1 . Selecting gifts for your beloved ones can be one of the most difficult parts. But don’t worry! We can help! Here are some gift ideas to suit all pockets.

Air purifier

Do you have a loved one who suffers from allergies (过敏) or other skin diseases? Why not gift him or her an air cleaner? Research has shown that air purifiers can help reduce allergy reactions, remove asthma (哮喘) causes such as dust by improving air quality in your home. Look for purifiers with more than one filter and, especially, a high efficiency air filter.

Electric toothbrush

One review of 56 studies has found that a powered toothbrush resulted in a 21 per cent reduction of plaque and an 11 per cent reduction in gingivitis (牙龈炎) after three months, compared with a manual toothbrush. It’s also a fun way for children to look after their dental hygiene.

Dark chocolate

Nothing screams a gift quite like chocolate. Good news is that dark chocolate is associated with several health benefits. Small amounts of this sweet treat may lower the risk of heart disease, improve brain function and give your immune system a boost, potentially reducing infection.

Your time

Quality time spent with your nearest and dearest is completely free, but is the most precious gift you could give them. If you’ve been too preoccupied of late, determine to put aside more hours to do fun things together, or if you have time to devote to others outside your immediate circle, consider volunteering with Age UK as a friend to an elderly person.

1. Which of the following is suitable for someone with a dental problem?

A．Air purifier.	B．Electric toothbrush.
C．Dark chocolate.	D．Your time.

2. What do the first three presents have in common?

A．They belong to tech presents.	B．They are non-physical objects.
C．They are intended for the elderly.	D．They help promote healthy living.

3. What is special about the last present?

A．It is priceless.	B．It is worthless.
C．It is physical.	D．It is rare.

2 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Every Wednesday afternoon, Le Duc An, a Vietnamese PhD student at Beijing University of Technology, practices calligraphy in the calligraphy group.

The 33-year-old     1    (study) Chinese calligraphy for nearly three years. “I     2    (expose) to Vietnamese calligraphy when I was a child, and it was one of the things that made the biggest impression on me,” An says.

When he came to Beijing in 2019 for his PhD studies focusing on the environment, he also spent time practicing Chinese calligraphy,     3    (commit) himself in earnest to the journey of learning the art.

    4    (initial), An says that he did not understand the techniques in Chinese calligraphy, but with the help of Professor Liu Hongli, he gradually came to understand the meaning behind the characters and the techniques in calligraphy.

    5    (gain) a deeper understanding of calligraphy, An has visited many ancient sites in Beijing, including the Confucius Temple and the Forbidden City. He has also participated     6     a number of calligraphy competitions, both at school and international events.

An says that places     7     he has seen treasured scrolls of calligraphy have left a profound impression, and are     8     major source of inspiration. “Calligraphy has become a part of me,” An says.“Whenever I see Chinese calligraphy from different     9    (dynasty), and on sculptures and at historical sites, I find myself     10    (impress) by the vastness and depth of Chinese culture.”

3 . Slobodchikoff, a biologist who has spent years working to better understand the calls of dogs, used that knowledge to help people who were having trouble with their pets.

A man reported his dog wanted to bite him. So Slobodchikoff went to the man’s house. He watched as the owner walked over to the dog, towered over the pet and then said, “Good dog!” in a low-pitched(音高) voice. “The dog ran into a corner,” Slobodchikoff recalled. The owner had scared the dog. Slobodchikoff recommended that the man should do the opposite. The owner took that advice—and ended up developing a great relationship with his pet.

Not everyone has the time to study dog communications or the money to bring in an expert. Slobodchikoff thinks tech could help. He thinks a cell phone app or device that you could point at a dog. This would record video and audio(音频) of a dog’s behavior and then upload it.An artificial intelligence(AI)system would later analyze it.

The AI “ would translate this for you into English or any other language,” says Slobodchikoff. The result, he explains, may be something like “‘I’m hungry’ or ‘I need to go outside to pee’ or ‘I want to go for a walk.’”

To train the AI system, Slobodchikoff planned to get data directly from pet dogs, but for some reason, he hasn’t yet restarted the project to date, but hopes to soon.

Search an app store for a pet translator and you’ll find plenty. Some are completely unscientific and silly. MeowTalk, however, is a cat-translation app based on an AI model. In 2021, its creators reported that the AI model achieved 90 percent accuracy at identifying nine different emotional states in meows. These included angry, happy, hunting, pain and rest. The app picks conversational phrases based on these emotions, like “nice to see you,” or “let me rest.”

People who have tried the app say it doesn’t always work well. But better translations of barks and meows may be just around the corner.

1. What might the man do to calm the dog?

A．Tower over the pet dog.	B．Follow the dog to the corner.
C．Give the dog delicious food.	D．Speak in a high-pitched voice.

2. What is the function of the AI system in Slobodchikoff’s view?

A．To analyze data.	B．To train a dog.
C．To record a dog’s behavior.	D．To collect data from a dog.

3. What can we know about MeowTalk?

A．It can communicate with cats.	B．It can judge cats’ state of mood.
C．It can store 90 conversational phrases.	D．It can be used to track pet cats.

