1 . If I could give today’s young people three wishes, they would be: more hugs, more time outside in nature, more belief in their own power to change the world. The third one leaves some people wondering why young people’s belief in their own power is so essential.
Let’s start with the idea that all of us – especially young people – need heroes. Our modern society is terribly confused about the difference between a celebrity and a hero. A celebrity is all about fame – temporary, superficial fame, usually for qualities that are easy to see: a pretty face, a great dance move, etc. A hero, by contrast, is about character- qualities under the surface that aren’t seen until they take action.
Heroes are all around us. They truly hold our world together, through their unselfish devotion to helping others, teaching children, and protecting the environment. They don’t want fame, or glory; they just want to help. In so many ways, these unsung heroes pilot the boat in which all of us sail.
Yet, young people hear a lot more about celebrities than about heroes in the media. The hidden message they get from all this is that their self-worth comes from what they buy – which shoes, which cell phone – not who they are down inside. What gets lost in this? Young people’s sense of their own potential for heroic qualities – their own power to – make a positive difference in the world. Truth is, there is a potential hero, a future difference maker, in every young person.
How do we help young people believe in their own power? The best way is simply to share examples of other young people who have made a difference.
Barbara grew up on a farm in Texas. When she realized that local farmers were pouring their used motor oil into rivers, causing pollution, she organised the creation of a recycling centre for crude oil (原油). Her project has grown to include 18 recycling centres in Texas.
The list could continue. These are but a few examples of young people who have discovered that they can build on their own energy to do something great.
1. What is the author’s purpose in writing Paragraph 2?| A．To give examples of celebrities and heroes around us. |
| B．To discuss the distinctions between celebrities and heroes. |
| C．To illustrate the details about being celebrities and heroes. |
| D．To explain the meanings of the words “celebrity” and “hero”. |
| A．Heroes only help specific groups of people. |
| B．Heroes want to be recognised for their work. |
| C．Heroes play a vital role in keeping the world running. |
| D．Heroes enjoy piloting boats to reach their destination. |
| A．Heroes and celebrities are both valued today. |
| B．Society doesn’t support the development of heroes. |
| C．The media turns ordinary celebrities into real heroes. |
| D．Young people don’t have the belief in their own strength. |
| A．By explaining the qualities that make a young person a hero. |
| B．By comparing the achievements made by different young people. |
| C．By giving examples of young people who show the qualities of a hero. |
| D．By providing examples of qualities that have made young people famous. |
| A．More heroes are needed in the world. |
| B．Celebrities are reported too much in the media. |
| C．Adults should become role models for young people. |
| D．Young people should believe in their ability to make a difference. |
2 . In the UK, the government showed throwaway cups should be forbidden altogether by 2023 if they are not all being recycled. As a result, Starbucks said it would try out a 5p (5 pence) cup charge in 20 to 25 central London shops. “We will begin it next month and at first it will last for three months,” the company said, adding that it continued to offer a 25p (25 pence) discount to customers who brought their own reusable cups.
The government agrees plastic waste is a problem and will consider taxing disposable (一次性的) plastics. The committee’s chair, Mary Creagh, said, “The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Almost none are recycled. Coffee cup producers and shops haven’t taken action to change this. So we need to kick-start a change in recycling.”
The Liberal Democrats said they had been suggesting a charge on coffee cups since September 2016. The party’s spokesman, Tim Farron, said, “The result is clear that the tax works. The 5p charge on plastic bags has largely cut down the usage and helped protect our environment.”
The 5p tax is being against by the makers of paper cups. Mike Tuner, of the Paper Cup Alliance, said paper cups were the safest solution for drinks. “The paper cups we produce in the UK can be recycled, and are being recycled. We are trying to increase recycling rates. Taxing the morning coffee run won’t solve the problem, but it will hurt consumers,” he said.
Disposable coffee cups are technically recyclable, but most are not because the UK has just three machines that can split the paper and plastic parts for recycling. The committee has called on the government to require coffee cups from cafes without in-store recycling systems to carry “not recycled” marks to remind customers. Cafes with in-store recycling systems should print their cups with “recyclable in store only”.
1. About the throwaway cups, Starbucks will ________.| A．offer a half-price discount to customers with their own cups |
| B．support the idea of forbidding throwaway cups till 2023 |
| C．charge customers 5p per throwaway cup in some shops |
| D．stop to offer throwaway cups in its shops right now |
| A．Coffee cup makers will take action to recycle the water. |
| B．The use of the disposable plastics is a nationwide problem. |
| C．Coffee cup users pay much attention to the plastic problem. |
| D．The UK government will ban all disposable coffee cups by 2023. |
| A．More people will fight against the charge. |
| B．There will be little change in our environment. |
| C．Fewer people will use the disposable coffee cups. |
| D．There will be a competition between coffee shops. |
| A．will be supported by the makers of the paper cups |
| B．will affect the consumers instead of solving the problem |
| C．can give a hand to increasing recycling rates of the makers |
| D．can be the best solution for the government to cut down waste |
| A．There are not enough professionals in this area. |
| B．There is not enough professional equipment. |
| C．Consumers don’t have recycling knowledge. |
| D．Cafes don’t have recycling systems at all. |
3 . Do you have full confidence in your memory? There has been a discussion about whether it is shi or si 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”).
