1 . Hawaii lawmakers are considering legislation (立法) that would require visitors to pay for a year-long license or pass to visit state parks. Josh Green is the state’s governor. He said, “We get between 9 and 10 million visitors a year, but we only have 1.4 million people living here.” He added, “Those 10 million travellers should be helping us sustain our environment.” Lawmakers still debating how much they would charge.
The governor campaigned in 2022 on the idea of having all tourists pay a $50 fee to enter the state. Legislators think this would violate US constitutional protections for free travel. They instead think visitors should pay to enter parks and trails. Either policy would be a first of its kind for any US state. Hawaii’s leaders are following the example of other popular tourist areas with similar fees or taxes. They include Venice, Italy, and Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands.
Hawaii State Representative Sean Quinlan is the leader of the House Tourism Committee. He said changes in the activities of travellers are part of Hawaii’s push. He said golf rounds per visitor per day have dropped 30 percent over the past 10 years while hiking has increased50 percent. People are also seeking out isolated places they have seen on social media. The state does not have the money to oversee and protect all these places, he said.
Most state parks and trails are currently free. Some of the most popular ones already charge, like Diamond Head State Monument. That trail leads hikers from the floor of a 300,000-year-old volcano up to the top. It gets 1 million visitors each year and costs $5for each traveller.
A bill currently before the legislature would require visitors over the age of 15to buy a yearly pass to visit forests, parks, trails or “other natural area on state land”. People who live in Hawaii would not need to pay.
1. What does the underlined word “violate” mean in Paragraph 2?| A．Break. | B．Establish. | C．Uphold. | D．Perfect. |
| A．The decreasing number of tourists to Hawaii. |
| B．Advantages of Hawaii’s tourism resources. |
| C．The increasing financial burden of Hawaii. |
| D．One reason for wanting to charge tourists. |
| A．None of the attractions in Hawaii charge fees currently. |
| B．The goal to charge fees is to limit the number of tourists. |
| C．Lawmakers are arguing about whether charging fees is legal. |
| D．Charging fees is beneficial for Hawaii’s natural environment. |
| A．A news report. | B．A travel guide. |
| C．A law textbook. | D．A promotional brochure. |
2 . Four Best Music Festivals Worth Attending This Year
Big Ears
When: March 21 — 24
Where: Knoxville, Tennessee
Named for the open-minded approach to listening it asks attendees to have, Big Ears regularly hosts contemporary classical music performances along with adventurous rock, jazz, metal and electronic music. For four days, Big Ears transforms the city into a paradise (天堂) for music of all kinds, taking over music halls, clubs and churches, all of which are centrally located and within walking distance.
Ultra Music Festival
When: March 22 — 24
Where: Miami, Florida
Considered as one of the best electric music events in the world, Ultra Music Festival features electronic dance music (EDM), techno and house music. Attendees are referred to as “Ultranauts” and come from around the globe to party in downtown Miami. This year’s line-up includes Calvin Harris, Afrojack, David Guetta and Zeds Dead.
Jazz & Heritage Festival
When: April 25 — May 5
Where: New Orleans, Louisiana
Held annually since 1970, Jazz Fest is also one of the biggest. Nearly half a million people show up to take in a massive bill of jazz, blues and rock music. While most festivals are content to book the same handful of reunited alt-rock (另类摇滚) bands making the rounds, Jazz Fest always takes pride in hall-of-fame headliners. This year’s line-up goes well beyond jazz with names like the Foo Fighters, Chris Stapleton, Hozier and Earth, Wind & Fire.
SXSW
When: March 8 — 16
Where: Austin, Texas
The first SXSW was held in 1987 and since then the festival has grown both in terms of attendance — by some counts, 280,000 people attended the festival in 2019 — and in terms of influence: SXSW is Austin’s biggest profit-producing event and one of the most important gatherings on the nation’s entertainment calendar. The event is broken down into several parts, including SXSW Music, SXSW Film and SXSW Comedy.
