1 . The older I get, the more I understand how my teachers have transformed my life.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, I went to see Mr. C at Roxbury Park in Beverly Hills. His love of life has not dimmed despite the fact that his legs no longer work like they used to. He visited some of his former students while he was in town. At Beverly Hills High School, Mr. C taught ancient history, coached football and golf, and risked his life teaching driver’s training on Saturday mornings from 1964 to 1988. The gray and hobbled students lined up one after another to thank their favorite teacher. One called him a rock star. Another was grateful for helping him when he couldn’t say so. It was a beautiful tribute, especially in these times of catastrophic teacher shortages.

Spending that Sunday in the park with Mr. C was nothing short of magic. It was a reminder of all that is promising and possible in public education, including a teacher whose rare emotional honesty could be appreciated and honored decades later. It also brought to mind Maya Angelou’s saying “People will forget what you said and did, but never forget how you make them feel.” He made me and others in the park feel heard and seen.

Mr. C changed my perception of myself. Rather than seeing myself as a loser cheerleader who couldn’t compete with the smart kids, I realized how much I loved learning. His history class was so interesting. In his classes about the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, extra credits can be earned for creativity. During earthquake drills, we counted on Mr. C to scream his head off in mock terror.

It should come as little surprise that I’d value the role of teachers in my life. Both of my parents taught; so did my siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins. I, too, have become a teacher and I try to follow in Mr. C’s footsteps. Some days, I fantasize what it would be like to go on a teacher tour, reaching out to my mentors to express my deep gratitude for all they’ve given me. Seeing Mr. C sparked that fantasy again. When I finally worked up my courage to thank him, knowing a floodgate of tears would open, he said to me with his typical modesty: “You were doing me more good than I was doing you.”

1. What does the underlined word “tribute” mean in Paragraph 2?

A．enthusiasm

B．admiration

C．devotion

D．commitment

2. Why does the author mention Maya Angelou’s saying?

A．To make a suggestion.

B．To introduce a celebrity.

C．To show respect to an educator.

D．To interpret the influence of education.

3. What does the author think of her job as a teacher?

A．Enjoyable.

B．Intolerant.

C．Incompetent.

D．Patient.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．A reunion.

B．A rock star.

C．A surprise.

D．A great teacher.

2 . We’ve seen photographs that seem to show unbelievable images, thanks to photo editing software. But do you know you can create images that look impossible without any fancy software or computer effects?     1    

Playing with perspective

One of the easiest tricks is called forced perspective.     2     The person in front will look large, and the person farther away will look very small. The person in front can hold out their hand as if they were holding something, and the person in back is being held in the front person’s hand. You can also do this trick with objects like the sun or a full moon.

Flying superheroes

How can you take a photograph of a friend so that they seem to be flying superheroes? Have your friend dress up in a superhero costume, especially one with a cape (斗篷). You can pose them outside against the open sky, and have another friend hold the cape out so it looks like they’re flying. Position yourself low and take the photo looking slightly upward so the ground isn’t visible. After you take the photo, you can cut it,     3    

Other tricks

You can have several of your friends lie flat on a solid-colored sheet so they’re arranged to look like they’re piled in a human pyramid.     4     If you take the photo in the moment when they are off the ground, you can cut it so they look like they’re floating. Have a friend draw funny eyeballs on the back of their hand and then hold their hand across their real eyes for a funny face photo.

    5     The only rule is not to do anything risky and to have fun.

A．so the hand holding the cape out isn’t visible.

B．so your friends look like they are trapped inside.

C．You can create your own trick photos by exploring other ways to use all these tricks.

D．You can also take a photo of your friend jumping up into the air.

E．Here are some easy tricks that can create images fooling your eyes.

F．The other method is to take a sheet, lay it flat on the ground, and decorate it with buildings.

G．To do this, you set up a camera shot with someone close to the camera and someone farther away.

3 . Accents are an important part of our identity. An accent gives clues about who we are, and the community we belong to or wish to belong to.     1    

What is the difference between accents and pronunciation?

