1. 表达歉意并说明原因；
2. 提出建议并给出理由。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 作文开头和结尾已经给出，不计入总字数。
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2 . The Amazon rainforest is as undisturbed a place as most people can imagine, but even there, the effects of a changing climate are playing out. Now, research suggests that many of the region’s most sensitive bird species are starting to evolve in response to warming.
Birds are often considered sentinel (哨兵) species — meaning that they indicate the overall health of an ecosystem — so scientists are particularly interested in how they’re responding to climate change. In general, the news has not been good. For instance, a 2019 report by the National Audubon Society found that more than two-thirds of North America’s bird species will be in danger of extinction by 2100 if warming trends continue on their current course.
For the new study, researchers collected the biggest database so far on the Amazon’s resident birds, representing 77 non-migratory species and lasting the 40 years from 1979 to 2019. During the study period, the average temperature in the region rose, while the amount of rainfall declined, making for a hotter, dryer climate overall. According to the report on November 12 in the journal Science Advances, 36 species have lost substantial weight, as much as 2 percent of their body weight per decade since 1980. Meanwhile, all the species showed some decrease in average body mass, while a third grew longer wings.
Because of the study’s long time series and large sample sizes, the authors were able to show the morphological (形态学的) effects of climate change on resident birds. However, the researchers themselves are unsure and wonder what advantage the wing length changes give the birds, but suppose smaller birds may have an easier time keeping cool. In general, smaller animals have a larger rate of surface area to body size, so they dissipate more heat faster than a bigger animal. Less available food, such as fruit or insects, in dryer weather might lead to smaller body size.
1. Why are scientists fond of doing research on birds?| A．They have small body sizes. | B．They are sensitive to hot weather. |
| C．They are ecological balance indicators. | D．They live in an undisturbed rainforest. |
| A．Two-thirds of species showed a considerable decrease in weight. |
| B．About 26 species responded to climate change with longer wings. |
| C．36 species lost 2% of their body weight every year from 1979 to 2019. |
| D．A third of species have been extinct for a decade due to the hotter climate. |
| A．Put off. | B．Give off. | C．Put away. | D．Give away. |
| A．Why it is easier for smaller animals to keep cool. |
| B．Why the Amazonian birds have lost substantial weight. |
| C．Whether bird species in Amazon will be extinct in 2100. |
| D．What effects the wing length changes have on birds. |
3 . Steph Clemence always intended to go to college. She had good grades and considered herself college bound. But life has a tendency to throw obstacles in the way. When her father died tragically in a car accident, leaving her mother to support three daughters on a modest income, paying for college became out of the question.
Around that time, Steph tried to figure out what to do with a life that had differed so much from the plan she’d carefully laid out. The answer came one afternoon when she was cleaning her bedroom closet and found a list from the English teacher she’d had in her junior year, Dorothy Clark. One afternoon, Mrs. Clark walked into the classroom carrying a stack of papers. She instructed each students to take one. The handout was titled Mrs. Clark’s Book List. “It wasn’t homework,” the teacher announced, “but it could be a road map. Some of you might not go on to higher education, but you can continue to learn.” It would, she believed, form the equivalent of two years at a liberal arts college.
“She knew the income levels of the kids in my high school,” says Steph. “Working-class and logging families. She knew most of us would not go to college. She was right. But she knew we could continue to learn after high school. She was also right about that.” Steph studied the list. Each of those books sparked her passion to learn more about the person, subject matter, or time in history. That made her look for other books that weren’t on the list, hoping to deepen her knowledge. Over the years, the reading list was a constant in her life, traveling with her even on vacations.
Now Steph is 70 and she never did get to college. But she has only four books left to read from the list. She expects to complete them sometime in 2023. “Each of the books has added something to who I am and how I see the world.” she says, “I now have gained an insight to see why things happened and what it might mean.”
1. What prevented Steph going to college?| A．Her bad grades. |
| B．The lack of financial support. |
| C．Her low income. |
| D．Her tragic accident. |
| A．To prepare students for college. |
| B．To serve as a reading task for students. |
| C．To share her favorite books with students. |
| D．To encourage students to continue learning. |
| A．Regretful. |
| B．Moved. |
| C．Fulfilled. |
| D．Determined. |
| A．A good reading habit. |
| B．An influential reading list. |
| C．An impressive English teacher. |
| D．A memorable experience in high school. |
4 . Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in New Zealand
Nature has shaped New Zealand with the beauty of a movie set. Few places have so many natural wonders packed into such a small area. Here are the best attractions travelers can explore.
