1 . At 104 years old, Dorothy Hoffner fell. Then she kept falling, and falling. When the lifelong Chicagoan finally touched the ground last Sunday, she landed in the history books and became the oldest person to ever sky-dive (跳伞).
As Hoffner prepared to board, she pushed her red walker out and walked slowly to the plane, where two expert instructors helped her up the steps into the hold. “Let’s go!” she said, finally seated. The plane quickly rose, Hoffner looking calm and confident all the while.
When the aft (机尾) door opened to show the crop fields far below, she and the instructor were ready to stand up. When Hoffner first sky-dived at 100 years old, she was pushed out, she said. This time, she wanted to lead the jump.
Seven minutes after her jump, she moved slowly in the air for her historic landing. The wind pushed back her white hair. A look of excitement and wonder spread across her face. She picked up her legs as the ground approached. And finally, she managed to land on the ground.
The crowd gathered along the landing area. Friends rushed to share the moment. Someone brought over Hoffner’s red walker. She rose fast, and a reporter asked how it felt to be back on the ground. “The whole thing was wonderful, and couldn’t have been better,” she said.
The Guinness World Record for oldest skydiver was set in May 2022 by 103-year-oldLinnéa Ingegard Larsson from Sweden. When asked how it felt like to break the record, Hoffner replied quickly, “Like I’m old.” But the record didn’t seem to interest Hoffner before the jump. Instead, she focused on the peaceful falling through the sky. Hoffner strongly encouraged others to sky-dive like her. “It’s surprisingly affordable and so amazing,” she said.
1. What did Hoffner do last Sunday?A.She reported a sports event. | B.She managed to sky-dive. |
C.She celebrated her birthday. | D.She wrote a history book. |
A.Surprised. | B.Anxious. | C.Excited. | D.Hopeless. |
A.The falling in the air. | B.Her family’s help. |
C.The low cost of the jump. | D.Her friends’ support. |
A.To see is to believe. | B.Time tells everything. |
C.Hard work pays off. | D.Age is just a number. |
2 . In 1999, Rebecca Constantino began doing a study at schools across Los Angeles. She had just completed a PhD in Language, Literacy and Learning, and she was analyzing children’s access to books in wealthy and low-income communities.
One day, she saw something that stopped her in her tracks. “I was at a school in a wealthy community, and they were getting rid of almost brand-new books because they didn’t have room in the library, “said Constantino. She put the books in her car and drove them to a school in an underserved community.
Shocked by the difference she saw in public school libraries, Constantino became determined to bridge the gap. “School libraries are not funded well, and sometimes not funded at all,” said Constantino. “If you’re a child in an underserved community, you’re left with boring, outdated, and uninteresting books. “
The word about Constantino’s work was spread, and books began piling up. Today, her nonprofit organization, Access Books, has provided more than 1. 5 million books to public-school and community libraries across California. The group has also redecorated close to 350 libraries in public schools and homeless shelters.
Constantino recruits (招募) volunteers who work alongside the community to create a warm, vibrant (充满生机的) and welcoming library space. Students and their families, as well as school staff and teachers, come together to join in. “We’re working together. It’s not a gift; it’s a partnership. It really builds a sense of community,” said Constantino.
In addition to book donations and refurbishing (再装修) libraries, the group offers author visits with schools and holds an annual writers conference for kids. Constantino said, “If we provide high-interest books and a beautiful library space, they do come and they do read. We found that in the schools that we serve, the number of books borrowed increases significantly after our coming. So we know that kids are really interested in the books that we give. My goal is that kids can always have a friend in a book and they can always turn to a book to find comfort and to learn something.”
1. Why did Constantino do the study in 1999?A.To prepare for a PhD. |
B.To reduce the waste of books. |
C.To donate more books to poor communities. |
D.To figure out kids’ ways of gaining reading books. |
A.By obtaining donated books. |
B.By raising money on the street. |
C.By founding a profitable organization. |
D.By getting support from the local government. |
A.Challenging. | B.Successful. | C.Depressing. | D.Doubtful. |
A.They can turn to writers on campus. |
B.They are more willing to read books. |
C.They donate their own books to school libraries. |
D.They think the books on the shelf difficult to read. |
3 . Most people agree that eating healthy food is important. But sometimes making good food choices can be difficult. Now there are apps that can help people learn about the food they eat to improve their health and their dining out experience.
Open Table app
Open Table app helps people choose restaurants when they want to go out to eat. It is a free service that shows users restaurant available based on where and when they want to dine. It gives users points when they make reservations, which can add up to discounts (折扣) on restaurant visits.
