1 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Kiss marks on the mirror

Jessica, a clever cleaner, worked in an all-girls university.

One day, she was quietly doing one of her jobs—cleaning the bathroom—when she noticed a bunch of kiss marks on the mirror.

She got angry at the sight of it. But she decided not to dwell on her negative emotion and do something actionable instead. She was hopeful for the girls seemed smart and reasonable.She wiped away the kiss marks with cleaning cloth and a sponge and left instructions on a piece of paper: Please don’t leave kiss marks on the mirror. Lipstick stains(口红印) are difficult to clean.

The next day, Jessica went inside the bathroom to clean. But much to her disappointment,she saw a bunch of kiss marks on the mirror again. She got angry and went running to the principal’s office to report the incident. Upon learning of the incident, the principal got angry at the students. He gave them a strong warning to not leave kiss marks on the bathroom’s mirror. Jessica overheard the principal when he scolded the students. She felt relieved. She figured the girls wouldn’t leave kiss marks on the mirror again. She was wrong.

The next day, it was as if nothing had happened. When she went inside the bathroom,she found kiss marks on the mirror. Worse, there were more of them compared to the ones she found during the previous days. Angrily, she stormed out of the bathroom and went straight to the principal’s office. She was mad at the girls for their stubbornness and also at the principal for not punishing the girls’actions.“The girls are hard-headed. Based on experience, they don’t easily follow my orders. Wait it out. They’ll grow out of this,” said the principal.

Rather than say things out of anger and things that would probably get her fired, Jessica walked out to get some fresh air, and then back to the bathroom, staring at the cleaning tools. She was sick and tired of the situation.

注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
She needed to think.
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It worked!
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2 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

A zipper runs along a 40-centimeter-tall porcelain vase, with its top slightly open.The art piece, not     1     (original) designed that way, has been repaired by Nie Chao.     2     repaired vase won Nie the new talent award at the Baihe Cup, an art and craft design and imovation competition, where more than 3,000 pieces or sets of work were shown.The competition    3     (hold) during the second edition of the China Arts and Crafts Expo in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in September 2021.

As the     4     (five) generation inheritor of his family's ceramic-repair skills, Nie has devoted himself to better preserving them, as well as     5     (bring) traditional Chinese engraving skills and modern art designs to the mix. Nie's father and grandfather were focused on fixing porcelain items to restore their functionality. Nie has taken it a step further as he tries to make the repaired items look even    6     (good). For example, when mending the    7     (break) cover of a teacup, Nie could have just added a couple of metal staples(订书机) to reconnect the broken parts,     8       he decided to create a bamboo pattern on it.

Nie says handmade things have one advantage    9    mass-produced items, in that each is unique. Mending ceramics not only restores the     10     (appear) and functionality of a ware but also preserves its historical and cultural value.

3 . Doing math helps people with a lot of daily life. It involves every aspect like ________ change when going to the local store to get snacks. But Ahmed Alwan, the ________ of a convenience store, decided to play a game with his shoppers: they can get their ________ and more at absolutely no charge just for ________ answering a math problem.

The rules of the game are very ________. If shoppers can solve the math problem, they get five seconds to ________ anything from the store shelves ________ except the store cat. Many of the people who are participating are ________ customers, but others are new faces. Everyone gets the same chance to ________.

Alwan made a TikTok, chose a(n) ________ and asked customers a math question. It’s a way to help people in need while putting a smile on their face.

But who’s ________ the stuff that is picked up? Alwan is out of his own pocket. It is ________ his business in a positive way, bringing awareness and ________ to the store as well as spreading positive energy throughout the community.

For the future, Alwan has set up a project on GoFundMe to help support the game to keep it going and to give back to the community. As the game progresses, he is getting much more ________ with his math questions. The goal, he wrote on the page, is “to ________ others to be kind-hearted”.

1.

A．counting

B．saving

C．paying

D．giving

2.

A．cashier

B．owner

C．customer

D．employee

3.

A．treats

B．money

C．snacks

D．gifts

4.

A．sincerely

B．properly

C．quickly

D．correctly

5.

