Whether you use Short Messaging Service (SMS) or an instant messaging app (即时通讯应用程序) on your smartphone, you’ll see some words that are hard
Chat slang is a specific kind of language
Instant messaging with this kind of language can save time and be great fun,
2 . A new trend called “praise groups” or “in-need-of-praise” chat groups has become popular on Chinese social media. In Chinese culture, where modesty (谦逊) is valued, openly seeking and giving praise is uncommon. These chat groups provide a platform for people to receive compliments (赞扬) and encouragement, which are often lacking in their daily lives.
To join a praise group, users can pay a fee on e-commerce sites, starting at 50 yuan for five minutes of compliments. The group members will then show the person with praises and kind words. The compliments can be designed for a friend or loved one as well. Participants have found that being praised by strangers can help lift their spirits and improve their self-confidence.
For example, Meng Zha, a student at Shanghai’s Tongji University, tried the service and found it amusing and uplifting. She received compliments on her appearance and even quotes (引用) from popular songs. Ms Meng couldn’t help but laugh at the compliments and expressed her desire to post such high-quality praises in the future.
Praise groups have appeared as a way for people in China to seek and receive compliments and encouragement that may be lacking in their daily lives. It provides a positive and uplifting experience for participants, improving a sense of happiness and self-worth.
Those who support the groups, see them as an antidote to extremely bad moods (情绪) which are often associated with things happening on the Internet. “At first, the purpose of this group is to make us learn to praise others and accept others’ praises confidently. Here we can drop everything, and use our heart to praise and support others,” one member said. But the life journey is long and there are some unexpected situations that we can only count on ourselves to face when there is no one out there to offer help.
1. What is the purpose of praise groups?| A．To make praise popular. | B．To have everyone supported. |
| C．To share common interests. | D．To give people hope and happiness. |
| A．She was not strong enough. | B．She was under working stress. |
| C．She was satisfied with the service. | D．She was a gifted singer in her area. |
| A．A way of making new friends. | B．A kind of medicine. |
| C．A method of being confident. | D．The wisdom of solving problems. |
| A．Objective. | B．Critical. | C．Supportive. | D．Unclear. |
3 . Who says that being roommates with someone from a completely different generation has to be strange? Lately, more and more Americans are becoming intergenerational (代际的)roommates, and they’re changing the way people think they should be living.
Explained as those that are separated by at least one generation living together, there has been a major increase in intergenerational roommate arrangements (安排)within the United States since 1971. In fact, statistics show that this number has actually quadrupled (增长四倍)since then. In a Pew Research Center article, it shared that by March 2021, there were at least 59. 7 million Americans that had many generations living under one roof.
There are a ton of reasons that come into play for these types of arrangements. For some, it’s because of the increase in the average life-expectancy age(平均预期寿命), a decreased birth rate, a rise in college tuition, the ever rising rentals in almost every coastal city, and more. But if anything, many say that one main reason behind the rise is that older people have space to rent out and that having younger people around just makes them happier.
According to a 25-year-old robotics student living in Massachusetts, Nadia Abdullah, who moved in with her 64-year-old roommate Judith in 2019, “It was perfect——Judith has become like my family.”
Their arrangement was $700 a month from Nadia, plus the promise of her doing some help around the house. This also allowed Nadia to live just 6 miles from Boston and 30 minutes from her robotics job located in Beverly Mass. Nadia was matched with Judith through website, a renting center specifically created to find intergenerational roommates.
Another young renting center reviewer, Kaplan, also gave some opinions on the service and why it’s so special, saying, “Through this, I lived with Sarah while attending Harvard. She provided the type of knowledge you just can’t Google——showing me how to garden, how to cook fish, and add French Romanticism to life.”
1. What is the increasing housing trend mentioned in the text.| A．More people are living together as roommates. |
| B．Strangers of a generation are living together like a family. |
| C．Different generations are living under the same roof. |
| D．Family members of different generations are living together. |
| A．The types of the arrangements. | B．The reasons for the arrangements. |
| C．The solutions to the arrangements. | D．The problems with the arrangements. |
| A．How to google special knowledge. | B．How to build a garden. |
| C．How to fish. | D．How to live a romantic life |
| A．The website is popular with university students. |
| B．The intergenerational roommates should help each other. |
| C．The intergenerational roommate arrangements work well. |
| D．The elderly benefit more than the young from the arrangements. |
4 . The kitchen is not just where we prepare meals. In many places, the kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s where we connect with our family and friends. We have open talks about our pleasures and problems we met during the day while we make dinner or have a bite to eat. So, it can be a very busy room in the house.