1. What can you do at the festival of Big Ears?| A．Listen to various kinds of music. | B．Enjoy comedy shows every day. |
| C．Watch classical films in a church. | D．Explore a paradise for nature lovers. |
| A．Knoxville, Tennessee. | B．Miami, Florida. |
| C．New Orleans, Louisiana. | D．Austin, Texas. |
| A．Big Ears. | B．Ultra Music Festival. |
| C．Jazz &Heritage Festival. | D．SXSW. |
3 . Four Must-visit Campsites in Western Australia
Fair Harvest
Playing host to campers looking for a more environmentally-friendly stay, Fair Harvest has an outdoor kitchen made from wood harvested on site and a farm cafe where you can buy fresh produce and home cooked meals. Guests are free to wander in the gardens, go bushwalking in the private forest, or take a class in the on-site yoga (瑜伽) barn — the only campsite yoga studio in the area.
Lucky Bay
In 2017, a scientific study was carried out to discover which Australian beach had the whitest sand and Lucky Bay, in Cape. Le Grand National Park on the southern coast of Western Australia, emerged victorious. Up close, the beach is often frequented by kangaroos bounding at the sand’s edge. The Lucky Bay campground sits right behind the beach and is well-equipped with toilets, showers, barbecues and picnic tables-though campers do need to bring their own drinking water.
Rottnest Island
More commonly a day trip destination, Rottnest is a car-free island best explored by bike and ringed by glorious Indian Ocean beaches. There are options for luxurious glamping (豪华野营) at Discovery Parks Rottnest Island, but those looking for a more traditional camping experience should head instead to the Rottnest Island campground. Here, you’ll find bathroom blocks, a camp kitchen and barbecues, but the highlight is the site’s large population of quokkas, which are close relatives of the kangaroo.
Imintji
Located at the foothills of the Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges, Imintjii is a simple yet well-maintained campground that includes washing facilities, fire pits, barbecue shelters,outdoor seating and water taps. It’s a great base for visiting the dramatic landscapes of Bell Gorge, Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge. It’s also one of the few campsites in the world that are famous for their own art center, with works by local artists on sale.
1. What can campers do at Fair Harvest?| A．See kangaroos. | B．Buy home-cooked meals. |
| C．Admire the whitest sand. | D．Get works from local artists. |
| A．Walking. | B．Driving. | C．Taking a boat. | D．Riding a bike. |
| A．Imintji. | B．Lucky Bay. | C．Fair Harvest. | D．Rottnest Island. |
4 . Confidence helps us take risks and push ourselves to excellence.It can also inspire more trust in other people and open doors that would remain closed otherwise.Here are a few ideas on how to build up your confidence.
Forgive yourself for your mistakes.
Try to remember that you’re only human.
Make a list of your positive qualities.
It might seem silly, but sit down and write out a list.Start with five things that you like about yourself and try to add something to the list every day. For example, you could write, “I’m kind, I’m loving, I’m passionate about art, I’m creative, and I’m a good friend.”
Negative people tend to lower your confidence. Instead, spend time with friends and family members who inspire you and push you to be your best self. You’ll know someone is good to be around if you feel excited and happy to hang out with them.
Learn a new skill.
| A．If you can’t think of anything |
| B．Then,use that forgiveness on yourself |
| C．Spend time with people who support you |
| D．Stop undervaluing yourself when you speak |
| E．When you express your idea in an insecure way |
| F．Do something outside of your own comfort zone |
| G．Everyone makes mistakes,and you’re no different |
5 . One of the most popular therapists (治疗师) in University of Rochester (UR) smells like chips, pees outside, and doesn’t mind eating baby carrots off the ground. Sasha, a five-year-old golden dog, runs her practice out of a second-flour office in the Interfaith Chapel that she shares with her owner-Dr. Denise Yarbrough. During their office hours, which run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m, on Mondays and Fridays, the messy puppy is likely to greet you with tail wags, happy “woof”, and even her two front paws lifting. It’s this patented charm that allows Sasha to meet the needs of a crowd of students who drop in to see UR’s first and most accessible therapy dog in residence.
