1 . Culture is one of the most important concepts within sociology because sociologists recognize that it plays a crucial role in our social lives.
Sociologists define the non-material aspects of culture as the values and beliefs, language, communication and practices that are shared in common by a group of people. Expanding on these categories, culture is made up of our knowledge, common sense, assumptions and expectations.
Sociologists see the two sides of culture-the material and non-material-as closely connected. Material culture emerges from and is shaped by the non-material aspects of culture.
| A．It is composed of both non-material and material things. |
| B．Without culture, we would not have relationships or society. |
| C．Culture is also what we do and how we behave and perform. |
| D．Material culture is composed of the things that humans make and use. |
| E．Culture is different from social structure and economic aspects of society. |
| F．In other words, what we value, believe and know influences the things that we make. |
| G．For example, a great documentary film might change people’s attitudes and beliefs. |
1. Where were the two award-winning books published?
| A．In the US and the UK. | B．In Britain and Ireland. | C．In Canada. |
| A．The Blind Assassin. | B．Girl, Woman, Other. | C．The Testaments. |
| A．Susan Brown. |
| B．Margaret Atwood. |
| C．Bernardine Evaristo. |
| A．Being given to two books. |
| B．Having the strongest competitors. |
| C．Being given to last year’s winner. |
1. What did the speakers do last night?
| A．They watched a video. |
| B．They attended a live concert. |
| C．They went to a dancing party. |
| A．Brenda. | B．Justin. | C．Carrie. |
| A．Listen to more songs. |
| B．Learn some dance steps. |
| C．Join the school dance club. |
| A．They both like dancing. |
| B．They both have musical talent. |
| C．They both like Brenda very much. |
4 . Reading doesn’t come naturally to people, but most of us have learned how. Eighty-six percent of the world’s population is literate (有读写能力的), and this rate has been increasing for centuries. Literacy makes it possible to navigate a world filled with books, websites, text messages, road signs and more.
Could a growing number of people participate in today’s world without reading or writing at all? Technology makes it possible. Most of our devices now talk to us and take spoken commands. Smart cars ask for a destination and then give directions. Smart virtual assistants listen for requests to report the weather, play a song, set a timer, order groceries, and much more. Software can also read text aloud or turn speech into text. These interactions aren’t perfect — the software still makes silly mistakes. But it’s getting better and better. It’s possible to imagine a future world where all of our communication with our devices and each other is spoken.
But reading and writing are powerful tools. For one, most people read faster than they speak. A podcaster or audio book narrator speaks at around 150 to 160 words per minute, while a strong reader can cruise through a text at 300 to 400 words per minute. That’s twice as fast! Research has also found that people remember more information and stay more interested when they read as opposed to listen. Learning to read also creates new connections in the brain. In her book Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, Maryanne Wolf writes that with the invention of reading, human beings “rearranged the very organization of our brain, which in turn expanded the ways we were able to think, which changed the intellectual evolution of our species.” Would we really choose to give up that progress? What do you think? Do you hope people keep on reading and writing, or will technology make literacy obsolete (淘汰的)?
1. What does the 2nd paragraph focus on?| A．Technology makes up for illiteracy. |
| B．Many people have problems with literacy. |
| C．Technology is a double-edged sword. |
| D．Technology is changing fast. |
| A．Gather more information. | B．Remember less clearly. |
| C．Show less interest. | D．Learn more words. |
| A．To give an example of a book on reading. |
| B．To show the evolution of human beings. |
| C．To prove that reading is related with brain. |
| D．To illustrate the need for reading and writing. |
| A．A textbook. | B．A blog post. | C．A book review. | D．An academic article. |
My nine-year-old daughter, Jessica, is a friendly soul. From the time she was tiny, she would march right up to strangers on the street and say, “Hello!” Her brown eyes would twinkle, and she’d be showing a big smile on her face. I wish she weren’t so social. Not only because she is young and female, but also because she has a disability: She has a cognitive (认知的) disability, with a weakened brain disorder and abnormal behavior. That’s why I’ve done my best to control my nervousness. Children with a weakened brain disorder don’t relate well to others, and I don’t want to discourage her attempts. I worry, though, that people will be cold to her or be cruel to her, or that she will trust the wrong person.
Happily, in our small town, when Jessica strikes up a conversation with someone, that person almost always responds kindly to her. She never expects to be refused, but I am always tense and ready to collect the pieces if it happens. “What’s your name?” she asks total strangers. “Do you have a dog? How old are you?” It always surprises me that people patiently answer her queries. They must sense something about Jessica, as she’s a little bit different. They never seem to expect me to stop her, although I’ve tried.
