1 . 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.

Your Cat Might Not Be Ignoring You When You Speak

Every cat owner has a story to tell of being blanked by their cat. We call to our cat, it turns away, and some of us might be left     1     (wonder) why we didn’t get a dog. But your cat may be listening after all. More than that, it     2     (care) more than you may think.

A study by French researchers     3     (publish) last month in the journal Animal Cognition found that not only do cats react to what scientists call cat-directed speech — a high-pitched (高音的) voice similar to     4     we talk to babies — they react to who is doing the talking.

“We found that hearing their owners using a high-pitched voice, cats reacted more than when hearing their owner speaking normally to another human adult,” said Charlotte de Mouzon, an author of the study. “But it actually didn’t work when it came from a stranger’s voice.”

    5     studies involving dogs, analyzing cat behavior is difficult, which is part of why humans understand them less. Cats are often so stressed by being in a lab     6     meaningful behavioral observations become impossible. And forget about trying to get a cat     7     (sit) still for an M.R.I. scan (核磁共振扫描) to study its brain function.

So the researchers for the latest study went to the cats’ homes and played recordings of different types of speech and different speakers. At first, there was concern from Dr. de Mouzon and her team for lack of reaction from the cats, but upon analysis of the film recordings, delicate reactions     8     (notice). “It could be just moving an ear or turning the head to the speaker or even freezing what     9     were doing,” Dr. de Mouzon said.

In the study, there were a few cases     10     cats would approach the speaker playing a voice and meow. “In the end, we had really clear gains in the cat’s attention when the owner was using cat-directed speech,” Dr. de Mouzon said.

2 .

Take Off with Historic Hiring Growth

A message from Kate Gebo

Welcome aboard!

We are so happy to have you fly with us. I’m sure you’ve thought about United as a way to travel, and with over 95,000 employees and growing, our company is also the center for rewarding careers.

I could not be prouder to lead Human Resources at United during this exciting time for our company, while we’re building the biggest and best airline in the history of aviation. Earlier this year, we announced that we are on track to hire at least 15,000 new employees by the end of this year.

When people think of career opportunities at United, they often think of being a pilot or flight attendant. In reality, our organization has a wide variety of roles in addition to our fantastic pilots and flight attendants, with jobs and functions to keep our airports running and our planes flying.   

Whether it’s for operational roles, such as ramp service employees, customer service representatives, and aircraft technicians, or for corporate roles in human resources, digital technology, and social media, we’re hiring across every function of the airline, seeking strong talent that will take us to new heights.

A role at United is not just a job; it’s a career. Many of our employees have taken on new roles in different departments throughout their tenure (聘用期), which we support to develop and invest in our workforce. In the past seven years, more than 1,500 frontline employees were promoted to management roles, and 78 % of our senior leaders were promoted internally.

Beyond the traditional career paths, we’re proud to create new paths to help our talent pipelines fulfill some of the industry’s most critical job functions. Aviate, our pilot career development program, offers aspiring and established pilots a path to the United flight deck. Calibrate is our full-time, paid apprenticeship program for those wanting to go into aircraft maintenance and other technical operational roles. Our newly launched Innovate program helps provide the skills and experiences needed to succeed in a technology career at United.

We’re hiring from coast to coast, at our seven major hubs and across a broad range of positions. If you’re ready to join me and 95,000 of the industry’s best and brightest at United, I encourage you to visit careers.united.com today to see what opportunities await you. Your career is cleared for takeoff.

United with you,

Kate Gebo

Executive Vice President,

Human Resources and Labor Relations

1. What is the main purpose of this passage?

A．Guarantee to provide first-class customer service.

B．Promote frontline employees to management roles.

C．Introduce jobs available in some departments of United.

D．Advertise for United to enroll pilots and flight attendants.

2. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A．Visit careers.united.com, and you can see positions available.

B．Employees at United can change their jobs with interest.

C．Employees have to keep their positions throughout their tenure.

