1 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Taylor Swift is ending her year with another honor. The pop superstar     1     (name) Time magazine’s 2023 “Person of the Year,”     2     (beat) out Barbie and King Charles III. “While her popularity     3     (grow) across the decades, this is the first year     4     Swift, 33, achieved a kind of nuclear fusion (核聚变): shooting art and commerce together     5     (release) an energy of historic force,” the magazine said. Time said Swift was selected     6     she found a way to give people around the world hope in some seriously dark times. “No one else     7     the planet today can move so many people so well,” Time said in its profile, “    8     giving too much credit to     9     star ignores her skill and her power.” The magazine also interviewed Swift, with the artist revealing that “this is the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt, and the most     10     (creative) fulfilled and free I’ve ever been.”

2 . Bad judgments are meant to feed our own personal ego (自我意识) and put others down, which is not the healthiest thing to do. Here are five reasons why you should stop it now.

You start finding faults in everyone. Judging quickly moves on to more private areas of your life.     1     You fail to appreciate them and start getting dissatisfied with them. You become critical of even those who matter to you.

Judging becomes a habit. If you judge people, sooner or later, it becomes a habit, and you start judging everyone around you for the tiniest of things.     2     And you might dismiss even the best of people through these microscopic judgments.

People begin to distrust you. If you pass judgments about other people in front of your audience, you will lose their trust. As they will begin to feel that if you can judge others in front of them, you can talk about them behind their back.     3    

Judgment is a sign of unhappiness. If you are 100% happy with who you are, you are a lot less likely to feel the need to judge others. If you are self-assured, you will not feel the need to cast a downward glance at others.     4     Either way, it is a negative attitude.

    5     If you’re judging others, you’re probably judging yourself pretty harshly as well. You often tend to think that if you are judging people by what they wear, someone might in turn judge you, which, as a consequence, makes you extremely concerned with your appearance.

A．You are viewed positively by people.

B．You start taking yourself too seriously.

C．Hence, seeing others positively shows we are positive people.

D．You judge their clothing, actions, success, values, and everything.

E．Likewise, you also judge because you feel you are better than others.

F．You start judging your close ones; friends, family members, partner, etc.

G．And no one wants to make friends with someone often talking unkindly about others.

5 . This year I did something I’d never done—shopping at midnight on Black Friday after Thanksgiving. After all, you can get great deals online from the comfort of your bed over a hot cup of coffee. So why would I stand traffic, cold weather and crowds for a few bargains?

For my teenagers, spending time with Mom is usually down on their list next to homework and picking up the dog waste. So, when they asked me to take them shopping at the mall at midnight on Black Friday, my first reaction was definitely no! But my son, who usually runs the other way if I mention shopping, wanted me to take him shopping. I felt needed, though I knew it was my wallet and a ride, not quality (高质量的) time with Mom that they wanted.

Then the hour-long car ride. We followed songs on the radio and talked about the deals we hoped to get. I had opportunities to give them lessons on what not to do when driving, but I had to keep the peace. And we all connected as we sat with crazed smiles at midnight.

The kids scanned for a spot once we finally reached the busy parking lot. There was something about standing in a line that snakes around the building in the freezing cold that brings people together. Once inside, we had to work as a team, hoping to come together with just the right size and color. As I dug through mountain s of clothing for a particular shirt for my husband and gave up, my daughter came toward me, shirt in hand and victory on her face. “I got the last one!”

So we ended up at 3 am with some bargains. Nothing we couldn’t have found online or in stores at a reasonable hour. But for me, I got quality time with my kids. Driving home tired, looking in the mirror at my children’s sweet faces, I decided, “If they ask me to go again next year, I’m in.”

1. What did the kids need according to the author?

A．Buying things online with comfort.	B．Taking a cup of coffee comfortably.
C．Shopping at their mother’s expense.	D．Spending quality time with the family.

2. How did the author communicate with her kids during the drive to the mall?

A．She shared their excitement.	B．She taught them some songs.
C．She taught them shopping tips.	D．She lectured them on behavior.

