1 . Many people who work in London prefer to live outside it, and to go in to their offices and schools every day by train, car or bus, even though this means they have to get up early in the morning and reach home late in the evening.
One advantage of living outside London is that the houses are cheaper. Even a small flat in London without a garden costs quite a lot to rent. With the same money, one can get a little house in the country with a garden of one’s own.
Then, in the country, one can rest from the noise and hurry of the town. Even though one has to get up earlier and spend more time on trains or buses, one can sleep better at night. Besides, during weekends and on summer evenings, one can enjoy the fresh, clean air of the country. If one likes gardens, one can spend one’s free time digging, planting, watering, and doing the hundred and one other jobs which are needed in a garden. Then, when the flowers and vegetables come up, one has the reward of one who has shared the secret of Nature.
Some people, however, take no interest in country things: for them, happiness lies in the town, with its cinemas and theatres, beautiful shops and busy streets, dance-halls and restaurants. Such people would feel that their life was not worth living if they had to live it outside London. An occasional walk in one of the parks and a fortnight’s (two weeks) visit to the sea every summer is all the country they want: the rest they are quite prepared to leave to those who are glad to get away from London every night.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?| A．Some people who work in the country prefer to live in the city |
| B．Some people who work in the city prefer to live in the country |
| C．Those who live in London wake up early and get home late |
| D．Those who live in London must travel by train, car or bus every day |
| A．a small house with a garden in London |
| B．a large house with a garden in the country |
| C．a small flat with a garden in the country |
| D．a small house with a garden in the country |
| A．one can’t sleep so well as in the city | B．one has to spend more time on transport |
| C．one has to spend a long time in the garden | D．one is likely to be poorer |
| A．spend all of their time in the town | B．feel their life is not worth living |
| C．enjoy cinemas, shops and crowds | D．share the secret of Nature |
| A．the rest of their time | B．the rest of the people |
| C．the rest of the country | D．the rest of the parks and sea |
2 . A new study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family claims that all that time you spend parenting just doesn’t matter. But it’s a claim that, despite the enthusiastic and widespread coverage by the media, does not hold water.
The research suggests that child outcomes (including behavior problems, emotional problems, and academic performance) are barely connected with the time that parents spend with their children. The researchers examined the time diaries of 1,600 children, looking at parenting time and outcomes when the kids were aged 3 to 11 in 1997, and again in 2002, when they were between 8 and 16. (A time diary is a detailed report of all activities you carry out in a day. )
This research largely reflects the failure of the authors to correctly measure parental input. It just looked at time diaries from two particular days-one a weekday and the other a weekend day.
Trying to get a sense of the time you spend parenting from a single day’s diary is a bit like trying to measure your income from a single day. If yesterday was payday, you looked rich, but if it’s not, you would be reported as poor. You get a clearer picture only by looking at your income — or your parenting time—over a more meaningful period.
What you did yesterday should not be taken as representative of what you did last year, This is why most high-quality studies of parenting time focus instead on how often parents read to their children, play with them or help their with homework over a period of a month or longer — long enough to represent their different approaches to parenting.
As an exhausted parent who doesn’t get enough time to work out, and who hasn’t seen a movie for months, I understand why so many of us might seize on studies suggesting that we should take more time for ourselves. Perhaps we should. But I agree with Ariel Kalil, a developmental psychologist, on the suggestion “that when parents spend high-quality time with their children, their children are more likely to succeed.”
1. By saying in Paragraph 1 “ ... it’s a claim that ... does not bold water”, the author means the claim is not ________.| A．reasonable | B．surprising | C．confusing | D．usual |
| A．children’s habits and parents’ influence | B．parenting time and child outcomes |
| C．time diaries and child development | D．daily activities and children’s problems |
| A．By giving descriptions. | B．By analyzing the cause. |
| C．By making a comparison. | D．By offering research findings. |
| A．be completed in one month. | B．adopt some different approaches. |
| C．concentrate mainly on learning time. | D．be based on data of a longer time period. |
| A．He goes to bed early every night. | B．He has little interest in movies. |
| C．He has little time for himself. | D．He leads a very easy life. |
3 . Heritage sites of outstanding and universal value located along the African coast are at threat of rising sea levels, and increased climate change adaptation is urgently needed for the protection of the heritage sites, according to research.