Max McCalman’s Cheese &Wine Pairing app
Wine and cheese can be a great combination. But which wines go best with which cheeses? Max McCalman’s Cheese & Wine Pairing app can help. It provides information about hundreds of different cheeses and suggests wines to pair with each. Max McCalman’s Cheese & Wine Pairing app is free.
Happy Cow app
Vegetarians do not eat animal meat. Vegans do not eat any animal products. The Happy Cow app is made for both groups. Users can search for vegetarian-vegan restaurants and stores around the world.
Local Eats app
Restaurant chains, like McDonalds, can be found almost anywhere a person might travel. But sometimes travelers want to eat like locals. The Local Eats app is designed for that. It can help you find local restaurants in major cities in the US and in other countries. It costs about a dollar.
Where Chefs Eat app
“Where Chefs Eat” is a 975-page book. Most people would not want to carry that around. But there is a much lighter app version of the same name for just $15. Six hundred chefs provide information on 3,000 restaurants around the world on the Where Chefs Eat app.
1. What can users get when making a reservation with Open Table app?A.Points | B.Books. | C.Wine. | D.Cheeses. |
A.local foods. | B.wine and cheese |
C.vegetables | D.animal meat |
A.OpenTable. | B.Where Chefs Eat |
C.Local Eats | D.Max Me Calman’s Cheese & Wine Pairing. |
4 . Silence is important for learning. I got it from my fourteen-month-old daughter Arielle.
One day, she sat on the foor with an old baby doll. Without buttons, it could neither
At that moment I discovered how human
Like adults, children need time that is
Indeed, the toys most likely to encourage creative play are not those that make
A.smile | B.stand | C.walk | D.talk |
A.hand | B.arm | C.ear | D.foot |
A.got | B.covered | C.hurt | D.felt |
A.satisfied | B.surprised | C.confused | D.amused |
A.aging | B.communication | C.learning | D.intelligence |
A.imagination | B.curiosity | C.creativity | D.determination |
A.Eventually | B.Sadly | C.Hopefully | D.Fortunately |
A.unless | B.while | C.until | D.since |
A.safe | B.delicate | C.smart | D.interesting |
A.required | B.forbade | C.urged | D.caused |
A.quiet | B.limited | C.extra | D.precious |
A.changing | B.developing | C.expressing | D.reflecting |
A.noise | B.profits | C.progress | D.records |
A.However | B.Instead | C.Therefore | D.Besides |
A.asking | B.studying | C.deciding | D.suggesting |
5 . Losing your ability to think and remember is pretty frightening. We know the risk of dementia (痴呆症) increases with age. But if you have memory slips, you probably needn’t worry. There are pretty clear differences between signs of dementia and age-related memory loss.
After age 50, it’s quite common to have trouble remembering the names of people, places and things quickly, says Dr. Kirk Daffner of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
The brain ages just like the rest of the body. Certain parts become smaller, especially areas in the brain that are important to learning, memory and planning. Changes in brain cells can affect communication between different regions of the brain. And blood flow can be reduced as blood vessels narrow.
Forgetting the name of an actor in a favorite movie, for example, is nothing to worry about. But if you forget the plot of the movie or don’t remember even seeing it, that’s far more concerning, Daffner says.
When you forget entire experiences, he says, that’s “a red flag that something more serious may be involved”. Forgetting how to operate a familiar object like a microwave oven, or forgetting how to drive to the house of a friend you’ve visited many times before can also be signs of something going wrong.
But even then, Daffner says, people shouldn’t panic. There are many things that can cause confusion and memory loss, including health problems like temporary stoppage of breathing during sleep, high blood pressure, or depression, as well as medications (药物) like antidepressants.
You don’t have to figure this out on your own. Daffner suggests going to your doctor to check on medications, health problems and other issues that could be affecting memory. And the best defense against memory loss is to try to prevent it by building up your brain’s cognitive (认知的) reserve, Daffner says.
“Read books, go to movies, take on new hobbies or activities that force one to think in novel ways.” he says. In other words, keep your brain busy and working. And also get physically active, because exercise is a widely known to boost the brain.
1. Which memory-related symptom should people take seriously?A.Totally forgetting how to do one’s daily routines. |
B.Inability to recall details of one’s life experiences. |
C.Failure to remember the names of movies or actors. |
D.Occasionally confusing the addresses of one’s friends. |
A.Check the brain’s cognitive reserve. |
B.Stop medications affecting memory. |
C.Turn to a professional for assistance. |
D.Exercise to improve their wellbeing. |
A.Having regular physical and mental checkups. |
B.Taking medicine that helps boost one’s brain. |
C.Engaging in known memory repair activities. |
D.Staying active both physically and mentally. |
A.Reduce. | B.Benefit. | C.Increase. | D.Depress. |
6 . Parents often believe that they have a good relationship with their teenagers. But last summer, Joanna and Henry noticed a change in their older son. Suddenly he seemed to be talking far more to his friends than to his parents. “The door to his room is always shut,” Joanna noted.
