Benched?
Anxious, Devin sat in the back seat of the car. “I have so much energy!” he said. “Do I really have to sit and watch?”
“It’s just for one more game.” Devin’s father said as he drove into the parking lot by the outdoor basketball court. “It’s better to stay on the safe side.”
Devin sighed. “It’s been a week since I got injured,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt at all.”
But it did hurt when he was in last week’s game. He twisted to avoid a defender and ended up spraining his ankle. “The doctor said 10 days,” his father reminded him. “No jumping. You can ease back into basketball next week.”
Devin ran his fingers over the logo on his basketball uniform. He was ready for the game, but he knew he’d be spending it on the bench. The summer season was short — just eight games —and he’d already missed one.
“I just want to help my team win,” he said as he got out of the car. “I can’t do that if I’m not on the court.”
Devin loved hearing the thump (沉闷的撞击声), thump, thump of basketballs and the feeling of excitement before every game. Hip-hop music from the loudspeaker made him feel like dancing. The energy in the air would make it even harder for him not to participate.
Before the game, Coach reminded the players to make smart passes and play tough defense. Without Devin’s leadership and skill, his team would need a huge effort.
By halftime, Coach praised the players for their hard work. With Devin unable to play, the team had only one extra player, so no one was getting much rest.
The game was fierce. The score stood at 47 to 49 with three minutes left in the game. Devin sat down and rubbed his hands together. “I’m a loser here on the bench. I can do nothing to help.” he thought.
Coach called a timeout(比赛暂停) and gathered the players to give some advice.
注意：1. 续写词数为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答.
Suddenly, Coach turned to Devin. “Do you have anything to add?”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The game was over and his team had a two-point victory!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . There’s a useful concept from psychology that helps explain why good people do things that harm the environment: the false consensus effect. That’s where we overvalue how acceptable and prevalent (普遍的) our own behavior is in society. Put simply, if you’re doing something (even if you secretly know you probably shouldn’t), you’re more likely to think plenty of other people do it too. What’s more, you likely overestimate how much other people think that behavior is broadly OK.
This bias (偏见) allows people to justify socially unacceptable or illegal behaviors. Researchers have observed the false consensus effect in drug use and illegal hunting. More recently, conservationists are beginning to reveal how this effect contributes to environmental damage.
In Australia, people who admitted to poaching (偷猎) thought it was much more prevalent in society than it really was, and had higher estimates than fishers who obeyed the law. They also believed others viewed poaching as socially acceptable; however, in reality, more than 90% of fishers held the opposite view. The false consensus effect has also shown up in studies examining support for nuclear energy and offshore wind farms.
Just as concepts from psychology can help explain some forms of environmental damage, so too can they help address it. For example, research shows people are more likely to litter in areas where there’s already a-lot of trash scattered around; so making sure the ground around a bin is not covered in rubbish may help.
Factual information on how other people think and behave can be very powerful. Energy companies have substantially reduced energy consumption simply by showing people how their electricity use compares to their neighbors. Encouragingly, stimulating people’s natural desire for status has also been successful in getting people to “go green to be seen”, or to publicly buy eco-friendly products.
As the research evidence shows, social norms can be a powerful force in encouraging and popularizing environmentally friendly behaviors. Perhaps you can do your bit by sharing this article!
1. Which example best illustrates the false consensus effect?| A．A student spends long hours surfing the internet. |
| B．A blogger assumes many people dislike his posts. |
| C．A driver frequently parks illegally in public places. |
| D．A smoker believes people generally approve of smoking. |
| A．It is unacceptable. | B．It is widespread. |
| C．It is controversial. | D．It is complex. |
| A．Embrace green habits for better health. |
| B．Make green choices that others can perceive. |
| C．Join green movements for personal fulfillment. |
| D．Choose green items that are easy to spot in stores. |
| A．Understate social norms. | B．Highlight personal responsibilities. |
| C．Publicize sustainable practices. | D．Encourage technological innovations. |
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.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
When Jack finished his presentation, the room erupted into applause.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . The storms in our lives often leave behind gifts if we open our eyes to see them. As the skies clear and you start to emerge from the loss, look for the silver linings.
Going through difficulties requires courage and determination. You have to dig deep and find the strength you didn’t know you possessed to overcome the challenges.
Coming out the other side of trouble sometimes gives you a fresh outlook. Priorities shift.
Your struggles and pain have given you understanding for what others maybe going through in their own lives. You now recognize the suffering of people around you and desire to help ease their burdens. Use your experience to be there for friends and family members facing difficulties.
| A．Dramatic changes often lead to transformation. |
| B．They’re there if you are bent on searching for them. |
| C．Offer a listening ear and share your story with them. |
| D．Storms shape us, but the silver linings make us suffer. |
| E．What seemed important before now pales in comparison. |
| F．Now you know you have the inner power to weather storms. |
| G．This new perspective removed previous doubt about yourself. |
In the town of Willowbrook, young Sarah was in a state of great excitement. Her school was putting on its annual play, and she had been offered a principal role. The school hall had been abuzz for weeks with rehearsals, prop (道具) preparations, and the students practicing their lines. Sarah had spent countless hours rehearsing, wanting to get every word and movement absolutely right.