The research, published last week by the University of Cape Town’s African Climate and Development Initiative, indicated that more heritage areas are exposed to flooding compared with erosion. Findings showed that 56 of 284 identified African heritage sites are at risk of a 100-year coastal extreme event. Furthermore, the researchers project the number of exposed sites to more than triple by 2050.
Michalis Vousdoukas, scientific officer at the European Commission and lead author of the report, said the Loss of forts and castles along the coast would have strong consequences not only for the people living in their neighborhood, but also the international community. He said many of the sites are deeply connected with peoples’ identity and tradition, and they are essential for social well-being, safe-guarding traditional knowledge and livelihoods.
The research findings highlight the urgent need for increased climate change adaptation for heritage sites in Africa, including governance and management approaches, site-specific vulnerability assessments, exposure monitoring and protection strategies. The findings also indicated that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would result in a 21 percent reduction of the median exposed area, as well as 25 percent fewer sites that would be highly exposed by the end of the century.
The National Museums of Kenya, a state corporation that manages cultural and natural heritage, is working with communities to conserve sites that are threatened by coastal flooding and erosion. Fatma Twahir, the chief curator （负责人） of heritage site Fort Jesus in Kenya’s coastal Mombasa city, told Kenya News Agency that the National Museums of Kenya has partnered with the cultural protection fund to train curators and communities living near the heritage sites to keep them safe.
1. What does the underlined word “event” refer to in the context?| A．the natural disaster | B．the loss of forts and castles |
| C．the international support | D．the environment adaptation measures |
| A．Those forts and castles are of great economic value in terms of tourism. |
| B．The loss of those sites would conceal the identity of the people living nearby. |
| C．If the sites got damaged, the whole world would be influenced as well as the local. |
| D．The protection of those sites is necessary for the safety of the whole continent. |
| A．Monitoring all the heritage sites. |
| B．Reducing greenhouse gas emissions. |
| C．Assessing the short-term climate change. |
| D．Developing new methods of governing their countries. |
4 . Optimism (乐观) is probably not a surprise that optimistic thinkers tend to be happier than pessimistic thinkers.
Optimists live longer.
Optimistic thinkers have lower rates of high blood pressure, heart disease, and even risk of cancer, as well as lower rates of mortality in general. These health factors may be influenced by optimists’ focus on taking care of themselves.
Optimists are more successful.
Just as optimists tend to be more resilient (有复原力的) outside of the workplace, they are also resilient on the job. Even if their bosses don’t recognize that they’re doing a good job, optimists are able to bounce back and keep performing well. People who are more optimistic also seem to have better job security than less optimistic workers.
People with higher levels of subjective well-being — a mindset that can include optimism — have stronger immune systems and even experience faster wound healing than others with lower levels of well-being. People with positive experiences lowered their rates of depression, physical symptoms, and sleep complaints.
| A．Optimists take fewer sick days. |
| B．Optimists pick themselves up faster. |
| C．But there are other benefits to being optimist. |
| D．They are more likely to live to age 85 or older. |
| E．Optimists are more likely to take steps to cope with it. |
| F．This improved security can even lead to increased optimism. |
| G．Optimists tend to exercise more, sleep better and eat healthier. |
5 . Feeling controlled by your to-do list can certainly make you unhappy, but new research suggests that more free time might not be the magic elixir (灵丹妙药) many of us dream it could be.
In a new study shown last week, researchers analyzed data from two major surveys about how Americans spend their time. Together, the surveys included more than 35,000 respondents (受访者). The researchers found that people with more free time generally had higher levels of subjective well-being—but only up to a point.
People who had up to two hours of free time a day generally reported they felt better than those who’d had less time. But people who had five or more hours of free time a day generally said they felt worse.
So finally the free-time “sweet spot” might be two to three hours per day, the findings suggest. “While too little time is bad, having more time is not always better,” said Marissa Sharif, lead author of the paper.
Of course, most people know that being too busy can cause stress. But the new study is not the first to question whether more free time will actually make people as happy as they believe it will. Part of “sweet spot” has to do with how people spend the free time. Researchers conducted several smaller online experiments. In one they asked participants to imagine having 3.5 to 7 free hours per day. They were asked to imagine spending that time doing “productive” things (like exercising) or to imagine doing “unproductive” activities (like watching TV).
Study participants believed their well-being would suffer if they had a lot of free time during the day—but only if they used it unproductively. Though that experiment was hypothetical (假设的), which is one limitation of the new research, it’s certainly in line with other research showing that being in a state of “flow” can be good for people’s mental health.
