1 . In a heartwarming incident that highlights the power of human connection, a woman’s act of kindness saved the life of a struggling homeless man.
During a
Casey went over to engage him in
After
Upon opening the
Casey posted on social media later that day that “this lovely man’s name was Chris, and Chris was one of the most
| A．holiday | B．break | C．gap | D．pause |
| A．recognized | B．dominated | C．spotted | D．consulted |
| A．Basically | B．Repeatedly | C．Eventually | D．Amazingly |
| A．afford | B．deliver | C．abuse | D．guarantee |
| A．experiment | B．reputation | C．argument | D．conversation |
| A．Touched | B．Persuaded | C．Frustrated | D．Criticized |
| A．tea | B．coffee | C．gift | D．seat |
| A．dynamic | B．reliable | C．precise | D．mean |
| A．restored | B．spoke | C．enhanced | D．complained |
| A．realizing | B．convincing | C．disturbing | D．acquiring |
| A．leave | B．wait | C．skip | D．bless |
| A．reward | B．message | C．apology | D．excuse |
| A．book | B．door | C．note | D．essay |
| A．pursuits | B．welfare | C．reasons | D．hope |
| A．sincere | B．negative | C．enthusiastic | D．hardworking |
2 . A beautiful mistake made six years ago has turned into a family’s holiday tradition. A grandmother mistakenly
In 2018, Wanda Dench tried to text her grandson about the family’s Thanksgiving dinner plans, but she added a stranger to the message
“You’re not my grandma,” Hinton wrote back, including a selfie (自拍照) to
Dench, the ever
In 2022, he informed followers of some sad news that Dench’s husband, Lonnie, had died from COVID-19. So last Thanksgiving,
This year, Hinton tweeted, “We are all set for year six!”
| A．invited | B．reminded | C．forced | D．allowed |
| A．deal | B．friend | C．decision | D．story |
| A．planned | B．organized | C．celebrated | D．booked |
| A．with care | B．by design | C．with interest | D．by mistake |
| A．gift | B．idea | C．opinion | D．invitation |
| A．argue | B．pretend | C．show | D．announce |
| A．strict | B．caring | C．patient | D．brave |
| A．feed | B．forgive | C．remembered | D．understand |
| A．actually | B．usually | C．hardly | D．nearly |
| A．welcome | B．join | C．greet | D．congratulate |
| A．in search of | B．in praise of | C．in honor of | D．in place of |
| A．conversation | B．conference | C．competition | D．gathering |
| A．mistake | B．tradition | C．holiday | D．news |
| A．taking | B．enjoying | C．sharing | D．collecting |
| A．honesty | B．toughness | C．curiosity | D．kindness |
3 . Eating out seems to have been as popular 5, 000 years ago as it is today, with archaeologists in Iraq uncovering an ancient tavern dating back to 2,700 BC. Researchers working in the ancient city of Lagash discovered the pub. It was hidden just 19 inches below the surface, which was split into (分成) an open-air dining area and a room with benches, an oven, ancient food and even a 5,000-year-old “fridge”.
They first found themselves in the open courtyard space, an area that was difficult to dig, being “open and exposed to the outdoors,” according to Reed Goodman, an archaeologist from the University of Pennsylvania. After returning to the ancient courtyard a few months later, field director Sara Pizzi from the University of Pisa, widened the trench (沟渠) instead of digging straight down in one spot.
The team discovered the industrial-sized oven, an ancient “fridge” to keep food cool, and dozens of bowls, many containing fish, showing the purpose of the courtyard to be an outdoor dining area.
Previous diggings focused on religious architecture and understanding the elites (上层人士) , but Holly Pittman, director of the Lagash Archaeological Project, concentrated on non-elite areas during these latest diggings to make people have a broader understanding of ancient cities. “Uncovering the pub supports the opinion of Pittman and her team that society was not organized into just elites but included ordinary people, ” Goodman said.
The discovery provides evidence into how people lived in this ancient city-state. It shows that even thousands of years ago, people enjoyed gathering in public places to socialize and enjoy food and drink.
1. What does the underlined word “tavern” in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Pub. | B．City. | C．Bench. | D．Container. |
| A．By digging straight down in one spot. |
| B．By broadening the trench in the courtyard. |
| C．By making a hole in the middle of the outdoor space. |
| D．By splitting the open-air dining area into different parts. |
| A．It discovers the earliest settlers in Lagash. | B．It shows the social activities of the elites. |
| C．It reflects the life of the ancient ordinary people. | D．It focuses on studying religious architecture. |
| A．To share a travel experience. | B．To analyze a historical event. |
| C．To show the wisdom of ancient people. | D．To introduce an archaeological discovery. |
4 . Tina Leverton was 62 when she bought her first pair of ballet shoes. She said putting her feet into the soft leather was very emotional. She said:“I’ve waited a long time for it.”
