1 . You can’t see it, smell it, or hear it, and people disagree on how precisely to define it, or where exactly it comes from. It isn’t a school subject or an academic discipline, but it can be learned. It is a quality that is required of artists, but it is also present in the lives of scientists and entrepreneurs. All of us benefit from it and we succeed mentally and spiritually when we are able to handle it. It is a delicate thing, easily wiped out; in fact, it blossoms most fully when people are playful and childlike. Meanwhile, it works best in meeting with deep knowledge and expertise.
This mysterious—but teachable—quality is creativity, the subject of a recently-published report by Durham Commission on Creativity and Education. The report concludes that creativity should not exist in the school curriculum only as it relates to drama, music, art and other obviously creative subjects, but that creative thinking ought to run through all of school life, infusing (充满) the way humanities and natural sciences are learned.
Nevertheless, it is arts subjects through which creativity can most obviously be promoted. The value placed on them by the independent education is clear. One only has to look at the remarkable arts facilities at Britain’ stop private schools to understand this. But in the state education the extreme focus on English, maths and science threatens to destroy arts subjects; meanwhile, reduced school budgets mean decreasing extracurricular activities.
This difference between state and private education is a matter of social justice. It is simply wrong and unfair that most children have a small part of the access to choirs, art studios and drama that their more privileged peers enjoy. As lives are affected by any number of threatening challenges—climate crisis, automation in the workplace—humans are going to need creative thinking more than ever. For all of our sakes, creativity in education, and for all, must become a priority.
1. What is the primary function of the first paragraph in the passage?| A．It offers a historical overview of creative thinking. |
| B．It introduces the precise definition and benefits of creativity. |
| C．It guides the reader on to the topic of creativity in education. |
| D．It provides evidence for the importance of science education. |
| A．Natural sciences should be learned the way humanities courses are. |
| B．Growth of creativity should run through the entire school curriculum. |
| C．Art courses should be made required for all students， |
| D．Students should learn more obviously creative subjects. |
| A．They encourage extracurricular activities. |
| B．They attach great importance to arts education. |
| C．They prioritize arts subjects over maths and sciences. |
| D．They meet the needs of students from different family backgrounds. |
| A．Increasing government investment in school education. |
| B．Narrowing the existing gap between the rich and the poor. |
| C．Providing all children with equal access to arts education. |
| D．Focusing on meeting the needs of under-privileged students. |
2 . I’m a grandma in my 60s. In the spring of 2020, like the rest of the world, I spent a lot of time staring at a screen and that was when I first got into the YouTube world. I discovered that onscreen offerings were truly endless. From one YouTuber I learned how to plant my own vegetable garden. Someone else shared poetry from Robert Frost, wise sayings from Confucius, and a smattering (一知半解) of other philosophical viewpoints, all of which helped me through some dark days. Down the rabbit hole I went, scrolling for hours and hours, watching other people living their lives and giving me advice on how to live mine.
As the months rolled by, YouTube turned my attention away from the hard reality of what was going on in the world. I subscribed to several channels and waited anxiously for new weekly offerings. I watched people reading poetry or painting by streams or looking out windows into snowy landscapes. I found all this calming. Such lovely scenery, such beautiful background music, such pretty clothes they were wearing!
At some point though, I got upset by these artistic and seemingly perfect lives. Who is filming them? I wondered. Do they rehearse or just act on the spot? Isn’t it cold, stepping through snowbanks in dresses? The questions kept bothering me while forcing comparisons to my own somewhat more ordinary existence. I wanted to walk in a flowing dress through hilly green field filled with wildflowers! Instead, I was marching through my neighborhood’s city streets in mom jeans.
In a moment of insight, I realized that I had a full and happy life, which although it wouldn’t win awards for perfection onscreen, suited me perfectly. I put my phone away and started paying attention to my own life instead of watching other people live theirs. I still like checking in once in a while. YouTube can be a rich source of entertainment and inspiration, but I’ve limited my exposure. I am content with the knowledge that my addiction to life onscreen has been replaced by life itself.
