1 . We all enjoy being part of a group — there’s no better work than teamwork, right? Actually, I disagree. Teamwork can be hard. In fact, it was so difficult that I left my office job and started working from home on my own. It’s a much better fit for me, and it has made me think about why teamwork can make our jobs harder rather than easier.
Personalities can make teamwork difficult. There’s often someone on the team that puts their needs first. The team often goes along with this person, whose ideas might not be the best, just the loudest. Just one difficult personality can make teamwork hard. Combining (结合) several challenging personality types is even harder.
Not having enough time together can also make teamwork challenging. To successfully work as a team, you need time together — and lots of it.
A final reason why teamwork is difficult is that there’s often no training on how to work on a team. You can’t just put people in a room and expect them to work well with each other. You need to build trust with your team members.
Teamwork can be hard, but working alone has its challenges, too. When I have a great idea, I don’t have anyone to share it with to see if it really is a great idea. Don’t get me wrong — I still like my team of one and enjoy making all of the important decisions by myself. But now I realize what was wrong with the teamwork I did in the past and how good teamwork could be if done correctly. And that’s useful information because one day I might want to turn my ME TEAM into a WE TEAM.
1. Why did the writer choose to work from home on his own?| A．To keep himself busier. | B．To keep himself healthier. |
| C．To make his job easier. | D．To make his team harder. |
| A．Strong personalities. | B．Lots of teamwork time. |
| C．Challenging ideas. | D．More training on teamwork. |
| A．You need to work with others in a room. |
| B．You need to build trust with your team members. |
| C．You just need to make all decisions by yourself. |
| D．You need to have different ideas with your team members. |
| A．A WE TEAM has hardly any advantages. |
| B．A ME TEAM needs a lot of IT engineers. |
| C．A ME TEAM has no challenges for the writer. |
| D．A WE TEAM may be the writer’s choice one day. |
| A．To show the advantages of teamwork. | B．To explain the difficulties of teamwork. |
| C．To introduce the influence of teamwork. | D．To tell the importance of teamwork. |
2 . He Jiazheng, 22, a college student in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, said he used to buy only big brands (品牌) during middle school. Then he realized that a piece of clothing, regardless of whether it is from a well-known brand or not, may only be worn for one or two years. Besides, the quality of famed brands sometimes is not as good as that of ordinary ones.
Now he spends no more than 100 yuan on each item of clothing. “As long as the clothes are suitable to wear, this is fine.”
“I hope to realize maximum happiness through minimum spending. As luxury food and brand-name clothing cannot increase my happiness, why not satisfy myself by spending less for the same amount of happiness?” He said.
Ma Yuan, 36, a college teacher in Shanxi province, began saving money a year ago. She wants to save money for advanced studies and her family expects to travel.
She stopped buying well-known brands of make-up and using cheaper products instead. Ma also recycled empty boxes, cut back on dining out, and reduced the number of unnecessary purchases.
“While buying may bring short happiness, I have discovered that living a more frugal (节俭的) lifestyle can lead to a sense of satisfaction,” she said. “I have many dreams that require financial support. By controlling and reducing my spending. I am able to bring those dreams closer to reality.”
It’s a good idea to have a certain amount of money saved for better use in the future.
1. He Jiazheng thinks the quality of famed brands is ________ that of ordinary brands.| A．better than | B．sometimes not as good as |
| C．worse than | D．as good as |
| A．Quality. | B．Color. | C．Style. | D．Price. |
| A．She used to buy well-known brands of make-up. |
| B．She wants to save money for her children. |
| C．She no longer dines out. |
| D．She is a college student in Shanxi province. |
| A．Living a frugal life can bring Ma Yuan the shortest happiness. |
| B．The less Ma Yuan buys, the unhappier she feels. |
| C．Ma Yuan prefers sense of satisfaction to short happiness. |
| D．Ma Yuan has never experienced a sense of satisfaction before. |
| A．Ways of Making Money | B．How to Shop Smartly |
| C．Spending Less and Save More | D．The Stories of Two Young People |
3 . Maclay Summer Day Camp
June 5-9, 12-16, 19-23, 26-30July 3-7, 10-14, 17-21, 24-28
The Maclay Summer Day Camp will once again provide a lot of activities. Camp hours are from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm. This camp is fun as well as meaningful.
