1 . Two Bristol policemen, Jon Owen and David Morgan, have organized a six-a-side football league (联赛) for teenagers in Patchway, one of the poorest parts of the city. Police in several parts of Britain host similar football leagues or competitions, but usually the aim is just to keep teens occupied, and build confidence between teenagers and the police. Jon and David, however, had a better idea.
They have introduced a new system to the football league. Teams score points for winning their matches, but lose points if any team member does anything he shouldn’t off the field or at school! Teams score ten points for winning a match, and five if they draw;but if any player is arrested, the team loses ten points. If a member is caught doing an act of small crime, the team loses five points. The result has been spectacular; since the football league started, crime in the area has fallen by 20%.
Peer pressure is a strong force, especially among young people. Almost everyone can remember a moment when they felt compelled (强迫的) to do something because their friends were doing it, or to buy something because their friends had bought it. In the age of the Internet, peer pressure is stronger than ever. Today peer pressure has become a more serious problem for young people. Phones and personal website accounts become increasingly influential among teenagers because they can know everything about their peers and copy each other’s behavior.
Although peer pressure is usually seen as a bad influence, it can also produce positive results. If your children’s behavior is greatly influenced by their peers, reassure them that they don’t need to follow along with everyone else to make friends. Instead, staying true to their unique personalities will set them up for success later on.
1. Why was Jon Owen and David Morgan’s system successful?| A．The football league kept teenagers occupied. |
| B．The football league built teenagers’ confidence. |
| C．The football results were linked to teenagers’ social behavior. |
| D．The football results encouraged teenagers to respect each other. |
| A．The ranking system at school. | B．The competition in the job market. |
| C．The popularity of social media. | D．The strict management from parents. |
| A．To draw a comparison. | B．To make an argument. |
| C．To provide an example. | D．To offer a suggestion. |
| A．Peer pressure makes sports players play better | B．Peer pressure cuts teens’ crime rate |
| C．How to deal with peer pressure at school | D．Why peer pressure always has negative results |
1. What can tell us whether the news is real?
| A．The website editor. | B．The website address. | C．The website page. |
| A．Only one website reports it. |
| B．The website will correct the mistake. |
| C．Fact-checking websites will remind you. |
| A．To check other websites. |
| B．To check the persons in the news. |
| C．To check the date of the news. |
3 . Kishiki Noriyo pulls up outside a house in Akashi, a city in western Japan in a truck with a heart logo and the slogan: “Diaper delivery: we also deliver kindness.” She steps out with two bags of diapers (尿布). Higuchi Miki, a young mother appears at the front door with a baby. Ms Kishiki is on the front line of a ten-year push by Akashi to encourage its residents to have children. It includes delivering free baby food and diapers, free medical care and school lunches. The effort seems to be paying off. Akashi's population has increased for ten years in a row, to more than 300,000.
This makes the town exceptional. Japan's birth rate was below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman in the mid-1970s and has been steadily declining ever since. Many barriers to young Japanese forming families, from high education costs to inflexible family laws can only be tackled with national policies. But Akashi shows how local communities can make a difference. That starts with improving access to nurseries and day care, and smaller projects such as Ms Kishiki's, also help.
Kato Hisakazu of Meiji University thinks Japan “needs to foster a culture that is generous to children”. Efforts to build more child-care facilities are often blocked by locals who worry about increased noise. Tanaka Yumi, a mother of two, says young Japanese parents are used to receiving a “cold look” from their unsympathetic neighbors. But the abundance of young families in the town and the supportive policies of its local administration provide comfort.
Akashi's pro-child efforts are intended to drive the same cultural change. Morioka Kazumi of the town's child-care department says the diaper deliveries are more about “reducing loneliness” than the goods themselves. Ms Higuchi, the young mother, appreciates that. “It's nice when someone checks on me,” she says. “It makes me feel I'm on the right track.”
