1 . Growing up in a small village in Ghana, Osei Boateng watched many of his family members and neighbors struggle to access basic health care. In many regions of the country, it can take hours to get to the nearest hospital. “My grandmother was a very big part of my life,” said Boateng. “It was very hard when we lost her, and it was due to something that could have been easily prevented. That is the painful part of it.”
Feeling an urgent call to help, Boateng decided he would make it his life’s mission to bring health care to remote communities in Ghana. He started his nonprofit, OKB Hope Foundation, and in 2021, he converted a van into a mobile doctor’s office called the Hope Health Van and started bringing health care directly to those in need. A few times a week, the mobile clinic and medical team travel long distances to remote communities in Ghana and provide routine medical care for free. On each trip, Boateng’s team consists of a nurse, a physician’s assistant, a doctor, and an operation assistant. In the van, they can run basic labs like bloodwork and urinalysis as well as prescribe and provide medications.
Since its launch, Boateng says the Hope Health Van has served more than 4,000 Ghanaians across more than 45 rural communities who otherwise don’t have easily accessible medical care.
Boateng has big plans for the future. He hopes to expand to provide more consistent and high-quality medical care not only to those living in remote areas of Ghana but in other countries as well. He has gone all in on his OKB Hope Foundation, recently quitting his job to dedicate his time to bringing health care to his home country. But for him, the sacrifices are well worth the reward.
1. What is the function of Paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic of the passage. | B．To confirm an idea. |
| C．To conclude the text. | D．To express some doubts. |
| A．Routine medical checks. | B．Minor operations. |
| C．Mental therapy. | D．Prescribed medicine. |
| A．Cooperative and persistent. | B．Selfless and modest. |
| C．Strong-willed and tolerant. | D．Dedicated and ambitious. |
| A．Empowering medical schools | B．Doctor’s office on wheels |
| C．Nonprofit organizations booming in Ghana. | D．Hopeless health care in Ghana |
2 . By now, we all know that the planet is facing more environmental disasters, with quick-to-disintegrate (快速瓦解的) fast fashion clothing and the industry that creates it a major reason. Need proof? Just look at the 60,000 tonne-mountain of poisonous and thrown-away clothing that is visible from space.
Now, France is taking steps to resist the supercharged way we consume clothes, with the country recently announcing it will pay all citizens a “repair bonus” for taking their clothes in to get fixed rather than throwing them in the bin.
Beginning in October, citizens who bring their clothes in for repairs will be able to claim back a € 6 to € 25 bonus, with the total payment depending on the complexity of the repair. All bonuses will be paid from a € 154 million sustainability fund the government has set aside for the next five years.
By calling on people to take their items to get fixed, the government hopes to cut fast fashion waste throughout the country and encourage customers to purchase more “virtuous” products. In other words: the government is begging you to fix your clothes, rather than continuously over-consuming the products of fast fashion sites like Shein or Boohoo.
“It could encourage exactly the people who have bought, for example, shoes from a brand that makes good-quality shoes or likewise good-quality ready-to-wear clothes to want to have them fixed instead of getting rid of them,” explained France’s junior ecology minister Bérangère Couillard, who announced the programme in Paris. “That is exactly the objective, to create a recycling economy for shoes and clothes so that products last longer, because in government we believe in the second life of a product.”
She also shared hopes that the programme will increase employment for French tailors and shoemakers. “The goal is to support those who carry out repairs,” she explained, while inviting all repair shops to join in the campaign for free.
1. What do people usually do with old clothes according to the text?| A．Throw them in the dustbins. | B．Mend them in the repair shops. |
| C．Donate them to those in need. | D．Put them away in the cupboard. |
| A．Fashionable. | B．Convenient. | C．Sustainable. | D．Comfortable. |
| A．Reducing taxes on clothing repairs. | B．Encouraging the community economy. |
| C．Increasing sales for fast fashion brands. | D．Creating jobs for tailors and shoemakers. |
| A．French repair shops serve people for free |
| B．France leads a new trend in fashion industry |
| C．France encourages citizens to mend clothes themselves |
| D．French repairing program pays people to reduce waste |
3 . 17-year-old Gloria Barron Prize winner Anna Devolld is helping small things make a difference: Pollinators (传粉者). She has created and helped plant more than 2,000 free Pollinator Packs, each containing six different pollinator-friendly plants. She also regularly visits area classrooms to teach students about pollinators and to help them plant their own Pollinator Packs.
