1 . There are well-documented mental health benefits to pet ownership, as much research has shown. Indeed, we know there are some physical benefits as well, as dog owners tend to have more active lifestyles. Yet when it comes to conditions like allergies (过敏), we tend to think of pet ownership as exacerbating, not alleviating them.
Hence, a recent study published in the journal PLOS One might come as a surprise. The study, published Wednesday, found that children raised with cats and dogs early in life had a 13 to 16 % lower risk of developing all food allergies than those who did not own pets.
The researchers engaged in a detailed survey, studying 65,000 children. They found that children who were exposed to dogs either during fetal (胎儿) development, or up to the age of 3 years old were less likely to have nut, milk and egg allergies.
This wasn’t true for other pets that weren’t cats and dogs. Indeed, the same research found that children exposed to hamsters during this same period had an increased risk of nut allergies. Yet children who were exposed to cats during their early years were likewise less likely to develop specific allergies — namely, allergies to wheat, soybean and egg.
While the study is not the final word on the issue — the researchers note “further studies using oral food challenges are required to more accurately assess the incident of food allergies” — it reinforces preexisting research on the seemingly funny ways that cats influence human development.
In addition to adding to the growing body of scientific literature about pets and human health, the PLOS One also reinforces earlier research about the role of the environment in developing allergies. The research repeatedly found that exposure to farmyard dirt, dust and the various fine hairs that fly off animals helps children in their breathing system development.
1. What does the underlined word “exaccrbating” in paragraph 1 best mean?| A．Worsening. | B．Damaging. |
| C．Improving. | D．Benefiting. |
| A．Kids over 3 will have more food allergies. |
| B．Hamsters cause the most allergies to children. |
| C．All pet ownership will not reduce food allergies. |
| D．Cat owners are less likely to be allergic than dog owners. |
| A．Satisfied. | B．Objective. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．Benefits brought by raising animals |
| B．Pet ownership making kids healthier |
| C．Researches on different food allergies |
| D．Dogs and cats reducing kids’ allergies |
2 . The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said that you can’t step into the same river twice, for you aren’t the same person at each visit and the water is ever flowing. It is a powerful way to show the reality that everything is always changing. Yet so many people have unpleasant relationships with change. We resist it or attempt to control it, the result of which is almost always some combination of stress, anxiety, and burnout. It doesn’t have to be that way.
No doubt, change can, and often does, hurt; but with the right mindset, it can also be a force for growth. A concept called allostasis can help. Developed in the late 1980s by neuroscientist Peter Sterling and biologist Joseph Eyer, allostasis is based on the idea that rather than being rigid, our healthy baseline is a moving target. Allostasis is defined as “stability through change”—the way to stay stable through the process of change is by changing.
From neuroscience to pain science and psychology, allostasis has become the dominant model for understanding change in the scientific community. The brain is at its best when it is constantly rewiring itself and making new connections. Overcoming pain is not about resistance or trying to get back to where you were but about balancing acceptance with problem-solving and moving forward to normal.
The time to start practicing is now. Over the past few years, the river of change has been flowing, and it shows no signs of letting up. Our ability to work with these changes is directly related to our life satisfaction. Given all this, simply creating a stable expectancy around change goes a long way. So does realizing that the allostasis mindset doesn’t ask us to do nothing. Rather, it asks us to partake in change by focusing on what we can control and trying to let go of what we can’t. When I catch myself resisting change, in my head I say the following: “This is what is happening right now. I’m doing the best that I can. What, if any, skillful actions can I take?” Do this repeatedly and finally you start to get better at it.
To thrive in our lifetime — and not just survive —we need to transform our relationship with change, leaving behind rigidity and resistance. We are always shaping and being shaped by change, often at the very same time.
1. What’s the common practice toward change?| A．To welcome it. | B．To reject it. |
| C．To overlook it. | D．To adapt to it. |
| A．One size fits all. | B．Time works great changes. |
| C．Respond to change by changing. | D．It’s never too late to change. |
| A．Stopping. | B．Dashing down. |
| C．Going up. | D．Widening. |
| A．Repetition makes up for rigidity. | B．It matters to focus on what we can’t. |
| C．Changes promote life satisfaction. | D．It makes sense to embrace changes. |
3 . In the Pixar movie Up, a fun cartoon dog called Dug wears a magical collar which can detect and translate his barks and cries into fluent human speech. Humans have always been fascinated by the potential to communicate with the animals. This week, an article in the New York Times documented major efforts from a group of researchers using machine-learning algorithms (算法) to analyze the different calls of whales, chickens, bats, cats, and more.