In other words, how people use their free time matters, Sharif said. Of course, what feels “productive” is up to you.
1. What can we know about the new study?| A．It included many American respondents. | B．It surveyed people from different countries. |
| C．It found that more spare time was better. | D．It’s the first to question the importance of free-time. |
| A．Less than 2 hours. | B．About 3.5 hours. | C．About 2 to 3 hours. | D．More than 7 hours. |
| A．The experiment included unproductive activities. |
| B．The experiment wasn’t in line with other researches. |
| C．The experiment didn’t include enough participants. |
| D．The experiment was not based on adequate evidence. |
| A．Being productive is an important matter. |
| B．The way people spend their spare time makes a difference. |
| C．Being in a state of “free” can be good for people’s mental health. |
| D．More free time will actually make people as happy as they believe. |
6 . ChatGPT has quickly become popular around the world because of its advanced conversational abilities. It can answer questions, do translations, give the main idea of articles and even write codes (代码) for a computer program. It is as good as a human inside a computer.
ChatGPT is making life very convenient. A time might come when people hand it some articles and it makes a well-made report. That could, however, mean job losses. After all, if a computer program can write codes, then it would make a programmer lose his job.
That may be a worry, but it is still too early to worry about that. ChatGPT has more advanced learning features, but it still follows the same technological way. Its biggest advantage lies in the ability to turn words into a language from an ocean of data, but it's still not that creative. AI can quickly draw a picture, but that picture will be based on pictures that it has seen. It can also write books about the future, but the books will be based on articles about the future that it has read.
In comparison, a human brain imagines the future and then tries hard to realize it. AI can imagine a future with faster spaceships, but it can't imagine a world of space as humans can.
So there is no need to worry too much. By being creative there will be plenty of chances for humans to win over AI.
1. What does the underlined word “It” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．The world. | B．ChatGPT. | C．A computer. | D．A program. |
| A．By telling stories. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By listing numbers. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．It has its own creativity. |
| B．It has conversational abilities. |
| C．It has more advanced learning features. |
| D．It has the ability to turn words into a language. |
| A．Sports. | B．Science. | C．Education. | D．Business. |
7 . Recently, there is a view on the Internet that “the rise of pig price will lead to the rise of other food prices, thus leading to a substantial rise in overall prices”. It should be said that this judgment is not scientific. We should objectively understand the position of pork price in the overall price and its possible linkage effect.
At present, the main problem faced by the pork price is the lack of pork production capacity, which has nothing to do with inflation and will not lead to inflation. The rise of pork price only affects the upstream and downstream of pig industry and other related products such as meat, but has limited impact on the overall price. At present, China's agricultural product supply is sufficient; the production capacity of consumer goods is constantly improving; the service supply is more diversified, and the monetary policy remains stable, which provides a solid foundation for the stable operation of prices.
Keeping prices, especially the prices of important people's livelihood commodities, basically stable is related to the basic life of the people. In the face of rising pork prices, the state's policy of ensuring supply and stabilizing prices continues to increase. From choosing the right opportunity to put frozen meat reserve to starting the price subsidy mechanism, from rectifying the improper restriction and prohibition measures to protecting the land for pig farms, from special financial support to financial insurance escort, all departments are taking measures. With the gradual effectiveness of the measures, the price of pork will be stable in the future. It is worth noting that the data of the Ministry of Commerce on September 10th shows that the increase of pork wholesale price has fallen back from the previous week (from September 2nd to 8th).
1. From the first paragraph of the article, what’s the correct point of view we can get?| A．The rise of pig price will lead to the rise of other food prices, which will lead to the sharp rise of overall prices. |
| B．The rise of pig price will lead to the decrease of other food prices, which will lead to the sharp decline of overall price. |
| C．People should objectively understand the position of pork price in the overall price and its possible linkage effect. |
| D．It is not important to understand the position of pork price in the overall price and the linkage effect it can produce. |
| A．The reason for the rise of pork price is related to inflation. |
| B．The reason for the rise of pork price is related to the death of pigs. |
| C．The reason for the rise of pork price is related to market demand. |
| D．The reason for the rise of pork price is related to the lack of pork production capacity. |
| A．The price of pork will keep rising. | B．The price of pork will probably be stable. |
| C．The price of pork will not be stable. | D．The price of pork will never be stable. |
| A．The Price of Pork Is Rising. |
| B．What will People Do in the Face of Rising Pork Prices? |
| C．The Impact of Rising Pork Prices. |
| D．The Impact of Rising Pork Prices on People. |
8 . According to a research, more than 130 billion pounds of uneaten food go to waste in Laura’s county each year. That is about 30% of the yearly food supply (供应). It is a sad fact, especially when you consider how many families and homeless people are in hunger.
