1 . In recent years American society has become increasingly dependent on its universities to find solutions to its major problems. It is the universities that have been to blame for developing the expertise to place men on the moon; for dealing with our urban problems and with our worsening environment; for developing the means to feed the world’s rapidly increasing population. The effort involved in meeting these demands presents its own problems. In addition, however, this concentration on the creation of new knowledge significantly impinges on the universities’ efforts to perform their other principal functions, the transmission and interpretation of knowledge-the imparting of the heritage of the past and the preparing of the next generation to carry it forward.
With regard to this, perhaps their most traditionally acknowledged task, college and universities today find themselves in a serious situation. On one hand, there is the American commitment, especially since World War Ⅱ, to provide higher education for all young people who can profit from it. The result of the commitment has been a dramatic rise in enrollments(登记入学) in our universities, coupled with a striking shift from the private to the public sector of higher education.
On the other hand, there are serious and continuing limitations on the resources available for higher education. While higher education has become a great ”growth industry“, it is also at the same time a tremendous drain(耗竭) on the resources of the nation. With the vast increase in enrollment and the shift in priorities away from education in state and federal(联邦的) budgets, there is in most of our public institutions a significant decrease in expenses for their students. One crucial aspect of this drain on resources lies in the persistent shortage of trained faculty(全体教师), which has led, in turn, to a declining standard of competence in instruction.
Intensifying these difficulties is, as indicated above, the concern with research, with its increasing claims on resources and the attention of the faculty. In addition, there is a strong tendency for the institutions’ organization and functioning to fulfill the demands of research rather than those of teaching.
1. According to Paragraph 1, what should be the most important function of American universities?| A．Sparing no effort to create new knowledge for students. |
| B．Enhancing students’ competence of tackling social problems. |
| C．Making experts on advanced industries out of their students. |
| D．Preparing their students to transmit the knowledge of the past. |
| A．more students and less investment | B．education quality and economic profit |
| C．low enrollment rate and high education demand | D．private ownership and American commitment |
| A．many public institutions have to cut down enrollments of students |
| B．teachers are not competent enough to perform satisfactorily in class |
| C．some institutions are forced to reduce the total expenses on research |
| D．there is keen competition for resources between public and private institutions |
| A．The improper distribution of American universities’ resources. |
| B．The increasing argument over American universities’ primary task. |
| C．The inability of American universities’ organization and fulfillment. |
| D．The growing focus on American universities’ function of research. |
2 . Imagine this: You walk into a place and the atmosphere is light and airy. The subtle scent of coffee beans fills the air and everyone that approaches you is friendly and welcoming. You’re comfortable and feel like you belong. As in most cities, it’s a place where people meet, discuss ideas, and conduct business. After taking a few sips of that Caramel Macchiato, you immediately get that feeling of energy and optimism. Perhaps it’s partly due to the caffeine and sugar rush, or maybe it’s that the presence of a Starbucks typically indicates a city on the rise.
In December of 2017, Trenton’s first Starbuck’s café was opened to the public at 102 Warren Street. Walking in, people living in Trenton scream at everything about this café, from the diverse but local stuff to the Trenton themed décor (室内装饰) and art. To make things better, this Starbucks also serves as an “opportunity café” which essentially means the young people in our communities are recruited and offered job training and employment. This program not only uplifts our youth, but also increases the amount of minority business in the city.
In the interviews with customers, a trend in responses arose. To many, the Starbucks was a “favorite place to stop in after work” and provided “a very relaxing environment.” The staff were often highly praised, noted as being friendly, helpful, and working in harmony. The interior décor of the café struck a lot of people’s attention, given the familiarity of the atmosphere. Painted on the walls, all around the store, are murals (壁画) with bright, colorful, graffiti-like designs very sui generis in Trenton, showcasing local monuments like the State House and the famous “Trenton Makes” bridge.
This new Starbucks brings a sense of modernity to Downtown Trenton and reminds us that our city is always developing. Open from 6 a. m. until 7 p.m. every day, the building is hardly ever empty. This space is made for everyone in Trenton, even the non-coffee lovers.