D．The United is making efforts to be the biggest and best airline.

3. Which is most suitable for those wanting to be technicians?

A．The full-time, paid apprenticeship program.	B．The traditional United career path.
C．The newly launched Innovate program.	D．The new paths for talent pipelines.

3 .

15 TH OCT 2023 CULTURE Gazelle Twin, a composer, producer, and musician, opens up about being a conceptual artist and establishing a unique identity ahead of the release of her new album (专辑), Black Dog. Q: Would you describe your music as conceptual? A: Conceptual is a good term. I don’t make music just for the sake of making music. My records are inspired by themes. I spend a considerable amount of time before writing the music, learning about subjects related to the theme. Then I work on the structure of the album. Ideas can change. For example, Black Dog was originally about ghosts (幽灵), but I ended up with an album about my childhood experiences, through to adulthood and parenthood, and the anxiety and fear that has been with me during that time. Q: Throughout the album, there is a sense of an observer. Is that person yourself, or another presence? A: Both. There is the voice of depression and anxiety, and also this other person you know is always there. I thought of having this ominous presence (不祥之兆) around you. There is also that sense of being out in the world, as a woman, aware of my vulnerability (脆弱). For example, just going for a walk is never simple. We have to build protective instincts around ourselves. Q: When you started out, did you have any idea of the kind of artist you wanted to be? A: I knew I didn’t want to fit a fixed style or be restricted by being female. I wanted to be flexible. I like to think in scale and of more than I can achieve as one person. I like artists with unique identities. Q: What would be your advice to anyone with ambitions to become a musician? A: Follow your instincts. Put yourself out there without pressure to be “finished”. Absorb things, experiment, and allow yourself to follow a journey where you don’t know where you will end up. Being successful commercially takes a team and time. You have to love it and be in it for the long journey. Q: Fast forward ten years, where do you want to be? A: I would love to carry on following my instincts and making albums. I would like more of a collection of TV and film scores because I enjoy writing scores and cooperative work.

1. Why is Gazelle Twin’s music conceptual?

A．Her records are usually about ghosts.	B．The album’s structure is a top priority.
C．The word “conceptual” itself is attractive.	D．Her music is highly motivated by themes.

2. In the second part of the interview, “this other person” most likely represents __________.

A．spiritual growth	B．vivid imagination
C．inner self-awareness	D．external intervention

3. Which of the following can be inferred from Gazelle Twin’s response in the interview?

A．She tends to take the bigger picture into account.

B．Her future planning is profit-driven to some extent.

C．Black Dog has already become a hit album worldwide.

D．She expresses willingness to help the potential musicians.

4 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。1.

A．At home.

B．In a studio.

C．In office.

D．At school.

2.

A．An English programme.	B．Something annoying.
C．An expression.	D．A goat, called Fred.

3.

A．Neil’s goat is really a mad goat, a trouble maker.

B．Neil really makes Feifei mad.

C．Neil’s goat was really annoying to everyone.

D．Neil’s goat annoys Feifei due to its smell.

4.

A．Your best friend told you that he’s past the driving test.

B．Some cars are blowing their horns when you are doing a test inside.

C．You are riding a bicycle with your classmates in the street.

D．Your neighbour brings you a cake because it is her daughter’s birthday.

5 . Among all the different types of journey that people undertake there are also those of a spiritual nature. Some of the trips we do in our lives are purely for pleasure, some are meant to make us stronger, sometimes we travel to explore and learn, and in all of these undertakings we grow and become wiser.

There is a lot we can learn from the land that surrounds us and the best way to acquire that knowledge is by traveling and experiencing. This ancient aboriginal initiation ritual involves exactly this: a long spiritual hike across the native land. Although widely known as “Walkabout,” in later years the ritual has been referred to as “temporary mobility,” because the former is often used as an insulting term in Australian culture.

