1 .

A．He desperately needs an explanation.

B．He knows why Sam is in a bad mood.

C．He will make Sam feel better.

D．He will keep his distance from Sam.

2 .

A．He is usually not bad-tempered.	B．He doesn’t like the man.
C．He started the semester in a bad mood.	D．He has few responsibilities.

3 . The Dance of Life

Before children learn to talk, and without having seen anyone dance, they express happiness through simple rhythmic movements or what we later recognize as simple dances.     1     There are birds that actually have group dances: circling, bowing, advancing, and retreating in unison.

Nevertheless, it is only human beings who have adapted dance to therapeutic purposes. Dance as therapy goes back a long time. Primitive people first danced by themselves instinctively and found, after a while, that repeated rhythmic movements produced a good feeling.     2     This was the birth of dance therapy.

    3     It was used for a wide variety of purposes and on different occasions: religious ceremonies, war dances, hunting dances, rain dances, planting and harvesting dances, marriage and funeral dances. Sadly, today, many “advance” industrial societies, such as the U. S. , have lost many of the functions connected to these older dances. They have been replaced, for example, with rave dancing which, at its best, involves shaking your body at a rave or nightclub.

But the “primitive” use of dance as therapy has recently seen a huge revival.     4     There are nearly two million website for dance therapy on the Internet, and dance therapy groups around the world combine pleasure with health and well-being. People who may be put off by therapies based on weird philosophies will readily take to dancing every Saturday night. Dance therapy nowadays, in fact, is taken very seriously by both alternative and conventional medical practitioners. It would seem that the “dance of life” continues to move us all.

A．Dance has always seemed to have a magic healing power.

B．And it’s not only humans that dance-animals and insects dance as well.

C．Never before has there been such interest in courses offering dance therapy.

D．Those with medical problems can’t tell they are in therapy because they are just having fun.

E．Associations were formed between dance and this positive effect on the mind and emotions.

F．They dressed up as animals and jumped up and down making animal movements and noises.

4 .

A．Excited.

B．Exhausted.

C．Bored.

D．Dissatisfied.

5 .

A．John didn’t do well in the exam.

B．John doesn’t worry about the exam result.

C．The exam was easier than the previous one.

D．John is sure that he will do better in the next exam.

6 . Why We Hate the Feeling of Failure and How It Affects Us

Loss aversion is the idea that a potential loss has greater weight in a person's mind than the possible gain. People seek to avoid failure and the negative feelings they expect will come from such a loss.

    1    . Marketers want to understand the emotions surrounding loss so they can word advertisements in a way that prompts consumers to feel they need to buy a product to avoid negative feelings.

More recently, social scientists have turned their at tent on to how loss aversion can hinder people from performing in their daily lives.    2    .

Sports and athletic performance was one of the first areas of focus. A study in May 2023 looked at how adult athletes were hindered by a fear of failure. It found that athletes who feared failure tended to approach an athletic event and appraise(评估) it for potential losses.

Losses weren't just related to the final numbers on the scoreboard. Rather, some athletes approached a practice or a game and saw it as a potential to perform poorly and lose standing with their coach, teammates or fellow athletes.    3    Scholars are also considering how a fear of failure impacts academics. In a 2015 article, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 33 studies that measured the relationship between procrastination and academic performance.

Not surprisingly, procrastination was shown to decrease academic performance.    4    .Rather, this type of I'll-get to-it later mentality was a loss aversion strategy. When a student didn't feel confident or competent in completing a task, whether it was writing an essay or studying for an exam, they procrastinated to delay feeling like a failure.

While our fear of loss may impact our mindset and whether or not we pursue something new, if we let that fear take hold, then we’ve already lost. There for, don’t let fear of failure keep you from trying something new.

A．Researchers have examined how fear of failure can lead to-procrastination.

B．The loss was seen as humiliating and something the athlete feared or wanted to avoid.

C．Research has found this fear of failure drives people to stop pursuing their passions.

D．However, the study found that it wasn't due to students prioritizing their social life or Netflix queue.

E．Doubt has killed their dreams than failure ever will

F．Loss a version has long been used to study consumer psychology.

