1 . Staying motivated is key to achieving personal and professional success. However, it’s common to experience waves in motivation levels. To overcome these challenges and maintain a high level of motivation, we’ve compiled practical tips that can help you stay on track and achieve your goals.

＊Set clear and specific goals. Having clear and specific goals is essential for keeping motivated. Define what you want to achieve and break it down into smaller tasks. This way, you’ll have a clear road map.     1    .

＊Stay inspired with role models. The people you spend time with greatly affect your mindset. Get yourself close to individuals who are supportive, positive, and motivated themselves.     2    . During challenging times, they can also help you maintain a positive outlook.

＊    3    . Understanding the underlying reasons behind your goals can greatly inspire your motivation. Reflect on why you want to achieve something and how it agrees with your values and wishes. Having a strong sense of purpose will serve as a constant reminder and fuel your determination.

＊Break tasks into manageable parts.     4    . Break them into manageable parts. And then, focus on one step at a time. This way, you’ll experience a sense of progress, booming your motivation and making the task feel more achievable.

＊Celebrate milestones and progress. Acknowledging your achievements, no matter how small, is key to staying motivated. Celebrate milestones and progress along the way.     5    . Or you can take a moment to reflect on how far you’ve come. The positive strengthening will keep your motivation levels high.

Staying motivated requires intentional effort and self-reflection. With the right strategies, you can overcome obstacles and maintain your drive towards success.

A．Find your why

B．Pay attention to people around you

C．Their energy and encouragement can inspire you

D．Overloaded tasks can quickly beat your motivation

E．It could be treating yourself to something you enjoy

F．Imagine the positive emotions and sense of accomplishment

G．It can fuel your motivation as you achieve each milestone

2 . Some songs tend to get stuck in our heads more easily than others. When a song becomes super popular, we say it’s “gone viral”. Those words might be more accurate than we ever imagined.

David Earn is an applied mathematician. One day, he talked with musician and scientist Matt Woolhouse. Woolhouse found some songs had been downloaded thousands of times over just a few weeks or months. Those patterns looked familiar to Earn, who studies disease epidemics. And those download data resembled the kind of data he saw with disease transmission (传播). They wondered whether that kind of spread from person to person could be how people decide that they like particular songs.

Earn had been working with a mathematical model to predict how diseases spread during an epidemic. His team now used the same model with the song data. They looked at the 1,000 most downloaded songs in the United Kingdom, dividing them by type.

For popular songs, downloads increased rapidly over time, much like a contagious (传染性的) disease infecting a group of susceptible people. Some types were more contagious than others, the team reported in 2023. “The group of people who connect and like folk music isn’t the same as the group of people who like heavy metal or dance music. They’re different social groups,” Earn says. “And some of those social groups are much more likely to share things quickly.”

Surprisingly, pop music wasn’t the most contagious. It spread, but not as quickly as some other types. Electronic music, on the other hand, was super contagious. Earn thinks these listeners are probably super connected on the web and share things more than people who prefer other types of music.

“We think of contagion as a strictly negative thing,” Earn says. “But that same process of contagion functions for other things in life,” he now concludes, “like sharing favorite songs with your closest friends.”

1. Why did Earn and his team conduct their research?

A．To analyze the pattern of song spread.

B．To investigate the ways songs are grouped.

C．To count the times that the songs were downloaded.

D．To study the characters of the people who downloaded songs.

2. What does the underlined word “susceptible” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．With a strong will.	B．Preferring new ideas.
C．Sticking to traditions.	D．Likely to be influenced.

3. Why does electronic music spread quicker?

A．Electronic music covers all music types.

B．Its fans are skillful at surfing the Internet.

C．Electronic music can impress people easily.

D．Its lovers like sharing things with others better.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Contagion of Music	B．Music Spreads Online Wildly
C．How a Song Becomes Attractive	D．Frequency of Downloading Songs

3 . Born in Wales in 1950, Martin Lockley was a pioneer in the study of the dinosaur tracks and footprints preserved in rocks around the world. His work helped his fellow paleontologists (古生物学家) understand what the footprints can tell us about dinosaurs and the world that they lived in.

