3 . Every holiday season, I get nostalgic (怀旧的) and take a trip down Christmas tree lane. I think about how hard my mom worked to make the holidays special. I remember how she said and proudly displayed all of the gifts she received from us. She acted as if her plastic beaded bracelet (手镯) was made of priceless stones. Year after year, whatever we gave her, she would treasure the gifts as though she was the luckiest woman on earth.

Through the years, friends come and go, but my mom is a constant, my true best friend and biggest fan. She’s by my side not only for the good moments cheering me on with pride, but holding my hand and letting me use her shoulder to cry on through the bad. She refuses to give up on me even when I want to. She is always there to encourage me in the midst of life’s challenges and eager to celebrate life’s joys.

So as much as the salt dough ornament (装饰品) pleased her, which is in a noticeable place on her tree every year, I’ve increased its amount now to surprise her at Christmas. I ask myself. What hasn’t she done before? What is something that she would like, but would never, in a million years, buy herself?

Gifts mom will treasure. So for the one who knows you best and still loves you, find a great gift that will show how much you really care and value her support. Select a thoughtful gift based on what brings her the greatest enjoyment.

However, the best gifts, I suppose, cannot be wrapped. Set aside time to spend alone with mom. It can simply be a day together doing what she enjoys most or plan a weekend getaway to a place she has always wanted to see. It will mean more to her than you may ever know. Together you will create lasting memories she will treasure for the rest of her life.

What are your most memorable moments with your mom? For your mom, what would you value most in the holiday season?

1. Why does the author regard her mother as her best friend?

A．Because they share the same interest in Christmas decorations.

B．Because she always receives encouragement from her mother.

C．Because her mother gives her a big surprise at every Christmas.

D．Because they are pleased with whatever gifts they give each other.

2. What can we infer from the underlined sentences in the third paragraph?

A．The author’s mother never gets something for nothing.

B．The author’s mother has always been giving rather than taking.

C．The author feels ashamed of having kept her mother working too hard.

D．The author bitterly regrets having cared little for her mother in the past.

3. In the author’s opinion, what’s the best gift for moms?

A．Lasting memories.	B．Long holiday seasons.
C．Time with their children.	D．Things moms never buy in person.

4. What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Gifts Your Mom Will Treasure

B．How to Make Holidays Special

C．Memorable Moments with Your Mom

D．Mom-A Strong Supporter and the Best Friend

4 . Despite its benefits, drinking milk into adulthood, let alone other animals’ milk, is a strange behavior in the animal kingdom. What makes it even stranger is that an estimated 68 percent of the global human population is actually lactose (乳糖) intolerant. Scientists are still getting to the bottom of why the practice began and continued. This research could unlock new understandings of our food cultures and even our DNA.

The earliest evidence of animal milk drinking dates back almost 9. 000 years to modern-day Turkey near the sea of Marmara. where milk fats have been found on ancient pottery. According to Jessica Hendy. a scientist at the University of York. then milk would have been part of a diverse diet for it was mixed with other food. From its origins, the technology of making use of milk spread into the Caucasus and then across Europe. By the Bronze Age, people may have been using cow’s milk to feed their babies.

For a long time, researchers believed that milk drinking changed as a cultural practice hand in hand with the spread of genetic mutations (变异) that allowed people to tolerate milk into adulthood. But one recent finding suggests milk drinking occurred before these mutations and might not even require them. In Europe. people appear to have been drinking milk for thousands of years before any genetic ability to drink milk became common. The ancient cheese making equipment might offer part of the solution: Fermenting (发酵) milk into yogurt. cheese, or other products reduces the amount of lactose. In Mongolia. researchers have not yet found a genetic mutation that allows people to digest lactose, despite the major role of milk in that culture. So some scientists held that there might be other potential factors helping.

What we do know about the history of milk reveals how wrong-headed one-size-fits-all nutritional guidance can be. In modern America. milk drinking has been presented as a universal good. In reality, how milk is prepared can change the nutritional picture, and how much our bodies process depends, at least in part. on our own genes.

1. What can we learn about milk drinking from paragraph 2?

A．It used to be a symbol of identity.	B．It initially started with little babies.
C．It was the key diet of ancient people.	D．It has been a human tradition for long.

2. Why does the author mention Europe in paragraph 3?

A．To give a suggestion.	B．To define a concept.
C．To make a prediction.	D．To clarify a finding.

3. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．Milk consumption functions as a cure-all.

B．Milk intake varies from person to person.

C．Milk’s nutritional value is beyond imagination.

