1 . If English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven’t you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?
According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter density (灰质密度). This is the area of the brain which processes (加工) information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles. The study also found the younger people learn a second language, the greater the effect is.
A team led by Dr. Andrea Mechelli, from University College London (UCL), took a group of Britons who only spoke English. They were compared with a group of “early bilinguals” who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners.
Scans showed that grey matter density in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference was.
“Our findings suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language,” said the scientists. It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn.
Professor Dylan Vaughan Jones of the University of Wales, has researched the link between bilingualism and maths skills. “Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible.” he said. “You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”
The findings were matched in a study of native Italian speakers who had learnt English as a second language between the ages of two and thirty-four. Reading, writing, and comprehension were all tested. The results showed that the younger they started to learn, the better. “Studying a language means you get an entrance to another world,” explained the scientists.
1. Why does the writer mention “exercise” in the second paragraph?| A．To make people believe language learning is helpful for their health. |
| B．To suggest language learning is also a kind of physical labor. |
| C．To prove that one needs more resources when he/she is learning a language. |
| D．To tell us that learning a language can train your brain effectively. |
| A．The ability of learning a second language is changing all the time. |
| B．The earlier you start to learn a second language, the higher the grey matter density is. |
| C．The experience of learning a second language has a bad effect on brain. |
| D．There is no difference between a later second language learner and one without a second language. |
| A．early learning of a second language helps in studying other subjects |
| B．learning a second language is the same as studying maths |
| C．Italian is the best choice for you as a second language |
| D．you’d better choose the ages between 2 and 34 to learn a second language |
| A．Language learning is closely connected with maths study. |
| B．Man has a great ability of learning a second language. |
| C．Studying a foreign language can improve man’s ability to think. |
| D．The study done by the researchers from UCL is failed finally. |
2 . It was raining like nothing before when Ehdaa Bujeldain, an English teacher living with her family in the mountains of Derna in eastern Libya , heard a loud noise that sounded like an explosion (爆炸). Later they learned that a dam (大坝) in Derna had broken down under the pressure of running water. For the next four days, they had no power or internet, and it was only recently that they started to fully understand of the damage caused by the floods.
“Half of the city has been destroyed. My mom’s relatives, my friends, my coworkers ——they are all gone. Now we, the survivors, are just ghost s in shells,” says Bujeldain, whose sadness can be easily told from her blank expression.
Five days have passed since the terrible flooding in Derna, Libya’s Red Crescent organization estimated that 11,300 people have died, while the city’s mayor believes the number of deaths could be as high as 20,000.
Derna is a coastal city with a seasonal river called the Wadi Derna. Despite the abnormally heavy rain, people living near the river had little warning before the floodwaters came rushing in on that terrible morning. United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths described the scale of the flood as “appalling” (令人惊骇的) and blamed the flood partly on sudden climate change.
Now international aid teams are arriving in Derna, but they face challenges due to damaged roads, lack of access to power, water, and fuel. Tarhoni, doctor of the rescue team, warns that the most difficult weeks lie ahead. “One disaster is done and there is another to come,” he says. “The thousands and thousands of people who lost everything these people now need comfort, they need company, they need psychological support.”
1. What do we know about Bujeldain’s family from paragraph 1?| A．The explosion they heard led to the destruction of the dam. |
| B．Bujeldain saved her family from the floods with her bravery. |
| C．Bujeldain immediately recognized the outbreak of the floods. |
| D．For several days, they didn’t fully realize the seriousness of the floods. |
| A．They run out of energy and are very tired. |
| B．They feel lucky as they are safe and sound. |
| C．They are completely saddened and shocked. |
| D．They are sorry for the loss of their homeland. |
| A．The absence of warning. | B．The extraordinary rainfall. |
| C．Unexpected climate change. | D．The damage to environment. |
| A．Addressing mental problems. |
| B．Providing immediate medical care. |
| C．Conducting climate change research. |
| D．Rebuilding roads and access to resources. |
3 . When the company OpenAI developed its new artificial intelligence (AI) program, ChatGPT, in late 2022, educators began to worry. ChatGPT could create text that seemed like a human wrote it. How could teachers discover whether students were using language created by an AI chatbot to cheat on a writing task?
As a linguist who studies the effects of technology on how people read, write and think, I believe there are other more pressing concerns besides cheating. These include whether AI, more generally, threatens student writing skills, the value of writing as a process, and the importance of regarding writing as a tool for thinking.
