Andy’s finger traced the lines on a blank United States map, each state represented by a number. He whispered to himself, “New Jersey is eating Pennsylvania, and Ohio is a chicken nugget.” Beside him lay another paper with numbers 1—50 written down. Despite 20 minutes of intense concentration, all Andy had to show for his efforts were those numbers.
“OK, and Utah is the washing machine. No, Montana is the washing machine. Or North Dakota? Gah! They’re all washing machines!” Andy was caught in his confusion.
This wasn’t the first time his memory had failed him during a test. No matter how hard he studied, nothing seemed to stay in his brain for long. He had tried memory tricks, even spending nights examining an old paper map in his bedroom. It had given him a glimmer of hope, but now that hope felt distant.
The time was up, and Mr. Crane began collecting the answer sheets. Andy quickly stuffed his blank test into the pile, wanting to forget about it. Unfortunately, his brain seemed to remember only the things it should forget. During lunch, Andy stared at a map, frustrated that he had handed in a blank sheet of paper.
Andy’s friend Aaron shrugged. “You only need a 70 to pass.”
“Yeah, well it’s hard to get a 70 when you hand in a blank sheet of paper,” Andy mumbled, frowning.
Aaron popped a grape into his mouth. “Well, Mr. Crane will let you retake (补考) it tomorrow.”
Andy was the only one standing at Mr. Crane’s desk after school. He apologized quickly, head drooping. But instead of scolding him, Mr. Crane patted his shoulder, saying, “I think you are trying, but you might learn better by being active. Just practice more!”
Andy looked into Mr. Crane’s eyes, finding comfort in the teacher’s understanding gaze. Mr. Crane invited Andy to help him organize a pile of magnets (磁铁), each with the name of a state on it. On the wall hung a large magnetic map — part of a review game the class had been playing.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
As Andy arranged the magnets, an idea suddenly came into his mind.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When doing homework, Andy was told he scored an 88 on the retake.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . With climate change continuing to worsen, our situation is beginning to feel increasingly serious.
Techno-optimism is one of the greatest misconceptions when it comes to solutions to ensure our future. It can be defined as a belief that future technologies will solve all of our current problems. This definition reinforces (强化) the idea that there’s no reason to panic or change our current energy-intensive lifestyle. All society needs to do is look to green technology to work its magic.
One of the best examples of this optimistic misconception is the electric car. Despite being highly regarded as an eco-friendly way to get around, electric cars are not the end for the future of transport. Batteries in electric cars use chemical elements which we could be seeing a shortage of by the midcentury.
Techno-optimism puts too much emphasis on technology and not enough on what we can do right this minute. Unfortunately, people seem to like the picture that techno-optimism paints.
| A．So where should we look for answers instead? |
| B．The modern world’s simple solution is technology. |
| C．Moreover, they are more energy intensive to produce. |
| D．Is it a trap that many people have fallen into in recent years? |
| E．Unfortunately, this is an incredibly dangerous opinion to hold. |
| F．Despite any technology, we as a whole are not living sustainably. |
| G．Nevertheless, the truth is, we need a widespread change in our lifestyles. |
A black boy guarded the oak barrels in his father’s winery. Every morning he wiped up every barrel with rag, and then put them in order row upon row. To his anger, the wind reeled the barrels here and there overnight.
The boy was so angry that he wrote a letter to the wind on every barrel with crayon, “Please don’t blow down my barrels.”
After seeing that, his father asked the boy with a smile, “Can the wind read your request?”
The little boy said, “I don’t know, but I have no way of how to deal with the wind.”
The next morning, when the little boy ran to look at the barrels, he found that the goddamned wind ignored his request, still blowing the barrels here and there. The little boy felt very wronged and burst into tears. His father stroked his head gently and said, “Son, don’t be sad. We may have no way of how to deal with the wind, but we may have ways for you, so we can have our own methods to conquer the wind.” Then the little boy dried his tears and sat near the barrel to think over and over.
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:
After thinking half a day, he finally found out a way.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
The little boy smiled happily and ran quickly to his father.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The strict COVID-19 prevention and control measures taken by Shanghai in recent months have created certain obstacles for employing college graduates this year.
