1. Why does Sam look frustrated?
| A．The number of his customers is decreasing. |
| B．He argued with some customers. |
| C．He can’t satisfy his customers. |
| A．In newspapers. | B．On the Internet. | C．On billboards. |
| A．Go to Sam’s company. |
| B．Come up with a solution. |
| C．Go to a restaurant. |
1. What is the movie the speakers mention based on?
| A．A real life event. | B．A good novel. | C．A famous play. |
| A．It has got to the top. |
| B．It is beyond his expectation. |
| C．It will continue to grow. |
| A．Thrillers. | B．Science fiction movies. | C．Comedies. |
3 . Be it sugar or social media, the response in our brain is the same: It produces a “feel-good” chemical called dopamine. It first brings about pleasure, but it doesn’t last very long. It is then followed by pain so that we have to search for the pleasurable things again.
“This cycle of pleasure and pain made sense in the time of early humans when we had to constantly search for our basic needs-food, water, shelter,” says Dr. Anna Lembke, a Stanford Medical School researcher. “But our brains weren’t adjusted to put out the ‘fire of dopamine’ caused by pleasurable things that are so easily available in modern life.”
In addition, when we’re repeatedly exposed to pleasure-producing things, we’re not able to take joy in the same rewards. Instead, we need stronger and stronger stimulus (刺激) just to feel good. Otherwise, the cycle will lead us to anxiety, depression and many other problems.
“This is a universal problem—not one limited to those struggling with the disease of addiction. If we want to stay mentally healthy, we must rethink how to break the cycle in a dopamine-overloaded world,” says Lembke.
Her suggestions for the addicts?
Take a 30-day break from anything that we rely on for pleasure. This doesn’t mean going cold turkey forever. But this first month is key to breaking the pleasure-pain cycle and it’s a lot easier to cut out an addictive behavior entirely at first. Then re-introduce the pleasurable things little by little, like just a few bites of ice cream at a time or just one hour online a night.
Another strategy is to create physical distance between us and our addiction. That could mean just removing the addictive thing from our personal space. For someone who’s addicted to video games, that could mean a separate laptop for work and one for play.
“In a time of abundance, we have to strike a pleasure-pain balance, which means intentionally avoiding pleasure and seeking the kind of purposeful pain that keeps us healthy, such as exercise,” Lembke says. “By doing so, we will reset reward pathways and eventually be a lot happier. It’s not easy, but it’s well worth doing in the long term.”
1. What can we learn about dopamine from the text?| A．It has always been harmful to humans. |
| B．It gives us less joy for the same rewards. |
| C．It can be caused by anything available. |
| D．It can lead to a lasting good feeling. |
| A．Abandoning. | B．Waiting. | C．Cooking. | D．Repeating. |
| A．Avoid pleasure in life. |
| B．Set a strict limit on pleasurable things. |
| C．Change reward pathways. |
| D．Expose ourselves to repeated rewards. |
| A．Ways to Live With Dopamine in Peace |
| B．Tips on Getting Rid of Social Media Addiction |
| C．Strategies for Making Most of the Modern Life |
| D．The Need to Strike a Pleasure-pain Balance |
4 . Humans have long been trying to make sense of our place in the universe. Waiting at a launch site in French Guiana? NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the latest step forward in that ancient quest (探索).
Using telescopes, astronomers have seen many galaxies (星系) such as the Andromeda Galaxy and the NGC 3227 Galaxy. So far, the most distant galaxy ever discovered, GN-z11, was spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope. To the untrained eye, it looks like a red blob (小点点), but it’s basically like looking back in time about 13.4 billion years ago. That’s just about 0.4 billion years after the Big Bang.
“Hubble is limited in how far back in time it can look, so finding this one was just a lucky break,” says Marusa Bradac, an astronomer at the University of California. “Astronomers only spotted it because decades of using Hubble have let them cover much of the sky, and this particular early galaxy is surprisingly bright although it is 25 times smaller than the Milky Way Galaxy and has just one percent of its mass.”
Already, with that one galaxy, we’ve started to question some of our assumptions about how galaxies grow. The powerful, $ 10 billion James Webb Space Telescope has technology that should let it see back to 0.1 ~0.2 billion years after the Big Bang, the period when the very first galaxies possibly formed.
“If all go well, the James Webb Space Telescope will help us to build up the story of how the first galaxies ever formed and how they grew into galaxies we see today and we live in today,” says Bradac. “But the chances of seeing those first born stars with the new telescope are small. There’s maybe even more of a chance that we might see some of those stars explode. Such information can help us understand how galaxies formed and changed into the familiar shapes and structures seen today. That’s what’s amazing about the new telescope.”
