1 . The art of learning how to think

Learning how to think is really the whole point of going to university because it is one of the few periods in your life when you get time to do it.

Like any skill, successful thinking takes practice. The more time you spend thinking and the more ideas you come up with, the more likely it is that some of them will be good ones.     1     Your thinking will never improve if it consists entirely of thinking how much of a failure you are.

    2     Geniuses generally come up with their brilliant innovations by thinking about a subject in lots of different ways and establishing connections between apparently different ideas. On the other hand, there are times when you need to know what you are supposed to be thinking about and why, and to stay reasonably focused.

If you are having trouble thinking, it may be because you lack another skill that would make it easier. It could be that you don’t have a wide enough vocabulary to put your thoughts into words.     3     If you share a house with violinists and pianists, you may have trouble hearing yourself think.

One way to sharpen this skill is to think critically about what other people are thinking. Thinking is not always something that needs to be done alone.     4     So, if your housemates ever abandon their instruments, engage them in conversation, look for holes in their arguments,and explain your own.

If you get really good at thinking while at university, you may be able to think of a way to carry that on.     5    

A．Proper thinking is about creating an argument.

B．It enables us to become more independent thinkers.

C．If they’re all rubbish, try not to keep thinking about it.

D．And thus it saves you actually doing anything once you leave.

E．You may also be in the wrong environment for productive thought.

F．Having a one-track mind won’t improve your power of thinking anyway.

G．In fact, communicating your thoughts can help to develop and clarify them.

2 . Why is the man worried about his brother?

A．His brother is too confident.

B．His brother struggles to make friends.

C．His brother’s friends will be a bad influence on him.

3 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What is the name of the speaker’s first play?

A．Bird on the Wing.

B．Iris Falls.

C．Clara’s Girl.

2. Why did the speaker act the lead character in her first play?

A．She was a talented actress.

B．She didn’t trust another actress.

C．She couldn’t afford to pay proper actors.

3. Who plays the main character in Clara’s Girl?

A．Yvette Rogers.

B．Dame Vera Parker.

C．Shing Wu.

4 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What event are the speakers cleaning for?

A．The Easter party.

B．The woman’s birthday.

C．The Spring Festival gathering.

2. How does the woman feel about hosting the event?

A．Particular.

B．Excited.

C．Nervous.

3. Why does the man do the cleaning before Spring Festival?

A．To make his mother happy.

B．To treat his relatives.

C．To get rid of bad luck.

4. What can the man probably do on the first day of the New Year?

A．Wash clothes.

B．Cook.

C．Do the dishes.

5 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What does the woman like best about the stamps she collects?

A．Their beauty.

B．Their price.

C．Their cultural value.

2. Which stamp does the man like most?

A．The one from Ethiopia.

B．The one from Norway.

C．The one from Fiji.

3. How much does the set of stamps about Mei Lanfang probably cost?

A．13,000 yuan.

B．40,000 yuan.

C．85,000 yuan.

6 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

I worked at a local station of the Berlin fire department. We got an alert (警报) around 8:25pm that Friday and rushed to the fire engine, where the printout from the dispatcher (调度员) said there was a nine-year-old boy locked in a safe.

I asked myself: if it were a safe, would it be airtight? I was aware that it might already be too late by the time we arrived. I had to plan for a bad outcome. On the other hand, if we were in time, how long would it take us to open the safe? I knew it would be an incredibly difficult task. It’s what safes are designed for—not to be opened.

It took less than five minutes to reach the property. When I saw a woman crying on the street,

I knew the situation was serious. She was the boy’s mother and she led us into the basement. She told us the boy was alive and we started talking to him; he was very calm. We asked how it had happened: during a game of hide and seek with his five-year-old brother, he had thought the safe would be a good place to hide.

The boy’s parents had got the house from his mother’s father. The unlocked safe had been there when they moved in and was in an area they didn’t use much. The boy’s little brother had shut the safe, then, when he couldn’t open it again. The only person who knew the combination was the boy’s late grandfather.

