1 . How to make new friends
We tend to make friends with people we cross paths with regularly: people we go to school with, work with, or live close to.
Meet new people
When looking to meet new people, try to open yourself up to new experiences. Not everything you try will lead to success but you can always learn from the experience and hopefully have some fun. Volunteering can be a great way to help others while also meeting new people.
Connect with your schoolfellow association
Many schools have schoolfellow associations that meet regularly. You already have the school experience in common.
Even if you’ve lived in the same place all your life, take the time to re-explore your neighborhood attractions. New arrivals to any town or city tend to visit these places first—and they’re often keen to meet new people and establish friendships, too.
Take a moment to unplug
It’s difficult to meet new people in any social situation if you’re more interested in your phone than the people around you.
| A．Cheer on your team like a member |
| B．Behave like someone new to your area |
| C．Check with your library or local paper for events near you |
| D．And bringing up old times makes for an easy conversation starter |
| E．The more we see someone, the more likely a friendship is to develop |
| F．Put your smartphone away while you’re waiting for a bus, for example |
| G．It also gives you the opportunity to regularly develop your social skills |
2 . We know that we live in a society, so we need a lot of friends. I think that a great friend is like a great artist who can change my feeling about life greatly. When I talk about the person who influenced (影响) me most, I must think of Wang Tao. He is my unforgettable (难忘的) friend in my life. He is good at study and looks handsome.
He is kind-hearted and is always ready to help others. But he doesn’t like others to praise (称赞) him, because he thinks what he did is common. There is an old saying: A friend in need is a friend indeed. Wang Tao sets a good example in many parts in my life.
I remembered that my math was mediocre at that time, but he was excellent in math. He often got high grades, but I could only reach 70 percent. Since we talked all day long, he was kind and polite to answer my math questions. Slowly, I did well in math. Then we became friends naturally.
There are two kinds of friends, good and bad. Bad friends may make our life fail while good ones make our life successful. To me, Wang Tao is a very good friend. I learned a lot from him, and I became better and better.
We said goodbye three months ago. Now I miss him very much, and I hope that our friendship will keep being just as strong after we leave school.
1. The writer believes that an excellent friend _______.| A．is a man who is good at arts | B．can change his life slowly |
| C．can influence his idea about life | D．must think of him quickly |
| A．All friends can help people do well in study. |
| B．People can only make friends with kind people. |
| C．People should change their bad friends into good friends. |
| D．Both good friends and bad friends can influence people’s life. |
| A．My University Life | B．An Unforgettable Friend |
| C．How to Make Friends | D．How to Learn Maths Well |
3 . Brandon will, 41, put his writing career on hold to become a full-time caregiver to his mom. He takes her on slow walks, trying to encourage her without getting frustrated. He arranges phone calls with her friends, cleans, cooks, and helps her dress and bathe. When she is thirsty, he gets her water.
His mom, Janice Will, 72, has Parkinson’s disease and can’t walk unaided across the room. “It’s very humbling,” Janice says. She feels sad to have taken him away from the life he was building in New York.
When she was diagnosed(诊断) with Parkinson’s in 2015, Brandon had just been offered a publishing job in New York and thought he could manage his mom’s care. He envisioned freelancing(从事自由职业) full-time while caring for Janice, but Parkinson’s is progressive and unpredictable. After Janice had a serious fall in 2018, he knew he had to return to the Midwest to live with her. Occasionally, he turned down jobs because he wasn’t sure he could meet a deadline or asked for extensions when his mom had an emergency. While people are generally understanding, he says, his explanation “still feel like my dog ate my homework” excuses.
He says he has no regrets about becoming his mom’s caregiver, but there are financial and personal consequences. “These are my prime earning years. I will always be working to catch up,” says Brandon.
Younger caregivers are frequently torn between work responsibilities and care. The Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers found that 23% of caregivers ages 18 to 44 had to quit their full-time jobs, while 57% had to reduce their hours and work part-time, according to a survey conducted in 2021.
Support groups have been invaluable. At one meeting, Brandon and Janice learned about a program called Dancing With Parkinson’s and now attend each Thursday. I love to dance, “Janice says. Brandon also joined an advocacy organization, Caring Across Generations, and he and his mom started writing together, posting essays on a website they call Our-Will-Power. Brandon says he has put aside, for now, aspirations to write young-adult novels and is working on a memoir about his initial hesitance to become a caregiver. He plans to call it “See If I Care.”