1. What is the major function of Paragraph 1 in the passage?| A．To present an introduction to the topic. |
| B．To set a background for the main theme. |
| C．To summarize the main idea of the passage. |
| D．To describe a common phenomenon for the readers. |
| A．People are amazed at the number of job opportunities provided by the Starbucks. |
| B．“Opportunity café” program helps achieve booming economy and bring spiritual benefits. |
| C．Most respondents regarded the Starbucks as a harmonious and entertaining workplace. |
| D．Numerous people are attracted to stop in after work by the murals with original designs. |
| A．Substantial. | B．Delicate. | C．Inspirational. | D．Unique. |
| A．Starbucks Is Designed for Everyone |
| B．Starbucks Gains Popularity in Trenton |
| C．Starbucks Sets an Atmosphere of Progress |
| D．Starbucks Creates More Job Opportunities |
3 . Goldfish may seem like simple creatures swimming in a glass tank, but they possess a rather complicated navigation system, as discovered by researchers at the University of Oxford Led by Dr. Adelaide Sibeaux, the study aims to shed light on our understanding of how fish, and potentially humans, estimate distances using what could be described as an internal GPS.
Writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Sibeaux and colleagues report how they created a tank in their experiment with 2cm-wide black and white vertical stripes (条纹) on the walls, connected by similar stripes across the floor. The team trained nine goldfish to swim a set distance of 70cm and then return to their starting point when waved at. The experiment aimed to investigate how the fish would estimate this distance without any gestures, under different patterns.
Over multiple trials, the goldfish averaged a swim distance of 74cm, give or take 17cm, when presented with the vertical 2cm-wide stripes. However, when the stripe pattern was altered to either narrower vertical stripes, checked patterns, or horizontal stripes, the fish’s behavior changed significantly. Narrower vertical stripes led them to overestimating the distance by 36%, while horizontal stripes resulted in highly inconsistent estimations.
According to the researchers, the goldfish appeared to be using an “optic (光学的) flow mechanism” based on the visual density of their environment. They kept track of how frequently the vertical pattern switched between black and white to estimate how far they had traveled. The study suggests that different optic flow mechanisms are used by mammals, including humans, based on angular (有角度的) motion of visual features. The study implies that the use of visually based distance information could have emerged early in the evolutionary timeline.
“This study is novel because, despite knowing that fish respond to geometric information regarding direction and distance, we don’t know how they estimate distances,” Professor Colin Lever, although not involved in the study, said, “it’s exciting to explore fish spatial mapping because fish navigation evolved earlier and better than most mammals.”
1. Why did Dr. Adelaide Sibeaux conduct the study on goldfish?| A．To test the accuracy of goldfish’s internal GPS. |
| B．To create an advanced navigation system for humans |
| C．To uncover how an inbuilt GPS helps calculate distances. |
| D．To explore the relationships between goldfish and humans |
| A．People gestured the goldfish throughout the experiment |
| B．The tank was decorated with colorful background patterns |
| C．Goldfish tended to underestimate distances with horizontal stripes. |
| D．The change in the tank setting led to the goldfish's incorrect judgment. |
| A．optic flow mechanism is unique to humans |
| B．mammals developed flow mechanism long before goldfish |
| C．goldfish evaluated the distance with multidimensional visual information |
| D．visual density of the environment strengthened the locating ability of goldfish |
| A．Neutral. | B．Ambiguous. | C．Disapproving. | D．Favorable. |
4 . Worth nearly $1trn, Facebook is the world’s sixth-most-valuable company. Its revenues have grown by 56% in the past year, and its share price by more than a quarter. Nearly 3bn people use its products every month. Why did such a successful company change its name as Meta?
The likely official reason for the rebranding is that the firm has outgrown the social network that Mark Zuckerberg started 17 years ago in a Harvard dorm. Today it includes other social apps (Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger) and video hardware (Oculus, Portal). It has launched a digital wallet (Novi) and may yet offer a currency (Diem). Mr Zuckerberg expects people eventually to associate his firm more with the “metaverse”(元宇宙), a virtual space for work, play and more, than with social media.
Facebook wouldn’t be the first tech giant to do so. In 2015 Google set up Alphabet, a holding company for the search engine and its many side projects. Under this model, Facebook would become just another app within a wider family, though by far it has been the biggest earner.
There is another possible motive for a makeover. For all its financial success, the Facebook brand has become tarnished. The social network is blamed for fueling everything from teenage anorexia(厌食症) to uprising at the US Capitol. Public trust in it is lower than in most tech giants, and falling. Although two years ago the firm started branding its apps as being “from Facebook”, its new smart glasses, which can record video and take phone calls, feature only the logo of its partner, Ray-Ban. A former employee revealed that Facebook was trying to cover up a drop in young American users.
