1 . In a study from Washington State University, researchers have uncovered a significant correlation between the closeness of older adults to green and blue spaces and their mental and physical well-being. The study offers convincing evidence that even small increases in access to nature can remarkably improve the health outcomes of older adults.
A mere 10% increase in forest space within a person’s living environment is linked to a noticeable decrease in serious psychological conditions. This type of suffering includes mental health challenges that need treatment and block normal social, occupational, or educational functioning. Similarly, the new study proves that enhancing green spaces, water bodies, or trail lengths by 10% appears to lower the likelihood of older individuals reporting their overall health as poor.
The researchers analyzed health survey data from over 42,000 people aged 65 and above living in urban areas of Washington state, spanning (跨越) the years 2011 to 2019. The experts related the health outcomes of these individuals to various measures quantifying their access to nature within their living areas.
Initially presented at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in April 2023, the research focused only on the link between psychological depression and closeness to natural spaces. The final study expanded to include additional metrics (指标) such as green space percentage and trail length, also taking into account demographic variables (人口统计变量) like race and education.
“Our findings suggest that abatement of our urban green and blue spaces due to rapid urbanization may not just have an environmental impact but could have a public health impact as well,” said Adithya Vegaraju, first author of the study.
Vegaraju said this research is among the first in the U. S. to specifically investigate the relationship between access to nature and health in the older population.
1. What does the author intend to stress in the second paragraph?| A．Access to nature can improve the elders’ mental health. |
| B．Older individuals are more likely to get close to nature. |
| C．Green space is an ideal place for educational functioning. |
| D．A person’s social interaction is linked to more green space. |
| A．By changing old people’s living habits. | B．By tracking and recording the aged people. |
| C．By comparing various measures in the study. | D．By analyzing the participants’ related data. |
| A．Solution. | B．Impact. | C．Loss. | D．Power. |
| A．It needs further research. | B．It’s a pioneer research work. |
| C．It is beneficial to everyone. | D．It will be used in other fields. |
2 . Family: Poems — by Mr. Keith Keenan
Kindle $0.00; Hardcover $12.50; Paperback $7.00.
The poet describes personal thoughts and feelings in a lyrical journey to understand and celebrate his family. “Family” looks at living honestly in places, not illusions. Figurative (形象的) language, a love of metaphor and sharp images all make the poems work.
Time to Heal — by Aleandra Vasiliu
Kindle $9.99; Hardcover $21.94; Paperback $12.64.
From the bestselling author comes an inspirational poetry book about love, healing, and growth. It is a reminder to strive to change for the better. Featuring more than 130 uplifting poems and black-and-white illustrations, it’s a great companion when you need to embrace self-love and personal transformation.
Seeds from a Birch Tree — by Clark Strand
Kindle $9.99; Hardcover $26.80; Paperback $16.95.
Seeds from a Birch Tree makes nature into a spiritual path. Its message was simple: Haiku teaches us to return to nature by following the seasons — seventeen syllables at a time. With its mix of poetry and memoir (回忆录), the book guides us to the joy hidden in plain sight, leading us to get into a good state of body and mind.
A Poem for Every Day — by Allie Esiri
Kindle $9.99; Hardcover $28.05; Audio CD $18.05.
This audio book is a collection of 366 poems which link to events on key dates—funny for April Fools’ Day, festive for Christmas. This is the perfect gift for poetry lovers of all ages. These poems are informative, peaceful, and energetic!
There are a large number of poetry collections on Amazon. More information, please click here.
1. How much will you pay if you are to buy a hardcover edition of a book on haiku?| A．$12.50. | B．$21.94. | C．$26.80. | D．$28.05. |
| A．Family: Poems features plain language. |
| B．Time to Heal features colorful illustrations. |
| C．Seeds from a Birch Tree focuses on human nature. |
| D．A Poem for Every Day focuses on festive celebrations. |
| A．A marketing website. | B．A literature magazine. |
| C．A book review. | D．A news report. |
3 . By the time she turned 18, Khadijah Williams had attended twelve schools. She had lived in shelters, in parks, and in motels, never in a permanent residence for more than a few months. She had tolerated the blames of students who considered her as “different”.
