1 . Many economists predict 2024 will be the time shoppers tighten their belts. That doesn’t mean people will stop spending, say retail (零售) analysts. But it will change what they choose to buy. With a slowing job market, global consumers are likely to move away from more high-priced purchases and focus instead on smaller, less expensive treats.     

The economic uncertainty means that consumers are becoming more discriminating about their purchases, says Ethan Chermofsky, senior vice president of marketing at intelligence platform Placer. ai. “There are the things we decide are necessary, and then there’s another category of things that aren’t necessary but that we consider affordable luxuries, he says. This desire for these “affordable luxuries” is common in difficult economic times. Some economists refer to the phenomenon as the “lipstick index”: a small economic increase led by budget-minded consumers seeking out relatively affordable splurges (挥霍), like small cosmetics (化妆品).

Analysts at Deloitte say consumers will spend on little luxuries like specialty coffees and snacks as well. Additionally, stressed-out shoppers are prioritizing small splurge purchases for wellness and personal care.

As retailers see shoppers turning to little luxuries, they’re offering more and more of them. Target, for example, has staked a flag in what they refer to as “affordable joy”, which includes a selection of self-care and cosmetic products, along with wellness-centric beauty products. Beyond diversifying their offerings, stores are also bringing in luxury-feeling products at lower price points to appeal to more consumers.

Ethan says not every shopper will shift their spending to little luxuries-but even those who are still longing for the “must-haves” of social media will also look to get a deal. They want the feeling of purchasing lower-priced affordable treats. To get these goods, shoppers are likely to tap into the re-sale market for designer items at a more reasonable price. They want things that make them feel good about themselves-they just want to do it without breaking the bank.

1. What can affordable luxuries be?

A．Inexpensive daily necessities.	B．High-end products.
C．Reasonably-priced designer items.	D．High-priced purchases.

2. What is paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．The strategies retailers use.	B．The joy businesses offer.
C．The competition stores face.	D．The products consumers buy.

3. What do most shoppers seek according to Ethan?

A．Social-media deals.	B．World-famous brands.
C．Second-hand bargains.	D．Budget-friendly pleasures.

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

A．Lipstick Index: Where Does It Lead Us?	B．Must-have Treats: A Future Spending Trend
C．Affordable Joy: Will We Fall Into The Trap?	D．Little Luxuries: A Driving Force Behind Consumption

2 . 假定你是校英语报主编李华，你发现随着信息技术的发展，高中生阅读纸质媒体的热情在逐步减少，请你写一篇英语短文，呼吁学生重拾对纸质阅读的热情。
具体内容如下：1.介绍现状；2.纸媒的重要性；3.提出呼吁。
注意：1.词数80左右；2.可适当增加细节，使内容充实，行文连贯。

Embracing the Magic of Print Media

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3 . In recent years, aggression on social media have become commonplace. More than half of the victims said they didn’t know the identity of the perpetrator (作恶者). Most people agreed that the anonymity (匿名) of the Internet provides cover for nasty and harassing (骚扰) behavior.

Does this growing aggression on social media give us a glimpse of our real human nature? Are we-at our core-aggressive beasts? It’s true that hate crimes are on the rise, and political divisions app ear to be growing. The level of public bitterness-especially online-is substantial. But I don’t believe that’s because social media has unlocked our cruel human nature.

As an evolutionary anthropologist, I have spent years researching our transformation as a species. Over the past two million years, we have evolved from groups of apelike beings armed with sticks and stones to the creators of cars, rockets, and nations. Our bigger brains have allowed us to bond and cooperate in more complex and diverse ways than any other animal. Meanwhile, “you are whom you meet.” How we perceive, experience, and act in the world is shaped by who and what surround us on a daily basis. This process has deep evolutionary roots and gives humans what we call a shared reality.

I would argue that the rise in online aggression is a product of our evolutionary social skills, the social media boom, and the specific political, economic and social context where we find ourselves. This explosive combination has opened up a space for increasingly more people to fan the flames of aggression and insult online. Aggressive behavior-especially to those you don’t have to confront face-to-face-is easier than it’s ever been. And for the aggressor, there are often no consequences.

Yes, it seems that the world is getting more aggressive, but that’s not because we are more aggressive at our core. It’s because we haven’t been standing up against bullying, abuse, and aggressive harassment, and promoting pro-social attitudes and actions our contemporary world demands. In person and on social media, we must do both.

1. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph two refer to?