Morning activities will include computer games, swimming, kickball, arts & crafts, relay races, swimming, and many more. All of these morning activities will be organized on Maclay’s 100-acre (英亩) campus. Maclay has its own gymnasium, locker rooms, swimming pool, dining hall, and transportation.
Campers will be transported to all afternoon activities off campus by a Maclay school bus.
Afternoon Activities | |
| Mon: Pool Party and Movie (camper’s choice) | Tues: Movie at CMX Theater |
| Wed: District 850 | Thurs: Skate World |
| Fri: Wakulla Springs (all day) | |
The $230.00 a week tuition (学费) covers all costs, lunches, admissions (入场费), etc. However, it does not cover the cost of additional items (snacks from movies, games from Skate World, etc.)
A snack will be provided by the camp each morning and lunch will be provided at noon in the Maclay Dining Hall.
The daily lunch menu | |
| Mon: Chicken Nuggets | Tues: Hot Dogs |
| Wed: Burgers | Thurs: Cheese Pizza |
| Fri. Turkey Subs | |
| Daily meal includes fruit, chips, and a drink. | |
1. There are no camp activities on ________.
| A．July 15th | B．June 27th | C．June 5th | D．July 20th |
| A．Cheap and boring. | B．Fun and meaningful. |
| C．Expensive and tiring. | D．Popular and helpless. |
| A．Morning activities will be organized on Maclay’s 100-acre campus. |
| B．Morning activities begin at 8:30 am. |
| C．Morning activities include computer games, swimming, kickball, arts & crafts and so on. |
| D．Morning activities end at 11:30 am. |
| A．Chicken Nuggets. | B．Turkey Subs. | C．Cheese Pizza. | D．Hot Dogs. |
| A．Lunches. | B．Admissions. | C．Transportation. | D．Snacks from movies. |
4 . The traditional Chinese solar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Grain Buds (小满), the 8th solar term of a year, begins on May 21 this year, and ends on June 5. It means that the seeds from the grain are becoming full but are not ripe. Let’s see what we can do during the “Grain Buds” period.
Eating herb of common sow thistle
Grain Buds is a season for eating the herb of the common sow thistle, which is one of the earliest edible potherbs in China. It tastes a little bitter, but also sweet. People in Ningxia Hui autonomous region like to eat it mixed with salt, vinegar, peppers or garlic. It tastes delicious and helps people feel refreshed. Some people boil the herb with water and then squeeze out the juice, which can be used to make soup.
Key period for flower management
This time is a good period of the quick growth of flowers. It is also a season when plant diseases and pests are at an all-time high, which makes caring for your garden even more critical. Flowers need a lot of water and extra care to stay healthy. Weeding should be done as they grow quickly and have to be extirpated in order to keep the soil loose and from competing with the flowers for nutrients.
Celebrating silkworm deity birthday
Silkworm rearing is a traditional byproduct for people in regions south of the Yangtze River. People in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces regard this season as the birthday of the silkworm deity. Those who engage in the silk industry thank the deity by offering sacrifices and staging performances. They pray to the deity for blessings and a boom season for the silk business.
1. Which of the following is true about Grain Buds?| A．It is seen as the birthday of the flower deity. |
| B．It is an essential period to tend to the garden. |
| C．It means that the seeds from the grain are mature. |
| D．It begins on May 21 this year, and ends on July 5. |
| A．offer sacrifices to ancestors | B．pray for a close season |
| C．learn to count their blessings | D．give shows to thank the deity |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Economics. | C．Politics. | D．Culture. |
5 . I love watching football games and couldn’t help but notice how many footballers chew gum while playing! I always thought of it as a choking danger, so why would they risk it?
When we chew something, the receptors in our mouth that sense taste and pressure from the jaw movements start firing and sending electrical signals to the brain. These electrical nervous system signals move to the brain, which works to understand these signals. This added brain activity places the mind in a more attentive state, which is why focus and concentration are improved.
