1 . Precognitive dreams are dreams that seemingly predict the future which cannot be inferred from actually available information. Former US President Abraham Lincoln once revealed the frightening dream to his law partner and friend Ward Hill Lamon, “…Then I heard people weep… ‘Who is dead in the White House?’ I demanded. ‘The President,’ ‘he was killed!’…” The killing did happen later.

Christopher French, Professor in the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, stated the most likely explanation for such a phenomenon was coincidence (巧合). “In addition to pure coincidences we must also consider the unreliability of memory”, he added. Asked what criteria would have to be met for him to accept that precognitive dreams were a reality, he said, “The primary problem with tests of the claim is that the subjects are unable to tell when the event(s)they’ve dreamed about will happen.”

However, some claimed to make such tests practicable. Professor Caroline Watt at the University of Edinburgh, has conducted studies into precognitive dreaming. She stated that knowing future through dreams challenged the basic assumption of science — causality (relationship of cause and effect).

Dick Bierman, a retired physicist and psychologist, who has worked at the Universities of Amsterdam, Utrecht and Groningen, has put forward a theory that may explain precognitive dreams. It is based on the fact that when scientists use certain mathematical descriptions to talk about things like electromagnetism (电磁学), these descriptions favour the belief that time only moves in one direction. However, in practice the wave that is running backwards in time does exist. This concept is called the time symmetry, meaning that the laws of physics look the same when time runs forward or backward. But he believes that time symmetry breaks down due to external conditions. “The key of the theory is that it assumes that there is a special context that restores the broken time-symmetry, if the waves running backwards are ‘absorbed’ by a consistent multi-particle (多粒子) system. The brain under a dream state may be such a system where broken time-symmetry is partially restored. This is still not a full explanation for precognitive dreams but it shows where physics might be adjusted to accommodate the phenomenon,” he explains.

Although Bierman’s explanation is still based on guesses and has not accepted by mainstream science, Watt does think it is worth considering. For now, believing that it’s possible to predict future with dreams remains an act of faith. Yet, it’s possible that one day we’ll wake up to a true understanding of this fascinating phenomenon.

1. According to French, what makes it difficult to test precognitive dreams?

A．Unavailability of people’s dreams.

B．That coincidences happen a lot in reality.

C．That criteria for dream reliability are not trustworthy.

D．People’s inability to tell when dreamt events will happen.

2. Believers in precognitive dreams may question the truth of ________.

A．the assumption of causality	B．the time symmetry
C．memories of ordinary people	D．modern scientific tests

3. We can infer from the passage that ________.

A．Lincoln was warned of the killing by his friend

B．Watt carried out several experiments on causality

C．researches on electromagnetism are based on the time symmetry

D．time’s moving in two directions may justify precognitive dreams

4. Which might be the best title of the passage?

A．Should Dreams Be Assessed?

B．Can Dreams Predict the Future?

C．How Can Physics Be Changed to Explain Dreams?

D．Why Should Scientists Study Precognitive Dreams?

2 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Remote Work Slows Senior Housing Market Recovery

With the rise of remote work, the market for senior housing has met with problems in its recovery. Only a few old people choose to live in senior-living communities     1     the growing senior population and the cancelation of COVID-19 restrictions once making family visits difficult.     2     this trend suggests is that people’s shift to remote work contributes to the slow rebound of the senior housing market. That is, remote work is keeping many older Americans from moving into senior-living communities once warmly     3     (welcome).

When more adults began working remotely during the pandemic (流行病), they were able to check in on aging parents easily — they     4     take care of their parents’ issues on short notice.

Experts have been analyzing the phenomenon in different ways. Some found that the greater flexibility to care for parents     5     (mean) people’s delay in sending aged parents to expensive senior-housing accommodations. Therefore, markets with high levels of people working from home usually have lower senior-housing occupancy rates. Others said remote work might have some effect but also pointed to different factors. For instance, many seniors think that their family wallets are getting thinner, making some of them reluctant     6     (send) to senior-living communities.

The age at which people enter senior housing is also increasing,     7     serves as another sign that shows people are choosing to delay transitioning. The rising cost of senior living weighs heavily on that decision. The CPI (consumer-price index) for nursing homes and adult day services rose 4.5% last May compared with     8     in May, 2022.

