1 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A．efficiency             B．employ             C．effective             D．chemicals             E．accelerating F．existing             G．projected             H．trapped             I．power                    J．simultaneously K．artificially

This past July was the hottest recorded month in human history. Heat waves smashed temperature records worldwide and even brought summer temperatures to Chile and Argentina during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter. It’s more than just a matter of sweaty discomfort. In the U.S. alone, it kills more people each year than floods, tornadoes and hurricanes combined. As climate change worsens, access to     1     cooled spaces is rapidly becoming a health necessity.

Yet standard air-conditioning systems have     2     us in a vicious cycle: the hotter it is, the more people use the AC—and the more energy is used as a result. Nicole Miranda, an engineer researching sustainable cooling at the University of Oxford says: “it’s not only a vicious cycle, but it’s a(n)     3     one.” According to 2018 data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the worldwide annual energy demand from cooling is     4     to more than triple by 2050.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that humans cannot outrun climate change with the same air-conditioning technology we’ve been using. One well-known problem with current AC systems is their reliance on refrigerant     5    , many of which are potential greenhouse gases. About 80 percent of a standard AC unit’s climate-warming emissions currently come from the energy used to     6     it, says Nihar Shah, director of the Global Cooling Efficiency Program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Standard air-conditioning systems     7     cool and dehumidify through a relatively inefficient mechanism: in order to condense water out of the air, they overcool that air past the point of comfort. Many new designs therefore separate the dehumidification and cooling processes, which avoids the need to overcool.

Even with some of the best technologies available, the gains in     8     alone might not be enough to offset the widely expected increase in air-conditioning use. It will not work to simply replace every     9     air conditioner with a better model and call it a day. Instead, a truly cooler future will have to     10     other strategies that rely on urban planning and building design to minimize the need for cooling in the first place.

2 . Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. However, anxiety disorders, defined by extreme fear, restlessness, and muscle tension, can increase the risk for ______ and self-murder.

They are some of the most common mental health conditions around the world, ______ around four out of every 100 people and costing the health care system and job employers over US $42 billion each year.

People with anxiety are more likely to miss days from work and are less ______. Young people with anxiety are also less likely to enter school and complete it, leading to fewer life ______. Even though this evidence points to anxiety disorders as being important mental health issues, insufficient ______ is being given to them by researchers, clinicians, and policy makers.

My team and I at the University of Cambridge wanted to find out who is most affected by anxiety disorders. To do this, we conducted a systematic ______ of studies that reported on the proportion of people with anxiety in a variety of contexts around the world, and used accurate methods to keep the highest quality studies.

Our results showed women are almost twice as likely to ______ anxiety as men, and people living in Europe and North America are disproportionately affected.

So why are women more ______? It could be because of differences in brain chemistry and hormone (荷尔蒙) variations. Reproductive events across a woman’s life are ______ with hormonal changes, which have been linked to anxiety. The rise in oestrogen (雌激素) that occurs during pregnancy can ______ the risk for uncontrollable disorder.

This is ______ by disturbing and repetitive thoughts, impulses and addictions that are upsetting and less effective. But in addition to biological mechanisms, women and men seem to experience and react to events in their life ______. Women tend to be more likely to stress, which can increase their anxiety. Also, when faced with stressful situations, women and men tend to use different coping ______. Women faced with life stressors are more likely to think about them seriously, which can increase their anxiety, ______ men engage more in active problem-focused coping.

Other studies suggest that women are more likely to ______ physical and mental mistreatment than men, and this behavior has been linked to the development of anxiety disorders.

1.

A．symptom

B．depression

C．misery

D．frightening

2.

A．infecting

B．stimulating

C．capturing

D．affecting

3.

A．productive

B．progressive

C．positive

D．passive

4.

A．adventures

B．insurances

C．chances

D．programs

5.

A．conclusion

B．attention

C．solution

D．contribution

6.

A．ignorance

B．outlook

C．discovery

D．review

7.

A．suffer from

B．deal with

C．fight against

D．result from

8.

A．superior

B．inferior

C．vulnerable

D．enormous

9.

A．interacted

B．associated

C．disconnected

D．inherited

10.

A．challenge

B．decline

C．eliminate

D．increase

11.

A．characterized

B．confused

C．performed

D．offended

12.

A．equally

B．similarly

C．differently

D．terribly

13.

