1 . How satisfied are you with your life? How good do you feel every day? Your answers to those two questions can show how happy you are.
It’s true that your happiness is partly affected by your genes.
Don’t compare yourself to others. Everyone has different talents and abilities. It’s OK that you’re not like someone else. Comparison has been called “the thief of joy”. In addition, forgive yourself often.
Spending time with people you love and that love you is necessary for building strong connections and developing a sense of belonging. By devoting time and attention to those who matter most to you, you can create lasting memories, deepen understanding, and strengthen bonds with each other happily.
Get outside for exercise.Nature helps to reduce stress. Exercise and put your health in the first place.
Stay aware of recent events. But don’t spend hours consuming news, which usually includes negative stories and events.
Since happiness is a choice, why not choose it? Life will look brighter filled with love and joy!
| A．You are not perfect. |
| B．Invest in your relationships. |
| C．Determine happiness through actions. |
| D．You could perhaps lead a happier life and feel more satisfied. |
| E．But even if you’re not usually a happy person, you can change that. |
| F．People who get up and move are usually happier than those who don’t. |
| G．The Internet is full of people who look beautiful and seem to lead exciting lives. |
2 . Macquarie Island is a tiny island that’s part of Australia. It’s about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. The island’s been made a world heritage area because it’s so untouched, but this unique environment is under threat from some unwanted visitors.
It all started when seal hunters came to the island in the early 1800s. They brought rabbits with them as a source of food for the journey, and also on board the ships were rats and mice, which made their way onto the island too. They’re being blamed for destroying the homes of marine birds, causing soil loss and ripping up plant cover, as these before-and-after photos show.
So what’s being done about the problem? It starts with a team of helicopters that fly across the island carrying these giant containers. Inside them are poisoned pellets (有毒饲料) which are dropped and spread across the island. For any rabbits that survived the baiting (诱饵) , there’s a plan B. This special team of dogs is being put through a final training. It’ll be their job to track down any remaining rabbits. They have to also learn to behave around the island’s native wildlife. The dogs could be here for years or until the task is complete. The dogs don’t actually kill the rabbits. They find them, then the hunters decide to either catch the rabbits or shoot them.
But the program has received a bit of criticism. Some people argue 25 million dollars is a lot of money to be spending on wiping out rabbits and rodents (啮齿目动物), and in the process, some native birds will be killed because of the baiting.
The reality is the problem isn’t going to be solved overnight. The people running the program say that even if one pair of rabbits is left alive, the whole task will be seen as a failure, which means these guys could be here for a long time, trying to ensure that this precious island remains protected from pests.
1. Who are these unwanted visitors?| A．Seal hunters. | B．Marine wildlife. | C．Native birds. | D．Foreign species. |
| A．Advancing. | B．Destroying. | C．Dividing | D．Balancing |
| A．Poisoned pellets are being dropped on the island from helicopters. |
| B．A team of hunters is being trained to catch or shoot rabbits. |
| C．Native birds are being protected from the unwanted visitors. |
| D．A special team of dogs is being sent to kill the rabbits. |
| A．To spend as little money as possible. |
| B．To protect native birds from the unwanted visitors. |
| C．To ensure that no pair of rabbits survive on the island. |
| D．To train dogs to track down the rabbits on the island. |
3 . Once upon a time, there was a small village in the center of a big forest. All the villagers were used to their robotic farm work and none of them had the imagination or the will (意愿) to try something new, except for one girl named Jo. Very few could read or write, and Jo was one of them.
One afternoon, when Jo was on one of her explorations in the forest, she came upon an abandoned cottage (废弃的小屋). Though she’d been warned to stay away from abandoned places, her curiosity got the best of her. She slid in and was amazed to find a room full of books! Jo’s excitement was huge when she realized she had found a hidden treasure.
She ran to tell the villagers everything, thinking that they would share her excitement but instead, she heard roars of laughter! Jo was confused by this reaction (反应) and a little hurt too, but she did not give up on her books.