Accents are about localized ways of speaking a language. A French person may speak English flawlessly (完美无瑕地), just with a French accent.     2     However, pronunciation is something that — as a learner— you can get right or wrong. If your pronunciation is correct, you can communicate effectively with others whatever your accent is.

    3    

If you think back historically people were much more localized with generation after generation of families living in the same small villages and few people traveled out of that area during their lifetimes. So over many generations differences in accent emerged and became very distinct to particular areas. Mountainous villages that are not easily accessible often develop very strong and distinctive accents.

How important is it to get an accent right?

If you’re moving to a certain part of a country, you might want to integrate better with your new community.     4     That’s because it shows a sense of belonging to the community you are trying to fit in with.

How to improve your accent?

    5     And then learners should consider which sounds exist in the language you’re learning and then spend some time in front of the mirror practicing moving your tongue and mouth to get those new and different sounds. And learners should be aware of stress and tone, which can sometimes even change the meaning of words.

A．Where do accents and pronunciation emerge?

B．They’re also important for those learning a new language.

C．Try to adapt your speech to sound more like the locals’ speech.

D．The best way is to learn the specific accent of that region.

E．Where do different types of accents come from?

F．That’s fine because there is no wrong or right with an accent.

G．Learners should first think about which sounds don’t exist in your native language.

4 . Four Tips to Discover Your True Passion

True passion is the emotion, feeling, and desire that arises out of love for something. It’s the force that magnifies (放大) your capabilities for the benefit of excellent performance. This is because it’s a powerful motivation for best performance and everyone wants to get there.     1     Finding what you’re passionate about is a long road that requires effort and the following are some useful tips.

Search your childhood.

The purity and truth of your being are in the early stages of life. To that end, going back to the things you loved back then is always an excellent indication of marked preferences. Did you want to be a doctor?     2     These are all clues that begin to point the way. While it’s true that children have several preferences in their early stages, it’s actually quite easy to figure out which they prioritize (优先考虑).

Experiment and discover.

Doing the same activities day after day closes any probabilities to succeed in finding your true passion.     3     This creates a trial-and-error scenario (设想) that promotes a positive outcome in less time.

Focus to find your true passion.

You must forget about the myth that doing what you’re passionate about will be easy and pleasant. This is because there’ll always be inconveniences in any activity you undertake. Beyond that, don’t lose focus on the fact that these are temporary moments.     4    

Remember that your age doesn’t matter.

    5     Encouraging yourself to take the first step can be difficult due to some of society’s obsolete (被淘汰的) barriers. The truth is that you must allow yourself to achieve and show your tastes leaving aside any obstacles, especially those that are self-imposed (自己强加的). It’s never too late!

A．Were you interested in insects?

B．Take a variety of courses each month.

C．Do you know the meaning of passion?

D．Age isn’t necessary to find out your true passion.

E．Be calm while finding out your motivation.

F．It’s vital to figure out what you’re passionate about.

G．Understanding this will make it easier to keep motivated.

5 . It’s often said that we human beings can dream in a foreign language. Could dreaming in a foreign language improve our memory? Does dreaming in a foreign language mean we are making progress in learning that language?

Before we look at multilingual (多语言) dreams, first we need to look at sleep. The connection between sleep and language can be applied to how we learn any language, including our native language. Even adults still learn about one new word every two days in their first language. But, if we are going to remember that new word better, what matters is that we need to connect it with what we have learned. And in order to do that, we “need to have some sleep”, says Gareth Gaskell, a professor at the University of York.

It’s during sleep that the integration (整合) of old and new knowledge happens. At might, one part of our brain — the hippocampus — takes whatever new information it receives during the day and passes it on to other parts of the brain to be stored. The role that dreams play in this night-time learning process is still being studied, but “it’s entirely possible that during multilingual dreams, the brain is trying to connect the two languages”, says Marc, a researcher at a university in Bern, Switzerland.

So having multilingual dreams could mean that our brain is trying to remember a new word or phrase. However, it could also have an emotional (情感) significance. Danuta, a professor of psycholinguistics at the University of Silesia in Poland, suggests that multilingual dreams can express “fears or wishes” around learning a foreign language, including the wish to be a local speaker or to be accepted within a certain community.

