A skywell, or “tian jing” in Chinese, is a typical feature of a traditional home in Southern and Eastern China. They are commonly seen in homes
Since decades ago, the government
The fact that skywells still exist today shows
2 . Artists everywhere are getting “understandably nervous” about recent advances in artificial intelligence. Last month, a winner of an art prize at the Colorado State Fair “sparked a violent protest” when he posted the news and explained that he’d created his image using an AI program. Critics quickly accused 39-year-old Lance Allen of cheating. To be fair, Allen had won in the digital art category and made no secret of how the image had been produced. But the rules of art making are clearly changing.
Allen’s creative process, to be clear, “was not a push-button operation, ”said Jason Blain in Forbes. He claims to have spent 80 hours on his entry, first on fine-tuning his text prompts (提示), then by touching up the final image using Photoshop and similar tools, then arranging to print the image on canvas. He made the finished product using AI much as a photographer creates an image using a camera.
But Allen, a tabletop game developer, is awed by AI’s capabilities and urges artists and illustrators to welcome the technology rather than fight it. “Art is dead,” he says. “AI won. Humans lost.” A more inspiring lesson to take from his victory, though, is that image generators are likely to “expand the appreciation for and creation of art” by opening the field to people, like him, who could never draw anything as detailed as his award-winning image. “If anything, we will have more artists,” and as the technology progresses, “we might see the emergence of art styles that none have seen before.”
You can’t blame traditional artists if they’re unhappy. Image generators work their magic, after all, by analyzing the aesthetics (美学) of millions of pre-existing images. One of the most complicated image generators “makes crystal clear just how destructive this technology will be,” said Loz Eliot in New Atlas. Given a specific prompt, it can produce an image of just about anything you can imagine and even follow the style of a favorite artist’s work. Its arrival marks “an incredible popularization of visual creativity” while aiming “a knife to the heart of anyone who’s spent decades improving their artistic techniques hoping to make a living from them.”
1. Why are artists getting nervous about AI recently?| A．A winner of an art prize used AI. | B．Lance Allen cheated in the art competition. |
| C．The digital art will soon dominate. | D．There will be great changes in art creation. |
| A．It was no easy work for Allen even with Al. | B．Allen worked as a photographer creating an image. |
| C．AI played a key role in Allen’s art creation. | D．Although with AI, Allen’s creation counted a lot. |
| A．Human has been beaten by AI. | B．AI will make art more popular. |
| C．Greater artists and new art styles will appear. | D．AI enables amateurs to win art competitions. |
| A．It works by analyzing images created by human. |
| B．It can produce images beyond people’s imagination. |
| C．It makes artists’ long-time effort meaningless. |
| D．It makes it impossible for artists to make a living. |
George had his eye on a scoring record. He took a deep breath as he stood in the doorway,looking in at the basketball court. The gym was old and small, but it held a long history. Maybe today I’ll make history, George thought.
His basketball league was celebrating. Today’s championship game marked its 50th anniversary (周年) since the league’s first championship.
George looked over the brochure for the anniversary. It listed the winners of each championship game and the top scorers. He stopped suddenly when he read the name of the top scorer from a game 30 years before. He quickly went through the rest of the list. “Look!” he said to his teammate David,showing him the brochure.“You see who has the all-time record? My dad! He never told me that.”
“24 points,” David said. “That’s awesome!”
George’s best record was 19 points. He was the Badgers’ top scorer. “It seems that my dad never showed off something like that,”George said.
When his parents arrived, George brought the brochure over to them. His dad laughed. “I didn’t miss a shot in that game. But look at the score. I would have traded every shot for a win,”he said with regret. George hadn’t noticed that his dad’s team had lost the game just by one point.“That was a great group of teammates,”his dad added.“You have great teammates in the Badgers, too.”
As George warmed up, he was still digesting his father’s words. “This will be a struggle every second,”the coach emphasized before they got on court to play.“I want to see tough defense, sharp passing, and, above all, smart play as a team.”
George was confident he could lead the Badgers to victory, just as he did in their previous games against the Lions. And he played really hard. As the game neared its end, George had already scored 23 points. Another basket would break his father’s scoring record.
