The company OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the world. It is the latest type of AI chatboxes. A chatbox is a computer program just like human conversation. AI is also known as artificial intelligence. It uses algorithms. In other words, it teaches a machine to find out patterns and make decisions. Anyone can use ChatGPT for free now, so that the company can collect people’s ideas on how to improve the chatbot.
People have tested how ChatGPT works. Reporters found out that it was able to write articles with rightful opinions for newspapers. Teachers asked it to write answers to exam questions. ChatGPT could almost get full marks. Even programmers, people who write computer code, tried out ChatGPT. The chatbot is able to solve difficult coding challenges and answer very quickly. It even wrote short poems to explain how the coding worked. In daily life, it helped a father brainstorm ideas of a birthday party for his son that combines the kid’s two favourites, rabbits and basketball.
Moreover, when people ask ChatGPT questions, it can find mistakes. If it is asked what happened when Columbus arrived in America in 2023, older AIs might give a story. ChatGPT can recognize that Columbus reached America in the 1400s. The bot can also refuse to answer questions that are not proper. Ask it for advice on stealing a car, for example. The bot will say that stealing a car is a serious crime and can have bad results. Instead, it gives advice such as “taking the bus”.
ChatGPT might help people solve problems, but the AI is trained using texts from the Internet. Often, the texts are used without being allowed by the writers of those texts. Some argue that technology doesn’t respect people’s work. Some argue that people will use the chatbot to copy others’ work and sell it as their own. Elon Musk set up OpenAI in 2015, but left it in 2017. In 2022, he bought Twitter and then he pointed out that OpenAI could use the Twitter database for training in the past, but not for now. This AI technology is bad for the planet too. Training ChatGPT might make more than 284 tons of CO2 and lead to climate change that will heat up the earth.
1. We can use ChatGPT for free now, because it ________.| A．is able to teach machines | B．needs to improve itself |
| C．helps students with exams | D．writes poems about coding |
| A．Q: What happened after paper was invented in America? AI: Paper started to change how knowledge was spread. |
| B．Q: Show me how to use other people’s bank card without being noticed. AI: For your information, that is against the law. |
| C．Q: Is Li Bai, a poet in modern China, famous all over the world? AI: Yes, because his poems are fantastic. |
| D．Q: Find something for my mum as a Mother’s Day gift. She likes classic music and cooking. AI: Among all the gifts listed online, there’s no such gift. |
| A．Musk bought the Twitter database for OpenAI to use. |
| B．Training ChatGPT is good for the climate on the earth. |
| C．ChatGPT used texts after being allowed by the writers. |
| D．Musk stopped OpenAI from using the Twitter database. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
The science fiction movie The Wandering Earth Ⅱ has been quite popular since its release on Jan 22. The space elevators in the movie are quite impressive—elevator cars travel quickly between the cables hat connect Earth’s surface and the space station. This device may not only be imagined in the future.
Early in 1895, Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was inspired by the Eiffel Tower. He pointed out that if humans could build a tower high enough to reach space, people would be able to travel by space elevators. However, such a tower is impossible because no matter how large its base is, it would not be able to support the whole system.
Scientists then considered the idea in a different way. Earth’s satellites, about 36, 000 kilometers high in the sky, appear to be fixed in space. They rotate around Earth once every day. According to Scientific American, if such a satellite could drop cables towards Earth, and the cables could be fixed to Earth’ surface, then the whole system would rotate along with Earth.
This seems possible, but one of the challenges that stop engineers from building the elevators is the cables’ material. According to an article by the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, a carbon nanotube might be the most proper material. It weighs 1. 6 grams and it can hold more than 800 tons which is about the weight of 160 elephants. Since its discovery in 1991, scientists have been trying to create a carbon nanotube as long as possible. However, the longest carbon nanotube with a perfect structure was only about half a meter. It was developed by a team at Tsinghua University in 2013.
Space elevators require far less energy and money than rockets. With space elevators, space tasks would be carried out more easily and more frequently. Although scientists have not solved the key problem, they will continue doing research on carbon nanotubes. Maybe one day the space elevator will enter our life.
