【推荐1】Do you think there is too much noise in our city? Perhaps you do. If you live near an airport, you will probably feel unhappy because of the noise of planes. It is said that the noise of planes or trains or trucks can make one deaf if he keeps on hearing it.

Noise is a kind of pollution. However, most people in our city do not seem to mind noise. They do not know it is harmful to their health. They like to enjoy music when they are doing their work. It is a new danger that music is played through powerful loudspeakers(声音大的喇叭). It can reach 120 decibels (分贝).

It is known that continuous(连续不断的) noise of over 85 decibels can make people deaf. For example, when newspapers and books are being printed, the noise is over 85 decibels, and some of the workers become deaf. Scientists believe that 10 percent of all the workers in British printing offices have been deafened(使……聋) by the noise. Besides, noise of less than 85 decibels can make some people tired and nervous. We all know that too much noise makes things difficult and unpleasant. It can do great harm to health and prevent people from working well. Workers in noisy offices are not so efficient(高效的) as workers in quiet offices. Noise makes people less efficient. Can anything be done to keep down noise?

In Britain, the government has made several laws to keep down noise. It has spent a good deal of money making airports and main roads quieter. In Japan, America and Canada there are such laws, too.

1. ________ people in big cities know noise does harm to their health.

A．Few

B．Most

C．No

D．Many

2. Many people working in printing offices become deaf because ________.

A．they keep on hearing the noise of the machines

B．they are not used to the noise of the machine

C．the noise of the machines is below 85 decibels

D．they don’t know the noise will harm their hearing

3. If you often hear the noise below 85 decibels, you will ________.

A．become deaf

B．feel tired

C．be happy

D．work harder

4. When a person visits a factory full of loud noise, ________.

A．he will become deaf	B．he will feel uncomfortable
C．his hearing will be greatly harmed	D．he will never mind the noise

【推荐2】If you cut yourself or a cat hurts you by mistake, what should you do? Accidents happen to everyone. Small wounds need care and enough time. Luckily, you can manage most small wounds without visiting a hospital. That’s why it’s a good idea to have basic first-aid things on hand.

The first thing to do is to stop any bleeding (流血) in time. Small cuts usually close on their own. If not, cover the wound with a clean cloth or bandage. Then press softly on it until the bleeding stops. This could take a few seconds or minutes.

Next, it’s necessary to wash the wound to avoid infection (感染). Use warm water and soap to clean the area. If needed, wet some cotton with alcohol (酒精) and lightly clean again. Dry the area completely.

Then, cover the wound to keep out harmful things in air. Use a bandage or other type of clean cover, but don’t make it too hard.

Finally, be kind to your wound. Try not to push it. When the bandage gets wet or dirty, use a new one. After a scab (痂) forms, uncover the wound to make it be seen and get fresh air so it can become better quickly.

1. When you have a small wound, you should ________.

A．go to hospital directly	B．not do anything
C．take some first-aid measures	D．wash your hands

2. What does the underlined word “press” mean in Paragraph 2?

A．To divide it into pieces.	B．To push it down with your finger.
C．To make it move.	D．To stick some cotton on it.

3. Which is the last thing to do when caring for a wound?

A．Wash the wound carefully.	B．Let the wound get some fresh air.
C．Press on the wound to stop any bleeding.	D．Use some bandages to cover the wound.

4. How is the text organized?
( ①=Paragraph 1,②=Paragraph 2,… )

A．

B．

C．

D．

【推荐3】

Imagine having an ear made out of an apple. It seems like a crazy idea from a horror movie. But it could happen in the near future.

Canadian biophysicist Andrew Pelling used an apple to grow a human ear. He thinks fruit and vegetables can be used to cheaply repair human body parts in the future.

Scientists have been trying to grow organs (器官) in labs to replace our old ones. But it is a hard job. For example, liver cells (肝细胞) can grow in a lab, but the cells still need things like blood vessels (血管) to actually work. These things have to grow inside a scaffold (支架).

In the past, scientists have used man-made materials, animal parts and even dead people as scaffolds. But that has proved to be difficult and expensive.

Pelling and his team, however, found the apple to be a cheap and easy-to-use scaffold.

They first cut an apple into the shape of an ear. Then they used a special way to take out the apple’s cell and make it a scaffold. The team then added human cells to the apple, and watched it grow.