From the outset, the biggest priority was getting oxygen to the boy. We got oxygen from the hospital. The boy said that he could feel a thin stream of air. I asked his parents if anyone had opened the safe before and they said no. So we had to guess a six-digit code (密码). We started typing them in—but we had to wait 10 minutes between each attempt before we could try again. So quickly we tried them all. No luck.

注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卷的相应位置作答。

We were fully prepared at this point to open the safe by force, starting with a drill.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Then, just as we started to make the first cut, my workmate typed in the correct code.

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7 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

What did you have for dinner Tuesday night of last week? If someone     1     (ask) you that question Wednesday morning, you would     2     (possible) have had no problem recalling what you had for dinner the night before.

But as days pass, the memories of all the other meals you     3     (eat) since then start to interfere (干扰) with your memory of that one particular meal. This is a good example of     4    psychologists call the interference theory of forgetting. Forgetting is the result of     5     (vary) memories interfering with one another. The more similar two or more events are     6     one another, the more likely interference will occur.

Getting rid of interference altogether is impossible, but there are a few things you can do to minimize its effects. One of the best things you can do is rehearse (排练) new information in order to better commit it to memory. In fact, many experts recommend overlearning important information,     7     involves rehearsing the material over and over again until it can be reproduced perfectly with no errors. Another strategy for fighting interference is to switch up your routine and avoid     8     (study) similar material back to back. Sleep also plays an essential role in memory     9     (form). Sleeping after you learn something new is     10     efficient way to turn new memories into lasting ones.

8 . I used to stutter (口吃) quite badly. I felt very ________ , like I was less of a human being.

I didn’t have any ________ when I left special school. So I got a job as a trainee hotel porter. I enjoyed it because I was meeting new people and earning my own ________ . I felt like a proper adult. But the other men ________ me mentally because of my disability. They’d imitate (模仿) me ________ because of my speech impediment (障碍). I got very down. I was ________ inside.

The stepping stone to self-belief for me was ________ I got help from KeyRing—an organization which helps disabled people to live ________ . I couldn’t write very well, but I could ________ that. Apps on computers meant I could dictate (口授) my emails. I got the government ________ for disabled people in work. It paid for me to help with paperwork two mornings a week.

________ I heard about a job going at the human rights charity CHANGE. I got an ________ that got me the job of international project consultant. I travel all over the world to ________ professionals to work better with people with learning disabilities. This builds my ________ . I lost my stutter in the end.

My learning disability was a bit of me, but it doesn’t ________ me. It’s just a label people put on me. It hasn’t stopped me having a life.

1.

A．tense

B．small

C．frightened

D．annoyed

2.

A．impressions

B．requirements

C．qualifications

D．challenges

3.

A．wage

B．degree

C．honour

D．friendship

4.

A．supported

B．coached

C．confused

D．abused

5.

A．talking

B．working

C．living

D．studying

6.

A．calm

B．brave

C．dying

D．lost

7.

A．where

B．why

C．how

D．when

8.

A．comfortably

B．peacefully

C．independently

D．colourfully

9.

A．get around

B．decide on

C．ask about

D．seek for

10.

A．intervention

B．funding

C．guidance

D．permit

11.

A．Gradually

B．Eventually

C．Surprisingly

D．Desperately

12.

A．email

B．appeal

C．option

D．interview

13.

A．train

B．persuade

C．promise

D．expect

14.

A．vocabulary

B．wealth

C．confidence

D．strength

15.

A．remind

B．abandon

C．confirm

D．define

9 . Bottled water has long been marketed as a safe drink—if it doesn’t come straight from a mountain spring, it’s at least clean and free of chemicals. But a new study demonstrates that bottled water may not be so safe when it comes to microscopic plastic pollutants capable of passing into the bloodstream.

