor was confirming to me that my work was still not done.
However, as silly as it seems, Reels-is actually super important, and is at the centre of a major battle between the world’s largest tech firms. The format (格式) was first pioneered by TikTok-the Chinese-owned video app that has taken the world by storm since it launched in 2016. Today, TikTok has around 23 million UK users every month-including basically every person you know under the age of 25. And that fact has made Facebook and its parent company, Meta, very nervous indeed. As TikTok has continued to boom, Facebook has actually fallen in popularity among “Gen Z”. The reason Tik Tok has proven such a powerful challenger to Facebook’s social media dominance is almost entirely down to these sorts of short-form videos.
The format is almost perfectly optimised to be as addictive as possible: Tik Tok’s app shows you a short-form video, and if you don’t like it, you can simply swipe it away and another one will start playing instantly. And because it is portrait, not landscape, videos look “right” when viewed on your phone. What’s also smart is that TikTok’s algorithm (算法) picks videos for you based on what you actually watch, and not what you say you want.
Facebook isn’t the only app trying to do what TikTok does so well. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta, has integrated Reels even more aggressively into its app. And even Google is nervous, launching its own TikTok-style video section of YouTube(which it owns)a couple of years ago. As things stand, though TikTok currently maintains a healthy lead in the category, both YouTube and Facebook have deep pockets-so expect to see even more Reels and Shorts popping up in your feed as this intense battle continues to rage. You won’t be able to take your eyes off them.
1. Why did the author mention his own experience in paragraph 2?| A．To illustrate the feature of short videos. |
| B．To stress the importance of short videos. |
| C．To prove his preference to short videos. |
| D．To introduce the functions of short videos. |
| A．It has shown the trend of the fall in popularity among “Gen Z”. |
| B．It is perceived as a potential threat to Facebook’s social media dominance. |
| C．Its number of registered UK users has reached 23 million since it launched in 2016. |
| D．It underestimates the essential role of short videos in competition with large tech firms. |
| A．The beautiful visual effects. |
| B．The high video quality. |
| C．The random recommendation. |
| D．The quick switch between videos. |
| A．The short videos have a profound impact on our daily life. |
| B．TikTok seems to be losing its advantage over short videos in the short run. |
| C．YouTube and Facebook may encounter financial difficulties in developing Shorts. |
| D．A growing number of tech firms have engaged in fierce competition for the short video market. |
1. Why are the two speakers upset?
| A．It may snow during their vacation. |
| B．They may not be able to take their vacation. |
| C．They may fail to join the graduation ceremony. |
| A．They are going skiing. |
| B．They have made bookings for their plane. |
| C．Their flight has been cancelled. |
| A．The earthquake. | B．The bad winter. | C．A terrible flu. |
| A．Talk to Professor Hampton. |
| B．Speak to all of the other people. |
| C．Call the travel agency. |
Jack was new to Woodberry Forest School this year. He carried a secret burden: a stutter (口吃) that often brought about laughter from his classmates. This made him very upset. Shy and reserved. Jack chose to fade into the background rather than draw attention to himself. He felt like an outsider, never quite fitting in.
Jack was eager to exchange ideas with his classmates, but afraid of getting into trouble. Jack's science teacher, Katherine, a warm and caring woman often wearing a smile, noticed Jack's stutter and shyness. She observed how Jack struggled to express himself in class and how he would shy away when called upon to speak.
Determined to lend a hand, Katherine took Jack under her wing, encouraging him to embrace bravery and believe in his own abilities. Subsequently, Katherine adopted a set of systematic methods to help him. She was glad to find the potential in him, the intelligence and creativity that lay hidden beneath his stutter. Whenever possible, Katherine was always ready to praise his efforts, always declaring, "You are so great!” Whenever Jack stumbled over his words, Katherine always smiled at him encouragingly, providing him with the strength to continue. Day by day, Jack found himself speaking with greater confidence and fluency.
One day, Katherine announced that each student should give a presentation of a science project in front of the class. Jack's heart sank, the familiar fear and anxiety wrapping around him. How could he possibly stand before his classmates to give his ideas clearly, knowing that they would laugh at him? As the presentation drew near, Jack's anxiety mounted. Then came the big day. He watched his classmates take turns to walk up to the front. They gave their presentation with confidence and backed to their seats with satisfaction. However, while Jack was waiting for his turn, his heart beat so violently that he felt as if he were sitting on pins and needles.
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。
Paragraph 1:
It was finally his turn.
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When Jack finished his presentation, the room erupted into applause.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Lek raced down the street, ran around the corner, and at last pushed open the door of his parents’ restaurant. If he hurried, he might have time to make his krathong(水灯) before the celebration started.
Tonight was Loy Krathong, the Festival of the Floating Lanterns. All over Thailand, people would send out lighted candles in tiny boats along rivers so that the past year’s problems could sail away with them and be replaced with wishes for the new year.
As Lek wrapped a pile of banana leaves around a bamboo base to form his boat, Lek thought about his sister, Dao. She was too sick to float a krathong. Perhaps a wish on Loy Krathong would take away her illness. Maybe then she would be able to laugh the way she used to. He put four red flowers inside the banana leaves and in the middle, he placed a tall, white candle.
“The river goddess will be pleased with your krathong,” his grandma looked at Lek’s boat and said. “Tong will help you launch your boat. You are too small to do this by yourself.” She gave him a serious look. “Now we must hurry to get ready for our customers.” Like last year, only his brother Tong was allowed to launch krathongs into the river for their customers. But this week, Lek had practiced launching the way Tong did and he was sure he could make it by himself.
After washing piles of dishes, Lek realized that it was time to launch the krathongs. Lek made his way outside through the crowd standing under the full moon, and spotted Tong standing on the jetty(码头) and lowering a krathong into the water with his pole. Lek took out matches and lit the candle on his tiny boat. He looked over his shoulder to see if his grandma was watching. Then he lay down at the edge of the jetty and made a wish that Dao would get better from that minute on. He lowered his krathong toward the water, stretching to reach its surface.
注意：1.续写短文词数应为150左右；2.请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答。
Suddenly, somehow, his krathong fell out of his hands into the dark water.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Let’s make another one for Dao.” Tong said gently.
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