Kaikoura, South Island
Birders, wildlife and seafood enthusiasts will love the charming coasted village of Kaikoura. Between the Seaward Kaikoura Range and the Pacific Ocean, Kaikoura offers excellent coastal hikes and popular whale watching tours. In addition to whales, passengers may spot fur seals, dolphins and a wide variety of birds.
Queenstown, South Island
Queenstown is New Zealand’s adventure capital. Bungee jumping, jet boating, rock climbing, mountain biking and downhill skiing are just some of the thrilling things to do here. In addition to the adventure sports, Queenstown offers all the comforts, with first-class hotels, spas, restaurants, galleries and shops.
Bay of Islands, North Island
A three-hour drive north of Auckland, the beautiful Bay of Islands is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the country. There are more than 144 islands on the bay, making it a perfect place for sailing. Penguins, dolphins, and whales live in these fertile waters, and the region is a popular sport-fishing spot. The old towns in the area such as Russell, Opua and Paihia are great bases for exploring this scenic bay.
Rotorua, North Island
This is a land where the Earth speaks. Boiling mud pools, volcanic craters and steaming thermal springs reveal the forces of New Zealand’s dramatic landscapes. Visitors can take a walking tour of these geothermal wonders and bathe in the springs while visiting the interesting attractions to learn about the region’s rich Maori history and culture.
1. Where can visitors experience sports with fun and risk?| A．In Kaikoura. | B．At Bay of Islands. |
| C．In Queenstown. | D．In Rotorua. |
| A．There are several islands there. |
| B．It is good choice for fishing lovers. |
| C．There are many military bases there. |
| D．It belongs to South Island of New Zealand. |
| A．Coastal hike tours. |
| B．Whale watching. |
| C．Varieties of wildlife. |
| D．Spring bathing. |
5 . A man wearing sunglasses grabs the mic and stands in a relaxed posture ready to make the audience laugh. Seeing how easily he moves, one can hardly notice that the stylish comedian, Gao Xiang, has any problems with vision.
Gao was diagnosed with the rare eye disease — Stargardt. Initially, he refused to accept the cruel situation. He kept escaping the fact until 2013, when he could use the computer more efficiently with the help of special programs designed to help visually disabled people . Consequently, he got the courage to be frank about his and found that people didn’t care about the problem as he had imagined. His working ability also helped remove any feelings of inferiority that he had. He tried to become mentally stronger to accept reality and get his life back on track.
Two years ago, he decided to become a full-time stand-up comedian. What has been motivating Gao to be so active in the comedy industry is his eagerness to draw the public’s attention to the disease. “As it is a rare disease, medical institutions and companies might lack the driving force to make great efforts to find a cure,” he says. “I want to unite the patients in China and voice out loud our urgent demands.”
Besides, he and two friends launched a public account on WeChat called Stargardt Care Center, through which they share inspiring stories of people suffering from the eye disorder, instructions for those on how to use computers and translations of foreign essays that explore the possibilities of curing the disease. By now, the account has managed to attract more than 1, 000 Stargardt patients and their family members. And some Non- Governmental Organisations also have got in touch with them to see if they could provide help to the community.
“Stand-up comedy has saved me and enabled me to meet interesting people and do what is worth doing,” Gao says.
1. What does the underlined word “inferiority” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Being proud. | B．Being bored. | C．Being unconfident. | D．Being modest. |
| A．His eagerness for money. | B．His faith in challenging himself. |
| C．His ability in performance. | D．His desire to fight the disease. |
| A．The visually disabled can learn computer skills. |
| B．Experts can provide medical help for the patients. |
| C．Patients can read original articles about the disease. |
| D．Comedians can post jokes to meet interesting people. |
| A．Sensible and tolerant. | B．Positive and inspiring. |
| C．Talented and aggressive. | D．Enthusiastic and punctual. |
6 . If you’ve ever taken a class in drawing, painting or pottery and in spite of your best effort, couldn’t make the final result look anything like the model shown, you may have thought, “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.”
According to some scientists, who for the past 20 years have put the elusive (难以解释的) subject of creativity through the rigors (严谨) of research, you are underestimating yourself. Da Vinci you may never be, but when it comes to creativity, we are all somewhat blessed (享有). It’s learning to encourage this unique tool of extraordinary productivity, and then applying it in everything you do, that counts to tell you from figures like Da Vinci.
“Even if we don’t have the good fortune to discover a new chemical element or write a great story, the love of the creative process for its own sake is available to all,” says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Creativity: Flow and Psychology of Discovery and Invention.
Most people believe the area of creativity has been awarded to those thought to have special talent. We look upon these “creative geniuses,” as we often call them, with great respect and a bit of envy. Their abilities, most people believe, ore bestowed (给予) by good genes, or, as if in Greek mythology (神话), from some kind of divine (天赐的) inspiration.
