1 . Young male zebra finches (斑胸草雀) learn to communicate by listening to adults. In the lab, researchers have found that these songbirds can learn from audio recordings. But zebra finches learn better when they listen to live male finches, notes Ralph Simon. He studies how animals make and use sounds at the Nuremberg Zoo in Germany. Simon is part of the team that built RoboFinch, a robotic singing coach for finches.
The researchers recorded videos of adult males to analyze how their beaks (喙) move when they sing. They then programmed their robots to copy those beak movements. Finally, the researchers painted their RoboFinches the same colors as the real birds.
The team divided 45 young finches into four groups. Some only heard recordings of finch songs played by a speaker. Others listened with female birds that weren’t singing. RoboFinches taught the two other groups of chicks. The birdsongs played from a speaker right behind the robots. And the robots’ beaks moved either in or out of syne (协调) with the songs. That allowed the team to investigate whether beak or head movements aid song learning.
The birds housed with RoboFinches eventually spent most of their time near the robot and its speaker. During the first week, finches living with a RoboFinch whose song was in sync with its beak motions spent 27 percent of their time near the robot. Those caged with a robot playing songs out of syne only spent 5 percent of their time near the setup during the first week. Finches that heard only the audio without RoboFinch or female birds spent even less time around the sound source. Young finches partnered with RoboFinches sang less while the songs played. This was especially true when the robots’ beaks moved in sync with the songs. Those paired with a female also sang less while hearing songs. The young finches seemed to pay close attention to the robots’ movements during training sessions.
Simon hopes researchers will adapt this approach to building robots of other species, too.
1. Whose song did the researchers record?| A．Adult male finches’. | B．Adult female finches’. |
| C．Yong finches’. | D．RoboFinches’. |
| A．By how fast they learn. | B．By where they were kept. |
| C．By how they react to the robot. | D．By what they are accompanied with. |
| A．speakers behind them |
| B．female finches keeping silent |
| C．RoboFinches moving their beaks to the songs |
| D．a recorder playing the songs |
| A．RoboFinches Are Used as Singing Coaches |
| B．Machine Learning Are Adapted to Building Robots |
| C．Yong Finches Communicate Through Beak Movements |
| D．Researchers Discovered How Finches Make and Use Sounds |
2 . Summer tomatoes are so filled with promise: the red color; the grassy tomato-leaf smell; the expectation of a mouthful of sweet-salty tomato dishes. But supermarket tomato after supermarket tomato does little more than disappointment. How can a fruit with so much potential constantly taste slightly juicy at best and a globe of cardboard at worst?
We know that modern tomatoes sold at the supermarket are picked green and grown for pest resistance, shipping, and shelf life-and that the agriculture industry creates produce designed for profit, not flavor. Are these the factors to blame for the tomato’s poor taste?
But even when allowed to ripen (成熟) before they are harvested and shipped with great care, modern tomatoes are still tasteless. When researchers looked into this tomato matter, they uncovered a fascinating genetic cause for the fruit’s dullness. What to blame is a gene mutation (基因突变) discovered accidentally around 70 years ago, onto which tomato growers quickly relied. In fact, now the mutation has been deliberately grown into nearly all modern tomatoes.
Why? It makes them a uniform and attractively red when ripe. Unfortunately for tomato lovers far and wide, the red-making mutation stops the activeness of an important gene responsible for producing the sugar and smell that are essential for a good smelling and flavorful tomato, as reported in the paper, which was published in the journal Science. When the researchers “turned on” the gene that had stopped working, the fruit had 20% more sugar and 20-30% more carotenoids (胡萝卜素) when ripe. Yet the fruit’s non-uniform greenish color suggest that mainstream growers will not be following suit anytime soon.
However, for anyone with a nearby farmer’s market, a supermarket that offers traditional produce, or a garden in the back, there is another choice instead of cardboard-flavored tomatoes. Traditional tomatoes and wild species have not had the essence of tomatoes sucked out of them by selective growing-so shop for those or grow them yourself. They may not look like the Disney version of a perfect fruit, but they actually taste like tomatoes.
1. Why is a question raised at the end of paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic. |
| B．To draw a conclusion from comparison. |
| C．To encourage readers to take action. |
| D．To express disappointment at supermarket tomatoes. |
| A．They have ripened when picked. |
| B．They are affected by gene mutation. |
| C．They are kept on the shelf for too long. |
| D．They are treated with chemicals for shipping. |
| A．Taste. | B．Color. | C．Size. | D．Production. |
| A．Critical. | B．Unconcerned. | C．Curious. | D．Favorable. |
3 . Plastic is everywhere, from the Arctic ice to vital organs in the human body. In fact, previous estimates suggest that the average person swallows a credit card-worth of microscopic plastic particles(颗粒) every week. But new research shows that this could actually be an understatement.
