1 . How to Avoid Internet Addiction
Internet addiction is a common problem that can be just as damaging as any other form of addiction. Maybe you are concerned that you are too dependent on the Internet and feel very upset.
Reach out to friends and family to build more in-person connections If you desire social interaction, call up a friend and make plans to do something fun.
Use relaxation techniques to reduce stress and anxiety. Yoga, meditation, muscle relaxation, and deep breathing are all great ways to relax when you’re feeling stressed.
Watch for signs of Internet addiction and seek help if you notice them. If you are concerned about becoming addicted to the Internet, staying aware of the signs of Internet addiction may help you know when to seek help. Be on the lookout for any signs that you may have become addicted.
| A．Act right away to limit your Internet usage. |
| B．Replace Internet use with a-healthy activity. |
| C．Arrange a family dinner or a game night also helps. |
| D．Employ your extra time to do something worthwhile. |
| E．Following are several strategies to limit your Internet usage. |
| F．You are likely to think that the Internet addiction will ruin your life. |
| G．You should not reach for your smart phone or laptop when you are feeling pressured. |
2 . Many researchers refer to coral reefs (珊瑚礁) as the rainforests of the sea because they are not only very beautiful but also cuucial to the health of our oceans. Sadly, these delicate ecosystems face they is from pollution and overfishing. In an inspiring cooperatton, Mote Marine Laboratory (MML) and the Combat Wounded Veteran Challenge (CWVC) have joined hands to restore (恢复) the coral reefs off the coast of Kev West, Florida.
On a sunny day in Key West, a group of 31 wounded and injured veteratis, together with six Mote staff members, set out on a misirn to restore the Higgs Head coral reef. Equipped with specialized waterproof prosthulies and a shared determination, the group managed to plant a record-breaking 1,040 corals on the reef.
The planting mission not only belps to replace corals lost to disease, hurricanes and rising water temperatures, but symbolizes the adaptation and strength of both wounded veterans and the coral reefs themselves. Dr. Michael P. Crosby, President of MML stated, “The inspirational CWVC motto ‘I am wounded, not conquered (征服)’ is also applicable to coral reefs in Key West.”
Florida’s populations of coral reefs were once filled with life. The living coral cover, which represents the proportion of the reef covered in living coral, has plummeted from over 30% four decades ago to a mere 1-5% today, however. MML’s research and restoration programs offer hope for the recovery of Florida’s coral reefs and other coral ecosystems worldwide.
As wounded veterans and scientists work side by side to restore coral reefs, the impact of their collective efforts extends far beyond the ocean floor. The restoration missions not only help to heal the wounds of war but also provide a renewed sense of purpose for those who have sacrificed so much. Andrew Lourake, CWVC Vice President confirms, “The challenge, friendship and knowing they are making a difference are the highlight of the year for almost all our participants.”
By combining cutting-edge science, community engagement, and the spirit of resilience (复原), MML and CWVC are paving the way for a brighter future for our coral reefs. They inspire us all to protect and preserve these invaluable ecosystems, ensuring that future generations can wonder at their beauty and biodiversity.
1. Why does the author mention coral reefs in paragraph 1?| A．To lead in the topic of the text. |
| B．To compare them with rainforests. |
| C．To highlight the threats facing them. |
| D．To focus on their significance in ocean’s health. |
| A．The motivational effect of the motto. |
| B．The mufupte significance of this mission. |
| C．The background for carrying out the mission. |
| D．The cooperation of veterans and Mote staff members. |
| A．Spread widely. | B．Improved greatly. |
| C．Disappeared completely. | D．Decreased sharply. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Critical. | C．Appreciative. | D．Doubtful. |
3 . Music is all around us. It’s an accessible and popular art form which accompanies our daily lives. Advertisers have long understood the popularity and emotional power of music and capitalized on it. They spend much time and money securing the right soundtrack (配乐) for an advertisement in order to boost sales. For example, Microsoft spent a reported US$3 million using Start Me Up as part of their advertising campaign for Windows 95.
As one researcher puts it, “Music expands pictures and colors words, and often adds a form of energy available through no other source.” This is supported by other studies, which suggest that music matching the main message of an advertisement has a positive effect on consumer engagement. This is known as “musical congruity” and can result in better attention, a positive emotional response, finally improving the effectiveness of an advertisement.
Take the simple but interesting advertisement for Air France, with the soundtrack of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23, for example. It projects greatness and elegance in the hope that viewers will associate those qualities with the airline. The research, which looked at hundreds of viewer comments about the music used in advertising, suggested it was successful.
