【推荐1】The opening of California’s commercial crab season, which normally starts in November, is delayed once again to protect whales searching for their prey (猎物) along the coast.

California has been affected by a marine heat wave since May. The Blob, as this mass of warm water has become known, is squeezing cooler water preferred by whales and their prey close to shore, where fishermen set their traps. This crowding can lead to tangle (缠结) between whales and fishing equipment, endangering the animals’ lives and requiring rescue missions.

In a new study, scientists say they can now use global temperature models, commonly used in climate science, to predict up to a year in advance when hot ocean temperatures raise the risk of tangles between whales and fishing equipment.The tool analyzed in the new study, called the Habitat Compression Index, works by feeding sea-surface temperature measurements into an equation (方程式) that estimates the likelihood of whale habitat shrinking closer to shore.Regulators and fishermen agree that the new forecasting research could help them walk the tightrope between protecting whales and protecting local livelihoods (生计).

Mr Ogg, a commercial fishing boat captain, describes himself as a conservationist who doesn’t want to see whales harmed.“Fishermen have a big motivation to protect the natural environment,” he said, “because that’s where they make their living.” Previously, the challenge was adapting to changing conditions and fishing regulations on short notice, especially for smaller business owners and their crews.“One of the biggest problems we had was the unpredictability,” Mr Ogg said, “We were living from week to week then.”

Though scientists have shown the Habitat Compression Index can now forecast months in advance, state officials would probably wait to see conditions in real time before making decisions about the crab fishery, said Ryan Bartling, an environmental scientist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

1. What do the whales come to shore for according to the first two paragraphs?

A．Safety.

B．Shelter.

C．Leisure.

D．Food.

2. What does the underlined phrase “walk the tightrope” probably mean?

A．To take a risk.	B．To join in an act.
C．To strike a balance.	D．To walk on a rope.

3. What’s the state officials’ attitude towards the tool in the study?

A．Supportive.

B．Indifferent.

C．Cautious.

D．Pessimistic.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．How climate data gives whales room to swim

B．What causes the decrease in whale population

C．Why global temperature models are in great need

D．Whether to protect whales or the local livelihoods

【推荐3】The World Wide Fund For Nature is concerned about the many species of wildlife that are dying out around the world.

Currently, illegal hunting of wild animals for their valuable parts is still one of the biggest drivers of extinction. Demands for elephant ivory carvings, tiger bone wine and traditional medicine such as rhino horn (角) continue to cause these most endangered animals to die out.

There is still an enormous market for chimpanzee body parts in Africa — for example in Nigeria, a chimpanzee head will sell for $100 at the market. When it exists, it is no surprise that organized crime networks get into the game. The rise in rhino poaching (偷猎) over the past decade has been alarming: between 2016 and 2020, rhino poaching in South Africa increased by an astonishing speed, from just 130 animals in 2016 to 1215 in 2020, making the species functionally extinct.

When it comes to figuring out where illegal hunting is taking place，conservationists face many challenges. But development in technology is putting new tools into the hands the conservation biologists who so eagerly need them, using AI (artificial intelligence), such as machining learning, or drones (无人机). And another solution that Founding Co-director of the University of Southern California Center Professor Milind Tambe came up with is to apply the tools in his work.

The system called PAWS (for Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security) was developed to catch poachers, featuring more than 125,000 observations on animal remains, traps and more — all with GPS coordinates (坐标). Tambe and his team were able to create a system that would predict likely hot-spots for poaching and direct patrols (巡逻) there to get rid of traps before they can kill any animals.

“After researching in the lab, we tested our system in Uganda to show it could work,” he says. “Sure enough, we did seek out snares (捕鸟、兽的陷阱；圈套) and a poached elephant on the spot.” However, Professor Tambe says, “PAWS is just the start. Much remains to be done. What conservationists really need is to continue to dismantle traps, catch poachers in the act, and effectively monitor areas to prevent poachers from approaching animals.”

1. The reason why the poaching has increased rapidly over the past years is ________.

A．the increasing need for medical use

B．the growing population of wild animals

C．the demand for researching rare animals

D．the huge profit from rare animals at the market

2. Which of the following statements about PAWS is true according to the passage?

A．It is a system developed to watch wild animals in the lab.

B．It is developed to accurately predict the possible poaching hot-spots.

C．It is equipped with GPS coordinates to seek out possible illegal hunting spots and catch the poachers.

D．It is designed to prevent poachers from dealing in animal products.

