Jan Tchamani, an English teacher in Birmingham, UK, suddenly developed a serious illness and had to quit her job. At age 50, she found herself out of work and stuck (被困住) at home with only her computer to keep her company. After a while, she discovered that surfing the Internet could help her feel less lonely and bored. She could listen to music, watch films, play games, and explore the world. She also joined an online group where she could talk about her problems and get support and advice from others. She realised that one of the greatest benefits of the Internet was its ability to remove the distance that usually exists between people.
She was so inspired by the people she met online that she decided to start an IT club to teach older people how to use computers and the Internet. She and her friends now organise events and collect money to pay for private teachers. Many people have been helped by the club. A 59-year-old man learnt how to apply for work online and found a great job. Now that he works and can take care of himself, his daughter has time to study at university. A 61-year-old woman who was living alone has started a small online company together with two friends. She no longer feels lonely, and her company has become quite successful.
Jan has started taking online classes to learn more about how to use the Internet to make society better. She believes that it is highly important to bridge the digital gap and make sure that everyone has access to the Internet and knows how to use new technology. Her next goal is to start a charity website to raise money for children in poor countries.
Jan’s life has been greatly improved by the Internet. “When you go through hard times, you meet others who are facing similar challenges,” Jan says. “Thinking about other people’s situations inspired me to offer help.”
1. What could be inferred from Paragraph 2 about the IT club?| A．The club helps the elderly get online. |
| B．The club helps people online. |
| C．The club inspires old people who feel lonely. |
| D．The club teaches older people to take care of themselves. |
| A．Increase. | B．Improve. | C．Narrow. | D．Change. |
| A．A better understanding of the Internet. |
| B．Meeting people who were going through hardships similar to hers. |
| C．Seeing the situation of children in poor countries. |
| D．Knowing how to use new technology. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Have you ever lost your car on a parking lot? It happens. You park and go shopping. When you get back，you have no idea where your car is. Then you start wandering around clicking on the panic button on your car keys so the alarm goes off. It can be frustrating, especially on a hot, sunny day.
No, you don’t need to install（安装）an expensive GPS system to keep track of your car. That’s too expensive. But is there a way to track your car without spending too much? Yes，now there is!
A California-based startup company was able to make this a reality. They created a tiny device that works with your smartphone，and it could be exactly what you’re looking for.
What is it? It’s called TrackR Bravo. It is a tracking device the size of a coin. It’s changing the way we keep track of the important things in our lives.
How does it work?
It’s easy! Install the free TrackR app on your smartphone, connect the app to your device and you’re ready to go! Simply connect TrackR to whatever you want to track. The entire process of setting it up only takes 5 minutes or less.
You can connect it to your keys, briefcase, wallet, your latest tech gadgets and anything else you don’t want to lose. Then use the TrackR app to locate your missing item in seconds.
“This device has saved me tons of time and money!” said Johnny Blaze.
1. What does the underlined word “frustrating”, in Paragraph 1 most probably mean?| A．Troublesome. | B．Confusing. |
| C．Disappointing. | D．Joyful |
| A．It works faster. | B．It’s cheaper. |
| C．It’s more reliable. | D．It’s smaller in size. |
| A．It can be controlled by human voice. |
| B．It takes a long time to make it work. |
| C．Its users need to pay for its software. |
| D．It can be connected to different objects. |
| A．Technology. | B．Education. |
| C．Economy. | D．Culture. |
【推荐2】On Thursday, AI company Anthropic declared that its ChatGPT-like Claude AI can now comprehend a book containing about 75, 000 words in a matter of seconds. This is a big improvement on current AI models.
These chatbots generally don’t operate in terms of words, but instead use tokens, units that AI uses to simplify data processing. The amount of tokens that a large language model (LLM)can process at a given time is called a context window, which is similar to short-term memory. Claude’s context window can now process 100, 000 tokens, corresponding to about 75, 000 words. In comparison, Open AI’s ChatGPT comes in at 4, 000 tokens. Even the extended version only reaches 32, 000 tokens, not quite a third of Claude’s limit.
