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 . How to Deal with Academic Failure

Experiencing failure in academic settings is inevitable in your journey to study. However, once you get through it, you can bounce back from almost any academic failure.

Adopt the proper mindset

The proper mentality plays a big part in dealing with academic failure.     1    , focus on how you will feel when you have mastered the areas that give you trouble. Stop thinking of yourself as a failure, and regard yourself as a person with a fixable problem. The problem is an opportunity, because how a person responds to a problem is what creates success or failure.

    2    

Consider the troubles of chaotic personal relationships and stress. They are the most common external factor making students' academic performance suffer.    3    . Activities including sports, partying, or arts are social distractions that are also a common source of academic struggle. Disorganization is a huge factor. Making an inventory of upcoming assignments work as well.

Bounce back

    4    . Were your grades good and then suddenly fall, slowly decline, or are they changeable? If they slowly declined, this probably indicates a lack of proficiency in a foundational skill set. If your grades suddenly fall, then that can be indicative of the sudden presence of a troublesome external factor, like moving to a new school.

Once you have determined that, you need to develop a plan of action. Try to study at the same times and same places each day, so it becomes a routine. Enlist someone to help you stay accountable to your plan of action.    5    .

A．Identify the trouble spots

B．Analyze extracurricular commitments

C．Achieving academic goals is vitally important

D．Instead of judging yourself for past shortcomings

E．Only by recognizing your problems weren't created overnight

F．Look at the history of your grades and determine the overall trend

G．Talk to a friend, family member or teacher about helping you stay on track

3 . 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

4 . Slowing Down Racing Thoughts

Everyone has moments when their brain suddenly goes messy. When racing thoughts take over your mind, you can’t stay focused, and you feel trapped. How can you keep racing thoughts from controlling you? Here are five tips to try.

Give yourself permission. Racing thoughts are often made worse by the anxiety over having racing thoughts.     1     This gives you a sense of control so you don’t feel helpless. When you put racing thoughts in their proper context, they feel less threatening and easier to manage.

Distract (分心) yourself. As soon as you notice yourself worrying again or thinking about things over and over, make an inside comment on yourself, like “here I go again, with my list of thoughts that never ends”.     2    

Get mindful. Practicing mindfulness can help change your thought patterns.     3     Close your eyes and count to yourself as you take slow, steady breaths. When you reach 10, start over and repeat the process until you calm down.

Get moving.     4     For instance, when racing thoughts strike, do a set of push-ups, do 10 jumping jacks, take a five-minute walk, or do household chores. Also, try to build regular exercise into your life as well as these short bursts of activity. That can help relieve anxiety and stress.

    5     Sometimes it’s best to let racing thoughts run their course; otherwise, they may wander indefinitely. When anxious racing thoughts occur, recognize them, but tell yourself that now is not worry time and you will deal with them later. Then at a fixed time of your choosing, do nothing but explore those thoughts and work through them.

A．Fight for them.

B．Schedule worry time.

C．For instance, try counting your breaths.

D．Exercise is helpful for reducing anxiety.

E．To escape this, allow yourself to experience them.

F．Then do something else, like reading or listening to music.

G．People who struggle with racing thoughts are constantly worried.

5 . There’s a special bond between good parents and their children that is a beautiful thing to see.

They care about every________of their children’s life, from the tiniest issues to the biggest heartbreaks.

Elizabeth Bautista Boyd of Oklahoma is________to have such a father who still________and protects her, even though she is a grown-up 38-year-old working woman now. Boyd drove to work on a________winter morning, and the roads were frozen.________this, her dad did something amazing for her.

She________photos of her father’s act of kindness on a social networking website________by the touching words: “You guys…This is my dad. He’d driven to my company parking lot and waited for me to________, so he could salt the icy road from my________to the company’s front door. He did this to________that I, his 38-year-old daughter, wouldn’t________Oh! Love you, Daddy.”

The photos show her dad with a bag of salt,________spreading a path of salt across the icy road. This simple but________gesture of a father’s love for his daughter has________thousands of hearts online. In around 24 hours, it obtained over 70,000 reactions and over 76,000 shares.

Some________“What an amazing Daddy you have!” and one person wrote: “Definitely give him a huge hug, big enough for all of us.

1.

A．aspect

B．advantage

C．exception

D．weakness

2.

A．regretful

B．blessed

C．confident

D．supposed

3.

A．cares for

B．talks about

C．relies on

D．keeps from

4.

A．busy

B．sunny

C．cold

D．quiet

5.

A．Interested in

B．Unsatisfied with

C．Uncertain about

D．Aware of

6.

A．selected

B．found

C．developed

D．posted

7.

A．accompanied

B．simplified

C．clarified

D．confirmed

8.

A．work

B．arrive

C．drive

D．survive

9.

A．seat

B．vehicle

C．office

D．building

10.

A．prove

B．explain

C．ensure

D．announce

11.

A．forget

B．move

C．slip

D．stop

12.

A．nervously

B．casually

C．generously

D．carefully

13.

A．strange

B．sweet

C．rude

D．crazy

14.

A．touched

B．appreciated

C．witnessed

D．convinced

15.

A．promised

B．recalled

C．debated

D．commented

6 . 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。

When I drove my sister Connie from Michigan to Arizona to start her junior year of college, I didn’t realize it’d be the last time that I’d see her alive. Four months later, when she was traveling back to the Midwest for winter break with four of her college friends, the driver of her car fell asleep. The car went off the road and rolled over several times. My sister, unfortunately, was thrown out from the car and died within minutes.