There is no doubt that the world is never short of highly talented and creative people. They are masters of their trades and stand heads-and-shoulders above commoners, making new pathways for others to follow, and providing greater context and understanding of our world. It could be said that without creativity humanity would not evolve so rapidly.
But like a publicly recognized creative baseball player who improves his skill through years of continuous training, foregoing other pursuits for the only passion, people who show the slightest unwillingness for tough labor may finally find their boasted (自夸的) ability disappear.
After closely studying 91 creative and influential people, including novelists, playwrights, composers, musicians and scientists, Csikszentmihalyi concludes that no one would ignore the sweat they shed (流淌) and their almost crazy willingness to follow their creative efforts to the very end, wherever that may be. These are the very things we all can master, so long as we’d like to.
1. It’s widely believed that creativity comes from ______.| A．good training people receive from artistic classes | B．the inborn genes or relevant gifts. |
| C．the tool we learn from masters like Da Vinci | D．certain Greek historical textbooks |
| A．Common people rather than creative ones lead in various professions. |
| B．People’s admiration of geniuses makes humanity develop quickly. |
| C．The field of baseball requires more gifts than hard work. |
| D．The building of creativity lies in devotion and effort. |
| A．giving up | B．counting on | C．referring to | D．turning to |
| A．How ordinary people and scientists view things differently. |
| B．The reasons for the development of various trades and humanity. |
| C．People’s misunderstanding of creativity and its true nature. |
| D．Ordinary people’s unwillingness to follow the examples of creative ones. |
7 . Being honest may not get you a lot of friends, but it will get you the right ones. That’s true, so you should pursue authentic positivity in your friendships, the opposite of toxic (有毒的) positivity that would have you encouraging friends in all things, regardless of what you might feel or observe or know about the challenges of life.
1. Ask questions.
A feature of authentic positivity is a curious mindset, a mentality where you are less locked into “telling it like it is” and more interested in wondering and exploring the possibilities together with your friend.
2.
“That’s so disappointing” is sometimes the most positive thing you can say to your friend when they are struggling. Resisting the urge to say “It’s all going to work out; don’t worry” shows your friend that you see them in their pain, and that you are available to support them here and now.
3. Learn to apologize —and ask for an apology.
| A．Name hard truths. |
| B．Don’t disappoint your friend. |
| C．Every friend misses the mark sometimes. |
| D．Instead, friends should be authentic and positive. |
| E．Here are three ways to be an authentically positive friend. |
| F．But that doesn’t mean you need to focus on the negative all the time. |
| G．Positive friends ask each other questions, and listen deeply to the answers. |
8 . 
NASA will crash a spacecraft into an asteroid (小行星) to try to change its orbit, attempting to prevent humans going the same way as the dinosaurs.
Earth is constantly being disturbed by small pieces of debris (碎片), but they usually burn up or break up long before they hit the ground. Once in a while, however, something large enough to do significant damage makes impact. About 66 million years ago, one such crash is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs. Someday, something similar could end human beings-unless we can find a way to tackle it.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) mission is the first attempt to test if such asteroid redirection is a realistic strategy: investigating whether a spacecraft can autonomously reach a target asteroid and intentionally crash into it, as well as measuring the amount of redirection. “If it works, it would be a big deal, because it would prove that we have the technical capability of protecting ourselves,” said Jay Tate, the director of the National Near Earth Object Information Center.
The 610kg Dart spacecraft is scheduled to be launched at the target—the Didymos system-a harmless pair of asteroids consisting of a 163-metre “moonlet” asteroid called Dimorphos that orbits a larger 780-metre asteroid called Didymos (Greek for “twin”). The plan is to crash the spacecraft into Dimorphos when the asteroid system is at its closest to Earth-about 6.8 million miles away.
About 10 days before the impact, a miniaturized satellite called LiciaCube will separate from the main spacecraft, enabling images of the impact to be relayed back to Earth. Combined with observations from ground-based telescopes, and an onboard camera that will record the final moments before the crash, these recordings will enable scientists to calculate the degree to which the impact has changed Dimorphos’s orbit. The expectation is that it will change the speed of the smaller asteroid by approximately 1% and reduce its orbit around the larger asteroid.
Then, in November 2024, the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft will visit the Didymos system and conduct a further close-up analysis of the consequences of this snooker (斯诺克) game, recording details such as the precise makeup and internal structure of Dimorphos, and the size and shape of the hole left by Dart. Such details are vital for transforming asteroid redirection into a repeatable technique.
