1 . Every year as a kid at Girl Scout summer camp, the night I looked forward to most was the closing campfire, a few hours of silliness that marked our final evening together. All week, my roommates and I had kept perfecting our skit (滑稽短剧) performance, editing lines and practicing scenes.
Skits and songs are deeply rooted in the camp experience. The days might be all about sports or nature, but nighttime entertainment is a kid’s dream. Similar to a talent show, some performances are educational but mostly, they just make you laugh. Talent is not important, and audience engagement (参与) through call and response is essential.
Away from phones and peers back home, social norms (规范) disappear and space for self-exploration forms. Shy kids come out of their shells, and cool kids let their guard down. They get to open up this door to a part of themselves that they wouldn’t have felt safe to show at school or at home.
It’s been a decade since my last performance as a camp counselor (顾问), and I never thought of skits from a skill-building aspect. But I now realize this rich camp tradition left a great impression on me. Through camp skits, I developed my sense of humor, built confidence in front of a crowd and learned how to accept others for their strangeness.
Maybe we can make our schools or communities more like summer camps by bringing the silliness of skits into our families and classrooms to reconnect with ourselves and each other. The next time you’re sitting around a campfire with friends and family, give it a try. Let your guard down, accept the discomfort and invite your loved ones to join in on the improvising (即兴创作). And remember: the more funny noises and childlike humor, the better.
1. What is the main purpose of skit performances at summer camp?A.To amuse and engage the audience. | B.To showcase talent and skills. |
C.To educate the audience. | D.To compete with fellow campers. |
A.Leave. | B.Relax. | C.Grow. | D.Respond. |
A.She developed a competitive spirit. |
B.She understood social norms better. |
C.She became more tolerant. |
D.She became more creative. |
A.Take up challenges in life. |
B.Accept our imperfections. |
C.Participate in more community activities. |
D.Break out of our comfort zone. |
2 . For many students, shift workers and others, getting enough sleep each night presents a dilemma. There is too much to do and not enough time to do it, so people often try to catch up on the weekends.
How many hours of sleep are really necessary?
As sleep debt accumulates, it impacts us in many ways including memory loss, immune function and stroke.
There are many ways to create a healthy sleep routine. Maintain a restful environment in the bedroom by keeping it quiet, dark and cool.
A.It’s not hard to calculate your sleep debt. |
B.Keep anything that might disturb you outside the bedroom. |
C.Many prefer a temperature of around 18 degrees Celsius for sleep. |
D.With a healthy sleep routine, you can get sufficient rest and protect your health. |
E.It has also been known to contribute to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and more. |
F.According to the Mayo Clinic, school-age children require nine to 12 hours a night. |
G.But researchers report that it takes longer than we think to replace missing hours of sleep. |
3 . Dror Angel, an ecologist, had for years heard his archaeologist (考古学家) colleagues talk about ancient shipwrecks on the bottom of the Black Sea that were perfectly preserved by the low-oxygen environment. “You can see ropes,” Angel says. “It’s something which is quite amazing.” Now, Angel wants to fight climate change by purposefully adding to the wreckage (残骸) , sinking waste wood to the sea floor, where carbon that the trees stored up can remain locked away for centuries.
Angel is a scientist for a company that could help limit global warming by drawing carbon out of the atmosphere and locking it up. However, some carbon capture (捕获) strategies require expensive machines and complex chemistry, burying waste wood at sea is extremely simple: All it takes are tugboats and woody waste from forestry and agriculture.
The approach has advantages over another popular ocean-based carbon capture strategy: growing massive amounts of seaweed. Because the plant material is grown on land rather than in the ocean, it is less likely to rob nutrients from the surrounding water and upset the ecology. Industrial agriculture and forestry could grow, process, and transport plants, in contrast to marine farming, which has never been attempted at scale. And because woody plants are tough and unlikely to break down, they are good at hanging on to their carbon.
At the same time, the approach may fall short of what’s needed to fight climate change. To keep global warming below 2°C, the world needs to capture and store about 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year by midcentury. But waste wood can be sunk only where supplies of it are located near suitable bodies of water. By one recent study, the approach could lock a few tens of billions of tons of carbon dioxide in total — just a little of the need.
“This approach is not going to solve the full problem,” says ocean engineer Kate Moran. “It’s going to be a small piece of the pie if it is considered to be more beneficial than risky.” But the urgency of carbon removal demands that every possible approach be explored thoroughly, she adds, “Anyway, we need all the tools in the toolbox.”