“An average person can read 100, 000 tokens of text in about five hours’ time, and then he might need longer to digest, remember, and analyze that information. Claude can now do this in less than a minute,” Anthropic shared. Where Claude also outperforms humans is the ability to answer complex questions about the text, as a human assistant would.
To demonstrate how this improves the AI’s performance, Anthropic fed the entire text of The Great Gatsby (72, 000 tokens)into Claude, with one line edited from the original. The AI was tasked with spotting the modification, which it did in just 22 seconds, the company claimed in a press release.
Anthropic also used Claude to process a written text of a six-hour recording of a podcast (播客) and summarize it and answer questions. The company is confident the same can be applied to financial reports and legal documents as well as answering technical questions. Anthropic is now looking at businesses that need large numbers of documents to be processed and ask Claude specific questions on the way ahead.
1. In what aspect does Claude AI have an advantage over ChatGPT?| A．The way to measure information. | B．The ability to process longer texts. |
| C．The style of chatting with humans. | D．The time for identifying difficult words. |
| A．By analyzing causes. | B．By giving an example. |
| C．By making a comparison. | D．By pointing out similarities. |
| A．Change. | B．Puzzle. | C．Addition. | D．Cancellation. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Optimistic. | C．Pessimistic. | D．Conservative. |
【推荐3】I'm an early user of social media. For the most part, I've enjoyed the time I've spent on the site. But like many friends I know, I was also starting to feel like my visits to Facebook were just a waste of time.
Of course, the obvious move would just be to steer clear of Facebook and other social media sites. But as a writer, I have to use social media several times a day. And once I'm in the site, it's almost impossible to take no notice of those notices reminding me of posts in my personal feed（信息推送）. I felt like I had to find the one or two meaningful posts that made my social media feed worth the time.
Then I came across a post by Melissa Hartwig, the founder of the Whole30 program. In the post she said "Don't act like social media just happens to you; make it work FOR YOU."
It hit home with me. I immediately set out to change the way I was using social media. I hid and unfollowed groups and accounts（账户）that were not adding something active to my life. I didn't stop to think. I just clicked my way through the feed.
I'm not burying my head in the sand. I continue to follow people whose opinions on different topics differ from my own, but their words are interesting and open-minded.
Then I limited my interaction（互动）on social media. Unless I had something to say, I no longer interacted. A study found that inactive use of social media has a bad effect on our mood, while active use—sharing thoughts and commenting on others' posts—improved mood.
The result? I can say without doubt that I no longer worry about getting into a time-wasting vacuum（真空）. That's because my feed is nowhere near as bottomless as it once was.
1. Which word can best replace the underlined part "steer clear of" in Paragraph 2?| A．Share. | B．Explore. |
| C．Quit. | D．Improve. |
| A．His friends' influence. | B．A sentence in a post. |
| C．The Whole30 program. | D．A talk with Melissa Hartwig. |
| A．He set a time limit. |
| B．He hid his own accounts. |
| C．He interacted less with others. |
| D．He no longer read different opinions. |
| A．It met great difficulties. | B．It was a waste of time. |
| C．It attracted more friends. | D．It got a satisfying result. |
【推荐1】Just before Christmas in 1994, a letter arrived at our house. The postmark was from Tuskegee, Alabama, so we all knew who it was from. We excitedly gathered around mother as she opened it.
My Dear Mother,
I didn’t get the leave I expected for Christmas. I’ll miss all of you. Please leave the Christmas tree up until I make it back. I hope to be home by March.
Love from your son,
Clifton
My heart sank. I felt extreme sadness that my favorite brother wouldn’t be home for Christmas. My mother, being the optimist she always was, said, “Well, it looks like we’ll get to have two Christmases this year!”
After Christmas, my sister and I worked together to make sure we kept that Christmas tree looking as pretty as possible. This was no easy feat. By mid-January, the branches drooped so low to the ground. Each day, ornaments would come crashing to the ground and there were brand new sprinklings of pine needles all over the wooden floor. My sister and I took turns sweeping them up. We repositioned the ornaments to the stronger branches on the tree, hoping they would stay on.
