1 . More than 400 athletes across a variety of sports, ages and levels of experience were questioned for the study by sports psychology experts from Staffordshire University and Manchester Metropolitan University. The findings reveal that athletes’ belief systems — specifically irrational (非理性) beliefs — are related to poorer self-confidence, and in turn, greater competitive anxiety and depressive symptoms.

“Phrases that reflect self-depreciating (贬低) beliefs such as ‘If I lose, I’m a failure’ or ‘If I face setbacks, it shows how stupid I am’ are warning signs,” said the authors. Paul Mansell, Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Staffordshire University, said, “Despite the psychological benefits of physical activity, studies frequently report poor mental health in athletes, which may be exacerbated by adversities, such as injury, de-selection, and performance pressure. We investigated athletes’ beliefs, how they view stress, their levels of self-confidence and put all this data together to work out what might predict psychological well-being. We found irrational beliefs to be a core reason for symptoms of poor mental health in athletes.”

This is the first known study that has examined irrational beliefs, self-confidence, and the psychological well-being of athletes all together. Irrational beliefs are extreme, rigid, and illogical ideas that people hold. For example, a person might believe that they “must” get what they want, or that just because they have failed, they are a “complete failure”.

“We can all work to help athletes develop mindsets that help them deal with the challenges of sport and life. By encouraging rational and logical beliefs about performance, we can help athletes to stay healthy amidst the high demands of competitive sport,” said Paul Mansell.

The author s propose Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) as an effective tool for protecting self-confidence. REBT helps athletes to challenge these self-depreciating beliefs and develop beliefs that are more helpful and healthy. For example, rather than believe “I am a failure if I fail”, this might be countered with “Failing is not ideal, but it does not mean that I am a failure”.

1. What did the study centre on?

A．Physical health of athletes.

B．The competition state of athletes.

C．Psychological health of athletes.

D．Competition habits of athletes.

2. Which can best replace the underlined word “exacerbated” in paragraph 2?

A．Worsened.

B．Examined.

C．Promoted.

D．Recognized.

3. Which of the following is a sign of irrational beliefs?

A．Setbacks won’t stop me.

B．If I fail, I will lose everything.

C．It is a world full of competition.

D．What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Psychological benefits of physical activity

B．Effective tools for protecting self-confidence

C．Rational and logical beliefs about performance

D．Warning signs of poor mental health in athletes

2 . “I’m excited for our women to show their hard work and efforts,” said Lisa Bluder. “Women’s sports should own this stage, and we’re happy to be leading the way.” Bluder is head coach of the women’s basketball team at the University of Iowa.

The exhibition game took place on October 15 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. Iowa went on to defeat DePaul,94-72. The event set a new NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) record for women’s basketball attendance—A total of 55,646 fans watched the game at the historic stadium.

Called “Crossover at Kinnick”, the game benefited the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital. The hospital received a check in the amount of $250,000 from ticket sales.

During the game, fans took in “The Wave”, which is known among Iowa Hawkeyes as the best tradition in college sports: Coaches, players, and fans turn to the Children’s Hospital behind the stands to wave to patients and families watching the game.

Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark put on a wonderful performance. She had 34 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. She was also recognized as the Collegiate Women’s Athlete of the Year, an award she won last June.

“Events like the ‘Crossover at Kinnick’ are meaningful for several reasons,” Patrick Kenny said. “They create excitement to start a season and show the fans’ interest in women’s sports.” Kenny is communications manager at the Big Ten Network, which broadcasts college games.

In the 2022-2023 season, Louisiana State University defeated Iowa in the national finals. The championship game was the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever.

The growing popularity of women’s basketball makes a big difference, according to Bluder. “This is so important,” she said, “for boys, girls, women, and men, to see the positive impact women’s sports can have on our country as a whole.”

1. What is Bluder’s attitude towards women’s sports?

A．Impatient.

B．Doubtful.

C．Uncaring.

D．Supportive.

2. In which way did the exhibition game create a record?

A．The ages of its players.	B．The size of its audience.
C．The huge difference in the final score.	D．The places its players come from.

3. What’s the purpose of “The Wave” in the game?

A．To cheer up basketball players.	B．To excite the audience in the stadium.
C．To greet patients and their families.	D．To let others pay attention to the hospital.

4. What does Kenny intend to tell us in paragraph 6?

A．How tough women’s sports are.

B．Why “Crossover at Kinnick” is important.

