1 . 阅读下面的短文，在空白处填入一个适当的词，或填入括号中所给单词的正确形式。

A group called New Story is working with Icon Company to     1     (quick) build lots of houses for poor people in Tabasco, Mexico. The way they are building the houses is     2     (usual) —by 3D-printing technology.

New Story is a group that works to bring cheap but good houses to people who can’t afford     3     (they). The group has built over 2,700 houses in     4     (place) like Bolivia, EI Salvador, Haiti and Mexico. In the past, New Story built its houses     5     a normal way. But it     6     (take) a long time. That’s     7     New Story began to work with Icon.

Icon has developed a way to build houses quickly by 3D-printing them with concrete (混凝土). Some     8     (area) where New Story wants to build houses suffer from earthquakes,     9     Icon’s houses have been designed (设计) to hold up in earthquake conditions.

The houses in Tabasco have two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. Because the houses are created with a computer design, it’s easy     10     (change) the design to suit the needs of different families. They are expected to live in later this year.

2 . There’s a new AI bot (自动程序): Chat GPT, and you’d better pay attention, even if you aren’t into artificial intelligence (人工智能) The tool is an AI chatbot system that Open AI made it public in November 2022 to show off and test what a very large and strong AI system can do.

Chat GPT remembers your conversation, using last questions and answers to make its next answers. It makes its answers from plenty of information on the Internet. Chat GPT is built on top of the Open AI GPT-3 family of large language models.

You can ask Chat GPT anything, like explaining physics, asking for birthday party ideas and getting programming help. Perhaps it’s not smart enough to take the place of all humans yet, but it can be creative, and its answers can sound right. A few days after its launch (发布), more than 1 million people were trying out Chat GPT. UBS worker Lloyd Walmsley estimated in February 2023 that Chat GPT reached 100 million monthly users in January.

Chat GPT is free to use at the moment because it is still in its research period. But when too many people use the server, it overloads and can’t give your answer. It just means you should try visiting the site at a later time when fewer people are trying to use it. If you want to skip (跳过) the wait and enter the site quickly, there is a choice for you. As of Feb. 1, 2023, Open AI has a Chat GPT pro plan, Chat GPT Plus, which allows users to have priority access (优先进入) even when lots of people are using it. This service does come at a cost of $20/month.

However, Chat GPT cannot replace Google. Chat GPT is an artificial intelligence bot that provides solutions to your questions, but Google is a search engine in which you can search for as much information as possible. Chat GPT has limited (有限的) knowledge because of its programming but Google has unlimited knowledge which adds the most recent news every day.

1. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about Chat GPT?

A．It mainly tells us its language model.

B．It mainly tells us how it works.

C．It mainly tells us its design background.

D．It mainly tells us its latest development.

2. What is true about Chat GPT pro plan?

A．It guides users to experience free services and get the best answers.

B．It allows net surfers to skip advertisements which takes a few second.

C．It can help workers check the failure of the system in a quick way.

D．People who paid $20/month can use the Chat GPT without waiting.

3. The meaning of the underlined word replace is _________.

A．覆盖

B．影响

C．代替

D．超过

4. According to the passage, we can infer that _________.

A．the answers given by Chat GPT are right all the time.

B．Chat GPT cannot take the place of Google.

C．there is no need for people to pay for the Chat GPT.

D．if you want to get the latest information , Google is a better choice.

4 .

Scientists have developed a way to read minds, translating unspoken thoughts into written words. It’s the first time it’s been done without having to put anything into the brain. They used artificial intelligence (AI) (人工智能). It is the name given to a computer system that is able to “think” for itself and carry out tasks that usually require human intelligence.

Scientists used a special scanner (扫描器). The machine can see where blood runs, which shows the parts of the brain that are most active. People taking part in the experiment (实验) listened to the radio for 16 hours as their brains were scanned. The AI tool learned to connect certain brain activity with words they heard. After that, each person was asked to think of a story, and the AI tool managed to pick up these thoughts as they happened.

The results had about a 50% accuracy rate (准确率), although the AI found it hard to work out the meaning of pronouns, such as he or she, her or him. For example, it turned “I don’t have my driver’s license yet” into “She has not even started to learn to drive yet.” It could usually understand the meaning of what someone was thinking rather than the exact words. The AI was personalized, so when it had learned from one person but it was tested on another, it couldn’t understand their thoughts.

The scientists, who have been working on the technology for 15 years, say they understand the risks of it being used badly. Scientist Jerry Tang told a newspaper, “We want to make sure people only use these types of technologies when they want to, and that it helps them.”The scientists hope it will help people with certain medical conditions, who are still awake but have lost the ability to speak, to communicate once again.