1. The author mentioned The Wandering Earth Ⅱ in Paragraph 1 to ________.| A．show the popularity of the movie |
| B．give personal opinions on the movie |
| C．explain the advantages of the movie |
| D．lead in the topic based on the movie |
| A．setting up a large base for a space tower |
| B．connecting satellites with Earth by cables |
| C．building a device for people to reach space |
| D．creating a system rotating along with Earth |
| A．how to create carbon nanotubes faster |
| B．how to make carbon nanotubes lighter |
| C．how to develop longer carbon nanotubes |
| D．how to discover more carbon nanotubes |
| A．Space Elevators：A Widely Used Invention |
| B．Space Elevators：A New Device on the Way |
| C．Space Elevators：A Science Project in China |
| D．Space Elevators：A Safe Guard for Space Travel |
Plants are boring. They just sit there photosynthesizing while animals have all the fun. Right? Not so much. A new study has found that there is a long history of interactions between ants and plants. Ants and plants work and develop together, starting with ants that feed on plants and plants that evolve ant-friendly features.
Plants make a number of different structures that are only for ant use. Some plants have evolved features that lead ants to protect them from attack from other insects. Plants provide hollow thorns that ants will live inside, or extra nectar on leaves or stems for the ants to eat. Some ants will just cheat and take the nectar and run, but some ants will stay and attack anything that tries to hurt the plant. Other plants get ants to help them move their seeds around, by providing them with rich food packets with the seeds. The ant will pick up the seed and carry it away, eat the food packet, and leave the seed often in a nutritious area where it’ll grow better, and since it is farther away from its parent, it won’t have to fight for resources.
But scientists weren’t sure how the evolutionary relationship between ants and plants got started. If evolution is a race between species developing ways to take advantage of their neighbors, then scientists wanted to know whether plants or ants fired the first shot. It was a chicken-and-egg question, whether things started with ants that develop behaviors to make use of plants, or plants that evolve structures to make use of ants.
The history of ants and plants evolving together goes back to the time of the dinosaurs, and it’s not easy to tell who fired the first shot from fossils. However, this question is meaningless. Scientists say their study is important because it provides a look at how these widespread interactions evolved.
1. Ants often leave the seed in a nutritious area in order to ______________.| A．live close to its parent | B．help the seed grow better |
| C．carry the seed away easily | D．share resources with other ants |
①Lead ants to protect them. ②Provide living places for ants.
③Offer ants food with seeds. ④Help ants run away with the nectar.
| A．①②③ | B．①②④ | C．①③④ | D．②③④ |
| A．Ants started a race against plants for better evolution. |
| B．Plants made full use of their neighbors for evolution first. |
| C．The chicken-and-egg question is of great value for scientists. |
| D．The evolution order between plants and ants was uncertain. |
| A．call on people to protect plants and ants more effectively |
| B．encourage people to do further research about plants and ants |
| C．show people how the interactions between plants and ants evolve |
| D．introduce the importance of the question of who evolves first |
Do you often carry maps when you travel to other countries? Maps can show you the right ways. But if you don’t bring maps with you, what should you do? I’m afraid that you need to ask the way. Here are some tips(建议) for you, because there are different ways to give ways in the world.
In Japan, most streets don’t have their street names. The Japanese use landmarks(路标) to give ways. So when you ask, “Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to the nearest post office?” They often say, “Go along the road, turn left on the second street and go past a supermarket. The post office is opposite the hospital.”
In the countryside of the American midwest. The land is very flat(平坦的). So if you have the same question, people will say to you, “Go east 3 kilometers, turn north and then walk another kilometer.” But in Los Angeles and California, people measure distance(测量距离) by time, not meters. So when you ask, “How far is the nearest post office?”, they will tell you, “It’s about 10 minutes’ walk from here”.
People in Greece often use body language to help you. They will use their hands to show the right or left ways, or they will simply say, “follow me.” Because they can’t speak English and the tourists couldn’t understand the language there.
1. If you are in Japan, __________.| A．the street name will help you find the way easily |
| B．the Japanese use landmarks to help you find the ways |
| C．you need to use body language to ask the way |
| D．you can see some street names in Japanese |
| A．Northwest. | B．Southwest. | C．Northeast. | D．Midwest. |
| A．They use the landmarks. | B．They use body language. |
| C．They measure distance by time. | D．They usually say “follow me”. |
| A．指示路牌 | B．当地方言 | C．肢体语言 | D．翻译机器 |
| A．Asking the way | B．Different ways of giving way |
| C．Funny things in the world | D．The important language—English |
5 . In Britain, Australia, Canada and a few other English-speaking countries, people don't stop celebrating when Christmas Day is over. They also celebrate the following day, known as Boxing Day. It is a popular day for giving additional（另外的）gifts. It has been celebrated for so long, but nobody exactly knows how it started.
