1 . For the first 19 months of her life, Helen Keller was like other pretty happy babies in every way. Then in 1882, a sudden illness destroyed her sight and hearing. Because she could not hear what other people were saying, the child could not learn to speak. For the following 5 years, she lived in a world of darkness, without sounds or words and her parents could do nothing but let her be.

The person who changed Helen’s world was her teacher, Anne Sullivan, who entered her life. Miss Sullivan had accepted a job, which seemed impossible. She had agreed to teach a blind child who had never learned to act like a human being, because no one had ever been able to guide her in any way. No one could control Helen. She acted like a young animal, rushing wildly around, throwing things, and hitting anyone whom she could reach. Who could believe that such a child could be taught?

But Anne Sullivan was a very special kind of teacher. She had been blind during part of her own childhood and had learned to read Braille, a system of writing that uses raised dots which can be felt by the finger of a blind person. She had learned to see again after several operations, but she had never forgotten the experience of being blind.

Miss Sullivan understood Helen. She loved her and believed she could teach her.

Anne Sullivan could not teach Helen Keller to speak until some other important things had been learned. The little girl had to learn to control her actions and feelings. She had to learn that she could not always do what she wished to do. She had always been able to get what she wished by using force. The teacher had to change such habits without breaking the child’s spirit.

Miss Sullivan’s battle began. Sometimes, there was real fighting between the wild child and the strong young teacher. At last, however, the battle was won by Miss Sullivan, who had succeeded in showing Helen that she loved her and wanted to help her. The child and her teacher became friends. They continued to be friends until the teacher’s death, 50 years later.

The day on which Helen finally accepted Miss Sullivan as her friend and teacher was a great day in Helen’s life. After that the teacher could begin to teach the child language.

1. Helen became blind and deaf after ________.

A．an unexpected accident	B．a football match
C．a sudden disease	D．fighting with her teacher

2. Sullivan probably passed away in ________.

A．1917

B．1932

C．1937

D．1939

3. To begin with, she taught Helen ________.

A．to pronounce a few words	B．to control herself properly
C．to copy some letters	D．to make different sounds

4. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．Sullivan learned the Braille when she was blind as a child.

B．Blind as Sullivan was, he accepted the challenge to teach Helen.

C．At first Sullivan and Helen often fought each other.

D．Sullivan died when she was fifty years old.

2 . Common Mistakes New Runners Make

Running is a great way to get in shape and just about everyone can do it. However, many make a number of common mistakes, which can interfere (妨碍) with training or lead to injury.     1     , keep these things in mind to help you increase your chances of running success.

·Doing too much too soon

One of the biggest mistakes new runners make is doing too much too soon. Slowly easing into a training program will help reduce the risk of injury, so you can continue on with your new running routine     2     .

·     3    

Beginners might think they need to run every day (or nearly every day) to meet their fitness or weight-loss goals, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Running is a high-impact activity which can be really hard on your body. So it’s important to give your body a rest between workouts.

·Not wearing the right equipment

    4    , it’s important that you wear properly for your workouts. The most important piece of equipment for running is a good pair of running shoes, so be sure to do some research before you purchase a pair. Visit a running specialty store and ask an employee to fit you for a shoe.

•Running through pain

    5     If something hurts when you run, you need to stop and treat the pain. Remember: It doesn’t make you less of a runner if you listen to your body to keep it healthy.

A．Not taking rest days

B．If you’re just starting out

C．Comparing yourself to others

D．Running can be uncomfortable at times

E．It’s important not to use the same muscles

F．While it may be true that you don’t need expensive equipment to take up running

G．Experts suggest increasing your running distance by no more than 10% each week

3 . Whistling (吹口哨) can be a fun passtime.     1     But others consider it a serious business, even entering whistling competitions. If you don’t know how to whistle, getting the skill for it may seem difficult. With just a little patience, however, you can easily learn to whistle a note or two.