When Laura saw her school dining hall throw away food that was not eaten at all every day, she came up with an idea. She started a project to help her school dining hall to give away uneaten food to homeless shelters (避难所) in her community. In the past three years, the same protect has spread to other schools and some fast food restaurants throughout the city. The project is called Feed & Find, which has already fed thousands of people in her city.
How does it work? Through an app, Feed & Find matches local homeless shelters with school dining halls and restaurants that have uneaten food to provide. When dining halls or restaurants have uneaten food left, they can use the app to share the information about the food. A truck driver working for the project is then sent to pick it up and take it to a shelter.
Pretty cool, right? It’s not surprising that people in other cities have got in touch with Laura, to hoping that she could help develop similar projects for their communities.
Some people, however, dread the safety of the uneaten food. They think such food may not be clean enough. Still, this project is a clever way to help solve the problem of food waste and it helps those in need.
1. The numbers in Paragraph 1 tell us ________.| A．some people are poor | B．food waste is serious |
| C．the population is large | D．the research is interesting |
| A．her school dining hall | B．her family |
| C．a fast food restaurant | D．a homeless shelter |
| A．find a truck driver | B．visit their communities |
| C．give away food to them | D．help develop projects like hers |
| A．ways | B．secrets | C．worries | D．decisions |
9 . In order to reduce the risk of suffering from COVID-19, people are supposed to say no to a handshake, give up high fives, refuse kisses on the cheek and absolutely avoid hugging. So people all over the world are changing their daily habits at work and at home to prevent it from spreading.
In France, handshaking is regarded as daily greeting habits. And kissing on the cheek is often seen even between people who have only just met. Philippe Lichtfus, a lifestyle expert notices that handshaking is a relatively recent development in human history that began in the Middle Ages. Now, he says simply looking into a person’s eyes can serve as a greeting.
The Brazilian health ministry has suggested that citizens should not share the metal straws traditionally used to drink the caffeine-rich drink chimarrão. And a kiss — even if it is not on the mouth — is totally advised against.
One of Spain’s most treasured traditions is also affected by the outbreak — the kissing of sculptures (雕塑) of Virgin Mary in the week leading up to Easter. During the holy week, the faithful believers queue up to kiss the hands or feet of sculptures of Mary and the saints, seeking their protection.
Germany’s interior minister (内政部长) Horst Seehofer rebuffed Chancellor (总理) Angela Merkel’s try to shake hands with him, smiling and keeping both his hands to himself. They both laughed and Merkel threw her hand up in the air before taking a seat.
In Iran, a video has gone viral (走红) showing three friends meeting, hands in their pockets, two of whom are wearing masks, tapping their feet against each other as a greeting. A similar video in Lebanon shows singer Ragheb Alama and comedian Michel Abou Sleiman tapping their feet against each other while making kissing noises with their mouths.
The UAE (阿拉伯联合酋长国) is advising citizens to stop the traditional “nose to nose” greeting. The UAE also said that people shouldn’t shake hands anymore or kiss. Greet each other “by waving only”.
1. What can we learn from Philippe Lichtfus?| A．Handshaking has a long history. |
| B．It is suggested that people look into other’s eyes as a greeting. |
| C．People can continue to kiss on the cheek. |
| D．It is unusual for two people who have just met to kiss on the cheeks. |
| A．Appreciated. | B．Welcomed. | C．Accepted. | D．Refused. |
| A．People who believe in Virgin Mary must be disappointed to cancel (取消) the ceremony. |
| B．Several traditional greeting habits are advised against in the UAE. |
| C．Brazilians are crazy about drinking the caffeine-rich drink chimarrão. |
| D．Tapping feet against each other has already become a daily greeting in Iran. |
| A．People change their greeting styles to protect themselves. |
| B．Some new greeting styles become popular. |
| C．Different countries have different greeting styles. |
| D．Some old greeting styles are out of date. |
| A．He agrees with the woman. |
| B．The woman should be polite. |
| C．The woman’s concern is useless. |
