Being the youngest in my family has had its advantages, of course. But being the youngest also came with its fair share of troubles. I was often told what I couldn’t do and why. I knew that my family loved me. They always tried to protect me, help me and take care of me, but I couldn’t wait to show them I could do things by myself.
It was a hot day in Florida. The school year had just ended and it was time for summer vacation. We had just gotten a little black dog who we named One-Eyed.
Everybody wanted to do something for the dog: feed him, teach him tricks and take long walks with him. Everybody was so happy to have this little active, playful new addition to our family. I was so desperate to pet One-Eyed myself, too.
Every time I asked my brother or my sister if I could do that, they would shout, “No!” or tell me that I had germs (细菌). Once, they even convinced me that I had so many germs and that if I touched One-Eyed he would die! I really believed them and was scared that something terrible would happen to the dog. Once I even confessed to my mom that I touched the dog when no one noticed. At first, my mom seemed very confused about what I was telling her, but then she realized that they were playing a joke on me to keep me away from the dog. My mom criticized my brother and sister, “You’d better stop teasing your little brother!” Little brother! That’s exactly what I was. That really got my blood boiling.
The depression built up inside me as I watched them enjoy their time with One-Eyed, excluding me from the joyous moments. I knew I was capable of taking care of myself and forming my own connection with our new lovely friend. Determination filled my heart, fueling a newfound sense of independence.
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2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I was to prove to everyone I could pet and play with One-Eyed.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Seeing this, my brother and sister couldn’t believe their eyes.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Joey, once again, had taken his entire lunch plate and mixed all the food together. He did something like this pretty much every day at camp. “It’s an experiment,” he told the other campers. “Like what we do in class. It’s fun.” Joey was crazy about experiments, which usually consisted of taking one or more things, and combining them somehow, just like mixing all his food together. Joey would usually take a bite as part of the experiment, and would try to get the other kids at the table to try it too. However, almost nobody ever would like to. Joey’s experiments almost always tasted absolutely horrible.
Joey offered a bite of his unique lunch to the kids at his table. ‘Eric, the only one who sometimes liked Joey’s experiments, decided to give it a try. But even he couldn’t eat more than a bite, which meant the table would lose their “wasted food challenge” —AGAIN.
As part of camp lunch, all the tables weighed their leftovers at the end of the meal. One by one, the tables would line up, empty their plates into a garbage can (垃圾桶), and then the garbage can would be weighed. Whichever table had the least amount of wasted food got to be first in line the next day at lunch. Whichever table had the most amount of wasted food had to stay and wash all the dishes. Each table had the same amount of campers, to be fair. The tables were each named after a different kind of tree. Joey’s table was the Scrub Pine table. Scrub Pine table had lost so many times that everyone laughed at them.
Everyone blamed Joey. He was always the one with the most leftovers. But Joey insisted it wasn’t his fault. He had a trick. Before each weighing, he always mashed up (捣烂) his mixture into the smallest ball possible. Almost everyone else’s plate was littered with uneaten food. Joey just had a ball in the corner of the plate.
Scrub Pine table had already washed dishes four days in a row, and it looked like it was about to be five.
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: So Eric decided to find a way to figure out whose fault it was.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: One by one, Scrub Pine table each weighed their plates.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . Imagine a busy restaurant: dishes clattering, music playing and people talking loudly. It’s a wonder that anyone in that environment can focus enough. In an earlier study. researchers established that people can separately control how much they focus (by enhancing relevant information) and how much they filter (by tuning out distraction).
Recently, Neuroscientist Ritz compared the process to muscle coordination (协调) in his study: “In the same way that we bring together more than 50 muscles to perform a physical task like using chopsticks, our study found we can coordinate different forms of attention in order to perform brain activities.”
To explore this, Ritz administered a cognitive task to participants while measuring their brain activity. Participants saw a mass of green and purple dots moving left and right. The tasks involved distinguishing between the movement and colors of the dots. For example, participants in one exercise had to select which color was in the majority for the rapidly moving dots with purple and green percentages close to 50/50.
“You can regard the intraparietal sulcus (脑顶内沟) as a radio dial with two knobs. one for focusing and one for filtering,” Ritz said, “When the anterior cingulate cortex (前扣带皮层) recognizes that, for instance, motion is making the task more difficult, it directs the intraparietal sulcus to adjust the filtering knob to reduce the sensitivity to motion and might also direct the intraparetal sulcus to adjust the focusing knob to increase the sensitivity to color. Now the relevant brain regions are less sensitive to motion and more sensitive to the color, so the participant can make better selection.
Nowadays, much is still being explored about attention coordination. A partnership with scientists at Brown University is investigating focus and-filter strategies in patients with treatment-resistant depression; one study co-led by Rita and Brown Ph,D. students examines the impact of financial rewards and penalties (处罚) on focus -and-filter strategies. “We all know there is still a considerable journey ahead.” Ritz said.