1. Why did the author cite “You can see ropes” in paragraph 1?A.Angel dropped the ropes into the deep sea for experiment. |
B.Things can be well preserved in the low-oxygen environment. |
C.Carbon that the ropes stored up can be locked away for a long time. |
D.Angel’s archaeologist colleagues were studying the deep sea environment. |
A.It is supported by mature techniques. |
B.It requires cheap machines and simple chemistry. |
C.Woody plants are more environmentally friendly. |
D.Waste wood takes in lots of carbon from the surroundings. |
A.The strategy alone isn’t enough to fight climate change. |
B.The strategy can capture and lock the carbon dioxide needed. |
C.The global warming can’t be kept below 2°C with the strategy. |
D.Supplies of waste wood are available near suitable bodies of water. |
A.Doubtful. | B.Negative. | C.Supportive. | D.Unconcerned. |
4 . Looking for ways to make some extra cash over the holidays? Here are 4 of the best summer break jobs for you.
Food Delivery
If your top priority in a summer break job is flexibility, food delivery might be the perfect fit for you. You can earn around $20 an hour depending on the food delivery service and who you’re delivering to. On top of the wage the delivery service pays you, you also have the potential to get significant tips. Please note: all applicants must have a driver’s license and access to a car.
Gift Wrapper
Love wrapping presents for the holiday? Can’t get enough of wrapping paper and ribbon? If so, you should look into being a gift wrapper during summer break. College students who want to work in something creative will enjoy this summer break job. Candidates will be matched with a task based on skill set.
Pet Sitting
Whether they’re going to another city close by or another state, families tend to leave for vacation for summer break. This means that they need someone to watch their pets while they’re gone. That’s where college students come in. Pet sitting jobs are flexible and not a huge time commitment, depending on what family you’re working with.
Tutor
Good at maths? Majoring in biology? Whatever classes you’re taking in college, this knowledge is transferable to tutoring. College students that are home for summer break can use their time off school to give back to others. Tutoring has the potential to earn a lot of money over the course of a few weeks while students are home for break.
1. Which job requires a driver’s license?A.Food Delivery. | B.Gift Wrapper. |
C.Pet Sitting. | D.Tutor. |
A.Applicants are expected to be good at design. | B.Work is arranged according to one’s skill set. |
C.Applicants may soon have enough of the job. | D.It favours candidates who can work flexibly. |
A.A notice. | B.An announcement. |
C.A guide. | D.An advertisement. |
5 . A role shift—whether a promotion, a move to a new organization, or a fresh challenge in your existing job—can be a huge boost to your career and a chance for you to succeed. You know the drill heading in: Apply your experience and talents to the position, make sure you are accepted by the hierarchy (高层), and get a few big wins in the first couple of months to demonstrate what you can do.
But in today’s hyper-collaborative and dynamic workplaces, successful moves aren’t as easy as they once were, even for the most qualified and hard-working people. Too often, transitional managers and employees don’t live up to their organizations’ expectations. Gartner surveys indicate that a full 49% of people promoted within their own companies are underperforming up to 18 months after those moves, and McKinsey reports that 27% to 46% of transitional executives are regarded as failures or disappointments two years later. They have the right skills and experience. They understand the company’s goals. So why didn’t they quickly excel in their new roles?
We analyzed employee relationships and communication patterns across more than 100 diverse companies and interviewed 160 executives in 20 of them. Our research points to one overlooked prerequisite (先决条件) for transition success: the effective use of internal networks. The people who are the most productive, innovative, and engaged in new roles — the “fast movers” — are those who establish extremely broad, mutually beneficial, uplifting connections from the start. Specifically, they surge rapidly into a broad network; identify how they add value, where they fall short, and who can fill the gaps; create scale; and shape their networks for maximum thriving.
In most cases, individual managers must do these things on their own. Only 43% of people surveyed said their organizations ensured that transitional employees were offered guidance and support. Only about a quarter said their employers encouraged them to build connections early or create networks to address skill gaps. But that should not be the case.