Mr Zuckerberg himself has been a reason for much of the criticism of Facebook, and of bossy tech firms more generally. As the all-powerful founder, he has a higher profile than his opposite numbers at TikTok, YouTube and other social networks. Normally, a brand facing a reputational crisis might dump its unpopular CEO. But Mr Zuckerberg’s position is immovable, which may explain why he would want to dump the brand instead.
1. Facebook changed its name because________.| A．it wanted people to associate its name with universe |
| B．it was trying to follow the fashion led by Google |
| C．it expected to expand its business to a wider range |
| D．its former name has brought bad reputation to the company |
| A．It was founded by Zuckerberg in Harvard’s dormitory. |
| B．It has a positive influence on teenagers’ mind and actions. |
| C．It is as popular among young people in the US as it was. |
| D．It produced smart glasses with two companies’ logos on it. |
| A．distinguished | B．abandoned | C．globalized | D．spoiled |
| A．a science review | B．a business magazine |
| C．a technical report | D．the website of Facebook |
5 . Search engines have changed the way we use the Internet, putting vast sources of information just a few clicks away. But Harvard professor of psychology Line Daniel Wegner’s recent research proves that websites and the Internet are changing much more than technology itself. They are changing the way our memories function. Wegner’s latest study shows that when people have access to search engines, they remember fewer facts and less information because they know they can rely on “search” as a readily available shortcut.
Wegner believes the new findings show that the Internet has become part of a transactive memory source, a method by which our brains divide information, which means you don’t have to remember everything in the world yourself. You just have to remember who knows it. Now computers and technology are becoming virtual extensions of our memory.
Wegner conducted several experiments to demonstrate the phenomenon, using various forms of memory recall to test reliance on computers. In one experiment, participants demonstrated that they were more likely to think of computer terms like “Yahoo” or “Google” after being asked a set of difficult trivia questions. In another experiment, participants typed some statements into a computer and they were told the statements would be saved in specific folders. Next, they were asked to recall the statements. Finally, they were given cues to the wording and asked to name the folders where the statements were stored. The participants proved better able to recall the folder locations than the statements themselves.
Wegner admits that questions remain about whether dependence on computers will affect memories negatively: “Nobody knows now what the effects of these tools are on logical thinking.” Students who have trouble remembering distinct facts, for example, may struggle to employ those facts in critical thinking. But he believes that the situation overall is beneficial, comparing dependence on computers to dependence on a mechanical hand or other prosthetic device.
And even though we may not be using our memories to recall distinct facts, we are still using them to consider where the facts are located and how to access them. “We still have to remember things,” Wegner explains. “We’re just remembering a different range of things.” He believes his study will lead to further research into understanding computer dependence, and looks forward to tracing the extent of human interdependence with the computer world — pinpointing the “movable dividing line between us and our computers in cyber networks.”
1. From the experiment, when asked to provide facts that are not familiar to them, people tend to ________.| A．think of specific information sources | B．type into computer and remember them |
| C．recall them from their deep memories | D．link the unfamiliar facts to their experiences |
| A．An actor organizes today’s schedule with his agent. |
| B．A student asks his teacher for today’s homework. |
| C．A husband relies on his wife to remember a relative’s birthday |
| D．A boss asks the staff about the performance of the previous month. |
| A．Computer dependence affects our thinking capacities in other distinct fields. |
| B．Reliance on computers does not necessarily reduce human memory. |
| C．Computers have helped people to understand the memory system better. |
| D．Researches should be done to reveal the side effect of computer dependence. |
| A．Wegner’s Research Has Pinpointed The Dividing Line |
| B．Technological Networks Reshaping Our Brain Functions |
| C．Human’s Memory Capability Becoming Inevitably Weaker |
| D．Heavy Reliance On Computer For Storing More Information |
6 . Kyra Peralte thought keeping a diary during the pandemic might help her sort out her complicated feeling. In April 2020, the mother of two in Montclair, New Jersey, started writing frankly about the challenges of balancing work, marriage and motherhood during a global crisis.
Peralte wanted to know how other women were doing. “I wanted an interaction that felt human,” so she invited women from near and far to fill the remaining lined pages of her black-and-white marbled composition notebook with their own pandemic tales. She named the project The Traveling Diary. She came up with a system: Each person gets to keep the diary for three days and fills as many pages as she wishes. Then she is responsible for mailing it to the next person, whose address Peralte provides.
So far, more than 2,000 women from 30 countries have participated, some as far away as South Africa and Australia. More than 50 of these notebooks are currently in circulation, and about 20 completed ones are back in Peralte’s possession.
