1 . Recently, a new kind of tourism has sprung up in China. Called “special forces style tourism”, this new kind of tourism features visiting as many scenic interests as possible in a short time and most of these visitors are college students.
A common student from Shanghai, Yu Yinghua, is one of them. The 22-year-old started the “special forces style tourism” in March after she was attracted by such experiences of Xiaohongshu travel bloggers. “Stuck in the school for almost three years due to the COVID-19, I’m hungry to take trips in my spare time,” said Yu.
“Making a plan carefully before hand is important,” Yu said. She added that as she selected every destination in the city, she was able to find a lot of information and learn more about these sites. That would help her save time when traveling on-site and enjoy the sites better. Her most recent trip was to Shanghai. Starting at 7 am, the 22-year-old visited nine local attractions. “That day, I walked almost 30,000 steps,” Yu said, “Though tired, I enjoyed the trip as much as days-long trips. It still lets me have a better understanding of the cities I go to.”
Unlike Yu who traveled in nearby cities, Chen Junjun, a doctoral student at Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, CAS, likes to travel far to free herself of academic stress. In April, the 24-year-old took a two-day trip to Xi’an, Shaanxi. During her trip, she visited all the scenic sites in the city. “With many academic responsibilities, such a trip can bring a splash of color to my stressful life!” said Chen.
Even so, the 24-year-old added that such tourism is not suitable for everyone. Chen said that it’s labor-consuming as visitors have to see so many sites in a short period. Such trips are not flexible as days-long trips in which you can change your plan as you like. “Thus, abundant energy and a calm mind are necessary for ‘special forces style tourism’,” said Chen.
1. Which statement about Yu’s trips is TRUE?| A．She likes to travel to faraway cities. |
| B．Her trips were limited due to the pandemic. |
| C．Having a careful plan in advance is not necessary. |
| D．Walking 30,000 steps a day is too much for her to finish. |
| A．It is more flexible than days-long trip. |
| B．It needs better physical and mental conditions. |
| C．It allows people to be under pressure of academy. |
| D．She encourages everyone to follow “special forces style tourism”. |
| A．Inspiring | B．Creative. | C．Pleasant | D．Tiring. |
| A．Sports. | B．Food. | C．Society. | D．Science. |
2 . Josie, who is 17 years old, said, “Why do my parents do the same things they tell me not to do? For example, my mum stops me from shouting through the walls and asks me to go and speak to her face-to-face, but she always shouts through the walls to me. What can I do?”
That is a very good point. Parents can be completely inconsistent (不一致), and usually they don’t realize it. You see this a lot in many things like smartphones. Parents always say to their kids, “Oh, you can’t use that. That device (设备) is bad for you, so stop using it at the table. It’s harmful.” But then they are on theirs continually. So what do you expect teenagers to do?
The whole “Do as I say, not as I do” thing is an annoyance, especially for a teenager who is dying for independence and respect but isn’t getting them.
What can teenagers do with it? I would say you should point it out by calmly saying something like “You tell me not to scream through the walls, but you do it to me, so you can understand where I’m coming from. That’s not ideal.” They might object to it, but I think most parents who care about being parents would logically say, “That’s a reasonable point.”
There are a lot of conflicts (矛盾) going on between teenagers and their parents, but a lot of studies show that the conflicts are resolved a lot more when they turn into a dialogue.
If you can talk at a time when you’re both feeling a bit calmer, like just in the kitchen or doing something unimportant, then go in and say, “Can I just mention it? You tell me not to do this, but you do it too.” If you can approach it in a more calm and stress-free manner, most parents will respond positively.
