1. What is Forbes’ first advice?
| A．To keep a scorecard. | B．To announce your dream. | C．To develop tiny habits. |
| A．To record your progress. |
| B．To compare with your partner. |
| C．To create a sense of completion. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Unconcerned. | C．Disapproving. |
| A．Finding social support. | B．Setting broad goals. | C．Keeping the goals to yourself. |
2 . There has been a recent wave in Hollywood where studios take popular animated (动画的) films and “improve” upon them by changing them into live-action remakes. The thought that live-action movies are better because they follow the laws of the natural world degrades the style of animation.
The beauty of animation is that its use of caricatures (漫画) and exaggerations (夸张) reflects an amazing amount of creative depth in characters stories that reality cannot. Looking at the bigger picture, it becomes clear that the true purpose of Disney’s ever growing list of live-action remakes is not to comment on the value of animation, although it indirectly does, but a quick way to take advantage of nostalgic (怀旧的) fans.
For evidence, look no further than Disney’s 2019 The Lion King live-action remake, a retelling of the 1994 animated classic. It broke several box office records, raking in a whopping $543.6 million globally in box office sales alone. However, in comparison to the original, the audience satisfaction with the remake decreased greatly on Rotten Tomatoes. This is similar to the the remakes of Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Dumbo, Aladdin, and the countless other live-action remakes Disney has produced within the last 5 years. This means that Disney no longer needs to come up with new and original content because they can make a big profit just by taking beloved stories and remaking them.
In fact, Disney looks at itself as a business, and therefore considers making a profit as one of their main aims.
The problem with this mentality (心态) is that, while Disney makes a huge profit, audiences, artists, and art suffer. They may no longer create new stories or art styles, but rather serve as money-making machines that require directors to produce the same stories with a fresh coat of paint every 10 years or so. If this cycle continues, artists will be held back from creating new lovable characters and stories full of creativity. The feeling of nostalgia when we see old Disney films could possibly never happen-to newer generations if this cycle does not stop.
1. What does the author think of live-action remakes?| A．They slow down Hollywood development. |
| B．They’ve failed to become a popular art form. |
| C．They are poor at showing the beauty of nature. |
| D．They destroy the artistic expression of animation. |
| A．It bases its stories on reality. | B．It uses many special effects. |
| C．It explores characters fully. | D．It brings back fans’ memories. |
| A．To tell us Disney has given up its originality. |
| B．To show Disney has focused more on making money. |
| C．To prove too many remakes have been produced. |
| D．To show audiences have high expectations of remakes. |
| A．It reduces Disney’s incomes. | B．It demands more from directors. |
| C．It hurts new-generation audiences. | D．It causes artists to be less creative. |
3 . Why is the library the highest building?
4 . Plastic, which is now common, contains endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs (内分泌干扰物), that has been linked to increased risk of many chronic diseases. Parental exposure to EDCs, for example, has been shown to cause metabolic (新陈代谢的) disorders, including obesity and diabetes, in the later generations.
Led by Changcheng Zhou, a professor of biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of California, the researchers investigated the impact of fathers’ exposure to a phthalate called dicyclohexyl phthalate, or DCHP (邻苯二甲酸二环己酯), on the metabolic health of first generation (F1) and second generation (F2) in mice. Phthalates are chemicals used to make plastic more durable.
The researchers found that fathers’ DCHP exposure for four weeks led to high insulin (胰岛素) resistance and impaired insulin signaling in F1. The same effect, but weaker, was seen in F2 .
“We found fathers’ exposure to EDCs may have intergenerational and transgenerational detrimental effects on the metabolic health of their later generations, ”Zhou said. “To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to demonstrate this.”
In the case of fathers’ exposure in the study, intergenerational effects are changes that occur due to direct exposure to a stressor, such as exposure to DCHP of fathers (F0 generation) and his F1 generation. Transgenerational effects are changes passed down to later generations that are not directly exposed to the stressor (for example, F2 generation).
“This suggests that fathers’ DCHP exposure can lead to sex-specific transgenerational effects on the metabolic health of their later generations,” Zhou said.
Zhou stressed that the impact of exposure to DCHP on human health is not well understood, even though DCHP is widely used in a variety of plastic products and has been detected in food, water, and indoor particulate matter.
“It’s best to minimize our use of plastic products,” Zhou said. “This can also help reduce plastic pollution, one of our most pressing environmental issues.”
