1 . How to Feel Connected

It's easy to feel disconnected from what is going on around you in today's fast-paced world.     1     You can get in touch and feel connected, however, by following the tips below:

Consider why you feel disconnected. Knowing what is making you feel disconnected can help you choose the best ways to address it.     2     Ask yourself these questions: Are you keeping yourself occupied with work too much? Do you rely on electronic communication instead of face to face communication? Do you lack friendships that are satisfying?

Interact with people in person. Technology is a great way to stay in touch, but sometimes you need to spend time with other people in person.     3     You can also take steps to feel more connected by making small-talk with strangers who are sharing parts of your day.

    4    

Your loved ones could feel shy, so you may never know how to improve your relationship unless you ask the right questions. Asking them to open the doors can give you some insight on what you can do. Learning this information can help to strengthen your bond.

Show your commitment to them. Simply showing up and being there for your loved ones says a lot about how much you value your relationships. Putting in the time shows them that you are committed and want to stay connected.     5    

Show appreciation. A simple “thank you” goes a very long way. Unfortunately, it is something that people who are close often take for granted. Telling someone you appreciate their time, love, and efforts can strengthen your bond and help you to become more connected.

A．Ask others what they need from you.

B．Sometimes you can feel isolated and distant from the ones you love.

C．Be brave to express your love.

D．Reach out to people to schedule a time to get together.

E．Attending family events, or simply visiting someone once a week can help to strengthen your relationship and keep it strong.

F．Targeting your efforts toward those issues allows you to close that distance more effectively.

G．You can have a gift delivered to friends on special occasions.

2 . It’s been 50 years since the beginning of bar codes. Scanning an item at checkout is something we take for granted in this age of convenience.     1    

On March 31, 1971, a historic meeting took place in New York City. The meeting agreed to create a system to uniquely identify every single product, calling it the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) the core of bar codes, according to El Mudo, a Spanish newspaper.     2     Today, bar codes are scanned over 6 billion times every day, used by 2 million companies worldwide and remain one of the most trusted symbols in the world, PR Newswire, a US news agency, reported.

    3     Where the product comes from? where it has been? its price expiration (过期时间)… you name it. Bar codes don’t only identify the category of goods but also manage the number of goods. For example, if there are 10 cartons of milk and a consumer takes one, it will be registered when it is scanned at the cash counter, so the store owner knows there are nine left.     4     The unique identification of products at a global level was the key that opened the door to retail (零售) as we know it today.

In the past five decades, bar codes have provided many conveniences for commerce. “The next generation of bar codes, such as QR codes can hold vastly more information. Their use, for example, can tell consumers if a product contains allergens (过敏原) or if it is organic.     5    ” according to GS1, the organization that develops and maintains the global bar codes standard.

A．Time has proved it a great decision.

B．It gives consumers a greater level of trust.

C．What information does a bar code contain?

D．When do we scan a bar code on the product?

E．We can thank the game-changing technology for that.

F．The numbers can indicate where that product is identified,

G．It allows the first digitization in the control of the goods for sale.

3 . 语法填空

Thanks to the efforts made by former world martial art(武术)champion Chen Sitan and his wife Lin Xu, the ancient Chinese martial art tai chi has     1     (increasing)become a form of life for many New Yorkers.

Chen started learning martial art     2     the age of six. By the time he retied from his athletic career, he     3     (win)32 gold medals in Chinese and international competitions. Having coached athletes in sports team for years,     4     Chens went to the US in 2003 with the hope     5     they could bring Chinese culture for more people around the world through tai chi.

The couple started teaching children tai chi in school and later     6     (found)Sitan Tai Chi and Martial Arts. The school’s class schedule now includes various     7     (form)of tai chi, health qigong, and different levels of martial arts.

Lin said people from different age groups come to     8     (she)classes for different purposes. “Young kids want to improve     9     (fit)and learn Chinese culture, adults take chances to relieve stress     10     (bring)by work, and retired people practice it to prevent health problems,” she said.