A young man on Walkabout

Historically speaking, the walkabout is a ceremony of passage in which young (adolescent) Aboriginal Australians undertake a journey that will help “transform” them into adults. The journey is usually made between the ages of 10 and 16. During this journey which can last for up to six months, the individual is required to live and survive all alone in the wilderness.

This is not an easy thing to do, especially not for teenagers. That is why only those who have proven themselves mentally and physically ready are allowed to proceed with the walkabout. Only the elders of the group decide whether it is time or not for the child to do it. The children are not completely unprepared for the journey. During the years before the walkabout, the elders instruct them and give them advice about the ceremony and adult life in general; they have been passed the “secrets” of the tribe, the knowledge about their world.

Aboriginal woman

Those who are initiated in the walkabout are also decorated with body paint and ornaments. Sometimes they are marked with a permanent symbol on their bodies. In some cases, a tooth is removed from the mouth, or the nose or ears of the initiated are pierced. Traditional walk about clothes include only a simple loin cloth and nothing more.

During a walkabout, a young person can sometimes travel a distance of over a 1, 000miles. In order to survive this long hike, the participant in the walkabout must be able to make their own shelter and must be capable of obtaining food and water for themselves.

That means he needs to hunt, catch fish, and also recognize and use edible and healing plants. The initiated youngster must learn to identify plants such as bush tomatoes, Illawarra plums, quandongs, lilly-pillies, Muntari berries, wattle seeds, Kakadu plums, and bunya nuts.

1. What can be referred from the first two paragraphs of the passage?

A．Australians like to engage in all kinds of travel.	B．People can gain knowledge through travel.
C．Travel is usually purely for pleasure.	D．Walkabout is a long spiritual journey.

2. What do we know about the young Aboriginal Australians?

A．All young Australians are required to live alone in the wilderness.

B．The difficulties they experienced in hiking turned them into adults.

C．Walkabout should only be done if they are mentally and physically prepared.

D．Walkabout is an unprepared test for the young Aboriginal Australians.

3. According to the passage, what skill does a person need to acquire in the walkabout?

A．Identifying directions.	B．Preserving physical strength.
C．Planting plants.	D．Hunting and fishing.

4. Which of the following options is true about walkabout?

A．Only people who have experienced torture are qualified to the walkabout.

B．Women must decorate themselves with body paint and ornaments.

C．To survive, the participants need to acquire certain survival skills.

D．Native women are not required to participate in the walkabout.

6 . A filler word is an apparently meaningless word, phrase, or sound that marks a pause or hesitation in speech. Also known as a pause filler or hesitation form. Some of the common filler words in English are um, uh, er, ah, like, okay, right, and you know. Although filler words “may have fairly minimal lexical (词汇的) content,” notes linguist Barbara A. Fox, “they can play a strategic syntactic (句法的) role in a(n) ________ conversation”. What appears to be a filler word may also be a holophrase (整句字) ________ the context. “Hey, hey, shh, shh, shh. Come on. Be sensitive to the fact that other people are not comfortable talking about emotional ________. Um, you know, I am, I’m fine with that, but...other people”.

Modern linguists led by Leonard Bloomfield in 1933 call these “hesitation forms”—the sounds of stammering (uh), stuttering (um, um), throat-clearing (ahem!), stalling (well, um, that is), interjected when the speaker is searching words or ________ for the next thought. You know that “y’know” is among the most common of these ________ forms. Its meaning is not the imperious “you understand” or even the old interrogatory “do you get it?” It is given as, and taken to be, merely a filler phrase, ________ to fill a beat in the flow of sound, not unlike like, in its new sense of, like, a filler word.

These staples of modern filler communication—I mean, y’know, like—can also be used as “tee-up words”. In old times, pointer phrases or tee-up words were “get this, would you believe? and are you ready?”. The ________ of these rib-nudging phrases was—are you ready—to make the point, to focus the listener’s attention on what was to follow... If the ________ is to tee up a point, we should accept “y’ know” and its friends as a mildly ________ spoken punctuation, the articulated colon (冒号) that signals “focus on this”… If the purpose is to grab a moment to think, we should allow ourselves to wonder: Why are filler phrases needed at all? What ________ the speaker to fill the moment of silence with any sound at all?