1. What is the main focus of the new study?| A．The process behind brain activities in humans. |
| B．The relationship between mental state and attention. |
| C．The mechanism of focusing and filtering coordination. |
| D．The impart of noisy environment on humans attention. |
| A．A distractor for participants. | B．A tracking target for the test. |
| C．A main factor to evaluate the task. | D．A warning for participants to focus. |
| A．The focusing knob. | B．The intraparietal sulcus. |
| C．The filtering knob. | D．The anterior cingulate cortes. |
| A．There are some challenges of the attention research. |
| B．Ongoing research projects are based on these findings. |
| C．Focus-and-filter strategies can solve depression problems. |
| D．Motivation ways to drive attention are well applied in treatment. |
The Champion of No Score
Maggie hated Tuesdays—Tuesdays meant gym class, gym class meant picking teams and picking teams meant Maggie would be picked last.
As a newcomer, she’d come up with a special title for each classmate to remember the other kids. There was Kevin, Champion of the Clean Desk. Lynnie, Champion of Knowing the Answer First… Thinking hard, she finally decided her own title: Champion of Quiet.
Maggie felt blue as Tuesday fell again. Mr. Murphy, the gym teacher, asked for volunteer captains to pick their own basketball teams. The usual hands shot into the air. Maggie sighed and glanced to her right. She caught the eye of Jasmine. Champion of Awkward, a girl who was sometimes picked last, too. Then Maggie had an idea. So when Mr. Murphy asked if anyone else wanted to volunteer, Maggie felt her hand slowly rise. Looking again at Jasmine, she took a big breath. Maybe it was time for her to use her voice.
“Maggie?” Mr. Murphy smiled. “You want a turn?”
“Yes,” she said.
The class whispered. Maggie leading a team?
“Yes,” she answered again, louder this time.
Mr. Murphy waved Maggie to the front, where the other three captains—Champion of Jumping Rope, Champion of Never Misses a Shot, and Champion of Doesn’t Know How to Lose—stood, ready to choose their teams.
“Maggie, you get first pick,” said Mr. Murphy. “Jasmine,” announced Maggie. The class snickered. A joke? More than once, Jasmine had tried to score on the wrong basket. Eyes wide, Jasmine took her place beside Maggie. The other three captains called out familiar names—the best players on the basketball court. It was Maggie’s turn again. “I choose Frank.” Frank (Champion of the Untied Shoelace) could not throw, or catch. He knew what it felt like to be the last pick. But not today.
Three very talented teams took shape. And then there was Maggie’s team. Maggie looked at her teammates. There stood Jasmine and Frank, plus Gillian (Champion of Chatter) and George (Champion of Sleepy). “I have chosen the worst team in the history of the world,” Maggie thought to herself.
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2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Hand in hand, the Maggie team walked onto the court.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________They did lose big, but something positive began to unfold in them.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My parents were taking my sisters and me to the beach after several months of planning. We were all very excited. However, we didn’t know what awaited us that day.
We set out early as the beach was 200 miles away from our house. After travelling for two hours, we had only covered 100 miles because of the poor condition of the road. Moreover, that was a remote road and we didn’t see anyone or any house along the way. Suddenly, a loud noise frightened us. The car sharply swung to one side as my lather hit the brakes. Shocked, we got out and saw a flat tire (轮胎). Dad made a phone call to the roadside rescue, and the response he received was that it would take two hours to arrive. Dad decided to change the tire on his own, even though he had never done it before, as he always got help from a technician. He spent over an hour looking up how to change a flat tire in the car’s handbook and finally got it done. After he finished changing if, it was midday, so we decided to take a lunch break before hitting the road again.
After driving for another hour, the car made some strange sounds, slowed down and stopped. Dad tried to start the engine again, but it didn’t work. It was clear that something was wrong. With no houses or other vehicles in sight, we realized we were stranded (使滞留) in the middle of nowhere.
A feeling of frustration and disappointment washed over us. However, we knew we had to stay positive and find a solution. Dad lifted the hood (引擎盖) and examined the engine, hoping to find a simple fix. After some time, he discovered a loose wire that might cause the problem. With his limited knowledge of car mechanics, he managed to reconnect the wire. To our relief, the engine roared back to life. We cheered, grateful that the problem was resolved without needing outside help. Determined to reach our destination, we got back on the road, hoping the worst was behind us.
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。
But when the rain poured down, we knew the bad luck wasn’t over.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally, after a long and hard journey, we arrived at the beach.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Near daybreak the previous day, my friend Jess and I set out on a journey southwest from our snow-covered home in Ottawa, bound for Arizona, a warm place to escape the freezing winter. After loading our equipment and my dog Bailey into my old car, we drove along the freeway with the radio playing lively tunes. Bailey, comfortably sitting on the back seat, added to the joy of the moment. Life couldn't have felt more perfect.
