1 . In 2016, Mark Raymond learned the hard way that life can change in a split second(一瞬间). One day, Raymond went boating with his friends. He jumped off the back of the boat and hit a sandbank, leading to a severe injury to his neck. He became paralyzed(瘫痪的)and spent months in the hospital receiving treatment. When he was allowed to leave the hospital, he realized that the hard part was just beginning. He still needed to exercise to recover his strength after finishing the outpatient(门诊病人)treatment.
However, when Raymond returned home, he realized there was a serious lack of accessible gyms or facilities that could help people with different abilities work out and improve their health in his community. The lack of them caused Raymond to take action. In 2018, he established the Split Second Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides treatment that takes up from where outpatient treatment left off.
“The Split Second Foundation has equipment for people who have different disabling conditions,” Raymond explained.“Our specially trained staff will evaluate(评估)disabled customers’ physical needs and limitations and then provide recovery, education, and ongoing fitness classes suitable for them. We’re able to push them in a recovery driven fitness environment to be their best selves.”
Raymond’s goal is to open more accessible gyms, not just in New Orleans where he lives. He hopes the Split Second Foundation can help even more people get their lives back after disastrous accidents. “People with disabilities should also be thought of as productive members of society,” said Raymond. “Anybody’s life can change in an instant due to some kind of injury or disabling condition, and we are providing what’s next.”
When Raymond couldn’t find the services he needed, he made some for himself and others. This is the sort of cleverness we love to see in the world.
1. What does the underlined part “the hard part” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．The mental problem. | B．The process of recovery. |
| C．The high pressure of work. | D．The treatment in the hospital. |
| A．His love for a variety of sports. |
| B．His dream of becoming a businessman. |
| C．A boating accident that happened to his friend. |
| D．A lack of accessible exercise resources in his community. |
| A．It provides treatment by cooperating with hospitals. |
| B．It focuses on holding basic classes for poor children. |
| C．It offers fitness and recovery services to the disabled. |
| D．It creates plenty of job opportunities for disabled people. |
| A．Mark Raymond’s Journey from Paralysis to Recovery |
| B．Mark Raymond: Help the Disabled Rebuild Their Lives |
| C．The Importance of Accessible Gyms for Disabled People |
| D．Split Second Foundation: Offer Patients Postoperative Treatment |
2 . Nick Rose-Stamey is a lot like Jack Black’s character in School of Rock- a guitarist who discovers a passion for making music accessible to children. Working in the nonprofit arts education sector over the last 10 years raised his awareness of the lack of music programs in public schools, and later inspired his nonprofit, Band in a Bus. “The original idea was to take an old school bus and turn it into the best band class on wheels,” he says.
In fact, activities of Band in a Bus don’t actually happen on a bus. It provides instruments, courses, and staffing to students. Kids 18 and under can also participate in enriching summer programs through Band in a Bus, such as Bucket Brigade, five weekly classes where grades K-4 learn rhythm (节奏) and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) principles through contemporary music. There are also teen bands for grades 7-12 where kids learn to play pop music and develop social and team work skills.
When schools went virtual during the COVID-19 period, Rose-Stamey thought it was a shame that instruments were left sitting on shelves instead of in the hands of kids. So he created and distributed more than 1,000 “Band in a Box” DIY kits. Each kit contains small noise makers like kazoos, drumsticks, and shakers, with the intention of introducing a modernized music class experience that meets kids where they are.
“It is reported that if a kid has 30 minutes of a performing arts or creative elective every singleday, then that’ll help them develop their social, emotional and leadership skills, because there’s a lot of team work when it comes to making music. You have to learn how to work well with others,” Rose-Stamey says.
In the last year, Band in a Bus has worked directly with more than 500 students. “Music is a win-win for everybody,” Rose-Stamey says. “I just hope that someday we can stop making it the first kid out in the dodge ball (躲避球) game.”
