1 . “I spilled soup all over the table, but it wasn’t my fault”. “I got into trouble at school, but it wasn’t my fault.” Such statements are often heard. “It’s not my fault” is actually a common response for so many people and especially teenagers. Parents complain that they’re tired of the “excuses”.
The reason why variations of “it’s not my fault” are so popular is that they get us out of guilt, blame and anger. Those emotions may come from others’ reactions or our own self-talks. In the case of adolescents, they are often trying to escape responsibility and punishment for mistakes.
Some teens would benefit from decreasing their self-blame. Those who blame themselves for things that they can’t control tend to be highly self-critical and are more likely to be anxious.
Many teens overly rely on “it’s not my fault”. However, overuse of the phrase can result in feelings of helplessness to control their own lives. Besides, “it’s not my fault” focuses a teen’s attention on what is done as opposed to what needs to be done. In trying to get them to assume responsibility, many parents attempt to convince their children that something is their fault, but the approach tends to be ineffective. A more effective approach is to face up to drawbacks to find solutions to the drawbacks actively.
People may not have caused all their problems, but they have to solve them anyway. Getting stuck in sharing blame often keeps people from moving forward effectively. What does one do if he is pushed into a deep lake? One could certainly stay in water, yelling, “It’s not my fault.” However, that is not going to get him out of water. At some point, he needs to swim to shore, regardless of the fault.
Like most things in life, freeing ourselves from blame has its advantages and disadvantages. The question isn’t what is “right”, but what is most effective in moving forward.
1. Who is likely to rely on “it’s not my fault”?| A．A highly self-critical teenager. |
| B．A teenager unwilling to admit a fault. |
| C．A teenager facing up to his responsibilities. |
| D．A teenager anxious about uncontrollable things. |
| A．Letting them focus on what is done. |
| B．Persuading them to admit their fault. |
| C．Making them correct the mistake actively. |
| D．Helping them analyze the reason for the mistake. |
| A．To put forward a new solution to drawbacks. |
| B．To show handling problems should come first. |
| C．To explain why teenagers get stuck in sharing blame. |
| D．To analyze what kind of problem is caused by others. |
| A．To help teenagers out of self-blame. |
| B．To tell parents how to educate children. |
| C．To help teenagers face mistakes properly. |
| D．To tell children to do self-talks consciously. |
2 . A field trip to Pacific Science Center is a time-honored tradition for students of all ages across Washington state. Our hands-on exhibits, shows, and innovative programs ignite students’ curiosity for science in a day of exploration to enhance your curriculum and spark a lifelong interest in science, math, engineering, and technology.
In addition to General Admission, PacSci offers extra experiences to enhance your learning and support your curriculum, including:
Documentary IMAX Movies: During the school year, we offer Teacher’s Choice where teachers can book one of two open documentary slots, if your school is the first to book. Email our School Groups team for a complete list of documentaries.
Daytime Laser Show: Be dazzled by a Daytime Laser Show in our Laser Dome. Packed with 10,000 watts of concert sound, experience a one-of-a-kind show on one of the largest geocentric domes dedicated to lasers!
Planetarium Show: Enjoy a live, immersive presentation in the Willard Smith Planetarium. Blast off to the universe’s outer reaches or explore the planets in our solar system. There is always something different to experience! Seating is limited to 36 students and four chaperones（监护人）.
PricingBelow is a pricing table for our field trip.
| Add-On Experience | Ticket Type | Rate Per Person |
| IMAX | Field Trip Student | $4 |
| Laser | Field Trip Student | $10 |
| Planetarium | Field Trip Student | $6 |
| Field Trip Extra Chaperone | $17.95 |
1. What is special about Pacific Science Center?
| A．It has a fascinating collection of art exhibits. |
| B．It provides students a chance for ancient technology. |
| C．It is only open to public and private schools. |
| D．It is a place where students can learn about science. |
| A．Documentary IMAX Movies. | B．Daytime Laser Show. |
| C．Planetarium Show. | D．General Admission. |
| A．$40. | B．$57.95. | C．$77.95. | D．$117.95. |
3 . A music festival is a community event mainly about live performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a main idea. On the list are the music festival s for fans around the world. Find your favourite now!
