1 . I used to think I was a good person. I was caring to my friends, my partner, my family; I gave to charity and I volunteered. But when I started training to become a therapist (治疗师), I began to understand that however much we might like to think of ourselves as good people, we don’t actually know ourselves very well. I learned about how we might, without consciously realizing it, deny the feelings and motivations we consider to be bad, pushing them down into our unconscious and projecting them out on to others, so they become the bad people. I learned that deep in the human mind, alongside love and kindness, run currents of anger, need, greed, envy, destructiveness, superiority—whether we want to acknowledge them or not.

It was 22-year-old Boru who taught me what it really means to be a good grown up. We first spoke two years ago. He was unemployed, living with his parents, watching his friends’ lives progress. A good grown-up, he told me, is “someone who has his ducks in a row”—and that wasn’t him.   

I also didn’t feel like the competent, confident grown-up I thought I should be—and neither did most of the adults I knew. I researched statistics about people hitting the traditional landmarks of adulthood later and later, if at all—from buying a home to getting married or starting a family. I recognized what made me feel like a bad grown-up: that I’ll sit with a broken fridge rather than call an engineer to repair it.

Then I saw Boru again. He told me how, over two years, he’d found a job he loves, rented a flat with a friend. He’s now cycling round the world, having adventures that will keep him strong for the rest of his life. So what changed? “You start to have those conversations with yourself, and you become more of an honest person. I don’t feel like I’m hiding from anything anymore, because I’m not hiding from myself.”

     I think growing up must involve finding your own way to have those conversations. Boru does it on his bike, I do it in psychoanalysis, others I spoke to do it while cooking or playing music. That, for Boru, and for me, is what it means to “have his ducks in a row”.
1. What does the first paragraph imply about understanding ourselves?

A．Recognizing our positive traits is enough for growth.

B．Our understanding of our motives and feelings is accurate.

C．True self-awareness means accepting both good and bad sides.

D．Ignoring our negative traits does not affect our self-perception.

2. What critical lesson did the author learn from Boru about being a good grown-up?

A．It involves having a clear career path and financial stability.

B．It requires constant self-improvement and education.

C．It means being employed and living independently.

D．It is like a journey of self-discovery and honesty.

3. What does the author identify as a reason for feeling like an inadequate adult?

A．Escaping basic responsibilities.

B．Delaying reaching traditional life milestones.

C．Comparing personal achievements to others.

D．Investigating changing patterns of adult life.

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Why Hide Harms

B．How to Be Better Adults

C．Why Growing up Matters

D．How to Have Effective Conversations

2 . My son, Ben, died when he was 23. The year after his death, I hiked 48 of the state’s tallest mountains in his memory. Every step, path and peak has been a way to restore.

About a month after his death, my husband and I hiked Carter Dome and Mount Hight, sorrow weighing heavy in our hearts and legs. Standing on the peak, I looked out across the mountains my son loved. For a moment, the heavy blow brought about by Ben’s death faded into the timeless expanse, and I could breathe.

The next weekend found us on Mount Moosilauke. Then Mount Cannon, Mount Flume, Mount Liberty and so on. It was a series of firsts, of struggles and overcoming them — climbing at night, climbing slides and rocks, camping alone, finding paths and planning routes.

Six days before the anniversary of Ben’s death, I hiked my 48^th and final peak: Mount Carrigain. As I stood on the observation platform at the peak, I found the essential truth I had been grasping to express for months: The only place that feels vast enough to hold sorrow this deep and wide is the top of a mountain, looking out into forever.

These days, I hike not to hide, but to seek. I find Ben, but I also find myself: someone broken, now braver and more capable. The forced isolation of sorrow becomes the welcome loneliness of the path; the peace of nature replaces the pain of loss. Hiking is both exhausting and exciting, and it teaches us that sorrow and joy can coexist.

But there’s another, possibly more important truth: A hike is not the only way to find the peace of the natural world; a simple walk along a park path can have a similar effect. The internal journey of sorrow mixes with our steps, and we find comfort along the way.