As part of my research on the effects of AI on human writing, I surveyed young adults in the U.S. about some issues related to those effects. One participant said that at some point if you depend on predictive text, you’re going to lose your spelling abilities. Enter “Was Rom” into a Google search and you’re given a list of choices like “Was Rome built in a day”. Type “ple” into a text message and you’re offered “please” and “plenty”. These tools complete our sentences automatically, giving us little chance to think about our spelling, and continuously asking us to follow their suggestions.
Evan Selinger, a philosopher, worried that predictive texting reduces the power of writing as a form of mental activity and personal expression. “By encouraging us not to think too deeply about our words, predictive technology may change how we deal with each other,” Selinger wrote. “We give others more algorithms (算法) and less of ourselves. Automation can stop us thinking and the resulting text didn’t feel like mine anymore.”
I asked ChatGPT whether it was a threat to humans’ motivation to write. The bot responded: “There will always be a demand for creative, original content that requires the unique viewpoint of a human writer.” It continued: “Writing serves many purposes beyond just the creation of content, such as self-expression, communication, and personal growth, which can continue to encourage people to write even if certain types of writing can be automated.”
I was glad to find the program had seemingly admitted its limitations.
1. What is the author’s main concern about ChatGPT?| A．Whether it will lead to students’ cheating. |
| B．Whether it will shape students’ writing style. |
| C．How students will make use of it at school. |
| D．What effects it will have on students’ writing. |
| A．Give us more creative ideas. | B．Make us write like a machine. |
| C．Encourage us to think more deeply. | D．Make us tend to ignore grammatical mistakes. |
| A．Writing will become completely automated. | B．Robots will work with humans in writing. |
| C．Robot writing will become more creative. | D．Human writing will still matter a lot. |
| A．What impact will AI bring to writing? | B．What is the future of modern literature? |
| C．How to improve writing with AI’s help? | D．How to apply AI technology to education? |
4 . Imagine a team of humans and robots working together to process online orders. Real-life workers strategically positioned among their automated coworkers who are moving intelligently back and forth in a warehouse (仓库)space, picking items for shipping to the customer.
This could become a reality sooner or later thanks to researchers at the University of Missouri, who are working to speed up the online delivery process by developing a software model designed to make transport robots smarter.
“The robotic technology already exists,” said Sharan Srinivas, who specializes in data analytics and operations research. “Our goal is to best apply this technology through efficient planning. To do this, we’re asking questions like ‘given a list of items to pick, how do you optimize (优化)the route plan for the human pickers and robots?’ or ‘how many items should a robot pick in a given tour?’ Likewise, we have a similar set of questions for the human worker. The most challenging part is optimizing the collaboration plan between the human pickers and robots.”:
Currently, a lot of human effort and labor costs are involved with fulfilling online orders. To help optimize this process, robotic companies have already developed cooperative robots, also known as cobots or autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), to work in a warehouse or distribution center. AMRs are equipped with sensors and cameras to help them navigate(确定方向)around a controlled space like a warehouse.
Srinivas said, “The robot is intelligent, so if it’s instructed to go to a particular location, it can navigate the warehouse and not hit any workers or other obstacles along the way. AMRs are not designed to replace human workers, but instead can work cooperatively alongside them to help increase the efficiency of the order fulfillment process.”
“The one drawback is that these robots do not have good grasping abilities,” said Srinivas. “But humans are good at grasping items, so we are trying to balance the strength of both resources.”
1. What does the underlined word “collaboration” in paragraph 3 mean?| A．Technology. | B．Similarity. | C．Exploration. | D．Cooperation. |
| A．To look cool. | B．To sense warnings. |
| C．To direct AMRs’ way. | D．To find human workers. |
| A．Jumping. | B．Climbing. | C．Walking. | D．Holding. |
| A．The Simple Use of Robots |
| B．Warehouse Workers and Robots |
| C．Making Transport Robots Smarter |
| D．Transport Robots Invented by Sharan |
5 . What is the most shocking about the heatwave affecting the Pacific Northwest is not that it has hit a usually mild area, nor that so many long-standing temperature records are being broken. It is that those records are being broken by such large margins (幅度). In Portland, Oregon, temperature reached 46.6℃(116°F) — making it one of several cities in the region where former records have been beaten by a full 5℃(9°F). At the same time, heatwaves are also hitting central Europe and even Siberia.
Heatwaves may become headlines, but less attention is paid to them. In 2018 about 300,000 people over the age of 65 died as a result of extreme heat, mainly in India, a 54% increase since 2000, according to a report in the Lancet, a medical journal. The report also shows that, unlike storms and floods, heat does not lead to dramatic before-and-after pictures or widespread damage to belongings. It is a silent killer. As many as 70,000 people died due to a heatwave in Europe in 2003.
