阅读赛项考查选手的阅读基本功、知识储备、跨文化能力、思辨能力、创新能力等。赛题融入习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想和中华优秀传统文化，展现当代中国的发展成就和经验；同时兼具全球视野，展现多元文化，引导选手胸怀天下，为推动国际交流合作打好基础。阅读文本贴近真实阅读场景，激发选手阅读兴趣，增强选手阅读体验，引导选手关注和分析实际问题。
赛题说明：
校赛（全国统一线上初赛）题目包含Read and Know，Read and Reason，Read and Question三个模块。
省赛和国赛题目包含Read and Know，Read and Reason，Read and Question，Read and Create四个模块。
Read and Know 读以明己
客观题，考查选手对习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想重要论述、中华思想文化术语、名人名言等的阅读积累及对其他各类短篇材料的信息获取、理解与分析能力。
本模块在校赛阶段为15题，每题2分；在省赛和国赛阶段为16题，每题1分。建议作答时间20分钟。
Read and Reason 读以察世
客观题，考查选手对不同题材、不同体裁的中短篇文本的信息获取、判断及逻辑推理能力。
本模块在校赛阶段为10题，每题3分；在省赛和国赛阶段为12题，每题2分。建议作答时间30分钟。
Read and Question 读以启思
客观题，考查选手对同主题下多篇较长文本的信息获取、对比、分析及整合能力。一般为两个主题，每个主题下包含2—3篇不同角度和语言特点的论述性阅读材料。
本模块为10题，校赛阶段每题4分，省赛和国赛阶段每题3分。建议作答时间40分钟。
Read and Create 读以言志
主观题，话题选自2023阅读赛项官方指定书目，考查选手对文本的阅读理解、提炼总结、评价论述能力，思辨能力及创新能力。
本模块仅在省赛和国赛阶段考查，共30分，建议作答时间30分钟。评分标准如下：
注：此套样题前三模块为校赛难度，最后的主观题模块为省赛难度，文末附有参考答案。
Part I Read and Know (30 marks) (20 MINS)
There are short texts of various kinds in this part. Read the directions and answer the questions.
Question 1
Directions: Read the text and answer the question.
The Chase Diamond Reserve is a great credit card for people who expect to be on the road again in the second half of 2023 and into 2024. Despite a high annual fee, the card offers luxury travel perks such as airport lounge access and strong travel insurance protections, along with a number of statement credits to help offset its cost.
1. Where is the text most probably taken from?
A. An airport notice.
B. A user review.
C. An advertisement.
D. A product instruction.
Question 2
Directions: Read the brief news in 2021 and answer the question.
2. What do we know from the news?
A. The zoo was built specifically for filming the documentary series Tiger King.
B. Tiger King was an extremely successful documentary series about animal rights.
C. A federal judge found the cat zoo owner guilty of violating the animal welfare law.
D. All the big cats in the zoo were ordered to be transferred to the federal government.
Question 3
Directions: Read the text and answer the question.
As the saying goes: if your granny doesn’t recognise what’s in it, it’s probably not real food. Yet half the food we take home is made in factories from a list of ingredients and additives as long as your arm, most of which never found a place in any grandparents’ kitchen cupboard—and wouldn’t in yours or mine today.
The UK is a nation of ultra-processed-food eaters. Our lives have become too fast-paced to cook from scratch and our taste buds now crave the sweet and salty flavors that ultra-processed foods deliver. Our bread is fluffy and sticks to the teeth like candy floss. Our yogurts are super-sweet and creamy. We have ready meals that are shelf-stable (long life without refrigeration), which we can prise open, heat, eat and go.
3. What is the author’s attitude towards ultra-processed food?
A. Critical B. Impartial C. Defensive D. Mixed
Question 4
Directions: Read the text and answer the question.
In a bid to step up economic and social progress, it is imperative that all sectors work in unison. . The public and private sectors of the economy should be mutually reinforcing and beneficial; there is no need for conflict or strife.
—Xi Jinping: The Governance of China II
4. Which of the following sentences best fits in the blank?
A. A thing is yet to be done until it is done.
B. Clear waters and green mountains are invaluable assets.
C. The flame leaps high when everybody adds wood to a fire.
D. Distance tests a horse’s strength, and time reveals a person’s integrity.
Questions 5-6
Directions: Read the text and answer the questions.