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。
However, his team was now one point behind the Lions.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
With no defenders around, David turned and shot at the basket.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4 . A blind fish living within a Mexican cave system’s deep, enduring darkness still maintains some ability to sense light. As the cave fish no longer seem to rely on an internal daily cycle and some sleep very little, biologist Inca Stein-dal and her colleagues were keen to see if their bodies can still regulate cyclically through time. Most animals on Earth have an internal clock for this the circadian rhythm (昼夜节律) that uses light levels to make our bodies fit in with our planet’s day and night cycles. This rhythm is then used to cycle through different biological processes that can influence our behaviour, such as our hunger cycles.
The Mexican blind cave fish live in a complex of over 30 isolated caves, within which they have each independently adjusted to the dark. Their bodies are extra sensitive to vibrations (震动), allowing them to sense changes in water currents for navigation (导航) in compensation for their limited or complete lack of sight. This adaptation occurred despite the fish from each cave evolving from the same species with fully functioning eyes. This ancestral group still lives in the surface waters in the El Albra region of Mexico and some parts of the Southwestern US.
Steindal and her team took tissue samples from the blind cave fish, from three isolated caves, and their surface relatives and tested the cells in different conditions. They detected the activation of several molecular (分子的) clock mechanisms when the cells were exposed to light, even in the cave fish cells. “Non-visual light detection is maintained at a fundamental cell-based level,” the researchers explain,although the cave fish cells did not respond as strongly as those cells from surface fish. While there were some similarities between the fish from the different caves compared to their surface relatives, there were also differences that confirm their biological clock changes each evolved independently of one another via different molecular mechanisms.
“We have provided proof that despite being blind, cells from the Mexican blind cave fish can detect light and make their clocks fit in with a light/dark cycle,” Steindal and her colleagues conclude. The team hopes these can help us learn more about the circadian rhythm and provide an easier way to study animal adaptations to dark environments.
1. As to the cave fish, what did Steindal and her fellows try to find out?| A．If they have a circadian rhythm. | B．If they rely on an internal daily cycle. |
| C．If they need to sleep. | D．If they are able to sense light. |
| A．The Mexican cave fish’s ancestors had normal vision. |
| B．The Mexican cave fish’s home is in the dark deep sea. |
| C．The Mexican cave fish have adapted to darkness. |
| D．The Mexican cave fish have trouble navigating. |
| A．Cave fish’s unique molecular structures. |
| B．Non-visual light detection in cave fish cells. |
| C．The cave fish’s adjustment t0 molecular clock mechanisms. |
| D．Biological clock changes evolved independently. |
| A．Why Do the Mexican Cave fish Live in the Darken“ |
| B．A Blind Cave fish Can Still Perceive Light. |
| C．How Can the Mexican Cave fish Fit in with the Day Cycles? |
| D．The Biological Clocks of the Life in the Sen Are Constantly Changing. |
5 . I was heading home after giving my colleague a lift. I took a
Then the snow started and was coming down
The call left me in
Then I saw a big
| A．shortcut | B．turn | C．look | D．risk |
| A．soon | B．fast | C．lightly | D．suddenly |
| A．locked | B．closed | C．frozen | D．broken |
| A．follow | B．cover | C．mark | D．remember |
| A．plan | B．clue | C．doubt | D．problem |
| A．awake | B．calm | C．warm | D．still |
| A．confusion | B．trouble | C．embarrassment | D．panic |
| A．confirmed | B．found | C．posted | D．checked |
| A．looking at | B．going through | C．searching for | D．carrying out |
| A．tip | B．comment | C．like | D．message |
| A．inspired | B．relieved | C．convinced | D．amazed |
| A．policeman | B．creature | C．shadow | D．figure |
| A．fighting | B．avoiding | C．checking | D．reporting |
| A．goal | B．danger | C．depth | D．direction |
| A．hope | B．love | C．gratitude | D．pride |
6 . There’s a classic short story in which a young man travels years ahead and meets his future self. Narratives like this have always been related to science fiction. But what if you could meet your future self?
I’m a psychologist and professor. My research over the past 15 years isn’t far from this theme. I’ve largely focused on how people think about and relate to their future selves, and explored the reasons why we have such a hard time making long-term decisions. In my research, I’ve learnt that we often imagine our future selves like strangers, which can impede us in making long-term choices. One way to bridge the emotional gap is to think of future selves in more concrete and vivid ways, like writing letters to and from one’s future self, which can strengthen the connection between current and future selves.