Most people voted si as what they learned at school. However, People’s Education Press, a leading publisher of Chinese textbooks, claimed on Oct 26 that all its textbooks say shi.
Supporters of si feel shocked and say they’ve experienced the “Mandela Effect” — the situation in which a large number of people believe that an event occurred when it didn’t.
Many people believed that former South African president Nelson Mandela died in the 1980s in prison. However, Mandela was alive and well, eventually passing away in 2013. US researcher Fiona Broome created a website to detail her observations of this public phenomenon, coining the term.
Some often joke that our memories have been changed by a strange force. In fact, psychologists have looked into the reasons for the Mandela Effect, as reported on the US-based website Verywell Mind. For example, your mind may fill in gaps missing in your memory to make more sense of it, which is called confabulation (虚构症). However, try not to feel bad — this is not lying, but rather remembering details that never happened.
The Internet may be another reason why we tend to have Mandela Effect events, as the news we read can be false from the beginning. In 2018, Science journal published a study of over 100,000 news stories discussed across Twitter. It showed that false news can spread faster and reach more people than the truth. As a powerful way to spread information, the internet might be the main reason for falsehoods to enter our minds.
1. What is the author’s purpose of mentioning the discussion about a saying?| A．To show our memories can be wrong. |
| B．To provide a solution to the discussion. |
| C．To raise readers’ interest in confabulation. |
| D．To lead up to the topic of the Mandela Effect. |
| A．borrowing the idiom |
| B．describing the method |
| C．inventing the expression |
| D．correcting the description |
| A．It refers to people’s different attitudes to a particular event. |
| B．It can be explained from a psychological perspective. |
| C．It can be improved by remembering details clearly. |
| D．It can have a big influence on people’s health. |
| A．It is harder than ever to spot false news. |
| B．False news travels faster than true stories. |
| C．The Internet causes more Mandela Effect events. |
| D．False information can be avoided from the beginning. |
| A．The Mandela Effect and Memory |
| B．The Role of Psychology in Memory |
| C．The Impact of the Internet on Memory |
| D．The importance of Textbooks in Memory |
4 . Children are becoming addicted to social media for their sense of self-worth, a major study warned. It found many youngsters measure their status by public approval they get online, often through “likes”. Some change their conduct in real life to improve their image online.
The research into youngsters aged from 8 to 12 was carried out by Children’s Commissioner(专员)Anne Longfield. She said social media firms were exposing children to major psychological risks, with some youngsters starting secondary school ill-equipped to deal with the huge pressure they faced online. Youngsters felt their friendships could be at risk if they didn’t respond to social media posts quickly and around the clock.
Children aged 8 to 10 were “starting to feel happy” when others liked their posts. However, those in the 10 to 12 age group were “concerned with how many people like their posts”, indicating their need for social recognition gets stronger as they become older.
Children tended to compare themselves to others online. “Then there is this push to connect—if offline, will you miss out, will you show you don’t care about those you are following, all come together in a huge way at once.” Miss Longfield said, “For children it’s very difficult to handle.”
The research—involving eight groups of 32 children aged 8 to 12—suggested that as they grew, they became increasingly anxious online. Children as young as 8 were using social media platforms largely for fun. When they started secondary school, they became more conscious of their image online and felt more pressure to ensure popularity of their posts.
However, they still didn’t know how to deal with mean-spirited(刻薄的)jokes, or the possible sense of inability if compared with celebrities or more brilliant friends online. They also faced pressure to respond to messages at all hours of the day.
Schools and parents must do more to prepare children for the emotional minefield(雷区). Social media companies must “take more responsibility” and monitor websites better or adjust their websites to the needs of youngsters. It’s also hugely important for parents to know which apps their children are using.