1. How did the writer feel after climbing Carter Dome and Mount Hight?

A．Doubtful.

B．Relieved.

C．Sad.

D．Terrified.

2. After hiking the 48 peaks, the writer learned that __________.

A．it was possible to live with both sorrow and joy

B．it was the isolation of sorrow that exhausted her

C．only by overcoming struggles could one survive

D．the peaks were proper places to remember someone

3. What does the writer imply in the last paragraph?

A．Walking works best for those in sorrow.	B．We can plan our internal journey as intended.
C．What counts is to make peace with ourselves.	D．People tend to hike in parks to seek comfort.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A．The Heavy Steps That Led Me To Peaks	B．The Mountains That Held My Sorrow
C．The Journeys That Frustrated Me	D．The First Struggles That Empowered Me

3 . I was sitting in my high school classroom, nervously tapping my pencil against the desk as I awaited the start of the English exam.

As the clock struck, signaling the beginning of the exam, my heart began to race. I opened the exam booklet and scanned the questions, and I felt a wave of panic over me. The questions seemed foreign, and the topics unfamiliar. In a state of panic, I hurriedly wrote down my answers, hoping that somehow, by some stroke of luck, they would be correct. But as the minutes went by, I realized I couldn’t seem to make sense of the questions before me. As the final bell rang, I handed in my paper with a heavy heart.

In the days that followed, I couldn’t shake the feeling of failure that hung over me like a dark cloud. I replayed the exam over and over in my mind, analyzing every question, every answer, searching for clues as to where I had gone wrong.

But in the depression, a realization began to dawn on me — I had failed, yes, but I had also learned valuable lessons along the way. Armed with this newfound wisdom, I ensured that I would do better next time. I threw myself into my studies with renewed determination, devouring books and practicing past exams with an eagerness I had never known before.

When the time came to retake the exam, I was ready. I approached each question with confidence and clarity, drawing upon the lessons I had learned from my previous missteps.

When the results were announced, I held my breath as I scanned the list of names. And there it was — my name, shining brightly among the list of successful candidates. At that moment, all the hard work, all the late nights and early mornings, were worth it.

And as I look back on that sunny afternoon in the high school classroom, I am grateful for the lessons it taught me, and the person it helped me become.

1. Why did the author panic when he first took the exam?

A．He sat with a pounding heart.

B．He found the questions too difficult.

C．He was not familiar with the foreign language.

D．He was in a hurry when answering the questions.

2. What did the author do after he failed in the exam?

A．He attended valuable lessons in school.

B．He retook the exam over and over again.

C．He promised to arm himself with eagerness.

D．He determined to engage himself in learning.

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “devouring” (paragraph 4)?

A．being targeted at	B．being obliged for
C．being absorbed in	D．being credited to

4. According to the passage, this experience helped the author become _____.

A．cheerful and considerate	B．objective and demanding
C．tough and persevering	D．proud and tolerant

4 . Directions: Write an English composition in 120-150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
在一堂写作课上，老师给出了以下三个题目供学生选择。

题目一： 以“盛年不重来，一日难再晨。”（Prime years do not return; a day’s morning is hard to come by again.）为题，结合你的生活体验，写一篇文章。 题目二： 针对目前因为了升学考试而导致的学生知识结构很不平衡（unbalanced knowledge structures）的现象，你觉得有什么好的方法或手段能够改变这种情况，谈谈你的想法。 题目三： 续写“当最后一个地球人（earthling）坐在房间里时，传来了敲门声……”

如果你是这个班级的学生，你会怎么选择呢?
写一篇短文，说明你选择的题目，简述理由并介绍你的写作思路。
文章必须包括以下内容：
1. 你选择的作文题目及理由；
2. 你的写作思路。
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 . PAUL HEMINGTON, 57, is the Assistant Operations Manager at Cheddar Gorge（切达峡谷） and Caves cheddargorge.co.uk

I moved to SOMERSET mainly for my family. My daughter was getting married and I didn’t want to live six hours away, so we made the move. Once we moved, we were made unneeded and it was a mad race to get work. I ended up at here at Cheddar Gorge and Caves.