A few days later, Leverton took her first ballet class after seeing an advertisement in a newspaper. It showed older women dancing in a class near Leverton’s house. “As I came in the door, I found a big smile on my face. From the minute I started, I felt like coming home.”
Leverton had longed to dance as a child. Sadly, her parents couldn’t afford ballet classes, for they were first-generation Indian immigrants, struggling to make a living in the UK. Her father was a train driver on the underground in London and her mother held two cleaning jobs. However, she harboured her dream of being a ballerina (芭蕾舞女演员).
At her present age, a grand plie—lowering to the floor with bent knees seemed to be out of the question. It took her three months to master the move: leaping and landing on one foot. “I love the struggle and the challenge of learning something new. People in their 60s have a lot of self-limiting beliefs: ‘I can’t do it,’ ‘I’m not good enough.’ And maybe they’re not good enough. But it doesn’t matter,” she said.
Ballet has been transformative. At a medical appointment a few months after Leverton’s first class, a nurse measured her at 163cm, half an inch taller than she had thought . She attributes (归因) the difference to improved posture. Her muscle tone has improved and her lower back pain has stopped. Dancing has also brought new friends. She met a group of older, more independent women and worked together towards a team award with the Royal Academy of Dance. And then, of course, there is the joyful feeling. “Ballet is all the therapy (治疗) I’ll ever need,” said Leverton.
1. How had Leverton been feeling about taking a ballet class?| A．Confident | B．Shy | C．Bored | D．Expectant |
| A．The ballet class was unaffordable for her family. |
| B．Her parents prevented her from doing so. |
| C．Her family was busy immigrating to the UK. |
| D．She had to hold two cleaning jobs. |
| A．A team award. | B．Health and friendship. |
| C．Fame and wealth. | D．A well-paid job. |
| A．Never too old to pursue dreams. | B．Hard work pays off. |
| C．Interest is the path to success. | D．Actions speak louder than words. |
5 . A total solar eclipse (日食) of the sun will have millions of people from Texas to Maine gazing up at the sky on the afternoon of April 8. If you can’t make it outside, here are some apps to track the eclipse on your computer or mobile device.
Total Solar Eclipse
Solar Eclipse is an “innovative” app developed by the Exploratorium, a museum of science, technology and arts in San Francisco, in partnership with NASA, according to app’s description in the Apple App Store. The app has a 3.8-star rating on the App Store and is designed exclusively for iPads and iPhones. You can download it here.
Eclipse 2024
This app, designed by developer Saira Creations, allows people to tap a marker anywhere on a map to see if that location will experience a total eclipse, in addition to the start time and duration. The app has a 3.1-star rating on the Apple App Store and is designed exclusively for iPads and iPhones. You can download it here.
One Eclipse
One Eclipse is an app designed by Simulation Curriculum Corp in collaboration with Astronomers Without Borders. It has a 4.7-star rating in the Apple App Store and you can download it here.
The NASA App
According to the AAS, the NASA App allows you to watch live streams of the eclipse. In addition to livestreams, the NASA App also offers the latest NASA images, news, mission information, podcasts and interactive augmented reality experiences to explore. It has a 4.8-star rating and you can download it here.
1. Who created the app Eclipse 2024?| A．The Apple APP Store. | B．Saira Creations. |
| C．Exploratorium. | D．Simulation Curriculum Corp. |
| A．Total Solar Eclipse. | B．Eclipse 2024. |
| C．One Eclipse. | D．The NASA App. |
| A．A textbook | B．A newspaper |
| C．A science journal | D．A website |
6 . I like challenges, but this one was almost too difficult. I had begged Mom to take me on a completely new adventure for my sixteenth birthday. Now, here we were, just Mom and me with our guide, Milo, standing on the shore of Lake Arenal in Costa Rica.
Milo helped us onto our horses. Getting on the back of my horse was difficult, but controlling it was a little easier. We started on our ride. The guidebook said we would cross three rivers. As we tried to go through a gentle stream, I asked hopefully, “Is this the first river?” “I don't think so, Katie,” Mom said.
Soon enough, we came to a real river. I felt sick to my stomach when I saw that the far shore was half a football field away! The four-foot-deep river flowed over large rocks. So much for dry shoes or jeans.