As a nineteen-year-old away at college myself, I was already dealing with my own confusion and uncertainty about where my life was headed. I’d thought I wanted to become an engineer, but the related courses I’d taken left me wholly uninspired. Now, with the struggle from my sister’s sudden death, I knew leaving my family to return to school hours from home would only heighten my confusion. Yet, when my parents expressed their belief that Connie would’ve wanted me to return to college, I knew they were right.

During the first term following her death, I felt like I was sailing through a personal fog in a rudderless(无舵的) boat. I was aimlessly drifting, fearful of what lay beyond the horizon. My grief(悲伤) consumed me as I continually questioned how the college courses I was taking would affect my life. And, more importantly, I missed my sister. Born just ten months apart, she’d always been there for me.

When I began my junior year, I still hadn’t declared my major, but I signed up for one particular class for personal reasons: Death Education and Suicide Prevention. One day, the professor had a guest speaker come to our class. At some point during the presentation, the speaker said, “Joy shared is joy increased. Grief shared is grief decreased.” The speaker explained the saying by breaking it into parts, saying, “Joy shared is joy increased. If you don’t believe it, go into a closet and tell yourself a joke. It isn’t funny unless you share it with others. Or you can try to share your sadness with your beloved one, even in the journals.” I was locked in “Joy shared is joy increased. Grief shared is grief decreased.”

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。

I silently repeated this message to myself over and over again, trying to absorb these words into my being.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After that day in class, I began keeping journals about my sister.

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7 . 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.

8 . 众所周知，肢体语言最好的例子就是微笑。微笑可以帮助我们度过难关，在陌生人的世界中找到朋友。请你结合生活中的一个事例，用英语写一篇短文，谈谈微笑的作用。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为100左右；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Smile

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9 . We all are familiar with the term procrastination(拖延症).    1    Thus phenomenon is also called mood repair by some researchers in which we avoid the bad mood associated with our work by spending time on mood boosting activities. Here you’ll find four simple ways to help you quit procrastination habit to grow your career.

    2    

We all need to break down our projects and goals unto smaller, more manageable things. Concentrating on one thing at a time ran help you complete you task more quickly than you think.

Set a realistic deadline.

    3    Tasks are not likely to be concentrated in our minds without a clearly set deadline. The ambiguity(不明确) is also the biggest cause of procrastination.

Step away from a task for a while.

To maintain the level of efficiency, leave your desk to take a break or go outside for a walk.    4    Continuously thinking about your task can cause severe anxiety and make you feel overwhelmed. Taking a break will help you overcome your procrastination and work towards completing your task goals.

Perfectionism wastes time.

It is human nature that we always try to do our best, but in professional life, we all need to complete the task and move onto the next. As no finished product is perfect, we can only try to make it perfect. But if you keep trying for perfection, you will never finish your task. There is no perfect product, anywhere. You can just complete your task that is really good and accept that some faults are unavoidable.    5    

A．Do one thing at a time.

B．Keep away from complex projects.

C．This makes task accomplishment easier.

D．Instead, focus on being better than perfect.

E．Let your mind relax without thinking about your tasks.

F．After all, you can always come back to improve on in the future.

G．It is a thought, an emotional reaction to putting off the task at hand.

10 . As ninety approached, many things had changed for Mom except one: She wanted a big birthday party. But because of a fractured (断裂的) hip just 3 weeks before, we could only arrange a small one at the rehab (康复中心) instead of giving her a big celebration in a restaurant.

Mom’s husband, Fred, was also in the facility, admitted to the dementia (痴呆) unit prior to her admission. Mom visited him a few times each week, but these visits distressed her because he was usually asleep and did not respond to her. She often left in tears and was sad for days.

On the day of the party, we decorated the dining room with balloons, and a sheet cake was decorated in her favorite colour. Surrounded by her loved ones, Mom was overwhelmed with happiness. Only one other person could have made this day happier: Fred, her husband of thirty years. Because the party was held in the nursing facility, we had taken him to the party, too. When an attendant brought him into the room, Mom shouted with joy. We positioned them side by-side in their wheelchairs. He sat there with his eyes closed, unresponsive, and the party went on.

A short time later, there was a buzz in the room: “Fred’s awake!” And he was! Mom spoke to him, and he responded. He said, “I love you.” He ate the birthday cake and ice cream. He stayed for the rest of the party. After I sent him back to his nursing unit, the remaining guests were still talking about Fred and his miraculous awakening, just in time to share his wife’s ninetieth birthday. Mom was very happy, crying that his presence was the best gift of all.

God works in strange ways. We were able to give Mom a lovely celebration after all, and with her husband at her side, a happy birthday indeed.

1. Why couldn’t Mom enjoy a big birthday party?

A．Because her husband got sick.

B．Because she herself got injured.

C．Because she preferred to celebrate it with her husband.

D．Because we didn’t want to arrange one for her.

2. What can be inferred about Fred?

A．He was admitted to the rehab after Mom.

B．Mom felt disappointed with him.

C．He was unconscious most of the time at the rehab.

D．He had been married to Mom for nearly twenty years.

3. Why did the attendant bring Fred to the dining room during the party?

A．To inspire him to get better.	B．To help us get close to him.
C．To celebrate his birthday.	D．To make him keep his wife company.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Mom’s Unexpected Birthday Gift	B．Fred’s Amazing Recovery
C．Mom’s Miraculous Party	D．Mom’s Strange Birthday