4. What is mainly talked about in the passage?

A．A biologist’s puzzle.	B．Slobodchikoff’s achievements.
C．Trials of animal translator technology.	D．The invention of Slobodchikoff.

4 . Research has showed physical activities are very important for students. So many schools are now encouraging students to take part in any form of healthy exercise.

Physical education is an important part of healthy living for people of all age groups, especially for the students. This is because school life is full of stress.

Besides that, in today’s world, many school children eat unhealthy foods. These may include soft drinks, pizzas and burgers. Eating these foods can make school children gain weight.

Physical education at school helps prevent school children from putting on weight. Physical exercise and activities will help them burn off more calories (卡路里). If these calories are not burned off, they will be stored as fat.

At the same time, such activities play an important role in the growth and development of the bones (骨骼). Exercise such as jumping is especially important for school children.

A physically active student will also have a healthy heart. Research shows that kids who perform aerobic (有氧的) exercise, two to three times a week for at least twenty minutes, have a healthier heart compared with those who don’t take part in physical exercise. Some kinds of the healthy aerobic exercise are playing basketball, playing soccer and so on.

1. What are many schools encouraging their students to do?

A．Study hard and get good grades.

B．Join in different kinds of sports games.

C．Take part in any form of healthy exercise.

D．Take part in different kinds of after-school activities.

2. What does the underlined word “gain” mean in Paragraph 3?

A．Prevent

B．Discuss

C．Lose

D．Increase

3. What does the writer mainly tell us in the passage?

A．It’s not easy for students to receive physical education.

B．Physical activities are good for students in many ways.

C．Those who don’t take part in physical exercise can’t keep fit.

D．Students should have more time to receive knowledge and education.

4. What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Healthy living habits

B．Students’ school life

C．Exercise more to keep healthy

D．Different kinds of aerobic exercise

5 . 快速阅读下列句子，结合语境写出黑体词在语境中的词性和确切含义。
1. Deeply affected by the film, we couldn’t hold back tears. ______________
2. Nature inspired him to write such beautiful poems. ______________
3. When Helen criticized (批评) me, Chris came to my defense. ______________
4. The disabled will have free access to all the public transport in this city. ______________
5. He was very angry with the man’s improper conduct. ______________
6. She toured the country promoting her book. ______________
7. We explored various approaches to figuring out the location of our ancestors. ______________
8. The interview was extremely tough with 50 applicants applying for the position. ______________
9. The man gave an account of the traffic accident to the police. ______________
10. Not until he went through real hardship did he realize the love for our families is important. ______________

6 . 根据以下音标写出对应的单词。
1. [kən'fɜːm]__________________
2. ['strætədʒi] __________________
3. [rɪˌspɒnsə'bɪləti] __________________
4. ['grædʒuət] __________________

7 . Yang He, a 64-year-old man from Yichang, Hubei, has observed the changes in finless porpoises (江豚) population with his camera for six years. As a(n) _________ of the finless porpoise, he has taken more than 100,000 photos of them so far.

Every day, Yang wakes up early and drives to the _________ of the Yangtze River. He waits _________ there for hours for finless porpoises to capture (捕捉) their _________ with his camera. Yang _________ finless porpoises very well. They are just like his children. As soon as one of them comes out from the water, he can tell which family it _________ .

The Yangtze finless porpoise is so _________ to the Yangtze River that any change in the health of its living environment can support or _________ its survival. “When I was a teenager, I could see many finless porpoises. I would often observe them _________ boats in the river,” Yang says. “But __________ human activities, finless porpoises became fewer.”

However, the situation has changed as __________ measures have been taken to protect the species. In 2017, Yang was __________ enough to take a photo of a finless porpoise after a long waiting. In 2019, he was able to take more photos, including images of the porpoises __________ fish near the riverbank.

Thanks to his camera, he once discovered and __________ a porpoise whose tail became entangled (缠住) with a rope. “I will make it my life’s work to __________ this amazing creature.” Yang says.

1.

A．leader

B．admirer

C．hunter

D．advisor

2.

A．banks

B．waves

C．beaches

D．sights

3.

A．suddenly

B．patiently

C．formally

D．strangely

4.

A．imagination

B．anxiety

C．strength

D．beauty

5.

A．follows

B．listens

C．knows

D．exchanges

6.

A．belongs to

B．focuses on

C．applies for

D．adapts to

7.

A．addicted

B．connected

C．convenient

D．important

8.

A．threaten

B．balance

C．protect

D．promote

9.

A．crashing

B．trapping

C．tracking

D．preventing

10.

A．in addition to

B．due to

C．in spite of

D．apart from

11.

A．global

B．possible

C．effective

D．historic

12.

A．creative

B．lucky

C．magic

D．valuable

13.

A．catching

B．striking

C．kicking

D．drawing

14.

A．inspired

B．approached

C．reserved

D．rescued

15.

