1 . Are you happy with your life now? If not, don’t despair (绝望)—instead, consider making changes to improve your life. It’s totally possible to learn how to change your life and live your dreams. This is the guide for you.
Pinpoint (确定) the issue. Consider an area of your life where you feel unsettled or unsatisfied. Is it your study? Friendship? Your health? Take a few minutes to write about it in a journal.
Identify things that may hold you back.
Choose your “one thing”. When you learn how to change your life completely, it’s important to remember that this process takes time.
Set your goals and make a plan. If you want to succeed, it is necessary to set a specific goal. After doing all of the above, it’s time to make a plan.
| A．Consider your “Why”. |
| B．Set a goal for yourself. |
| C．It won’t all happen at once. |
| D．You have to be aware of potential barriers before they arise. |
| E．It is necessary to take some time to review all of what you enjoyed. |
| F．Then you can explore how you would want things to be different in this area. |
| G．Despite the best of intentions, the lack of planning tends to limit our success. |
2 . Have more fun. Learn new things. These aren’t bad New Year’s resolutions. But where do you start?
Ask yourself how you want to feel
Hobbies present an escape — they can help you get out of your head and calm down, says Matthew J. Zawadzke, an associate professor of health psychology at the University of California.
Start small
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? The answer could point you toward an appealing hobby, Weiler says. “If you wanted to be a major league player, what can you do now that fulfills that urge for you?” she asks. Joining a softball team or coaching some neighborhood kids could awaken a passion.
Go back to school
Consider signing up for a lesson to learn more about a potential hobby, Weiler advises. Always dreamed of producing a novel?
| A．Take a trip back in time. |
| B．Join a fiction writers group. |
| C．There’s no such thing as one perfect enthusiasm. |
| D．Don’t invest a ton of time and money in a new hobby immediately. |
| E．He suggests asking yourself how you want an activity to make you feel. |
| F．His research indicates that people feel guilty about spending time on leisure. |
| G．Experts can help you to discover the hobbies you don’t yet know you’ll love. |
3 . I started to imagine how I’d lead my own tour. Working as a guard at the Guggenheim, I first liked reading the wall text—the paragraph-long explanation on the wall beside many of the artworks. Occasionally it’s helpful, and for years I thought it was downright rude when museums and galleries didn’t label each work. But now, more often than not, I wanted to tear all the labels down. The wall text stays just to the side of art, like the answer key at the bottom of a word search, its definitive tone sending the message that there’s only one right answer to the art.
I realized that art historians could be unreliable narrators (叙述者). The Richard Serra sculpture “Tearing Lead,” consisting of wrinkled lead (铅), took on a different look every time it was exhibited. Guards were given a board with the original photo of the sculpture and instructions “Please indicate where the piece was touched,” so an assistant could reposition the sculpture to match the picture. But an assistant I talked with told me that the sculpture was meant to have the metal pieces arranged haphazardly (杂乱地). The work looks different every time it’s shown —not that you’d know it from the wall text.
Therefore, I insist that you don’t look at the little label beside each artwork. When I guarded a Brancusi sculpture, I tried to stand in front of the wall label so people couldn’t see it, and I heard their interpretations go wild. They saw a finger, a woman giving birth, a graph, a Kurosawa character, a dolphin, a nose, a fish.
If I learned one thing as a guard, it’s that sometimes being forced to look at an artwork, even when you don’t want to, is life-changing. Fight the urge to see what you expect to be there; focus instead on what is there. I’m not concerned with whether you think it’s good. Just watch the thing in front of you.
1. What can we learn about the author from paragraph l?| A．He is forming his own judgement. | B．He likes traveling with his friends. |
| C．He wants to make his voice heard. | D．He writes explanations for artworks. |
| A．To introduce a special assistant. | B．To prove that wall texts can be wrong. |
| C．To call for protection of artworks on show. | D．To show how art historians describe works. |
| A．To prevent the visitors getting closer to the sculpture. |
| B．To make visitors have a better view of the sculpture. |
| C．To push the visitors to appreciate on their own. |
| D．To interact with the visitors in a fun way. |
| A．How I Rose from a Museum Guard to an Art Expert |
| B．What Categories of Artworks Museums Like Showing |
| C．How Working in a Museum Makes Me Have a Life Purpose |
| D．What Being a Museum Guard Taught Me about Looking at Art |
4 . We have all experienced that feeling of mental exhaustion (疲惫) after focusing on a tricky problem. Detailed thinking certainly feels like hard work, but is it? The answer is a touch less obvious than you might suspect.
