1 . How to Survive High School

It may feel impossible to survive even a day of high school, let alone three years. However, there are a lot of things you can do to make your high school experience one of the best times of your life.

    1     During high school, you may feel under pressure to fit in. You need to try your best to fight the negative feelings and learn to have a change. High school actually gives you an opportunity to discover a real YOU and grow as a person, but it's important that any change should come from within.

Make friends with a variety of people. Try to break out of your comfort zone by starting a conversation with people, especially strangers.     2     Over time, you'll develop a friend group filled with unique individuals that like you for who you are and add a lot of value to your life. But do remember — Stay away from the ones who hold negative attitudes towards everything.

Spare regular time for exercise.     3     However, even if you're not involved in a sport, try to exercise every day. Though you may feel like your study schedule is jam-packed, remember that staying fit will help improve your school performance.

Don't avoid interacting with your teachers. You don't have to be a teacher's pet, though.     4     If possible, spend a few minutes before or after class talking with your teachers about things related to their subject.

With these tips to survive high school, you will surely be proud of graduating as an all-round approaching adult.

A．Let yourself be who you really are.

B．Learn to change and impress your friends.

C．Everybody has something to contribute to your growth as a person.

D．Pressure from friends is one factor that turns teenagers into risk-takers.

E．Try your best to be kind and friendly to everybody you take a class from.

F．Joining a school sports team is also a great way to meet like-minded people.

2 . NOTICE FOR ALL STAFF (员工)

We have been finding that the cockroaches (蟑螂) and fruit flies are everywhere in our lunch room. We will be closing the room down from Friday, June 23until Friday, June 30 in order to have it killed with some chemicals. Please remove all personal items from the room, as anything left on the night of Thursday, June 22, will be thrown out.

This will not solve the whole situation completely. The staff who use the room must also play a key part after the measure is taken, being attentive not to leave any food out. Also, we ask that you wash any dishes you use immediately, and that you check the fridge so that no moldy (发霉的) food stays in there.

Together, we can make it a place that we enjoy spending time in. Questions? Please contact Susie Repoliski.

1. The above text is aimed at.

A．providing a location for an event	B．conducting a survey on the stuff's interest
C．inviting suggestions and comments	D．giving information and asking for cooperation

2. What do the staff need to do before the killing measure?

A．Power off the fridge in the room.	B．Buy some special chemicals.
C．Take their belongings out of the room.	D．Throw out the dishes in the room.

3. To make sure the problem doesn't return, the staff should________.

A．clean their plates right away	B．not use the room to eat in
C．participate in the killing activity	D．not leave food in the fridge

3 . DON’T FORGET

POSTCODE YOUR PROPERTY

In only 9% of cases where something has been stolen is property returned.

Marked property can stop burglars because it’s harder for a thief to sell and can help the police to return it if found.

Mark items with some understandable information-showing your postcode and the number of your house or flat or the first two letters of its name-using a permanent etching tool or an ultraviolent marker pen. Only use UV marking when other methods would reduce the value of the object — because the mark can fade.

1. The first half of the postcode indicates your town and district, such as: NT 42 9.
2. The last 2 letters pinpoint one strect or part of a street, such as: NT 42 9WA
3. Mark your valuables using the postcode followed by your house number such as NT 42 9WA7

Take pictures of all valuable items like jewellery and silverware and write down the serial numbers of your TV, video, hi-fi, home computer and camera equipment, to help the police identify them should they be recovered. If you have many valuable items, fit a safe.

Ask your local police station for postcode property stickers to display in the front and back windows of your house.

BE A GOOD NEIGHBOUR
If you see anyone acting strangely in your neighborhood, call the police. There are now over 130,000 Neighborhood Watch Schemes in this country — why not join one? Anyone can start up a Watch — call your police for details.
IF YOU ARE BURGLED

A secure home will reduce the chance of you getting burgled. But, if you get home and notice is of a break-in:

●Don’t go in or call out — the intruder could still be inside Go to a neighbors’ house to call the police CRIME PREVENTION ADVICE

All police forces have offices trained in crime prevention-contact your local station for advice. Some forces can arrange surveys of your home or workplace and recommend security improvements. This is a popular service — if there’s a waiting list, you may be sent an information pack so that you can do your own survey.

