1 . In a study in the journal Science, researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois reported that they had developed an effective and inexpensive method for breaking down chemicals called poly fluoro alkyl substances (PFAS).

PFAS, first created in the 1930s, are chemical compounds (化合物). They are used to make a wide range of everyday products, including nonstick pans, carpeting, electronics, and fast-food wrappers. Once the chemicals are in the environment, they are almost impossible to eliminate because they are designed to avoid breaking down. Researchers have linked regular levels of exposure to these chemicals with several health problems, including liver damage, an increased risk of cancer, and reduced immunity.

Scientists had previously figured out how to remove PFAS from polluted water or soil but, until now, had no safe and effective way to destroy them once they were removed. The study reported that when the team boiled PFAS molecules (分子) with two common substances, the PFAS quickly broke down and became harmless.

In 2020, William Dichtel, a chemist and professor at Northwestern, read a study in which chemists at the University of Alberta, in Canada, found an easy way to break down chains of molecules. He asked a graduate student, Brittany Trang, to try the method on PFAS molecules.

Trang had spent months in the lab unsuccessfully attempting to pull apart PFAS, and at first she thought Dichtel’s idea was too simple to work. But she tried it, boiling PFAS with a common solvent (溶剂) called dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Trang was shocked when the process destroyed the PFAS. She later mixed DMSO with a chemical called sodiumhydroxide and broke down PFAS even more quickly.

The scientists will work on ways to destroy PFAS outside the lab so large amounts of forever chemicals can be broken down at once. “It’s a huge challenge, but it’s in our grasp,” Dichtel told The New York Times. Scientists are also calling for a decrease in the amount of PFAS being released into the natural world. In June, the US government announced new plans to monitor PFAS, decrease the amount released into the environment, and address the effects of PFAS on human health.

1. What does the underlined word “eliminate” probably mean in paragraph 2?

A．Identify.

B．Destroy.

C．Remove.

D．Release.

2. How did William Dichtel find the way to break down chains of molecules?

A．He got information from a study of others.

B．He conducted the experiments on his own.

C．His graduate student, Brittany Trang, told him.

D．Chemists at the University of Alberta told him.

3. What can we learn about Brittany Trang’s experiment?

A．She tried the method from Dichtel but didn’t succeed at first.

B．She pulled apart PFAS with her own idea at her first attempt.

C．She developed a more effective method to break down PFAS.

D．She thought Dichtel’s idea was too simple, so she didn’t try it.

4. What do scientists advocate to the public?

A．Addressing the effects of PFAS on human health and environment.

B．Reducing the amount of PFAS being released into the environment.

C．Finding more effective ways to destroy PFAS in and outside the lab.

D．Stopping the use of PFAS in everyday life to avoid health problems.

2 . In stressful times, the art of making people laugh could help to relieve pressure. We all know that laughter is the best medicine.     1     It creates physical changes in your body that accelerate healing and protect you from harm. Scientists tell us that people who can laugh at their own misfortunes bounce back faster and stronger.

If you have trouble seeing the funny side of your own failures, then you might find some useful advice in the story of a friend of mine, who developed an unpleasant reaction to garlic for which his doctor prescribed (开处方) a short course of ointment (药膏) and suppositories (栓剂).

    2     After a few minutes, the chemist, standing at the far back of the shop, shouted at the top of her voice, “I’ve got your ointment, but I’ll have to order your suppositories!”

Following a short yet strongly uncomfortable silence, she came forwards to the counter and said, “    3    ” “Yes, you did,” was my friend’s quiet reply. I asked him how he was able to see the funny side of such an embarrassing incident and he said, “If I was standing in the shop and this had happened to someone else, it would have been funny.     4    ”

Laughing at yourself doesn’t make you a fool. It makes you strong, confident and self-assured. We all make mistakes; we all forget, trip, take wrong turns.     5     They cannot learn and will repeat the same mistakes, over and over again.

A．Sorry, I shouted that, didn’t I?

B．Sorry, you didn’t hear what I shouted, did you?

C．So it’s no less funny, just because it happened to me.

D．When someone denies a mistake, they become proud.

E．He took the prescription to the drug store and waited patiently.

F．The feeling you get when you feel bad about a mistake is embarrassment.

G．There is much scientific research proving that laughter does more than cheer you up.

3 . The AIDA model is the foundation of modern marketing and advertising practice. It outlines the four basic steps used to persuade potentials to make a purchase. The first three steps lie in creating attention (A), decorating interest (I), and building desire (D) for the product, before the fourth step — the “call to action” (A) — tells them exactly how and where to buy. AIDA can channel the customer’s feelings through each stage toward reaching a sale.