A．conquer

B．remind

C．document

D．identify

8 . Hang your tongue out of your mouth while your eyes look upwards. Breathe loudly and use your hands to pull your head in every way. This is yoga(瑜伽) for your face.

Fumiko Takatsu, creator of the Face Yoga Method, has written six books on face yoga and has been practicing facial exercises for about 15 years. Takatsu, 50, said she came up with the idea of facial exercises after a car accident when she was 35 years old, which left her face out of its proper position. Around the same time, Takatsu said she began to notice signs of aging, but gave up using creams and beauty treatments after they became too expensive.

Koko Hayashi, 39, a face yoga instructor in Los Angeles, said she first heard of face yoga by discovering Takatsu’s work. Hayashi said she had a chin implant(下巴植入体) when she was 27 years old, but took it out because it misshaped her face. ”That’s why I’m so interested in more natural beauty instead of plastic surgery(整形手术) ,” Hayashi said. Like others who practice facial exercises, Hayashi believes it can fix signs of aging and help reduce wrinkles(皱纹).

The question that often pops up when someone mentions face yoga is, “Does it actually work?” A study out of Northwestern University found that the exercises may help middle-aged women.

“This is a pilot study that suggests that there might be some factors of face exercise that can be helpful to at least certain patients in improving certain signs of aging,” said Dr. Murad Alam from Northwestern University. “But we need more studies to better understand exactly how much exercise is necessary to have any benefit, whether it works for men and women of different ages, and then how much exercise is needed to keep that benefit.”

Medical reporter Dr. Jennifer Ashton said that she is not sure whether face yoga works and that any benefits are most likely going to be up to the person trying it. “If you feel better after trying face yoga, it may be something you should keep doing,” she said.

1. What made Takatsu decide to create the Face Yoga Method?

A．An unexpected car accident.	B．Great interest in doing yoga.
C．Unaffordable beauty treatments.	D．Unsatisfactory effects of creams.

2. What do we know about Hayashi?

A．She wrote a book about face yoga.

B．She experienced a failed plastic surgery.

C．She had always admired natural beauty.

D．She has practiced facial exercises since she was 27.

3. What can be inferred from Alam’s words?

A．Face yoga is helpful but more research is needed.

B．Face yoga is more suitable for women than men.

C．Face yoga needs much too exercise to bring benefits.

D．Face yoga should be widely taken by more people.

4. What does Ashton think of face yoga?

A．Its key point is keeping exercising.

B．It can stop all kinds of signs of aging.

C．Its advantages do more than its disadvantages.

D．Its effectiveness depends on personal feelings.

9 . The photographs that Scilla took as a 16-year-old girl on the streets of London in 1955 stayed largely in her album over the years. Scilla is now 83, and her self-developed black-and-white photos have been brought back to life after they were discovered by a teenage photographer.

Over the past year, Philip Loveday, 16, has been revisiting his grandmother’s path across the capital to carefully rephotograph the pictures. His journey through time with a camera has been especially moving, because his grandmother, Scilla, has Alzheimer’s disease (阿尔茨海默症) and has lost many of her memories.

Philip took new photos that looked like the ones Scilla took long ago, and put them in a new album. Each page of Scilla’s old album was copied and put in the new one, with Philip’s new photos on the opposite pages. Philip’s mother, Catherine Loveday, said Scilla had been happy with the new album, which had “put her back in her shoes” as a teenager.

Philip said his mother showed him the album she had found at her mother’s house. Greatly absorbed in how modern London would compare to the city photographed by his grandmother, Philip and his mother began to make trips into central London. During the trips, they had the idea of retaking the photos.

Some of the places are similar, like Big Ben. Others show how the city has modernized. Unlike Scilla’s view of St. Paul’s Cathedral from the Thames, Philip’s retake has the Millenium Bridge. When Scilla photographed the John Lewis store on Oxford Street, it was a one-storey building—now it has seven floors. Philip had to use his imagination to recreate other sights. Scilla has repeatedly returned to her new album since receiving it. Philip said: ”It’s nice for her to see someone taking an interest in those photos and going back over them, and also good for her to connect her past to where are now.“

1. What did Philip do for Scilla during the past year?

A．He taught her how to use a camera.	B．He took her to visit London streets.
C．He found a new way to treat her disease.	D．He recreated photos of London she had taken.

2. What influence did Philip’s work have on Scilla?

A．It inspired her to take photos.	B．It made her think of her teenage days.
C．It encouraged her to travel across London.	D．It raised her confidence to fight off illness

3. What does the underlined word “absorbed” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Troubled.

B．Interested.

C．Experienced.

D．Disappointed.

4. What is the best title of this passage?

A．A teenager sensed the great changes of London.

B．An old lady suffered a lot from Alzheimer’s disease.

C．A teenager and his mother travelled to London for fun.

D．Retaken photos awakened old memories.

10 . 听下面一段对话，回答以下小题。
1. What was wrong with Tom?

A．He was hit by a taxi.

B．He hurt his head.

C．He fell ill with heart trouble.

2. What did the woman do?

A．She called the doctor.

B．She checked Tom carefully.

C．She took Tom to the hospital.