1 . Anytime I travel on my bicycle across the country, I’m always amazed by how kind people can be to strangers.

One night, my friends and I were camping in a town in Missouri. There was a severe storm and we were getting ______ . A complete stranger came by to ______ us that there were tornadoes(龙卷风)heading our way. The stranger invited us to his home. We were surprised by his ______ for our safety. Later we learned that there had been a lightening strike near the place where we had camped and several cattle had been ______

Fortunately, we spent the night in a nice dry home. We were ______ given the opportunity to take a shower. The next morning we had breakfast with the family and ______ contact information. In a way we felt like the family had become a part of our journey. This was one of the most heartwarming ______ of my life because this family had nothing to ______ by being so kind to us. We were ______ not the type they would usually ______ but they treated us with respect and kindness.

The kindness of a stranger always ______ my faith in humanity. Whatever the person ______ always comes with no strings attached and that’s the most _____ part.

That family _____ us so much that during the rest of the trip, we _____ others out every chance we got. We even bought food with our busking(街头卖艺) tips for the homeless. It’s always heartwarming when giving feels as good as receiving.

1.

A．annoyed

B．impatient

C．excited

D．nervous

2.

A．warn

B．show

C．convince

D．guarantee

3.

A．demand

B．concern

C．desire

D．responsibility

4.

A．drowned

B．deserted

C．killed

D．trapped

5.

A．even

B．merely

C．often

D．simply

6.

A．submitted

B．exchanged

C．checked

D．updated

7.

A．experiences

B．messages

C．traditions

D．comments

8.

A．fear

B．order

C．gain

D．offer

9.

A．especially

B．officially

C．occasionally

D．definitely

10.

A．ask about

B．complain about

C．agree with

D．associate with

11.

A．reveals

B．shakes

C．strengthens

D．shapes

12.

A．states

B．wishes

C．saves

D．gives

13.

A．impressive

B．practical

C．satisfactory

D．evident

14.

A．funded

B．inspired

C．owed

D．delighted

15.

A．drove

B．sought

C．helped

D．pointed

2 . On Monday, a lawsuit (诉讼) in the US got huge headlines around the world. It deals with a truly 21st century issue—whether human genes (基因) may be patented.

Myriad Genetics, a biotechnology company, discovered two genes — BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 — that are highly related to breast cancer. Myriad patented its discoveries and a group of researchers challenged that the patent was illegal.

The US patent law protects the temporary economic rewards inventors get from their inventions. But it also says a product of nature or a law of nature can’t be patented. For example, Einstein couldn’t patent on his discovery of E=mc².

And until relatively recently, many of the medical researchers voluntarily gave up patents on their inventions. When Dr. Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine (小儿麻痹症疫苗), was asked in 1955 whether he had a patent on the vaccine, he replied, “Could you patent the sun?”

Myriad Genetics, however, says that the genes it identified are not like the sun. It notes that there are 20,000 genes in the human body and that it has sorted through all those genes and found the two that are closely related to breast cancer.

Not so, say those challenging the patent. Human genes are products of nature. They are just a part of the human body. “All Myriad does is take the part out of the body,” says the challengers’ lawyer, Christopher Hansen. “Can the person who first takes the heart out of the body patent on hearts?”

Rochelle Dreyfuss, a patent expert who is not associated with this case, is a little more down to earth. “At some level it is about money,” he says, “because medicine doesn’t happen for free. The patent system is very important to encourage companies to spend more money on scientific research and development.”

Then how do other countries handle this tricky situation? Most countries approve patents on genes, but they also allow other scientists to use the genes freely to do research and develop new medicines and testing methods.

1. Which of the following can be patented according to the US patent law?

A．The law of gravity force.	B．A unique orbit found in space.
C．A new medicine based on BRCA 1.	D．The basic working principle of planes.

2. What is Christopher Hansen’s argument against the patent?

A．A product of nature can’t be patented.

B．Public interests should be put before profits.