3. Why did the daughter show victory on her face?

A．She had worked as a team member.	B．She had searched out her clothes.
C．She had been in line to see a snake.	D．She had found a shirt for her father.

4. How did the author find her shopping experience?

A．Tiring.

B．Enjoyable.

C．Heart-broken.

D．Money-wasting.

6 . When Ford uncovered the F-150 Lightning last week — an all-electric version of the best-selling vehicle in the United States — it was a big moment in the short history of electric cars. The 530 horsepower, 6,500-pound truck’s sticker price of just under $40,000 drew comparisons to Ford’s Model T, the vehicle credited with making cars accessible to the middle class. In the first 48 hours after the battery-powered vehicle presentation, Ford received close to 45,000 pre-orders for it, equal to nearly 20 percent of all electric vehicles (EV) manufactured in the US in 2020.

The F-150 Lightning, along with the hundreds of other EV models top automakers are rolling out in the next few years, indicates that the EV revolution is finally going mainstream. But as this industry, which is key to fighting against climate change, matures, a new challenge is coming out: how to acquire all of the minerals needed to make EV batteries.

The materials such as lithium (锂) and copper inside those batteries were all, at one point, mined from the earth. Today, much of that mining is concentrated in places like Russia, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. With the number of EVs on the roads expected to rise, demand for battery minerals is to increase greatly. Some industry watchdogs warn that the clean transit boom could fuel a dirty mining boom.

While only a small number of EV batteries have aged off the streets already, millions of tons of batteries are expected to be withdrawn over the coming decades. But better recycling methods and government policies to support them are needed to ensure that batteries don’t wind up in landfills instead. Even if recycling only meets a quarter to a third of our battery mineral demand over the coming decades, Riofrancos, a political scientist at Providence College in Rhode Island who studies resource extraction and green technology, says it’s an important area to focus on because it helps us “rethink our relationship with technology”.

1. What is the total number of EVs produced in the US in 2020?

A．About 900,000.	B．About 225,000.
C．About 45,000.	D．About 6,500.

2. What can we learn about the launch of the F-150 Lightning into market?

A．It helps solve the problem of fuel shortage.

B．It suggests car companies won a new challenge.

C．It signals the EV revolution will be a main trend.

D．It means government will stop policy support soon.

3. What does paragraph 3 mainly talk about?

A．The benefits of concentrated mining.	B．The process of mining battery materials.
C．The reason for international cooperation.	D．The problems of mining battery materials.

4. What does the author intend to do in the last paragraph?

A．Assess the demand for battery materials.

B．Rethink the launch of electric vehicles.

C．Provide a new way to recycle EV batteries.

D．Raise people’s awareness of recycling EV batteries.

8 . Walled Cities Of The World

There are numerous historical walled cities across the world, whose walls date back several centuries. These walls were fortification (碉堡), a necessity throughout medieval eras for defense. They have been preserved as historical monuments and popular tourist attractions in the modern time.

York, England

The city of York is a medieval city situated in the north of England. Historically, the city was ruled by the Romans, Angles, and the Vikings before being incorporated as part of the Kingdom of England in 954. Located in the city are walls built in 71 AD which have been restored and extended with time.

Xi’an, China

The city of Xian is one of the oldest cities in China. It prospered economically as the eastern last station of the Silk Road. The existing walls were originally built in 770 BC and reconstructed in the 14th century under the Ming Dynasty. The walls are well preserved and are a major tourist attraction in the city.

Quebec City, Canada

Quebec City was a colonial (殖民地的) town which was fortified by the settling Europeans. The walls began to be built in 1608 under both British and French regimes (政权). A fort was constructed by the British as an additional defensive measure and remains undamaged to date. The city’s fortifications were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

Mexico City, Mexico

Historically, the City of Mexico gained importance as the Aztec Capital. The Spanish then drove out the Aztecs and rebuilt it as the Spanish Capital. The walls protecting the city were built in 1521. Mexico City is also home to numerous colonial-era buildings which together with the walls are major tourist attractions in the city.

1. Which city has walls of the longest history?

A．York, England.	B．Xi’an, China.
C．Quebec City, Canada.	D．Mexico City, Mexico.