1. What may account for children’s addiction to social media?| A．To get their status recognized. |
| B．To reduce psychological risks. |
| C．To change their conduct in real life. |
| D．To deal with huge emotional pressure. |
| A．It covered children of all ages. |
| B．It sought assistance from parents. |
| C．It was sponsored by social media companies. |
| D．It divided children into groups and compared them. |
| A．switch off social media platforms |
| B．pick up more anxiety and pressure |
| C．become less conscious of their image online |
| D．develop skills to deal with mean-spirited jokes |
| A．less friendliness to each other |
| B．an increase in online cheating |
| C．lower self-identity and confidence |
| D．a stronger desire to share with their parents |
| A．Communicate more with secondary schools. |
| B．Urge media companies to create safer apps. |
| C．Keep track of children’s use of social media. |
| D．Forbid their children from visiting the web. |
“What is the most enjoyable part of your senior high school life? ” when asked this question, many students replied that club activities interested them most in school life. They enjoyed being with the club members who shared the same hobby with them.
In most of the schools, students are free to choose the clubs they are particularly interested in. Some students join one club, and some join two or more. Only a very few do not take part at all. The students run all the clubs themselves without the help of teachers. There are a number of sports and arts clubs that students may join. Sports clubs include football, volleyball, basketball, handball, hockey, tennis, badminton, gymnastics, judo and kendo（剑道）. They take place in the school gym or the school playing fields. There are also arts activities such as the painting and calligraphy club, dance club, the school orchestra and the school choir（合唱团）. The clubs meet two to four times a week after school. Sports coaches and club leaders are often school graduates who come back to help.
Club activities after class play an important part in students' school life. Young people spend a lot of time together in club activities and they often become true friends. These friendships often last a long time after graduation. Some become life-long friends. There is a popular belief that true friends are people who have had similar life experiences. Many graduates say that their best memories of Senior High school life are the days they spent in the mountains during the summer vacation, practicing and training with other club members.
1. Who runs the school clubs?2. Where do sports club activities take place?
3. How often do the members of the school clubs meet?
4. Why are the school clubs important?
5. Which club will you join? Give your reasons.
6 . I often imagined discussing school choices with my son. However, I didn’t expect to be having such a
Earlier this year, he
I fought back the thought to
Later that night, as
He added that he would learn to
I sat back and listened,
At last, we let our son have the
| A．competition | B．quarrel | C．disagreement | D．conversation |
| A．realized | B．admitted | C．expressed | D．communicated |
| A．schools | B．hospitals | C．countries | D．libraries |
| A．even | B．just | C．also | D．ever |
| A．roll | B．close | C．raise | D．focus |
| A．amount | B．size | C．content | D．container |
| A．extreme | B．regular | C．special | D．ordinary |
| A．keep | B．change | C．lose | D．slip |
| A．come up with | B．keep up with | C．put up with | D．end up with |
| A．imagined | B．expected | C．reminded | D．promised |
| A．strong | B．surprising | C．active | D．usual |
| A．interests | B．choices | C．rules | D．preparations |
| A．Instead | B．Besides | C．Therefore | D．However |
| A．remember | B．prove | C．decorate | D．learn |
| A．save | B．spare | C．manage | D．devote |
| A．afforded | B．demanded | C．explained | D．offered |
| A．touched | B．disappointed | C．excited | D．confused |
| A．Luckily | B．Honestly | C．Generally | D．Briefly |
| A．correct | B．usual | C．common | D．final |
| A．responsibility | B．reason | C．effort | D．patience |
7 . “Look how stupid he is!” A 7-year-old said to her dad Daniel Funke, pointing to a picture of a famous person on the Internet. The photo showed the man signing his name — with his pen turned upside down.
Of course, the photo was not the original one. It had been changed to look like him using the pen the wrong way. Funke quickly pointed out the mistake, and his daughter got an on-the -spot education in fake (假的) news. By then, however, many people had already shared it on social media.
“The pitfalls of sharing misinformation and fake news can be very serious,” says Laeeq Khan, who heads the Social Media Analytics Lab at Ohio University in Athens. Sharing something that's not true can cost people their lives, he notes. Last year, people in India used a messaging app, WhatsApp, to spread fake stories about a kidnapping ring (绑架团伙). The lies caused violent attacks in which people died.
Fake news stories hurt people in other ways, too. For example, fake reports lead some parents to refuse(疫苗)for their children. Yet without vaccines, children can get deadly diseases.
Fake news can even hurt people who aren't its target (目标). “About seven in ten Americans were telling us that fake news has a big influence on the confidence in our government,” says Jeffrey Gottfried. He's a journalism and media-research expert at Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. Researchers there did a survey in the United States about the influence of made-up news. About half the people in the survey said they had shared misinformation online. Most of them said they didn't realize it at the time.
Besides causing serious results, sharing a fake story makes it harder for people to tell what's real. And when people find out a story is not real, they may not trust other information from a person who spread it. Therefore, it's important to do fact-checking before sharing news stories.
