1 . As a high school student, you’re likely used to learning through reading textbooks.
To practice experiential appreciation, you can start by getting involved in hands-on activities related to your subjects. They will provide a firsthand understanding of the concepts you’re studying, making learning active and meaningful. So, try joining a sports team, picking up a paintbrush, or taking part in a local charity event.
As you dive deeper, immerse (沉浸) yourself fully in the surroundings and activities. When you’re in nature, don’t just look around.
Experiential appreciation transforms learning from a task to be completed into a journey to be treasured.
| A．It extends learning beyond textbooks. |
| B．These activities bring learning to life. |
| C．Mind the impact of your actions on the environment. |
| D．Instead, activate your senses for a stronger tie with it. |
| E．Take your experiences further by reflecting on them. |
| F．Textbooks offer a systematic introduction to essential concepts and principles. |
| G．Now consider expanding your learning from just reading to actively participating. |
It was several days before Christmas.Gray clouds covered the sky. The air was cold. The temperature was below freezing. It was snowing heavily. And the internet was out. Now I found that having the internet out could be a blessing for me. I decided to prepare my turkey meat for dinner, and get a few things done.
After the regular housework was done, I pulled the air conditioning units out of the windows and put them up for the winter. Next, I walked into the storage closet and pulled out the Christmas decorations and the artificial(人造的) tree. I unpacked my new picture and placed it lovingly on my old record player.
Then I set up my Christmas statues of Santa and Dickens’ books on the shelf along with the Christmas angel.Next I unpacked, fitted and put up the tree. After that I pulled out the lights, metal wires and decorations. I put each one on the tree gently and with great care while my son Marvin played Christmas music and decorated his own room.
In no time at all, everything was done. I looked at the tree and then outside again. This time, however, it didn’t seem so cold, gray, and gloomy. Instead, it felt warm and Christmas seemed to be in the air. Even the snowflakes floating in the wind felt more like a gift from Heaven. I heard “Away in a Manger" coming from my son’s CD player and hummed along (跟着哼唱).
This life certainly can seem full of pains at times. It is up to us, though, to make each one a blessing(祝福) in our life. Since there are benefits without the internet, we can turn it off for a while now and then.
注意:1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在下面作答。
I proposed to discuss how it felt to be without the internet at dinner.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________We made it a rule to have Sunday meal without the internet and we did it this weekend.
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Plants are actually grown in space already. Do you know the fact
Growing a plant in space is not an easy task.
Traditionally, roots grow and spread downwards due to gravity. Still, in space, where
Cultivating a plant in space is just one part of a more complex and
5 . Have you ever wanted to be healthier? Get a pet! That is what the experts are saying. There are many advantages to owning a pet, no matter whether it is a cat, dog, or horse.
Some new parents are often in a rush to get rid of their pets when a baby is expected. Yet, studies have shown that having a pet at home actually reduces a child’s likelihood of developing certain kinds of diseases. In one study, a researcher studied 300 new-born babies and tested them again a year later. He found that if they had a dog at home the children had up to 33% fewer allergies (过敏症). In addition, the children had stronger immune systems (免疫系统) when compared to the babies of homes with no pets.
In another study, researchers tested nearly 4,500 people. They found that cat owners who spent time stroking (抚摸) their cats suffered 40% fewer heart attacks than those who did not own a cat. Some other studies also found that pet owners suffered less serious from depression (沮丧) than non-pet owners.
Horses have long been used in treatments for disabled people, both physically and mentally. Not only does the movement of the horse help people with physical problems, but the calming influence of the animals has a positive effect on them, too. Amazing changes have been noted in disabled people who are lucky enough to receive these treatments.
From cats to horses, having a pet can really have positive effects on our health.
1. What does the underlined word in the second paragraph probably mean?| A．Degree. | B．Possibility. | C．Opportunity. | D．Decision. |
| A．having a pet at home makes a baby weak |
| B．the children in home without a dog may have strong immune system |
| C．non-pet owners may easily suffer from depression than pet owners |
| D．keeping a pet cat is better than keeping a pet dog |
| A．How to raise a horse. | B．The way of keeping healthy. |
| C．How horses benefit disabled people. | D．How to treat disabled people. |
| A．New parents sometimes refuse to have a pet when they have a baby. |
| B．If you want to keep healthy, do nothing but keep a pet. |
| C．Cat owners suffer more heart attacks than others. |
| D．Horses can cure the problems of disabled people. |
6 . My father started learning French at 57, drawn by the potential benefits of bilingualism (双语能力) in delaying dementia (失智症). Now, 20 years later, he’s on his third teacher. Many people like my father have attempted to pick up a new language. But can this really boost brain health?
According to experts, regularly using a new language brings cognitive (认知的) benefits. If you’re trying to recall the right words in another language, your brain is forced to inhibit your mother tongue. This process, called cognitive inhibition, helps improve your brain function. Repeating this process makes your brain more resistant to diseases like dementia. The more you challenge your brain, the better it functions, even if your brain health starts to decline.