“You can implant these scaffolds into the body, and the body will send in cells and a blood supply and actually keep these things alive,” Pelling said during a Ted Talk speech.

The team put the apple scaffold inside a living mouse and the mouse’s cells slowly took over the pieces of apple.

Now Pelling is thinking of other fruits, plants or vegetables to use.

He says that the shape of flower petals could be perfect for repairing skin. And asparagus (芦笋) could fix a broken spine (脊柱).

Now, Pelling and his team are trying hard to put these crazy ideas into reality.

1. Pelling’s idea of man-made ear seems crazy because he use ________ as scaffolds.

A．animal parts

B．dead people

C．man-made materials

D．ordinary apples

2. The underlined word “implant” in Paragraph 7 probably means ________.

A．pick

B．put

C．produce

D．protect

3. Which is the right order of making an ear out of an apple according to the passage?
a. put the apple scaffold inside a mouse   
b. add human cells to the apple scaffold
c. cut an apple into the shape of an ear
d. make the apple ear a scaffold
e. take out the apple’s cells in a special way

A．a-b-c-d-e

B．b-c-d-a-e

C．c-e-d-b-a

D．c-d-a-e-b

4. From the last three paragraphs, we can infer that Pelling will experiment with other fruits, plants or vegetables ________.

A．to make human ears	B．to repair burnt skin
C．to fix a broken spine	D．to make human body parts

【推荐1】Elias Howe is always used to going to bed at 4 o’clock in the morning. Working all night became his living habit. Who’s Elias Howe? You may never hear of him. He was born in America. The sewing (缝纫) machine was invented by him.

Over 100 years ago, without modern machines, people had to do the sewing by hand. Elias decided to design a machine to do the sewing instead of our hands. However, he had a trouble. He couldn’t get the thread (线) to run around the needle (针). Inventing sewing machine was his dream. So he did not give up. He kept thinking about how to solve this problem.

Once he was tired, he slept in bed. He had a dream. In the dream he was caught by a king. The king ordered him to build a perfect sewing machine, or the king would kill him. Elias met the same problem as before. The king was so angry that he ordered his soldiers to kill him. The soldiers raised spears (长矛) and came up to him. Suddenly Elias noticed something. There was a hole in the tip (尖端) of each spear.

Before the spears stuck to his body, Elias woke up from the dream. And he realized that he had found the answer to the problem. Instead of getting the thread to run around the needle, he made it run through a small hole in the tip of the needle. A simple thought finally made Elias invent the first sewing machine.

根据材料内容选择最佳答案。
1. Why did Elias go to bed about 4 o’clock a.m.?

A．Because he got used to working at night.	B．Because he liked to play at night.
C．Because he had sleeping problems.	D．Because of the noise of the machine.

2. What can we know from second paragraph?

A．Elias’s parents lived on sewing.

B．People preferred to do sewing by hand over 100 years ago.

C．Elias wanted to invent the sewing machine to make money.

D．Elias had difficulty in inventing the sewing machine.

3. What does the underlined word “something” mean?

A．Problem.

B．Hole.

C．Dream.

D．Spear.

4. What happened in Elias’s dream at last?

A．Elias was killed.	B．The king was killed.
C．Elias had a good thought.	D．Elias caught the soldiers.

5. What can we know from the passage?

A．If you want to invent something, you should have a good dream.

B．Elias Howe’s dream came true.

C．Working at night is helpful in new inventions.

D．Sleeping can also solve the problem.

【推荐3】Do you shop online with websites like Taobao? When you make an order on Taobao, the money you pay doesn’t go directly to the seller.     1    After you receive your products and click the “confirm receipt（确认收货）” button, Alipay then gives the money to the seller.

This process is called “third party online payment”. There is a transfer station（中转站）, a third account（账户）, between sellers and buyers to make online shopping safe.     2    Sellers also avoid the risk of receiving no money after sending out goods.

These transfer stations are usually set up by payment service companies such as Alipay, Tenpay and Yeepay.     3    It has more than 270 million active users, according to Xinhua.

But WeChat payment is not the same. WeChat doesn’t have its own account. When paying through WeChat, the buyers’ money goes directly to the sellers.     4           

Whether Alipay or WeChat payment, they are all trying to have more users and make online shopping easier.     5    Two companies are also encouraging users to try payments through fingerprints.