1. What does the author say about job moves in today’s society?A.They are a boost to our career. | B.They require ability demonstration. |
C.They may not produce good results. | D.They need to be guided by managers. |
A.They are inexperienced. | B.They lack the needed skills. |
C.They misunderstand the company’s goals. | D.They fail to use internal networks effectively. |
A.By using exact numbers. | B.By conducting surveys. |
C.By making contrasts. | D.By listing examples. |
A.It’s common. | B.It’s unexpected. |
C.It’s acceptable. | D.It’s unsurprising. |
6 . It is a well-known fact that not all animals have the ability to instantly recognize themselves in the mirror. However, a few animals can recognize themselves, such as dolphins, Asian elephants, and of course humans! A species of fish with the ability to recognize itself in the mirror is commonly known as the cleaner fish.
Found in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, cleaner fish exist as “cleaning stations” for other fish (known as hosts). They “clean” the dead skin and parasites (寄生虫) from other fish. This is of benefit for cleaner fish, which get a meal, as well as for the other fish species, which are freed from parasites. Such a type of relationship is known as mutualism.
Recently, a group of scientists in Japan found that cleaner fish might have the ability to identify (识别) themselves in photographs! It was already known that cleaner fish could recognize themselves in mirrors and would attack unknown cleaner fish. So, the team wanted to test whether the same was seen in the case of photos as well.
Thus, the team of scientists showed four types of photos to the cleaner fish. The first type was a photo of themselves, while the second involved an unknown cleaner fish. The third type of picture was a photo of an unknown cleaner fish with the fish’s own face edited onto it. The fourth type of photo included its own body but with the face of an unknown cleaner fish.
They found that cleaner fish attacked only those photographs which did not have their own faces. This result was similar to the ability of humans to recognize each other based on their faces and not by their bodies.
This study suggests that self-awareness may be far more widespread among animals than scientists once thought. People shouldn’t be surprised that fish could have a sense of self given that they have already been shown to have complex behavior including tool use and planning.
1. What does the underlined word “mutualism” probably mean in paragraph 2?A.A host-parasite relationship. | B.A master-servant relationship. |
C.Dependence on each other. | D.Beneficial cleaning behavior. |
A.They can identify themselves in the mirror. |
B.They can recognize themselves in the images. |
C.They have the same sense of self as humans. |
D.They have a better sense of self than some animals. |
A.The first and second types. | B.The second and fourth types. |
C.The first and third types. | D.The second and third types. |
A.Unclear. | B.Doubtful. | C.Supportive. | D.Unconcerned. |
7 . Explore more in Thailand’s parts unknown
Thailand’s southern beaches attract travelers worldwide, but there’s more to explore in the Southeast Asian country.
Ban Krut for beach fans
In Ban Krut, travelers will find one of the cleanest and quietest white sandy beaches within driving distance of the capital, Bangkok. This sleepy seaside community, known mostly by locals, is a five-hour drive or six-hour train trip down the Gulf of Thailand. Don’t miss the great Wat Tang Sai, a Buddhist temple located on Thong Chai Mountain.
Lopburi for history lovers
Lopburi, one of Thailand’s oldest cities, is home to Khmer-era temples and the uncrowded ruins of King Narai’s Palace, which was built in the 1600s. It’s also known for the monkeys that gather at Phra Prang Sam Yot temple in the center of town. A tip: Keep a safe distance from the monkeys and hide anything you don’t want them to steal.
Cave (洞穴) for holiday hikers
Hiking trails, wetlands and forests make Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park a weekend adventure worthy of topping your Thailand to-do list. The park’s crown jewel is the amazing Phraya Nakhon Cave. Outdoorsy travelers can camp in a park or choose better rooms in the nearby tourist town of Hua Hin.
Car rental costs about $20 per day, and an international driver’s permit is required. You can also hire a driver at most major car rental companies, book a taxi or explore by train.
1. What do we know about Ban Krut?A.It is a crowded tourist destination. |
B.It is where Wat Tang Sai is located. |
C.It is the cleanest and quietest beach. |
D.It is known to the people nationwide. |
A.They might stare at you curiously. |
B.They might suddenly hide themselves. |
C.They might offer you a friendly wave. |
D.They might take away your belongings. |
A.The Thong Chai Mountain. |
B.The tourist town of Hua Hin. |
C.The Phra Prang Sam Yot temple. |
D.Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park. |
8 . One thing you’ll probably notice about being a teenager is that your body isn’t completely used to the changes. In fact, the changes in your brain don't completely settle in most people until their mid-20s. Your body changes in many ways and most of these changes are brought about because of chemicals released in the body.