A．shortcuts

B．strategies

C．standards

D．samples

14.

A．because

B．unless

C．if

D．while

15.

A．experience

B．accept

C．ignore

D．persist

3 . Directions: Fill in the blanks with the proper form of the given verbs.

Robot Chef Learns to Twirl (旋转) Pizza Like a Pro

Pizza has a proud history of fueling late-night lab work, and scientists in Naples—an Italian city famous for its pizza—have easy access to some of the world’s tastiest take-out. But what inspires engineer Bruno Siciliano is not that first bite     1     much as how the dish is made.

“Preparing a pizza involves an extraordinary level of agility and dexterity (敏捷和灵巧),” says Siciliano, who directs a robotics research group at the University of Naples Federico Ⅱ. Stretching a deformable object like a lump of dough (面团) requires an accurate and gentle touch. It is one of the few things humans can handle, but robots cannot—yet.

Siciliano’s team     2     (develop) a robot able to make a pizza pie. RoDyMan (short for Robotic Dynamic Manipulation) is a five-year project     3     (support) by a €2.5-million grant from the European Research Council. Like a human chef, RoDyMan must throw the dough into the air to stretch it,     4     (follow) it as it spins and anticipating how it will change shape.

RoDyMan has been working this spring toward a milestone: stretching the dough     5     tearing it. To guide the robot, Siciliano’s team asked master pizza chef Enzo Coccia to wear a suit of movement-tracking sensors. “We learn [Coccia’s] motions, and we copy them with RoDyMan,” Sciliano says.

RoDyMan uses visual sensors in its head to track the dough in real time. Using software, it can train     6     to handle the pizza like a chef would. The robot     7     (map) the dough’s position and tracks how it moves. Through practice, the robot     8     get better—much like humans develop “muscle memory.” Researchers hope RoDyMan’s technology can lead to a new generation of robots that will perform tasks in ways     9     are accurate and responsive, if not more lifelike.

Yet Siciliano admits that     10     compares with a traditional chef. “I would never eat a pizza made by a robot,” he says. “It would not have the taste a real pizzaiolo, with his soul, would put in it.”

4 . Directions: Fill in the blanks with the proper form of the given verbs.

Talking to your therapist over Zoom is as helpful for anxiety and depression as going to in-person therapy. The virtual session, moreover, can be delivered at lower costs, according to a new study conducted in the U.K.

Online therapy has become more and more prevalent since the COVID pandemic,     1     lockdowns forced lots of therapists online. The new study suggests that one of the biggest benefits of virtual therapy     2     be that it can allow people to get treatment faster, which increases their quality of life and reduces the amount of additional medical care they require.

“The actual cost of mental health care doesn’t come from treating these conditions     3     from not treating them,” says co-author Ana Catarino.

Questions emerge about     4     to deliver mental health interventions online best. Catarino and her team compared ieso’s Internet-delivered CBT, which featured a therapist working one-on-one with patients through a text chat,     5     the other services for anxiety and depression offered by the NHS, which covered a variety of therapies.

The findings showed that online therapy was     6     (effective) than the other forms of care. What was most interesting was why. The researchers found that patients who were offered the therapist-guided CBT program got treatment faster. As a result, their quality of life improved more quickly, and they used fewer other medical services.

The paper is likely to “make a big splash” because the authors showed that the success of the virtual CBT program was linked to the fact that it provided patients with a therapist’s guidance every step of the way.

It’s not surprising that virtual therapy works well, says Haim Weinberg, a licensed psychologist. Studies outside the U.K. have found the same, he says. But there is still some bias     7     virtual therapy as somehow second-best, and there are not yet many     8     (establish) training programs to get mental health professionals comfortable with providing care online.

Virtual care won’t be right for every person, but the new study’s results suggest the need to expand access     9     patients aren’t left waiting for help. These findings stress the importance of developing clinical interventions that     10     (prove) to be effective and that can be used at scale to match the demand we know.

5 . In 1968 a grave dating from about 1100 was uncovered near Hattula, in Finland, Little remained of the occupant’s skeleton, but the inhumation included two swords and a knife. Such grave goods would normally suggest said occupant was a man. The skeleton was, ______ also decorated with brooches (胸针) and woollen clothing of types more usually worn at the time by women. This ______ guess that the burial was actually of a powerful woman, possibly a local ruler in her own right rather than just the wife of a male king.

