相关试卷

Anthony was a fifth-grade student in the Albany Elementary School. Speaking frankly, he was not the brightest student, nor the most athletic in the school, But he had a real enthusiasm (热情) for learning and always approached his studies with strong curiosity. Every morning, he would greet the school day with a wide and genuine (真诚的) smile that brightened the entire classroom. His classmates couldn't help but be influenced by his optimistic attitude towards life, which helped him become very popular and also form many friendships at school.

One unexpected day, the teacher announced a surprise test. It was a subject that Anthony had struggled with. Meanwhile, he was not fully prepared. As the papers were distributed, Anthony's heart sank. He looked around, hoping for some inspiration, but all he saw were the anxious expressions of his classmates. The silence in the room was deafening, broken only by the occasional sound of turning papers.

As he began to write, Anthony realized that he knew only a fraction (小部分) of the answers. His mind raced, trying to recall anything that might help him, but in vain. Just then, a piece of paper flew across the room and landed on Anthony's desk.

注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Para. 1 It was a note from one of his friends, offering him the answers.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Para. 2 With a deep breath, Anthony picked up the note and slowly tore it into pieces.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. 阐述你对这一现象的观点；2. 给出合理的使用建议。

注意：1. 词数80字左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Dear Editor,

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

Consciousness is a concept that is extremely difficult to define. There have been many attempts: is it awareness, or awareness of that awareness, or self-awareness instead? But a useful working definition might be that it is any kind of subjective experience, ranging from how we perceive the external world to our inner thoughts and emotions. Because you can never be inside another living being's head, questions of consciousness are both hard to answer and open to bias (偏见).

Findings of experiments inspired a group of scientists in April to write The New York Declaration Animal Consciousness, which now has over 300 supporters. It states that there is "strong scientific support for conscious experience" in mammals and birds and "at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience" in fish and other species.

That animals have some form of inner life must surely be self-evident to many people who live or work with them, just as I would guess that most carers of newborn babies don't see these infant as senseless automatic machines. The experiences of people with thorough knowledge of either have historically, been viewed as subjective and biased, as emotional connection tends to influence logical reasoning. Our consciousness leads us to over-empathize with others we cannot truly know, the argument goes.

But, as the biologist Marc Bekoff wrote, if we humans have something, then other animals are likely to have it too. I personally feel that attempts to divorce emotion, feeling and experience from how we see animals can be as unscientific. For too long, we assumed that humans are unique and animals don't feel pain or emotions the way that we do, a convenient but cruel null hypothesis (无效假设), when we could have started from the position that perhaps they do instead.

While outdoor field studies can happen throughout the year we hope this month's "Growing Healthy Schools" theme inspires you to plan something special that will connect your students to the world around them.

Below are some recommendations on activities and projects:

Explore Your neighborhood

See the environmental features of the District's neighborhoods through the eyes of a landscape architect by going on a self-guided walking tour developed by the American Society of Landscape architects (ASLA).

Get Close to the Anacostia River

Take your students on the water by going on a field experience with Anacostia Watershed Society, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, or Living Classrooms. Want to stay on land? Try visiting Kingman Island or Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens to see amazing wildlife habitat along the river that runs through the District.

Discover Environmental exhibits at Museums

Here are some ideas of museum exhibits and programs on the National Mall that can integrate environmental themes: history of food, plants, Native Americans, natural history investigations, and satellite observations.

Gone Fishing

Want to see the fish, frogs, and turtles that call the District home? Take a tour of the Aquatic Resources Education Center, where you can also schedule a fishing activity for your students. For more information, contact Teresa Rodriguez by emailing Teresa.Rodriguez@ dc.gov.

If you would like assistance planning or carrying out any of these projects, please contact Grace Manubay, environmental officer at the Office of the State Superintendent of Education by emailing Grace.Manubay@dc.gov or visiting OSSE's website.

The setting sun bathed the simple mud-walled African savanna classroom in golden afterglow. Lin Wan clutched her crumpled China return ticket, her voice soft as a breeze: "Children, I'm heading back to China next week." A hush fell — so still, she heard acacia leaves whisper outside. Amina twisted her dress hem, eyes red as ripe hibiscus. Kamal bowed his head, tracing the Chinese "ai" (love) Lin Wan taught him on his desk, jaw set tight, refusing to cry.