There are several ways to train AI systems now. Typically, Al systems learn through training with labeled data of human language which can be well supplied by the Internet. But analyzing animal language is different. Scientists have to instruct software programs on what to look for, and how to organize the data. This process requires matching gained vocal (发声的) recordings with the visual social behaviors of animals. A group studying Egyptian fruit bats, for example, also used video cameras to record the bats themselves to provide context for the calls.
Many critics of this approach point out two weaknesses of current AI language models: being unable to truly understand the relationships between words and the objects in the real world, and scientists’ little understanding of animal societies. Al language models for humans rely on a computer mapping out the relationship between words and the contexts they could appear in. But these models have their own weak points, and can sometimes be a black box—researchers know what goes in and comes out, but don’t quite understand how the algorithm is arriving at the conclusion.
Another factor that researchers should take into account is that animal communications might not work at all like human communications. There might be unique elements to animal language due to physiological and behavioral differences.
Making a Translator for animals has been a popular project that’s been in the works for the last decade. Although some software has shown some success in identifying the basic vocabulary of certain animals, it’s still a far cry from understanding the complex animal languages.
1. Why do researchers use Al to analyze animals’ calls?| A．To tell the differences among animals. |
| B．To test Al’s ability of translating animal language. |
| C．To understand animal language better. |
| D．To explore the fun of communicating with animals. |
| A．The lack of labeled data for training Al systems. |
| B．The difficulty in relating human speech to real objects. |
| C．The need for sound recordings to provide context. |
| D．The matching of vocal recordings with their calls. |
| A．Al language models to study animal communication. |
| B．The researchers’ study on animal societies. |
| C．The relationship between words and context. |
| D．The method of Al algorithms to draw conclusions. |
| A．Al systems for animal language translation. |
| B．Limitations of current Al language models. |
| C．Unique aspects of detecting animal language. |
| D．Challenges in creating a translator for animals. |
4 . Human responses to moral dilemmas (道德困境) can be influenced by statements written by the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. The findings indicate that users may undervalue the extent to which their own moral judgments can be influenced by the chatbot.
Sebastian Krigel and colleagues asked ChatGPT multiple times whether it is right to sacrifice (牺牲) the life of one person in order to save the lives of five others. They found that ChatGPT wrote random statements arguing both for and against sacrificing one life, indicating that it is not biased towards a certain moral stance (立场).
The authors then presented 767 U.S. participants, who were on average 39 years old, with a dilemma whether to sacrifice one person’s life to save five others. Before answering, participants read a statement provided by ChatGPT arguing either for or against sacrificing one life to save five. Statements were from either a moral advisor or ChatGPT. After answering, participants were asked whether the statement they read influenced their answers.
Eighty percent of participants reported that their answers were not influenced by the statements they read. However, the authors found that the answers participants believed they would have provided without reading the statements were still more likely to agree with the moral stance of the statement they did read than with the opposite stance. This indicates that participants may have underestimated the influence of ChatGPT’s statements on their own moral judgments.
The authors suggest that the possibility for chatbots to influence human moral judgments highlights the need for education to help humans better understand artificial intelligence. They propose that future research should design chatbots that either decline to answer questions requiring a moral judgment or answer these questions by providing multiple arguments and warnings.
