1 . Dragons, a famous imaginary beast born from fantasy, are often present in stories in the west and east. In both cultures, dragons are generally recognized as massive creatures capable of flight. They have great power and are often associated with magical abilities. However, due to their different cultural roots and images, there exist significant differences in the way dragons are regarded in the west and east, particularly in China.
Chinese dragons most resemble snakes, and have four claws and no wings. They often have features of other animals, including carp, tigers, and eagles. In the contrast, Western dragons look like huge lizards with big claws and large bat-like wings, and are often shown with spines or rough scales.
In traditional Chinese culture, a dragon is a symbol of luck, power and high status. They can cause weather changes and bring rainfall to the fields to ensure rich harvests. They are considered divine (神圣的) creatures, which hold an important position as the head of the four spirits. Therefore, to symbolize their power, ancient Chinese emperors decorated their clothes with dragon patterns. These clothes are known as dragon robes. Many Chinese view the dragon as a national symbol, proudly referring to themselves as “descendants of the dragon”. In the west, however, a dragon symbolizes an evil creature that spreads violence and terror throughout the land. They are believed to be transformed by the devil, with the ability to breathe fire or spit poison. Many western tales show dragons being defeated and killed to protect people from danger.
Today, dragons continue to evolve, exceeding traditional boundaries and finding new significance in global culture. They are no longer associated with evil or good, but rather as complex characters with their own unique personalities and motivations. For example, Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon begins as a dangerous dragon but evolves into a misunderstood being with love and compassion. This challenges the idea of dragons as naturally evil, presenting them as complex beings with emotions and motivations.
1. What do western dragons and eastern dragons have in common?| A．They have rough skin. | B．They are huge and powerful. |
| C．They are in the shape of snakes. | D．They have big claws and wings. |
| A．Western dragons are a symbol of authority. |
| B．Dragons in China can protect people from danger. |
| C．Chinese dragons can control rainfall and breathe fire. |
| D．Dragons are believed to cause chaos in western culture. |
| A．They are regarded as adventurous creatures. |
| B．They are closely associated with evil or good. |
| C．They have more diverse emotions and personalities. |
| D．They tend to represent human spirits facing challenges. |
| A．The Dragon Elements in Global Culture |
| B．The Origin of Dragons in Chinese History |
| C．The Magical Animals in Different Countries |
| D．The Images of Dragons in Western Traditions |
2 . Parkinson’s is a progressive brain disease which leads to shaky hands and slow movement, and there is no cure. Tai Chi, a traditional Chinese martial art that combines (结合) slow, gentle movements with deep breathing and relaxation, may be an effective means of reducing the suffering. Recently, the researchers say that those who practised the martial art twice a week had fewer complications (并发症) and better quality of life than those who didn’t. Experts say the findings back up previous studies on the benefits of exercise for those with Parkinson’s.
The study, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, monitored the health of hundreds of Parkinson’s patients for up to five years. One group of 147 people practised regular Tai Chi while another group of 187 did not. The researchers found that the disease progressed more slowly in the Tai Chi group on measurements of symptoms (症状), movement and balance. This group also saw fewer falls, less back pain and dizziness, with memory and concentration problems also lower than in the other group. At the same time, sleep and quality of life continuously improved.
Prof. Alastair Noyce, professor in neurology and neuroepidemiology at Queen Mary University of London, called it “an important study”—the positive effects on aspects of motor (运动的) and non-motor functions are impressive — but said there were limitations in its design, and more tests were needed.
“We already recommend Tai Chi, as well as other forms of exercise, but understanding which forms of exercise are most beneficial is an important goal to improve the long-term management of patients,” he said.