A．Among them, Alipay is the biggest one in China.

B．New payment ways such as QR code（二维码）have become popular, too.

C．That’s why so many people are excited about receiving and handing out “red envelopes”, or gift money to their friends on WeChat.

D．Buyers don’t need to worry about paying for products but then receiving nothing.

E．Instead, it goes through Alipay, which keeps your money for a while.

【推荐1】Artificial intelligence (AI) tools designed to operate at human levels have been more and more popular over the past year. These include OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s AI-powered search engine Bing. Such tools, also known as chatbots or generative AI, are computer-powered systems. They are designed to interact smoothly with humans and perform high-level writing and creative work.

In recent months, these tools have proved an ability to produce high-quality work. This has led some technology experts to warn that generative (生成的) Al systems could end up replacing (取代) workers in many industries.

This year, researchers at Harvard Business School and other organizations carried out an experiment. It aimed to test how well AI tools could help workers perform their usual duties or tasks. It involved more than 700 business advisors, called consultants, from Massachusetts-based Boston Consulting Group.

Harvard Business School recently published the results from the experiment in a working paper. The main findings suggest that AI tools like ChatGPT can greatly improve worker perfornance. For example, researchers found hat, on average, workers who used OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT 4 tool completed 12 percent more tasks than non-ChatGPT users. Tasks carried out with help from the Al technology were completed 25 percent faster. And the team found the quality of work performed by consultants using ChatGPT 4 increased by about 40 percent.

However, the paper also found areas where the performance of consultants using ChatGPT 4 dropped. The researchers said this was especially true with tasks the Al tool was not good at completing. “Of tasks the AI was good at, the experiment showed it greatly improved human performance,” the paper said. “But for tasks ChatGPT 4 was not right for, humans relied too much on the AI and were more likely to make mistakes.”

The team suggests one of the biggest challenges to companies effectively (有效) using AI is not knowing which tasks can be completed best with the technology. Finding this out will require businesses to carry out thoughtful research and training efforts in order to find the right mix of AI and human-level work.

1. What is a purpose of designing AI tools according to the text?

A．To perform low-level writing.	B．To replace technology experts.
C．To finish high-quality work.	D．To improve communication.

2. Why does the writer mention ChatGPT 4 in paragraph 4?

A．To explain the disadvantages of AI tools.

B．To show how well AI tools could help workers.

C．To show changes in the future working environment.

D．To compare the work performance between humans and AI tools.

3. What can be learned from the last paragraph?

A．Companies need to balance the work of AI and humans.

B．It is useless to train so many workers to learn to use AI.

C．It is easy to find the right mix of AI and human-level work.

D．Research on using AI effectively has been made by businesses.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．ChatGPT Can See, Hear and Speak Now

B．Ways to Improve Your Performance at Work

C．The Fast Development of Artificial Intelligence

D．AI Tools Help but also Harm Worker Performance

【推荐1】Most of us are using our phones, iPads, and computers. But what if you’re blind? Are you able to do it? Of course! Blind people use assistive technology (AT) (辅助技术) to help themselves. There are many types, and different technologies help to deal with different disabilities (残疾).

How would you use a computer if you could not see the screen (屏幕)? Don’t worry Screen readers can help you. With them, blind people can use a system of keyboard orders instead of a mouse to get where they need to go. Screen readers can read aloud the words on the screen to the blind, or they can be connected to refreshable Braille displays (盲文显示机).

Refreshable Braille is an electronic way of reading Braille. Refreshable Braille displays can turn the words on the screen into Braille. They can then appear on the screen and can be read with a finger. When the person finishes reading some words, the following words will appear. Refreshable Braille displays are very helpful to people who are deaf and blind.

Blind students use AT in the classroom to catch up with their classmates and do homework. Students who have poor eyesight can use an electronic magnifier (放大镜) to see what the teacher is writing, on the blackboard.

Blind students use refreshable Braille displays to quietly read an e-book Textbooks can be read with AT, such as hardcopy Braille, refreshable Braille, or the audio format, according to the students’ abilities and hobbies.

The development in AT makes it more possible for disabled people to learn, compete, and communicate with normal people.

1. What does the first paragraph show us?

A．AT is becoming better and better.

B．The new technology can bring health to blind people.

C．AT makes it possible for disabled people to live a normal life.