Cheddar Gorge is like nothing else in the UK. It’s a unique phenomenon, because although there are other caves in the country, you don’t have the gorge elsewhere. This is a major geological feature, it’s three miles long and there’s just this natural, raw beauty. I can sit at my desk in guest services and look out at part of the gorge. It’s amazing.

The Cheddar Gorge spirit is strong. You know, not having worked here or heard about the area, you come here and it gets under your skin in the right way. You become part of it, it becomes part of you. I’m very passionate about it. And there’s the amazing wildlife, the geology, the prehistory — Cheddar Man is still one of the greatest finds in the UK.

Every day at Cheddar Gorge and Caves is different. You’ve got the rock sports side of things, the climbing, the caving. We take people through the caves on tours and we have pre-history, which we do with the museum, whereby we have schools come in and do demonstrations with them. We will dress up as genuinely as we can to reproduce the time period of the Cheddar Man, which is the Mesolithic period, so 10,000 years ago. We do fire lighting, for example, and hopefully it’s inspiring to the young people! It’s really cool to be in the museum garden and have part of the gorge as the background while you’re doing it, so you can really submerge yourself in that moment.

My favourite spot is when you go past the peak on the walk and you can look back down into the gorge or across to the reservoir. The view is amazing. Yes, you can see pictures of it, but honestly you have to be there to fully appreciate it. You might hear some buzzards or see some sheep or goats while you’re up there, just to enhance the experience!

1. PAUL HEMINGTON originally moved to Cheddar Gorge to __________.

A．settle down in the countryside	B．be closer to his daughter
C．land a job as a tour guide	D．take part in a competitive race

2. The underlined phrase “gets under your skin” is closest in meaning to _________.

A．affects you deeply	B．bothers you greatly
C．increases your strength	D．improves your skin condition

3. Which of the following falls into Paul’s job descriptions?

A．He goes to the school to give lectures on pre-history.

B．He demonstrates to young people how to climb rocks.

C．He participates in recreating the scenes in the Mesolithic period.

D．He decorates the museum garden to make it look like the gorge.

4. What does PAUL HEMINGTON talk about in this article?

A．How he adapts to the local way of life.

B．What major local attractions are worth seeing.

C．Why Cheddar Gorge ranks first as a natural wonder.

D．What makes Cheddar Gorge so special to him.

6 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point (s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Have You Got Success Amnesia?

Have you heard yourself say “it was nothing really” when someone congratulates you on a job well done? Or have you drawn a blank when you are asked to make a list of what you have achieved? If so, you have suffered success amnesia. Failing to acknowledge your hard work is often a sign of success amnesia. It signals that there might be a gap between how others view your achievements and how you see them.

People who have success amnesia often have a strong track record at work or get it sorted for family members. They are people who others would describe as successful and yet they find it difficult to acknowledge and own their results. They don’t hold their achievements in their memory bank.

This particular type of memory loss robs them of the satisfaction and pleasure that can follow in achieving a goal. And, perhaps more importantly, it robs them of confidence. Confidence does not guarantee success, but it does increase the chance of success. Why not try some practical methods?     

Ask for feedback about the impact you’ve had and then listen carefully. Watch out for anything that you begin to tell yourself “It wasn’t that big a deal.” Try to absorb what you hear. You can also look back over the past 6 or12 months, capture every success you can think of, whether large or small, and write them down clearly. Purposefully acknowledging and admitting your achievements can help to bring them into more realistic focus. Besides, be mindful that you have a tendency to forget or minimize your achievements. A sticky note on your laptop screen might help: my strengths and achievements are bigger than they appear to me.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7 . I’m pretty good at sticking with things even when they get hard. Bad relationships, unpleasant workplaces, ______ sports — I’ve hung on for months and even years longer than I should have, convinced the situation would ______ if I refused to give up.