It felt meaningful to pass on something so personal. It felt like these were women that they had known even though they didn’t know them at all. Some did get to meet the women whose stories they read, through a virtual get-together that Peralte organized. Peralte often hosts Zoom events so the women get the chance to get to know one another more, share stories and connect more closely. Some of the women have even become close friends.
Peralte feels a strong bond with the people who filled its pages, none of whom she would have otherwise known. Her spontaneous (自发的) idea has had a profound effect on her and the other women who were part of it. “The Traveling Diary,” she says, “is making sisters out of strangers.”
1. Why did Peralte start The Traveling Diary?| A．To help sort out her feeling. | B．To finish her pages of notebook. |
| C．To have an interaction with other women. | D．To write a book covering pandemic tales. |
| A．It has become popular across the world. |
| B．Each woman keeps the diary at least three days. |
| C．Each person fills pages based on Peralte’s wishes. |
| D．It requires Peralte to post the diary to the next person. |
| A．They are totally strangers before. | B．They often hold parties themselves. |
| C．They have met each other in real life. | D．They have been known to Peralte before. |
| A．Generous and tolerant. | B．Creative and helpful. |
| C．Romantic and imaginative. | D．Demanding and adventurous. |
7 . Is there a single word that motivates us more than “weekend”? It’s like the promise of a sweet holiday following what seems like long-time exhaustion. It’s the spring in our step that gets bouncier with each passing day — until by Friday, we’re practically bumping our heads against the ceiling.
The trouble is that the weekend is a rip-off. You think you’re getting 48 hours of unconditional downtime, but reality takes a discount. In fact, it takes most of Sunday. That’s when anxiety comes creeping in and another countdown begins: 12 hours until Monday. Sure, the weekend is free time. But the mounting stress of an incoming Monday can ease any joy you might get from a Sunday evening.
That feeling is so common among the Monday-to-Friday crowd that there’s even more than one name for it: the Sunday Scaries, or Sunday Fear Syndrome. Going from a countdown to the weekend to a countdown to Monday can be difficult. Even monster.com — a website that specializes in binding humans to the Monday-to-Friday cycle — admits it’s a problem. In a survey, Monster found that 76% of Americans have “really had” Sunday night blues.
For most people, Sunday is no holiday at all. It may all come down to the same problem: We can’t stop thinking about tomorrow. Even worse, we may develop some downright unhealthy coping strategies for that transition from weekends to Monday. Some might resists — staying up late, milking every minute of a fleeting Sunday in the form of mind-numbing distractions.
But why should Monday cast such a long and fearful shadow on our lives? Maybe it’s because the counter is reset and the weekend, or happiness, seems at furthest point. If, like most of us, you have a tolerable job, but don’t much like the whole idea of working, there are plenty of ways to make Mondays a little less stressful. Most importantly, don’t leave any unsettled Friday business hanging over the weekend. So, clear the decks and tie up loose ends.
1. What do we know about the weekend in Paragraph 2?| A．It is hard-earned. |
| B．It doesn’t bring joy as expected. |
| C．It adds to people’s anxiety and stress. |
| D．It provides good time to relax. |
| A．To clarify a question. | B．To show its popularity. |
| C．To provides an illustration. | D．To support his idea. |
| A．Tolerant. | B．Conservative. | C．Unwise. | D．Practical. |
| A．Why People Are Stressed Out on Fridays |
| B．Why Monday Takes a Bite out of Sunday |
| C．Why a Countdown to the Weekend Is Difficult |
| D．Why Monday Casts a Fearful Shadow on Our Lives |
8 . Have you ever made your life look a little more attractive on social media than it actually is? If so, you may be damaging your mental health.
The posts we make on social media platforms allow us to look back and see what we did on a given day. But what happens when, in an effort to impress our online friends, photos and videos we post become beautiful versions of the things we did?
A young girl named Sophia went out to a romantic anniversary dinner with her boyfriend, had a near relationship-ending fight during dessert, then came home and posted, “Had the best time out with the love of my life!”—even with a photo of the meal. No surprise, but according to a new study, Sophia was by no means unique. Two-thirds of users admit lying about their lives on social media with 20 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 stating that they edit their own stories by frequently lying about relationships and promotions.
By beautifying our online stories, we are harming our memories. We start believing the stories we tell rather than remembering what really has happened. Soon, the real experience is lost and all that remains is the beautified version of history.