Each time we freshened that tree up, my sister and I were full of thoughts about Clifton and how happy we would be to see him again. It made us feel that he was close by, even though he was hundreds of miles away.
On March 5, the doorbell rang. We ran to the door and gave Clifton a big hug. As he hugged mother, I could see him peek over her head at the Christmas tree.
“It’s beautiful,” he said. “Thank you.” Clifton opened his presents and told us all sorts of stories about his work in Tuskegee. That night as we slept, we heard a crash in the living room. We all ran to see what had happened. The tree had toppled onto the sofa and there were needles and broken ornaments everywhere. We all had a good laugh. It was fortuitous (巧合的) Clifton got home when he did.
1. How did the author feel when he read the letter?| A．Deeply sad. | B．Quite annoyed. |
| C．Very regretful. | D．A little disappointed. |
| A．Because his mother asked him to keep the tree up. |
| B．Because he wanted to keep all the ornaments on the tree. |
| C．Because he longed to have another Christmas with his brother. |
| D．Because he intended to keep the Christmas tree alive until next December. |
| A．Satisfied. | B．Upsetting. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Hopeful. |
【推荐2】Terrie Mitchell, 34, from Sheffield, received an unexpected present when she was finally reunited with her beloved cat — 11 years after she first went missing. Chloe, who only has one eye, was discovered living in an overturned wheelie bin just a few streets away from where she was last seen.
Chloe was first brought into her family home as a kitten, when Ms. Mitchell was aged 21 and still living at home with her mum, Jean. When she moved out with her partner, she let the longhaired black cat stay in the house she was used to. But when Ms. Mitchell’s mother died unexpectedly at the age of 60, Chloe disappeared and could not be found anywhere.
Despite searching for her, she all but gave up hope of ever seeing her cat again until she spotted a Facebook post featuring the longhaired cat. Postwoman Andrea Hurst had been delivering a parcel to an elderly lady, when she spotted the cat living in the wheelie bin. On her next round, she asked about the cat and was told she had been staying there for more than six years as the woman had been feeding her. The kindly woman asked a local cat shelter to collect Chloe, before using the social media site to locate the original owners. She wrote, “This is probably a long shot,but does anyone recognize this beautiful cat?”
Ms. Mitchell noticed the post by chance and commented, “Omg, this is my cat!!!!! I can’t stop shaking!!!!! Her name is Chloe!!! Please whoever knows contact me...”
The vet, who confirmed Chloe was more than 10 years old, told her owner it was nothing short of a miracle. Today Chloe is settling in well at her new home and even responds to her original name. Her delighted owner added, “Now I feel guilty that I didn’t search for her better, because she was obviously around. It could give hope to people who haven’t seen their pets for years.”
1. What do we know about Chloe from the first two paragraphs?| A．She is a shorthaired cat with only one eye. |
| B．She disappeared before Mitchell’s mother died. |
| C．She stayed in Jean’s house before she disappeared. |
| D．She was discovered in a wheelie bin far from Mitchell's house. |
| A．Jean. | B．An unknown person. | C．The vet. | D．Andrea Hurst. |
| A．Amazed. | B．Worried. | C．Hopeless. | D．Guilty. |
| A．The Best Gift | B．A Kind Woman |
| C．An Unexpected Reunion | D．A Missing Cat |
【推荐3】A mother, Carrie Cort, 51, from Sussex, and her nine-year-old son have been named the UK’s most environmentally friendly family after winning an award for their environmental achievements.
Now every aspect of her life is environmentally friendly, from her son Adam’s birthday parties to her clothing, and she recycles everything from empty pens to milk bottle tops. “Changing our family lifestyle to green has saved us around ￡11,000 every year, which has given us more financial stability,” Carrie says. “Living green has made us healthier and I feel younger now. It is fun seeing what you can make with unwanted or broken things. Growing your own food is great exercise, good for wildlife, and the food is much more nutritious and tastier.”