1. Which of the following words can be used to replace the word “envisioned” underlined in paragraph 3?| A．feared | B．imagined | C．accepted | D．prepared |
| A．To show that his explanations are clear and well-received. |
| B．To show that he faces no challenges in explaining his situation： |
| C．To show that his explanation still sounds like excuses to others. |
| D．To show that people are generally unsympathetic to his situation. |
| A．By seeking mental support from each other and experienced groups. |
| B．By launching an advocacy organization for caregivers and older adults. |
| C．By carrying on with Brandon’s aspiration of writing young-adult novels. |
| D．By reading essays on a website and strengthening their will power. |
4 . My daughter Kelly is a cautious person. She needs to warm up to situations, who is hesitant to try new things. When with close friends, she becomes a leader who laughs loudly and chants, “Girls rule, boys drool.” But when that comfort zone is not around her, she is shy and nervous.
This has been challenging for me at times. “Shy” is not a word that I think has ever been used to describe me. But this has been a year of firsts for my girl that has filled her with a new sense of confidence. This year she moved to lap lane in swimming where she was preparing for a swim team. This year she learned to ride a bike without training wheels. And this year she completed her first kids’ triathlon (三项全能).
On Saturday, with a thunderstorm coming soon and my son’s birthday party later in the day, we all went out in the dark of the morning for Kelly to participate in her first triathlon. We practiced transitions from swim to bike to run with her. we got all the equipment she’d need, and we kept talking about the race. But as we waited the two hours for the older kids to finish before her turn, she held my leg a little harder and told me she loved me a few too many times. She was nervous but trying to keep it together.
And then it was her turn. From the second she jumped into the water, my heart soared. My daughter transformed into the most confident human being I had ever seen. She dominated that swim, crushed that bike ride and ran to the finish with the biggest smile on her face.
I can honestly say that I never felt so proud of someone in my entire life. It wasn’t because she did a sport or anything like that. It was because she was afraid of something and conquered that fear with confidence and a fire I hadn’t seen before.
All day I would find myself just looking over at her and smiling. She might be wearing the finalist medal but I felt like I won that day. I won the chance to see my girl shine.
Shine on, sweet baby.
1. Kelly is nervous when ________.| A．boys are around her | B．she changes into a leader |
| C．she is away from her mom | D．situations are new to her |
| A．the race began in the early morning |
| B．the whole family gave Kelly support |
| C．Kelly was eager for her turn in the race |
| D．Kelly prepared for her brother’s birthday party |
| A．to defeat someone especially in a competition |
| B．to succeed in dealing with or control something |
| C．to become very popular or successful in a place |
| D．to take control of a country or a city and its people |
5 . Parents often think that their kids should be good at studies and do well in sports. That’s usually the case because parents feel that could help their children go to top colleges. However, Melissa and Mark Wimmer think differently.
Their 14-year-old son, Mike, is a prodigy. He is a member of Mensa, which is the world’s top IQ club. He completed his high school, associate’s and bachelor’s degrees all in three years. That’s not all. He also ran two tech companies, founded a third one that works towards controlling the population of lionfish, an invasive species.
But the parents are proud that they were able to help Mike with his social skills along with his intellectual skills. Melissa told CNBC that people expected “Young Sheldon” before they met her son. Young Sheldon is a television show about a child talent who is an indoor man and lacks social skills. “But once they talk to Mike, they understand that he’s just a normal 14-year-old that happens to be able to do amazing things,” said Melissa.
Mark and Melissa got to know about their child’s intelligence when he entered preschool. A child psychologist told them that their son would need a different course to support his fast development. Many parents aren’t comfortable with putting their children with 18-year-olds, but Mike’s parents saw the value in letting their child go through it. “I wanted him to be social and be able to deal with all the different personalities in the classrooms with older children,” said Melissa.
The parents shared that they were able to do this by letting Mike find his own voice and put it to use. “We let him order food when he’s 3 or 4 from the waiter or waitress and introduce himself to people. Those kinds of things are done to encourage him to engage with everyone else and be more comfortable talking to others outside of our environment,” said Melissa.
Thanks to his parents, Mike has learned to get along with young and old alike.
1. What does the underlined word “prodigy” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．A gifted person. | B．A popular student. |
| C．A wildlife biologist. | D．A promising businessman. |
| A．He likes to make friends. | B．He is a well-rounded student. |
| C．He is a famous child actor. | D．He is poor at dealing with people. |
| A．Through the suggestion from a child psychologist. |
| B．Through the information provided by his teachers. |
| C．By taking part in a special educational program. |
| D．By watching their child’s behavior in preschool. |
| A．By letting him go to school alone. |
| B．By placing him in social situations. |
| C．By encouraging him to speak in class. |
| D．By teaching him some communication rules. |
6 . 阅读下面文章，按照要求回答问题。
My father was 44 and knew he wasn’t going to make it to 45. He wrote me a letter and hoped that something in it would help me for the rest of my life.