After two more rivers, the path got steeper and muddier. The rainforest was splendid and absolutely beautiful. But I wondered whether my horse could keep its balance in knee-high mud. Three frightening hours later, we came to a corral (畜栏). I wondered whether we were stopping. To one side was a wonderful view of the lake and volcano, and to the other, a brightly painted restaurant. “OK,” I laughed nervously. “That was frightening, but I'm so glad we did it! ”
1. Why did the author want to have an adventure?| A．To take up a challenge. | B．To get close to nature. |
| C．To celebrate her birthday. | D．To explore the rainforest. |
| A．The horse always lost its balance. | B．The path became steeper and muddier. |
| C．There was more than one river to cross. | D．She found it difficult to cross the first river. |
| A．It was peaceful but tiring. | B．It was interesting and relaxing. |
| C．It was frightening and unpleasant. | D．It was was dangerous but worthwhile. |
| A．A travel blog | B．A science book. |
| C．A museum guide | D．A news report |
7 . A team at a US university trained an AI tool to examine 60,000 fingerprints to see if it could work out which ones belonged to the same individual. The researchers claim the technology could identify, with 75-90% accuracy, whether prints from different fingers came from one person.
But they are not sure how it works. “We don’t know for sure how the AI does it,” admitted Prof Hod Lipson, a roboticist at Columbia University who led the study.
Graham Williams, professor of forensic science (法医学) at Hull University, said the idea of unique fingerprints had never been set in stone. “We don’t actually know that fingerprints are unique,” he said. “All we can say is that as far as we are aware, no two people have yet to show the same fingerprints.”
The results of Columbia University’s study could have the potential to impact both biometrics and forensic science.
If, for example, an unidentified thumb (拇指) print is found at crime scene A, and an unidentified index (食指) fingerprint at crime (犯罪) scene B, the two could not currently be forensically connected to the same person — but the AI tool could be able to identify this.
The Columbia University study will be published in the journal Science Advances on Friday. But a pair of twins in Cheshire might be ahead of everyone. Their grandmother Carol told the BBC her two grandchildren can open each other’s iPhones using their own fingers.
“They showed me on Christmas day,” she said. “We were told they were identical when they were born but I can tell the difference between them as they’ve got older.”She claimed that her grandchildren can also bypass the handsets’ facial recognition feature.
Fingerprints are formed before birth. Research published last year suggested the genetic process behind them may be similar to the way animals like zebras and leopards get their markings.
1. According to the research, what can AI tools do?| A．Identifying people’s fingerprints. |
| B．Contributing to crime prevention. |
| C．Helping lead scientific studies and experiments. |
| D．Training people to tell the difference of fingerprints. |
| A．Unique. | B．Healthy. | C．The same. | D．Cute. |
| A．All twins share the same fingerprints. | B．People’s fingerprints may not be unique. |
| C．AI will replace humans in every way. | D．Fingerprints will change as people grow older. |
| A．To make an appeal to people to protect animals. |
| B．To tell the difference between people and animals. |
| C．To explain the formation principle of fingerprints. |
| D．To show the similarity of genes between animals and people. |
8 . Alongside her impressive musical career, Leona Lewis is also the owner of a vegan (素食主义的) coffee shop, Coffee And Plants. She has great enthusiasm for the coffee shop and reveals the drink flavors that they’ve been working on lately. “We’ve just rolled out our new pumpkin drink at the coffee shop. It’s called Pumpkin Pie, and it’s really good! We use all real pumpkin puree, not flavored syrup.”
Coffee And Plants is a real passion project for Lewis, being fully plant-based. She has a long history of animal activism (行动主义), starting with going vegetarian (素食者) at the age of 12 after going on shopping trips with her mum and seeing protesters with animal testing signs. “I was so upset, I said, ‘Mum, I have to help the animals’,” she says. “That became my mission as a kid, and it’s fed into every aspect of my life.”
Her animal activism grew alongside her fame: in 2011 she supported a campaign to ban the use of wild animals in circuses, and in 2013 she released a cruelty-free makeup line with The Body Shop. When it came to opening a coffee shop, making it plant-based was a no-brainer.
“I wanted it to be plant-based because I’m plant-based,” she says. “I would often go into coffee shops and see milk cartons piled up high and think, how many cows are being milked for this? The dairy industry and mass farming—it’s so cruel and harms the environment too.”
Environmental awareness is also at the heart of Coffee And Plants, with all cups being recyclable. But ultimately, Lewis is hoping for a more widespread mindset shift. “What we really try and get people to do is actually bring in their own bottles to refill, or we encourage them to sit in and have a coffee in a cup instead,” she explains. “We need a mindset shift where we start to think, OK, we shouldn’t really be using stuff that just goes in the bin.”
