1 . Li Jing, 29, is a native of Cuijiaba, a small town in Hubei Province. She was one of the first people from her community to go for higher education. After graduation, she worked in Wuhan first, and then she changed her decision last year to return to her village.

“I want to be a part of my hometown’s development and bring about real changes to our villagers while realizing my own personal value,” Li said.

After returning to her hometown, Li received strong support from her family, while there were some villagers who questioned her decision. She decided to show her love to the hometown through action.

Her job included a great deal of communication with the villagers mainly to increase potato production. “We regularly hold meetings in the village square, where we share ideas on potato planting skills, selling methods, market changes and more,” Li said.

To increase sales outside the village, the young workforce in the village chose to go into the world of livestreaming(直播). This new marketing method has produced satisfying results. Together with other methods like doing online business on websites and apps, the money that a family can get from potato sales in a year has risen sharply from 1,000 yuan to the present number of 20,000 yuan, according to Li.

However, the road to success is not always easy. “At first, some people were not willing to accept the new ideas,” Li said. But Li didn’t force them. Instead, she chose to communicate with effort. Li and her workmates would also search online for other villages’ success stories about the application of livestreaming, and shared them with villagers. She knew communications took a lot of time and energy, but she believed it’s all worth it. Li said, “True smiles on the faces of the villagers are the best gifts for me.”

In the near future, Li hopes to continue helping her villagers raise their potato production and earn more money. Her long-term goal is to help rural areas further develop and integrate(结合) with the city. She said hopefully, “We will continually find ways to bring happiness to the villagers and the long-term development to the countryside.”

1. Li Jing returned to her hometown mainly to ________.

A．work in the government

B．bring great changes to her family

C．realize her dream of being a farmer

D．contribute to the local development

2. When questioned by some villagers, Li Jing ________.

A．turned to her family for help

B．defended herself at meetings

C．took action to help the villagers

D．immediately went back to cities

3. Li and the villagers increased the potato sales mainly by ________.

A．putting up ads on TVs

B．taking up livestreaming

C．producing satisfying results

D．communicating with other villagers

4. What does Li think of the future plan in the rural areas?

A．Promising.

B．Doubtful.

C．Challenging.

D．Fearful.

5. What can we learn from the passage?

A．All good things come to an end.

B．Where there is a will, there is a way.

C．You cannot eat your cake and have it.

D．A single flower does not make a spring.

2 . In the past, working people in Britain only had holidays on “holy” (与宗教有关的) days such as Sundays and Christmas. Now most people have about four weeks’ holiday every year and public holidays which are also called “bank holidays”.

When?

British people usually have their holidays in summer. Many working people take a two-week holiday in July or August. School children are on holiday from the end of July to the start of September. A second holiday break in winter or in spring is also becoming more popular in the UK.

Where?

The most popular holiday places for British include Spain, France and the USA. Lots of people buy a kind of service which includes flights and a hotel or an apartment. Cheap flights to go abroad mean that many British people are able to spend two weeks a year holidaying abroad. Flights are much cheaper during school term time and the British government is worried that some young people are missing school to go on holiday. Parents who take their children on holiday during term time now have to pay a fine.

Things to See

British people also like to go on holiday in the UK. What can young British people do on a UK holiday? Here are a few examples. Alton Towers is one of the top UK parks. It is famous for its scaring rides and is very popular with teenagers. The Eden Project is an environmental project in the south-west of England, where you can see plants from all around the world.

Independent Holidays

Some teenagers want to spend their holidays doing something without their family. A language exchange (交换) is one way to be more independent and learn more language skills. A British teenager spends a week or two in a foreign country, staying with a family who has a son or daughter of the same age, and practising the local language. Later the foreign teenager visits the UK to practise English with the British family.

1. When are British people likely to go on holiday?

A．In spring.

B．In summer.

C．In autumn.

D．In winter.

2. According to the passage, the British government is afraid that ________.

A．students pay a fine for the holiday

B．people buy cheap flights to other countries

C．people spend two weeks holidaying abroad

D．students have holidays instead of going to school

3. Which of the following is the benefit of independent holidays?

A．Teenagers can get better at language skills.