She came to the cottage every day and got down to reading the books. For her, each page was an adventure with characters who challenged difficulties with their determination and who struggled for good. Knowing the power of stories in impressing on people the values of life, she decided to share the stories with the villagers, though she knew it would be a difficult journey. Making this her mission (使命), Jo started telling stories every day at her cottage.
In the beginning, only a few came to the readings. But word spread rapidly, causing more and more people to come, some of whom even traveled from far away to just listen to her stories. She also conducted workshops in which she taught people how to read and write. She was remembered and lived in her stories even after she was long gone.
1. What do the underlined words “got the best of” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Prevented. | B．Frightened. | C．Cheated. | D．Beat. |
| A．They already knew it. | B．They thought nothing of it. |
| C．It was related to something fun. | D．It was all Jo’s imagination. |
| A．Caring but confusing. | B．Honest and helpful. |
| C．Adventurous but careless. | D．Determined and influential. |
| A．The Discovery of a Hidden Treasure |
| B．Jo’s Journey: from Adventure to Education |
| C．The Power of Stories in Challenging Difficulties |
| D．Jo’s Adventure: Unearthing an Abandoned Cottage |
4 . My mom spent years as a stay-at-home mom so that my brothers and I could focus on our education. However, I could tell from her curiosity of and attitudes toward working women that she envied their financial freedom and the self-esteem that must come with it. When I asked her about working again, she would tell me to focus on achieving my dream. I knew she had once dreamed for herself.
For years, I watched het effortlessly light up conversations with both strangers and family. Her empathy and ability to reach the heart could make anyone laugh, even when the story itself did not apply to them at all. “Mom, have you ever thought about being a stand-up comedian?” “It is too late for me, son,” she responded, laughing at the idea. I could not bear to watch her struggle between ambition and doubt.
Her birthday was coming up. Although I had already bought her a present, I knew what I actually wanted to give her. I placed little notes of encouragement inside the present. I asked my family and her friends to do the same. Eventually I had collected 146 notes, and each with the same sentiment: “You are humorous, full of life, and ready to take on the stage.”
On the day of her birthday, my mom unwrapped my present. She was not surprised as she had hinted at it for long. But then she saw those little notes. She started to weep with her hands full of notes. She could not believe the support was real.
Within two months, my mom gave her first performance in a New York comedy club. I have read the notes countless times with my mom. They are framed and line the walls of her new office space that she rented with the profits she made from working as a professional comedian. For many parents, their children’s careers are their greatest accomplishment, but for me my mom’s is mine.
1. What was the attitude of the author’s mother to working women?| A．She was curious about their income. | B．She admired what work brought them. |
| C．She felt indifferent to working women. | D．She appreciated their ambitions in finance. |
| A．Her effort in making friends. | B．Her talent to bring people joy. |
| C．Her curiosity about working women. | D．Her desire for financial independence. |
| A．Amazed and hesitant. | B．Sad and disappointed. |
| C．Moved and encouraged. | D．Delighted and proud. |
| A．Supporting Mom’s dream. | B．Achieving his own dream. |
| C．Securing financial freedom. | D．Becoming a successful comedian. |
5 . Live music livens up beach
I’ve been to a few music festivals like Glastonbury, the UK’s biggest and most famous music festival. But I’d never been to one in China.
At the end of August, I went to the Xiami Music and Arts Festival in Aranya, Qinhuangdao. Although the main draw of the festival for me was Suede, a classic UK band, I still had a lot of fun enjoying the festival’s other aspects.
Apart from the festival’s huge stages and screens, excellent sound systems and people dancing and singing with their friends and family, there were other surprises too. This was the first festival I’d been to located on a sandy beach!
Watching live music by the ocean was incredibly relaxing. Everyone had blow-up chairs you could buy and sit on comfortably to enjoy the music. Some people even had couches! Often at music festivals, you’re left standing the whole time, but Aranya was a bit more peaceful. There were also more children and families in attendance than I’ve seen at UK festivals, and this was great to see.
