1 . Worry is a natural emotion. Whether it’s health, a job, or a relationship, everyone has something that stresses them out and keeps them awake at night.
Keep your mind busy with activities you enjoy.
Maybe it’s playing an instrument, cooking, writing, or going for a walk in nature.
Worrying is often a result of taking something out of context and blowing it up in your mind to be more than it actually is. So take a moment to objectively analyze the situation, look at the facts and weigh them against how things could turn out. Your worries and anxieties are only as powerful as you give them permission to be.
Learn how to manage your time more effectively.
One of the best ways to get rid of worries is to learn how to manage your time better.
| A．Focus on the Present Moment. |
| B．Judge things in a reasonable way, |
| C．These activities are meaningful and fulfilling. |
| D．It can take over your life and hold you back from truly living. |
| E．This will help you make more time for yourself and reduce stress. |
| F．You can challenge your worries and anxieties by taking them apart. |
| G．Worrying does not rid tomorrow of its troubles but rids today of its strengths. |
2 . Being positive doesn’t mean only having happy thoughts all the time. Everyone has bad days.
You can practice gratitude(感激). Make a list of things you’re grateful for. Write down a few things that make you feel happy or grateful in a gratitude journal.
You can enjoy expectation. Find something to look forward to each day. Researchers have found that having something positive to look forward to helps improve mood and reduce stress. Whether visiting your favorite bookstore or enjoying a cup of coffee with your friends, make sure to find something to look forward to each day.
You can use positive self-talk.
| A．You can practice smiling. |
| B．They don’t have to be special or great things. |
| C．Thinking about happy things is good for our health. |
| D．You can make yourself be around with positive people. |
| E．Even the most positive people sometimes experience sadness and anger. |
| F．This will help keep you positive even when things aren’t going your way. |
| G．The things that you say to yourself influence the way you think about yourself. |
3 . While we enjoy the convenience the modern technology has brought to us, there has been a growing realization that while we may have innumerable followers and friends on social media, those in the real world are far more limited. Sharing feelings and problems in real conversations and confrontations is increasingly hard. Therefore, we feel lonely. The only way to break away from it is to reconnect with the self and the people who surround us.
Connect with your own self
Learning to say ‘no’ to the people and activities that are beyond your ability. Doing this does not mean you are being unfriendly or irresponsible. It is a necessary reallocation of energies to provide emotional help to oneself and others.
Do the things you love
Invest in yourself by engaging with your interests and passions.
Make time.
| A．Draw boundaries |
| B．Offer help whenever possible |
| C．Do not allow time to become something missing |
| D．This requires us to relook, reconsider and adapt |
| E．Life is always full of opportunities and challenges |
| F．Self-awareness is a key to understanding your needs and desires |
| G．It is significant to work towards being available for people around you |
4 . On a Saturday afternoon, you find most kids outside playing games. Kids are made for the outdoors, with their endless energy and the easy way in which they make friends. It’s not different for Kameron, an ordinary, fun-loving 7-year-old girl who loves to draw out the world’s longest hopscotch (跳格子) on the sidewalk.
In between jump-rope games, basketball shootouts and skateboard races, Kameron takes time to do something special for her elderly neighbors. Kameron’s neighborhood is home to a good mix of young families and elderly neighbors whose children have long since left home. Kameron first started waving to them. Most of them smiled back.
Then Kameron decided that some of them needed a little pleasure. So she ran home, took her violin and made the rounds. “Can I play you a song?” she asked, after knocking on the door.
Gustav smiled wide. He has beautiful white hair and a soft accent (口音). He grew up in Scandinavia and is a wood finisher. His wife Vivian has a smile that fills their tiny home. She stood awkwardly, and had difficulty moving about. It looked terribly uncomfortable. Vivian has had muscular dystrophy (肌肉萎缩) for over 20 years. Gustav is her full-time caregiver. They’ve replaced their daily walks with afternoon drives, but even those are getting too difficult for Vivian.