1. What is the main purpose of paragraph 2?

A．To describe the process of the experiment.	B．To explain the results of the experiment.
C．To offer some opinions about the experiment.	D．To list the difficulties with the experiment.

2. What does the example in paragraph 3 show?

A．The AI is much cleverer than people.

B．The AI didn’t start the work as it was ordered.

C．The AI couldn’t understand the exact words of what people thought.

D．The AI will be well developed according to people’s special needs.

3. What can we learn from the text?

A．It is not difficult to take AI under control.

B．AI will not be used in a proper way in the future.

C．AI is so wise that it can treat people with medical problems.

D．It’s expected that AI will help those speechless exchange ideas.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．High Risks of Using AI	B．Mind-Reading Development
C．Importance of Human Brain	D．Ways of Improving Technology

5 . There is one thing in the world that’s smaller than your fingernail. But without it, we can’t use nearly all the electronics. It’s the microchip! It is one of the most important inventions in human history. How much do you know about microchips? Here are some basics for you to learn it.

What are microchips?

Not to be confused with potato chips, Microchips are very small electronic devices people use to store and deal with information. A microchip is a set of interconnected electronic components that are imprinted on a very small chip. As microchips have so many connected components, they are also called integrated circuits.

There are mainly two kinds of microchips: logic chips and memory chips. Logic chips are the “brains” of electronic devices—they deal with information to finish a task. Memory chips store information.

Application and importance

Microchips are in everything electrical from computers to cellphones, TVs, cameras, cars, airplanes, appliances and medical equipment. Microchips are also used in GPS tracking devices and identification cards and are used to record activities and information.

Microchips take and process digital information and make it usable right away. For example, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), or processor, is the main chip in a computer. It s responsible for carrying out all the computer’s tasks.

What are microchips made from?

The main ingredient for making microchips is silicon. It’s a chemical element that can be found in rocks, sand, clay and soil. Silicon is a semiconductor, meaning that its conductive properties can become stronger by mixing it with other ingredients. This makes it possible to turn an electrical current on or off.

The silicon used to make microchips mostly comes from silica sand, made of silicon dioxide. Helpfully, it’s everywhere! It’s the second most common element on Earth after oxygen.

How small can microchips be?

One microchip is smaller than a button on your shirt but it has billions of transistors (晶体管). So it’s easy to understand just how small the features on a chip need to be. Chip features are measured in nanometers (纳米). A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. The smaller the features in the patterns created, the more transistors can fit on a chip, and the more the chip can do.

A Brief     1     to Microchips
Without microchips, one of the most important inventions in history, almost all of our electronic products might not     2    .
Definition	·Small electronic devices are     3     to store and deal with information. ·Two kinds: logic and memory chips.
Application and importance	·They are in everything electrical to record activities and information. ·They process digital information and make users     4     to use it at once.
Size	·One microchip with billions of transistors is smaller than a button. ·The bigger the chip features created, the     5     transistors can fit on a chip.

6 . Scientists in Switzerland have used lasers (激光) to change the path of a lightning strike (雷击的路径). The experiment suggests that in the future, lasers might be useful for protecting large buildings from lightning.

Lightning can be extremely powerful and cause serious problems on the ground. Lightning strike can cause fires, destroy buildings, and even kill people. The damage from lightning costs billions of dollars every year. In the US, lightning strikes killed close to 450 people between 2006 and 2021.

Scientists have been trying to find a way to protect buildings from lightning for a long time. Now the best way is by putting metal rods (金属竿) on the buildings. These rods are connected to the ground. The lightning is attracted to the rods, which safely guide the electricity into the ground. But lightning rods can only protect a small area. Some buildings—such as airports are so large that it’s difficult to protect the whole building using lightning rods.

Another idea is to use lasers to guide lightning. Scientists had been working on the idea for over 20 years. They have successfully guided lightning with lasers inside a lab. But until the summer of 2021, scientists could guide lightning with lasers outside. Using a powerful laser, scientists in Switzerland were able to guide lightning for meters.

The heat from the laser creates a path of air that is less thick than the air around it. The path also has a special charge (电荷). The lightning can follow this path almost as if it were a lightning rod. Scientist Matteo Clerici said, “The fact that we managed to do it in an outdoor environment is a very big step.”

But the laser still didn’t guide the lightning as far as the scientists would like. Besides, the laser is also very expensive. The scientists say it cost about $2 billion. It will probably take 10 or more years before a laser like this is truly able to protect large buildings.

1. What is the laser technology expected to protect?

A．High-rise buildings.	B．Large buildings.
C．Beautiful buildings.	D．Important buildings.

2. To know how powerful lightning can be, which paragraph can we read?

A．Paragraph 2.

B．Paragraph 3.

C．Paragraph 4.

D．Paragraph 5.