1. The passage talks mainly about         .

A．how to beat the burglar

B．how to keep your valuables safe

C．how to live happily in a neighborhood

D．how to deal with police forces properly

2. Mary has marked her camera with “NJ 25 7PS 9” according to the suggestion given by the passage. What does the last number “9”refer to?

A．Part of a street name.	B．Her house number.
C．Postcode of acity.	D．Her car plate number.

3. Which of the following is a suggestion given in the passage?

A．Attach “postcode property” stickers to your valuables.

B．Keep silent if you sense your house has been broken into.

C．Tell your neighbor about anyone who behave strangely.

D．Design a survey to find out if your home needs improving.

4 . We all have friends that need a little advice, but one of the problems with those types of conversations is that it’s really easy to come off as a know-it-all when you’re offering help. When you do that, nobody’s going to listen.

    1     But it’s not an easy conversation to have someone, especially when you know all the extenuating circumstances of the situation. I talked with relationship and family therapist Roger S. Gil to get some advice for dealing with these situations.

Obviously not everyone is looking for your advice. Before you go offering up your point of view, make sure they’re interested in hearing it. As Roger Gil points out, often friends aren’t looking for you to solve a problem. They just want you to listen and maybe ask some questions. So, ask if they’d like to hear your input or insights on a problem, but also ask questions about why thee feel a certain way. If they say “no”, let them finish their story and listen politely.     2     Just wait for them to finish complaining before offering advice (or asking if they want). Sometimes the best way to figure something out is to do it on their own.

Speaking of listening. It’s also a good idea to figure out right away what your friends want from you. Gil describes this as differentiating between opinions, expert advice, and being a “sounding board”. Essentially, don’t pretend like you know something you don’t.     3    

Now that you know whether or not your friends or family actually want your advice, it’s time to learn how to advise without sounding like a know-it-all. This is a lot harder than you might think. As Gil points out, one way to offer advice without sounding pretentious (自以为是的) is to avoid “You should” statements.     4     By offering up your opinion clearly defined as your opinion, you remove the implication that “you know best”.

A．Definitely don’t act like you’ve been in a situation you haven’t been in.

B．Different situations require different approaches so we need to know what we should contribute.

C．Gil also adds that even when you know the answer to something, you might want to keep your mouth shut.

D．Gil’s advice, seems obvious, but it’s incredibly easy to get on your high-horse and use “You should” if you’re not careful.

E．When you have a friend who’s stuck in trouble, it’s normal to want to provide some type of insight to get them out of it.

F．However, the key is to make sure you stay in “listening mode” for as long as possible, and you don’t push your advice when it isn’t wanted.

5 . While some say school safety depends on guns, cameras or alarms in classrooms, Mark Gomer and Kristi Schiller think specially trained dogs should play an important role in preventing violence in schools.

Gomer’s for-profit company has sent a gun-and-drug detecting dog to patrol (巡查) the halls of an Ohio high school, while Schiller is launching a nonprofit program in Houston to give schools the trained dogs for free.

Gomer’s first full-time safety dog is a three-year-old Dutch shepherd named Atticus, who is reported to duty this school year at Oak Hills High School in Green Township in southwest Ohio. The dog was trained at the school before the summer break, said Gomer, co-owner of American Success Dog Training in Bridgetown, Ohio. Atticus has won over students, parents, teachers and district Superintendent Todd Yohey, who initially worried what people would think of him spending $10,000 on a dog. Gomer has talked to a lot of parents and faculty, and they are saying it was money well-spent, he said.