The brain is certainly a hungry organ. “It is the most energy-consuming part of the body,” says Nilli Lavie at University College London. Although it accounts for around 2 percent of our body weight, it uses some 20 percent of the energy we burn at rest.
Interestingly, when it comes to energy use, the brain doesn’t distinguish between tasks that we traditionally regard as “hard” and those that come more naturally. This was first demonstrated in the 1950s in a study showing that the brain’s level of metabolic (代谢的) activity is remarkably constant, regardless of whether we are concentrating or letting our mind wander.
Your brain distributes resources to its different parts depending on the mental activity being carried out. But there is a trade-off. For instance, in a study published in November, Lavie and her teammates measured energy use in the brain region responsible for daydreaming and found that it decreased when volunteers carried out a problem-solving task that required focused attention.
So thinking hard does burn more energy in the brain region involved, but this is offset by energy savings in other parts of the brain. The amounts of energy involved are very small. Actually, a self-control task, such as keeping your hand in icy water for as long as you can, “burns up 1 calorie of glucose”, says Ewan McNay, at the University at Albany in New York. However, although this is a tiny amount of fuel, your brain doesn’t see it that way. “It worries about an imbalance of supply over demand,” he says. If the brain detects local drainage (排泄) of glucose—the sugar that fuels the brain—it perceives it as something bad, says McNay. This is what gives rise to the feeling of being exhausted after prolonged (长时间的) focus.
1. How does the author look at detailed thinking?| A．It can develop the less-used brain areas. | B．It can make the brain become tired quickly. |
| C．It is beyond the assumption of most people. | D．It is both mentally and physically demanding. |
| A．It is always in a hungry state. | B．It treats mental tasks equally. |
| C．It burns less calories when at rest. | D．It has a natural tendency to wander. |
| A．connects with other regions | B．solves a difficult task |
| C．receives more resources | D．becomes less active |
| A．Our brain has anxiety over the proper distribution of energy. |
| B．Our brain burns much more energy than it is supplied. |
| C．Our brain distributes energy to the wrong brain areas. |
| D．Our brain sometimes miscalculates the energy used. |
5 . This year’s hiking events have kicked off and we are introducing some walking festivals in the following.
Crickhowell Walking Festival (9-17 March)
One of the earliest of the year’s festivals, the walking festival offers 81 different walks this year, ranging from 2 to 17 miles. All are graded in terms of effort and difficulty, from an easy walk along the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal, to a—new for 2024—hike through the western Fans.
Isle of Wight Walking Festival (11-19 May and 5-13 October)
The Isle of Wight Walking Festival laces (系) up its boots in spring and autumn, on the 500 miles of footpaths on the island. There are walks focusing on every aspect of the island’s history. Walks are graded according to pace and difficulty.
Moray Walking and Outdoor Festival (14-24 June)
A great choice for those looking for other activities to enjoy besides walking, this 10-day celebration includes everything from boating to bird-watching. The walks range from gentle seaside wanders to endurance(耐力) hikes through the Cairngorms, with five different grades of difficulty.
Saltmarsh Coast Walking Festival (27 September-6 October)
Choose from self-guided or expert-led walks along a 75-mile stretch of the Saltmarsh coast, picking up the region’s maritime (海洋的) history, or learning about the rich variety of bird species. The festival features guided walks taking in vineyards (葡萄园), nature reserves and vast skies along the shoreline.
1. Which walking festival is held in two seasons this year?| A．Crickhowell Walking Festival. | B．Isle of Wight Walking Festival. |
| C．Moray Walking and Outdoor Festival. | D．Saltmarsh Coast Walking Festival. |
| A．Make samples of rare species. | B．Volunteer in nature reserves. |
| C．Observe birds and go boating. | D．Attend a class on marine science. |
| A．It has the longest path. | B．It provides graded walks. |
| C．It offers guide choices. | D．It serves as history tour. |
6 . About one in four Americans are physically inactive, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But for many of us, physical inactivity is not an intentional choice. It stems from sitting all day at a desk job, driving to work because there are no suitable walking or cycling routes. But what if the infrastructure (基础设施) around you gave you the opportunity to move your body without taking extra time out of your day?
“An active city would offer you loads of ways to get from A to B,” said Anna Boldina, an architectural researcher and designer who studies active cities at the University of Cambridge in the U. K. “Not only would these active cities be full of variety, but the various elements of an active city also have their own specific benefits: for example, stepping stones improve balanced co-activation of a variety of upper and lower body muscles as well as mindfulness and concentration on’ here and now,’ known as a stress relief.”
