1 . This year has witnessed many new products hitting the market, and we have rounded up the most inviting product launches that you may have missed.

Woodfire Outdoor Oven

One of the newest, the most exciting products is the Woodfire Outdoor Oven, which can make not only pizza in three minutes, but plenty of other delicious dishes. It can also roast, bake or even keep items warm if your backyard party guests are running late. Our reviewer loves the oven because it cooks food evenly without you even needing to turn it.

Hatch Rest Go

It is one of the most unique in a long time. It’s a portable device you can take with you to provide comforting sleep sounds for your baby, which features ten sounds like white noise, heartbeat and the sound of the ocean. It runs on a rechargeable battery that lasts all day.

Mate Bluetooth Tracker

Built for attaching things like keys and backpacks via a key ring, it connects to your phone through Bluetooth for easy tracking. You don’t necessarily have to be close to whatever you’ve lost to find it; even when you’re out of Bluetooth range, you can open the accompanying app to see where on a map your thing is.

Silent Electric Coffee Grinder(研磨机)

It is an electric coffee grinder, perfect for whoever loves delicious coffee without all the noise. This wonderful device helps cut down on noise, so let this machine g rind coffee beans without waking everyone up in the house.

1. Why does the critic recommend the oven?

A．It makes pizza quickly.	B．It meets various needs.
C．It helps free the hands.	D．It is convenient to carry.

2. Which may be the most exciting item for new parents?

A．Woodfire Outdoor Oven.	B．Hatch Rest Go.
C．Mate Bluetooth Tracker.	D．Silent Electric Coffee Grinder.

3. What is special about Mate Bluetooth Tracker?

A．Its operation style.	B．Its connection way.
C．Its location function.	D．Its guidance service.

2 . Independent will is what really makes effective self-management possible. It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. It is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon.

The human will is an amazing thing. Time after time, it has won against unbelievable difficulties. The Helen Kellers of this world give dramatic evidence to the value, the power of the independent will. But as we examine it in the context of effective self-management, we realize it’s usually not the dramatic, the visible, the once-in-a-lifetime effort that brings enduring success. Empowerment comes from learning how to use independent will in the decisions we make every day.

The degree to which we have developed our independent will in our everyday lives is measured by our personal integrity. Integrity is, fundamentally, the value we place on ourselves. It’s our ability to make and keep commitments to ourselves—to “walk our talk.” It’s honor with self, a fundamental part of the character ethic, the essence of active growth.

Effective management is putting first things first. While leadership decides what “first things” are, it is management that puts them first, day-by-day, moment-by-moment. Management is discipline, carrying it out.

Discipline stems from disciple (追随者) —disciple to a philosophy, disciple to a set of principles, disciple to a set of values, and disciple to an ultimate. purpose. In other words, if you are an effective manager of your self, your discipline comes from within; it is a function of your independent will. You are a disciple, a follower, of your own deep values and their source. And you have the will, the integrity, to place your feelings, your urges, your moods after those values.

That placement requires a purpose, a mission. It also requires independent will, the power to do something when you don’t want to do it, to be a function of your values rather than a function of the urge or desire of any given moment. It’s the power to act with integrity to your first creation.

1. What is the author’s purpose in mentioning “the Helen Kellers” in paragraph 2?

A．To explain a reason.	B．To highlight a point.
C．To make a prediction.	D．To give a definition.

2. What do the underlined words “walk our talk” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Put words into deeds.	B．Display confidence.
C．Stop talking big.	D．Strike a balance.

3. To achieve effective self-management, what will the author probably recommend?

A．Seeking external support.	B．Undertaking more missions.
C．Sticking to one’s own values.	D．Following one’s desires.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．The Secret Behind Self-discipline	B．The Magic of Personal Integrity
C．The Power of Independent Will	D．The Road to Effective Management

3 . When I was 10 years old, my aunt and uncle lived far away from my parents.

Suffering from a severe disease _______ my uncle to walk with a stick. Back in the 1950s, he was _______ unable to work, so my aunt worked full-time to support the family. _______, she was responsible for her elderly mother who lived with them, too. As an innocent kid, I didn’t know that their _______ situation was not stable.

One day, my father and I went to see them, and my aunt asked me to get a _______, so she could pour me some milk. When I _______ the cupboard for a glass, I found that one of the drinking glasses on the shelf held a $10 bill. I felt so _______. At the time, $10 was a respectable _______ of money. Later, I asked my father why they kept money in a glass. It wasn’t until then that I _______ it was my father who’d __________ the money there. My father wanted to help his brother secretly, but didn’t want to make him __________ by handing him cash, which his brother surely would have __________. Dad knew the money would be discovered after our __________, thus avoiding any rejection and face-to-face __________ to keep the cash.