1. When did the Big Bang take place?| A．Around 13.0 billion years ago. |
| B．Around 13.4 billion years ago. |
| C．Around 13.6 billion years ago. |
| D．Around 13.8 billion years ago. |
| A．The Milky Way Galaxy. | B．The GN-z11 Galaxy. |
| C．The Andromeda Galaxy. | D．The NGC 3227 Galaxy. |
| A．The great potential of the new telescope. |
| B．The need for new scientific breakthroughs. |
| C．The cost of the James Webb Space Telescope. |
| D．The importance of the Hubble Space Telescope. |
| A．Find the first born star in the universe. |
| B．Witness the occurring of the Big Bang. |
| C．See the explosion of some of the first born stars. |
| D．Get a complete understanding of the universe. |
5 . There is a curious love triangle that sits at the center of the new documentary Fire of Love. It’s between a man, a woman and a volcano. Well, all of them are volcanoes.
Their names might not be especially well-known today, but in the 1970s and ‘80s, French scientists Katia Krafft and Maurice Krafft were very famous for their photographs and writings about the volcanoes. When they died in 1991 on Mount Unzen in Japan, their deaths were covered globally. But their story has somewhat faded in the public memory in the past three decades? though Werner Herzog did spotlight them in his 2016 documentary Into the Inferno.
The Kraffts? who first bonded over Mount Etna and Mount Stromboli and were married in 1970, witnessed about 140 eruptions on every continent except Antarctica and won an Emmy for their National Geographic documentary Mountains of Fire. They would famously drop everything to get to an active volcano, and were often the first on site. They were also known for their willingness to get dangerously close.
Filmmaker Sara Dosa once met the Kraffts while making an earlier film about Iceland many years ago. In 2020, with the help of Image’ Est, a French museum, and Maurice Krafft’s brother, Bertrand Krafft, Dosa and her team were able to get access to over 180 hours of footage shot by the Kraffts. So Dosa decided to make something about the Kraffts in the true spirit of the Kraffts.
“We wanted to let them play themselves. We see them as the authors of their own story,“ Dosa said. ”This is a co-creation, shot by them and starring them. We’re just stringing together the pieces of their life for the audience to connect with.”
However, Fire of Love is anything but a filmed Wikipedia(维基百科)page. Dosa and her team have drawn on the techniques of French New Wave films to help shape the style of their film, including playful multiple screens.
1. Where did Katia Krafft and Maurice Krafft pass away?| A．On Mount Etna. | B．On Mount Stromboli. |
| C．On Mount Unzen. | D．On Mount Krakatoa. |
| A．They were enthusiastic about studying volcanoes. |
| B．They were well-known for their short-lived marriage. |
| C．Their deaths were related to the biggest volcano. |
| D．Their love story appeared in many volcano books. |
| A．Bertrand Krafft. | B．Sara Dosa. | C．Werner Herzog. | D．Katia Krafft. |
| A．A love story. | B．A biography. | C．A documentary. | D．A film review. |
It had been 5 years since Zahida’s husband passed away due to a heart attack. Every day, she buried herself in her embroidery (刺绣), feeling her waist ache due to the long hours of work. She would grow tired faster these days.
The doorbell rang. Her son Aamer returned from the office. Entering the house, Aamer threw his bag at a sofa. “I have told you again and again not to throw things everywhere!” Zahida complained. “Mom, why do you find fault with unimportant things every day? Boss at office, you at home... Oh so tiring!” Aamer slammed (砰地关上) the door to his room.
Such unpleasant exchanges always happened now. Zahida would often recall the days of Aamer’s childhood fondly, which would bring smile to her face. She could remember the days when the little Aamer had parted unwillingly on his first day to school or had shouted excitedly at spotting a sleepy bear during a visit to the zoo. Zahida wondered if Aamer too could recollect these memories or had piled them in a forgotten corner of his mind.
Following a quiet dinner that night, Zahida happened to pass Aamer’s room. She could hear Aamer’s voice floating out. “Yes, yes... you do understand that she is a picky woman. She cannot adjust easily anywhere. You must take care of that...”
Zahida was caught by a sudden sense of anxiety. A few days ago, a neighbor’s children sent her neighbor off to an old age home. They were too busy to have time for the old woman. What did Aamer talk of? Was she also...? No, surely Aamer couldn’t be doing that. Zahida retired to bed.