Heat also kills by worsening health conditions such as heart problems, so not all the deaths it causes may be directly attributed (归因) to it. Climate change will make heatwaves more common and more extreme. Even if greenhouse-gas emissions (排放) are cut to zero by the middle of this century, temperatures will go on rising for decades. So other measures are needed to protect people against extreme heat.
Governments can set up early warning systems to alarm health workers, shut down schools and stop outdoor activities. They can provide the public with forecasts of coming heatwaves, explanations of the dangers and detailed advice on what to do. Improved facilities can also help. This includes providing shaded areas, water parks and “misting stations” to help people cool down, and get to airconditioned “cooling centers” where they can find shelter and sleep if necessary.
The world is, undoubtedly, facing a big health challenge right now. There is no excuse for ignoring heatwaves and their effects.
1. What shocks us most about the heatwave in the Pacific Northwest?| A．It has stricken a usually mild area. |
| B．It hits central Europe except Siberia. |
| C．Many temperature records are being broken. |
| D．Many records are being broken by large margins. |
| A．People have paid much attention to heatwaves. |
| B．Heat doesn’t cause widespread damage to belongings. |
| C．The damage of heat is as obvious as storms and floods. |
| D．About 300,000 middle-aged people died from extreme heat. |
| A．Provide some cool places. | B．Build nursing homes. |
| C．Organize outdoor activities. | D．Shelter the homeless. |
| A．Improving Public Facilities | B．Taking Heatwaves Seriously |
| C．Preventing Natural Disasters | D．Reducing Greenhouse-gas Emission |
6 . For several decades, there has been an extensive and organized campaign intended to generate distrust in science, funded by those whose interests and ideologies are threatened by the findings of modern science. In response, scientists have tended to stress the success of science. After all, scientists have been right about most things.
Stressing successes isn’t wrong, but for many people it’s not persuasive. An alternative answer to the question “Why trust science?” is that scientists use the so-called scientific method. If you’ve got a high school science textbook lying around, you’ll probably find that answer in it. But what is typically thought to be the scientific method — develop a hypothesis (假设), then design an experiment to test it — isn’t what scientists actually do. Science is dynamic: new methods get invented; old ones get abandoned; and sometimes, scientists can be found doing many different things.
If there is no dependable scientific method, then what is the reason for trust in science? The answer is how those claims are evaluated. The common element in modern science, regardless of the specific field or the particular methods being used, is the strict scrutiny (审查) of claims. It’s this tough, sustained process that works to make sure faulty claims are rejected. A scientific claim is never accepted as true until it has gone through a lengthy “peer review” because the reviewers are experts in the same field who have both the right and the obligation (责任) to find faults.
A key aspect of scientific judgment is that it is done collectively. No claim gets accepted until it has been vetted by dozens, if not hundreds, of heads. In areas that have been contested, like climate science and vaccine safety, it’s thousands. This is why we are generally justified in not worrying too much if a single scientist, even a very famous one, disagrees with the claim. And this is why diversity in science — the more people looking at a claim from different angles — is important.
Does this process ever go wrong? Of course. Scientists are humans. There is always the possibility of revising a claim on the basis of new evidence. Some people argue that we should not trust science because scientists are “always changing their minds”. While examples of truly settled science being overturned are far fewer than is sometimes claimed, they do exist. But the beauty of this scientific process is that it explains what might otherwise appear contradictory: that science produces both novelty and stability. Scientists do change their minds in the face of new evidence, but this is a strength of science, not a weakness.
