1 . 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。

Whenever you have to write a paper, a letter, or any other document for work or school, you probably head toward the computer. Now, most people reach for     1     (keyboard) faster than they pick up pens. In a Scottish primary school, however, Mr. Norman Lewis is taking a different approach. He feels that neat handwriting     2     (be) still an important skill, so he has his students write not only by hand but also     3     old fashioned fountain pens.

Fountain pens     4     (use) in schools long ago and have been regaining popularity lately because they are refillable. Today, a writer     5     (simple) throws an empty pen away and gets     6     new one.

So far, Mr. Lewis is pleased with the results of his experiment. He reports that his students are taking more care with their work, and their self-confidence has improved as well. He is happy with the     7     (improve) he sees in his students’ writing     8     in his own writing. He knows that computers are here     9     (stay) and that they will not disappear. However, he believes that the practice with fountain pens helps students to focus, to write faster, and they can feel proud of     10     (they).

2 . Common Mistakes New Runners Make

Running is a great way to get in shape and just about everyone can do it. However, many make a number of common mistakes, which can interfere (妨碍) with training or lead to injury.     1     , keep these things in mind to help you increase your chances of running success.

·Doing too much too soon

One of the biggest mistakes new runners make is doing too much too soon. Slowly easing into a training program will help reduce the risk of injury, so you can continue on with your new running routine     2     .

·     3    

Beginners might think they need to run every day (or nearly every day) to meet their fitness or weight-loss goals, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Running is a high-impact activity which can be really hard on your body. So it’s important to give your body a rest between workouts.

·Not wearing the right equipment

    4    , it’s important that you wear properly for your workouts. The most important piece of equipment for running is a good pair of running shoes, so be sure to do some research before you purchase a pair. Visit a running specialty store and ask an employee to fit you for a shoe.

•Running through pain

    5     If something hurts when you run, you need to stop and treat the pain. Remember: It doesn’t make you less of a runner if you listen to your body to keep it healthy.

A．Not taking rest days

B．If you’re just starting out

C．Comparing yourself to others

D．Running can be uncomfortable at times

E．It’s important not to use the same muscles

F．While it may be true that you don’t need expensive equipment to take up running

G．Experts suggest increasing your running distance by no more than 10% each week

3 . “Looking good, feeling good” is a common phrase, but for many middle school students, it brings up the issue of appearance anxiety. In a world where social media often sets unrealistic beauty standards, teenagers can feel pressured to look a certain way. This pressure can lead to a lack of confidence and happiness.

Dressing in a style that reflects personal taste, rather than simply following fashion trends, can be a step towards overcoming this anxiety. Wearing clothes that make one feel comfortable and confident can help boost self-esteem. It’s important for students to understand that fashion is a way to express themselves, not a standard they must meet.

Healthy eating is also crucial. A balanced diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, and grains, helps maintain a healthy body and mind. Sometimes, teens worry too much about their weight, which can lead to unhealthy eating habits. Learning about nutrition and understanding that healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes can help alleviate these concerns.

Physical activity plays a significant role in mental well-being. Regular exercise, like playing a sport or going for a walk, not only keeps the body fit but also releases endorphins, improving mood and reducing stress. It's a natural way to fight the anxiety that comes with appearance concerns.

Finally, it's essential for middle school students to focus on mental health. Engaging in hobbies, spending time with friends, and seeking support when needed can contribute to a more positive self-image. Understanding that everyone's unique and that real beauty comes from within is vital. Feeling good about oneself should come from personal achievements and qualities, not just from outward appearance.

1. What is the main concern addressed in the article regarding middle school students?

A．Choosing the right fashion trends.

B．Coping with appearance anxiety.

C．Learning about nutrition and exercise.

D．Finding comfortable clothing.

2. According to the article, how can personal style in clothing affect students?

A．It can lead to unrealistic beauty standards.

B．It can help in overcoming appearance anxiety.

C．It pressures students to follow fashion trends.

D．It results in a lack of interest in fashion.

3. What role does physical activity play in addressing appearance concerns?

A．It sets beauty standards for students.

B．It mainly helps in weight management.

C．It improves mood and reduces stress.

D．It has no significant impact on mental well-being.

4. Why is focusing on mental health important for middle school students?

A．It helps in achieving academic success.

B．It contributes to a more positive self-image.

C．It encourages following social media trends.

D．It increases interest in fashion and style.

4 .