This all sounds great for future city design and planning, but how can we integrate these feature s into existing city infrastructure? “The best way to transform a place into an active city is through small interventions here and there: an extra stepping stone shortcut across the grass or extra log across the rain garden,” Boldina said. “Sometimes it is not about adding; it is about removing. It is also important that these routes are accessible to people of all ages and abilities.”
Of course, if there are always less challenging alternatives available, how can we encourage those who are able to take the more physically active routes? “One of our studies was aimed specifically at encouragement,” Boldina said. The study found that the most effective means of encouragement was providing a shortcut. “Other factors included playfulness, crossing water, using natural materials and adding handrails for confidence,” added Boldina, whose group is currently working with architects in Cambridge to create such active landscapes.
1. Which of the following best explains “stems from” underlined in paragraph 1?| A．Relies on. | B．Is caused by. | C．Mixes with. | D．Is changed into. |
| A．They contribute to better health. | B．They offer personalized activities. |
| C．They rely on governmental support. | D．They generally look like each other. |
| A．Protecting the local environment. | B．Adding a variety of safety equipment. |
| C．Making it easy for people to use. | D．Designing as many routes as possible. |
| A．How to motivate citizens to use active routes. |
| B．How to make active routes functional and fun. |
| C．Why citizens have little interest in active routes. |
| D．Why Cambridge can succeed, in adopting active routcs. |
7 . While they were still growing up, kids are basically vacuums for vocabulary. It is estimated that a normal kid at the age of 6 possesses a remarkable vocabulary of about thirteen thousand words!
That’s an amazing accomplishment because preliterate children just perceive spoken words and do not have a chance to work on those words. Rather, they learn a fresh vocabulary every 2 hours when awake, regularly. This is particularly extraordinary since the best effective ways for mnemonic devices（记忆术） do not assist with words individually.
A mnemonic has been a training method that changes what we wish to recall to more unforgettable things. For instance, if you desire to get an education on reading music, an easy approach to learning the EGBDF has been recalling the sentence Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge. However, that doesn’t apply to individual words. Due to the lack of simple methods to recall words, children’s brains need to have an inherent（固有的）, strong structure for fast learning a language.
But, as we become older, we start to miss those remarkable skills. Every adult finds it difficult at the time of learning a different tongue, as the ability seems to decline with age. A psychologist, Elisa Newport, did research on people who immigrated（移民） to the US. She discovered that the people who immigrated in the age range of 3 — 7 had been as expert in the grammar of English as those who were US-born. But those who arrived in the age range of 8 — 15, did much worse.
A similar thing can be noticed at the time of learning the initial language. In the past, a small number of kids were raised with no human touch, regularly as a result of negligence. They are called the “wolf children”, similar to “Genie”, the girl who was found at the age of 13 around 1970. Since she was raised with no human touch, she could not create even simple grammatical sentences.
1. Which word can best describe preliterate kids’vocabulary learning?| A．Formal. | B．Complex. | C．Consistent. | D．Tough. |
| A．It can be easily forgotten by little kids. | B．It involves only letters and listening ability. |
| C．It is actually meaningless to most people. | D．It can’t be used to recall individual words. |
| A．People’s language abilities decline as they age. |
| B．3 — 7 is a better age range for learning a new language. |
| C．Kids lose their interest in grammar as they grow older. |
| D．Kids aged 8 — 15 can’t learn a foreign language well. |
| A．It’s better to immigrate to learn a foreign tongue. |
| B．It’s urgent to learn a language at the proper age. |
| C．Every animal possesses a language of their own. |
| D．A language can be acquired without human touch. |
8 . Do you wish you could create something meaningful? Do you wish you had the time to work on that thing you’ve always wanted to produce — that novel, that piece of art and that passion project?
Look at yourself in the mirror. It’s time for you to be honest with yourself. Either you’re accomplishing what you want to accomplish or you’re not.
Stop worrying. We tend to worry about the naysayers (拒绝者). People are going to judge you. Some people are going to think what you’re doing is stupid. Others will think you’ve lost your mind.