1. What motivated Rose-Stamey to establish Band in a Bus?| A．The movie School of Rock. | B．The band classes in public schools. |
| C．His music learning experiences. | D．Insufficient music education. |
| A．They mainly focus on pop music. | B．They are usually organized on a bus. |
| C．They encourage team-building activities. | D．They combine music with other subjects. |
| A．To promote noise making instrumental kits. |
| B．To help students gain access to music at home. |
| C．To lift students’ mood during the COVID-19 period. |
| D．To enable students to take creative electives every day. |
| A．We should treat every student equally. |
| B．We should give music enough importance. |
| C．We should reconsider the rules of the dodge ball game. |
| D．We should encourage fair competition in various activities. |
3 . The Music Educator Award, this year, went to Annie Ray, an orchestra(管弦乐队)director at Annandale High School.She was recognized for her efforts to make music accessible to all students, particularly those with disabilities.Ray got to attend the awards ceremony in Los Angeles and bring home a $10,000 prize.
Ray created the Crescendo Orchestra for students with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as a parent orchestra that teaches nearly 200 caregivers a year to play the same instrument as their child.Ray also works with a local charity to give damaged instruments a second life in her classroom.
The orchestra is about much more than just making music.The most important is to give students a chance to develop their cooperation skills, make mistakes and learn the art of refining something.Ray pushes her students to be brave, go outside their comfort zone and realize they have to learn how to make bad sounds before learning how to make good sounds.And they teach her a lot in return.” They changed my educational philosophy.I understand what it truly means to meet a student where they’re at and apply that elsewhere,” she said.
The warm reception on the ceremony was meaningful.Actually, not many people understand what exactly music educators do or how much their work matters.While her administration is supportive, that lack of understanding is a problem facing the profession in general.Another is resources.She says her school “desperately” needs new instruments.She will use some of her prize money to buy more.
Ray also plans to put some of the money towards an ongoing scholarship for students who want to pursue music when they graduate.She knows of several, those particularly interested in music, and aims to offer financial support needed to realize their musical dreams” It is hard but truly satisfying,” Ray said.“And there’s nothing else like it for them.”
1. What can we learn about Ray from the first two paragraphs?| A．She hosted the award ceremony. | B．She brought music to more people. |
| C．She gave away instruments to the poor. | D．She founded a local charity for children. |
| A．They acquire in-depth musical knowledge. | B．They make friends with the like-minded. |
| C．They gain personal growth from playing music. | D．They improve their connections with educators. |
| A．The reception on the ceremony. | B．Importance of music education. |
| C．Challenges for music educators. | D．Plans to obtain resources. |
| A．Winning a scholarship. | B．Developing interest in music. |
| C．Making musical achievements. | D．Transforming dreams into reality. |
4 . Dallas-based Knit Wits is made up of a group of grandmothers with a strong love for knitting (编织) who tum their love for crafting into a purposeful attempt. Meeting regularly, they pour their collective love into every stitch (针法) they make. The group has been working for over ten years, meeting every Friday, to support organizations that help others, locally and around the world. Over the years, they’ve crafted thousands of items insupport of the important things.
Recently the Knit Wits member Mary Ann Stover was inspired to have the group knit hats for infant (婴儿) patients with heart disease at Children’s Health Hospital. The hats, each a unique work of art, designed with holiday themes, reflect the skill of the Knit Wits. More importantly, the special of Knit Wits is its understanding of the emotional effect these small objects can have on the infants experiencing medical treatments.
Bealle, a certified child life specialist at Children’s Health Hospital, explained how the hats are making a difference to the tiny patients and their families. “Caregivers are able to wear the hats on their body to move their smells before placing the hats back on the infants, encouraging connecting and making the infants less stressful,” he said.
Throughout the infants’ admission, many holidays are celebrated. At times, some infants are seriously ill and unable to dress up for holiday photos the families have planned. Thanks to the donations from Knit Wits, the hospital team is able to prove the family with a suitable themed infant hat the family can use for their photos and holiday celebrations.
1. What do we know about the hats from paragraph 2?| A．They centre on spiritual comfort. |
| B．They have holiday food subjects. |
| C．They are knitted by the caregivers |
| D．They are worn on child parents’ birthdays. |
| A．To hold an artistic activity. |
| B．To see off the recovered patients. |
| C．To relax the infants for treatments |
| D．To welcome the arrival of various holidays. |
| A．Why some holiday celebrations are held. |
| B．What the hats can be used as on holidays. |
| C．Why some special photos are important. |
| D．What the hats can be matched with. |
| A．Unsuccessful | B．Impractical. | C．Warm-hearted | D．Dishonest. |
5 . A working semiconductor (半导体) has been created from graphene(石墨烯), potentially laying the foundation for a new type of computer with greater speed and efficiency than today’s silicon chips(硅基芯片) allow.