Start by finding a mirror. First, place your lips (嘴唇) to form a small “O”.     2     And then blow air out through the circle you created with your mouth.

    3     You’ll probably have to spend some time adjusting (调整) your lips and tongue until you are able to produce a whistled note. You may need to put your lips closer together and change the position of your tongue. While you learn, avoid blowing too hard.     4    

Once you’ve produced a beautiful note, move on, adjusting your lips, tongue, and the force with which you blow to produce different sounds.

When you first learn to whistle，you may hear sounds like those heard when air escapes a tire (轮胎). When you hear such sounds, don’t feel sad.     5     Keep trying and soon you will develop the right mouth positioning for producing strong, beautiful notes.

A．Then stick your tongue out.

B．Small amounts of air often work best.

C．This means you are heading in the right direction.

D．Some people whistle a song to help pass the time.

E．You may need someone to teach you how to whistle.

F．Next, position your tongue behind your lower teeth.

G．Don’t expect to learn to whistle perfectly on the first try.

4 . We are spending too much time on social media today. So what if you make a habit of spending no more than ten minutes a day?    1    Here’s how to make it happen:

•    2    

Don’t waste your efforts by being on every platform (平台). Instead, choose only one platform to start. Make sure that you enjoy it.     3    You’ll more probably keep up your 10­minute daily social media habit when you’re having fun with it. If you like to write brief content, choose Twitter. If you love pictures, choose Instagram.

•Choose the right time.

Find your best time to use social media.    4    Your social media habit might take place first in the morning or right before you leave work or during lunch. Or, consider a time when you can use it more efficiently. For example, if you wait in line every morning for your coffee, get your phone out and make the waiting more meaningful.

•Engage (参与).

Be wise in deciding what you want to talk about.    5    But remember, being on social media does not mean creating new content every day. If you’re just starting your social media habit, you can read what was posted by others. You can share others’ content and add your point of view to make their post even more valuable.

A．Make it easy.

B．Only use one platform.

C．Be sure not to give away your personal information.

D．Your topic should help you express your point of view.

E．Actually, you can achieve a lot of things within ten minutes.

F．There’s no sense picking YouTube if you hate creating videos.

G．Habits are easier to form when they take place at the same time every day.

5 . The term Scotch­Irish is an American term used to describe those Scots­Irish who live in America.In Britain the term Scots­Irish used for these people is Ulster­Scots. Then, where did the Scots­Irish come from on earth? To find the answer, you should get to know a little bit about the history of Scotland.

After the Celtic invasion (入侵) of Britain about 500 BC, what is now Scotland was controlled by the Celtic people known as the Picts. This name came from the Latin word pictus meaning “painted”. They painted their bodies with dyes (染料).

In the fifth century, the Scots from northern Ireland invaded what is now western Scotland and established a kingdom in the highlands. They spoke Gaelic, a Celtic language. At this same time the Anglo­Saxon invasion of Britain was taking place. Scotland is made up of the highlands and the lowlands, and the Gaelic name for the lowlands is a’Ghalldachd, meaning “the place of the foreigners”．And whom might those foreigners be? The Anglo­Saxon invasion of Britain included the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. The Jutes came from what is now northwestern Denmark.They settled (定居) in the southernmost part of Britain. The Saxons came from the northwest coast of Germany and they settled in the southern third of Britain. The Angles came from southwestern Denmark and they conquered what is now northern England and the lowlands of Scotland. They were the foreigners referred to in the Gaelic name for the lowlands.

In the 17th century, the British leaders decided to settle some of its people in the Northern Ireland province of Ulster. They chose the people from Lowland Scotland. This migration (移民) started about 1605.

When the British colonization (殖民) of North America began many of them chose to join this migration. By the time of the American Revolution it was said that one­sixth of the population was the Scots­Irish.

1. Which of the following had the custom of body painting?

A．The Scots.	B．The Picts.
C．The Scots­Irish.	D．The Anglo­Saxons.