7 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use ONE word that best fits each blank.

Coping With the Sunday Scaries

A few years ago, I was in the kitchen of a friend’s house preparing a meal. When we all sat down to eat, my friend’s wife wolfed down her supper and then disappeared into another room to do some work. He smiled and said, “Sunday nights are the new Monday mornings around here.”

I was surprised at the time. Now, I find myself     1    (behave) in exactly the same manner. Every time I open up my calendar on Sunday evening, a subtle sense of dread comes over me. I feel as     2     I am behind before the week has even begun.

Apparently, my Sunday-night anxieties and Monday-morning blues are not unique to me alone. A new study led by Ilke Inceoglu from the University of Exeter found that this phenomenon often takes the form of mental concerns about the week ahead, as well as feelings of nervousness and difficulty with sleeping. “It’s as if your mind moves away from     3     has been experienced over the weekend as the general sense of relaxation or enjoyment, and quickly shifts towards whatever worries you have about everything you’ve got to do in the work week ahead,” said one of Inceoglu’s respondents.

Inceoglu found that these Sunday scaries were particularly pronounced     4     people who frequently checked their emails during the weekend, had tasks left over from the previous week, and had unreasonably high expectations of themselves. These matters seem     5    (make) worse as a result of the pandemic, where the rise of working from home     6    (blur) the boundaries between work and leisure.

What should we do about the “Sunday scaries”? Researchers have offered some useful suggestions that     7     help us make Monday less depressing. One is to change     8     you think about the weekend. One U.S. study found that when participants were asked to treat their weekend as a mini-vacation, they tended to do more cheerful activities and returned to work on Monday satisfied with their jobs.     9     second way is to redesign our Monday so that it has some of the features that make us feel good during the weekend. Introducing simple changes, such as starting the day with something you are good at, setting aside a little unstructured time where you are able to do what you want, or setting up a lunchtime date with     10     you find enjoyable to be around, could make all the difference.

8 . Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
Dear Sally,

I recently became engaged, I love my fiancé a lot but we are getting into a lot of arguments     1     our Wedding plans. I would prefer a small wedding, just our immediate family and closest friends. I think it is such a special moment and I only want the people who are most important to be near us. I don’t want to be surrounded by people not really     2    (care) about us. He wants the whole world to be there--- the mail carrier, the baker, the butcher!!! My fiancé says a wedding day is     3    (important) day in anyone’s life. He wants to share his joy with everyone.

It’s not a question whether we can afford it although I     4     worry about how much a wedding costs and I would rather save the money for a house. I dislike fighting but I just don’t feel comfortable with his plans.

——Nervous

Dear Nervous,

Planning weddings     5     be very stressful. Each person has clear ideas about     6     his or her “perfect” wedding would be. Each person has dreams and hopes for that day. Now it is a good time to practice compromising (妥协) with your husband-to-be.     7     one of you should be unhappy on your wedding day. If you get your way, your husband will be unhappy. If he gets his way, it sounds     8     you will be unhappy.

Why don’t the two of you talk about     9     compromise? Perhaps a medium-sized wedding? Perhaps two weddings--- a small intimate ceremony and a large reception? You     10    (have) to compromise many times in your married life. You both can start now.

——Sally

9 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. steadily B. predicts C. biology D. temporary E. dramatic F. recovers G. permanent H. grounded I. expansion J. formed K. kindly

Teens Are Still Developing Empathy Skills

The teen years are often full of door-slamming, eye-rolling and seeming insensitivity, even by kids who behaved     1     before. Some parents worry that they are doing something wrong or that their children will never think of anyone but themselves. A six-year study published in Developmental Psychology shows that     2     is partly to blame.

In adolescence, critical social skills that are needed for one to feel concern for other people and to understand how they think are undergoing major changes. Adolescence has long been known as prime time for developing cognitive skills for self-regulation and executive function.

“Cognitive empathy,” or the mental ability to take others’ perspective, begins to rise     3     in girls at the age of 13, according to the study co-authored by Jolien van der Graaff at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. By comparison, boys do not begin until the age of 15 to show increases in perspective-taking, which helps in problem-solving and avoiding conflict.