B．People can see plants from all over the world.

C．People can take part in environmental projects.

D．Teenagers can enjoy scaring rides independently.

4. All of the following information is mentioned in the passage EXCEPT ________.

A．the time of British having holidays

B．popular places of interest in the UK

C．people’s favorite hotels or apartments

D．teenagers’ special independent holidays

5. The passage is written to ________.

A．help people buy cheap flights to go abroad

B．tell the way to become independent teenagers

C．call on people to have their holidays in the UK

D．offer information about British people’s holidays

3 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。请在答题卡指定区域作答。

According to a new study, the leading cause of death of birds near power lines is not electrocution (触电), but unlawful shooting. “We need to know how birds are dying so that we can come up     1     some ways to reduce their deaths,” said Thomason, leader of the research team. Between 2019 and 2022, they     2     (find) 410 dead birds and 66% were killed by guns. “It is really difficult     3     (know) what’s going on. Sometimes people shoot birds for fun. Sometimes they do this just to protect their animals on the farm. Anyway, unlawful shooting should be prevented,” said Thomason.

4 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。请在答题卡指定区域作答。

Huang Yuting, a 17-year-old girl from Zhejiang Province, won three gold medals in shooting(射击) at the Asian Games in Hangzhou. “I feel     1     (excite) about the result because the effort is worth it!” Huang said in an interview. When she was 10, she     2     (select) to be a member of the shooting team in a local children sports school. In 2020, she joined Zhejiang Provincial Shooting Team and earned her place by training hard. “This is a sport in which I fight against myself. I will always work hard and try     3     (I) best!” Huang said.

5 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

World Animal Day is an annual event on 4th October,     1     (aim) to improve animal rights across the globe. It     2     (celebrate) since a German writer and publisher started it in 1925. Through joining in various     3     (organize) events, people are better aware of how animals should be treated. And there are so many     4     (option) for everyone to help end the needless suffering of all animals.

6 . Flow is a cognitive (认知的) state where one is completely immersed (沉浸) in an activity — from painting and writing to yoga and surfboarding.     1       

The process of flow was discovered and coined by the Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In the 1960s, Csikszentmihalyi studied the creative process and found that, when an artist was in the course of flow, they would insist on their task strictly, regardless of hunger or exhaustion.     2    

One of Csikszentmihalyi’s key points about flow is that a person needs to push oneself out of their comfort zone to stimulate it. Because it’s a dynamic state, one has to constantly adjust the skill level, challenge, and complexity required for the activity.     3     If your skill level goes beyond the activity, boredom will set in, which will break the state of flow.

    4     One can access flow by thinking of activities like sports, dancing and painting. We can also have a flow state experience with many of our day-to-day tasks and encounters. Watching TV and video gaming, however, are not on that list.

Flow can also be a tool for better emotion regulation (调节). When a person is in a state of flow, there is little need for doubts or anxieties about oneself or the world in general.     5     Through the process of flow, a person chooses to focus on a task and gain a sense of autonomy over time, body, and mind.

However, pushing yourself to find the flow state can backfire. In fact, trying too hard or wondering whether you are in this state in itself goes against flow. We lose the balance between tension and skill level if we concentrate too much on the task.

A．Even the uncertainties of life fall away.

B．People may not realize it but anyone can find flow.

C．Ask yourself if a certain task will fulfill a goal of yours.

D．Flow can sometimes be viewed as a forerunner for peak performance.

E．He also found that the artist would highlight the process and not the end result.

F．As you practice a skill, your level of mastery will change as will the feeling of flow.

G．It involves intense focus, creative engagement and the loss of awareness of time and self.

7 . I love a group text—a grext, if you’ll permit me—but lately, the huge number of them competing for my attention has felt out of control. By the time I wake up, the notifications have already started rolling in; as I’m going to bed, they’re still coming. In between, I try to keep up, but all it takes is one 30-minute meeting before I’ve somehow gotten 100 new messages. I scroll up and up, trying to find where I left off, like I’ve lost my place in a book that keeps getting longer.