This would be noteworthy enough. But a re-examination of the remains, just published in the European Journal of Archaeology by Ulla Moilanen of the University of Turku and Elina Salmela of the University of Helsinki, suggests the truth may be yet more ______. Ms. Moilanen and Dr Salmela suspect that the individual ______ may have had outward characteristics of both a man and a woman.

In 1968 working out the ______ of a skeleton in an ancient grave was tricky. After years of deterioration, the bones of men and women look pretty much ______. But that was before the use of DNA became possible. So Ms. Moilanen and Dr Salmela thought it worth trying again.

Most people have two sex chromosomes (染色体): XX in women and XY in men. Find DNA from a Y-chromosome in a skeleton and the chances are the body was ______. And, looking at a fragment of femur brought to her by Ms. Moilanen, who is the archaeologist in the ______, Dr. Salmela, who is the geneticist, did indeed find such DNA. But not much of it. That led her to wonder about contamination (污染), but also to consider whether the individual in the grave had had a(n) ______ X-chromosome that was swamping the signal from the Y.

Having an abnormal number of sex chromosomes is rare, but not vanishingly so. The particular ______ XXY leads to what is known as Klinefelter’s syndrome. To determine the occupant’s karyotype (染色体组型) from the tiny amount of DNA available, Dr. Salmela drew ______ with living people. The grave delivered 8,329 pieces, so she used a computer to draw samples of similar size from the genomes of living people with various karyotypes, including XXY, and also from mixtures of both sexes, to ______ contamination. She then compared these with the DNA from the grave and ______ it was 99.75% probable the individual concerned had indeed had Klinefelter’s syndrome.

While Dr Salmela was working all this out, Ms. Moilanen and her team had another look at the grave. They confirmed that it was a ______ burial. For instance, they found evidence of fine furs, probably from foxes. Clearly, this was a well-respected human being, but what led to that ______ in a world then dominated by male values is a matter of puzzle. Perhaps the person came from a family powerful enough for such things not to matter.

1.

A．therefore

B．what’s more

C．nevertheless

D．for instance

2.

A．intensified

B．confirmed

C．dismissed

D．encouraged

3.

A．complicated

B．engaging

C．unpleasant

D．frightening

4.

A．in question

B．at large

C．by comparison

D．with doubt

5.

A．composition

B．age

C．sex

D．origin

6.

A．distinct

B．unidentified

C．alike

D．broken

7.

A．female

B．old

C．young

D．male

8.

A．cooperation

B．authority

C．institute

D．adventure

9.

A．restored

B．extra

C．missing

D．dominant

10.

A．requirement

B．interest

C．combination

D．emphasis

11.

A．inspirations

B．lessons

C．inferences

D．comparisons

12.

A．eliminate

B．monitor

C．imitate

D．generate

13.

A．rejected

B．concluded

C．recalled

D．confessed

14.

A．high-status

B．secret

C．religious

D．peaceful

15.

A．conclusion

B．evidence

C．respect

D．solution

6 . What will the development of quantum computers (量子计算机) mean for our civilizations? Oh sure, better cryptography (密码方式), “more powerful” processing, but bottom line, we just don’t know...yet.

This phenomenon isn’t unique to quantum computing, of course. It’s something we see time and again with all new world-changing technology. In some ways, it’s how we can define a technology as world-changing: everyone agrees it’s going to be hugely important, but nobody can predict exactly what impact it will have.

The internet remains the classic example. Although invented in the 1960s, even by the late 1990s, the internet was still being dismissed as something that is fashionable but unlikely to last. Most commentators thought it nothing more than a curiosity.

There’s a famous 1999 interview between David Bowie and BBC journalist Jeremy Paxman. In it, Bowie predicts that the internet will change the nature of music, and remove the “barriers between creator and audience”. The longer he spoke, the more Paxman said in anger that Bowie could possibly believe this about the internet.

To be fair to Paxman, in 1999, internet at home meant accessing it over a modern. Concepts like WeChat and Netflix and more simply could not work over such limited bandwidth. But there were still some people who assumed that bandwidth would increase and that streaming music and video would be possible soon enough. They were laughed at.

Oddly enough, as the dot-com boom intensified, many turned from doubters to hopeless optimists, and lost serious money building websites to deliver content that simply couldn’t “fit” down the inter-tubes of the day.