The circular also proposed the building of
The formation of such a
In fact, Shanghai is
5 . The Ministry of Education has asked the publisher of primary school math textbooks to redo the illustrations after public outcry for being too ugly and inappropriate.
The ministry has asked the People’s Education Press to carry out prompt measures and make sure new textbooks are available for students before the start of autumn semester in September, it said in a release on Saturday.
The evaluation aims to make sure they adhere to right political direction and values orientation, promote traditional Chinese culture and conform to public aesthetic taste.
The illustrations of math textbooks have been trending on different social media platforms since Thursday.
The People’s Education Press has expressed deep apologies and regret for the illustrations.
It will select new design teams to redo the illustration on math textbooks used by primary school students, taking suggestions from the public, especially teachers, students and parents, the statement said.
The textbooks, which are used by primary school students, were vetted by authorities in 2012 and 2013 and are the work of the Wu Yong Design Studio. Wu himself graduated from the Academy of Arts and Design at Tsinghua University in 1988. He has worked at China Youth Press and been a professor at Shantou University’s Cheung Kong School of Art & Design.
| A．The People’s Education Press was founded in 1950. |
| B．Any problems found will be corrected immediately, the release said |
| C．The publisher said it has set up a work group to re-do the illustrations |
| D．The ministry will conduct a comprehensive evaluation on all textbooks |
| E．Many netizens found them ugly and offensive and lacking childish innocence |
| F．The PEP focuses on compiling and publishing primary and secondary textbooks |
| G．It will conduct evaluation on other published textbooks and make correction now |
6 . In English it’s common to say, “I know this town like the back of my hand!” While we may know our towns really well, how well do we actually know our hands? Maybe not quite as well as we think, said a scientific study.
Matthew Longo and his team from University College London studied the left hands of 100 people. With their hands placed palms down under a board, Longo’s team gave the instruction to point to their knuckles (关节) and fingertips with a marker. How did they do? Not that well.
“People think their hand is wider than it actually is,” said Longo. He said they also seemed to think their fingers were shorter than their true lengths. People were most accurate when finding their thumbs, but became less accurate with each finger, up to their pinkies (小指).
“It is connected to our sense of position,” explained Longo. Humans know where different parts of our bodies are, even if we can’t see them. “It tells us whether a joint is straight or not,” said Longo. “We also need to know the distances between our joints,” he went on. Our brains know the sizes and shapes of our bodies from the maps they make for themselves. “This experiment tried to find those maps,” he said.
Maybe maps don’t need to be perfect. But why aren’t our brains more accurate? Longo said our brains “see” areas based on our sense of touch, with the stronger the sense of touch in a specific body part, the bigger that body part seems. An example is our lips. As they have more nerves than our noses, our brain’s map shows our lips are bigger. The same thing can happen with body parts that have a lot of nerves. If you’ve ever had something stuck in your teeth, it probably felt huge! That’s because our tongues also have lots of nerves.
If you want to have some fun, try this test with your classmates. Get some boards and some markers and have them mark the spots where they think their knuckles and fingertips are. Compare their hands to the marker spots and see how well they have performed.
1. What’s the meaning of the common saying?| A．People know hands well. | B．People know the town well. |
| C．People know the hand back little. | D．People know their home well. |
| A．To tell readers hands’ backs. | B．To show the topic of the passage. |
| C．To indicate a common sense. | D．To compare the hand to town . |
| A．By our sense of position. | B．By knowing the sizes and shapes. |
| C．By making body maps. | D．By touching the joints. |
| A．To make suggestions for readers. | B．To advise readers to get some markers. |
| C．To ask readers to draw their hands. | D．To suggest observing hands carefully. |
7 . Would you pay nearly $2,000 (about 13,340 yuan) for shoes that look as if they came from a landfill? Well, Balenciaga believes consumers will pay that. The company recently began selling a new line of “destroyed” sneakers.
According to the brand, the shoes were designed in an effort to promote sustainable fashion. It stated that the destroyed appearance means the shoes can “be worn for a lifetime”.
However, many claim that the brand has gone too far. One main criticism is that these shoes mimic clothes worn by people who are suffering from poverty and homelessness. It is seen as insensitive (冷漠的) to put such an expensive price tag on an item that many homeless and poor people might be seen wearing.