A faint, heavy sadness lingered afterward. The children stopped swarming with questions, moving quietly as if hiding a secret. Amina arrived early to polish Lin Wan's podium and straighten the chalk; Kamal squatted behind the classroom, scratching stone marks in the dirt, clamming up when asked. Lin Wan bought colored pencils as a gift, but Amina shook her head, tears spilling: "Teacher Lin, we don't want pencils. We want you to stay."

The afternoon before her departure, Lin Wan heard a commotion — raised voices, sniffs, and whimpers. She found the children huddled: Kamal gripped a crumpled paper, urgent: "We must show Teacher Lin our work!" Amina cried, "What if she worries we're not ready?" Spotting her, they fell silent. Amina looked up, eyes glistening: "Teacher Lin, can you come to the classroom first tomorrow? We have something for you."

Dawn still pale, Lin Wan pulled her suitcase to the classroom — door locked, a wooden plank propped against it, scrawled with lopsided Chinese: "Answer three questions to leave." Kamal peeked out, serious as an adult: "First, what does ‘persistence' mean?" Lin Wan knelt, gentle: "It means keeping going, even when it's hard."

They opened the door: desks pushed aside, a stone path lined with bright painted stones — pictures of her teaching, flying kites, braiding Amina's hair. "If you leave, will your love stay?" Amina asked. Lin Wan nodded, tears pricking her eyes: "It will grow brighter every day." Kamal held out a tattered cloth bag: "You said education ignites light, not illuminates the road. Can we be that next light?"

注意：

1.续写词数应为150左右；

2.请按如下格式在答题卷的相应位置作答。

Lin Wan opened the bag and saw the children's dreams and their rough teaching logs.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Months later, Lin Wan received a photo from the children.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

要求：1.明确观点，阐释原因；2.有适当的例子。

注意：1. 写作词数应为80左右；2. 请在答题卡的相应位置作答。

JUST SPEAK CONFIDENTLY

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When I arrived in China to teach law, I didn't expect tea to become such a significant part of my journey.   

It began as simple gifts from students—Yunnan Pu'er, Zhejiang Longjing, and Henan tea sourced by a student's grandfather—soon revealed deeper meanings. In a country where many students live far from home, tea serves as a (port) bridge to their childhood, family, and heritage. It transformed me from a tourist into a respected guest.

Some of my most memorable moments were spent with a teacup in hand. In Chengdu, students rinsed (冲洗) cups and discarded the first brew, not for hygiene (卫生), but to honor ancestral (continue). In Beijing, a professor taught me that tea ceremony emphasizes mindfulness over rigid mastery. Even in a tiny porcelain studio in Quanzhou, tea became a universal language of friendship, connecting strangers through shared stories rather than commercial transactions.

Chinese teahouses, (locate) in bustling cities, offer a rare sanctuary to slow down.Had it not been for those warm tea-sharing moments, I (miss) the chance to feel the genuine kindness of the Chinese people. the West, tea is often functional, Chinese tea is relational and ceremonial. It commands reverence, much like French wine or Scotch whisky, embodying terroir, lineage, and regional identity.

Tea (journey) from an enigma to a beloved responsibility, emerged stories that span cultures and generations . Now, it is my go-to gift for loved ones back home. These leaves are no longer just souvenirs; they are tokens of a shared journey and a profound appreciation for the history, hospitality, and human connection that Chinese tea (represent).

Her problem was the lack of1 — far from being bad, she thought she was2. But underneath that, it was a set of misunderstandings, any one of which would have been enough to make you3 to eat at her house. She thought everything could be4 by a dried apricot (杏). She was extremely experimental but ignored basic5. So when she died earlier this year, I6 many things would make me7 her, but none of the things would be edible (可食用的). The only8 thought I could have would be: "Thank God. I never have to eat that peanut soup again, which had an apricot in it."

And I have to talk about her apple tree. It's just a9 tree, but it produces enough apples to10 an army over a mountain. For three months of every year, I could never go and see her without her saying, "Please take some apples," and handing me a huge basket. I would say, "No, nobody in my 11 likes apples and I don't even like12." and she'd go, "How about just these 37 apples at the top?", and I'd go, "No."

