1 . How to gain happiness? Aristotle, a famous Greek philosopher (哲学家), believed that happiness is achieved through the development of certain virtues, stressing a balanced lifestyle.     1    .

Balancing Personal Strengths and Relationships

Aristotle combined virtues like modesty, honesty, and sociability into one principle: balance knowing yourself with getting along with others. Modesty (谦虚) involves recognizing both your true strengths and weaknesses clearly.     2    . Honesty means being true in your expressions. Sociability stresses the necessity of making and keeping friends.

Managing Emotions and Actions

    3    . Aristotle said it’s normal to feel emotions like anger, but the key to happiness is how you handle these feelings. Justice (公平) involves treating others fairly and balancing one’s needs with the needs of others. Strength involves facing fears and carefully considering risks before acting, which helps you achieve your goals confidently.

Practicing Kindness and Tolerance (宽容)

Generosity, tolerance, and grace are virtues that Aristotle considered to be part of kindness. Generosity isn’t just about giving things to others, but also about doing so thoughtfully.     4    . Grace combines a sense of humor with the seriousness required in certain situations, helping to keep a pleasant and supportive presence around others.

    5    . He teaches us that happiness is not just about seeking pleasure or avoiding pain, but about developing a balanced character. By developing these virtues and finding a balance in everything we do, we can lead truly happy and satisfying lives.

A．Aristotle stressed the importance of knowing oneself

B．This principle combines self-control, justice, and strength

C．Such realistic self-view makes you more confident and happier

D．Tolerance involves excusing others’ mistakes while keeping self-respect

E．In short, Aristotle’s approach to happiness is about finding balance in life

F．Here’s a simple explanation of his ideas designed for high school students

G．A person who knows how to be happy needs to develop a balanced sense of justice

2 . When we feel disappointed with what might have been or we wish we could change a choice we made in the past, we have regrets.

Regrets can be harmful when we don’t want to accept them. Too many negative (消极的) thoughts and continuous consideration can lead to stress and anxiety. This kind of spiritual and emotional pain also affects our bodies. For example, maybe you didn’t stand up for your friend when someone attacked him by saying something derogatory. You didn’t speak up at the time to clear his name. You end up feeling disappointed in yourself and don’t want to be reminded of that. Or you may remember the situation all too well, but don’t know how to overcome your regret. Whatever it is, you may suffer from negative thoughts or even sleepless nights, thus putting pressure onto your body and mind.

But as the old saying goes, a coin has two sides. Regrets have advantages too. When we reflect (反思) on regrettable choices we made in the past, that’s a good thing. We grow from self-examination and can learn from our missteps. Inspired to be better, we improve on our decision-making so we don’t repeat our mistakes.

Another positive side of regret is that it can move you closer to being your best self. A study about people’s most long-lasting regrets was published in the journal Emotion, where scientists looked at the connection between regret and an individual’s self-concept (自我认知). The results showed that people were more likely to regret not living up to being that best person and thus try harder to use their full potential (潜力), when regrets about their best selves were not achieved.

If you’re feeling regretful about something from your past, know you’re not alone in feeling this way. Everyone has something (or many things) that they regret. However, there are ways to move forward by showing yourself understanding. If that’s too difficult, get the help of a health professional. He or she can help you manage feelings of regret so they no longer hold you back.

1. What does the underlined word “derogatory” in paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Confusing.

B．Usual.

C．Informal.

D．Mean.

2. What is an advantage of long-lasting regrets?

A．Avoidance of stress.	B．Positive self-concept.
C．Greater efforts to better oneself.	D．Longer time to reflect on the past.

3. What does the author suggest people do in the last paragraph?

A．Leave those regrets as they are.

B．Discuss regrets with the like-minded.

C．Stop reflecting on your daily events.

D．Turn to experts for help if necessary.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．How to Fight Regrets	B．Get to Know Our Regrets
C．Why Regrets Are Harmful	D．The Positive Sides of Regrets

3 . Do you think you need to shout at yourself to force yourself to finish your homework? If so, think again.    1     Research shows that practicing self-compassion (自我关怀) improves our mental and physical well-being and supports long-term success.

Self-compassion is the practice of being kind and supportive to ourselves. The opposite is being self-critical and mean to ourselves when we make a mistake.     2     These negative responses are related to depression, stress and reduced quality of life.

