1 . Some Innovative Buildings
Cube Houses (Rotterdam, Netherlands)Inspiration: Trees in a forest
Size: About one-fourth the size of a basketball court
As a popular attraction, the 38 Cube Houses are also real houses that people live in! The cubes have concrete foundations and floors with a wood-frame living space on top. The furniture is tailor-made to fit the odd angles. Architect Piet Blom designed the homes based on the idea of “living as an urban roof”.
Wonder Works (Pigeon Forge, the USA)Inspiration: A laboratory in an Italian-style villa
Size: About nine-tenths the size of a football field
Looking at the cracks in this building, you might think, Is it about to collapse? And how do they get palm trees to grow upside down? But the upside-down features are just for show. This indoor amusement park is actually pretty normal with more than 100 hands-on science exhibits and activities.
Guangzhou Opera House (Guangzhou, China)Inspiration: Erosion (侵蚀) of rocks and landscapes
Size: About 13 times the size of a football field
The Guangzhou Opera House was designed by Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid. Though nature inspired the architect, she used 21st-century construction and design methods to make her design a reality. GPS positioning and laser techniques helped shape the structure.
Bubble Palace (Cannes, France)Inspiration: “Habitology”—the idea that habitats should use nature’s curves (曲线)
Size: Almost three times the size of a basketball court
This house may look like a space settlement, but it’s really a 10-bedroom palace. Made of cave-like bubbles, it also has ponds, waterfalls, swimming pools, an outdoor theater and views of the Mediterranean Sea. Architect Antti Lovag had the bubbles built out of iron bars covered with wire web and concrete, and then coated with a mix of fiberglass and plastic.
1. Which building involves a visual trick?| A．Cube Houses. | B．Wonder Works. |
| C．Guangzhou Opera House. | D．Bubble Palace. |
| A．Trees in a forest. | B．A laboratory in a villa. |
| C．A concept on habitat. | D．A geographic phenomenon. |
| A．In China. | B．In France. | C．In Netherlands. | D．In the USA. |
Representing wisdom, power, and wealth, dragons are respected and honored in Chinese culture, which are said
If you’ve seen a Chinese New Year parade (庆祝游行), you’ve probably seen a colorful dragon
The culture of dragon and lion dances has spread beyond China to southeast Asia, and even to some regions with significant Chinese communities in Europe, America, Australia, and New Zealand. It has become a
3 . On Sept. 17, 2022, a father and son set out to begin the first of three legs of the Ironman competition in Cambridge, Maryland. Jeff Agar, 59, and his son, Johnny Agar, 28, weren’t the
From the day Johnny was born, Jeff and his wife refused to let their son be
Johnny became
After 16 hours, 55 minutes and 35 seconds, the father and son
| A．distinct | B．typical | C．ambitious | D．amateur |
| A．consciously | B．anxiously | C．hopefully | D．literally |
| A．qualify | B．emerge | C．serve | D．continue |
| A．impressive | B．smooth | C．frightening | D．exhausting |
| A．given away | B．turned down | C．taken on | D．held back |
| A．Forced | B．Discouraged | C．Determined | D．Prepared |
| A．signed | B．cheered | C．lifted | D．brought |
| A．experiences | B．difficulties | C．capacities | D．disabilities |
| A．sensitive | B．attracted | C．limited | D．important |
| A．pushing | B．comforting | C．displaying | D．treating |
| A．permitted | B．warned | C．drove | D．persuaded |
| A．drew | B．left | C．spotted | D．crossed |
| A．thanked | B．surrounded | C．encountered | D．disturbed |
| A．voice | B．rate | C．profile | D．grade |
| A．theirs | B．mine | C．yours | D．his |
4 . Even minor changes in behavior can have a positive environmental impact. Therefore, it is suggested to remove or reduce single-use plastic bags from your shopping trips, because the bags break down slowly, causing them to linger in landfills. But how long does a plastic bag really stick around?
The Center for Biological Diversity estimates that it takes a bag roughly 1000 years to break down. The term “break down” is a little misleading, though. Plastic ends up photodegrading (光降解) from ultraviolet (紫外线) radiation because the majority of microorganisms cannot eat it. And even after the bags degrade, the micro-plastics they leave behind may still harm the environment.