A．general

B．difficult

C．complex

D．easy

6.

A．find

B．hold

C．grab

D．search

7.

A．in charge

B．for free

C．without hesitation

D．at random

8.

A．regular

B．strange

C．curious

D．friendly

9.

A．visit

B．win

C．learn

D．buy

10.

A．challenge

B．project

C．plan

D．idea

11.

A．preparing for

B．seeing to

C．paying for

D．caring for

12.

A．running

B．serving

C．proving

D．influencing

13.

A．profits

B．stability

C．attention

D．benefits

14.

A．familiar

B．creative

C．comfortable

D．connected

15.

A．cause

B．persuade

C．inspire

D．teach

4 . Is It OK to Be Unhappy?

Many people might say that you should always be happy, but is it okay to allow yourself time when sadness may prevail over happiness? We’ll explore how sadness offers people opportunities for self-reflection and why people should appreciate their sorrow.

What is unhappiness?

Many words are used to express sadness: suffering, misery, sorrow, pain, and more. It often results from other feelings like guilt, grief, anxiety, hopelessness, or anger.     1    It may differ from a person to another but it could change how you physically feel—a stomachache, headache, or difficulty sleep disorders.

    2    

Lots of people are growing unhappy due to mental health issues. Here are lists of situations: having problems with relationships, having trouble at home(eg. violence or financial issues), having trouble at school or work, comparing self to others, losing a loved one and being self-critical.

Is it OK for a person to be unhappy?

Everyone has different emotions: some are good while others can be negative. In other words, all people have feelings that are always changing in some way—and they happen for a reason! So is it OK to feel sadness?     3    

Sadness is a natural part of life.

It is okay to be unhappy. Being sad doesn’t mean you are not coping with the situation.     4    Learning to recognize sad emotions can make you adapt better, accept more easily, and persevere when things may be too hard at times.

Things will eventually get better.

Keep in mind your problems will not last forever and will eventually pass too! There is no right way to let go of sadness but what is not a secret is that the first step is the acknowledgment and acceptance of the pain you are feeling. It could be a lot but talking to someone you trust can be helpful.     5    Eat nutritious food, exercise regularly, and get enough sleep.

A．Why are people sad?

B．Take good care of yourself.

C．The answer is a definite yes.

D．So what does it feel like to be sad?

E．How can people get rid of sadness?

F．There are also a lot of other effective solutions.

G．Rather it helps you accept your problems and move on.

5 . Unretirement: older people return to paid employment

The disappearance of 565,000 mostly older people from the UK’s labour force was one of the problematic effects of Covid. In other countries, employment levels recovered more quickly to pre-2020 levels, making the UK exceptional. But while evidence in the past few months points to a change of this trend — the rise of “unretirement” — there is no room for relief.

Government initiatives to address the issue have achieved little. The Treasury came up with the idea of “returnerships”, a variant of the skills training aimed at persuading mature people back to workplaces. But in reality this is not much more than a new label for existing training. Meanwhile, fewer than one in 20 of participants in the government’s “skills training camps” — courses intended to equip jobseekers for the opportunities in their area — are aged over 55.

Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, championed the idea of over-50s delivering takeaways, and doing other jobs more readily associated with younger workers.Age should not be a barrier to anyone willing and able to do this kind of work. But more importantly, government ministers should extend employment beyond low-wage private sector vacancies(空缺) to labour shortages in health, education and social care — where umemployment problem is serious.

Revealed in one survey, descriptions of returning to employment are highly variable.Some did so because they were struggling with the rising cost of living. Others found that they missed the company of co-workers, wanted to make a contribution to family finances or needed“a purpose in life”.

The 26.5% of adults aged 50 to 64 who are economically inactive — neither working nor seeking work — is still too high. The coexistence of high levels of economic inactivity with key worker shortages in vital areas such as teaching remains hugely problematic. But rising employment levels can be seen as part of a delayed return to normality. And Ministers still need to better target policies to encourage economically inactive 50–to 64-year-olds back to work.

1. Why do the UK government plans have little effect?

A．Mature people are unwilling to retire.

B．The government lacks related equipment.