Field Day (Sydney)Field Day means New Year’s Day for young people in Sydney. Seen as the city’s original party, it’s a gathering of friends coming together for a great fun-filled first day of the year. There’s an air of hope and active energy on a perfect summer’s day.
Envision Festival (Uvita)The Envision Festival is an annual event in Costa Rica that wants to provide a chance for different cultures to work with one another to create a better community. The festival encourages people to practise art, music and dance performances. At the same time, our connection with nature is expected to be strengthened.
McDowell Mountain Music Festival (Phoenix)The McDowell Mountain Music Festival is Phoenix’s musical celebration of community culture. Since its founding in 2004, it is the only 100% non-profit music festival designed to support, entertain and educate the community. The festival attracts thousands of visitors each year from around the country, and it is an opportunity to experience true culture.
Old Settler’s Music Festival (Tilmon)The Old Settler’s Music Festival is a nationally known music festival for American music. The festival is held in Tilmon, Texas at the height of the flower season in the wild. The Old Settler’s Music Festival offers great music and activities for the whole family.
1. In which city can people celebrate a fun New Year’s Day?| A．Tilmon. | B．Uvita. | C．Phoenix. | D．Sydney. |
| A．It is about American music. |
| B．It focuses on culture spread. |
| C．It is not held to make money. |
| D．It provides a chance for friends to meet each other. |
| A．Field Day and Envision Festival. |
| B．Envision Festival and Old Settler’s Music Festival. |
| C．Envision Festival and McDowell Mountain Music Festival. |
| D．Old Settler’s Music Festival and McDowell Mountain Music Festival. |
4 . The relationship between Jeffrey Pang and his son, Kevin Pang, was like hot-and-sour soup. It boiled over easily. The Pangs, who moved to the United States in 1988, wanted their son and daughter to know Chinese culture. As a video game-playing American teen, Kevin wasn’t interested.
But when Kevin became a food writer for the Chicago Tribune, he realized he had a valuable resource: his cook-laving dad. “My father and I shared, for the first time, a common interest. I would call to ask about recipes and cooking techniques. He would school me on the world of Chinese food,” Kevin writes in the introduction to the cookbook he has just published.
When it comes to cooking Chinese food, he points out that there is no one definition of Chinese food. “Chinese cooking is not hidebound. For example, consider baked pork chop rice, popularized in Hong Kong. It is a pork chop with egg-fried rice. And then you top it with this thick tomato sauce,” explains Kevin. “And then you top that with some cheese. It’s a very interesting combined dish that has some Western British influences, and it’s altogether very Chinese as well.”
By the time Kevin joined America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) staff in 2020 as its editorial director for digital content, his dad had become an Internet celebrity demonstrating the family’s recipes. Kevin recognized an opportunity not only to share his own family’s food stories but also to apply the ATK method of breaking down recipes into simple steps for the home cook.
“I think this cookbook can teach fathers and sons how to connect, how to find a common interest and improve their relationship, ” Kevin says. That feeling has found an enthusiastic fan base, generating nearly 3 million views, for their online cooking series “Hunger Pangs”, where viewers speak highly of their father-son bond as much as they do of their attractive dishes. Today the Pangs’ relationship is rarely sour or hot.
1. Why would Kevin phone his father after becoming a food writer?| A．To publish his Chinese cookbook. | B．To inquire about hot-and-sour soup. |
| C．To seek permission for video games. | D．To ask about cooking Chinese food. |
| A．Inflexible. | B．Inclusive. | C．Unpleasant. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．Their relationship has improved. | B．They run America’s. Test Kitchen. |
| C．They do dishes to attract followers. | D．Their cookbook is about low-fat food. |
| A．Cooking at home helps you cook well for less. | B．Father and son jointly teach Chinese cooking. |
| C．Chinese culture is becoming popular in the us. | D．Recipes and cooking techniques are really easy. |
5 . With the ocean covering more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said scientists and researchers had depended on sonar (声呐) technologies to understand and map the sea floor which had charted only about 10% of the world’s ocean. For the ocean and coastal waters in the US, the number is just around 35%.