I learned a lot from my father about __________, pride, and how people help one another out while leaving their dignity unhurt.

1.

A．forced

B．enabled

C．arranged

D．expected

2.

A．detected

B．wished

C．considered

D．reserved

3.

A．Already

B．Instead

C．Also

D．Strangely

4.

A．social

B．different

C．mental

D．financial

5.

A．box

B．cup

C．shock

D．rise

6.

A．turned over

B．put back

C．reached into

D．looked at

7.

A．pitiful

B．curious

C．guilty

D．lucky

8.

A．result

B．account

C．establishment

D．amount

9.

A．admitted

B．agreed

C．believed

D．learned

10.

A．hidden

B．returned

C．found

D．withdrawn

11.

A．supported

B．attracted

C．embarrassed

D．surprised

12.

A．forgotten

B．declined

C．blamed

D．offered

13.

A．instruction

B．leave

C．help

D．discovery

14.

A．comment

B．introduction

C．speech

D．debate

15.

A．generosity

B．praise

C．honesty

D．friendship

4 . 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。

I still remember what I felt on a bright Saturday morning in late September, at a five-kilometer race in Clarkston, Georgia.

It was an unusual morning. About an hour earlier, when we drove into town to participate in the race, my 11-year-old son noticed a green tree cricket（蟋蟀） on my car. It was friendly, no longer than a fingernail. It jumped onto my son’s finger, and walked across my shirt, and then went back to my son’s hand, where it stayed so long that we eventually gave it a name: Little Friend.

The walk from the car to the registration table was perhaps a quarter of a mile. Little Friend stayed with my son. Then, we walked back across the railroad tracks and waited for the race to start. A few minutes before the race, Little Friend either fell or jumped off my son’s hand and landed on the sidewalk. Maybe it wanted to go free. But this was not a good place for that. Pedestrian（行人） traffic was heavy, so Little Friend was in danger. My son knelt and reached out his hand. It came back.

The race was about to start, and the tiny green insect was in for a wild ride. My son would run fast, and the race would be long. The race began. I ran well enough, and felt excited at the finish line. But that thrill gave way to anxiety when my son didn’t show up.

I knew he could run 5 kilometers in about 30 minutes. When I didn’t see him at the 35-minute mark, I began to wonder what had gone wrong. And as the 40-minute mark approached and he still didn’t appear, I went out looking for him. Had he got lost? I crossed the railroad tracks and looked down a long straightaway, hoping to see his face. Finally, there he was, just ahead of the 45-minute mark.

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Little Friend was riding proudly on one finger of my son’s right hand.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Smiling, we walked back to the car with Little Friend.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 . 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。

China’s “ice city” Harbin in Northeast Heilongjiang Province has definitely become a tourism hotspot,     1    （attract） millions of tourists from home and abroad. Beyond the attraction of ice and snow tourism, the lesser-known     2    （diverse） and rich cultures of local ethnic（民族的） minority groups have also been brought under the spotlight.

At the tourist-packed Central Street, a street famous     3     its Western architecture during different times in downtown Harbin, a group of Aoluguya Ewenki（敖鲁古雅鄂温克民族） people     4    （dress） in their ethnic costumes with seven reindeer（驯鹿） are singing their     5    （tradition） songs while walking down the street. Tourists crowd around them,     6    （excited） taking photos and videos.

The Aoluguya Ewenki is the only ethnic group in China     7     raises reindeer. According to media reports, sometimes people confuse the Ewenki people with the Oroqen people, one of     8     smallest ethnic groups in China. The Aoluguya Ewenki decided to take advantage of the opportunity of Harbin’s booming tourism industry     9    （show） their unique culture and identity to visitors from all over the country.

Since the Aoluguya Ewenki people’s public appearance, more and more local ethnic minority groups     10    （do） the same, with some from other parts of the nation even journeying to Harbin. “If you want to see China’s rich multi-ethnic cultures, you should come to Harbin now,” netizens state encouragingly on social media.

6 . Self-learning can help you develop important skills and gain valuable knowledge. Understanding strategies for self-learning is important. They can help you study new concepts with ease.     1    .

Determine your learning style. People often prefer to learn new information or a new skill using varied approaches.     2     by exploring different learning styles and understanding your own learning process.