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Tour Route: 2 nights Beijing Hotel and 2 nights Changcheng Hotel For more information please visit our website www.haiyangtour.com or call 0514-7654321.	Beijing Hotel Close to Tian’anmen Square Prize-winning Garden Bars and French restaurant Swimming pool	Departure (起程) Date Price Jun.8, 2023                       ¥899 Jul.29, 2023                       ¥999 Aug.30th, 2023                  ¥799 Sept.30th, 2023                  ¥1,299 To book, choose your preferred departure date. Business Hours: Weekdays: 24 hours Weekends: 8:00 a.m. — 6:00p.m.
	Changcheng Hotel Gardens with mountain views Restaurants and Cafe night club Buses to the downtown

1. ________ has (have) a swimming pool for the travelers.

A．Beijing Hotel	B．Changcheng Hotel
C．No hotels	D．Both hotels

2. If you want to start around National Day, you may choose to leave on ________.

A．June 8th, 2023	B．July 29th, 2023
C．August 30th, 2023	D．September 30th, 2023

3. We can’t book the tickets by telephone at ________.

A．9:00 a.m. on Monday	B．5:00 p.m. on Saturday
C．9:00 a.m. on Saturday	D．9:00 p.m. on Sunday

5 . When I was a teenager growing up in Russia, I felt studying very boring. I wanted to leave school and have my own life. There were only two ways for me to do this-working in the toy factory in my town, or getting married. I chose the first one. I was nervous when I told my father that I wanted to leave school. I thought he would say, “No! You are going to college.” Instead, he took me by surprise when he said, “OK. We'll go to the toy factory.”

Two days later, he took me to the factory. I had a very romantic idea of working in a factory. I had imagined everyone to be friendly working together and having fun. I even imagined there would be music and singing. I guess I had watched too many movies as a teenager.   

When we arrived at the factory gates, my father spoke to the guard and one minute later we went inside. My father said, “Take your time. Look around. ” I walked around the factory, looking at the buildings, the workers, and listening to the noise. It was terrible. I ran back to my father and said, “I want to go home. ”

He asked me, “What do you think of the factory?”

“It's terrible, ”I replied.   

“And you have another choice, but I think getting married is even worse!” he said.   

I went back to school the next day. From then on, I studied as hard as I could. Finally I got into a good college. I enjoyed studying English so I decided to major in languages at college. Thanks to my father and our trip to the factory, I now work at the United Nations and my father is very proud of me. I married a very good man and my life is much better than it would have been working in the factory!

1. The writer lived in __________   when she was a teenager.

A．Japan

B．Russia

C．China

D．England

2. At first she thought life in the factory would be __________ than in school.

A．more terrible

B．more colorful

C．busier

D．more boring

3. After they visited the factory, the writer __________ .

A．decided to work there	B．wanted to get married
C．changed her romantic idea	D．argued with her father

4. Which of the following statements is NOT true？

A．The writer studied languages after she went into the college.

B．The writer now works at the United Nations.

C．The writer's father used a special way to let his daughter go back to school.

D．The writer's father is proud because his daughter married a good man.

6 . Walter Orthmann, 100 years old, set the Guinness World Record for working at the same company for 84 years and nine days, which was confirmed by Guinness World Records onJanuary 6, 2022. Orthmann said it was an honor and a privilege. His professional advice is to work in an area where you feel motivated.

Orthmann’s career started in 1938. He got a job at Industrias Renaux S.A., working as a shipping assistant at the textile (纺织) company. As a child, he would walk barefoot to school—rain or shine—and was an excellent student. He has always been enthusiastic about learning, but started working to help his family, who lived in Brusque, due to financial hardship.

The town has a large German population, and because he spoke German, he was hired at the weaving factory, which is now called ReneauxView. There, Orthmann continued to love learning and got promoted to a sales position, then a manager.

The sales job took him traveling across the country to meet clients (客户), who became friends. The company has changed over the past 84 years, which taught Orthmann the most important part of the business: Stay up to date and adapt to different contexts.

Orthmann turned 100 years old on April 19, 2022 and celebrated with coworkers, friends and family. He still exercises every day and is still mentally fit. So, he still goes to his favorite places every day: the office. His 84-year-long career was perhaps achieved by his ability to live in the present.

“I don’t do much planning, nor care much about tomorrow,” he said. “All I care about is that tomorrow will be another day in which I will wake up, get up, exercise and go to work. You need to get busy with the present, not the past or the future. Now is what counts. So, let’s go to work!”

1. How old was Orthmann when he started to work?

A．12.

B．16.

C．18.

D．20.

2. Why was Orthmann employed by a weaving factory?

A．He was good at weaving.	B．He could speak German.
C．He needed to help his family.	D．He was enthusiastic about learning.