C．The skills training isn’t essentially changed.

D．The government doesn’t provide professional training.

2. What should the government do for unretirement?

A．Strengthen association with younger workers.

B．Widen employment opportunities.

C．Offer diverse training courses.

D．Predict the potential problems.

3. What was a reason for unretirement according to the survey?

A．Financial struggle.	B．Contribution to society.
C．Family’s expectations.	D．Co-workers’ encouragement.

4. What is the text?

A．A news report.	B．A book review.
C．A scientific report.	D．A diary entry.

6 . Vocal cords (声带) can easily get damaged by stress, infections, or overuse. It is not just overenthusiastic performers who are at risk of injuring their voice-boxes — according to a study, 30% of the population will experience a voice disorder at some point in their life.

In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, a team of UCLA engineers have invented a patch-like (片状) device that can be worn on the skin outside the throat to help people with voice disorders speak.

Even though the team’s device is an early prototype, it has the potential to offer a substantial improvement on current alternatives. When a person loses his voice today, the easiest fix is to resort to typing, texting, or writing notes to communicate. Typing can be slow and inconvenient, and writing notes is only possible in good lighting. More advanced solutions require special training to use, and surgical interventions are often invasive. A patch would theoretically be able to clear all these hurdles.

The tiny patch consists of a self-powered sensing component, which detects and changes signals generated by the throat muscle movements into high-accuracy, analyzable electrical signals, which are then translated into speech signals using a machine-learning algorithm, and an actuation component, which turns those signals into voice expression. The patch was tested on eight healthy adults who pronounced five sentences (including: “Hope your experiments are going well!”, “Merry Christmas!” and “I love you!”) aloud or in silence, and its accuracy was more than 90%.

There is a way to go yet. For now the device can only recognise the five phrases it was trained on. Plus, individual differences in vocal cords means the algorithm has to be personalised to each user. To make it practical at scale, the researchers will need to collect a lot more data.

1. What can be inferred from the first two paragraphs?

A．The device can be fixed in a person's body.

B．The device may be a fix to voice disorders.

C．Most people are influenced by voice injury.

D．Performers have a high risk of voice disorders.

2. How does the author introduce the advantage of the patch?

A．By listing data.

B．By giving examples.

C．By making comparison.

D．By analyzing causes and effects.

3. Which aspect of the device is mentioned in paragraph 4?

A．Its application.	B．Its principle.
C．Its challenge.	D．Its purpose.

4. What is the author’s attitude toward the device?

A．Unclear.

B．Dismissive.

C．Doubtful.

D．Supportive.

7 . In 2023, the UK SpoGomi competition was scheduled for August, with the world cup in Tokyo in November. I formed my team with Alex Winship, and my brother Jonny.

SpoGomi is a sport involving litter-picking by teams of three. Teams collect litter in given areas within a strict time limit, scoring point s for the weight of collected items, with some items awarded more points than others. One gram of cigarette butts is worth three points versus only 0.1 per gram for burnable rubbish. The team with the most point s wins.

Initially we were drawn to taking part because of the prize of a trip to Japan. There were about 20 teams in the UK competition, which took place in London’s Hackney marshes. We won by only 33 points, which is equivalent to just one glass bottle.

We were then heading for the world cup. The competition was intense. After the first half, Japan came top and we were second. My muscles were aching and I felt completely worn out from the heat of Tokyo on a sunny day. I didn’t have much more energy, and Iremember Alex and Jonny saying the same, but we had this feeling of being on the edge of something amazing. We had to just keep pushing. We pulled ahead in the second half while carrying several kilos of litter over two miles at a time. We ended up coming first,ahead of Japan, with 57 kg of rubbish collected.

I wouldn’t have been someone who would have picked up litter off the street. At the early stages of our training, we were so bad at finding litter. Then, just after the London competition, on the way home, we saw so much. We were just much more aware of it.Once you’re drawn into SpoGomi, your attitude towards litter and how you contribute completely changes — it certainly has for us.

1. What can we learn about SpoComi?

A．It is a sport to pick up rubbish.	B．It has particularly strict rules.
C．It is a team consisting of 3.	D．It sets limits to collected items.