As the miles accumulated behind us, by noon the following day, we pulled off at a rest area with spring-like temperatures. It was an ideal setting for a picnic-style break outside the car. After a refreshing walk, we ate salads and cheese with the sun shining brightly on us. However, the road called us, so unwillingly we headed for the car.
Once the food was stored in the trunk, I opened the back door, throwing my keys onto the front seat, and settled Bailey on the back seat before shutting the door with force. However, as I reached for the driver's door handle, a sudden realization struck me.
“Oh, Jess, the door is locked.”
“What do you mean 'locked'? How did that happen?” Jess questioned with concern.
A wave of fear washed over me as I pieced together the situation. The remote likely triggered (触发) the lock when I threw it onto the driver's seat. Inside the car were our purses, keys, and most importantly, Bailey. The rising temperatures now posed a serious threat to her-being trapped inside a hot box without water.
Assessing the problem with a clearer mind, I instantly reached out to a local auto repair service for assistance. Unfortunately, they couldn't guarantee their arrival time due to staffing shortages, leaving me anxious about Bailey's well-being. The danger of heatstroke (中暑) weighed heavily on my mind, fueling my urgency to find a solution. Breaking the window, which had been my last choice, seemed to be the only one.
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 a large truck approached.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally Bailey was saved and my car remained whole.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . In the past few years, Sam Altman, the father of ChatGPT, has become the most familiar face in the world of AI. Many industry leaders and AI researchers see ChatGPT as a fundamental technological shift, as significant as the creation of the web browser (浏览器). But few can agree on the future of this technology.
Some believe it will create a community where everyone has all the time and money they ever wanted. Others believe it could destroy humanity. Still, others spend much of their time arguing that the technology isn’t as powerful as everyone says it is.
Mr. Altman, a slim 37-year-old entrepreneur and investor from St. Louis, sits calmly in the middle of it all, devoted to making ChatGPT perfect. As chief executive of OpenAI, he in some way embodies (体现) each of these seemingly contradictory views, hoping to balance many possibilities as he strikes this unusual, highly effective but imperfect technology into the longer term.
That means he’s usually criticized. But those closest to him imagine that is normal. “If you’re equally upsetting both extreme sides, then you’re doing something right,” mentioned OpenAI’s president, Greg Brockman.
Mr. Altman believes that this technology will occur one way or another, that it will do wonderful things even he can’t yet imagine, and that we can find ways of making up for the harm it may cause. It’s an attitude that mirrors Mr. Altman’s personal track. His life has been a reasonably regular climb towards larger prosperity and wealth, pushed by an efficient set of private expertise. It makes sense that he believes that the good thing will happen rather than the bad.
Georgeann Kepchar, who taught Advanced Placement computer science courses, saw Mr. Altman as one of her most talented computer science students and one with a rare gift for pushing people in new directions. “He had creativity and vision, combined with the ambition and force of personality to convince others to work with him on putting his ideas into action,” she said.
1. Why is the web browser mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．To highlight the importance of ChatGPT. |
| B．To introduce the inspiration for ChatGPT. |
| C．To show the competition in the world of AI. |
| D．To indicate Sam Altman's promising future. |
| A．He apologizes for its harm. | B．He criticizes them violently. |
| C．He focuses on improving it. | D．He faces them nervously. |
| A．The new technology has brought record profits. |
| B．Sam Altman is optimistic about his technology. |
| C．Greg Brockman shows support to Sam Altman. |
| D．Sam Altman has been suffering for a long time. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Unclear. | C．Critical. | D．Admiring. |
8 . With the help from an artificial language (AL) model, MIT neuroscientists have discovered what kind of sentences are most likely to fire up the brain’s key language processing centers. The new study reveals that sentences that are more complex, because of either unusual grammar or unexpected meaning, generate stronger responses in these language processing centers. Sentences that are very straightforward barely engage these regions, and meaningless orders of words don’t do much for them either.
In this study, the researchers focused on language-processing regions found in the left hemisphere (半球) of the brain. By collecting a set of 1,000 sentences from various sources, the researchers measured the brain activity of participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they read the sentences. The same sentences were also fed into a large language model, similar to ChatGPT, to measure the model’s activation patterns. Once the researchers had all of those data, they trained the model to predict how the human language network would respond to any new sentence based on how the artificial language network responded to these 1,000 sentences.
The researchers then used the model to determine 500 new sentences that would drive highest brain activity and sentences that would make the brain less active, and their findings were confirmed in subsequent human participants. To understand why certain sentences generate stronger brain responses, the model examined the sentences based on 11 different language characteristics. The analysis revealed that sentences that were more surprising resulted in greater brain activity. Another linguistic (语言的) aspect that correlated with the brain’s language network responses was the complexity of the sentences, which was determined by how well they followed English grammar rules and bow logically they linked with each other.