Homeless since early childhood, Khadijah struggled all her life to hide her circumstances from teachers and fellow students. However, academics proved to be a way for her to find confidence in herself again. For instance, at the age of 9, she placed in the 99th percentile on a state exam, and her teacher told her she was “gifted”. From that moment forward, Khadijah decided to do whatever it took to keep herself in that category. “I was so proud of being smart. I never wanted people to say, ‘You got the easy way out because you’re homeless,’” she said. “I never saw it as an excuse.”
By the second year of high school, she realized that she could not succeed in getting the further education she dreamed of without getting help to go beyond what her current school could offer. She talked to teachers and counselors (辅导员) who helped her apply to summer community college classes, scholarships, and enrichment programs. And in 11th grade, when she enrolled at Jefferson High School, she decided to complete the rest of her school career there—a decision that meant taking a bus each morning at 4 a. m. and not getting home until 11 p. m.
Her perseverance and hard work paid off, however. When she poured the story of her life into her Harvard University college application, she was accepted.
Once Khadijah felt ready to tell her story, it won her notice not only from college admissions boards but also from the news media, including Oprah, who introduced Khadijah on her show. Now as a successful student at Harvard, Khadijah continues to use the lessons of her extraordinary life to help and inspire other students.
1. What was Khadijah’s life like before she turned 18?| A．She was badly treated at home. | B．She struggled with academics. |
| C．She had lived in various places. | D．She often misbehaved at school. |
| A．By hiding her circumstance from others. | B．By working hard for academic success. |
| C．By being proud of her homeless background. | D．By getting help from teachers and counselors. |
| A．To use her experience to inspire others. | B．To get financial help from her teachers. |
| C．To realize her dream to go to university. | D．To be admitted to Jefferson High School. |
| A．Khadijah’s success in her academic pursuits. | B．Khadijah’s experience of overcoming adversity. |
| C．Khadijah’s involvement in community service. | D．Khadijah’s achievements at Harvard University. |
4 . There tend to be two types of teachers when it comes to poetry: Ones who love it and bring it into the classroom freely and often. Then, others stay clear.
Build Reading, Speaking & Listening Skills
Children need to learn to read various texts, and poems are one of those forms. They learn to attend to the words they hear and think about what they mean together. Children strengthen their reading skills and build reading fluency through repeated reading. The dots connect in a child’s brain when they see, hear, and say it aloud.
Inspire Poetry Writing
Teach how poems are constructed and the words they contain. It is the first step to writing.
Poetry is a form of expression. Writing lets us express our feelings and thoughts on a subject, while reading encourages us to connect and find meaning in our experiences. Poetry can have a positive impact on children’s social and emotional learning. It may offer them a new way of thinking about something.
Build a Love for Reading
Expose children to various styles and types of text as they learn to read. As teachers, we want them to love the act of reading and what they read as they learn. Reading can be hard work, and the books children learn first often lack that unique ingredient. Poetry is different.
| A．Encourage Creative Thinking |
| B．Explore Language and Vocabulary |
| C．Poetry offers a memorable and motivational way to teach. |
| D．It has that special sauce that children long for and so much more! |
| E．Poetry teaches us how to combine words to form meaning and context. |
| F．This may be because they don’t think it fits with the curriculum and what they are teaching. |
| G．Reading comprehension also results in discussions about meaning, connecting, and visualizing. |
5 . Phonetic (语音) information—the smallest sound elements of speech—is considered by researchers to be the basis of language. Babies are thought to learn these small sound element s and add them together to make words. But a new study suggests that phonetic information is learnt too late and slowly for this to be the case. Instead, rhythmic (有韵律的) speech helps babies learn language and is effective even in the first few months of life.
Researchers from the Trinity College Dublin investigated babies’ ability to process phonetic information during their first year. Their study, published in the journal Nature Communications, found that phonetic information wasn’t successfully encoded (编码) until seven months old, and did not occur very often at 11 months old when babies began to say their first words. From then individual speech sounds are still added in very slowly—too slowly to form the basis of language.
The researchers recorded patterns of brain activity in 50 babies at four, seven, and eleven months old as they watched a video of a primary school teacher singing 18 nursery rhymes (童谣) to a baby. They found that phonetic encoding in babies appeared gradually over the first year of life, beginning with labial sounds (e. g. “d” for “daddy”） and nasal sounds (e. g. “m” for “mummy”), with the “read out” progressively looking more like that of adults.
“The reason why we use nursery rhymes is because that is the best way for babies to discover and connect sounds with language, so we are teaching them how to speak,” said Giovanni Di Liberto, lead author of the study at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. “Parents should talk and sing to their babies as much as possible or use baby-directed speech because it will make a difference to language outcome,” she added.