A．Hate crimes on the rise.	B．Growing political divisions.
C．Considerable online bitterness.	D．The transformation of humans.

2. What’s the author’s attitude toward social media?

A．Critical.

B．Objective.

C．Approving.

D．Ironic.

3. What does the author propose to address the issue of growing aggression?

A．Embracing our aggressive nature to compete in today’s world.

B．Strengthening laws to hold perpetrators responsible for their online actions.

C．Promoting positive behaviors and interactions in both real-life and digital spaces.

D．Focusing only on reducing anonymity on the internet to reduce offensive behavior.

4. What is mainly discussed in this passage?

A．The impact of social media on society.

B．The influence of evolution on our behavior.

C．The reasons behind rising online aggression.

D．The factors in the social media development.

4 . I’m always cautious of the tired saying, “If it doesn’t kill you, it’ll make you stronger.” I mean, what about polio (小儿麻痹症)? Or loads of other horrible things that if you survive, you’re left scarred in one way or another.

For many years I worked in a specialist NHS clinic for people with eating disorders, which are greatly misunderstood and connected with vanity (虚荣) when instead it’s usually about control or even profound trauma (精神创伤). Eating disorders have the highest mortality of any mental illness, with one in five of those with an eating disorder dying from it. Treatment for it is long, tough and tiring. So, it’s fair to say it’s not something to be taken lightly.

Yet I was often surprised by how many patients-patients with all sorts of other conditions too, from depression to cancer -would tell me how the experience had changed them for the better after receiving treatment. It’s not so much that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger; more, it might make you more understanding of yourself and more sensitive to the battles and struggles of others. It can also give people a sense of determination and perseverance they never had before.

I had one patient who was an addict and alcoholic besides suffering eating disorder. She was frequently rushed into hospital and was sometimes at a real risk of dying. However, after years of hard work, she stopped drinking, stopped using drugs and her eating disorder improved. She got back into work and started doing several courses to get promoted. Actually, she had gone through numerous intense and exhausting interviews before landing a job, but she said whenever she felt she couldn’t handle it or doubted her capabilities, she reminded herself that nothing would ever be worse or harder than what she had already gone through. She managed to make the most of her life and turn her life around.

1. What does the author think of the old mantra?

A．Always applicable.	B．Totally absurd.
C．Partially right.	D．Quite misleading.

2. What does the underlined word in paragraph 2 possibly mean?

A．The number of deaths.

B．The possibility of being cured.

C．The rate of getting mentally hurt.

D．The chance of having mental illness.

3. How does the experience influence patients according to paragraph 3?

A．It leads to a changeable attitude.

B．It makes no noticeable difference.

C．It builds up their physical strength.

D．It fosters self-awareness and sympathy.

4. What can we learn about the patient mentioned in the last paragraph?

A．She continued harmful habits.	B．She relied only on medication.
C．She always believed in herself.	D．She became stronger and tougher.

5 . In the late nineteenth century, art critics regarded seventeenth-century Dutch paintings as direct reflections of reality. The paintings were discussed as an index of the democracy of a society that chose to represent its class, action, and occupations exactly as they were, wide-ranging realism was seen as the great accomplishment of Dutch art. However, the achievement of more recent study of Dutch art has been the recovery of the fact that such paintings are to be taken as symbolizing mortality, the renaissance of earthly life, and the power of God, and as message that range from the mildly moralizing to the firmly didactic. How explicit and consistent the symbolizing process was intended to be is a much thornier matter, but anyone who has more familiarity than a passing acquaintance with Dutch literature or with the kinds of images used in illustrated books (above all emblem books) will know how much less pervasive was the habit of investing ordinary objects than of investing scenes with meaning that go be-y ond their surface and outward appearance. In the mid-1960s, Eddy de Jongh published an extraordinary array of material — especially from the emblem books and vernacular literature — that confirmed the unreliability of taking Dutch pictures at surface value alone.

The major difficulty, however, with the findings of critics such as de Jongh is that it is not easy to assess the multiplicity of levels in which Dutch viewers interpreted these pictures. De Jongh’s followers typically regard the pictures as purely symbolic. Not every object within Dutch paintings need be interpreted in terms of the gloss given to its equivalent representation in the emblem books. Not every foot warmer is to be interpreted in terms of the foot warmer in Rowmer Visscher’s Sinnepoppen of 1614, not every bridle is an emblem of restraint (though many were indeed just that).

