1 . 假设你是李华，你的苏格兰朋友Edwind对你的寒假作业非常感兴趣，请在附件中发送你制作的 “New Year's Flavour”视频作业（video making homework），并告知以下信息：
1. 作业大致要求；
2. 你制作的内容、过程和收获；
3. 征求意见并询问苏格兰高中学生的寒假情况。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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2 . People these days are posting about their lives on social media. But what if you’re a private and introverted person like me? What if you want to live in the moment instead of sharing every bit of your life? To be honest, it’s nobody’s business but your own.     1    

Escaping stalkers (跟踪者).

I’ve been a public person as a jazz vocalist for years. It exposed me to stalkers who felt they knew me, just because I was present everywhere. Needless to say, it brought me much anxiety and stress. At some point I asked myself-is being visible more important than my peace of mind?     2     The answer is a clear NO. I just want to spend life doing what I love with the people I love.

Protecting privacy

    3     I need alone time to process what I’m struggling with and honest real talks with the people I trust. I might share a lesson learned from an experience, but now I won’t. I know that by keeping my life private on social media I may miss out on some connections, but I honor and respect the people in my life who value their privacy, so I am being mindful and protect that.

    4    

Another reason I keep my life private is that I prefer to be in the present moment and appreciate it fully. To be on your phone constantly, or to film everything you do, can be quite disrespectful to the people you spend your time with. You lose out on those spontaneous(自发的) moments and a deeper connection. I choose what I share and when I share it, and the rest is for experiencing life without expectations.

Live your life fully, regardless of whether the world knows it or not!     5     I just want you to know it’s OK if you don’t.

A．Experiencing life

B．Living in the moment

C．Don’t I really care about privacy?

D．Are my followers more important than my friends and family?

E．If you feel like sharing your life openly without hesitation, go for it.

F．Here are my reasons for not sharing my personal life on social media.

G．It can be quite challenging to go through tough moments with everyone watching.

3 . Taking a picture of Mars is not easy. Once light bounces off the planet, it can take between 3 to 22 minutes to travel to Earth - so there aren’t truly “live” images of Mars.

But on Friday afternoon, the European Space Agency will offer the closest thing: the first “livestream” of Mars a rare, almost real-time look into space on YouTube, which posts pictures of the planet every 50 seconds as they beam down directly from the camera mounted (安装) on the agency’s Mars Express orbiter (轨道飞行器). We can get a firsthand look at Mars on Friday.

“During Friday’s one-hour livestream, the time between the images being taken from orbit around Mars and appearing on your screen will be about 18 minutes,” James Godfrey, the spacecraft operations manager at the ESA’s mission control center, said in a statement. “That’s 17 minutes for light to travel from Mars to Earth in their current configuration, and about one minute to pass through the wires and servers on the ground. ”

“Normally, we see images from Mars and know that they were taken days before. I’m excited to see Mars as it is now - as close to a Martian(火星人) ‘now’ as we can possibly get!’

In 50-second intervals, the camera shoots across Mars, showing a side of the planet entering night, as well as some clouds billowing out on the comer. The livestream celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Mars Express mission which was launched in 2003 to better understand the planet, as well as search for traces of water.

It’s with this camera, originally meant for engineering purposes, that we’ll get ”live“ images on Friday evening from 18:00 CEST in the first MarsLIVE. What makes this unique, is that it’s a one-hour livestream from Mars   but don’t expect a detailed view of the Red Planet!

1. What can we learn from this text?

A．Watching the MarsLIVE, people will have a completely real-time view of the Mars.

B．The audience can watch the MarsLIVE thanks to the camera on the Mars

C．About 20 years ago, the ESA launched an orbiter to search for Martians.

D．The MarsLIVE is to celebrate the launch of the Mars Express mission in 2003.

2. What does the underlined word ”configuration“ in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Equipment.

B．Orbit.

C．Planet.

D．Spacecraft.

3. What is the text mainly about?

A．The live images taken from orbit around Mars.

B．The 20th anniversary of the Mars Express mission.

C．The first ”livestream“ of Mars to be shown on YouTube.

D．A rare and almost real-time look into space on YouTube.

4. What does the last paragraph imply?

A．The camera was originally used to shoot the Mars.