Since the day I was 12 and first read his letter, some of his words have lived in my heart. One part always stands out. “Right now, you are pretending to be a time-killer. But I know that one day, you will do something great that will set you among the very best.” Knowing that my dad believed in me gave me permission to believe in myself. “You will do something great.” He didn’t know what that would be, and neither did I, but at times in my life when I’ve felt proud of myself, I remember his words and wish he were here so I could ask, “Is this what you were talking about, Dad? Should I keep going?”
A long way from 12 now, I realize he would have been proud when I made any progress. Lately, though, I’ve come to believe he’d want me to move on to what will come next: to be proud of and believe in, somebody else. It’s time to start writing my own letters to my children. As mothers, our children look to us with the same unanswered question we had. Our kids don’t retreat because they’re afraid to fail. They’re only afraid of failing us. They don’t worry about being disappointed. Their fear--as mine was until my father’s letter--is of being a disappointment.
Give your children permission to succeed. They’re waiting for you to believe in them. I always knew my parents loved me. But trust me: That belief will be more complete, that love will be more real, and their belief in themselves will be greater if you write the words on their hearts: “Don’t worry; you’ll do something great.” Not having that blessing from their parents may be the only thing holding them back.
1. Why did the father write a letter to the author? (No more than 20 words)7 . As a child I was one of the 125 people at our family get-together for New Year. These days we were a much smaller group in Belle Valley, Ohio. I insisted on acting as hostess and wanted to bring back the joy I’d felt at my childhood New Year that filled with love.
As family members arrived at the hall, I handed each one of them a numbered card and said, “Time for the alphabet (字母表) game.” “What kind of game is that?” one of my great-grandchildren asked. “Well,” I said, “who’s got number one?” A cousin raised her hand. “Tell us something you never forget,” I said. “Something that begins with the letter A.” My cousin smiled. “Apple pie!” she said. Great-granddaughter Mindy was next. “B,” she said. “I am impressed by Buckeye Country.” “Cookies!” Number 3 shouted.
Until N umber 17, “The next one’s a challenge,” I said. “Who’s got 17?” Ryan, my son, slowly raised his hand. “Q,” he said. “Quaker City Carnival (狂欢节).” The room went silent. “It’s one of the oldest traditions in Ohio,” Ryan said. “Grandma and Grandpa met there. That’s where they fell in love. That’s where this whole thing started. This whole family.” Ryan looked around the room, making eye contact with everyone. “We wouldn’t be here celebrating New Year together if it wasn’t for Quaker City Carnival.”
The room burst into laughter and was full of love. “This is the best New Year we’ve ever had,” a great-grandson said to me secretly. Whatever their New Year would look like when they grew up, they’d remember this one. And for me, I had an unforgettable New Year to treasure—a memory where love started with the letter Q.
1. Why did the author want to organize the alphabet game?| A．To enjoy the family get-together. |
| B．To share moving stories with family. |
| C．To act as the hostess of the New Year party. |
| D．To experience long-lost New Year happiness. |
| A．Teddy Bear. | B．Yogurt. | C．Watermelon. | D．Steak. |
| A．It was connected with their family roots. | B．They understood the meaning of love. |
| C．They knew their grandparents better. | D．It brought a tradition back to them. |
| A．A Letter Full of Love | B．A Traditional New Year Game |
| C．A Family Custom at New Year | D．A Love Story About the Carnival |
8 . My 7-year-old daughter Leeny always has her nose in a book. She even took to reading in the car on the long drive to summer camp, which was where she lost the book. This is the first lost library book in my life. My family has always been over-educated, but we were poor. I didn’t own books. I borrowed books. However, my daughters have more books now than I owned my whole childhood, and I knowingly contribute to it by adding to the stacks (堆). So it’s probably my fault that when Leeny realized she had lost the book, she shrugged. “Sorry. I can’t find it,” she said. “It’s only $20, right? What’s the big deal?”
I felt the need to make her feel responsible for the book. She agreed to help me clean the chicken coop (笼子) in trade for my paying the library fine. I thought this idea was very clever because cleaning the coop is some work I had been avoiding for months. It was summertime and dust floated in the air. But my girl, my animal-loving mini-me, thought shoveling chicken poop (铲鸡粪) was the most fun she’d had on a Saturday morning in a long time. She didn’t feel any of the emotions that punishment is supposed to introduce. In fact, she looked as if she might lose another on purpose in order to clean the coop again. I stood, somewhat dumbfounded (目瞪口呆的), watching her.