“We don’t ask adults that,” I say. “That’s a rude question, sweetie.” She asks anyway, and people tell her. When she is done with her question, she will turn to me and say, “We know Michelle now,” or “That is Mrs. Crawford.” She moves them easily from one category to another: people we don’t know or people we do know. Strangers are merely people she hasn’t yet asked for their names. I’m less sure that finding out their names means we know them. It’s a small but easy-going town, and I don’t worry too much about it. She doesn’t go around without supervision (监督) or share anything too personal. Talking to strangers in our small town is normal.
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。
I thought in New York City, which we visited last year, it was another thing.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I couldn’t explain the difference between small towns and big cities because everyone was so kind.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6 . The Earth’s population is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. Experts estimate food production will have to increase by 70 percent to keep pace with that growth. Previous methods of agriculture will soon no longer be an option. According to a 2018 study, we have to turn away from meat and dairy products.
U.S. customers have proved themselves willing to test the waters. Americans spent $1.4 billion on plant-based meat in 2021, representing a market share of 2.7 percent of all meat sales. The plant-based food companies claim their burgers use less land and water and produce less greenhouse gases. But, consider the possibility that we left our most promising resource behind in the ocean. Will you swap meat for seaweed?
“I think seaweed needs branding(品牌),” says Mark Kulsdom, co-founder of the memorably-named Dutch Weed Burger. As Kulsdom explained Dutch Weed Burgers are vegetarian but for meat eaters. A decade after launching their first product, he and his partners now sell about quarter of a million burgers each year.
Ultimately, Kulsdom is striving for a culture change. “I believe we need to raise interest sometimes by using a bit of an unorthodox (非正统的) approach to things,” he adds. “When people get what they already know, it’s not that interesting. When their curiosity is awakened, that’s when new things and ideas can enter their minds.”
In 2008, researchers discovered 14,000-year-old seaweed fragments (碎片) in southern Chile that had been pressed into cakes and clearly been cooked. As they wrote in Science, all seaweed recovered at the site are excellent sources of iodine, iron, zinc, protein, hormones and a wide range of elements. Though Mark Kulsdom’s Dutch Weed Burger sounds futuristic, one could argue that they’re revisiting one of the oldest stories we know.
1. How are plant-based burgers according to the companies?| A．They are healthy. | B．They are nutritious. |
| C．They are delicious. | D．They are environmentally friendly. |
| A．Leaving. | B．Struggling. | C．Preparing. | D．Waiting. |
| A．Chile is rich in seaweed. |
| B．Seaweed was the major food source in Chile. |
| C．People have long been using seaweed as food. |
| D．Mark Kulsdom’s Dutch Weed Burger is too futuristic. |
| A．A newspaper. | B．A science fiction. |
| C．A travel guide. | D．A textbook. |
7 . Geologists have long been fascinated by a missing piece of Earth’s history — a lost continent called Argoland. Around 155 million years ago, the 5,000-kilometer continent broke off from Western Australia and began drifting (漂移), leaving behind a basin deep below the ocean known as the Argo Abyssal Plain. But where did Argoland actually go?
The seabed structure suggests that the continent drifted northwestward and ended up Southeast Asia. But surprisingly, there is no large continent hidden beneath those islands, only small continental fragments (碎片) surrounded by ancient oceanic basins. Using this theory, geologists at Utrecht University discovered that Argoland hadn’t really disappeared but survived as a “very extended and fragmented collection” under the islands to the east of Indonesia.
Unlike other continents like Africa and South America, which broke neatly into two pieces, Argoland split into many smaller fragments that were dispersed, which made it difficult for scientists to locate and study the continent’s geological features. However, with advanced technology and the discovery, scientists can now piece them together.
Tracing the continents is vital for understanding processes like the evolution of biodiversity. It could help explain something known as the mysterious Wallace line, which is an imaginary boundary that separates mammals, birds, and even early human species in Southeast Asian islands. The boundary has puzzled scientists because of how clearly it separates the island’s wildlife. To the west of the line are placental mammals (胎盘哺乳动物) like apes and elephants. But these are almost completely absent to the east, where you can find animals typically associated with Australia. Researchers have theorized that this may be because Argoland carried its own wildlife away from Australia before it crashed into Southeast Asia, which helps explain why different species are found in different nations.
The story of Argoland is not one of complete disappearance but of transformation. As the world continues to evolve, this lost continent serves as a powerful symbol of the breakability of life on this planet, and a reminder of the importance of respecting and protecting the world that we live in.