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。
                                                                                                                                                                                       Being Planted

“106!” The cry of disappointment breaks the silence of the peaceful night.

In darkness, he stands still there, with tears dropping continuously from his eyes.

He is a 5th-year Ph.D. student majoring in biology. This is his 106^th attempt to cultivate strawberries which could bear extreme climates. In his 105th experiment, he did all the pre-processes that he knew which could lead him closer to his goal. Every generation of the strawberry seemed to bring him closer to success, but every time the result was alike — failure, failure, failure. He has literally got used to it. But this time, he can hardly help feeling frustrated and angry.

“Who stole my experimental strawberry!”

Last night, when he got to the field, he was thrilled. Although most of the plants were obviously dying, one plant stood vigorously in the middle of the experimental field. The plant was labeled “Plant No. 106” . What a coincidence! In his 106^th attempt, the 106^th plant was finally mutating (变异) in its ideal way — the spark of hope, to him.

Last night, Plant No. 106’s fruit started to turn red. He was never so close to success. What he needed to do was to wait for several days to harvest that pink, shiny, attractive fruit.

But this night, the fruit disappears. So does his hope.

“3 years’ effort!   1096 days’ struggling! 13152 hours’ DNA editing and experiment. ALL GONE!” he murmurs to himself. He regrets that he didn’t get a small sample of the stolen strawberry last night.

Now he is using his fingers to dig the ground. He doesn’t know why he is doing so. He is well aware that the results of the past 106 attempts are all wasted because of the incident and his not taking the sample in time. He has no seeds left. At the present, he seems to have only 2 choices: to start from the very beginning, or to give up.

要求：
1. 续写词数应为 150 左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

He uses his finger to dig the soil of that inch of field which used to contain his hope.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

He is so excited that he bursts into tears.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Mining has seen ups and downs but traditional condiment (调味品) continues to appeal. Any mention of Zigong, Sichuan province, reminds people    1     its salt production and, until recently, this was    2     important source of revenue (财政收入).

The city, about 200 kilometers from Chengdu has a history of mining salt    3     (stretch) back 2,000 years. The salt was sold all over Sichuan and other provinces, and was consumed by one-tenth of China’s population. The salt is from wells. One of them, the Shenhai well, was opened in 1835, and is still in    4     (operate). With a depth of 1,001.42 meters, it is among the world’s deepest of its kind and    5     (current) produces around 2,000 kilograms of salt per day. Visitors to the well can buy packs of iodine-free salt    6     (mine) just three days earlier.

But, during Spring Festival,     7     ends with the Lantern Festival on the 15^th day of the first lunar month — falling on Sunday this year — more people from around the country flock to Zigong    8     (view) its world-famous lanterns. Viewing lanterns became a Spring Festival custom in Zigong during the Tang Dynasty. Since then, the    9     (city) lantern show has been held in more than 70 countries and regions around the world, becoming a calling card of both Zigong and China. The popular show    10     (start) from the economic dilemma in the 1980s, when Zigong’s economy over-relying on a single product became a problem.

6 . “I was a bad student who became an astronaut.” Scott Kelly, an engineer and a retired astronaut, visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison and shared his own experience.

As a kid, he was distracted in school and he earned terrible grades and barely graduated from high school. The biggest struggle was that he used to ignore what the teachers were saying, and even he started to accept the fact that he would never be able to achieve what he dreamed.

After graduation, everything changed, quite by accident, when he picked up and read The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe’s classic account of the lives of the pioneering Americans who first explored space. Inspired at last, he decided he wanted to be an astronaut. To do that, he needed to get a technical degree. So starting that day, he was determined to do well in all the subjects. After so many years of daydreaming, it wouldn’t be easy. But he started thinking about it like a sport. The more he practiced his study skills, the better he got and the more he learned. Eventually, it became a competition with himself to see how good he could get.

