1 . Being bored is no fun, especially at work. But new research out of the Research School of Management at Australian National University argues that while boredom is certainly boring, it isn’t all bad. The disliked mental state can actually spark precious creativity.
The study asked 52 subjects to do a pretty boring job: sort apart a bowl of red and green beans with just one hand for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, 49 other subjects — the control group — were instructed to create art projects with paper, beans and glue. Once the 30 minutes was over, each group was instructed to spend five minutes on a creative task: they had to come up with reasons why a hypothetical (假定的) person was two hours late for a meeting.
The bored group came up with not just more ideas than the control group, but more creative ideas than the control group, too. The quality and quantity of production was higher for people who were bored than those who were not. Creativity itself was measured under a standard that balanced novelty and practicality. Ideas had to fit both criteria to be considered creative.
Guiyun Park, the study’s lead author, readily admits that not every type of job permits the fun of boredom, and it can really be harmful to some important work. But for designers and anyone in a creative field, boredom is not something to fear, but to embrace. Sometimes, the best way to be productive is to expect nothing of yourself at all.
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The process of the research. | B．The benefits of the research. |
| C．The reasons for the research. | D．The disadvantage of the research. |
| A．Boredom can do harm to some work. |
| B．All types of jobs can embrace boredom. |
| C．Boredom is not always something to fear. |
| D．Boredom can be favourable to art designers. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Negative. | C．Positive. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．The Role of Boredom in Increasing Productivity |
| B．The Negative Impact of Boredom on the Workplace |
| C．Why Boredom Should Be Avoided in Creative Fields |
| D．Unlocking Creativity: The Unexpected Benefit of Boredom |
2 . It’s fair to say that many parents focus a lot of energy — and worry! — on protecting their small kids from risky situations. But this past weekend, reporter Ellen Barry published a piece about a growing movement in Britain: people are bringing risk into the playground experience.
Controlled risk at play time — where, after all, the children are still under close supervision (监护) — would seem a good addition to the free-range child movement. In that initiative, it’s suggested that free-range kids take walks in nature or ride public transportation on their own.
Besides, considering child development from an evolutionary (进化的) view offers more backing. Our long journey through time and nature has made us who we are today, with behaviors, thoughts and bodies shaped.
| A．Kids learn best while playing. |
| B．More exploration is expected. |
| C．It says it’s okay for kids to take some risks. |
| D．Limited-risk playgrounds begin to catch on. |
| E．The idea is to help kids become tough and strong. |
| F．Generally, they are encouraged to get outside and acquire independent skills. |
| G．It is therefore important to let kids do things that match how they naturally grow. |
3 . One day I typed into ChatGPT all about my upset feelings and it instantly responded, offering a list of practical advice. Nowadays millions of people are already turning to ChatGPT and specialist therapy (治疗) chatbots for convenient and inexpensive mental health support.
Some experts say this is a boon. After all, AI, undisturbed by embarrassment and burnout, might be able to express empathy (同理心) more openly and tirelessly than humans. But others worry about the consequences of people seeking emotional support from machines that can only pretend to care. Some even wonder if the rise of so-called empathetic AI might change the way we interact with one another. Indeed, empathy is one of our species’ defining qualities, developing as it did in pace with social interaction.
One recent analysis about empathy looked at 52 studies published between 1980 and 2019, which shows that the empathiser must first be able to recognize how the other person is feeling. They must also be affected by those emotions and differentiate between themselves and the other person, grasping that the other person’s feelings aren’t their own while still being able to imagine their experience.
On the first point, in recent years, Al-powered chatbots have made progress in their ability to read human emotions, most powered by large language models (LLMs) that work by predicting which words are most likely to appear together based on training data. In this way, LLMs like ChatGPT can seemingly identify our feelings and respond appropriately most of the time. But when it comes to the other criteria, AI still misses the mark in many ways. Empathy is interpersonal, with continued feedback helping to perfect the empathiser’s response, which also requires some degree of intuitive (直觉的) awareness of an individual and their situation.