Gustav let Kameron in, and Vivian took hold of both their arms and pulled to her chair. On the table beside her was a photo of her with Gustav when they were young and energetic, traveling around Europe, Egypt and Iceland. In the photo, Vivian is very beautiful, and Gustav is handsome.
“Want me to play your favorite song?” Kameron asked. Of course,” Gustav answered. It was the only song Kameron knew.
The small violin rested seriously under Kameron’s chin (下巴). She played as best she could. Vivian beat her leg to keep rhythm (节奏) for Kameron. Gustav held Vivian’s other hand. It was not the performance that was moving, but the memories it brought.
1. Why is Kameron special compared with other kids?| A．She likes playing outside. |
| B．She cares about the elderly. |
| C．She has plenty of energy. |
| D．She can draw on the sidewalk. |
| A．To ask for praise by singing a song. |
| B．To learn the violin from them. |
| C．To cheer them up with music. |
| D．To make money by playing the violin. |
| A．Go for a walk. | B．Make a drive. |
| C．Stay at home. | D．Do woodworking. |
| A．The love between them. |
| B．Vivian’s attitude to the music. |
| C．Kameron’s performance. |
| D．Thinking back to past experiences. |
5 . Ask most people which day of the week they fear the most and the answer is likely to be Monday. The first day of the working week can make us depressed.
The most depressing day of the year is the third Monday in January, when it’s cold and dark outside. This day was named “Blue Monday” by psychologist Cliff Arnall. Even if there was little science behind Blue Monday, it’s probably true that the sound of our alarm clock on any Monday morning means the coming of a new working week and possibly the end of our weekend of fun.
Apparently, Monday means the end of weekend lie-ins.
| A．But is Monday as bad as we like to think it is? |
| B．What exactly makes us feel down remains unknown. |
| C．Weekends are definitely happy days in all countries. |
| D．That’s why the feeling is described as the Monday blues. |
| E．There is a strong cultural idea that we don’t like Mondays. |
| F．Our Monday mood can be based on a direct comparison to the day before. |
| G．It’s back to the routine and the realization that there are five days of working ahead. |
6 . In recent years, there has been a great deal of discussion about empathy(共情). It has been argued that a lack of empathy has led to several social problems.
Perspective-Taking
This is a more cognitive(认知的) form of empathy, and it involves being able to see things from others’ perspectives.
Empathic Concern
It is what we most commonly think of as being empathic. This is being able to “read” other people’s emotions and feelings and to feel appropriate concern for them. Counselors and therapists need it to deeply understand clients’ feelings but not actually experience the other’s emotions.
Personal Distress
This is indirectly experiencing others’ emotions. If they are happy, we feel happy; if they’re sad, we cry with them.
| A．It is partly emotional and partly cognitive. |
| B．We need experience personal distress, but too much of it may not be a good thing. |
| C．Yet empathy isn’t as simple as “more empathy is better”. |
| D．This helps us understand where other people are coming from—their attitudes, viewpoints and emotions, to some extent. |
| E．Empathy is not just the ability to understand someone’s feelings. |
| F．These types of empathy represent different aspects of our personalities. |
| G．This is the reason to teach the next generation what it means to have empathy. |
7 . Perhaps you’ve stopped doing what you want because you’re afraid of what others think of you. You feel that you must do what they expect and that you must meet their expectations, otherwise you’ll lose their approval.
Think about yourself, about what you really like and are interested in. You must lead your life independently.
By surrounding yourself with people who think like you, you’ll realize that you don’t feel judged. Then, you’ll start doing what you really want.
To overcome your fear of what others think and of their non-approval, you should start talking about your plans, For instance, you might want to tell a handful of friends about your wishes and dreams.