C．It is unacceptable to the other countries in the world.

D．The connection between genes and cancers is not obvious.

3. What does the underlined phrase “down to earth” in paragraph 7 mean?

A．Angry.

B．Rude.

C．Smart

D．Practical.

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．The consequences of the lawsuit.	B．Other countries’ solution to the case.
C．The public reactions to the news.	D．Some scientists’ support for the patent.

3 . 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。

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the development of production, astronomy attained many achievements. The Ganshi Star Classic,     1    (write) between 375-350 BC, is the earliest astronomical work in the world. 

Gan De and Shi Shen respectively conducted astronomical observations in their own aspects     2     published their works to the world. They had     3     (systematic) observed the movements of the five planets, namely, gold, wood, water, fire and earth, and had     4     grasp of the laws of the movements of these planets for the first time. They recorded the names of 800 stars, and determined the positions of 121. Later     5    (generation)called the records of Gan De and Shi Shen’s determination of stars ”Ganshi Star Classic“. The Ganshi Star Classic is the earliest star table in the world, about 200 years earlier than the first     6     (Europe) star table created by a Greek astronomer. To date, their achievements     7     (recognise) internationally. Shi Shen was referred to     8    one of the outstanding contributors to world astronomy, after     9     the largest crater (环形山) on the back of the moon was named. Many later astronomers use the data in the ”Ganshi Star Classic“ when     10     (measure) the position and motion of the sun, moon and planets. Therefore, the ”Ganshi Star Classic“ occupies an important position in the history of astronomy in China and the world.

4 . A key part of protecting endangered species is figuring out where they’re living. Using environmental DNA, or eDNA, to track species isn’t new. For a few years now, researchers have been using DNA in water.

Two teams of scientists — one in Denmark led by Dr Kristine Bohmann and one in the UK led by Dr Elizabeth Clare — came up with the same question at about the same time: Could they identify the animals in an area from DNA that was simply floating in the air? DNA in the air is usually so small that it would take a microscope to see it. “I thought the chances of collecting animal DNA from air would be slim though much time had been spent on it, but we moved on,” said Bohmann who was trying to think of a crazy research idea for a Danish foundation that funds far-out science.

One team collected samples from different locations at Denmark’s Copenhagen Zoo, and the other at Hamerton Zoo Park in the UK. Clearly, they both chose the zoos. “We realized we have the Copenhagen Zoo,” Bohmann recalls. In fact, both the zoos in the UK and Denmark were almost like the zoos that were custom-built for the experiments: The animals in the zoos were non-native, so they really stuck out in DNA analyses. “If we detect a flamingo (火烈鸟), we’re sure it’s not coming from anywhere else but the zoo,” Bohmann says.

In the laboratory, by comparing their samples with examples of DNA from different animals, the scientists succeeded in identifying many different animals at the zoos.

Neither team knew that the other team was working on a similar experiment. The two were nearing submission to a scientific journal when they discovered about the other experiment. Rather than compete to rush out a publication first, they got in touch and decided to publish their findings as a pair. “We both thought the papers are stronger together,” says Clare.

“The next step is to figure out how to take this method into nature to track animals that are hard to spot, including endangered animals,” says Bohmann.

1. What did Bohmann initially think of the experiment?

A．It could be a failure.

B．It wouldn’t take long.

C．It wasn’t original.

D．It would cost much.

2. Why did the scientists look for animal DNA in the zoos?

A．They raised many rare animals there.	B．The zoos were specially built for them.
C．They could collect enough animal DNA.	D．They could recognize animals confidently.

3. How was the two teams’ relationship when they learned of each other’s work?

A．Competitive.

B．Inseparable.

C．Cooperative.

D．Casual.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．Research Teams Test DNA in Nature	B．DNA in the Air Helps identify Animals
C．Different Zoos Conduct DNA Studies	D．eDNA Protects Endangered Animals

5 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。

1. Which generation is Liu Wenwen for performing suona in her family?

A．The seventh generation.