Still, many senior-housing operators are optimistic. When     9     (illustrate) their point, they showed an increase in the number of people turning 80 years old over the following years and the actual wealth they have collected. Moreover, they find remote work arrangements are decreasing in some parts of the country,     10     employees there have seen their lowered productivity while working from home.

3 . Social Masking

Amanda is always an expert at working the room. She would adopt the manner of the people around her to fit in while hiding her true personality. This is social masking, the process of hiding your natural way of interacting with others so you can feel accepted.     1    Instead, they are hoping to fit in with everybody else. Social masking is a set of learned pattern-matching behaviors, movements and actions where you try to be normal to fit in rather than stand out.

    2    People all wear certain social masks in order to get through some tricky life situations with confidence, according to Dr. Tara Quinn-Cirillo. And some experts even think social masking is built in all human beings at a physical level, adding that something in our brain gives indications of how to essentially stay safe and not stick out.

In a world that often tells us to just be ourselves, you might wonder why we are still dependent on these social masking behaviors. “Social masking happens because we as a species want to be included,” says Tara. “It has been a tribal thing of being together rather than being on our own, from a historical perspective.     3    ”

There is a huge difference between naturally identifying with someone and consciously social masking.    4    Social masking, on the other hand, involves a conscious effort to change your personality to suit your surroundings. It typically involves depressing your natural urges and changing your personal interests to fit the crowd.

A．Social maskers do not try hard to match other people in pace and tone.

B．Social masking is something we all engage in to some extent.

C．Social maskers are not trying to fox anyone.

D．When we are in natural identification with someone, it happens naturally, and there is very little effort involved.

E．It’s adopted by people unable to naturally act in a way considered socially acceptable.

F．That is, it’s an ancient part of our evolution to socialize, rather than be anti-social or a misfit.

4 . Antibiotics, which can destroy or prevent the growth of bacteria and cure infections, are vital to modern medicine. Their ability to kill bacteria without harming the patient has saved billions of lives and made surgical procedures much safer. But after decades of overuse, their powers are fading. Some bacteria have evolved resistance, creating a growing army of superbugs, against which there is little effective treatment. Antimicrobial (抗菌的) resistance, expected to kill 10 million people a year by 2050 up from around 1 million in 2019, has been seen as a crisis by many.

It would be unwise to rely on new antibiotics to solve the problem. The rate at which resistance emerges is increasing. Some new drugs last only two years before bacteria develop resistance. When new antibiotics do arrive, doctors often store them, using them only reluctantly and for short periods when faced with the most persistent infections. That limits sales, making new antibiotics an unappealing idea for most drug firms.

Governments have been trying to fix the problem by channeling cash into research in drug firms. That has produced only limited improvements. But there is a phenomenon worth a look. Microbiologists have known for decades that disease-causing bacteria can suffer from illnesses of their own. They are supersensitive to attacks by phages, specialized viruses that infect bacteria and often kill them. Phages are considered a promising alternative to antibiotics.

Using one disease-causing virus to fight bacteria has several advantages. Like antibiotics, phages only tend to choose particular targets, leaving human cells alone as they infect and destroy bacterial ones. Unlike antibiotics, phages can evolve just as readily as bacteria can, meaning that even if bacteria do develop resistance, phages may be able to evolve around them in turn.

That, at least, is the theory. The trouble with phages is that comparatively little is known about them. After the discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic, in 1928, they were largely ignored in the West. Given the severity of the antibiotic-resistance problem, it would be a good idea to find out more about them.

The first step is to run more clinical trials. Interest from Western firms is growing. But it is being held back by the fact that phages are an even less appealing investment than antibiotics. Since they are natural living things, there may be trouble patenting them, making it hard to recover any investment.

Governments can help fun d basic research into phage treatment and clarify the law around exactly what is and is not patentable. In time they can set up phage banks so as to make production cheaper. And they can spread awareness of the risks of overusing antibiotics, and the potential benefits of phages.

1. We can learn from paragraphs 1 and 2 that        .

A．doctors tend to use new antibiotics when the patients ask for them

B．antimicrobial resistance is developing more rapidly than predicted

C．new antibiotics fail to attract drug firms due to limited use of them

D．previous antibiotics are effective in solving modern health problems

2. What is phages’ advantage over antibiotics?

A．They can increase human cells when fighting bacteria.