“My concern for the way we humans are treating the planet was really roused when Adam was born. When he arrived, I suddenly had this huge, greater awareness of the kind of planet we’re bringing our children into though I learnt something about it in university.” She began going to talks, reading books, watching documentaries and attending green meetings in order to educate herself in the details of green living.
Carrie set up the local campaign group Sussex Green Living six years after her son’s birth. Later, she gave up her high-powered job, as she ran a video company with her brother, to do her job full-time. Today, she organizes talks and workshops. She runs a repair cafe, where people can bring everything to be fixed. Her recycling program helps people reuse wastes. Toothpaste tubes, for example, which Carrie sends to the Philippines, are turned into purses by an organization. “My goal is to inspire more people to lead greener, more environmentally friendly lives, to enable us to live in greater harmony with nature, now and for future organizations. I achieve this using various Sussex Green Living communication programs and working with other organizations who have the same goals and values.”
1. How did Carrie feel about her environmentally friendly lifestyle?| A．Unwanted. | B．Unhealthy. |
| C．Expensive. | D．Economical. |
| A．She made good preparations for living green. |
| B．She recycled what people ignored for fun. |
| C．She does daily exercise by growing food. |
| D．She majored in planet protection in university. |
| A．Her repair cafe and workshops. |
| B．Her own programs and others’ work. |
| C．Her well-paid job and her brother’s support. |
| D．Her independence of realizing her green dream. |
| A．After winning an award. |
| B．After giving birth to her son. |
| C．After being stuck in poverty. |
| D．After attending green meetings |
【推荐1】Susan Casado felt well prepared to have a birthday party of 15 to 20 guests for her son, Shemy, who celebrated his fourth birthday on Saturday. But after none of the boy’s friends arrived, she never expected she’d be hosting nearly 100 surprise guests at her home.
Susan tells Yahoo Lifestyle that she was disappointed when her brother was the only person to show up at the party at first. After seeing that she had tears in her eyes, however, Shemy’s uncle connected with a local Facebook group to call for more people to join the celebration. Moments later, a woman arrived at Susan’s home asking for the birthday boy, although the family had never met her before.
As people continued to arrive, the mother realized that her brother had something to do with it, and was then shown a Facebook post that he made to advertise the party.
After more unexpected guests continued to arrive, however, Susan began to worry about the amount of food that she had prepared. “I felt so embarrassed,” she explains. But guests didn’t care about the food and drinks. Instead, they told the birthday boy’s mother that they were there to “make Shemy’s day”, which even got better once the guests of honor arrived from St. Johas County Fire Rescue.
“My first thought was,” Is everybody okay? Is anybody hurt? And then they said, “We’re coming here to say happy birthday to Shemy, Susan says, ”They said, We brought you a big toy, we brought you a fire truck.”
Susan went on to explain that although Shemy has Down’s syndrome (唐氏综合症) and isn’t able to say much, he does express his happiness with laughter and hugs.” He hugs when he feels happy, so when people came in to meet him, we took pictures together and he hugged them. This is the way that he says thank you.”
When Susan asked her brother why he went through the extra effort to make sure that his nephew’s party was amazing, she says that he told her, “He should have a good birthday.” As for the firefighters who attended, they told the family that it’s all part of the job. One of the firefighters, Jeremy Robshaw, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that they just wanted to “bring a smile” to Shemy’s face.
1. Susan felt embarrassed at the party because _________.| A．a guest was hurt | B．the food was not enough |
| C．none of the guests arrived | D．a female stranger appeared |
| A．Through an invitation |
| B．By receiving a phone |
| C．By reading a message on Facebook |
| D．Through an advertisement on Yahoo Lifestyle. |
| A．Shemy showed his thanks through physical touch |
| B．Shemy’s uncle brought him a toy truck as a gift |
| C．Shemy was popular with his friends |
| D．Shemy’s uncle was a firefighter |
【推荐2】Logan Schneider was helping his brother tend his cherry orchard when disaster struck-literally. While he was riding a tractor down a row of trees, a helicopter fell from the sky and landed directly on him.