Attracting the customer’s attention is the first challenge and this may be achieved by using an attracting phrase or picture. Once someone’s attention has been clutched, it must be turned into real interest. This is best done by providing a brief description of the product’s benefits to the consumer rather than simply listing the product’s main features or problem-solving claims.

Now, it is time to transform that interest into a desire for a product or service. This is where consumers need to believe their lives could be better by possessing the product. It could be a vital step towards turning a potential into a real customer.

“Call-to-action” is where all of the initial hard work pays off and leads to the action from a potential customer. For example, they might pick up the phone to discuss the idea of a trial of the services or, alternatively, they may just buy that product or service that has been promoted to them all along.

And AIDA is used to great effect in the movie industry. Movie studios begin their marketing campaigns months in advance. The campaigns develop by offering attractive flashes of the movie without giving too much away. Desire is inspired by the release of the full preview which is fully designed to show the exciting moments of the movie, from special effects to humorous lines of dialogue on the opening weekend. Advertisements in newspapers and on television focus on the movie’s release, inviting the consumer to go and buy a ticket.

1. What is the purpose of practising AIDA?

A．To create jobs.	B．To increase sales.
C．To research markets.	D．To introduce products.

2. What does the underlined word “clutched” mean in Paragraph 2?

A．Seized.

B．Freed.

C．Cheated.

D．Affected.

3. In which stage of the AIDA model may a customer call to try the service?

A．Action.

B．Interest.

C．Desire.

D．Attention.

4. Why does the author mention the movie industry in the last paragraph?

A．To design an AIDA model.	B．To display how AIDA works.
C．To show how to make a movie.	D．To advertise the movie industry.

4 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Camping was so popular as to even become a fashion across China during the just-concluded National Day holiday, with some joking that “half of the friends     1     WeChat were camping. Outdoor camping sites were popular during the holiday and had to     2     (book) several days in advance.

According to research firm iiMedia Research, the core market size of China’s camping economy reached 74.75 billion yuan ($10.5 billion) in 2021,     3     was 62.5 percent up year-on-year.

More market-sensitive players are plowing into the industry. In 2021, more than 20,000 new camping-related enterprises sprang up in China,     4     over 5,000 have been set up this year, according to the information provider Tianyancha.

Huzhou,     5     popular tourist destination in East China’s Zhejiang province, hosted the first Camping Conference in the Yangtze River Delta in June. It also became one of the first to     6     (official) regulate the construction standards and     7     (safe) supervision (监管) of camping sites.     8     (follow) Huzhou, Beijing and Nanjing in Jiangsu province have also introduced related policies for the healthy development of the industry.

“Consumers’ demand for outdoor activities     9     (increase) in recent years. I believe     10     (many) people will join in camping and other outdoor activities in the long run,’’ said Liang Qidong, vice president of the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences.

5 . I pulled over and one of the boys standing by the road asked for some water.

My heart____when I heard this. In Wilcannia, where I now worked as a primary school teacher with a six- month contract, there was a drought. Quickly____my car,I gave a bottle to the children before saying goodbye. Moments like this reminded me just how____I’d come from my old life as a teacher hundreds of kilometers away in Sydney.

In my first lesson with Year Six I made a____for our class: Mistakes are expected,respected and corrected. We posted this on the wall in my classroom as a____to students.I hoped it would give students____to keep moving forward. We____so well that by the end of month- one,I____my contract to a full year in the rural or remote place!

A real____was helping with the town’s annual kids’ fashion parade(游行). But COVID pandemic____a move to online learning. So I____students to film videos of themselves singing From Little Things Big Things Grow. The children’s performance won wild applause. And ____I was awarded Music Teacher of the Year. This sort of____was such an honour!

Now, three years later,I’m____in Wilcannia. People always ask me how long I plan to stay here, and then comes my____reply: “Another year.”

1.

A．sank

B．beat

C．melted

D．raced

2.

A．checking

B．searching

C．mending

D．parking

3.

A．fast

B．soon

C．long

D．far

4.

A．decision

B．motto

C．change

D．plan

5.

A．reminder

B．symbol

C．gift

D．picture

6.

A．experience

B．capacity

C．confidence

D．signal

7.

A．bonded

B．behaved

C．reacted

D．operated

8.

A．restricted

B．maintained

C．drafted

D．extended

9.

A．chance

B．highlight

C．love

D．routine

10.

A．added

B．led

C．kept

D．saw

11.

A．expected

B．employed

C．guided

D．troubled

12.

A．gradually

B．subsequently

C．frequently

D．temporarily

13.

A．recognition

B．impression

C．expression

D．appointment

14.

A．already

B．again

C．still

D．also

15.