As if a declining population wasn’t bad enough, a rare species of bird in Australia has now forgotten how to sing. The falling numbers of the Regent Honeyeater mean that fewer adults are around to pass on to young males the melodies they need to know to attract a mate—a problem that can only exacerbate the current situation. Some hope lies in the fact that honeyeaters are famously good mimics, and so scientists are investigating if they can be retaught their vocal skills by artificial means in a lab. And perhaps, we cheekily suggest, our feathered friends could be taught some new tunes at the same time? A bit of William Byrd would be an obvious place to start ..
5. What does the word exacerbate probably mean?
A. settle
B. reduce
C. control
D. worsen
6. What is the best title for the text?
A. Songful Dismissal Proves a Worry for a Male Bird
B. Regent Honeyeaters Are Being Pushed to the Brink
C. A New Application of Artificial Intelligence in Music
D. Significance of Artificial Environment in Birds' Singing
Questions 7-8
Directions: Read the text and answer the questions.
One thing to remember in our age of instant gratification is that friends aren’t found; instead, friends are made—crafted, really—over time. It takes 6 to 8 conversations before someone considers us a friend. We wish we could walk into a party, instantly connect, and walk out arm-in-arm with a new BFF (Best Friend Forever), but really it’s an incremental process. The good news is that the bar to start is low. It’s been shown again and again that, as long as we are mutually kind to each other, we become friends with whomever we see most often. 8 and repetition are key. So put yourself in situations where you see the same faces again and again: a dog park at the same time each morning, a weekly writer’s workshop, or a co-working space.
7. What factor is essential to friend-making according to the text?
A. Mutual affection.
B. Frequent contact.
C. Instant connection.
D. Face-to-face communication.
8. What is the missing word probably?
A. Inclusion
B. Attraction
C. Proximity
D. Diversity
Questions 9-11
Directions: Match the explanations with the concepts in Chinese thought and culture. Please note there are two extra options.
9. Authors are encouraged to discard mediocre, derivative ideas when writing and their essays should be written in an innovative way. Stereotyped wording and argument and rigid convention should be abandoned.
10. What one talks or writes about should have a sound basis; the language and words he uses should fit the actual context. In doing anything, one should preserve until the goal is met and must never give up halfway.
11. The way to ensure proper governance and operation of a country is to create harmonious relationships among people and let them speak their minds without fear so those in power can benefit from their various opinions.
(From Everyday Wisdom: 365 Concepts in Chinese Thought and Culture)
Questions 12-15
Directions: Read the chart and answer the questions.
Decide whether the following statements are True or False according to the chart.
12. The chart reflects not only the steady and increasing growth in the use of renewables but also the continuous decline in the growth of non-renewable capacity.
True ( ) False ( )
13. The renewable generation capacity in 2020 was more than six times the non-renewable generation capacity.
True ( ) False ( )
14. Renewable generation capacity has accounted for more than half of total electricity generating capacity since 2015.
True ( ) False ( )
15. The renewable generation capacity has been greater than the non-renewable generation capacity since 2012.
True ( ) False ( )
Part II Read and Reason (30 marks) (30 MINS)
There are several texts on different subjects in this part. Read the directions and answer the questions.
Question 16
Directions: Read the text and answer the question.
We live in an age of unprecedented human mastery—over birth and death, body and mind, nature and human nature. // ①If we can dream about a new age of genetic medicine, we can also shudder at a new age of weapons of mass destruction. ②But our gratitude for the benefits of progress increasingly mixes with concern about the meaning and consequences of our newfound powers. ③In every realm of life, science and technology have brought remarkable advances and improvements: We are healthier, wealthier, and more comfortable than ever before. // As we welcome longer lives, we wonder if we will still value human life as we should.
16. What is the right order of the numbered sentences?
(Type the answer in the blank without any spaces or punctuation marks, e.g., 123)
Question 17
Directions: Look at the following picture and answer the question.