A 2017 study found people who practice self-compassion tend to handle stress better. Their bodies have less of a stress response when, for example, they meet with difficulties at work or school.     3     Let’s say they do poorly on a geometry test. Self-compassion helps them use the experience to make changes going forward, like seeking out a math tutor.

    4     We can start with mindfulness. First of all, practice observing our thoughts — are they understanding or critical? Don’t judge ourselves too severely then. Rather than getting caught up in how we could have done better, forgive ourselves and think about what to change while remaining respectful, and loving to ourselves.     5     We can read a novel, play a musical instrument or kick around a soccer ball with friends.

With practice, we can learn to treat ourselves with kindness and unconditional love — not tough love.

A．So how do we develop self-compassion?

B．It may be more effective to be kind to yourself.

C．It includes letting go of your strict self-criticism.

D．Mindfulness is the key to practicing self-compassion.

E．But this approach does not make us feel or perform better.

F．They have more confidence to look for areas where they can improve.

G．Also, show ourselves kindness in ways that nourish (滋养) our spirit and body.

4 . I love persimmons(柿子). A few years ago, preparing to travel from San Francisco to Boston, I_________two persimmons, one of which I_________in the flight departure lounge(候机室), waiting to board the_________.

A lady _________me and asked from which store in the airport the fruit was bought. She looked a bit _________hearing that it couldn’t be purchased from any airport shop. I thought to myself, “I can_________the second persimmon to her.” When I _________her the fruit, she at first _________ , but when I insisted, she was visibly glad and appreciatively accepted. I_________my corner of the lounge, satisfied to have made someone else__________and that I thought was the end of the story.

Sometime during the flight, the lady caught up with me in the aisle(过道) to__________me again for the persimmon. She__________that she had grown up in Japan, where there was a persimmon tree in the yard of her childhood home. She now lived in Boston, where she hadn’t been able to find the fruit. The taste of this one persimmon was precious to her, __________her with memories of her parents and grandparents by our senses of taste and smell, as if magically.

Only then did the influence of this tiny act dawn on me. To this day I am__________by it so much that the taste of the persimmon I never ate gives me more__________than all the ones I have eaten, combined.

1.

A．picked

B．exchanged

C．packed

D．demanded

2.

A．ate

B．donated

C．washed

D．observed

3.

A．bus

B．train

C．ship

D．plane

4.

A．approached

B．left

C．missed

D．discovered

5.

A．disappointed

B．nervous

C．excited

D．energetic

6.

A．give

B．compare

C．throw

D．deliver

7.

A．showed

B．purchased

C．offered

D．sold

8.

A．hated

B．chose

C．removed

D．refused

9.

A．searched for

B．returned to

C．checked up

D．complained about

10.

A．comfortable

B．happy

C．anxious

D．worried

11.

A．support

B．thank

C．praise

D．reward

12.

A．imagined

B．responded

C．agreed

D．shared

13.

A．taking

B．helping

C．reconnecting

D．mixing

14.

A．moved

B．surprised

C．shocked

D．attracted

15.

A．regret

B．freedom

C．joy

D．kindness

5 . My daughter has a new app on her phone that can clear up and improve old photos. She used it to make copies of pictures from my old photo albums, brighten them up, and email them back to me. There were pictures of Mom, Dad, Grandma, my brothers, me and my first dog Duke. Looking at them brought back so many loving, happy memories. I even put one on my laptop computer as my new screensaver.

It is a picture of me sitting in my favorite chair, across from the woodstove, next to a bookcase full of old books. I am wearing my special Snoopy sweatshirt. There is a big smile on my face and a joyful shine in my eyes. It was how I spent a lot of my winter afternoons as a boy, reading an old book.

It is strange too that 50 years later that boy still lives inside of me. I still love comfortable chairs, warm stoves, old books, Snoopy, hugging dogs, and reading books on cold winter days. Yet, when I look in the mirror now all I see is thinning, graying hair, age spots, and lots of wrinkles.

Once in a while I look into my eyes in the mirror. They are hiding behind glasses now. They are set a little deeper in my eyes. The innocence (天真) in them has been replaced with wisdom. But they still have that same joyful shine.

Looking at the little boy smiling at me from the computer screen and that 56-year-old man looking back at me in the mirror can be a bit confusing at times. They seem so different. Still, they are both me.

1. What did the author’s daughter do for him?

A．She updated his computer.	B．She improved his old photos.
C．She downloaded a new app for him.	D．She helped him forget bad memories.