1. What should babies learn in the first few months of life according to the new study?| A．Small sound elements. | B．Rhythmic information. |
| C．Phonetic information. | D．Individual words. |
| A．The poor phonetic encoding in babies. | B．The advantages of phonetic information. |
| C．The babies’ great ability to learn language. | D．The babies’ growing process in the first year. |
| A．Sing nursery rhymes for babies frequently. | B．Play a variety of splendid music for babies. |
| C．Affect the children via their own experience. | D．Pay attention to their children’s speech act. |
| A．When Babies Are Able to Say Their First Words |
| B．How Phonetic Information Changes Over Time |
| C．Why Phonetic Is Better Than Rhythmic for Babies |
| D．Why Babies Need Nursery Rhymes for Language Mastery |
6 . We hear a lot about plastic polluting our ocean waters. Some of us have even made it a habit to avoid using plastic straws for the sake of turtles and other sea animals. Although these small acts of consideration go a long way, ocean waters still remain a threatening experience for sea life.
A helpless dolphin in Bali, Indonesia, experienced the unkindness of human negligence (疏忽) but luckily came across a few good people who saved it. The clean-up workers of 4ocean was cleaning up plastic from ocean garbage patches (垃圾带) when their boat touched a do lphin stuck in a ghost net — a fishing line left in the ocean. The workers immediately stopped their clean-up and carefully brought the dolphin onto the boat. The net was tied around the dolphin’s mouth and tail, causing it serious injuries. The workers cut through the line. The dolphin was then set free, but it paused for a few seconds as a kind of possible appreciation before swimming away. The video of the amazing rescue was uploaded on their social media and has been viewed 1. 1m illion times within a month.
The workers were Risallah, NurWahyudi, Mujtahidin and Husnan Sidik. “I was shaking when I touched the dolphin. I was afraid we hurt it more when we cut the fishing line,” said Mujtahidin. “It was a shocking moment,” continued Nur Wahyudi. Cameraman Husnan Sidik added, “As the cameraman, this is one of the greatest moments. We won’t experience this every day. We have the chance to free the dolphin and I’m sure the d lphin is also happy.”
The sea life needs as much help as we can offer. 4ocean is a task-driven company whose members aims to end the ocean plastic crisis (危机). It has removed 30 million pounds of rubbish from the world’s waterways, setting a new record. It hires locals from the worst affected areas of the ocean plastic disaster and gives them a full-time income and many benefits. The team is known to help both animals and humans.
1. Which word can best describe the workers’ rescue?| A．Awkward. | B．Complex. | C．Worrying. | D．Touching. |
| A．Their thoughts about the experience. | B．Their personal opinions on dolphins. |
| C．Their brief descriptions of the dolphin. | D．Their feelings about threats to the dolphin. |
| A．To film sea life for social media. | B．To clean up garbage from ocean. |
| C．To rescue dolphins from ghost nets. | D．To find out the causes of ocean pollution. |
| A．The four workers should be given prizes. |
| B．More efforts should be taken to stop fishing. |
| C．More measures should be taken to fight plastic pollution. |
| D．The government should focus on dolphins’ living conditions. |
7 . In an effort to help out important insects like bees and butterflies, bus stops across the United Kingdom (UK) are getting living roofs. Small gardens on bus shelter roofs are being planted with flowers chosen to help support the struggling insects. The gardens provide much-needed islands of nature in a man-made environment of a city.
Humans count on bees and other “pollinators (授粉者)” like butterflies to help grow plants, such as flowers and trees. But with humans taking over more and more land for cities, roads and farms, more natural areas have disappeared. The Wildlife Trusts, a group which works to protect wildlife in the UK, says that 97% of England’s wildflower fields have been lost since World War II and the insect numbers there have dropped by 50% since 1970. Bee bus stops are a small step toward supporting these important insects.
The advertising company Clear Channel is working with The Wildlife Trusts and city governments to set up bee bus stops in cities across the UK. Bee bus stops are like ordinary bus shelters, but small gardens have been added to the roofs. The gardens are filled with flowers and plants chosen to attract bees and butterflies. The company plans to set up 1,000 bee bus stops in the UK.