After all, isn’t every success story littered with ______? Didn’t Beyoncé lose Star Search, and didn’t Oprah get fired from her first TV job? Quitting is a sign that you lack patience and strong will, or so I was raised to believe.

______, if I look back on all the things I eventually quit, my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. I’ve wasted immeasurable time and energy dragging my heels, determined that I could ______ everyone if I just kept going.

All of us are constantly making tricky choices between going further into familiar territory and ______ to expand our horizons. This is known as the exploration-exploitation trade-off. When we are younger, it’s advantageous to go far on the side of exploration, trying lots of new things because we have plenty of time to ______ later. But as we age, it’s often smarter to double down.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t quit something just because you’ve put a lot of time into it. Economists call this the sunk cost fallacy (谬误): People are more likely to ______ something if they’ve invested a lot of money or effort into it, even when it’s clear that they should ______ their losses and jump ship. This practice is normal and ______, but it’s also unreasonable. If an activity or relationship is making you miserable, that’s important information you shouldn’t ignore.

If you don’t get energy out of doing something, it can be a(n) ______ that this is not for you or that there’s something better you could be doing. Or it could be a sign that you should ______ your goals. Maybe your yogurt startup might not win over investors, but you could still make and sell yogurt at the farmers’ market on weekends.

In fact, dogged persistence in the face of energy-sucking disappointment can ______ depression, and then make you suffer from diseases in the long run.

But the good news is that people can learn to pay better attention to these moments when they’re happening and make ______. The art of quitting isn’t about just letting go whenever there’s an obstacle. It’s about being able to let go when there’s no ______ to success anymore.

1.

A．engaging

B．demanding

C．inevitable

D．leisure

2.

A．worsen

B．occur

C．improve

D．continue

3.

A．frustrations

B．determinations

C．attempts

D．inspirations

4.

A．Therefore

B．Additionally

C．For example

D．However

5.

A．amaze

B．scare

C．distress

D．compliment

6.

A．breaking up

B．looking up

C．standing up

D．backing up

7.

A．venture

B．specialize

C．explore

D．relax

8.

A．benefit from

B．approve of

C．stick with

D．withdraw from

9.

A．evaluate

B．avoid

C．overlook

D．cut

10.

A．human

B．crazy

C．sensible

D．tricky

11.

A．indication

B．desire

C．occasion

D．recognition

12.

A．accomplish

B．upgrade

C．modify

D．maintain

13.

A．prevent

B．trigger

C．relieve

D．contract

14.

A．researches

B．choices

C．changes

D．resolutions

15.

A．shortcut

B．barrier

C．guarantee

D．pathway

8 . “Are you all right?” the student asked as she passed me in the hallway. I was in the final stretch of last work before writing my essay. The student, who was 4 years behind me in the same Ph.D. program, went on to say, “I see people from your group working so much, putting in extra hours, even at night.” It set me thinking a lot.

As a first-year Ph.D. student, I was lucky to have kind and understanding advisers. But I felt overwhelming pressure to become a perfect student. I kept finding a million reasons why I was coming into graduate school at a disadvantage compared with my peers. As a student from Colombia, I had been educated at institutions my professors and colleagues had never heard of, I spoke with an accent that was hard to understand, and I was older than most of the people in my cohort.

I noticed that most of the people around me seemed to be working all the time. I began to spend many weekday nights and weekends in the lab. But my strategy didn’t work. I crashed from burnout. The tiredness took a toll on my productivity and motivation. During one of many mindless Sundays in the office, I realized I’d fallen into the trap of assuming my colleagues’ work habits were the standard for belonging and being worthy of respect — and it wasn’t sustainable.

From then on, I stopped counting the number of work hours I was putting in, leaving space every day for exercising and doing activities that I enjoyed. Eventually, I realized nobody was keeping track of the amount of time I spent in the lab anyway and it wasn’t something I needed to worry about.