As the day went on, my anticipation (期待) grew as I looked forward to seeing my familiar band, Suede, who were the headliners: While Suede put on a good show, the most enjoyable surprise came from my unexpected discovery of and subsequent (随后的) fondness for the Chinese band The Life Journey. Unlike the seasoned Suede, these young performers were clearly in their prime. They became famous after appearing on iQiyi’s The Big Band (《乐队的夏天》). Playing after the sun had gone down with bright lights coming from the stage, The Life Journey really captured my imagination with their variety of musical styles, beautiful vocals (歌唱) and positive lyrics and vibes (氛围). Even with my limited Chinese, I was still able to happily sing along.
1. What can we know about the author?| A．He has been to the largest music festival in Europe. |
| B．He went to Aranya to see his favorite Chinese band. |
| C．He had never seen Suede in person before. |
| D．He went to a Chinese music festival for the first time. |
| A．Its performers. | B．Its ticket price. | C．Its location. | D．Its popularity. |
| A．There were more families in the audience. | B．Everyone had their own chair to sit on. |
| C．People felt more relaxed and comfortable. | D．It lasted longer with more bands performing. |
| A．They interacted more with the audience. | B．Their music was emotional and unique. |
| C．He could understand their lyrics easily. | D．He was attracted by their performance. |
6 . The Asch Conformity Experiments, conducted by psychologist Solomon Asch in the 1950s, demonstrated the power of conformity. (从众) in groups and showed that even simple objective facts cannot resist the pressure of group influence.
In the experiments, groups of university students were asked to participate in a perception test. In reality, all but one of the participants were “confederates”, cooperators with the experimenter who only pretended to be participants. The study was about how the remaining student would react to the behavior of the other “participants”.
The participants of the experiment were presented with a card with a simple vertical (垂直) black line on it. Then, they were given a second card with three lines of varying length labeled A. B, and C. One line on the second card was the same length as that on the first, and the other two lines were obviously longer and shorter.
Participants were asked to state out loud in front of each other which line, A, B, or C, matched the length of the line on the first card. In each experimental case, the confederates answered first, and the real participant was seated so that he would answer last. In some cases, the confederates answered correctly, while in others, they answered incorrectly.
Asch intended to see if the real participant would be pressured to answer incorrectly in the instances when the confederates did so, or whether their belief in their own perception and correctness would outweigh the social pressure provided by the responses of the other group members.
Asch found that one-third of real participants gave the same wrong answers as the confederates at least half the time. Forty percent gave some wrong answers, and only one-fourth gave correct answers in defiance of the pressure to conform to the wrong answers provided by the group.
In interviews following the trials, Asch found that for those who answered incorrectly, in conformance with the group, some believed that the answers given by the confederates were correct, some thought that they were suffering a lapse(失误) in perception when they originally had the answer different from the group, and others admitted that they knew that they had the correct answer, but conformed to the incorrect answer because they didn’t want to break from the majority.
1. What are the participants asked to do in the experiment?| A．Label the cards with different letters. | B．Pick out two lines of the same length. |
| C．State the reason for matching the cards. | D．Identify the longest vertical black line. |
| A．The result of the experiment. | B．The design of the experiment. |
| C．The purpose of the experiment. | D．The procedure of the experiment. |
| A．In spite of. | B．For fear of. | C．In response to. | D．On account of. |
| A．They misunderstood the question. | B．They believed their own judgment. |
| C．They failed to resist group influence. | D．They wanted to be different from others. |
7 . If someone asked whether you like the arts, you’d probably say you do—at least in theory. According to a survey, more than two-thirds of U.S. adults say the arts “lift me up beyond everyday experiences.” However, only 30 percent attended a concert of any type in 2017; 23 percent went to an art museum. Fewer than half actively created art of any kind.
The mismatch can boil down to the fact that we are weighed down by our day-to-day responsibilities, leaving our schedule packed. Maybe you like to play a little background music while you work or do the chores, but even before the pandemic, most of us rarely, if ever, saw a live performance, let alone visited a gallery or watched a play.
