When I woke up, I felt pains all over. A pool of sticky blood surrounded my head. I lay trapped in the bottom of n smooth-walled pit (坑) with an empty water bottle.
I thought of what had happened. I was climbing down the mountain as I was admiring the beautiful scenery. Accidentally. I stepped on a loose rock. Then I slipped, fell with the rock and got stuck somewhere below the top. It was getting dark in the pit. Only my mother knew where I’d gone. I promised to have lunch with her. Thinking of this. I took my phone out and dialed her number with shaking fingers. No service. The silence, which earlier I’d valued, was now horrible.
With a sharp pain in my head, I was terrified. I knew I’d fallen far, but I wasn’t sure where I was. I called 911 because I knew by the pain that my back was severely injured, if not broken. My ear was torn badly. There was still no service. I dug through my bag to assess my supplies and found a whistle and some wipes.
I put the whistle around my neck and blew, though I knew no one would hear me. It was 1:15 pm and I was miles from the town where I lived. I used the wipes to clean off as much blood as I could. I rested. Then I screamed, blew my whistle, and let myself think the unthinkable. What if they can’t find me? What if this is it?
I decided to get moving. I climbed through a small opening, but when I peered over the next edge, my heart sank: there was a 30-foot drop. There was no way down. I was trapped.
I knew with that extreme Arizona heat in the day and bitter desert cold at night, I wouldn’t last long. But I thought my mother was sure to call the police for help if she couldn’t get in touch with me. With a little hope, I prayed the police would send a helicopter (直升机) to my resecu.
注意: 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。
Around five hours later, a growing buzz (嗡嗡声) in the air broke the silence.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Though the pilot saw me, it was difficult for the team to get to me.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________One bright Saturday morning, Mali and her mom walked around the neighbourhood. That is, her mom walked, but Mali ran, skipped, jumped over puddles and visited the neighbours’ dogs. Mali paused to look at the budding (发芽) trees on her block. “I can’t wait until summer,” she said, “especially for Mrs. Fair’s great tomatoes at her market stand.” She pointed.
Mali’s mom stood looking at the empty lot where the market was set up every summer weekend. She looked at Mali, “Honey, Mrs. Fair told me last week that she had to close her stand. She’s really getting too old to run it anymore.”
Mali turned, stared, and put her hands on her waist. “But Mrs. Fair’s stand can’t close!” she said. “It’s the only place in the neighbourhood we can buy fresh, delicious tomatoes.” Then she added, to show she wasn’t being selfish, “Everyone needs fruits and vegetables for a healthy diet.”
After they got home, Mali headed out to her backyard swing to think. “If only I could plant a garden,” she thought. “but our yard is way too small.” Just then, she noticed her neighbour, Mr. Taylor, looking at his daffodils. Mali knew he was thinking about how he had planted those flowers with his wife. This was the first spring since his wife had died, and Mali saw the sadness on his face. Then she had an idea.
Mali cleared her throat, and Mr. Taylor looked up. Mali decided to walk over to the fence. “Hi, Mr. Taylor,” she said. He waved, and turned away. “Wait!” Mali cried. Taking a risk while she still felt brave, she rushed to gather her thoughts. “Mr. Taylor, Mrs. Fair isn’t doing her tomato stand anymore because she’s getting old. So I’d like to grow tomatoes. I don’t want to get in the way of your flowers, but I really want tomatoes.”
Suddenly, Mr. Taylor smiled. “Mali, I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but you’ve made me smile. Reasons to smile have been scarce lately. What do you want to do?” Mali repeated, “I wanted to plant tomatoes, but I have no big land.” She sounded a little awkward.
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。
Just then, an idea came to Mr. Taylor.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When the fruit ripened, there were more juicy, red tomatoes than even Mali could have imagined.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________By the time we reached the airport, my mother was angry. “We’re going to be late,”she said as she pulled into the newly opened parking area.
My husband David and I had come to pick up my oldest son, who had flown to spend theNew Year with the family. As always, Mom had insisted on driving us to the airport.
We picked a lane (车道) that didn’t look too busy. When our turn came, Mom rolled down her window to grab the parking ticket from the machine. We watched and waited for the gate to lift so we could drive through. Instead, we heard a voice,“Please take the ticket.”“Give me a minute,”Mom answered.