Tina and Mark noticed similar changes in their 14-year-old daughter. “She used to cuddle up (依偎) against me on the sofa and talk,” said Mark. “Now we joke that she does this only when she wants something. Sometimes she wants to be treated like a little girl and sometimes like a young lady. The problem is understanding which time is which.”
Before age 11, children like to tell their parents what’s on their mind. “In fact, parents are first on the list,” said Michael Riera, author of Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenagers. “This completely changes during the teen years,” Riera explained. “They talk to their friends first, then maybe their teachers, and their parents last.”
Parents who know what’s going on in their teenagers’ lives are in the best position to help them. To break down the wall of silence, parents should create chances to understand what their children want to say, and try to find ways to talk and write to them. And they must give their children a mental (思想的) break, for children also need freedom, though young. Another thing parents should remember is that to be a friend, not a manager, with their children is a better way to know them.
1. “The door to his room is always shut” suggests that the son ________.A.keeps himself away from his parents | B.begins to dislike his parents |
C.is always busy with his study | D.doesn’t want to be ignored |
A.Their daughter isn’t as lovely as before. |
B.They can’t read their daughter’s mind exactly. |
C.They don’t know what to say to their daughter. |
D.Their daughter talks with them only when she needs help. |
A.Teenagers talk a lot with their friends. | B.Teenagers do not understand their parents. |
C.Teenagers talk little about their own lives. | D.Teenagers do not talk much with their parents. |
A.Parents shouldn’t be angry with teenagers. |
B.Parents have to talk with children face to face. |
C.Parents are unhappy with their growing children. |
D.Parents should try to understand their teenagers. |
7 . There are people for whom the motivation lies in their family’s or companions’ duties. For some people, the purpose lies in a soul’s spiritual awakening. Brent Clayton, a firefighter by profession, is such an individual who found his purpose early in life and kept working to fulfill it.
Born on March 3, 1984, Clayton hugely felt the need to serve others. He followed his mission in life and acquired his diploma in Public Safety. He gradually realized the importance of securing people’s lives, which strengthened his faith in his mission. Clayton further pursued his bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne and master’s degree from Federation University. Then, Clayton worked in the military for a period before moving into a role with the prison service as a prison guard, the youngest person to ever be employed by the service at the time.
After spending a decade in the fire service including training and recruitment, he gained enough experience to become Australian most prominent fire service recruitment expert. Clayton devoted many years of his life to the firefighter recruitment process and fire service industry. He wanted people to realize the true value of this profession by establishing its significance. To communicate his perspective, Clayton established Fire Recruitment Australia in 2009. He aimed to train the next generation and prepare them for the future. Clayton used his experience and years-long training to prepare candidates who were as enthusiastic about the well-being of the world as him.
Keeping the point in mind, Clayton wrote the book Fire Service Recruitment-The Process to Success. His idea was to join his learning into an accessible medium so others didn’t have to waste years wondering what to do when applying to become a firefighter. After the success of the book, Clayton introduced candidates to a comprehensive test preparation and learning suite to facilitate success throughout each stage of the selection process. This platform helped him as well as his candidates to work together for the betterment of themselves and society at large.
1. What made Clayton’s belief stronger?A.The need of serving other people. |
B.The significance of securing people’s safety. |
C.The diploma he received from Public Safety. |
D.The knowledge he learned from college. |
A.Stubborn. | B.Fearless. | C.Distinguished. | D.Elegant. |
A.Because he was enthusiastic about the well-being of the world. |
B.Because he wanted to carry out academic research. |
C.Because he wanted to realize his dream of being a leader. |
D.Because he hoped to get young people ready for future career. |
A.A book for career success | B.A man with great purpose |
C.An organization for well-being | D.A standard for firefighters |
8 . Artificial intelligence (AI) has been increasingly good at fooling people. A series of photos showing former US president Donald Trump being aggressively arrested by police have caught people’s attention. They were fake but very convincing.
Created by the AI program Midjourney, the photos were highly realistic, from the characters’ movements to the surroundings. However, many details can give away the fact that they are made by AI. The Washington Post’s technology writer Shira Ovide shared her tips. The main idea is to spot the problems-anything that would look strange in a photo.
AI software has a history of generating human hands incorrectly. It sometimes can create hands with more than five fingers. This is because AI isn’t sure what a “hand” exactly is, according to Popular Science. The data AI uses to learn often show hands and fingers in various gestures, which can be very confusing for AI.