1. How did Josie feel according to her words in paragraph 1?| A．Hopeful. | B．Bored. | C．Proud. | D．Confused. |
| A．The parents’ smartphones. | B．The tables in the house. |
| C．The devices in the house. | D．The teenagers’ points. |
| A．Object to it personally. | B．Complain of it continually. |
| C．Talk with their parents calmly. | D．Do some studies differently. |
| A．To list a fact. | B．To offer a suggestion. |
| C．To show a result. | D．To ask a new question. |
3 . Every festival has its own meaning. Labor Day, for example, celebrates the value of hard work. Thanksgiving is about showing thanks to people around you. And Valentines’ Day is a time when you express love to your loved ones. But somehow it now seems that all festivals we just care about one thing — shopping. And that can be a big problem.
“In a way, over-consumption (过度消费) is the mother of all our environmental problems,” Kalle Lasn once told CNN. Lasn is the organizer of Buy Nothing Day, a day set up in Canada in 1992 to fight against unhealthy spending habits, and has now become an international event. It’s held on the day, which is known as Black Friday — a famous shopping day in the US and Canada.
You can see the irony (讽刺) here.
Even though the idea of Buy Nothing Day was brought up 26 years ago, we seem to need it now more than ever. It’s just as Lasn said, all the different kinds of pollution in our lives today — bad air quality, the reduction of forest area, endangered animal species, and plastic bags found in the ocean — seem to be the same cause: over-consumption.
The latest example is the Singles’ Day shopping craze of Nov 11, which saw a new sales record. But as Nie Li, a campaigner at Greenpeace, told Reuters, “Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste.” And it was reported that last year the Singles’ Day packages left more than 160,000 tons of waste, including plastic and cardboard. The Collins Dictionary has also just named “single-use” its Word of the Year, pointing out the problem that there’re too many things we tow out after only using them once.
So, Buy Nothing Day might only be here for one day a year, but it’s not just to remind us to the a break from shopping on that day, but to change our lifestyle completely, focusing on fun “with people we care about” rather than wasting money on useless things.
1. What’s the authors purpose of writing the first paragraph?| A．To express the people’s love for all festivals. |
| B．To talk about the meaning of the festivals. |
| C．To appreciate the value of the festivals. |
| D．To bring out the topic of the passage. |
| A．To help people save money. | B．To cut the cost for daily life. |
| C．To prevent over-consumption. | D．To set up a new sales record. |
| A．Opposed (反对的). | B．Supportive. |
| C．Unknown. | D．Neutral (中立的). |
| A．Creating a New Lifestyle | B．Buy Nothing Day |
| C．Festivals Around the World | D．A Change in People’s Life |
4 . A short while ago, I lost access to my We Chat account.I am not sure why it wouldn’t let me log in; perhaps it was my ancient, out-of-date phone. But I wasn’t upset because it offered me an opportunity to take a break from social media-something more and more people are doing.
In the United States, Twitter and Facebook has seen a 44 percent decline among its younger users. Stars such as Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeren have taken a break from social media because they were tired of so many Internet trolls leaving negative comments. Ordinary people (like me) are turning away from it because of the feeling that they were spending more time online and enjoying less.
It is not unusual for people to spend two or three hours a day posting or reading posts, to the point where it becomes an addiction.And it is an addiction. There is a chemical in your brain known as dopamine (多巴胺) which is sometimes called the “reward molecule”and its release gives you a feeling of pleasure. For instance, when you post a photo on We Chat and get a hundred likes, you feel happy. That’s dopamine at work.
In my case, being off We Chat is actually an added bonus. No doubt I missed my dopamine. And I got e-mails from friends wondering if I was fine or if I was just being anti-social. But I soon began to feel quite peaceful and started to worry less about what other people were doing and concentrate more on my personal life. And I’m getting better sleep at night.
I’m not advocating that all of you quit social media, but spending less time on these platforms does bring you advantages.