Anna Devolld likes ugly crawly things in the garden and buzzing, flying little creatures in the air. That’s because Anna is passionate about pollinators.
As a teenager, Anna worried about the little things that keep our world beautiful and our plants producing food. Her first project was creating activity and coloring books for kids to help them understand how important pollinators are to our planet. Next, she created Pollinator Packs: plants that attract bees and other pollinators to your garden. It wasn’t long before she was part of community councils encouraging the planting of pollinators in communities and roadside corridors. She now serves on her local government’s environmental advisory commission.
Anna has been featured by Earth Force during its Environmental Action Civics Week, on the Disney Channel, in the Garden Club of America Bullet in and in Scholastic Magazine. You might say she’s been busy as a bee.
“One out of every three bites of food we take is dependent on pollinators,” Anna tells us. “Butterflies, ladybugs, hummingbirds, even bats. Sadly, every one of these creatures is declining at an alarming rate.” Anna’s solution is to increase habitats that attract pollinators and to educate the next generation about the importance of creating pollinator-friendly spaces.
So, the next time you take a bite out of an apple or enjoy your favorite fruit in a home-baked pie, think about all the little creatures that made it happen. Then think about Anna and how one teenage girl is making sure millions of pollinators are happy and productive.
We all can make a difference. As Anna says: “Find something you are passionate about, no matter how small, and see how you can change the world.”
1. What does paragraph 3 focus on?| A．Anna’s popularity. | B．Anna’s first project. |
| C．Anna’s social position. | D．Anna’s contributions. |
| A．By setting up pollinator feeding places. | B．By raising more pollinators in the house. |
| C．By increasing gardens in the urban spaces. | D．By expanding more pollinator-friendly areas. |
| A．Creative and inspiring. | B．Caring and sensitive. |
| C．Hard-working and honest. | D．Dependent and attractive. |
| A．Passion is the guiding light in our life. | B．We should take action to protect the earth. |
| C．Whatever small acts can make a difference. | D．Be kind to any insect however small it is. |
4 . Pythagoras was a philosopher and mathematician who revolutionized the world. He’s best known for the Pythagorean Theorem.
“Do not be ambitious and stingy; the just measure is excellent in such cases.”
“Listen, you will be wise.
Do you know how to listen to others? Do you balance out your speaking and listening? Although this may seem easy to answer, in reality, you usually tend to talk more than listen. However, this is a serious mistake to make.
Pythagoras was aware that so much can be learned by listening to others. There’s no rush to respond or to challenge an opinion with which you don’t agree.
“Assist a man in raising a burden, but do not assist him in laying it down.”
Sometimes, you want to help others. Maybe they have problems with their partner or they’re just feeling sad.
Being there for these people and supporting them is something that’ll help them a lot. However, if you help them, it should be because you want to. Remember, you’re not required to completely assume their problems for them. More than anything, this is because you won’t solve anything by doing so.
| A．It is better to express your ideas. |
| B．The beginning of wisdom is silence. |
| C．Listen first then respond wisely later. |
| D．Such behaviour can lead to endless quarrels. |
| E．Indeed, this is still studied in philosophy today. |
| F．In fact, you’ll just add more weight to their load. |
| G．You are bound to maintain moderate positions in life. |
5 . Fu Lei’s Family Letters is a book of letters written by Chinese translator and writer Fu Lei to his elder son Fu Cong, who is a famous pianist. Between 1954 and 1966, Fu Cong spent a lot of time away from home training as a piano player. As a result, writing letters became Fu Lei’s usual way of communicating with his elder son. Fu Min, Fu Lei’s younger son edited the letters and the book came out in 1981.
The book shows Fu Lei’s family tradition and value. To Fu Lei, the purpose of education of a person, is to make that person useful to the society. Fu Lei praised his son Fu Cong after winning a piano competition. Fu Lei wrote, “We are happy because you make your country proud. I am so excited when I think about your future. You will make great progress and serve more people, encourage them and heal them.”
In the family letters, Fu Cong was also advised to read famous Chinese texts. When reading these books, Fu Cong was told to connect ideas and feelings together, for that would help him become a better person. To Fu Lei, learning to be a good person comes before any academic training.
Fu Lei’s Family Letters has a great impact on people in China because it helps many young students understand how they should live their lives. The following contents are teenagers’ favorite:
“We won’t get hurt so long as our moods stay stable.”
