1 . Self-esteem is the ruling view you have of yourself. This includes your beliefs about your inner qualities and how you think others see you.     1     Someone can develop low self-esteem even when they are highly functional and greatly skilled. Understanding this mysterious emotional currency might be the key to unlocking your own self-worth.

People with healthy self-esteem don't need to boast about themselves to others. People with low self-esteem may tell you how much everyone loves them, what a great job they do at work, and how amazing they are at pretty everything under the sun even though they really wonder if it's true. People may see them as obnoxious or “full of themselves”.     2     They are not shy about sharing ideas, including constructive criticisms of others. They also take care of themselves without second-guessing or apologizing. They are the people who we say seem “sure of themselves”.

If you're starting to think you may have low self-esteem, you can work on the way you talk to yourself. When you turn off negative self-talk, you can open the floor to positive reinforcements and access the courage to show different sides of yourself. It isn't going to feel good at first, though. Keep going until it becomes less and less and maybe even a few awkward laughs in the mirror may help.     3    

However, in serious cases of low or even non-existent self-esteem, you may want to call in a professional or a specialist. Good mental health is important, and professionals doing psychotherapy do not pass judgement or give corrections.     4     It is the best way to get at the roots of your real self-esteem problems.

    5     It will take some work but your entire life — from your relationships to your body image to your work habits — will be touched with the kind of power that only comes from someone believing in themselves. This is the hardest part, and the greatest leap. With some changes and support, you can improve your self-esteem and see how everything else changes as a result.

A．Self-esteem is not always rooted in reality, though.

B．You have the power to shape a new self-perception.

C．This encourages you to speak openly without worry.

D．The real test of character is whether they can learn from their mistakes.

E．Self-esteem refers to a person's overall sense of his or her value or worth.

F．People with a healthy level of self-esteem present themselves with a casual confidence.

G．With some practice and persistence, you will win this internal struggle to see your self-worth.

2 . The Science of Recreational Fear

From peek-a-boo to Halloween haunted houses, research shows that recreational fear can teach us to face scary situations. The “paradox of horror” is that being scared, under the right circumstances, can be fun.     1    

Having fun with fear is an “extremely important tool for learning,” said Mathias Clasen, director of the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University in Denmark. “We learn something about the dangers of the world. We learn something about our own responses: What does it feel like to be afraid? How much fear can I take?”

Horror movies have gotten more popular. And in one survey of more than 1,000 Americans, conducted by Clasen, 55% described themselves as horror fans.     2     Many people who would not consider themselves fans of fear enjoy true-crime podcasts and novels featuring violence and murder. Others may enjoy nature documentaries about top predators (捕食性动物) such as sharks and bears.

Even babies like being a little spooked (惊的). Peek-a-boo is “an infant jump scare,” Clasen said.     3     “I don’t think I’ve yet come across a person who did not enjoy some kind of recreational fear,” he said.

    4     It is a combination of an adrenaline (肾上腺素) rush and an opportunity to learn about dealing with scary situations in a safe environment, researchers say. When we are afraid, our endocrine system releases adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol to help prepare our body for physical action. We know the “Halloween” movie Michael Myers is not real, but our brain still responds as if he were a burning threat. One brain imaging study found that watching horror movies activates threat-response brain regions such as the amygdala (扁桃腺), prefrontal cortex and insula as if the danger were real.

After this rush, many people experience an uplifted mood. One study examined how 262 adults felt before and after they entered an extreme haunted house.     5     Brain recordings before and after showed that those whose mood improved had a smaller neural response to subsequent stressors, which is associated with the post-haunt high.

A．So why do we like it?

B．Fifty percent of people said they felt better after the visit.

C．And recreational fear, as it is rightly named, could benefit us, too.

D．Playing with fear helps us learn what our body does under pressure.

E．Horror, though, is not the only genre of what people find scary fun, he said.

F．We define recreational fear broadly as a mixed emotional experience of fear and enjoyment.

G．Classic childhood games of tag and hide-and-seek are just like the real scenes of predator vs. prey.