Change your beliefs. One of the biggest reasons we don’t accomplish what we set out to accomplish is our limiting beliefs. For years you’ve told yourself that you’ll never be this, you’ll never do that, or you’ll never be good enough. But you’re no different from the people who have constructed their masterpieces. The people who create something special — something lasting — aren’t necessarily smarter or funnier or better or more attractive than you.
| A．Stop making excuses |
| B．There is no in-between |
| C．Kill things getting in your way |
| D．They simply believed they could do it |
| E．No need to keep wishing your life away |
| F．However, their perspectives hold no significance |
| G．Most people are going to praise you for what you do |
9 . As someone who often mans the 24-hour hotline, I’m accustomed to early morning calls reporting various marine mammal strandings (搁浅). Even still, I doubt whether I could have fully prepared for this call. August 9 at 8: 01 am was the first time my jaw physically dropped when manning the hotline. The harbormaster reported 30 stranded dolphins in one of the trickiest areas of Wellfleet. I immediately sent all workers we had and sent out the call for any additional help we could gather.
Our team gathered at our Rescue Operations Center, grabbing all the specialized equipment we possibly could. Our trained volunteer responders arrived on the scene shortly after the initial report to give me updated information — 45 dolphins in total, 43 of which were alive. With a stranding this large, it wasn’t feasible to pull all 43 animals from the mud, get them to our mobile veterinary clinic, and transport them for release at a more favorable open-ocean location all before the tide came in. The day was getting hotter, and the animals were already suffering from both heat and sun exposure.
Upon getting on the scene, there was no time to react to the sheer chaos that lay ahead. After a quick scan of the situation — 45 animals widely distributed, only a few staff members and several volunteers — there wasn’t a second more to wait. We began the hard process of getting as many animals as we could into special slings (吊带), onto the cart, and off the marsh as quickly as possible. This was not without its own challenges. The mud trapped and enveloped our feet, adding weight with each step, most animals were highly fractious (易怒的) when approached, and the heat became unbearable in dry suits. But none of that was going to stop us from doing all we could for these animals.
1. How did the author react to the call on the morning of August 9?| A．He thought it was a joke. | B．He was shocked to the bone. |
| C．He didn’t take it seriously. | D．He was at a loss what to do. |
| A．Efficient. | B．Practical. | C．Urgent. | D．Remarkable. |
| A．The tide was coming in very quickly. |
| B．It was hard to find an open-ocean location. |
| C．The volunteers failed to contact each other. |
| D．There was deep mud around to walk through. |
| A．A rescue effort. | B．A volunteer program. |
| C．A festive activity. | D．A charity organization. |
10 . It is no accident that so many fairy tale characters find themselves having to cross dangerous areas of woodland. In a most practical sense, as the ancients dreamed up those stories and even when the oral traditions were finally written down in the middle ages and later, the lands of northern and western Europe were thick with woodland. The dangers were obvious: from robbers lying in wait for unsuspecting travelers to opportunistic wolves hungry for the kill.
In many cultures, the forest is for god or ancestor worship. In An Illustrated Encyclopaedia Of Traditional Symbols, JC Cooper writes, “Entering the Dark Forest or the Enchanted Forest is a threshold (门槛) symbol: the soul entering the dangers of the unknown; the world of death; the secrets of nature, or the spiritual world which man must go through to find the meaning.”
The forest is a place of magic then, magic that can be dangerous, but also a place of opportunity and transformation. In the tale of Beauty and the Beast, the merchant is directed by invisible forces within the forest to the Beast’s castle, only then to be directed by invisible hands to his fate.
As for Little Red Riding Hood, straying from (偏离) the path and into the woods is similarly dangerous and filled with treachery (背叛). Symbolically, those who lose their way in the uncharted forest are losing their way in life, losing touch with their conscious selves and voyaging into the state of the subconscious.
And yet, in legends such as Robin Hood, or the great Hindu love story of Rama and Sita, the forest becomes a hiding place. The forest provides refuge (庇护) for great heroes who after a period of hard time come back to fight for justice. Their time in the forest could perhaps be interpreted as a period of personal development.
Today, still, woodland remains as a refuge from institutional order, from control and limitation of personal freedom. Forests are places full of mystery, where imagination and the subconscious can run free, where we can return to our original selves.
1. What does the author think of the woodland dangers in fairy tales?| A．They are created without reasonable basis. | B．They are a reflection of real-life dangers. |
| C．They differ greatly from those in real life. | D．They are apparent and can be easily avoided. |
| A．The hidden dangers in the forest. | B．The symbols in different cultures. |
| C．The symbolic meaning of the forest. | D．The educational functions of the forest. |
| A．Rama and Sita |
| B．Beauty and the Beast |
| C．Little Red Riding Hood |
| D．An Illustrated Encyclopaedia Of Traditional Symbols |
| A．By following time order. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By explaining a principle. |
