It was July 2019 and my mum Rebecca was taking me on a 120km walking holiday from Portugal to Spain as a special treat for my 10th birthday. One day, while walking along the coastal path staring out at the Atlantic ocean, I chatted away to Mum. “When Lexi turns.10, are you going to take her on a trip like this?” I asked, referring to my seven-year-old sister. Mum said Lexi had already asked to go to Svalbard in the north of Norway because she was crazy about polar bears.
Although I was still on my first special trip, I'd been learning about ancient civilizations at school and knew I'd love to see some relics in the flesh. So I continued saying, “Why don’t I go to Egypt while you're in Svalbard with Lexi?”, adding that my dad, Olaf, could take me there. “Great, but I'm not paying for it.” Muim replied, chuckling. “That’s fine. I'll pay,” I said, “I’ll save up my pocket money and get a job."
So that’s exactly what I did. Though I was too young to do any other paid work, I had my own solution. I started saving my $10-a-week pocket money. Also, I washed my parents’car or mowed the lawn for extra cash.
In 2020, we moved to Perth. One day, I saw a pamphlet（小册子） in the letter box advertising a job delivering catalogues. When I told Mum I wanted to do it, she tried to put me off the idea, reminding me that the work was tiring and time-consuming. But when seeing the determination in my eyes, she agreed to call them. Thankfully, my young age didn’t bother them-I got the job. On a Monday, a mountain of catalogues were dropped off at our house, which shocked me a lot. I told myself to calm down and dedicated to work. It took me nine hours to sort through them. At first, I used my bike and carried the catalogues in my backpack to deliver them to 430 houses in my area.
注意：1.续写词数应为150个左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
After several deliveries, I found it wasn't very efficient.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Three and a half years later, I saved a massive $6,500, and Dad and I flew to Cairo, Egypt.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Growing up on a farm, Tori James spent much of her early years outdoors, building shelters and playing in muddy streams. She
Today, James is a(n)
Yet ahead of her first exploration at the age of 18, James had
James encourages would-be adventurers not to be
| A．describes | B．admits | C．imagines | D．praises |
| A．wildlife | B．science | C．exploration | D．competition |
| A．explained | B．understood | C．declared | D．predicted |
| A．measure | B．approach | C．admire | D．reach |
| A．patient | B．ordinary | C．professional | D．honest |
| A．coldest | B．highest | C．prettiest | D．straightest |
| A．complete | B．coach | C．judge | D．cancel |
| A．record | B．date | C．goal | D．standard |
| A．lost | B．doubted | C．limited | D．developed |
| A．entering | B．restoring | C．leaving | D．expanding |
| A．emergency | B．accident | C．event | D．magic |
| A．pushed ahead | B．kept apart | C．cheered up | D．put off |
| A．something | B．nothing | C．anything | D．everything |
| A．academic | B．creative | C．hidden | D．artistic |
| A．eventually | B．particularly | C．generally | D．obviously |
3 . When people think of word innovators throughout history, male writers likely come to mind. Shakespeare is credited with inventing more than 1,700 words, including “bedroom”, “courtship” and “swagger”. Charles Dickens is said to have first used the words “butterfingers” and “doormat”, and Dr. Seuss reportedly came up with “nerd”.
But despite contributions from famous writers, historians say another group has an even greater impact on the development of language: teenage girls. Women lead up to 90 percent of linguistic (语言的) changes, as sociolinguist William Labov observed in the early 2000s. In fact, he wrote, women are often linguistically ahead of men “by a full generation”.
Now women are leading the charge online. Though Oxford University Press’2023 word of the year, “rizz”, meaning charm, was coined by a man, several runners-up, including “situationship” and “swiftie” were inspired or first used by women. The term “goblin mode”, which refers to lazy behavior, was Oxford’s 2022 word of the year and appears to have been first used by a woman on Twitter in 2009.
It’s often impossible to tell who first used new words. But whether or not young girls invent new phrases, they are more likely to be early adopters of the latest lingo (术语), says University of Toronto linguist Sali Tagliamonte, “They’re pushing changes forward.”
There are a handful of possible reasons why girls lead lexical (词汇的) innovation. According to Gretchen McCulloch, author of Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, women tend to be more socially aware. They have larger social circles and may be exposed to more language diversity. And because women tend to be caregivers, boys usually learn language from their mothers, whereas women and girls learn words from other women.
