1 . A Sweet Soul

Hopie was a beautiful black and white dog. She was such a gentle soul. She was let out of the house in extreme heat and attacked by another dog. I tried to save her but it was too late. My heart breaks every day missing her.

Hopie used to follow me around the yard when I was mowing (割) the grass; even if it was hot. She’d take a break and go back in the shade for a while, but always felt like she had to stay near me and she’d come back and walk along behind me.

After I lost her I couldn’t even bear to go out and mow the grass. One day I finally realized I had better get out there and do it because it was looking like a field. As l walked along slowly thinking of her and missing her, a black and white dragonfly (蜻蜓) started following me and then flying in front of me. It finally landed on the handle of the mower right near my hands and just sat there looking at me. I said out loud, “Hopie, is that you?” and the dragonfly just sat there and continued to look straight at me.

I have not ever seen a dragonfly with those colors: black body, white eyes and black and white wings. I knew in my heart that it was my Hopie coming to tell me. She was still there watching over me and tears came to my eyes. 1 told her I loved her and she flew away up into the sky as free as she could be. I still miss her every day and every time I see a dragonfly, I think of her.

1. According to paragraph one, what happened to Hopie?

A．She was saved by the author.	B．She was killed by another dog.
C．She saved another dog’s life.	D．She was lost on a hot day.

2. What’s the author’s purpose in paragraph two?

A．To make us know his dog got used to hot weather.

B．To show us that he had a beautifully managed yard.

C．To tell us the sweet memories shared with Hopie.

D．To tell us how annoying it was to be followed by Hopie.

3. Why couldn’t the author bear to go out and mow the grass?

A．It was very hot out there in the yard.

B．He couldn’t help missing his dog, Hopie.

C．His yard had no grass at all.

D．There were so many annoying dragonflies.

4. Why did the author imagine the dragonfly as his dog, Hopie?

A．The dragonfly behaved like his dog.

B．He was lacking in the common sense.

C．The dragonfly looked the same as Hopie.

D．How happy he was to see Hopie again.

2 . How to improve your memory?

It’s generally accepted that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but when it comes to the brain, scientists have discovered this old saying simply isn’t true.     1     Whether you’re looking to sharpen your mind, boost your mental performance, or preserve your memory as you age, these tips can help.

    2     Memory, like muscular strength, requires you to “use it or lose it”. The more you work out your brain, the better you’ll be able to process and remember information. The best brain exercises break your routine and challenge you to use and develop new brain pathways.

Don’t skip the physical exercise. While mental exercise is important for brain health, that doesn’t mean you never need to break a sweat. Physical exercise helps your brain stay sharp.     3    

Get enough sleep. There is a big difference between the amount of sleep you can get and the amount you need to function at your best. The truth is that over 95% of adults need 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep every night.     4     Memory, creativity, problem-solving abilities, and critical thinking skills are all harmed.

Make time for friends. When you think of ways to improve memory, do you think of “serious” activities such as mastering chess strategies, or is it more relaxing pastimes—hanging out with friends or enjoying a funny movie?     5     But countless studies show that a life full of friends and fun comes with brain benefits.

A．Keep stress in check.

B．Give your brain a workout.

C．If you’re like most of us, it’s probably the former.

D．Even losing a few hours of sleep makes a difference!

E．In fact, interacting with others may provide the best kind of brain exercise.

F．The human brain has an astonishing ability to adapt and change, even into old age.

G．It increases oxygen to your brain and reduces the risk for disorders that lead to memory loss.

3 . How to Read Candidates’ Body Language in an Interview

Body language matters, especially in interviews.     1     Our posture, gestures, movements or facial expressions can shape our reputations. Learning to read body language is about understanding candidates’ motives.

Reading body language during interviews can provide valuable insights into a candidate’s personality.     2     Here are some common interview body language signals that you can learn to read.

Observe extreme behaviour. A candidate’s harmless action doesn’t mean they won’t fitin well at your company. But be careful about extreme behaviours, like a person constantly checking their phone.

    3     You can read people’s body language by observing changes in their movements or posture. Imagine, for example, that a candidate suddenly starts tapping their foot. Maybe they feel the interview is taking too long. Or perhaps they’re facing an uncomfortable question.

Connect the dots.     4     For example, people may cross their arms when they’re cold. But, when you see a candidate crossing their arms, crossing their legs and balling their fists at the same time, prepare yourself for an aggressive (咄咄逼人的) answer.