C．Why women’s sports should create excitement.

D．How to draw audience’s interest to women’s sports.

3 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Beneath an orange tent along East 32nd Street Saturday morning, warmly dressed locals     1     (deliver) pies, filled with everything from nuts to apples and cheese, to be judged in the first-ever Great Waverly Pie Contest. After thorough evaluations based on taste,     2     (present) , and number of ingredients (原料) , a sweet pie by Matt Maxion and a savory (香草的) pie by Garrick Houston took top     3     (honor) .

“My mother’s family is from the Louisiana-Texas border, so I grew up eating jambalaya (什锦饭) ,” explained Houston. Drawing inspiration from his mother’s jambalaya recipe, Garrick Houston made his pie that contained ingredients like sausage, olive oil, and bell peppers     4     (source) from local farmers’ markets. “I    5     (live) in Maryland for four years when I was young. So I wanted to combine my past,     6     is my filling, with my present home,” Houston said.

    7     (similar), Maxion, who moved to Baltimore from California about a year ago, got inspiration for his prize-winning creation—with ingredients including the Southeast Asian plant pandan—from his Filipino hometown. With     8     help from local farmers and VMart Pilipino Store in Nottingham, he credited his successful pie     9     lots of planning and a willingness to lean into the process.

The organizer Martha Lucius was excited     10     (see) the new neighborhood competition come to life, saying, “It’s been great to see all of the excitement.”

4 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. Who gave the woman her first mountain bike?

A．Her uncle.

B．Her father.

C．Her brother.

2. What happened in the Regional Championships?

A．A fallen tree blocked the road.

B．Someone appeared on the road suddenly.

C．A photographer suddenly fell off the tree.

3. How many things does the woman think important before a race?

A．Four.

B．Five.

C．Six.

5 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Everything went according to plan, until it didn’t. The night before my first marathon, I ate the classic runner’ s dinner. That morning, I woke up before my alarm, tiptoed downstairs to toast three waffles and slathered them in peanut butter. I had slept eight hours, my unreliable left knee wasn’t bothering me, my stomach was full. I was ready.

Then my girlfriend, Louisa, knocked on the door asking: “Have you checked your email?” The Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis and St. Paul had been canceled. Race officials sent an email at 5: 16 a. m. announcing the race had been called off due to “black flag conditions”-- record-breaking heat.

While I understood why the race organizers didn’t want to put runners at risk, I also knew that I had trained in the baking and humid Washington, D. C. all summer. If I started early and finished around noon, I’d miss the worst heat of the day. Louisa offered to bike alongside me, with water, snacks and salt pills in tow.

I quickly called my friends to figure out what to do. About 40minutes later, we were heading for starting line in downtown Minneapolis, drinking a gallon of water, ready to run our own marathon. There is a psychological difference between running 42. 2 kilometers and running an organized marathon. The distance becomes a shared challenge when you’re running with thousands of others. That gives a runner confidence they can finish the race as well.

“When you’re in that marathon setting, having people on the sidelines, having people running alongside you, maybe running in a new location, there are so many other external things to help keep you focused, “my friend Samson said. The sights and sounds “give you a little of a break from the internal reflection that can happen when you start to struggle.” Indeed, it is a mental race.

注意：
（1）续写词数应为150个左右；
（2）请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

On our way to the starting line, we were wondering if anybody else would show up despite the cancellation.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The last 8 kilometers of the Twin Cities Marathon route are largely uphill.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

KEVIN De Bruyne has admitted he might have to rethink his future at Manchester City if they fail in their appeal against a two-year ban from the Champions League.

“The club have told us they will appeal against the ban on European football and that they’re almost 100 per cent sure they are right,” De Bruyne     1     (tell) Belgian paper Het Laatste Nieuws.

“I’m just waiting. I trust my team. Once the decision     2     (make), I will review everything. Two years would be long, in the case of one year I might see. It remains a challenge to be the best and I need that, too.     3     is coming is coming.”

Though City would be petrified of     4     (lose) De Bruyne due to a lack of European football, he did have better news for the club.

The Belgian,     5     leads the Premier League’s assists table this season and is a contender for PFA Player of the Year, says his future is not linked to that of manager Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola is expected to leave when his current City deal     6     (end) next year but De Bruyne does not see that as a reason to move on himself.

“I’m not going to let my decision depend on what Pep is doing,’ he added. ‘Of course I have already worked with other trainers and when Pep leaves, I have to continue     7     (work) with someone else. But I haven’t really paid much attention to that for the time being. There are more important things at the moment.”

