There are two ways that I often hear the term “hobbyist” being thrown around. The first is by professional woodworkers and is usually in a disparaging (贬低的) tone, like “a hobbyist couldn’t possibly be as good, fast, and talented as a pro”. The other way is by hobbyists themselves and having a beginning like the words “I’m just a... ”. In either case, I don’t understand why this is.
To my way of thinking, being a qualified and skilled woodworker can mean that you are a slave to the hard work. I’ve done the work and it isn’t always fun and pretty. It’s not often that you get to do the kind of woodworking that you want and often you are left begging to be paid for the work that you do complete. The other thing to keep in mind that even the most successful furniture makers often supplement their incomes with teaching and writing. Making woodworking courses is well-paid.
A few years ago I turned furniture making into a hobby, and this ended up being the best decision I could have made for my overall welling-being. For some time I was starting to dislike woodworking because of all the other stuff I mentioned earlier. Add more pressure to the situation by having a young family and wanting to contribute to the household income, and the stress wasn’t good. Getting a job outside of furniture making allowed me the freedom to build what I wanted, when I wanted. I’ve stayed in the woodworking industry all these years, but what I make in my hobbyist shop simply brings in some money to help feed a healthy tool addiction.
So please don’t be ashamed of your hobbyist name. Hobbyists get to explore as many aspects of the craft as they want. They don’t have the pressure of putting food on the table and paying the rent, so they can do whatever they want. No rabbit holes (未知的世界) are off limits for the hobbyist because in the end it’s just your personal time and some materials. So, go ahead, be a proud hobbyist, and hold your chest out with pride.
1. According to the passage, why do professionals sometimes look down upon hobbyists? (no more than 10 words)2. According to paragraph 2 what things make the author a slave to the hard work? (no more than 20 words)
3. Why did the author decide to turn furniture making into a hobby? (no more than 15 words)
4. How do you understand the underlined part? (no more than 1 words)
5. Do you think being a hobbyist is a good thing? Why or why not? (no more than 20 words)
I used to hate old books. When I say “old books”, I don’t mean classics, though. I mean books with yellow pages, broken spines (书脊) and odd wood-like smells that you need to be careful not to break because they are already so worn down. One can assume that I didn’t own many old books. I had a few here and there that my parents had gifted me, but nothing too special.
In fourth grade, I was ready to venture into a new world of reading, one that went beyond the likes of children’s chapter books and juvenile (青少年的) topics. Just then, I found my parents’ old copies of the entire Harry Potter book series. Visually, my parents’ books were my worst nightmare. I remember thinking to myself that reading these books was out of the question. However, I eventually had to come to terms with the fact that if I wanted to read the books, I would have to read my parents’ copies. And so began the terrible journey of reading seven old books.
When it was time for me to read the final copy, I was kind of a changed woman. I still strongly disliked old books, but the plot of the entire Harry Potter series had attracted me so much that I had almost entirely forgotten what the books looked like. By the end, I had devoted an entire shelf in my room to the Harry Potter books.
Now, I love old books. I love how the covers are sometimes so worn down that you can barely read the title of the book, but you can understand what it’s about anyway. After all, an old book is a representation of generations of readers who have chosen to live in a specific fictional world because the story it contains is just that good. Old books have meaning, and I love how much they mean to me now.
1. Who did the old copies of the entire Harry Potter book series belong to?(no more than 5words)2. What does the underlined part “out of the question” in Paragraph 2 mean?(one word)
3. How did the author like the plot of the entire Harry Potter series?(no more than 5 words)
4. What does the author mainly talk about in the last paragraph?(no more than 10 words)
5. What kind of books do you like reading? Why?(no more than 20 words)
Robots help us in many ways — from assembly lines to looking after the elderly. Now they’re turning their attention to coping with climate change by helping to plant trees.
Milrem Robotics, an Estonian company, has developed an autonomous robot forester. The new robot forester can plant a hectare of forest in less than six hours. The robotic planters are equipped with Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) which uses laser pulses to build up a three-dimensional image of the robots’ surroundings and global positioning (GPS) to navigate precisely. The position of each sapling is recorded in a database as it is planted, which means that a specialized brush cutter version of the robot forester can reduce competitive growth without harming the young trees.