Candidate experience greatly depends on an interviewer’s body language. Positive body language can make candidates relax and open up. Negative body language can spark (引发) defensive and reserved reactions.     5    

A．Spot the difference.

B．Ask detailed questions.

C．It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.

D．They don’t necessarily act the same way all the time.

E．However, understanding body language isn’t an exact science.

F．You can’t always tell what a specific gesture means on its own.

G．Be aware of mistakes to preserve a positive candidate experience.

4 . Right now someone is speaking or thinking in a language that is on the verge of disappearing. Of the world’s roughly 7,000 spoken languages, one dies every 40 days, according to one estimate — languages like Babanki, spoken in Cameroon.

And some of the places where rare languages are the most concentrated are also most vulnerable (易受影响的) to climate change. Especially, linguists call global warming the final nail in the coffin (致命一击) for more than half of humanity’s language disappearing.

Let’s take Vanuatu, a South Pacific island nation, for example. It’s very small, but it has 110 languages spoken there, which is the highest density (密度) of languages in the world. It is also one of the countries most at risk of sea level rise and climate change. There, you can often see perfect hurricanes.

So if rising seas or storms force people in Vanuatu to move to Australia, what happens to the language they speak? Well, what often happens is that they aren’t necessarily displaced with the same people in their community, and also, even if they are displaced with other people in their community, they and their children will often adopt the language of Australia, the dominant language there because it’s economically advantageous for them to speak the new language, the dominant language. And their language dies.

However, there is so much culturally lost when a language dies. It is because the language carries so much local knowledge and culture.

In fact, in the 1970s, it was something like 2,000 native speakers of Hawaiian remained. But activists launched some schools where children are taught from birth, usually by kind of grandparents, and now more than 18,700 people speak it. And the same thing happened in New Zealand in the 1970s. Only 5% of young Maori people spoke the language, but now something like 25% now speak it.

1. What do we know about Vanuatu?

A．Its most languages have died out.

B．It is sensitive to climate change.

C．It witnesses various disasters every year.

D．It is the highest density of population in the world.

2. What will happen to people who are forced to leave Vanuatu for Australia?

A．They lose their advantages in economy.

B．They have few chances to speak their own language.

C．They fail to contact people in their previous community.

D．They willingly teach their kids the language of Australia.

3. What is the author’s attitude towards language disappearing?

A．Favourable.

B．Concerned.

C．Doubtful.

D．Unclear.

4. What does the last paragraph want to convey?

A．More languages are faced with dying out.

B．It’s a must for kids to learn their mother tongue.

C．Grandparents play a vital role in passing down languages.

D．More efforts have been made to save endangered languages.

5 . World Ocean Day 2023

Our ocean covers 70% of the planet and supports life but is being threatened. So we celebrate World Ocean Day to take action. People need to know the importance of it. This year, World Ocean Day is celebrated on 8 June. And everyone is welcome to join us, the Marine Stewardship Council(MSC), an international non-profit organization on a task to end overfishing.

●World Ocean Day activities:

Learn about the ocean

In Australia, our Saltwater School’s education program features ocean-themed education resources relevant to the Australian curriculum (课程) suitable for Stages 3～5. And in New Zealand, our Te Kawa O Tangaroa ocean-centered learning program focuses on solutions to overfishing and how we can ensure oceans are filled with life.

Explore sustainable (可持续的) fisheries

Experience our sustainable fishery stories about real-life people whose livelihoods depend on fishing and hear from warm-hearted people taking care of our ocean.

Stay informed and inspired

Follow the MSC on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, and we’ll keep you up to date on the latest ocean news, stories, reports and more. And you can also sign up for one of our regular newsletters. Depending on your interests, there’s a lot to choose from.

●Our Contact Information:

If you’d like to know more information, please send your email to kate.jones@msc.org or call 61-2-9527-6883 between the hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Mon～Fri.

1. Why is the World Ocean Day celebrated?

A．To give support to the life of the fishermen.

B．To tell the task of an international organization.

C．To raise people’s awareness of protecting the sea.

D．To take action to call for an end to fishing.

2. How can you benefit from the activities?

A．Learn more about sustainable fisheries.	B．Become an important member of MSC.
C．Develop your interest in writing stories.	D．Teach students about the learning program.

3. When can you make a call to MSC?

A．At 8:30 am, Monday.	B．At 10:00 am, Friday.
C．At 3:30 pm, Sunday.	D．At 9:00 am, Saturday.