Logan was wearing noise-canceling headphones just before the crash, so he didn’t notice the helicopter until the plane broke the wires when it crashed. He barely had time to brace himself before a fire broke out and he was pinned against the steering wheel. As he managed to wriggle out of the wreckage, he heard pilot Cori Johnson screaming for help.
“I heard him screaming,” Logan recalled. “I looked and I saw him upside down hanging. Fire was everywhere. When I was in the moment I really wasn’t thinking. I was just doing.”
Logan reached through the flames and unhooked the pilot’s safety harness, allowing him to escape. Once he was on his feet, Logan helped him get away just seconds before flames burst 30 feet into the air. “Looking at what happened, I don’t know how we both got out,” Logan said.
Firefighters arrived and had to de-energize the power lines before putting out the blaze. Both Cori and Logan were taken to the hospital with painful injuries. While Logan suffered second-degree burns on his arms and muscle damage in his back, Cori had a broken arm and multiple burns.
“They rushed me and the guy to hospital,” Logan said. “I’m lucky to be alive.”
Logan has always planned to enroll in aviation school so he can become a commercial airline pilot. The crash has not deterred him, and he still plans to take to the skies at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Washington this fall. If anything, this fateful accident has strengthened his convictions and confirmed his beliefs.
1. Why did Logan fail to notice the helicopter beforehand?| A．He was a bit deaf. | B．It was far from him. |
| C．The sound of tractor was too loud. | D．The earphones blocked the noise out. |
| A．The helicopter exploded. | B．Logan broke his arm. |
| C．Villagers came to their rescue. | D．Logan is a commercial airline pilot. |
| A．Disappointed. | B．Discouraged. |
| C．Distracted. | D．Dismissed. |
| A．Determined and brave. | B．Cautious and kind. |
| C．Ambitious and alert. | D．Faithful and generous. |
【推荐3】In the fall of my junior year, my mother announced that she had signed me up for a volunteering project in Bolivia for my New Year's break. My first thought was,“That's impossible! I want a new computer and a new dress. How will I ever get all those gifts down there?” I was careful not to say these selfish things out loud. Was I really going to spend my New Year's break working in an orphanage in one of the poorest countries in the world?
The day finally came anyway. The children must have heard the engine and grinding (摩擦声) of the bus tires on the rough road, for as the bus turned the corner, I could see no fewer than fifty sets of clear, brown eyes looking eagerly at us. Immediately sprinting (奋力地跑) toward us, one little girl, Naomi, leapt into my arms and kissed my face before even saying,“Hola!”Excited by our arrival, the children directed us to the community center, really a basketball court, which had been decorated with colorful paper. Dressed in traditional Bolivian skirts, the teenagers sang a song as the younger children danced. Having obviously rehearsed (排练) for a long time, they proudly gave us this wonderful show.
The orphanage included ten “casas,” each housing a“family”of eight children. One afternoon I was invited to Casa San Francisco to eat lunch with one of the“families.”As I was served my plate, three-year-old Maria spilled her apple juice all over my food. Knowing not enough food was left in the pot, Eduardo, the eldest boy, offered me his. When I refused, he switched the plates anyway.
Not until several weeks after our return did I realize,“Hey, I didn't get that computer or the new dress.”At the same time, I realized how much I might have missed had I not gone on my Bolivia trip. The gifts I received from the orphaned children added not a single pound to the baggage I carried home, for the lasting gifts they gave me were those of joy, of friendship, and of growing up.
1. How did the author feel when her mother announced the New Year's break arrangement?| A．Scared and surprised. | B．Calm and relaxed. |
| C．Joyful and excited. | D．Upset and disappointed. |
| A．They were rehearsing for a big show. |
| B．They were watching a basketball game. |
| C．They welcomed the volunteers enthusiastically. |
| D．They helped the volunteers' bus get through the rough road. |
| A．Talented and talkative. | B．Generous and considerate. |
| C．Cautious and brave. | D．Reliable and devoted. |
| A．An unforgettable sightseeing tour in Bolivia | B．Real friendship found in an orphanage |
| C．A different kind of New Year's break | D．My family's volunteering tradition |