Even then, it is impossible that any single redirection strategy would be enough. “The problem is that no two asteroids or comets are alike, and how you redirect one depends on a huge number of variables. There is no silver bullet in this game. What you need is a whole folder of different redirection methods for different types of targets,” said Tate.
So, while this may be one small step towards planetary protection, many more are likely to be necessary to avoid destruction.
1. What is the purpose of Paragraph 2?| A．To examine the impact of dinosaurs’ extinction. |
| B．To explain the necessity of NASA’s Dart mission. |
| C．To show the damage caused by small pieces of debris. |
| D．To highlight the crisis threatening human beings at present. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Sending impact data back to Earth. |
| B．Calculating the length of Dimorphos’s orbit. |
| C．Helping the satellite separate from the spacecraft. |
| D．Recording the scientists’ ground-based observations. |
| A．There is no challenge too big to overcome. |
| B．There is no possibility to satisfy NASA’s needs. |
| C．There is no single solution to the complex problem. |
| D．There is no strategy to help make an obvious decision. |
9 . Experience College at Harvard
Challenge yourself in college-level courses. Meet new friends from around the world. Strengthen your college application. And, build important life skills that can make your future college experience a success.
Pre-College Program
An intense and exciting glimpse into the college experience. During this intensive two-week program, you will take the first steps toward your college journey alongside a diverse group of exceptional high school students.
●Challenge yourself in a college course taught by Harvard teachers, without the pressure of grades.
●Engage with your peers in structured co-curricular activities, college readiness workshops, and social events.
●Two weeks, non-credit
Secondary School Program
Immerse yourself in college life for seven weeks! In this dynamic seven-week program, you can earn college credit while experiencing first-hand what it’s really like to be a college student.
●Choose one or two college-level classes that explore deeply into subjects that really excite you and may not be offered in high school.
●Prepare for the future as you experience what it's really like to balance responsibility with independence in one of three program forms—online, commuting, or residential.
●Seven weeks, college credit
Application is now open for both high school programs! See program calendars for important dates and deadlines.
To get our updates, join our mailing list for helpful information and important deadlines. Start your education journey today!
1. What do the two programs have in common?| A．All the learning activities take place online. |
| B．They are required procedures for college application. |
| C．They provide the students with college-level courses. |
| D．Students can earn college credits after learning the two programs. |
| A．start to apply for both programs now |
| B．pay for the program calendars from today |
| C．apply for the programs throughout the year |
| D．download a mailing list to get helpful updates |
| A．To raise money for Harvard Summer Programs. |
| B．To share the college learning experience with readers. |
| C．To introduce the diverse courses in Harvard University. |
| D．To advertise Harvard Summer Programs for high school students. |
10 . It was a rainy, damp December day. I was headed to the store to pick up another week’s worth of food. I had put off shopping for Christmas presents until later in the month but wasn’t looking forward to the crowd of Christmas shoppers while I grabbed my groceries. I kept the CD player on while I drove to avoid the radio news. It only spoke of the world’s huge problems and how divided we all still were. And it usually just left me feeling helpless.
Still, I gave my son a dollar to put in the bell-ringer’s pot at the door to the store. We went in and soon filled our cart with food. Then we walked towards the self-checkout machines. I hated using them. I much preferred to chat with the friendly cashiers, but the line at them was five deep and I just didn’t have the time. As I pulled my cart up, I heard an old man at the machine next to mine grumbling (嘟囔) under his breath, trying his hardest not to curse. He only had a few items but every time he put his wrinkled, well-worn, twenty-dollar bill into the machine, the money was returned.
I quickly grabbed a newer twenty out of my purse and gave it to him. He thanked me with a warm smile and paid for his goods. I told him to keep his money but he insisted that I take his old, torn twenty. I nodded, put it in my coat pocket, and wished him a Merry Christmas.
After checking out, I remembered something Mother Teresa had once said about how we all can change the world. “Help one person at a time,” she said, “and always start with the person nearest you.” I reached into my pocket, smiled, and went outside. Then I dropped that torn twenty into the bell-ringer’s pot and walked to my car with my son happily.
1. Why did the author feel helpless?| A．Radio provided unreliable news. | B．There was always a Christmas rush. |
| C．People were disconnected from each other. | D．Christmas was ruined by the terrible weather. |
| A．By paying for his shopping items. | B．By exchanging a newer note with him. |
| C．By teaching him how to use the machine. | D．By calling out the friendly cashier in time. |
| A．She wanted to pursue Mother Teresa’s ideas. |
| B．She desired to spread Mother Teresa’s words. |
| C．She expected to set a good example to her son. |
| D．She hoped to have a meaningful day with her son. |