6 . When it was my thirteenth birthday, I was overjoyed that the moment has come for me to become a teenager. I would be given more responsibility and freedom. My writing skills would strengthen and become sharper (鲜明的). To me, the experience of being a teenager excited me. I was so focused on the pleasures that I almost forgot my sister’s warning. I didn’t understand at first, but realized later what she meant.

As a teen, you — and probably many others — love the sweets teenhood brings. You are given more freedom from your parents. You can actually have some privacy with the freedom you have. The talents you have start to strengthen and become sharp. Also, you can get a job and earn your own money. Of course, you have to do so when your parents allow you to.

As I said before, being a teenager isn’t all happy and fun. Adults place higher expectations on you as you get older. The peer pressure starts to kick in. As you start to gain friends, you lose friends as well. The mood swings (情绪波动) come and go. To make matters worse, you receive more homework. That’s terrible!

All in all, teen life can be really stresstul. With so many things going on, a teenager can hardly breathe! I, for one, can tell from experience that teenhood can really be a disappointment, with no fun at all. And then, it can be heaven (天堂). That is just the way life goes.

1. What did the author’s sister probably warn?

A．Every coin has two sides.

B．It is never too old to learn.

C．Failure is the mother of success.

D．Rome wasn’t built in a day.

2. What does teenage life mean to the author?

A．Poorer understanding.	B．More friends.
C．Less freedom.	D．Sharper talents.

3. What’s the worse thing teenagers will experience according to the text?

A．Endless homework.	B．Lack of money.
C．High expectations.	D．Bad mood.

4. What is the author’s attitude towards teenage life?

A．Favourable.

B．Relaxed.

C．Objective.

D．Doubtful.

7 . Nowadays, students are easier to learn in front of computers. With good reasons, many people question whether the state-of-the-art technology can finally change the way we learn. Others, however, make an argument that the traditional classroom-based learning has its own limitations. Considering both sides, my view is that the new programme can bring far more benefits than the traditional education.

First, it is obvious that, for any people, as long as they have access to Internet, can get the education resources easily. It is especially beneficial to people who live in a faraway area without schools or are short of money to pay for tuition. So, it is truly an easy way for people who are interested in learning.

Moreover, the distance rearning can help itself integrate (融入) its best knowledge materials and let go of them for sharing. For example, in the last 5 years, some famous universities, including Yale, Cambridge and Oxford University, have shared their most famous professors’ courses on the Internet, followed crazily by many students all over the world. If more and more universities take part in the programme, students will be facing a large wide and varied knowledge and the benefits for the whole human beings is huge.

That is not to say that traditional education should be forgotten. Teachers not only can teach knowledge, but also they can correct, encourage and communicate with students in person. But unfortunately it has weaknesses due to its inflexibility (不灵活) and lack of communications with teachers after class.

All in all, we should fully make good use of the modern technology to make the education opportunities available to people; meanwhile, we should not lose sight of the importance of traditional learning. Only by doing so can we bridge the gap between rich and poor, and thus make the whole society more impartial (公正的).

1. What can make getting education resources easily?

A．Schools.

B．Interest.

C．Courses.

D．Internet.

2. Why does the author mention the example in Paragraph 3?

A．To call on more students to join in the programme.

B．To get more support to spread distance learning.

C．To show benefits of distance learning.

D．To introduce some world-famous universities.

3. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Modern technology.	B．Society.
C．Knowledge.	D．Traditional education.

4. What does the author think of the traditional ways of learning?

A．It makes the poor poorer.	B．It is the key to communication.
C．It will be useless soon.	D．It is still important today.

8 . How to Get Your Children to Help with Housework

It’s natural for young children to want to spend time with their parents. But doing housework often causes Mum and Dad to take many hours away from their kids.     1    ? Use this as a chance to get your children to help you out with housework, and find endless ways to stay with them. The following are some simple, basic tips on what to do.

Break down big housework into smaller tasks

    2    . If you expect them to help with a mountain of washed clothes, apply the “divide-and-conquer (征服)”method. Smaller children can help with handkerchiefs, while older kids can be arranged shorts and shirts.

    3    

If a task is too difficult, don’t allow your children to take the easy way out and quit. Instead. make things easier for them by offering help. This will give them the impression that you’re a team and that they can depend on you.