The footprints and tracks left behind by dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals are called trace fossils (痕迹化石). They can offer clues to how quickly an animal walked or ran and even what their skin may have looked like. Compared with the body fossils of bones and teeth, trace fossils contain evidence of the interactions that the animals had with their environment and can describe what the physical environment may have looked like. They offer a more reliable way to imagine the speed of a dinosaur than analyzing the bones.

Lockley’s mother and father were nature lovers. Lockley loved to observe nature. His father inspired him to “just go out and observe and trust your observations”, which proved important in Lockley’s launching his future career in dinosaur research. He took that advice with him to Gunnison, southwest of Denver, the United States. While North America is home to some of the largest number of fossil footprints in the world, Lockley’s work with prints and his father’s words took him far and wide. He explored fossil and track sites in China, South Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom.

In addition to finding the tracks, Lockley devoted time and energy to preserving these important parts of the fossil record. This includes guiding the politics needed to create UNESCO world heritage sites so that future generations wouldn’t lose out on these precious relics of the past.

1. What can we know about trace fossils?

A．They can reflect the then environment.

B．They are mainly left by some larger animals.

C．They can be easier to preserve than teeth fossils.

D．They are as accurate as bone fossils in analyzing animals’ speed.

2. What contributes to Lockley’s beginning his career in dinosaur tracks?

A．His family’s tradition.

B．His father’s encouragement.

C．His love for dinosaurs and their footprints.

D．His desire to find the largest dinosaur track site.

3. What did Lockley do besides his professional research?

A．He explored places of interest around the world.

B．He guided fellow paleontologists in their work.

C．He conserved and promoted dinosaur track sites.

D．He educated the next generation of track hunters.

4. Which can best describe Lockley’s work?

A．Dangerous.

B．Time-consuming.

C．Far-reaching.

D．Demanding.

4 . The first U. S. cookbook was published in 1796, and since then, they have provided insight into different times in American history.

Cookbooks tell us what foods were available during the period the books were written. If you see a lot of recipes for things that are preserved for pickles (腌菜), you know that you’re looking at a time without refrigeration. In the late 1860s, many recipes started paying more attention to food bacteria concerns and healthy-seeming foods, reflecting society’s growing knowledge of both subjects. Cookbooks show that meal planning changed in the 1930s, when refrigerators became more common in American homes.

Early cookbooks were also lifestyle guides. So, there were not only some recipes for food, but recipes for a cleaning solvent (溶剂) or what to do when your child were poisoned, how to clean, and how to get spots out.

Cookbooks became more diversified and regional after the Civil War. Southern writers, and some Northern writers, began publishing cookbooks in an attempt to memorialize, and beautify, the American South. They became very successful and they really helped to develop a sense of what southern hospitality was. Community cookbooks, edited by more than one person, often as a fundraiser or for charity, ultimately provide insight into what middle-class Americans were eating at a given time, as well as a statement about neighborhoods and groups.

Cookbooks, however, sort of stop being a comprehensive reflection of society now. You really have to think about the publishing world and who it is, where it is, and what it wants. The publishing world doesn’t necessarily have the goal of representing the truth of Americans because it wants to make money. But publishing’s control of the storytelling has loosened. Social media and food blogs have led to the freedom of conversations around food, recipes and cooking, giving consumers more power.

But that doesn’t mean that the golden age of cookbooks is over. Cookbooks are still one of the most popular books out there and are purchased regularly. They’re very good to give as gifts. They’re very, very popular because they’re sort of neutral (中立的). And everyone loves a cookbook, especially with beautiful pages.

1. What can we learn from paragraph 2?

A．There are always recipes to make pickles in cookbooks.

B．Refrigerators first entered American homes in the 1930s.

C．People ate more healthy foods in the late 1860s than now.

D．The cooking method changes as the equipment improves.

2. What does the fourth paragraph mainly focus on?

A．The variety of cookbooks.	B．The popularity of cookbooks.
C．The limitations of cookbooks.	D．The editors of cookbooks.

3. What weakens the power of cookbooks now?

A．New media.

B．Picky consumers.

C．Outdated content.

D．Economic downturn.

4. What does the author say about U. S. cookbooks?

A．They are all about some recipes for food.

B．They are still appealing for their objective description.

C．They are the voice of middle-class Americans.