“Poverty isn’t an aesthetic (美感), nor is it something to take style inspiration from. Glamorizing destroyed shoes to fit a fashionable agenda indicates privilege and ignorance,” noted Input Magazine.
This is not the first time brands have evoked anger with their designs.
Back in spring 2021, US art collective MSCHF and music artist Lil Nas X designed what was known as the “Satan Shoes” using Nike Air Max 97s. The designers changed the shoes to include an inverted cross and a pentagram (五角星形), which are signs of Satanism (恶魔崇拜). They even placed real human blood from members of the art collective into sections of the shoe. They said it was a sacrifice for art. But it outraged many religious and conservative groups.
In the same year, Chinese brand JNBY also landed in hot water. Some of its children’s clothes had patterns with a demon-like creature and texts such as “Welcome to hell”. Though the company said the designs were due to “freedom of imagination”, many customers thought these designs were harmful for children, as they included “violent and problematic content”.
To make products stand out, fashion designers should be creative. But they must be sure not to take their creativity too far. After all, artistic expression doesn’t always win and brands must ultimately answer to their consumers.
1. What’s the features of the newly-released shoes ?| A．Not much expensive. | B．Nice and expensive. |
| C．expensive but ragged. | D．ragged and cheap. |
| A．Negative | B．Indifferent | C．Positive | D．Cautious |
| A．To praise the brand has run too fast. | B．To show many people are poor. |
| C．To connect poverty with wealth. | D．To criticize designers’ ignorance. |
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
8 . Four of the best films to watch this May
The Bob’s Burgers Movie
After 12 seasons and more than 200 episodes, the much-loved animated sitcom finally makes it to the big screen. In the movie, a huge sinkhole opens in the street in front of a fast-food restaurant, so the brave children investigate. The series’ creator promises a “musical comedy mystery adventure” that retains the programme’s warmth and quickfire humour.
Released internationally on 27 May
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
The latest blockbuster (大片) has the Sorcerer Supreme risking beyond our own universe and into countless other realities, where he and Scarlet Witch meet various versions of themselves. The film’s director, Sam Raimi, is best known for The Evil Dead, and the Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire, so who better to put horror and superheroes into one film? Raimi told Fandango. “It’s unknown what you’ll find in the multiverse. It’s within that unknown that suspense and darkness exists... Plus, Doctor Strange in the comics has always dealt in universes and dimensions that were quite spooky, so we tried to bring some of that into this film.”
Released internationally on 6 May
Top Gun: Maverick
It’s been delayed and delayed and delayed again, but Top Gun: Maverick is flying into cinemas at last, exactly four years after shooting began in May 2018. In the first Top Gun film, which came out back in 1986, Tom Cruise starred as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a fighter pilot in the US Navy. What we can expect are lots of supersonic flight sequences, and magazine-worthy shots of Cruise on the runway in his Aviator shades. Altogether now: “I feel the need, the need for speed.”
Released internationally on 27 May
Firestarter
Firestarter, a horror film about psychic-powered children, is adapted from Stephen King’s 1980 novel. It’s the story of Charlene, a girl with “pyrokinesis”: whenever she gets upset, things burst into flames. The previous adaptation came out in 1984, with Drew Barrymore in the title role. But the new film’s director, Keith Thomas, believes that there was room for improvement.
Released internationally on 13 May
1. What kind of person will prefer The Bob’s Burgers Movie?| A．loving adventure and tragedy | B．loving music and humour |
| C．loving serial war film | D．loving science fiction |
| A．The Bob’s Burgers Movie | B．Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness |
| C．Top Gun: Maverick | D．Firestarter |
| A．The characters all have super power. | B．They are released in the same month. |
| C．They are designed for children. | D．They all include magic scenes. |
注意：1、写作词数在80词左右；
2、可以适当增加细节使行文流畅。
Dear Betty,
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, more and more Chinese have realized the importance of health and
In addition to such fitness games, they are also choosing to follow the guidance of online exercise short videos or livestreams. A few are seniors,
According to China Insights Consultancy, the number of people who exercised in China was about 300 million last year, and
Since the COVID-19 epidemic started in 2020, many people have formed the habit of
Workouts at home are the
“There is
Fitness app Keep offers those with paid memberships livestreamed exercise classes. While watching such livestreams, users can post “bullet screens”－real-time comments that appear on the screen－