Adolescent boys actually show a     4     decline, between the ages of 13 and 16, in a related skill—“affective empathy,” or the ability to recognize and respond to others’ feelings. This may be the result, at least in part, of a     5     rise in the primary male sex hormone, during adolescence, which sparks a desire for dominance and power. Fortunately, the boys’ sensitivity     6     in their late teens. Girls’ affective empathy remains relatively high and stable throughout adolescence.

This doesn’t mean, however, that we can do nothing but just wait for teenagers to develop a feeling of empathy. In fact, parents can help instill(灌输) affective empathy into their children. Affective empathy is     7     in marginal region of the brain, which regulates emotions. This capacity begins to develop in infancy. Children learn to practice empathy by watching their parents and by experiencing it themselves—being well treated by adults who sensitively respond to their emotions. While cognitive empathy arises from a different part of the brain, the two abilities are linked. Children’s affective empathy     8     their level of cognitive empathy as teens.

The findings reflect a major     9     in researchers’ understanding of cognitive growth during adolescence. They used to believe that both forms of empathy were fully     10     in childhood. Now, it is clear that “the brain regions that support social cognition, which helps us successfully understand and interact with others, continue to change dramatically” in our teens, says Jennifer Pfeifer at the University of Oregon. Research in her lab also suggests that cognitive empathy rises in teens. The discoveries serve as a new lens for exploring such teen behavior as bullying and drug abuse.

10 . Years ago, I made friends with a couple who had recently fallen in love. It was glorious to be in their orbit, watching as their relationship blossomed into a serious commitment. I recall the night we celebrated their engagement, watching this golden couple swing each other on the dance floor, laughing while emitting a glow that could light a city grid.

As happy as I was for them, in that moment I couldn’t ignore a sudden heaviness of heart. That pang was back, whispering, “Why not me?”

It had been a long time between visits from the pang. In the past, it was a constant companion as I navigated life with naive notions of love, romance and fate. I had grown up believing a relationship should complete me. As a result, I often felt more lost than found as part of a couple.

Then as I matured, I took a closer look at those who I thought had it all, the ones who tick all the boxes, who look and act the romance-novel parts. And when I dared to explore under the shiny surfaces, I saw that no honest couple had what I’d assumed they had: the perfect relationship, the easy love, the lucky life.

No, what I saw was a lot of unhappiness. Yes, while some couples were both blissed and blessed, many admitted that their relationships were hardly the happily-ever-after.

What’s more, I grew to understand I avoided bad relationships and like my life too much to settle. I realized I am the cake and relationships just the icing. The pang only emerges when I make the mistake of comparing myself to others.

The reason why I’m sharing this is because in the past couple of weeks, I have watched that golden couple endure one of the ugliest break-ups. What I saw that night on the dance floor was a romantic illusion. When the bubble burst, the fall back to earth was terrible for them both.

Watching the break-up, I am aware that to protect perfection is to do reality an injustice. I accept the understanding that there is only one relationship that really counts in life and that is the one we have with ourselves. And mine is a healthy one, not golden, but rosy all the same, because as my friends’ split has proven once again, shine and sparkle can blind the rest of us.

1. What can we learn about the author from the first two paragraphs?

A．She was moved to tears by the engagement of her friends.

B．She didn’t really feel happy for the engagement of her friends.

C．She had mixed feelings while seeing the engagement of her friends.

D．She didn’t think her friends would live a happy life after their engagement.

2. Why did the author feel lost in her relationship in the past?

A．She was misguided to pursue the perfect love.

B．She was too naive to find a perfect partner.

C．She was keen on being a good partner.

D．She was immature to control her fate.

3. By “to project perfection is to do reality an injustice” in the last paragraph, the author implies that       .

A．pursuing perfection does good to reality

B．we should never stop looking for perfection

C．what reality is all about is just perfection

D．a perfect relationship is hard to find in life

4. According to the author, what is the most important thing in life?

A．Accepting whatever you have in life.

B．Living in harmony with yourself.

C．Leading an admirable and happy life.

D．Having a golden relationship.