B．They are not particular about which cells to infect and kill.

C．They can evolve accordingly when bacteria develop resistance.

D．They are too sensitive to be infected by disease-causing bacteria.

3. According to the passage, the obstacle to phage treatment is that        .

A．there is little chance of patenting phages in the future

B．governments provide financial support for other research

C．the emergence of superbugs holds back drug firms’ interest

D．over-dependence on antibiotics distracts attention from phages

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Governments fail to stop the use of antibiotics.

B．Phages could help prevent an antibiotics crisis.

C．Development of antibiotics is limited by phages.

D．Antimicrobial resistance calls for new antibiotics.

5 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Buy Now, Pay Later Spending

Buy now, pay later(BNPL) spending is expected to rise to record levels this holiday season. With so many young “buy now, pay later” shoppers already in debt from this short-term financing tool not requiring interest, questions emerge: Why do these shoppers use such a tool? And what risks does it pose to their budgets in the months     1     (come)?

The many Generation Z and millennials (typically around 40 years and younger) tend to use this short-term financing,     2     allows them to buy items and pay for them over time. Offered mostly by financial technologies, BNPL allows these customers to pay back their purchases     3     interest and with the first payment usually made at checkout. The most common “buy now, pay later” plan is     4     customers make four equal payments and pay off the debt in six weeks. It’s been a lifeline for some people, such as a university student     5     weekly income is not big enough. “BNPL provides consumers with flexible payment options so they     6     manage spending,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights. That is of great importance for many consumers, especially     7     with a tendency to purchase higher-cost items.

However, since BNPL     8     (appear), warnings from experts have come into our view. They have been indicating that it’s financially unhealthy to form such a spending habit. According to New York Federal Reserve economists, BNPL may encourage debt to increase over time,     9     (influence) a consumer’s ability to meet non-BNPL commitments, or users to over extend themselves. Users should also note that     10     interest is not charged on the loan, they’ll be hit with late fees for missed payments, which can add up quickly, says the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

6 . The next morning Alex was waiting in the FMA president’s suite when Jerome Patterton arrived. Alex filled him in quickly on the Jax report. Then he said, “I want you to give an order to the trust department to sell every share of Supranational we’re holding.”

“I won’t!” Patterton’s voice rose. “Who do you think you are, giving orders---“ “I’ll tell you who I am, Jerome. I’m the guy who warned the board against in-depth involvement with SuNatCo. I fought against heavy trust department buying of the stock, but no one---including you ---would listen. Now Supranational is caving in.” Alex leaned across the desk and slammed a fist down hard. “Don’t you understand? Supranational can bring this bank down with it.”

Patterton was shaken. “But is SuNatCo in real trouble? Are you sure?”

“If I weren’t, do you think I’d be here? I’m giving you a chance to salvage something at least.” He pointed to his wristwatch. “It’s an hour since the New York stock market opened. Jerome, get on the phone and give that order!”

Muscles around the bank president’s mouth twitched nervously. Never decisive, strong influence often swayed him. He hesitated, then picked up the telephone.

“Get me Mitchell in the trust department… Mitch? This is Jerome. Listen carefully. I want you to give a sell order immediately on all the Supranational stock we hold… Yes, sell every share.” Patterton listened, then said impatiently, “Yes, I know what it’ll do to the market. And I know it’s irregular.” His eyes sought Alex’s for reassurance. The hand holding the telephone trembled as he said, “There’s no time to hold meetings. So do it! Yes, I accept responsibility.”

He hung up and reached for a glass of water. “The stock is already down. Our selling will depress it more. We’ll be taking a big beating.”

“It’s our clients---people who trusted us---who will take the beating. And they’d have taken a bigger one still, if we’d waited. Even now we’re not out of the woods. A week from now the SEC may disallow those sales. They may rule we had inside knowledge that Supranational was about to be bankrupt, which we should have reported and which would have halted trading in the stock.

1. Alex filled him in quickly on the Jax report. The sentence means____.

A．He filled his name on the Jax report quickly.

B．Alex signed his name to the Jax report quickly.

C．He offered the FMA president the Jax report smartly.

D．He prepared the Jax report for Patterton to sign smartly.