But the path to her puppy Ph.D still called for three rounds of training. First was a two-week residential camp on the essentials — sit, stay, come, heel, ete. There her natural fondness for “people pleasing” revealed itself on her very first day! That training was followed by the eight- week Canine Good Citizen program, where she learned how to stay calm in crowds, to resist reacting to other dogs, and to be comfortable with Yarbrough leaving her side. A five-week therapy dog specific course was the last step in her journey. There she studied approaching people with mobility aids like wheelchairs, tolerating loud noises, and the importance of the “leave it!” command, among other things.
Sasha passed the therapy dog exams at nine months old but couldn’t get certificated until she was one year old. The pandemic postponed her on-campus arrival, but Yarbrough did eventually get to bring her to work, and students consequently fell in love, “I have this constant stream of students, and obviously this is meeting a need.” Yarbrough said. “This is the third year we’re doing this, and she does get a pretty steady stream of friends coming in on the days that she’s here.” Since then, Sasha’s role in the community has ballooned.
1. What do we know about Sasha from the first paragraph?| A．She works six hours every day. |
| B．She goes to the office as Dr.Yarbrough’s pet. |
| C．She attracts students with improper behaviour. |
| D．She works by actively interacting with students. |
| A．The resisting reaction. |
| B．Ability to aid the disabled. |
| C．Fondness for people pleasing. |
| D．Obeying the commands precisely. |
| A．The popularity of Sasha. |
| B．The expectation of Yarbrough. |
| C．The hardship of Sasha’s work. |
| D．The feedback of the community. |
| A．To present puppy training strategies. |
| B．To introduce a special campus therapist. |
| C．To launch an appeal for animal conservation. |
| D．To highlight the significance of pets’company. |
6 . I was an environmental educator, tasked with instilling nature consciousness in young minds. My boss gave me standards for my nature hikes: “Educate students about river pollution”,“Inform students of regional endangered species”, or “Equip students to understand recycling.” While I did my best to engage with my tag-alongs, and give them an outdoor adventure, I noticed a disturbing tend — when the kids talked about their own relationships with nature, they were full of guilt and fear.
Through the continuous stream of information now available in the modern age, the kids’ young minds were filled with the knowledge of deforestation, forest fires, extinct species, polluted waterways, and celebrities telling them to “do better”. Well-meaning but heavy-handed programs laid these big, scary problems at their feet, and then offered little help for tiny hands. After participating in classes like this for years, I can confidently report that the result of such teaching was often little more than helplessness, and continued disconnection from nature .
Rather than scaring kids, we need to use fun, adventure, discovery, and locally connected efforts to truly educate children about their world. I’ d like to advocate different approaches: Making creative art projects with things that can be found in nature or in daily life to show them the importance of conserving resources, creating a model ocean to teach them about ocean oil spills (泄漏) and pollution: gardening with them and teaching them about how plants grow so as to give them experience with taking care of nature, taking them to a zoo, farm, beach, or forest to see different types of animals.
While it’s important that we all collectively help raise today’s children to be tomorrow’s environimental advocates, it deserves more attention to how to raise an environmentally conscious child to care about the environment without guilt or fear.
1. What does the underlined word “tag-alongs” in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Hikes | B．Surveys. | C．Colleagues. | D．Students. |
| A．They lacked knowledge of climate change. |
| B．Regional species were endangered or dangerous. |
| C．Real information on the environment was inaccessible. |
| D．They were burdened with enormous negative eco issues. |
| A．Unconcerned. | B．Critical. | C．Favorable. | D．Unclear. |
| A．Making crafts out of empty tissue boxes. |
| B．Reading the books about resource recycling. |
| C．Lecturing students on ocean spills and pollution. |
| D．Watching videos about plant growing in the classroom. |
7 . Andrew McCarthy-stars roles in era-defining movies such as Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo’s Fire and Less Than Zero. But he is also an award-winning travel writer whose books include The Longest Way Home (2012) and Walking With Sam (2021). In the new book, he looks back on an epic adventure, where he walked 500 miles across Spain’s Camino de Santiago with his 19-year-old son, Sam.