Of course, this autumn, I've been13 by the need to finish them all. I've made a lot of things with apples, and I've eaten vast amounts of food that are apple-associated. As the14 draws to a close, I can't15 enough: eat your mother's apples while she's still alive. They're quite tasty.

The findings challenge the popular "10,000-hour rule," which posits that deliberate practice alone leads to mastery. Importantly,. Instead they show that top adult performers tend to be "late bloomers," Macnamara says.In sports, for instance, world-class athletes peak later than national-class athletes. Those that peak early achieve a level that is the best for their age.

The findings are intriguing, says Edson Filho, an associate professor of sport.Certain sports, such as gymnastics, see athletes hit peak performance far earlier in life than others, he points out, and the analysis doesn't get into other factors, such as money and coaching, that can influence who becomes the cream of the crop.

The research emphasizes that people change.To become an expert, you need to consistently perform at a high level under the most challenging of conditions, he says. "That's a long journey."

The findings matter for institutions and coaches who might be biased toward directing resources at the kids who show the most promise in a given field early on rather than those who have the most potential to reach a world-class level. The research holds a message, too, for people who want to pursue a skill or dream but who didn't win their school competition or make it to the top of their youth league: do not despair,Macnamara says."For people who didn't follow the prodigy route," she says. "Most world-class performers didn't achieve that goal immediately either."

A. know you are in good company!

B. your journey is just beginning!

C. What does it take to become the best?

D. the findings don't suggest that you don't need to put in effort to become a grandmaster or a winner

E. The research dispels the notion that early, narrow focus is essential

F. but that isn't as high as what the other group will eventually achieve at a later age

G. Children can get burned out or simply lose interest

To find out what might be going on, researchers looked at the body size and chest circumference of 770 adult polar bears captured during this monitoring between 1992 and 2019. Leaner polar bears, with less fat stores to see them through hard times, can be an early warning sign of a struggling population, so body condition can indicate how a population is faring. 

Scientists had predicted that diminishing (逐渐减少的) sea ice would leave polar bears thinner and in poorer body condition, and Jon Aars, the lead author from the Norwegian Polar Institute, who observed rapid ice loss in Svalbard, expected this trend to harm the local bears' physical state.

Their new findings revealed the opposite. The bears' body condition decreased between 1995 and 2000 before improving again, even though the region was rapidly losing sea ice after 2000. "I was a bit surprised when we found that it had actually increased instead of decreasing," says Aars. "It's good news that they have coped so well, despite nowhere else in the Arctic having sea ice disappear at this rate."

This doesn't mean the bears aren't affected by climate change. They have been forced to spend more time on land hunting less energy-rich foods, such as seabird eggs, and swim further between hunting and mating grounds. They have also lost important denning areas."The good news is that they're still in good health," Aars says.

One cause is Svalbard bears preying on more land animals like reindeer, whose numbers rebounded after overhunting, supplying summer food when bears usually fast. Reduced ice may also cluster ringed seals tightly, making them easier to hunt.

This is only a small window of hope, not long-term safety. Experts warn the ecosystem could hit a irreversible tipping point, and future conditions for the bears will grow harsher. Other Arctic subpopulations decline with less ice, and each group is shaped by its local habitat.

Although these polar bears are currently doing well, that won't continue if the ice disappears completely, says Aars: "You don't have polar bears anywhere where you don't have sea ice for part of the year."

The data comes from neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath, who has spent years reviewing standardized testing results across age groups. Horvath told the New York Post. The declines cut across attention, memory, literacy, numeracy, executive function, and general IQ. That's not just one vulnerable spot. That's the entire dashboard blinking at once.

Horvath took the same message to Capitol Hill(国会) during a 2026 Senate hearing on screen time and children. His framing skipped the generational dunking and focused on exposure. "More than half of the time a teenager is awake, half of it is spent staring at a screen," he told lawmakers. Human learning, he argued, depends on sustained attention and interaction with other people. Endless feeds and condensed content don't offer either.