It’s a well-known fact that I often talk to myself. So does my mother. So at that time, Ididn’t think anything of my mother’s words.
The machine sounded again. “Please take the ticket.”
“I’m trying. I can’t reach it,”she said.
This time, my husband and I glanced at each other with our eyebrows raised. Certainly,Mom knew the voice was automated (自动化的) and not a real person speaking to her.
“Please take the ticket.”
“I’m trying. I’m trying. It’s too far away. Give me a minute.”
In fairness to my mother, automated machines had recently arrived in the world, and there weren’t many around yet. We had never run into one at the airport before. In the old days, the machine spit out a parking ticket, and if you couldn’t reach the ticket, you simply opened your door and grabbed it. Now, the new metal safety railings (护栏) on either side of the car made it impossible to open the door.
“Please take the ticket.”
“It’s too far. I’m trying. I’m trying.”
The traffic behind us grew impatient. I saw people trying to back their cars so they could find another lane. All the while, the machine continued,“Please take the ticket...”
注意：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。
Mom was frustrated (沮丧的).
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I managed to reach for my mother’s safety belt and tried to unfasten (解开) it.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It is a hot sunny Saturday morning on the farm. Maya, Duksie and Doobie are helping Mama K in her vegetable garden. The children work all morning.
Mama K always gives the children a treat for helping her. Sometimes it’s cake or chocolate; sometimes it’s apples, pears or oranges. Mama K has only one rule. “Share it fair!” The children know they must share the treats equally, so they all get the same amount.
Today Mama K has baked a round strawberry cake with pink icing (糖霜) and berries from her garden. The children wait on the grass for their treat. “Here you go!” smiles Mama K. “But remember the rule. Share it fair!”
Maya has the first turn to share the cake. She uses the knife to draw lines in the icing. The others watch her. She does not cut the cake yet. The others must first agree if her way is fair. “I think I will make two cuts down like this. Now we have three slices, all the same!” Maya shows them. There is one line on the left and the other on the right.
“No way!” says Duksie. “The one in the middle is much too big!” Doobie also shakes his head. Maya laughs and tells Duksie to try.
“Pass me the knife.I’ll do it,” says Duksie First she rubs out Maya’s pattern in the icing, and then she makes one cut across and one down. “Look, I have made my three slices!” “That’s not fair!” shout Maya and Doobie together,.
“Why don’t you try, Doobie?” says Duksie. “I bet you can’t do it!”
“I wish the cake was a square, and then it would be easy!” says Doobie thoughtfully. And then! A picture comes into Doobie’s head. He sees the silver badge (标识) at the front of his father’s big red Benz truck. “I’ve got it! I’ve got it! I know how to do it,” shouts Doobie.
“How did you work it out?” Maya asks. Doobie smiles to himself. For now it’s his secret. Later, he will tell his dad.
注意: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。
First Doobie uses a knife to smooth Duksie’s lines in the icing.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With Mama K’s encouragement, Maya takes charge, expertly cutting along Doobie’s lines to make three equal slices.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________随着人工智能的快速发展，ChatGPT已进入我们的生活，正逐渐影响我们的学习方式和体验，有人认为它会带来诸多便利，也有人心存顾虑。假设你是明启中学的学生王磊，学校贴吧就此话题正在热议，你对此很感兴趣，决定回帖响应。回帖内容应包括：
1. 你是否支持使用ChatGPT；
2. 你的理由。
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6 . Those who had the pleasure of watching Benny Goodman at work saw a rather ordinary-looking man in rimless glasses and a conservative business suit; but they also saw a human being who could play the clarinet(单簧管) like no one before or since. This made Benny Goodman a unique individual.
Other Americans who have stood out from the flock include Joe DiMaggio, Beverly Sill, Ernest Hemingway and Jonas Salk. They, like Benny Goodman, were recognized and honored for no other reason than excellence.
It is doing something better than other people that makes us unique. Yet a surprising number of people still see individuality as a surface thing. They wear garish clothes, dye their hair strange colors and decorate their skin with tattoos to make some kind of social statement. But an ordinary guy who has dyed his hair purple or orange is nothing more than the same person with a funny-looking head.