Microplastics are plastics smaller than 5 millimeters, found in industrial waste, beauty products, and formed during the degradation of larger plastic pieces. Over time, they break down into even smaller nanoplastics. These tiny particles can pass through our intestines and lungs into our bloodstreams, reaching vital organs like the heart and brain.
While the idea of eating plastic is unsettling in itself, the major concern here is that these plastic particles contain chemicals that can interrupt our body’s natural release of hormones, potentially increasing our risk of reproductive disorders and certain cancers. They can also carry toxins(毒素) on their surface like heavy metals.
In the past, researchers have shown bottled water can contain tens of thousands of identifiable plastic fragments in a single container. However, until recently, only the larger microplastics were detectable with available measuring tools, leaving the area of nanoplastics largely a mystery.
Using Raman microscopy (显微镜学), capable of detecting particles down to the size of a flu virus, the team measured an average of 240, 000 particles of plastic per liter of bottled water, 90 percent of which were nanoplastics, a revelation 10 to 100 times larger than previous estimates.
These plastics likely originate from the bottle material, filters used to “purify” the water, and the source water itself. “It is not totally unexpected to find so much of this stuff, ” the study’s lead author, Columbia graduate student Naixin Qian, said in a statement. His team hopes to expand their research into tap water and other water sources to better inform our exposure to these potentially dangerous particles. “The idea is that the smaller things get, the more of them I reveal, ” he added.
1. What is the primary focus of the new research?| A．The presence of plastic particles. | B．The use of plastic in everyday products. |
| C．The detection methods for microplastics. | D．The potential risks of nanoplastics to human. |
| A．Finding the source of plastic particles. | B．Helping to cure the deadly flu virus. |
| C．Detecting the smaller plastic particles. | D．Improving the quality of bottled water. |
| A．To focus on areas with higher plastic pollution. |
| B．To be aware of the dangerous particles in daily life. |
| C．To further measure the types of particles in tap water. |
| D．To detect the smaller plastic particles in industrial areas. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. | C．Conservative. | D．Positive. |
4 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。
It was a Saturday in May. It was my third Mother’s Day. The air was warm, the sun was bright, and I spent the morning leisurely drinking coffee and getting ready with my daughter. My husband returned home from his shopping trip, giving me a Mother’s Day gift.
Afterward, I needed to head out and go to the grocery store. But I decided to take my daughter to play at the park first. She ran and played until she grew sticky with sweat and exhaustion (筋疲力尽). At that moment, I realized I had forgotten to pack any snacks. So I promised her I would buy her snacks at the store.
Thirty minutes later, we parked and headed in. I kept thinking about the gift my husband had given me, a dress for my cousin’s wedding the following month. My daughter was going to be the flower girl, and we still didn’t have a dress picked out for her. So I decided to check out the children’s clothes next door before buying groceries. In my excitement, I’d forgotten about the promised snacks. However, my daughter hadn’t.
We just spent two minutes looking at the girl’s section before my daughter began to scream. It felt as if her lungs could break glass and puncture (刺穿) the eardrums of everyone inside. I tried to help her calm down and allow us to look a little longer, but her scream deepened in volume.
We quickly made our way out of the store, with eyes following us as my daughter proved her vocal strength. We stopped just outside of the doors because my daughter began to lie on the floor and scream her heart out as the rest of the world looked on. Really, it was embarrassing and frustrating (令人沮丧的).
Just then, a grandma approached us. She wanted to pick up my sad daughter and comfort her. I had done that before, but at this point, my daughter was too far gone. She didn’t want anyone when she was angry. The grandma offered to hug her, but she refused and cried harder.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
That’s when another young mother approached.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My daughter finally got tired of crying after a while.
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5 . My trip to Antarctic (南极洲) fulfilled a personal goal and dream of mine-reaching all seven continents. I’ve had the
Several months ago, I was ready to book the trip. To get
I am a self-described bookworm (书虫), and this was the perfect trip to relax and
| A．potential | B．talent | C．patience | D．opportunity |
| A．leave | B．explore | C．preserve | D．recognize |
| A．started | B．married | C．involved | D．dressed |
| A．awkward | B．horrible | C．essential | D．creative |
| A．snow | B．water | C．ice | D．wildlife |
| A．booked | B．continued | C．remembered | D．canceled |
| A．forget | B．gain | C．ignore | D．spread |
| A．buy | B．introduce | C．release | D．see |
| A．plan | B．work | C．trip | D．study |
| A．shy | B．curious | C．lazy | D．loyal |
| A．hide | B．hurt | C．approach | D．photograph |
| A．Excitement | B．Fear | C．Anger | D．Boredom |
| A．likely | B．merely | C．slightly | D．truly |
| A．competed | B．compared | C．interacted | D．agreed |
| A．wishes | B．memories | C．suggestions | D．changes |
6 . The study by University of Arizona researchers, published in the Creativity Research Journal, finds that creative people are more likely to fruitfully use idle (空闲的) time by letting one idea lead to another.
