Spotted lanternflies (斑点灯笼蝇) are an invasive species. Since 2014, they have been seen all across the eastern United States. The insects are harmful to many plants, and can disturb entire ecosystems. State officials have urged people to kill spotted lanternflies wherever they see them.
When Joy saw the pests in her school courtyard, she thought she had to do something. “I’ve always wanted to take environmental action,” she says, “and show people that no one is ever too small to make a difference.”
So she started a club called Squash (压扁). Its mission is to kill spotted lanternflies around the school. More than 20 students have joined. At first, they trapped the pests in empty water bottles and then squashed them. In a single day, the club managed to kill more than a hundred spotted lanternflies.
Joy wanted to do more. With research, she discovered a plant called milkweed. It’s nutritious for pollinators (传粉昆虫) such as monarch butterflies but poisonous to spotted lanternflies. Joy thought that using milkweed along with the traps made specifically for spotted lanternflies would be a better way to kill them. The issue was that they didn’t have enough money to buy milkweed and the traps.
The kids were hoping to raise money for their school to address the big problem. Their goal was to raise $200, the cost of the equipment needed to kill spotted lanternflies around their school. They got part of the way there, with about $75. They decided to attract more fundraisers. “We discovered that if you find your voice,” Joy says, “you can do much more.”
In May, Joy and other students from Squash gathered in Columbus Park, in New York City. They set up a table with lemonade, cookies, and origami figures for sale. The money will be used to buy milkweed and the traps.
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。
To attract more attention, the students divided their work into various roles.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________As the day progressed, the students’ efforts paid off.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In a small town, there lived a young elementary school student named Timmy, whose lateness had become his worst trait (特点) in his school.
Every school morning, he struggled to get out of bed, often finding himself rushing through breakfast and forgetting important things like his homework or lunchbox. Meanwhile, his classmates would glance at the empty seat beside them, exchanging knowing looks as the clock ticked pa st the start of the class. When Timmy finally arrived, he would often find himself the center of attention, and his cheeks red with embarrassment as he apologised. Deep down, Timmy felt a growing sense of discomfort and shame about his habitual lateness. His teachers and classmates were concerned about the effect of his constant lateness on his studies.
One day, Timmy’s class teacher, Mrs. Johnson, decided to solve the issue. She approached Timmy with a gentle smile, “Timmy, can we talk about something important?”
Timmy looked up and replied, a bit nervous, “Sure, Mrs. Johnson.”
She crouched (蹲下) down to his level, speaking softly but seriously and sincerely, “I’ve noticed you’ve been late for class quite often. Do you know being on time is very important?”
Timmy lowered his head and said, “Yes, but...”
Mrs. Johnson continued, “Being on time helps you not miss out on your lessons. It’s also about respect for your classmates and me. When you’re late, it can disrupt (打乱) the whole class. We all miss you when you’re not here on time.”
Timmy nodded and said, a look of understanding on his face, “I didn’t realize it was affecting everyone. I’ll try to be better, Mrs. Johnson. But I have difficulty waking up and getting out of bed. Every morning when my alarm clock sounded, I hit the snooze (小睡) button, just 10 more minutes. Then 10 minutes later, another 10 minutes. That’s why I am always late for school.”
“Don’t worry. We’re all here to help you,” Mrs. Johnson said, offering a comforting smile.
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 the talk, Mrs. Johnson, along with Timmy’s classmates, came up with a plan to help him.
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Soon Timmy’s change was obvious.
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Daniel’s mother, Debbie Ashworth struggled to raise her two kids. As the older child at home, Daniel was a good help to his mother, cleaning the room and caring for his younger brother, Tony.
On a cold winter morning, Debbie asked the kids to go to the supermarket for some groceries. A toy panda on the she If caught Tony’s eyes. It was so adorable that he could hardly tear himself away from it. Knowing that they couldn’t afford it, Daniel told his brother to put it back. But Tony really wanted it and was unwilling to leave. “Please, I can wait until Mom’s salary came in on June 15th,” Tony said. Daniel hesitated for a while, then took out a pen and wrote a note, which read, “Please keep the toy panda for my little brother until June 15th, when my mother gets her salary to pay for it. Thanks.” Placing the note on top of the box, they left the supermarket relieved.
One of the staff spotted the note, who then showed it to the manager. The note melted everyone there and they decided to do something thoughtfully. They put away the toy panda so that it wouldn’t be purchased by other shoppers. After that, they tried their best to search for the two boys, but in vain. There was no other clue(线索)on the note to identify them. It appeared that they had no alternative but to wait until June 15th, which was about half a month away.
The big day finally arrived. Unexpectedly, the two boys didn’t show up. “Maybe they have forgotten all about the toy,” one clerk whispered. “Impossible. A toy animal might not mean much to an adult. But for a child, it could mean the world,” the manager said. “We must come up with a way to contact them.” They decided to turn to the Internet by posting the note and their phone number online, hoping it could bring a surprise.
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 post eventually attracted the attention of Debbie.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“I lost my job last month,” Debbie sighed(叹气).
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________As an independent, self-reliant person who always handled everything by myself, I didn’t expect parenting to be hard. Oh, sure, it’s difficult for other people. I heard parents complaining all the time — kids are challenging; nothing is ever clean; there’s not enough time in the day to do everything. But that was “other people” and I knew I could handle it. How complicated could it be?
I’d always dreamed of adopting a child, and finally my dream came true one summer afternoon. Even though we had requested only one child, the worker asked, “Could you take another baby and his eleven-year-old brother?” Of course, we could. We had room to have all three boys together.