The robot forester is designed for working in commercial forests and it could be used to restore natural forests, too. Deforestation (滥伐) contributes 15% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Conservationists say, “We lose 10 million hectares of trees every year to agriculture and logging and we need to plant a trillion trees to reverse forest cover loss to help slow down climate change.” A mature tree can capture an average of 0.62 metric tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime — equivalent to the carbon emissions from driving a car 2,400 kilometres. Tree planting is just one of a range of measures needed to fight climate change and scientists say it’s important to plant the right trees in the right place for it to be effective.
These robotic planters are just one of the many new solutions beginning to surface in time for the decade of delivery on climate change. We can do a lot to help in our daily life.
1. What can the robot forester do?2. According to conservationists, how can we help slow down climate change?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Milrem Robotics designed the robot foresters to help speed up deforestation.
4. What else can you do in your daily life to help slow climate change? (In about 40 words)
I still remember the days when I was a youthful student in an engineering school. I lived a casual life, without caring about the future. I smoked, drank with friends and made girlfriends. Little did I realized that casualness would certainly lead to loss.
Two years had passed and I was staring down a report card that highlighted FAIL in more than half the subjects. I didn’t care, at least not till my dad found out about it. You see, I studied in India and unlike the United States where the students are expected to finance their own education, my dad financed me.
Then came the day when my dad found out my habit of smoking. He lost his temper but he just told me, “son, your allowance is cut in half from this moment on.” It hit me like a roundhouse kick from Bruce Lee. I was jolted (震摇) out of my bones! I couldn’t comprehend how to pay off the debts that I had accumulated in college. I owed everybody money: the grocery store, the bars, the restaurants, and my friends. I was living a life filled with credit.
When I came back to college, I knew if I didn’t change the way I live my life I wouldn’t be able to pay everybody off. So I decided to make some changes, drastic changes. I quitted smoking, cut off from my friends who led me down the wrong road, starting hanging out in libraries and reading my engineering books.
One year later, I went from a miserable failure to a Cum Laude(优等成绩). Life was never the same again. This incident made me know that anything is possible if you take action and do something about it, however small or large. Even today it still motivates me when I feel that I’m about to lose or give up. It reminds me that I can do it!
1. What’s the author’s attitude when he saw his report card? (no more than 10 words)2. At what time did the father cut the author’s allowance in half? (no more than 15 words)
3. Why did the author say he was living a life filled with credit? (no more than 15 words)
4. What does the underlined sentence in the last paragraph mean? (no more than 10 words)
5. What can you learn from the passage? (no more than 15 words)
Skyscrapers (摩天大楼) are the ultimate symbol of urban life. By 2050, almost 80 percent of the earth’s population could live in cities. The human population could increase to 9.1 billion people yet the amount of land available for farming will be the same. How to meet the increasing food needs of our planet could be a big problem.
Vertical farms, where urban farmers could grow crops in environmentally friendly skyscrapers, could be the solution. In spite of concerns over high costs, experts want to make these urban farms a reality and use these skyscrapers to grow crops. They believe that we can increase food production by changing our thinking from out to up.
Vertical farms would have many advantages, experts say. The food would be grown with minimal effects on the environment. Unlike traditional farming, vertical farming would not force animals out of their habitats by taking over large areas of land, nor would it pollute the air with the use of heavy farming equipment. Those farms would also reduce the cost and negative effects of transporting food over long distances. These have been well recognized.
Growing prosperity has led to many people demanding that all foods are available all year round. Indoor farming could produce crops constantly and crops would not suffer from weather-related problems like drought or flooding. In addition, the use of agricultural chemicals for controlling insects would be minimal.
Experts agree that new farming practices are needed to support the planet’s need for more and more food at affordable costs, both to the farmer and to the consumer. Vertical farms may be a small-scale answer, but the best ideas could be yet to come.
1. According to this passage, what could be a big problem?2. What would be the advantages of vertical farming?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Vertical farms could meet people’s demand for available food all year round, because it could produce crops constantly and crops would not be affected by any problems.
4. In addition to vertical farms, what else do you think can help solve the food shortage? (In about 40 words)
There are always people who take great pleasure in finding faults with others. However, life can become wonderful when you are not constantly busy pointing out its flaws.
A few years ago, I received a letter from Kerry, a seventeen-year-old, who described herself as an expert fault-finder. She was almost always bothered by things and found that people constantly annoyed her. Nothing was ever good enough. She was extremely critical of herself and also found faults in her friends, which made her quite a boring person to be around.