3. What’s the most important lesson Orthmann learned from the company’s change?

A．Keeping up with the times.	B．Spending more time on clients.
C．Keeping fit to go to work every day.	D．Don’t do much planning ahead of time.

4. What may Orthmann agree with?

A．Good courage breaks bad luck.	B．Learning is the eye of the mind.
C．The darkest hour is that before the dawn.	D．The important thing is to seize the moment.

7 . Naturalist Enzo Suma, who is now 40, lives in Puglia, a region in southern Italy whose long coastline faces the Adriatic Sea. Floating waste accumulates in this relatively enclosed part of the Mediterranean, unlike the open ocean, where the waste tends to be spread over a vast area. Feeling concerned about that, Suma makes it a habit to pick up the washed-up waste along the shore, especially after big winter storms.

One day, Suma was walking along the beach near his home when he discovered a bottle of Coke. Suma noticed on the bottle that the price, clearly printed on the bottom, was in lire, a currency (货币) that hadn’t been used in Italy since it was replaced by the euro in 2002. Could a plastic container have well survived in the Mediterranean, he wondered, for about two decades?

That led him to founding the Archeoplastica museum. It has a collection of about 500 unique pieces recovered from Italian shores and the Coke bottle is the first one of them. All collection demonstrates the unsettling life force of plastic waste in the environment. “Seeing that a product people may have used 30, 40, or 50 years ago remains still unchanged, you’ll feel different. It’s a great shock,” Suma said to a reporter. So Suma often exhibits selected pieces from the Archeoplastica collection at local schools around his hometown of Ostuni.

“The playful side of the work allows you to arrive at the less beautiful side of things,” Suma acknowledged. “Plastic is a kind of useful substance. But it’s unthinkable that a water bottle, made from a material designed to last so long, can be used for just a few days—or even minutes—before becoming garbage. Clean the beaches. Clean the oceans. Recycle. But if we are still throwing out plastics, none of those are going to be long-term solutions.”

1. What’s Suma’s concern about his living place?

A．Its long coastline is disappearing.	B．Big storms frequently hit the area.
C．Floating waste spreads over a vast area.	D．The waste pollution on shore is worsening.

2. What can be learned about the objects in the Archeoplastica museum?

A．They have a history of more than half a century.

B．They were quite valuable before turning into waste.

C．They’re more like educational exhibits than garbage.

D．They have stronger life force than ordinary plastic products.

3. Which of the following can best describe Enzo Suma?

A．Creative, devoted and socially responsible.	B．Enthusiastic, ambitious and adventurous.
C．Generous, cautious and humorous.	D．Curious, efficient and playful.

4. What does Suma intend to tell us by his words in the last paragraph?

A．The birth of plastics has greatly served humans.

B．The key to tackling the plastic pollution is to stop littering.

C．The plastic problem can be solved by cleaning and recycling.

D．People should be more aware of the powerful functions of plastics.

8 . My 5-year-old daughter Kai walked around a bus stop, picking up candy wrappers and plastic bottles and throwing them in the waste bin. We were a visiting family here, but she was cleaning the sidewalk, which didn’t shock me, nor was I _________ when strangers looked at us.

Our cleanup project began when we drove past an empty field one day and Kai _________ the field was covered by _________ balloons. We had read about how animals could _________ balloons for food. “Stop,” Kai said, and I _________. Surprisingly, we found the field was full of much trash _________ the balloons. “Can we come back and clean it?” Kai asked. Then each Friday, we returned to have a(n) _________ cleaning.

However, it seems we can never _________ the trash completely. I feel something close to _________! Why are we making kids clean up our __________? It has everything to do with the planet we adults are leaving for kids. Plastic pollution is globally distributed and microplastics have even been discovered in human blood. It is not a __________ story that we have created trash but our next generation cleans up them.

Now Kai hopes to become a marine biologist to protect sharks one day. She still has many years to __________, if adults get serious about solving plastic pollution. We shouldn’t leave our next generation a __________ planet and expect them to save it.

The last time our family was at the beach, we still picked up plastic bottles. Most __________, though, we saw an octopus (章鱼) playing around our feet, a __________ of a harmonious habitat worth protecting.

1.

A．embarrassed

B．discouraged

C．concerned

D．frightened

2.

A．apologized

B．confirmed

C．spotted

D．explained

3.

A．loose

B．magic

C．processed

D．abandoned

4.

A．trade

B．mistake

C．replace

D．change

5.

A．pulled over

B．blew up

C．turned down

D．gave in

6.