2. What can we see from the author’s computer screen now?

A．A sunny boy.	B．A lovely dog.
C．His reading room.	D．His family members.

3. What remains the same over the years?

A．The author’s competitive spirit.	B．The author’s innocent eyes.
C．The author’s old bookcase.	D．The author’s living habits.

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards his present age?

A．Doubtful.

B．Unclear.

C．Appreciative.

D．Uncaring.

6 . Reasons Why Emotions (情绪) Are Important

Emotions can play an important role in how you think and behave.     1    ? Let me tell you the reasons.

Emotions can make you act. When faced with an exam, you might feel a lot of anxiety about whether you will perform well and how the test will impact your final grade.     2    , since you experience a special emotion.

    3    . Naturalist Charles Darwin was one of the earliest researchers studying emotions. He believed that emotions allow both humans and animals to survive. He suggested that emotional displays could also play an important role in safety and survival. If you met a fierce animal, it would clearly show that the creature was angry and defensive, leading to your being away from possible danger.

Emotions help others understand you better. When you communicate with other people, it is important to give clues to help them understand how you are feeling. The clue might include emotional expressions through body language.     4    .

Emotions allow you to understand others. Just as your own emotions offer valuable information to others, the emotional expressions of those around you also give a wealth of social information.     5    . It allows you to respond appropriately and build deeper and more meaningful relationships with others.

A．Why are they important

B．Emotions help you to avoid danger

C．How can you control your emotion well

D．It might also include directly stating how you feel

E．Getting social information is an important part of your daily life

F．You are giving them important information about taking action

G．You’re driven to take action to improve your chances of getting a good grade

7 . Four ways to cope with burnout

Burnout is a feeling of physical and mental tiredness. It can come from working overtime or under stressful conditions.    1    . All you have to do is identify feelings of burnout and know how to deal with them. Try these out next time you’re feeling overwhelmed (不知所措的).

●Focus on advancing tiny goals.

    2    Experts suggest starting small and dividing the whole schedule into the smallest sections. Setting and achieving tiny goals can increase people’s engagement in the work and their happiness during the workday.

●Take time for yourself.

Ask for a rest day if you need one to do nothing other than eat your favorite ice cream, go for a run, or meet a friend for lunch.    3    Be sure to get enough sleep each night, too; this has a huge effect on one’ s mental well-being and performance.

●    4    

It’s hard to feel frustrated after a sweaty weightlifting or a long run, Exercise reduces students’ sensitivity to anxiety, so think of that exercise time as building your protection against the burnout. Extra points if you do it outside in the sunshine.

●Talk to people.

People’s health, well-being, everything in life, is way better if you’re connected with other people. Social network is a precious resource but reaching out to people in reality is much more beneficial.    5    

A．Get active.

B．Go to the gym.

C．Therefore, talk to your best friends every day.

D．It can be also from dealing with difficult people.

E．Taking those hours off may seem like a big deal.

F．So communicate with other people face to face, not on your phone.

G．Sometimes the to-do list gets so long that you feel you can hardly breathe.

8 . 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。续写的词数应为150左右。

Mark Mancuso’s phone rang. He looked at it. It was a calendar alert, telling him it was his mother’s birthday. His mother Amelia lived 200 miles away, a bit of a drive, but Mark had driven further for a lunch with a friend. He just couldn’t stand his mother’s complaints. Then he found a florist(花店). He smiled and got an idea.

Entering the florist, Mark smiled broadly, “Can you arrange to have flowers delivered in Syracuse, N.Y.? It’s my mother’s 65^th birthday and I wanted to send her some flowers.” Mark explained.

The florist said, “Of course, I just need your mother’s name and address, and I guess you want to send a note, a birthday message?”

“Yes,” said Mark, and he quickly recited his mother’s name and address and then added, “Please write: Happy birthday to the best mom in the world, love you and miss you. Your son, Mark.”

Mark was walking out with a feeling of accomplishment when he saw a girl sitting on the corner with tears running down her face. Mark squatted down(蹲下来)next to her and asked, “Hey dear, are you OK?”

“I’m Mandy and I wanted a rose for my mom,” the girl wept.

“But I don’t have enough money! The flower lady said I could only buy a daisy, but my mom loves red roses.”