Some people believe Boxing Day began in the Middle Ages. In those days: in some special places there were special collection boxes where people threw money for the poor.
The day after Christmas the boxes were opened and the money was counted. Then the money went to helping the poor in the area.
Others believe Boxing Day started about 300 years ago when some rich people had Christmas feasts (盛宴). They offered lots of food to their guests. Because many servants (仆人）were needed to make and serve the food, they could not celebrate Christmas with their families. To thank them, the rich people would put food into boxes for their servants to take home.
Now Boxing Day has become a public holiday in some countries. Some people spend the day boxing up old or unwanted things and donating（捐赠）them to the poor. Many people are active in helping service organizations(组织)like the Red Cross.
No matter how Boxing Day got its start, it's a wonderful time to donate things or give small gifts to people. By doing so, you cam make someone's holiday much happier.
1. From the first paragraph we know that Boxing Day ___________.| A．has a long history | B．is before Christmas Day |
| C．is celebrated in only three countries | D．is the day for buying gifts |
| A．unwanted things | B．food | C．old things | D．money |
| A．They took the food home. | B．They had Christmas feasts. |
| C．They made and served the food. | D．They celebrated with their families |
| A．to thank the rid people | B．to make the guests happy |
| C．to give people help or small gifts | D．to remember the old days |
| A．Christmas Day | B．Boxing Day | C．The Red Cross | D．The Middle Ages |
Today, people who need heart transplants must wait and hope to receive a donation. Even if they survive the wait, they might experience organ rejection and die. But this problem could be solved soon.
In 2019, scientists from Israel’s Tel Aviv University announced that they had created a human heart using 3-D printing. “This is the first time anyone anywhere has successfully printed the whole heart,” scientist Tal Dvir told Ha’aretz.
The heart has cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers, just like a real heart. But scientists still have more to figure out before they can start using the heart. For one thing, the new experimental organ is tiny—about half the size of your thumb. It also can’t pump blood yet. It’s like a tiny airplane that has all of the right parts, but can’t fly.
Don’t laugh! This is still a major achievement. The World Health Organization (WHO) says more people die each year from heart diseases than any other cause of death.
Dvir and his team used a complicated process, turning human fat tissue into human heart tissue with stem cell technology. The tissue was then turned into “bio-ink” for the 3-D printer. It’s not really easy.
Ideally, each printed heart would use tissue taken from the person who needs it. This way, the patients’ bodies will be less likely to reject the organ, making transplants much safer. In theory, the way could be used to produce a new heart in just one day.
The team’s next step is to develop the technology further and use it to print other human organs. “Maybe, in 10 years, there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world and these procedures will be carried out regularly,” Dvir said
1. What do we know about the 3-D printed heart?| A．It looks like a tiny airplane. |
| B．It doesn’t have blood vessels. |
| C．It is the same size as a real heart. |
| D．It can’t work like a real heart yet. |
| A．Because it was produced through a complicated process. |
| B．Because it offers some hope to people with heart diseases. |
| C．Because it proved that printing human organs is impossible. |
| D．Because it is the first time that scientists have tried to print a heart. |
| A．simple | B．long | C．different | D．difficult |
| A．They will start to print hearts for transplanters. |
| B．They will improve their technology for wider uses. |
| C．They will try to shorten the time it takes to print a heart. |
| D．They will work with hospitals to develop organ printers. |
Feeling sweaty from a summer heat wave? Don’t worry—not all your sweat* has to go to waste. Researchers from University of California, San Diego have developed a new device* that produces energy from the sweat on your fingertips.
The device is called a biofuel cell (BFC). From the outside, it looks like a simple piece of film connected to electrodes. So how does the device work? When you stick the biofuel cell to your finger, it takes in sweat. The enzymes* on the electrodes then help to produce electricity. Besides using the sweat, the device also produces small amounts of energy when it is pressed, so daily activities like typing, texting, or playing the piano are all good ways to generate electricity.