2. What happened to what is now Scotland in the fifth century?

A．A kingdom was set up by the Scots fell.

B．The Scots lost the lowlands in a war.

C．Gaelic was widely spoken in the highlands.

D．The highlands were controlled by the Jutes.

3. The underlined word “them” in the last paragraph refers to the people who came from         ．

A．northern England

B．western Scotland

C．Ulster of Northern Ireland

D．southernmost part of Britain

4. What does the text mainly want to tell us?

A．Why the Scots­Irish chose America to settle.

B．The Anglo­Saxon invasion of Britain.

C．The history of the country Scotland.

D．Who the Scots­Irish were exactly.

6 . Stress is everywhere in our daily life. And it is not just men who suffer from it, but women and young and old people, too.

The main causes of stress are: death, divorce, marriage, money, moving house, changing jobs, ending relationships and taking exams.

So how do you know if you suffer from stress? Do the Stress Test and find out!

Stress Test

Do you	Yes	No
1. often sleep badly?
2. get headaches a lot?
3. find it difficult to relax?
4. need alcohol or cigarettes to keep calm?
5. usually hide your feeling?
6. find it difficult to put your heart into something?
7. take sleeping pills?
8. get angry when things go wrong?

If you answer Yes to more than two of these questions, you are one of many people who suffer from stress. So what can you do about it?

Doing yoga (瑜伽) or relaxation exercises, chewing gum and playing with worry beads (念珠) are all common ways of relieving (减轻) stress.

However doctors now say that there are simpler ways. Their advice is that people should laugh and smile more often. When you laugh and smile , your body relaxes. They also say that people--and especially men--ought to cry more frequently, because crying is the natural way of relieving stress.

1. What can you learn from the passage?

A．Young people suffer from more stress than the old.

B．Many social problems cause stress.

C．If you answer YES to more than three of these questions, you are one of many people who suffer from stress.

D．Doing yoga is the most useful way to relieve stress.

2. How do you know you’re suffering from stress?
(1) drink too much (2) often sleepy (3) usually hide your feeling (4) find it difficult to relax

A．(1) and (2)

B．(1) and (4)

C．(2) and (3)

D．(3) and (4)

3. However doctors now say that there are simpler ways. Here “simpler ways” means________.

A．chewing gum

B．playing with worry beads

C．laugh and cry

D．above all

4. What’s the topic of the passage?

A．Living with stress

B．Social problems

C．Ways of relieving stress

D．Stress Test

7 . “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade (柠檬水).” It is a good saying, but life throws at us more serious problems than lemons, doesn’t it? What do we do when we lose a family member? What do we do when we have been through events that leave us feelings? Can any failure be turned into success?

Most of us realize we can learn one or two things from failure. When we fail, we think, “Well, I won’t try that again! ”or “I won’t trust anyone again! ”But this is not useful learning. It is suggested that we ask challenging questions. For example, “How could I try that again?” There are a lot we can learn and get from failure if we keep asking good questions on how to do better next time.

Failure or pain can be good for developing our character if we choose to face it in a positive way. Our own suffering often makes us understand others better. It can give us wisdom or knowledge to share with others, which can prevent them from similar failure. If we have been hurt by others because of another person’s poor character, it may improve us to be better persons.

Failures can make us experience many things that we didn’t experience before. If you lose your job, it doesn’t mean you lose everything and probably you may get more. As we know, no job often leads to self employment; no job has been the beginning of many highly successful businesses. It is common that we don’t like changing, but change, even unfortunate change, brings new opportunities. Sometimes only failure brings us better opportunities or greater success.