Bargain or negotiate (协商)

This is especially helpful on extremely busy days when your kids don’t have time to help out.    4    

Use repetition

Children learn through continuous reinforcement (强化), so be patient, even if it may take a while for them to do a task properly.    5    . In the case of folding (折叠) towels, you can instruct them that each fold should be one-fourth of the entire towel.

A．So what is the solution

B．Offer a proper cleaning tool

C．Offer a helping hand when needed

D．They can then add up all the points every weekend

E．You can work around a schedule but still keep flexible

F．Use a step-by-step way when explaining what should be done

G．Housework that is easy for adults may seem hard for children

9 . “Award” and “reward” have similar meanings. They both can be different parts of speech-nouns and verbs. They are something you get for your behaviour, but there are major differences. Let’s look more deeply at each word.

“An award” is a noun. It is something valuable that is given, like a prize, to someone for their accomplishments. “Awards” are usually given by someone to someone else. As a verb, “award” means to give someone something, like a prize or money, for an accomplishment. Look at the following sentences: The students received an award from the teacher for not missing any school days. The judges awarded first place to the dance group.

In the area of law, “award” has slightly different meanings. As a verb, “award” means to give an official judgment (判决) of an amount or sum of money. As a noun, “award” is the amount of money the court or judge decides. Look at the following sentences: The judges awarded money to the victims (受害者). The award totaled 2.5 million dollars.

Let’s move on to “reward”. “A reward” is a benefit given to someone in exchange for a certain behaviour or action. “Reward” as a verb means to give someone a prize for their actions or behaviour. Look at the following sentences: The reward for all the students passing the test was an ice cream party. I rewarded my cat with some fish after he did a trick.

Remember, “award” is based on accomplishments. And “reward” is based on behaviours or actions.

What question do you have about American English? Send us an email at learningenglish carooanews.com.

1. What is the text mainly about?

A．The development of American English.

B．The differences between two English words.

C．The history of foreign language.

D．The key to telling a noun from a verb.

2. What does the underlined word “accomplishment” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Success.

B．Wealth.

C．Friendship.

D．Mind.

3. Which of the following people can get “an award”?

A．Mark who got the last place in the race.

B．Sara who won a lawsuit (诉讼) over a case.

C．Lily who finished her exciting day.

D．Andrew who helped his friend get a ticket.

4. From which part of a magazine can you probably find the text?

A．Science.

B．Study.

C．Tradition.

D．History.

10 . Nature & Outdoor Activities—World

Below are the 2024 Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best Nature and Outdoor activities. Think fresh air, new heights, and even a wildlife sighting or two.

Grand Circle Island

Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

Duration: 9h

Ages 0-99, 10 at most per group

Ideal tor first-time visitors, or those with limited time, this full-day tour takes you all around Oahu, making sure that you don’t miss a thing. You’ll see top attractions including Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, Halona. Blowhole, the Byodo-In Temple and the surfing beaches of the North.

Ziplining Forest Adventure

Rotorua, New Zealand

Duration: 3h

Ages 6-99, 10 at most per group

This tour takes you flying through a centuries-old forest as you. switch (切换) between the six zipline cables (电缆) 72 feet above the ground. Get a bird’s-eye view as two expert guides suit you up with safety equipment and teach you about the forest environment.

Fairbanks Snowmobile Adventure

North Pole, Alaska

Duration: 1h

Ages 7-85, 4 at most per group

Speed through winter scenery on this snowmobile adventure in North Pole. Follow an expert guide into the Chena Lakes Recreation area on leading you across frozen lakes and rivers, and keep an eye out for wildlife. Then, park the snowmobile and relax yourself with a warm drink, and some snacks.

Epic Canyoning Madeira

Madeira Portugal

Duration: 4.5h

Ages 16-63, 12 at most per group

Reach Madeira, you can’t get to any other way than canyoning (峡谷漂流) with this small group canyoning tour. Journey into the mountain of the island for hours of going down waterfalls, natural water slides, and jumping into pools for a swim.

1. Which of the following best suits the new comers?

A．Fairbanks Snowmobile Adventure.	B．Epic Canyoning Madeira.
C．Grand Circle Island.	D．Zipline Forest Adventure.

2. What can visitors do in Fairbanks Snowmobile Adventure?

A．Meet some wild animals.	B．Take part in a dinner party.
C．Journey in the mountain.	D．Have a snowmobile class.

3. If 11 students aged 17 want to take a tour together, they will go to __________.

A．Alaska

B．Portugal

C．Hawaii

D．New Zealand