1 . Once you get close enough to someone, it’s easy to assume they’ll be a friend for life—but friendships take work, too, and it’s important that you make time to cultivate these relationships as well.
1. “How do you think we’ve both changed since we became friends?”
There’s a good chance that you’ve been friends with those closest to you for some time, which means you’ve both changed in certain ways over the years. Shari, founder of Imperfectly Perfect Life, says it’s important to reflect on that change. “
2. “
“You don’t have to just focus on your own friendship. People vary greatly in what makes them feel most connected to others—for some it’s sharing something exciting together, while for others, it’s doing daily tasks together,” Julia, a clinical psychologist, notes.
3. “What is the best advice you’ve ever received?”
Another way you can “gain a deeper understanding of your friend’s values, beliefs, and the lessons they’ve learned along their journey” is by asking them about the best advice they’ve ever received. “This provides an opportunity to share wisdom that has had a significant impact on their personal growth,” Natalie shares. “
4.“What are your biggest dreams for your life?”
| A．What life experience has shaped you the most? |
| B．Acknowledging your growth can enhance your friendship |
| C．When do you feel most connected to the people in your life? |
| D．It’s also good to acknowledge that even the closest friendships are not perfect |
| E．You should know what your friend actually envisions for themselves in the future |
| F．Additionally, it opens the door for meaningful conversations about life’s challenges |
| G．We’ve talked to different experts to get their best advice on how to create stronger bonds |
2 . All I needed to do to earn the two dollars was to clean her house for a few hours after school. It was a beautiful house with things that were common in her neighborhood, absent in mine.
Working for her brought me a sense of pride, not only because I could immerse myself in little luxuries like movies and candy, but also because I contributed half of my earnings to my mother, ensuring they were used for necessities. I was not like the children in folktales: burdensome mouths to feed, problems so severe that they were abandoned to the forest. I had a status that doing routine chores in my house did not provide — and it earned me a slow smile and confirmations that I was adult-like, not childlike.
Little by little, I got better at cleaning her house — good enough to be given more to do. After struggling to move the piano, my limbs ached terribly. Despite wanting to decline or voice my discomfort, I feared losing my job and the independence and respect it afforded me. She began to offer me her clothes, for a price. Impressed by these worn things, which looked simply elegant to a little girl who had only two dresses to wear to school, I bought a few.
Still, I had trouble summoning up (鼓起) the courage to object to the increasing demands she made. Despite feeling overwhelmed, I hesitated to voice my concerns, knowing my mother would urge me to quit. However, one day while alone in the kitchen with my father, I expressed my disappointment. In any case, he put down his cup of coffee and said, “Whatever the work is, do it well — not for the boss but for yourself. You make the job; it doesn’t make you. You are not the work you do; you are the person you are.”
I have worked for all sorts of people since then, geniuses and fools, quick-witted and dull, big-hearted and narrow. I’ve had many kinds of jobs, but since that conversation with my father, I have never considered the level of labor to be the measure of myself, and I have never placed the security of a job above my self-worth and family value.
1. What mainly enabled the author to bear the burden of work?| A．Abundant exposure to entertainment. |
| B．Satisfaction gained from social work. |
| C．Inborn abilities to handle work stress. |
| D．Pride in shouldering family obligations. |
| A．Determined and independent. | B．Responsible but innocent. |
| C．Family-oriented and humorous. | D．Ambitious but stubborn. |
| A．Don’t abandon her moral principles. |
| B．Don’t be pessimistic about her identity. |
| C．Try to express her dissatisfaction in a free way. |
| D．Try to make a distinction between work and life. |
| A．Success isn’t always guaranteed by hard work alone. |
| B．Family support can alleviate the pain of challenging work. |
| C．Don’t regard work achievement as a criterion for defining oneself. |
| D．Social expectations may lead individuals away from their genuine goals. |
| A．The seat number. | B．The carriage. | C．The train. |
5 . People often say that “failure is the mother of success.” This cliché (陈词滥调) might have some truth to it, but it
Manalo and Manu Kapur, a professor of learning sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, put together a special issue of the journal Thinking Skills and Creativity last December on
Manalo and his co-authors also contributed their own study focused on overcoming one fundamental, everyday form of failure: not
The researchers dubbed this finding “the Hemingway effect,” for the author’s self-reported
Demystifying failure and teaching students not to
| A．undoubtedly | B．vividly | C．hardly | D．intentionally |
| A．in reality | B．by contrast | C．with question | D．after all |
| A．running into | B．accounting for | C．contributing to | D．benefiting from |
| A．celebrating | B．evaluating | C．achieving | D．predicting |
| A．move forward | B．stand by | C．dash backward | D．run away |
| A．instant | B．constructive | C．informal | D．sincere |
| A．assigning | B．reporting | C．handling | D．completing |
| A．grants | B．approval | C．instructions | D．training |
| A．stopped | B．examined | C．notified | D．guided |
| A．subject | B．closer | C．devoted | D．crucial |
| A．in other words | B．moreover | C．nevertheless | D．in particular |
| A．reluctance | B．eagerness | C．tendency | D．ability |
| A．inevitable | B．perceived | C．worthwhile | D．permanent |
| A．comprehend | B．fear | C．overcome | D．pursue |
| A．adds | B．recalls | C．doubts | D．challenges |
| A．Physics. | B．Chemistry. | C．French. | D．Media studies. |
| A．More than 144,000. | B．About 147,500. |
| C．7.5% of all the test takers. | D．4.6% of all the test takers. |
| A．Few students avoid harder subjects. |
| B．Each subject has the same level of difficulty. |
| C．Some subjects are more difficult than others. |
| D．Pupils are important to the country’s development. |
7 . Problem-solving
Solving problems draws on two types of intelligence: crystal and fluid. Crystal intelligence involves using stored knowledge to answer questions of fact (e.g. what is the speed of light?), which relies on our ability to learn and remember information.