1. Why does the author mention some words coined by male writers?| A．To compare male and female writers. |
| B．To introduce some well-known writers. |
| C．To lead in the topic to be talked about. |
| D．To put forward a point to be proved. |
| A．Rizz. | B．Situationship. | C．Swiftie. | D．Goblin mode. |
| A．Dr. Seuss. | B．William Labov. |
| C．Sali Tagliamonte. | D．Gretchen McCulloch. |
| A．New Words Are Added to English Dictionaries |
| B．Female Teens Take a Lead in Linguistic Changes |
| C．Women Are More Sensitive to Language Diversity |
| D．New Terms Make Communication More Colorful |
4 . How to Deal with Awkward Silences
We all know what it’s like when a conversation dies off and you’re left to sit in silence.
• Think of topics ahead of time.
Before attending a social event, think of a few “go-to” topics to jumpstart a dead conversation. This will help you to fill the silences instead of struggling for words in the moment. Recent news, local events, popular books and television shows are all good fallback options.
• Ask open-ended questions.
Ask questions that have more than one possible answer.
•
As with any good conversation, the biggest key is to listen. If they respond to your question with a short statement such as “Yes”or “No”, that might indicate that they aren’t comfortable talking about a particular subject. Instead, talk about something that you know they're interested in. For example, “I heard you won your football game the other night. I’d love to hear about it.”
• Give a compliment (表扬).
| A．Keep the conversation flowing. |
| B．It also allows you to spend more time together. |
| C．Listen carefully and respond to their reactions. |
| D．There’s only one word to describe it: awkward. |
| E．This is always a safe bet, as long as it’s appropriate. |
| F．Such questions are likely to get the person talking more. |
| G．However, avoid some subjects that may cause arguments. |
A composting (堆肥) program at The Wesley School in Los Angeles is helping students get hands-on experience and ways
The school’s composting program
The school will use the compost on plants around campus. Some will
It takes two hours for the container to be emptied and prepared to receive
6 . 2024 Travel Planner: The Best Things to See in the UK
Icons of British Fashion, Oxfordshire
A fashion exhibition will open at Blenheim Palace in March. Icons of British Fashion is the largest event in the palace’s 300-year history and will showcase some of Britain’s most famous designers. Clothing, drawings, photographs and patterns will be on display. 23 March to 30 June. Palace entry tickets are valid for a year and cost £ 38 for adults, £ 22 for under-16s.
Toulouse-Lautrec in Bath
A new exhibition, Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre, opens at Victoria Art Gallery in Bath in April. More than 30 pieces from the artist’s colourful career will be shown alongside works by other artists of the day. This is the only chance to see Lautrec’s complete collection of posters in the UK before it moves to a permanent home at the Musée d’Ixelles in Belgium. 26 April to 29 September, adults £ 10, children £ 3.50.
Back in Time at Beamish
A truly recreated 1950s picture house at Beamish will offer visitors a chance to recall the golden age of movie-going. The cinema will be the latest addition to a “1950s Town” opened last summer at the living history museum. Adults £ 24.95, children £ 15.45, a family of four £ 63.50, valid for a year.
National Gallery goes on tour
The National Gallery celebrates its 200th anniversary on 10 May. To mark the occasion， the gallery is lending 12 of its most iconic paintings to 12 venues across the UK. Paintings will travel to centres from Brighton to Edinburgh, and will all go on display on 10 May. Each of the 12 venues will run exhibitions and digital interventions to showcase its particular painting.
1. How much should a couple with a 5-year-old pay for Blenheim’s exhibition?| A．£ 23.50. | B．£ 60.00. | C．£ 63.50. | D．£ 98.00. |
| A．Recalling the artist’s career. |
| B．Offering chances to make posters. |
| C．Employing digital interventions. |
| D．Enabling visitors to enjoy arts. |
| A．Icons of British Fashion. |
| B．Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre. |
| C．1950s Picture House Visit. |
| D．National Gallery Painting Show. |
7 . The memory of one particular summer evening is still burned in my brain as if it were yesterday. There was nothing but wide-open fields for miles and miles around our rural Minnesota home. We never saw strangers not ever and here on this hot evening was a real live one walking up our driveway.