1. What can be inferred about Kishiki Noriyo?| A．She delivers paid medical care. |
| B．She assists families with children. |
| C．She sees no prospect of her hard work. |
| D．She struggles with work as a young mother. |
| A．Young couples are still hesitant about having babies. |
| B．National policies are inadequate in improving low birth rate. |
| C．The town becomes world-famous for the increasing population. |
| D．Local communities can contribute a lot in encouraging baby births. |
| A．Japanese parents suffer from loneliness. |
| B．Japanese are not tolerant enough of children. |
| C．Child-care facilities are in great need in Akashi. |
| D．More and more young families have moved to Akashi. |
| A．Diaper Delivery Reduces Mums’ Stress |
| B．Japan Makes Plans to Increase Baby Births |
| C．Akashi Turns the Low Birth Rate for Higher |
| D．The Young Face Barriers in Forming Families |
4 . With the holiday season coming up, there has been a lot of advertising. This really got me thinking about our society. Stores such as Walmart and Superstore immediately put their Christmas decorations up the day after Halloween! What does this say about our community?
The holiday season is supposed to be about whom you spend it with, a time to remember friends and family. It is a time to be grateful for what you have and to help out those less fortunate, to admire the Christmas tree in decorations and strings of lights, to spend time with friends who have been far away. These are the memories that will stay with us. Holidays should have nothing to do with advertising and sales. However, holidays have been so commercialized since the invention of the television that people are starting to associate them with sales.
There is nothing wrong with the desire to do something nice for your family and your friends, which is a reflection of the feelings for that particular person on any given day of the year. However, the media is making it seem like without an expensive gift, the holiday isn't as memorable. An expensive gift is not the only way to demonstrate affection, despite the claims of many advertisements. The media is placing a price on the holidays when really it should be about family and friends. The commercialization of the holiday season is overwhelming, to say the least. For example, Christmas used to be all about giving without any hidden motives. Now as a result of all the advertising, most people think that the joy of the holiday comes out of the gifts. The media is giving people unrealistic expectations of holidays. It tries to tell the public that without buying the most expensive gifts, most expensive Christmas trees, food or clothes your holiday season will not be memorable. They make gift buying seem like an obligation and it makes holidays become all about the presents and not family. This misrepresentation gives people the false impressions that without the presents life is meaningless.
Without the true values of the holiday the true spirit and meaning will vanish. Advertising is simply just taking over our lives. So this holiday season, instead of looking forward to all the presents you receive, go celebrate the true meaning of the holidays.
1. What should people do during a holiday according to the passage?| A．Go to visit a friend who lives far away. |
| B．Do holiday shopping at Walmart and Superstore. |
| C．Keep our friends and family company. |
| D．Decorate the Christmas tree after Christmas shopping. |
| A．It makes the holiday not as memorable. |
| B．It is unnecessarily the best way to demonstrate affection. |
| C．It delivers no meaning in people's life. |
| D．It gives all people beautiful expectations of holidays. |
| A．Duty | B．Routine | C．Custom | D．Guilt |
| A．A research paper | B．A diary | C．A blog post | D．An advertisement |
5 . This can be fun: a TikTok account on which an artificial Tom Cruise wearing a purple robe sings “Tiny Dancer” to (the real) Paris Hilton holding a toy dog has attracted 5.1m followers. It is now possible to generate fake content with little more than the click of a mouse. A profound change is happening in societies that have long regarded images, video and audio as solid proof to prove that something is real.
The fundamental problem is an old one. From the printing press to the internet, new technologies have made it easier to spread untruths or imitate the real. Typically, humans have used shortcuts to discover foul play, for example, AI-generated images of people have often been betrayed by their strangely behaved hands.
The trouble is that the fakes are rapidly getting harder to spot since AI is improving all the time with computing power and training data becoming more abundant. Could AI-powered fake-detection software, built into web browsers, identify computer-generated content? Sadly not. Eventually AI models will probably be able to produce digital clones of a genuine recording of an event.
Yet societies will also adapt to the fakers. People will learn that images, audio or video of something do not prove that it happened. Online content will no longer prove itself, so who posted something will become as important as what was posted. Assuming trustworthy sources can continue to identify themselves securely via URLs, email addresses and social -media platforms, reputation and origin will become more important than ever. The fact that people may soon struggle to spot the invisible hand of AI does not mean the marketplace of ideas is bound to fall. With time passing, the fakes that thrive will mostly be some funny ones.