All of this helps to explain conversations like the ones I had with ChatGPT. At the end of the day, despite talking to multiple chatbots online, I did what I knew I had to do all along: I picked up my phone and called a friend.
1. What does the underlined word “boon” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Trap. | B．Prize. | C．Blessing. | D．Challenge. |
| A．It calls for clear communication. | B．It starts with emotion identification. |
| C．It rules out individual difference. | D．It depends on rich imagination. |
| A．Provide data-driven feedback. | B．Recognize one’s real desire. |
| C．Update large language models. | D．Predict one’s behavior by intuition. |
| A．Its development should be sped up. |
| B．Its intelligence is winning more favor. |
| C．Its application should be strictly managed. |
| D．Its artificial kindness is no match for humans’. |
4 . Quiet Parks International (QPI) have got every reason to award Quiet Trail to the Niobrara National Scenic River this year, making it the other Quiet Trail in the world after Cuifeng Lake Trail, Taiwan. Kalli Kieborz, Director of Niobrara Council, received the award for their assistance in managing and protecting its natural resources, including natural quiet, since 1997.
This Award concluded a two-year process that included exploring the full length of the river to collect qualitative and quantitative acoustic (听觉的) data. Gordon Hempton, cofounder of QPI, stated, “Our testing process is very exact. Beyond collecting standard acoustic data, each team member must agree unhesitatingly that natural quiet existed throughout the testing period. The river’s splendid geologic landscape, unusual atmospheric conditions and outstanding wildlife all contributed to a positive outcome.”
The Niobrara River is notable for its beauty, ecological importance, and recreational appeal in the northern Great Plains, U.S.. Six major ecosystems meet in the Niobrara National Scenic River valley, resulting in a special mix of more than 160 plant and animal species. “It is filled with unique, even one-of-a-kind opportunities for the curious and adventurous visitors,” said John Ricks. Nebraska Tourism director.
“97% of the U.S. population faces noise pollution from sources like flights and highways. In fact, the more quiet we have, the more we can see and hear about the world, so we are thrilled to be able to offer it at Niobrara National Scenic River. From a quiet starry night to peaceful natural escapes, it uncovers what cannot be enjoyed in many other places,” stated Susan Cook, another director.
Areas like the Niobrara National Scenic River offer an opportunity to showcase quiet, unspoiled areas in a noisy world. Today, as people’s life is overloaded with noise, the intentional seeking-out of quiet areas is on the rise and with it, the opportunity to engage new travelers in visiting the beautiful, yet still largely hidden treasure of the wild.
1. Which of the following best describes the testing process?| A．Flexible. | B．Reliable. | C．Simple. | D．Loose. |
| A．Ecology imbalance. | B．Biodiversity enrichment. |
| C．Species competition. | D．Tourism boost. |
| A．The joy of winning the award. | B．The outcome of noise pollution. |
| C．The activities of enjoying quiet. | D．The value of natural quiet. |
| A．To call on efforts to reconnect with nature. |
| B．To inform the recognition of a quiet river. |
| C．To display the challenges of protecting ecosystem. |
| D．To stress the need to escape busyness of modern life. |
5 . When Chui-Lian Lee and Valentina Gomez started on their academic journeys as textile (织物) developing and marketing majors at the Fashion Institute of Technology, they were eager to learn more about the clothing industry. Some of the things they ended up learning shocked them. They found out that roughly 11 million tons of textile waste end up in landfill each year, and the chemicals and gases that emerge during decomposition pollute the earth.
Every single class that they joined, they’d go through the impacts and it’d be like, “Okay, cotton has this large of a water footprint and people are turning to organic cotton, but that’s not really a solution because of these reasons.” Or “People are looking at recycled polyester (涤纶) but that’s not great because it still releases microplastics.” As every solution they learned about came with drawbacks, they both wound up feeling really frustrated.