1. What can be learned about the author in the spring of 2020?| A．She experienced some hard times. |
| B．She taught others about gardening. |
| C．She developed an interest in poetry. |
| D．She shared her philosophical views online. |
| A．It made her more anxious. |
| B．It improved her taste in art. |
| C．It taught her to accept reality. |
| D．It brought some comfort to her. |
| A．Desperate. | B．Connected. | C．Envious. | D．Proud. |
| A．Seek inspiration from YouTube. |
| B．Stop using her phone in daily life. |
| C．Focus on her own life instead of others’. |
| D．Continue watching other people’s lives. |
3 . When I was young, I struggled with body image and disordered eating. I used disordered eating to deal with my
But later I realized how unhealthy my
Once I became healthier, I dove back into
We live in a world where feeling okay about our eating and body image is close to
| A．passion | B．emotions | C．initiative | D．principle |
| A．abuse | B．involve | C．punish | D．defeat |
| A．amount | B．quantity | C．quality | D．calorie |
| A．reactions | B．thoughts | C．performances | D．behaviors |
| A．easily | B．quietly | C．actively | D．eagerly |
| A．memories | B．adventures | C．challenges | D．secrets |
| A．keep | B．change | C．make | D．treat |
| A．harmful | B．wrong | C．optimistic | D．painful |
| A．perform | B．dance | C．paint | D．exercise |
| A．doubted | B．responded | C．realized | D．imagined |
| A．creators | B．winners | C．designers | D．collectors |
| A．innocent | B．unfortunate | C．incorrect | D．impossible |
| A．judgment | B．structure | C．energy | D．language |
| A．merciful | B．hopeful | C．grateful | D．peaceful |
| A．celebrate | B．restrict | C．discover | D．seek |
4 . Happiness, as I see it, comprises five elements: spiritual well-being (meaning and purpose), physical well-being (nutrition, exercise), intellectual well-being (curiosity, deep learning), relational well-being (kindness and generosity), and emotional well-being (cultivating positive emotions). As an interdependent aggregate of these five elements of SPIRE, happiness is about much more than experiencing pleasure.
As Aristotle put it, happiness is the ultimate purpose of life, meaning how we spend our everyday lives is ultimately guided by what we think would make us happier. This is not a good or a bad thing. It simply is, like the law of nature. Even people who are tirelessly working for an important cause, for example, to get rid of world hunger, are doing it because they find their work meaningful. Meaning is an element of happiness.
One barrier to happiness has to do with the expectation that happiness is an unbroken chain of positive emotions. This expectation, however, prevents people from experiencing happiness because painful emotions don’t go away but grow stronger when we reject them.
The second barrier has to do with equating happiness with success. It’s a commonly held belief that happiness can be attained by achieving certain goals, like money or fame. People tend to think if they finally find success, they will automatically become happy.
The third barrier has to do with the way people pursue happiness. We want to be happy for many reasons. After all, we are constantly told that happiness is good for our health, relationships, and work outcomes. Yet, if I wake up in the morning and decide to pursue happiness straight, I will become less happy.
But how? Indirectly. As is known, if you look up at the sun directly, you’ll hurt yourself. But if you take the same sun rays and break them down, you’ll enjoy the colors of a rainbow. Similarly, pursuing happiness directly can hurt us; pursuing it indirectly—by breaking it down into something like the SPIRE elements—can contribute to our well-being. Starting a meditation practice, exercising, performing acts of kindness, learning something new, or expressing gratitude for what we have are all indirect ways of pursuing happiness.
1. What does the underlined word “aggregate” probably mean in the first paragraph?| A．Combination. | B．Conclusion. | C．Accumulation. | D．Association. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Suspicious. | C．Objective. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．Being a success leads one to happiness. |
| B．Refusing negative feelings helps us obtain happiness. |
| C．Going after happiness directly makes one feel happy. |
| D．Pursuing one aspect of SPIRE can boost our well-being. |
| A．To make a contrast. | B．To make an analogy. |
| C．To conclude the argumentation. | D．To answer the previous question. |
5 . Just about 50 years ago, needing money to support my family—my novels weren’t bestsellers—I had the idea of taking the longest train trip imaginable and writing a travel book about it. The trip was improvisational (即兴的). I didn’t have a credit card. I had no idea where I’d be staying nor how long this trip would take. And I’d never written a travel book before. I hoped my trip wouldn’t suffer a lot, though it was obviously a leap in the dark.
I set off with one small bag containing clothes, a map of Asia, a travel guidebook and some travelers’ cheques. I was often inconvenienced, sometimes threatened, now and then disturbed for bribes, occasionally laid up with food poisoning—all this vivid detail for my narrative.
