1 . The teenage years are a transformative period marked by great physical, psychological, and emotional changes.     1     They refer to the feelings that arise during interactions with others, such as gratitude, shame, sympathy, guilt, and pride.

Understanding and managing social emotions can help develop teenagers’ identities. Teenagers experience a wide range of emotions from social interactions, which significantly influences their self-understanding and social awareness. In the process, they learn to understand, and appropriately respond to both their own emotions and those of others.     2    

In academic settings, social emotional competencies like self-regulation, motivation, and social awareness directly impact a teenager’s ability to learn, participate, and engage in school activities.     3     Teenagers with strong social emotional skills are better equipped to handle stress, resist peer pressure, and avoid risky behaviors, reducing the likelihood of developing mental health issues.

Learning social emotions involves a combination of personal experience, guidance, and formal education.     4     This environment influences teenagers’ earliest understanding of how to communicate and manage their emotions. They feel safe and supportive to express their emotions freely and learn to manage them without fear of judgment. Schools also play a significant role through social emotional learning programs that teach these skills in a structured environment. Community involvement, extracurricular activities, and peer (同伴) interactions offer additional opportunities for teenagers to practice and refine their social emotional skills.

    5     It contributes to a teenager’s ability to manage their own emotions, understand others’ emotions, and face social complexities. This learning is a cornerstone for shaping their identity, influencing their interpersonal relationships, academic success, mental health, and future life outcomes.

A．What exactly are social emotions?

B．The journey into mature emotion is quite easy.

C．Social emotion learning for teenagers is essential.

D．Central to this phase is the concept of social emotions.

E．This helps shape their own personal principles and beliefs.

F．Families play a crucial role in modeling and developing these skills.

G．Moreover, social emotional skills are closely linked to mental health.

2 . An apology tells someone that we’re sorry for the hurt we caused — even if we didn’t do it on purpose. It’s a way of saying we’re aware of what we did and we’ll try to do better in future.

    1    . Sometimes we hurt people’s feelings without wanting to. Sometimes, we do it on purpose and feel bad later on. So we apologize.

Apologies are one of the tools that we use to get along better with other people. Saying that you’re sorry is more than just words.     2    . Apologizing shows you can understand the other person’s feelings as if they were your own. What’s more, after apologizing, you might feel a little better. The other person probably will, too.     3    , you can feel good because you are trying to make things right again.

Everyone needs to apologize when they do something wrong. For example, if someone is irritated because of something you did, you need to apologize. If you say something that hurts someone, even if you don’t mean it, then you should apologize.     4    .

When someone apologizes to you, you may welcome it and be ready to forgive.     5    . If a person keeps hurting you and apologizing without making an effort to change, you might not want to hang out with that person anymore. However, it’s always good to accept an apology.

A．When you apologize in a caring way

B．When you accept an apology in a desirable way

C．It’s difficult to mend a relationship if we don’t apologize

D．Or you might not feel like being friendly again right away

E．It isn’t always easy for us to get along well with everyone all the time

F．If you lose or break something belonging to someone else, you should say sorry

G．You’re also saying that you respect and care about the other person’s feelings

3 . Everyone feels a little jealous (妒忌的) once in a while. But when the feeling begins to ruin your relationship and cause you stress, it’s probably time to start looking for ways to get rid of it. Here are some tips to help you along the way.

    1    
        Sometimes there are deeper underlying (潜在的) issues that fuel jealousy. Once you admit that you’re struggling with jealousy, it’s time to start looking into why you’re feeling that way.     2    . When you feel like you’re falling behind everyone else, it’s easy to become jealous when you see other people’s success.
Use your jealousy to motivate yourself

    3    . While people often view jealousy as a bad thing, being jealous can actually provide you with a valuable learning opportunity. When you’re jealous, it’s usually because you’ve found something you want but you don’t have. So instead of stewing (担忧) in these jealous feelings, make an effort to go out and get whatever you want.

Focus on your positive qualities

Sometimes jealousy is rooted in feelings of insecurity and a lack of self-confidence.     4    . When you start feeling those tell-tale signs of jealousy, remind yourself of all the things that make you amazing, such as your relationships, your job, or how much you’ve grown in the past few years. All of these help to beat your feelings of jealousy.