Additionally, chewing gum has been reported to decrease stress and anxiety levels. The brain activity stimulated (刺激) by chewing gum occurs mainly in the prefrontal cortex, the front part of the brain responsible for decision-making and emotional regulation. When chewing gum, the prefrontal cortex is activated, leading to the release of a “feel-good” neurotransmitter called dopamine (多巴胺). Dopamine is known to promote a sense of pleasure and reward, helping to relieve feelings of stress and anxiety.
So does this mean that the harder you chew, the better the focus levels? Yes…to an extent. Chewing harder gum does boost attention more than softer gum. Similarly, chewing flavored gum is better for cognitive (认知) functioning, as it activates more receptors in the mouth than chewing flavorless gum.
With lower stress levels and better focus, athletes have better decision-making abilities in the middle of the game. It also helps them keep their anxiety levels in check during big games. Chewing gum does give your body a little boost, lifting up your spirits. That explains why athletes prefer chewing gum while playing a sport. But for the sake of safety, you’d better chew just one piece to reduce the choking risk.
1. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 1 probably refer to?| A．Chewing gum during games. |
| B．Suffering from sports injuries. |
| C．Swallowing gum for pleasure. |
| D．Choking while watching games. |
| A．By affecting digestive system. |
| B．By releasing high pressure. |
| C．By adding muscle strength. |
| D．By stimulating the brain. |
| A．Gum proves a healthy snack for athletes. |
| B．Chewing gum benefits mental health. |
| C．Dopamine contributes to better focus. |
| D．Brain activity helps relieve anxiety. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Supportive. | C．Doubtful. | D．Uncaring. |
6 . Several years ago, Joshua Madsen was driving on an Illinois freeway when he saw something strange: an electronic sign displaying the number of traffic deaths in the state. “I just kind of freaked out. I had never seen anything like that before,” Madsen, a behavioral economist at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, says of the incident. It was a troubling experience to have while driving, he says.
In the past decade, at least 28 U. S. states have started to display traffic fatality (死亡) numbers to scare motorists into safer driving. But a new analysis of Texas car crashes co-authored by Madsen suggests such signs may actually be associated with more crashes, not fewer.
“Is this helping?” Madsen wondered. So he teamed up with Jonathan Hall, who studies transportation economics at the University of Toronto, to investigate what effect the signs had on crash numbers. The researchers focused on Texas, which consistently displayed the messages for 1 week every month on 880 signs across the state’s highways. Madsen and Hall gathered data on all traffic crashes that happened on affected roads between 2010 and 2017. They compared crashes that occurred in weeks when fatality statistics were displayed with those that happened during the rest of the month, taking care to compare only the accidents that happened at the same hour and on the same day of the week. They also controlled for weather and for holidays, which can independently affect the number of accidents.
The analysis of 844, 939 accidents showed that in the 10 kilometers down road of the signs, crashes increased by 1. 35% when the numbers were displayed. Madsen and Hall propose that the fatality statistics are so in your face that they grab too much of the driver’s attention, causing a crash. The data support this explanation, they say: Crashes increased when the death numbers displayed on the signs were higher.
1. Which of the following can replace the underlined words “freaked out” in paragraph 1?| A．surprised. | B．thrilled. | C．ashamed. | D．frustrated. |
| A．The research cost them approximately nine years to complete. |
| B．The final research findings seemed to be out of their expectation. |
| C．The research’s purpose was to find out if the signs were effective. |
| D．The researchers almost paid no attention to the factors of bad weather. |
| A．By having them speed. | B．By making them more fear. |
| C．By depressing them greatly. | D．By distracting their attention. |
| A．Researches studying traffic crashes receive great attention. |
| B．New regulations guaranteeing traffic safety need updating. |
| C．Highway signs showing traffic deaths cause more crashes. |
| D．Traffic deaths happening so frequently should be controlled. |
7 . For anyone over the age of 30 reading this article, here’s some bad news for you: Your brain is already on the decline.