1. What is the purpose of the first two paragraphs?| A．To bring up the topic of the text. |
| B．To tell an interesting news story. |
| C．To provide the main idea of the text. |
| D．To list people's popular online behavior. |
| A．Mistakes. | B．Problems. |
| C．Advantages. | D．Possibilities. |
| A．About 30% of online news wasn't real. |
| B．Made-up news spread faster than expected. |
| C．Made-up news had a bad influence on children. |
| D．Many Americans shared fake news without knowing it. |
| A．The ways to check whether a news story is real. |
| B．What people should do when they discover fake news. |
| C．What makes it hard for people to spot misinformation. |
| D．The reasons why we should think twice before sharing news. |
| A．The causes of fake news. |
| B．The bad effects of fake news. |
| C．The person of making fake news. |
| D．The process of making fake news. |
8 . A friend of mine met with an accident driving in darkness. His legs were so hurt that he couldn’t move. What was the
It is almost
His story put an end to my regret for the
Don’t you think that you can compare it with
| A．hopeless | B．worst | C．more | D．best |
| A．place | B．way | C．order | D．work |
| A．wait | B．lie | C．cry | D．sleep |
| A．delay | B．success | C．team | D．arrival |
| A．untrue | B．unimaginable | C．true | D．useless |
| A．plan | B．decision | C．explanation | D．excuse |
| A．physical | B．mental | C．working | D．medical |
| A．method | B．way | C．view | D．strength |
| A．rotting | B．spreading | C．hurting | D．bleeding |
| A．loss | B．failure | C．disappointment | D．sadness |
| A．tried | B．managed | C．had | D．planned |
| A．Willing | B．Determined | C．Unable | D．Deciding |
| A．hearing | B．sight | C．feeling | D．direction |
| A．rescue | B．village | C．community | D．brave |
| A．end | B．top | C．opening | D．side |
| A．save | B．help | C．stop | D．calm |
| A．adventure | B．work | C．life | D．man |
| A．unclear | B．unacceptable | C．unnecessary | D．unable |
| A．really | B．immediately | C．carefully | D．hopefully |
| A．and | B．so | C．but | D．while |
9 . Should we focus on our goal, or on the process?
What happened to Brenda Martinez, a US Olympic runner, may provide us with the answer. She lost her balance in the 800-meter run and failed to qualify for the Olympics. Instead of focusing on her failure, she prepared to win in the next race. “I just quickly let go of what happened in the 800m and got back to my routine, to focusing on all the little things I could do that would give me the best chance of running well later in the week,” she told New York Magazine. She said it was this mindset that led to her winning third place in the 1500-meter race about a week later to qualify for the Olympics in Rio. Instead of attaching herself to the goal of making the Olympic team, she concentrated on the process.
There is a problem with setting goals. Researchers from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern found that overemphasizing goals based on measurable outcomes often leads to risk-taking, unethical (不道德的) behavior and reduced motivation. Their results were published in a Harvard Business School report titled Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting.
When you become overly focused on achieving the goal, you may lose sight of your original purpose for accomplishing the goal in the first place. Another danger is actually completing the goal without setting a plan for what’s next. For example, some marathon runners experience what’s called the “post-race blues”. Achieving your goal may cause you to drop the good habits that got you there in the first place. Dieters often experience this in what’s called “yo-yo dieting” when they drop down to a desired weight, but then gain all the weight back when they resume (重新开始) their bad habits.
“After you set a goal, it’s best to shit your focus from the goal itself to the process that gives you the best chance of achieving it and to judge yourself based on how well you complete that process,” columnist Brad Stulberg wrote on the website The Cut.
Ultimately, changing your attention from goals to process will cause you to achieve little victories on your way to accomplishing long-term goals. Amy Cuddy, a Harvard Business School psychology professor, wrote that focusing on this process “leaves you with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, regardless of the measurable outcome”.
1. Why is Brenda Martinez’s experience mentioned in Paragraph 2?| A．To show opportunity favors the prepared mind. |
| B．To describe how important it is to set big goals. |
| C．To suggest learning from failure can bring success. |
| D．To show how focusing on the process can lead to success. |
| A．the use of unfair means | B．ignoring the whole picture |
| C．overestimating the setbacks | D．being stressed by the risks involved |
| A．we can’t focus on the goal too much |
| B．we must keep in mind why we set the goal |
| C．we should resume our habits when completing the goal |
| D．we should accept it is normal to feel down after success |
| A．Ways of judging a goal. | B．Ways to set long-term goals. |
| C．The best chance of achieving goals. | D．Benefits of focusing on the process. |
| A．by making a comparison | B．by reasoning with examples |
| C．by giving statistics | D．by doing an experiment |
（1）中国约有7亿人摆脱了贫困；
（2）教育、职业培训和技术的引进发挥了重要的作用；
（3）简单谈谈你的感想。
注意：
（1）词数100词左右；
（2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：
扶贫 poverty relief
Dear Chris,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Jin