B．We can get truly live Mars images in the first MarsLIVE.

C．Detailed images about the Mars can’t be ensured.

D．The unique MarsLIVE will live up to viewers’ expectation.

4 . World Literacy Conference

WHAT IS WORLD LITERACY CONFERENCE?

It’s the world’s largest gathering of international literacy experts, which focuses on the vital importance of improving reading and writing levels across the globe. It brings together leaders from 85 countries. Over 600 delegates (代表) in the scene and a further 40,000 people via webinars will watch it.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE IN THE CONFERENCE?

Anyone who is passionate about education is welcome to take part in the conference. Call for papers and content is open. You can hand in no more than two papers through the Oxford system per person before September 16, 2023. Please click Here for more information

TICKET PURCHASE:

Registration Fees l＄100 per person; 20 percent discount for per group member.

Consumption Tax l Extra 10 percent for each registration fee. Overseas delegates will be charged before attending but can be RETURNED BACK after conference closing.

Pay Channels PayPal or a credit card. (Please email us for other methods)

Refund Policy The Conference ONLY offers refunds when the British Government does not approve you visa, or you need to apply for registration transfers.

Others Accommodation expenses are not covered in the registration fees.

1. Which of the following statements is correct according to the text?

A．The live broadcasting is the only way for participation.

B．Delegates are allowed to submit more than two essays.

C．Accommodation expenses are included in the registration fees.

D．Purchasers can apply to gain other access to official tickets.

2. How much does a 10-person overseas group need to pay altogether before attending?

A．800.

B．880.

C．990.

D．1000.

3. Where is this text most probably taken from?

A．An online website.

B．An educational journal.

C．An activity poster.

D．An economic newspaper.

5 . 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。

For years, my wife Teresa taught physical education at the elementary school level. Travelling on a regular schedule to the six schools in her district, she had a chance to get to know most of the kids in the area and see them at their best and their worst.

One day, in her class, Teresa noticed a third-grade girl, Meagan, who was short and grossly overweight, with a closed and hopeless look on her face. Meagan always sat alone in class, played alone at break, and ate alone from a recycled paper sack at lunch. The teachers and staff were kind to Meagan, but the students were not.

The stories made your shoulders drop. Teresa heard that when the playground supervisors (管理员) turned their backs, kids would run up to Meagan, calling her “Meagan the Fat Pig.” They did far worse than isolate (孤立) her; they filled her school days and walks home with physical and emotional torment (折磨). Also, Meagan’s single mother, a hard-working woman, was trying her best to make ends meet but she had never made it before.

Meagan’s situation disturbed my wife deeply. After talking with the principle and other teachers, Teresa came up with an idea. She knew from talking to Meagan that the child had never had a pet. Teresa was sure a pet would be the perfect way to inject some high-powered love and acceptance into Meagan’s life.

So one Saturday afternoon, Meagan was invited to Teresa’s office. When the door buzzer sounded, a dog engaged in a predictable and vigorous welcome. Getting down on one knee, Teresa introduced herself to Meagan. She told Meagan her thought that she could take away a puppy if she liked. Like any creature that has been cared about, Meagan gleamed in her eyes and playfully lifted the puppy almost off the ground. That day Meagan left the office with the puppy.

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。
Paragraph 1: Now she had a living, breathing friend who wanted to play with her.
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Paragraph 2: Ten years later, Teresa received an invitation to the high school graduation ceremony from Meagan, where Meagan made a speech.
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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。

Cindy nervously glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. Five minutes before midnight. Her parents were still out there celebrating their 15th anniversary.

“They should be home any time now,” she thought as she put the finishing touches on the chocolate cake. It was the first time in her 12 years she had tried to make a cake from zero, and to be honest, it wasn’t exactly an artistic success. The cake was... well, lumpy. And the coating was bitter, as if she had run out of sugar or something which, of course, she had.

And then there was the way the kitchen looked. Imagine a huge blender(食物搅拌器) filled with all the stuff needed for chocolate cake -including the bowls, plates and tools. Now imagine that the blender is turned on. High speed. With the cover off.

Do you get the idea?