1. How did the author feel after he lost access to We Chat account?| A．Calm. | B．Worried. |
| C．Disappointed. | D．Surprised. |
| A．To illustrate the importance of social media. |
| B．To compare them with ordinary people. |
| C．To give examples of quitting online platforms. |
| D．To show the popularity of social media. |
| A．Desire. | B．Benefit. |
| C．Mission. | D．Joy. |
| A．How to form good online habits. |
| B．How to use social media properly. |
| C．How to be smart online learners. |
| D．How to cut down the time spent online. |
5 . While English is getting more important in our schools, Chinese has become popular among foreign kids. But Chinese can be more difficult to learn. At least 16-year-old Piao Chenglong thinks so. “English is easier for me. Chinese characters (汉字) have too many strokes (笔画),” said Piao. “But I want to learn it. I want to study at Beijing University when I grow up.” Piao is from Korea. He came to China in 2008.
In Korea, there are more than 300, 000 Chinese learners like Piao. Some Korean students begin to learn to write the language on their first day at school. To help students learn Chinese, Korea holds speaking competitions for high school students every year.
Chinese isn’t just popular in Korea. People from all the world want to learn it. The Ministry of Education of China says that nearly 130 million people from 85 countries are learning Chinese. This number will be increasing to 800 million in the coming years.
In America, Chinese is the second most popular foreign language after Spanish. Some American middle schools have Chinese classes. Students learn to make jiaozi and tie Chinese knots (中国结). Some even try to write and draw in the Chinese way!
People want to learn Chinese because China is becoming such an important country. Foreign countries want to understand China better to help them with business. The Chinese government is also helping the world learn Chinese. It has sent more than 200 Chinese teachers to more than 60 countries in the world. Many more Confucius Institutes (孔子学院) will be set up in the world. These institutes will teach Chinese to foreign students.
1. Which of the following is the topic sentence for the text?| A．Chinese has become popular among foreign kids. |
| B．Chinese can be more difficult to learn. |
| C．In America, Chinese is the second most popular foreign language after Spanish. |
| D．Students learn to make jiaozi and tie Chinese knots. |
| A．China. | B．America. | C．Korea. | D．Spain. |
| A．making jiaozi |
| B．writing and drawing in the Chinese way |
| C．tying Chinese knots |
| D．singing Chinese songs |
| A．Because Chinese is getting more important in their schools. |
| B．Because Chinese characters have too many strokes. |
| C．Because the number of people learning Chinese will be 800 million. |
| D．Because China is becoming more and more important in the world. |
6 . Goldfish have pretty boring lives, so maybe it’s a good thing that they can only concentrate for nine seconds! But according to a new research, humans are becoming like goldfish. Our attention span (时长) is getting shorter and it’s all because of technology.
“We move quickly from one site to another on the web,” says Doctor Ted Selker, a computer scientist from Massachusetts, “and we are losing the ability to concentrate.” With millions of websites to choose from, the attention span of the average Internet user is just seconds. There are other digital distractions (分心) too: e-mail, instant messaging and quickie movies on websites.
Some people are worried about the effect on young people. “You need time to understand and think about what you read”, says Julia Wood, from London. “Young people search the net all the time and their brains become full of useless information but there is no time to make sense of it. I am trying to persuade my pupils to read more books, so that they concentrate on one subject for longer.”
Other teachers are trying more unusual methods to improve students’ concentration. Anne Savan, from Wales, was so worried about her students that she started playing Mozart during her science lessons. She says that it had an amazing effect, “The music made them calmer, and their concentration was much better.”
But not everyone believes that there is a problem. Ray Cole, an educational psychologist says, “On the web, young people learn to make quick decisions about what is and isn’t worth reading. They might look at five unhelpful websites very quickly, before stopping and reading a sixth useful website more carefully. In a world with so much information available, this is an important skill.”