17. Which of the following logical fallacies does the advertisement use?
A. Appeal to nature: stating that natural things are either good or better than synthetic ones.
B. Ambiguity: using a double-meaning or an unclear description to mislead or misrepresent the truth.
C. Hasty generalization: making an argument or a statement without sufficient evidence to support it.
D. Bandwagon: trying to persuade people on the fence to join the larger group and reduce their risk of being isolated and alone.
Question 18
Directions: Read the conversation and answer the question.
18. In what way does Lars’s comment relate to Frances’s?
A. It states the logical outcome of Frances’s views.
B. It weakens Frances’s argument by changing the focus of the discussion.
C. It strengthens Frances’s argument by providing support for her premise.
D. It cannot be true if Frances’s assertion about parental responsibility is true.
Questions 19-20
Directions: Read the text and answer the questions.
The eruption in April 1815 of Mount Tambora, a volcano in what is now Indonesia, was one of the largest in recorded history. A vast plume of dust and ash spread around the world, blocking out the sun and reducing global temperatures. In China, the cold weather killed trees, crops and water buffalo. In North America a “dry fog” reddened the sun and there was summer snowfall in New York. Riots and looting broke out in Europe as harvests failed. Food prices soared and tens of thousands of people died from famine and disease. Horses starved or were slaughtered, as the high price of oats forced people to choose whether to feed their animals or themselves.
This last predicament prompted Karl von Drais, a German inventor, to devise a personal-transport machine to replace the horse: a two-wheeled wooden contraption which he called the Laufmaschine (literally, “running machine”). Sitting on a saddle, Drais propelled it by planting his feet on the ground and pushing every few metres, while steering it using a tiller. A demonstration ride, in which he travelled 40 miles in four hours, showed that it was as fast as a trotting horse, and could be powered by its rider without much effort. The tricky part was keeping it balanced while gliding along, which took some practice.
Drais’ invention didn’t replace the horse: The weather returned to normal, leading to a bumper harvest in 1817. Even so, enthusiasts continued to improve on his design. The crucial addition of pedals occurred in France in the 1860s. Other refinements included better brakes, a steel frame, lightweight metal wheels and a chain to drive them. By the late 1880s, these elements had been combined into a recognisably modern design: the bicycle.
An invention prompted by the challenges of a long-forgotten global crisis thus ended up spreading around the world and becoming part of everyday life. Who would have guessed, after all, that a volcano would give rise to the bicycle?
19. What was the difficulty in riding Drais’ bicycle?
A. How to steer it using a tiller.
B. How to propel it using feet.
C. How to keep it in balance.
D. How to drive it faster.
20. What is the best title for this text?
A. How Bicycles Got Refined Step by Step
B. Why Global Crises Are the Mother of Invention
C. The Real Value Behind the Invention of Bicycles
D. The Unexpected Consequence of a Volcano Eruption
Questions 21-22
Directions: Read the text and answer the questions.
Do you hear what I hear? More than just a memorable holiday song, it’s a question that got people talking—talking about Yanny vs. Laurel.
Shortly after a viral audio recording left people wondering why some heard “Yanny” and others clearly heard “Laurel,” we learned that what you heard has less to do with your auditory system and more to do with the brain.
And the saga continues: A new Northwestern University (NU) study has found that bilingual and monolingual people listening to the same person speaking can hear two completely different sounds. The research shows that one’s language experience affects even the most basic cognitive processes, according to Viorica Marian, a professor of communication sciences and disorders and psychology at Northwestern University.
“With Yanny and Laurel, our brain interprets the sound differently depending on how the neurons fire in our brain and based on the history of our linguistic experiences,” Marian said. “We classify the sound waves that come into our ear into linguistic categories that we are familiar with, so we hear a very categorical sound—what happens is the brain interprets the input that comes to us from our senses and transforms it into our perceived reality.”
Your previous auditory and linguistic experience influences how you perceive the sound around you—the world around you—she said. Case in point: If you find accents easy to understand, you may have taken music lessons at some point in your life. Marian said learning the language of music can change the way your brain processes sound.
And if you thought Yanny and Laurel were perplexing, scope out the McGurk effect—wherein what you see affects what you hear. For example, when people hear a speech sound (e.g., “ba”) that conflicts with what they see (e.g. “ga”), they will often perceive a completely different sound (e.g. “da”).