We know less about our planet’s ocean than what we know about the far side of the moon or the surface of Mars. Part of the reason for the lack of observation is the challenge of powering an underwater camera. Researchers have used ships to recharge cameras or observed with a camera tied to a ship to solve the issue, which is expensive and unsuitable for long-term observations.
Recently, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have taken a major step to iron out this problem by developing a battery-free, wireless underwater camera that could harvest energy underwater on its own for long periods.
To keep power consumption as low as possible, the researchers used off-the-shelf, ultra-low-power imaging sensors. The device takes color photos, even in dark underwater environments, and sends image data wirelessly through the water.
The camera is powered by sound. It changes mechanical energy from sound waves traveling through water into electrical energy that powers its imaging and communications equipment. After getting and encoding image data, the camera also uses sound waves to send the data to a receiver that reconstructs the image. Those sound waves could come from any source, like a passing ship or marine life. As it doesn’t need a power source, the camera could run for weeks on end before getting it back, enabling scientists to search remote parts of the ocean for new species.
Now that researchers have demonstrated a working prototype (原型), they plan to enhance the device so it is practical in real-world settings. For future application, these cameras may be used to take images of ocean pollution and create more accurate models to monitor climate change to better understand how climate change impacts the underwater world, and advance various undersea scientific fields.
1. What do the data in paragraph 1 mainly show?| A．Undersea exploration is poor in the US. |
| B．Much of the planet’s ocean remains unexplored. |
| C．The mapping of the sea floor is time-consuming. |
| D．Technology development matters a lot to sea observation. |
| A．The complexity of the sea environment. |
| B．The concern about potential sea pollution. |
| C．The shortage of investment in ocean exploration. |
| D．The inability to effectively power underwater cameras. |
| A．Overcome. | B．Face. |
| C．Analyze. | D．Illustrate. |
| A．Secure and stable. | B．Expensive but effective. |
| C．Impractical but advanced. | D．Self-sufficient and energy-saving. |
6 . Virtual reality (VR) is quickly becoming the new technological frontier. However, a set of challenges and hurdles need to be overcome, including things like low latency, the high refresh rate, high resolution and a wide field of view.
Now that we can actually build VR headsets that begin to meet these requirements, we are seeing a rising interest in VR. As it rises, so does the interest in creating new media to be experienced by using VR. Journalism is a medium built on relevance. Journalists should always be finding new ways to tell stories and deliver content. VR is a goldmine for storytelling. What better way to tell a story to someone than to put them right in the center of it?
By using VR, the consumer isn’t just reading or watching something played out; they’re experiencing it. The super-realistic effect of VR allows people to connect them with the subject matter on a much deeper level than just reading about it. Any storyteller wanting to do something more interesting than their peers should surely be considering the power of VR.
The question of VR, though, is not how powerful it is. It is apparent that the question of VR is its availability. Telling stories must be easy to do, and access to those stories must be readily available. This is the biggest challenge that VR faces. If the tools to tell a story with VR aren’t easy to pick up and learn, VR will fail. If VR isn’t both top-of-the-line and affordable, VR will fail.
Accessibility is one concern for Thomas Hallaq. However, he thinks VR is still very promising. Hallaq said, “We’re seeing more technology becoming accessible, and more people having access to that technology. Just look at smartphones.” If the technology is widely available and companies can overcome the hurdles, VR will succeed in being a desirable means of storytelling. Like radio, TV and the Internet before it, VR will change the way we tell stories.