It wasn’t until the two joined a class on the application of biotechnology to the manufacturing of clothing that they realized there could be a more environmentally friendly option for the fashion industry. Lee and Gomez learned that they could use specially engineered proteins to create a fiber that avoids plastics and degrades (分解) naturally, and then the idea for Werewool was born. “By changing how we are creating the fibers that make up our clothing, we can change the entire life cycle of our clothing and their end-of-life impacts on the environment, avoiding pollution from plastics,” Lee explains.
The early-stage biotech company focusing on developing biodegradable fibers for the textile industry initially started as a research project that involved many sleepless nights in the lab. After winning the H&M Global Change Award in 2020, the project launched into a company. Over four years and 4.5 million dollars in funding later, Werewool now has 12 employees and has begun working with brands to develop clothing out of their protein-based fibers, with the hope of launching products in 2025. By 2030, 125,000 tons of fiber is expected to enter the market, which is about 390 million shirts.
“Our goal has always been to make the fashion industry friendly to nature,” says Lee.
1. What surprised Lee and Gomez when they learned about the clothing industry?| A．A wide range of textiles are produced every year. |
| B．There are many poisonous chemicals in clothing. |
| C．Clothing industry brings harm to the environment. |
| D．The textile waste is quite difficult to break down. |
| A．To present features of organic clothing. |
| B．To introduce methods of recycling textile waste. |
| C．To show they’re not good options for sustainability. |
| D．To explain it is essential to reduce the water footprint. |
| A．It has a bright prospect. | B．It funds research on textile waste. |
| C．It proves to be highly profitable. | D．It pioneers in plastics decomposition. |
| A．Werewool Makes Fashion Green |
| B．Breakthroughs in Applied Biotechnology |
| C．Lee and Gomez’s Academic Journeys |
| D．New Protein-based Fibers Hit the Market |
6 . It has long been known that dogs can learn commands like “sit,” “stay,” or “fetch” and can respond to these words with learned behaviors, often with the help of a treat or two, but uncovering their understanding of nouns has proven more difficult.
To look into the mystery, Boros from Eötvös Lorán d University in Hungary and her colleagues, inspired by studies investigating the comprehension of babies before they can speak, decided to mimic (模仿) these experiments with dogs.
They invited 18 dog owners to bring their pets to the lab along with five objects the animals knew well. These included balls, slippers, Frisbees, rubber toys, leads and other items. At the lab, the owners were instructed to say words for objects their dogs already knew. Then, the owners held up either the matching object or a different one while small metal disc s harmlessly attached to the dogs’ heads measured brain activity in a process known as electroencephalography (EEG).
Using EEG, the researchers aimed to observe any variances in brain activity when the dog’s owner mentioned a specific object, such as a “ball”, but displayed a different item, like a stick, as opposed to when both the spoken word and the presented object matched. This was indeed the case, with the results being strongest when the object was very familiar to the dog. That’s similar to what researchers have seen in humans and is widely accepted as evidence that they understand the words.
Writing in Current Biology, the scientists say the results “provide the first neural evidence for object word knowledge in a non-human animal”.
But the true extent of the dogs’ comprehension is still unknown, even by the study’s authors, since the dogs were responding to their own toys and objects that the owners brought to the lab.
The researchers are now curious to know if this ability to understand referential language is specific to dogs or might be present in other mammals as well. Either way, they want to learn more about how this ability emerged and whether it depends on dogs’ unique experience of living with people.