D．Most of the disabled people use the same technology.

2. What is the use of screen readers?

A．They can read Braille to use.

B．They can teach key board orders.

C．They can turn the words on the screen into sounds.

D．They can help users read in a slower way

3. What is the main idea of Paragraph 4?.

A．Blind students' learning’ ability.	B．The challenges of AT in schools.
C．Blind students' physical’ problems.	D．The use of AT in the class.

4. Who may be interested in reading this passage?

A．Doctors.

B．Disabled people.             C Workers.            D. Computer users.

【推荐2】Are you sometimes a little tired and sleepy in the early afternoon? Do you feel that sometimes a task that takes you five minutes in the morning may take fifteen minutes in the afternoon? Many people feel this way after lunch. They may think that eating lunch is the cause of the sleepiness. If this is true, why wouldn’t people feel just as sleepy after eating a large breakfast or after dinner? The truth is that this sleepiness has little to do with meals and is due to another cause.

The real reason lies inside your bodies. At that time, about eight hours after you wake up, the body temperature goes down. This is what makes you slow down and feel sleepy. Scientists have tested sleeping habits in experiments (试验) where there was no night or day. The people in these experiments almost always followed a similar sleeping pattern (模式). They slept for one long period and then for one short period about eight hours later.

In many parts of the world, people take naps (午睡) in the middle of the day, especially people in warmer climates where the heat makes work difficult in the early afternoon. Researchers are now saying that naps are good for everyone in any climate.

A daily nap gives one a more rested body and mind. In countries where naps are common, people have less health problems like heart disease.

If you want to make the most of your nap, here are some tips. First, remember that the best time to take a nap is about eight hours after you get up. A short sleep too late in the day may only make you feel more tired and sleepy afterward. This can also happen if you sleep for too long. If you do not have enough time to try a short nap—even ten minutes of sleep can be helpful.

If you feel down next time, try taking a nap to lift your spirits. Napping, or even just resting for an hour without falling asleep, can also light up your day.

1. The writer starts Paragraph 1 by ________.

A．asking questions

B．telling stories

C．listing numbers

D．making comparisons

2. People feel sleepy in the early afternoon because ________.

A．they eat too much for lunch	B．they sleep too little at night
C．the weather becomes a lot warmer	D．their body temperature becomes lower

3. The underlined word “This” in Paragraph 5 probably refers to ________.

A．taking a nap too late	B．sleeping too long
C．not having time to sleep	D．feeling tired and sleepy

4. We can learn from the passage that ________.

A．a lunch rest without falling asleep also helps

B．taking naps can solve heart problems

C．people usually spend more time finishing a task in the morning

D．it’s difficult for people to follow a similar sleeping pattern

【推荐3】How can you combine (结合) games with English learning? The answer is Wordle! Wordle players must correctly (正确地) guess a five-letter word with just six tries. You will lose (输掉) the game if you can’t guess the right word after six tries.

Invented by Josh Wardle, the game has been popular with millions of players all over the world. Every midnight, Wordle refreshes (更新) its word of the day. For example, the answer for April 10 is BLACK.

As you guess, the game gives you hints (提示). For example, if a letter is correct and in the right place, it turns green. If the letter is not in the word, it turns gray. If the letter is part of the word but in the wrong place, it turns yellow. These hints make the game into a puzzle (谜).

To win this game, you need to know a lot about English. Every English word has at least one vowel (元音), so finding vowels is a useful way. For example, in the word “think”, there is only one syllable (音节) and there is one vowel /i/.

A few days ago, I played this game and found it very interesting. First, I guessed the word “table”. Only “a” was green. Then, I guessed “maker” and the “r” turned yellow. In the end, I guessed “carry” and I was correct!

Wordle is a wonderful game to have fun. It’s also helpful to your English learning. Why not have a try in your free time?

1. If the letter is in the word but in the wrong place, it turns ________.

A．red

B．gray

C．yellow

D．green

2. Which of the following words can’t describe (描述) Wordle?

A．Easy.

B．Popular.

C．Interesting.

D．Useful.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．There is only one correct word in Wordle every day.

B．The answer for April 15 may be CARROT.

C．Users can win Wordle if they know little English.

D．Wordle players can get the correct answer after the seventh try.

4. Which of the following best shows the structure (结构) of the passage?

A．

B．

C．

D．