1. Why is VR considered a power tool for journalism?| A．It entertains the consumers. | B．It delivers content very fast. |
| C．It is equipped with improved headsets. | D．It gets people’s senses fully involved. |
| A．Easy access. | B．New resources. |
| C．Public acceptance. | D．Technical barriers. |
| A．The longest in history. | B．The highest in price. |
| C．The best in quality. | D．The largest in quantity. |
| A．Approaches to employing VR. |
| B．VR: the future of storytelling. |
| C．Secrets of the increasing popularity of VR. |
| D．Storytelling ability: the quality of journalists. |
7 . Imagine Hying over the city in an electric powered aircraft that has no pilot but can take you from point A to point B in minutes. Sounds like science fiction, right? Well, not anymore. China-based Ehang has become the world’s first company to receive official approval to fly passengers in its pilotless air taxis.
Ehang’s EH216-S air taxis are electric vertical (垂直的) takeoff and landing aircraft, also called eVToL for short. The air taris can carry up to wo passengers or about 270kg of goods. They can fly at speeds of up to 130kmb and distances of up to 28km. The air taris are controlled by a central command centre that monitor the light, routes and weather conditions.
Passengers can simply select their destination on a touchscreen inside the cabin and enjoy the ride without worrying about piloting the aircraft. The taxis do not require airports or runways. They can take off and land vertically from any flat surface.
The air taxis use electric power to reduce environmental harm caused by emissions. They can be fully charged in two hours and have bow nose levels. They also have backup batteries and emergency landing systems and parachutes in case anything goes wrong.
They could transform how we travel around big cities —imagine using them to avoid traffic jams, save time on the daily commute (通勤) to work or school, or get to places that are hard to reach by car or public transport. And beyond just moving people, the aircraft can be used for delivering goods, such as packages, medical supplies or food. During natural disasters such as bushfires or foods, air taxis could transport much-needed medical staff, equipment or medicines to the scene quickly and safely.
One big challenge will be gaining the trust of the public and convincing commuters they are safe while flying. To do this, Ehang will educate passengers about the benefits and risks of using its taxis while also addressing potential issues and concerns about noise levels, privacy and the environmental impact.
1. What do we know about EH216-S air taxis?| A．They don’t make any noise. | B．They are environment-friendly. |
| C．They are controlled by eVTOL. | D．They can carry 270kg of goods and two persons. |
| A．A swimming pool. | B．An empty street. |
| C．A crowded car park. | D．A woody valley. |
| A．Where air taxis can work. | B．When air taxis function well. |
| C．Why air taxis are needed. | D．How air taxis can be used. |
| A．By providing a free tip for brave passengers. |
| B．By rewarding the most reliable passengers. |
| C．By explaining is taxis advantages and disadvantages. |
| D．By stressing the importance of environmental protection. |
8 . One of the world’s largest technology events, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES presents the latest technology offerings from companies across the world. Here is a look at some of the top products presented at the show this year.
Transparent televisionsLG and Samsung brought televisions that have a transparent (透明的) screen design to CES. The TVs use OLED technology. They’re designed to be hidden in a room when not in use. The companies presenting the TVs haven’t provided pricing information, but experts say the transparent models are likely to cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Robot pet sitterRobotics developer Ogmen presented a new machine designed to assist pets. The ORo robot is equipped with a food container to feed animals. It can also play with pets, record health details and take photos and videos of animals’ daily activities.
Body power to charge a phoneSports equipment developer LifeSpan introduced an exercise bicycle/desk combination that uses human power to charge phones or other devices. The Ampera bike is designed to be used with a “standing” desk table. LifeSpan says at a speed of 60 rpms, the bike can produce up to 65 watts of electricity per hour.
Home-made ice cream in 2 minutesThe ColdSnap company introduced a machine that can make single servings of ice cream in about two minutes. The machine uses small containers, called pods, just like Keurig coffeemakers. The pods for the ColdSnap machine can be kept at room temperature, saving energy costs. The machines can be taken anywhere and are simple to operate.