3. What does the underlined word “dismantle” in the last paragraph mean?

A．maintain

B．remove

C．manage

D．conserve

4. What can be concluded from the last paragraph?

A．There is still a long way to protect endangered animals.

B．PAWS has carried out its missions to a great extent.

C．The system has stood the test and worked wonderfully.

D．More effective measures should be taken to prevent rare animals from being hunted.

【推荐1】Creative Art

Creative art means having the ability or power to create. It is characterized by originality of thought or inventiveness; having or showing imagination creative mind.     1     . Art is often considered the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations and ways of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture and paintings.

Some different types of art are animation, architecture, assemblage, calligraphy, ceramics, graffiti, illuminated manuscript, illustration, mosaic, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, stained glass, tapestry, and video, etc.

    2     ? Art develops ways of thinking that can be nonlinear and visual rather than verbal. In addition to the role of art in fostering creative thinking, it give us a venue for dealing with the complexities and ambiguities of human existence. helping to build a bridge between diverse cultures and experiences.

    3     . You love daydreaming and are generally uninterested in whatever everyone else around you seems to be interested in. You’re able to discern and see differences and similarities where most don’t, which is why you often think and speak in metaphor.

The three classical branches of art are painting, sculpture and architecture. Music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature and other media such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of the arts.

Exposure to and experience with the arts allows children to create, design, generate, and compose new ideas, further developing the creative thinking inherent in young children. If navigated intentionally, learning about colour can help children develop vocabulary, complex thinking, and keen observation.

Creative art helps children grow in physical, social, cognitive, and emotional development.     4    . Child care providers can help promote children’s development by providing opportunities for creative art activities.

A．Most children in preschools and kindergartens love being in school.

B．Children also practice imagination as they invent new ways to create art.

C．What is the role of creativity in art?

D．How does art develop creativity?

E．There are many ways you can tell if you are creative or not.

F．Furthermore, how do you define art?

【推荐2】The research company OpenAI has recently released ChatGPT, a language model that can construct remarkably well-structured arguments based on simple cues provided by a user. The system which uses a massive source of online text to predict what words should come next is able to create new stories in the style of famous writers, write news articles about itself and produce essays that could easily receive a passing grade in most English classes.

That last use has raised concern among academics, who worry about the possibility of an easily accessible platform that, in a matter of seconds, can put together essays as good as -- if not better than -- the writing of a typical student.

Cheating in school is not new, but ChatGPT and other language models are totally different from the hacks(雇佣文人)students have used to take a shortcut in the past. The writing these language models produce is completely original, meaning that it can’t be distinguished by even the most advanced plagiarism(剽窃)software. The AI also goes beyond just providing students with information they should be finding themselves. It organizes that information into a complete narrative.

Beyond potential academic honesty issues, some teachers worry that the true value of learning to write -- like analysis, critical thinking, creativity and the ability to structure an argument -- will be lost when AI can do all those complex things in a matter of seconds.

“We might know more things but we never learned how we got there. We’ve always said that the process is the best part and we know that. The satisfaction is the best part. That might be the thing that’s removed from all of this. Actually, I don’t know what a person is like if they’ve never had to struggle through learning. I don’t know the behavioral implications of that,” said Peter Laffin.

“Whenever there’s a new technology, there’s a panic around it. It’s the responsibility of academics to have a healthy amount of distrust, but I don’t feel like this is an undefeatable challenge,“ Sandra Wachter, technology researcher, said.

1. What is mainly stressed about ChatGPT in the first paragraph?

A．Its unusual functions.

B．Its working process.

C．Its promising future.

D．Its wide application.

2. What is unique about ChatGPT’s writings?

A．They belong to a new cheating form.

B．They are writings of ChatGPT’s own.

C．They provide students with all needed information.

D．They are better than writings from the hacks.

3. What is Peter Laffin concerned about?

A．AI makes us struggle through learning.

B．AI might be improperly used by hacks.

C．AI might rob us of the pleasure of learning.

D．AI might result in many writers losing their jobs.

4. What can we infer from Sandra Wachter’s words?

A．He is pleased to see the release of ChatGPT.

B．He is ready for the challenges from ChatGPT.

C．He is in a panic about the use of ChatGPT.

D．He has a healthy distrust of ChatGPT.

【推荐2】Leisure is the prize, right? We work hard, so we want to play hard; we look forward to our time off, believing that the more leisure time we have, the better life will be.