“In psychology and neuroscience, most studies on human thoughts either prompt (提示) participants to think in a certain way or ask them to report on thoughts they experienced, but less is known about how thoughts naturally arise and unfold over time in unprompted contexts,” said Jessica Andrews-Hanna, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and senior author of the paper. “This is where our study comes in.”
The researchers divided the study into two parts. For the first experiment, the researchers asked each participant to sit alone in a room for 10 minutes without any access to digital devices. In the absence of any particular prompt, the participants were asked to voice their thoughts aloud in real time. The recorded files from 81 participants were then transcribed (转录) and analyzed.
The first experiment found that creative people were more engaged in their thoughts when they were left alone without distractions, such as cell phones and the Internet. “Creative people rated themselves as being less bored, even over those 10 minutes. They also spoke more words overall, which indicated that their thoughts were more likely to move freely,” said Andrews-Hanna.
For the second experiment, over 2,600 adults answered questions through a smartphone app called Mind Window, developed by Andrews-Hanna and her graduate student Eric Andrews. Participants who self-identified as being creative reported being less bored during the idle time.
The researchers are continuing this line of work using their Mind Window app. They encourage people to download and use the app to help scientists understand how people across the world think in their everyday lives. “Understanding why different people think the way they do may lead to promising interventions to improve health and well-being,” said Andrews-Hanna.
1. What do Andrews-Hanna’s words in paragraph 2 focus on?| A．The necessity of the study. | B．The value of former studies. |
| C．The participants of the study. | D．The process of former studies. |
| A．They spoke out what they thought. | B．They recorded their own voices. |
| C．They remembered some prompts. | D．They finished a number of reports. |
| A．They made better use of digital devices. |
| B．They enjoyed idle time more than others. |
| C．They were more likely to understand others. |
| D．They were more willing to share their thoughts. |
| A．Educational. | B．Fashionable. | C．Expensive. | D．Beneficial. |
7 . Four Best Books for Teens
The How-To Cookbook for Teens
Price: $19
Cooking is a useful life skill and tons of fun for teens. This beginner-friendly book written by Julee Morrison is packed with 100 simple recipes in an easy-to-follow format that uses everyday, affordable ingredients. Parents love this book because it motivates teens to cook and is well-suited for them to cook all by themselves.
The Outsiders
Price: $13
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider.
52 Modern Manners for Today’s Teens
Price: $23
52 Modern Manners for Today’s Teens is more than a book—it’s a 52-week calendar that provides teens (and their parents and caregivers) with crucial tips on living in today’s society. Author Brooke Romney tackles topics like Internet privacy, friendship, respecting people’s homes, helping others, and knowing yourself.
Hey, Kiddo
Price: $15
Fans of author Jarrett J. Krosoczka will know him for his Lunch Lady and Jedi Academy books. This graphic (漫画的) novel goes into the author’s childhood as he struggles with a family facing addiction and finds art to help him survive. New and long-time fans of graphic novels will appreciate the depth of this impactful story.
1. Which book will you buy if you are interested in cooking?| A．Hey, Kiddo. | B．The Outsiders. |
| C．The How-To Cookbook for Teens. | D．52 Modern Manners for Today’s Teens. |
| A．S. E. Hinton. | B．Julee Morrison. |
| C．Brooke Romney. | D．Jarrett J. Krosoczka. |
| A．$39. | B．$45. | C．$57. | D．$69. |
8 . A new study reveals that pigeons (鸽子) can tackle some problems just like artificial intelligence, enabling them to solve difficult tasks that might challenge humans. Previous research has theorized that pigeons employ a problem-solving strategy, involving a trial-and- error approach, which is similar to the approach used in AI models but differs from humans’ reliance on selective attention and rule use. To examine it, Brandon Turner, a psychology professor at the Ohio State University, and his colleagues conducted the new study.
In the study, the pigeons were presented with various visual images, including lines of different widths and angles, and different types of rings. The pigeons had to peck (啄) a button on the right or left to indicate the category to which the image belonged. If they got it correct, they received food; if they were wrong, they received nothing. Results showed that, through trial and error, the pigeons improved their accuracy in categorization tasks, increasing their correct choices from about 55% to 95%.
Researchers believed pigeons used associative learning, which is linking two phenomena with each other. For example, it is easy to understand the link. between “water” and “wet”. “Associative learning is frequently assumed to be far too primitive to. explain complex visual categorization like what we saw the pigeons do,” Turner said. But that’s exactly what the researchers found.