1. What can be known from the text?| A．The ORo robot is a perfect pet. |
| B．The ColdSnap specializes in soft drinks. |
| C．The price of transparent TVs is still a secret. |
| D．The Ampera bike can finish charging a phone hourly. |
| A．They are quite easy to carry. | B．They are environmentally-friendly. |
| C．They are equipped with little containers. | D．They are developed by the same company. |
| A．To show the wide popularity of CES. |
| B．To advertise a global show called CES. |
| C．To predict some next-generation technology products. |
| D．To introduce some top technology products from CES 2024. |
9 . Are you happy with your life now? If not, don’t despair (绝望) — instead, consider making changes to improve your life. It’s totally possible to learn how to change your life and live your dreams. This is the guide for you.
Pinpoint (确定) the issue. Consider an area of your life where you feel unsettled or unsatisfied. Is it your study? Friendship? Your health? Take a few minutes to write about it in a journal.
Identify things that may hold you back.
Choose your “one thing”. When you learn how to change your life completely, it’s important to remember that this process takes time.
Set your goals and make a plan. If you want to succeed, it is necessary to set a specific goal. After doing all of the above, it’s time to make a plan.
| A．Consider your “Why”. |
| B．Set a goal for yourself. |
| C．It won’t all happen at once. |
| D．You have to be aware of potential barriers before they arise. |
| E．It is necessary to take some time to review all of what you enjoyed. |
| F．Then you can explore how you would want things to be different in this area. |
| G．Despite the best of intentions, the lack of planning tends to limit our success. |
10 . A shadowy figure sits alone in a room, his face dimly lit by a computer screen. With a grin, he types in a series of computer commands, and in the blink of an eye, someone’s bank account is drained to zero.
In today’s digital age, cyberattacks like this happen thousands of times per day. Hackers can steal money, information, or completely take control of a machine from anywhere in the world. However, not all hackers are villains.
Some hackers, called white hat or ethical hackers, are individuals who make the most of their hacking skills to identify security vulnerabilities (漏洞) in hardware, software and networks. Their job is crucial in preventing cyberattacks and safeguarding sensitive information. The term “white hat” originated from old cowboy movies, where heroes wore white hats and villains wore black ones. Like the heroes in cowboy movies, white hats seek to stop the bad guys and save the day.
White hat hackers only seek vulnerabilities legally, often working on open-source software or with authorized access to systems. Once these weak spots are identified, companies or individuals can take steps to prevent serious breaches and losses. White hat hackers use a variety of different techniques to keep the internet safe. Penetration testing, for example, allows them to mimic cyberattacks and uncover system weaknesses. Security scanning tools allow white hats to identify holes in a network’s security systems. Simulating denial-of-service attacks (DoS attacks) helps companies prepare for attacks against their websites.
Many of the world’s top white hat hackers began their journeys on the wrong side of the law. A prime example is Kevin Mitnick. This notorious hacker once held the title of “most wanted hacker” in the U. S. due to his cybercriminal activities in 1995. However, after being arrested and spending five years in jail, his life took a remarkable turn. Mitnick decided to use his hacking skills for ethical purposes, eventually establishing his own cybersecurity consulting company.
If you aspire to be a white hat hacker, start by building a strong foundation in computer and network fundamentals. Good luck, computer cowboy!
1. What does the underlined word “villains” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．evil-doers. | B．heroes. | C．attackers. | D．victims. |
| A．They wear white hats in cowboy movies. |
| B．They do everything to safeguard people’s information. |
| C．They legally use their professional skills to help people. |
| D．They find vulnerabilities for personal gain without doing harm. |
| A．they obey the law |
| B．they identify security weak points |
| C．they take measures to stop serious losses |
| D．they build their own cybersecurity consulting companies |
| A．To teach us how to stay secure online. |
| B．To tell us how to be top white hackers. |
| C．To warn us of the dangers of cyberattacks. |
| D．To introduce defenders of the digital world. |