Unfortunately, it took a terrible accident to change her attitude. Her best friend had a serious car crash and was badly injured. What made it almost unbearable was the fact that the day before the accident, Kerry had visited her friend and spent the entire time criticizing her choice of boyfriends, her lifestyle, her relationship with her mother, and various other things she felt the need to point out. It wasn’t until her friend was badly hurt that Kerry realized that she needed to appreciate life rather than harshly(严厉地) criticize everything. She was able to extend her newfound wisdom to other aspects of her life as well.
Perhaps most of us aren’t as extreme in fault-finding, but if we are honest, we can be sharply critical of the world. I’m not suggesting that you ignore problems or pretend things are better than they are, but rather that you learn to accept things as they are — most of the time, especially when they’re not of significant importance.
Train yourself to “bite your tongue” and with a little practice, you’ll become really good at letting things go. When you do, you’ll regain your enthusiasm and love for life.
So learning to accept and appreciate life’s imperfections can bring about positive changes in our attitude and well-being. By redirecting our focus to the good things in life, we can create a more fulfilling and joyful existence.
1. Why was Kerry a boring person to be around? (no more than 15 words)2. What caused Kerry to change her attitude? (no more than 10 words)
3. What did Kerry realize after her friend was badly hurt? ( no more than 15 words)
4. How do you understand “bite your tongue” in Paragraph 5?(no more than 2 words)
5. How do you like people who always find faults in others? And why? ( no more than 25 words)
It was a hot summer day, with the sun shining brightly, and all I could think about was cooling down with my favorite ice cream. I decided to make a quick trip to the newly opened ice cream shop close by, eager for a midday treat.
As I stepped inside, the variety of flavors in the shop caught my eye. Although they were tempting, I ordered my preferred flavor in a con e for an immediate treat and chose two cups of chocolate ice cream to take home for my family. Enjoying my cone, I found perfect relaxation in its cool sweetness. I admired the shop’s attractive display of ice creams, each more colorful and inviting than the last.
Now that my to-go order was ready, I headed to the payment count er to settle the bill. There, I encountered an unexpected situation: the cashier, possibly distracted by the day’s rush, had forgotten to include the two cups of chocolate ice cream in my bill.
Faced with a moral (道德的) dilemma, I found myself at a crossroads: on one side was the simple path of paying the bill and overlooking the mistake; on the other, the act of pointing out the error. I knew if I didn’t bring the billing error to his notice, the cost of my ice cream would be charged against his salary.
At that moment, I made up my mind and approached the counter to point out what he had missed. His first shock gave way to great gratitude as he realized the financial loss I had saved him from. His repeated thanks and visible relief warmed my heart. The smile of relief on his face made me smile too.
Leaving the ice cream shop, I felt really happy and satisfied. It reminded me of how good it feels to do the right thing instead of just taking the easy way out. The experience was not just about ice cream; it proved the value of doing what is right, ensuring the joy that comes from acts of honesty and kindness.
1. What did the author decide to do to make himself feel cool? (no more than 10 words)2. How do you understand the underlined part in Paragraph 2? (1word)
3. What’s the main idea of Paragraph 4? (no more than 10 words)
4. What made the author feel a deep satisfaction? (no more than 5 words)
5. What do you think of the author? Please explain. (no more than 20 words)
When Li Toh first came to China to pursue his flute (长笛) dream, the Malaysian man had never expected that his dream could take root in China.
Toh’s love for the Chinese bamboo flute began in primary school when his elder brother joined the Chinese orchestra in middle school to learn to play the musical instrument. He said the clear sound of the bamboo flute guided him onto the road of flute learning. As he got older, Toh went to Singapore for further study.
According to Toh, there were few professional Chinese bamboo flute teachers in Malaysia, and the learning environment for bamboo flute players was limited. In 2005, Toh made a bold decision. He applied for retention (保留) of his admission qualifications to the university he had already attended, and set off for Beijing. A new chapter of his life thus began.
After getting his bachelor’s degree, Toh started to teach the Chinese bamboo flute in Malaysia and Singapore. His desire to improve his performance skills and his thirst for knowledge drove him back to Beijing to continue his studies.
Toh had planned to return to Malaysia after graduation, but upon graduation, Guangxi Arts University offered him a job. During his stay in China, he has also joined teams and performed in countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia. They tried to combine the Chinese bamboo flute with local musical instruments. Communication and innovation promoted the development of diverse art culture and enriched the cultural layers of art.
In recent years, Toh would return to Malaysia during holidays to promote the art of the Chinese bamboo flute. Having been in China for more than a decade, Toh’s love for the country has long been rooted in his heart, and he is looking forward to the prosperity and development of cultural industries in China.