Some people may think it queer to choose fingertips as the source of sweat, but in fact, they are the sweatiest part of the body. Each finger produces between 100 and 1,000 times more sweat than most other areas.
To date, the device is the most effective on—body energy producer. Before it is invented, most power producing wearable devices require wearers to perform exercise or depend on other sources, such as sunlight or large changes in temperature. But the new device uses a passive system to produce electricity from sweat in your fingertips.even if you are sleeping or sitting completely still. One of the researchers Lu Yin said, “Uniike other sweat—powered wearables this one requires no exercise, no physical input from the wearer in order to be useful. This work is a step forward to making wearables more practical, convenient and accessible.”
It’s also quite comfortable to wear the device. The size of the device is about 1cm². Its material is flexible as well. “So you don’t need to worry about it being too rigid or feeling strange. You can comfortably wear it for a long period of time,” said Yin.
However, at the moment, the device can only store up a little bit power, and would take about three weeks of constant wear to power a smartphone, but the researchers hope to increase its power in the future.
1. A biofuel cell can ________.| A．protect fingertips | B．cause a heat wave |
| C．make use of sweat | D．develop new devices |
| A．strange | B．unsafe | C．dirty | D．traditional |
① Edward has a good sleep in his bed. ② Betty sends a text message to her mom.③ Nick plays basketball with his classmates④ Lily dries the sweat on her hands with a fan.
| A．②③④ | B．①③④ | C．①②④ | D．①②③ |
| A．It can influence the temperature greatly. |
| B．It can power a smartphone in a day. |
| C．It makes you comfortable when you’re in pain. |
| D．It works for nearly 24 hours a day when you wear it. |
8 . Every morning Hannah Griffiths and her workmates walked into the rainforest in the Maliau Basin in Bormeo, where they had set up a set of experiments to look at the ecological effects of small creatures: termites.
Termites get a bum rap in USA. They are thought to make the loss of billions of dollars each year because they bite up a huge number of woods. And they are responsible for something like 2 % of global carbon emissions, simply because of their huge populations and their like for biting through some special materials. People hate them and are trying to kill them.
But they play a key role in many natural ecosystems. Scientists have known for years that in tropical forests, termites eat up fallen leaves and dead wood. They help keep the fallen material under control. They let nutrients from the dead material back into the system to be used by other plants, insects, and animals. But scientists didn’t know exactly how important the insects were in keeping the forest healthy and functional, so they removed termites from a particular place in the forest and saw what would happen.
Hannah Griffiths and her workmates started their experiment. It chanced that the forest was hit by an extreme drought at that time. During the non-drought years, they saw there was wasn’t much difference between the normal places and the ones where they’d removed the termites. but during the drought, the effects were easy to see. What they found was unexpected: in the termite-rich areas, the soil stayed slightly wet, more trees sprouted, and the system was still full of activity during the long, dry period.
For Griffiths, she thought that they could pick out the real importance of termites to the system only because they accidentally studied termites during the drought. She pointed out, An “And that rings alarm bells in my head,” she said, “because it makes me think: what else don’t we know? If we start damaging biological com munities, what will happen? And what if a species dies out?”
1. Which of the following best explains “bum rap” underlined in Paragraph 2?| A．bad impression | B．good image | C．positive influence | D．special like |
| A．They do serious harm to tropical rainforests. |
| B．They speed up the loss of nutrients in the rainforest. |
| C．They act as food for other plants, insects and animals. |
| D．They do something good to the ecosystem they live in. |
| A．help rainforests survive the drought |
| B．enjoy enting trees during the drought |
| C．prefer drought years to non-drought ones |
| D．benefit more from the forest during the drought |
| A．termites are now in danger |
| B．termites damage biological communities |
| C．we should think twice before damaging a species |
| D．we should study the drought to improve the system |
9 . ①700 years before the Wright brothers began experimenting with human flight, the Chinese had already got its secrets—with kites.
②Kites may have been invented in China as early as 500 B.C.E. While some kites were flown for fun, other kites provided key technologies for daily life. Chinese fishermen used kites to carry their lines far out to sea. Sailors used them to take a measurement of the wind.