“Please be sure to deliver the tickets for our trip to Egypt as soon as possible,” Aamer continued.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150词左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
A few days later, a postman rang the doorbell when Aamer was away for work.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“Mom, here... Look what I’ve got in the envelope!” Aamer shouted with joy like a child.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Of all the notable mountains in China, the Huangshan Mountain is probably the most famous. The fairy-land like Huangshan national park
It is famous for its splendid natural scenery
In Huangshan, there are hundreds of precious pine trees
8 . Some years ago, I was extremely sick. I had already been in hospital without
That afternoon, a volunteer came into my room with a
For the first time, I fell into a sound sleep. When I
After my visitor came, something
It has been many years now, but I still
| A．doctors | B．roommates | C．assistants | D．visitors |
| A．work out | B．stay up | C．show up | D．stand out |
| A．container | B．letter | C．bill | D．parcel |
| A．grateful | B．desperate | C．curious | D．guilty |
| A．rested | B．escaped | C．awoke | D．survived |
| A．admitted | B．predicted | C．expected | D．realized |
| A．stayed | B．changed | C．occurred | D．faded |
| A．false | B．local | C．awful | D．joyful |
| A．ignored | B．benefited | C．restricted | D．affected |
| A．medicine | B．information | C．opportunities | D．diseases |
| A．natural | B．powerful | C．complex | D．creative |
| A．returned | B．accepted | C．recovered | D．continued |
| A．seek | B．pack | C．share | D．keep |
| A．reward | B．reminder | C．device | D．shame |
| A．hope | B．gifts | C．challenges | D．money |
9 . If you are staying at the office until all hours of the night and then showing up before the start of the workday, you are a workaholic (工作狂). Such condition might be one of the hardest to break because it is one of the few socially acceptable conditions a person might have.
Achieving a good balance between work and life can be difficult.
Leave work at work as much as possible. Regardless of whether you work in an office or your home, do not check your work e-mail after work. Unless your job requires you to respond to emergencies, ignore texts and phone calls when you are off the clock.
Don’t forget to socialize with people around you. Working all the time doesn’t leave room for play, which can be stressful on relationships.
| A．Set a time to leave. |
| B．But it is something you should do. |
| C．It’s a first step in “curing” this condition. |
| D．Start scheduling time to spend with family and friends. |
| E．Many people think making work your first priority is good. |
| F．Your coworkers need to understand that you need time for yourself. |
| G．Do not leave for the office earlier than you need to in order to get there on time. |
10 . Nine milu deer babies were born in Daqing Mountain National Nature Reserve in April, after 27 deer were relocated in September from two reserves in Nanhaizi, Beijing, and Dafeng, Jiangsu Province.
The milu deer have been brought back from the edge of complete extinction in China since the mid-1980s. The National Forestry and Grassland Administration launched the ambitious conservation program in 2019 to expand the habitat of the species. Experts came to the Daqing nature reserve for inspection, and an area with plenty of food and water was chosen to release (放养) the deer.
For Ma, who works at the Daqing Mountain National Nature Reserve’s management station, it is a new responsibility, but he remains undiscouraged by challenges. He consults experts to understand the species better. According to his observations, the two groups of animals from Nanhaizi and Dafeng are getting along well, and even integrating into one close community. Ma keeps a record of the reserve’s ecological conditions. He has noticed that the plant cover has increased, thanks to the national protection policy and plenty of rainfall in recent years.
“The milu originally lived in the wetlands along the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. This is the first time they have been released in a cold mountainous region, where the winter temperature can drop to -30℃,” says Khorintavan, head of the nature reserve. “The staff had built winter shelters, but the deer never went there. The milu deer have a thick coat, which keeps them warm.” he adds. “The task ahead is to see how well the babies adapt to the new environment.”
The gold and iron mines in the mountains were shut down long ago. Locals are aware of the importance of wildlife conservation, which has enhanced the confidence of experts.
“The birth of babies means that the Daqing Mountain National Nature Reserve is a suitable habitat for the milu deer. It is a reference for us to better develop more potential habitats,” says Guo Qingyun, associate research fellow at the Beijing Milu Ecological Research Center in Nanhaizi.
1. What can be known about the two different deer groups?| A．They may combine to give birth to a baby. |
| B．They struggle between each other for territories. |
| C．They live in separate areas in the nature reserve. |
| D．They were released in the wetlands along rivers. |
| A．The leafy trees. | B．Their thick hair. |
| C．The rich fat. | D．The winter shelters. |
| A．Critical. | B．Objective. | C．Doubtful. | D．Positive. |
| A．Wildlife Conservation | B．New Hope for Milu Dear |
| C．Newly built Nature Reserve | D．Healthy Growth of Baby Deer |