1. Why was the study conducted?| A．To find a cure for Parkinson’s disease. |
| B．To improve the sleep quality of Parkinson’s patients. |
| C．To remove the misunderstanding of the previous studies. |
| D．To research the benefits of Tai Chi for those with Parkinson’s. |
| A．Concentration problem was lower in the Tai Chi group. |
| B．The disease progressed more slowly in the Tai Chi group. |
| C．Patients in the non-Tai Chi group continuously fell down. |
| D．Back pain and dizziness were relieved in the Tai Chi group. |
| A．Tai Chi should be given more preference. |
| B．Finding the most beneficial exercise is of importance. |
| C．It is unnecessary to do more related studies. |
| D．Improve the long-term management of patients is impossible. |
| A．Confused. | B．Doubtful. | C．Positive. | D．Worried. |
3 . Moving around Bogota can be a bit of a Jekyll-or-Hyde experience. On the one hand, the city is infamous (声名狼藉的)for having the world’s worst traffic. Yet, on the other, its cycling infrastructure is considered a good model of sustainable urban mobility, according to the Copenhagenize Index, which ranks bike-friendly cities. The Colombian capital generated a now-international movement in the 1970s called Ciclovia, which sees 1.5 million people cycle across 128km of car-free streets each Sunday morning.
So, when the pandemic reached its shores in mid-March, Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez, an avid cyclist herself, introduced one of the world’s first plans to encourage bike travel, using traffic cones to create 76 km of temporary lanes.
“Everyone started using a bicycle, and they already knew how to get around on one because we have this bike culture thanks to the Ciclovia,” says Carlos Pardo, a local cycling advocate and senior advisor at the New Urban Mobility Alliance. Pardo got involved at the beginning of the pandemic by partnering with a local bikeshare company to provide 400 free e-bikes to health workers. Now, he’s busy persuading the public that the government’s new bike lanes should become permanent fixture (固定设施).
“Some drivers say, ‘you took away our lane’, but we’re saying, we took one car lane and made a two-lane bidirectional bike lane,” he explains. “So, you’re duplicating the effectiveness of the space, and moving more people per hour, per direction.”
Biking has enjoyed a renaissance (复兴) around the world as urban citizens avoid public transport for the relative safety of a two-wheeled commute. Now, many advocates like Pardo are working with local governments in the hope of turning these pandemic-response measures into lasting changes—ones that are more plausible now than ever after lockdowns provided an unprecedented (空前的)opportunities to fast-track infrastructure trials. The results of these urban planning experiments could not only radically shape the way we commute across global cities, but also make them more adaptable to future shocks.
1. What can best illustrate the underlined sentence?| A．Much knowledge that is of help in learning about a new place. |
| B．A mixed feeling that is too confusing to express themselves. |
| C．An understanding that everything has both advantages and disadvantages. |
| D．An idea that human beings are born somewhere between good and evil. |
| A．The outbreak of the pandemic in mid-March. |
| B．The worldwide bike culture dating back to the 1970s. |
| C．The government’s support for the temporary bike lanes. |
| D．The local bike company’s contribution to health workers. |
| A．The increasing number of cyclists. | B．Duplicated effectiveness of road use. |
| C．A well-rounded city expansion plan. | D．The growth of car ownership. |
| A．Urban life. | B．Politics. | C．Sports | D．Advice column. |
4 . Since the 1950s, some 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced globally, of which only about 10% has ever been recycled. Yet environmentally conscious companies and consumers continue to look to recycling as a way to ease the plastic problem. Manufacturing giants claim to be committed to making more of their products and packaging from recycled materials. However, this confidence masks (掩饰) a complex web of issues around plastic recycling. Recycling rates remain extremely low and critics argue that we should look at alternative ways to tackle plastic pollution.
While many plastics have the potential to be recycled, most are not because the process is costly, complicated and the resulting product of a lower quality than the original. Despite rising demand for recycled plastic, few waste companies turn a profit. Part of this is because virgin plastic-linked to oil prices - is often cheaper than recycled plastic, meaning there is little economic incentive to use it. Worse yet, much of our plastic waste is difficult to recycle. Lightweight food packaging, like a mozzarella packet, contains different plastics, dyes and toxic additives (添加剂). This dirty mix means plastic recycled through mechanical methods- the most common form- can only be melted down and moulded (浇铸,塑造) again a couple of times before it becomes too fragile to be reused. And the nature of the process means plastic recycling has a carbon footprint of its own.
