1 . Here are some favorite films and TV shows of 2023.
Better Things, Season 5
What Pamela Adlon and her special, Iovable, anxious, sensitive, humorous, weak, rude and brilliant colleagues managed to bring to these characters over five seasons was special. Few shows have made me feel emotions so deeply with every episode. Even fewer have felt truly aspirational, inviting me to dream of having a community as warm and welcoming as the one Sam has created and raised alongside her three children, her mother and the many friends who are basically family.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Mo
Mo Amo’s half hour comedy is a heartfelt family story with an incredible flavor. The fictional Mo’s endless struggles have led him into a dilemma, which makes him easily to various economic risks and the potential risks that may arise from his decisions. The center of the program is Amir’s sharp and compassionate performance, which is in line with both the elements of comedy and the child’s love for his mother’s homemade olive oil.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
The Last Movie Stars
Directed by Ethan Hawke, this thorough and thoughtful look at the lives of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman is not just biography; it perfectly illustrates the combination of heroes and art. Hawke’s assembly of contemporary actors to read from old interviews with Hollywood legends works brilliantly, and the result is impressive as well as deeply touching.
Genre: Biography, Documentary, Romance
1. Which of the following movie is a hero biography?| A．Better Things, Season 5. | B．Mo. |
| C．The Last Movie Stars. | D．None of them. |
| A．Both of them were delayed. |
| B．Both of their theme is friendship. |
| C．Both of them will make you laugh. |
| D．Both of them talk about artist’s life. |
| A．Films brochure. | B．Newspaper. |
| C．Science report. | D．Biology textbook. |
2 . The magic of baseball is its fluid connection between players, each in the right position at the right time, playing their part to perfection. When a team is on the site of competition, there is nothing more breathtaking than baseball. But it takes a lot of practice to look effortless.
That’s what was happening —practice —one afternoon when the Valley High School team was distracted by a scream for help. Coach Brett Sawyer heard the noise and saw the en-tire team rushing towards the parking lot, jumping over fences.
One of their schoolmates was stuck under a car that had accidentally backed over her. One of the players, Chas Roberts, remembered afterward, “You had to do what you had to do to save someone’s life.” The players quickly surrounded the car, each taking a hold, and lifted the car. An assistant coach was then able to pull the girl out from underneath the car. She is expected to make a full recovery.
Maybe it’s the connection human beings have with each other, rushing in to help when it’s needed. And maybe playing together as a team became natural because each knew what to do. Or maybe it’s both. Maybe, deep inside, we all know that we are on the same team.
The next day, the varsity team lost their last game of the year. But winning was a little less important to them that day. The coach was proud of them for what they accomplished and said, “To be honest, we might not have the best baseball team around, but we do have a great group of guys.”
The magic of life is the fluid connection between people: how they love, how they share, how they help. There is nothing more breathtaking than the game of life well played.
1. What is the magic of baseball?| A．Right position and right time. |
| B．Strong team members and coaches. |
| C．Catching the ball wholly every time. |
| D．Collaboration among team members. |
| A．To save a girl’s life. | B．To solve the problem of noise. |
| C．To practice jumping over fences. | D．To run out and scream for help. |
| A．One schoolmate was stuck under a car. |
| B．Helping others is everyone’s born ability. |
| C．Lifting the car is not hard for their team. |
| D．An assistant coach led the whole process. |
| A．The magic of baseball | B．An unforgettable match |
| C．Teamwork that saves lives | D．Fluid connection between people |
3 . The exploration of the origin of the slow living movement in the Western world began with a slow eating movement in 1986. Slow food, which means purchasing local and sustainable food that has been carefully cooked, became a global movement. Slow food unavoidably stimulates the interest of the Western world in slowing down the pace of life, which does not require wolfing down low nutrient meals between back-to-back meetings, but advocates respecting the tradition and enjoyment of using time.
When we consider the alternate lifestyle that leads to stress and depression, it is a significant sign to poor health, woeful issues like headaches, sleep issues, digestive disorders, depression, and anxiety. With this in mind, slow living isn’t only more enjoyable; it is also a major boon for one’s overall health.
Kathleen DeVos, a mental psychology expert, said, “To me, slow living is as much about how we’re structuring our lives and spending our time as it is how we are relating to our time and the things in our life.”
The resolution to live a more thoughtful lifestyle is common. About 25% of Americans who made resolutions in 2022 focused on the intention to live a healthier life. Another 21% stated they were resolving to commit to their personal improvement or happiness. However, the idea of working towards a goal seems to be antithetical to the concept of slow living. After all, the point is to slow down, live more, and work less. Plus, many struggle to actually meet their resolutions.
