1 . This year, people around the world are lining up to buy electric vehicles even as prices increase. Electric vehicle, EV, demand has stayed strong even as the average cost of lithiumion (锂离子) battery cells increased to an estimated $160 per kilowatt-hour in the first quarter from $105 last year. Costs rose due to supply issues, restrictions on Russian metals and investor speculation (投机).
For a smaller vehicle like the Hongguang Mini, the best-selling EV in China, the higher battery costs added almost $1,500, equal to 30 percent of the listed price. But gasoline and diesel fuel costs have also increased since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and experts noted that environmental concerns are also pushing more buyers to choose EVs.
Manufacturers from Tesla to SAIC-GM-Wuling, which makes the Hongguang Mini, have passed higher costs on to consumers with price increases for EVs. More may be coming. Andy Palmer, chairman of Slovak EV battery maker InoBat, said, “rising costs will have to be passed onto carmakers.” But EV shoppers have so far not slowed down. Worldwide EV sales in the first quarter jumped nearly 120 percent, said the website EV-volumes.com.
Venkat Srinivasan is director of the Center for Collaborative Energy Storage Science at the U.S. government’s Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago. He said, “more and more people would buy EVs despite the cost of the battery and the vehicle.”
This increase in battery costs could be an unusual short-term change in a situation in which improving technology and growing production have pushed costs down for almost 30 years. Industry data showed that the $105 per kilowatt hour average cost in 2021 was down nearly 99 percent from over $7,500 in 1991.
Experts say battery costs could stay high for the next year or so, but then another large drop is likely as big investments by automakers and suppliers change the balance from shortage to surplus. “It’s like a bubble (泡沫) and for that bubble to settle down, it’s going to be at least the end of 2023,” said Prabhakar Patil, a former LG Chem executive.
The industry has long been awaiting the battery cell cost of $100 per kilowatt-hour, as a signal EVs were reaching a similar cost to fossil-fuel vehicles. But with gasoline prices high and consumer preferences changing, such cost considerations may no longer matter as much, experts say.
1. Why does the author mention Hongguang Mini?| A．To present a fact. | B．To give an example. | C．To introduce a topic. | D．To make an assumption. |
| A．More EV shops. | B．Production growth. | C．Sufficient supplies. | D．Technology improvement. |
| A．Promising. | B．Unclear. | C．Doubtful. | D．Confusing. |
| A．At present demands for EVs beat supply. | B．People concern price more when buying cars. |
| C．EVs sell much better than fossil-fuel vehicles. | D．People prefer EV mainly because of conflict. |
2 . Do you want to see majestic lions roaring, rare rhinos running and colorful birds flying? You’ll find this incredible display of nature in the Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley.
First stop
Fly into Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. This great city is known for its fashion markets and beautiful art. And be sure to pick up some rich Kenyan coffee while you’re there! Then head for the countryside.
Plan your trip
The largest of the three lakes in the system, Lake Nakuru, is less than 175 kilometers from Nairobi. But Lakes Bogoria and Elementaita are equally worth a visit. You can stay at one of several choices of luxurious cabins in the valley. And if you sign up for a trip, be sure to put flamingos, the white and pink birds, at the top of your list.
Paradise
The Kenya Lake System is shallow and alkaline (碱性的). That means it supports vegetation such as green algae, a food source for many waterfowl. Hundreds of species of birds flourish here, using this area as a major breeding and nesting ground. Water buffalo, leopards, monkeys and the endangered Rothschild giraffe also make this area their home.
Other sights
Wildlife isn’t the only natural wonder in the Great Rift Valley. The valley marks a place where the earth is divided far below the surface. This rock separation below ground leads to noticeable features above ground. Walking around Lake Bogoria especially, you will see steam rising from hot springs.
Other activities include golfing, horseback riding and hiking. The fun doesn’t stop when the sun goes down, either. The river valley is far from city lights, so many visitors gaze at the stars shining above.
If you are ready for a wildlife experience, don’t hesitate!
1. Where can you buy fashionable gifts in Kenya?| A．Nairobi. | B．Lake Nakuru. | C．Lake Bogoria. | D．Lake Elementaita. |
| A．Living in a cabin. | B．Seeing flamingos. |
| C．Visiting hot springs. | D．Gazing at shining stars. |
| A．It has countless lakes worth visiting. | B．It’s an ideal place for wildlife to live. |
| C．Its water is unsuitable for plant growth. | D．It’s famous for rich culture and history. |
3 . Physical education, or PE, isn’t required for all high school students. In some schools, it isn’t offered for some different reasons. But should high school students have physical education? The answer is certainly “yes”.