It’s unavoidable that not everything will be plain sailing, and you’ll find obstacles along your way.
| A．There is no need to think about what you want. |
| B．You don’t have to change your circle of friends. |
| C．Your life belongs to you, as well as your actions. |
| D．By talking to them, you’ll be able to organize your plans and ideas. |
| E．If this is the case, it’s time to start working on your self-esteem (自尊). |
| F．You must do what you want without being affected by what others think. |
| G．However, you must trust in yourself and seek the necessary strength to move forward. |
8 . For my daughter's 19th birthday, we bought her tickets to go and see Linkin Park, as they were playing in our city. We didn't really have the
The night before she was like a
Needless to say when they
Later that day they returned, with faces full of happiness and warmth. They presented my husband and me with a
This wasn't something
| A．money | B．time | C．interest | D．news |
| A．worker | B．baby | C．kid | D．parent |
| A．dance | B．learn | C．walk | D．sit |
| A．speak | B．sleep | C．stand | D．leave |
| A．healthy | B．happy | C．pretty | D．surprised |
| A．stayed | B．left | C．returned | D．turned |
| A．worrying about | B．caring for | C．looking at | D．listening to |
| A．lent | B．earned | C．saved | D．spent |
| A．Still | B．Only | C．Just | D．Also |
| A．continued | B．tried | C．decided | D．struggled |
| A．kept | B．lost | C．realized | D．discovered |
| A．gift | B．prize | C．ticket | D．picture |
| A．richest | B．oldest | C．best | D．cleverest |
| A．important | B．ordinary | C．new | D．valuable |
| A．feelings | B．concerns | C．understandings | D．opinions |
Hunger
When I was a young boy, my mother would place spoonfuls of vegetables onto my plate whether I wanted them or not and the rule in our family was that we always had to clean our plates. However, I rarely saw my mother eat the vegetables herself. She always served us first. She seemed never hungry.
She worked for a rich lady in town, and I always assumed that the reason why she didn’t have our tasteless meals was that she had eaten meats and sweets in the rich lady’s kitchen. Our meals were boring, and there was never enough since there were ten of us — my parents plus eight children.
One afternoon my older sisters were sick, so they couldn’t take care of me. Therefore, my mother had no choice but to bring me with her. It was a long winter day and as my father hadn’t had much work, we had even less food than usual. So I was very excited to go to the rich woman’s house.
My mother placed me in a corner while she rolled out pie crust (饼皮). Then she cooked some meat, and by the afternoon, the pleasant smell filled the kitchen and was making its way into my empty stomach. Then, a bell rang in the kitchen and my mother told me, “Don’t move” and then left.
I tried to do as told, but then I thought it wouldn’t matter if I ate just one blackberry. So I put a single blackberry into my mouth. What an explosion of flavor! The wonderful taste hitting my empty stomach was more than I could handle! Soon I was throwing blackberries into my mouth with two hands! It wasn’t until I was staring at the empty bowl that I noticed the empty, unbaked pie crust sitting on the table waiting for the berries. I looked around for more berries, but there was none. Suddenly, I heard footsteps approaching, so I quickly hid into the cupboard (碗柜).
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Just at the moment, my mother entered the kitchen, following a well-dressed lady.
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After the lady left, I crept(爬) out of the cupboard with tears streaming down my face.
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10 . What is empathy?
Empathy is the ability to share and understand the feelings or emotions of others.
Types of empathy
There are three different ways to think of empathy. First, there is affective empathy. This is the ability to share the emotions of others. For example, someone watching a scary movie may feel scared when a character is scared. Second, there is cognitive empathy. This is the ability to understand the feelings of others. A good example is a counselor. Counselors may understand that someone they are speaking to is sad, but that does not mean the counselor becomes sad. Finally, there is emotional regulation.
Depending on the situation
Measuring stick
Our brain has evolved to be able to quickly change under different circumstances.
| A．Having empathy is very useful |
| B．Empathy is often measured with surveys |
| C．This refers to the ability to control one’s emotions |
| D．Sometimes it could be helpful to feel less empathy |
| E．People experience pleasure when their opponent fails |
| F．Sometimes we may feel too much empathy for our own groups |
| G．Empathy helps humans respond appropriately to different situations |