McCarthy had hoped the trip would be a way to re-examine their evolving relationship, as Sam was just stepping into his own manhood. “I wanted to get to know my son. Not just in the parent-child, dominant-submissive or unruly roles, but as adults, as equals, as peers (同龄人),” he said. “The Camino gave me the greatest luxury you have with adult children—which is time.” For McCarthy it was a chance to spend time with Sam, and perhaps avoid repeating the history he had with his own father. “My relationship with my dad ended pretty much when I left home at 17 years old, and I didn’t want that happen with my kids,” MeCarthy said.
The book’s structure follows the path of the Camino, with a chapter per day over the course.
It creates a pleasant rhythm of the trail. It also establishes a gradual sense of community and friendship among the other walkers they encounter, and paints a clear picture of McCarthy as somebody extremely in touch with his feelings.
Sometimes physical togetherness and shared experiences are the most you can ask for in a relationship, and there are lovely examples of both here. In one scene McCarthy realizes Sam is suffering from a sugar crash, and offers him a protein bar he’s been saving for just such a moment. “I reach out and rub his shoulder,” McCarthy writes.“He nods softly, gratefully. We sit together as thousands upon thousands of dandelion puffs (蒲公英) float in the air like dancing diamonds.” Walking with Sam captures this encouraging and hopeful expedition as the pair walk across the country and towards one another.
1. What do we know about Walking With Sam according to paragraph 1?| A．A fantasy novel. | B．A travel memoir. |
| C．A prize-winning diary entry. | D．An era-defining movie. |
| A．To honor his father. | B．To help his son fly the nest. |
| C．To bond with his son. | D．To seek for writing inspiration. |
| A．Comparison and contrast | B．Cause and effect |
| C．Facts and opinions | D．Sequence of events |
| A．Plain but functional. | B．Inspiring and touching. |
| C．Brief but informative. | D．Humorous and straightforward. |
8 . DREAMING OF A NEW OFFICE?
Are you undisturbed by the chill of the Antarctic winds? Can you adapt to near-constant daylight, subzero temperatures and no flushing toilet (抽水马桶) or running water? Ready to take on the challenges of living and working in one of the most remote corners of the Earth? The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust invites passionate individuals to join our team at Base A on Goudier Island, Antarctica.
As a member of our elite team, you’ll manage a museum, post office, and gift shop as well as conducting penguin counts. You will live and work at Base A at Port Lockroy on Goudier Island, which is about the size of a football pitch. Imagine waking to breathtaking landscapes, surrounded by curious penguins and the vast expanse of untouched wilderness. This is not just a job — it’s an expedition, a chance to make history while living among the impressive beauty of Antarctica.
Applicants must possess resilience, physical fitness, and environmental awareness. Training will begin in August, ahead of the working period from late October or November until March, 2025. Interview s and selection events will be conducted to ensure the best fit for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Join us in our mission to preserve Antarctica’s rich heritage and contribute to global conservation efforts. Apply by 25 April at jobs @ ukaht. Org and become part of an adventure that will leave you forever changed.
1. What’s the challenge of the advertised positions?| A．Extreme heat. | B．Total darkness. |
| C．Tough working conditions. | D．Drinking water shortage. |
| A．Counting penguins. | B．Maintaining a football field. |
| C．Opening a gift shop. | D．Appreciating the scenery. |
| A．5 months or so. | B．Less than 3 months. |
| C．About 13 weeks. | D．Around 7 months. |
9 . The protesters who had gathered on a lawn in Rome’s central Piazz a Venezia came from neighborhoods all around the capital, but they had one concern in common: saving the towering umbrella pine trees that for centuries have decorated the city’s skyline but are disappearing in alarming numbers.
Celebrated in music and art, and admired by the ancient Romans, the trees are as much a part of the city’s identity as its human-made landmarks. “They are in the hearts, photographs and memories of everyone,” said Jacopa Stinchelli, who is helping lead the defense of the pines, which in recent years have taken a turn for the worse.
An attack by an invasive pest, which sneaked into Italy about a decade ago, has killed many trees. In the eyes of some Romans, however, it’s not just the bugs that are to blame but also a city government that has struggled to deliver basic services.