Clear Channel already has bee bus stop programs in several countries in Europe. In the Netherlands, the city of Utrecht has 300 bee bus stops. Research shows that these bus stops—along with many other steps taken to support pollinators—may be helping. After decades of dropping numbers, bee populations in the Netherlands seem to have become more stable over the last few years.
The little gardens can also help to slightly lower city temperatures. Even though the bus shelter gardens are small, together they add up to a much larger area. Thirzah McSherry, who works for The Wildlife Trusts, says, “We’re living through a nature and climate crisis and we need to use every tool we’ve got to deal with it.”
1. Why are bee bus stop gardens being built in the UK?| A．To beautify the city. | B．To improve urban farming. |
| C．To solve the environmental pollution. | D．To provide shelters for pollinating insects. |
| A．Losses of forests. | B．Climate changes. |
| C．Human activities. | D．Natural disasters. |
| A．By analyzing the data. | B．By making a comparison. |
| C．By showing similar examples. | D．By presenting its bright future. |
| A．The urban environment is getting worse. |
| B．The United Kingdom is building bee bus stops. |
| C．City should build larger gardens for the insects. |
| D．The bee bus stop is the best way to save the city. |
8 . When another old cave is discovered in the south of France, it is not usually news. Rather, it is an ordinary event. Such discoveries are so frequent these days that hardly anybody pays heed to them. However, when the Lascaux cave complex (群) was discovered in 1940, the world was amazed. Painted directly on its walls were hundreds of scenes showing how people lived thousands of years ago. The scenes show people hunting animals, such as wild cats or dogs. Other images, picture birds and, most noticeably, horses which appear in more than 300 wall images by far outnumbering all other animals.
Early artists drawing these animals finished a meaningful and difficult task. They did not limit themselves to the easily accessible walls but carried their painting materials to spaces that required climbing high walls or going into narrow passages in the Lascaux cave complex. Unfortunately, the paintings have been exposed (暴露) to the harmful action of water and temperature changes, which easily wear the images away. Because the Lascaux caves have many entrances, air movement has also damaged the images inside.
Although they are not out in the open air, where natural light would have destroyed them long ago, many of the images are in bad condition and are hardly recognizable. To prevent further damage, the place was closed to tourists in 1963, 23 years after it was discovered.
1. What does the underlined phrase “pays heed to” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Discovers. | B．Watches. | C．Notices. | D．Affects. |
| A．Wall paintings. | B．Animal remains. |
| C．People who once lived there. | D．The size of the cave complex. |
| A．It was completely dark inside. | B．The caves were full of wild animals. |
| C．Painting materials were hard to find. | D．Many painting spaces were difficult to reach. |
| A．The place was found 23 years ago. | B．Protection of the place was strengthened. |
| C．Sunlight damaged many of the images. | D．No people were allowed to enter the place. |
9 . Many people love to listen to music while driving. Thanks to the world’s musical roads, drivers now don’t need to turn the radio on.
A musical road can create music when a car tires go over grooves (凹槽) on the road. To produce beautiful music, drivers must pass over the grooves at a certain speed. Signs often tell drivers the right speed.
In Hungary, there is a musical road in honor of one of the country’s most popular musical performers — Laszlo Bodi. Bodi was the lead singer for the band Republic.
| A．Musical roads are also keeping drivers safe. |
| B．There is not any music road in Eastern countries. |
| C．Musical roads help improve the road safety greatly. |
| D．But they can also enjoy music while taking road trips. |
| E．Formed in 1990, the group is one of Hungary’s biggest acts and is still active today. |
| F．The first musical road was created in Gylling, Denmark, in 1995. |
| G．For example, in Japan, there are many musical roads throughout the country. |
10 . It is natural for us teenagers to feel upset.
•Move your body.
•Talk about it.
•Laugh a lot.
Humour can rescue you from an upset moment or make you feel better when you’re in an unpleasant mood. No matter what’s going on, the ability to laugh at yourself and your situation is really important.
•Cry — it’s okay!
Sometimes the only way to get out of your feelings is to cry — so go ahead! Shut yourself in your room and cry your eyes out! No one says you have to be happy all the time.
| A．Why not pack up your suitcase and take a trip? |
| B．We can’t say enough good things about exercise. |
| C．But still we should find ways to manage our feelings. |
| D．So smile at whatever is happening and choose to be happy. |
| E．And do you know just smiling can help better your mood? |
| F．When you are done, you’ll be ready to face the world again. |
| G．Don’t hold in all those feelings until you are ready to explode. |