For her part Schiller is looking to provide safety dogs to schools free of charge. She hopes her new initiative, program “K9S4KIDS”, does for schools what her program “K9S4COPS” did for police departments. She has placed more than 60 dogs with agencies in three years. “These dogs are extremely social, yet highly qualified warriors that are accustomed to going straight to the source of a threat or shooter and disengaging the suspect armed with the weapon,” said Schiller.

As the programs get up and running, questions remain about possible health problems and distractions the dogs can cause.

A school safety expert said those are concerns parents and schools will have to work out. Ken Trump, president of the Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services consulting firm, discussed the issue in general because he was not familiar with either program.

He said the dogs would have to be extremely social to deal with students’ initial excitement “Kids are going to like those dogs,” Trump said, “There are concerns to work around, but with the right dogs and right handler and the right policies and procedures, they should be very beneficial. The dog might be a distraction in the beginning, but they will become part of what students expect to see when they go to school.” “There is so much these dogs can do,” said Ted Dahlin, a deputy who serves on the K9S4COPS board of directors. “If I were going to pick a school to make trouble, it would be one that I knew didn’t have a dog.”

1. Which of the following statements is TRUE about Gomer’s program?

A．Atticus is only welcomed by students.

B．Atticus is provided to the schools free of charge.

C．The main job of Atticus is to patrol a school in Houston.

D．Parents and faculty think the money spent on Atticus is worthwhile.

2. Schiller’s comment on the dogs she provides indicate that ________.

A．dogs have a sharp sense of threat and danger

B．she is confident that the dogs are helpful in schools

C．dogs are a kind of helpful, loyal and qualified animal

D．even suspects armed with weapons are afraid of dogs

3. We can conclude that Ken Trump ________.

A．believes that dogs can be part of students’ school life

B．is a school safety expert supporting one of the programs

C．doesn’t approve of students’ attitudes about dogs in schools

D．agrees that the concerns outweigh the benefits of the program

4. What Ted Dahlin has said implies that ________.

A．he is not going to make trouble in schools

B．having a dog strengthens a school’s safety

C．he likes dogs and really wants to have one

D．more should be considered for planning a crime

6 . Could your dog be prone to a fatal disease? Is your new shelter pup part beagle or boxer? Many pet owners seek answers to these questions, and as a result, direct-to-consumer dog DNA testing is booming.

Human interfering with dog DNA has long been the driving factor behind dogs’ breed diversity — or lack thereof. But a dog’s DNA can also be used to confirm their lineage (血统) or identify their breed, a boon for pet owners on the lookout for breed-specific health or behavioral challenges or those looking to confirm their dog really has the heritage claimed by a breeder or seller. During DNA analysis, labs sequence the dog’s DNA and look for similarities with a dataset of identified dog breeds.

But breed identification isn’t as simple as it might seem. In a study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association last month, scientists looked into the accuracy of breed prediction in commercially available DNA tests that required a photo of the dog in addition to its DNA sample. The results were mixed, says Casey Greene, a professor who co-authored the study.

“Most tests could accurately distinguish the breed of purebred dogs,” says Greene. But the analysis suggested that some testing companies might rely on the photo more than the dog’s actual genetics — and revealed big differences between companies’ business practices and the genetic datasets they use to determine dog breeds.

The researchers submitted photos and DNA of 12 purebred dogs to a total of six commercial canine (犬的) ancestry identification services. Since each pup was purebred and possessed extensive American Kennel Club paperwork, the researchers knew their breed conclusively—but in some cases they provided a photo of a different dog to see if the photo influenced the DNA results. One of the companies misidentified a purebred Chinese crested dog — almost entirely hairless — as a long-haired Brittany spaniel, seemingly based on the photo alone. The other five did identify the registered breed correctly, but often gave different predictions for other “ancestor” breeds in dogs whose DNA suggested mixed breeding in prior generations. The researchers concluded that veterinarians and pet owners alike should “approach direct-to-consumer tests with caution” given the lack of industry standardization and at least one company’s reliance on photographs instead of DNA analysis.