Graphene, a material made from a single layer of carbon atoms, is a good electrical conductor resistant to heat and acids. But a working graphene semiconductor which can be controlled to conduct or separate electricity at will, has evaded scientists. Such semiconductors are key to creating the logic chips that power computers.
The problem has been the lack of what is known as a bandgap. Semiconductors have bands of higher and lower energies and a point—the bandgap—at which excited electrons can jump from one to the other. This effectively allows the flow of current to be switched on and off, so it is either conducting or not conducting, creating the binary system of zeroes and ones used in digital computers.
Now, Walter de Heer at the Georgia Institute of Technology and his colleagues have created graphene with a bandgap and demonstrated a working transistor, an on/off switch that either prevents or allows current to flow through it. De Heer said the electrical properties of a graphene semiconductor were far better than those of silicon chips. “It’s like driving on a rocky road versus driving on a freeway,” he said.
Silicon chips are cheap to make and backed by extensive production facilities, but we are reaching their limits. Moore’s law states the number of transistors in a circuit will double roughly every two years, but the rate of downsizing has slowed recently as engineers reach circuit concentration beyond which electrons can’t be reliably controlled.
“You can use all the technology the whole semiconductor industry is totally comfortable with to scale up this process,” says David Carey at the University of Surrey, UK. But he suspects the world will soon shift to graphene chips, because silicon has such a head start. “Most people working on silicon are bombed daily by new, wonderful materials that are about to replace it and none of it’s ever happened,” he says.
1. What does the underlined word “evaded” probably mean in paragraph 2?| A．Surprised. | B．Attracted. | C．Annoyed. | D．Puzzled. |
| A．It excites the jump of electrons. | B．It creates the system of zero s and ones. |
| C．It balances the higher and lower energies. | D．It allows the on and off of the current flow. |
| A．Superior electrical characteristics. | B．Stronger production support. |
| C．Lower development cost. | D．Slower downsizing rate. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Favorable. | C．Doubtful. | D．Disapproving. |
6 . London Theatre Shows
Alice In Wonderland
Each ticket to the show includes free entry to Kew Gardens., Alice in Wonderland is playing at the Kew Gardens from 22 July to 28 August 2023.
Running time: 1 hour 10 minutes with no interval (幕间休息)
Performance days
Matinees (日场): Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Important information: Children under 2 years old go free.
Back To The Future: The Musical
It is based on the iconic Back ta the Future films. Back to the Future: The Musical tickets at the Adelphi Theatre, London are available to book for performances up to 11 February 2024.
Age restrictions: Suitable for general audience aged 6+. Children under 3 will not be admitted.
Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes (including interval)
Performance days
Evenings; Monday, Wednesday. Thursday. Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Matinees: Thursday, Saturday, Sunday.
Blippi: The Wonderful World Tour
This show sees Blippi in the ultimate curiosity adventure. Dance, sing, and learn with Blippi as he discovers what makes different cities unique and special. Blippi: The Wonderful World Tour runs at Rose Theatre, Kingston from 29 August to 9 September 2023.
Age restrictions: Recommended for ages 2+.
Running time: 1 hour (no interval)
Performance days
Matinees: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Dinosaur World Live
Join our brave explorers across unchartered territories to discover a pre-historic world of remarkably life-like dinosaurs. Dinosaur World Live runs from 11 August to 3 September 2023 at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London.
Age restrictions: 3+
Running time: 50 mins + a 15-minute post show
Performance days
Matinees: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
1. What do we know about Back to the Future: The Musical?| A．It has no performances on Tuesdays, |
| B．Booking starts on 11 February 2024. |
| C．Children under 3 years old can go free. |
| D．It lasts 2 hours 40 minutes without intervals. |
| A．Kew Gardens. |
| B．Adelphi Theatre. |
| C．Rose Theatre, Kingston. |
| D．Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. |
| A．Alice In Wonderland |
| B．Dinosaur World Live |
| C．Back To The Future: The Musical |
| D．Blippi: The Wonderful World Tour |
7 . Science fiction has long entertained the idea of artificial intelligence becoming conscious (有意识的). Many researchers say that AI systems aren’t yet at the point of consciousness, but the pace of AI evolution (发展) has got them considering: how would we know if they were?
