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2 . Susan Ringwood greets all guests with a simple invitation: to join her in swimming in cold water in the swimming pool. Her offer isn’t limited to the summer months, either. Ringwood and her husband Gary swim in cold water in the swimming pool all year round. “To me, it’s not just about swimming. It’s a unique experience,” she says.
Ringwood simply calls her hobby “swimming”, but some winter fans have begun to promote cold-water swimming as a treatment to a variety of diseases.
While cold-water swimming is a new found passion, scientists say that there’s not much evidence supporting the claims of these health benefits. Nor is the activity without risk. “Extreme temperature changes can potentially cause heart attacks, even death,” says Francois Haman, a scientist at the University of Ottawa in Canada.
When your body meets cold water, it can be shocking. Scientists call this the “cold shock” response (反应). When your skin senses the freezing water, it causes you to take a quick deep breath for air and your heart rate to rise quickly to a very high level, which leads to an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.
Haman says that being in cold water is more dangerous than in cold air. Water conducts heat much more effectively than air, meaning that it can draw the heat from your body more quickly and efficiently. For those new to the sport, Haman suggests starting slowly, getting used to colder water during the fall, especially paying attention to safety.
According to supporters, cold-water swimming can improve health and immunity (免疫力), and help relieve pain. But while there is some previous scientific research to back up these claims, Denis Blondin, a professor at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, says that many of these studies included only a small number of people taking part in survey who were mainly young men from European countries, which limits what scientists can say more broadly and in other populations.
1. Why does the author tell Ringwood’s story?| A．To attract visitors to swimming. | B．To call on guests to join Ringwood. |
| C．To stress the benefits of swimming. | D．To introduce the topic of cold-water swimming. |
| A．The “cold shock” response isn’t uncommon. |
| B．Swimming in cold water can be a danger for some reason. |
| C．Heart rate and blood pressure tend to increase in winter. |
| D．Some preparations can be made before a cold-water swim. |
| A．The health benefits of cold-water swimming should be showed. |
| B．Extreme temperature changes are dangerous but not deadly. |
| C．Staying in cold air is less dangerous than in cold water. |
| D．Cold-water swimming isn’t suitable for those new to the sport. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Uncaring. | C．Supportive. | D．Uncertain. |
3 . It’s been three decades since The Color Purple (1985) brought Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel to life. The 1985 film earned 11 Academy Award nominations with its heart-wrenching yet inspiring story of a young Black woman getting through the hardships of rural Georgia in the early 1900s. The Color Purple 2023 film is a musical adaptation with a different vibe, though according to award-winning filmmaker Dawn Porter, it’s still “a timeless story of love, friendship and power.”
Oprah Winfrey—the film’s producer—has encouraged viewers to wear purple when seeing the movie, referring to its holiday release as a “purple Christmas.” In a video posted to her Instagram account in May, she said, “OK, y’all have seen the trailer, and I’m giving you six months to get your outfit together for opening day. All things purple. What you gonna wear? Color purple.” And she’s led the way to promote the movie at press events, award shows, talk shows and early screenings.
But beyond pure marketing, purple holds a greater meaning here. According to cultural critics, it’s a symbol of power, ambition and luxury, as well as creativity, independence and peace—things the movie’s main character, Celie, does not have due to years of domestic violence. Thus, it’s very much a cultural moment when people wear purple in solidarity(团结一致) to support the movie and embrace this theme of empowerment, just like wearing pink to see Barbie (and black to see Oppenheimer, for that matter).
Thirty-three years later, The Color Purple continues to attract audiences, especially Black women. It’s these themes of sisterhood, spirituality and self-discovery that make the book and its adaptations so timeless. “Shakespeare can be performed so many times and in so many forms,” Porter says. “This is a classic text that has the same power.”
1. What is the difference between the old and new film versions of The Color Purple?| A．The old attracts more audience. | B．Only the old is a timeless story. |
| C．The new is adapted freely with a vibe. | D．A different art style is brought into the new. |
| A．The film’s first screening is on Christmas day. | B．The film tells a story of a woman without suffering. |
| C．Oprah Winfrey urges people to wear purple. | D．Oprah Winfrey tries every means to advertise her film. |
| A．Because people respond to Oprah Winfrey’s post to wear purple. |
| B．Because people back up the film and accept its theme. |
| C．Because people get misled by the marketing campaign. |
| D．Because people always wear different colors to watch films. |
| A．To explain the permanence of The Color Purple | B．To stress the achievement of The Color Purple |
| C．To show the themes related to The Color Purple | D．To appeal to people to read The Color Purple |
4 . Inside a fishbowl, the goldfish — a species of carp native to East Asia, bred for aesthetic delight and traditionally believed to bring good fortune — is among the easiest of pets to keep. But released into the wild, the seemingly humble goldfish, freed from glass boundaries, can grow to large proportions. They can even kill off native marine wildlife and help destroy fragile and economically valuable ecosystems.