Without a doubt, career demands and financial realities can outshine the possibility of slow living for many. However, if you find yourself in a dilemma of nine to nine and find it unbearable, then you must make a change. For those of you working in busy environments with urgent deadlines, the Pomodoro Techniques are ways to call in slowness into your daily life.
1. What made the slow living popular?| A．The slow pace of life. | B．A Western food festival. |
| C．A survey on sustainable food. | D．A slow eating movement. |
| A．Ridiculous. | B．Serious. |
| C．Mysterious. | D．Outstanding. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Objective. |
| A．Some career demands. | B．Some financial issues. |
| C．Specific Pomodoro Techniques. | D．The job dilemma of nine to nine. |
4 . How to Stay Cool and Save Money in Summer?
Although summer is filled with various fruits, food, and various water entertainment activities. But how to enjoy summer while saving energy and expenses?
Set your air conditioner to 28 degrees or higher.
An obvious pointer, but also one of the most ignored. Running your air conditioner at colder temperatures won’t cool down a room any faster than a more moderate setting, but it will force your system to work harder. Worse yet, it’s easy to forget to turn it back up.
Wear cool, loose clothing—even indoors.
Shorts, absorbent fabrics and loose-fitting clothes all work outdoors. They’ll work in-side, too. It’s your space: dress for comfort.
If you live in an area experiencing water shortages, skip this one. Otherwise, a quick three-minute cold shower is a fantastic way to cool down. Going longer than three minutes won’t make you feel much cooler, so skip the soap and just enjoy the relief. For regular showers, avoid using hot water during the summer. In most temperate locations, tap water is plenty warm for bathing by July. The cooler you run your shower, the less heat and steam you’ll need to remove from your living space. Use the exhaust fan if it’s vented outdoors.
Clean your air conditioning filter.
| A．Wear sunglasses |
| B．Take cold showers |
| C．The cooler your clothing |
| D．We have summarized some ways |
| E．It may also provide other health benefits |
| F．Stick with the warmest setting you can tolerate |
| G．Dirty filters will reduce air-conditioner efficiency |
5 . Giving and receiving gifts is one of the great pleasures of the holiday season, but that pleasure is somewhat reduced when you behold the pile of packaging waste that’s left behind. And this year, in the midst of America’s Great Recycling Crisis, the remainder packaging waste is a bigger deal than ever.
However, the US has failed to build additional recycling facilities, launch waste-reduction campaigns or even simply pressure manufacturers to come up with better packaging designs. Even a few of those things could have helped cope with this enormous problem. Instead, the recycling situation is in a state of chaos.
USA Today reports that countless cities across the country cannot find a market for their recyclables. Many are driving their trucks directly to the landfill. Others are paying recycling companies to take away their trash.
These issues, which are big enough on a day-to-day basis, are intensified during the holidays, when people are shopping and consuming more than ever, particularly online. Although UPS predicts it will deliver fewer packages this holiday season, it still expects to process several hundred million packages. If FedEx’s numbers match those from previous years, it will deliver around 400 million packages. That’s a whole lot of cardboard boxes, plastic bags, and packing peanuts.
Unfortunately, the lack of recycling infrastructure cannot change the unfortunate fact that our society has not yet been established to handle this level of waste. But knowing that, we have a clear responsibility to minimize this waste as best we can, and tackling it on a personal level is all we can do. We can avoid unnecessary packaging when shopping for and wrapping holiday gifts in a number of ways.
It’s not going to solve the recycling crisis overnight, but neither will improve our recycling facilities. What’s needed more than that is a dramatic shift in the way we shop and handle our goods, always moving toward less packaging.
1. Why is “Giving and receiving gifts” mentioned in Paragraph 1?| A．To prove a theory. | B．To introduce a topic. |
| C．To present an opinion. | D．To show current situation. |
| A．The recycling problem in the USA is severe. |
| B．Recycling companies play a vital role in America. |
| C．The landfill is the only way to solve package waste. |
| D．Government tries to find a market for their recyclables. |
| A．Fewer packages are delivered on holiday. |
| B．400 million cardboard boxes are delivered. |
| C．People shop more online during holidays. |
| D．FedEx fees are more favorable during holidays. |
| A．Emphasize UPS’s forecast for this year. |
| B．Inspire the setting up of recycling companies. |
| C．Criticize the inaction of the US government. |
| D．Appeal to people to reduce packaging waste. |
6 . Have you ever tried to persuade a friend to do what he didn’t really want to? If so, you may have made them uncomfortable and even annoyed, and crossed a boundary (界限).