1. How does the author think of the so-called scientific method?| A．Stable. | B．Persuasive. |
| C．Unreliable. | D．Conclusive. |
| A．Explained. | B．Examined. |
| C．Repeated. | D．Released. |
| A．It is not persuasive to reject those faulty claims. |
| B．Settled science tends to be collectively overturned. |
| C．A leading expert cannot play a decisive role in a scrutiny. |
| D．Diversity in knowledge is the common element in science. |
| A．Put Your Faith in Science | B．Defend the Truth in Science |
| C．Apply Your Mind to Science | D．Explore a Dynamic Way to Science |
7 . More than anything, this is a book about unconditional love—a bond between a caring woman and a loyal dog. Harley’s Harlequin Heart written by Christy Jaeger and
Harley takes us along on all his
Through surgery, this smart dog
Harley’s
As Jaeger notes, “The book
| A．explained | B．presented | C．designed | D．included |
| A．misfortune | B．unease | C．inconvenience | D．discomfort |
| A．easier | B．safer | C．better | D．richer |
| A．packages | B．dreams | C．burdens | D．adventures |
| A．diagnosed | B．attacked | C．loaded | D．faced |
| A．mysteries | B．problems | C．cures | D．challenges |
| A．forbids | B．hits | C．informs | D．warns |
| A．active | B．inner | C．useful | D．sudden |
| A．pushes through | B．bends down | C．cheers up | D．gets off |
| A．treatment | B．recovery | C．victory | D．entry |
| A．innocently | B．automatically | C．gradually | D．accidentally |
| A．suffer | B．behave | C．perform | D．delay |
| A．grouch | B．circle | C．protection | D．process |
| A．competing | B．battling | C．continuing | D．mixing |
| A．development | B．discovery | C．imagination | D．description |
| A．possess | B．close | C．share | D．print |
| A．typical | B．happy | C．ridiculous | D．sudden |
| A．spreads | B．sends | C．expands | D．devotes |
| A．decisive | B．logical | C．attractive | D．influential |
| A．routine | B．force | C．message | D．image |
Arthur Conan Doyle is an icon of British literature, world renowned for his crime fiction creation, “Sherlock Holmes”. His ability to create exciting stories filled with mystery still resonates with readers today, and modern reincarnations (再生) in both film and television mean Holmes is as popular as ever. The creation of such an extraordinary world would be an impossible task for most, so where did Doyle find the inspirations behind its conception?
The topics, characters and events that unfold within Doyle’s creations may seem far removed from you or I, but for Arthur, they were much closer to home. The main inspiration for Holmes was Arthur’s professor at Edinburgh Medical School, Dr. Joseph Bell. The doctor, armed with fantastic scientific knowledge and remarkable abilities in observation and deduction (演绎), would know someone’s occupation and habits from the tiniest details. On one occasion, he shocked his class by deducing the occupation of a patient simply from his accent, schedule, and hands. Additionally, working with murder investigations, illnesses and dead bodies through his studies, Doyle became very knowledgeable about this area.
Since school, Doyle’s talent as a writer was clear as fellow pupils paid him in sweets just to continue his stories, so you would have to assume that the success of Sherlock on the national stage brought Doyle great happiness, right?
Well, not quite. Few people know that it didn’t take long for Doyle to get frustrated with the character. While he ranked his work highly, he actually felt that his career had, “gone off the rails” and wrote to his mother saying, “I must save my mind for better things.” Doyle saw Sherlock as an unwelcome distraction from more serious work which is why he killed him off in The Final Problem. Holmes and Moriarty plunge to their deaths at the Reichenbach Falls and Sherlock Holmes was finished.
But, as with any Holmes tale, there is a twist! Fans were extremly angry and canceled their subscriptions for The Strand Magazine in record numbers. The continuous pressure from fans and publishers finally led Doyle to publish a new story, The Hound of Baskervilles, in 1901. This, however, was set before the death of Sherlock so the complete resurrection (复活) happened in 1903, with The Adventure of the Empty House, in which it is revealed that only Moriarty fell and Holmes faked his death.
1. Which of the following is true according to the passage?| A．The success of Sherlock Holmes made Doyle instant famous. |
| B．The invention of film and television has helped to promote Sherlock Holmes. |
| C．Doyle found inspiration mainly from Dr. Joseph Bell and his teacher in school. |
| D．Doyle’s writing capabilities was long recognized by his peers. |
| A．The character was not as keen as Dr. Joseph Bell. |
| B．He couldn’t make much money from the book. |
| C．The book kept him from writing serious literature. |
| D．He was attacked by the fans of the book. |
| A．Doyle didn’t show talent for writing until he met Dr. Joseph Bell. |
| B．The success of Sherlock Holmes was bitter-sweet to Doyle. |
| C．Many movies are adapted from the story of Sherlock Holmes. |
| D．Doyle was involved in murder investigations in order to write Sherlock Holmes. |
| A．a booklet of Doyle museum | B．a website for fans of Holmes |
| C．a literary magazine | D．an academic report |
9 . Genetic information is important because it stores, processes and transmits biological data from generation to generation. Some scientists even assume that knowing genetic information itself matters.
For example, in quantum mechanics (量子力学), there is a popular theory known as the “observer effect”, which states that the act of observing a phenomenon (usually by making some kind of measurement) necessarily changes that phenomenon. In other words, just by being there and having an interest in the outcome, we affect that outcome.