1. What are ChatGPT’s answers to a certain moral stance?| A．changeable. | B．valuable. | C．creative. | D．simple. |
| A．They admitted the power of ChatGPT. |
| B．They were interviewed by a moral advisor. |
| C．They were affected by ChatGPT unknowingly. |
| D．They were presented with different moral dilemmas. |
| A．Different findings of the study. | B．Future possibility for chatbots. |
| C．Major focuses of future education. | D．Solutions to the impact of chatbots. |
| A．ChatGPT Tends to Cause Moral Panics. |
| B．ChatGPT: Is It Likely to Affect Our Life? |
| C．ChatGPT:Why Is It Making Us So Nervous? |
| D．ChatGPT Can Influence Human Moral Judgments. |
5 . Over 7,000 species around the world are considered endangered. That number doesn’t even include the plants, animals, and other lifeforms that are listed by some scientists as vulnerable, critically endangered, or extinct in the wild.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) maintains the most-comprehensive list of endangered species around the world. The Red List of Threatened Species, as it’s called, judges each species on five different standards for an in-depth scientific approach. According to the IUCN, an endangered species is one that meets any one of the following criteria (标准): a 50%-70% population decrease over 10 years, a total geographic area less than 5,000 square kilometers, a population size less than 2,500 adults, a restricted population of 250 adults, or a statistical prediction that it will go extinct within the next 20 years.
Though the IUCN’s Red List covers a wide range of what qualifies as an endangered species, it doesn’t quite say how a species reaches those low points. Prepare to feel guilty: the most common factor when it comes to species decline is human intervention. Loss of habitat, the introduction of a foreign species into the environment, hunting, pollution, disease, and loss of genetic variation (基因变异) are all causes of species decline and most often are a result of human activities. Take the bald eagle for example: the rise in human population and urban development of North America limited the animal’s habitat; an increase in hunting the eagles for sport lowered their population size; and the use of the pesticide DDT on farms harmed the animal’s reproductive capabilities.
But even though humans are the number one cause of species decline, classifying species as endangered encourages action to reverse the effects of human intervention. Conservation efforts by the US Fish and Wildlife Service criminalized (使非法) the hunting of bald eagles and the use of the pesticide DDT in the mid- to late 20th century. The effect was positive, as bald eagles have been on the rise and were taken off the endangered species list in 1995.
1. Which of the following species can be considered endangered?| A．One that will go extinct within the next 50 years. |
| B．One whose population size is less than 5,000 adults. |
| C．One whose habitat is less than 2,500 square kilometers. |
| D．One whose population decreases 20% over twenty years. |
| A．The causes of species decline. |
| B．The disadvantages of the pesticide. |
| C．A list of worldwide endangered species. |
| D．Common features of endangered species. |
| A．To show its rareness. |
| B．To blame humans for its decline. |
| C．To stress its importance in nature. |
| D．To show the meaning of ranking it endangered. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Health. | C．Science. | D．Education. |
6 . Liu Jichen, 23, a student from Tsinghua University, has developed a WeChat mini-program called “Clear Your Plate”. After a meal, users can open the mini-program and take a picture of their empty plates. Once the image is recognized by the AI(Artificial Intelligence), students can collect points and use them to buy gifts or purchase charity meals to children in impoverished(贫困的) rural areas.
Liu and his team, together with other organizations, launched the “Clear Your Plate” campaign in November for the third year. It has swept over 1,017 universities across the country. The one-month campaign attracted almost 1.6 million participants and collectively reduced food waste by 862 tons and carbon emissions(碳排放) by 3,337 tons.
“Technological innovation is a good way to reduce food waste,” Liu thought. He organized a team of 20 members to work on the project at the end of 2017. To solve the AI’s problem of identifying photos of empty plates, the team spent half a year collecting over 100,000 samples in canteens and restaurants. In 2018, the mini-program was officially put into operation on Oct 16, World Food Day. They then launched a campaign later that year.
“There were so many unknowns in research and development. For our team members, the biggest challenge was whether we were confident enough to complete it,” Liu said. They not only achieved their goal, but now, the mini-program has more than 5 million registered users, according to Liu. “We hope our efforts can start a new trend among the younger generation by encouraging them to cherish(珍惜) their food and develop the habit of thrift(节约),” Liu added.
