1 . I went on a road trip with a couple of friends from Chicago down to Houston. After six hours in the _______ , we stopped at a rest area. I went into the restroom to wash up and _______ my face.

I immediately _______ something different about the restroom. It was very _______ and there was no cracked floor or rude drawings. There were more mirrors than I was used to seeing.

As I washed up at the sink, the door opened and in _______ an elderly woman. I was _______ to see her there but she looked harmless-probably tired from hours of _______ . She stood in the doorway staring at the door, but I _______ strode (大踏步) over to the air dryer then looked myself over in one of several full-length mirrors. I gave her a polite

_______ and walked out.

The bathroom door closed and that’s when I saw the ________ on the door: WOMAN. I had entered the wrong restroom. We all make ________ . Here I was thinking that this woman was dazed and confused, entering the wrong restroom, when all along it was me who was confused and making the error. I blushed in ________ and laughed at myself.

We can ________ times thinking we’re doing just fine, when in fact we are just unaware of reality. And that’s the first step to change: recognize that you’re the one ________ in the wrong bathroom. If you don’t become aware of your mistakes, how can you admit them and work on doing better? Only by becoming aware of the things we need to ________ will we get more serious about correcting them.

I will remember the unforgettable road trip forever.

1.

A．car

B．city

C．way

D．train

2.

A．warm

B．wet

C．rest

D．admire

3.

A．expressed

B．explained

C．faced

D．noticed

4.

A．dusty

B．clean

C．cold

D．quiet

5.

A．flooded

B．slid

C．walked

D．crowded

6.

A．surprised

B．excited

C．annoyed

D．worried

7.

A．studying

B．washing

C．driving

D．standing

8.

A．shyly

B．confidently

C．generously

D．hopefully

9.

A．hug

B．nod

C．kiss

D．bow

10.

A．signal

B．suggestion

C．sign

D．scene

11.

A．decisions

B．choices

C．plans

D．mistakes

12.

A．embarrassment

B．shock

C．relief

D．anger

13.

A．get over

B．go through

C．break out

D．give up

14.

A．sitting

B．lying

C．running

D．standing

15.

A．have

B．master

C．understand

D．fix

2 . I recently found myself agonizing over a financial decision. So when I saw a financially savvy acquaintance at a party, I decided to ask for her advice. As the conversation deepened, however, I felt my stomach tighten in frustration. While I’m sure my friend wanted to help, her advice was immediately off the mark. She didn’t ask me questions or consider how my goals might differ from hers. She simply told me what she would do, and I quickly found myself tuning off her speech. The exchange left me feeling discouraged.

To help head off bad advice, get clear on your needs. Are you asking someone to help think through options you might take to resolve a problem? Are you asking someone to provide advice as your friend or as an objective observer? Communicating both your problem and your expectations will help your advice-giver approach your questions thoughtfully and with a goal of their own in mind.

David Eddie was an advice columnist for nearly two decades. At that time, he learned that good advice-givers ask questions that help them better understand where you’re coming from and what your goals are. They don’t assume they know the answer—or that you have the time, resources or ability to approach the challenge in the same way they would. “You want someone who’s going to drill down into the problem with you and take the time to understand the shape of it,” he says.

Personally motivated advice is usually pretty easy to spot. A friend may advise their secret crush to leave their current partner. That’s why Eddie often gathers a range of perspectives. He calls his group of advice-givers The Panel, and it’s made up of his wife, mom and some friends and colleagues. Their advice helps him see different sides of sticky issues—pushing him to consider different angles and outcomes. But in the end, he’s the one who makes the decision. He says, “I believe in the saying, ‘Seek the advice of many, but follow your own counsel.’” After all, everyone is an expert on their own life.

1. What should one do to avoid terrible advice?

A．Ask the advice-giver to help think through options.

B．Be specific about your needs.

C．Make sure the advice-giver is an objective observer.

D．Choose one of your friend as the advice-giver.

2. What can be inferred from David Eddie?

A．Good advice-givers have great experience.

B．Good advice-givers solve the problem personally for clients.

C．Good advice-givers tend to listen to clients.

D．Good advice-givers offer advice in clients’ shoes.

3. What is the suggestion given in Paragraph 4?

A．Trying suggestions from a range of perspectives.

B．Choosing a personally motivated suggestion.

C．Making your own decision after hearing extensive suggestions.