2. What do Quebec city and Mexico city have in common?

A．They were once colonies of other countries.

B．They were once the capital of the Aztec empire.

C．Their walls were once built under British regime.

D．Their walls were once damaged after construction.

3. In which section of a magazine may this text appear?

A．Culture.

B．Entertainment.

C．Science.

D．Society

9 . 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。续写的词数应为 150 左右。

With the development of traffic, car accidents happen almost every day. I still remember one thing that happened on the road two years ago. It was a fine day. On my way back home, there were a lot of cars coming and going as usual. Suddenly, I was stopped at a traffic light by some people who asked for help. A woman tried her best to give way to an ambulance (救护车), but drove her car over the stony obstacles (障碍) that separated the bike line from the street. Unluckily, she had her car trapped as a result. She could not move the car in any direction. She felt really nervous and did not know how to deal with it.

Luckily, many kind people offered to help her. Some people tried to lift the car back and some people tried to move the stony obstacles. Even the teenagers put down their schoolbags and joined them. But the obstacles were too heavy and high. They failed. Seeing that they could not do much about it, they called the emergency phone numbers. And finally they had no choice but to walk away. The woman alone in the car tried to call for service.

While watching the other people leave and finding she needed some service, I realized that the woman would be on her own and felt helpless. She watched her car and the stony obstacles hopelessly. And at that time, I imagined how painful I would be if I were in that situation. So, I asked her what I could do for her. She appreciated my concern. She said staying with her was fine. She made a call and was told that it would take about 45 minutes for someone to arrive. With a sense of sadness, she said, “How will I spend the boring 45 minutes?” I said to her with smile, “I will stay with you and buy you a cup of tea if you like. ” “It is very kind of you to stay with me,” she smiled at last.

Paragraph 1:
I tried to comfort the woman who seemed to feel worried about causing trouble for others.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
Finally, help came and her car was helped back on the main road.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10 . We often hear about how air pollution is changing earth temperatures. New evidence from a mountaintop in China now suggests that pollution can also change the amount of rain and snow falling in some places.

Usually, more precipitation ( 降水量) falls in mountainous places than in flat areas upwind (逆风的) from the mountains. In recent years, however, many mountainous areas in the USA have been getting 25 percent less precipitation than normal. Mountains that are downwind of cities have experienced the biggest drops.

Some British scientists have theorized that pollution moves from the cities into the mountains, affecting rainfall. To get answers, scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (耶路撒冷) turned to a mountain in China called Mount Hua. The mountain is 2, 060 metres tall and lies about 120 kilometers east of the Chinese city of Xi’an. Since 1954, meteorologists (气象学家) have been collecting details about rainfall, humidity, and visibility (能见度) in the area. Scientists compared rainfall on Mount Hua with rainfall in the nearest city, Huayin, on days with varying levels of visibility using these data. When the air was clear and people could see 20 km away, the scientists found that 65 percent more rain fell on the mountain than in the city. But when smoggy, allowing only 8 km of visibility through the haze (薄雾), the mountain received just 20 percent more rain than the city did. The new data support the theory.

Some scientists believe that there are other explanations for the numbers. For example, some believe that naturally occurring particles (颗粒) in the air rather than particles produced by pollution are affecting visibility. This is the first study to observe a connection between rainfall and changes in visibility due to air pollution. However, more studies are needed to confirm the link.

1. The scientists carrying out the study on Mount Hua are most probably from        ．

A．China

B．the USA

C．Israel (以色列)

D．Britain

2. In the third paragraph “these data” don’t include the information about        ．

A．the population there

B．the amount of rainfall

C．the humidity

D．the visibility

3. From the last paragraph, we can learn that        ．

A．scientists haven’t paid enough attention to weather changes

B．not all scientists believe that there is a connection between visibility and rainfall

C．the low visibility must be caused by the heavy air pollution

D．air pollution may not be the only reason for the change of the visibility

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The factors affecting the amount of rainfall.

B．The effect of air pollution on earth temperatures.

C．A weather study carried out on a mountain in China.

D．Air pollution reducing precipitation.