It took me a while to realize what had happened, why my punishment had failed so completely and why I didn’t care. The fact is that I had Leeny help me clean the chicken coop. I was there, too, shoveling chicken poop, fetching the clean straw and feed. Leen’s little sister, Vicki, was inside watching a cartoon while my husband paid bills. Only Leeny and I were outside. She had me all to herself for the first time since Vicki was born, and she was enjoying all the attention for once. I don’t know what she learned about responsibility, but I found that I didn’t care about the book any more. We bonded over that unpleasant job and spent quality time together: mother, daughter, and chicken poop.
1. How did Leeny find reading?| A．It was very challenging. | B．It was of great value. |
| C．It was full of enjoyment. | D．It cost a large fortune. |
| A．The author didn’t own many books. |
| B．Leeny feel irresponsible for the lost book. |
| C．The author’s daughters own too many books. |
| D．The author could never have enough books to read. |
| A．Ashamed. | B．Astonished. | C．Embarrassed. | D．Upset. |
| A．What I owe to Leeny is more attention. |
| B．My punishment failed, but I didn’t care. |
| C．My daughter drove me crazy, but I felt grateful. |
| D．What my daughter loves is cleaning chicken coops. |
9 . When my daughter was seven years old, she came home from soccer practice clearly downhearted. When pressed, she told me what a teammate said: her teeth were too yellow. My heart broke for her. As parents, we tried hard to keep our children safe, but we can’t always be there to protect our kids from unkind words. I tried to console my daughter. I told her that shed has a beautiful smile with nice, strong healthy teeth. I fumbled(笨嘴拙舌)through an explanation of why she shouldn’t let someone else’s criticism define her. On the inside, though, I worried. From my youth, I’ve struggled with the concept that my self-worth was directly related to my physical appearance.
When I became a mom, I was terrified that this concept would take root in my daughter. I wanted to protect her little ears from sharp words that might twist her idea of self-worth. I wanted to shield her little eyes from unrealistic beauty standards spread by magazines, television, and movies. I wanted to guard her little heart from being broken by the belief that she didn’t measure up in some way.
On social media, the battle became much greater. Every day we are bombarded(轰炸)with people living their“best life”, all told through filters which only highlight the“best”parts：Best angles, best locations, best outfits, best hairstyle. Rarely do we get a glimpse of reality. On social media, outer beauty rules.
How, then, can we teach our kids that they are much more than their appearance? We can start by modeling kindness, empathy, and self-acceptance in our own lives. Kids are incredible mimics(模仿者), so be mindful of what you say, even when you think your kids aren’t listening. If we are constantly putting ourselves down, our kids will follow suit. Instead, adopt a positive attitude when it comes to your own self-worth. Additionally, make efforts to teach your children to see the inner beauty in themselves and in others. There’s beauty in goodness, gentleness, perseverance, and kindness. Praise kids for their acts of kindness, like sharing with a friend or helping a family member without being asked, and talk to them about how it makes them feel.
1. What does the underlined word probably mean in paragraph 1?| A．Influence. | B．Comfort. | C．Calm. | D．Praise. |
| A．Her expectation for her daughter’s future. |
| B．Her concerns about her daughter’s growth. |
| C．Her hope to protect her kid from falling ill. |
| D．Her attempts to keep her daughter inspired. |
| A．They are full of wonderful things. | B．They reflect a beautiful world. |
| C．They seldom show the reality. | D．They make us escape from reality. |
| A．Try to listen to our children as much as possible. |
| B．Avoid praising the appearance of our children. |
| C．Encourage our kids to ignore the outer beauty. |
| D．Teach our kids the significance of inner beauty. |
10 . Nowadays parents and their children are spending less and less time communicating with each other. As a result, many children are getting less love than their parents once got.
Eat together and listen to each other
Read often
It’s important for parents to read to their children. The latest research shows that reading to your children develops an interest in knowledge and contributes to language development.
Choose a fun activity that your children are interested in. Activities like cooking, fishing or biking can be their great hobbies. They can open the door to exciting family time. Once a child learns a new skill. let him or her take the lead under your direction.
Plan a family outing
Sometimes getting out of the house is important. Jump into the family car and go for a drive. Prepare a picnic lunch and visit a local park.
| A．Start a hobby or project |
| B．Think of a way out together |
| C．Take time to play or ride a bike |
| D．Following a family rule is necessary |
| E．Most children today don’t know the meaning of a family dinnertime |
| F．It also increases their concentration on things and helps them become more curious |
| G．American parents today spend about 40 percent less time with their children than parents did a generation ago |