We clearly still have a lot to learn about multilingual dreams, but one thing seems certain: if you’re trying to learn a new language, you can sleep on it.

1. Why does the author mention questions in paragraph 1?

A．To compare different ideas.	B．To introduce the main topic.
C．To present different types of dreams.	D．To discuss the human language ability.

2. What is the key element in memorizing a new word according to the text?

A．The other new words.	B．The native language.
C．The gained knowledge.	D．The speaking practice.

3. What can we learn about multilingual dreams?

A．They may influence people’s sleep quality.	B．They can reflect language-learning feelings.
C．They are the best option to learn a language.	D．They help to clear up the useless information.

4. Where is the text most likely from?

A．A novel.

B．A diary.

C．A guidebook.

D．A magazine.

6 . Live-stream marketing: A rural rags-to-riches story?

For many years, quality agricultural products were unable to sell in faraway provinces.     1     It prevented them from accessing a wider, urban client. In most cases, because farmers failed to directly reach consumers, their heavy physical labor resulted in very little income. In this regard, live-stream marketing may appeal to young migrant workers and convince them to return home in the countryside.     2    

In Yunnan Province, southwest China, live-stream marketing is currently the most popular way of pushing local products to consumers across the country.     3     It is turning the smartphone into a new farming tool by fashioning new shopping centers. Live-streaming has greatly boosted the province’s produce sales in the past two years. We now have a great business model in place, combining products with high-quality live stream platforms and support packages from the government.     4     Anyway, the continuous development of live-stream marketing is ready to play a big role in raising rural incomes in relatively backward provinces like Yunnan. E-commerce live-streaming is doing pretty well nowadays, but farm produce only accounts for a small share, mainly due to the lack of experienced hosts and infrastructure in rural areas.

    5     How to grow live stream marketing for farm products? Short videos or live-streams, the key is to meet consumers’ demand. High-quality products alone aren’t enough; they must consider buyers’ preferences as well.

A．There arises a question.

B．Government policies and guidance should follow up.

C．The expansion of 5G technology is a vital contribution.

D．The biggest barrier is lack of efficient marketing channels.

E．China has a tradition of intensive cultivation and a huge rural population.

F．But we should establish a complete supply chain based on strict standards.

G．Once back they can introduce more digitally advanced approaches to agricultural management.

7 . If you look at the dynamic “Global Temperatures” map on NASA’s website, you can see the historic temperature change over time across the planet as the timeline goes from 1880 to the modern day. By 2019, the entire planet is in red, orange, and yellow colors, indicating temperatures much higher than the historical average in every country and human inhabitance.

If the timeline went to 2023, the map would look even worse. That’s because the summer of 2023 was the hottest ever, according to ocean monitors. July was the hottest month in recorded history. Next July could be worse. Unless we do something quickly, we face dealing with more and more dangerous and expensive natural disasters in the future.

Forest fires sent smoke from Canada across the North American continent, causing New York City to have the worst air quality in its recorded history. Heavy rainstorms fell on Vermont and the Northeastern United States in just a couple of days in the middle of July, which exceeded the amount that area would usually receive in two months and caused extreme damage to homes and businesses. Around the same time, flash flooding in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — north of Philadelphia — killed nearly a dozen people.

Erich Fischer, a researcher specializing in climate studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is concerned that natural disasters could get much worse in the future—and in ways we cannot predict. He called for a “strike for climate justice,” which actually took place on Sept. 15, 2023. “The strategy needs to be twofold (双重的) . We need to decrease carbon emissions as much as realistically possible. That is already happening with people using electric cars and other green technologies. At the same time, we also need to find ways to predict the risk of natural disasters ahead of time,” said Erich Fischer.

1. Why does the writer mention the data on NASA’s website in paragraph 1?

A．To explain a concept.	B．To introduce a topic.
C．To provide a solution.	D．To make a prediction.

2. What does the third paragraph mainly tell us?

A．The severity of natural disasters.	B．The worst air quality in New York City.
C．The extreme damage by flash flooding.	D．The cause of the forests fires in Canada.