1. Why are humans becoming like goldfish?| A．They have a wealthy life. | B．They like to go fishing. |
| C．They are influenced by digital distractions. | D．They feed more goldfish in their life. |
| A．There are too many Internet users. | B．They have to skip around the Internet. |
| C．They can move very quickly. | D．They are too young to concentrate. |
| A．Receiving emails. | B．Texting messages. |
| C．Watching quickie movies. | D．Reading more books. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Unfavorable. | C．Skeptical. | D．Cautious. |
7 . Popularization has in some cases changed the original meaning of emotional intelligence. Many people now misunderstand emotional intelligence as almost everything desirable in a person’s makeup that cannot be measured by an IQ test, such as character, motivation, confidence, mental stability, optimism and “people skills.” Research has shown that emotional skills may contribute to some of these qualities, but most of them move far beyond skill-based emotional intelligence.
We prefer to describe emotional intelligence as a specific set of skills that can be used for either good or bad purposes. The ability to accurately understand how others are feeling may be used by a doctor to find how best to help her patients, while a cheater might use it to control potential victims. Being emotionally intelligent does not necessarily make one a moral person.
Although popular beliefs regarding emotional intelligence run far ahead of what research can reasonably support, the overall effects of the publicity have been more beneficial than harmful. The most positive aspect of this popularization is a new and much needed emphasis (重视) on emotion by employers, educators and others interested in promoting social well-being. The popularization of emotional intelligence has helped both the public and researchers re-evaluate the functionality of emotions and how they serve people adaptively in everyday life.
Although the continuing popular appeal of emotional intelligence is desirable, we hope that such attention will excite a greater interest in the scientific and scholarly study of emotion. It is our hope that in coming decades, advances in science will offer new perspectives (视角) from which to study how people manage their lives. Emotional intelligence, with its focus on both head and heart, may serve to point us in the right direction.
1. What is a common misunderstanding of emotional intelligence?| A．It can be measured by an IQ test. |
| B．It helps to exercise a person’s mind. |
| C．It includes a set of emotional skills. |
| D．It refers to a person’s positive qualities. |
| A．To explain a rule. |
| B．To clarify a concept. |
| C．To present a fact. |
| D．To make a prediction. |
| A．Favorable. |
| B．Intolerant. |
| C．Doubtful. |
| D．Unclear. |
| A．Emotional intelligence is emphasized by all the people. |
| B．People who are highly emotionally intelligent are honourable persons. |
| C．The research we do at present cannot reasonably support popular beliefs of emotional intelligence. |
| D．Emotional intelligence contribute a lot to the qualities like character, motivation, confidence and so on. |
| A．Its appeal to the public. |
| B．Expectations for future studies. |
| C．Its practical application. |
| D．Scientists with new perspectives. |
8 . John was crazy about playing basketball. Every day after school, he would spend much time practising to
One day, as he was given a chance to watch a basketball game, he dreamed about
What a terrible experience! He
| A．improve | B．admire | C．challenge | D．apply |
| A．suddenly | B．actually | C．extremely | D．finally |
| A．finding | B．making | C．searching | D．contacting |
| A．flight | B．credit | C．electricity | D．emergency |
| A．came | B．suffered | C．learned | D．prevented |
| A．frightened | B．awkward | C．attached | D．excited |
| A．hands | B．ears | C．legs | D．eyes |
| A．addiction | B．pressure | C．design | D．goal |
| A．fearless | B．hopeless | C．jobless | D．homeless |
| A．work | B．affect | C．cheat | D．compete |
| A．balance | B．comment | C．recover | D．bury |
| A．company | B．breath | C．gap | D．adult |
| A．sweated | B．erupted | C．demanded | D．failed |
| A．donated | B．led | C．compared | D．adapted |
| A．anxious | B．positive | C．curious | D．careful |
9 . The words “protect animals” appear everywhere in books and on screens, because some animals are even in danger of dying out. But sometimes the reality can be a little different from what people read or watch.
About 300 black bears were killed in Florida, the US, in October, 2015.It’s been the first bear hunt in the state since 1994.Local officers explained that the black bear population（a）had grown to 3,500 and become a menace to local people.In the past two years, bears have hurt at least four people in Florida.