While 1000 years seems long, it is only an estimate. Since the invention of plastic bags in the 1950s or so, humankind has never actually seen the substance break down in real time. Instead, scientists have adopted respirometry tests (呼吸运动测量法), which helps estimate the breakdown rate of an organic substance by measuring the CO2 that the microorganisms produce when breaking down the material. When an organic substance, such as food waste, is present, CO2 levels rise, which allows scientists to estimate the rate of breakdown. However, because plastic bags don’t produce any CO2,—microorganisms aren’t eating them, the bags are just sitting there. If buried in a landfill and sheltered from ultraviolet light, plastic bags will last a very long time.
Bags have an impact on the environment beyond just their removal. It takes fossil fuels to make bags; one estimate puts this amount at 12 million barrels (桶) of oil annually. And after a bag has served its purpose in a consumer’s hands, it may then enter the food chain for wildlife. Plastic that builds up along the food chain is consumed by creatures like birds and fish.
While reducing the use of plastic bags is a good idea, choosing a cloth bag might not be the habit that will help the environment the most. The carbon footprint left by the cloth bags must be countered by thousands of uses.
1. What does the underlined word “linger” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Reproduce. | B．Integrate. | C．Emerge. | D．Last. |
| A．Its duration of 1000 years is an overestimate. |
| B．Exposure to ultraviolet light is essential to it. |
| C．Respirometry tests effectively estimate its rate. |
| D．The level of CO2 released during it usually rises. |
| A．The multiple environmental costs of plastic bags. |
| B．The consumption of fuels for plastic bag production. |
| C．The harm of plastic bags to the food chain for wildlife. |
| D．The challenge of removing plastic bags from the ecosystem. |
| A．Declining plastic shopping bag offers. | B．Reducing the production of plastic bags. |
| C．Reusing the same cloth bag repeatedly. | D．Switching from plastic bags to cloth ones. |
5 . Joyce Loaiza lives alone, but when returning to her apartment at a senior community, she often has a chat with a friendly female voice. The 81-year-old is among the first in the United States to receive the robot ElliQ made by Intuition Robotics, which has been the only device using artificial intelligence specifically designed to address loneliness of the old.
Looking like a small table light, the device has an eyeless, mouthless head. It remembers each user’s interests and their talks, helping create a special experience with each new discussion, which can be as deep as the meaning of life or as light as a small joke. “She’ll make comments like, ‘I would go outside if I had hands, but I can’t hold an umbrella,’” said Loaiza. ElliQ also plays music and provides spiritual sayings. It leads exercises, asks about the owner’s health, and gives reminders to take medicines and drink water. It can also support video calls and contact family, friends, or doctors in an emergency.
The average user interacts with ElliQ more than 30 times a day and more than 90 percent report lower levels of loneliness, Intuition Robotics CEO Dor Skuler said.
Brigham Young University professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad, who studies the effects of loneliness on health, worries that a device like ElliQ might have short-term helpful effects but it could make people less likely to seek human contact. She noted that the difficult feeling of loneliness should push people to reconnect socially.
Skuler and state officials agreed that ElliQ is not an alternative to human contact. But some older people cannot leave home or do not have many friends. Charlotte Taylor, director of an Area Agency on Aging, said Covid-19 left many older people more disconnected. Her agency has provided 300 ElliQs which, she believes, help the situation. She said, “People generally like her and she makes them smile.”
1. What can we infer from Loaiza’s comments on ElliQ?| A．It sometimes fails to be of any help. | B．It is humorous and has the human touch. |
| C．Some of its comments make no sense. | D．It shows an interest in the outside world. |
| A．Its inefficiency to ease loneliness. | B．Its failure to push people to reconnect. |
| C．Its potential for being addictive. | D．Its replacement for human interactions. |
| A．Novel. | B．Popular. | C．Satisfying. | D．Advanced. |
| A．Chatty Robot Helps Seniors Fight Loneliness | B．AI-based Device Is to Dominate Elders’ Life |
| C．ElliQ: a Revolutionary Innovation in AI Field | D．ElliQ: a Remarkable Assistant after Covid-19 |
6 . At first glance, 15-year-old Kenan Pala seems like a typical teenager, playing video games with his friends, but he also loves finance and economics and invests in the stock (股票) market. He founded Kids4Community, a nonprofit offering volunteer projects for kids, when he was just 12.