A．timely

B．typical

C．correct

D．heartfelt

6 . A study claims that wearable devices could also be used by cows on the farms of the future. Researchers from Southwest Jiaotong University in China have developed a smartwatch that can be used to monitor cows’ health, reproductivity and location.

“Monitoring environmental and health information of cattle can help prevent diseases and improve the efficiency of pasture breeding (草场培育) and management,” said Zutao Zhang, co-author of the study. In the study, the team set out to develop a wearable device that could be used to collect vital information on cows. “This information can include oxygen concentration, air temperature, amount of exercise, reproductive cycles, disease, and milk production,” explained Mr Zhang.

The smart devices are worn around the cows’ necks and ankles. They contain a unique motion enhancement mechanism (运动增强机制) to strengthen small movements the cows make. Once captured, the kinetic energy (动能) from the cow’s movements is stored in a battery and used to power the device. This means the device doesn’t need to be charged like a traditional smartwatch.

“There is a large amount of kinetic energy that can be harvested in cattle’s daily movements, such as walking, running, and even neck movement,” said co-author Yajia Pan. To put the device to the test, the researchers tested it on human participants. The tests revealed that even a light jog was enough to power temperature measurements on the device.

Beyond cows, the researchers say that the smart device could have a range of application in humans. This includes in sports monitoring, healthcare, smart homes, and wireless sensor networks. “Kinetic energy is everywhere in the environment—leaves falling in the wind, the movement of people and animals—these phenomena all contain a lot of kinetic energy,” said Zhang. “We shouldn’t let this energy go to waste.”

1. Why did the team develop the wearable device?

A．To monitor cows’ environmental effects.

B．To gather vital information on cows.

C．To locate where cows reproduce.

D．To improve the quality of milk.

2. How is the device different from other smartwatches?

A．It can be applied to many human related fields.

B．It should be worn around the cow’s necks and ankles.

C．It makes use of the energy from the cow’s movements.

D．It takes less time to be charged than traditional smartwatches.

3. What do we know about kinetic energy from the last two paragraphs?

A．It is easy to harvest.	B．It is simple to test.
C．It is huge in amount.	D．It is widely applied.

4. What is the best title for this passage?

A．Wearable Devices in the Future Farm

B．The Kinetic Energy in Natural World

C．The Quality Meat of the Super Cows

D．Wide Applications of a New Invention

7 . An artificial intelligence can decode (解码) words and sentences from brain activity with surprising—though still limited—accuracy. Using only a few seconds of brain activity data, the AI guesses what a person has heard. It lists the correct answer in its top 10 possibilities up to 73 percent of the time, researchers found in a study.

Developed at the parent company of Facebook, Meta, the AI could eventually be used to help thousands of people around the world unable to communicate through speech, typing or gestures, researchers report on August 25 at arXiv.org.

Most existing technologies to help such patients communicate require risky brain surgeries to implant electrodes. This new approach “could provide a practical path to help patients without the use of invasive methods,” says neuroscientist Jean-Rémi King, a Meta AI researcher in Paris.

King and his colleagues trained a computational tool to detect words and sentences on 56,000 hours of speech recordings from 53 languages. The tool, also known as a language model, learned how to recognize specific features of language. With the help of a computational method, the team tried to decode what participants had heard using just three seconds of brain activity data from each person. The team instructed the AI to match the speech sounds from the story recordings to patterns of brain activity that the AI computed as corresponding to what people were hearing. It then made predictions about what the person might have been hearing during that short time, given more than 1,000 possibilities. The correct answer was in the AI’s top 10 guesses up to 73 percent of the time, the researchers found.

The new study is “decoding of speech perception, not production,” King notes. Though speech production is the ultimate goal, for now, “we’re quite a long way away.”

1. What is the main idea of paragraph 1?

A．The principle of human brain activity.

B．The limitation of human brain activity.

C．The definition of the artificial intelligence.

D．The new function of the artificial intelligence.

2. Whom might the AI be beneficial to?

A．People unable to hear.	B．People who can’t move around.
C．People who are unconscious.	D．People unable to communicate normally.

3. What is the purpose of paragraph 4?

A．To analyze the features of the study.	B．To state the significance of the study.
C．To introduce the process of the study.	D．To present the achievement of the study.

4. What can we infer about the AI from the passage?

A．It performs well in the speech production.

B．Its accuracy is far from the researchs’ satisfaction.

C．It will help patients avoid dangerous brain surgeries.

D．Its language learning ability is beyond expectation.

8 . I have been in love with Yoga for many years. The practice of Yoga can lead to a ________ between mind and body. In the training, there is a ________ motion that has been one of my favorite poses. Each time I participate in this practice, I feel a deep sense of ________ with all those in the group.

