1. Where does Mark usually read news now?
| A．In a newspaper. | B．In a magazine. | C．On the Internet. |
| A．It has a small glass window. |
| B．It can make a pizza in a short time. |
| C．It offers four types of pizzas at a time. |
| A．It is quite necessary. | B．It might not be popular. | C．It will certainly succeed. |
| A．The 24-hour service. | B．Tasty pizza made by it. | C．The low production cost. |
2 . Nowadays, the world is slowly becoming a high-tech society and we are now surrounded by technology. Facebook and Twitter are innovative tools; text messaging is still a somewhat existing phenomenon and even e-mail is only a flashing spot on the screen when compared with our long history of snail mail. Now we adopt these tools to the point of essentialness, and only rarely consider how we are more fundamentally affected by them.
Social media, texting and e-mail all make it much easier to communicate, gather and pass information. But they also present some dangers. By removing any real human engagement, they enable us to develop our abnormal self-love without the risk of disapproval or criticism theatrical metaphor (隐喻), these new forms of communication provide a stage on which we create our own characters, hidden behind a fourth wall of tweets, status updates and texts. This unreal state of unconcern can become addictive as we separate ourselves a safe distance from the cruelty of our fleshly lives, where we are imperfect, powerless and insignificant. In essence, we have been provided not only the means to be more free, but also to become new, to create and protect a more perfect self to the world. As we become more reliant on these tools, they become more a part of our daily routine and so we become more restricted in this fantasy.
So it is that we live in a cold era, where names and faces represent two different levels of closeness, where working relationships occur only through the magic of email and where love can start or end by text message. An environment such as this reduces interpersonal relationships to mere digital exchanges.
Would a celebrity have been so daring to do something dishonorable if he had had to do it in person? Doubtful. It seems he might have been lost in a fantasy world that ultimately convinced himself into believing the digital self could obey different rules and regulations, as if he could continually push the limits of what’s acceptable without facing the consequences of “real life.”
1. The author compares e-mail with snail mail to show ________.| A．the influence of high-tech on our life | B．the history of different types of mails |
| C．the value of traditional communications | D．the rapid development of social media |
| A．Destroying our life totally. | B．Posing more dangers than good. |
| C．Helping us to hide our faults. | D．Replacing traditional letters. |
| A．Sheltering us from virtual life. | B．Removing face-to-face interaction. |
| C．Leading to false mental perception. | D．Making us rely more on hi-tech media. |
| A．Technologies have changed our relationships. |
| B．The digital world is a recipe for pushing limits. |
| C．Love can be better conveyed by text message. |
| D．The digital self need not take responsibility. |
1. Where does kiwifruit (猕猴桃) originally come from?
| A．America. | B．New Zealans. | C．China. |
| A．In 1923. | B．In 1930. | C．In 1959. |
| A．An American company. | B．A Japanese company. | C．A France company. |
4 . If you look at the dynamic “Global Temperatures” map on NASA’s website, you can see the historic temperature change over time across the planet as the timeline goes from 1880 to the modern day. By 2019, the entire planet is in red, orange, and yellow colors, indicating temperatures much higher than the historical average in every country and human inhabitance.
If the timeline went to 2023, the map would look even worse. That’s because the summer of 2023 was the hottest ever, according to ocean monitors. July was the hottest month in recorded history. Next July could be worse. Unless we do something quickly, we face dealing with more and more dangerous and expensive natural disasters in the future.
Forest fires sent smoke from Canada across the North American continent, causing New York City to have the worst air quality in its recorded history. Heavy rainstorms fell on Vermont and the Northeastern United States in just a couple of days in the middle of July, which exceeded the amount that area would usually receive in two months and caused extreme damage to homes and businesses. Around the same time, flash flooding in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — north of Philadelphia — killed nearly a dozen people.