D．They are purchased more easily online now.

5 . By understanding how the brain works, educators are better equipped to help students with everything from focusing attention to increasing memory. That’s the promise of brain-based learning, which draws insights from neurology (神经学), psychology, technology, and other fields. Bringing this information to the classroom can help teachers engage diverse learners, offer effective feedback that leads to deeper understanding, and create a rich learning environment that attends to students’ social and emotional needs along with their developing brains.

Chances are that you already know more about brain-based learning than you think you do. When you introduce topics to your students, do you begin by activating previous knowledge? That helps learners build on what they already know, strengthening connections in the brain. Do you use tools like graphic (图形的) organizers, songs, or rhymes? These strategies help students represent their thinking visually and phonetically (语音上). These techniques all deserve a place in your tool kit because they get the brain prepared for learning.

Patricia Kuhl, a famous language and brain development researcher, puts it this way, “We are entering a great golden age of knowledge about the child’s brain development. In investigating the child’s brain, we are going to uncover deep truths about what it means to be human, and in the process, we may be able to help keep our own minds open to learning for our entire lives.”

Promising as brain-based discoveries may sound, some educators are understandably careful about introducing lab findings in the classroom. Anyone who remembers fallout over the so-called Mozart effect knows that there’s no magic solution when it comes to education. As always, if a particular claim sounds too good to be true, that’s a clue to trust your common sense and engage your own critical thinking.

We’re eager to hear how you apply brain-based learning to your students. Please share your insights and help build the bridge from neuroscience research to engaging classroom practice.

1. How can teachers create a more effective learning environment according to the author?

A．By promising more to their students.

B．By paying attention to students’ memory.

C．By taking advantage of how the brain works.

D．By equipping themselves with more knowledge.

2. What is the function of using graphic organizers in teaching?

A．To connect old knowledge.	B．To keep the class livelier.
C．To introduce a new concept.	D．To visualize students’ thinking.

3. What does the author intend to express by mentioning Mozart effect in paragraph 4?

A．A deep respect for Mozart.	B．A great expectation for class teaching.
C．A cautious attitude to the new method.	D．A practical alternative to the new solution.

4. What can be the best title for this text?

A．Patterns of Teaching	B．Brain-Based Learning
C．Efficient Learning Strategies	D．The Application of Neurology

6 . Self-care is the practice of taking care of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of your life to promote health and wellness.     1     Reading on can help you solve your puzzle and find some self-care practices you shouldn’t skip.

Take exercise regularly.

It’s important to listen to your body and take a break.     2     It’s important to push yourself to exercise on a regular basis, as this brings with it both physical and mental benefits. If you’re feeling too tired and just don’t want to do it, remember that doing exercise can actually give you an energy boost. So do the exercise, and let the energy come after!

Manage your finance.

    3     But practicing financial self-care through planning and budgeting can help to lessen this burden. It’s not as fun as treating yourself on payday, but creating a budget and sticking to it can empower you to take control of your financial well-being.

    4    

If there are things you can do now to make life easier for yourself when things get busy, don’t put them off! Likewise, if you notice a chore that needs doing, do it straight away instead of telling yourself that you’ll get to do it later. Make a habit of doing things as and when they need doing, which will make life easier to stay on top of. There are always going to be times when you have to let yourself off certain tasks-maybe you’re ill or feeling low.     5    

A．Form a relaxing habit.

B．Take action immediately.

C．However, don’t let every day become a rest day!

D．Many people don’t fully understand what self-care means.

E．Money matters can be a significant source of stress and anxiety.

F．Building a perfect self-care plan will depend on your personal health and lifestyle.

G．But the more you do when you can, the less you’ll have to worry about when you can’t.

7 . How many species can be found in a glass of ocean water? If you’ve ever been involved in a school experiment looking at ocean or river water under a microscope, you’ll know that even a single drop is filled with life, from small insects and fish you can see with your eyes down to bacteria, fish eggs and even tiny creatures that can only be revealed under microscope.

Scientists are now looking even more closely, using the relatively recent technique of environmental DNA (eDNA) sequencing (测序). This allows researchers to get some DNA from a sample of water, and then to match it against known reference sequences.