But how can we find our motivation? There’s no fixed way. It’s about finding an interest and putting in the hard work. It’s likely that you just haven’t found what interests you or the topic is not being explained in a way that resonates (共鸣) with you. Reflect on your daily behavior. Do you find yourself absorbed in building things, interested in the ecosystem, enjoy reading the latest graphics in video games? That will give you clues about your interests-engineering, biology, coding, etc. Then talk to professionals in those fields and hear their stories for guidance and inspiration.

Kelly encourages young people to dream big and aim for the stars. Hard? Maybe. But anything worth having is worth pursuing.

1. What was Scott’s major challenge when he was in high school?

A．To understand what the teachers say in class.

B．To find his motivation in learning at school.

C．To finish the assignments with higher quality.

D．To realize his dream of becoming an astronaut.

2. What may Scott think of his learning when pursuing a technical degree?

A．Useful but irrelevant.

B．Interesting and pleasing.

C．Challenging but rewarding.

D．Stressful and time-consuming.

3. According to the passage, how can you motivate yourself?

A．By following other’s path and devoting yourself to it.

B．By running back over your behavior and putting efforts in it.

C．By trying various interests and picking what you like most.

D．By discovering personal interests and seeking professional advice.

4. Which of the following ideas would Scott probably agree with?

A．Well begun is half done.

B．Chances favors the prepared mind.

C．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.

D．Birds of a feather flock together.

7 . With over 125,000 followers, 34-year-old Oliver James is a star in the Book Tok community. And it all started with a simple_________: Learn to read.

For most of the kids, school is a place where they can develop a relationship with learning in a_________ environment. For James, the opposite. _________ with learning and behavior. Disabilities made him in_________ education. “The special education system at the time was a lot more_________ on behavioral than educating,” he said.

Reading_________ carried over into James’ adulthood and it significantly _________ his employment opportunities and affected his self-esteem (自信). However, when he and his wife decided_________ to their family of three, James became determined to change things.

Starting his journey with a book of inspirational quotes gifted by his wife, James began reading bits out loud and _________ to TikTok. Being a motivational speaker, he would often combine his interests with his heartfelt honesty and personality. __________ will often send James more books to read in hopes for his book reviews.

But perhaps the biggest __________ has been the way reading has __________ James’ relationship with his son. In an interview, he shared that they’ve not only__________ over books but reading has proven to be a great __________ for mental health, which has helped James become a better parent. James’ new goal is to read 100 new titles by 2024 —__________ for any bookworm in this day and age.

1.

A．title

B．goal

C．name

D．campaign

2.

A．safe

B．dangerous

C．quiet

D．noisy

3.

A．Putting up

B．Going up

C．Clearing up

D．Growing up

4.

A．logical

B．mental

C．special

D．common

5.

A．depended

B．turned

C．brought

D．focused

6.

A．struggles

B．proposals

C．conflicts

D．regrets

7.

A．developed

B．increased

C．reduced

D．damaged

8.

A．leave

B．occupy

C．expand

D．forgive

9.

A．commenting

B．posting

C．writing

D．connecting

10.

A．Fans

B．Librarians

C．Speakers

D．Booksellers

11.

A．weakness

B．outcome

C．threat

D．impact

12.

A．ruined

B．shaped

C．ended

D．saved

13.

A．collapsed

B．bonded

C．quarreled

D．argued

14.

A．resource

B．barrier

C．preference

D．loan

15.

A．unrealistic

B．greedy

C．ambitious

D．influential

8 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

It is a beautiful drone (无人机) shot,     1     popular kind of video you might see in a travel video. However, there is no drone     2     camera, and you needn’t travel in person because the video was generated by AI, which is from a new tool programmed by Open AI called Sora.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a large step up from what we’ve seen before. What most people don’t know is     3     Sora can do more than just create videos from scratch. It can combine separate videos into one scene. And its videos can be up     4     a minute long and in 1080p resolution.