Music is also effective at arousing (唤醒) emotional memories in advertisements creates associations with consumers’ past experiences. A good choice of music allows businesses to tap into this nostalgia for commercial benefit.
However, the use of popular music in advertising can also arouse arguments between artistic effort and commercialism. Some people believe a work of art shouldn’t be used for the pursuit of profit. The findings of study showed that consumers sometimes passionately oppose the use of music produced by respected musicians in advertisements, as they believe that it destroys the aesthetic integrity (美学完整性). For example, Nike’s use of the Beatles’ song Revolution was seen by some as using John Lennon’s music to sell shoes. It made some Nike wearers so angry that they refused to buy the products.
1. What does the underlined phrase “capitalized on” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Taken advantage of. | B．Held on to. |
| C．Checked up on. | D．Cried out for. |
| A．It helps cut down the cost of advertising. |
| B．It reminds consumers of their past experiences. |
| C．It makes advertisements much more convincing. |
| D．It explores the relationship between music and digital art. |
| A．Tolerant | B．Unclear | C．Doubtful | D．Objective |
4 . Primary and secondary school learners, university students, and guests were invited on Wednesday and were treated to a colorful celebration at the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi, to mark the beginning of the year of the dragon which officially starts on Saturday. The place featured beautiful decorations with red and gold colors and lucky symbols.
Visitors got an opportunity to participate in cultural experiences including painting, papercutting and pot throwing as well as experiencing Chinese cuisines like spicy hotpot, steamed stuffed buns (包子) , Chinese hamburgers, dumplings and barbecue among others. They were also treated to heartwarming performances including face-changing, lion dance, dragon dance, drumming, Chinese opera, Chinese songs and a talent show featuring Chinese traditional clothes as well as a mixture of Chinese and Kenyan fashion.
Leah Muthoni, a student at the University of Nairobi lauded the Chinese cuisines served at the event, especially noodles and dumplings. She also appreciated the decorations, drawings, pictures and performances. Similar feelings were also shared by George Mwita, another student from the University of Nairobi who greatly enjoyed the pot throwing game.
In his welcoming speech, Professor Stephen Kiama, the vice headmaster of the University of Nairobi who doubles up as the Kenya director of the Confucius Institute, hoped this year will be a good year of development because the Chinese dragon horns represent power and strength, while the drums represent courage and energy.
Kiama said the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi has achieved a lot since its establishment in 2005, including winning the Confucius Institute of the Year Award seven times and pioneering the establishment of the Bachelor of Arts in the Chinese language in Kenya. “Last year, with the joint efforts of the various parties and stakeholders we established the first bachelor of education in Chinese in Kenya and we admitted the first group of students,” he said. Kiama hopes that this year the Confucius Institute will gain more force with the blessing of power, courage and vitality from the year of the Chinese dragon. He said the Confucius Institute offers a good platform for cultural exchange between China and Kenya through events like the Chinese Lunar Year celebrations. Kiama hoped that the relationship between China and Kenya would further be strengthened by the blessings of the year of the dragon.
In Chinese methodology (方法论) , the dragon has the power to control seasons, time and harvests, and it’s seen as a symbol of wealth. The Chinese consider dragons to be powerful. sympathetic, wise, kind and warm.
1. What is spoken of as one of the cultural experiences the visitors participated in?| A．Tasting Chinese cuisines. | B．Writing with brushes. |
| C．Reciting Chinese poems. | D．Guessing lantern riddles. |
| A．Mixed. | B．Praised. | C．Delivered. | D．Sold. |
| A．It has the biggest number of students in Africa. |
| B．George Mwita is one of the Chinese teachers there. |
| C．It has won the Confucius Institute of the Year Award seven times. |
| D．They set up the first bachelor of education in Chinese in Kenya in 2005. |
| A．Kiama considers dragons to be powerful and sympathetic |
| B．Confucius Institute offers good platform for cultural exchange |
| C．Kiama wishes year of dragon good for development of Confucius Institute |
| D．Confucius Institute at University of Nairobi marks year of dragon celebrations |
5 . The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Bemers-Lee, has won an important award which comes with a prize bag of one million Euros (₤671,000). The “Father of the Web” was named as the first winner of the Millennium Technology Prize by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation. He said he had just been “in the right place at the right time” and did not want his photo taken.
In 1991, he came up with a system to organize, connect and browser (浏览) Net pages which completely changed the internet. The British scientist was knighted (封爵士) for his pioneering work in 2003.
Sir Tim created his program while he was at the particle physics institute (粒子物理研究院), Cem, in Geneva. The computer code he came up with let scientists easily share research findings across a computer network. In the early 1990s, it was called the “World Wide Web”, and is still the basis of the web as we know it.