The NU study found that bilinguals are more likely to experience the McGurk effect than monolinguals, because their exposure to another language allows their brain to interpret auditory and visual modalities differently.
“I think that’s maybe why the Yanny and Laurel thing is so fascinating to people because it’s the same sound, but people hear it so differently, and it’s an illustration of what happens in every aspect of our lives without even realizing it,” Marian said.
The Yanny/Laurel uproar began after the release of Marian’s study, but she said it and the bilingual/McGurk effect cases are mutually informative.
“We don’t see with our eyes; we don’t hear with our ears—we perceive with our brain. Our brain interprets the reality of our own lives,” Marian said. “The brain takes the input from the ears, takes the input from the eyes and combines them in an interesting way. It’s fascinating.”
21. What may lead to the Yanny and Laurel phenomenon?
A.Your auditory system.
B.Your musical talent.
C.Your brain structure.
D.Your linguistic experiences.
22. Why does the writer mention the McGurk effect?
A.It is also a confusing perceptual phenomenon.
B.It has a mechanism similar to Yanny and Laurel.
C.It has also aroused people’s extensive concern.
D.It is intimately associated with Yanny and Laurel.
Questions 23-25
Directions: Read the text and answer the questions.
Chinese company Space Transportation wants to take a jab at the growing space tourism market with a winged rocket capable of suborbital travel. The reusable space plane could take wealthy tourists to the edge of space and then land them on the other side of the world in no time. A trip from Beijing to New York would only take an hour.
Space Transportation was founded in 2018 and last August it managed to raise $46 million to develop its flagship supersonic spaceplane. Although details are still sparse, a video presentation on the company’s website shows passengers boarding a vertical plane attached to a glider wing with two boosters. Once it reaches a high altitude in the stratosphere, the airplane detaches from the auxiliary power, with the wing and boosters landing back on the launch pad on their own. The airplane, now in suborbital space, proceeds to its destination, back at the launch site after passengers experience a brief stint of weightlessness or in a different destination altogether, virtually anywhere in the world. Touchdown is done vertically on three legs deployed from the rear, according to Space.com.
The developers behind the project seem pretty serious about it. So far, they’ve made 10 flight tests for the self-landing booster rockets, the last of which was done in collaboration with a combustion research lab from Tsinghua University.
In many ways, Space Transportation sounds like the Chinese version of Virgin Galactic and, to a lesser degree, SpaceX. In the summer of 2021, Virgin CEO Sir Richard Branson made headlines after he went on an 11-minute suborbital flight, reaching 55 miles (88 km) above the Earth’s surface. Just a week later, fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos made it past the Kármán Line, the internationally-recognized boundary of space, at nearly 62 miles (100 km) above the Earth’s surface, aboard a capsule launched by Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable rocket.
Global space tourism is projected to reach just $1.7 billion by 2027, according to a report published in 2021. Virgin Galactic has hundreds of reservations for tickets on future flights, sold between $200,000 and $250,000 each. No reservation data has been made public by Blue Origin, but we can presume they’ll soon start making more commercial space tourism flights.
However, neither Virgin Galactic nor Blue Origin seems to be interested in point-to-point travel. In addition to potential space tourism flights, Space Transportation’s vehicle also doubles as a supersonic plane capable of traveling at more than 2,600 mph. SpaceX had plans for a similar concept when it announced its “Earth to Earth” project in 2017, which repurposes its Big Falcon Rocket originally meant to carry passengers to Mars. But Elon Musk’s company hasn’t released any details about this city-to-city passenger transport since then, which may mean it could have been scrapped entirely.
Perhaps SpaceX found city-to-city supersonic travel financially unfeasible, but Space Transportation doesn’t seem deterred. It is planning ground tests by 2023, the first flight by 2024, and a crewed mission by 2025. Looking farther into the future, the Chinese startup dreams of testing an orbital crew space vehicle, the kind that SpaceX uses to ferry crew and cargo to the International Space Station, by 2030.