“They can eat anything and everything,” said Christine Boston, an aquatic research biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Over the past several years, Ms. Boston and her colleagues have been tracking invasive goldfish in Hamilton Harbour, which is on the western tip of Lake Ontario (安大略湖), about 35 miles southwest of Toronto.
Their study, published last month in the Journal of Great Lakes Research, could help pinpoint goldfish populations for culling, said Ms. Boston, who is the lead author. “We found out where they are before they start spawning (产卵),” she said. “That’s a good opportunity to get rid of them.”
The fast-growing female goldfish, Ms. Boston noted, can also reproduce several times in one season. “They have the resources,” she added, “and they can take advantage of them.” Their football-shaped bodies can swell to a size that makes them too large a meal for predators (捕食者) — up to about 16 inches long. The feral goldfish are also destructive, uprooting and consuming plants that are home to native species.
Nicholas Mandrak, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough, studies in the “dramatically increase” of the wild population in the past two decades. Their spawning explosion, he said, resulted partly from people in densely-populated areas releasing pets in urban ponds. He added, environmental managers tend to forget the goldfish. “They just assume, ‘It’s been there for 150 years — there’s nothing we can do about it.’”
The problem is not unique to Canada. In Australia, a handful of unwanted pet goldfish and their offspring took over a river in the country’s southwest. And the discovery of football-size creatures in a lake in 2021 even led British officials to beg their citizens: “Please don’t release your pet goldfish into ponds and lakes!”
People wrongly believe that because goldfish are “small and cute” they won’t pose a problem when released into the wild, said Anthony Ricciardi, a professor of invasion ecology at McGill University in Montreal.
Goldfish, he added, are just a small part of a vast invasion of non-native species whose outcomes can be unpredictable, and in some cases, are worsened by climate change.
“Under human influence, beasts are moving faster farther in greater numbers, reaching parts of the planet they could never reach before,” he said. “We’re talking about the redistribution of life on Earth.”
1. Which of the statements about the goldfish is correct?| A．Their place of origin is Canada. | B．They are capable of reproducing. |
| C．They will grow well over 16 inches. | D．They only invade Lake Ontario. |
| A．Killing | B．Controlling | C．Catching | D．Observing |
| A．Citizens wrongly set free the fish. | B．Climate change has a negative impact. |
| C．The environmental management is absent. | D．The food increases in habitats. |
| A．Now goldfish are turning into wild monsters. |
| B．Now goldfish are on the way to become a global issue. |
| C．Now goldfish are attracting scientists to study in. |
| D．Now goldfish are threatening the Great Lakes. |
注意：写作词数应不少于80。
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6 . Rhough temperature records from December have yet to be finalized, climate scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have found there’s a more than 99%chance that 2023 will have the hottest recorded global average temperature, beating out 2016, the previous leader. The year will be the hottest in 174 years of second-keeping where humans have directly measured the temperature of the planet. It’s also likely to be the hottest in the last 125,000 years, which scientists measure by rebuilding temperature records from physical evidence like tree rings and layers of polar ice that have grown over time.
The record-breaking year caused fuel climate-driven disasters around the globe from extreme heat that hit Arizona for weeks to floods in Libya and record-hot oceans that caused coral to bleach (变白) off Florida.
Scientists say the extreme temperatures are in line with forecasts (预测) for how the planet will continue to warm. The biggest driver of the heat is the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (大气层) from burning fossil fuels (化石燃料). “We know why this is happening,” says Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, a non-profit organization that studies climate trends. “A year like this would not have occurred without the trillion tons of carbon we’ve put into the atmosphere over the last century.”
Even with the chart-topping heat this year, next year could be equally as hot. A strong El Nino has already begun, where ocean temperatures warm up in the eastern Pacific. El Nino years are typically hotter, because a large amount of heat that’s stored in the ocean is sent to the atmosphere. “There’s absolutely still time to act,” an expert says. “Everything we do to change course today will make things better in the future.”