However, evidence for the benefits of learning a second language in your 60s is weaker. Research by Dr. Leo Antoniou found that older Italians who took English lessons for four months didn’t see any difference in their cognition scores, but people who didn’t saw their scores decline. Prof. Diana Smith’s 2023 studies found similar results.
Researchers offered a few potential explanations for their disappointing results. One is that the participants were highly motivated volunteers, probably of high cognitive level for their age, making it hard to see any improvements. “When choosing participants, we have to be careful, are they really representative of the population?” said Dr. Judith Ware. Another is that the language interventions were perhaps too short. These studies have used language lessons that “were very different in their length and frequency,” said Prof. Laura Grossman.
To Dr. Antoniou, the limited findings are not entirely surprising. No one would say that learning a new language for six months would be the same as having used two languages for your entire life. But he does think that language lessons can provide cognitive benefits by being cognitively stimulating.
Perhaps more important, Prof. Grossman said, learning another language offers other potential advantages, like traveling or connecting with new communities. My father, for example, has remained pen friends with his first teacher and traveled to France numerous times.
And at 76, he’s as sharp as ever.
1. What happens in the process of “cognitive inhibition”?| A．Memory improves. | B．Brain health worsens. |
| C．Dementia is cured. | D．Native language is held back. |
| A．The poor choice of research participants. |
| B．The great length of the language course. |
| C．The intervention of the first language. |
| D．The age difference of the research subjects. |
| A．Leo Antoniou’s. | B．Diana Smith’s. |
| C．Laura Grossman’s. | D．Judith Ware’s. |
| A．Is it never too late to learn a new language? |
| B．Can learning a new language delay dementia? |
| C．Why does my father start learning a new language? |
| D．How does learning a new language benefit aging brain? |
7 . Imagine if your clothes could pick up the sounds of everything going on around you. Scientists have created a fibre (纤维) which can pick up sounds and could be used as a hearing aid, to monitor heartbeats or even in spacecraft.
The new fibre works like a microphone. It picks up sounds and turns them into vibrations (震动) and then electrical signals, in a similar way to how ears work. When woven (编织) into a shirt, the researchers say the fibre can even detect a wearer’s heartbeat. The fibre can hear sounds as low as those in a quiet library to louder sounds like heavy road traffic. It can even accurately tell the direction of sudden sounds like handclaps.
The fibre was created by engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and researchers at Rhode Island School of Design. “Wearing a piece of clothing that can hear, you might talk through it to answer phone calls and communicate with others,” said lead author Yet Wan, who created the technology at MIT.
Once they had created the fibre, the team wove it into a more traditional piece of clothing which was much more flexible. When it was woven into the back of a shirt it was able to pick up the sound of people clapping, even picking up the direction the clapping was coming from. When woven into the shirt’s inner lining (内衬) it could pick up the person’s heartbeat, which the researchers think could be used in a pregnant woman’s clothes to monitor a baby’s heartbeat.
As well as wearable hearing aids, and clothes that track your heartbeat, the team says there are possibilities beyond clothing. “It can be integrated with spacecraft skin to listen to space dust, or embedded into (嵌入) buildings to detect cracks or strains,” Yet suggests. “It can even be woven into a smart net to monitor fish in the ocean.”
1. What is the scientists’ new invention?| A．A lightweight fibre. | B．A new spacecraft skin. |
| C．A fibre that can hear. | D．A microphone that can talk. |
| A．It is easily distracted by loud sounds. |
| B．It can even pick up faint sounds. |
| C．It works more accurately than human ears. |
| D．It fails to recognise the direction of sounds. |
| A．They wove it into babies’ clothes. | B．They turned it into a fishnet. |
| C．They put it into mass production. | D．They tested its performance. |
| A．The fibre has a wide range of applications. | B．The fibre can bring in a big profit. |
| C．The fibre needs to be improved. | D．The fibre is less flexible than traditional clothes. |
8 . One of the best parts of travel is always the food. Or, more specifically, the junk food. It’s a delight people are unlikely to get to experience during the pandemic. But in one corner of the Internet, hungry people are keeping the joy of international snacks alive.
On r/SnackExchange, users trade the delights of their homeland by mail. First, you find someone on the board to swap (交换) with. You and your partner then post each other a box full of local finest processed foods, eventually uploading photos of your haul (收获) on the board for others to see.
First created in 2010, r/SnackExchange’s membership now totals 102,000. Most come to experience snacks they can’t find at home.
For the users who take part in snack exchanges, it’s a way to learn more about the world. For Meghan Quallick, a snack swapper from California, part of the motivation for swapping with an Australian was to get her hands on a specific item: Cadbury Black Forest bars. A colleague of hers had eaten the chocolate bars on a trip to Australia in years past and fallen in love with them, but was then unable to source them at home. Quallick’s snack partner included 10 bars of the chocolate in her package. “To get some and bring them to her was pretty exciting,” Quallick said. “My colleague had tears in her eyes.”