Then in the second decade of the 21st century: critical mass. Bandwidth increased massively. Forget showing a nice little video in your browser, today Netflix can serve you a TV show in 4K, as long as you have 25Mbps connection.

Quantum computing isn’t a consumer technology, of course. It’s a much bigger deal than that. Quantum computing is more like the invention of the transistor (电子晶体). Sure, most people have heard of it, but few understand it. Actually, we don’t even really understand it. But we’re reasonably comfortable that when a lab has that many scanning electron microscopes, it must be doing something important, right?

Quantum computing is still at the stage of “hit it with a hammer until it works”. Sure the hammer is microscopic, and also a laser or magnetic field of some kind, but the point is we’re going through the process of turning the idea into reality.

Sooner than you think, though, qubit-based computers are going to get applied to stuff. What stuff? Like always, it will be super secret stuff first. Then it will reach the rest of us.

This is how the world begins. Not with a bang, but with a lot of extremely hard work behind the scenes.

1. What attitude did most people take towards the internet in the 1990s?

A．Optimistic.

B．Unconcerned.

C．Doubtful.

D．Defensive.

2. The example of the internet is intended to illustrate that ______.

A．it is hard to define what is world-changing technology

B．the internet was universally acknowledged as important

C．the influence of new technology is usually unpredictable

D．the internet inspired many debates in the following years

3. By “hit it with a hammer until it works”, the writer means that quantum computing ______.

A．has been questioned	B．has been fully understood
C．hasn’t been heard of before	D．hasn’t been applied to practice

4. What can be concluded about new technology from the passage?

A．Its development is a gradual process.	B．Most is the brainchild of a scientist.
C．Not all is accessible to the public.	D．Its future is often a top secret.

7 . One of the most well-known figures of American history, Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States and the author of the Declaration of Independence. His life was an inspiring one and at the same time a little bit contradictory to his statements and way of living life, and thus he has formed the subject of a lot of authors’ books.

Jefferson and his time	This is a Biography of the life of Jefferson published in 6 volumes over a very long period of 34 years staring from 1948 till 1982. Read it For: It is an entire collection introducing all aspects of Jefferson’s life in great details from his childhood till his last days. For history enthusiasts, this is a wonderful book that will give you insight into the life of one of the most memorable American leaders. Don’t Read it For: This series is a biography and strictly a work of non-fiction. It is reading about the life of a person and might get boring for some.
American Sphinx	An interesting yet strange book, this piece of writing is not an attempt to shed light on the life of Jefferson but rather an attempt to understand his mind. Jefferson was one who spoke something but did the complete opposite of it. Read it For: This book tries to analyze Jefferson’s life but does not do it in a way that criticizes him or idolizes him. This National Award winning book perfectly balances the act of examining someone’s acts and general behavior and trying to figure out the reason behind his contradictory statements and acts. Don’t Read it For: If you are searching for a book about Jefferson’s life, this is not for you. It covers a few events of his life, not his entire life. This Political Biography by Meacham takes you on a journey into the world that Jefferson lived in and saw it through his eyes. It shows how Jefferson formed the world around him and handled situations and people to shape the American political system as it is today.
The Art of Power	Read it For: The depth with which this book is written is commendable. It is noted that the work done by Meacham in this book puts you inside Jefferson’s head and makes you understand what it would be like to be Jefferson. Don’t Read it For: While this book shows the genius of Jefferson, it can come off as bias, showing Jefferson in a very positive light and his opponents in a very negative light.

1. If one wants to know Thomas Jefferson’s experience in his whole life, ______ is most highly recommended.

A．“Jefferson and His Time”

B．“American Sphinx”

C．“The Art of Power”

D．none of the above

2. Having read “American Sphinx”, you may ______.

A．learn how Thomas got through his childhood in details

B．understand why Thomas’ words and deeds were not always matched

C．know how ordinary people criticize or idolize him

D．learn how Jefferson formed the world around him and addressed situations

3. One problem about “The Art of Power” is that readers ______.

A．may feel bored while they are reading it

B．cannot get a complete description of Thomas’ life

C．learn Thomas’ political life mainly from historians’ perspective

D．cannot get an objective point of view about Thomas’ gift

8 . Earlier this year I took a trip to England and France to go see some friends. It was a wonderful trip; I really loved it. But one thing that struck me was how different these cultures are from our own. I guess this would strike any traveler because that is the first thing you notice and it is what makes travel so exciting. Of course, these cultures are also similar to ours in many respects, but it’s the differences that really stand out.