For years scientists have raised the alarm over microplastics, which form when plastics break down into increasingly smaller particles (微粒), ranging from five millimeters down to one micrometer. Previous studies have found that a liter of bottled water can contain tens of thousands of identifiable plastic particles. But they stopped at the one micrometer level due to technological restrictions.

The study used a new technology to find even smaller particles, and detected an average240,000 plastic particles per liter of bottled water. About 90% of the particles were considered nanoplastics, smaller than one micrometer. Unlike microplastics, they are capable of passing through some organs like lungs into the bloodstream. From there they can stay in the heart muscle and other organs, pass into the brain, and even into the bodies of unborn babies.

So far, little research shows what nanoplastics exactly do once they enter the bloodstream. But there is much evidence that chemicals used in plastic production are bad for human health. Even if nanoplastics themselves are not deleterious, they can serve as carriers for the dangerous chemicals, increasing the risk of cancer and impacting key organs such as the heart.

“There is a huge world of nanoplastics to be studied,” said the researchers. Even if nanoplastics make up 90% of the number of plastic particles found in bottled water, they make up far less in mass, they said. However, this fact provides little comfort: It’s the numbers rather than mass that matter; and the smaller things are, the more readily they can get inside us.

1. What does the technological barrier in the previous studies concern?

A．The number of microscopic plastics.	B．The quality of water bottles.
C．The distribution of plastic pollutants.	D．The size of plastic particles.

2. What does the text imply about microplastics?

A．They are not very likely to pollute bottled water.

B．Their number per liter of bottled water is constant.

C．They are less potentially risky to health than nanoplastics.

D．Their number in springs is larger than that of nanoplastics.

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

A．Large.

B．Useless.

C．Safe.

D．Harmful.

4. Why do nanoplastics need further research?

A．They are too small to identify.	B．They have easy access to organs.
C．They are dangerous regarding mass.	D．They have a higher percentage in life.

10 . The impact of technology on language is a topic that often causes concern, with many assuming that it is simply ruining it. However, language experts resist such pessimism, noting that there is little evidence to support the view that speech is getting worse. Gretchen McCulloch, in her book Because Internet, focuses on what can be learned about language from the internet rather than talking about its supposed negative effects.

McCulloch compares studying language online to growing bacteria (细菌) in a Petri dish,where trends emerge and disappear quickly, allowing language experts to observe changes that would otherwise take a considerable amount of time. The influence of strong ties like friends or family vs weaker ties on language change is analyzed, with computer simulations (模拟) revealing that having both strong and weaker ties helps spread updates in a community.

The role of social media platforms in language change is also discussed. Twitter, with its mix of strong and weak ties, is shown to drive more language change than Facebook, which is controlled by stronger ties. Emoji is highlighted as a universal digital expression of gestures, not a language. Additionally, there is evidence that the use of internet“innovations”such as“omg”dates back to pre-computer eras.

McCulloch’s book focuses on the birth of a new medium rather than a new language. The rise of mass writing on the internet, characterized by frequent, error-filled, and short-lived communication, challenges traditional ideas about writing’s importance. McCulloch suggests future historians should see this as a return to more casual (随意的) language, paying more attention to the value of tools that improve social interaction online. The book argues against the idea that these changes might lead to the end of “real” writing, advocating for an appreciation of anything that enhances human connection and the enjoyment of each other’s company.

1. How might McCulloch sound in her book Because Internet?

A．Sensitive.

B．Scientific.

C．Pessimistic.

D．Dismissive.

2. What does paragraph 3 focus on?

A．The development of digital language.

B．The difference between social media platforms.

C．The influence of the internet on language change.

D．The connection between humans and the internet.

3. Which of the following would McCulloch probably agree with?

A．Interpersonal bonds play a role in online communication.

B．Formal language is unlikely to improve social interaction.

C．The birth of new media has removed writing’s importance.

D．Mass writing can make web-based conversations effective.

4. What would be the best title for the text?

A．How to Achieve Network Effect?	B．Technology, Fear or Convenience?
C．What If Faced with Media Terms?	D．Internet Degrades or Helps Speech?