Despite these concerns, though. dog DNA seems headed for a golden age — and the insights revealed through further study of Fido’s genome (基因组) have already reached far beyond the doghouse. Domesticated dogs have emerged as surprising superstars in medical research that benefits humans. According to researchers, that’s just the beginning. With implications ranging from entertaining to consequential, there’s no telling what dog DNA will continue to unleash.

1. The underlined word “boon” in paragraph two is closest in meaning to ________.

A．blessing

B．substitute

C．duty

D．struggle

2. According to the passage, dog DNA testing can serve the following purposes except that ________.

A．it assists in accurately determining the breed a dog belongs to

B．it helps to predict whether dogs are subject to certain diseases

C．it provides pet owners with insights into dogs’ behavioral challenges

D．it sequences the DNA of identified dog breeds to find their similarities

3. Which of the following statements can be concluded from the passage?

A．Photos play a more significant role in identifying a dog’s breed than its actual genetics.

B．It is a common phenomenon that the DNA analysis of dogs may yield mixed results.

C．Commercial dog DNA tests still have limitations and should be dealt with cautiously.

D．Direct-to-consumer tests overshadow DNA analysis in identifying purebred dogs.

4. What does the passage suggest about the future of dog DNA testing?

A．Controversies regarding its reliability are here to stay.

B．It is bound to make breakthroughs in the fields of medicine and entertainment.

C．It can step into a golden age as long as some research limitations are fixed.

D．It may have far-reaching significance and be applied to a wider range of areas.

7 . Until we start to lose our balance, we barely notice that it’s there at all. “It starts for a lot of people with simple stuff,” says Dr Anna Lowe, an expert on healthy ageing and physical activity. “    1     It’s easy to either miss the signs or just put it down to ageing — but it really is something you can affect.”

The key, it is increasingly becoming clear, is to address the decline before it gets serious: and that can happen earlier than you might think.

What is balance? Technically, it’s the complex interaction of several different systems in your body — from muscles, nerves, eyesight and the inner ear to the sensory system that lets you recognise where your body is touching the ground, along with movement receptors within your joints that tell you where your body is in space.     2    

A lack of balance is, globally, associated with serious health problems. Earlier this year, the British Journal of Sports Medicine published the results of a decade-long study involving more than 1,700 middle-aged participants, which concluded that an inability to balance was associated with an almost twofold increase in risk of death.

“    3    ” agrees Lowe, an associate professor researching strength and balance in midlife. “Older women are far less active than older men, and general activity, just moving around and doing stuff, affects balance a lot. Single-legged movements, such as walking lunges, are a great test of dynamic (动态的) balance, but even bilateral movements, like squats (深蹲), can provide a challenge.”

    4     Resistance exercise, whether that means lifting weights or hiking with a backpack, comes with a host of other proven health benefits, from improved bone density to a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s. As Locker puts it: everyone’s told to save money for their retirement, and nobody’s taught to save their balance. But both are difficult to get back once they’re gone.

A．Early interventions are key, so you’ve got to stay active.

B．Perhaps surprisingly, those who deal with it have struggled to settle on a single definition.

C．It’s not something we’re born with, but also it’s not something we learn, but an ability that we gain early and lose over time.

D．For some people. just try to build in an element of balance and muscle strengthening.

E．Maybe you used to be able to quickly stand on one leg to put a shoe on, and you’ve stopped doing that at some point.

F．Whatever activity you choose, the lesson is to work on your balance before you need to, not when it becomes an issue.

8 .