Communicate clearly. It can be helpful to ask them frankly how they feel, rather than guess you can borrow their sweater or expect them to drive you to the airport. Apart from their words, it can also be helpful to pay attention to their tone (语气) and body language.
Deal with your emotional reactions. When someone sets a boundary in their relationship with you, you may find yourself feeling let down, which can cause you to feel hurt, angry, shocked or embarrassed.
Try to understand the reason behind the boundary. When you disagree with someone’s boundaries, exploring the reason why they’re setting them can help you understand their opinion better. If the boundary seems too rigid (僵硬的), you can offer your opinion.
| A．Depend on the boundary they’ve drawn |
| B．If they’re not familiar with sign language |
| C．Remember that everyone’s needs are different |
| D．Boundaries are limits set by people to protect themselves |
| E．It can be helpful to reflect on why you’re feeling that way |
| F．If their tone is unclear, or they’re trying to change the topic |
| G．Be kind and willing to let the person decide what’s best for them |
7 . Taking between 9,000 and 10,000 steps per day appears to reduce the risk of an early death or heart-related event, adding reason to an idea that has been considered as unscientific.
The exact origin of the commonly held belief that people should aim for 10,000 steps a day is unclear, but it has been linked to a marketing plan promoting pedometers (计步器) in Japan. Now, a study by Matthew Ahmadi at the University of Sydney, Australia, and his colleagues suggests the figure could hold some truth.
The team studied more than 72,000 participants, with an average age of 61, in the UK Biobank study as they wore a movement-tracking accelerometer (加速度计) on their wrists for one week. “We were able to know their daily steps,” says Ahmadi. The participants were then tracked for an average of just under seven years.
During that time period, 1,633 people died and 6,190 heart-related events occurred. After adjusting other factors that could influence the risk of illness or death over that period—such as diet quality, smoking and doing other forms of exercise, the researchers found out that the best number of steps per day appears to be between 9,000-and 10,000, with the benefits then starting to tail off. Doing so was linked to a 39% lower risk of dying during the follow-up period and a 21% lower risk of a heart-related event. “It does appear to support the belief that the originally non-evidence based 10,000 steps target may indeed be about right,” says Dale Esliger at Loughborough University in the UK.
However, while the study was “extremely well designed” with “careful methods and statistical analysis”, Esliger says wrist-worn accelerometers aren’t always the best indicator of step count. The researchers also didn’t consider the number of steps taken per minute. “It’s possible that around 6,000 steps performed at a higher pace may be just as health protective as 10,000 slower steps,” says Esliger.
1. What’s the finding of the study?| A．More than 10,000 steps a day do harm to the body. |
| B．21% of the participants died of heart-related events. |
| C．Walking 10,000 steps a day benefits physical health. |
| D．Hitting the target of 10,000 steps a day makes no sense. |
| A．How the study is carried out. |
| B．Whether a previous belief is true. |
| C．What is concluded about the study. |
| D．Why other factors should be removed. |
| A．Objective. | B．Unconcerned. | C．Favorable. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．A science magazine. | B．A technology report. |
| C．A history book. | D．An educational website. |
8 . Monarch butterflies (帝王蝶) are edging dangerously close to extinction despite a decision late last year to remove the orange-and-black insects from the endangered species list, a new study has found.
An annual survey led by the World Wildlife Fund(WWF)of the species wintering in central Mexico found the second-lowest number of monarch butterflies on record, meaning they took up just 2.2 acres of regional forests, 59% less than during the 2022 — 2023 winter season. The findings are troubling to scientists determined to protect the species.
Each year, monarch butterflies migrate (迁徙) thousands of miles from southern Canada and the northern and central US to the mountain forests of central Mexico. They require a large and healthy forest to protect them from winds, rain and low temperatures in the areas where they migrate for winter. Yet because of heat and drought brought on by climate change, scientists say, their natural habitat is quickly depleting. Scientists with the WWF considered this winter season’s findings serious and said they represented the second-smallest area taken up by monarch butterflies in Mexico since 1993.
What’s worse, in recent years, their breeding areas in Canada and the US have seen a reduction in milkweed leaves where female monarch butterflies lay their eggs. “Land-use changes in the United States, combined with the widespread use of chemicals, also contributed to the loss of milkweed and other plants that adult monarch butterflies feed on,” the WWF said.
Monarch butterflies play an important role in maintaining plant ecosystems and are also an important food source for birds, small animals and other insects, according to the National Park Service. It’s necessary that all governments, communities, scientists, and others continue to strengthen our protection efforts to support their unique migration.
