【推荐1】Smokejumpers

Smokejumpers are a special type of firefighter.     1     They parachute (跳伞) in as the first line of defense to fight the fire.

    2     Their main goal is to stop a fire from spreading or to slow its progress until full, ground-based firefighters arrive. Using basic equipment, smokejumpers clear land of burnable material, like dry grass and dead trees. They carry water with them, too, but only a limited amount.

To get hired as a smokejumper, one must already have experience fighting wildfires on the ground. Green hands need to already know how to use wildfire-fighting tools, be in peak physical condition, and be able to stay calm under severe stress. Although the majority of smokejumpers are men, more women are joining now.     3     Smokejumpers employed in the United States, for example, must be between 54 and 91 kilograms so they don’t get blown away by the strong winds or get hurt when they land. Smokejumpers must also be capable of surviving in the wilderness. In Russia, many smokejumpers know how to find food in the forest and can even make simple furniture from trees.

The work is dangerous, and the hours are long.     4     They love being able to jump out of planes, fight fires, and live in the forest. As Alexi, a 28-year-old Russian smokejumper, says, “This is the best job for tough guys.”

A．The most important factors are your height and weight.

B．But for these firefighters, smokejumping isn’t just an occupation.

C．All of them should receive some training and must pass a fitness test.

D．At a fire site, smokejumpers first examine the land and decide how to fight the fire.

E．Besides firefighting tools, smokejumpers take food, water, and other supplies for three days.

F．When lightning, or a careless camper, sparks a wildfire in a remote, roadless place, smokejumpers are sent there by helicopters.

【推荐2】For most of her life, Suanne Laqueur’s passion for storytelling was shown on the dance floor.

Although Laqueur began writing at a young age, dancing always took center stage. She majored in dance and theater at Alfred University and taught at her mother’s dance studio in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, for years. But when her mother was ready to retire and an opportunity opened for Laqueur to take over the studio, she realized she had no interest in taking on the business side of her art: “Owning a studio is a lot of work—financially, logistically. I love the teaching, the choreographing (编舞), the staging, but I didn’t want to own it.”

Yet Laqueur’s disinterest in running the studio changed when she became a self-published author. In the fall of 2013, she decided to pursue self-publishing as a way of sharing her first completed novel with friends and family. During the process, she realized that following her true passion—telling stories through writing—made the business of the art worthwhile, and owning that business meant she could direct her writing career however she chose.

Starting with her second self-published novel, she began investing more time in marketing and building her audience. Her investment paid off. Since 2014, Laqueur, now 49, has self-published six novels, which collectively have hundreds of ratings and reviews on Goodreads. Her 2016 novel An Exaltation of Larks stole the show at the 25th Annual Writer’s Digest's Self-Published Book Awards, topping more than 2,300 entries to win the grand prize.

“You have to write the most truthful story to you, and I think self-publishing allows that freedom,” she says. “If you work with traditional publishing, it’s more about what’s marketable. There are trade-offs, which everyone will tell you, but by self-publishing I have control of the book, I have control of the story, and I’m cool with that.”

1. From Paragraph 2, we can learn that Laqueur________.

A．wanted to own a publishing house	B．didn’t like teaching dancing in fact
C．was a part-time writer when she was young	D．was interested in running her mother’s studio

2. What made Laqueur change her attitude to business?

A．Her mother’s persuasion.	B．Self-publishing her novels.
C．The desire to make money.	D．Her own passion toward art.

3. Which of the following can best replace the phrase “stole the show” in Paragraph 4?

A．became a failure	B．was shown to people
C．got people’s attention	D．was accidentally stolen

4. What can be inferred from what Laqueur’s said?

A．She enjoys the way of self-publishing.	B．She will never use traditional publishing.
C．Traditional publishing only focuses on the market.	D．Self-publishing will replace traditional publishing.

【推荐1】根据短文内容, 从A、B、C、D、E中选出最合适放入短文空缺处的选项，并将序号及相应答案写在答题纸上。选项中有一项是多余选项。

Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers told me, “Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience.”

How right they were! Enthusiastic people can turn a boring drive into an adventure, extra work into opportunity and strangers into friends.

“Nothing was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson.    1    It is the inner voice that whispers, “I can do it!” When others shout, “No, you can’t!”

It took years and years for the early work of Barbara Mclintock, a geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn’t stop working on her experiments.    2    

We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such a youthful air, whatever their age.

At 90, cellist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach. As the music flowed through his fingers, his stooped shoulders would straighten and joy would reappear in his eyes.    3    As author and poet Samuel Ullman once wrote,“Years wrinkle(起皱纹) the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

How do you rediscover the enthusiasm of your childhood? The answer, I believe, lies in the word itself. “Enthusiasm” comes from the Greek and means “God within”. And what is God within is but a sense of love---proper love of self(self-acceptance) and, from that, love of others.

    4    If we can’t do what we love as a full-time career, we can as a hobby. Elizabeth Layton of Wellsville, Kan, was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended periods of depression that had troubled her for at least 30years, and the quality of her work led one critic to say, “ I am tempted to call Layton as a genius.”

We can’t afford to waste tears on “might-have-been”. We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after “what-can-be”.

We need to live each moment wholeheartedly, with all our senses---finding pleasure in the backyard garden, the simple picture of a six-year-old, the charming beauty of a rainbow.

A. A. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping. B. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.
C. It can certainly help you hang in there when the going gets tough.
D. Music, for Casals, was a hobby that made life a never ending adventure.
E. Enthusiastic people also love what they do, regardless of money or title or power.