The first week after they moved in, I spent my days rushing from task to task, cleaning and making sure they had all they needed. I constantly organized our living room, which was suddenly full of toys, and picked up the path of destruction left in the boys’ wake. Cooking and cleaning after meals and snacks seemed to take half of my day. I hardly ever sat; something always needed to be done.
“I think we need a break,” my husband told me one evening as I was falling asleep on the couch as usual.
“No,” I refused. The idea of sending them to a stranger sickened me. However, with each passing day, I was growing more and more exhausted. Besides meeting the physical needs of the boys, there were medical and emotional needs. Both the little ones constantly clung (黏住) to me. It was never quiet in our house; I felt overwhelmed.
One night, my husband said firmly that he needed a break. Whether I “needed” one or not, we were going to take one. With tears rolling down my cheeks, I nodded, knowing it was true, although I didn’t want to admit my weakness.
I called my parents.
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Asking for help is something I must keep re-learning as time goes on, but it’s getting easier.
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A SPECIAL DAY
When the 6 a. m. alarm went off on Father’s Day, Helen’s parents were awakened with a loud bang as she smashed (打碎) the piggy bank with hammer. “What’s wrong?” exclaimed by Helen’s mother, but Helen said it was a secret. She picked up the money on the ground, and rushed to the shoe cabinet to find father’s shoes secretly. Ten minutes later, Helen came out of the door with a piece of paper in her hand without telling anyone.
Helen hurried to a shoe shop and said to the salesman, “I want to buy a pair of shoes for adults. Can you recommend one for me?” The salesman said, “What size do you want?” Helen immediately took a piece of paper out of her bag and gave it to the assistant. “Why are there shoes prints on the paper?” asked by the clerk curiously. Helen said, “It was my little idea. I drew a picture of my dad’s shoes with a pen, and it was a great way to get the right shoes for him without letting him know.” At the salesman’s recommendation, Helen chose a pair of shoes, because her father had not bought a pair of good shoes for a long time, and his shoes were worn out and always wet on rainy days. The salesman took different sizes of shoes to make a comparison with the shoes on the paper, and finally decided on the right size. Then he smiled and handed it to Helen.
Helen took out a pile of one-dollar coins from her bag, and said to the clerk, “Here is all the pocket money I have saved.” The salesman was amazed by this 6-year-old girl when counting the coins. He said to Helen, “Your money is just enough, you are a good girl and your father will be very happy for that.”
注意：
1、所续写短文的词数应为150词左右;
2、续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1:
When Helen returned home, she found her father standing at the door, angry but worried.
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Paragraph 2:
Helen took out the new shoes for her father from her bag.
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1. How much snow can people see this morning?
| A．A lot. | B．A little. | C．None. |
| A．About five degrees. | B．About two degrees. | C．About zero degree. |
| A．Tomorrow. | B．This weekend. | C．Next Monday. |
| A．A sports report. | B．Another weather report. | C．A speech by the president. |
1. What is Uncle Meyer?
| A．A teacher. | B．A librarian. | C．A historian. |
| A．The zoo. | B．The museum. | C．The library. |
| A．Support museums. | B．Study Chinese. | C．Go on a trip to China. |
| A．Four. | B．Three. | C．Two. |
9 . In South Korea, students should pay for everything they learn in classes from K-pop auditions to real estate deals. Now, top Korean firms are introducing artificial intelligence in hiring and job seekers want to learn how to defeat the robots to get a job.
Many major South Korean companies like SK Innovation and Hyundai use AI in hiring, which generates classes for AI hiring booming fast. Career advisor Park Seong-jung is now offering a three-hour training course in handling recruitment, screening by computers, not people.
Preparing for such tests doesn’t necessarily involve simply memorizing answers. “Don’t force a smile with your lips,” Park Seong-jung told students looking for work in a recent session, one of many in which he said he has conducted for hundreds of people. “Smile with your eyes.”
One AI video system reviewed by Reuters asks candidates to introduce themselves, during which it spots and counts facial expressions including “fear” and “joy” and analyses word choices. It then asks questions that can be tough: “You are on a business trip with your boss and you spot him using the company credit card to buy himself a gift. What will you say?”
Kim Seok-wu, a 22-year-old senior at a top university, recently failed to get beyond an AI interview for a management position at a retail company. “I think I will feel hopeless if all companies go AI for hiring,” Kim said. “The AI interview is too new, so job hunters don’t know what to prepare for and any preparations seem meaningless since AI will read our faces if we make something up.”
1. Why do students in South Korea pay to study courses like AI hiring?| A．They want to be more competitive when faced with AI interview. |
| B．Big companies are in favor of it and want them to beat the androids. |
| C．They want to learn some AI knowledge and learn how to smile before AI. |
| D．AI can analyze their facial expressions and help to prepare for the interviews. |
| A．By making a self introduction and answering some questions. |
| B．By asking interviewees how to deal with the boss’s asking for a gift. |
| C．By looking at what words the interviewees use when answering difficult questions. |
| D．By demanding an introduction, observing facial expressions and asking challenging questions. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Disapproving. | C．Uncaring. | D．Contradictory. |
| A．A news report. | B．A job interview. |
| C．Scientific paper. | D．A job-seeking lecture. |
1. What is the talk mainly about?
| A．How to improve self-confidence. |
| B．How to write a good speech. |
| C．How to get high grades. |
| A．His classmate. | B．His teacher. | C．A drama actor. |
| A．Sales. | B．Education. | C．Drama. |
| A．Facing mistakes bravely. |
| B．Taking part in the school play. |
| C．Talking with the head teacher. |