2. What was the result of the London competition?

A．The result was controversial.

B．No team entered the world cup.

C．The author’s team had a narrow victory.

D．The author’s team had an absolute advantage.

3. How did the author feel in the second half of the world cup?

A．Nervous but hopeful.	B．Indifferent and bored.
C．Exhausted but determined.	D．Discouraged and uninterested.

4. What is presented in the last paragraph?

A．Providing tips on picking litter.

B．Showing desire for SpoGomi training.

C．Advocating devotion to the world cup.

D．Encouraging engagement in SpoGomi.

8 . 4 Summer Jobs to Get Paid and Take a Break

Camp counsellor (辅导员)

Most kids head off to camp during the summertime, and if you’re past the typical age of being a camper, relive your youth by becoming a summer camp counsellor. You can enjoy participating in activities, planning events, and partaking in arts and crafts. It’s one of the best summer jobs because it also builds your leadership skills while you earn extra money. Depending on your schedule, you can work to fit your needs. The average starting pay is $10.5 an hour.

Lifeguard

Spending time on the water is something many people do during the summer. And if you're good at swimming, then being a lifeguard is a great option for you. The hours are flexible, and the pay is great, with the average hourly rate at $11.50.

Amusement park employee

An amusement park is a great place to work during the summertime. There are a variety of positions you can get hired for — from ride operator to food service to booth tender — and the average starting pay is $10 an hour. The hours are flexible and negotiable depending on where you decide to work: the larger the park, the more employees they’ll have, which could mean fewer hours they’ll need you to cover.

Dog walker

If you’re looking for a relaxing job, being a dog walker could be the right choice for you. Dog walking hours and pay are easily negotiable, as you can simply discuss with the dog’s owner what your availability is, when they need you, and what your pay rate is. Getting some exercise with a furry friend will feel more like a relaxing pastime than a job. And if you wish to continue being a dog walker, it’s the job that’s easiest to keep year-round.

1. What is the benefit of being a camp counsellor?

A．It brings back the glory.

B．It boosts artistic creativity.

C．It is easy to do and well-paid.

D．It develops competence in leadership.

2. For which job can the pay be negotiated?

A．Camp counselor.	B．Lifeguard.
C．Amusement park employee.	D．Dog walker.

3. What do the four summer jobs have in common?

A．They need full-time employees.	B．The working hours are flexible.
C．The pay remains unclear.	D．They need relevant certificates.

9 . 6月8日是世界海洋日。假定你是李华，近日你班同学就“是否探索海洋”这一话题展开了一场讨论。请你就此事向校报的VOICE 版块编辑发一封电子邮件投稿，内容包括：
1.介绍讨论情况；
2.表达个人看法。
注意：
1.写作词数应为80个左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear editor,

Recently our class had a heated discussion on whether the sea is worth exploring.

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Yours,

Li Hua

10 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Sometimes, nature has a way of throwing the unexpected at you, even when you thought you have seen everything. If you go to Gansu, China, you'll see such     1     example.

    2     (locate) at the northern foothills of Qilian Mountains, Rainbow Mountains (Zhangye National Geopark) is so called because it contains a sight unique     3     that part of the world. Or to put it another way, hardly can you find one elsewhere in the world, as the impressive mountains,     4     (stand) over 100 meters tall in places, have somehow been covered with spray-paints of different colors.

Zhangye is the nearest city to Rainbow Mountains, and you can either choose a guided tour, or     5     (simple) travel by car to the area, only around a 20-mile drive. You’ll have three areas to choose from—the Linze Danxi a Scenic Area, which makes up the bulk of the park; Binggou, where the formations tend to be like melting ice     6     (sculpture); and Sunan Danxia Scenic Area, which is less crowded than the other two but has fewer fully built roads, so you'd better go there under the     7     (guide) of the local people.

The best time of the year     8     ( visit) is between June and September, when the mild weather should make walking comfortable, and it     9     (recommend) to visit at either sunrise or sunset when the colors are at their most bright and changeable. This iconic attraction is the one     10     stands in awe-inspiring and unforgettable scenes.