To answer this, a group of 19 neuroscientists (神经系统科学家), philosophers and computer scientists have come up with a checklist of standards that, if met, would indicate whether a system has a high chance of being conscious. The authors made the effort because “it seemed like there was a real lack of detailed, thoughtful discussion of AI consciousness,” says co-author Robert Long, a philosopher at the Center for AI Safety.
The team says that a failure to identify whether an AI system has become conscious has important moral implications. If something has been labelled “conscious”, according to co-author Megan Peters, a neuroscientist at the University of California, “that changes a lot about how we as human beings feel that entity (独立存在的个体) should be treated”. Long adds that, as far as he can tell, not enough effort has been made by the companies building advanced AI systems to evaluate the models for consciousness and make plans for what to do if that happens.
One of the challenges in studying consciousness in AI is defining what it means to be conscious. Peters says that for the report, the researchers focused on “phenomenal consciousness”.
Many neuroscience-based theories describe the biological basis of consciousness. But there is no agreement on which is the right one. To create their framework, the authors therefore used a range of these theories. The idea is that if an AI system functions in a way that matches aspects of many of these theories, then there is a greater likelihood that it is conscious.
They argue that this is a better approach to assessing consciousness than simply putting a system through a behavioural test — say, asking ChatGPT whether it is conscious, or challenging it and seeing how it responds. That’s because AI systems have become remarkably good at mimicking (模仿) humans.
1. What does Robert Long say about present research on AI consciousness?| A．It is far from enough. |
| B．It is progressing rapidly. |
| C．It has shown promising insights into it. |
| D．It has learnt a lot from previous research. |
| A．Their final applications. |
| B．How humans treat them. |
| C．Their moral responsibilities. |
| D．How humans make future; plans. |
| A．Providing a definition of it. |
| B．Uncovering the reason behind it. |
| C．Measuring AI’s ability to mimic humans. |
| D．Comparing AI consciousness and human consciousness. |
| A．By observing its responses to digital signals and online questions. |
| B．By checking its understanding of some neuroscience-based theories. |
| C．By comparing its functional patterns with neuroscience-based theories. |
| D．By conducting experiments and tests to measure its level of self-awareness. |
8 . Like many people, Stimpson, who is nearly 80, has noticed an alarming loss of wildlife in his lifetime. The clouds of swifts (雨燕) of his childhood have disappeared.
A loss of nesting (筑巢的) sites is driving the decline of swifts in the UK, whose numbers are believed to have dropped by about 57% in 22 years. These birds — which are now on the UK’s red list — are site-specific, meaning each spring they come back to the same spot after flying thousands of miles from Africa, The problem is that lots of old barns (谷仓) and houses have been upgraded and repaired and nesting sites have disappeared.
Thirteen years ago no one was making swift boxes, so Simpson started, “I’m not a carpenter (木匠), I’m a salesman, but I thought I’d certainly give it a go,” he says. When he started he could make three a day, now on a really good day he can make 30. “The government and big wildlife organisations don’t end up doing much to stop wildlife loss. We seem to have too many pen-pushers and not enough workers,” he says. “We could do an awful lot more than we’re doing.”
He believes local action groups are much more effective and has been working with a number of them. “The number of swift groups that have started up in the last five to eight years is quite staggering. And they seem to go from strength to strength,” he says,
“Swifts are the one thing where an individual can make a significant difference,” says Dick Newell, from Action for Swifts, who has 66 pairs of nesting swifts in his village of Landbeach in Cambridgeshire, 20 of them nesting on his house.
Newell says developers should put swift brick in every new building, and he has been working with housebuilding company Taylor Wimpey to make this happen. Exeter city council has started incorporating tfiem into new buildings, as well as the Duchy of Cornwall, and local councils are getting on board. Others are working on bee bricks and hedgehog (刺猬) holes in new developments.
1. What led to the swifts’ decline in the UK?| A．A loss of food. |
| B．A lack of nesting sites. |
| C．Their being removed from the red list. |
| D．Their deaths during their long journey. |
| A．Curious. | B．Satisfied. | C．Tolerant. | D．Negative. |
| A．Misleading. | B．Shocking. | C．Confusing. | D．Disturbing. |
| A．Build fewer buildings in rural areas. |
| B．Increase buildings made of bricks. |
| C．Include a swift brick in new buildings. |
| D．Give special attention to bees and hedgehogs. |
9 . The living room is cleared. The host taps a wine glass with a knife, and people file in, filling the sofas and chairs that are pushed up against the walls. Soon every seat in the house is taken, and a bottle of schnapps is passed around. Lyon Hansen, who minutes before was knocking about in the kitchen, walks over and picks up a guitar and starts to play. Hoyma has begun.