Find a purpose. Determine what you want to learn about and why you want to be a self-learner.     3    . Then, consider reflecting on how it might affect your life right now and how you might plan to use it in the future. For instance, if you plan to learn fiction writing, you can decide whether you’re interested in seeking a publishing career or maintaining it as a hobby.

    4    . This can help you focus your efforts. It may be helpful to choose specific options, so you can optimize (优化) the steps of your self-learning process. For example, if you’re practicing a programming language like HTML, you can make a goal to design your own website with certain functions using the knowledge you’ve learned.

Determine a schedule. To create an effective plan, it may be helpful to create an agenda for your self-learning sessions.     5     and estimate how long each task might take to complete. Depending on your preferences, you can plan your sessions using a physical notebook, an informal to-do list or spreadsheet software.

A．Assess your strengths

B．Be sure to set reasonable goals

C．Identify a skill set you’re interested in learning

D．Here’re some tips for effective self-learning practices

E．Consider giving yourself a set of achievable deadlines

F．You can find the most useful methods and techniques for yourself

G．Having a specific goal can also help you set accurate self-learning sessions

7 . If you’re looking for inspiration to get healthy and stay active, look no further than Edna Giordano.

Edna, who lives in Canada, has become famous for the fitness level she maintains at age 91. The mom of five, grandmother of twenty-one and great-grandmother of four still drives now. “I’ve always had a busy lifestyle because, let’s face it, with that many children, you have to be busy,” Edna said. “So, I never really thought about it. That’s just the way I live.” She said she only really began to focus on her fitness in her 60s, when she was forced to retire from her job at a local hospital. She had to face the fact that she was 60.

To keep herself busy, Edna began gardening again that she had to abandon due to her busy work. She said she also started going to the gym in her 60s, which she still does every other day. “I have to keep my feet to the fire because it’s cold in the morning in winter, and when it’s snowy or icy out there, I don’t really get enthusiastic about going outside,” she said. “But I make myself do it and mark it on the calendar. So I cannot take any shortcuts.”

Edna said she focused on walking at the gym for her cardiovascular (心血管) health and also included lots of weight lifting in her routine to maintain her bone strength. “When in the gym, I don’t try to break any records or compete with anyone else,” Edna said. “I only push myself to do better all the time, and I only compete with myself.”

When it came to her age, Edna said the people at the gym didn’t realize she’s 91. She prefers it that way, because when people do realize she’s in her 90s, they’ll surely demand to help her. “I know them well. But I don’t really want help,” said Edna. “It’s funny to say that, but I like to be independent.”

1. What made Edna leave her job in the hospital?

A．Her turning 60.	B．Her looking after many kids.
C．Her wish to live a busy life.	D．Her suffering from a disease.

2. What do we know about Edna after retirement?

A．She lives in a cold place all year round.	B．She manages to be a regular at the gym.
C．She develops a new hobby for gardening.	D．She likes to take shortcuts in her daily life.

3. Which of the following best describes the people at the gym?

A．Competitive.

B．Humorous.

C．Humble.

D．Caring.

4. What can we learn from Edna’s story?

A．The elderly also enjoy trends.	B．Experience beats youth.
C．A positive attitude extends life.	D．Fitness is fit for everyone.

8 . Drugs that could save tens of thousands of lives in Britain should be prescribed (开药) to three times as many patients as at present, medical experts recommended after a study showed these drugs have great effects on heart disease and stroke (中风).

British research has shown that statins, a class of drug that lowers cholesterol (胆固醇), can prevent a third of all cases of heart disease or stroke in patients at highest risk. If statins were given to 10 million high-risk patients, they could save at least 50,000 lives a year worldwide. In Britain, where heart disease is the leading cause of death, statins could save up to 10,000 lives a year.

Studies have found that safety issues surrounding statins were so tiny that they were significant. The risk of muscle problems was only about one in ten thousand. Fears that statins could increase deaths from other diseases, such as cancer, were assuaged by the study. At present, only people with high cholesterol are prescribed statins, but the eight-year study found that anyone at risk of heart disease or stroke could benefit. Statins are now given to fewer than one in twenty people aged over 40, mostly men with heart disease or high cholesterol. Under the recommendation, this would increase to one in eight.

A total of 20,000 volunteers aged 40 to 80 took part in the study, which looked at the effects of statins on patients for whom the benefits were uncertain. The guidelines previously said that female patients aged over 65 would not benefit from the drug, but the five years of monitoring all types of patients at high risk of heart attacks and stroke showed that everyone benefited as much from statins. The new recommendations will be easy to put into practice because statins are readily available and the patients who benefit from them most are already known to doctors.