Today many people don’t do sports. But as is known to all. doing sports is very important for an adult. Teaching teens the importance of a healthy lifestyle and making fitness plans now can help teens put exercise in the first place as an adult.
High school isn’t that easy. Many students are under a lot of stress. Stress can be harmful to a student’s studies and life. Doing sports can help them deal with stress better, helping them live a happier life at school.
The American Heart Association says that 10 million kids and teens suffer from obesity (肥胖). Teens should get 60 minutes of physical activity per day to control their weight and to help their bones get stronger. The increase in activities that don’t get teens to move around, such as computer games, means many teens don’t get their required exercise. PE classes act as a public health measure (措施) to encourage physical activities and help teens have healthy weights.
Not doing sports increases teens’ hazard of developing many diseases. An active lifestyle offers a good way of protection from these health problems. As much as 75 percent of health-care spending goes toward treating medical conditions that can be prevented by lifestyle changes, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.
According to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN), students who performed five hours of physical activities each week improved their academic (学业的) performance. Students from programs with no physical activity, who used the extra time for classroom study, did not perform better on tests than those who gave up some study time in support of physical education.
1. According to Paragraph 2, what does physical education in high school mean?| A．Making teens attach importance to ęxercise later. |
| B．Removing the stress faced by teens at school. |
| C．Getting teens to encourage adults to exercise. |
| D．Helping teens learn to make good plans |
| A．Happiness. | B．Risk. | C．Safety. | D．Sadness. |
| A．means making students choose between sports and studies |
| B．helps students make good use of all their time |
| C．means students adjust to their studies better |
| D．helps students do better in their studies |
| A．Why high school students should receive physical education. |
| B．Why some schools consider physical education important. |
| C．How schools can help students love doing sports. |
| D．How high school students can live a better life. |
4 . Some folks spend decades looking for their best friends. I was
As we progressed to high school, a couple of girls
Among our many
At the beginning, we gave each other butterfly hair clips and so on. Those
Holidays with family can be
| A．cautious | B．astonished | C．lucky | D．clever |
| A．mature | B．teenage | C．fashionable | D．strange |
| A．dropped out | B．dropped in | C．showed up | D．showed off |
| A．broken | B．forced | C．separated | D．united |
| A．secret | B．long | C．natural | D．complete |
| A．hobbies | B．traditions | C．ceremonies | D．rules |
| A．caught on | B．took place | C．broke out | D．fell down |
| A．fancy | B．expensive | C．modest | D．generous |
| A．repeat | B．add | C．search | D．make |
| A．instantly | B．literally | C．eventually | D．consequently |
| A．homes | B．schools | C．shelters | D．offices |
| A．held on to | B．gave way to | C．catered to | D．adapted to |
| A．salaries | B．jobs | C．kids | D．families |
| A．rare | B．practical | C．inspiring | D．cosy |
| A．create | B．reform | C．apply | D．recognize |
5 . Facebook has developed a kind of AI (人工智能) translating between any pair of 100 languages without depending on first translating to English.
Facebook’s system was trained on a data set of 7.5 billion sentence pairs collected from the web across 100 languages, though not all the languages had an equal number of sentence pairs. “What I was really interested in was cutting out English as a middle man. Globally there are plenty of countries where they speak two languages that aren’t English,” says Angela Fan of Facebook AI, who led the work.
For some language pairs, the new system shows prominent improvements in translation quality. For example, translating from Spanish to Portuguese is extremely strong because Spanish is the second-most spoken first language worldwide, meaning the researchers can get a lot of data. Translation between English and Belarusian (白俄罗斯语) also is improved because the AI can translate Russian into English, which shares similarities with Belarusian.
While the system isn’t in use on the social network site, Facebook plans to put it to work soon to manage the 20 billion translations made every day when people click “Translate” on posts (帖子) written in more than 160 languages. “Future work will be done on other languages,” says Fan, “especially for languages where we don’t have a lot of data, like South-East Asian and African languages.”
The work “breaks away from the English-centric models and tries to build more different models,” says Shelia Castilho of the ADAPT Centre at Dublin City University, Ireland. “That’s pretty new and different. But it’s hard to know if the AI does a right translation work,” says Castilho. “The users may not know the other language, so they cannot judge the correctness of the translation.”