The researchers’ AI model tackled the same tasks using just the two simple mechanisms that pigeons were assumed to use: associative learning and error correction. And, like the pigeons, the AI model learned to make the right predictions to significantly increase the number of correct answers. For humans, the challenge when given tasks like those given to pigeons is that they would try to come up with rules that could make the task easier. But in this case, there were no rules, which upsets humans.
What’s interesting, though, is that pigeons use this method of learning that is very similar to AI designed by humans, Turner said. “We celebrate how smart we are that we designed artificial intelligence: at the same time, we regard pigeons as not clever animals,” he said.
1. What is the purpose of the new study?| A．To test a theory. | B．To evaluate a model. |
| C．To employ a strategy. | D．To involve an approach. |
| A．Draw circles. | B．Correct errors. | C．Copy gestures. | D．Identify images. |
| A．They are of equal intelligence. |
| B．They are good at making rules. |
| C．They respond rapidly to orders from humans. |
| D．They employ simple ways to get things done. |
| A．Pigeons’ trial-and-error method is revealed |
| B．Pigeons outperform humans in tough tasks |
| C．“Not smart” pigeons may be as smart as AI |
| D．AI models after pigeons’ learning approach |
I recently went SKYDIVING! It’s something I’ve been talking about doing since last year, but to be honest, it was planned super last minute… like within a matter of a few weeks.
It all started when I ran into a friend of mine walking home from a local festival earlier this summer. We started chatting about what we’d both been up to this summer and somehow got on the subject of both being interested in going skydiving someday. My friend, Denny, said he’d be onboard if I really wanted to schedule a jump and I was so excited to finally have someone to go with!
Later that night, we texted back and forth and decided on our jump date a few weeks in the future. When the very Sunday came, we were both FULL of excitement for our first skydiving experience. He had been bungee jumping before and I’d done my fair share of zip-lining, but neither of us figured that either of those of experiences would prepare us for what we had in store.
The drive there didn’t happen without a slight delay. As soon as we got off the through-way on to the exit towards the small town where the skydiving facility was, Denny’s car started to make a strange noise, forcing us to pull over on a busy interstate (州际公路).
Only 20 minutes away from WNY Skydiving (the place where we were going), we discovered we had a flat tyre (轮胎). At that point, I felt pretty defeated. Our scheduled time was 4 pm — the last appointment time of the day — so I figured they wouldn’t be able to wait for or delay the operations for us since we were racing against the light.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
We called American Automobile Association (AAA) and hoped for the best.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________We were informed we were the final jump of the night… the “sunset jump”.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________10 . Emma Stone was seven years old when she experienced her first panic attack: She was just sitting at a friend’s house, and all of a sudden the house was on fire. Stone remembers her chest started to tighten. She phoned her mother, who didn’t understand what was happening, but came to pick her up anyway. Stone says her fear eventually disappeared that day, but the anxiety still existed.
Stone had massive separation anxiety from her mother. That was a large part, she thinks, of what was setting off her anxiety. But going to school meant that she would have to be away from her mother for hours in the day. “I started to receive treatment around age eight, because it was getting really hard for me to leave the house to go to school,” she says.
Despite her anxiety—or maybe because of it—Stone began acting when she was 11; by age 15, she had convinced her parents to move from Arizona to Los Angeles so she could go on auditions (试镜). Stone found that acting was a way to remain in the present moment, without worrying about the past or the future. Plus, she adds, “As an actor, all of my big feelings are productive.”
Stone won the Academy Award in 2017 for her performance in the movie musical La La Land, and was nominated (提名) for Oscars for her performances in Birdman and The Favourite. She has been nominated again this year for her starring role in Poor Things.
In Poor Things, which Stone both starred in and produced, she plays Bella, a woman who has nearly died by killing herself and then is brought back to life by a strange surgeon. After that, Bella has the brain of a baby and the body of a grown woman. When her brain develops into a young adult brain, Bella leaves the surgeon to go on an adventure with a man who has become crazy about her.
Stone says, “Anxiety is like rocket fuel because I can’t help but get out of bed and do things. That’s really a gift.”
1. What happened to Emma Stone when she was seven?| A．She witnessed a fire accident. | B．She had a fight with her friend. |
| C．She experienced her second panic attack. | D．She couldn’t reach her mother on the phone. |
| A．Her illness. | B．Her education. | C．Her adventures. | D．Her achievements. |
| A．Stone. | B．Bella. | C．The surgeon. | D．The baby. |
| A．She often felt anxious when acting. |
| B．She tried to kill herself but was rescued. |
| C．She turned her anxiety into an advantage. |
| D．She didn’t get along well with her family. |