To maintain as Brown does, that the two children in Netscher’s painting A Lady Teaching a Child to Read stand for industry and idleness is to fail to understand that the painting has a variety of possible meanings, even though the picture undoubtedly carriers unmistakable symbolic meanings, too. Modern Art historians may well find the discovery of parallels be-tween a painting and a specific emblem exciting, they may, like seventeenth-century viewers, search for the double that lie behind many paintings. But seventeenth-century response can hardly be reduced to the level of formula. To suggest otherwise is to imply a laboriousness of mental process that may well characterize modern interpretations of seventeenth-century Dutch Art, but that was, for the most part, not characteristic in the seventeenth century.

1. The passage is primarily concerned with which of the following?

A．Reconciling two different points of view about how art reflects.

B．Criticizing a traditional method of interpretation.

C．Describing and evaluating a recent critical approach.

D．Describing a long-standing controversy and how it was resolved.

2. The author of the passage mentions bridles in the highlighted portion of the passage most likely in order to ______.

A．Suggest that restraint was only one of the many symbolic meanings attached to bridles

B．Provide an example of an everyday, physical object that was not endowed with symbolic meaning

C．Provide an example of an object that modern critics have endowed with symbolic meaning different from the meaning assigned it by seventeenth-century Dutch artists

D．Provide an example of an object with symbolic meaning that was not always used as a symbol

3. Which of the following best describes the function of the last paragraph of the passage?

A．It provides specific applications of the critical approach introduced in the preceding paragraph.

B．It present a caveat about the critical approach discussed in the preceding paragraph.

C．It presents the research on which a theory presented in the preceding paragraph is based.

D．It refutes a theory presented in the preceding paragraph and advocates a return to a more traditional approach.

4. The passage suggests which of the following about emblem books in seventeenth-century Holland?

A．They confirm that seventeenth century Dutch painting depict some objects and scenes rarely found in daily life.

B．They are more useful than vernacular literature in providing information about the sym-bolic content of seventeenth-century Dutch painting.

C．They have been misinterpreted by art critics, such as de Jongh, who claim seventeenth-century Dutch paintings contain symbolic meaning.

D．They contain material that challenges the assumptions of the nineteenth-century critics about seventeenth-century Dutch painting.

6 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What was Prof. Stone’s grandfather afraid of?

A．Leaving his home.

B．Parting from his son.

C．Taking early retirement.

2. What does old age mean to many elderly Americans?

A．Lack of moral support.

B．Loss of self-worth.

C．Change of living habits.

3. What will Prof. Stone talk about next concerning elderly people?

A．Public services they ask for.

B．Health care available to them.

C．Contributions they can make.

7 . 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。

Short-form videos, which gained popularity on the Chinese platform Douyin, have given rise to a new trend in entertainment: ultra-short (超短) dramas.     1     (tailor) to our fast-paced lifestyles, ultra-short dramas are far more likely to attract people to try them out than traditional television series. In the past, committing     2     a show meant investing upwards of 40 minutes, but with ultra-short dramas, only a few minutes is enough for     3     taste.

Despite the initial success of ultra-short dramas, Chinese authorities     4     (tighten) regulations and intensifying monitoring on them. Currently, most of these ultra-short dramas revolve around clichéd (陈词滥调的) romantic plots, often     5     (feature) a wealthy individual getting together with a poor person. This narrative trend bears the potential     6     (shape) young minds’ perceptions of reality and their approaches to real-life challenges.

What’s equally concerning is     7     ultra-short dramas are designed to catch the viewers’ attention with bite-sized runtimes. In a world dominated by smartphones,     8     attention spans are already declining, frequent     9     (expose) to ultra-short videos can only worsen the issue.

It’s natural for us to seek entertainment. But it’s also worth pausing to consider the consequences     10     diving into ultra-short dramas.

8 . I am always confused when reading statements like “Princeton University is the number one college in the United States.” Are those who attend Princeton inherently brighter than their peers?     1     Or is Princeton the best across all academic subjects overall?

I didn’t care about college rankings for years until I recently saw something different. This past October, Shanghai Ranking Consultancy unveiled the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2023, which assesses universities worldwide across 55 subjects in five disciplines.     2     And this makes it easier for prospective students to choose the best college for their specific subject.