“The degree of success is not completely under our control. It’s half through personal efforts and half through destiny. But so long as you stay tough, you can weather failures, blunders and heavy blows — whether such blows stem from interpersonal, livelihood-related, technical or academic matters.
“A person needs to have the courage to confront reality and past mistakes. As such, he can come up with sensible analysis and in-depth appreciation. Only then he won’t be weighed down by bad memories.
1. What can we learn from Fu Lei’s Family Letters?| A．Fu Lei’s family tradition and value are shown in the book. |
| B．People in the 1950s communicated with each other by books. |
| C．It’s difficult for parents to make their children well educated. |
| D．Praising children after taking part in a competition is important. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Difficult. | C．Uncertain. | D．Interesting. |
| A．To be a richer man. |
| B．To help more people. |
| C．To become a better person. |
| D．To do more academic training. |
| A．A newspaper. | B．A comic book. |
| C．A travel guide. | D．A fashion magazine. |
6 . “We regret to inform you…” These are the words from a publisher that every writer fears receiving, but the words every writer knows well, even after sacrificing their weekends and free time. It’s common knowledge that success rarely happens overnight, but what may not be as widely recognized is that many highly successful writers have also faced rejection in their careers.
Take for example J.K. Rowling. Upon receiving her first rejection letter, she stuck it on her kitchen wall, thinking she now shared the path with her favourite writers. After years of surviving on little money and dedicating all her time to writing, she finally completed her first book only to receive comments from publishers along the lines of “too difficult for children”, “too long”, and “uninteresting to children”. Nevertheless, she persevered (坚持). After twelve rejections, one publisher eventually agreed to print 500 copies of her first book, and Harry Potter became a global success, with over 400 million books sold and translated into more than seventy different languages.
Perhaps the overall prize for perseverance should go to three sisters from Victorian England dreaming of seeing their words in print. This, however, was a time when women were not encouraged to become writers. As the then Poet Laureate, Robert Southey, wrote to one of them: “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be.” Nevertheless, the sisters didn’t stop trying. Their response was to write a book of poems under male names. Even when the book sold only two copies, the sisters still persevered. They started writing novels, and today Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Anne Bronte’s Agnes Grey are regarded as classics of world literature.
So, it seems that talent alone isn’t enough to guarantee success. While a lot of hard work and a touch of luck play a part, perseverance is the key. Keep trying and eventually you will read the words “We are delighted to inform you...”
1. What is the common experience of many writers at the beginning of their careers?| A．Becoming famous overnight. | B．Knowing one another very well. |
| C．Facing rejection from publishers. | D．Feeling afraid of their weekends. |
| A．She was discouraged for quite a while. |
| B．She regarded it as a form of inspiration. |
| C．She immediately found another publisher. |
| D．She turned to her favourite writers for help. |
| A．Sympathetic. | B．Disapproving. | C．Supportive. | D．Neutral. |
| A．A job offer is provided for you. |
| B．You need to make further efforts. |
| C．Success or acceptance comes to you. |
| D．You win a literary award for your book. |
7 . Schools need to give students all the tools they need when they graduate. Besides teaching the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, teaching about mindfulness, and mental health are important life skills for young people to have. The state of Florida agrees.
Now, public schools in Florida have been required to teach five or more hours about mental health for students in grades 6-12. This new idea was welcomed by the Florida Board of Education in July and is being carried out as a potential lifesaver.
The new curriculum (课程) requires students to learn about the symptoms (症状) of mental illness and where to find help if they are feeling sad or have other problems and even teaches the teenagers how to help their friends and classmates if they see them struggling.
“We know that 50 percent of all mental illness cases begin by age 14, so we are being active in our promise to provide our kids with the necessary tools to see them through their successes and challenges. Providing mental health instruction is another important step forward in supporting our families,” Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said.
Florida is the third state, following New York and Virginia in 2020, to pass laws that require mental health education in schools. According to CNN, the New York law updated the health curriculum to include mental health for elementary, middle and high school students. The Virginia law required that mental health education be provided for 9th and 10th graders.
These three states in the US are taking bold steps to help youth deal with the intricacy (错综复杂) of life as they grow from teenagers into adults. It is a confusing world they face and giving them the tools they need is essential. Mental health is something that should be taught in schools in all the US and across the globe.