The idea came out of his family’s experience. Pala’s parents came to the U.S. from Turkey in 1998 and founded a company. “We started very little here,” said Pala’s mother. “But for the help we got along the way, we wouldn’t have been where we are.” The Palas wanted their children to live by this lesson, so they encouraged them to give back to the community.
Anyone can donate with Kids4Community, but its events are intended for kids. Pala’s organization aims to boost young people’s involvement in community efforts because many organizations don’t let children volunteer.
Last month, Kids4Community volunteers made 2,000 hygiene kits containing shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and other supplies. Kids4Community organizes the event annually and distributes the kits to the needy through Christmas Day. In fall, the group’s efforts are focused on disaster victims. Over the years, it has made care packages for survivors of earthquakes and Hurricanes.
Another key focus is homelessness — an issue that has taken on particular significance. Years ago, Pala was jogging along the beach when he came across a sickly baby seal (海豹), surrounded by people who were caring for it and calling for help. “Hours later, I saw a homeless person, also sick and needing help, but people were just ignoring him,” Pala said. Now, Kids4Community organizes initiatives both to meet physical needs of the homeless and give them a sense of dignity and hope.
In the coming years, Pala wants to expand Kids4Community’s reach beyond San Diego and perhaps beyond California.
1. What does the Pala family lesson convey?| A．Responsibility. | B．Forgiveness. | C．Gratitude. | D．Struggle. |
| A．Disaster relief. | B．Supplies delivery. |
| C．Disaster forecast. | D．Supplies production. |
| A．To advocate wildlife conservation. | B．To launch the initiatives for the homeless. |
| C．To praise the warm-hearted people. | D．To account for his attention to homelessness. |
| A．Disciplined and reliable. | B．Committed and consistent. |
| C．Insightful and intelligent. | D．Public-spirited and enterprising. |
7 . At a desk between a hallway entrance and a classroom door, Marge Mangelsdorf gently urged Harlan to write down what he remembered. The two had just finished reading Hi! Fly Cuy, a popular children’s book about a boy and his pet bug. Now it was time for Harlan, a first grader, to go over the plot and characters with his tutor.
Mangelsdorf spends several days each week in empty classrooms like these, working with kids through Oasis Intergenerational Tutoring. The program, which pairs volunteers with students for 30-45 minutes each week, is overseen by a St. Louis-based nonprofit that promotes healthy aging through a mix of community involvement and continuing education. This model holds a unique appeal. Its workers are largely retired volunteers, who cost less in fees, making their continuing presence sustainable.
There is some proof of its effectiveness. In a 2023 survey of educators in schools where the program works, 80 percent of classroom teachers said they’d seen improvement in their students’ reading skills, and 67 percent said they’d perceived an improvement in those students’ attitudes at school.
Whatever the effects of tutoring on young kids, the program’s work is also meant to help their volunteers. When given the chance to be active and help others, seniors’ quality of life can dramatically improve. A 2020 Harvard University study found that adults over 50 who volunteered at least two hours per week were less likely to express loneliness, depression and hopelessness and more likely to be optimistic and purposeful. Putting them in direct contact with school-aged children might be the best way to make the best of their talents, especially given America’s growing number of seniors.
1. Why did Harlan write down what he remembered?| A．To finish writing a new novel. |
| B．To teach students how to read a novel. |
| C．To create a fantastic story for the old. |
| D．To review the content of Hi! Fly Guy. |
| A．It made fewer profits in 2023. |
| B．It builds a bridge between tutors and students. |
| C．It models after another community institution. |
| D．All of its workers are retired teachers from schools. |
| A．By giving examples. |
| B．By analyzing a questionnaire. |
| C．By making a contrast. |
| D．By presenting data. |
| A．Elderly workers benefit from the voluntary work. |
| B．The old suffer from many health problems. |
| C．Harvard University is in favor of the voluntary program. |
| D．Harvard University set up the voluntary program. |
8 . I’m 62 now and always planned to
I started volunteering three years ago. My team of volunteers have
Working with my older neighbors is
As an area coordinator (协调人), I also help recruit (招募) and manage volunteers, without whom the work would be
I’ve met amazing people from all
| A．remind | B．belong | C．sell | D．volunteer |
| A．annoyed | B．puzzled | C．stuck | D．confused |
| A．picked up | B．set up | C．stepped up | D．held back |
| A．formally | B．extremely | C．likely | D．regularly |
| A．community | B．school | C．human | D．nature |
| A．rewarding | B．hardworking | C．embarrassing | D．disappointing |
| A．forgotten | B．found | C．judged | D．overcome |
| A．difference | B．comment | C．mistake | D．risk |
| A．delivering | B．announcing | C．writing | D．sharing |
| A．assumed | B．valued | C．proved | D．complained |
| A．common | B．convenient | C．impossible | D．strange |
| A．habit | B．energy | C．health | D．journey |
| A．suggestions | B．names | C．walks | D．opinions |
| A．enriched | B．realized | C．imagined | D．remembered |
| A．stress | B．understanding | C．loneliness | D．education |
9 . The ability of music to evoke (唤起) specific, often powerful feelings is no secret to anyone who has listened to Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No.5”, Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child”, the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated”, Lizzo’s “Good as Hell” or any of the other countless compositions that have found their way onto Western playlists in the past few centuries.