Sometimes you need order in the kitchen for things to run smoothly. And sometimes you need one person to be in charge. Imagine you are cooking dinner for your friends. As you are making the soup, your friend Sara tastes it and says, “This needs more salt.” So, she adds more salt. Harlan comes to taste your soup and throws some fresh black pepper into the pot and some dried herbs. Cecilia tastes the soup and pours in some vinegar. What will the soup be like?
You are happy to spend time with your friends. But, quite frankly, all their opinions about your soup are becoming annoying. Worst of all, you taste the soup and it’s awful! And that is where we get the expression “too many cooks spoil the soup”.
This expression describes an age-old problem: If too many people help to complete a task, it may not go very well. But, you may think, “If many people are trying to get something done, the task will get done faster.” After all, American English also has the expression “many hands make light work”.
To answer that point, I will draw your attention to the word “cook”. Now, the cook is the leader in the kitchen. They may have assistants to help them. But the cook has the final say. So, what if a kitchen has many cooks? Who is the leader? Everyone! And that’s where the trouble comes.
1. What does the author think of the kitchen according to the first paragraph?| A．It is crowded in many houses. | B．It is where we feed our body and soul. |
| C．It helps to brighten up people’s day. | D．It serves as the most useful place in a home. |
| A．To describe a common phenomenon (现象). |
| B．To vividly introduce a saying. |
| C．To explain a way to be a good cook. |
| D．To stress the importance of teamwork. |
| A．A group of students get a task done together. |
| B．Some volunteers discuss how to help others. |
| C．Five designers want their own idea to be accepted. |
| D．Many retired workers learn how to be a cook. |
| A．What Happens with Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen? |
| B．Should a Cook Be Open to Suggestions? |
| C．What Could a Cook Do to Everyone’s Satisfaction? |
| D．Why Will Too Many Cooks Work in the Kitchen? |
5 . The Global Food Donation Policy Atlas has issued a recent report in order to recommend ways to increase food donations, reduce food waste, and fight hunger, which may help Kenyan leaders meet 2030 food waste reduction goals.
Food donation can reroute eatable food—that would otherwise give off greenhouse gasses in a landfill—to those experiencing hunger. According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, 3.5 million Kenyans, roughly 37 percent of the population, face severe hunger. At the same time, the Policy Atlas reports roughly 40 percent of food produced within Kenya goes to waste. But Broad Leib, Deputy Director of Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC), sees some promising changes. “While progress is not happening as quickly as needed, Kenya’s food loss index has been steadily reduced from 1,744 metric tons in 2017, to 1,531 in 2018, to 1,446 metric tons in 2019, indicating a steady improvement and national commitment to food loss reduction,” reports Broad Leib.
According to the Policy Atlas, motivating food donation with rewards is particularly important, which helps food donors and food recovery organizations make up for costs necessary for recovery, storing, processing, and transporting food for donation.
“A major driver of food waste is inconsistent or unclear date labels that cause confusion among all actors along the value chain and limit the ability of businesses to donate food. This increases the likelihood that much safe food will go to waste,” Broad Leib tells Food Tank. However, he acknowledges Kenya’s current dual (双的) date labeling laws. While food may lose its freshness over time, it is still eatable before expiration (到期). Dual date labeling on packaged foods reduces bewilderment by defining dates for both safety and quality. This helps reduce considerable waste and responsibility for donors.
Broad Leib believes that the private sector can also play a significant role in decreasing food waste in Kenya. It is vital for consumer education campaigns. FLPC’s research shows that public-private initiatives can help raise awareness among consumers and donors around issues of food waste and food donation.