3. Why are lasers not used widely for changing the path of lightning strike now?

A．Putting metal rods on the buildings is the best way.

B．Some buildings are so large that it’s difficult to protect.

C．Lasers are only able to guide lightning for a short distance.

D．Lasers are so expensive that scientists can’t pay for experimenting.

4. What can we learn from what Matteo Clerici said?

A．Scientists still need to work harder to achieve a greater success.

B．It is not easy for scientists to guide lightning with lasers outside.

C．Scientists need to change working environment in next experiments.

D．It is a great progress for scientists to guide lightning with lasers outside.

5. What can we infer from the end of the passage?

A．Behind bad luck comes good luck.

B．A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

C．There is still a long way to go before a laser can really work.

D．For scientists, working together is better than working alone.

7 . 阅读短文，根据短文内容回答问题。

School Life Made Easier

Making school life simpler and more convenient is becoming a reality with the use of technology, especially in China where many schools are using inventions like AI.

One example is a school in Tianjin, which uses a smart campus (校园) system (系统) from a tech company. In classes, students get hands-on experience using simulation (模拟) devices and VR glasses, exploring rocket launches and the structure inside rockets through fun and interactive (互动的) learning. Similarly, in swimming classes, “By wearing smart earphones, they can receive real-time instructions from the coach underwater, making sure it’s safe, ” Li Rui, the school’s vice-principal, told CCTV.

At a school in Anhui, technology is improving PE classes. Self-testing tools with AI visual analysis (可视化分析) technology are used for activities like running, jumping, sit-ups, and skipping rope. A facial recognition system records students’ faces, allowing them to receive performance results immediately after each exercise. “Before, when I threw the shot put (铅球), the teacher had to use a ruler to measure the distance. Now, the results are produced automatically (自动地). You can also see which parts of your exercise need improvements, with the teacher then helping to guide you to make those improvements, ” said Wu Shengguo from the school.

Besides China, smart campus technologies are getting popularity. A university in Australia uses an app, allowing students to visualize the human heart in 3D. This tool helps students understand the heart’s different parts and blood flow.

Universities worldwide are also using AI to create helpful digital assistants (助手). A college in the UK introduced a chat robot. It provides students with information about attendance records, courses, and class timetables, making it easier for students to manage their school lives.

Smart campuses are not just about “smart” learning；they are changing how students learn, study, and interact with their schools. These technologies are making education more interesting and convenient for students all over the world.

1. What technology does the school in Tianjin use from the tech company?
____________________________
2. When can students at the school in Anhui receive performance results in PE classes?
____________________________
3. How does the chat robot make it easier for students of the college in the UK to manage their school lives?
____________________________
4. Would you like to study in a smart campus? Why or why not? (Please give two reasons.)
____________________________

9 . Teenagers are advised to get eight to ten hours of sleep each night. However, most of them fail to get enough sleep because of heavy schoolwork. And plenty of young people are experiencing a sleep problem, which increases their risk of mental ill-health (精神健康状况不佳) . Have you ever thought the mobile phone can help teenagers manage their mental health by supporting a good night’s sleep?

Sleep Ninja is a free app created by the Black Dog Institute, a mental health research organization. It is the only app that is specially designed to improve teenagers’ sleep. So far, the results have been encouraging. The app helps teenagers get more sleep and reduce anxiety.

According to a study, 90% of the app users showed some improvements in insomnia (失眠) and 60% reported improvements in sleep quality. At the same time, the rate of depression (抑郁症) dropped from 77% at the start of the study to 44% after using the app.

Sleep Ninja is not only helpful but also easy to use. Those who use the app only need to set a time when they need to get up in the morning. Then the app will work backwards (向后) , deciding when they should be in bed.

It will also give them a warning to start a pre-bed habit. Seeing the warning, they’d better take a hot shower, brush teeth and get ready for sleep.

Besides, the app offers other useful ways to teenagers to help them get into a sleep habit. For example, it shows them how to set their things up in the bedroom, how to reduce terrible thoughts at night and what to do during the day to improve their sleep.

1. The underlined word “anxiety” means “the state of feeling ________”.

A．angry

B．nervous

C．excited

D．satisfied

2. Which question is answered in the fourth paragraph?

A．What is Sleep Ninja?	B．What does the study show?
C．Why is Sleep Ninja helpful?	D．How does Sleep Ninja work?

3. Which tip for having a good sleep can we get from this passage?

A．Listen to loud music at night.	B．Take a cold shower before bed.
C．Clean the bedroom before bed.	D．Try to avoid terrible thoughts at night.

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The study on different sleep apps.	B．The importance of having a good sleep.
C．An app that helps with teenagers’ sleep.	D．The ways to improve teenagers’ sleep.