1. What can we know about the “Clear Your Plate” mini-program?| A．It aims to put an end to waste and encourage thrift. |
| B．Its 6 million users are mostly students. |
| C．It helped reduce food waste by 3,337 tons. |
| D．It is an exchange of food for rewards to help poor children. |
| A．They found it tough to promote the campaign. |
| B．They felt uncertain whether they could complete the project. |
| C．They lacked professional technical support. |
| D．They had difficulty gathering enough samples. |
| A．Optimistic and demanding. | B．Generous and responsible. |
| C．Talented and humorous. | D．Creative and determined. |
| A．A guidebook. | B．A news report. | C．A book review. | D．A textbook. |
7 . Father’s Day to me is just as special as Mother’s Day. Each parent has something to
I completely
Children don’t forget things when they are growing up,
Happy Father’s Day to those who are there to support and love their children.Happy Father’s Day to all the mothers out there who have to play a father’s role and to all the fathers who have to play a(n)mother’s role.Raising children has never been
| A．beg | B．borrow | C．give | D．gain |
| A．purposes | B．promises | C．roles | D．tasks |
| A．raised | B．encouraged | C．helped | D．loved |
| A．teacher | B．father | C．mother | D．teenager |
| A．foolish | B．interesting | C．excellent | D．difficult |
| A．asked | B．forgot | C．explained | D．understood |
| A．independent | B．confident | C．grateful | D．reliable |
| A．opinion | B．turn | C．duty | D．honor |
| A．bothered | B．touched | C．affected | D．confused |
| A．ignored | B．doubted | C．disliked | D．appreciated |
| A．especially | B．regularly | C．equally | D．generally |
| A．history | B．youth | C．childhood | D．suffering |
| A．forced | B．believed | C．reminded | D．ordered |
| A．because | B．though | C．after | D．until |
| A．easy | B．boring | C．happy | D．tiring |
8 . “Meet me in the conference room with the contracts and a cup of coffee,” my boss barked at me. “Ten minutes.”
I didn’t respond. I stood still as if my shoes had been glued to the floor. I had no intention of taking a cup of anything to anyone, supervisor or not.
I had seen with my own eyes what such behavior did to a woman. It happened to Mrs. Wilson next door. Old Mr. Wilson wouldn’t put in his own false teeth without his wife’s assistance, let alone make himself lunch. It was a miserable union. I vowed by age eight that I would never live like her. I adopted the motto: Don’t help those who won’t help themselves.
I rushed to the file room and pulled my phone. I explained to my father what had happened and asked his advice on what to do, only to be asked back. He must have forgotten the unwritten rule between us about not answering a question with a question. Fortunately, I came up with an idea that would have the best of both worlds.
I took up the files and headed for the coffee pot. I took two cups and made two cups of coffee. Then I walked into the boss’ office with a cup of coffee in each hand. I handed my boss a cup of coffee and drank at the same time as him.
“Let’s take a break,” partway through the meeting, my boss stood, saying, “I need more coffee.” I picked up my empty cup. “I do, too,” I said, and handed it to him across the table. “Thanks,” I added, looking at him expectantly. The boss was staggered for a moment, and then took the cup from me.
When I finally left my boss’ office, I hid in the bathroom and called my dad. My father’s laughter on the phone made me feel even prouder.
1. Why does the author mention the Wilsons?| A．To explain her unwillingness to serve the coffee. |
| B．To picture what she will be like when she ages. |
| C．To stress her opposition to inequality in society. |
| D．To show how the couple grew old together. |
| A．She intended to play a trick on her mean boss. |
| B．She planned to have the boss serve her later. |
| C．She meant to share instead of serving. |
| D．She wanted to save the trouble of doing it again. |
| A．Moved. | B．Scared. | C．Excited. | D．Shocked. |
| A．She figured out how to show respect for her superior. |
| B．She took a wise approach to stand up for herself. |
| C．She found it practical to seek solutions from her father. |
| D．She considered it significant to fight against men bravely. |
9 . Are you a different person when you speak a foreign language? That’s just one of the questions The New Yorker’s writer and native North Carolinian Lauren Collins explores in her engaging autobiography, about her tough efforts to master French after marrying a Frenchman whose name — Olivier — she couldn’t even pronounce properly. When in French ranges from the humorously personal to a deeper look at various theories of language acquisition and linguistics.
The couple met in London “on more or less neutral ground: his continent, my language.” But the balance shifted when they moved to Geneva for Olivier’s work. The normally voluble Collins found herself at a loss — “nearly speechless.” The language barrier, and her dependence on her husband for simple things like buying the right cut of meat worsened her mixed feelings about “unlovely, but not ridiculous” Geneva. She comments, “Language, as much as land, is a place. To be cut off from it is to be, in a sense, homeless.”