Erich Fischer, a researcher specializing in climate studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is concerned that natural disasters could get much worse in the future—and in ways we cannot predict. He called for a “strike for climate justice,” which actually took place on Sept. 15, 2023. “The strategy needs to be twofold (双重的) . We need to decrease carbon emissions as much as realistically possible. That is already happening with people using electric cars and other green technologies. At the same time, we also need to find ways to predict the risk of natural disasters ahead of time,” said Erich Fischer.
1. Why does the writer mention the data on NASA’s website in paragraph 1?| A．To explain a concept. | B．To introduce a topic. |
| C．To provide a solution. | D．To make a prediction. |
| A．The severity of natural disasters. | B．The worst air quality in New York City. |
| C．The extreme damage by flash flooding. | D．The cause of the forests fires in Canada. |
| A．He advocated a twofold strategy. |
| B．He suggested forbidding carbon emissions. |
| C．He required people to use more electric cars. |
| D．He emphasized the awareness of climate changes. |
| A．The Hottest Month in History | B．Natural Disasters in the World |
| C．Extreme Weather Could Get Worse | D．Green Technology Would be Needed |
5 . Phonetic (语音) information—the smallest sound elements of speech - is considered by researchers to be the basis of language. Babies are thought to learn these small sound elements and add them together to make words. But a new study suggests that phonetic information is learnt too late and slowly for this to be the case. Instead, rhythmic (有韵律的) speech helps babies learn language and is effective even in the first few months of life.
Researchers from the Trinity College Dublin investigated babies’ ability to process phonetic information during their first year. Their study, published in the journal Nature Communications. found that phonetic information wasn’t successfully encoded (编码) until seven months old, and did not occur very often at 11 months old when babies began to say their first words. From then individual speech sounds are still added in very slowly—too slowly to form the basis of language.
The researchers recorded patterns of brain activity in 50 babies at four, seven, and eleven months old as they watched a video of a primary school teacher singing 18 nursery rhymes (童谣) to a baby. They found that phonetic encoding in babies appeared inchmeal over the first year of life, beginning with labial sounds (e.g. “d” for “daddy”) and nasal sounds (e.g. “m” for “mummy”), with the “read out” progressively looking more like that of adults.
“The reason why we use nursery rhymes is because that is the best way for babies to discover and connect sounds with language, so we are teaching them how to speak,” said Giovanni Di Liberto, lead author of the study at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. “Parents should talk and sing to their babies as much as possible or use baby-directed speech because it will make a difference to language outcome,” she added.
1. What should babies learn in the first few months of life according to the new study?| A．Small sound elements | B．Rhythmic information. |
| C．Phonetic information. | D．Individual words. |
| A．The poor phonetic encoding in babies. | B．The advantages of phonetic information. |
| C．The babies’ great ability to learn language. | D．The babies’ growing process in the first year. |
| A．Gradually. | B．Suddenly. | C．Successfully. | D．Occasionally. |
| A．When Babies Are Able to Say Their First Words |
| B．How Phonetic Information Changes Over Time |
| C．Why Phonetic Is Better Than Rhythmic for Babies |
| D．Why Babies Need Nursery Rhymes for Language Mastery |
6 . Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras have been working on a fascinating new way to identify people: using the ways of their breath. This idea could change how we unlock our phones and access secure places.
The key to this technology lies in the way we breathe out. Every person has a unique way of breathing air, which creates specific turbulence (涡流) patterns. The IIT Madras team, led by Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, has developed a method of catching these unique patterns and using them as a biometric (生物特征识别的) signature, similar to how fingerprints are used today.
They conducted tests with breath samples from 94 people and found that their system could correctly confirm the person’s identity with an impressive accuracy of 97%. However, when it came to identifying someone without knowing who they were beforehand, the accuracy was around 50%. This means the technology is great at confirming if someone is who they claim to be, but it still needs improvement in recognizing people without any prior information. What makes this research exciting is its potential beyond just unlocking phones. It could play a significant role in personalized medicine. Since the way we breathe can give insights into our health, this technology could help doctors tailor treatments to individual patients more effectively.