1. Why are phthalates added to plastic?| A．To beautify it. | B．To make it long-lasting. |
| C．To reduce its cost. | D．To increase its weight. |
| A．Negative. | B．External. | C．Distinct. | D．Adventurous. |
| A．Bury plastic waste. | B．Watch out for the food they eat. |
| C．Use fewest plastic products. | D．Never produce plastic products. |
| A．Plastic contains endocrine disrupting chemicals |
| B．Plastic pollution is a pressing environmental issue |
| C．DCHP is widely used in a variety of plastic products |
| D．Chemicals in plastic may impact two generations’ health |
5 . Face blindness, a mystifying condition that can trick us into believing we recognize people we’ve never met or make us fail to recognize those we have, has been previously estimated to affect between 2 and 2.5 percent of people in the world.Now, a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the VA Boston Healthcare System is providing fresh insights into the disorder, suggesting it may be more common than currently believed.
Published in February 2023 in Cortex, the study findings indicate that as many as one in 33 people may meet the criteria for face blindness, or prosopagnosia (面孔失认症).“This translates to more than 10 million Americans,” the research team said.
The study found similar face-matching performance between people diagnosed with prosopagnosia using stricter vs looser criteria, suggesting that diagnostic criteria should be expanded to be more inclusive. That could lead to new diagnoses among millions who may have the disorder but don’t realize it.
The study results are based on a web-based questionnaire and tests administered to 3,341 individuals.First, the researchers asked participants whether they experience difficulties recognizing faces in their everyday lives.Then they administered two objective tests to determine whether they had difficulties learning new faces or recognizing highly familiar famous faces.
The results showed that 31 individuals out of the 3,341 had major prosopagnosia, while 72 of the 3,341 had a milder form. The researchers also observed that there were no neatly divided separate groups of people with poor or good ability to recognize faces. Rather, the ability to recognize faces appeared to lie on a continuum (连续体).
Finally, the researchers compared face-matching scores among people with prosopagnosia diagnosed using different criteria and found that using stricter diagnostic cutoffs did not correspond with lower face-matching scores.
In the new study, the researchers provide diagnostic suggestions for identifying mild and major forms of prosopagnosia based on guidelines for major and mild neurocognitive disorders in the DSM5, the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
1. Which of the following indicates a person has face blindness?| A．Failing to identify his belongings. |
| B．Being able to recognize his friends. |
| C．Mistaking a stranger for an acquaintance. |
| D．Misunderstanding ones’ facial expressions. |
| A．Do you have trouble recognizing faces? |
| B．Do you know what face blindness means? |
| C．Do you know anybody with face blindness? |
| D．Do you experience difficulties in everyday life? |
| A．It came up based on the new study. |
| B．It has experienced four revisions. |
| C．It is only used to identify face blindness. |
| D．It participated in and funded the new study. |
| A．A fiction novel. | B．A fashion website. |
| C．A health brochure. | D．A science magazine. |
I was working as a supervisor in a small, rural hospital on a bitter cold Midwestern winter in 1992. I wasn’t even supposed to be working the evening shift, but had agreed to swap with a colleague who needed the night off. Among my many duties was to assist in the emergency room (ER) if our ER nurse needed help. Suddenly, my pager (寻呼机) echoed down the hallway that quiet evening.
“I need your help now,” a nurse in ER said urgently. “We have an ambulance out on a little boy. Not many details, but it doesn’t sound good. He was found outside in a snow bank, and the first responders have started CPR.” My heart sank. It was thirty degrees below zero with windchill. The child didn’t have a chance.
I entered the emergency room. The ambulance was just pulling up, and when the gurney (轮床) rolled into the ER it was met with dead silence. CPR was in progress. The blond boy lay lifeless and pale with little hands frozen so solid. Because of the circumstances, we were obligated to continue CPR until his core body temperature was raised. No one in the room seemed to hold any hope of bringing back this little boy.
The next hour passed quickly as many ways were conducted to warm him up. I stood silently over him, tears running down my cheeks, as I prayed silently for him and his family. I couldn’t even help understanding the pain his parents were experiencing.
He was the same age as my little boy, with the same beautiful blue eyes and blond hair. I thought of how much I loved my son and tried to remember the last time I told him I loved him so. What if he died tonight? Would he die knowing how much I loved him? I realized, watching a group of doctors and nurses desperately trying to do the impossible, that I hadn’t even hugged him before leaving for work. And I deeply regretted that now.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按照如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Then a miracle occurred.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Watching the scene, I made a promise to myself that night.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paul’s old clock was supposed to wake him up at six in the morning of August tenth, but, unfortunately, the hour hand stopped in the early hours again. Instead, Paul was awoken by the noisy breakfast-table talk of the Stephen brothers next door.
“Now. I’ve won the National Poetry Creative Award!” the older brother shouted loudly.
“You have to do the housework for the coming whole week!”
“Okay,” the younger responded unwillingly.
Paul rushed down the stairs of his apartment to the news kiosk (报刊亭) by the street in his pajamas. Among the crowd of the seven o’clock Los Angeles, he was unique, in a funny manner, like a clown escaped from a circus group. Despite that, he caught the eyes of nobody. He threw a few coins into the glass jar and then grabbed the newspaper from the old kiosk owner. His behavior didn’t frighten the old woman-he was the most loyal customer of her store for the past few years.