Schools leaned hard into technology during the same window. Educational software replaced textbooks, long readings, and extended problem-solving. After class, students returned to phones, tablets, and laptops, bouncing between social feeds and bite-sized explanations of material they never sat with for very long. Horvath described the outcome as students trained to skim. Skimming feels efficient, but it doesn't build depth.

"I'm not anti-tech. I'm pro-rigor," Horvath told the Post. Rigor, in his view, comes from friction. Reading full texts. Working through confusion. Spending time with material that doesn't immediately reward you. Take that friction away, and cognitive skills dull. Brains adapt to the environment they're given, and this one prizes speed over staying power.

The same decline appears outside the United States. Horvath told senators that across roughly 80 countries, academic performance drops after digital technology becomes widely embedded in classrooms. The timing alone raises serious questions about how learning environments affect cognitive development.

Horvath summed it up bluntly during his testimony. "A sad fact our generation has to face is this: Our kids are less cognitively capable than we were at their age." His recommendation focused on restraint, dialing back screens in schools, and restoring depth before the next generation is doomed.

Short wings. A falcon's (隼) short wings! That's the answer! What a fool I've been! All I need is a tiny little wing, all I need is to fold most of my wings and fly on just the tips alone! Short wings! He climbed two thousand feet above the black sea, and without a moment for thought of failure and death, he brought his forewings tightly in to his body, left only the narrow swept daggers of his wingtips extended into the wind, and fell into a vertical (垂直的) dive. Seventy miles per hour, ninety, a hundred and twenty and faster still. The wing-strain now at a hundred and forty miles per hour wasn't nearly as hard as it had been before at seventy, and with the faintest twist of his wingtips he eased out of the dive and shot above the waves, a gray cannonball under the moon.

He closed his eyes to slits against the wind and rejoiced. A hundred forty miles per hour! And under control! If I dive from five thousand feet instead of two thousand, I wonder how fast...Hisvows of a moment before were forgotten, swept away in that great swift wind. Yet he felt guiltless, breaking the promises he had made himself. Such promises are only for the gulls that accept the ordinary. One who has touched excellence in his learning has no need of that kind of promise.

By sunup, Jonathan Gull was practicing again. From five thousand feet the fishing boats were specks in the flat blue water, Breakfast Flock was a faint cloud of dust motes, circling. He was alive, trembling ever so slightly with delight, proud that his fear was under control. Then without ceremony he hugged in his forewings, extended his short, angled wingtips, and plunged directly toward the sea. By the time he passed four thousand feet he had reached terminal velocity, the wind was a solid beating wall of sound against which he could move no faster. He was flying now straight down, at two hundred fourteen miles per hour. He swallowed, knowing that if his wings unfolded at that speed he'd be blown into a million tiny shreds of seagull. But the speed was power, and the speed was joy, and the speed was pure beauty. This was his life. Not to scavenge (搜寻食物) and follow boats, but to fly, to learn, and to be the finest gull the sky had ever known.          

— Jonathan Livingston Seagull Adapted

The fair's highlights reflect China's foreign trade transformation, driven by policy dividends and tech innovation:

Market Diversification & Policy Empowerment

BRI countries remained the core market, contributing over 60% of the total turnover . RCEP's tariff (关税) reduction and customs facilitation policies boosted trades, with many enterprises saving over $100,000 in tariffs via origin certificates .Major growth in high-potential markets: EU buyers rose by 32.7%, Brazil by 33.2%, showing restored confidence in Chinese products .406 leading enterprises formed purchasing delegations (代表团), a 7.9% increase, focusing on high-value-added goods .

New Quality Productive Forces on Display

Over 4.6 million exhibits featured prominent innovation, with new, green, and IP products each accounting for over 23% .

Green products:880,000 low-carbon items were showcased, with 63.5% of exhibitors holding international green certifications .

Intelligent exhibits:Service robots, AI-assisted devices, and 3D-printed products gained popularity, with the first dedicated service robot zone attracting 46 enterprises .

Digital & Green Service Upgrade

The fair leveraged (利用) tech to enhance efficiency and sustainability.

Digital empowerment: "Bluetooth+5G+Beidou" booth navigation and 30-second quick accreditation were adopted, with 477,000 users of the AI-enhanced app .