Given all of these difficulties, environmental critics say recycling is not the solution-and argue that creating more products from recycled material to attract environmental consciousness merely worsens the problem. “The solution is to use less plastic and to stop misleading the public about the recyclability,” says Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, a US campaign group with a mission to end single-use plastic. “They should stop making false claims about the recyclability of plastics since they know most will either be littered (乱扔) or burned or landfilled (填埋). Using less plastics means shifting to reusable products and relying more on paper, cardboard, glass and metal- -all of which should be made from recycled content.”
1. What is an environmentally conscious customer’s attitude towards recycling plastics?| A．Suspicious. | B．Favorable. | C．Indifferent. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．motive. | B．issue. | C．crisis. | D．policy. |
| A．The recycling process of plastics. | B．Pollutants contained in recycled plastics. |
| C．Reasons why users dislike recycled plastics. | D．Contributing factors to low plastic recycling rates. |
| A．Using metal or glass food containers. | B．Littering recycled plastics in a landfill. |
| C．Processing plastics in a mechanical way. | D．Launching campaigns to promote recyclability. |
5 . As an art graduate, I have always considered myself an artist. However, my journey as a jewelry maker began with an earring-making experience during the pandemic (疫情) when businesses were shutting down.
I struggled with large amounts of time, unemployed and unmotivated. I didn’t know what to do until my friends suggested we make something “cute” from clay (粘土). He was in a rut as well and was looking for an opportunity to get refreshed. While searching online, I was attracted by the photos of beautiful earrings. Thinking about my own possible designs, for the first time in so long, brought me excitement.
I began making my first pair once the materials arrived. I rolled, baked, and connected the clay pieces again and again, trying to make the combination perfect. It took me almost six hours to complete, leaving me with cuts all over my hands due to the repeated use of tools. While the earrings were still not perfect, I felt proud and eager to do better.
Afterwards, I officially started my jewelry-making journey by setting up an Instagram account to display my creations and to seek out other artists. Thanks to their help, I built upon my skills and found myself improving. Later on, I began receiving messages from interested buyers, which encouraged me much. Surprisingly, my creations were bought and worn by more and more people, shipped across the country, and carried in luggage as gifts or souvenirs.
Now I am lucky enough to have a full-time job where I have less time to create. But I’ll never give it up since it is creating jewelry that reminds me of my passion as an artist.
1. What does the underlined phrase “in a rut” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Stuck in self-criticism. | B．Leading a dull life. |
| C．Tired from a busy schedule. | D．Struggling for fame. |
| A．Painful. | B．Perfect. |
| C．Rewarding. | D．Disappointing. |
| A．Recognition from buyers. | B．Lessons from the past. |
| C．Encouragement from friends. | D．Help from other artists. |
| A．Clay art won me great fame. |
| B．Making jewelry helped me out. |
| C．Making jewelry built my character. |
| D．Clay art fueled my passion for business. |
6 . Carl Wieman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist at Stanford University, excelled in the lab, where he created the Bose-Einstein condensate (玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚态). However, his mastery in the lab did not extend to the classroom. For years, he wrestled with what seemed to be a straightforward task: making undergraduates comprehend physics as he did. Laying it out for them—explaining, even demonstrating the core concepts of the discipline—was not working. Despite his clear explanations, his students’ capacity to solve the problems he posed to them remained inadequate.
It was in an unexpected place that he found the key to the problem: not in his classrooms but among the graduate students (研究生) who came to work in his lab. When his PH. D. candidates entered the lab, Wieman noticed, their habits of thought were no less narrow and rigid than the undergraduates. Within a year or two, however, these same graduate students transformed into the flexible thinkers he was trying so earnestly, and unsuccessfully, to cultivate. “Some kind of intellectual process must have been missing from the traditional education,” Wieman recounts.