1. What changes does Broad Leib see?| A．People in Kenya no longer suffer hunger. |
| B．Kenya has gradually reduced its food waste. |
| C．Kenya is not committed to reducing food loss. |
| D．Progress in reducing food waste is happening quickly. |
| A．Sadness. | B．Convenience. | C．Confusion. | D．Emotion. |
| A．By increasing storehouses. |
| B．By fighting hunger with rewards. |
| C．By reducing food produced within the country. |
| D．By using double date labeling on packaged food. |
| A．Consumer education campaigns are the most important. |
| B．Only the private sector is helpful in reducing food waste. |
| C．Private and public joint efforts matter around food issues. |
| D．Broad Leib doesn’t agree with FLPC on food waste reduction. |
6 . “Farm to table” is the name of a movement that encourages people to eat locally grown food. The farmtotable idea has become more popular in recent years. But there is also a movement that brings “table to farm”. Its purpose is to connect people to the land and to honor local farmers by creating a sort of restaurant without walls.
Its founder, Jim Denevan, got the idea for this kind of “culinary adventure (美食探险)”, as he called it, ten years ago. He recently prepared tables for more than a hundred people at Briars Farm in Virginia. He and his eightmember team arrived the night before. Chefs (厨师) from a local restaurant prepared the dinner.
Jim Denevan’s brother is a farmer and he himself is a chef. He thought that the idea of a meal served right on the farm made sense, though not everyone agreed.
“But I wanted to make the idea work, so I decided to cross the country,” said Denevan. “I went all the way across the United States and set the table on farms, ranches (大牧场) and beaches, and all the places where food came from.”
“This kind of event connects us with a lot of enthusiastic people, people that we can form relationships with,” said Matt Szechenyi, who operates Briars Farm.
The tour of the farm ends at the dinner table. The meats in the meal come from Matt Szechenyi’s farm. The vegetables come from nearby farms. Guests and local farmers sit together.
Annoica Ingram came with a friend. “The food is wonderful. I appreciate their hard work. I see everything they have to do to take care of the animals and make sure they are wellcaredfor. Without them, I think, we’ll have big problems,” she said.
1. What is the main purpose of the movement “table to farm”？| A．To provide people with healthy food. |
| B．To help farmers earn more money. |
| C．To honor farmers for their hard work. |
| D．To encourage people to work less and practice more. |
| A．make new friends | B．walk around the farms |
| C．communicate with farmers | D．build restaurants for farmers |
| A．worried | B．grateful | C．doubtful | D．supportive |
| A．A travel guide. | B．A news report. | C．A diary. | D．Popular science. |
7 . China is a great country with the largest population in the world. In order to solve the population problem, our government carried out one﹣child policy (政策)before. When it is carried out for some time, many people not only see its advantages but also disadvantages.
From 2016, two﹣child policy is put into effect. In my opinion, two﹣child policy is good. First of all, two﹣ child policy is the gift for some only child. For some families, maybe the parents are only child and they also can have only child. Besides the loneliness of their child, when their child grows up and they grow older, their child marry an only child girl, the burden(负担)on their child and his wife is too heavy. Their child and his wife have to take care of two couples. Usually, a young couple looking after an old couple is a little difficult. But if their parents have two children, they can share the burden of taking care of their parents. It would be much better. Secondly, two﹣child policy can guarantee (保证) the number of Chinese population.
All in all, one﹣child policy has been out of date. And two﹣child policy is needed and necessary. It can solve the problems of nowadays (现在)and the future.
1. Which country has the largest population in the world?| A．America | B．Britain | C．China | D．Japan. |
| A．携带 | B．取消 | C．禁止 | D．实行 |
| A．solve the population problem |
| B．take care of two old couples |
| C．share the burden of taking care of their pa rents |
| D．argue that two﹣child policy should be put into effect |
| A．One﹣child policy has its advantages and disadvantages. |
| B．It’s easy for a young couple to look after an old couple. |
| C．China is a great country with the largest population in the world. |
| D．For some families，maybe the parents are only child and they also can have |
| A．Two﹣child policy is needed and necessary. |
| B．Our government carried out one﹣child policy. |
| C．Two﹣child policy is the gift for some only child. |
| D．Two﹣child policy can guarantee the number of Chinese population. |
8 . Human activities have caused severe narrowness in over half of the world’s largest lakes in the past 30 years, causing risks to health, economies, and the environment, according to a study in the journal Science. The global decline in water storage equals to 17 times the capacity of Lake Mead, the largest lake in the U.S. Overuse of water for agriculture, development, and human-caused climate change are the main factors driving the decline, particularly in natural lakes. The accumulation of dirt and sand behind dams also contributes to the fall of water levels in lakes.