    3     When I delved deeper into the methodology behind these rankings, I discovered a complex web of criteria, including academic reputation, research output, and international collaboration.     4     However, they do not capture the entirety of the college experience. Factors like campus culture, extracurricular opportunities, and faculty-student interactions can profoundly shape your undergraduate years, yet they often remain unquantifiable in ranking systems.

    5     What may be the ideal environment for one student pursuing engineering might not suit another studying literature. It’s crucial to consider your personal preferences, career aspirations, and learning style when evaluating potential colleges. While prestigious universities may offer unparalleled resources and networking opportunities, a smaller, lesser-known college might provide a more nurturing and supportive environment for your individual growth and development. Ultimately, the best college for you is the one that aligns with your values, ambitions, and vision for the future.

A．The value of a university education goes beyond its ranking.

B．Is Princeton the most beautiful campus all around the world?

C．Is Princeton able to produce more geniuses upon graduation?

D．That being said, how much weight should be given to these rankings?

E．Actually, the concept of a “best” college is subjective and context-dependent.

F．These measures provide valuable insights into the academic strength of universities.

G．It is said to employ a more in-depth approach to evaluate the performance of universities.

9 . American families don’t save money like they used to. In 2018 the personal saving rate was somewhere around 7%, which is well below the rate of a few decades ago.

There are a lot of potential explanations for this. Wage growth has slowed while necessities such as housing and medical care have grown more expensive. The rise of easy credit has made overspending easier than ever. And the number of people who make a budget is decreasing.

Now, a team of U.S. and Canadian economists have proposed a new explanation for the declining savings rate, one rooted in individual psychology. At its heart lies a simple observation: Spending is a lot more visible than not spending. Humans are social creatures, and we have a tendency to evaluate our own standing in life relative to how our friends and neighbors are doing. We want to keep up with the Joneses, and stay ahead of the Smiths. Because of this, when we see other people spending money we have a tendency to believe that we can — or should — be spending too. Nowadays, changes in the media landscape have made other people’s spending more visible than ever. That, in turn, is making all of us spend even more — and save even less.

David Hirshleifer, one of the economists, said that “it’s easy to think that you’re saving enough because you are not throwing luxury parties or taking expensive journeys the way some people you know are.” But, he warned, “those journeys and parties may not really be typical of your acquaintances — they just stand out in memory.”

The economists imply that finding ways to make non-spending more visible might help individuals develop more realistic views of overall spending and saving behavior. “Make a special effort to notice when your friends are careful with money, such as holding on to their 15-year-old car,” Hirshleifer said.

1. Which of the following is a potential explanation for the low saving rate in America?

A．The reduction in the income.	B．The easy access to money.
C．The growing desire for housing.	D．The difficulty in sticking to a budget.

2. The “individual psychology” mentioned in paragraph 3 refers to a tendency to ______.

A．show off wealth	B．connect with others
C．compare oneself to others	D．adapt oneself to social change

3. What is the warning of David Hirshleifer?

A．It is improper to copy others’ spending habits.

B．It is unwise to spend more than one can afford.

C．One may spend too much on journeys and parties.

D．One may have misunderstanding of others’ spending habits.

4. What do the economists suggest people do?

A．Make good use of money.	B．Save as much money as possible.
C．Pay attention to non-spending behavior.	D．Change overall spending and saving behavior.

10 . Going on a vacation might seem like a rather     1     (conventional) way to try to improve your sleep habits, but sleep tourism has been growing in popularity for a number of years, with an increasing amount of sleep-focused     2     (stay) popping up in hotels and resorts (度假胜地) across the world.

In fact, interest     3     (increase) since the pandemic, with a number of hotels focusing their attention on those     4     (suffer) from sleep-deprivation (剥夺). Over the past 12 months, Park Hyatt New York has opened the Bryte Restorative Sleep Suite (套房),     5     800-square-foot suite filled with sleep-enhancing facilities, while Rosewood Hotels Resorts recently launched a collection of retreats (休养处),     6     are designed to “promote rest”.

The global pandemic appears     7     (play) a huge part in this. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that 40% of the over 2,500 adults who took part reported a reduction     8     their sleep quality since the start of the pandemic.

But can short term sleep-focused travel experiences actually have a long term impact on a person’s overall sleep? According to Dr. Robbins, a sleep researcher and co-author of the book Sleep for Success, travel experiences centered around “healthy sleep strategies” that aim to supply guests with the tools they need to improve their sleep     9     (be) hugely beneficial.

“The concept of travel actually allowing you to return home     10     (refresh) is a really exciting proposition,” she adds.