1 . On most Sundays, the sound of hammers(锤子)and other tools hitting stone can be heard in a village in the Chimalhuacan area, on Mexico City’s east side. The sounds come from stone carvers(石雕师)who still work on a skill that has been passed down for generations(世代)—even after the local stone was used up. The village is filled with meter-high religious(宗教的)figures and other beautiful stone objects.

Generations of stone carvers in Chimalhuacan also created much of the stonework found on buildings and in parks in the capital’s downtown.

While carvers in other areas long ago turned to machines, the workers here only use hammers and other special hand tools. Many are self-taught, but some, like Tomás Ugarte, aged 86, learned in the traditional way. This method of rock cutting has been passed down between family members, dating back about five generations.

The rock cutters are generally old. There were about 600 official stone carvers about 10 years ago. Now, there are probably only around 300. The carvers are dying and their children generally do not want to take up the trade.

Still, the stone carvers keep the old traditions alive. Many people in the area use stone tools made by the stone carvers.

Rev. Alberto Sandoval, who has known the stone workers since 1990, described them as “the backbone of the community.” Most of the carvers have work areas at home, which provides them with some money. They sell carvings for prices from $500 to $2,000. But they often do not sell much.

Unlike many craftspeople who want to see their works shown in museums, the carvers here also work for free at repairing the stonework at the 250-year-old local church, Santa Maria de Guadalupe.

Asked if the trade will continue, carver Mario Olivares read a poem written on the church wall: “Your art, your tradition, your culture and the nobility(高贵)of the people keep the spirit of this town alive.”

5 . Students at West Side Elementary School in California, with the help of their art teacher, created a telephone hotline to offer cheerful advice during difficult times. In just days, the hotline began getting thousands of calls an hour. The hotline, available in English and Spanish, offers the happy voices of children of different ages sharing positive messages.

Most people agree that with concerns like Covid-19, extreme weather, and the climate crisis, the last years have been stressful.

“To hear the pure joy from kids is extremely comforting in these difficult times,” art teacher Jessica Martin says.

Ms. Martin called the project “Pep Talk”, which later changed to “PepToc” to draw an ad for the hotline. The project had two parts, one the hotline, and the other creating encouraging posters. Along with artist Asherah, she worked with students from kindergarten to sixth grade. Students working on the hotline thought of what they would like to say. When they were ready, Ms. Martin recorded each one. Later, she sorted out the recordings into the different parts of the telephone hotline. For example, pressing 2 results in words of encouragement and life advice. This includes messages like: “The world is a better place with you in it.” and “You are okay!” Pressing 4, you hear the sounds of children laughing — a sound certain to bring a smile to anyone’s face. Other students took part in making encouraging posters to hang up around the town. Many posters had strips of paper that people passing by could tear off and take with them.

Ms. Martin thought the project would attract interest from people near the school. But word of the hotline spread quickly on social media. The hotline has become popular with stressed adults, patients in hospitals, older people in homes, and others to beat stress by hearing the happy voices of children.

Located in one of Beijing’s most active art communities, the Loneliness (孤独) Museum is always very crowded.     1    , everyone who visits the museum says that they are lonely. Divided into 13 parts including an office at night, the last subway and a hospital, the museum displays (展出) over 1000 lonely stories from     2     people. There are many notes with words of encouragement and ways     3     with solitude (孤独) on the walls and the stairs. They may feel     4     after seeing them. One of the museum’s owners Fang Fang says that people who come to work in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou may     5     lonely every now and then. So she wants to provide a     6     for them to relax. It     7     them that even though life is hard, there are lots of people like them. They are not alone.

    8     the development of technology, it is easier for people to get in touch with old friends and make new friends. However, young people are likely to feel lonely.

People may get used to loneliness as they get older     9     they experience important life events and life changes.

Luckily, our society is more tolerant (宽容的) towards this kind of young group, often encouraging them to face this crazy changing world     10    . In a room of the museum, with three bicycles, strangers can     11     together to light up the lights on the wall, which forms a sentence- “Loneliness comes together with love”.

7 . Is it shi(是) or si(斯) in the sentence “Thus when Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man(故天将降大任于是/斯人也)…”? Not long ago, people had a heated discussion online about this. Most people “clearly remember” that it’s si, while their childhood textbooks say it’s shi.

It shows how unreliable(不可靠的) our memory can be. According to US psychologist Faith Brynie, memories can be influenced by imagination, belief and time. Many studies have proven that “feeling certain” about a memory sometimes has nothing to do with the facts.

Attitudes and beliefs change our memory.

Scientists at Cornell University, US, told college students a story about a man who walked out without paying a restaurant bill. The first group was told that the man “liked to steal”. The second group was told that he left because he got an emergency(紧急的) phone call.

One week later the first group remembered a higher bill-10 to 25 percent more than the bill actually was. The second group remembered a lower bill. The study showed that how we expect or believe things to happen can distort(扭曲) our memories.

Remembering things that never happened

In another experiment(实验), people watched a film and were asked: “How fast was the white car going when it passed the barn(谷仓) while traveling along the country road?”Actually there was no barn in the film. But about 20 percent of the students said they had seen the barn. Northwestern University scientist Kenneth Paller said that parts of the brain for really seeing an object and imagining an object overlap(重叠). So imagination after getting a hint(暗示) could leave a memory trace(痕迹) in the brain.

Si or shi

In the case of si or shi, some people said that si sounds more like ancient Chinese. That’s why most people relate it to the ancient classic. On the Internet, the version(版本) of si is also more widespread than shi, giving people a wrong hint.

8 . 最近某英语论坛上有人发表观点“Only people who earn a lot of money are successful”。请你就此用英语写一篇短文，谈谈你的看法，然后发表在该论坛上，要点包括：

1.表明你的观点；

2.给出理由并举例说明。

注意：词数80左右。

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