2. From the context we can infer that ________.

A．SuNatCo would bring the stock market down if it sold all the Supranational stock they held.

B．The president was stubborn and would never listen to others.

C．Alex will take the place of Patterton in the future.

D．the clients would take a bigger beating than the bank

3. The New York stock market is the place where_____.

A．the old stock can be bought and sold

B．shares can be bought and sold

C．paper stock can be bought and sold

D．some of the stock can be taken without being paid for

4. In the sentence “Even now we’re not out the woods.” The phrase “out of the woods” means _____.

A．free from danger	B．short of wood
C．running out of wood	D．set free

7 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Any Problem with New Job Titles?

CEO, marketing director, lead writer, sales associate… Employees’ roles have generally been defined with these straightforward terms. They communicate essential employee details such as job function and seniority and make sense to employees and employers alike. But now new titles are found in the changing world of work. Fancy but unclear labels like “chief visionary officer” or “business development guru” come into our view, making the traditional system seem rigid. Will there be problems?

In general, traditional job titles are clear and indicative of the employee’s seniority and responsibilities. For example, it’s largely accepted that assistants are below associates, who are below directors, who are below vice (副的) presidents, who are below CEOs. But these new job titles are meaningless outside an organization, at least in some people’s view. A recruiter (招聘人员) may not be able to identify the right candidates based on their previous working experience. Besides, having an extremely uncommon word in a title may give a job hunter difficulty in explaining his past job to future recruiters, according to Adrjan, director of an economic research. That means both employees and employers could suffer.

Yet, from another perspective, altered job titles can help make an employee feel more valued and better empowered in a company. “They massively boost your confidence,” says Hughes, who works as “head of hype and culture” at an advertising agency. “They put faith in your competence, creating an environment in which you can grow and develop.” And from the companies’ standpoint, they want to convey the message that they are trying to treat their staff in a more respectful way. For example, if they use “people” instead of “human resources” in a title, they signal that they value individuals as customers and partners rather than resources to exploit.

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8 . Shanghai Regulation to Help Boost AI

Shanghai’s decision to boost the development of the artificial intelligence industry will promote the city’s digital transformation and its efforts to build itself into an international AI highland, experts said in an interview.

The city passed a regulation on boosting AI just months ago, marking the first such effort in China at the provincial level.     1    

“This regulation emphasizes industry innovation and guidance for future development,” said Yan Rui, director of legal affairs in the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress, at a recent media briefing. “    2     It will also strongly support the digital transformation of Shanghai, and assist creation of an AI highland with global influence.” Yan said.

One highlight of the AI regulation is that the municipal departments concerned could draw up lists of minor violations during the development of the AI industry which would not receive administrative punishment. “    3     It is the same case with AI. Therefore, it is an international agreement to allow for minor errors during the research and development process,” said Weng Guanxi, a lawyer at a Shanghai-based law firm. The regulation gives a clear definition of AI and the AI industry and encourages innovative activities in the field by people, enterprises and organizations.

    4     In 2021, the combined output value of AI enterprises above a designated size, or with an annual revenue of 20 million yuan ($16.85 million) or above, reached 305 billion yuan, 2.28 times that of 2018, according to China Securities Journal. The number of talented professionals working in the AI field in Shanghai has soared from 100,000 in 2018 to 230,000 in 2021, said a Xinhua News Agency report.

A．The AI industry worldwide is undergoing orderly transformation.

B．The regulation came into effect on October 1, just as planned.

C．Shanghai’s AI industry scale has expanded dramatically in the past few years.

D．Government and the related division’s responsibilities are all within the framework of established laws and regulations.

E．The regulation on AI intends to facilitate various stimulations for the high-quality development of the AI industry.

F．The core of scientific research is that it is a process of constantly making mistakes and distinguishing right from wrong.

9 . Alain Aspect, a French physicist, who won a long-expected Nobel Physics Prize on Tuesday (October 4, 2022), contributed a lot in proving the theory of quantum entanglement (量子缠绕), a theory — famously raised by Albert Einstein — that when a particle (粒子) is split into two, the properties of the two new particles remain connected, as if by an invisible piece of string, regardless of how far apart they are. It remained a theory until Aspect and his team proved it in a laboratory experiment for the first time in 1981, involving two photons (光子) at a distance of 12 meters.