1. What do we know about Argoland?| A．It split into two pieces many years ago. |
| B．It broke away from the African continent. |
| C．It sank to the bottom of the Argo Abyssal Plain. |
| D．It exists as fragments under the eastern islands of Indonesia. |
| A．Crashed. | B．Distributed. | C．Connected. | D．Distinguished. |
| A．To explain an unsolved mystery for scientist. |
| B．To stress the significance of tracing Argoland. |
| C．To prove the biodiversity of Southeast Asian islands. |
| D．To introduce the evolutionary process of Australian species. |
| A．The Discovery of a Lost Continent | B．The Mysterious Disappearance of Argoland |
| C．The Theory of Fragments Drifting | D．The Breakability of Life on the Earth |
1. What prizes were given last week?
| A．Smartphones. | B．Sports bags. | C．Pens. |
| A．A week ago. | B．A month ago. | C．A year ago. |
| A．He can speak French. | B．He has a famous wife. | C．He owns a club. |
| A．By making calls. | B．By writing letters. | C．By sending postcards. |
9 . Pollination (授粉) is important for the reproduction of many plants. Some rely on the wind or water for pollination, but most depend on animals to serve as the pollinators. Insects like bees, moths, and beetles also serve as the pollinators, helping with this process.
Unfortunately, the worldwide spread of light pollution may be affecting the important interactions (相互作用) between plants and insects, causing bad consequences for both natural areas and agricultural lands.
A team of scientists in Switzerland recently studied how the complex interactions between plants and pollinators were affected by artificial light at night. By setting up several grasslands with LED street lamps, the scientists were able to compare the differences.
Focusing on cabbage thistle, a type of plants, the researchers counted 62% fewer insect visits to the lit grasslands. They also noted 29% fewer pollinators than the ones in the uncontrolled lands, which resulted in 13% fewer fruits on the cabbage thistle plants they were studying.
Based on the fact that there was reduced fruit production in the controlled lands, the scientists found that the pollinators who worked during the day were not able to make up for the reduced activity of the pollinators at night. Additionally, there seemed to be the potential for a very negative effect, because many of the plants some insects are helping to pollinate are the most important sources of food for them.
Artificial light affects pollination, and thus fruit production, in two different, but connected ways, according to a scientist from California. Imagine a moth flying into a light at night — the first way is by misdirecting pollinators. The second way is by confusing the sense of time of plants. Besides, plants and insects respond to varying wavelengths of light differently. More research is needed to understand the complex interactions between plants, pollinators, and different types of light.
“The annually increasing man made light improves humans’ life. It causes bad consequences for the environment, however. We can never base our life on the loss of the environment,” says Knop, lead author of the study.
1. According to the passage, the first paragraph is used to ________.| A．put forward a problem | B．present background information |
| C．inform the purpose of the study | D．introduce the subjects to be studied |
| A．stopped bearing fruits in the end | B．failed to be pollinated |
| C．were visited by fewer insects | D．were more attractive to pollinators |
| A．The starvation of insects. | B．The loss of pollination. |
| C．The reduced fruit production. | D．The death of some plants. |
| A．Misdirected insects confuse plants’ sense of time. |
| B．Pollination and fruit production are related in two ways. |
| C．The different effects of varying light on pollination are clear. |
| D．Artificial light affects plants’ pollination and sense of time. |
At that time, I worked where my children attended school. It felt more like a volunteer position considering my low pay, but it helped a little. I had no education beyond high school, no special skills or training. My husband, Jim, had never wanted me to work outside the home. He wanted me to be with our children. Great idea in theory, but my reality was telling me I needed to do more, be more.
When I attended classes at our local community college, my husband argued that I was wasting my time and was needed at home. His words pained me, but I argued that life was uncertain and I needed to be prepared for the worst. In truth, I was afraid he was right about wasting my time, but I just had to take the chance.
I had not been a smart student. Growing up, my brothers and I would bring our report cards home from school and dutifully place them in our parents’ hands. Dad would take my brothers’ reports and go over every grade carefully, discussing what the boys needed to do to make the best of their education to prepare for their future. When he looked at my report card, he checked to make sure I was passing everything and then wordlessly handed it back to me. He always told me that I wasn’t going to college. It would be a waste, and there weren’t enough resources to go around.
However, as I began classes at a relatively old age of thirty-four, I discovered that I was indeed smart enough. I found that I could not only hold my own in an academic setting, but I could do well. I had something to prove. I needed to know that I was an intelligent individual. I loved learning. I also wanted to contribute in a bigger way, not only to my family but to the community beyond. I wanted to teach. I wanted to continue and reach that goal. And, I realized, I wanted to prove my father wrong.
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。
Moved by my determination, Jim eventually threw his full support behind me.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When I walked across the stage and received my diploma(文凭) , I felt like I could fly.
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