Green operations: Modular booth construction cut costs by 50% and time by 75%, with over 90% recycling rate . A 3,000㎡ zone linked export products to domestic markets, facilitating dual circulation .

My next-door neighbor, Pat, hadn't said a friendly word since the day we moved in. Pat lived alone and worked from home, with visits from his teenage son and daughter. I could understand his need for privacy and my family had tried our best not to bother him. However, things got worse that summer morning.

At that time, homeowners in our neighbourhood were putting up fences to contain their pets and kids. We offered Pat the opportunity to share the cost of a fence between our yards. He first agreed, but later became unwilling. Finally, we just had the fence put up ourselves.

On that particular morning, I had been gardening out front when Pat threw a large doggy waste from his lawn onto ours. Frustrated, I walked right over and tried to explain, "Our dog is a Chihuahua! There is no way he did that."

But Pat wouldn't listen and claimed that our dog did it. "Keep your dog and your kids off my yard, and you get off my yard too," he shouted.

My frustration turned to anger. I had never been treated with such disrespect by someone, especially a neighbor. I stormed in my front door and called my husband, Kevin, at work. His advice: Stay away from Pat.

And so I did. Pat returned the favor. We tried to avoid any kind of unexpected run-in with each other. Weeks passed in such awkwardness until one morning, when I saw Pat tending vegetables in his yard. Suddenly, I felt a twinge of guilt. I was no more a model neighbor than Pat was! I'd been hurt by his words; maybe he'd been hurt by mine. I felt ready to do something. But how should I take a neighborly step forward? I turned to Kevin for advice, who assured me that an opportunity would present itself if my heart was truly willing.

Then one day, I noticed something moving in the backyard vegetable garden. It was an orange kitten (小猫). I had raised kittens for years and I loved doing it. Nothing melted my heart like a sweet, innocent kitten.

注意：(1)续写词数应为150个左右；

(2)请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Just then, a knock sounded at the front door.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The kitten became a frequent visitor ever since.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. 活动方案；

2. 阐述理由。

注意：(1) 写作词数应为80左右；

(2) 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Dear editor,

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Golf: China's ancient game?

A mural painting of Yuan dynasty-era chuiwan(捶丸)(preserve) on the wall of a Water God Temple in Hungtung county, Shanxi province at present. The painting depicts a Mongolian official, some Han officials and assistants. The sticks and devices are fairly identical to of modern golf.

It is generally recognized that the Scots may well have made golf a game of 18 holes. But the jury's still out on who first came up with the idea of an open-air game players use a stick to hit a ball towards a target. The most fascinating—and in many ways convincing—evidence of an early version of golf(document) in history comes from China.

A game called chuiwan—chui meaning to hit and wan meaning ball—became popular in the Song dynasty. Players used ten clubs to hit wooden balls towards(bright) coloured flags. There was even an early equivalent of the R&A Rules of Golf: Classic of the Ball, published during the Yuan dynasty. It lays out the rules, and places great emphasis sportsmanship and correct behaviour—echoes of modern golf, where etiquette(礼仪) is such an important element of the game. There's also a(refer) in an ancient book to an official of the Southern Tang dynasty(tell) his daughter to"dig holes in the ground" so he could hit a ball into them using a special stick.

The debate over who got there first will go on, at least one thing is certain. Chuiwan, played by Chinese emperors 1,000 years ago, certainly qualifies as a royal and ancient game.

Life is unpredictable. Thus the only thing I could control was my3 — seeing troubles as challenges, not defeats. Instead of self-criticizing, I could4 joyful moments. Those small, brief moments I once5 — a child's laughter in the park, sunlight streaming through leaves, a friend's casual kindness — suddenly felt worth cherishing. But how?

I had always enjoyed photography but had6 this habit for a long time in life's mess. I decided to pick it up,7 one special moment daily. By the end of the year, I'd have 365 good memories recorded. That was the8. As photos accumulated, I had proof of what I truly9.