Stop comparing yourself to others

Constantly comparing yourself to others can fuel feelings of insecurity. It can be tempting to compare yourself to others and want to compete against them. However, constantly setting yourself up against others can just make your jealousy and feelings of insecurity worse. Stop doing that.     5    .

A．Find the root of your jealousy

B．Engage yourself in meaningful activities

C．Focus on yourself and how you’re doing instead

D．They are able to help you with increasing your confidence

E．However, it’s important to find your own unique strengths

F．For example, low self-confidence is often a cause of jealousy

G．Your jealousy might be just what you need to seek what you want

4 . Life is like a book, from which we can find happiness and sorrow, success and failure, hope and despair (绝望), and love. Life is a learning process.     1    .

Happiness and sorrow

Materialistic happiness is short-lived, but happiness achieved by bringing a smile to others gives a certain level of fulfilment. Peace of mind is the main link with happiness.     2    . We realise the true worth of happiness when we are in sorrow.

    3    

Failure is the path to success. It helps us to touch the sky, teaches us to survive and shows us a specific way.

Hope and despair

       4    . Hope makes us dream. Hope builds up patience. Life teaches us not to despair even in the darkest hour, because after every night there is a day. Nothing remains the same. We have only one choice— keep moving on in life and be hopeful.

Love

Love plays a key role in our life.     5    . In the early stages of our life, our parents are the ones who show us unconditional love and care. They tell us what is right or wrong, good or bad. But we always tend to take these for granted. It is only after marriage and having kids that a person understands and becomes sensitive to the feelings of others.

A．Success and failure

B．Failure leads to success

C．Hope is what keeps life going

D．No mind is happy without peace

E．Life teaches us not to regret forever

F．Without love, a person could become cruel and violent

G．Experiences in life teach us new lessons and make us better people

5 . There are a few personal qualities we can all develop to bring more success into our lives. They come from small changes we make throughout our lives, one step and one day at a time.     1    

· Patience. This is probably one of the most difficult of the personal qualities to develop.     2     To achieve true success and happiness in your life, you need to cultivate (培养) patience. Only through patience will you gain the clarity ( 清晰的思维能力) required to overcome the problems that you face in life.

· Courage. Far too often I see people fail to reach their potential ( 潜力) because they’re afraid. They aren’t afraid of growth, but they’re afraid of taking risks.     3     So stop fearing what could go wrong and begin focusing on what could go right.

· Self-confidence. You need to believe that you have what it takes to achieve your goals.     4     It truly is that simple. To be successful, you first need to have belief in your abilities. If you don’t, you may not take action to move forward or improve yourself fully.

· Integrity ( 正直). Integrity is super important.     5     Practice this quality daily. The best way to cultivate integrity in your life is by being honest, and open in everything that you do.

A．You need to trust yourself.

B．Very little in life happens overnight.

C．Understand your strengths and weaknesses.

D．This fear prevents them from achieving their goals.

E．Living an honest and successful life may be difficult without it.

F．The better you perform every day, the more success will find its way back to you.

G．The most successful people are often the people who are also the best problem-solvers.

6 . Best mothers in literature

Whether loving, cold or extremely funny, some of the greatest characters in literature are mothers. Below are just a few examples of very different mothers from different authors.

The Railway Children     –by Edith Nesbit

When their father is taken away one evening, the lives of Roberta, Peter and Phyliss are broken suddenly into small pieces. They and their mother are forced to move from their comfortable London home to a simple cottage in the country where their mother writes books to make ends meet.

The Dwelling Place       –by Catherine Cookson

In the 1830s, Cissy Brody and her young siblings(兄弟姐妹) are forced to leave their farm cottage when both of their parents die. Determined that they will not enter the frightening workhouse, young Cissy takes on the parental responsibility and moves them to live in a small cave on the wilderness where they will face many hardships before finding a happy ending.

Little Women          –by Louisa May Alcott

The mother, Mrs March, is the glue that holds the family together through the Civil War as we follow the lives of Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth, her daughters. Their father is away serving as a Chaplain(神父). Having lost their fortune, their mother must use all her resources to keep the family together, which she does extremely well.

