【推荐1】阅读短文，完成文后各小题。

Facebook is an American social media company with more than 2.8 billion users. Recently, it took a new name: Meta.

Along with the new name is the company’s plan to build a “metaverse”. So what is a metaverse? Simply put (简单地说), it is not a real world. People wear VR headsets (头戴设备) to visit it. It will feel real because the technology can simulate (模拟), hearing, touch and even smell.

What can you do inside of the metaverse? Perhaps anything you want! For example, you can meet other people wherever they are. Your position will no longer matter. People would be connected at all times. So, if you can’t find any friends to play basketball with, don’t worry. Just jump into the metaverse and join a game.

The metaverse can also create new places. Are you tired of visiting the same beach every year? Forget Sanya. Meet your friends in the metaverse and go to a beach on the moon—or anywhere else you can imagine. You can fly over the sand or dive into the sea.

Some people may argue that these experiences are not real. Perhaps, the metaverse will change our idea of reality (现实) itself.

1—2题阅读短文，根据英文释义及首字母提示拼写单词；3题阅读短文，进行同义句转换，每空一词；4—6题根据短文内容回答问题。
1. p________ the place where someone or something is
2. c________ to make something exist (存在) that did not exist before
3. For example, you can meet other people wherever they are.
For example, you can meet other people ________ ________ where they are.
4. According to the passage, how many users does Facebook have?
____________________________________
5. What can you do inside of the metaverse?
____________________________________
6. Can the metaverse also create new places?
____________________________________

【推荐2】阅读短文，完成后面小题。

Can you imagine an AI chatbot（聊天机器人） competing with you in an examination? Do you think you could get higher scores than it? A new AI chatbot called ChatGPT has swept the world in the past few months. It recently got a passing grade in a law school exam. Sounds crazy? The use of ChatGPT has raised heated discussions in the education world.

Type in “A cat wants to go to space” and ask ChatGPT to write a bedtime story. Just one second later, you’ll get the story of Max, who went his way past many difficulties to sing among the stars.

Developed by a US company OpenAI, ChatGPT has taken the Internet by storm, winning 100 million users since it came out in November 2022. People can ask the robot to write stories and emails, translate languages, and answer all kinds of questions.

Compared with Siri or other chatbots, ChatGPT uses a much bigger database（数据库） for training. It also learns things by itself. For example, if it provides a wrong answer to your question, you can tell it the right one and it will make it right. The knowledge level of ChatGPT is similar to a college student. That’s why it surprised the world.

But one big problem with ChatGPT is that it makes mistakes or even gives wrong information. These are things that need to be dealt with.

1. The name that a new AI chatbot is called： ________
2. The time when the new AI chatbot came out： ________
3. The thing that people can do with it： ________
4. The advantages of the new ChatGPT are：① ________ ② ________
5. The big problem with ChatGPT is： ________

【推荐3】根据短文内容，简略回答短文后所提出的问题，并将答案写在答题卡的相应位置。

Robots seem very new to most people, but they have a long history. People began to make robots about several hundred years ago. In the past, some of the early ones worked like clocks and did the same things over and over again. And they couldn’t talk.

Now modern (现代的) robots don’t always look like people. Some are like big machines, some have boxy bodies and others have long arms. Most robots are used in factories. They are used to do many dangerous, difficult or boring jobs. Robots are also used in hospitals. In an American hospital, a robot takes meals from the kitchen to the sick people’s rooms. It never gets lost because it has a map of the hospital in its computer system (系统).

You may see robots in some films. The robots are stronger, faster and cleverer than people in these films. In real life, modern robots are smart, too. Some can solve problems on their own. Their brains (大脑) are computers and their eyes are sensors (传感器). In the future, robots will learn from their mistakes more than they do now. They will be cleverer than people. It’s possible that we will have robots in space, robot household workers, and robot factory worker.

1. When did people begin to make robots?
____________________________________
2. What can the robots in factories do?
____________________________________
3. Why doesn’t the robot get lost in an American hospital?
____________________________________
4. How are robots in some films?
____________________________________
5. In the writer’s opinion (观点), will robots be smarter than humans in the future?
____________________________________

【推荐1】Money makes the world go around, yet the best things in life are free. A penny saved is a penny earned, but you get what you pay for. You probably have your own ideas about spending money. Now is a great time to learn how to spend money wisely.