A．due to

B．ahead of

C．other than

D．instead of

7.

A．official

B．serious

C．optional

D．regular

8.

A．deliver

B．remove

C．track

D．produce

9.

A．stress

B．comfort

C．anger

D．pride

10.

A．mess

B．platform

C．court

D．house

11.

A．scary

B．pleasant

C．historic

D．real

12.

A．decide

B．struggle

C．survive

D．contribute

13.

A．safe

B．giant

C．distant

D．sick

14.

A．personally

B．memorably

C．technically

D．universally

15.

A．promise

B．threat

C．reminder

D．favor

9 . “Should I go? I do have a lot of work to do.” The question came from my daughter, Tracy, a college senior, who was debating whether or not to go with her roommates on a Saturday to drive to the beach and enjoy some unseasonably warm March weather.

On the one hand, sand, sunshine, and perhaps some fried food were prizes she deserved after a hard-won year of college life; on the other hand, her thesis (论文) conclusion wasn’t going to write itself. As a rather type A student, Tracy was unsure if she should go, and had asked my opinion.

As I read her text, I remembered my own college road trips in the 80s. At that time, four of us theater students, anxious and disappointed about the posting of a cast list, had driven out to the countryside through apple orchards (果园). We stopped at the side of the road to climb over a stone wall to grab some apples from a tree, taking off laughing, and ending the trip with ice-creams. I still remember sitting at a picnic table with the kind of laughter that you hope will never end.

I texted my daughter back, “Take the day off and go to the beach. The thesis can wait.” Actually, I wanted to text her much more than that. I wanted to tell her that college is for so many things—academic and personal growth and challenges, all-night study sessions, paper deadlines, and office hours. But it’s also for road trips with your roommates and a chance to extricate every bit of stress and responsibility for a few hours.

College is for the memories that you don’t think are anything special right now. But someday, one of you will say, “Hey, remember that time on the beach?” And those precious memories are worth more than any thesis conclusion ever could be.

1. Why did Tracy hesitate to go to the beach?

A．She was kind of stay-at-home.	B．She had to complete her paper.
C．She worried about the weather.	D．She didn’t invite her roommates.

2. What made the author and his classmates decide to take a road trip at college?

A．Their demand for spiritual relief.

B．Their desire to test their new car.

C．Their need to experience country life.

D．Their plan for seeking play materials.

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

A．Take on.

B．Think of.

C．Go through.

D．Shake off.

4. What does the author want to convey in the text?

A．Good friends always make life happier.

B．Stress from college life can play its part.

C．College memories are more than academic achievements.

D．Academic achievements absolutely come first at college.

10 . Unusual Castles Around the World

Whether a fantastic achievement of architecture or just a try to appeal to the public intentionally, the four curious castles below are far from ordinary.

Kelburn Castle, Largs, Scotland

When viewed from some sides, Kelburn Castle looks like a typical Scottish castle. But on the building’s south side, the stone tower and walls are covered in cartoon-style graffiti (涂鸦). The castle’s graffiti is the work of four artists. The graffiti took 1,500 cans of paint to create.

Predjama Castle, Predjama. Slovenia

Predjama Castle was built directly into the mouth of a cave located halfway up a little over 123-meter cliff (悬崖) face. Although the site dates back to at least the 13th century, the current building was reconstructed during the 16th century. The impressive castle holds the Guinness World Records for the largest cave castle in the world.

Swallow’s Nest, Gaspra, Crimea

It’s common for castles to be built near the edge of a cliff, but few look so unsafe as the Swallow’s Nest in Crimea, which extends out over the Black Sea. The foundation of this small castle, which measures 20 meters in length and 10 meters in width, extends beyond the edge of the 40-meter cliff. The current stone building was once a wooden structure.

Trosky Castle, Troskovice, Czech Republic

On the top of two volcanic mouths is Trosky Castle, which dates back to the end of the 14th century. Along with the towers on each peak, the castle is also built on the ridge (山脊) that connects the peaks. After a defensive stronghold during war time, the castle was abandoned. The government took control of the site in 1925 and the remains of its walls are now carefully maintained.

1. What highlights Kelburn Castle?

A．Its history.

B．Its location.

C．Its design.

D．Its function.

2. What do Predjama Castle and Swallow’s Nest have in common?

A．They were once rebuilt.	B．They were abandoned.
C．They are cave castles.	D．They are the same length.

3. Which castle lies on the volcanic rock?

A．Kelburn Castle.	B．Predjama Castle.
C．Swallow’s Nest.	D．Trosky Castle.