D．Trying to be an expert on your own life.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Learning to Give Advice	B．Asking Advice From Your Panel
C．Being a Friendly Advice-giver	D．Avoiding Bad Advice

3 . 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。

The Charm (魅力) of Schoolyard

In the charm of school life, where classrooms are seats of knowledge and the schoolyard becomes source of memory, there are a fund of stories mixed with humor, warmth, and teacher-student relationships.   

Mr. Smith was a country teacher, but not an ordinary one; he was a storyteller, a mentor (人生导师) , and a friend to all his students. His classroom was a world of its own, full of colorful characters and brilliant ideas. One day, during the noon break, a student named Alice noticed a wandering kitten padding (潜行) through the familiar grounds where many schoolyard tales were born. Alice took her to Mr. Smith, who had magical Tricks for handling even the smallest things. With Mr. Smitt’s permission, Alice and her classmates built a shelter for the kitten in a corner of the campus.

The days turned into weeks, and the kitten grew under the tender care of Mr. Smith and his students. Once in a while, she became a temporary resident of the classroom, much to the delight of the whole class. They named her “Schoolyard”, a name that generalized the spirit of their school days.

As the year progressed, Schoolyard became not just a kitten, but a tie connecting each of them and a thread of continuity in their lives. She played on desks, slept in chairs, and hid in folders, thus becoming an unofficial mascot (吉祥物) of the classroom. The students found comfort in her presence, and Mr. Smith, joy in watching them grow through her company.

As graduation neared, Mr. Smith gathered his students for one last lesson. He told them that they would soon be exploring new horizons. He reminded them that life was full of unforeseeable twists and tums along with unexpected potentials, just like the appearance of a kitten in their schoolyard. At the moment, the students were greatly touched and deep down there arose a strong love for those memorable warmth and hearty laughter of their school days.

Thereafter, Mr. Smith and the students agreed to meet here once again in ten years.

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。

A decade later, Mr. Smith greeted his former students at the school gate.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Isn’t that our Schoolyard?” cried Alice, gazing at the classroom door.   

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 . I was then in my early twenties. Even though I was armed with a degree in Education, finding a ______ teaching job was not easy. I had to try some temporary ones.

This year, when a golden opportunity ______ to teach 5th grade students in a local school. I ______ it and took things seriously. I ______ myself with lesson plans, taught with enthusiasm, and stayed ______ with the students. I had no hesitation in ______ the kids when they got the answer right, and encouraged them if they didn’t.

One day when the kids were _______, a girl approached and handed me a ______ before she went home. On it was a lovely drawing full of childlike wonder, ______ by the words, “You are the best teacher I have ever had!” It really amazed me that one of my kind comments had ______ that girl’s heart greatly. I took that note home and ______ put it in a folder, looking on it as a ______ because it was very important. Anytime I was feeling down I would look at it and it proved to be a ______ .

That experience showed me the ______ of just a single kind word. It encouraged me to continue to try my best each day to ______ love and kindness through my words and actions. Wish the same for others.

1.

A．first-rate

B．well-paid

C．labor-saving

D．full-time

2.

A．escaped

B．demanded

C．arose

D．arranged

3.

A．jumped at

B．thought about

C．waited for

D．dreamt of

4.

A．occupied

B．amused

C．concerned

D．contented

5.

A．familiar

B．positive

C．strict

D．consistent

6.

A．evaluating

B．supporting

C．instructing

D．congratulating

7.

A．graded

B．dismissed

C．tested

D．taught

8.

A．note

B．gift

C．parcel

D．book

9.

A．judged

B．indicated

C．emphasized

D．accompanied

10.

A．hardened

B．touched

C．broken

D．gladdened

11.

A．simply

B．casually

C．carefully

D．eagerly

12.

A．reminder

B．treasure

C．proof

D．secret

13.

A．comfort

B．fortune

C．fantasy

D．privilege

14.

A．target

B．application

C．power

D．principle

15.

A．clarify

B．find

C．feel

D．spread

5 . For decades sleep scientists have thought over the link between dreaming and creative inspiration. They have long thought the insight came from the stage of rapid eye movement sleep, which is rich with dreams and begins around 90 minutes after one falling asleep. But new evidence puts the spotlight on a much earlier phase — the period that separates sleep and wakefulness. In a study by MIT, researchers show that people who take brief naps (小睡) that bring about the beginning of sleep score higher on several measures of creativity than those who undertake the tasks after staying awake.

The findings suggest researchers could even exercise some measure of control over the dreaming process by directing people's dreams toward a specific topic. The more frequently people dreamed about that, the more creative they were on tasks related to it. “We can come to the conclusion that dreaming about a topic enhances your subsequent creativity on it,” says Robert Stickgold, a member of the study team.