Fluid intelligence involves solving more creative problems, such as how to get a lion, a goat and a cabbage over a river in a single-passenger boat.
Complex problems, on the other hand, require a different approach, because the number of things you need to know and handle is greater than your consciousness brain can cope with.
The reason is that focusing attention on sequential computation, which is done by the brain’s left side, closes down areas of the right side that are concerned with taking a wider view.
| A．A chess move, for example, can lead to billions of outcomes. |
| B．Intense attention locks both sides of the brain into a particular pattern of activity. |
| C．This kind of intelligence has proven more difficult to understand. |
| D．Master players, by contrast, use their right side as well as their left. |
| E．As well as looking at problem from multiple angles, brilliant problem-solving involves dismissing bad options quickly. |
| F．We tend to work out simple problems—those involving just a few factors—methodically. |
8 . The British accent of Cary Gran has finally been revealed after a fellow actor tracked down a secretly tape recording of the Bristol-born big screen superstar.
Jason Isaacs, who plays Cary Grant in a coming ITV biopic (传记片), said that although setting his mind on figuring out the actor’s real accent, he had become upset by the absence of interviews with Cary Grant.
The star, whose death aged 82 in 1986 brought to an end one of the 20th century’s greatest screen careers, rarely spoke in public and would always adopt a mid-American accent for the cameras
Isaacs, 60, said this week that after some “detective work”, he found out about an interview Cary Grant gave to a student from the University of Iowa months before his death. The student’s classmate secretly recorded the interview in which Cary Grant spoke about his hatred (厌恶) of being approached by fans. The secret recording reveals Cary Grant’s true accent.
At the launch of the ITV drama Archie-after Cary Grant’s birth name Archibald Leach — Isaacs said that when he landed the role, “the first thing I did was look for interviews of Cary Grant.” Isaacs added; “He didn’t want to be seen and he didn’t want to be known. There was nothing at all. Only the films. And that’s not what he spoke like. His accent changed a lot in the films.
Isaacs said of listening to the tape: “I felt like I’d finally made a real connection with him and that’s the voice you hear on screen in Archie. It’s more English than he is in the movies. People think they remember Cary Grant’s voice but what they remember is Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot.”
The ITV biopic focuses on Grant’s troubled family relationships. Jennifer Grant, Grant’s daughter, said her father had rarely spoken about his childhood. “Sadly I think there was so much shame wrapped up in it,” Jennifer Grant said.
1. Why did Jason Isaacs attempt to get a recording of Cary Grant?| A．To recreate his accent for real. |
| B．To show sincere respect to him. |
| C．To get the role of Cary Grant easily. |
| D．To make the film more profitable. |
| A．He acted as a detective. |
| B．He worked in a university. |
| C．He hated being recorded secretly. |
| D．He disliked having his life disturbed. |
| A．Cary Grant. | B．Tony Curtis. | C．Jason Isaacs. | D．Jennifer Grant. |
| A．Generous. | B．Ambitious. | C．Determined. | D．Knowledgeable. |
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。
She was the prettiest puppy we had ever seen, and the whole family immediately fell in love with her. We named her Onyx because of her black, shiny black coat. She spent her first vacation with us when she was only ten weeks old and had her first bath and swim in the St. Lawrence River. We had no clue that this amazing little ball of fur would end up being our hero.
As she grew older, Onyx became more and more involved in our family activities. On hot summer days, Onyx enjoyed floating on the river with us in her own rubber tube (橡皮圈). Amazingly standing on the top of the tube, she smiled while showing off her perfect balance. Resting her front legs and paws over the edge of the rubber tube, she kept her eyes shut as she floated until she’d had enough of the warm sun on her black coat.
One day, our eighteen-year-old daughter, Margie, announced she was going to swim across the bay. No one in the family was free to go swimming with her. The unwritten rules, regardless of swimming ability, was to have a companion in the water with you, especially when swimming the width of the bay. I was not a good swimmer, so I said to Margie, “Take Onyx with you.” Having heard her name, Onyx woke up from a nap and was ready for action. Margie signed the dog to follow her. Onyx ran to the water next to her. They entered the freezing river together and swam side by side across the bay.
I watched from the bank as they reached the sandbar (沙洲) on the far shore. They rested a few minutes before diving into the water for the return trip. I felt uneasy for some reason and continued to watch the pair swim side by side.
Suddenly I heard Margie calling out, “I have a cram (痉挛) in the leg! ”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Seeing the pair approaching the riverbank, I breathed a sigh of relief.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. What happened to Maya at age eight?
| A．She became speechless. | B．She went blind. | C．She lost her hearing. |
| A．To enter a competition. |
| B．To become a famous poet. |
| C．To influence others positively. |
| A．Still I Rise. | B．Phenomenal Woman. | C．Life Doesn’t Frighten Me. |