1. What does the phrase “rolled out” underlined in the first paragraph mean?| A．improved | B．discovered | C．denied | D．launched |
| A．She hated to eat animal meat. | B．She wanted to protect animals. |
| C．She was inspired by her mom. | D．She was given a great mission. |
| A．To show Lewis influence on business. |
| B．To compare Lewis’ different activities. |
| C．To prove that the makeup line is plant-based. |
| D．To give an example of Lewis’ animal activism. |
| A．People have to start using reusable things. |
| B．The mind shift is quite easy to accomplish. |
| C．People shouldn’t use cups in the coffee shop. |
| D．Only vegetarians can go into the coffee shop. |
9 . If you have a chance to go to Finland, you will probably be surprised to find how “foolish” the Finnish people are.
Take the taxi drivers for example. Taxis in Finland are mostly high-class Benz with a fare of two US dollars a kilometer. You can go anywhere in one, tell the driver to drop you at any place, say that you have some business to attend to, and then walk off without paying your fare. The driver would not show the least sign of being annoyed and worried.
The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests, but also serve outside diners. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining rooms to have their meals. The most they would do to show their good faith is to wave their registration card to the waiter. With such a loose check, you can easily use any old registration card to take a couple of friends to dine free of charge.
The Finnish workers are paid by the hour. They are very much on their own as soon as they have agreed with the boss on the pay. From then on, they just say how many hours they have worked and they will be paid accordingly.
With so much carelessness in everyday life, surely Finland must be a heaven to those who love to take “petty advantages” (小便宜). But the strange thing is, all the taxi passengers would always come back to pay their fare after they have attended to their business; not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms. And workers always give an honest account of the exact hours they put in.
As the Finns always act on good faith in everything they do, living in such a society has turned everyone into a real “gentleman”. In a society of such high moral practice, what need is there for people to be on guard against others?
1. What might happen when taking a taxi in Finland?| A．Taxis can be stopped at any time midway. |
| B．The cost of a Benz is higher than other taxis. |
| C．The driver will feel angry if unpaid on time. |
| D．Only Benz can be used as common taxis. |
| A．Your friend’s invitation. |
| B．Your registration card. |
| C．Your identity information. |
| D．Your good behaviour. |
| A．Finns love to take “pretty advantages”. |
| B．Taxi drivers can get paid after constantly asking. |
| C．Outsiders are often invited to have a free meal. |
| D．Finnish workers keep very honest records of their working hours. |
| A．Practice makes perfect. |
| B．High effort always lead to great gains. |
| C．Honesty is a good principle of society. |
| D．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. |
10 . When Senait Lara, a 28-year-old video producer, was questioned by her friends about her lack of communication in their group chat, the blames were as follows: she only caught up every few days; when she did, it was hardly an interaction — Lara spent time “liking” messages instead of responding with words and sometimes she would never respond at all. Lara didn’t deny it. She knew she sometimes preferred to completely avoid her phone rather than deal with a large number of requests. Actually, in person, Lara felt comfortable talking with people, but when communication came down to a text message or an email, she wanted to tap out.
While social media and messaging apps keep us more connected to each other, many younger users are finding themselves tired out from receiving constant notices and carrying on conversations that can last all day. The after-effect? Delayed responses, forgetting to get back to someone entirely, and a need for frequent breaks.
In fact, a 2023 study exploring the effects of information overload and online conversation dynamics (动态) found that “over-exposure to information can suppress the possibility of response by overloading users.”
Smartphones have quickly changed into handheld storage units for our conversations, thoughts, music and everything else. That shift to feeling constantly attached to our phones as if they were a limb relates to the burnout, says psychologist Emily Balcetis.
As the pressure to be online and always available continues to grow in our society, in-person interactions provide far more real communication than digital ones. From body language to eye contact and all the other social clues that exist in real life that aren’t available in a text message, it’s far easier to be present when you’re face-to-face. As Balcetis notes, “At the end of the day, I think what we’re looking for is not more ways to stay connected, but higher quality ways to be connected.”
1. What dissatisfied Senait Lara’s friends?| A．Lara denying her problems. |
| B．Lara avoiding using her phone. |
| C．Lara’s preference for digital communication. |
| D．Lara’s communication style in the group chat. |
| A．They are starting to have memory problems. |
| B．They refuse to put down their smartphones. |
| C．They are tired of frequent digital contact. |
| D．They feel more connected to each other. |
| A．The need to take a break from digital devices. |
| B．The pressure of always being available online. |
| C．The importance of face-to-face communication. |
| D．The ability to understand clues behind text messages. |
| A．Negative. | B．Unconcerned. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Objective. |