3 . Finland was known as a rather quiet country. Since 2008, the Country Brand Delegation (国家品牌代表团) has been looking for a national brand that would make some noise to market the country as a world-famous tourist destination. In 2010, the Delegation issued a “Country Brand Report,” which highlighted a host of marketable themes, including Finland’s famous educational system. One key theme was brand new: silence. As the report explained, modern society often seems intolerably loud and busy. “Silence is a resource,” it said.

Silence first appeared in scientific research as a control or baseline, against which scientists compare the effects of noise or music. Researchers have mainly studied it by accident, as physician Luciano Bernardi did in his study of the physiological (生理学) effects of music. “We didn’t think about the effect of silence,” he said. Bernardi observed two dozen test subjects while they listened to six musical tracks. He found that the impacts of music could be read directly in the bloodstream, via changes in blood pressure, carbon dioxide, and circulation in the brain. “During almost all sorts of music, there was a physiological change with a condition of arousal (兴奋),” he explained.

This effect made sense, given that active listening requires attention. But the more striking finding appeared between musical tracks. Bernardi and his colleagues discovered that randomly added stretches of silence also had a great effect, but in the opposite direction. In fact, two-minute silent pauses proved far more relaxing than either “relaxing” music or a longer silence played before the experiment started. The blank pauses that Bernardi had considered irrelevant, in other words, became the most interesting object of study. Silence seemed to be heightened by contrasts, maybe because it gave test subjects a release from careful attention. “Perhaps the arousal is something that concentrates the mind in one direction, so that when there is nothing more arousing, then you have deeper relaxation,” he said.

This finding is reinforced by neurological (神经系统的) research. Relevant research shows when our brains rest quietly, they integrate external and internal information into “a conscious (意识的) workspace.” Freedom from noise and goal-directed tasks, it appears, unites the quiet without and within, allowing our conscious workspace to do its thing to discover where we fit in.

Noora Vikman, a consultant on silence for Finland’s marketers, knows silence well. Living in a remote and quiet place in Finland, she discovers thoughts and feelings that aren’t detectable in her busy daily life. “If you want to know yourself, you have to be with yourself, and discuss with yourself, and be able to talk with yourself.”

1. Why does the author mention the Country Brand Report in Paragraph 1?

A．To present how Finland viewed silence.

B．To highlight the need of noise in Finland.

C．To explain why Finland issued the brands.

D．To indicate the authority of the Delegation.

2. What can be inferred about Luciano Bernardi’s discovery?

A．It challenged the calming effect of music.

B．It emphasized the role of silence between sounds.

C．It illustrated the loss of attentiveness after silence.

D．It stated brains’ information processing in the quiet.

3. As for Noora Vikman’s attitude to silence, the author is ________.

A．doubtful

B．supportive

C．disapproving

D．unconcerned

4. Which would be the best title for the passage?

A．Silence: A Limited Resource	B．Silence: A Misunderstood Tool
C．Silence: The Unexpected Power	D．Silence: The Value by Contrasts

4 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写 1 个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Gratitude is more than just saying “thank you”. Gratitude is a deeper appreciation for someone or something. Expressing gratitude makes us feel a positive emotion. Over the past thirty years, there    1     (be) many studies showing that writing a gratitude letter to another person offers us an opportunity    2     (escape) from negative emotions. Even if we don’t share our writing with anyone, the act of completing the exercise alone makes us happier and    3     (satisfied) with life. The more we express gratitude, the more positive we feel.

5 . Have you ever bought a new car and started noticing the exact color and model of car everywhere? Has that type of car just become popular in your city? Were they there before? Or are you just going crazy?

You’re not going crazy. The reason you are now just noticing them is what psychologists call “priming”. Basically, the cars were always there. You just didn’t recognize them consciously. However, when that certain model of car becomes part of your conscious thinking, you start “automatically” recognizing all of the other cars that are the same, because you are already “primed” to do so.