Why do some people fill the air with non-words and sounds? For some, it is a sign of nervousness; they fear silence and experience speaker ________. Recent research at Columbia University suggests another reason. Columbia psychologists guessed that speakers fill pauses when ________ for the next word. To investigate this ________, they counted the use of filler words used by lecturers in biology, chemistry, and mathematics, where the subject matter uses scientific definitions that limit the variety of word choices ________ to the speaker. They then compared the number of filler words used by teachers in English, art history, and philosophy, where the subject matter is less ________ and more open to word choices.

1.

A．undertaking

B．discovering

C．disliking

D．unfolding

2.

A．depending on

B．holding up

C．taking over

D．arranging for

3.

A．appliances

B．substances

C．disturbances

D．finances

4.

A．on the contrary

B．at a loss

C．at dawn

D．on no account

5.

A．perseverance

B．complexity

C．hesitation

D．obligation

6.

A．intended

B．attended

C．pretended

D．extended

7.

A．interest

B．experience

C．advantage

D．function

8.

A．architecture

B．purpose

C．completion

D．random

9.

A．annoying

B．striking

C．entertaining

D．embarrassing

10.

A．oppresses

B．recycles

C．highlights

D．motivates

11.

A．danger

B．anxiety

C．figure

D．sculpture

12.

A．bothering

B．inspecting

C．searching

D．accomplishing

13.

A．idea

B．chance

C．basis

D．feedback

14.

A．feasible

B．credible

C．considerable

D．available

15.

A．well-matched

B．well-defined

C．well-bred

D．well-perceived

7 . History suggests that societies generally overestimate the short-term implications of new technologies while underestimating longer-term ones. Current experience with artificial intelligence — the technology enabled by machine-learning — suggests we are getting it ______ this time. There’s too much talk about the potential “______ risk” to humanity posed by AI, and too little about our experience of it so far and corporate plans for exploiting the technology.

Although AI has been hiding in plain sight for a decade, it took most people by surprise. The appearance of ChatGPT last November signaled that the world had discovered a powerful new technology. Not for nothing is this new “generative AI” called “______”: it provides the base on which the next wave of digital innovation will be built.

It is also transformational in innumerable ways: it weakens centuries-old conceptions of intellectual property, ______, and it has the potential radically to increase productivity, reshape industries, change the nature of some kinds of work and so on. On top of that, though, it also raises troubling questions about the ______ of humans and their capabilities.

The continuing dispute between the Hollywood studios and screenwriters’ and actors’ unions perfectly illustrates the ______ of the challenges posed by AI. Both groups are up in arms about the way online streaming has reduced their earnings. But the writers also fear their role will be ______ simply to rewriting AI-generated scripts; and actors are concerned that detailed digital scanning ______ by new movie contracts will allow studios to create persuasive deepfakes of them that studios will be able to own and use “for the rest of eternity (永久), in any project they want, with no permission and no compensation”.

So the key question for democracies is: how can we ensure AI is used for human flourishing ______ corporate gain? On this question, the news from ______ is not good. A recent study by two renowned economists, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, of 1,000 years of technological progress shows that although some benefits have usually trickled (流) down to the ______, the rewards have — with one exception — invariably gone to those who own and control the technology.

The “______” was a period in which democracies fostered countervailing powers (抵消力量) — civil-society organisations, free media, activists, trade unions and other progressive, technically informed institutions that supplied a steady flow of ideas about how technology could be repurposed for ______ rather than exclusively for private profit. This is the lesson from history that societies confronted by the AI challenge need to relearn.

There are some signs that governments may finally have realized the problem. The EU, for example, has an ambitious and far-reaching AI Act that is making its way through the union’s processes. In the US, the Biden administration recently published a “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights”, which looks impressive but is ______ just a list of aspirations that some of the big tech companies claim to share.