1. Which aspect of dogs did Boros’s research focus on?| A．Their speed of learning actions. | B．Their willingness to follow orders. |
| C．Their responses to training treats. | D．Their capacity of understanding nouns. |
| A．The result of human-dog interactions. | B．The process of Boros’s experiment. |
| C．The logic of pattern matching. | D．The theory of EEG analysis. |
| A．pet owners showed more objects than usual |
| B．dogs had a larger vocabulary of object words |
| C．the experiment was conducted in a new environment |
| D．the spoken word and the presented object mismatched |
| A．Conclusions from the experiment. | B．Insights into dogs’ experiences. |
| C．Expectations for future studies. | D．Applications of the discovery. |
7 . The language of Gaelic has been spoken in Scotland since at least the 10th century and was at one time the country’s main language, widespread in towns and cities across the nation. Since the union of Scotland and England in the early 18th century, though, it has been in decline. These days you are most likely to find native Gaelic speakers in the Highlands of Scotland, with concerns having been raised about the future of the language.
Now, a new initiative from Community cafe and Gaelic cultural centre seeks to turn the tide with the release of the first Gaelic edition of the board game Scrabble.
Titled Scrabble Gàidhlig, it contains only the 18 letters found in the Gaelic alphabet and includes the grave accent on vowels À È Ì Ò and Ù. The frequency with which each letter appears has been reconsidered to reflect its usage in Gaelic, and scoring has been reformulated (重新设定) to reflect the respective ease and difficulty of using different letters in the language.
“We worked closely on the development of the new game with the team at An Taigh Cèilidh, who have done a fantastic job of localizing the material and ensuring that the game plays really well,” said CEO Jim Harrison. “I hope everyone enjoys playing it as much as we enjoyed making it.”
“It will help people improve their oral skills and the range of their vocabulary in Gaelic,” said McLeod, professor of Gaelic at the University of Edinburgh. “In particular, many Gaelic speakers are not very confident with their written Gaelic and Gaelic Scrabble could give them a valuable boost. It will be very helpful for Gaelic learners too. Gaelic spelling is very logical once you are familiar with the system, but it does take time to master it.”
Scrabble was invented in 1948 and has been common in UK homes ever since, with about half of all households owning at least one set. It is sold in more than 120 countries and available in 28 languages and counting.
1. Why was Scrabble Gàidhlig invented?| A．To help keep a declining language alive. | B．To add a new type to board games. |
| C．To help reunite the two countries. | D．To promote a language game. |
| A．Its origin. | B．Its feature. | C．Its advantage. | D．Its function. |
| A．It will improve their language competence. | B．It will boost their confidence in socializing. |
| C．It will raise their interest in the board game. | D．It will enhance their hands-on ability. |
| A．Add some background information. | B．Make some further predictions. |
| C．Raise a reasonable doubt. | D．Introduce a global trend. |
8 . York Minster—The Best Cathedral in England
Commonly known as York Minster, the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York is one of the finest old-fashioned buildings in Europe and was completed in 1472.
In addition to daily services, there are many features to discover. York Minster has one of Europe’s biggest collections of stained glass, with 128 windows made from approximately 2 million individual pieces of stained glass. In the interactive underground chambers, you can discover the 2000-year-old history of York Minster. In the grounds outside the Minster, the Old Palace houses famous historical treasures, collections and a library.
For the best view in York, climb the Tower for a splendid view of the surrounding Yorkshire countryside. All year round there are special events, including performances by the York Minster Choir.
OPENING TIMESMon to Sat: 9:30am—4:00pm
Sun: 12:45pm—2:15pm
TICKET INFORMATION
MINSTER ONLY | MINSTER AND CENTRAL TOWER |
| Adult/Senior: £18 Child (17 and under)*: free with a paying adult *Up to four children with one paying adult | Adult/Senior: £24 Child (8-17): £6 To climb the tower you must be aged 8* |
It costs £30,000 a day to run York Minster and your admission fee directly supports the future of the cathedral. We never charge for people to enter the cathedral to pray, light a candle or attend a service.
BOOKINGAs a working church, we do need to close from time to time at short notice so we strongly recommend booking in advance so we can keep you informed of any changes in opening times.
For more information or to book, please contact our team using the details below or complete our enquiry form.