1. What’s Angela Fan’s purpose of doing the research?| A．To collect data of all kinds of people. |
| B．To make learning different languages easier. |
| C．To achieve her dream of becoming a translator. |
| D．To avoid using English as a middle man in translation. |
| A．There is much data on Spanish. |
| B．Portuguese is similar to Spanish. |
| C．Researchers have a good knowledge of the two languages. |
| D．Spanish is spoken by the largest number of people. |
| A．The safety of AI translation. | B．The correctness of AI translation. |
| C．The way of using Facebook. | D．The number of posts on the website. |
| A．Facebook AI Can Talk with the Users |
| B．Facebook Wants to Buy a New System |
| C．Facebook AI Can Translate Any Pair of 100 Languages |
| D．Facebook Has Lost Many Users |
6 . The Munfords were moving into a house they bought. They wanted to see if all the furniture was in good condition before they used it. James Munford was
James and his wife, Clarrisa, who are both retired thought the coins are
“We really didn’t know anything about the
The home’s
The Munfords are still unpacking and their furniture just arrived last week, so they haven’t had a
| A．trying | B．repairing | C．removing | D．checking |
| A．trouble | B．money | C．effort | D．time |
| A．specially | B．actually | C．probably | D．exactly |
| A．got | B．put | C．gave | D．held |
| A．closets | B．drawers | C．cases | D．coins |
| A．return | B．collect | C．sell | D．examine |
| A．number | B．origin | C．value | D．use |
| A．believe | B．care | C．understand | D．agree |
| A．generous | B．real | C．kind | D．former |
| A．named | B．paid | C．rewarded | D．praised |
| A．attempt | B．hope | C．hurry | D．demand |
| A．missing | B．old | C．dangerous | D．secure |
| A．struggled | B．decided | C．helped | D．promised |
| A．place | B．means | C．chance | D．desire |
| A．choices | B．problems | C．suggestions | D．surprises |
7 . Empathy (同理心) is one of those strange qualities — something almost everyone wants, but few know how to truly give or receive it. In a world where self-satisfaction is emphasized, it is in short supply but high demand. This is all the more reason to teach the next generation what it means to have empathy for those around them.
What Is Empathy? — Many people confuse sympathy and empathy, but they are two distinct values. Empathy is not just the ability to understand someone's feelings; criminals often take advantage of people by appearing to understand their feelings and subsequently gaining their trust. Empathy is more than that. Not only is it the ability to recognize how someone feels, but it also values and respects the feelings of another person. It means treating others with kindness, dignity, and understanding.
Kids Need To See Adults Show Empathy — While some children are gifted with naturally kind hearts, in most cases kids need to see empathy modeled by the adults around them. It begins with the way parents relate to their children. Parents who show an interest in the things that matter to their kids and respond to emotions in a positive and caring way are teaching the skill of empathy.
Meet Emotional Needs — When children have their emotional needs met, two things happen. They learn how to meet the emotional needs of others and they are anchored in what they are receiving, meaning that they are secure enough to give to others when the need arises but first they need to receive. An empty jug cannot fill a cup.
It's a good idea to talk to kids about emotions and how other people experience them. Give their emotions names (for example, jealousy, anger, and love) and teach them that these are normal. Talk to them about how to handle emotions in a positive way and point out situations where other people are experiencing emotions. Teach them about respecting the emotions of others and show them how to act in a situation where a response is required.
1. Why is it that the next generation are taught to have empathy?| A．Because people tend to center themselves. | B．Because everyone lacks empathy. |
| C．Because empathy is a strange quality. | D．Because it's better to give than to receive. |
| A．When a mathematician is calculating the area of a farmland. |
| B．When a teacher is comforting a student about his failure in exams. |
| C．When a criminal is cheating a victim. |
| D．When a dancer is dancing to music. |
| A．An empty jug is too small to hold a cup. |
| B．It's a must to talk to kids about emotions. |
| C．Adults should set an example to kids. |
| D．Kids give empathy with their emotional needs met first. |
| A．How to train kids to have empathy. |
| B．How to distinguish sympathy and empathy. |
| C．How to help kids finish empathy-related tasks. |
| D．Whether kids can be trained to be more empathetic. |
8 . Many people believe that you lose the ability to learn new languages as you get older. Language experts, however, will tell you that you’re never too old to learn a new language. As you get older, it can be more difficult to learn a new language, though.
Children and adults learn new languages in different ways. For children, language is their life. They study for thousands of hours every year, because they need to learn languages to become part of their communities. Adults, on the other hand, are already part of a language community. Learning a new language means becoming part of another language community, and adults rarely get the chance to practice as much as young children do.
Moreover, children learning a new language are expected to make mistakes. This gives them freedom when learning to be daring and confident. Adults, however, often feel pressured to be perfect when learning a new language. This can discourage many people and make it even harder to learn a new language.
When young children learn a new language, they come to see all kinds of languages as a “normal” part of society. This mindset(思维模式) helps them embrace learning a new language without feeling like they’re doing something unusual or “too hard”.