Pride and Prejudice       –by Jane Austen

Sometimes talkative and materialistic, yet strangely likeable, Mrs Bennet guides her five daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia towards suitable marriages. Nothing will stand in her way although sometimes her behavior does scare away suitable suitors. Sometimes touching and at other times extremely funny, it never fails to make readers smile.

1. Which book mentions the mother who makes a living by writing?

A．The Railway Children.	B．The Dwelling Place.
C．Little Women.	D．Pride and Prejudice.

2. Who is special as a child in the novels?

A．Roberta.

B．Cissy Brody.

C．Amy March.

D．Elizabeth.

3. What do the listed novels have in common?

A．They were written at the same period.

B．They were set in the same background.

C．They describe children’s life at school.

D．They show greatness of main characters.

7 . READING AND WRITING

A Teen Case Study

Mrs Zhang, our school counsellor who is also a medical doctor, is passionate about the advantages of playing sport. She believes that it is vital for teenagers to have a positive attitude, and sports help them do this. She gave us the following example as inspiration.

I had a teenage patient, who was depressed and moody. Let’s call her Shan. Conventional wisdom said that I should prescribe medication of some sort. I decided rather to ask about her lifestyle. From her responses it was clear she was getting no exercise. So l encouraged her to choose a school sporting activity and take part in it. I suggested that she keep a journal of all her new activities, and how she felt about them and about herself.

Shan took my recommendation and joined the school volleyball team. Six months later she was hardly recognisable: she had lost weight and was looking fit and healthy; she had more friends; her schoolwork had improved, and best of all, she was no longer depressed or moody. Her mum told me she was a changed person. Shan told me later that I had changed her life. I hadn’t really. It was Shan herself who did it. She took the idea I gave her and embraced it with enjoyment and determination.

Read the report. Answer the questions.

1. What was Shan’s problem?
_____________________________
2. Why didn’t Mrs Zhang prescribe medication for Shan? What did she decide rather to do?
_____________________________
3. What were the benefits to Shan of taking up volleyball?
_____________________________

8 . It was near the end of summer in my 16th year. I was riding in the back seat of a large van heading down an endless road. I was at the end of a two-week road trip with several other teenagers to visit a college in Iowa. Along the way I had spent several days in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and on the road, I felt tired, solitary, and homesick. It was the longest that I had ever been away from my family.

I glanced out of my window and suddenly my heart leapt. There, in the distance, I could see them: the beautiful mountains of my home. After days and days on the dry, brown plains I finally saw the green hills in which I had grown up again. As we got closer and closer to those green mountains I felt myself becoming happier and happier. My face lit up and my smile returned. Warmth filled my spirit. It felt so good to be going home. It was such a joy to be heading back to the place where I was raised. It was such a blessing to finally know that I was almost back where I belonged.

Looking back on that memory makes me wonder what it will be like when I finally return to my true home. Even for the longest life, this world is just a temporary residence. It is a place that we learn, love and grow in, but it isn’t really home. Our true home lies beyond this world and its love, joy and beauty cannot be described in words. It is where our family awaits us.

Until I reach that blessed place, though, I will do my best to enjoy each day of life’s journey here. I will do my best to use every moment to get a little closer to home. I will do my best to travel through life with a loving heart, a pleasant smile and a giving spirit.

1. What would be the best title for this passage?

A．Getting Closer to Home	B．A Joyous Smile
C．An Unforgettable Journey	D．My Beautiful Hometown

2. Which of the following CANNOT describe the author’s feelings in the first paragraph?

A．Worn out	B．Lonely
C．Missing his family	D．Pleased and happy

3. Which of the following is TRUE, according to the passage?

A．The author went on the trip by bike.

B．The author spent days travelling abroad.

C．The author had been travelling on the plains.

D．The author had once been on a longer trip than this one.

4. According to the passage, what the author most values is ___________.

A．how long he lives	B．his family
C．his hometown	D．how many places he visits

9 . Even though we may believe that it’s important to say thank you, sometimes expressing gratitude is easier said than done. We might find ourselves getting hung up on the best way to deliver the message.