Critics say that the pines have been subjected to indiscriminate removal, with trees that could still have been saved. They claim that during the past two years at least 4,000 potentially curable trees have been chopped down. While it’s hard to lay responsibility on Rome’s municipal government for the invasion of pests, critics say the city could be doing more to preserve the pines.
The primary method to counter the pest in urban areas involves injecting a special insecticide into the tree to kill the female population. But the current costly and high-maintenance approach “can’t be a permanent solution,” said Pio Federico Roversi, the director of a national research center for plant protection. “We’d better introduce natural predators—animals that kill and eat the pests, which doesn’t pose a risk for the Italian environment,” Mr. Roversi said.
Sabrina Alfonsi, the member of Rome’s City Council, said in an interview that the city had set aside 100 million euros, or $110 million, to care for the city’s green spaces. All infected pines had been treated, she added, the city has begun monitoring all its 350,000 trees of various species.
No solution is likely to eliminate the pest problem entirely, Mr. Roversi said, but it could become manageable “so that the plants no longer suffer.”
1. What can we learn about the umbrella pines in recent years?| A．The distribution is hugely uneven. |
| B．They have faded out of Roman mind. |
| C．The number has dropped dramatically. |
| D．They are used to celebrate special occasions. |
| A．Remove the bugs as soon as possible. |
| B．Make efforts to defend curable pines. |
| C．Chop down the trees destroyed by pests. |
| D．Take responsibility for the invasion of pests. |
| A．By using natural enemies. |
| B．By spraying chemical pesticides. |
| C．By replanting pines resistant to pests. |
| D．By establishing a nature reserve for pines. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Skeptical. | C．Discontented. | D．Approving. |
10 . When does spring begin? For some, it’s the second Sunday in March, when we turn our clocks forward by an hour in the United States. For others, it’s when they first realize they’ve finished dinner and it’s still light out. This year, impatient as ever for winter to end, I decided to skip my usual routine of calendar watching and see if I couldn’t do something to speed up spring’s arrival.
It’s only a three-hour flight from La Guardia (rainy, cold), New York to West Palm Beach (sunny,81 degrees, slight breeze), Florida and from there an hour’s drive to Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, the spring training home of the New York Mets, where the traffic of more than 7,000 fans descended. Here in Port St. Lucie on a Tuesday afternoon, weeks before the season’s official start, cheery fans were dressed in lightweight clothing, drinking Modelo Especial and snacking on peanuts, heckling(起哄)the players. Here, spring was already happening.
Being outdoors in the sunshine and fresh air, things do feel slower and easier. I love that baseball has long been considered America’s national pastime. A pastime is something that makes the passing of time pleasant. Isn’t that what we’re dying for in the winter months? Something that makes time not just tolerable but enjoyable?
By the time I left Florida, it was pouring rain and even a little chilly. How was I supposed to take springtime home with me, I wondered fiercely. It was still raining in New York when I landed. Spring isn’t just weather, of course, and it certainly makes no promises about rain. I'm trying to resist cliché (陈词滥调), to keep from saying something similar to “spring is a state of mind,” even though I wish it were.
I went looking for spring and I found it where spring breakers find it every year, already in full swing in the Sunshine State. My own official removal of woolen coats will occur on Tuesday, when spring finally arrives. But having experienced 24 hours of spring’s full pageant (盛会), my own little preseason, I feel slightly pacified. Perhaps I can be patient as spring establishes itself, and offer the season a little grace as it clicks into place.
1. What is presented in Paragraph 1?| A．Spring falls on a fixed date. |
| B．Spring came late this year. |
| C．The author was longing for spring restlessly. |
| D．The author was celebrating the end of winter. |
| A．A fast-paced world. | B．Full of a joyful atmosphere. |
| C．The birthplace of baseball. | D．Home to delicious food. |
| A．Puzzled. | B．Disappointed. | C．Curious. | D．Calm. |
| A．In Search of Spring | B．In Praise of Spring |
| C．A Trip to Florida | D．A Farewell to New York |
