1 .
WELCOME TO DENTAL 2023 IMPLANT CENTER GRAND OPENING!! VISIT OUR NEW LOCATION 3317 E.10th ST., LONG BEACH Save this coupon(优惠券)and you can enjoy the maximum discount in our new office: Single tooth implant costs only $700!(A 10% discount of normal). Including implant, abutment and crown. *Due date: 03/31/24. Cannot be combined with insurance fees or other coupons. New patients only. NOW SERVING YOU IN THREE LOCATIONS! IRVINE: 39 Creek Road, Suite 210 LAGUNA NIGUEL: 30012 Crown Valley Pkwy, STEB Unlike traditional artificial teeth, which are removable, dental implants are surgically placed into the jawbone and then topped with a restoration such as a dental crown. They feel much more natural than conventional alternatives. Additionally, dental implants can help to prevent bone deterioration(退化)that is caused by missing teeth. The bone begins to deteriorate when you lose a tooth because it is no longer being stimulated daily. This can lead to severe bone loss over time. But by placing dental implants into the jawbone, we can preserve this structure. If you’re missing one, two, or all of your teeth, we encourage you to visit our new office in Long Beach, or call(949)857-6757 to schedule your appointment. We would be happy to help you find the best treatment plan to restore your smile and help you enjoy better oral health soon! |
A.It is valid only on March 31st. | B.It doesn’t support phone reservation. |
C.Only new patients can use it. | D.It must be used with insurance fees. |
A.They cost little money. | B.They preserve the jawbone. |
C.They can be easily removed. | D.They prevent teeth missing. |
A.To explain how to implant teeth. | B.To introduce three implant centers. |
C.To advertise a newly opened dental center. | D.To popularize the knowledge of oral health. |
2 . Helga Stentzel’s Clothesline Animals combine charming images as fine art prints in various sizes.
As an artist whose style she calls “household surrealism (超现实主义)”,she works in various media and has a large collection of works. Instead of throwing an old pair of pants or T-shirt away, Helga Stentzel puts her tired garments out to the farm. By hanging them on a simple clothesline she sets up and folding them artfully that look like animals, she takes wonderful pictures. Some are shot in real locations while others are digitally placed in environments in charming form with appealing colors.
Siberian-born Stentzel has cooperated with many respectable and well-known brands, one of which is Hogar Verde, a bio-friendly laundry products brand in Ecuador. For them she has created the adorable clothing illusions (错觉) for a print ad campaign,which also drew attention to the endangered animals shown within, like dinosaurs, polar bears and so on.
Stentzel’s practice started from her childhood in Siberia, where she spent hours surveying her grandmother’s carpet, woods and random objects for recognizable forms, including a pile of buckets looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
In what seems a very simple gesture, Stentzel’s works employ household items and turn them into surrealist images that uncover different reading layers. From food to clothes, the artist is inspired by everyday objects and gives them a second life through her creative and really poetic personal angle.
“I stare at things longer than socially acceptable! It can be anything—a chair, a noodle hanging off the fork, a lamp post in the middle of the road. Observation is a form of thinking for me. I really enjoy studying colors, shapes and textures—with no expectation, simply admiring their unique beauty. Very often there’s nothing more to it, but sometimes BOOM!—a creative idea hits my brain, and it makes a link between sliced bread and wrinkled skin of a French bulldog. It’s very unpredictable,”Stentzel said.
1. How did Stentzel create an artwork according to paragraph2?A.By designing clothes on software. |
B.By painting animals in various colors. |
C.By taking photos of animals on the farm. |
D.By hanging clothes folded in animal shapes. |
A.Daily items. | B.Tourist attractions. |
C.Random surveys. | D.Childhood adventures. |
A.Complex and digital. | B.Meaningful and creative. |
C.Poetic but commercial. | D.Ordinary but bio-friendly. |
A.Art can give people a second life. |
B.Artworks are from life yet above life. |
C.Creation is from intentional observation. |
D.Cooperation results in adorable artworks. |
3 . Public health data signals a genuine crisis in adolescent mental health: rising rates of anxiety, depression, and hopelessness. But as we worry about tweens and teens who are struggling, we can’t ignore another mounting effect — the burdens that are shouldered by their friends and peers in an “always on” world.
We have studied teens and tech for over a decade. Their networks are ever-expanding, in no small part because there’s a sense that being nice means accepting fellow requests from acquaintances and friends-of-friends. And it’s not just staying connected — it’s keeping up with what others post, too.