D．One’s milk digestive ability changes constantly.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．The Mystery of Drinking Milk

B．The Process of Genetic Mutations

C．The Phenomenon of Lactose Intolerance

D．The Technology of Making Milk Products

5 . There is no doubt that when you receive a compliment, you feel good and when you receive a criticism, you feel upset and want to refuse it.

You shouldn’t be surprised by your reaction to the negative comment, as it’s human’s survival mechanism to avoid being criticized. Clearly, we don’t want to be seen as failures, so we’d rather shut our eyes and cover our ears than have to take any criticisms from others.

Imagine you’re learning to play the guitar, and you have just done your first public performance. Your teacher says, “You did well,” which may not be as useful in helping you improve your performance skills as “Your timing needs some work.” So I believe that criticisms are better than compliments.

No one would argue that healthy nutrition is a bad thing. However, too much food or drink — no matter how healthy they may be — can make us ill. Too many compliments take us away from our original enthusiasm of enjoying an activity. We start doing the activity only for the sake of receiving self-satisfying praise. Without the expectation of praise, our enthusiasm to complete things begins to be lost.

Launched in 2010, Microsoft KIN only lasted on the market for 48 days. It was very obvious that most 15 to 30-year-olds preferred Androids, BlackBerrys and iPhones to the Microsoft KIN. If criticism and feedback from the target group had been received while the phone was in development, Microsoft KIN could have avoided the huge embarrassment and its final failure.

Just to be clear, I’m talking about constructive criticism, which I like to think of as “healthy criticism”. The right kind of criticism is honest feedback that will benefit you. Feedback forces you to reconsider your actions and the way you work. If you use constructive criticism wisely, it can guide you away from bad practices, giving you support and courage to move forward to be a better person in the future.

1. What can we learn about compliment and criticism in Paragraph 1?

A．People’s response to them.	B．People’s ways to express them.
C．People’s understanding of them.	D．People’s different opinions on them.

2. How would people be when receiving too many compliments?

A．More annoyed.

B．More satisfied.

C．Less worried.

D．Less interested.

3. How can healthy criticism be helpful according to the last paragraph?

A．To encourage growth.	B．To develop intelligence.
C．To avoid embarrassment.	D．To reduce enthusiasm.

4. What is a suitable title for the passage?

A．Criticisms are better than compliments.

B．Constructive criticism contributes to better future.

C．Honest feedback comes from healthy criticism.

D．Enough enthusiasm is vital for further development.

6 . A study published Tuesday in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review found that words expressing angry feelings sound alike in several unrelated languages. They’re less likely than other words to include the sounds L, R, W or Y. And more friendly versions of such words often have these sounds added. The finding suggests that certain rules may link the world’s languages, no matter how different they are.

Ryan McKay, co-author of the paper, happened to discover that some of the English curses (诅咒语) seem to have something in common; They’re often short and include the sounds B, P, T or K. Then Dr. McKay teamed up with his colleague Shiri Lev-Ari to learn whether these rules went beyond English.

During the experiment, they asked fluent speakers of Arabic, Korean, German and Spanish to list the worst words they could think of. Once they’d made a list of each language’s most commonly used curses, the researchers compared these with neutral (中性的) words from the same language. To their surprise, the rules still apply.

Next, the scientists asked the same people to listen to pairs of invented words, such as “yog” and “tsog” and guess which word in each pair was a curse. The subjects were more likely to guess that words without L, R. W and Y, such as “tsog”, were curses. Finally, the researchers looked through the dictionary for English curses and their cleaned-up versions. Once again, the cleaned-up versions included more of the sounds L, R, W and Y.

“Most 20th-century language scientists held that any word could have any meaning,” said Dr. McKay. “With curses, though, the sounds themselves seem to carry meaning. This can shape and change our understanding of how languages are formed.”

“It is the first time for researchers to study curses across languages and the finding is very interesting,” said Benjamin Bergen, a language scientist at the University of California, who was not involved in the study. “But it is just another case of what’s called sound symbolism in the language study: A word sounds like what it means.”

1. Which word is most probably not a leaned-up curse according to the text?

A．Rucy.

B．Buk

C．Yayad.

D．Walawah.

2. What did the researchers do in their last step?

A．Applying their study to more unrelated languages.

B．Studying the neutral words and curses side by side.

C．Asking people to listen to pairs of non-existing words.

D．Comparing English curses with their friendly versions.

3. What did Benjamin Bergen mean?

A．The study method is really unscientific.

B．It will change our understanding in a way.

C．It is not a totally new discovery at all.

D．The selected languages are too limited.

4. What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To introduce a newly published study.

B．To prove the unique rules in English.

C．To tell another way of memorizing words.

D．To show how to use more friendly curses.