1. What can be inferred from paragraph 1?| A．2016 is likely to have the hottest global temperature. |
| B．The temperature records of 2023 have been finished. |
| C．Humans began to directly measure global temperature 174 years ago. |
| D．Tree rings are bad for recording temperature. |
| A．The lack of fossil fuels. | B．The increase of greenhouse gases. |
| C．Corals bleached in the ocean. | D．Drivers putting much waste into the air. |
| A．El Niño tends to cool down the atmosphere. |
| B．Ocean pollution leads to a warming Pacific. |
| C．A strong El Niño has begun in the western Pacific. |
| D．A lot of heat stored in the ocean goes into the atmosphere. |
| A．2023 Has Suffered from a Strong El Nino |
| B．2023 May Be the Hottest Year on Record |
| C．Climate driven Disasters Influence Daily Life |
| D．The Ocean Plays a Key Role in Cooling Earth |
Emily was a student, who was always shy and lacked confidence. She struggled to make friends and believed that she wasn’t good at anything. That started affecting her academic performance and overall happiness. She said to herself, “I’m a loser. I can’t get anything done.” She felt worried and tried to find solutions. However, unfortunately, all she had done was in vain.
One day, Emily’s teacher, Ms. Johnson, noticed her attitude and decided to help her regain her confidence. She said to Emily, “No one is born confident and strong. You have to make a change, so take the first step forward.” She encouraged Emily to participate in classroom activities and group projects. At first, Emily was hesitant, fearing that she would embarrass herself in front of her classmates. But with gentle encouragement and support from Ms. Johnson, she slowly started to overcome her fears. So she started to open up and take action to be better.
Ms. Johnson also noticed that Emily had a talent for writing. She suggested that Emily join the school newspaper team. Emily felt nervous about contributing her work, but the positive feedback from her peers and teachers improved her confidence. She saw that her unique views were value d by others. She started writing some essays to show everyone the desire for beauty in her heart. And the readers were amazed by her writings.
As Emily gained more confidence in her writing, she decided to take on new challenges. She joined the debate team, despite her fear of public speaking. With regular practice and guidance from her teammates, Emily gradually overcame her stage fright and found her voice in expressing her opinions. Obviously, she was successful in her speeches as well.
Outside of school, Emily discovered her passion for community service. She started volunteering at a local animal shelter, where she was able to make a positive impact on the lives of abandoned pets. The experience not only gave her a sense of purpose but also allowed her to connect with like-minded persons who shared the same love for animals.
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。
Over time, Emily’s confidence began to come out in other aspects (方面) of her life.
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At the end of her high school, Emily looked back on the journey she had taken.
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8 . Every day Juanita Mengel, a 67-year-old woman from the state of Ohio, wakes up and puts on her prosthetic (假体的) leg.
Then, Mengel does the same for Lola-Pearl, her five-year-old cat. Lola-Pearl also missed her back left leg. Mengel has many cats. Most of them have disabilities. But Lola-Pearl is special. She is a therapy (治疗) cat. And, she and Mengel are partners of a kind. They are among 200 therapy cat teams registered in the United States by the non-profit group, Pet Partners.
The group helps humans and pets alike by setting them up into teams to provide animal-assisted (帮助) therapy. The teams visit hospitals, nursing homes and schools and assist those in need. Besides dogs and cats, Pet Partners registers other species as therapy animals, including horses, rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, birds and mini pigs.
Taylor Griffin is national director at Pet Partners. She said, “Therapy animals are animals who’ve been gauged whether they are suitable for assisting some people, and are based on their ability to meet new people and enjoy the process.”
Mengel said Lola-Pearl showed signs that she would make a good therapy cat soon after the animal joined her family. “I just knew she would be a good therapy because she was so good with people. People really were attracted to her, too,” Mengel said.
Mengel was a traveling nurse when she was in a car accident that almost killed her. One of her legs could not be saved. Later, she connected with a friend in the state of Missouri who had a severely injured kitten. The cat’s legs were twisted together. An animal medical specialist worked to repair the damage, but in the end, they had to remove one of the baby cat’s legs. That kitten was Lola-Pearl.
Mengel took Lola-Pearl as her cat after talking with her friend. Despite the difficulties Mengel has faced, she is grateful to Lola-Pearl and their work in Pet Partners.
“It’s a really rewarding experience,” she said. “I get just as much out of it as the people that I visit.”
1. What can we know about Pet Partners?| A．It mainly provides animal-assisted therapy. | B．It is a non-profit group founded by Taylor Griffin. |
| C．It only offers help to patients in hospitals. | D．It doesn’t register birds as therapy animals. |
| A．Guessed. | B．Designed. | C．Explained. | D．Measured. |
| A．By working in Pet Partners. | B．Through one of her friends. |
| C．By repairing Lola-Pearl’s leg. | D．Through moving to Missouri. |
| A．Optimistic and helpful. | B．Proud and humorous. |
| C．Talkative and thoughtful. | D．Honest and talented. |
9 . Pet owners love their dogs more than their cats. Although previous studies have already suggested this finding, scientists from the University of Copenhagen wanted to research more deeply into whether cultural factors affected the results. Their findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science.