In a similar study at Kyushu University in Japan, researchers developed an artificial system that identifies people based on how their breath smells. This system showed a high accuracy rate of 97.8% in identifying individuals. However, this method currently requires people to fast (禁食) for six hours before testing, indicating that it still needs to be improved to be more practical for everyday use.
These advancements in using human breath for identification are not just about adding another cool feature to our smartphones. They represent a significant step forward in biometric technology, which could have far-reaching implications in security, medicine, and personal technology. This research at IIT Madras and Kyushu University is pioneering a new way of using the unique patterns of our breath for identification purposes, potentially revolutionizing (变革) how we interact with technology and receive medical care.
1. What makes the new technology possible according to paragraph 2?| A．The distinctive breath smells. | B．The unique patterns of breath. |
| C．The different patterns of fingerprints. | D．The speed of taking in air. |
| A．To eat no food for 6 hours is practical in everyday life. |
| B．To eat fast is a basic requirement for a higher accuracy rate. |
| C．The system is workable and will soon appear on the market. |
| D．Breath smells affected by food can decrease the accuracy rate. |
| A．It helps raise people’s awareness of health. | B．It will let people better understand their breath. |
| C．It makes unlocking our phones more easily. | D．It will introduce new ways to develop medicine. |
| A．Should We Still Use Fingerprints to Unlock Our Phone? |
| B．Fingerprint Patterns Can Identify Breath Types Easily |
| C．A Breath “Fingerprint” Could Be Used to Unlock Your Phone |
| D．Which Unlocking Method Is More Secure, Breath or Fingerprint? |
7 . Businesses are finding more uses for virtual reality (VR) as the technology develops.
VR is no longer only for gaming or enjoyment. An American company called Blue Goji is using VR to improve one’s health by making exercise more fun.
Blue Goji has offices in Austin, the capital of Texas. The company showed its workout machine called the Infinity treadmill (跑步机) at the South by Southwest festival. A person using the treadmill wears a virtual reality headset when exercising. Before starting, the user is connected to a belt to prevent falls. Then, the user plays a VR game while running on the machine. The game can transport the user into the virtual world, where he or she can be racing against virtual people.
The cost of the hardware and the computer software program is $12,000. That means much for most people. But Kyra Constam of Blue Goji says the virtual reality treadmill is ideal for places where people go to exercise, like high-end gyms or recreation centers.
Recently, Leonardo Mattiazzi tested the Infinity treadmill. Mattiazzi said he had a strong feeling to actually get running and do something that pushed his limits. He said the experience was more interesting than running inside the gym without actually going anywhere.
Constam noted that a lot of VR experiences cause motion sickness (晕动病) because people are in motion during the game, but not moving in real life. But when the user is moving on the treadmill and in the game, the chances of motion sickness are reduced. She said there is generally a learning curve for VR. The first time users feel lost, but the more you do it, the more you get used to it.
After carefully studying the users experiences, Blue Goji plans to begin selling the Infinity treadmill to the public.
1. What are users most likely to do after running on the Infinity treadmill?| A．Make more new friends. | B．Gain more useful skills. |
| C．Be fonder of exercising. | D．Prefer playing computer games. |
| A．Users can not run on it. | B．It is too expensive for most people. |
| C．Users can race against anyone. | D．It can be bought in high-end gyms. |
| A．Satisfied | B．Disappointed. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．To promote a new company. |
| B．To call on people to take more exercise. |
| C．To introduce a new application of virtual reality. |
| D．To discuss the relationship between life and modern technology. |
8 . Human faces cut into stone up to 2,000 years ago have again been found on a rocky area along the Amazon River in northern Brazil. The stone carvings (雕刻品) appeared as a result of a big drop in water levels because of dry weather in parts of northern Brazil. The water level had dropped to the lowest level in the history of the river.
“People had reported some of the stone carvings before during periods when water levels were low. But now a greater number have been identified. That will help researchers establish the history of the carvings, and more secrets of historical relics will come to light,” researcher Jaime de Santana Oliveira said recently.