One of the things that struck me in particular was the different attitudes towards smoking. As you know, there’s a growing anti-smoking sentiment in Europe. However, when I went to England and France, I got a new perspective on this issue. People seem to smoke anywhere and everywhere, even though anti-smoking signs are all over public places. On the radio, I heard about a member of the World Cup soccer team who smoked. And people were actually saying, “Well, he should not be on the team because he’s a bad example for our children.” I think, if they want to look at bad examples for their children, they should just go out on the street, or go into the subways, or look in the mirror, even, because so many of them are smoking in very inappropriate places. I visited a restaurant buffet in London and saw an English woman scooping up the food with a lit cigarette in her hand. Smoke rising into the air. Actually, when I talked to English people later, they were pretty shocked too, and they said that smoking in a restaurant is rude even by British standards.

This did not give me a bad impression of English people. It gave me, on the contrary, a positive feeling toward American smokers. There are a lot of American smokers who will proclaim their right to smoke whenever they want, but they will follow the rules, generally, because they have consideration for nonsmokers. So this experience in Europe gave me more of a respect for this kind of smoker.

1. What surprised the writer during his trip to England and France?

A．The wonderful trip to England and France.

B．Cultural differences that he noticed during his trip.

C．Similarity between cultures stands out more than differences.

D．Growing anti-smoking views in Europe.

2. What did the speaker find in England and France about the smoking issue?

A．People discuss the smoking issue on the radio.

B．Smokers are allowed to smoke anywhere and anytime.

C．People are encouraged to smoke in inappropriate places.

D．Many smokers pay no attention to the “No Smoking” signs.

3. The word “sentiment” in the second paragraph means ______.

A．feeling

B．movement

C．offense

D．regulation

4. What kind of smokers does the speaker respect?

A．Those who are from America and Europe.	B．Those who respect others’ feelings.
C．Those who defend the right to smoke.	D．Those who set rules of smoking in public places.

9 . The decline in moral standards--which has long concerned social analysts--has at last captured the attention of average Americans. And Jean Bethke Elshtain, for one, is glad.

The fact the ordinary citizens are now starting to think seriously about the nation’s moral climate, says this ethics (伦理学) professor at the University of Chicago, is reason to hope that new ideas will come forward to improve it.

But the challenge is not to be underestimated. Materialism and individualism in American society are the biggest obstacles. “The thought that ‘I’m in it for me’ has become deeply rooted in the national consciousness,” Ms. Elshtain says.

Some of this can be attributed to the disintegration of traditional communities, in which neighbors looked out for one another, she says. With today’s greater mobility and with so many couples working, those bonds have been weakened, replaced by a greater emphasis on self.

In a 1996 poll of Americans, loss of morality topped the list of the biggest problems facing the U.S. and Elshtain says the public is correct to sense that: Data show that Americans are struggling with problems unheard of in the 1950s, such as classroom violence and a high rate of births to unmarried mothers.

The desire for a higher moral standard is not a lament (挽歌) for some nonexistent “golden age,” Elshtain says, nor is it a wishful longing for a time that denied opportunities to women and minorities. Most people, in fact, favor the lessening of prejudice.

Moral decline will not be reversed until people find ways to counter the materialism in society, she says. “Slowly, you recognize that the things that matter are those that cant’ be bought.”

1. Professor Elshtain is pleased to see that Americans ________.

A．have adapted to a new set of moral standards

B．are longing for the return of the good old days

C．have realized the importance of material things

D．are awakening to the lowering of their moral standards

2. The moral decline of American society is caused mainly by ________.

A．its growing wealth

B．the self-centeredness of individuals

C．underestimating the impact of social changes

D．the prejudice against women and minorities

3. In the 1950s, classroom violence ________.

A．was something unheard of	B．was by no means a rare occurrence
C．attracted a lot of public attention	D．began to appear in analysts’ data

4. According to Elshtain, the current moral decline may be reversed ________.

A．if people can return to the “golden age”

B．when women and men enjoy equal rights

C．when people rid themselves of prejudice

D．if less emphasis is laid on material things