A young man, a slightly-built hitchhiker (搭便车的人) approached our door. He knew there was a storm coming, and he desperately needed shelter. Not wanting to intrude on our home and family, he asked my dad if he could sleep in our basement for the night for protection from the rain. Instead of saying yes, my dad loaded us all up in the 1959 Chevrolet: five kids, my mum, and the man.
Our family consisted of three older children whose father had died young and three more children from the union of my mother and father. Our older brother Jerry was in the Navy, on a ship somewhere overseas. Our mum and dad worried about him.
We drove him 10 miles to the next town, where Dad bought the man a room for the night along with a hot evening meal. In the car after we dropped off the stranger, I heard my dad say to my mum, “I just hope that if Jerry ever needs anything, this kindness will be returned to him.”
Weeks later, Dad told my uncle about the young man. My uncle suggested that perhaps my dad shouldn’t have taken the risk of having a stranger in our car. My dad replied, “You are absolutely right. I should have invited him into our home.”
1. What does the underlined phrase “intrude on” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Disturb. | B．Scare. | C．Embarrass. | D．Upset. |
| A．By providing a bed for him in the basement. |
| B．By letting him stay for the night in the car. |
| C．By taking him to a hotel in another town. |
| D．By cooking a hot evening meal for him. |
| A．The family had five children in total. |
| B．Jerry was serving in the army in the USA. |
| C．They had no spare room for the hitchhiker. |
| D．Dad wished his elder son to be treated kindly. |
| A．Worthwhile. | B．Inappropriate. | C．Inspiring. | D．Unbelievable. |
8 . Alex Spektor was nervous. He was in Poland near the Ukrainian(乌克兰的)border to meet his twin sons, Lenny and Moishe, for the first time. The boys were just 10 days old, born prematurely. Because of the war, his under-sized babies required oxygen and constant monitoring. Spektor had no clue how he would get them home to Chicago safely.
Then he heard about Bryan Stern. The navy veteran(退伍军人)ran the non-profit Project Dynamo, which sent all unpaid volunteers like Stern into war zones to rescue Americans and allies trying to flee. When Spektor reached out to him, Stern recognized just how serious the situation was for Lenny and Moishe. Saving the twins would require more than a fast car. The precious “cargo”(货物)had to be monitored and watched continuously by medical staff. Stern would follow in his car to navigate the various checkpoints and live fire.
Then there was an added wrinkle: baby Sophie, another baby who needed to be rescued. Born two days after the boys, she was even more fragile than the twins. This was quickly becoming the most difficult rescue Project Dynamo had faced.
Saving Lenny, Moishe, and Sophie was proving tougher. They found themselves under fire as soon as they left for the border. At the Polish border, Spektor waited with his phone, anxious for updates. Around 11 p. m., more than 13 hours after they left the hospital in Kyiv, Stern texted Spektor: “We’re at the border”. A few hours later, Lenny and Moishe were in their father’s arms. Soon, all three babies were resting in a Polish hospital. Stern, who served in multiple war tours and was awarded a Purple Heart, told Today: “It was by far one of the most stressful things I’ve ever done.”
1. Why was Alex Spektor nervous?| A．The war in Ukraine was fierce. |
| B．He couldn’t get home to Chicago safely. |
| C．He couldn’t attend to his two twin sons himself. |
| D．His two twin sons were too young to survive in the war. |
| A．Passing various checkpoints. | B．Rescuing another fragile baby. |
| C．Transporting the twins in live fire. | D．Monitoring the newly-born continuously. |
| A．The three babies narrowly escaped. |
| B．The rescue team was prevented on the border. |
| C．All three babies were operated in a Polish hospital. |
| D．Stern was awarded for saving the three babies himself. |
| A．Ambitious and successful. | B．Generous and cautious. |
| C．Selfless and courageous. | D．Influential and inspiring. |
9 . What is self-discipline? It’s the ability to make yourself do something, especially something difficult or unpleasant. When some people hear self-discipline, they think it’s boring. Before I get into my thoughts on the topic, I want to tell you a story.
On a hot sunny day, a bee named Bertha is buzzing by her hive with some other bees. Suddenly a bear starts to approach her hive. In an attempt to save her hive, Bertha stings (蜇) the bear. But its skin is so thick that once she tries to pull her sting out, she hurts herself and dies. Bertha has no choice. Through years of evolution (进化), she is evolved to sting threats, which is her born ability. She lacks thinking consciousness.