The findings showed “significant declines,” stated Fangfang Yao, the lead author of the study. “Roughly one-quarter of the world’s population lives in a basin with a drying lake,” Yao said. “So the potential impact could be significant.”
At least half of the decline in natural lakes was driven by human-caused climate change and overconsumption, which should remind water managers to improve protection and water efficiency, according to Yao. “If you know a lake is falling and that loss resulted from human activities, can we attach more importance to protection and improving water efficiency?” she said.
A climate change-driven drought and an ever-growing human thirst have continued to consume the two largest lakes in the U.S. Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which the Colorado River feeds. Lake Chad, one of Africa’s largest freshwater lakes which supplies nearly 40 million people with water, has shrunk (收缩) by an estimated 90% since the 1960s.
The United Nations regards access to safe drinking water as a universal human right, yet around 2 billion people lack access to it, and half of the global population experiences severe water shortage annually.
“Uncertainties are increasing,” said Richard Connor, the editor-in-chief of a U.N. water report published earlier this year at a press conference in late March, where world leaders met to try and find better strategies for managing the planet’s rare freshwater. “If we don’t address it, there will definitely be a global disaster.”
1. What can we learn about lakes from paragraph 1?| A．They are being developed. | B．They are becoming smaller. |
| C．They are causing climate change. | D．They are damaged by human activities. |
| A．Severe environmental problems. | B．Ever-increasing world’s population. |
| C．Climate change and overuse of water. | D．Drought and an ever-growing human thirst. |
| A．Unique. | B．Normal. | C．Particular. | D．Common. |
| A．To warn people to save water. | B．To call on people to protect the environment. |
| C．To tell people water shortage in the world. | D．To find better ways of managing freshwater. |
9 . Lying to friends and family members may seem like a way to lose their trust.
To study how these two types of lies affect relationships within social groups, researchers created a hypothetical (假定的) mathematical model. The model showed that individuals who tell anti-social lies become isolated (孤立的) within their social networks sometimes.
While the researchers created a hypothetical model, it could be used to understand how lying affects groups of friends in the real world.
| A．Do white lies serve a social function? |
| B．And real-world lies can take many forms. |
| C．What exactly are the “right” reasons for lying? |
| D．But new research suggests this may not always be the case. |
| E．This type of lie weakens the friendships between two people. |
| F．However, individuals who tell white lies don’t have such feeling. |
| G．It could also help scientists understand the influence of lying in online communities. |
10 . Every year around August, millions of teens take their parents to stores to buy new clothes for the start of the school year. Not every parent can afford this, and some teens are forced to go to school in the same clothes they wore last year. The obvious differences in clothes cause differences among students. There is a simple solution to this problem; school uniforms (校服).
I know from personal experience and surveys that wearing uniforms creates a sense of equality among peers (同龄人).
From sixth grade until I graduated from senior high school, I attended a school that required students to wear uniforms. The uniform was very simple: dark brown shoes, green-brown pants, and a white shirt. The uniform left little room for any kind of self-expression, especially through clothes.
However, I learned how to stand out by expressing myself through my personality, art, and sports. I did not know I could draw until the sixth grade. I also would never have learned of my musical abilities if it hadn’t been for my desire to find ways to express myself. Uniforms taught me that I was myself, except what I wore.
Uniforms also contribute to a much safer learning environment. I remember a particular event that happened in my junior high school. A man ran away from prison and wanted to hide in the gym of our school. Luckily, cameras all over the school quickly found the stranger before any danger could ever happen as he was out of place. School officials kept the man locked inside our gym until the police came to take him back to prison.
Uniforms help provide a better educational experience for all students no matter what race, culture, or economic class (经济阶层). In closing, wearing uniforms is good for both schools and students.
1. How does the author introduce the topic?| A．By explaining a basic rule. |
| B．By challenging others’ views. |
| C．By describing a common problem. |
| D．By sharing his parents’ experience. |
| A．Uniforms should be more modern. |
| B．Uniforms can help shape better students. |
| C．Uniforms are popular with students. |
| D．Uniforms are bad for self-development. |
| A．Dressing differently. | B．Standing straight. |
| C．Running fast. | D．Breathing heavily. |
| A．To record his high school life. |
| B．To show his supportive view towards uniforms. |
| C．To ask students to like what they wear. |
| D．To introduce high school uniforms. |