It’s a start — provided governments don’t forget that leaving the implementation of powerful new technologies solely to corporations is always a(n) ______ idea.

1.

A．the other way round

B．all the way back

C．one way or the other

D．just in the way

2.

A．economical

B．existential

C．economic

D．commercial

3.

A．distinguished

B．prosperous

C．pioneering

D．foundational

4.

A．for example

B．by contrast

C．in turn

D．at most

5.

A．prospects

B．inspirations

C．virtues

D．uniqueness

6.

A．origin

B．extent

C．implication

D．constitution

7.

A．credited

B．attributed

C．reduced

D．exposed

8.

A．enabled

B．facilitated

C．implemented

D．possessed

9.

A．as well as

B．in exchange for

C．rather than

D．as opposed to

10.

A．society

B．frontier

C．press

D．history

11.

A．corporations

B．masses

C．governments

D．industries

12.

A．exception

B．reminder

C．outcome

D．benefit

13.

A．scientific discoveries

B．energy conservation

C．social good

D．job security

14.

A．supposedly

B．essentially

C．necessarily

D．commonly

15.

A．impressive

B．sensible

C．outdated

D．bad

8 . There are countless reasons to stay up late in college. Here’s one good reason to go to bed.

The less a student sleeps every night, the lower their grade-point average will be, according to a two-year study of the sleep habits of more than 600 college freshmen.

Researchers found that every lost hour of average nightly sleep at the start of an academic term was associated with a 0.07-point _______ in a student’s end-of-term GPA. When a student slept less than six hours a night, the _______ of lost sleep on a student’s grades was even more _______, said David Creswell, the lead author of the study.

“You’re _______ this sleep debt,” Creswell said. “And that has a pretty negative role _______ people’s academics.”

Sleep, especially undisturbed sleep, helps the brain _______ and retain information it has learned. And when someone is sleep-deprived, attention span and memory are also impaired.

But students face a variety of “_______ pressure” that keep them up late in college, which is often the first time students are living away from home, Creswell said. The average student in the sample group typically fell asleep at about 2:30 a.m. _______ any of the students went to bed before midnight. And, on average, they slept 6.5 hours a night.

It’s not clear why less sleep would cause someone to have a lower GPA, Creswell said. Sleeping for longer, _______ periods of time allows for REM sleep, a period of unconscious rapid eye movement that corresponds with high activity in the brain. Creswell said he ________ that a regular pattern of ________ sleep creates a “sleep debt” over time, leaving students unable to concentrate. “These college students are going to class with a ton of sleep debt, and they’re having trouble staying focused and ________ in college classrooms,” Creswell said. “Those thing can really harm your ability to really ________ with the material.”

Obviously, the findings could inform systemic changes at university campaigns or workshops to help students have a better night’s sleep. There are multiple pathways to get to a GPA, and sleep is like the ________ that holds students’ lives together in lots of domains.

“Fundamentally, it ________: If we’re not sleeping well, all systems are not a go,” Creswell said. “Our body is not prepared for the day ahead of us and what we’re asking it to do if we don’t have that good, basic chunk of night-time sleep.”

1.

A．consistent

B．parallel

C．rise

D．drop

2.

A．efficiency

B．elite

C．effect

D．edge

3.

A．proportioned

B．pronounced

C．promoted

D．proceeded

4.

A．accumulating

B．accusing

C．relieving

D．refunding

5.

A．in accordance with

B．in terms of

C．in line with

D．in a state of

6.

A．preoccupy

B．produce

C．process

D．privilege

7.

A．complimenting

B．comprehending

C．complicating

D．competing

8.

A．Briefly

B．Brilliantly

C．Barely

D．Bitterly

9.

A．unpredicted

B．uninterrupted

C．undetermined

D．undermined

10.

A．suspects

B．suspends

C．sustains

D．subscribes

11.

A．improper

B．insufficient

C．adequate

D．extraordinary

12.

