1 . It was like finding a needle in a haystack. Shelly Romo surveyed what was
No Ka’ Oi owner Omi Chamdi said he was one of the
However, Chamdi doesn’t restore the jewelry himself;
| A．expected | B．reminded | C．left | D．robbed |
| A．bright-eyed | B．light-hearted | C．absent-minded | D．empty-handed |
| A．talks | B．journey | C．waiting | D．efforts |
| A．sound | B．broken | C．solid | D．gone |
| A．recycling | B．restoring | C．marketing | D．advertising |
| A．distinctive | B．lucky | C．helpful | D．anxious |
| A．perfect | B．extra | C．free | D．instant |
| A．quickly | B．excitedly | C．cautiously | D．hesitantly |
| A．affected | B．nearby | C．calm | D．united |
| A．therefore | B．otherwise | C．nevertheless | D．instead |
| A．expected | B．enjoyed | C．rejected | D．regretted |
| A．precious | B．necessary | C．beautiful | D．expensive |
| A．items | B．houses | C．ruins | D．boxes |
| A．Eventually | B．Originally | C．Gradually | D．Naturally |
| A．rising up | B．moving on | C．giving in | D．taking off |
1. How many books did Eric Carle create for children?
| A．Less than 55. | B．Over 70. | C．Almost 90. |
| A．The Grouchy Ladybug. | B．The Mixed-Up Chameleon. | C．The Very Hungry Caterpillar. |
| A．To make school more attractive. |
| B．To help children get inspiration. |
| C．To offer materials to teachers. |
1. How did the speakers feel about visiting the park?
| A．Tired. | B．Happy. | C．Disappointed. |
| A．Study for an exam. | B．Attend a party. | C．Go to the movies. |
| A．A romantic movie. | B．A comedy. | C．A horror movie. |
1. What does the woman want Peter to do?
| A．Drive her to the airport. | B．Help her with the bag. | C．Call a taxi for her. |
| A．2:00 pm. | B．3:00 pm. | C．4:00 pm. |
| A．She stayed at home. | B．She went to a party. | C．She saw a movie. |
6 . We all know the grandmotherly wisdom of serving chicken soup to someone with a cold, but does this particular meal really have the same effect as the medicine? Could the chicken soup save people a trip to the local hospital?
You won’t find studies in humans that prove chicken soup can fight off a cold, but there’s enough evidence to make it worth trying. One study published in the medical journal Chest suggested that chicken soup might have anti-inflammatory (消炎的) effects, which could possibly cure symptoms of upper respiratory (上呼吸道) tract infections (感染). Researchers studied the movement of neutrophils-a type of white blood cell-when combined with soup. They found that the movement of neutrophils was reduced in the presence of soup, suggesting a possible anti-inflammatory effect that could at least reduce cold symptoms (症状).
“There are substances in chicken soup that could affect cells in the body, which could potentially have medicinal effects, but whether they are good or bad for you, we didn’t test,” said study author Dr. Stephen Rennard, Larson Professor of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Because the study was done in a laboratory and not in humans, Rennard cautions that it remains to be seen whether one would even absorb the substances (物质) that appeared to have beneficial effects in the lab. The researchers did not actually separate specific substances in soup that might be beneficial, “nor did we show what it would do in a living person, let alone a living person with a cold,” he added.
“Chicken soup might be useful, but lots of more research is required,“ Rennard said. “There is some possibility that there is a medicinal basis to it, but ‘some,’ ‘suggests’ and ‘possible’ are the key words.”
1. Why did people believe chicken soup could help with a cold?| A．They had enough scientific evidence. | B．They got the idea from old experience. |
| C．They were fond of the special soup. | D．They learnt it in the medical journal. |
| A．By making neutrophils much less active. | B．By speeding the movement of neutrophils. |
| C．By producing a type of white blood cell. | D．By making cold symptoms worse. |
| A．They could affect cells in the body. | B．They are useless for curing a cold. |
| C．They can’t be absorbed by humans. | D．They can only be found in chicken soup. |
| A．He never caught a bad cold. | B．He didn’t like chicken soup. |
| C．He didn’t know medicinal basis. | D．He would do some more research. |
7 . Whether you feel like taking a trip, or you just need some fun, you’ll enjoy this list of popular tourist attractions.
Alabama: Alabama Gulf Coast Beaches
If Alabama wasn’t the location for your next summer beach vacation, you may want to reconsider. There are 51 kilometers of white sand beaches made almost entirely of quartz grains (石英颗粒) washed down from the Appalachian Mountains thousands of years ago. That’s probably why over six million people visit Alabama’s Gulf Coast Beaches every year. Ten dollars per person.