“You just wait here,” Mark said, and then he walked back into the florist and bought a lovely red rose for Mandy. “Here you go,”he said, placing the rose in her hands. Mandy took the rose in her hands, smiled up at Mark and said,“Thank you! But could you take me to my mom? It’s not far but I’m not supposed to go on my own.”

Mark nodded. Mandy took his hand and walked with him down the street. After a while, Mandy turned right and Mark was surprised to see they were standing by the gates of a cemetery(墓地).

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。
Paragraph 1

The girl gently placed the rose on a grave(墓碑).

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:

Mark felt tears well up in his eyes.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9 . First, all participants found it quite easy to link colors and emotions. This was particularly true for colors like red, black, or yellow. Other colors, like brown and purple, received fewer associations. We found that colour-emotion associations were not one-to-one, but many-to-many.

Participants did not select one emotion for a colour, but often chose several emotions. In turn, different colors were linked to the same emotion, like pleasure, which was associated with red but also yellow, orange, pink and purple.

What you can also see is that most colors were associated with positive emotions. Only brown, grey and black—that is, darker colors—were associated with negative emotions. Red was the most controversial colour. For some, it was a very positive colour—the colour of passion, love and desire. For others, it was a negative colour—the colour of danger, anger and hate. For even others, it was both positive and negative. What connects all these emotions and ideas is the fact that red is activating and strong.

Second, we found few cultural differences. In other words, many colour-emotion associations seemed universal. Most participants agreed that pink was associated with love and pleasure, yellow with joy and amusement, or that black was the saddest colour.

Third, if you are interested in cultural differences, we found some specificities too. For example, in addition to the universal associations of love and anger with red, Chinese participants also associated joy and amusement, while Nigerian participants additionally associated fear with red. Another example is the association between purple and sadness that only Greek participants chose. For others, purple was generally a positive colour with very little agreement on the exact emotions associated with purple.

Fourth, participants whose languages were more similar to each other also had more similar associations. To arrive at this finding, we estimated the degree of linguistic (语言的) similarity between two languages, which shows how related or unrelated they are. And then, languages from different language families, like English and Chinese, would have the lowest similarity scores.

1. Which colour is most likely to cause controversy?

A．Black.

B．Red.

C．Yellow.

D．Brown.

2. What is pink associated with according to most participants?

A．Love and pleasure.	B．Joy and amusement.
C．Anger and sadness.	D．Fear and disappointment.

3. Which group of people associate purple with sadness?

A．Chinese participants.	B．Nigerian participants.
C．Greek participants.	D．English participants.

4. What’s the best title of the text?

A．The Deep Meaning of Colours

B．The Link Between Colours and Emotions

C．Cultural Differences in Different Countries

D．Linguistic Similarity Between Two Languages

10 . Many people were never taught how to express their emotions. Because they do not know how to express them, they end up repressing (压抑) their emotions instead. For people who have gone through painful life situations, they can end up engaging in unhealthy behaviours to avoid expressing their emotions, such as performing self-injuries or developing eating disorders.     1     Here is how to express emotions.

●Recognize the importance of expressing emotions.

    2     For example, many people who struggle with ongoing depression or anxiety are often actually angry. Because the unexpressed anger has nowhere to go, the person experiences the emotion as depression or anxiety. If you want to take control over your emotional life, you need to first recognize that it is important to express your emotions.

●    3    

Many people who have never learned how to express their emotions have a difficult time even labeling what those emotions are. Some people might feel anger when the emotion that they are actually dealing with is pain. Others might cry and feel sad in situations in which anger is really the more appropriate (合适的) emotion. Practise labeling the emotion that you are actually having.

●Express your anger physically.

Anger can be a frightening emotion for many people to express. Anger is best expressed physically, especially if you have a lot of repressed anger to process.     4     Some good ways to express anger include punching pillows, hitting the ground with a baseball bat, popping balloons or going for a walk.

●Cry out your pain.

Tears really do heal a wounded spirit. However, many people have a hard time expressing their sorrow.     5     You will feel much better after a good cry.

A．Label your emotions appropriately.

B．Unexpressed emotions affect your life.

C．Everyone must express his or her emotions immediately.

D．A good laugh can do wonders for a person’s emotional state.

E．Expressing emotions is the best way to release repressed feelings.

F．Choose a physical activity that will not harm another person or yourself.

G．Try watching a sad movie and allowing yourself to cry for the characters.