However, underlying her anticipation was a growing sadness. Sarah’s dad, Mr Thompson, worked as an engineer in a big city, and his job often kept him away from home for a long time, which meant he frequently missed out on most of the special moments in Sarah’s life. This play seemed to be another addition to that growing list. He had a vital business meeting on the same day, and Sarah, although understanding, couldn’t help feeling disappointed. Her classmates talked excitedly about their families coming to watch, increasing her sense of loss.
It was bright and sunny on the day of the play. The school’s hall was noisy with students. Students in costumes rushed about, teachers gave last-minute instructions, and the air was thick with anticipation. Sarah peeped out from behind the curtains and saw the hall filling up with eager parents, siblings, and friends. Every seat was taken, except one — her dad’s.
The play started on time with Sarah and her classmates’ performance being the first. The actors delivered their lines with passion and the audience responded with laughter and applause at all the right moments. Sarah played her part with a mix of excitement and longing, wishing her dad could see her shine.
Halfway through, the host called for a surprise guest to enter. He described him as a “mysterious stranger” whose brief appearance would provide a turning point in the plot. As the lights dimmed slightly and suspenseful music played, a tall figure stepped onto the stage.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Sarah’s heart jumped faster.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When the final scene concluded and the curtains drew to a close, applause thundered through the hall.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________We’ve all heard the advice to “get out of your comfort zone” by taking on a new challenge. A recent study goes a step further: Make discomfort a direct goal. That’s more likely to motivate you
In the first of five experiments, the researchers assigned several hundred students training at Second City Chicago
Experiments
Reframing anxiety as excitement has been proven a way to improve singing in front of strangers, and thinking of stress as
“When people reinterpret negative experiences as
I’ve always had a love for basketball, so when it came time to continue my basketball journey at Columbia High School, I resolved to make it onto the school’s varsity (校队) basketball team. Any time I wasn’t studying, I was putting on my sports shoes and hitting the school stadium. Just before bed, I’d look up videos of LeBron James and Kevin Durant, trying to learn from the professionals. Day and night, all I could think about was how to get better and how to improve.
After months and months of practice and playing on the junior varsity team, Coach Moore finally told me one day that I was going to be playing for our school’s varsity basketball team going into my junior year. Success! Time for the big league! What I didn’t know, however, was that I was going to face a pretty big challenge in the form of a new transfer student: Chet Harrison.
Harrison had just transferred from another school, Westmoreland High School, where he had already been playing for the varsity team. There were rumors floating around that he was nearly guaranteed a spot playing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association and maybe even the National Basketball League someday.
I’ll admit, the kid was a natural talent when it came to playing basketball. But Harrison’s biggest weakness was his personality. He seemed selfish and sometimes acted like a bully, always seeking attention and showing off after scoring goals. Despite his loyal following of fans, I couldn’t stand him. But after Coach Moore said that Harrison and I would be playing together, I decided to accept it and make peace with the situation.
After months of putting up with Harrison’s attitude, I nearly had enough. Just before the winter break, however, we played a home match against Harrison’s old school Westmoreland and we lost. Harrison in particular felt utterly embarrassed.
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。
I found Harrison struggling to fight off tears in a corner of the boys’ locker room.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After months of working together, we found ourselves again facing Westmoreland on the basketball court for the finals.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8 . Late last year, in the days before the Dosakian election, a video featuring a well-known journalist and a key candidate circulated on social networks. However, it was absolutely fake (虚假的). The International Press Institute has called this episode in Dosakia the first time that AI deepfakes — fake images, or videos generated by artificial intelligence — have influenced a national election greatly.
Security experts consider misinformation the biggest global risk recently — more dangerous than war, and extreme weather events. A constant stream of people is wrestling with this issue. Now even economists are joining in.
Economist Iyan Smith, and others conduct a real-world experiment to see whether simple, low-cost nudges, or interventions, can be effective. Instead of focusing on the supply side of misinformation like social media platforms, they pay attention to the demand side: increasing our capacity to identify the fake information.
The economists split participants randomly into four different groups. One group was shown a video demonstrating a convincing journey of two people from two different social groups who, before interacting, express negative stereotypes (刻板印象) about the other’s group, overcoming their differences and ultimately regretting unthinkingly using stereotypes to dehumanize one another. Another group completed a personality test that shows them their cognitive traits (认知特点) causing prejudice, hoping to increase their self-awareness, and decrease their demand for misinformation. A third group did both while a control group did neither.
The economists find the simple intervention of showing the video makes the participants over 30 percent less likely to “consider fake news reliable”. But the personality test has little effect. As for participants doing both, they were about 31 percent less likely to view true headlines as reliable. In other words, they became so skeptical that even the truth became suspect.