So if you want to learn a new language, go for it! It’s never too late to learn a new language. If you’re older, it may take more work, but it can be done. If you’re a young child, though, now it is the time to step out and learn a new language!
1. By saying “language is their life” in Paragraph 2, the author means that children ________.| A．can’t live without language | B．lead a happy life every day |
| C．practice a new language a lot | D．are taken good care of by adults |
| A．They often feel pressured. | B．They usually have too many interests. |
| C．They think making mistakes is natural. | D．They always make all kinds of mistakes. |
| A．The behavior they have. | B．The learning attitudes. |
| C．The future plans they have made. | D．The materials they are using. |
| A．can never be learned by the old people |
| B．can be learned by the old people easily |
| C．can be understood only by the old people |
| D．can be learned by both the old and the young |
9 . Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival takes place every year in late August or early September on the Lido in the historic Palazzo del Cinema, in Venice, Italy. Its main award is the “Leone d’Oro” (Golden Lion). Recently, a new award has been added, the San Marco Award for the best film.
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards are the most prominent film awards in the United States. The awards are granted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Academy Awards are nicknamed “Oscars”, which is also the nickname of the statuette（小雕像）. The name is said to have been born when Margaret Herrick saw the statuette on a table and said, “It looks just like my uncle Oscar!”
Berlin Film Festival
The Berlin Film Festival is one of the “A” festivals in Europe. The Berlin International Film Festival, also called the “Berlinale”, is held annually in February and started in 1951 after an initiative of the American, who occupied part of the city after World War Ⅱ. The jury（专家评奖团）always places special emphasis on representing films from all over the world, from the former Eastern Bloc（集团）Countries as well as from Western countries. The awards are called Golden and Silver Bears (as the bear is the symbol of Berlin).
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival is a famous international film festival. It has been held annually in Cannes, in the south of France, since 1946 with a few exceptions. Given massive media exposure, the Festival is attended by many movie stars and is a popular venue for movie producers to launch their new films and attempt to sell their works to the distributors who come from all over the world.
The most famous award given out at Cannes is the “Palme d’Or” (Golden Palm) for the best film; this is sometimes shared by multiple films in one year.
1. Which award can be shared by multiple films in one year?| A．Golden Lion. | B．Golden Palm. |
| C．Academy Awards. | D．San Marco Award. |
| A．It’s the nickname of Academy Awards. |
| B．It’s also the nickname of the statuette. |
| C．It got its name because Margaret said the statuette looked like his uncle. |
| D．It’s an award in France. |
| A．It looks like a bear. |
| B．It is made up of bear fur |
| C．The bear is the symbol of Berlin. |
| D．Bear is rare in Berlin. |
10 . Now many young people are traveling around the world on their own, not because they have no one to travel with, but because they prefer to go alone.
Kristina Wegscheider from California first traveled alone when she was at college and believes that it is something everyone should do at least once in their life. “It opens up your mind to things and pushes you out of your comfort zone.” Wegscheider has visited 46 countries covering all seven continents.
In foreign countries, with no one to help you read a map, look after you if you get ill, or lend you money if your wallet is stolen, it is challenging. This is what drives young people to travel alone. It is seen as character building and a chance to prove that they can make it on their own.
Chris Richardson decided to leave his sales job in Australia to go traveling last year. He set up a website, The Aussie Nomad, to document his adventures. He says he wished he had traveled alone earlier. “The people you meet, the places you visit, or the things you do, everything is up to you and it forces you to grow as a person.” said the 30-year-old man.
Richardson describes traveling alone like “a shot in the arm”, which “makes you a more confident person that is ready to deal with anything”. He said, “The feeling of having overcome something on my own is a major part of what drives me each day when I’m dealing with a difficult task. I walk around with my head up because I know deep down inside that nothing is impossible if you try.”
The great 19thcentury explorer John Muir once said. “Only by going alone in silence can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness.
1. Which of the following will Kristina Wegscheider agree with?| A．Traveling alone is a necessary experience for everyone. |
| B．It is more meaningful to travel in foreign countries. |
| C．It is comfortable to travel around without a friend. |
| D．Traveling abroad helps people to find new things. |
| A．you have to make things on your own. |
| B．it is hard for you to prove yourself to others. |
| C．you can only depend on yourself whatever happens. |
| D．it will finally build your character. |
| A．He started traveling alone at an early age. |
| B．He was once shot in the arm. |
| C．He used to work as a salesman. |
| D．His website will inspire others to travel alone. |
| A．Travel Abroad | B．Travel Alone |
| C．Travel Light | D．Travel Wide and Far |