From the brain’s peak performance in our mid-20s, that decline is gradual, said Stanford neurologist Sharon Sha, MD. Despite common knowledge about aging and major mistakes in memory, the effects of healthy aging on cognitive (认知的) functions are actually quite unnoticeable. For example, a young or middle-aged adult can remember a sequence of seven numbers on average, while a person in their 60s without dementia (痴呆) can hold onto six. When asked to list as many animals as they can in a short time frame, adults over 55 can list about 4% fewer than those under 55 years old.
“Around a generation ago, we assumed that when we get older, we dramatically lose our memory,” said Sha. “That’s really not the case.” For all the talk about age, memory and cognitive ability, it seems like a good time to consult memory experts. Sha leads Stanford Medicine’s Memory Disorders Division and divides her time between clinical work with patients who have Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia and leading clinical trials in patients with these conditions. “Conditions like dementia, and specifically Alzheimer’s disease, affect us more when we’re older. The biggest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease is age. But beyond dementia, we think about a lot of other possible causes for memory mistakes. When someone comes into the clinic and says they’re having memory problems, we ask about medications, other psychiatric problems like anxiety and depression, and their sleep. There are a lot of factors that can affect memory and that are not necessarily expected in aging.” We asked her to discuss the links between aging and memory—and what steps we can take to boost brain health. Her answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
1. What can we learn about the effects of aging on the brain from Paragraph 2?| A．They are hard to detect overall. | B．They affect animals and people equally. |
| C．They don’t happen to people of all ages. | D．They rely largely on people’s knowledge level. |
| A．She concentrates on working with the patients with Alzheimer’s disease only. |
| B．She still thinks at present becoming older means losing our memory gradually. |
| C．She argues that memory problems necessarily lead to anxiety and depressions. |
| D．She thinks age plays an important role in causing Alzheimer’s disease undoubtedly. |
| A．How should we better our memory as we age? |
| B．What really happens to our memory as we age? |
| C．Why should we balance our aging and our memory? |
| D．How can we get the peak performance of our brain sooner? |
| A．The interview with Sha. | B．The seriousness of aging. |
| C．The necessity of clinical trials. | D．The cures of Alzheimer’s disease. |
8 . A woman in Brazil kept awake during brain surgery moved doctors to tears when she began to sing a song she wrote herself. And the moment is unlike anything we’ve seen before!
Doctors diagnosed (诊断) 45-year-old Maria Filomena da Costa with a brain tumor (肿瘤). It needed to be removed, but the location of the mass made things tricky. Removing the tumor without impacting Maria’s speech and cognition wouldn’t be easy. As a result, doctors determined Maria would need to be kept awake during brain surgery! “There was a big risk Maria would lose her speech and it was important that she talked to the team during surgery,” neurosurgeon Carlos Rocha explained.
Brain surgery is scary enough. But needless to say, this particular operation was terrifying. And Maria admits she found the idea of surgeons working on her brain while she was awake was frightening. So, the team delayed the operation until Maria was psychologically prepared for everything involved.
When it came time to operate, doctors used anesthesia to keep Maria “slightly sleepy,” but still able to speak and respond. The team planned to quiz her on colors, names, etc. “We had prearranged to do speech mapping with electrical stimuli (刺激物) to the brain and tests during surgery asking her to name objects and colors, read and talk,” Carlos said. But Maria surprised everyone when she started singing a song written by herself as doctors began removing the tumor!
Maria’s actions completely stunned the doctors. Not only did it provide guarantee for the doctors that Maria’s speech would be just fine, but it moved the team in a powerful way. “There were a number of professionals involved in this procedure and it was an emotional experience. Everyone couldn’t stop talking about her courage,” anesthesiologist Paula Fialho said. The 8-hour surgery went well, and within only 4 days, Maria headed home from the hospital. She’s walking, talking, and is well on her way to a full recovery!