1. What does paragraph 2 focus on?

A．Main diseases in Britain.	B．Side effects caused by statins.
C．Positive effects of statins.	D．The numbers of heart disease cases.

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

A．Eased.

B．Discovered.

C．Ignored.

D．Compared.

3. What does the five years of monitoring concerning statins show?

A．The effects of the drug are unclear.	B．The drug can be widely prescribed.
C．The drug hardly benefits female patients.	D．The drug should be limited in application.

4. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To call for the monitoring of drug studies.	B．To explain different ways of testing drugs.
C．To seek improvement in the drug research.	D．To spread medical experts’ recommendation.

9 . A recent survey of British parents found that in all, 7% of respondents give their baby a made-up name and 65% are at least willing to consider such a move in new age.

A few examples of these new age baby names include Jaspin, Elisobelle, Wrenlow, and Maevery. Don’t see any names you like? How about Evabeth? Even if they themselves aren’t willing to choose such a name, a surprising 94% of respondents admit that made-up baby names are very much “in” these days.

Apparently, these parents believe they are helping their kids by selecting a rarer name. The survey noted that 72% of all respondents believe a unique name will help their child stand out from the crowd. Another 2% choose a made-up name for their baby with social media in mind, thinking a more unique name means their child’s social media account will be much easier for potential followers to find. But 16% also believe that a strange name may reflect poorly on the parents.

A popular strategy for parents to decide on a name is taking two names that both parents like, and combining them into one name（10%）. Another 9% combine the names of older relatives as a way to honor family. Similarly, many parents（30%） are drawing inspiration from popular movies and books.

However, the majority of surveyed parents（92%） at least admitted that giving their child an odd name is bound to result in a few drawbacks. For example, two-thirds worry that an odd name will be hard to spell and pronounce, and a third worry that their child’s teachers will judge them based on their unusual name. Of course, for those parents who are confident they’ve picked a winning made-up name, 13% actually worry about other parents stealing their child’s name.

1. How does the author illustrate the new trend?

A．By making comparisons.	B．By asking questions.
C．By listing statistics.	D．By stating opinions.

2. Why do most parents give their newborns odd names?

A．To make their children feel less special.	B．To reflect their higher social status.
C．To draw others’ attention more easily.	D．To attract more followers online.

3. What is most people’s attitude towards the new trend of naming babies?

A．It will be advised by teachers.	B．It can actually be double-edged.
C．It should be protected carefully.	D．It surely makes parents confident.

4. What’s the best title for the text?

A．Ordinary Names Are Parents’ New Pursuit	B．An Odd Name Can Influence One’s Life
C．Trendy Names Appear on Social Media	D．Newborns’ Unique Names Are Coming

10 . Organizations design courses to help you learn new skills or improve your current skill set. Here’re the best course providers of 2024.

Codecademy

It provides information technology (IT) and other technical users with courses in coding and other software engineering areas. You can choose from several subscription plans or choose a free option to explore the website’s course collection.

Memrise

It’s a website and an application created to help you learn another language. It’s free to use and offers up to 23 languages to pursue. It aims to work on developing your long-term memory to support your learning journey and make it more effective. Additionally, it provides video examples of individuals using the language’s terms and phrases in everyday life.

Pluralsight

It’s a paid subscription site but offers a free trial, so you can try a few classes to determine if it fits your needs. You can take a Skill IQ assessment to know your skill levels and help you determine a plan to improve your abilities. It employs certified experts as the course instructors, which benefits you as a learner.

Alison

It’s a free learning platform offering classes, including fields such as personal development, health, language, finance and science. It offers learners the flexibility of taking the courses anywhere and anytime, so users can fit it into their schedule. And the platform is for individuals with various skill levels, from beginner to expert. Additionally, the site has two types of courses, allowing you to choose between earning a certificate or getting a diploma.

1. Which is most likely to be the course provided on Codecademy?

A．Computer Science.	B．Drawing for Beginners.
C．Advanced Parenting Skills.	D．Civil Engineering.

2. Which website invites specialists to assist the learners?

A．Codecademy.

B．Pluralsight.

C．Alison.

D．Memrise.

3. What is special about Alison’s courses?

A．They are designed for adults.	B．They require learners to pay.
C．They offer no certificates.	D．They are self-paced.