The researchers now plan to see if they can extend these findings in speakers of languages other than English. They also hope to explore what type of stimuli may activate language processing regions in the brain’s right hemisphere.
1. What sentences make our brain work harder?| A．Lengthy. | B．Logical. |
| C．Straightforward. | D．Complicated. |
| A．To examine language network. | B．To reduce language complexity. |
| C．To locate language processing area. | D．To identify language characteristics. |
| A．By conducting interviews. | B．By collecting questionnaires. |
| C．By analyzing experiment data. | D．By reviewing previous studies. |
| A．AL Model Stimulates Brain Activities |
| B．AL Model Speeds Up Language Learning |
| C．AL Model Reveals the Secrets of Brain Activation |
| D．AL Model Enhances Brain Processing Capacity |
Several years ago, I worked as a writing teacher in a rural middle school. I knew all my students. They trusted me with their stories and so I was given the privilege of having a secret bond with each one of them. I taught my students about the power of words, and tried to let them find expression through writing. We learned to trust each other, because we learned how hard it was to write openly and honestly, and we learned sharing your words took courage. I was always amazed at the words that came from my students’ hearts.
Later, we had a new student to the school, Al. Al was small and looked younger than other students in my class. He was with us for only a short while and still trying to fit in. So I was a little surprised when he volunteered to read. I smiled and nodded for him to do, while in my mind I was afraid that the others would make fun of the new kid after he read. The room fell silent, and Al began to read.
“If I had one wish, it would be to meet my dad...” He started out loud and clear.
He had held the attention of my usually restless students for what seemed like 15 minutes. He told of how he had never known his father, who had left the family when he was a baby. He shared the intimate details of his struggles to be the only man in the house at such a young age, of having to mow the lawn and fix broken pipes. He revealed to us the thoughts that went through his mind constantly about where his father might be and why he might have left.
注意：1. 续写的词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I looked around the classroom, finding no snickers (窃笑).
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
When Al finished the last sentence, all the class stood up and applauded.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
10 . When Stanford University student Ellen Xu was a five-year-old in California, she vividly recalls her parents rushing her little sister to the hospital. Three-year-old Kate had fallen acutely ill; she had a fever, reddened eyes, a rash and some swelling in her hands and tongue.
At first, the puzzled doctors thought she had influenza, but when her condition didn’t improve, the Xus returned to the emergency room, where a doctor by chance had prior experience with an acute inflammatory (炎症性的) reaction in the blood vessels known as Kawasaki disease. Though rare, it’s the leading cause of acquired heart disease in babies and young children, and its cause and triggers remain somewhat mysterious. The doctor knew how to treat it: He ordered a dose of intravenous immunoglobulin, and eventually Kate shook off the illness without suffering damage to her heart.
Xu remembers being curious about her sister’s dramatic condition and was amazed that the grown-ups couldn’t answer her questions about why it was so hard to detect. “In my mind, it was this mystery, she says. ”It was a puzzle I wanted to solve. “
A decade later, wanting to enter a high school science fair, she had an idea: ”What if we had a doctor in our pocket?“ So she created just that: Using AT, Xu designed an algorithm(算法) that uses visual data to diagnose (诊断) Kawasaki disease based on five physical symptoms.
The technology works the same way as apps that can identify birds and plants with photos you’ve taken on your cellphone. Worried parents can upload a photo that they have taken of their child, and the technology will scan the image for symptoms of Kawasaki disease, which often have a strong visual element, such as a rash or a swollen tongue.
Xu’s invention has been applied as a web app on the Kawasaki Disease Foundation’s website without charge. ”The technology could also be developed for recognizing auto-immune and rheumatological (风湿病学的) diseases, “ she says. ”It means a lot to me. I want to use Al to help people live happier and healthier lives. “
1. Why was Kawasaki disease so hard to diagnose?| A．It had no symptoms. |
| B．It had never been known before. |
| C．It could be confused with influenza. |
| D．It couldn’t be diagnosed by medical instruments. |
| A．To describe the bad results of the disease. |
| B．To introduce a case remaining mysterious. |
| C．To show why Xu developed the technology. |
| D．To prove doctors should accumulate clinical experience. |
| A．It is convenient and cheap. |
| B．It can take the place of doctors. |
| C．It can treat Kawasaki disease quickly. |
| D．It can diagnose Kawasaki disease via scanned pictures. |
| A．The technology is an AI-powered diagnosed tool. |
| B．Xu had the idea of the technology when Kate was treated. |
| C．The technology can’t be applied to diagnose other diseases. |
| D．Influenza is the leading reason of acquired heart disease in babies. |