For one night, homeowners primarily in Sydrugota, a small town on the Faroe Islands, open their doors, inviting friends, family and tourists in to enjoy intimate (亲密的) concerts by local artists. The tradition dates back nearly 500 years to a time when Faroese life had to move underground due to Danish rule. The culture and the language was kept alive in people’s living rooms, where they gathered to sing and tell stories.
The modern Hoyma concert series started as an offshoot (分支) of the G! Festival, an annual musical event on the beaches of Eysturoy every summer since 2002. Around 2007, G! Festival’s creator Jón Tyril, exhausted by all the red tape (繁文缛节) that came with putting on a big music festival, started to dream a little smaller. Specifically, he started to think about tiny concerts held in living rooms—no sound systems or spotlights, the audience made up of as many people as can fit inside a house. The idea resounded in his mind, not only because it didn’t involve any heavy lifting, physically or mentally, but also because it went back to the longstanding Faroese tradition.
Since 2007, Hoyma has featured 20 concerts in ten different family homes in Sydrugota. For Laksá, hosting the concerts is not only fun, but a way to give back, and to ensure the islands survive in the modern world. As in many families, her daughters grew up and left the Faroes. “They studied in the U. K. for nine years, but both came back,” she says. “I actually think that Hoyma is partly the reason why many children from this village that go abroad come back. They are proud of it.”
1. How does the author introduce the topic?| A．By presenting a scene. | B．By evaluating an argument. |
| C．By clarifying a concept. | D．By making an assumption. |
| A．A stage when the G! Festival was needed by the Faroese. |
| B．A period when only local artists were allowed to perform. |
| C．An occasion when people celebrated the encounters with tourists. |
| D．A time when freedom of the Faroese was limited because of Danish rule. |
| A．Economical and varied. | B．Convenient and entirely original. |
| C．Accessible and profitable. | D．Simple and culturally attached. |
| A．Hoyma contributes to the survival of the islands. |
| B．Hoyma reflects the affection between mother and children. |
| C．Hoyma is gaining popularity across the globe in modern times. |
| D．Hoyma becomes enter taining with the involvement of the young. |
10 . Skyscrapers (摩天大楼) are the symbol of urban life and city people are used to seeing tall buildings and apartments. Farms, on the other hand, are associated with rural life. However, there are experts who think skyscrapers should become farms to meet the increasing food needs.
By the middle of this century, some scientists suggest, almost 80% of the earth’s population could live in cities. In addition, the population could increase to 9.1 billion people during that time yet the amount of land available for farming will be the same. If current farming practices don’t change, we will need an area of new land to produce enough food for the planet.
Vertical farms, where urban farmers could grow crops in environmentally friendly skyscrapers, could be the solution. In spite of concerns over high costs, experts want to make it a reality and use these skyscrapers to grow crops.
Vertical farms would have many advantages, supporters say. Unlike traditional farming, vertical farming could be free of chemicals and diseases. Besides, crops would not suffer from problems like flooding. Finally, vertical farms would reduce the cost and negative effects of transporting food over long distances.
Some argue that although crops growing in a tall glass building would get natural sunlight during the day, it wouldn’t be enough. For this reason, vertical farms would need additional light sources, such as artificial light.
Another way of growing fresh food is to build urban farms on rooftops. This more practical approach may be more achievable than the idea of farms in skyscrapers, researchers suggest. Experts agree that innovative farming practices are needed to support the need for more food at affordable costs, both to the farmer and to the consumer, but the best ideas could be yet to come.
1. What primary problem could vertical farming settle?| A．Poor state of rural life. | B．Shortage of food supply. |
| C．High costs for transporting crops. | D．Environmental pollution. |
| A．It can benefit transport industry. | B．It requires little care. |
| C．It can produce organic food. | D．It needs very low cost. |
| A．Farmable land. | B．Light sources. |
| C．Crop diseases. | D．Climate conditions. |
| A．Future Food Needs | B．Symbol of Urban Life |
| C．Farms of the Future | D．Farming on Rooftops |