The experiment took advantage of a glovelike sleep detector, which charts sleep by monitoring one's muscle tone, skin conductance and heart rate through contacts on the wrist and hand. It communicates with an app that issues voice prompts (提示) for dreams and records dream reports.

More than one famous thinker has capitalized on the phase called non-rapid eye movement sleep stage 1,or N1, illustrating the point about generating creative insights. The painter Salvador Dalí would deliberately nap, holding a set of keys above a metal plate, when thinking over an idea for a painting. As he nodded off, he'd drop the keys, which would hit the plate and wake him up, and he'd hold onto the image from his dream. Thomas Alva Edison is said to have used a similar technique with metal balls to gain insights.

“It's exciting because,   in principle, people could use the technology themselves to develop creativity,” says Jonathan Schooler, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of California. There seems to be no shortage of folks coming to try it. “So many different kinds of people have visited, knocking on the lab door and asking to have dreams,” co-lead investigator Haar Horowitz says.

1. Which phase boosts creative ideas according to the study?

A．The initial sleep stage.	B．The middle of the sleep cycle.
C．The wakefulness after sleep.	D．The rapid eye movement sleep stage.

2. What do the findings mentioned in paragraph 2 show?

A．Physical changes reflect the sleep phase.	B．Dream contents re late to real life.
C．Creativity levels vary with the nap length.	D．The theme of the dream can be guided.

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

A．Encourages.

B．Improves.

C．Tracks.

D．Influences.

4. Why are Salvador Dalí and Thomas Alva Edison mentioned?

A．To prove the effect of dreams.	B．To provide support for the findings.
C．To interpret the benefits of N1.	D．To give examples of fueling creativity.

6 . “The Worthington Christian defeated the Westerville North by 2—1 in an Ohio boys’ soccer game on Saturday.” That’s according to a story that appeared last month in The Columbus Dispatch. That lead was written not by a sportswriter, but by an artificial intelligence (AI) tool.

Many news organizations are now examining how AI might be used in their work. But if they begin their “experimenting” with high school sports because they are less momentous than war, peace, climate change and politics, they may miss something crucial. Nothing may be more important to the students who play high school sports, and to their families, neighborhoods, and sometimes, the whole town. That next game is what the students train for, work toward, and dream about. Someday, almost all student athletes will go on to have jobs in front of screens, in office parks, at schools, in hospitals or on construction sites. They may suffer blows and setbacks. But the high school games they played and watched, as well as their hopes and cheers, will stay vivid in their memories.

I have a small idea. If newspapers will no longer send staff reporters to cover high school games, why not hire high school student journalists? News organizations can pay students an hourly wage to cover high school games. The young reporters might learn how to be fair to all sides, write vividly, and attract readers. That’s what some celebrities in sports did, and do.

And think of the great writers who were inspired by sports: Hemingway on fishing, Bernard Malamud and Marianne Moore on baseball, Chen Zhongshi on football, and CLR James on cricket, who said, “There can be raw pain and bleeding where so many thousands see the inevitable (不可避免的) ups and downs of only a game.” A good high school writer, unlike a robot, could tell readers not just the score, but the stories of the game.

1. Why is the lead mentioned in the first paragraph?

A．To introduce an original idea.	B．To show AI’s wide application.
C．To bring in the opinion about AI.	D．To stress AI’s importance to news.

2. What does the author think of high school games?

A．Hopeful.

B．Eye-catching.

C．Competitive.

D．Far-reaching.

3. What is good sports news like according to the author?

A．Rich in contents.	B．Fair in comments.
C．Centered on results.	D．Targeted on readers.

4. Which can be a suitable title for the text?

A．News Organizations Are Abusing AI	B．High Schoolers Can Do What AI Can’t
C．Great Writers Are Crazy About Sports	D．AI Ruins High School Students’ Memory

7 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What is the speaker mainly talking about?

A．His feeling after receiving an award.

B．His experience about traveling around.

C．His preference for different music types.

2. Where is the speaker from?

A．Ireland.

B．Scotland.

C．England.

3. What did the speaker most recently announce to the public?

A．A single song.

B．A three -song collection.

C．A twelve-song collection.

4. Who will speak next?

A．A young musician.

B．One fan of the speaker’s.

C．The host of the ceremony.

8 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. When will the man graduate?

A．This week.

B．In a year.

C．In three months.

2. What does the woman suggest the man do before graduation?

A．Borrow some money.

B．Get a part-time job.