1. What issue does the author present at the beginning?| A．Artificial performance is popular worldwide. |
| B．Fake content is easy to create at present time. |
| C．Great changes brought by AI are happening now. |
| D．Images, video and audio are solid proof to reality. |
| A．Profound changes. |
| B．Diverse technologies. |
| C．Fundamental problems. |
| D．Untrustworthy contents. |
| A．Reliable sources. |
| B．Secure web browsers. |
| C．Hot social media platforms. |
| D．Powerful fake-detection softwares. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Critical. |
| C．Dismissive. | D．Positive. |
While many Chinese cities are experiencing freezing cold, spring lingers at the Dounan Flower Market in Kunming, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province.
A sea of blossoms, including lotuses, roses and sunflowers, is ready to go on
About 30 years ago, the Market was just a street with roadside stalls selling flowers, but today it has become Asia’s
This is a market for all people, where everyone can buy their favorite flowers
Nevertheless, staying busy is
7 . In response to the rumor that “80% of Tsinghua graduates go abroad”, Tsinghua University clearly stated: “NO!”
Data show that the proportion of 2023 graduates of Tsinghua University going abroad for further study is 8.0%. Among them, the proportion of undergraduate students (本科生) studying abroad is 15.6%, and the proportion of undergraduate students studying in China is 65.2%. The proportion of master students (研究生) going abroad for further study is 5.9%. The proportion of domestic advanced education was 6.9%. In addition, according to the “Tsinghua People” mini-program registration information of Tsinghua Alumni Association, most of the alumni (校友) who have studied abroad in the past 20 years have returned to work after completing their studies and play a backbone in all walks of life.
What industries do Tsinghua graduates go into? According to the statistics of Tsinghua University, 83.0% of the graduates of 2023 are employed in key units in important fields related to the national economy and people’s livelihood, covering many important industries such as national defense science and technology, manufacturing and energy industries, information communication and Internet, public administration and service institutions of higher learning and research institutes.
Where do Tsinghua graduates go? According to statistics provided by Tsinghua University, 53.8 percent of its 2023 graduates are employed outside Beijing. In the past 10 years, most graduates of Tsinghua University have gone to work outside Beijing, and the number of employment in the national defense and military industry and the western region has continued to rise.
The university also announced the most employable employers for the class of 2023. Among them, the top two state-owned enterprises are China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and State Grid Corporation, and the top two private enterprises are Huawei and BYD.
1. What percentage of Tsinghua undergraduate students studying abroad in 2023?| A．8.0%. | B．65.2%. | C．5.9%. | D．15.6%. |
| A．An international school. | B．An application. |
| C．A charity organization. | D．A private enterprises. |
| A．Internet and energy industries. |
| B．Tea trade and public administration. |
| C．Gardening technology and national defense. |
| D．Pet rescuing and information communication. |
| A．List data. | B．Give examples. | C．Make comparisons. | D．Classify facts. |
8 . There are many traditions around the world that are interesting and fun, but there are also those that are bizarre (奇异的) and even a little cruel.
In Sweden it’s common for parents to leave their babies outside to nap (小睡) even when the temperatures are below zero. Many people, including me, would find this custom risky and merciless, but many Swedes actually consider it good for their babies. They believe that by exposing their young ones to their country’s cold temperature they can help their babies to grow up healthily and protect them from diseases. They also believe doing so will help them sleep longer and better.
In Bali, Indonesia, babies are forbidden to touch the ground for three months. The reason is that during the baby’s first months its connection to the “spirit” is still unbroken and clean and letting it touch the ground would defile it. For three months, the baby is constantly held in someone’s arms — the father, mother, grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and even neighbors. After 105days, a special ceremony called the Nyabutan is held where the baby touches Mother Earth for the first time.
In Guatemala, it’s common to see babies being bathed with cold water. Maya mothers commonly practise this bizarre custom with the belief that it’s beneficial to the baby’s health. Bathing their babies with cold water is also an effective means to remove heat rashes (痱子), and this custom helps babies sleep better.