T: 01904 557275E: bookings@yorkminster.org
1. What can visitors do in York Minster?
| A．Stay in the Old Palace. | B．Explore its rich history. |
| C．Make windows from stained glass. | D．Climb the Tower to watch performances. |
| A．Ƶ24. | B．Ƶ36. | C．Ƶ42. | D．Ƶ48. |
| A．It takes on a modern style. | B．It bans climbing of the Tower. |
| C．It may have temporary closures. | D．It charges people attending services. |
9 . If you suffer from social anxiety, you will fear certain situations. Some fear speaking in front of groups of people, while others fear going to parties or other types of social events. In whichever situation your fear arises, you’ll probably experience sweating, feeling your heart race, or other symptoms of anxiety.
Number One:
Learning to physically relax is one of the best ways to deal with anxiety. It’s impossible to feel both relaxed and anxious. For deep muscle relaxation, you will tense and then relax the major muscle groups of your body , beginning with your feet and working your way towards your head and face.
Number Two: Slow breathing.
Number Three: Visualization.
The key to visualization is to remember a place where you felt safe and comfortable.
Number Four:
Most people with social anxiety want to hide, avoid, or run away from whatever they’re scared of. But by facing your anxiety instead you’ll find that it is usually something you can tolerate after a few exposures. When using this method, focus on what’s going on around you instead of what’s going through your mind. That should help you distract yourself from those anxious thoughts.
| A．Facing your anxiety. |
| B．Deep muscle relaxation. |
| C．Controlling your thoughts. |
| D．Once you remember this place, |
| E．This helps you better handle dangerous situations. |
| F．Luckily, there are some advice for you to deal with your social anxiety. |
| G．Controlling your breathing or breathing slowly is another good way to deal with your anxiety. |
10 . If you have ever visited an aquarium (水族馆), you would have noticed that the fish look bored. Their homes are not very exciting. Nor are the visitors terribly charged up. True, some aquariums are fairly well maintained, but the fact remains that they seldom draw lots of visitors in.
The government of Maharashtra wanted to make a change. So it has partnered with a Singapore-based company to create India’s first underwater world, or oceanarium. The Taraporevala Aquarium, on Maine Drive, Mumbai, is all set to become a six-storey oceanarium.
Most people think that an “oceanarium” and “aquarium” are the same. However, there is a difference. An aquarium keeps just a few species of fish while oceanariums have a greater range of fish. These are kept in huge enclosed spaces that closely resemble the natural environment of the fish. According to officials, the Taraporevala Oceanarium will have more than 400 hundred species of fish, including dolphins and sharks. There will be a well-stocked library, a mini theater and computer laboratory, where children will be able to satisfy their curiosity about the fish.
The oceanarium’s main attraction, however, will be the submerged transparent tunnel-the first of its kind in India! The tunnel will be below sea level and visitors will be able to enjoy an undersea experience, with a variety of fish swimming all around.
This may appear rather unbelievable, but a part of the sea will be enclosed in the oceanarium. Of course, Mumbai’s dirty seawater will be made clean before it is introduced to the fish enclosure.
1. Why did the government of Maharashtra decide to create an oceanarium?| A．To make Mumbai’s dirty seawater clean. |
| B．To attract more visitors to the underwater world. |
| C．To offer fish a more pleasant environment. |
| D．To introduce the technology from Singapore. |
| A．The aquarium attracts more visitors. |
| B．There are not dolphins in the aquarium. |
| C．The oceanariums have a greater range of fish. |
| D．The oceanarium couldn’t satisfy people’s curiosity about the fish. |
| A．Watching live shows in a theater. | B．Doing experiments in a laboratory. |
| C．Feeding fish in their natural habitat. | D．Enjoying an underwater experience. |
| A．India’s First Oceanarium |
| B．Why Do People Visit Aquariums? |
| C．How Can People Learn More About Various Fish? |
| D．Differences Between Oceanariums and Aquariums |