    5     (compare) with Runway ML, the difference with Sora is that it’s coherent. Previous system have a     6     (character) morphing (图像渐变) quality as the video     7     (progress). With Sora, that’s vastly reduced or gone altogether. The     8     (object) remain stable even when covered by things in the foreground. We’ve seen something similar to this in research since 2019, but what is new is the ability     9     (combine) two videos together in one scene. It can also make up different camera angles of a single scene with just one prompt.

Sora, like digital audio workstation     10     (envelop) recording studios several years ago, must be a trend soon.

9 . Information can come from many different sources and perspectives. But when you’re only hearing the same perspectives and opinions over and over again, you may be in something called an echo chamber(回声室效应).

Echo chambers can happen anywhere information is exchanged, whether it’s online or in real life. The Internet has a unique type of echo chamber called a filter bubble(过滤泡沫).     1     Websites will then primarily show you content that’s similar to what you’ve already expressed interest in, which prevent you from finding new ideas online.

    2     If you’re ever wondering if a social group or website may be an echo chamber, stop and think about a few questions. Do they tend to only give one perspective on an issue? Is that viewpoint mainly supported by rumor or incomplete evidence?     3     If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may have found an echo chamber.

There’s no perfect way to avoid echo chambers, but here are a few tips that can help you stay on the right track.     4     Adding in a few media sources with different opinions will allow you to at least understand what people are saying outside of your echo chamber. Next, the most important aspect is reading each thing you see with a critical eye.     5     Lastly, attempt to search out reliable new sources that are known for trying their best to filter out false narratives.

A．Echo chambers can also be tricky to recognize.

B．It is created by keeping track of what you click on.

C．What comes first is to step out of your comfort zone.

D．Are facts ignored whenever they go against that viewpoint?

E．Make sure that each thing you accept as truth is truly fact.

F．The first step is to expand your media consumption sources.

G．Do you pay attention to the reliable information around you?

10 . When we decided to sell our flat, having been cheated by the previous owner, we thought it was really important to be completely honest with any potential buyers about having knotweed (蓼科杂草) in the garden. It had been such an unpleasant and stressful experience for us and we didn’t want to have anyone else suffer any longer.

We bought our two-bedroom flat in 2014, when it was just the two of us. But after having three kids it became too small, so we sold it last year. The flat has a small garden at the back, but we didn’t know the presence of knotweed until well after we moved in and had a note from our neighbor behind our flat saying that they thought we had knotweed. Then we had a look and found some very small offshoots for this was just around springtime. At that point my husband and I certainly didn’t realize quite how problematic it could be. But then we started reading all the horror stories and became really concerned — people couldn’t get a mortgage; they couldn’t sell; the plant was creeping through concrete etc.

Then we treated the offshoots with glyphosate and as far as we knew it was completely gone. Before we put the property on the market we had the house checked by some specialists, who thoroughly inspected everything, including the connecting garden, and couldn’t find anything at all. We signed a ten-year insurance-backed guarantee with the company that could be transferred to the new owners, then started marketing the property through an agent.

In fact we found a buyer pretty quickly and they didn’t beat us down on price as we’d already done much for the treatment. Knotweed doesn’t need to be a deal-breaker, as long as you’re upfront about it.

1. Why did the writer probably decide to sell the flat?

A．To remind others to be honest.	B．To escape the trouble of knotweed.
C．To avoid the crowded living space.	D．To relieve the anger of being cheated.

2. What can we know about knotweed from the text?

A．It is planted for home decoration.	B．It is a wild plant seen only in spring.
C．It would cause much trouble to people’s life.	D．It aroused writer’s attention at very beginning.

3. How did the writer succeed in selling the flat at a reasonable price?

A．By showing tricks to the buyer.	B．By taking effort to treat the knotweed.
C．By finding a well-known property agent.	D．By decorating the flat with a fantastic garden.

4. Which of the following best describes the writer?

A．Dependable and responsible.	B．Patient and modest.
C．Helpless and embarrassed.	D．Careless and greedy.