The priming effect takes many forms. In one study, students were asked to walk around a room for 5 minutes at a rate of 30 steps per minute, which was about one-third their normal pace. After this brief experience, the participants were much quicker to recognize words related to old age, such as forgetful, old, and lonely. Reciprocal priming effects tend to produce a coherent reaction: if you are primed to think of old age, you would tend to act old, and acting old would reinforce the thought of old age. This research shows that the way we think influences the way we act, and the way we act influences the way we think.

A similar conclusion was reached by the American psychologist William James a century ago, but he emphasized the effect on feeling. “Actions seem to follow feeling, but really actions and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. Thus the path to cheerfulness, should our cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.”

So, that’s it. If you want to be happy, just sit up and act happy. Based on these scientific findings, we can adopt certain priming effects to help make ourselves consistently happier.

One thing we have in common is our ability to think, and thus feel. Pleasant thoughts have been proven to produce the chemicals that make us feel happy, particularly thoughts and feelings of gratitude. When we purposefully go through and think about the things we’re grateful for and deliberately feel as much gratitude as we can, we are flooding our mind with the “happy chemicals”. Furthermore, by consciously thinking, feeling and expressing gratitude, we will not only be happier in the moment, we will be “primed” to recognize the things in our life to appreciate. Each time this happens, the “happy chemicals” will be produced. Do this every day and we will become consistently happier. This makes up for the momentary happiness we gain from eating chocolate or buying new clothes. More than that, combining thoughts of gratitude with happy acts like smiling and laughing will have a supplementary positive effect on our state of mind.

1. Which of the following is an example of the priming effect?

A．Walking much faster after attending a lecture about old age.

B．Donating money to the poor after seeing pictures of cute cats.

C．Learning about various types of cars after purchasing the first car.

D．Completing SO_P as SOUP rather than SOAP after seeing the word EAT.

2. What does the underlined word “reciprocal” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Related.

B．Two-way.

C．Well-rounded.

D．Opposite.

3. What will the author probably agree with?

A．Eating or shopping leads to consistent feelings of happiness.

B．Our will has greater control over emotions than over actions.

C．Happy chemicals make us think about the things we’re grateful for.

D．Practicing gratitude frequently prepares us for long-term happiness.

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．Prime Yourself to Be Happier

B．Share Happiness to Enhance Wellbeing

C．Why Gratitude Is Important in Psychology

D．How Happy Chemicals Affect People’s Thoughts

6 . The Positive Effects of a Positive Affect

Parents often have high hopes for how their children will turn out in adulthood, such as wanting them to be healthy, to feel satisfied with their career, and to have strong friendships.    1    

Recent research suggests that a teen’s affect—especially positive affect—is one critical factor. What exactly is affect? Affect is the tendency to express positive or negative emotions, which in turn influences how we experience things and determine whether to judge a given situation as positive or negative.    2     Moreover, research suggests that a person’s affect is relatively stable over time, especially by the time one reaches adulthood.

Affect is typically described in terms of being either positive or negative, and it seems that positive affect, in particular, is related to a number of beneficial outcomes in adulthood.

In support of this crucial role that positive affect has in development, a study by researchers at the University of Virginia followed teenagers and young adults from ages 14 to 25, allowing them to understand the predictive power of positive affect across the critical developmental period from adolescence to young adulthood.    3     For example, teens with a higher positive affect reported had a stronger, healthier attachment to their friends.

    4     Positive affect also predicted increased self-worth and job competence, suggesting that, overall, positive affect seems to be a key predictor of young adult success across several important areas of functioning.

But what about the effects of negative affect? The researchers also examined whether negative affect would predict problems in young adulthood.    5     Thus, the important takeaway is that adolescent positive affect may have powerful links to important life outcomes in the domains of personal well-being, career, and social relationships up to a decade later.

A．Affective responses to events typically happen automatically.

B．So how can parents help their children grasp the meaning of positive affect?

C．But what factors help produce these outcomes as teens move from adolescence to adulthood?

D．Interestingly, the results suggested that positive affect may go beyond helping teens build positive relationships.

E．The results uncovered that negative affect might account for many life problems when a teenager became a young adult.