In the survey across Denmark, Austria and the United Kingdom, 844 dog owners, 872 cat owners and 401 people who owned both dogs and cats were asked questions about their pets. Overall, the participants had higher attachment scores for dogs than for cats. Owners were more likely to insure (给……投保) their dogs and paid more to dogs’ treatment. However, the results differed dramatically across countries. For example, the United Kingdom’s results were in favor of dogs, although only slightly. Australia had a very clear preference for dogs. Emotional attachment to dogs was highest in Denmark. The Danes were also less likely to buy insurance for their cats, compared with their dogs.
“While people care more about their dogs than their cats in these countries, the degree of difference varied between countries,” Professor Peter Sandoe of the University of Copenhagen, the study’s first author, said in a press release. “It doesn’t therefore seem to be a universal phenomenon (现象) that people care much less about their cats than their dogs.”
The difference between countries may be due to cultural differences and attitudes toward pets, the study suggested. This may be the result of the country’s history with rural animals and how often they interacted with people. These factors may have influenced societal attitudes toward pets in modern times.
“Our study only looks at three countries in Europe,” professor Clare Palmer of Texas A&M University, a co-author of the paper, said in the press release. “It raises interesting questions regarding what comparative studies of other countries might find,” she went on. “Perhaps there are countries where the level of care for and attachment to cats is, in fact, higher than dogs?”
1. What’s the writer’s main purpose of writing paragraph 1?| A．To state a widely acknowledged fact. |
| B．To analyze the cause of a phenomenon. |
| C．To introduce the topic of a new study. |
| D．To compare two different studies. |
| A．By asking questions. |
| B．By doing an experiment. |
| C．By collecting data online. |
| D．By keeping track of pet owners’ daily life. |
| A．Not all the people in the world prefer dogs to cats. |
| B．People in the three surveyed countries prefer dogs to cats. |
| C．The levels of care for cats are the same as dogs in the world. |
| D．People in the world care less about their cats than their dogs. |
| A．Pet owners love their dogs more than their cats. |
| B．Culture may influence people’s preference to dogs. |
| C．Pet owners should care about their cats as much as their dogs. |
| D．People hold different attitudes toward pets in three European countries. |
10 . The Kangaroo Kids is a precision jump rope team based in Maryland. Precision jump rope is a sport in which one or more people jump rope in precise routines set to music. It is also called synchronized jump rope, meaning people jump at the same time with each other often using more than one rope. Kangaroo Kids has been performing for 45 years. Members often jump together at the same time, which can be very challenging.
The team started as a small fitness club at Atholton Elementary School in Columbia, Maryland, in 1978. Today, It has over 200 athletes from Howard County and is run as nonprofit Organization. That means they are not focused on making a lot of money.
Nicole Meek, in Ellicott City, Maryland, served in several roles within the program for 15 years. She is now the director of coaching and operations for Kangaroo Kids. She’s also the mom of three of its members. She said it means a lot for the organization to be celebrating its 45th year. Three of Meek’s four children are competitive jump ropers. They are Devin, Jenna and Mason. Devin began training when he was 6 years old. He advanced to intermediate classes. He later landed spots on the competition, performing and travel teams for Kangaroo Kids. Her husband, Brian, serves as president of the board of directors.
Influenced by their family’s passion and encouragement, fifteen-year-old Eliza Kim, one of Devin’s friend, is a member of the competition and travel teams. She has been involved in the program for seven years, saying she has made friends across the county. Jasmine Wright, who is also 15, has been engaged in the program for about seven years, also telling that being a part of the team has brought camaraderie to him.
Nicole Meek tells BBC, “I hope to spread the sport of jump rope and to raise awareness for it and show that it’s more than just a playground activity that people think it is”, adding that the biggest challenge she faces is convincing the public that jump rope is not just for children, and that she hopes to use her position to help it become more mainstream in the future.
1. What can we know about the Kangaroo Kids from the text?| A．Focusing on making much money. |
| B．Having 200 athletes from all over the country. |
| C．Using over one rope to jump set to music at the same time. |
| D．Jumping ropes in precise routines set to music individually. |
| A．Brian Meek’s coaching style. | B．Nicole Meek’s volunteer work. |
| C．The work of the board of directors. | D．The passion of the Meeks for the sport. |
| A．Security. | B．Friendship. | C．Achievement. | D．Pride. |
| A．The lack of money and support. | B．Fewer children interested in the sport. |
| C．Having no time to train. | D．Persuading more people to take part in the sport. |