The famous man never went on to commercialize his work. Instead he worked on spreading the use of the Net as a channel for free expression and cooperation.
“The web is encouraging new types of social networks and opening up new ways for information management and business development. The web has obviously improved many people’s ability to obtain information central to their lives,” said Pekka Tarjanne, chairman of the Millennuim Technology Prize award committee.
Just under 80 people from 22 countries were nominated (提名) for the prize for their work in the areas of health, communication, new materials and the environment.
The Millennuim Technology Prize was set up by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation, an independent body backed by the public and private money which aims to recognize outstanding creations.
Sir Tim currently heads up the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, where he is now based as an academic.
1. What can be learned from the first paragraph?| A．Bemers-Lee was the first to receive the Prize. |
| B．Bemers-Lee’s sense of timing led to his success. |
| C．Bemers-Lee was the one who invented the internet. |
| D．Bemers-Lee was awarded one million pounds. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Modest. | C．Humorous. | D．Careful. |
| A．To enable more people to use the Net. | B．To win more honors and prizes. |
| C．To earn more money to better his life. | D．To set up a company himself. |
| A．The Millennium Technology Prize | B．The History of the Internet |
| C．The World Wide Web | D．An Honor for the Web’s Inventor |
6 . When it was my thirteenth birthday, I was overjoyed that the moment has come for me to become a teenager. I would be given more responsibility and freedom. My writing skills would strengthen and become sharper (鲜明的). To me, the experience of being a teenager excited me. I was so focused on the pleasures that I almost forgot my sister’s warning. I didn’t understand at first, but realized later what she meant.
As a teen, you — and probably many others — love the sweets teenhood brings. You are given more freedom from your parents. You can actually have some privacy with the freedom you have. The talents you have start to strengthen and become sharp. Also, you can get a job and earn your own money. Of course, you have to do so when your parents allow you to.
As I said before, being a teenager isn’t all happy and fun. Adults place higher expectations on you as you get older. The peer pressure starts to kick in. As you start to gain friends, you lose friends as well. The mood swings (情绪波动) come and go. To make matters worse, you receive more homework. That’s terrible!
All in all, teen life can be really stresstul. With so many things going on, a teenager can hardly breathe! I, for one, can tell from experience that teenhood can really be a disappointment, with no fun at all. And then, it can be heaven (天堂). That is just the way life goes.
1. What did the author’s sister probably warn?| A．Every coin has two sides. |
| B．It is never too old to learn. |
| C．Failure is the mother of success. |
| D．Rome wasn’t built in a day. |
| A．Poorer understanding. | B．More friends. |
| C．Less freedom. | D．Sharper talents. |
| A．Endless homework. | B．Lack of money. |
| C．High expectations. | D．Bad mood. |
| A．Favourable. | B．Relaxed. | C．Objective. | D．Doubtful. |
7 . Nowadays, students are easier to learn in front of computers. With good reasons, many people question whether the state-of-the-art technology can finally change the way we learn. Others, however, make an argument that the traditional classroom-based learning has its own limitations. Considering both sides, my view is that the new programme can bring far more benefits than the traditional education.
First, it is obvious that, for any people, as long as they have access to Internet, can get the education resources easily. It is especially beneficial to people who live in a faraway area without schools or are short of money to pay for tuition. So, it is truly an easy way for people who are interested in learning.
Moreover, the distance rearning can help itself integrate (融入) its best knowledge materials and let go of them for sharing. For example, in the last 5 years, some famous universities, including Yale, Cambridge and Oxford University, have shared their most famous professors’ courses on the Internet, followed crazily by many students all over the world. If more and more universities take part in the programme, students will be facing a large wide and varied knowledge and the benefits for the whole human beings is huge.
That is not to say that traditional education should be forgotten. Teachers not only can teach knowledge, but also they can correct, encourage and communicate with students in person. But unfortunately it has weaknesses due to its inflexibility (不灵活) and lack of communications with teachers after class.
All in all, we should fully make good use of the modern technology to make the education opportunities available to people; meanwhile, we should not lose sight of the importance of traditional learning. Only by doing so can we bridge the gap between rich and poor, and thus make the whole society more impartial (公正的).
1. What can make getting education resources easily?| A．Schools. | B．Interest. | C．Courses. | D．Internet. |
| A．To call on more students to join in the programme. |
| B．To get more support to spread distance learning. |
| C．To show benefits of distance learning. |
| D．To introduce some world-famous universities. |
| A．Modern technology. | B．Society. |
| C．Knowledge. | D．Traditional education. |
| A．It makes the poor poorer. | B．It is the key to communication. |
| C．It will be useless soon. | D．It is still important today. |
8 . How to Get Your Children to Help with Housework
It’s natural for young children to want to spend time with their parents. But doing housework often causes Mum and Dad to take many hours away from their kids.