F．Unlike positive affect, having greater negative affect did not have any significant associations with any of the later life outcomes.

G．This study found that positive affect was strongly predictive of life outcomes in young adulthood, such as developing better friendships.

7 . If you have been exposed to a natural disaster (for example, a tornado or hurricane), it is very important to learn ways of coping with natural disasters and their impact (巨大影响). Natural disasters can be considered dangerous events that have a high potential to place you at risk.    1    Unlike other traumatic (痛苦的) events, natural disasters can also result in the destruction of property and financial loss, further affecting your stress levels and disrupting (扰乱) coping efforts. Despite the effects of natural disasters, there are steps you can take to cope.

    2    Over and over again, it has been found that support from others can be a major factor in helping people overcome the negative effects of a traumatic event. Given that a natural disaster can impact an entire community, your support system may be weakened by a natural disaster.

Try to establish a schedule.    3    A natural disaster can greatly disrupt your regular schedule increasing the extent to which your life feels out of control. Coming up with a daily, structured schedule can help you establish a sense of predictability(可预测性) and control.

Talk about the effect of the natural disaster.    4    A natural disaster can result in strong feelings of anger, anxiety, and sadness. These emotions need to be expressed. If you hold them in, they may only grow stronger in intensity.

Practice healthy coping strategies. Following a natural disaster, you will experience a number of intense negative emotions.    5    Alcohol use, excessive sleep, or seeking comfort in food may be effective short- term strategies for managing emotional distress. However, in the long- term, these strategies won’t address the real issue and will only cause your distress to increase.

A．Seek out and connect with social support.

B．Try to limit all the other sources of stress in your life.

C．For example, set regular times for meals, or waking up in the morning.

D．Natural disasters can bring about high levels of stress, anxiety, and anger.

E．Share your feelings with others, or find some ways to express your emotions.

F．Therefore, it is very important to identify healthy ways of managing these emotions.

G．Your most important task following a natural disaster is getting your life back in order.

8 . 阅读下面短文，根据题目要求用英文回答问题。请在答题卡指定区域作答。

Last year, I baked biscuits for complete strangers to say “thank you”. I’d had to call 999 because I found my husband unconscious on the floor. Within minutes, a police car arrived and soon my husband received medical care in hospital.

A week later, when I dropped off still-warm biscuits and presented a thank-you note at the police station, the policemen thanked me for delivering gifts.

I drove away feeling light and happy. Later, I realized that my natural high might have been more than it seemed.Research has shown that sharing gratitude has positive effects on health. People who express gratitude will increase their happiness levels, lower their blood pressure and get better sleep.

What about people who receive gratitude?Research has confirmed that when people receive thanks, they experience positive emotions.“Those are happy surprises,”says Jo-Ann Tsang, a professor of psychology. When someone is thanked,he’s more likely to return the favor or pass kindness on, and his chances of being helpful again doubles, probably because he enjoys feeling socially valued.

The give-and-take of gratitude also deepens relationships. Studies show that when your loved ones regularly express gratitude,making you feel appreciated,you’re more likely to return appreciative feelings, which leads to more satisfactory in your relationships.

Nowadays,however,many people don’t express gratitude. Our modern lifestyle may be to blame. With commercial and social media, everything is speeding the younger generation to feel they’re the center of the world. If it’s all about them, why thank others?

Why not thank others? Just take a look at how many positive effects can saying “thank you”have on personal health—and the well-being of others.

If you aren’t particularly grateful, I strongly suggest you learn to be.People who are instructed to keep gratitude journals,in which they write down positive things that happen to them,cultivate gratitude over time.

1. What health benefits can people gain from expressing gratitude?
_______________________________________________________
2. How do people probably respond when they receive gratitude and feel socially valued?
_______________________________________________________
3. Please decide which part of the following statement is false, then underline it and explain why.
▷ Saying “thank-you”improves relationships,but nowadays some young people don’t want to do it because everything is making them feel blamed by the whole society.
_______________________________________________________
4. If possible, who would you like to express gratitude to most? Why? (In about 40 words)
_______________________________________________________

9 . High school life, especially in the senior year, is a rollercoaster of emotions filled with challenges and pressures. The constant demand for academic excellence, combined with the expections of college applications, and managing extracurricular (课外的) activities can lead even the best students to feel the weight of stress. However, it’s not only possible but essential to find moments of joy and strategies to reduce the pressure efficiently.