Some Indians allow their babies to be thrown from temple roofs as high as 50 feet. This strange custom started 500 years ago and continues to this day, though there’s a movement to ban it for obvious reasons. However, Hindus believe that performing this custom brings good luck and health to their babies. Below the roof is a bed sheet that’s held lightly by several men. The baby lands safely on the sheet. The tradition’s practitioners and believers strongly prove that it’s safe, saying no babies have ever been injured.
1. What does the author think of the baby custom in Sweden?| A．Interesting and fun. | B．Unique and thoughtful. |
| C．Dangerous and a little cruel. | D．Beneficial and practical. |
| A．Make the best use of. | B．Achieve or realise completely. |
| C．Leave or break away from. | D．Make something dirty or no longer pure. |
| A．To bring good luck and health to those babies. |
| B．To stop them from getting all kinds of illnesses. |
| C．To prevent them from feeling hot during summer. |
| D．To get rid of their heat rashes and contribute to sleep. |
| A．They have no religious belief. |
| B．It is a new custom and many people hate it. |
| C．They think the custom leads to babies’ injuries. |
| D．Many babies have been seen injured in the past years. |
Heading off to the train station straight after work on Friday, checking in
Last May Day witnessed the peak of this intense travel practice, as the number of tourists reached a record high of 200 million. The hashtag(标签) “Young People’s Special Force Style Tourism during May Day Holiday” enjoyed more than 3. 3 million
Many people flocked to the online space to share
This
10 . In the rich countries of the West, the electric vehicle revolution is well occurring. Climate-conscious consumers drive Teslas or Polestars for reasons of morality (道德) and fashion. Poorer countries are also experiencing a wave of electrified trend. In Bangladesh, electric three-wheeler taxis, known as tuk-tuks, are rapidly replacing gas-powered ones on the streets. Such electric vehicles are climate friendly, cost effective, and help reduce air pollution.
Yet a glance under the hood (引擎盖) of these vehicles shows a poisonous secret: each tuk-tuk runs on five massive lead-acid batteries (铅酸电池), containing almost 300 pounds of lead (铅) in total. Every year and a half or so, when those batteries need to be replaced and recycled, about 60 pounds of lead leaks into the environment. Battery recycling, often at small-scale unregulated factories, is a highly profitable (高利润的) but deadly business.
Lead is dangerous, and any exposure to it is harmful to human health. Lead that has entered the environment hurts people on an unexpected scale. The numerous ways lead enters air, water, soil, and homes across the developing world and the enormous damage it does to human health, wealth, and welfare cause one of the biggest environmental problems in the world yet receives little attention.
The World Bank estimates that lead kills 5.5 million people per year, making it a bigger global killer than AIDS, malaria, diabetes, and road traffic deaths combined. On top of the shocking deaths, the social burden of lead poisoning is heavy, as is its contribution to global inequality — our research on the cognitive (认知的) effects of lead poisoning suggests that it may explain about one-fifth of the educational achievement gap between rich and poor countries.
But unlike many challenges faced by developing countries, lead poisoning is a problem that can be resolved through financial investment (财政投入). Better monitoring, research, and rules can help protect children all over the world from the unpleasant effects of lead poisoning and reduce the massive global costs it brings.
1. How does the author describe the lead problem in paragraph 2?| A．By listing some numbers. | B．By analyzing hidden causes. |
| C．By making an interesting comparison. | D．By explaining its working principle. |
| A．Lead enters poor countries in one way. |
| B．Lead leaking has been avoided in all the countries. |
| C．Lead will definitely not harm anymore. |
| D．Lead poisoning may make poor societies poorer. |
| A．Fixing these used batteries. | B．Reducing the cost of recycling lead. |
| C．Ignoring the illegal use of lead. | D．Putting certain effort and money. |
| A．The Impacts of Lead Poisoning on Man. |
| B．The Global Lead Poisoning Problem. |
| C．The Ways to Solve Lead Problem. |
| D．The Benefits of Using Electric Vehicles. |