However, research shows that both having and deciding how to spend leisure time can be very stressful. Some people feel enormous pressure to make the best use of their free time with the best choices. But this pressure to maximize our fun might impede the enjoyment of leisure itself.

Two-thousand years ago, concepts of work and leisure were associated with slavery(奴隶制)and freedom, respectively. In Ancient Greece, most of work was done by slaves, while wealthier parts of society pursued other activities. Leisure was an active state of mind. Good leisure meant playing sports, learning music theory, debating with qualified partners, doing philosophy, etc. Leisure was not easy, but it was supposed to be satisfying.

A shift occurred when the Romans started viewing leisure as a way of getting back energy in preparation for more work. By the 1800s, the kind of leisure that showed social class had shifted too; the wealthy led extremely free lives. A popular example is Walter Benjamin’s description of the fashion, around 1893, to walk through streets with a turtle (乌龟)on a chain.

Today we’re seeing yet another change: a lack of leisure time now operates as a powerful social class symbol. On Twitter, celebrities complain about having no life and being in desperate need of a vacation. In the workplace, being part of the long-hours working culture is still seen by many as an honour.

Some people really struggle to enjoy time off. People from America support the belief that leisure is wasteful. Only 14% of Americans take two weeks’ vacation in a row, a finding in keeping with the overwork culture. The same study reports that as of 2017, 54% of American workers didn’t use up their vacation time, leaving 662 million days reserved for leisure unused.

1. What does the underlined word “impede” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Increase.

B．Prevent.

C．Provide.

D．Include.

2. Which of the following was good leisure in Ancient Greece?

A．Eating tasty food.

B．Cleaning the house.

C．Having a good sleep.

D．Reading works of literature.

3. Why does the writer mention the popular example in paragraph 4?

A．To describe a fashion.

B．To criticize the wealthy.

C．To show a type of leisure.

D．To introduce Romans’ lives.

4. What can we infer from the figures in paragraph 6?

A．Many Americans work on their holidays.

B．Americans enjoy taking longer vacations.

C．American workers enjoy their lives and have fun.

D．Tourism in the United States is developing slowly.

【推荐3】In 1945, two sculptures meant to represent the average man called Norman and woman called Norma in the United States went on exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History.

That same year, a contest was launched to find a living representation of Norma. Normal is often used to mean “typical”, “expected”, or even “correct”. By that logic, most people should fit the description of normal. And yet, not one of almost 4,000 women who participated in the contest matched Norma, the supposedly “normal” woman.

This puzzle isn’t unique to Norma and Norman, either — time and time again, so-called normal descriptions of our bodies, minds, and perceptions have turned out to match almost no one. So what does normal actually mean — and should we be relying on it so much?

In statistics, a normal distribution describes a set of values that fall along a bell curve (曲线). The average, or mean, of all the values is at the very center, and most other values fall within the hump (驼峰) of the bell. Normal doesn’t describe a single data point, but a pattern of diversity. Many human traits, like height, follow a normal distribution. Some people are very tall or very short, but most people fall close to the overall average. Outside of statistics, normal often refers to an average like the single number pulled from the fattest part of the bell curve that excludes all the nuances of the normal distribution. Norma and Norman’s proportions (比例) came from such averages.

Applied to individuals, whether someone is considered normal usually depends on how closely they get to this average. At best, such definitions of normal fail to capture variation. When limited or inaccurate definitions of normal are used to make decisions that impact people’s lives, they can do real harm. There were examples in history.

To this day, people are often targeted and discriminated against on the basis of disabilities, mental health issues, and other features considered “not normal”. But the reality is that the differences in our bodies, minds, perceptions, and ideas about the world around us — in short, diversity — is the true normal.

1. What can we learn about Norman and Norma?

A．No participant fitted the description of them in the contest.

B．They were on display as soon as they were completed in 1945.

C．They were both named by the American Museum of Natural History.

D．People viewed them as typical and correct representations of humans.

2. How does normal in statistics differ from normal outside of statistics?

A．The former and the latter fall at totally different points of the bell curve.

B．The former and the latter account for different puzzles in our daily life.

C．The latter is a single number whereas the former shows a pattern of diversity.

D．The latter often indicates the distribution of a set of values but the former doesn’t.

3. What does the underlined word “nuances” in Paragraph 4 most probably mean?

A．Possibilities.

B．Examples.

C．Meanings.

D．Differences.

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．What Is Real Normal?

B．When Are Humans Normal?

C．How Does Normal Cause Harm?

D．Why Shouldn’t We Rely on Normal?