What I repeated in the more than four-month trip was the pleasure of the sleeping car. Writing on board the Khyber Mail to Lahore in Pakistan, “The romance associated with the sleeping car comes from the fact that it is extremely private, combining the best features of a cupboard with forward movement. Whatever drama is being shown in this moving bedroom is heightened by the landscape passing the window...” A train is a carrier that allows residence.
I wrote The Great Railway Bazaar on my return in 1974, and it appeared to good reviews and quick sales. That’s the past. Nothing is the same. All travel is time-related. All such trips are singular and unrepeatable. It’s not just that the steam trains of Asia are gone, but much of the peace and order is gone. Who’d risk an Iranian train now or take a bus through Afghanistan?
But I’ve been surprised by some of the more recent developments in travel. I rode on Chinese trains for a year and wrote Riding the Iron Rooster, but now China has much cleaner and swifter trains and modernized destinations. A traveler today could take the same trip I took in 1986—1987 and produce a completely different book.
All travel books are dated. That’s their fault that they’re outdated, and it’s their virtue that they preserve something of the past that would otherwise be lost.
1. What happened at the beginning of the author’s trip to Asia?| A．He made full preparations for the trip. |
| B．He had expected the journey to be rough. |
| C．He organized the trip with his family’s support. |
| D．He started the trip out of his passion for traveling. |
| A．For its romantic scenery. | B．For its reassuring privacy. |
| C．For its full equipment. | D．For its long distance. |
| A．The landscape in Asia was gone. | B．Train trip was no longer popular. |
| C．He couldn’t write another bestseller. | D．Transportation and travel had changed a lot. |
| A．Practice makes perfect. | B．Sharp tools make good work. |
| C．Travel, truth is not the arrival card. | D．The journey, not the arrival matters. |
6 . This morning I was reading a book outside my favorite beachside coffee shop when an 18-year-old boy sat down next to me and said, “The
He told me he was getting ready to
He asked me many questions, and I
But on my way home I realized the
The
| A．book | B．magazine | C．radio | D．newspaper |
| A．reading | B．dancing | C．chatting | D．singing |
| A．graduate from | B．give up | C．get to | D．look for |
| A．right | B．idea | C．excuse | D．money |
| A．avoided | B．refused | C．doubted | D．answered |
| A．proper | B．strict | C．humorous | D．wrong |
| A．competition | B．experiment | C．argument | D．conversation |
| A．angrily | B．sadly | C．actually | D．bravely |
| A．forget | B．remember | C．waste | D．discuss |
| A．chances | B．choices | C．questions | D．challenges |
| A．when | B．until | C．how | D．though |
| A．reason | B．truth | C．silence | D．cause |
| A．on time | B．at a time | C．in time | D．from time to time |
| A．volunteer | B．imagine | C．change | D．cheat |
| A．similar | B．strange | C．difficult | D．amazing |
7 . It was early winter several years ago. I had pulled out my old winter coat for another year’s use. It was still in pretty good shape although it was looking dirty from so many winters’ wear. I didn’t really need a new one but I wanted one and casually mentioned it to my daughter one day. She was such a sweet, loving girl that I should have guessed what would happen next. A few weeks later she gave me a new winter coat as a gift.
I put the old one in my closet and started to wear the new coat every day. Each day, though, when I opened my closet, something troubled me. It seemed a shame that my old but still good coat should just sit there keeping no one warm during the cold winter days. After a few weeks, I took it out and drove to a local charity shop. I knew that there was someone who couldn’t afford a coat but could get my old one.
My new coat is my old coat now. It is getting a little dirty and worn, too. It has black marks on the sleeves. It is in too bad shape to even donate to charity. I wonder if I should buy a new one soon, but I think I will wait for a while. I don’t really need a new one and maybe I can find something else to give to the charity shop instead.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover.” Perhaps the best way to deal with our wants then is to give instead. Love, after all, brings us the most joy. And the more of it you give away, the more of it you have.
1. Which word can best describe the author’s daughter?| A．Wealthy. | B．Thoughtful. | C．Easy-going. | D．Humorous. |
| A．It cost too much. | B．It was looking dirty. |
| C．There was not enough room for his new coat. | D．It was not sent to someone in need. |
| A．Telling his daughter. | B．Buying a new one soon. |
| C．Donating it to charity. | D．Sending something else to charity. |
| A．Giving fills our wants. | B．Love is the key to joy. |
| C．The more you give, the more you lose. | D．A coat is large enough to cover our wants. |
8 . Don’t Live in Others’ Expectations
Whether it is our family or friends, they want the best for us. They want us to go to the best school.