1. What made Toh start learning the bamboo flute? (no more than 4 words)2. What does the underlined word in Paragraph 3 mean? (1 word)
3. Why did Toh return to Beijing? (no more than 13 words)
4. What did Toh do in China after graduation? (no more than 12 words)
5. What do you think of Toh? Please give your reasons. (no more than 20 words)
“I know I should do it, but exercising makes me feel miserable. I’m out of breath, hot and sweaty, and it just hurts. ” Does this sound familiar? You’re not alone.
About 97 percent of us think that getting enough exercise is important for health. One study of 3, 500 adults who used a fitness tracker found that less than 4 percent actually met the goal of 150 minutes of moderate activity per week.
Aside from health, what are your motivations for exercising? A 2024 study of 489 young Spanish adults found that men exercise to improve their self-image, while women are more likely to be motivated by weight loss or reducing body fat. The findings suggest that there’s a relationship between intrinsic motivation and level of physical activity, but how do you get intrinsically motivated if exercise makes you feel miserable?
Here are a few suggestions to help you overcome your bad feelings about exercise:
First, recognize that most habitual exercisers experience some discomfort with their workout. The trick for you is to limit the discomfort while exercising. Your exercise should be physically challenging, but if you’re really struggling, dial it down. Ease up, go slower, use less weight, take a break, or stop sooner; whatever it takes so that you can feel the effort you’re making but you’re not overwhelmed by it. You’re not being a quitter as long as you complete the exercise and do it again the next time.
Second, pair exercise with something that you enjoy. Get earbuds so you can listen to music or a favorite podcast. You can also give yourself a reward for finishing the workout. For example, you could only watch a favorite program on days that you’ve exercised.
Third, do the activity with a friend. If you set a routine exercise schedule with your friend, you’ll go, even if you don’t feel like doing so. You wouldn’t want to disappoint your friend, would you?
Maybe instead of hating exercise, you can dislike it less and take pride in doing it and enjoying its effects.
1. How many of the people involved in the study actually get enough exercise?2. What do the findings of 2024 study suggest?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Even the most habitual exercisers experience some discomfort with their workout, so the more physically challenging, the more effective your exercise would be.
4. What other ways can make you dislike exercise less? Why? (In about 40 words)
10 . The literature teacher entered the classroom and, with a smile on his face, said, “Hello, fellows!” Then he placed his notebook and books on his desk before stepping to the blackboard and picking up the chalk. Then he wrote down: “Who do I want to be?”
While reading the question, all of a sudden, I remembered what my grandmother said. Every time she scolded me, she would ask, “When are you going to become a person?” When I told my friend Firoz about these words, he burst into laughter.
Remembering my grandmother’s question and anger, I quickly covered my lips with my hand to hide my smile from the teacher’s eyes. But to be honest, I really had a dream deep in my heart. I wanted to explore outer space.
Our literature teacher had already announced that we would write an essay on an open topic. He wrote the topic on the board and took his place.
Most of my classmates had their heads bent over their blank papers. Some raised their heads and stared at the white ceiling, others scratched at the back of their notebooks. Baba Morad was biting his lips thought fully. Firoz was looking around. Part of my mind was busy searching for an essay topic, while the other was wondering whether dreams and wishes for the future are the same things.
My eyes wandered outside through the large glass window and stared at the sky where a bird was flying. I gathered my thoughts and began to write my essay, filling up the back and front of three white sheets.
Once again, I read my writing from the beginning to the end and was satisfied with the way I created it and the greatness of my desire. I looked around at my classmates, some of whom had finished their work, and some were writing, and then I looked outside.
The teacher, who had a long, dry stick in his hand to beat us sometimes, was walking around in the classroom. At the same time, walking under the watchful eye he would collect the essays of those who had finished writing.
1. 根据语篇内容填写表格（每空不限词数）| Where | In the classroom |
| Who | I, the literature teacher, other students |
| What | 1. The literature teacher asked students to 2. I remembered what my grandmother said. Every time she scolded me, she would ask 3. The dream deep in my heart is to 4. I began to write my essay, 5. At the same time, the teacher would |
按情节推进，用完整句子回答问题。
2. What did the teacher do after he collected students’ essays?
3. How did the classmates react to the author’s dream? Give your reasons?
4. How did the teacher judge the author’s dream and how did the author feel?