However, it’s possible that we might be making our thanks more complex. In a paper, researchers compared the effects of expressing thanks in person, over a video call, and over text. And, while people generally expect an in-person thank you to be the most effective, what happened in reality was quite different: Sending a thank-you over text was almost as effective as that. Additionally, texting may be especially well-suited for situations where we feel awkward or embarrassed about expressing our appreciation.

In the study, 219 college students participated in a gratitude activity in which they wrote about three things they were grateful for over a two- week period. After writing, the students were asked to actually thank the persons involved. Some connected with the gratitude recipients (接受者) in person, others via video call, and others via text. At the beginning and end of the two weeks，participants completed surveys measuring their feelings of well-being, connections with others, loneliness and happiness.

The researchers found that people who expressed gratitude gained increased happiness, with only a few differences for the different methods of gratitude expression. Overall, video calls were just as beneficial as meeting in person. Texting was slightly less effective than video calling- it didn’t make people feel more connected and happier, while video calling did. However, participants who sent their thanks over text still experienced benefits: Texting improved their well- being and reduced their loneliness.

Overall, however, the message is that we shouldn’t worry about finding just the “best” way to express our gratitude. In fact, you re better off sending a quick thank you shortly after you receive the kindness than waiting for an occasion to schedule an in-person visit. Don’t put it off just for finding the best way—many times our gratitude goes unsaid because we spend too much time on the details.

1. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Making a video call.	B．Sending a text message.
C．Expressing thanks in person.	D．Writing a thank-you letter.

2. Why did the researchers ask the students to finish surveys?

A．To find the effect of expressing thanks on them.

B．To measure their physical health.

C．To collect a lot more ways to express thanks.

D．To know their views on gratitude.

3. What did the research suggest?

A．In-person gratitude was less likely to be accepted.

B．Expressing gratitude could benefit mental health.

C．Ways of gratitude expression should be improved.

D．Texting made the gratitude recipients much happier.

4. What are we advised to do to express thanks?

A．Search for the best way.	B．Wait for an in-person visit.
C．Express gratitude in time.	D．Make careful preparations.

10 . I was sitting at my kitchen table the other day with a pen, notebook, calculator and a pile of bills. I was doing my monthly budget. There were bills for electric water, rent, insurance, the car payment, the phone bill, and the cable bill. Plus money needed to be set aside for food, gas, clothes and hopefully a little left over to save for those unexpected bills that always seemed to show up. When I was done, I shook my head, closed my eyes and thought of a time long ago when I would regularly get treasures.

When I was a boy, we lived across the road from Camp Caesar. It held week long camps all through the summer and my grandma who I lovingly called “Nanny” worked in her big kitchen. I remember slipping there getting a smile, a hug, a kiss and a hot roll from Nanny. Then she would always take deep in her pockets and pull out a treasure, a shiny quarter. She would give it to me and I would run down the hill to either get an ice cold can of coke from the pop machine or I would head to the camp’s swimming pool where I could buy a warm cup of cherry coke for 15 cents and a tiny 10 cent bag of chips from a stand. I took my time because it was always a big decision. It was nice too feeling so rich for a few minutes.

Looking back now I can see that the real treasure was not the quarter at all. It was the love with which Nanny gave it to me. I would have still visited her at work every day if I had never gotten a single quarter. It was her smile, hugs, and kisses that were priceless in my heart then and now.

The old saying is true, “With your work you can make a living, but it is with your love that you make a life.” You can always welcome love into your heart, soul and mind. And you can always share your love with others. It is that one treasure that lasts forever.

1. According to Paragraph 1, what was the author trying to figure out?

A．Where to get treasures.	B．What food and supplies to buy.
C．How to sort out these bills at hand.	D．How to balance the money available.

2. What does the underlined word “roll” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．A kind of bread	B．A kind of act.
C．A sound.	D．A greeting.

3. Which of the following best describes Nanny?

A．Considerate.	B．Generous.
C．Affectionate.	D．Enthusiastic.

4. Why does the author mention the old saying in the last Paragraph?

A．To change people’s heart and soul.

B．To show what we should value in life.

C．To explain work and love can make a life.

D．To advise more love and sharing in childhood.