The photos drew me from negativity. Problems were real but not10. I had been so fixed on things not working that I'd forgotten good things were11 around me. They were never rare, just unnoticed. Some days felt12, but I gradually noticed lighthearted moments. The more I looked for them, the more13 they seemed to become. All those photos I took encouraged focusing on the14 — the warmth of a friend's smile, the calm of a quiet evening, and the joy of casual picnics.

It worked. I made a photo book. It15 me of gratitude and that life moves at its own pace. The book is now a family tradition. The photos didn't fix everything, but they gave me light in the dark. And, one photo at a time, that made all the difference.

When his plane landed in Beijing, the first thing that shocked Connor was the city's enormous size and the number of people. The city was a vibrant place, full of energy, bright lights, and constant change. He clearly remembers seeing entire streets being knocked down and completely rebuilt with new, modern buildings in just a few months. He quickly realized his old ideas about China were completely wrong.

However, Connor slowly started to adapt. He learned the language, made local friends, and began to understand the new culture. He discovered that people were very knowledgeable and often enjoyed discussing interesting topics. In America, he had been quiet, but living in China helped him become much more outgoing.

Today, 16 years later, China is, beyond doubt, Connor's home. Looking back, he smiles when he thinks about his old ideas. His life in China showed him how important it is to experience things for yourself. His journey taught him that our perspective on the world can change in wonderful ways when we open our minds. For Connor, China was not just a destination.

A. It became the place where he truly grew up.

B. It was nothing like his hometown in America.

C. Living in such a dynamic environment was challenging.

D. He imagined quiet streets and an old-fashioned way of life.

E. It was a lesson that would shape his outlook on life forever.

F. He also found that the experience changed his own personality.

G. However, what he saw next challenged his imagination even further.

The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that transportation accounted for roughly 29% of all greenhouse gas emissions in America in 2022 alone. Of that, about 7% came from commercial aircraft. But what about so-called biomass-based (生物质) SAF? Some estimates suggest that SAF, largely referring to fuels derived (提取) from organic materials, could reduce emissions from flying by up to 80%, compared to conventional jet fuel.

In this new experiment, the team used a chemical process called HTL, which essentially copies the way the Earth naturally creates raw oil from organic matter over millions of years, except without all the waiting. HTL kind of acts like an advanced "pressure cooker" to fast-forward nature's timeline.

With plenty of raw oil extracted, the researchers then set out to transform it into jet fuel. The first step involved removing salt, ash, moisture, and other impurities. After that, they used a cleaning process to get rid of other undesirable elements such as nitrogen, and oxygen. What remained were the specific hydrocarbons (烃) required to make jet fuel.

The team took their food-waste derived jet fuels and tested it against current fuel standards. It passed the screening test and met industry requirements without needing to introduce any special additives, meaning the fuel would theoretically power a commercial airplane.

The findings are a first step to show plane fuel derived from food waste is at least possible. Actually making enough of it to supply an entire passenger jet, however, is another beast altogether. "Our research helps solve the science and engineering problems, and then the industry needs to step in," University of Illinois professor and corresponding author Yuanhui Zhang said.

Coloring books for adults aren't a new phenomenon. Early "paint books" were marketed to grown-ups in the late 18th century, often framed as educational or moral tools. But adult coloring really caught on around 2015, when Johanna Basford's intricate (错综复杂的) drawings in her book "Secret Garden" became sensations. Recently, a "cozy coloring" aesthetic (美学的) style has dominated adult coloring charts — simple line art with large shapes meant for quick, relaxing fills. Of Amazon's best-sellers in October 2025, nearly half of the top adult coloring books emphasized the same "Bold & Easy" style — a pull toward accessibility over intricacy, intended to comfort tired minds.

For Girija Kaimal, professor of the Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University in Philadelphia, coloring's appeal runs deeper than relaxation. "I think of us as 21st century hunter-gatherers. Our bodies and minds are tens of thousands of years old. We worked with our hands; we used all our senses. Coloring takes us back there," she explained. As for why it feels rewarding, "By the end of it, you have something colorful, which signals health to us," she explained. "In nature, when you see color, it usually signifies abundance, a fertile landscape."

Kaimal said that this kind of activity "let people play again," giving them a safe way to create without fear of failure. And skill doesn't matter. "We are allowed to play as adults, however silly," Kaimal added.