Smith and his colleagues are far from the first scholars to fight misinformation by helping people to think more critically. University of Weymouth psychologist Lisa Kindle also advocates similar ways to help reject misinformation in the wild.
1. What does the author intend to do in the first two paragraphs?| A．Highlight the risk of AI deepfakes. | B．Discuss the global threat landscape. |
| C．Describe Dosakia’s election outcome. | D．Introduce the concept of misinformation. |
| A．The cognitive trait. | B．The short video. |
| C．The personality test. | D．The negative stereotype. |
| A．Videos reduce misinformation. | B．Deepfakes may discredit truth. |
| C．Misinformation causes dehumanization. | D．Personality tests sharpen thinking skills. |
| A．Battling Fake News | B．Deepfakes in Elections |
| C．The Spread of Misinformation | D．Expanding Thinking Capacity |
Pot On Happy Face
Sarai was attempting to halter (给……套上缰绳) her bay (棕红色) horse, Amadore, when an unfamiliar voice caught her attention. “I know what your problem is.” said a boy from the stall doorway.
Sarai threw a look over her shoulder but her focus remained on the horse in front of her.
Holding out a hand to her horse. Sarai said. “You heard what Dad said yesterday. If I can’t get this halter on you by tomorrow, we’ll have to send you back to the rescue ranch. I don’t want to send you back.”
“I know what your problem is.” the boy persisted, introducing himself as Cody.
Sarai sighed, propped her hands on her hips, and turned enough to see the boy but keep Amadore in her sight as well.
“I haven’t seen you here before,” said Sarai, frowning. “If you don't know me or my horse, how can you know what my problem is?”
“I just do,” Cody smiled again.
Sarai rolled her eyes and turned her back on Cody. Despite Sarai’s skepticism and her insistence on working alone, he offered to stay around in case she needed help.
The following morning, Sarai’s efforts were met with the same resistance from Amadore. Seeing him push himself back into the corner even further when she approached with breakfast, she frowned again, feeling frustrated and broken-hearted.
Realizing she might need assistance after all, she sought out Cody, who was now grooming a horse named Monty, preparing him for the Great Mustang Challenge.
“How's it going with Amadore?” Cody asked.
The words stuck in her throat, “Well…I need your help. Yesterday you said you knew what my problem was.” “It’s your face,” said Cody. “Horses can read a person’s facial features and determine what might happen because of the look on the face.”
Noticing Sarai’s struggle, Cody explained that her frown, likely a result of concentration, could be misinterpreted by the horse.
“That's silly,” said Sarai skeptically.
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。
“I can prove it,” Cody smiled with a camera in his hand.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With a quick pace, Sarai went back to her own horse.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________10 . Binge-watching (刷剧) is when a person watches more than one episode of a show in a row. With developments in the speed and connectivity of the Internet, increases in technology and the rise of on-demand entertainment companies, people can now have their favorite shows stream (流播) directly to their television at their convenience.
This behavior is nothing new. In fact, binge-watching has been officially listed in dictionaries since 2015. The entertainment companies recognize this behavior and many take steps to encourage it. Often, instead of releasing each episode on a week-by-week basis, an entire series will become available concurrently. Once the episode finishes, many platforms will display pop-ups with “you might like” suggestions, or will automatically play the next episode.
However, recent research suggests that out of the more than half of British adults who watch more than one episode of a show back-to-back (一集接一集地), almost a third have admitted missing sleep or becoming tired as a result; and 25% have neglected their household chores (家务活). Next we’ll be missing work!
Bingeing has other connections — binge eating, binge drinking and binge smoking. All of them are often associated with a lack of control and a possible route to addiction. Lindsey Fussell, consumer group director, said, “The days of waiting a week for the next episode are largely gone, with people finding it hard to resist (抗拒) watching multiple episodes around the house or on the move.” If people find binge-watching hard to resist, are we witnessing the birth of a new type of addiction?
The countless number of information and entertainment that television and online media can bring us is, many would say, a good thing. However, when the activity begins to bleed into other areas, causing us to stop functioning, then it becomes a problem. So, what’s the answer? Moderation! Neither a tiny amount, nor too much. After all, as the old proverb says, “A little of what you fancy does you good.”
1. How did the writer develop the first paragraph?| A．By giving a definition. | B．By telling a story. |
| C．By listing some examples. | D．By analyzing the cause and effect. |
| A．For convenience. | B．At the same time. |
| C．In detail. | D．Free of charge. |
| A．people can’t control their feelings | B．people can’t resist the temptation of Bingeing |
| C．people have no patience to do work | D．people are addicted to waiting for a new episode |
| A．To keep online media from stopping functioning. |
| B．To enjoy entertainment as much as possible. |
| C．To learn life lessons from the episodes. |
| D．To watch episodes in a moderate way. |