One area shows smooth marks in the rock thought to be where natives once sharpened their tools such as arrows and spears before European settlers arrived.
“The carvings are prehistoric, or precolonial (殖民地时期前的). We can’t be sure of their precise date but based on the evidence of human living places of the area, we believe they are about 1, 000 to 2, 000 years old.” Oliveira said.
The rocky area is on the north shore of the Amazon River near the place where the Rio Negro River joins it.
Oliveira said the carvings were first seen in 2010, but this year’s drought has been more serious than earlier dry periods. The Rio Negro’s levels have dropped 15 meters since July, uncovering large areas of rocks and sand where there had been no beaches.
“This time we found not just more carvings, but the statue of a human face cut into the rock,” said Oliveira, who works for the Brazilian government’s National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute. The organization watches the care of historic places in Brazil.
1. What plays a key role in finding the stone carvings?| A．People’s report. | B．Natural disaster. |
| C．High technology. | D．Researchers’ effort. |
| A．Explore the history of historical sites. | B．Move the valuable carvings to safety. |
| C．Discover more underwater stone carvings. | D．Make the carvings popular among visitors. |
| A．Fixed. | B．Exact. | C．Best. | D．Future. |
| A．The human face stone carvings. | B．The number of stone carvings. |
| C．The real value of stone carvings. | D．The place where stone carvings were found. |
1. What is an effect of lack of sleep on teenagers according to the new study?
| A．Lower spirits. | B．Bad health. | C．The poor academic performance. |
| A．Too much screen time. | B．Lack of exercise. | C．Too much homework. |
| A．By reading a book before sleeping. |
| B．By listening to music before sleeping. |
| C．By drinking hot chocolate before sleeping. |
| A．Offer sports classes. | B．Shorten the school day. | C．Delay school start time. |
10 . “A moth (飞蛾) to a flame” is often used to indicate an inescapable attraction, yet it is a strange example of animal behavior that continues to confuse people today. Scientists have raised a number of theories over the years to explain why. One holds that insects flying at night are following their nature to fly toward the brightest spot in their field of vision, which they mistake for the sky. Another suggests that insects are trying to warm themselves with the heat produced by the light. The most popular theory, though, is that insects are confusing lights with the moon or other celestial bodies (天体) that they normally use to navigate (导航).
To find out the real reason, the team carried out a first set of experiments in an insect flight area. The researchers used eight high-speed infrared (红外线) cameras equipped with motion-capture technologies to track 30 insects from three moth and two dragonfly species. They also flew lab-raised insects from six different insect orders that were too small for motion-capture technology, including fruit flies and honeybees, to make sure different insects all showed similar responses to light. Working with co-author Pablo Allen of the Council on International Educational Exchange in Monteverde, Costa Rica, the researchers put heavy cameras, lights and tripods in two field sites to gather behavioral data from insects in the wild.
The team was able to confirm that insects were not beelining to the light but rather circling it as they tilted (倾斜) in an attempt to turn their backs toward it. This behavior, known as a “dorsal light response”, normally helps insects to remain in an unchanging path of flight that is properly lined to the horizon (地平线). Artificial light that arrives from a point source causes them to fly in unpredictable patterns as they try to turn their backs to what they are mistaking for the sky.
Now research might have finally solved the mystery mentioned first: artificial light confuses insects’ ability to turn themselves to the horizon, confusing their sense of what is up and down and causing them to fly in circles.
1. Which theory about a moth to a flame is accepted by most people?| A．They follow their nature to fly. | B．They are blind to artificial light. |
| C．They mistake artificial light for celestial bodies. | D．They are attracted by the warmth of artificial light. |
| A．To show the study is comprehensive. | B．To introduce the purpose of the study. |
| C．To estimate the cost of the research. | D．To stress the challenge faced by the researchers. |
| A．Flying slowly. | B．Sticking. | C．Responding. | D．Going straight. |
| A．They can fly beyond the horizon. | B．They can follow a steady flight path. |
| C．They can turn their backs toward lights. | D．They can circle the light source upside down. |