The whole purpose of individuality is excellence. Those who invent, who improvise(即兴发挥), who know more about a subject than other people do, and who take something that doesn’t work and make it work––these people are the very soul of capitalism.
Charles Kettering didn’t like the idea of cranking a car to make it start, so he invented the electric starter. Henry Ford figured out the assembly-line technique and made it possible to mass-produce automobiles, and Elisha Otis, inventor of the elevator, indirectly created the city sky-line. These people understood that individualism means working at the top of one’s capacity.
The ones with the purple hair and the funky jewelry are just along for the ride, trying to be “different” and not knowing how to go about it.
The student who earns straight A’s on his report card has grasped the idea and has found the real meaning of individuality. So has the youngster who has designed his own spaceship, who gives piano recitals, who paints pictures of the world around him.
Benny Goodman understood it too. This is why he was at his best, blowing his clarinet, in a blue suit and black shoes.
1. The author mentions the appearance of Benny Goodman to _________.| A．show what a talented musician should look like |
| B．introduce an important figure in the musical world |
| C．contrast with his talent in music performance |
| D．indicate that he can’t stand out from the flock |
| A．an individualist tends to seek difference both in character and appearance |
| B．the essence of individualism lies in pursuing excellence to the full |
| C．being different in appearance is the very first step to being individual |
| D．those who strive to win the recognition of others are real individualists |
| A．A scientist who conducts research solely advancing knowledge for the greater good rather than for personal recognition. |
| B．A social media influencer who conforms to popular opinions to maintain a large following. |
| C．An artist who creates unique works but fail to gain fame and recognition from others. |
| D．An entrepreneur who prioritizes ethical considerations over profit in his business practices. |
| A．specific to general | B．cause and effect |
| C．examples and conclusion | D．comparison and contrast |
7 . Have we reached the peak of the culture war? Looking at my social media feeds, it seems that polarised thinking and misinformation have never been more common. How am I supposed to feel when users I once admired now draw on questionable evidence to support their beliefs?
Perhaps it is time for us all to adopt a little “existential humility”. I came across this idea in a paper by Jeffrey Greenat Virginia from Common Wealth University and his colleagues. They build on a decade of research examining the benefits of “intellectual humility” more generally — our ability to recognise the errors in our judgement and remain aware of the limits of our knowledge.
You can get a flavour of this research by rating your agreement with the following statements, ranging from 1 (not at all like me) to 5 (very like me): I question my own opinions because they could be wrong; I recognise the value in opinions that are different from my own; in the face of conflicting evidence, I am open to changing my opinions.
People who score highly on this assessment are less likely to form knee-jerk reactions on a topic, and they find it easier to consider the strengths or weaknesses of a logical argument. They are less likely to be influenced by misinformation, since they tend to read the article in full, investigate the sources of a news story and compare its reporting to other statements, before coming to a strong conclusion about its truth.
Developing “intellectual humility” would be an excellent idea in all fields, but certain situations may make it particularly difficult to achieve. Greenat points out that some beliefs are so central to our identity that any challenge can activate an existential crisis, as if our whole world view and meaning in life are under threat. As a result, we become more insistent in our opinions and seek any way to protect them. This may reduce some of our feelings of uncertainty, but it comes at the cost of more analytical thinking.
For these reasons, Greenat defines “existential humility” as the capacity to entertain the thought of another world view without becoming so defensive and closed-minded. So how could we achieve it? This will be the subject of future research, but the emotion of awe (a feeling of great respect and admiration) may offer one possibility. One study found that watching awe-inspiring videos about space and the universe led to humbler thinking, including a greater capacity to admit weaknesses.
Perhaps we could all benefit from interrupting our despair with awe-inspiring content. At the very least, we can try to question our preconceptions before offering our views on social media and be a little less ready to criticize when others disagree.
1. Regarding the culture war on social media, the author is _______.| A．embarrassed | B．concerned | C．panicked | D．stressed |
| A．Existential humility reduces the threat to identity. |
| B．People with intellectual humility tend to jump to conclusions. |
| C．Awe could promote existential humility by encouraging modest thinking. |
| D．The higher you score on the assessment, the more you stick to your values. |
| A．Overcome an Existential Crisis | B．Show a Little Humility |
| C．The Path to Screening Information | D．The Approach to Achieving Humility |
Every October, my neighborhood has a Halloween costume contest, And every time, my neighbor Ollie and I would race to the announcement board in the park to find out the theme.