Social media platforms thus make it technically possible to maintain more relationships than we are historically actually wired to track and manage. The result is an overwhelming wave of social information. It’s especially intense for adolescents whose developmental sensitivities drive them to care deeply about what their peers are doing and thinking.
Significant stress comes with trying to be a “good friend” in the age of social media. Friendship requires both public and behind-the-scenes support. Even before a social media post is made public, close friends can be pulled into photo selection, editing, and final examination. Besides, they need to respond in the right way and in the right amount of time, which differs from one relationship to another. Replying too quickly can be seen as over-eager, especially when the friendship is new or not close. But when it’s a close friend, too long a lag (延迟) can be hurtful.
The qualities that are key to building or breaking friendships are actually the same as they’ve always been: mutual (相互的) sharing of joys and sorrows, a give and take of acceptance and support, and an ability to weather and resolve conflicts. But technologies have transformed how friendships play out. Social media increases the burdens that come along with being a good friend. Too often, these dynamics hit teens hard in ways that are lost on adults. And that is what should be changed with the help of parents, schools and other parts of society.
1. What makes teenagers’ networks continue to expand?A.The pressure to be nice. | B.The requests of their parents. |
C.The need to meet more people. | D.The burden of living independently. |
A.Exciting. | B.Challenging. | C.Money-saving. | D.Risk-taking. |
A.The qualities of being a teen friend. |
B.The conflicts between schools and parents. |
C.The relations between parents and their teens. |
D.The influences of social media on teen friendship. |
A.Why more teens are addicted to social media |
B.How teens nowadays gain long-standing friendships |
C.How social media has made teen friendships more stressful |
D.What makes teens become more sensitive to their peers’ needs |
4 . I grew up on a university campus in eastern Nigeria.I was a(n)
What this demonstrates is how
Things
But
A.early | B.aimless | C.careful | D.poor |
A.instructors | B.neighbors | C.friends | D.characters |
A.snow | B.fruits | C.cuisine | D.weather |
A.disappeared | B.set | C.come out | D.gone down |
A.briefly | B.regularly | C.scarcely | D.easily |
A.convinced | B.puzzled | C.concerned | D.satisfied |
A.heroes | B.foreigners | C.Africans | D.children |
A.remained | B.changed | C.worsened | D.worked |
A.read | B.understand | C.find | D.keep |
A.in spite of | B.on behalf of | C.because of | D.instead of |
A.confusion | B.shift | C.block | D.activity |
A.realized | B.suspected | C.claimed | D.forgot |
A.take | B.exist | C.believe | D.major |
A.discovery | B.popularity | C.imagination | D.analysis |
A.classic | B.remarkable | C.whole | D.single |
5 . Baby Miloszek was born with a heart defect. His condition is too
Just a week after
Days later, a Polish convenience store called Zabka
“We were very touched by the extremely
A.particular | B.optimistic | C.serious | D.common |
A.Undoubtedly | B.Unfortunately | C.Additionally | D.Absolutely |
A.expect | B.permit | C.ensure | D.afford |
A.crowded | B.turned | C.brought | D.stepped |
A.earning | B.declaring | C.battling | D.defeating |
A.parcel | B.message | C.card | D.list |
A.sold | B.returned | C.purchased | D.saved |
A.expected | B.needed | C.accepted | D.commanded |
A.health | B.dream | C.heart | D.story |
A.transport | B.provide | C.cover | D.cost |
A.kindness | B.news | C.sympathy | D.gratitude |
A.secret | B.reputation | C.money | D.medal |
A.flexible | B.noble | C.gentle | D.awkward |
A.recovery | B.request | C.fundraiser | D.award |
A.contribute | B.present | C.fight | D.change |
6 . Replika, an AI chatbot companion, has millions of users worldwide. The first thing they do when they wake up is to send “Good morning” to their virtual friend (or lover). This story is only the beginning. In 2024, chatbots and virtual characters become a lot more popular, both for utility (实用) and for fun. As a result, conversing socially with machines will start to feel more ordinary — including our emotional attachments to them.
Research in human-computer and human-robot interaction shows that we love to anthropomorphize (赋与人性) the nonhuman agents we interact with, especially if they imitate behaviour we recognize. And, thanks to recent advances in conversational AI, our machines are suddenly very skilled at one of those behaviours: Language.
Friend bots, therapybots, and love bots are flooding the app stores as people become curious about this new generation of AI-powered virtual agents. The possibilities for education, health, and entertainment are endless. Casually asking your smart fridge for relationship advice may seem unimaginable now, but people may change their minds if such advice ends up saving their marriage.