Snack exchanges do come with obvious financial disadvantages. Part of the process is to agree on a budget before you swap — on average that’s around the US$40-50 mark. But you should be prepared to spend twice as much on shipping as the actual snacks. Occasionally swappers get scammed (欺骗) by partners who don’t deliver on their end of the deal.
Often, the snack exchanges are about more than just the food. Heather Clarke, a snack swapper from Melbourne says, “They’re often cultural exchanges as well. You get people going, ‘Can you tell me what this is?’” Often, users enclose (随信附上) instructions on how to best consume the snacks. Going the extra mile is in the spirit of the community.
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The history of snack exchanges. | B．How users exchange snacks on r/ SnackExchange. |
| C．Why people love to exchange snacks. | D．The influence the pandemic has on snack exchanges. |
| A．She got what she desired to eat from Quallick. | B．She failed to find a swapper online. |
| C．She found the snack she ate before online. | D．She quarreled with Quallick. |
| A．Swappers easily get scammed. |
| B．Swappers seldom find exactly what they want. |
| C．Swappers may spend more time than usual shopping. |
| D．Swappers have to spend more on shipping. |
| A．They should be improved. | B．They are lacking in community spirit. |
| C．They promote cultural exchanges. | D．They should have detailed guides from swappers. |
9 . Before traveling to Lake Tahoe, make sure your plans are in order. Complete vacation packages of the area are now offered online.
| Package 1. Get Outdoors in Lake Tahoe Package Get outdoors and explore! With this fun vacation package, you can stay in the Lake Tahoe area for three nights and have a few adventures along the way. This package also features Lake Tahoe Sport Fishing, allowing guests to get out and fish! Click here to book | Package 2. Lake Tahoe Family Vacation Package If your next trip happens to be in the Lake Tahoe area, then consider booking this one. It is great because it can offer you four full nights at the hotel of your selection and an amazing sightseeing tour through the Emerald Bay. You also can enjoy Lake Tahoe Hot Air Balloons tours and the Wild West Tour. Click here to book |
| Package 3. Lake Tahoe Romantic Getaway Package This is perfect for people who want to have a romantic time. It includes a two-night stay at the hotel of your choice and one of the finest activities in all of Lake Tahoe — the Lake Tahoe Emerald Bay Sunset Boat Tour on the Bleu Wave. During this romantic sail, you can enjoy the beautiful surroundings of Lake Tahoe. Click here to book | Package 4. Lake Tahoe Weekend Getaway Package The Lake Tahoe Weekend Getaway Package is great for people of all ages, so this is a great choice for families. This package includes a two-night stay at the hotel you choose. It also includes a trip which takes place on the Bleu Wave by boat. Click here to book |
| A．Package 1. | B．Package 2. | C．Package 3. | D．Package 4. |
| A．Their boat tour. | B．The hotel for staying. |
| C．The places for traveling. | D．Their target customers. |
| A．A guidebook. | B．A travel report. | C．A local newspaper. | D．A website. |
10 . Researchers examined 120 babies aged 6 to 14 months as they watched a children’s opera performed at a concert hall (61 babies watched in person, the other 59 watched a recorded form). They carefully set the recording so the performers were at the same size, distance and volume as the live form. The babies’ responses were tracked through heart monitors and tablets, and afterward research assistants searched through the footage (镜头) to note when babies were looking at the stage and when they looked away.
The live performance kept their attention for 72% of the 12-minute show and also had them continually watching for longer periods of time. The findings suggest that even babies feel the impact of being at a live show, through both musicians’ interactions with an audience and the social experience of being in a crowd. “Their heart rates were speeding up and slowing down in a similar fashion to other babies watching the show. Those babies were dealing with all these distractions (使人分心的事) in the concert hall, but still had these interests in the performance,” says Laura Cirelli, an assistant professor. In comparison, the recording held the babies’ attention for just half of the 12-minute show.
“If there’s something happening that we collectively are engaging (参与) in, we’re also connecting with each other. It speaks to the shared experience,” says Cirelli. “It’s well established that socialization (社会化) is important during early childhood development — a baby’s brain is laying the groundwork for future life skills and abilities as it grows. Music can play a powerful part in making those important bonds. Babies are more likely to socialize with someone after hearing them sing a familiar song or dancing to music with them.”
The study, which was co-authored by Haley Kragness, now an assistant professor at Bucknell University, will also feed into some of Cirelli’s other work. “If a baby is frequently brought to these kinds of events, will that provide the foundation (基础) for their engaging in music and the community later in childhood?” Cirelli says. “It speaks to why we are inborn to consume music and attend live shows in the first place.”
1. How did the researchers make the experiment convincing?| A．By airing two different performances. |
| B．By tracking babies’ activity with caution. |
| C．By asking a smaller group to see the live show. |
| D．By making the recording similar in every detail to the live form. |
| A．They watched the show more carefully. | B．They had faster heart rates. |
| C．They formed bonds with musicians. | D．They enjoyed it without distractions. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Uninterested. | C．Supportive. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．The reasons for our attending live shows. |
| B．The benefits of socialization for babies. |
| C．Live performances’ other influences on babies. |
| D．Babies’ growth after seeing recorded shows. |