Paul liked to invent something, and he was fond of literature and had been dreaming of becoming an editor. He skimmed through the annual nomination (提名) on the front page of the newspaper, the brightness in his eyes turned less bright as he moved down the list of names, which eventually faded when he reached the end. He lifted his sight from the newspaper and started staring at the kiosk owner dully (无精打采地), an expression similar to that when he arrived. The old woman sighed-she was so accustomed to this lifeless look on his face but had prayed to see something new every August.
“Bad luck”, with this, Paul slid away rapidly. When approaching the corner of the street, he narrowly knocked down an old gentleman, the kiosk owner’s husband, Arthur, who once was a chief editor of a local famous magazine and now he was retired.
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。
After hearing what his wife said about Paul, Arthur decided to give him a hand.
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One morning of next year’s August, with the magazine he had edited in hand, Paul stood beside the news kiosk nervously to sell it.
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1. Where should the man go for a basketball course?
| A．To the Exercise Hall. | B．To the Sports Hall. | C．To the Exercise Studio. |
| A．Boxing. | B．Fencing. | C．Gymnastics. |
| A．$320. | B．$300. | C．$240. |
| A．His membership card. | B．His full name. | C．His ID card. |
Sally’s birthday was approaching, and the excitement that usually filled her heart was now replaced with disappointment and stress. Turning eleven was a big deal, and she had always celebrated it with a grand party surrounded by her friends. However, this year was different. The burden of excessive homework and her parents’ struggling business weighed heavily on her, forcing Sally to make the difficult decision of not having a birthday party, even though it was an event she enjoyed dearly every year.
One day, during break, her best friend, Jane, with a curious look in her eyes, approached. “Are you going to have a birthday party this year?” Jane asked, sensing Sally’s sadness.
“No,” Sally sighed and replied sadly, “There’s just too much going on and my parents are going through financial difficulties.”
She smiled weakly, trying to conceal her immense disappointment and stress, but Jane saw through her pretence (假装) easily. Jane nodded thoughtfully and did not say anything. After the break, Sally saw her talking to one of their classmates, Sarah, secretively. Curious, Sally went over to them, but as soon as Jane saw her, she quickly walked away. Sally was startled by Jane’s strange actions and turned towards Sarah.
“What did she say?” Sally asked.
However, Sarah simply shrugged and walked away with Jane, leaving Sally standing there, feeling left out and anxious.
What is happening? Sally wondered anxiously. Are they keeping something from me?
As Sally’s birthday drew nearer, Jane was often found chatting softly with her other classmates. Whenever Sally went over to them, they would just walk away or tell her that they were talking about a secret which Sally was not allowed to know. Jane has never kept secrets from me before, Sally thought. Her heart fell. Even her friends were distancing themselves from her! She swung between confusion and sadness with each passing moment, desperately trying to figure out what was happening. Why were her friends distancing themselves from her? And what were they hiding?
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。
On the day of Sally’s birthday, she went to school and found her classroom in total darkness.
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Tears sprang from Sally’s eyes and her face broke into a radiant smile.
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Last week, I was creating a picture book for my dad as his birthday gift. It was about our family’s grocery store (杂货店). There were lots of fruits in the store, so my pictures centered on apples, pears, grapes and any other fruit one could think of. I worked forever making each picture as perfect as possible. Every time I messed up, I started all over again, so the floor under the kitchen table was covered with half-finished drawings.
“Dad’s going to love this,” my mom said as she looked over my shoulder, “but it’s housework time now.” I was responsible for folding the clothes, and my little brother Ben, sweeping the floor. “And Amy, please remove the paper from the floor to the recycling bin in the yard when you finish your project,” my mom added.
I finished folding the clothes as fast as possible. Just as I was about to get back to the picture book, my friend Marry showed up.
“Hi, Amy! Want to go and play in the park?” she asked.
“I definitely would, but brrr…It’s freezing cold outside!”
“Exactly!” she said. “It’s the perfect weather for not getting overheated.”
That’s a cool thing about Marry. She has this way of looking on the bright side of pretty much anything.
So, we headed to the park. But as soon as we arrived there, the sky was filled with giant gray clouds and rain started pouring down. We had to go back, dripping wet.
Ben was taking out rubbish to the recycling bin when we stepped into the yard. And that’s when my heart pretty much stopped. Right there in the yard, in front of the recycling bin, was a box full of wet paper. And not just any piece of paper. That was my picture book.
注意： 1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
“Whoa! Wait! What?” I ran to rescue my birthday book drawings.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
At that time, Marry came up to me and gave me a comforting pat on the shoulder.
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