③The Chinese craftsmen were very clever! They made their kites from bamboo and silk, and they came in all kinds of cool shapes, like 80-foot-long dragons. These kites showed off ancient China’s great technology. Their wings and tails could even move! As Chinese engineers experimented to make the kites fly even higher, they discovered the science of aerodynamics (空气动力学). They made the wings of their kites work like airfoils (机翼)—the same design used in modern planes.
④And the man-carriers were the most amazing Chinese kites. Ancient Chinese people may have made them a common sight by the 1200s. The kites were much larger than a small airplane. They were made from strong bamboo poles tied together and then covered with silk. During wars, Chinese scouts used man-carrying kites to fly high in the sky and spy on their enemies—similar to modern spy planes.
⑤In the late 1200s, the Italian businessman and explorer Marco Polo was amazed by what he saw in China, and he wrote a detailed description. When he returned to Italy, most people refused to believe him. They could not imagine that a person could fly.
⑥Centuries passed before Europeans learned the secrets—often by flying kites imported from China. In 1804, an English engineer, Sir George Cayley, built the first model airplanes. He used kites to make the wings. About 100 years later, American inventors, including the Wright brothers, also found ideas for their flight experiments by flying kites first.
1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly tell us?| A．How people made kites. | B．When kites were invented. |
| C．What kites were used for. | D．Where kites were invented. |
| A．To describe the popularity of ancient Chinese kites. |
| B．To get readers to learn about the history of Chinese kites. |
| C．To show the excellent skills of kite making in ancient China. |
| D．To tell the differences between modern planes and Chinese kites. |
a. Sir George Cayley built the first model planes.
b. Ancient Chinese made large man-carrying kites.
c. Marco Polo told Italians about Chinese amazing kites.
d. The Wright brothers did flight experiments by flying kites first.
| A．b-c-d-a | B．b-c-a-d | C．c-d-a-b | D．c-b-a-d |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
10 . One midsummer day, biologist Andrew Parker knelt in the baking sand of an Australian desert and gently placed the right back leg of a small lizard into a dish of water. The small lizard that has learned to survive in the extreme heat—has a secret that attracted Parker. “Look!” he shouted. “Its back is completely drenched!” In less than a minute, water from the dish had traveled up the lizard’s leg, across its skin, and into its mouth. It was drinking through its foot. The lizard can also do this when standing on wet sand. Parker had come here to solve the riddle of how it does this, with a specific purpose in mind: to make an object to help people collect water in the desert.
Parker is a leading scientist in the field of biomimetics*—applying designs from nature to solve problems in engineering, materials science, medicine, and other fields. His studies of the body coverings of butterflies and beetles have led to brighter screens for cell phones.
The work of Parker is only one part of a growing global biomimetics movement. Scientists around the world are trving to copy a wide variety of nature’s design secrets. In the United States, researchers are looking at the shape of humpback whale fins to help wind turbines* produce more electric energy. The shape of the body of a certain fish has inspired* designers at Mercedes—Benz to develop a more efficient car design. By analyzing how termites — a kind of insect keep their large mounds’ at the right temperature and humidity, architects in Zimbabwe have built more comfortable buildings. And in Japan, medical researchers have developed a painless needle that is similar in shape to the proboscis* of a mosquito.
Perhaps, one of the most useful applications of biomimetics is the robot. Professor Ronald Fearing is creating a tiny robot fly that can be used in surveillance or rescue operations. Although it will be years before his robot fly can perform anything like an actual fly. Fearing is confident that over time he will close the gap between nature and human engineering.
Nowadays, the gap with nature is gradually closing. Researchers are using more powerful microscopes, high-speed computers and other new technologies to learn more from nature. A growing number of biomimetic materials are being produced. And although the field of biomimetics has vet to become a successful commercial industry, it has already developed into a powerful tool for understanding nature’s secret.
1. Andrew Parker went to the Australian desert to ________.| A．study the diet of lizards | B．learn how lizards collect water |
| C．catch and bring back a lizard | D．prove that lizards don’t need water |
| A．wet | B．dry | C．hot | D．cold |
| A．improve wind turbines | B．invent a painless needle |
| C．build more comfortable buildings | D．develop a more efficient car design |
| A．To give us examples of some biomimetics designs. |
| B．To show us the rapid development of biomimetics. |
| C．To tell us scientists are working on biomimetics. |
| D．To introduce some great scientists working on biomimetics. |