First, take the moment when no one is talking to you to think about your breathing. By asking that step back from how you’re feeling and examining why you’re feeling it, it is easier to process these emotions. If you’re feeling awkward and embarrassed at school, the easiest thing to do is to ride that emotional wave even if it means a private release of emotions.
Fortunately, this isn’t the only way. A mindful approach can be one of the best tools you have. When your mind feels more settled, allow one of the emotions to approach you .
Now, you’ve let it go! It doesn’t need to be a part of you, or control any part of you right now. This can be a very hard trick to master, because your brain is used to being affected by the emotion, and you’re trying to change course now,
A.Don’t be depressed if it takes practice. |
B.Admit what it is, but don’t be controlled by it. |
C.As you focus on the present, try focusing on your breathing. |
D.Having a sincere conversation with yourself is also a good idea. |
E.Letting your tears flow can be a useful and mindful activity. |
F.If, after all that, you still feel a need to blame yourself, simply let the emotion go. |
G.This means your emotions can be unstable, making your mood change suddenly. |
9 . Why not take a guided tour of Hong Kong with us? Here are some fantastic events of Hong Kong,
Horizon of KhufuPut on your VR headset and fasten your seat belt! With The Horizon of Khufu, travel back thousands of years to the heart of ancient Egypt: the immersive (沉浸式的) journey. Discover the Great Pyramid of Giza as it was more than 4500 years ago. Walk through its mysterious corridors and try to explore some secrets during a one-of-a-kind experience in Hong Kong.
Dates: select your own datesAccessibility: the venue is wheelchair accessible
Accidentally Wes Anderson
Prepare to be transported into the world of Accidentally Wes Anderson. Discover the stories behind each real-life location. This unique photography exhibition features a worldwide collection of pictures, sharing warm colors and moments of delight. During the exhibition, you can create and enjoy your own Accidentally Wes Anderson moments.
Dates: the exhibition has been extended until Sunday April 14Accessibility: the venue is wheelchair accessible
Avora
The new world of Avora is ready and waiting to be explored! Pop on your jumpsuit and have a taste of three delicious coffees, which help you get used to the new planet's atmosphere. Step through the gateway into the ecosystem of Avora and admire the world of amazing beauty while enjoying two more coffee surprises.
Dates: select your own datesAccessibility: this experience involves multiple steps and is only accessible in parts
Disney100
It all began with a mouse and a dream; a dream that became a story. A story now being told. Dive into the world of The Walt Disney Company and experience 100 years of magic like never before! Wonder at rare, original artefacts and props, see original costumes from your favourite Disney classics, and explore revolutionary exhibits that bring the magic of Disney to life. Click here now 10 get your tickets to Disney100 in Hong Kong!
Dates: select your own datesAccessibility: the venue is wheelchair accessible
1. Which event can you choose to explore the history of ancient times?
A.Horizon of Khufu. | B.Accidentally Wes Anderson. |
C.Avora. | D.Disney100. |
A.If disabled, the visitor can also take part in Avora feely. |
B.The visitor can enjoy Accidentally Wes Anderson at any time. |
C.When visiting Disney100, the visitor can learn about its story. |
D.The visitor can touch the real Great Pyramid in Horizon of Khufu. |
A.A website. | B.A newspaper. | C.A travel brochure. | D.A magazine. |
10 . Humiliation (蒙羞). Many of us have experienced that fearful feeling of just wanting the ground to open up and get down, right?
Humiliation is quite often compared to the feeling of shame. Shame is more of a private feeling of regret and dishonor, which results from having said or done something wrong or stupid. For example, a good person will feel ‘shameful’ for speaking or doing something mean to a friend.
So, how can you deal with it? According to psychologist Robert J. Sternberg, there are a few steps you can take. First, you must accept the humiliation and realize you’re not the only one who has felt like this.
Lastly, resilience (恢复力) seems to be extremely important. Some people say: “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger”.
A.While humiliation probably won’t kill you, it can hurt. |
B.It occurs when someone decides to make us feel small. |
C.It makes that person feel bad and regretful of his behavior. |
D.Therefore, talk to others who have experienced it and move on. |
E.Thus, this article helps to understand this painful private feeling. |
F.The presence of others is the key factor—a public dressing-down. |
G.So, take the challenge to make it known to the public and fight back. |