Too often, we let the dull reality of life get in the way of the arts. But this is a mistake. The arts are the opposite of an escape from reality; they might just be the most realistic glimpse we ever get into the nature and meaning of life. If you make time for consuming and producing art—the same way you make time for work and exercise and family commitments—I assure you that you’ll find your life getting fuller and happier. Think of a time when you heard a piece of music and wanted to cry. Or maybe your dizziness as you emerged from a narrow side street in an unfamiliar city and found yourself in a beautiful town square as if in a fantasy. They probably stimulated a sudden awakening, much like the shock from a lungful of pure oxygen after breathing in smoggy air.
If you are among the people who feel that art is pure pleasure to experience and participate in, you might see it as a luxury item, while a preferable attitude is to treat art less like a distracting pleasure, and more like exercise or sleep, a necessity. Then draw up a schedule of your art exposure journey, and gradually weave art into your everyday life.
1. What prevents people from enjoying the arts?| A．Shortage of time. | B．Avoidance of duty. |
| C．Lack of interest. | D．Art space inaccessibility. |
| A．It explores mysteries of life. | B．It sparks emotional responses. |
| C．It enhances physical well-being. | D．It offers a getaway from daily life. |
| A．Ways to integrate art into routine. | B．Barriers to combine art and life. |
| C．Forms of distracting pleasures. | D．Benefits of engaging with art. |
| A．Art Journey: Refreshing Soul |
| B．Art Pursuit: Transforming Dull into Full |
| C．Embracing Art: From Luxury to Necessity |
| D．Connecting with Art: From Reality to Fantasy |
8 . The Best Volunteer Abroad Programs in Africa
Looking for the best volunteer abroad opportunities to join? Here are the best volunteer programs in Africa.
Volunteer in Zanzibar
Looking to unplug from everyday life? Zanzibar program is perfect for animal and nature lovers. As a volunteer traveler, you can live in a beachside bungalow (平房) and regenerate wild turtle populations. Alternatively, you can stay in a forest camp to protect endangered species, such as snakes, lizards and tortoises.
Volunteer in Victoria Falls
Imagine volunteering in a setting where your backyard has breathtaking views over a zebra-filled grassland—Victoria Falls is just that. It is one of the best wildlife conservation volunteer programs, which has been recommended in the Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel for 2023. While the volunteer work is physically demanding, you’ll be rewarded with night camping outside the reserve.
Volunteer in Zambia
For those who want to explore the incredible area of Victoria Falls, but also want to volunteer in the community, check this out. Volunteer in Zambia includes construction, teaching and medical care. Thanks to its thrilling activities, this is the “perfect destination for adventure-seekers” according to Lonely Planet! Whether you want to swim on the ledge of a waterfall or take a walking safari (徒步野生动物观光), Zambia is the perfect spot to witness nature at its best while making a positive impact.
Volunteer in Ghana
Volunteers on the Ghana program consistently talk about the immersive cultural experience. The local people you’ll work with will make you feel at home from the moment you land in Ghana. As a volunteer here, you’ll develop a strong sense of connection to your host community and local traditions in Ghana.
1. What do Volunteer in Zanzibar and Volunteer in Victoria Falls have in common?| A．They provide beautiful sea views. |
| B．They offer camping in the reserve. |
| C．They aim to offer wildlife protection. |
| D．They are recommended by Lonely Planet. |
| A．Volunteer in Zambia. | B．Volunteer in Ghana. |
| C．Volunteer in Zanzibar. | D．Volunteer in Victoria Falls. |
| A．People fascinated by wildlife conservation. |
| B．Individuals seeking a relaxing travel experience. |
| C．People with enthusiasm for travel and volunteering. |
| D．Individuals interested in African cultures and traditions. |
9 . Hangzhou is now in the spotlight as the main host of the 19th Asian Games. Tourists from various places have gathered to this heavenly city to enjoy its slow life tempo and beautiful natural surroundings. Here are some highlights of the city you can’t miss.