A major factor in the graduate students’ transformation. Wieman concluded, was their experience of intense social engagement around a body of knowledge — the hours they spent advising, debating with, and recounting anecdotes to one another. In 2019, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences backed this idea. Tracking the intellectual advancement of several hundred graduate students in the sciences over the course of four years, its authors found that the development of crucial skills such as generating hypotheses (假设), designing experiments, and analyzing data was closely related to the students’ engagement with their peers in the lab, rather than the guidance they received from their faculty mentors (导师).
Wieman is one of a growing number of Stanford professors who are bringing this “active learning” approach to their courses. His aspiration is to move science education away from the lecture format, toward a model that is more active and more engaged.
1. What problem did Carl Wieman have with his undergraduates?| A．Making them excel in the lab. | B．Demonstrating lab experiments. |
| C．Facilitating their all-round development. | D．Enhancing their physics problem-solving. |
| A．Limited in thinking. | B．Resistant to new ideas. |
| C．Flexible and earnest. | D．Experienced and cooperative. |
| A．Intense lab work. | B．Peer pressure and evaluation. |
| C．Academic interaction with fellows. | D．Engagement with external society. |
| A．Transforming Graduates’ Habits | B．Carl Wieman’s Nobel Prize Journey |
| C．The Nobel-Prize Winner’s Struggles | D．Carl Wieman’s Education Innovation |
7 . In recent years, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have brought both excitement and concerns to various fields. One area where AI is making a profound impact is the medical field, particularly in the domain of diagnostics.
Al-powered diagnostic systems leverage deep learning algorithms to analyze medical images, such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. These algorithms can detect subtle patterns and anomalies that might be missed by human radiologists, potentially leading to earlier and more accurate diagnoses.
However, the integration of AI in medical diagnostics raises complex ethical questions. For instance, who should be held responsible if an AI system misdiagnoses a patient’s condition? Should AI algorithms be treated as medical professionals, with legal and liability implications? These questions become even more intricate when considering that AI systems learn from vast datasets of medical information, which might contain biases or inaccuracies.
Furthermore, the adoption of AI diagnostics could impact the role of healthcare professionals. Some argue that AI could enhance doctors’ capabilities by providing them with additional insights, while others fear that it might replace human expertise, leading to job losses and a potential decrease in the quality of patient care. Despite these challenges, proponents of AI diagnostics emphasize its potential to improve healthcare accessibility, especially in underserved regions where there is a shortage of skilled medical professionals. Al-powered diagnostics could provide preliminary assessments and recommendations, helping to bridge the gap between patients and healthcare providers.
1. What is the primary advantage of AI-powered diagnostic systems in the medical field?| A．They provide additional insights to doctors. |
| B．They replace the need for human radiologists. |
| C．They analyze medical images using deep learning algorithms. |
| D．They focus on detecting visible patterns in medical images. |
| A．The potential for AI algorithms to replace human doctors. |
| B．The reliability of AI algorithms in analyzing medical images. |
| C．The legal responsibility for misdiagnoses made by AI systems. |
| D．The biased data used for training AI algorithms. |
| A．AI could enhance doctors’ expertise and skills. |
| B．AI could lead to job losses in the medical field. |
| C．AI could decrease the quality of patient care. |
| D．AI could replace human doctors completely. |
| A．AI diagnostics could decrease the quality of patient care. |
| B．AI diagnostics could primarily serve regions with sufficient medical professionals. |
| C．AI diagnostics could bridge the gap in healthcare accessibility. |
| D．AI diagnostics could replace the need for skilled radiologists. |
8 . Peng Jingxuan, a 26-year-old Chinese girl, is now studying in a music university in Paris. While learning abroad, she is also working at spreading traditional Chinese culture to the world. She can often be found on French streets, wearing a silk Han Dynasty-style dress and playing the guzheng to passers-by.