Alaska: Kenai Fjords Wildlife Cruise
Alaska is the place to go for spotting breathtaking (令人惊叹的) wildlife. In fact, the number of visitors who travel to Alaska to see wildlife has increased by 45 percent. The Kenai Fjords Wildlife Cruise will bring you up close to whales, sea lions and sea birds. It is a five-hour trip that starts at noon and covers 88 kilometers of sea, and it will be the best $98 you ever spent.
Arkansas: Hot Springs National Park
Skip the beach and choose a new type of relaxation at Hot Springs National Park. It’s America’s oldest national park. It is also the only urban national park. You don’t need to make reservations (预订). Doors open at 8 a. m., so get there early!
Connecticut: Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History is a must stop if you’re travelling nearby Yale University. It attracts plenty of people and has many collections including New England birds, dinosaurs, Greek and Roman antiquities (古董), and even an Egyptian mummy (木乃伊). Adults pay $13 for entry, but if you want to visit for free, go on a Thursday.
1. Why do many people visit Alabama Gulf Coast Beaches?| A．It has a good and convenient location. | B．It has a history of thousands of years. |
| C．It has long white sand beaches. | D．The Appalachian Mountains are beautiful. |
| A．Arkansas: Hot Springs National Park. | B．Alaska: Kenai Fjords Wildlife Cruise. |
| C．Alabama: Alabama Gulf Coast Beaches. | D．Connecticut: Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. |
| A．It attracts plenty of people. | B．It is beautiful and attractive. |
| C．It is free on certain days. | D．It is the smallest museum in America. |
The Mid-Autumn Festival or the Moon Festival traditionally falls on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar.
In the past, the Moon Festival
The common customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival include family
Mooncakes are the must-eat Mid-Autumn food in China. Other foods
Festival food traditions are changing. The younger generation have their own choices about
Stamp collecting has recently emerged as a fresh and innovative approach for young people to document their travels. Instead of
Shi Junchu, 29, from Yunnan province, came across stamp collecting three years ago while traveling in Wuhan, Hubei province. She found it to be a better way of commemorating her travels
“Stamp collecting has added more meaning to my travels. Turning the pages of those notebooks
She currently operates a private museum in Kunming. Since last October, she has also introduced stamp-collecting services
10 . Our species’ incredible capacity to quickly acquire words from 300 by age 2 to over 1, 000 by age 4 isn’t fully understood. Some cognitive scientists and linguists have theorized that people are born with built-in expectations and logical constraints (约束) that make this possible. Now, however, machine-learning research is showing that preprogrammed assumptions aren’t necessary to swiftly pick up word meanings from minimal data.
A team of scientists has successfully trained a basic artificial intelligence model to match images to words using just 61 hours of naturalistic footage (镜头) and sound-previously collected from a child named Sam in 2013 and 2014. Although it’s a small slice of a child’s life, it was apparently enough to prompt the AI to figure out what certain words mean.
The findings suggest that language acquisition could be simpler than previously thought. Maybe children “don’t need a custom-built, high-class language-specific mechanism” to efficiently grasp word meanings, says Jessica Sullivan, an associate professor of psychology at Skidmore College. “This is a really beautiful study, ” she says, because it offers evidence that simple information from a child’s worldview is rich enough to kick-start pattern recognition and word comprehension.
The new study also demonstrates that it’s possible for machines to learn similarly to the way that humans do. Large language models are trained on enormous amounts of data that can include billions and sometimes trillions of word combinations. Humans get by on orders of magnitude less information, says the paper’s lead author Wai Keen Vong. With the right type of data, that gap between machine and human learning could narrow dramatically.
Yet additional study is necessary in certain aspects of the new research. For one, the scientists acknowledge that their findings don’t prove how children acquire words. Moreover, the study only focused on recognizing the words for physical objects.
Still, it’s a step toward a deeper understanding of our own mind, which can ultimately help us improve human education, says Eva Portelance, a computational linguistics researcher. She notes that AI research can also bring clarity to long-unanswered questions about ourselves. “We can use these models in a good way, to benefit science and society, ” Portelance adds.
1. What is a significant finding of machine-learning research?| A．Vocabulary increases gradually with age. |
| B．Vocabulary can be acquired from minimal data. |
| C．Language acquisition is tied to built-in expectations. |
| D．Language acquisition is as complex as formerly assumed. |
| A．Facilitate. | B．Persuade. | C．Advise. | D．Expect. |
| A．Its limitations. | B．Its strengths. | C．Its uniqueness. | D．Its process. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Cautious. | C．Dismissive. | D．Positive. |