When you are considering buying something you want, run through this checklist first.

How much do you really want it?

Seeing a $25 gum ball (口香糖球) machine, Ben wanted it. But after thinking about it, he decided that it would be exciting only for a day or two. “Besides, it’s not possible for me to chew that much gum,” he said wisely.

Do you still want it a week later?

If the thing passes the “really wanting-it” test, try to wait for some time to see how strong the desire (欲望) is. This strategy works for grown-ups, too!

How will you pay for it?

After the first two steps, Ben found he really wanted a toy pirate ship (海盗船), but it cost $50. He had $22 in his pocket and gets $1.50 a week to spend. His mother helped him work out how many weeks he would need to save to get the ship: 19.

Are there ways to earn the money?

Ben agreed to wash the downstairs windows at a dollar each. So he got $10 for himself and sparkling (闪亮的) sunlight for the rest of the family.

Can you get it cheaper?

After deciding to buy it, it is necessary for you to look for less expensive ways to buy it: search for what you want on the internet or in shops and flea markets (跳蚤市场). Sometimes you can find the same thing at a much lower price. If these suggestions work well, they can save you a lot of money. You will be a really smart shopper.

Answer the following questions according to the passage above.   (根据上面的短文内容，回答下列问题。)

1. Did Ben finally buy the gum ball machine? Why or why not?
_________________________________________________
2. Why did Ben agree to wash the downstairs windows?
_________________________________________________
3. Where can you search for what you want if you want to buy something?
_________________________________________________
4. What is the passage mainly talk about?
_________________________________________________

【推荐2】阅读下面短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词，每个空格只填1个单词。

Self-respect is a very important part of a great life. Self-respect is a feeling of being happy about one’s characters, abilities and beliefs.

Developing self-respect means developing self-confidence to deal with whatever life throws at us. The following are some ways we can improve our self-respect.

There is great stress from parents, work and society to become a certain person and to achieve certain goals. A real self-respect is very important and you should believe in your own values and remember what is important to you. Everyone needs to follow his or her own path.

Nobody likes criticism (批评). To keep a sense of self-respect, we need to learn how to deal with criticism. Don’t get sad by the things someone else says or does. Maybe it is completely untrue, so pay no attention to it. If there is some truth, we can use it to develop our characters.

Jealousy (嫉妒) of other people’s success will cause the loss of our happiness and self-respect. Jealousy is simply envy of other people’s success. The truth is that there will always be some people more successful than us. The method for lasting self-respect is to be happy with others’ success.

If you have no respect for others, how can you have self-respect? It isn’t right to feel better by putting others down. If we look for good qualities in other people, it is easier to remember the good qualities in ourselves.

Forgive others and yourself. Don’t live in the past, but move on from the past mistakes and difficult situations. If your mind is full of problems in the past, you will always feel sad. Self-respect comes when we get tolerant.

Sometimes we work with the best of motives (动机) only to be sorry for the result. It is the nature of life that things will not happen as we hoped, but it is a mistake to connect our sense of self-respect with the achievements.

How to develop respect for yourself

Theme	Keeping a sense of self-respect is of great     1    .
Idea of self-respect	Self-respect is a feeling of being happy with one’s characters, abilities and beliefs. It can make one     2     self-confidence of working out all kinds of problems in one’s life.
Was to develop self-respect	Being true to yourself ★    3     in your own values and follow your own path.
	Learning to deal with criticism ★ Never get sad by things     4     do or say. ★ Pay no attention to untrue criticism and try to make progress from true criticism.
	Avoiding jealousy ★ Jealousy is a common way of       5     our happiness and self-respect. ★ Learn to be happy when others become       6    .
	7     others ★It is     8     to feel better by putting others down. ★ Look for the good qualities in other people.
	Forgiving ★ You can’t feel happy     9     you keep your mind away from the problems in the past.
	Remembering your motives, not your result ★It is common that we work with strong motives but     10     to get good results.