For better or for worse, we might be in the Age of the Group Chat. One study found that less than 2 percent of participants had only one-on-one chats on social media. 42 percent said that group chats can feel like a part-time job. Other studies have found that group chats can contribute to group bond and shared fun. A group text can be like a reminder that you’re part of something. Some researchers call this “ambient virtual presence”: Even when you’re alone, you’re not alone. This is like bats and dolphins producing a continuous sound and use the resulting echo (回声) to sense what’s around them.

But taking in too many signals can create a “waterfall type of effect,” where messages keep flooding in and adding up. Eventually, you’re underwater. Adding to the disorder, without a standard rule, people have very different ideas about group norm and what degree of responsiveness is required—which can cause real tension.

Fear of that tension can make wordless or even leaving a chat feel dispiriting. And anyway, you might not want to miss out. The desire isn’t to exit the room so much as to break a window. If group messaging is like echolocation, then disconnecting means lost.

Ultimately, most of us do want connection, even if it involves some duties; we’ll take quantities of messages when we’re busy if it means we can reach out when we’re hurting. A general advice is to give up grexts that are carrying on but that don’t really interest you. But when you can’t, you’ll just have to accept that belonging takes some effort. That’s the nature of relationships, right?

1. The author uses his experience in Paragraph 1 to _______.

A．introduce the topic	B．predict the ending
C．highlight an opinion	D．illustrate an argument

2. What can be inferred from Paragraph 2?

A．Lonely people prefer group chats.	B．Bats and dolphins have group chats.
C．Group chats offer a sense of belonging.	D．Group chats create a few part-time jobs.

3. What does the writer intend to tell us?

A．Group chat needs a standard rule.

B．Group chat gives us more fear than joy.

C．Group chat helps promote strong connection.

D．Group chat is just a way to maintain relationships.

8 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Merriam-Webster     1     (announce) that “authentic” was a top term of the year 2023. The rise of Al helped drive interest     2     the word. And the line between “real” and “fake” (假的) has become     3     (increasing) unclear. As a result, in social media and marketing, “authentic” has become the gold standard for building trust.

9 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。请在答题卡指定区域作答。

Black Friday marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. It     1    (fall) on the last Friday in November. On Black Friday, stores open early and offer big sales. The most popular products are electronics because they are much cheaper than usual. For people     2     don’t want to line up outside the stores, online shopping is also a good choice. Most sellers post their ads (广告) in advance in order     3    (get) more customers, while some     4    (company) will wait until the last possible moment to create a big surprise.

10 . 阅读下面短文，根据题目要求用英文回答问题。

There’s a difference between being nice and being kind. Being nice involves being polite and pleasing to others. If you’re people pleasing, you’re placing an expectation on the person you’re being nice to that they respond to you in a certain way. Being kind is less self-serving. On the one hand, kindness involves being generous without expecting anything in return. The other half is the purpose behind the action. A kind person is acting out of sympathy and genuine concern for another.

The difference is intentionality, said Dr. Catherine Franssen, an associate professor of psychology at Longwood University in Virginia, noting that a kind person tries to really understand what someone else is going through.

Practicing kindness rather than niceness allows people to develop deeper genuine connections with others, said Franssen. The more you do it, the easier it will get to relate to others and build more meaningful relationships in all aspects of life.

The warm feeling you get from performing an act of kindness is your brain releasing a ton of feel-good chemicals. Franssen said being kind boosts production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter (神经传递素) involved in mood, including happiness. Kindness also releases dopamine, a brain chemical in charge of reward and pleasure. It’s the reason why doing one act of kindness feels so good that you want to do another.

Being kind gives the same health benefits, regardless of how big or small the gesture. Acts of kindness might feel strange and out-of-character at first. However, this feeling goes away the more you keep practicing. Soon enough, it becomes so familiar you’ll notice the benefits on yourself and others.

1. What does being kind involve?
_____________________________________________________________
2. Why do you get warm feeling when showing kindness?
_____________________________________________________________
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
> The more you practice niceness, the easier you will connect with others and establish more meaningful relationships in all aspects of life.
_____________________________________________________________
4. In your daily life, what can you do to show kindness? (In about 40 words)
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