1. The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 means that ________.

A．any lemons can be made into lemonade

B．problems always bring us lots of trouble

C．problems can never be avoided in our life

D．failure can also be turned into a success

2. The 2^nd paragraph mainly tells us that ________.

A．We should learn more when we fail

B．We must be careful to trust anyone

C．We must ask questions when we fail

D．We should deal with failure positively

3. According to the writer, if you were hurt by another person, you should ________.

A．avoid hurting others in the same way

B．find a better way to hurt him bravely

C．try to prevent him from hurting others

D．thank him for making you more perfect

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．Failure Decides success	B．Failure Creates Opportunities
C．Failure Brings Everything	D．Failure Makes a Perfect Person

8 . At Sho Farm in northern Vermont, farmers Melissa Hoffman and Shawn Smith work hand in hand with the land and its inhabitants, and among them are hundreds of ducks. The ducks at Sho Farm are not being raised to be killed for food. Rather, they are naturally involved in farming operations, helping to manage pests and add fertilizer (肥料) to the soil.

In the beginning, Hoffman, who has a background in organic farming and ecology action, worked with ecologists and biologists to survey the plants and wildlife all around the area. This was “to understand who was living here, so that everything we did was in relationship to the life already here,” he says.

So, at Sho Farm, focus is placed on living harmoniously alongside other life and working with traditional ecological knowledge. Food is seen not as a commodity (商品) but as a relationship with land and life.

The methods of food production at Sho Farm, as well as the farmers’ philosophy of working with rather than against nature, are in sharp contrast to most modern agricultural systems. And that’s the point. “We’ve been talking a lot about the broken food system and the consequences of it to the environment, to wildlife, to the animals in animal agriculture and to human health,” says Hoffman, adding that it’s not just the food system that’s broken. “It’s the relationship between humans, non-human animals, land and nature.”

The ducks play a vital, integrated role on the farm, explains Hoffman, by naturally providing pest control, fertilizer and (fuel-free) land maintenance (维护), just as by-products of their existence. “We noticed where we summered groups of ducks and parts of the food system that were not doing very well. The following year, the food system was efficiently improved,” he says.

It’s a symbiotic relationship that works well. “Animals don’t have to be part of a farm in a commodity sense. They can be part of the farm as a partner,” Hoffman says. “They are wonderful partners.”

1. Why did Hoffman do a survey in the beginning?

A．To get familiar with the surroundings.

B．To have a good relationship with other people.

C．To live in harmony with other life on the farm.

D．To have a good understanding of organic farming.

2. What does the author intend to explain in paragraph 4?

A．The causes of the broken food system.

B．The reasons for Hoffman’s farming methods.

C．The changes in modern agricultural systems.

D．The process of food production at Sho Farm.

3. What does “a symbiotic relationship” in the last paragraph imply?

A．Animals are treated well at Sho Farm.

B．Animals are not to be sold for money.

C．People and animals play the same role in organic farming.

D．People and animals work together and benefit each other.

4. Which of the following best describes the farming at Sho Farm?

A．Efficient.

B．Modern.

C．Natural.

D．Economical.

9 . After I entered high school, I attended advanced classes and I had a teacher who made me think I was stupid.

In my freshman year, I had trouble writing essays for that teacher. She was strict. She made fun of me, sometimes in front of the class. It didn’t help that my friend was a genius (天才) who would text me the night before our essay was due (到期) and ask, “ What is the essay about again?” She would receive a 97 and I would receive an 80 even though I had revised (修正) and edited that piece for two weeks. Once I got a 97 on a project that took me two and a half weeks to complete, and I was asked how much help my mom had given to me. In the second grade, I had trouble with my essay writing once again. Besides, I had problems in Maths even though I understood the concepts.

Now I am in a new school and taking many subjects and I am doing well. Actually in the beginning, I was nervous. I thought I would fail all of my classes because my previous teachers had failed me and made me ashamed to try. I thought I was just going to get another 80 on an essay. It is hard indeed. They are fast-paced courses and it isn’t easy to keep up with all the readings and when my next lab will be. But with so much adjustment (调整) to the stress, I have become confident. Now I know how much time I need to perfect that essay, and when to set aside time to meet with my tutor (老师) before my next biology exam.