Her sense of alienation (疏离感) leads to an examination of America’s miserable record when it comes to foreign languages: “Linguists call America ‘the graveyard of languages’ because of its singular ability to take in millions of immigrants and make their native languages die out in a few generations,” Collins writes. Educated in Wilmington, N.C., and at Princeton, she could — like the vast majority of Americans — only speak their mother tongue.
Eight months after she moved to Switzerland, Collins gave up on the natural acquisition of language and finally enrolls in a French course. As she struggles with grammar and vocabulary, Collins notes smartly that vert (green), verre (glass), ver (worm), vers (toward), and vair (squirrel) compose a quintuple homonym (同形异义). “Although it’s difficult, French can be tried,” she says.
Yet French is actually considered among the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn, especially compared to Arabic or Mandarin Chinese. Collins, whose notably rich English vocabulary includes glossolalia (nonsense speech) and shibboleth (catchword or slogan), finds plenty of terrific French words to love. She writes, “English is a trust fund, an unearned inheritance, but I've worked for every bit of French I've banked.”
Unlike Jhumpa Lahiri, who became so hooked on Italian and used it to write In Other Words, Collins’ goals for learning French were more modest: “I wanted to speak French and to sound like North Carolina.” She also wanted to be able to deal with chimney sweeps and butchers, communicate with her in-laws, and “to touch Olivier in his own language.” She admits that she feels different speaking French: “Its austerity (朴素) made me feel more confused.”
1. Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word “voluble” in Paragraph 2?| A．Graceful. | B．Dependent. | C．Talkative. | D．Energetic. |
| A．Because other languages are prohibited in America. |
| B．Because only English-speaking people can immigrate into America. |
| C．Because immigrants’ native languages contradict English in America. |
| D．Because American culture swallows up immigrants’ native languages gradually. |
| A．Collins’ English vocabulary knowledge contributes little to her French learning. |
| B．Collins has found out some effective ways of mastering French words. |
| C．Arabic or Mandarin Chinese is easier to learn than French for English speakers. |
| D．It’s terrifying for Collins to have French words in store for practical use. |
10 . Discoveries in science and technology are thought by “untaught minds” to come in blinding flashes or as the result of dramatic accidents. Sir Alexander Fleming did not, as legend would have it, look at the mold (霉) on a piece of cheese and get the idea for penicillin there and then. He experimented with antibacterial substances for nine years before he made his discovery. Inventions and innovations almost always come out of tough trial and error. Innovation is like soccer; even the best players miss the goal and have their shots blocked much more frequently than they score.
The point is that the players who score most are the ones who take most shots at the goal—and so it goes with innovation in any field of activity. The prime difference between innovation and others is one of approach. Everybody gets ideas, but innovators work consciously on theirs, and they follow them through until they prove practicable or otherwise. What ordinary people see as fanciful abstractions, professional innovators see as solid possibilities.
“Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there’s no particular goodness in doing things the way they have always been done.” Wrote Rudolph Flesch, a language authority. This accounts for our reaction to seemingly simple innovations like plastic garbage bags and suitcases on wheels that make life more convenient: “How come nobody thought of that before?”
The creative approach begins with the proposal that nothing be as it appears. Innovators will not accept that there is only one way to do anything. Faced with getting from A to B, the average person will automatically set out on the best-known and apparently simplest route. The innovator will search for alternate courses, which may prove easier in the long run and are sure to be more interesting and challenging even if they lead to dead ends. Highly creative individuals really do march to a different drummer.
1. “Untaught mind” in the first paragraph refers to __________.| A．an individual who often comes up with new ideas by accident |
| B．a person who has had no education |
| C．a citizen of a society that restricts personal creativity |
| D．a person ignorant of the hard work involved in experimentation |
| A．The way they present their findings. | B．The intelligence they possess. |
| C．The way they deal with problems. | D．The variety of ideas they have. |
| A．devoted to the progress of science |
| B．diligent in pursuing their goals |
| C．concerned about the advance of society |
| D．unwilling to follow common ways of doing things |
| A．What Are So Special about Creative Individuals |
| B．The Relation Between Creation and Diligence |
| C．Discoveries and Innovation |
| D．To Be a Creative Expert in the Study of Human Creativity |