7 . A couple has recently placed their garbage can out for collection for the first time in 14 months, all thanks to their recycling skills. Richard and Louise Arnold have established such an effective routine that they only need to put their garbage can on the side of the street once a year.

Louise explained that making small monthly changes in her life has resulted in her family producing very little waste. She said, “It’s not as difficult as you might think if you start with small steps. We began with soap, switching from bath cream to natural soap without packaging. These bars are large enough that we cut them in half, using one for the sink and the other half for the shower. It’s both cost-effective and environmentally friendly.”

“So it’s actually quite easy. Just go around your house and think of little things you can do gradually, and you’ll start noticing the difference,” Louise added. Currently, the couple takes recyclable waste to the tip, donates clothes to charity shops, and brings soft plastics and batteries to a shop that accepts them.

In 2017, the couple established No Waste Living, which initially started as a weekend stall at the local market and has since developed into a website. Louise regularly writes a newsletter for her hundreds of subscribers. They also started selling eco-friendly products, ranging from non-chemical household cleaning and washing solutions for a “less toxic home” to bamboo washing-up brushes. Louise mentioned, “I started No Waste Living because I wanted to show our achievement s and lead by example.”

Although the family occasionally faces criticism, Louise remains determined. She said, “The main point of contention(争论) for people regarding new waste rules is having to drive their waste to a recycling center, which adds to their already busy lives. However, in the long run, you will create more space in your home, save money, and spend less time dealing with garbage cans.”

1. How did the couple start their waste reduction journey?

A．By replacing small soaps with large ones.	B．By using a small amount of bath cream.
C．By using unpackaged soap bars.	D．By recycling soft plastics and batteries.

2. Why did the couple found No Waste Living?

A．To bring eco-products to market.	B．To inspire others to follow in their footsteps.
C．To treat recyclable waste from the neighborhood.	D．To answer the call of their subscribers.

3. Why do some people dislike new waste rules?

A．They mean more work to deal with garbage.

B．They increase the cost of garbage collection.

C．They establish a set time for waste management.

D．They limit the daily amount of garbage for collection.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．A business - minded couple.	B．The “less poisonous home” concept.
C．The global trend in recycling.	D．A planet- friendly lifestyle.

8 . OpenAI’s automated AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT has taken the internet by storm, but not without creating a few issues on the way. With writers, marketers, and seemingly everyone else in between using ChatGPT to generate content, companies worldwide are staring down a tsunami of AI-generated content, With issues of safety and stolen contents constantly swirling around ChatGPT and its output, OpenAI has now released GPT-Classifier, a tool designed to detect whether the text you’re reading was generated by ChatGPT or one of its other GPT tools.

GPT-Classifier attempts to figure out if a given piece of text was human-written or the work of an Al-generator. While ChatGPT and other GPT models are trained extensively on all manners of text input, the GPT-Classifier tool is fine-tuned on a dataset of pairs of human-written text and AI-written text on the same topic. In other words, the GPT-Classifier attempts to compare similarities between known human text and known AI text to find inconsistency that reveal the source writer.

While the idea of easily spotting AI-generated text will be music to the ears of editors and educators, OpenAI has warned that its classifier is not fully reliable.

A test of the GPT-Classifier spotted a human-generated example and marked it very unlikely to be AI-generated, and also correctly indicated that a ChatGPT-generated piece on USB issues was possibly AI generated. Currently, GPT-Classifier correctly identifies 26%of AI-written text while labeling 9%of human text as AI-written. OpenAI also notes that the tool’s accuracy typically improves as the length of the input text increases. For now, although GPT-Classifier is up and running and available for testing, it’s best to take its labeling with a pinch of salt

Even with the GPT-Classifier’s limitations, the demand for reliable ChatGPT detection is likely to see many people turn to this tool. OpenAI’s commitment to building and releasing a free GPT detection tool is important because as more students, Writers, programmers, and others use AI-text generation tools, understanding and detecting this input will become vital.

1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．GPT-Classifier’s components.	B．GPT-Classifier’s vast datasets.
C．GPT-Classifier’s high productivity.	D．GPT-Classifier’s working principle

2. What does the underlined part mean in paragraph 4?

A．Accept with certain doubt.	B．Reform with sufficient testing.
C．Judge with reasonable grounds.	D．Classify with multiple attempts.

3. What does the last paragraph imply?

A．GPT-Classifier wipes out users’ belief in AI.

B．GPT-Classifier demands more students’ trust.

C．GPT-Classifier meets diverse growing needs.

D．GPT-Classifier has a limited range of services.

4. What is the author’s attitude towards the launch of GPT-Classifier?

A．Critical.