1. What can we learn about the brain tumor in Paragraph 2?| A．It put the doctors at risk. | B．It kept the patients awake. |
| C．It was diagnosed 45 years ago. | D．It was at a position hard to tackle. |
| A．Maria needed enough mental preparation. | B．Maria demanded a better surgery plan. |
| C．Maria longed to have more speech practice. | D．Maria was too scared to accept it completely. |
| A．They asked her to sing. | B．They gave her a careful test. |
| C．They used anesthesia to make her sleep. | D．They helped her react to something by speaking. |
| A．Enthusiastic and ambitious. | B．Professional and emotional. |
| C．Optimistic and courageous. | D．Cooperative and generous. |
9 . A CLEAN, GREEN ENERGY FUTURE
Nowadays, many countries are making the important change from fossil fuels to clean, green and renewable sources of energy. Fossil fuels produce emissions, but renewable energy sources cause limited damage to the environment.
Here are the main types of renewable energy, with facts and examples from around the world.
Solar
Solar panels turn heat from the sun’s rays into electricity, and solar heaters use that energy to heat water directly. Germany has the highest solar capacity in the world, but China is the world’s largest market and the largest producer of solar technology.
Hydropower
The power of water turns turbines which produce electricity. Since ancient times, watermills have been used a lot. Most of the renewable energy in China comes from hydropower plants, such as the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest power station.
Geothermal
This has been a natural source of energy for thousands of years. Today, heat from below the earth’s surface heats water into steam that turns turbines to generate electricity. The USA has the largest capacity, with over 80% generated in California. The Yangbajing Power Plant is the largest geothermal plant in China.
Wind
Tall turbines are turned by the wind to produce electricity. Wind “farms” are built on land, or offshore, to take advantage of more frequent and powerful winds at sea. The world’s largest wind farm is the London Array. It has 175 wind turbines and is 20 km off the coast of England. Researchers think China could meet all her electricity demands from wind by 2030. Wind farms in provinces such as Gansu have an endless wind supply.
1. Which country is the top in solar capacity worldwide according to the passage?| A．China. | B．Germany. | C．The USA. | D．England. |
| A．Solar. | B．Hydropower. | C．Wind. | D．Geothermal. |
| A．Business. | B．Science. | C．Culture. | D．Travel. |
10 . One day I typed into ChatGPT all about my upset feelings and it instantly responded, offering a list of practical advice. Nowadays millions of people are already turning to ChatGPT and specialist therapy (治疗) chatbots for convenient and inexpensive mental health support.
Some experts say this is a boon. After all, AI, undisturbed by embarrassment and burnout, might be able to express empathy (同理心) more openly and tirelessly than humans. But others worry about the consequences of people seeking emotional support from machines that can only pretend to care. Some even wonder if the rise of so-called empathetic AI might change the way we interact with one another. Indeed, empathy is one of our species’ defining qualities, developing as it did in pace with social interaction.
One recent analysis about empathy looked at 52 studies published between 1980 and 2019, which shows that the empathiser must first be able to recognize how the other person is feeling. They must also be affected by those emotions and differentiate between themselves and the other person, grasping that the other person’s feelings aren’t their own while still being able to imagine their experience.
On the first point, in recent years, AI-powered chatbots have made progress in their ability to read human emotions, most powered by large language models (LLMs) that work by predicting which words are most likely to appear together based on training data. In this way, LLMs like ChatGPT can seemingly identify our feelings and respond appropriately most of the time. But when it comes to the other criteria, AI still misses the mark in many ways. Empathy is interpersonal, with continued feedback helping to perfect the empathiser’s response, which also requires some degree of intuitive (直觉的) awareness of an individual and their situation.
All of this helps to explain conversations like the ones I had with ChatGPT. At the end of the day, despite talking to multiple chatbots online, I did what I knew I had to do all along: I picked up my phone and called a friend.
1. What does the underlined word “boon” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Trap. | B．Prize. | C．Blessing. | D．Challenge. |
| A．It calls for clear communication. | B．It starts with emotion identification. |
| C．It rules out individual difference. | D．It depends on rich imagination. |
| A．Provide data-driven feedback. | B．Recognize one’s real desire. |
| C．Update large language models. | D．Predict one’s behavior by intuition. |
| A．Its development should be sped up. |
| B．Its intelligence is winning more favor. |
| C．Its application should be strictly managed. |
| D．Its artificial kindness is no match for humans’. |