The emotional effects of music are the point, of course. They are also the subject of a fast-growing field of research around the world in which scientists are exploring the nature of the many “subjective experiences” — such as joy, sadness, anxiety and calmness — that music evokes.
In a recent set of experiments, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and their colleagues sought to determine if the feelings that people experience when listening to music “show evidence of universality”. They compared and analyzed how more than 2,800 U. S. and Chinese study participants responded to 2,168 (mostly Western) samples of instrumental music. The team identified 13 distinct and very specific feelings that the Chinese and U. S. subjects shared when listening to music, despite their cultural differences.
The music used in the research, described in the paper as “the richest set of Western music samples ever studied,” included classical, pop, rock, indie, hip-hop, R&B, country, film soundtracks, and more. An additional 189 sample of traditional Chinese music was also used. In all, the researchers gathered 375,230 judgments of the samples from the study participants.
In the first experiment, subjects listened to Western music samples (each of which was just five seconds long) and reported on the specific feelings they evoked, choosing responses from a list of 28 “categories of subjective experience” provided by the researchers. Terms on the list included “victorious/heroic”, “sad/depressing”, “joyful/cheerful”, “awe-inspiring/amazing” and “dreamy”. The team then used data-driven statistical modeling to identify the 13 shared experiences. The second experiment, which included the Chinese music, involved broad evaluations of the samples by participants—such as whether the subjects liked or disliked them or found them exciting or not. A central finding of the study, the researchers write, is that specific feelings “drive the experience of music” more than the broader features.
1. Why does the author mention these songs in the first paragraph?| A．Because they all have strong musical emotional effects. |
| B．Because their loop playback rates are very high. |
| C．Because they have all become world-renowned songs. |
| D．Because they have won countless awards. |
| A．Music can directly express people’s true emotions. |
| B．Music should have a variety of styles. |
| C．Music will easily ease people’s various emotions. |
| D．Music can produce significant emotional effects. |
| A．People’s taste in music. |
| B．Differences in Chinese and Western Music. |
| C．The universal feelings of different music. |
| D．The great influence of music on people. |
| A．In the first experiment, people shared their experiences with each other. |
| B．In the first experiment, people chose how they felt from a list provided by the researchers. |
| C．In the second experiment, people need to write down the types of songs. |
| D．In the second experiment, people need to sing the songs. |
10 . The Tomatina Festival (西红柿节) is a festival that is held in a town named Bunol in Spain, on which people throw tomatoes for fun. It is held on the last Wednesday of August each year.
In 1945, during a parade (游行) in the town one day, young men who wanted to be in the parade started a fight in the town square. They used tomatoes as weapons (武器) .
At around 10: 00 a. m. on Wednesday, activities that are organized to celebrate the festival begin.
The Tomatina Festival has inspired other similar celebrations in other parts of the world, for example, in the city of Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China, a tomato fight is held on October 19th.
| A．The first one is climbing a pole with a ham on top. |
| B．There are also various competitions held during the festival. |
| C．The local government has made some rules for the safety of people. |
| D．This is the most popular story about how the Tomatina Festival started. |
| E．The whole square becomes red because there is tomato juice everywhere. |
| F．Hotels, parks, or convention centers are common places for large festivals. |
| G．The tomatoes there are less expensive and are grow n specially for the festival. |