Understanding the nature of stress is the primary step. Stress isn’t just a state of mental unrest; it’s a physiological response.     1     The body notices any form of demand, challenge, or threat and reacts by preparing for a “fight-or-flight” response. This is an ancient survival process that equips us to deal with threats, whether they’re a challenging exam or a physical danger.

Interestingly, not all stress is harmful. We often overlook the distinction of different stress. Acute (急性的) stress, in contrast to the chronic (长期的), can act as a force.     2     It pushes us to our limits, motivates us to meet deadlines, and often results in that rewarding feeling of accomplishment.

However, long exposure to stress leads to chronic stress. This kind of stress, if left unchecked, can cause various health issues ranging from mental health problems like anxiety and depression to physical ailments like high blood pressure and even heart diseases.

To reduce the effects of stress, mindfulness and meditation have proven effective. Even on a busy day, sparing just a few moments to focus on one’s breathing or practicing guided meditation can significantly reduce stress levels.     3     These practices help in grounding an individual, bringing a momentary escape from the chaos (混乱).

Pursuing hobbies or activities that one is passionate about can also be a good way. Whether it’s painting, reading, playing a musical instrument, or engaging in sports, these activities not only divert the mind but also release endorphins, the body’s natural mood lifters.

Another aspect is communication.     4     Sharing burdens, discussing worries, or just talking about one’s day can offer a fresh perspective and often lightens the load. Schools offer services, and there are numerous helplines available to assist students in distress.

So, with the weight of expectations, deadlines, and too many responsibilities, remember to prioritize mental well-being.     5     Every individual deserves moments of relaxation and happiness.

A．When channeled correctly, stress can be our friend.

B．This response is a swift, automatic sequence designed for survival.

C．Prioritizing self-care isn’t a luxury (奢侈品); it’s a necessity.

D．Every challenge, it approached with a positive mindset, can be an opportunity for growth.

E．Seeding external help or just talking to a friend can be incredibly therapeutic.

F．They attach us to the present, clearing the mental disorder and lifting the spirit.

G．These parts often provide processes adjusted to individual needs.

10 . The Power in Accepting Your Errors

It pays to be kind to yourself. A new study shows that being compassionate (同情的) with yourself when you make mistakes can reduce depression.

It is generally good to hold yourself to high standards and strive to do your best. But sometimes people have unrealistic views of what they should achieve.     1     Then when they make a mistake, they may be too unforgiving of that error. It is an unhealthy form of perfectionism. This is when a person views anything imperfect as unacceptable.     2    

However, self-compassion can help protect people from such negative impacts, a new study finds.     3     “It’s often easy to say kind and supportive things to our friends when things go wrong for them,” says Madeleine Ferrari. She’s a psychologist at Australian Catholic University in Sydney. “If we can say these things to ourselves, we will still reach our goals but will have better mental health,” she says.

    4     Ferrari’s team wanted to see if self-compassion might weaken that link. The researchers surveyed 541 teenagers and 515 adults. They asked these people to fill out a set of three questionnaires and asked the participants to rate their levels of perfectionism, depression and self-compassion.

In both groups, people who were kinder to themselves were less likely to experience sadness and depression, the researchers found.     5     And that could be especially true for perfectionists.

A．They set standards that are too high.

B．Even the most intelligent and productive people make mistakes.

C．This is a good example of improving and changing based on a mistake.

D．Self-compassion is treating yourself the way you would treat a good friend.

E．Such feelings can increase stress and lead to symptoms (症状) of depression.

F．So learning self-compassion could improve treatment for those with depression.

G．Previous research has shown that people who are perfectionists are more likely to become depressed.