    8     (recognize) for his passing, dribbling, tackling and shooting ability, De Bruyne’s playing style has frequently led to the media, coaches, and colleagues ranking him among the best players in the world, and he has often been described as a “complete” footballer. He is now the “best” of Man city which makes the football club rely on one single De Bruyne. This is obvious     9     Man City lost the two Premier League matches which De Bruyne didn’t participate in, scoring none, and it     10     (be) De Bruyne himself contributing a whole lot to save Man City from being slashed by Real Madrid.

7 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Luis scanned the field. The soccer ball was tucked (盘带) between his feet. He searched and searched until… there! His friend Nicholas was wide open. He passed the ball to Nicholas. Nicholas trapped the ball and swung his leg back, kicked, and…

GOAL!!! Luis leaped up and down, celebrating. Just then, Devon walked up, his face twisted in anger. Devon had started playing soccer during breaks with them a few weeks ago. He was a nice enough guy when he felt like things in the game had gone his way. But when he felt like they hadn’t, watch out.

“Why didn’t you pass the ball to me, Luis?” Devon shouted.

“Guy, you weren’t open. It’s just that simple.” Luis responded.

“I’m fast though!” Devon protested, his voice still loud and angry.

Luis ignored him. He didn’t like being dragged into arguments. So that’s what he did with Devon most of the time —just ignored him. It almost always worked.

“I don’t like the way that Devon talks after soccer,” Nicholas said. Luis looked up from his book. They took the same bus after school.

“What do you mean?” he asked as Nicholas sat down.

“He’s always yelling at people and bragging (吹嘘) about himself.” Luis nodded. That was true. “It isn’t right,” Nicholas continued. “It makes soccer less fun. I want to tell him that he can’t play with us anymore. I already talked to all the other guys and they all agreed with me,” Nicholas said. His eyes were set in determination.

The bus started to slow down for Nicholas’ stop. Nicholas stood up, swinging his backpack back onto his shoulder. Luis watched as Nicholas ran off the bus. Although everyone had been getting a bit sick of Devon ruining soccer for a while, shutting him out seemed too extreme. He spent the rest of the ride trying to figure out what he should do.

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

The next day Luis asked Devon if he could talk with him.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Devon kept playing soccer with them for the rest of the school year.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8 . Torsongan Bullik, a 28-year-old athlete, has gone from being an amateur (业余的) cyclist to a professional cross-country skier. In Wenquan county he spent his childhood, when his athletic _______ began to show. In 2009, as a freshman in junior high, he was good at long-distance running and by 2016, he had _______ third in the Xinjiang Wusu International Marathon. His passion for cycling _______ during the Tour of Sayram Lake, which raised his _______ in the sport.

In 2012, his father _______ him a mountain bike worth 5,000 yuan. Torsongan used it frequently and participated in his first competition two years later, despite not having a _______ race due to losing balance on a steep slope.

But he was determined and kept testing his _______, which eventually resulted in winning medals in cycling competitions across all levels in China. On October 18, 2018, he _______ a striking victory by being the first to finish a high-altitude bike race in the Xizang autonomous region.

_______, his endurance (耐力) caught the attention of the national cross-country skiing team, who were _______ new talents for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Joining the team was a(n) _______ moment for Torsongan, yet it came with its own_______. He had to go through strict training during the day and improve his upper-body strength in the gym at night to _______ the team.

Although he didn’t make the final list for the Winter Olympics, he _______ as a technician helping with the operations of the event. Now, Torsongan remains enthusiastic about future competitions. “I will _______ with my efforts. As long as I don’t give up, I still have a chance to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics,” he says.

1.

A．spirit

B．talent

C．strength

D．figure

2.

A．elected

B．scored

C．finished

D．missed

3.

A．reduced

B．grew

C．disappeared

D．promoted

4.

A．interest

B．curiosity

C．emotion

D．awareness

5.

A．awarded

B．lent

C．borrowed

D．gifted

6.

A．successful

B．demanding

C．tough

D．meaningful

7.

A．fitness

B．pains

C．limits

D．confidence

8.

A．celebrated

B．achieved

C．expected

D．announced

9.

A．Frankly

B．Obviously

C．Generally

D．Surprisingly

10.

A．looking for

B．picking up

C．watching over

D．trying out

11.