However, the problem with this kind of expectation is not practicable for most of us. Why do we feel the need to live in others’ expectations? Fulfilling the need of others’ desire before yourself is neglecting your freedom of happiness and self-care.
Expectations are attachments of ourselves to please others. One of the cruel truths about people with expectations is that they don’t really care how you feel.
It’s okay to be selfish for your happiness; in a way, expectations are the root of suffering. It will destroy your self-esteem and any confirmation of your worth. We can be free of it by living our lives according to our own will.
Give up the thoughts of pleasing others and live a free life. Be in control of it and let others accept who you are.
| A．Take expectation as a form of attachment. |
| B．To be happy, you should let go of how you want to be perceived by others. |
| C．They see you trying for their sake of pleasure, but they don’t give anything back. |
| D．They also want us to have the best kind of careers, ultimately to succeed in the way they want. |
| E．Living in others’ expectations will never get you satisfaction because they never will be satisfied. |
| F．We can bend the reality of expectations and see it as a form of attachment. |
| G．Ignore unrealistic expectations. |
9 . In 1984, I was a painfully insecure teenage girl from a dysfunctional family, depressed, underweight, and rejected by my classmates. My only comfort was to be the stage manager at our school.
One day, actors from the famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival came to perform for the school. One of them was Barry Kraft, and he was unlike anyone I’d ever met. As I ran around backstage helping him, he treated me with friendliness and respect that he would show for friends in his living room.
He showed up at our drama class and asked everyone to narrate a monologue (独白). To my shock, he took me aside after class and said, “Your monologue was the best. That was really very good.”
I made it through graduation and got accepted to college. That summer, I traveled with a friend to see Mr. Kraft perform. During one performance, I gathered up my courage and dropped him a note during the break, saying I was visiting and if he looked he could see us. Almost immediately I regretted sending the note. I thought it was the most presumptuous (留失的) thing I had ever done.
At the end of the show, he was waiting for me! He smiled broadly and gave me a hug. Then he said, “Would you like to visit backstage?” And off we went. Every time we met someone, he introduced me and said, “She’s a very good performer who was a huge help to me at her school visit.”
It is difficult to describe how important this man’s attention was to me. A successful actor doesn’t have to give a depressed teenager the time of day, but he did far more. My confidence had just increased 800 percent. I am now a happily married professional, and whenever I notice a teenager in need, I remember Barry Kraft. He saw a teenager in need of attention and support, and he took the time to help. So now I take the time, too.
1. What do we know about the author?| A．She was loved by her parents. | B．She felt left out by her classmates. |
| C．She suffered terribly from stage fright. | D．She was troubled by the issue of overweight. |
| A．Friendly and considerate. | B．Intelligent and patient. |
| C．Committed and generous. | D．Confident and energetic. |
| A．The author will continue with her education. |
| B．Barry Kraft will team up with the author. |
| C．Barry Kraft inspired the author to study drama. |
| D．The author will make efforts to assist teenagers. |
| A．To introduce a famous actor. |
| B．To encourage people to overcome difficulties. |
| C．To share the author’s experience and its impact on her. |
| D．To explain the reason why the author loves stage management. |
10 . It was Friday, and I slid into my seat I looked up and felt the
I took some deep
Growing up, I felt math was a
So you might be
I remind those students, who think they’re born bad at math, that math is a skill you never
| A．impatience | B．pride | C．nervousness | D．satisfaction |
| A．care about | B．worry about | C．talk about | D．think about |
| A．actions | B．risks | C．turns | D．breaths |
| A．panic | B．happiness | C．pride | D．trouble |
| A．relax | B．prepare | C．finish | D．escape |
| A．constantly | B．surprisingly | C．seemingly | D．naturally |
| A．looked up | B．looked around | C．looked out | D．looked down |
| A．challenge | B．relief | C．choice | D．skill |
| A．research | B．principle | C．support | D．knowledge |
| A．doubtful | B．thrilled | C．hopeful | D．shocked |
| A．easy | B．scary | C．interesting | D．influential |
| A．goal | B．duty | C．path | D．rule |
| A．admit | B．ignore | C．stop | D．dislike |
| A．struggle | B．debate | C．quit | D．pray |
| A．beginning | B．symbol | C．end | D．power |