1. What can the new curriculum bring students?| A．Basic professional skills. | B．The ability to use language. |
| C．Skills that cure physical diseases. | D．skills to deal with emotional problems . |
| A．The steps of mental health instruction. |
| B．The consequences of mental illness cases. |
| C．The importance of mental health education. |
| D．The content of the mental health curriculum. |
| A．pioneering | B．surprising | C．confusing | D．suffering |
| A．A technology report. | B．An educational website. |
| C．A government document. | D．A natural science magazine. |
8 . Having thousands of photos, songs and films available at our fingertips would have seemed amazing just a few decades ago, but how long will these files last for and be available? Could the digital data now put a time limit on our memories?
The materials that phones and computers are made of can decay (腐蚀) over time.
Licensing rather than buying content is an example of how our behaviour towards digital content has changed.
So, what can we do? Technology writer Jack Schofield said that “data doesn’t really exist unless you have at least two copies of it”.
| A．It’s necessary to store memories now. |
| B．Digital memories might not last forever. |
| C．Thus, this will impact the data they store. |
| D．So it’s important to back up what is important to us. |
| E．Storing information in the cloud can also present problems. |
| F．However, the quality of the data they store will remain unchanged. |
| G．Another example is that we take far more pictures than people did in the past. |
9 . Nick Dunlap, a 20-year-old sophomore (大二学生) who plays golf for the University of Alabama, won the American Express tournament at the PGA West golf course in La Quinta, California.
Dunlap’s score was one stroke (杆) better than South African professional Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who finished second. But despite defeating a host of pro-golfers, he won’t be able to take home the $1,512,000 prize because he is an amateur golfer. Instead, runner-up Bezuidenhout will receive the first-place prize. The three players who tied for third place will be paid as if they finished in a three-way tie for second place.
“I’ve learned so much today, and I’m so grateful to be here,” Dunlap said in an interview posted by the PGA Tour page on X, formerly Twitter. “To see some of the people rooting for me was really special.”
Dunlap is the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since 1991, when a young Phil Mickelson won the Tucson Open. Dunlap is also the youngest amateur to win a tour event since 1910. Dunlap’s big win is just the latest in a string of successes that indicate a bright future for the golfer from Huntsville, Alabama.
With his win in the US Amateur championship last year, Dunlap joined Tiger Woods as the only golfers to win both that famous tournament and the US Junior Amateur championship, which Dunlap won in 2021.
The win also qualifies Dunlap to turn professional at any point and join the 2024 PGA Tour with automatic membership through the 2026 season. If he retains his amateur position through the conclusion of the 2024 tour season, he has 30 days after the end of the 2024 season to declare himself a professional for the 2025 season, or 30 days after the end of the 2025 season to declare himself a professional for the 2026 season.
1. What made Dunlap fail to win the big prize?| A．His age. | B．His skill. | C．His fame. | D．His identity. |
| A．His fame starts to rise. | B．He has a promising future. |
| C．His victory means a lot. | D．He has priority over other players. |
| A．To present the other amateurs. | B．To demonstrate Dunlap’s strength. |
| C．To introduce another great golfer. | D．To state Woods’ role as a role model. |
| A．Obtains. | B．Keeps. | C．Reveals. | D．Switches. |
10 . Smiling’s A Stress Reliever
A University of Kansas study found that participants who were asked to smile during stressful tasks had lower heart rates during stress recovery. So it seems even forcing yourself to look happy helps manage tricky situations.
Beaming (笑容满面) boosts immunity. A smile releases certain hormones in the brain, including serotonin (血清素), which is associated with an improvement in immune function.
A smile can relieve your pain. Being amused also prompts the release of endorphins (内啡肽) in the brain.
Looking happy encourages positivity.
Smiling makes you welcome to others and helps you connect with them. Fortunately, with enough practice, smiling can become an automatic behavior. You can use certain situations as cues to smile. You might remind yourself to smile when you hear someone laugh or while you’re in the process of making tea. You could set a note on your phone to help remember to smile.
| A．Smiling can reduce heart rate. |
| B．Smiling may lower blood pressure. |
| C．They are the body's natural painkillers. |
| D．Study found that smiling can make one live longer. |
| E．So, if you want to stay well, you should smile more. |
| F．Smiling can boost mood, not just a response to happiness. |
| G．Thinking of a favorite person or happy memory can make you smile too. |