1. Why do monarch butterflies fly to central Mexico each year?| A．To spend winter. | B．To lay eggs. |
| C．To search for shelter. | D．To escape from enemies. |
| A．Shifting. | B．Disappearing. | C．Recovering. | D．Increasing. |
| A．The loss of food sources. |
| B．The widespread use of chemicals. |
| C．The land-use changes in the United States. |
| D．The threat of being eaten by other animals. |
| A．To raise people’s awareness about climate change. |
| B．To call for more measures to protect monarch butterflies. |
| C．To inform people of the serious situation of monarch butterflies. |
| D．To prove monarch butterflies should be on the endangered species list. |
9 . Some people travel because they want to go to warm places for winter vacations or because they want to visit art museums in Europe. But other people travel simply because they have a passion for it.
Luisa Yu, a 79-year-old woman, fell in love with travel as a young girl in the province of Leyte in the Philippines when she watched movies. “I saw the beautiful scenery, the rivers and the mountains, and that fascinated me,” Yu said. “That’s why I always thought someday I would go to these places and travel.”
At 23, as an exchange student studying medical technologies in the US, Yu decided that she wanted to visit all of the countries in the world, but visa restrictions (限制) didn’t allow her to travel outside of the country.
It took Yu 15years to get her admission allowing her to travel internationally and there were times when she worked three jobs to save money to travel. She eventually took a part-time job as a travel agent, which gave her many more opportunities to travel to new places around the globe.
For the past 50 years, Yu has been visiting countries across the world, even some that are very difficult to get into. She has tried dog meat when she visited the DPRK, explored the beaches of Somalia, and even skydived in Dubai when she was 73. “Everyone said, ‘Don’t go to Somalia, that’s dangerous,’” Yu said. “If I want to go somewhere, nobody can stop me. I want to do everything.”
Yu achieved her goal to visit all of the 193 countries that are recognized by the UN, in November 2023. To date, there have only been around 400 people who have set out to achieve this amazing cause.
Yu’s advice to people who love to travel is to just do it. “Don’t wait for anybody. If I keep on waiting, it will never happen, because the opportunity sometimes comes only once,” she said.
1. What inspired Luisa Yu’s passion for travel?| A．The wonderful settings of the movies. | B．The desire to take a winter vacation abroad. |
| C．The dream of visiting art museums in Europe. | D．The studying opportunities while taking trips. |
| A．She searched for fortune through travel. | B．She longed to be a travel agent. |
| C．She shot to fame by accident. | D．She was fond of challenges. |
| A．Tough-minded and devoted. | B．Considerate and gifted. |
| C．Humorous and knowledgeable. | D．Responsible and powerful. |
| A．Meet Luisa Yu: One of 400 People Recognized by UN |
| B．Follow Luisa Yu’s Example: Seeking Adventure on Traveling |
| C．79-Year-Old Woman Has Traveled to 193 Countries Around the World |
| D．Travel Agent Surprises the World with the Longest of Travel Experience |
10 . Different countries celebrate festivals in their own unique ways. The same goes for the New Year. Let’s take a look at some unique New Year traditions from around the world.
Smashing (打碎) platesIf you walked out of your front door to find a load of smashed plates, you might be a bit confused. But that’s exactly what people in Denmark hope to find after midnight, as it represents good luck. Danish people go and smash a plate in front of a friend’s door on New Year’s Eve to bring good luck over the next 12 months.
Dropping thingsIn New York City, Times Square is the centre of the countdown to midnight. But the thing that everyone is looking forward to is called the “ball drop”, which is when a glowing (发光的) ball is lowered down a big flag pole (旗杆), marking the start of the New Year. Other cities in America now have their own traditions of dropping things on New Year’s Eve. For example, in Vincennes, Indiana, people drop watermelons from high places.
Eating grapesWhen the clocks hit midnight in Spain, you’ll find people reaching for grapes. This is because there is a tradition of eating one grape each time the clock strikes midnight. The idea is that this will bring people 12 lucky months in the year ahead.
Walking with an empty suitcaseIn some South American countries like Colombia, you might see some people on New Year’s Eve walking around with an empty suitcase. Some hold the belief that taking a “suitcase walk” means they will have a year full of adventures.
1. Why do Danish smash plates on New Year’s Eve?| A．To have fun. | B．To honor a poet. |
| C．To celebrate the harvest. | D．To bring good luck. |
| A．They exchange gifts. | B．They eat grapes. |
| C．They dress up as bears. | D．They drop halls from high places. |
| A．Denmark. | B．USA. | C．Colombia. | D．Spain. |