23. Why does Space Transportation develop its flagship supersonic spaceplane?
A. To realize the reuse of space planes.
B. To fulfill the supersonic space travel plan.
C. To solve the problems of self-landing rockets.
D. To compete with Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX.
24. What can be learned about Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin?
A. Both have launched suborbital flights.
B. Both aim high at sending passengers to Mars.
C. Both have made a fortune from space tourism.
D. Both are interested in the exploration of outer space.
25. What is the purpose of the text?
A. To encourage wealthy people to reserve space flight tickets.
B. To show the fierce competition in the global space tourism market.
C. To disclose the technological bottleneck of self-landing rockets.
D. To report a Chinese company’s progress in developing supersonic rockets.
Part III Read and Question (40 marks) (40 MINS)
There are two groups of texts in this part, and texts in each group share the same subject. Read the texts and answer the questions.
Questions 26-30
Directions: Read two texts about Confucius and answer the questions.
Text A
Understanding Confucius is one of the ways to understand the minds of the Chinese people.
Confucius’s views are quite different from the pursuit of “seeking your true self” emphasized in the Western philosophy. According to Roger Ames, a professor of the University of Hawaii, Confucius’s views can be concluded as the following: “The way in which we become consummate as human beings lies in the roles and relationships that locate us with our family and community.” This requires one to become a better parent, a better child, a better teacher, a better merchant or a better emperor.
Confucianism teaches that a ruler should rule by virtue, but not by force, with a complete system established to constrain imperial power. This view was highly praised by French philosopher Voltaire, who believed it to be very advantageous, because in Chinese society where Confucianism was taken as the mainstream philosophy, the government only needed to maintain social morality, while the general public could handle everyday affairs through their own moral and ethical judgment.
It is thus clear that the spread of ideas and thoughts is not entirely limited to a particular country or era. With a practical philosophy focusing on the relationship between individuals and society, Confucianism found its way deep into the hearts of the people. Even in our time—the Internet age of the 21st century—Confucius’s theory is still worth learning. Some Chinese entrepreneurs believe that Chinese enterprises can gain fundamental strengths from traditional Chinese culture. They think that a company, which has developed to a considerably large scale but still knows nothing about the ideological system of Confucianism, will have no chance to last in the market.
Ancient Greece, India and China from the sixth century BC to the fourth century BC produced a good number of outstanding philosophers and thinkers, such as Socrates, Sakyamuni and Confucius. This period is hailed as the Axial Age in the history of human civilizations. While the great thinkers of the past may have had no way to communicate with each other, today people can carry out varied cultural exchanges through multiple channels and platforms. It is exactly this mutual understanding, mutual respect and mutual learning among different civilizations that Confucius conveyed to us as “harmony in diversity”.
Text B
Aristotle and Confucius each constructed an ethical system based on virtue, with Aristotle’s ultimate aim being happiness and Confucius’s being harmony. Each addressed a particular problem. For Aristotle, happiness consisted of the search for truth, which, in turn, required a centered, stable individual who could surmount misfortune or weak character. Confucius looked to settle the soul of the Chinese people by creating a system that reflected the heavenly order on Earth. Both systems rely on reasoned means to achieve reasoned ends.
Given the vastly different cultural and historical settings of ancient Greece and China, you may be surprised to find similarities between the Aristotelian and Confucian systems of virtue ethics. Yet not only are there similarities but the two systems share the theme of control. For Aristotle, control manifested itself through the deliberative process of phrónēsis, resulting in virtuous living, harmony, and happiness. This application of practical wisdom was related to self-restraint, or temperance. In Confucian virtue ethics, control was a function of self-regulation; primitive instincts were held at bay and the person gained the capacity and courage to act more humanely. This achievement of control benefitted not only the individual but also the family and, by extension, the nation. Self-regulation was Confucius’s way of establishing order.
In a business context, control bears directly on managerial ethics, which is a way of relating to self, employees, and the organization that balances individual and collective responsibility, and in which management also includes planning, organizing, and leading to achieve organizational goals.
A self-controlled, disciplined manager is able to work through layers of bureaucracy and the complexities of human interaction to attain goals in a way that is responsible and profitable and that enhances the organization’s mission and culture. These goals are achieved not at the expense of stakeholders but in a way that is fair for all. We might even say that righteousness leads to justice, which includes profit. We saw earlier that neither Aristotle nor Confucius disapproved of profit as long as it benefitted humanity in some way. Both men would have a very definite opinion about the optimization of shareholder wealth.