Born in 1995, Peng began to learn the guzheng when she was seven years old. After arriving in France in late 2017, she saw many people do street performances, but few of them knew about Chinese music. So she decided to play the guzheng on the streets.
Peng made her first performance in front of a theater in October, 2018. “I was very nervous at that time, but a lot of people said they enjoyed my performance,” Peng said. Then she started to perform during weekends and holidays. After being asked plenty of times by local people about the guzheng, Peng now carries a book that explains the instrument to foreigners. Later, she posted her first video of playing the guzheng online and it spread quickly. From then on, Peng has posted many videos of her street performances. The videos have got many likes and made her a very popular guzheng artist. She has millions of fans on the Internet now.
More and more people show great interest in the guzheng after watching Peng’s performances. “People come to me and praise me for the beauty of the instrument and the music. Every time they ask me which country the guzheng comes from, I am very happy to tell them it’s from China.” Peng feels she has more responsibility to spread traditional culture. “What is national is universal. I hope to play a bigger role in making Chinese music known by the world.” said Peng.
1. Why did Peng decide to play the guzheng on the streets in Paris?| A．Because she needed to make money for her education. |
| B．Because she wanted to become famous. |
| C．Because she found few people there knew about Chinese music. |
| D．Because she wanted to make videos to post online. |
①put her first video online
②got many fans
③went to Paris
④made her first performance
| A．③④①② | B．①②③④ | C．③①④② | D．①④②③ |
| A．Advising people to visit Pang. | B．Telling the story of a popular guzheng artist. |
| C．Asking people to learn the guzheng. | D．Encouraging readers to do street performances. |
| 劳动实践 | 在学校，和同学一起打扫教室和操场； 在家里，做饭、洗衣服、整理房间； 在社区，做志愿者，帮助老人或残疾人。 |
| 劳动收获 | 学到一些基本生活技能，学会照顾自己； 获得满足感，变得更加独立和有责任心。 |
| 发出倡议 | …… |
1. 词数 150 左右(标题和开头已给出，不计入总词数)；
2. 可适当发挥，以使行文连贯；
3. 文中不能出现真实姓名、学校等信息。
Labor is Glorious
It’s well known that labor is glorious.
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10 . Iceland is a northern European country with amazing natural beauty and oceans around. There are a number of volcanoes (火山). It has a short summer which lasts from June to August. The long winter starts from September and ends next May.
Summer in Iceland is a golden season for tourists. Every year, people from all over the world come here to see the beautiful sights and enjoy the exciting whale-seeing.
In winter, when people in Iceland finish their daily work, they will have different special activities to spend the long dark night. Skating, riding snow motorbikes and having parties can really make an exciting night. After all the fun, a hot bath must be the first choice to relax. There are also story-telling activities for children, which can teach them to be strong and kind. The most popular stories are about Christmas in Iceland.
Because of a long cold winter, Iceland has a short growing season. The food problem was always a headache for Iceland in the past. It had to buy most of its food from other countries, Later, when farmers learned to use lights and underground heat to grow crops (庄稼) all year round in the greenhouse, things changed a lot.
Living in such a nice environment, most people in Iceland live a happy life. According to a survey about happiness made each year in Europe, Iceland is always among the top 3.
1. What does the underlined word “It” refer to (指代) in Paragraph 1?| A．The ocean. | B．Natural beauty. | C．Iceland. | D．The volcano. |
| A．In spring. | B．In summer. | C．In autumn. | D．In winter. |
| A．What is the first choice to relax after the fun. |
| B．How people in Iceland finish their daily work. |
| C．What stories are the most popular in Iceland. |
| D．How people in Iceland spend the long dark night. |
| A．Because there are oceans around. | B．Because there is a long hot summer. |
| C．Because there is a long cold winter. | D．Because there are a number of volcanoes. |
| A．Iceland, a Poor Country | B．Food Problems in Iceland |
| C．Colorful Activities in Iceland | D．Iceland, an Amazing Country |