Quantum strangeness has fascinated Aspect as a physicist. Awarded along with Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger and John Clauser from the United States, Aspect emphasised the importance of international scientific cooperation. “He is one of those professors in physics. A whole community today works under his leadership,” said Retailleau, a former president of Paris-Saclay University. “Aspect is also a ‘tireless teacher’ who gives impressive lectures”, she added. His former student Olivier Reymond, who is now working on developing a quantum processor, said, “As well as passing his passion for physics on to his students, Aspect is also a food lover who will tell you all about his recipes for the goose liver.”

Alain Aspect is widely recognized for his experimental test of Bell’s inequalities, proposed by the late John Bell in 1964, and the related tests require measurements to be made on photons moving apart in opposite directions to look for connections between some of their physical properties, for instance, their polarizations. Aspect’s major contribution was to propose a feasible experimental scheme to make these measurements by rapidly changing the orientation of polarizers while photons moved through the device, and even more importantly, to implement it successfully in his experiments.

Sheila Rowan, president of the Institute of Physics which publishes Physics World, congratulated the team on their “well-deserved” recognition. “This is an area of physics with ongoing, profound impact, at a fundamental level to help understand the world around us and being explored for use in highly novel technologies for sensing and communication today,” she added.

Indeed, Aspect’s experiments have attracted enormous attention and triggered a string of theoretical and experimental work on quantum entanglement. As a result, new avenues have been explored in quantum computers, which in principle could outperform traditional computers at some tasks. We are generating more data now than ever before, need to analyse that data in more complex ways, and get results out faster. Quantum computing could help us to find new properties in the production of new materials for everyday use and it could also reduce power consumption within the manufacturing process. With quantum computing, research can be moved from the lab onto the computer where multiple imitations can be run while stretching your companies research and development budget further.

1. According to paragraph 2, Aspect is ______ as well as a physicist.

A．a tiresome professor	B．an inspiring teacher
C．a cross-cultural food lover	D．an empathetic community leader

2. It can be concluded about Aspect’s experiment that ______.

A．few people can comprehend its complicated process

B．interpersonal communication is promoted because of it

C．it was conducted successfully decades before Aspect won the Nobel Prize

D．Sheila Rowan played quite an important role in the publication of the result

3. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Aspect deserves the Prize for theoretical contributions to computing.

B．The team’s findings will bring about changes both in science and daily life.

C．Aspect is working as the president in Paris-Saclay University for the moment.

D．The team’s main contribution is the finding of practical methods in experimenting.

4. Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?

A．Fruitful Joint Efforts in Popular Science

B．Alain Aspect — A Theoretical Physicist

C．Nobel Prize — For Experimental Purpose

D．Ground-breaking Achievement in Physics

10 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Closer to Equality

Left. Right. Left. Right again.

Getting lost in the rhythm of my turns was one of my favorite parts of skiing. Whenever I feel the soft, powdery snow beneath my skis, I feel like I’m capable of     1    .

I started skiing when I was just three years old. While the other children in my group     2     (mess) around, I was busy rolling down the small slopes. Although there were many difficulties, I soon mastered the basic concepts     3     (underlie) the art of turning.

I decided to take my skiing     4     the next level and joined a team when I was seven. Riding the chairlift with my mother, I saw free skiers spinning through the air. I immediately knew which team I wanted to join: free skiing, an event heavily     5     (dominate) by boys.

As soon as I joined the team, I was placed at its       6     (low) level. However, I never stopped climbing the rankings     7     I was placed into the highest group. At that point, I was the only girl on my team. I was put down at first; nobody wanted to ride the chairlift with me. But as time passed, I slowly became more accepted. And this entire process took three years.

In the past, having been forced to assume the roles of stay-at-home and motherly figures, women couldn’t imagine       8     they wanted to be. Even today, in some countries, there are still so many cases     9     people are not yet accepting the idea that women can make their own choices or pave their own paths. But if we are to fully accept these views, we will be able to move closer to equality.

Being a girl in such a sport can be difficult, but I’m actually thankful that my experiences have taught me to face whatever setbacks I meet with in life. I encourage you, all the girls,     10     (step) out of your comfort zone to show the boys that girls are just as powerful as they are.