One year, the theme was “Dress up as your favorite book character”. Another year, it was “Be something scary”. But this year, the theme was kind of, well, themeless. The board wrote “Be creative”. It was told that the judge would prefer something original. When I examined the paper on the announcement board, I was totally confused, since it was not really a theme. Ollie hopped off his skateboard to get a closer look. “You’re right,” he agreed.
“Since we don’t know exactly what we want to be yet, we should start by choosing some cool costume-making materials,” Ollie instantly scooped up a bunch of fallen leaves from the oak and proposed using leaves. It seemed impossible to make an entire costume out of leaves, Not to mention these terrible-looking yellow leaves. However, Ollie scooped up some more and try to persuade me, “They’re totally free and I can guarantee, no one will be a tree as great as me,” “Don’t you mean, a tree as great as we?” I grinned, We ended up filling two jumbo bags with different leaves. Ollie’s grandma, Abuela helped get us set up with tons of excellent costume-making supplies, We tried on part of our costumes, making the “branches” by gluing (粘) the leaves to our arms. We could tell the “trees” really would be tremendous, On the morning of the contest day, it took us hours to get ready, and we probably lost half our leaves shuffling over to the park. Still, when it was time for contestants (参赛者) to line up in the judging area, I felt pretty proud.
注意: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。
Paragraph 1:
Except then, after a few minutes. I felt so itchy (发痒) that I just had to scratch.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
Just at that time, the judge called for everyone’s attention.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9 . If you look at the dynamic “Global Temperatures” map on NASA’s website, you can see the historic temperature change over time across the planet as the timeline goes from 1880 to the modern day. By 2019, the entire planet is in red, orange, and yellow colors, indicating temperatures much higher than the historical average in every country and human inhabitance.
If the timeline went to 2023, the map would look even worse. That’s because the summer of 2023 was the hottest ever, according to ocean monitors. July was the hottest month in recorded history. Next July could be worse. Unless we do something quickly, we face dealing with more and more dangerous and expensive natural disasters in the future.
Forest fires sent smoke from Canada across the North American continent, causing New York City to have the worst air quality in its recorded history. Heavy rainstorms fell on Vermont and the Northeastern United States in just a couple of days in the middle of July, which exceeded the amount that area would usually receive in two months and caused extreme damage to homes and businesses. Around the same time, flash flooding in Bucks County, Pennsylvania —north of Philadelphia —killed nearly a dozen people.
Erich Fischer, a researcher specializing in climate studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is concerned that natural disasters could get much worse in the future—and in ways we cannot predict. He called for a “strike for climate justice,” which actually took place on Sept. 15, 2023. “The strategy needs to be twofold (双重的) . We need to decrease carbon emissions as much as realistically possible. That is already happening with people using electric cars and other green technologies. At the same time, we also need to find ways to predict the risk of natural disasters ahead of time,” said Erich Fischer.
1. Why does the writer mention the data on NASA’s website in paragraph 1?| A．To explain a concept. | B．To introduce a topic. |
| C．To provide a solution. | D．To make a prediction. |
| A．The severity of natural disasters. | B．The worst air quality in New York City. |
| C．The extreme damage by flash flooding. | D．The cause of the forests fires in Canada. |
| A．He advocated a twofold strategy. |
| B．He suggested forbidding carbon emissions. |
| C．He required people to use more electric cars. |
| D．He emphasized the awareness of climate changes. |
| A．The Hottest Month in History | B．Natural Disasters in the World |
| C．Extreme Weather Could Get Worse | D．Green Technology Would be Needed |
1. Why do some American churches cancel (取消) Christmas Day services?
| A．To buy gifts and go to parties. |
| B．To celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ. |
| C．To let people gather with their families. |
| A．The name of an old man. |
| B．The name of traditional music. |
| C．The name of Christmas Day service. |
| A．All Americans. | B．Non-Christians. | C．Christians. |
| A．On Christmas Eve. | B．On Christmas noon. | C．On Christmas Day. |