Bees are prisoners of their own biology. Unlike bees, humans have the ability to override (推翻) their biology through self-discipline. Let’s say that someone has long-term desires to create a meaningful career and have a healthy body. Along each step of that journey they are attracted by short-term pleasures, such as junk food or video games. Deep down they really want the life that comes in the long term. Yet they keep submitting to short-term pleasures. The only difference between these two positions is self-discipline. It gives us the freedom to achieve what we truly want in life and allows us to break free of the cages around us.
Video games imitate the environments similar to the ones that our ancestors navigated in the past, but have supernormal versions of them. We can get greater feelings of accomplishment in video games with a lot less work. Companies are aware that the constant achievements on the screen will motivate players to keep playing. So not only are we controlled by our own biology, but we are being targeted by corporation’s seeking to take advantage of us and make a profit.
On the plus side, you and I are not like the bee, because we are not eased by our own biology. With self-discipline, we can live the life we truly want.
1. Why does the bee die?| A．The bee takes the bear too lightly. |
| B．The bee’s natural ability ruins it. |
| C．The bee doesn’t respond to the sudden attack of the bear. |
| D．The bee doesn’t make a correct judgment on the situation. |
| A．The factors affecting self-discipline. |
| B．Self-discipline makes our dreams come true. |
| C．The process of self-discipline coming into being. |
| D．Long-term desires play an important role in self-discipline. |
| A．Players can get something for nothing. |
| B．Profits motivate players to keep playing. |
| C．Players can get a great sense of achievement in video games. |
| D．The environment in the video games is more mysterious than that in real life. |
| A．Stay away from Video Games | B．How to Be a Self-disciplined Person |
| C．The More Disciplined, the More Freedom | D．Animals: Prisoners of Their Own Biology |
10 . An Introduction to Three Short Films
Ink of the Mongolian
Director: Rabelo Santos Luiz Aline (Brazil)
Producers: Wang Jing, Zhang Xu
The film captures the director’s meeting with Mr. Bao Jinshan, the Mongolian calligrapher from Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, describing his great talent with the writing brush, the paper, the inkstick, and the inkslab, the four treasures of calligraphy. A worker, an apprentice, a teacher and a preserver of the ancient Mongolian language, Mr. Bao has dedicated the work of a lifetime to this great form of art and communication, calligraphy.
Big Scissors, Small Scissors
Director: Sarah Choi (ROK)
Producers: Qin Yue, Wu Jie
Zhao Meiling is a renowned artist in Ordos, China, who is passionate about preserving the rich 5,000-year tradition of Chinese papercutting art. She learned the craft from her grandmother, and now, she is eager to pass on her techniques to her granddaughter, Jing Han. Big Scissors, Small Scissors is a heart-warming short documentary about the love between a grandmother and her granddaughter, and their mutual love for papercutting.
The Southern Wind
Director: Gilson Junior
Producer: Yang Xilin
In this 10-minute film, we present the Shiwan pottery (陶器) culture over thousands of years through the daily life of an experienced artist, Li Xingbao, shooting how he made a pottery bottle. From the lines of “The Stone Bay Pottery, the First in the World” in the Record of Ming Dynasty Poetry Summary, we seem to feel the Shiwan pottery scene, but with the passing of time, the glory of those days has been replaced by the machine. Through this shooting of the ancient stove, I hope you can not only see the craftsmanship of the experienced craftsmen, but also look back at the representative cultural crystallization (精华) of the ancient ancestors carved in the pottery.
Scan the QR code to view the films on QQ or Youtube.
1. Who directs the film of Ink of the Mongolian?| A．Sarah Choi. | B．Gilson Junior. | C．Yang Xilin. | D．Rabelo Santos Luiz Aline. |
| A．Shiwan pottery is the best in the world. |
| B．Shiwan pottery was created in Ming Dynasty. |
| C．The craftsmanship of Shiwan pottery has been lost. |
| D．The culture of Shiwan pottery is typical of Chinese ancient culture. |
| A．They learned from their elder generation. |
| B．They’re masters of traditional Chinese culture. |
| C．They’re attempting to preserve the endangered cultures. |
| D．They’re devoted to training talents for traditional Chinese culture. |