IN CONTEXT BRANCH Geology BEFORE 6th century BCE The Greek thinker Thales of Miletus notes magnetic rocks, or lodestones (天然磁石). 1st century CE Chinese diviners make primitive compasses with iron spoon that can turn around to point south. 1269 French scholar Pierre de Maricourt sets out the basic laws of magnetic attraction, repulsion, and poles. AFTER 1824 French mathematician Siméon Poisson models the forces in a magnetic field. 1940s American physicist Walter Maurice Elsasser attributes Earth’s magnetic field to iron swirling in its outer core as the planet rotates. 1958 Explorer 1 space mission shows Earth’s magnetic field extending far out into space.

By the late 1500s, ships’ captains already relied on magnetic compasses to maintain their course across the oceans. Yet no one knew how they worked. Some thought the compass needle was attracted to the North Star, others that it was drawn to magnetic mountains in the Arctic. It was English physician William Gilbert who discovered that Earth itself is magnetic. Stronger reasons are obtained from sure experiments and demonstrated arguments than from probable conjectures (推测) and the opinions of philosophical speculators. William Gilbert Gilbert’s breakthrough came not from a flash of inspiration, but from 17 years of careful experiment. He learned all he could from ships’ captains and compass makers, and then he made a model globe, or “terrella,” out of the magnetic rock lodestone and tested compass needles against it. The needles reacted around the terrella just as ships’ compasses did on a larger scale—showing the same patterns of declination (pointing slightly away from true north at the geographic pole, which differs from magnetic north) and inclination (tilting down from the horizontal toward the globe). Gilbert concluded, rightly, that the entire planet is a magnet and has a core of iron. He published his ideas in the book De Magnete (On the Magnet) in 1600, causing a sensation. Johannes Kepler and Galileo, in particular, were inspired by his suggestion that Earth is not fixed to rotating celestial spheres, as most people still thought, but is made to spin by the invisible force of its own magnetism.

1. Before the 16^th century, how did captains navigate across oceans?

A．The North Star navigated their ships.

B．The magnetic mountains in the Arctic guided their journey.

C．Magnetic compasses helped them maintain the course.

D．The forces in a magnetic field attracted the ships.

2. How did William Gilbert find out the fact that Earth itself is magnetic?

A．Through trials and errors.

B．Through some personal philosophical speculation.

C．By acquiring some flash inspiration.

D．By studying the ideas of some philosophers.

3. Which of the following statement might Galileo agree with?

A．The earth stays still.

B．Gilbert successfully refuted the laws of magnetic attraction.

C．Gilbert’s findings and conclusions are sensational.

D．The earth has its own magnetic field.

9 . My husband and I live near San Luis Obispo, California, close to the beach. In November 2023, during the humpback whale migration, we kayaked (划皮划艇) out to watch the wildlife. We were in awe watching these graceful whales breach and spray through their blowholes.

At the time, my friend Liz was staying with us. Initially, she refused to join us on the water, fearing the kayak would overturn among the whales. After some cajoling (劝说) she finally agreed to join me. The following morning, we set out early and had our first whale sighting just past the pier: two humpbacks swimming toward us. How amazing to be that close to a creature that size, I thought as the whales dipped under the waterline.

When whales go down after breaching, they leave what looks like an oil slick on the water. I figured if we paddled toward that spot, we’d be safe from the whales, since they’d just left. We followed them at a distance — or what I thought was a distance. I later found out that it’s recommended to keep 300 feet away. We were more like 60 feet away.

Suddenly, we were surrounded by jumping silverfish fleeing from the whales. Before we could react, our kayak was lifted out of the water about six feet, bracketed by massive jaws. Liz and I slipped out of the kayak into the whale’s mouth. As the whale’s mouth closed, I felt the creature begin to dive and had no idea how deep we’d be dragged. Still, I didn’t panic. I just kept thinking. I’ve got to fight this. I’ve got to breathe.

Whales have enormous mouths but tiny throats. Anything they can’t swallow they spit right out. That included us. As soon as the whale dipped underwater, it ejected us, and we popped back up onto the surface about a foot apart. The entire ordeal lasted only about 10 seconds.