Not only can eDNA identify thousands of species in a single sample of water, but the technique can be used in the field to assess biodiversity in water and other environments faster, more comprehensively, yet also much less harmfully than traditional physical surveys.

The approach is growing so quickly that the first Australian and New Zealand Environmental DNA Conference was held in Hobart in February 2023, bringing together some of the world’s leading researchers and technology providers in the space.

There is still much to be learned. Because of the DNA copy technique, the slightest pollution can deliver false results. Scientists are also still learning about how eDNA is distributed in the environment, how far it travels from its “point of release”, and how different water qualities affect how well mixed it is in the water column. There are also many things that can affect results when sampling. eDNA degrades (分解) faster in warmer water because of increased microbial (微生物的) activity, a strong driver of eDNA degradation. Yet this effect can be reduced by an increased production of eDNA under these conditions.

So there is no specific answer to the question. But with the new techniques and others in development, the answer is far higher than you would have counted through your school microscope. California-based Illumina is a leader in eDNA sequencing and it was also a gold sponsor of the Hobart event. Its “next-generation sequencing” workflow involves a three-stage process after sample collection.

1. Why is the school experiment mentioned in paragraph 1?

A．To offer some evidence.	B．To introduce the topic.
C．To raise awareness of biodiversity.	D．To stress the importance of experiments.

2. What does paragraph 3 mainly tell us about eDNA?

A．Its advantages.	B．Its classifications.
C．Its popularity.	D．Its development.

3. What is the main factor that affects the results of the study?

A．The travel distance of eDNA.	B．The size of the water sample.
C．The instability of the water sample.	D．The degradation of eDNA in water.

4. What may be talked about next?

A．The process of new sequencing.	B．The introduction to Illumina.
C．The new way of collecting samples.	D．The cooperation of leading researchers.

8 . Abby grew up loving all animals, especially her cats, fish and two rescue dogs. When she decided to get a smaller trainable pet, research led her to rats. Few people have thought of training rats to be therapy (疗愈) animals. Since rats live only two or three years and the training takes at least six months, “it’s kind of a race against time to get them ready,” Abby says.

She got a one-month-old rat, Oliver, and started to train him immediately, exposing him to the world and all its distractions. “I’d take him to any animal-friendly place,” Abby says. Since rats have poor eyesight, they won’t run away from a comfortable, familiar spot. “He stayed in his tiny basket, taking it all in.”

Then it was time for their therapy team evaluation. Oliver had to react calmly to loud noises, other animals, strangers and getting wrapped in a towel. Abby needed to show she knew how to care for Oliver and how to correct someone who wasn’t handling him well. They passed.

For more than a year, Oliver provided therapy for seniors and stressed-out college students. He also sat with elementary-age children who found that reading to a rat was the best way to practice. His successor, Vincent, has a gift for listening to kids read. Abby has witnessed students with autism (自闭症) improve their reading skills dramatically, thanks to sessions with Vincent.

Though Abby gets the occasional request to keep her pets at a distance, for the most part the reaction is positive. “People point, and there are whispers: ‘Is that a rat?’ Then everyone crowds around and their faces light up. Even seniors think they’re cute,” says Abby, whose third therapy rat, Franklin, passed his test a few months ago.

Right now, there are less than 10 registered therapy rats with Pet Partners in the US, largely due to their short lifetime. Perhaps that number will grow, thanks to Abby, who loves seeing how these underestimated creatures improve others’ lives. “My goal has always been just to make people happy,” she says. “If I can do it with a rat in my hand, it will be even better.”

1. What do we know about the rat training?

A．It must be done on baby rats.	B．It’s about training rats to race.
C．It’s a two-or three-year session.	D．It must be done as quickly as possible.

2. What did Oliver have to do to pass the evaluation?

A．Do tricks in front of the crowd.	B．Get used to living in a towel.
C．Stay calm when wrapped in a towel.	D．Communicate with other animals.

3. What is the probable meaning of the underlined part in paragraph 5?

A．The trained rats are in great need.	B．Some people dislike the trained rats.
C．The trained rats are afraid of the crowd.	D．Seniors will stay away from the trained rats.

4. Which words can best describe Abby?

A．Innovative and caring.	B．Brave and ambitious.
C．Patient and responsible.	D．Talented and optimistic.