B．The eighth generation.

C．The third generation.

2. Why did Liu practice in a park?

A．Because the voice of the instrument annoyed her neighbors.

B．Because the park is beautiful.

C．Because she didn’t like practicing at home.

3. What happened in 2017?

A．Liu had a personal concert in Sydney.

B．Liu performed with award-winning composer.

C．Liu was followed by Chinese.

4. How long did Liu learn suona?

A．About 20 years.

B．Less than 20 years.

C．More than 20 years.

6 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。

1. Who will the man go with?

A．With the woman.

B．With his pen friend.

C．Nobody.

2. What is Nanning?

A．The man’s hometown.

B．The UN’s liveable city.

C．The town of fruit.

3. What does the woman ask the man to do?

A．Have a trip with her.

B．Send emails.

C．Take some photos.

4. When will the man set off?

A．On December 22nd.

B．On December 20th.

C．On December 25th.

7 . Do you find yourself looking at your Facebook page or watching YouTube videos instead of getting work done? Are you________your plans for the summer? If you do, you’re not________. Many people do that, including me.

I am in my second year at college. In almost every________, I find it hard to sit still and pay attention. If it’s not________my phone, it’s daydreaming about what my plans are for the weekend. It’s________. I hate it. But I can’t control myself. I pick up my cellphone to________my emails and messages without________it. And I find myself________ news on social media, ________knowing what’s going on around me.

Yes, we live in a digital age where we even use________in the bathroom. Because of using digital devices, our attention span (注意力持续时间) has become much________than before. Yes, that’s true—a recent________made by Microsoft Corporation shows that people now usually________concentration after eight seconds. Interestingly, I usually find it________to study around people who are also studying. I_________can focus more that way.

My________ to students reading this is that when it comes to study, you’d better turn off all digital devices. Our brain________to focus on things that are right in front of us. Removing out distractions altogether, especially________you get a lot of them, seems to be one of the best________of doing better in your work.

There is no easier solution to this; you must turn off digital devices, or you won’t focus. It just takes some________.

1.

A．looking for

B．asking for

C．thinking about

D．talking about

2.

A．careful

B．happy

C．right

D．alone

3.

A．show

B．lecture

C．direction

D．interview

4.

A．letting down

B．setting aside

C．looking at

D．looking after

5.

A．natural

B．interesting

C．useless

D．bad

6.

A．improve

B．check

C．correct

D．share

7.

A．knowing

B．accepting

C．telling

D．finishing

8.

A．offering

B．advertising

C．reading

D．writing

9.

A．hardly

B．slowly

C．strangely

D．fully

10.

A．keys

B．cellphones

C．cameras

D．umbrellas

11.

A．shorter

B．better

C．wider

D．deeper

12.

A．change

B．question

C．study

D．debate

13.

A．avoid

B．need

C．control

D．lose

14.

A．comfortable

B．helpful

C．hard

D．necessary

15.

A．feel

B．wish

C．mention

D．wonder

16.

A．attitude

B．advice

C．information

D．worry

17.

A．happens

B．aims

C．prefers

D．dislikes

18.

A．because

B．unless

C．though

D．when

19.

A．chances

B．ways

C．times

D．places

20.

A．courage

B．patience

C．encouragement

D．confidence

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.

2. What were the pigeons expected to do in the experiment?

A．Draw circles.

B．Correct errors.

C．Copy gestures.

D．Identify images.

3. What do pigeons and AI have in common according to the study?

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.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

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

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。

Mary was fond of outdoor activities, especially the beauty of nature. She would often spend her weekends hiking, biking, or simply taking long walks in the countryside. She had a group of close friends who shared the same enthusiasm for the outdoors.

One day, while enjoying a cup of coffee at a local cafe, Mary’s friend Jenny approached her with an exciting idea. “Mary, have you ever thought about stargazing (观星) in the wilderness?” Jenny asked, her eyes shining with excitement. Mary’s eyes widened, and a smile spread across her face. “Stargazing? That sounds incredible! Count me in,” she exclaimed, her voice filled with expectation.