Despite these similarities between the two traditions, there are differences—the most notable being the locus of ethics. Aristotle placed this locus on individuals, who were called to fulfill their purpose honorably, accepting fate with dignity and aplomb. The basis of this acceptance was reason. For Confucius, reflecting the historical plight of China, the locus was the family, which he envisioned as putting an end to anarchy and setting the nation on its proper course by providing the basic pattern of relationships for personal and professional life. To be sure, family counted for Aristotle just as the individual counted for Confucius, but the emphasis in each system was different. Aristotle acknowledged that “a solitary man has a hard life, because it is not easy to keep up a continuous activity by oneself; but in company with others and in relation to others it is easier.”
Regardless of the source of ethical behavior, those engaged in business were required to act with accountability and responsibility. They were accountable to customers and suppliers when delivering commodities like figs, pottery, or olive oil. And they had to conduct themselves responsibly to maintain their personal and professional reputation. Thus, business was the perfect expression of ethics in both the East and the West, because it provided a forum within which virtues were tested in very real ways. Confucius urged each follower to be a great or humane person, or ru, not a small one.
Decide whether the statements are True or False.
26. Both texts agree that the main emphasis of Confucianism is on the relationships between individuals and their family and community.
True ( ) False ( )
27. Both texts explain the reasons that lead to the differences between Confucius’s views and Western philosophy.
True ( ) False ( )
28. Text A mentions Confucius’s teaching on limiting the government’s power, while Text B doesn’t.
True ( ) False ( )
29. Both texts suggest that Confucius and Western philosophers recognize the significance of cultivating virtues as essential to living a moral and ethical life.
True ( ) False ( )
30. Both texts argue that Confucianism transcends time and is still applicable in today’s business context and social life.
True ( ) False ( )
Questions 31-35
Directions: Read three texts about time management and answer the questions.
Text A
Is there any worse time to be interrupted than right now? Regardless of what we’re doing or the nature of the interruption, we often feel as if we have no time to spare at the moment. According to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers feel busier when they are close to finishing a task or reaching a goal.
“We often decline or delay opportunities because we are just so close to finishing what we are doing right now. Consumers often postpone a visit to a financial planner, skip going to the gym, or put off having a drink with a friend just because they are so close to completing what they are doing at the moment,” write authors Ji Hoon Jhang (Oklahoma State University) and John G. Lynch Jr. (University of Colorado). Across three studies, the authors showed that consumers tolerate interruptions less the closer they are to completing a task or achieving a goal.
In one study, consumers were interrupted and asked to take a one-minute survey while on their way to board a plane. When asked to fill out the survey while waiting for the train to the terminal, more consumers declined and those who did the survey reported that they had less spare time than those who were interrupted after arriving at the gate. Interestingly, those waiting for the train had more time to departure than those at the gate. However, being closer to their immediate goal (boarding the train) made them impatient and more likely to turn down the survey.
When consumers are close to reaching a goal (even one that can easily be paused or delayed), they willingly incur costs (both time and money) to avoid interruptions that could actually benefit them. Consumers should understand that they may be feeling really busy just because they are close to finishing a task and not because they are truly pressed for time.
“It may not be harder today to fit in a visit to a financial planner or a trip to the gym than it will be a month from now. But we delay these valuable interruptions because we feel so busy with often trivial tasks that are almost finished. The irony, of course, is that tomorrow, next week, and next month will present just as many tasks and just as many excuses for putting off ‘interruptions’ that could improve our well-being,” the authors conclude.