9 . How to Make Smoked Salmon（鲑鱼）＆ Bread Wheel

Ingredients	Tools
500g bread flour, plus extra for dusting 7g dried fast action yeast（酵母） 140ml olive oil 240ml warm water 50ml garlic oil 300g smoked salmon sea salt and black pepper	a large mixing bowl airtight wrap an oven with a large baking dish a small serving bowl baking paper

Place the bread flour in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour and fill it with the yeast and some sea salt and black pepper. Add 50ml of the olive oil, followed by all the warm water. Mix the ingredients together in a figure of eight motion until a dough forms. Then cover it with an airtight wrap and leave it to stand in a warm place for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 200℃/180℃. Dust a clean kitchen surface with flour. Shape the dough into a ball, and then roll the dough into a circle, approximately 14 inches in size. Transfer the dough to the prepared dish. Place the small serving bowl upside down in the middle of the dough and cut a circle lcm out from around the bowl. Remove the middle piece of dough.

Cut strips（条）, starting from the outside edge of the circle to approximately 2cm away from the edge of the inner circle. Twist the lengths of dough coming away from the circle until they cannot be twisted any more. Brush the strips with two thirds of the garlic oil mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden, then brush again with the remaining garlic oil. Place the seasoning bowl in the center. Put the salmon rolls between the serving bowl and the bread.

1. What is added to the flour last?

A．Salt.

B．Water.

C．Olive oil.

D．Pepper.

2. What is the small serving bowl used for?

A．Covering the dough.	B．Putting the bread in.
C．Mixing the ingredients.	D．Cutting an inner circle.

3. How long does it take to make the bread?

A．Nearly one hour.	B．More than two hours.
C．Twenty minutes or so.	D．At least eighty minutes.

10 . Compared to robots, human bodies are flexible, capable of fine movements, and can change energy efficiently into movement. Drawing inspiration from human gait, researchers from Japan crafted a two-legged biohybrid robot by combining muscle tissues and artificial materials. This method allows the robot to walk and pivot.

“Research on biohybrid robots, which are a mix of biology and mechanics, is recently attracting attention as a new field of robotics featuring biological function,” says corresponding author Shoji Takeuchi of the University of Tokyo, Japan. “Using muscles as actuators allows us to build a compact robot and achieve efficient, silent movements with a soft touch.”

The research team’s two-legged robot, an innovative bipedal design, builds on the legacy of biohybrid robots that take advantage of muscles. Muscle tissues have driven biohybrid robots to crawl and swim straight forward and make turns—but not sharp ones. Yet, being able to pivot and make sharp turns is an essential feature for robots to avoid obstacles.

To build a nimbler robot with fine and delicate movements, the researchers designed a biohybrid robot that copies human gait and operates in water. By alternating the electric stimulation between the left and right leg every 5 seconds, the biohybrid robot successfully “walked” at the speed of 5.4m m/min(0.002 mph). To turn, researchers repeatedly zapped the right leg every 5 seconds while the left leg served as an anchor.

The robot made a 90-degree left turn in 62 seconds. The findings showed that the muscle-driven bipedal robot can walk, stop, and make fine-tuned turning motions.

“Currently, we are manually moving a pair of electrodes to apply an electric field individually to the legs, which takes time,” says Takeuchi. “In the future, by integrating the electrodes into the robot, we expect to increase the speed more efficiently.

The team also plans to give joints and thicker muscle tissues to the bipedal robot to enable more complicated and powerful movements.

1. What is the weakness of a robot?

A．Awkward to move.	B．Complex to operate.
C．Tough to control.	D．Easy to lose energy.

2. What does the underlined word “nimbler” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．More stylish.

B．More flexible.

C．More intelligent.

D．More suitable.

3. What will the team do next?

A．Add more power to the bipedal robot.	B．Expand the use of the bipedal robot.
C．Better the bipedal robot’s movements.	D．Apply an electric field to the bipedal robot.

4. What is a suitable title for the text?

A．Biohybrid robots are a mix of biology and mechanics

B．Human bodies are flexible, capable of fine movements

C．Making sharp turns is essential for robots to avoid obstacles

D．Scientists designed a two-legged robot powered by muscle tissues