C．Keep studying.

3. What has the woman started doing?

A．Looking for full-time jobs.

B．Working as a teacher.

C．Applying for jobs.

9 . Growing up, I felt that I learned some things quickly and other things painfully slowly. Picking up French and Spanish seemed to come naturally, while painting and drawing required a lot of practice. I thought that some people just have a talent for languages; others don’t.

You’ve probably felt the same way—that certain things were easier for you to learn. And so did my research partners. So we set out to identify what makes some people learn faster than others. If we could just distill (提取) these unique characteristics, we thought, we would be able to create better learning environments—and make everyone a fast learner.

In our study, we model data from student performance on groups of tasks that assess the same skill component and that provide follow-up instructions on student errors. Our models estimate the increase in correctness after each practice opportunity. We applied our models to 1.3 million observations across 27 datasets of student interactions with online practice systems in the context of elementary to college courses. In contrast, and much to our surprise, we found students to be astonishingly similar in estimated learning rate. There are no such things as fast and slow learners!

We find that a typical student needs about seven learning opportunities to master a typical knowledge component. They start at different levels of proficiency but, when provided with high-quality practice opportunities, they learn at about the same speed. Yes, they will end in different places-but that’s because they have different starting lines, not because they are quicker or slower to learn.

That means the types of opportunities you get are important. Detailed, timely feedback and hints provide favorable conditions that allow you to consistently make progress, regardless of where you began.

Don’t think you’re alone if learning feels slow and effortful. Do try, try again. You can make as much progress as everyone else—and so can the young people in your life. Achievement gaps are the result of opportunity gaps, not individual differences in learning speed.

1. What is the author’s previous thought according to the first two paragraphs?

A．He can’t learn painting and drawing.	B．All people have a talent for languages.
C．People learn things in the same way.	D．People have different learning speeds.

2. What did the researchers do in the research?

A．Teach elementary courses.	B．Criticize students’ mistakes.
C．Apply their models extensively.	D．Distinguish the fast and slow learners.

3. How can a student make greater achievements according to the research?

A．By using high-quality equipment.	B．By doing more efficient practice.
C．By competing with other students.	D．By increasing learning speed.

4. What is the best title of the text?

A．There Is No Such Things as a Fast Learner	B．How We Can Learn Faster than Others
C．There Is No Difference Between Students	D．Why Education Is Important to Us

10 . In much of the western United States, drought and access to fresh water is a critical issue. However, recently California came up with a novel solution. The state approved regulations that allow agencies to purify wastewater for drinking. This recycled wastewater may be consumed in homes, schools, and businesses.

As the population in California has exploded in recent decades, the state has struggled to meet demands for fresh water. Recycled wastewater will allow the state to increase access to the precious resource.

Recycled wastewater is not new to the state. It has previously been used in ice hockey rinks (冰球场), for crops, and to generate artificial snow. But now, water agencies will have the option to put recycled wastewater back into pipes for drinking. California is only the second state to allow purified wastewater to be consumed. The first was Colorado in 2022.

While the idea of drinking recycled wastewater may be off-putting, regulators spent more than a decade developing rules and regulations to ensure safety. Independent panels of scientists also reviewed the state’s rules around recycled wastewater consumption. All water will be treated for pathogens (病原体) and viruses before being available for consumption.

So far, the state’s plan has been met with approval from large water agencies. Many of them have plans to construct wastewater recycling plans over the next few years. In Southern California, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has set a goal aiming to produce 150 million gallons of direct and indirect recycled water per day. This water will be in the pipes of the 19 million people throughout the six counties that the agency serves.

Officials are aware that a certain amount of public convincing may still be necessary. However, they remain optimistic about the future of the project, reminding consumers that the water is safe, and that recycled water is already in use in California.

1. Why does California pass new regulations about recycled wastewater?

A．To ease the pressure of drought.	B．To increase the supply of fresh water.
C．To recycle the wastewater for industry.	D．To reduce the pollution of the wastewater.

2. What does the underlined word “off-putting” mean in paragraph 4?

A．Surprising.

B．Necessary.

C．Funny.

D．Awful.

3. What can we learn from paragraph 5?

A．The goal of wastewater recycling is hard to achieve.

B．The state’s plan will be conducted by water agencies.

C．Southern California will reduce its water production.

D．People in California tend to prefer recycled water.

4. What do the public think of the recycled water project?

A．Many people still disapprove of the project.

B．The public are optimistic about the project.

C．It will never be suitable to use recycled water.

D．The project is the only solution to water shortage.