3. What did Erich Fischer suggest to deal with the current situation?

A．He advocated a twofold strategy.

B．He suggested forbidding carbon emissions.

C．He required people to use more electric cars.

D．He emphasized the awareness of climate changes.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The Hottest Month in History	B．Natural Disasters in the World
C．Extreme Weather Could Get Worse	D．Green Technology Would be Needed

8 . Some of the oldest living things on our remarkable planet are trees. The record holders are bristlecone pines (狐尾松) of the western United States, quite a few of which are known to be more than 3,000 years old. One individual, discovered in 2012, is estimated to be more than 5,060 years old, making it the oldest known non-clonal tree in the world!     1    : individuals across a number of other tree species have also been around for thousands of years.

So, how do trees survive for thousands of years?     2    . Undoubtedly, part of the answer lies in luck. Ancient trees have obviously not submitted to deadly diseases, pests, fires, droughts, windstorms, landslides, or the human axe in the centuries and centuries that they have quietly endured.

The other part of the answer has to do with how trees age. In fact, there is quite a debate about whether ancient trees can be considered “immortal (永生的)”. That is, will such trees ever die if they are not killed by an outside force? We may never know the answer to that, but, at the very least,     3    . While cell death is an important factor in the aging of humans and other animals, one study found little evidence of cell death in the ginkgo tree vascular cambium (银杏树维管形成层). In addition, a study of bristlecone pine pollen (花粉) found no significant increase in mutation (变异) rates with age, which is another factor associated with animal aging.     4    .

Older trees benefit greatly from having bodies made mostly of dead woody tissue. In fact, an old tree might be as much as 95 percent dead tissue! Given that it isn’t alive, wood does not require metabolic (新陈代谢的) activity to maintain it,     5    .

A．so an old tree doesn’t really need to do much to keep living

B．This is a question that has something to do with the good luck of trees

C．However, bristlecones are certainly not alone in terms of the oldest creatures

D．This is a fascinating question for biologists that does not yet have a settled answer

E．What’s more, some ancient trees have superior chemical defenses against pests and diseases

F．which means that trees can survive everywhere without being limited by external and internal conditions

G．we know that ancient trees age in ways that are dramatically different from the ways that most animals and even other plants age

9 . The Ancient Chinese Game of Go

Weiqi, known in English as Go, is one of the four skills that an ancient Chinese intellectual (知识分子) could possess. It has a history of well over 4,000 years in China and remains popular. Culturally, this activity is really “more than just a game”.

    1     One of China’s classics, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, describes the famous general Guan Yu playing Go while receiving surgery on his arm.

History books have recorded quite a number of ardent Go fans from each dynasty. Today, there are still many in China, Japan and South Korea. Wu Yulin, a professional, explains its attraction, “In Go, you can learn the dialectics (辩证法) and military stratagems.     2     There are numerous variations within the game and you can never reach the bottom of it.”

    3     Hua Yigang, Secretary General of the China Go Association, remarks on the character-building qualities of Go. “You have to become entirely calm, otherwise you can’t play it. You have to be very strong of mind.     4     You might make mistakes during a game, and then have to readjust your mentality in order to fight to the end.”

In fact, all of our minds can benefit from playing Go, which officially has the capacity to make you smarter. Research has shown that children who play Go have the potential for greater intelligence.     5    

Today, the number of Go fans in China is at 36 million and rising. Some universities like Beijing University are even offering courses in Go to undergraduates.

A．There’s always loss and gain.

B．It’s a war between equal powers.

C．That is because it motivates both the right and left sides of the brain.

D．You can also cultivate your character and improve your intelligence.

E．But more often, ancient Chinese played Go to cultivate their mind and character.

F．The influence of Go on Chinese society is quite evident in literature works.

G．Many people also love this ancient game for the Chinese philosophy it contains.

10 . 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 elements 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 inchmeal 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.

2. What does the author mainly discuss in paragraph 2?

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.

3. What does the underlined word “inchmeal” mean in paragraph 3?

A．Gradually.

B．Suddenly.

C．Successfully.

D．Occasionally.

4. What is the best title of the text?

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