Scientists fear that these edited stories will end up changing our memories. It’s well confirmed through research that our own memories are often unreliable and can be easily controlled. Writing down one’s life in the form of a journal, or even on social media can help us keep our memories undamaged, but only if we tell the truth. And recording our experiences through whatever medium, to later recall lessons we have learned, is not only acceptable but desirable. In fact, looking back on our own past—however embarrassing or uncomfortable—is not just healthy but can be enjoyable.
1. Why did Sophia post her story with a photo of the meal?| A．To make herself attractive. | B．To show her photography skill. |
| C．To convince others of her story. | D．To show how amazing the meal was. |
| A．Encouraging. | B．Critical. | C．Humorous. | D．Enthusiastic. |
| A．recalling the unpleasant past can also be enjoyable |
| B．writing down our life on social media does no good to us |
| C．recording our experiences through media is unacceptable |
| D．editing our own stories will make us unreliable |
| A．Leaving others a good impression is desirable. |
| B．Editing our online stories weakens our memory. |
| C．Posting our experiences on social media is risky. |
| D．Beautifying our history ends up hurting ourselves. |
9 . Voices offer lots of information. It turns out that they can even help diagnose (诊断) an illness and researchers are working on an app for that. The National Institutes of Health is funding a massive research project to collect voice data and develop an AI that could diagnose people based on their speech.
Everything such as your breathing patterns when you speak offers potential information about your health, says Dr. Yael Bensoussan, the director of the University of South Florida’s Health Voice Center and a leader on the study.“We asked experts: Well, if you close your eyes when a patient comes in, just by listening to their voice, can you have an idea of the diagnosis they have?” says Bensoussan.“And that’s where we got all our information. Someone who speaks low and slowly might have Parkinson’s disease. Depression or cancer could even be diagnosed.”
The project is part of the NIH’s Bridge to AI program, which was launched over a year ago with more than $100 million in funding from the government, with the goal of creating large-scale health care databases for precision (精准) medicine.“We were really lacking what we call open source databases,” says Bensoussan.“Every institution has their own database. But to create these networks was really important to allow researchers from other generations to use this data.”
The ultimate goal of the project is an app that could help bridge access to rural or underserved communities, by helping general practitioners (行医者) refer patients to specialists. To get there, researchers have to start by amassing data, since the AI can only get as good as the database it’s learning from. By the end of the four years, they hope to collect about 30,000 voices.
There are a few roadblocks, however. HIPAA, the law that regulates medical privacy, isn’t really clear on whether researchers can share voices. Every institution has different rules on what can be shared, and that opens all sorts of moral and legal questions.
1. What is the project aimed at?| A．Examining voice data. |
| B．Detecting speech problems. |
| C．Offering health information. |
| D．Developing a medical diagnosis app. |
| A．Doctors work better with their eyes closed. |
| B．Parkinson’s disease can be easily discovered. |
| C．How a person walks shows his health condition. |
| D．The voice of a patient may indicate a certain illness. |
| A．Storing. | B．Analyzing. | C．Collecting. | D．Exchanging |
| A．The difficulty in carrying out the project. |
| B．The need to share voices concerning the project. |
| C．The way to protect medical privacy in the project. |
| D．The proposal for issuing rules related to the project. |
10 . Have you heard of the save soil movement? It was
The efforts of Sadhguru have
The movement aims to
The main motive of the campaign was to bring together people from all around the world to protect the soil’s health. Sadhguru has become
Sadhguru is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy. He has been a(n)
| A．launched | B．sponsored | C．experienced | D．commanded |
| A．resulted in | B．originated from | C．paid back | D．reacted to |
| A．airports | B．companies | C．conferences | D．locations |
| A．abilities | B．struggles | C．characters | D．requests |
| A．transform | B．address | C．drag | D．confirm |
| A．messages | B．responses | C．proposals | D．positions |
| A．exhausted | B．ambitious | C．successful | D．confident |
| A．improvement | B．awareness | C．imagination | D．standard |
| A．locally | B．individually | C．nationally | D．globally |
| A．urging | B．requiring | C．cheering | D．permitting |
| A．stable | B．ongoing | C．favorable | D．temporary |
| A．However | B．Besides | C．Therefore | D．Meanwhile |
| A．ensure | B．bring | C．affect | D．define |
| A．strong | B．pleasant | C．determined | D．influential |
| A．circumstance | B．lifestyle | C．atmosphere | D．soil |