Months ago ,the Swiss government allowed the locals to kill a wolf.This was because the wolf killed 38 sheep, and it was a great loss to some local farmers. Days ago in China, three old men were caught by the police for killing a serow（鬣羚）, a kind of protected animal.They said they killed the animal because it ate the plants they grew.
However, these stories don’t always mean that animal protection stops because of human interests especially when it is related to economic development.A man named Zhou Weisen set up a wild animal base in Guilin, Guangxi. He saved over 170 tigers and about 300 bears.His base also offered jobs to local people.
“There may never be a standard answer to the question of whether we should give more attention to the environment or human development,”said Robert May, a British expert at Oxford University. “But we shouldn’t put either one to one side, as the future is uncertain.”
1. What does the underlined word “menace”in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Tradition. | B．Threat. | C．Benefit. | D．Relief. |
| A．The wolf killed a serow. |
| B．The wolf was caught by the police. |
| C．The wolf ate the plants the farmers grew. |
| D．The wolf caused economic loss to local farmers. |
| A．To show that animal protection stops. |
| B．To prove animal protection is important. |
| C．To explain protecting animals can bring economic development. |
| D．To stress that animal protection must give way to human interests. |
| A．Human interests should be considered first. |
| B．We should focus on the future rather than the present. |
| C．Humans can kill animals when their interests are harmed. |
| D．Keeping the right balance between the environment and human interests is important. |
10 . While watching videos on Douyin one day, I came across a very unique profile（轮廓）: an 88-year-old farmer livestreaming trendy products in a rural setting. I clicked his page and saw that he was livestreaming because he needed to cover his wife's medical expenses. Curious, I decided to contact him and learn more about his story.
Now a retired farmer, Wu relies on government subsidies（补贴）. One rainy day, he returned to his rundown one-floor cottage in the suburb of Henan province and found his wife lying on the ground in great pain. She had broken her leg and lost the ability to walk.
A great burden befell this already poverty-stricken family. The medical expenses for Wu's wife are about 800 yuan per month. Her daughter, a mother of three and a housewife, has no means of supporting Wu financially. As a heavy user on Douyin, Wu's daughter thought that perhaps they too could try livestreaming as a way to help their family. With a 9.9 yuan phone holder, they began livestreaming on Douyin, and Wu became one of the oldest livestreamers on the platform.
Every day, Wu livestreams for a total of six hours, separated into morning and afternoon sessions. With a broad smile and soothing（宽慰的）voice, he explains the products on his table, which range from water bottles, makeup removers and vegetables to traditional Chinese clothing that Wu himself wears in front of the camera. Thousands of viewers are drawn in by his moving story and amiable（和蔼的）personality. They refer to him dearly as "my uncle Wu" or "Laoxiang".
During my interview with him, Wu would laugh warmly. His strong Henan dialect was sometimes hard to understand, but his tone was full of comfort and optimism. "I enjoy livestreaming. One day, one of the viewers came to visit me. I was so happy." Wu spoke about the friendships he made after becoming a livestreamer, and his voice was so contagious（感染力的）that it put a smile on my face.
He also does not avoid showing affection for his wife: "I will buy her good food when I have the money." I am moved by his ability to see the optimistic side of life despite being struck by hardships and his resilience（坚韧）sailing through the low tides of life.
1. What happened to Wu's family?| A．They lost the chance to get subsidies. | B．Wu was forced to retire from his job. |
| C．Wu's wife was unable to walk. | D．Wu suffered a severe disease. |
| A．To support his daughter. | B．To promote trendy products. |
| C．To share his story with viewers. | D．To pay his wife's medical bills. |
| A．His good nature and touching story. | B．The high quality of his products. |
| C．His rich experience in front of the camera. | D．His detailed explanation of products. |
| A．Confident and modest. | B．Open-minded and responsible. |
| C．Helpful and sociable. | D．Cheerful and humorous. |