A．familiar

B．typical

C．alarming

D．significant

12.

A．rewards

B．problems

C．challenges

D．risks

13.

A．keep up with

B．come up with

C．put up with

D．make up with

14.

A．pretended

B．served

C．applied

D．competed

15.

A．survive

B．share

C．continue

D．recover

9 . Australian tennis star Thanasi Kokkinakis has celebrated one of his toughest victories, channelling (贯注) all his fighting spirit to claim a second round French Open win over a former champion.

Kokkinakis beat 2015 Roland Garros champion, Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka, in a five-set marathon to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3. Kokkinakis, 27, was left to regret a slow start to the fourth set tie-break (决胜局) as Wawrinka raced to a 5-0 lead to force a deciding set. But Kokkinakis opened the fifth set with a 4-0 run. Wawrinka then saved four match points, but couldn’t stop Aussie, who won in four hours and 38 minutes. It was a huge relief for Kokkinakis to win, having lost previous five sets, second round epic to British champion Andy Murray at the Australian Open in January.

“I think the first set and a half he was playing was the best tennis he can play,” said Kokkinakis. “I was just trying to hang in there. I lost a match in a Grand Slam (大赛) earlier this year against Murray; I didn’t want to do it against another legend. He never went away. It seemed like when he was down, he was playing better tennis, but I just trusted myself and I’m so happy.”

“Back in the third round on clay, who would have thought it for an Australian, but my game suits it here, I love it.2015 was the last time I won a match at Roland Garros and I made the third round...”

Kokkinakis will now face Karen Khachanov, the big hitting Russian who ended Kokkinakis’ childhood friend and doubles partner (双打搭档) Nick Kyrgios’ golden run at the US Open last year.

1. How did Kokkinakis feel after becoming champion?

A．Worried.

B．Relieved.

C．Shocked.

D．Worn.

2. What can be inferred from Kokkinakis’ words in Paragraph 3?

A．He placed a trust in his power.	B．He was content with the first set.
C．He was inspired by opponent’s spirits.	D．He resolved to be a legend in his field.

3. Who was once Kokkinakis’ partner?

A．Stan Wawrinka.	B．Andy Murray.
C．Karen Khachanov.	D．Nick Kyrgios.

4. What is the text?

A．A news report.	B．A short story.
C．A diary,	D．A research article.

10 . The UK’s greatest football grounds

The British football grounds featured in this guide are some of the best in the whole world. Some stadiums have celebrated more success than others, but each ground has its own rich heritage and unique atmosphere.

Craven Cottage, London

Craven Cottage was designed by the Glaswegian architect Archibald Leitch, who built 20 major football stadiums in the UK, including Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge. The“cottage”itself, lying on one corner of the pitch (球场), was added by Leitch because he’d forgotten to have changing rooms in the original design.

Capacity: 25,700.

Tickets: Adult (18+) £19.99        Children under 18 £9.99

Family bonus: 2 adults+1 child £39.97

Visiting time: Mon-Sat, 8:30 — 20:30

Anfield, Liverpool

Anfield saw the fulfillment of many dreams. Located in the solidly working-class area of north Liverpool, it’s another ground built by Archibald Leitch.

It was torn down in 1994 with the coming of all-seated stadiums, but plans are now underway for a £260 m upgrade including a hotel and a “food hub”.

Capacity: 45,500.

Tickets: Adult (18+) £15.99 Children under 18£8.99

Visiting time: Mon-Fri, 9:00 — 20:00

Old Trafford, Manchester

You’d be hard pushed to find any football fan who hasn’t heard of Old Trafford. The stadium, yet another ground designed by Leitch, has been Manchester United’s home since 1910. However, no games were played between 1941 and 1949.

In 2008, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Manchester United’s first European Cup win, a statue of George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton was displayed.

Capacity: 75,800.

Tickets: Adult (18+) £16.99          Children under 18 £8.99

Visiting time: Tue-Sat, 9:00 — 21:00

1. How much will a couple with 3 children pay for entering Craven Cottage?

A．£68.95.

B．£58.95.

C．£59.95.

D．£60.95.

2. Which stadium was once destroyed according to the passage?

A．Anfield.

B．Craven Cottage.

C．Stamford Bridge.

D．Old Trafford.

3. What do the three stadiums have in common?

A．They were built at the same time.	B．They are all open on weekdays.
C．They are the best stadiums in London.	D．They were designed by the same architect.