I am writing this blog to the kids that have gotten lost in the mix---any adjusting freshmen, any lost kids in advanced classes, and the hidden genius in everyone. I went through two years in high school, thinking I was a little slower than the other kids in advanced classes. But in this new environment, with the experience I have received and my new-found confidence, I can say, “I’m Anne Hilker and I am smart!” We are all smart.

1. What did the author want to show by mentioning her friend?

A．She faced a lot of competition.

B．Her friend was a great help to her.

C．Her friend made her feel even worse.

D．Her teachers loved students like her friend.

2. How did the teacher react when the author got a 97 on a project?

A．She felt very happy for the author.

B．She praised the author in front of the class.

C．She wasn’t pleased with the author’s mother.

D．She didn’t believe it was finished by the author alone.

3. What does the author probably realize after going to a new school?

A．Hard work doesn’t pay off.

B．She isn’t as stupid as she feared.

C．Fast-paced courses don’t benefit her.

D．Advanced classes aren’t suitable for her.

4. What is the main purpose of the text?

A．To show students should study very hard.

B．To tell teachers to believe in their students.

C．To show teachers should be kind to their students.

D．To tell students to learn to face stress and have confidence.

5. How would a lost student most probably feel after reading the author’s story?

A．Inspired

B．Disappointed

C．Moved

D．Anxious

10 . The kites in Weifang never disappoint. Every year the Weifang International Kite Festival amazes visitors and netizens (网民) with innovative kites, as “paper birds” of unimaginable designs keep appearing in the sky.

The origin of kites in China can be traced back to the Warring States Period when the great Chinese philosopher Mozi in the State of Lu (part of today’s Shandong Province) made the first “wooden kite”. Kites didn’t actually become popular until the Ming Dynasty. By the middle of the Qing Dynasty, artists specialized in kite making began to appear in Weifang. In 1984, the first Weifang International Kite Festival was held.

Kites were used in China for military purposes at the very beginning. They were made to signal and measure distance, providing intelligence to aid moving large armies across difficult terrain (地形). For example, they can be used to calculate and record wind readings, similar to ship flags at sea. Over time, kites became associated with leisure activities, and were often flown during festivals and holidays.

Today, kite-flying is a popular leisure activity in China, and the Weifang International Kite Festival is one of the largest kite festivals in the world. In 2023, 622 kite artists from 59 countries and regions participated in the event. Compared with previous festivals, the 2023 event was highlighted by many innovations by both veteran (经验丰富的) and young kite makers. Zhang Xiaodong, 74, as a national intangible culture inheritor of Weifang kites, he has attended all 40 festivals. In the early days, he only brought traditional kites to take part in the competitions, but this time, he applied sound and light to make the fairy tale of Chang'e flying to the moon come “alive”.

The Weifang kite festival is not only a platform to share kite-making skills, but also a way to enhance friendship between people from different countries. The innovative kites presented in 2023 brought many pleasant surprises to kite lovers all over the world, and brought the people of China and other countries closer. As one netizen put it, “No matter how far away kite lovers go, there is always a ‘thread’ in their heart that can pull them together.”

1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．The history of kites in China.	B．The popularity of kites in Weifang.
C．The introduction to great kite artists.	D．The development of kite-making skills.

2. What was the original function of kites in China?

A．To serve as gifts at festivals.	B．To judge the height of mountains.
C．To measure wind speed for sailors at sea.	D．To provide important information for armies.

3. How was the Weifang kite festival in 2023 different from the previous ones?

A．It involved more creative kite artworks.

B．It became the largest kite festival in the world.

C．It contained plenty of Chinese traditional elements.

D．It attracted many young kite artists’ wide attention.

4. What can we infer about the Weifang kite festival from the netizen’s words?

A．It inspires artists to create a lot of surprises.

B．It is a good platform for kite makers to share skills.

C．It promotes the spread of traditional Chinese culture.

D．It strengthens the bond between kite lovers all over the world.