A．building

B．returning

C．learning

D．enrolling

13.

A．engage

B．emerge

C．evolve

D．evaluate

14.

A．glance

B．gossip

C．grade

D．glue

15.

A．comes up to

B．comes down to

C．goes in for

D．gets down to

9 . Is a Science-Based Education the Way to Go?

In this present age when we are heavily dependent on science and technology, a science-based education system naturally becomes prevalent to equip the young with knowledge of the ________ of our world around them. The various disciplines of science, such as biology and astronomy, certainly help us to grasp not only the ________ of Earth, but also the significance of human beings in the universe. Moreover, as people naturally have an inborn desire to control the environment, a science-based education seems to be well ________ to humanity’s inquisitive nature. ________, it remains questionable whether a science-based education is able to paint a complete picture of the world.

Certainly, it equips us with the knowledge of ________ which is necessary for us to make sense of the world. By laying the foundation of the skills in students, they will be equipped with the necessary skills to discover the world as ________ by science today. A classic example is Gregor Mendel’s famous pea plant experiment. Without this, we would not have understood the ________ of our genes, nor the reasons why offspring may look strikingly similar to their parents.

Additionally, the scientific method highlights the importance of ________, which is instrumental in the acquisition of knowledge. In a typical science-based educational system, students are taught to objectively analyze empirical data and derive scientific principles. Besides, a science-based education empowers us to ________ preconceived(预想的) concepts instead of merely accepting “facts” at face value.

Despite its ________, a science-based education does not always enlighten us about certain aspects of the world that can’t be rationalized through the scientific method. Though it explains how the world works, it is lacking as it does not ________ much about why things happen. For example, science can provide a neurological explanation on how we perceive breathtaking scenery, but it can’t explain what constitutes beauty or why we are so innately drawn to it. Thus, to ________, the Arts offer us insightful perspectives on the role of science and the world at large.

Moreover, science may have great emphasis on progress that may come at a great ________to the world. A science-based education that focuses solely on the latest scientific breakthroughs may well ________ the study of ethical controversies and significant historical events. For instance, it remains to be seen whether cloning is morally acceptable.

In conclusion, a science-based education coupled with adequate exposure to ethics, values and the humanities would ________ students with a deeper insight into the complex nature of the world.

1.

A．mechanics

B．inventions

C．truths

D．objectives

2.

A．significance

B．evolution

C．composition

D．prospect

3.

A．subjected

B．reduced

C．entitled

D．tailored

4.

A．Nevertheless

B．Moreover

C．Instead

D．Therefore

5.

A．doubt

B．suspicion

C．inquiry

D．consultation

6.

A．framed

B．explained

C．assessed

D．justified

7.

A．dependence

B．burst

C．consciousness

D．function

8.

A．objectivity

B．illustration

C．curiosity

D．inquiry

9.

A．deny

B．challenge

C．dismiss

D．highlight

10.

A．margins

B．expenses

C．initiatives

D．virtues

11.

A．worry

B．care

C．reveal

D．enclose

12.

A．draw a parallel

B．make ends meet

C．strike a balance

D．make a comparison

13.

A．cost

B．advantage

C．discount

D．angle

14.

A．underline

B．prioritize

C．further

D．neglect

15.

A．assist

B．furnish

C．occupy

D．engage

10 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。1.

A．He has just been back from South America.

B．He has been burnt for a few hours.

C．He has been doing school work all night.

D．He has been surfing the Internet for long.

2.

A．To look for information for his project.

B．To meet new friends in the net chatroom.

C．To release pressure from heavy work.

D．To look for something interesting for pleasure.

3.

A．Quite a few sites are just old event calendars.

B．It’s a waste of time to surf the Internet.

C．A lot of information can be found.

D．A lot of friends can be made on the Internet.

4.

A．It takes long to find things because of many useless sites.

B．It’s hardly the best source of information available.

C．It is hard to start chatting with others in the chatroom.

D．People spend much time talking about other interests.