Other kayakers rushed to our aid, shocked to see us alive. But I am much more aware of the power of nature and the ocean than I was before. Liz was shaken up, comparing the ordeal to a near-death experience, and she says her whale-watching days are over. But even she had to laugh when she got home that afternoon and realized she’d brought back a souvenir. When she pulled off her shirt, six silverfish flopped out.

1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．At first, Liz was hesitant to go on the kayaking trip because she was not interested in whale watching.

B．If Liz and I had maintained a distance of 300 feet from the whales, we might have avoided the subsequent danger.

C．Liz and I slipped into the whale’s mouth because jumping silverfish overturned our kayak.

D．Liz is likely to go on another whale-watching trip someday because she found a precious souvenir from this kayaking.

2. How did the narrator feel during the whale encounter?

A．Terrified and panicked.	B．Disoriented underwater
C．Calm and focused.	D．Regretful about going kayaking.

3. The underlined word “ordeal” in Paragraph 5 probably means____.

A．a challenging or difficult experience	B．a thrilling experience
C．a surprising encounter	D．a joyful adventure

4. What would be the best title of this passage?

A．How to Survive a Whale Attack	B．Respecting the Power of Nature
C．A Day at San Luis Obispo Beach	D．I Survived Being Swallowed By a Whale

10 . He’s considered the father of the technological innovation, and apart from that, he was also known as a design perfectionist. There is no single executive or creator in the technology industry who is more creative and inspirational than him, and with that being said he was a one-in-billion creator.

On February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, United States, a baby named Steve Jobs entered the world. His parents’ inability to provide for him led to a difficult childhood, one in which he battled with his sense of self and felt constantly confused and unfulfilled. Nonetheless, who could have predicted that this person would cause such a dramatic shift in the information technology? The way Steve Jobs showed the world the new products and devices he was working on was truly out of this world, and that’s a big part of why he’s so beloved.

Steve Jobs was well-informed, but he was not a scholar. He possessed a high IQ but showed little enthusiasm for formal education. His main hobbies were playing tricks on people via phone and computer, goofing off with his best friends, and coming up with ground-breaking business concepts.

Steve Jobs’ philosophy on education is well-known at this point; he has stated publicly that he was only able to learn after leaving college. When Steve Jobs and his friend Wozniak were in their early 20s, they came up with the idea for the Apple Computer. Steve Jobs’ Volkswagen bus and Wozniak’s beloved scientific calculator were sold to finance the pair’s garage-based startup. Jobs and Wozniak have been given much of credit for democratizing the computer industry by making computers more user-friendly, portable, and affordable.

Wozniak envisioned a line of accessible and lightning-fast personal computers, and Jobs was put in charge of the company’s marketing and management. From the get-go, Apple sold the computers for up to $666. The unexpected greatness of their early success inspired them to develop more powerful machines. In the 70s, they accomplished what would become the company’s crowning achievement. Assembled by Apple, Inc. , the high-performance computer was an instant success in their home state of California, and its sales helped make Jobs a multimillionaire.

1. Which of the following is a big reason for Jobs being beloved?

A．Jobs revolutionized the technology industry.

B．Jobs realized his dream despite his painful childhood.

C．Jobs employed an extraordinary way to present the new devices.

D．Jobs is the most creative and motivational person in the technology industry.

2. What does the underlined phrase “goofing off” in paragraph three most probably mean?

A．quitting school	B．playing around
C．starting a business	D．learning knowledge

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Jobs is keen on keeping in contact with friends via phone and computer.

B．Jobs and Wozniak advocated democracy for every staff in the computer industry.

C．Jobs showed less passion for education because of the influence of his difficult childhood.

D．The economic situation was a barrier to Jobs and Wozniak when they started their business.

4. Which of the following does Jobs most probably agree with?

A．All things come to those who always choose to wait.

B．The only thing that keeps you going is that you love what you do.

C．Knowledge makes you humble, while ignorance makes you proud.

D．If you look at what you have in your life, you will always have more.