Text B
For as long as I can recall, I’ve been unreasonably fascinated by other people’s daily schedules. It thrills me to learn, for instance, that Karl Lagerfeld always sleeps for exactly seven hours, no matter when he goes to bed; that he drinks only Diet Coke, and rarely exercises “because my doctor said it’s not necessary”. My bursting mental library of similar trivia includes, naturally, Churchill’s daily 90-minute siesta, but also the fact that Will Self keeps a stove on his desk to brew “strange infusions” of tea while he writes. These days, I encounter such nuggets most frequently in media profiles of web entrepreneurs, presumably because they’re our era’s most envied role models. Thus, I’ve discovered that Maria Popova, who runs the popular Brainpicker account on Twitter, gets so much reading done by taking her Kindle to the gym. And Facebook’s former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, leaves the office at 5.30 pm daily, for dinner with her children at 6 pm. At any hour of the day, I can tell you what four or five famous people are probably doing, should you wish to know. Which, I appreciate, you maybe don’t.
I could claim high-flown motivations for this, and they’d be partly true: to grasp the finer textures of another person’s life is surely the best way really to understand others. Mainly, though, I just want tips. I want to steal the bits of famous people’s routines that lead to success. So I was never going to be able to resist reading Laura Vanderkam’s short e-book, What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast. How you use the early morning, she argues, defines the rest of your day; you can seize control before momentum sweeps you away. The Rev Al Sharpton, we discover, hits the gym at 6 am; others have replaced family dinners with family breakfasts. “If it has to happen,” she writes, “it has to happen first.”
Text C
The most important preliminary to the task of arranging one’s life so that one may live fully and comfortably within one’s daily budget of twenty-four hours is the calm realisation of the extreme difficulty of the task, of the sacrifices and the endless effort which it demands. I cannot too strongly insist on this.
If you imagine that you will be able to achieve your ideal by ingeniously planning out a timetable with a pen on a piece of paper, you had better give up hope at once. If you are not prepared for discouragements and disillusions; if you will not be content with a small result for a big effort, then do not begin. Lie down again and resume the uneasy doze which you call your existence.
It is very sad, is it not, very depressing and sombre? And yet I think it is rather fine, too, this necessity for the tense bracing of the will before anything worth doing can be done. I rather like it myself. I feel it to be the chief thing that differentiates me from the cat by the fire.
“Well,” you say, “assume that I am braced for the battle. Assume that I have carefully weighed and comprehended your ponderous remarks; how do I begin?” Dear sir, you simply begin. There is no magic method of beginning. If a man standing on the edge of a swimming-bath and wanting to jump into the cold water should ask you, “How do I begin to jump?” you would merely reply, “Just jump. Take hold of your nerves, and jump.”
As I have previously said, the chief beauty about the constant supply of time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, and the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoilt, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your career. Which fact is very gratifying and reassuring. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose. Therefore no object is served in waiting till next week, or even until tomorrow. You may fancy that the water will be warmer next week. It won’t. It will be colder.
31. Who has a positive attitude towards good time management?
A. The author of Text A.
B. The author of Text B.
C. The author of Text C.
D. None of the above.
32. Who would embrace the following statement?
To realize effective time management needs a real beginning.
A. The author of Text A.
B. The author of Text B.
C. The author of Text C.
D. None of the above.
33. Which of the following CANNOT be concluded from any text?
A. Willingness may improve efficiency in fulfilling trivial tasks in daily life.
B. Let nature takes its course when beginning the twenty-four hours of life.
C. There is no easy way of doing what we have so long in vain wished to do.
D. Practicing a rigid daily schedule is common for people working in certain industries.
34. The following statement is implied in Text(s) .
Our perception and understanding of time is key in determining how we behave and what decisions we make.
(Type the answer in the blank without any spaces or punctuation marks, e.g., ABC)
35. Choose the best title for each text in order. There are three extra options.
(Type the answer in the blank without any spaces or punctuation marks, e.g., ABC)
A. How To Live On 24 Hours A Day
B. Why Other People’s Schedules Are So Fascinating
C. Other People’s Schedules May Change Your Life
D. Why We Feel Busier When Close to Reaching a Goal
E. Why We Are Often Interrupted When We Are Busy
F. To Live Fully Demands Great Effort
Part IV Read and Create (30 marks) (30 MINS)
There is one text in this part. Read the text and answer the questions with clarity and logic.