But Cindy wasn’t thinking about the mess. She was anxious for her parents to return home from their date so she could present her anniversary gift to them. Picturing her parents’ surprised faces when they saw the cake, she could feel a wave of excitement washing over her. She turned off the kitchen lights and waited excitedly in the darkness, hoping to give her parents a big surprise. Time seemed to her to be crawling with feet of lead while she anxiously awaited her parents’ arrival. When at last she saw the flash of the car headlights, she positioned herself in the kitchen doorway, her heart thumping like a drum. By the time she heard the key sliding into the front door, she was THIS CLOSE to exploding.

Assuming Cindy was already sound asleep, her parents tried to steal in quietly, but Cindy would have none of that. She turned on the lights dramatically and trumpeted “Ta-daaa!” She gestured grandly toward the kitchen table, where a slightly off-balance chocolate cake awaited their inspection.

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。
Paragraph 1: But her mother’s eyes never made it all the way to the cake.
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Paragraph 2: “Wow, look at the beautiful chocolate cake,” her father exclaimed.
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7 . 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。

Chang’an Tower, also known as the Great Wild Goose Pagoda, is an architectural wonder     1     (locate) in Xi’an, China. With its rich historical significance and stunning beauty, this ancient tower stands as a masterpiece of China’s cultural heritage.

    2     (original) built during the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century, Chang’an Tower served as a Buddhist pagoda, housing Buddhist materials that the monk Xuanzang brought from India. Its construction     3    (order) by Emperor Gaozong to promote Buddhism and facilitate (使……便利) the translation of Buddhist scriptures (佛经)     4     Chinese.

Rising to a     5     (high) of 64 meters, the square-shaped, thirteen-storey tower showcases the splendid craftsmanship of ancient Chinese craftsmen, each storey of     6     exhibits unique architectural features,     7     (reflect) the cultural influences of the time. Visitors can go up the internal staircase to the top for magnificent     8     (view) of the city. Surrounding the pagoda, the serene gardens and the Da Ci’en Temple offer a peaceful retreat as well.

Whether it is for experiencing a piece of history     9     exploring cultural wonders, Chang’an Tower is     10     essential destination for those exploring China’s vast historical landscape.

8 . The first time I saw the real Santa, he drove a big, charcoal-colored truck, not a cherry red sleigh, in the August heat. He wasn’t what I _______ at all.

My husband had lost his job early in July, and we’d been _______ expenses everywhere we could. He’d been looking for a job but _______.

One afternoon, we were feeling particularly _______ so we decided to treat ourselves to a meal from McDonald’s. Just a quick drive-through run, no big deal. When we got to the window to pay, the employee said our meal had been taken care of by the car _______ us. We attempted to keep the pay-it-forward chain going by offering to pay for the _______ for the car behind us. “No, that man just paid for everyone in line,” said the employee. She _______ toward the truck that was slowly pulling away to _______ the parking lot. We had no choice but to get _______ with the fact that a stranger had just done something kind for us, and there was no way to repay it, pay it forward, etc.

I looked toward the truck and thought I could see the man’s grin in the driver’s side ________. He ________ his hand out the window and gave a cheerful wave, and it ________ reminded me of the illustration of a Christmas poem where Santa was flying away into the night, gloved hand up in a goodbye wave.

It seemed like a little ________ that we’d be alright. My husband found a wonderful job shortly after that. We’ve gone on to do random acts of ________ for others, remembering the effect this free meal had on us that ________ day when Santa drove a truck and left with a big grin and a little wave.

1.

A．revealed

B．expected

C．predicted

D．reflected

2.

A．getting rid of

B．coming down with

C．making up for

D．cutting back on

3.

A．in vain

B．in effect

C．in debt

D．in issue

4.

A．awkward

B．low

C．ashamed

D．nervous

5.

A．close by

B．behind

C．ahead of

D．beyond

6.

A．menu

B．order

C．service

D．expense

7.

A．gestured

B．glanced

C．yelled

D．edged

8.

A．enter

B．approach

C．seek

D．exit

9.

A．ashamed

B．stressed

C．comfortable

D．grateful

10.

A．door

B．mirror

C．window

D．seat

11.

A．struck

B．shot

C．stuck

D．lent

12.

A．quickly

B．ultimately

C．automatically

D．instantly

13.

A．reminder

B．memory

C．image

D．example

14.