The plan was set for a cool evening when the sky would be at its clearest. As the day turned into night, the two friends gathered their warmest clothes, packed some snacks and hot chocolate, and set off on their adventure. They began their journey from Mary’s house.

As they walked hand in hand, their breath turned into misty clouds in the cool night air. The moon was hidden behind thick clouds, casting a darkness on their path. But instead of feeling scared, they felt a rush of excitement washing over them. The stillness of the night, broken only by the soft whispers of the wind, brought a newfound peace to their mind.

They walked through the streets, little by little, the city lights faded, and the stars above became increasingly obvious. They couldn’t help but feel amazed by the countless stars that decorated the sky. They decided not to choose the well-known path and wandered deeper into the wilderness. Fireflies (萤火虫) danced gracefully, lighting up the night sky.

Mary’s eyes widened with childlike wonder as she watched the tiny creatures create their magical light show. Absorbed in chats and laughter, they failed to notice when the familiar sights started to disappear, slowly getting swallowed by the tall trees of the forest.

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。

Suddenly, Mary’s heart skipped a beat as she realized they had lost their way.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Determined, the two friends set off, guided by the light of the North Star.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10 . For Caribbean box jellyfish (水母), learning is literally a no-brainer.

In a new experiment, these animals learned to spot and avoid obstacles (障碍物) despite having no central brain, researchers report in Current Biology. This is the first evidence that jellyfish can make mental connections between events and change their behavior accordingly. “Maybe learning doesn’t need a very complex nervous system, but rather, learning is an essential part of nerve cells,” says Jan Bielecki, a neuroethologist at Kiel University in Germany. If so, the new finding could help trace how learning evolved in animals.

Bielecki and his colleagues wondered if Caribbean box jellyfish could learn that low-contrast objects, which might at first seem distant, were actually close by. The team put 12 jellyfish into a round tank surrounded by low-contrast, gray and white stripes. A camera filmed the animals’ behavior for about seven minutes.

At first, the jellyfish seemed to interpret the gray stripes as distant roots and swam into the tank wall. But those collisions (碰撞) seemed to lead the jellyfish to treat the gray stripes more like close roots in dirty water, and the animals started avoiding them. The jellies’ average distance from the tank wall increased from about 2.5 centimeters in the first couple of minutes to about 3.6 centimeters in the final couple of minutes. Their average collisions into the wall dropped from 1.8 per minute to 0.78 per minute.

“I found that really amazing,” says Nagayasu Nakanishi, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, who has studied jellyfish nervous systems but was not involved in the new work. “I never thought jellyfish could really learn.”

Neurobiologist Björn Brembs views the results more cautiously, noting the small number of jellyfish tested and the variability in their performance. “I want this to be true, as it would be very cool,” says Brembs. Experiments with more jellyfish could convince him that the animals really do learn.

1. What can we know about the jellyfish in paragraph 2?

A．They can avoid obstacles with a central brain.

B．They can change their behaviour after evolution.

C．They may have learning abilities with nerve cells.

D．They may develop a very complex nervous system.

2. What change in behavior did the jellyfish show in the experiment?

A．They completely ignored the gray stripes.

B．They gradually started avoiding the gray stripes.

C．They could avoid collisions if given enough time.

D．They increased their collisions with the tank wall.

3. What conclusion can be drawn from the experiment?

A．Jellyfish preferred the gray stripes over other things.

B．Jellyfish were unable to learn from their environment.

C．Jellyfish relied on the distant objects to change their behavior.

D．Jellyfish showed a learning process and adjusted their behavior.

4. What does Brembs imply in the last paragraph?

A．He believes more testing is needed to confirm the results.

B．He is excited by the potential implications of the findings.

C．He dismisses the findings as irrelevant to jellyfish behavior.

D．He is doubtful due to the consistent performance of the jellyfish.