AI-generated images also usually contain details that are against reality. To spot this, focus on items like accessories. For example, people in an image may be missing earrings or one part of their sunglasses. If there’s text in an image, such as a newspaper or poster, it’s usually garbled (篡改), even though the text may look realistic from a distance.
Another thing AI is terrible at handling is the background. If there’s a crowd in the image, people’s faces in the background are usually blurry — or they don’t have faces at all!
The development of AI-generated art also raises alarm bells about how these fake images could be used to spread misinformation. “I think misinformation is going to hit an all-time high,” Jamie Cohen, a digital culture and AI expert in the US, told New York Post. Generating an AI artwork is to “create reality”, Cohen argued, adding that, being able to tell whether the work is real or not requires high media literacy (素养) skills. “The world may not be ready for how realistic the images have become,” Shane Kittelson, a US researcher, told The Washington Post.
1. Why are Donald Trump’s photos mentioned in the first paragraph?A.To draw more people’s attention. |
B.To make people convinced of the news. |
C.To show the AI-generated images were fake. |
D.To prove that it’s easy for AI to cheat people. |
A.It is unable to recognize human hands. |
B.The data it uses to learn contain errors. |
C.It doesn’t fully understand human hands. |
D.It has insufficient data about human hands. |
A.AI artworks may not be reflective of true creativity. |
B.It’s high time to address the risks posed by AI works. |
C.AI artworks will replace traditional art forms in the future. |
D.Detecting real art demands strong media literacy competence. |
A.AI is tricking people with highly realistic photos. |
B.AI-generated art make people worried about fake images. |
C.AI is terrible at handling the background. |
D.The world may not be ready for AI. |
9 . Reading can be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now, the website Book Crossing.com turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.
Members go on the site and register (登记) the books they own and would like to share. Book Crossing provides an identification number (识别码) to stick inside the book. Then the person leaves it in a public place, hoping that the book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.
Bruce Pederson, the managing director of Book Crossing, says, “The two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read. Book Crossing combines both.”
Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. Whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.
People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it. E— mails are then sent to the BookCrossers to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce Pederson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.
Book Crossing is part of a trend (趋势) among people who want to get back to the “real” and not the virtual (虚拟).The site now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty—five countries.
1. Why does the author mention book groups in the first paragraph?A.To explain what they are. | B.To introduce Book Crossing. |
C.To stress the importance of reading. | D.To encourage readers to share their ideas. |
A.An adventure. | B.A public place. |
C.The book. | D.The identification number. |
A.Keep it safe in his bookcase. | B.Mail it back to its owner. |
C.Meet other readers to discuss it. | D.Pass it on to another reader. |
A.Online Reading: A Virtual Tour | B.Electronic Books: A New Trend |
C.A Book Group Brings Tradition Back | D.A Website Links People through Books |
10 . I have dreamed of taking a trip to Hawaii since I graduated, but the best thing always needs waiting.
I took a trip with my friends to Haleakala National Park, which lies in Hawaii.
When we arrived at Haleakala National Park, we were advised to watch the early morning sunrise. I was lost in the sightseeing (观光) that afternoon, so I could hardly wait to see the sunrise. The next morning, we all got out of bed very early and got to the seaside at 3 o’clock. In the first half an hour, we imagined how wonderful it would be when the first light came out through the thick clouds and how soft it would be when the light touched our skin, so we waited and waited. However, another half an hour later, I gradually lost my patience since there was nothing but the chilly darkness, and I felt that I was frozen to death. (冻死) But my friends were still extremely cheerful.
Nearly another one hour later, “Amazing!” Judy burst out and we all shouted to welcome the light, which was really unbelievable. Until today, I dare say that it is the most impressive sunrise in my life. However, waiting in the morning darkness is also one memory I can’t forget forever.
Waiting sometimes is really a hard thing for most of us as it needs patience and strong-willed determination (决心) , but what about the result after that? It might turn out to be pleasing and unbelievable. So, it is really worth (值得的) waiting for the best.
1. What can we learn from the passage?A.he author’s friends and the author took a trip to China. |
B.Hawaii is a good place to enjoy the sunrise. |
C.Sometimes, it is worth waiting for the best. |
D.The author enjoyed the worst sunrise in his life. |
A.About 3 o’clock. | B.About 4 o’clock. |
C.About 5 o’clock. | D.About 6 o’clock. |
A.Total. | B.Cold. | C.Terrible. | D.Interesting. |
A.Excited all the time. | B.Afraid all the time. |
C.Firstly excited then afraid. | D.Firstly excited then impatient. |