I noticed that having more time for myself made me more rested and motivated when I went back to work. I continued quietly along this path for years, until that conversation in the hallway. So, when I ran into her again, weeks later, I told her that even though I was feeling a lot of pressure in the final year of my Ph.D., I was putting my mental and physical health first and wasn’t working overtime. I also began to talk with other students about how quality sleep, physical activity, healthy eating, and reasonable work hours were a daily part of my routine.

1. What can we learn about the student?

A．He spent much time in lab work.	B．He had finished the Ph.D. program.
C．He was concerned about the author.	D．He was putting in extra hours at night.

2. How does the author feel about his work at first?

A．Anxious.

B．Ambitious.

C．Dissatisfied.

D．Enthusiastic.

3. Which can replace the underlined phrase “took a toll on” in Para. 3?

A．Added fuel to.	B．Had a negative impact on.
C．Cast new light on.	D．Depended too much on.

4. What does the author intend to tell us?

A．A healthy work-life balance counts.

B．A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit.

C．Fitting in doesn’t mean working overtime.

D．Nothing is difficult to the man who will try.

9 . 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.

Reconsidering the Staycation

I’ve always been doubtful of the staycation. The newly-invented word is too cute for     1     feels like a comfort: While other people are off exploring the Blue Lagoon by camper van, you get to stay in your very own home and go to your usual supermarket     2     cookies!

So, I am fascinated to discover, thanks to my colleague Catherine Pearson, that I     3     (understand) staycation in a wrong way. Evidently, my tendency     4     (take) a break without a plan is unlikely to produce a restorative effect. Instead, one should make good preparations for that period of time. Jaime Kurtz, a psychology professor at James Madison University and the author of “The Happy Traveler: Unpacking the Secrets of Better Vacations,” advises     5     (ask) oneself, “If I were moving away soon, what would I most want to do, and who would I most want to spend time with?”

I like this saying “Live every day as if it were your last.” Any reminder that time is flying is a good one     6     it gets you to live better. This weekend, you could, for instance, seek out some vegan ice cream     7     doesn’t taste terrible. You could try running in a pool, which is easier on the joints but as effective as running on land. You could go for a walk or a drive while listening to “Slow Radio,” a very comforting BBC podcast     8     (feature) sounds of the natural world.

Whether or not you have a proper vacation     9     (plan) for the coming weeks, you could envision any coming weekend as its own two-day mini-break, programming it as you would a trip to somewhere new, with a journey     10     (exciting) than just “sleep as much as possible” and “mow the lawn”.

10 . Directions: After reading the passage 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.

Your Kids Don’t Want You to Be Perfect. They Just Want You to Be Honest

Dear Parents,

I am thinking of you. I am imagining how hard each of you is trying to get through your days, how much you want to lead your     1     (love) ones through this, how you worry, how you plan, and how you smile for them, when inside you feel at times you are breaking.

I was not a very stable youth. In fact, I never     2     (think) I could be anyone’s mom. I remember the decision     3     (become) a parent. It wasn’t hard to love. It wasn’t hard to dedicate myself to someone and something     4     (great) than my life.     5     was hard was knowing that from now on! Needed to be the one to make sure everything was okay, to manage it and make it work, from food to school to medical, and to be patient.

I realized stopped my constant daydreaming, instead,     6     (stay) always ready for any break into what I was doing or thinking to answer a need. It was a new skill to acquire.

So now, in the midst of this pandemic. I think of all the mothers and fathers with children at home, hoping that       7     all can do everything right, answer all needs, and stay calm and positive.

One thing     8     has helped me is to know that’s impossible.

It is a lovely thing to discover that your children don’t want you perfect. They just want you honest and doing your best. In fact, the more room they have to be great     9     you are weak, the stronger they may become. They love you. They want to help you. And in     10     way, they are raising you up too. You grow together.