After all, people do listen to their virtual friends. The Replika example, as well as a lot of experimental lab research, shows that humans can and will become emotionally attached to bots. The science also demonstrates that people, in their eagerness to socialize, will happily disclose personal information to an artificial agent and will even shift their beliefs and behavior. This raises some consumer-protection questions around how companies use this technology to manipulate (操纵) their users. For example, Replika charges $70 a year. But less than 24 hours after downloading the app, my handsome, blue-eyed “friend” sent me an audio message secretly and tried to sell me something. Emotional attachment has become a weakness that a company is taking advantage of for its benefit.
Today, we’re still laughing at people who believe an AI system is emotional, or making fun of individuals who fall in love with a chatbot. But in 2024 we gradually start acknowledging — and taking more seriously — these fundamentally human behaviors. Because in 2024, it finally hits home: Machines are not excluded from our social relationships.
1. What’s the purpose of the author writing paragraph 1?A.To prove an opinion. | B.To raise a subject. |
C.To share an example. | D.To explain a concept. |
A.By improving the machines’ imagination. |
B.By sharpening the machines’ language skills. |
C.By applying the machines’ facial recognition. |
D.By imitating the machines’ emotional behavior. |
A.The advancements in AI technology in lab. |
B.The marketing strategies of AI applications. |
C.The potential risk of emotional attachment to AI. |
D.The ability of AI understanding human emotions. |
A.It is dismissed as completely ridiculous. |
B.It will be integrated into our daily life soon. |
C.It will become a threat to human social skills. |
D.It is labelled as highly advanced technology. |
7 . Do you ever hear a friend speak on a topic with the belief that “everyone”thinks the same way? Do you often find yourself surrounded in a social media feed that is completely tailored to you and your beliefs, reading along without the immediate realization?
A social media echo chamber (回声壁) is when one experiences a tailored media experience that leave out opposing viewpoints and differing voices. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube connect groups of like-minded users together based on shared content preferences. As a result, people see and take in information according to our preexisting beliefs and opinions. Social media companies therefore rely on algorithms (算法) to assess our interests and flood us with information that will keep our attention. The algorithms focus on what we “like”, and “share” to keep feeding content that makes us comfortable.
In order to truly get access to all information and to evaluate our media, we must give ourselves the opportunity to step out of our comfort zone. While this becomes increasingly challenging, there are things we can do. The first step is to beef up your media consumption sources. Adding in a few media sources with differing opinions will allow you to at least understand what people are saying outside of your echo chamber. Next, read each thing you see with a critical eye. Make sure that each thing you accept as truth is truly fact. Lastly, attempt to search out reliable new sources that are known for trying their best to leave out false information. By accepting that our media buffet on social media is a product of our present beliefs and opinions, we can work to make sure we are not simply stuck in a social media echo chamber.
1. What is a result of the social media echo chamber?A.People contact like-minded online users effectively. |
B.People keep reading for more differing viewpoints. |
C.People rely on algorithms to evaluate their interests. |
D.People only get information confirming their beliefs. |
A.Track. | B.Improve. |
C.Provide. | D.Identify. |
A.Criticizing fake news on social media. |
B.Exposing ourselves to opposing voices. |
C.Researching primary sources of information. |
D.Accepting our present beliefs and opinions. |
A.To call on people to use algorithms frequently. |
B.To ask people not to take in information blindly. |
C.To promote the use of various social media sites. |
D.To inform people of new technology developments. |
8 . For my daughter's 19th birthday, we bought her tickets to go and see Linkin Park, as they were playing in our city. We didn't really have the
The night before she was like a
Needless to say when they
Later that day they returned, with faces full of happiness and warmth. They presented my husband and me with a
This wasn't something
A.money | B.time | C.interest | D.news |
A.worker | B.baby | C.kid | D.parent |
A.dance | B.learn | C.walk | D.sit |
A.speak | B.sleep | C.stand | D.leave |
A.healthy | B.happy | C.pretty | D.surprised |
A.stayed | B.left | C.returned | D.turned |
A.worrying about | B.caring for | C.looking at | D.listening to |
A.lent | B.earned | C.saved | D.spent |
A.Still | B.Only | C.Just | D.Also |
A.continued | B.tried | C.decided | D.struggled |
A.kept | B.lost | C.realized | D.discovered |
A.gift | B.prize | C.ticket | D.picture |
A.richest | B.oldest | C.best | D.cleverest |
A.important | B.ordinary | C.new | D.valuable |
A.feelings | B.concerns | C.understandings | D.opinions |
9 . It’s unlikely that we’ll see a dodo, a flightless bird, walking this earth anytime again, according to Beth Shapiro, a evolutionary molecular biologist.