B．Opposing.

C．Tolerant.

D．Approving.

9 . Biomedical breakthroughs sometimes happen in the most unlikely places. Take the deep sea for an illustration. Under extreme conditions, at times of no oxygen, microbes (微生物) not only survive there, but they thrive. This incredible adaptation offers insight into how life evolved billions of years ago and how modern humans may be able to fight infections and diseases — tests used to diagnose (诊断) some viruses were developed with the help of enzyme (酶) separated from microbes found in ocean.

“We’ve found marine microbes that produce antimicrobials — basically chemical weapons that help them fight off other organisms and resist viruses,” says Virginia Bdgcomb, a microbiologist investigating deep-sea bacteria. These microbes feed on tough substances and produce antimicrobial chemicals.

The deep sea has already given us chemicals to treat certain cancer or nerve damage. Breakthroughs have also come from the ocean depths in the form of diagnostic tools.

The pathway to developing tests started back in 1969 when some heat-loving microbes were found in the depth of 5000 meters beneath the sea. By mid-1980s, the humble microbes

had enabled a major advance in the emerging field of genetics, Scientists found that their enzymes remained stable enough to make millions of copies of a single DNA sequence (序列) in just a few hours, essentially upgrading geneticists’ tools.

“A lot of people think of the deep sea as a desert,” Virginia says. “To our naked eye, it looks like there’s nothing there but there’s huge potential. What I can do as a science researcher is record the remarkable diversity of microbes and make their gene sequence available, which may help lead to treatment or diagnostic tool in the future.”

“We need to have people constantly exploring the fascinating habitats in order to continue uncovering a new page of medically-relevant enzymes,” Virginia says. “This is tough, but I do hope people realize that the more we can learn about microbes, the better off we are.”

1. What does paragraph 1 aim to tell us ?

A．The need to deal with infections and diseases.

B．Incredible conditions for microbes to survive.

C．Biomedical inspirations from undersea microbes.

D．Significant breakthroughs of human development.

2. It can be inferred from the text that marine microbes __________.

A．develop adaptability even in tough conditions

B．merely enhance our understanding of diseases

C．lead to progress in tools to test stable enzymes

D．present us with treatment for common cancers

3. What do Virginia Edgcomb’s words in the last two paragraphs suggest?

A．More awareness of microbes will benefit humans.

B．The deep sea microbes may help us with desert issues.

C．Researchers’ future task is to record medical treatment.

D．We should explore more habitats to free us from microbes.

4. What is a suitable title for the text?

A．Chemical weapons against viruses

B．Finding answers in the deep ocean

C．A look back at research in microbes

D．Future ways to upgrade human DNA

10 . To help you plan a memorable 2024 winter vacation trip with the best travel experiences, we specifically designed Featured China Winter Tours including winter-featured destinations suitable for in-depth exploration. Travel with us!

Xishuamgbanna

Nicknamed “Litle Thailand”, Xishuangbanna owns awe-inspiring scenery, unique Dai minority culture and an all-year-round pleasant climate.

What to do:

●Enjoy tropical botanical landscape, and experience an exciting walk on the “air corridor” hanging 100 meters above the original rainforest.

●Visit local markets and step into some best-preserved Dai villages and royal gardens.

Chengdu

Whether you want to enjoy a short break in Chengdu, or extend to the impressive sites in its west, you are spoiled with many choices.

What to do:

●Get to Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda to see over 100 giant pandas.

●Travel a little further to Huanglong National Park. During the winter season, it’s less visited and full of poetic atmosphere with all previous colors turning into silver. To relieve altitude (海拔) sickness, you need sleep well and keep a calm mood.

Harbin

Having the most bitterly cold winters among major Chinese cities with average daytime temperatures as low as —13°C, Harbin is referred to as “Ice City”.

What to do:

●Visit Ice and Snow World to appreciate ice snow sculptures, enjoy the featured architecture capped with snow, or take part in some activities on the ice.

●Add two days to China Snow Town, where you can immerse (沉浸) yourselves in the fairytale world and enjoy various snow activities. Since the shuttle bus to Snow Town is subject to change in winter, please check out the link for real-time schedules.

1. What can you do in Xishuangbanna?

A．Get inspiration from scenery.	B．Admire the beauty of local plants.
C．Walk in the rainforest directly.	D．Volunteer to preserve Dai culture.

2. What do the destinations have in common?

A．High altitude landscape.	B．Mild winter temperature.
C．Plentiful historical sites.	D．Multiple selected attractions.

3. Where does the text probably come from?

A．A website.

B．A fairytale.

C．A yearbook.

D．A newspaper.