If a task is too difficult, don’t allow your children to take the easy way out and quit. Instead. make things easier for them by offering help. This will give them the impression that you’re a team and that they can depend on you.
Bargain or negotiate (协商)This is especially helpful on extremely busy days when your kids don’t have time to help out.
Children learn through continuous reinforcement (强化), so be patient, even if it may take a while for them to do a task properly.
| A．So what is the solution |
| B．Offer a proper cleaning tool |
| C．Offer a helping hand when needed |
| D．They can then add up all the points every weekend |
| E．You can work around a schedule but still keep flexible |
| F．Use a step-by-step way when explaining what should be done |
| G．Housework that is easy for adults may seem hard for children |
9 . “Award” and “reward” have similar meanings. They both can be different parts of speech-nouns and verbs. They are something you get for your behaviour, but there are major differences. Let’s look more deeply at each word.
“An award” is a noun. It is something valuable that is given, like a prize, to someone for their accomplishments. “Awards” are usually given by someone to someone else. As a verb, “award” means to give someone something, like a prize or money, for an accomplishment. Look at the following sentences: The students received an award from the teacher for not missing any school days. The judges awarded first place to the dance group.
In the area of law, “award” has slightly different meanings. As a verb, “award” means to give an official judgment (判决) of an amount or sum of money. As a noun, “award” is the amount of money the court or judge decides. Look at the following sentences: The judges awarded money to the victims (受害者). The award totaled 2.5 million dollars.
Let’s move on to “reward”. “A reward” is a benefit given to someone in exchange for a certain behaviour or action. “Reward” as a verb means to give someone a prize for their actions or behaviour. Look at the following sentences: The reward for all the students passing the test was an ice cream party. I rewarded my cat with some fish after he did a trick.
Remember, “award” is based on accomplishments. And “reward” is based on behaviours or actions.
What question do you have about American English? Send us an email at learningenglish carooanews.com.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．The development of American English. |
| B．The differences between two English words. |
| C．The history of foreign language. |
| D．The key to telling a noun from a verb. |
| A．Success. | B．Wealth. | C．Friendship. | D．Mind. |
| A．Mark who got the last place in the race. |
| B．Sara who won a lawsuit (诉讼) over a case. |
| C．Lily who finished her exciting day. |
| D．Andrew who helped his friend get a ticket. |
| A．Science. | B．Study. | C．Tradition. | D．History. |
10 . Nature & Outdoor Activities—World
Below are the 2024 Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best Nature and Outdoor activities. Think fresh air, new heights, and even a wildlife sighting or two.
Grand Circle IslandHonolulu, Oahu, Hawaii
Duration: 9h
Ages 0-99, 10 at most per group
Ideal tor first-time visitors, or those with limited time, this full-day tour takes you all around Oahu, making sure that you don’t miss a thing. You’ll see top attractions including Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, Halona. Blowhole, the Byodo-In Temple and the surfing beaches of the North.
Ziplining Forest AdventureRotorua, New Zealand
Duration: 3h
Ages 6-99, 10 at most per group
This tour takes you flying through a centuries-old forest as you. switch (切换) between the six zipline cables (电缆) 72 feet above the ground. Get a bird’s-eye view as two expert guides suit you up with safety equipment and teach you about the forest environment.
Fairbanks Snowmobile AdventureNorth Pole, Alaska
Duration: 1h
Ages 7-85, 4 at most per group
Speed through winter scenery on this snowmobile adventure in North Pole. Follow an expert guide into the Chena Lakes Recreation area on leading you across frozen lakes and rivers, and keep an eye out for wildlife. Then, park the snowmobile and relax yourself with a warm drink, and some snacks.
Epic Canyoning MadeiraMadeira Portugal
Duration: 4.5h
Ages 16-63, 12 at most per group
Reach Madeira, you can’t get to any other way than canyoning (峡谷漂流) with this small group canyoning tour. Journey into the mountain of the island for hours of going down waterfalls, natural water slides, and jumping into pools for a swim.
1. Which of the following best suits the new comers?| A．Fairbanks Snowmobile Adventure. | B．Epic Canyoning Madeira. |
| C．Grand Circle Island. | D．Zipline Forest Adventure. |
| A．Meet some wild animals. | B．Take part in a dinner party. |
| C．Journey in the mountain. | D．Have a snowmobile class. |
| A．Alaska | B．Portugal | C．Hawaii | D．New Zealand |