A．kindness

B．gratitude

C．heroism

D．sacrifice

15.

A．mild

B．freezing

C．hot

D．damp

9 . Each fall, the flu emerges as a terrible force.     1     Influenza viruses cause millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the United States each year. So it’s necessary to know more about the flu viruses.

What’s the difference between Type A and Type B?

Influenza A viruses come in many varieties. Four subtypes commonly affect humans. But many more influenza A viruses have been identified in animals, which makes it a potential source of pandemics whenever a new type of influenza A jumps to humans.     2     They are divided into just two lineages (谱系) that cause seasonal outbreaks.

What are symptoms of an influenza infection?

If you do get sick with the flu, you’ll have common symptoms like fever, muscle aches and respiratory ailments. Most otherwise healthy people are sick for three to seven days.     3     The flu can also trigger inflammatory (炎症反应) responses in the body and worsen existing chronic conditions like asthma or heart disease.

    4    

Some rapid tests available at doctors offices can distinguish between influenza A and B, although they tend to have low sensitivity. Doctors can also order more sensitive P. C. R. tests to identify the specific flu virus causing infection.

How do you treat influenza?

To treat the flu, we can take approved antiviral medications that are commonly used to shorten the duration and severity of illness. Stay hydrated, get plenty of rest and use over-the-counter medications to reduce fever as needed. But if you develop a sustained fever of 39℃, you have difficulty breathing or you experience severe chest or stomach pain, it is important to seek medical attention immediately.     5    

A．How do you get tested for influenza?

B．How do you know which type you have?

C．Influenza B viruses, however, only circulate in humans.

D．In some cases, the cough and fatigue can linger for two weeks.

E．These may be signs that you need a stronger influenza treatment.

F．There are two players every flu season: influenza Type A and Type B.

G．Public health officials recommend everyone six months and older get an annual flu shot.

10 . Falling birth rates are a major concern for some of Asia’s biggest economies. Government s in the region are spending hundreds of billions of dollars trying to reverse the trend. Will it work?

Japan began introducing policies to encourage couples to have more children in the 1990s. South Korea started doing the same in the 2000s, while Singapore’s first fertility (生育) policy dates back to 1987. China, which has seen its population fall for the first time in 60 years, recently joined the growing club.

While it is difficult to quantify exactly how much these policies have cost, South Korean President YoonSuk-yeol recently said his country had spent more than $200bn (£160bn) over the past 16 years on trying to boost the population. Yet last year South Korea broke its own record for the world’s lowest fertility rate, with the average number of babies expected per woman falling to 0.78. In neighbouring Japan, which had record low births of fewer than 800,000 last year, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has promised to double the budget for child-related policies from 10tn yen ($74.7bn; £59.2bn).

Having a bigger population who can work and produce more goods and services leads to higher economic growth. And while a larger population can mean higher costs for governments, it can also result in bigger tax revenues (税收). Also, many Asian countries are ageing rapidly. Japan leads the pack with nearly 30% of its population now over the age of 65 and some other nations in the region are not far behind. Compare that with India, which has just overtaken China as the world’s most populous nation. More than a quarter of its people are between the age of 10 and 20, which gives its economy huge potential for growth. And when the share of the working age population gets smaller, the cost and burden of looking after the non-working population grow. “Negative population growth has an impact on the economy, and together with an ageing population, they won’t be able to afford to support the elderly,” said Xiujian Peng of Victoria University.

1. Which Asian country first took measures to increase population in this passage?

A．Japan.

B．South Korea.

C．Singapore.

D．China.

2. What can we learn about the population of Asian countries from the passage?

A．Japan hit the lowest record of new-born babies last year.

B．India has the largest and youngest population in the world.

C．China’s population has been decreasing in the recent 60 years.

D．South Korea had the lowest population record last year in the world.

3. What can we infer from paragraph 4?

A．The economy of India will overtake that of Japan.

B．Negative population growth leads to an ageing population.

C．The larger the population is, the better the economy will be.

D．A bigger share of working age population helps support the elderly.

4. What’s the main idea of this passage?

A．Low birth rate is a negative factor for economy.

B．China is joining the countries of low birth rate.

C．Many Asian countries came to negative population growth.

D．Many Asian countries are trying all out to battle low birth rate.