【推荐3】Antony Aumann, a religious studies and philosophy professor at Northern Michigan University told Insider that he had caught his student submitting essays written by the Al chatbot, and Aumann had his student rewrite the essay.

It's not just his struggling with the rise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT. As a result of these tools becoming accessible to anybody with an Internet connection, education departments across the entire country are adjusting work process and redesigning entire courses, according to the NYT, forcing students to submit handwritten essays or introducing oral exams. The New York City and Seattle public school systems have already banned ChatGPT on their own networks and devices. “I think the consideration behind the ban is reasonable,” Aumann said. “They want to make sure that their students are learning the critical thinking skills that are part of learning how to write.”

But universities aren't likely to follow the ban. After all, going around these restrictions is quite easy. Even tools designed to assist teachers in catching students secretly making use of AI tools like ChatGPT will probably be of little use, because students can change a few words from what ChatGPT produced, add some grammatical mistakes on purpose, and the detectors no longer think it's written by a chatbot.

Besides, some professors including Aumann argued that the cat is already out of the bag. Once students are captured by ChatGPT's convenience and efficiency, it'd be pointless to fight ChatGPT in the classroom.

Instead of absolute prohibition, Aumann suggested encouraging their students to react to ChatGPT in the same way they react to learning source-they will be asked to evaluate its reasons and arguments.

1. Why did the author mention Aumann's case in paragraph 1?

A．To introduce ChatGPT technology.	B．To share a public concern on essays.
C．To promote a tool of Al chatbots.	D．To start a discussion on ChatGPT.

2. Why is ChatGPT banned by some school systems?

A．ChatGPT is easily accessible to students.

B．ChatGPT fails to develop learners' competence.

C．ChatGPT helps teachers catch students cheating.

D．ChatGPT blocks the improvement of education systems.

3. What does “the cat is already out of the bag” really mean in paragraph 4?

A．Teachers decide to take action to address the problem.

B．It cannot be avoided that ChatGPT attracts students.

C．Students will be caught cheating through ChatGPT.

D．The cat manages to escape from being caught eventually.

4. What's Aumann's attitude to ChatGPT?

A．Concerned.

B．Subjective.

C．Objective.

D．Promising.

【推荐2】In spring, you may be fortunate enough to have good weather, a small piece of earth and the energy, enthusiasm and inspiration to plant a garden. There is nothing better to shake off the boredom and dullness of winter than to dig in the earth, plant some seeds and watch them grow. A small garden can produce something extra fresh for dinner, flowers for the table and a feeling of accomplishment. It is work, but it is ever so rewarding.

What about your life garden? Just as a beautiful garden is a work in progress, so is the garden in your mind. It takes effort, planning, nurturing (培育) and weeding to grow a garden. What have you planted—what have you allowed to take root? Is your life the picture of a well laid out garden or an untidy mixture of plants, trees and weeds whose seeds were blown your way and took root?

We have all heard phrases like “sowing seeds of doubt” or “sowing seeds of discontent”. We can make a careful choice whether to allow them to take root in our lives or throw them out of our garden. Negative energy and words, like weeds, will spread quickly if left unchecked. Find a good “weed killer”—a book, an inspirational story, positive affirmations (肯定) —to help you get rid of the thoughts that reduce the beauty of your garden.

Plant as many seeds of joy and beauty as you can — in your own life and in the lives of the people with whom you live and work every day. Grow a gratitude garden, a peace garden and a dream garden. Look after them daily. If you give them time and energy, you will have a rich harvest of success, happiness and peace of mind.

1. Why does the author tell us the benefits of growing a garden?

A．To lead to the life garden.	B．To introduce a rewarding work.
C．To show his love for gardening.	D．To suggest a way to kill boredom.

2. In what way is our life garden similar to a beautiful garden?

A．It changes all the time.

B．It needs our effort and nurturing.

C．It can make us happy and grateful in life.

D．It is full of both positive and negative energy.

3. Why does the author compare negative energy and words to weeds?

A．They are a natural part of life.

B．They are often left unchecked.

C．They are difficult to be removed.

D．They need to be removed before they spread.

4. Which of the following can be regarded as a weed killer?

A．Reading a dull book.	B．Expressing our discontent.
C．Having positive self­talks.	D．Pulling up weeds in the garden.

【推荐3】The real problem of wildfires is the strength of the blazes（火焰）.In 2015, for the first time, fires burned more than 10 million acres nationwide. It happened again in 2017. In California, eight of the state's 20 worst wildfires have happened in the past 10 years. The 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 lives in Northern California, was the deadliest in the century.

The world's worst wildfire in terms of lives lost was the 1871 Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin, in which at least 1,200 people died. Never heard of it? Perhaps that's because people's attention was drawn by another terrible blaze that happened the same night: the Great Chicago Fire.

Humans still cause more than 4 out of 5 wildfires through carelessly dropped cigarettes, poorly put-out campfires. Another major sparker of wildfires is lightning. According to the Natural History Museum of Utah, lightning strikes the earth more than100,000 times a day. Anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of these strikes causes fires.

One of the many challenges dealing with wildfires is that they can overtake even a very fast human. According to National Geographic, the fires can travel up to 14 miles per hour, or about one mile every four minutes.

1. What is the text mainly about?

A．Lightning.	B．Wildfires.
C．Cigarettes.	D．Campfires.

2. Which fire killed the most people?

A．The California Fire.

B．The Great Chicago Fire.

C．The 1871 Peshtigo Fire.

D．The 2018 Camp Fire.

3. What makes it difficult to put out wildfires?

A．Their speed.	B．Their strength.
C．Their blaze.	D．Their causes.