While the explanations behind the observer’s influence in quantum mechanics come down to the measuring instrument and not the observer’s conscious mind, we also see strong evidence for the “placebo effect” in medicine: a patient’s condition can improve if they just believe they are receiving an effective treatment. And those beneficial effects can happen even if the patient is not actually receiving that treatment or if the treatment doesn’t actually work.
If our minds truly do have power over our surroundings and our bodies, what does having the genetic information do to us? Does simply knowing more about our own physiology (生理机能) change it? A recent study on exercise and obesity suggests that the answer is yes.
Those who were told they were at low genetic risk for obesity produced 2.5 times more of the fullness hormone and claimed to feel fuller despite eating the same meal as they had one week prior. Those who were told they had lower endurance because of their genes did worse on their physical test than they had before receiving that information: they showed lower lung capacity and quit sooner.
Thus, having information about our genetic risk can lead to improvements in our physiology (as was true for the eaters of the study), but it can also put us at a disadvantage (as with the poor exercise performers). So we certainly need to be cautious of incorrect genetic information. But as the Stanford study shows, even if the genetic information we receive is correct, how we receive it is also important.
1. How does the “placebo effect” in medicine work?| A．The patient recovers with the timely treatment. |
| B．The patient’s condition worsens due to a lack of treatment. |
| C．The patient’s condition remains unchanged despite their belief. |
| D．The patient’s condition improves with the belief in the treatment. |
| A．They showed lower lung capacity. |
| B．They quit their physical test sooner. |
| C．They needed more food to satisfy their appetite. |
| D．They felt fuller with more fullness hormone released. |
| A．Positive. | B．Objective. |
| C．Ambiguous. | D．Negative. |
| A．The great power of the observer’s mind. |
| B．The influence of knowing genetic information. |
| C．The amazing application of genetic information. |
| D．The connection between Quantum Mechanics and Medicine. |
10 . The start-up that attracted the largest investment in the history of cybersecurity, of more than half a billion dollars, has a simple goal: a passwordless future.
Despite the spread of password management software that can generate and remember complicated strings of random characters, some of the most common passwords are still “12345”, “password” and “iloveyou”. As a result, more than 80 percent of hacks involve these kinds of passwords; and passwords remain the most sought-after data by hackers, above other personal or sensitive information.
In many cases, individuals are tricked into handing over password details by phishing emails and other social engineering techniques. Hackers have sought to break into apps and steal entire password databases as well. Passwords are also under attack from new technology, such as automated programs that can rapidly try to guess them, or can try stolen passwords on multiple online accounts.
Since the need to replace the easily forgotten and highly hackable strings of letters and numbers that we use to access everyday life has become even more urgent, the race to replace the password is under way, with biometric-based (基于生物识别的) security emerging as one of the most sought-after solutions. According to Tieo, a union of more than 250 companies, which promotes a standard system of passwordless authentication (身份验证), the vast majority of consumer services will offer passwordless login systems in the next couple of years. “If done correctly and safely, biometrics are really helping us move to a passwordless future in a rapid manner,” said Andrew Jenkinson, CEO of Tieo.
But there are still risks associated with the use of biometric authentication. Unlike passwords, biometrics cannot be changed. This means such data must be closely guarded for privacy purposes and to prevent spoofing—hackers trying to trick cameras or sensors with photos, or masks of their victim. “Biometric authentication and passwordless authentication has its own attack surface,” said Paul Smith, director of security research at CyberPek. His team revealed that it had found a design problem which would allow potential attackers to bypass facial recognition login by injecting a spoofed photo of a user’s face into the process.
The biggest obstacle standing in the way of the start-ups hoping to kill the password is how to change years of habit. Eric Brown, founder of TAK Cyber, a cyber research and advisory company, argued that while sensitive applications may rapidly shift from passwords, other websites have less motivation to update their systems. “You’ll never get rid of them,” he said. “We’re never going to get to the post-password era.”
1. What is the third paragraph mainly about?| A．Why passwords are the most sought-after data. |
| B．How passwords are stolen by phishing emails. |
| C．How passwords have caused us trouble. |
| D．Why passwords are difficult to secure. |
| A．Facial recognition login is the key to fighting hackers. |
| B．Biometric authentication has its own set of problems. |
| C．TAK Cyber’s login system guarantees the safety of data. |
| D．Spoofing brings more problems than automated programs. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Passionate. | C．Pessimistic. | D．Objective. |
| A．Biometric authentication: password security solution! |
| B．Start-ups race to welcome a passwordless future |
| C．The argument to end passwords has begun |
| D．Killing the password: a cure or a fantasy? |