West Lake
The West Lake is definitely a place people can never miss when visiting Hangzhou. The lake itself covers 6 sq km, and includes some of Hangzhou’s most famous scenic places.
There are “10 scenes of West Lake” and “10 new scenes”, but it is not necessary to make a checklist and walk back and forth to look for these scenic spots. Just walk casually along the Nanshan and Beishan roads and the causeways, take a ferry on the boat to the islands on the lake, or simply sit in a lakeside teahouse and enjoy the picturesque views and the longjing (dragon well) tea.
Lingyin Temple
Lingyin, or the Temple of the Soul’s Retreat, has historically been the most renowned destination
The temple has undergone several restorations, the latest of which was in the 1970s at the urging of Premier Zhou Enlai. Lingyin Temple is now considered one of the largest Buddhist complexes in the country.
Leifeng Pagoda
On the south of the West Lake, Leifeng Pagoda is considered the top scenic structure around West Lake due to its stunning silhouette in the glow of evening.
For almost a thousand years the pagoda withstood fires and wars, but finally collapsed in 1924, due to the removal of bricks as souvenirs by locals. Rebuilt on historic ruins, the pagoda was restored in 2000 in the style of the Southern Dynasty (AD 420-589) and opened to the public in 2002. The 71.7m-tall pagoda is eight-sided with five stories.
The Xixi wetland park
Xixi, located less than five kilometers from West Lake in the west of Hangzhou, is China’s first national wetland park. The area covers about 10 square kilometers and it has been around for more than 1,500 years, although it was only recently revived to offer residents and visitors a green respite from the concrete of the city.
1. Where can you enjoy eat while admiring the picturesque scenery?| A．In the Xixi wetland park. | B．In Leifeng Pagoda. |
| C．In Lingyin Temple. | D．In the West Lake. |
| A．West Lake | B．Lingyin Temple | C．Leifeng Pagoda | D．The Xixi wetland park |
| A．Travel. | B．Culture. | C．Lifestyle. | D．World. |
10 . Low pay, uncertain jobs and debt mean young people are being hard hit by the UK’s financial crisis. In January this year a major survey showed that 47% of under-24s were viewed as “financially uncertain”—unable or only just able to make ends meet.
The survey was carried out last year before the reality of 2022’s cost-of-living crisis had started to unfold. We wanted to find out what young people’s money worries are and how to deal with them. A recent survey found 3 in 10 young people worry about not having enough money over a typical month. Only 51% of 16-and 17-year-olds in the UK feel confident about dealing with money.
And an increasing number of young people are returning to the Internet for tips. “There was a lack of support in my community and secondary school”, says Zoya. Unluckily, Zoya isn’t alone and millions of young people are struggling to access the information they need, both within the structures of school and at home with family.
Although some factors in the cost-of-living crisis are out of our hands, there are steps everyone can take. Here are our top tips. Set a budget (预算). Once you have a clear idea of the money that you use, you know how much money you have left to set apart and spend in other areas of your life. Check your basket. Thinking ahead about your meals and writing down a shopping list can give you a better chance of sticking to your budget. Get a budgeting partner. Set aside 10 minutes each week to check in with a friend or a family member, track your spending and share your moneysaving methods. Learn good habits. Some financial respected experts can bring free courses to help people build financial security to help young people.
1. What can be inferred from paragraph 1?| A．All British young people can’t find well-paid job. |
| B．Many British young people get stuck in economic difficulties. |
| C．Nearly half of under-24sintheUK can’t find jobs. |
| D．47% of British people are able to make ends meet. |
| A．To seek ways to help the young with financial problems based on their findings. |
| B．To get more information about young people who are stuck in financial problems. |
| C．To find out the reasons that make young people worried about their money. |
| D．To show the financial problems that cause young people to get stuck. |
| A．From the community. | B．From the school. |
| C．From the Internet. | D．From the family. |
| A．British young people. | B．People under-24s. |
| C．Millions of young people. | D．People in financial difficulties. |