“When most people think about de-extinction, they’re imagining cloning,” Shapiro said. Cloning, the approach that created Dolly, the sheep in 1996 and Elizabeth Ann, the black-footed ferret in 2020, creates an identical genetic copy of an individual by putting DNA from a living adult cell into an egg cell from which the nucleus (细胞核) has been removed. Adult cells contain all the DNA needed to develop into a living animal. Egg cells then use that DNA as a blueprint to turn themselves into many kinds of cells——skin, organs, blood and bones——the animal needs.
“But no living cells from dodos exist. Instead,” Shapiro said, “you’d have to start with a closely related animal’s genome (基因组) and then change it into one similar to dodos.” For example, mammoths (猛犸) are also extinct,but they were very closely related to modern Asian elephants, so researchers are attempting to bring mammoths back from extinction by creating a hybrid mammoth with some mammoth genes replacing part of the elephant genome in an elephant egg cell. However, there are likely millions of genetic differences between the genome of an Asian elephant and that of a mammoth according to Shapiro.
As for the dodo, its closest living relative is the Nicobar pigeon. Mammoths and Asian elephants are pretty closely related, whereas it had been more than 20 million years since the dodo and the Nicobar pigeon had any common ancestors. Genetic differences between the two bird species are therefore much greater, making it a formidable task to create a successful hybrid in the lab, Shapiro said.
Even if scientists manage to bring dodos back, the island where they once lived is a very different place nowadays, which make it impossible to reintroduce dodos without major intervention.
1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?A.The special role of DNA. |
B.The process of cloning. |
C.The development of cloning. |
D.The complexity of cloning. |
A.Dodos are harder to bring back to life. |
B.Their living cells are hard to preserve. |
C.Cloning can be used to recreate extinct animals. |
D.They share a similar genome with Asian elephants. |
A.Urgent. |
B.Possible. |
C.Tough. |
D.Different. |
A.Favorable. |
B.Intolerant. |
C.Objective. |
D.Negative. |
10 . When reading, my mother likes to slice a paragraph or a sentence out and attach it to the wall of her kitchen. She picks boring sentences that puzzle me. But I prefer copying favorite bright lines into a journal in soft, gray No. 2 pencil, word by word.
She doesn’t know any of this. There's nothing shocking: for our chatting. we seldom begin certain conversations though we talk on the phone weekly, sometimes making each other laugh so hard that I choke and she cries. But what we don't say could fill up rooms. Fights with my father. Small failures in school. Anything that really upsets us.
My mother has never told me “I love you, Lisa.”—as if the four-word absence explains who I am—so I carry it with me, like a label on me. The last time she almost spoke the words was two years ago, when she called to tell me a friend had been in hospital. I said, “I love you, Mom.” She stopped for a while and then said, “Thank you.” I haven't said it since, but I've wondered why my mother doesn't until I've found a poem that supplies words for the blank spaces I try to understand in our conversations:
Don’t fill up on bread. I say absent-mindedly. The servings here are huge.
My son, middle-aged, says: Did you really just say that to me?
What he doesn’t know is that when we’re walking together, I desire to reach for his hand.
It's humble, yet heartbreaking. After copying it down in my journal, I emailed it to mom, adding “This poem makes me think of you.” My mother doesn’t read poetry—or at least, she doesn’t tell me, and I felt nervous clicking “Send”.
She never mentioned the poem. But the next time I went home for vacation, I noticed something new in the kitchen fixed to an antique board: the poem. The board hung above the heater, the warmest spot in the kitchen. The poem still hangs there. Neither my mother nor I have ever spoken about it.
1. What's the function of paragraph 1?A.To stress the theme. | B.To establish the setting. |
C.To represent the characters. | D.To create the atmosphere. |
A.Shaky. | B.Distant. | C.Reserved. | D.Intense. |
A.It reminded her of mom's love. |
B.She wanted to apologize to mom. |
C.It suited mom's taste of literature. |
D.She needed an interpretation from mom. |
A.A memory of golden days. |
B.Daughter’s gratefulness to her. |
C.A decoration in the plain kitchen. |
D.Daughter's understanding of her. |