From the Soil—The Foundations of Chinese Society (Excerpt)
Fei Xiaotong
Western societies are somewhat like the way we collect rice straw to use to cook our food. After harvest, the rice straw is bound into small bundles; several bundles are bound into larger bundles; and these are then stacked together so that they can be carried on shoulder poles. Each piece of straw belongs in a small bundle, which in turn belongs in a larger bundle, which in turn makes up a stack. The separate straws, the separate bundles, and finally the separate stacks all fit together to make up the whole haystack. In this way, the separately bound bundles can be stacked in an orderly way.
In Western society, these separate units are organizations. By making an analogy between organizations in Western societies and the composition of haystacks, I want to indicate that in Western society individuals form organizations. Each organization has its own boundaries, which clearly define those people who are members and those who are not. That much is always clear. The people in an organization form a group, and their relationship to the organization is usually the same. If there are differences among group members or distinctions among ranks within the organization, these would have been agreed upon earlier as part of the rules of the organization.
In one respect, my analogy is not too appropriate. An individual may join several organizations, but it is impossible for a straw to be in several bundles at the same time. That is the difference between people and straws. My purpose in making the analogy, however, is only to help us see more concretely the pattern of personal relationships in social life, what I will henceforth call the “organizational mode of association” (tuantigeju, 团体格局).
Families in the West are organizations with distinct boundaries. If a Western friend writes to you saying that he will “bring his family” to visit you, he knows very well who will be coming with him. In China, however, this sentence is very ambiguous. In England and America, a family will include the man, his wife, and his children who have not yet grown up. If he is bringing only his wife, he does not use the word family. In China, we often see the sentence “The whole family will come” (hedi guanglin, 阖第光临), but few people can tell what family members should be included in the word di (family). In Chinese, the word jia (family) is used in many ways. Jialide (the one at home) can mean one’s wife. Jiamen (kinsmen) may be directed at a big group of uncles and nephews. Zijiaren (my own people) may include anyone whom you want to drag into your own circle, and you use it to indicate your intimacy with them. The scope of zijiaren can be expanded or contracted according to the specific time and place. It can be used in a very general way, even to mean that everyone under the sun is a jia (one family).
Why are nouns for such basic social units so ambiguous in Chinese? In my opinion, the ambiguity indicates the difference between our social structure and that of the West. Our pattern is not like distinct bundles of straws. Rather, it is like the circles that appear on the surface of a lake when a rock is thrown into it. Everyone stands at the center of the circles produced by his or her own social influence. Everyone’s circles are interrelated. One touches different circles at different times and places.
36. Answer the following questions in complete sentences with clarity and logic. Remember to write in your OWN words. Your answers will be evaluated based on content, language, and organization.
(1) What analogies does Fei Xiaotong use to describe Western and Chinese social structures? (5 marks)
(2) What differences are reflected by the two analogies? (15 marks)
(3) Do you agree with the two analogies by Fei Xiaotong? Why or why not? (10 marks)
参考答案：
Part I Read and Know
1. C; 2. C; 3. A; 4. C; 5. D; 6. A; 7. B; 8. C; 9. B; 10. A; 11. D; 12. False; 13. False; 14. True; 15. False
Part II Read and Reason
16. 321; 17. C; 18. C; 19. C; 20. B; 21. D; 22. B; 23. B; 24. A; 25. D
Part III Read and Question
26. True; 27. False; 28. True; 29. True; 30. False; 31. B; 32. B; 33. A; 34. ABC; 35. DCA
Part IV Read and Create
（以下答案仅供参考）
(1) Fei Xiaotong uses distinct bundles of rice straws to describe the structure of Western society and circles of ripples to describe the structure of Chinese society.
(2) The analogies illustrate major differences in the internal relationships and the boundaries of society. Western society is characterized by the separateness of individual members inside and clear boundaries outside; in contrast, Chinese society is highlighted by the connectedness of a person with other members, and its dynamic boundaries.
Western society is composed of separate independent individuals who may as well join different groups. However, Chinese society is formed as a result of personal connections, which is compared to the ripples resulting from the drop of a stone. This also follows that there would be no societies without personal connections, and that when the connections change to the time and the place, the members and the boundaries of societies change too.
(3) If yes, reasons, examples and/or details should be provided to support the answer and illustrate the analogies. If no, reasons, examples and/or details should be provided to support the answer. Different analogies can be used to explain the differences between Western and Chinese societies.