Instead of standing alone, the class stands in a ________ close enough for us to hold hands. Each of us gives and ________ trust and support from one to another. As a unit we shift our ________ to one foot, resting the other foot against our ankle or our leg muscle. Slowly we ________ the hand position so that we are palm to palm. We ________ our arms and create a crown (王冠) of hands above our heads.

A slight ________ may start and soon we realize we have the ________ of each person in the circle, trusting them to protect us from ________. We feel a sense of security, closing our eyes knowing we are ________. In time we return to standing on two feet before shifting to ________ on the other foot.

As we finish, there is a moment of silence for us to ________ absorb the love and support we have received. Balance with support makes standing together ________ in community. So much better than standing alone.

1.

A．separation

B．conflict

C．harmony

D．adjustment

2.

A．bending

B．standing

C．jumping

D．sliding

3.

A．pride

B．belonging

C．patience

D．connection

4.

A．circle

B．line

C．crowd

D．shelter

5.

A．receives

B．offers

C．assures

D．affords

6.

A．strength

B．power

C．weight

D．energy

7.

A．improve

B．change

C．lower

D．challenge

8.

A．tighten

B．loose

C．wave

D．raise

9.

A．shake

B．touch

C．hug

D．push

10.

A．honor

B．support

C．sympathy

D．respect

11.

A．failing

B．releasing

C．injuring

D．falling

12.

A．safe

B．confident

C．smart

D．independent

13.

A．struggling

B．dancing

C．skating

D．balancing

14.

A．secretly

B．individually

C．eventually

D．purposely

15.

A．popular

B．unique

C．strong

D．effective

9 . It’s not just in your head: a desire to curl up on the sofa after a day spent toiling at the computer could be a physical response to mentally demanding work, according to a study that links mental exhaustion to changes in brain physiology that cause feelings of tiredness.

The study was conducted by neuroscientist Antonius Wiehler at the Paris Brain Institute and his colleagues. To learn the cause of mental exhaustion, the research team enrolled 40 participants and assigned 24 of them to perform a challenging task. These included looking at a computer screen and matching different letters that appeared. The other 16 participants did a similar, but easier task. Both teams worked for six hours, and had two ten-minute breaks.

While the study participants focused on their work, Wiehler and his team scanned the glutamate (谷氨酸) in the brains of the participants. Glutamate is an important signalling molecule in the brain that works in memory and learning. Too much glutamate may upset the brain’s functions, which means the brain is tired and it must rest.

The researchers found that participants who laboured on the more difficult task had higher levels of glutamate in the brain than those who worked on the easier task. The result suggested people who spend more than six hours working on a task that requires a lot of thought are more likely to feel tired.

And now that a system has been established to measure metabolic (新陈代谢的) changes in response to mental fatigue, the team hope to learn more about how to recover from mental exhaustion. While the researchers haven’t worked out a new solution, Wiehler offers that, “I would employ good old recipes: rest and sleep! There is good evidence that glutamate is eliminated from a period of rest. A good nap can be as short as 20 minutes, but can make us feel totally refreshed.”

1. What do Wiehler and his colleagues try to study?

A．Why thinking hard makes us feel tired.	B．Why people spend long time on screen.
C．Who prefers to take a challenging task.	D．How people can alternate work with rest.

2. Which task may cause mental exhaustion more easily?

A．Watching a funny movie on TV.	B．Climbing the Mountain Tai over 6 hours.
C．Involving a simple economic-related decision.	D．Playing chess games on the computer for 7 hours.

3. What is the attitude of Wiehler toward the system?

A．Skeptical

B．Negative.

C．Indifferent.

D．Supportive.

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．There is no need to find a new solution.	B．It is no use putting the system into reality.
C．Further study is necessary for mental exhaustion.	D．A nap is the best way to reduce the mental tiredness.

10 . 阅读下面短文，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空。

Blind boxes have been popular with people for decades. Even though they were     1     (initial) created in Japan, they have recently been commercially     2     (success) in the United States and other parts of the world.

It is a box or bag     3     (contain) a random assortment(各种各样的) of novelty items. Some have a series of objects including various entertainment mediums created by companies such as Funko. Blind boxes     4     (wrap) so that the items inside the box are unknown     5     the consumer or buyer of the products. The term “blind box” or “blind bag” comes from the fact that the object contained in the box or bag is     6     very mysterious thing. The only indication gotten by the box’s consumer is the media from     7     the item originates and the object they might receive from that particular series.

Blind boxes work by taking advantage of their uncertainty. As a result, they stimulate the consumers     8     (make) purchases in quest of rare products. Most consumers tend to purchase these boxes to increase the     9     (probable) of getting their desired gadgets(小玩意).

In addition, opening the box to discover which item is in it makes for a sharable experience on different social media     10     (platform) such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.