Admittedly, having people engage in an imagined conversation is a far cry from actually meeting one’s future self. But it’s believed that far richer interactions may happen in the near future through artificial intelligence (AI). It wouldn’t be predicting exactly what choices you’d make. It’d be more about showing your potential, based on the lives of people similar to you: not just one possible life for you, but rather, the most possible life path for you. Such interactions could offer valuable insights into our potential future selves.
So, to return to my original question: if you could time-travel to meet your future self, what aspects of your life would you want to know more about? I realized, through thorough reflections, that the most powerful questions would be ones that helped me make better choices today —questions exploring personal growth, regrets and unfulfilled actions.
Actually, you don’t need to wait for time travel or advanced AI for answers that you can act on. Through my research, I’ve learnt that simply taking a bit of time to picture this meeting can help you make better choices now. All you need is a little imagination, and the willingness to put yourself in the shoes of a person you currently treat as a stranger.
1. Why is it difficult for people to make long-term decisions according to the author?| A．Technology for time travel is not available. |
| B．Strangers cannot help with decision-making. |
| C．Writing letters to one’s future self is impractical. |
| D．People find it hard to connect with their distant selves. |
| A．contradictory to | B．very different from |
| C．not as convenient as | D．less popular than |
| A．Why hasn’t my hard work ever paid off? |
| B．What can AI do to help people become better persons? |
| C．If given the chance, what would you have done differently? |
| D．How can I succeed without going through all the difficulties in life? |
| A．Time travel: What if you met your future self? |
| B．My research: How do people view their future selves? |
| C．Emotional gap: Why can’t we talk with our future selves? |
| D．Artificial intelligence: Is it possible to meet your future self? |
7 . When adult humans meet a baby, many can’t help speaking in a higher-pitched (更高音的), sing-song y voice. This shift, known as parentese, is not unique to humans — it has also been observed in animals like monkeys and gorillas. Now, scientists are adding one more species to that list: bottlenose dolphins.
Dolphins are intelligent animals that live and hunt in groups. They communicate in a unique way: every individual produces its own signature sound that acts much like an ID card, usually by its first birthday. But how does each come up with its distinctive whistle? For babies, it might have something to do with listening to Mum. To solve this mystery, researchers examined the sounds mother dolphins, make.
Scientists studied 34 years’ worth of recordings of sounds made by 19 female bottlenose dolphins. When the mother dolphins were near their young, they continued to make their signature sound, but at a higher frequency. They also used a wider range of frequencies than they did when their babies were not nearby.
This discovery suggests that using these modifications mother dolphins assist their young in learning how to produce these calls themselves. Since dolphin babies often spend some years with their mothers before living on their own, it makes sense that this adaptation would help them learn to communicate. At the very least, the higher-pitched whistle likely gets the babies’ attention. “It’s important for a baby to know,’ Oh, Mum’s talking to me now,’” says marine biologist June Mann.
This kind of research could help us understand how language developed in humans. “It is absolutely essential to have basic knowledge about other species and how they communicate,” says Mann. “I would be really interested to see whether dolphins also change their sounds when interacting with babies of others, which is what happens in humans.”
1. What do the underlined words “this mystery ”refer to in paragraph 2?| A．Why dolphins live and play in groups. |
| B．How dolphins develop their unique sounds. |
| C．What aspects of intelligence dolphins possess. |
| D．Whether dolphins can use parentese like humans. |
| A．By analyzing mother dolphins’ sound features. |
| B．By recording parent-child interaction frequency. |
| C．By measuring the distance between parent and child. |
| D．By examining the speech organs of mother dolphins. |
| A．To help them learn to talk. | B．To teach them hunting skills. |
| C．To express worry and care. | D．To distract their attention. |
| A．To compare the parentese of humans and dolphins. |
| B．To illustrate the development of dolphin intelligence. |
| C．To share new findings about dolphin communication. |
| D．To highlight the value of studying dolphins’ language. |
8 . Last summer at a bookstore, my son Henry was fascinated by the cover of the first novel from Peter Brown’s middle-grade trilogy (三部曲). He then finished it in just two days. “Dad, why did The Wild Robot have to be so sad?” He tearfully asked me.
The story is set on a remote island, where a robot named Roz learns to survive and communicate with the island’s creatures, and becomes part of the community. For my son, it was the first book he discovered on his own; the first to impact him with the mix of tragedy (悲剧) and joy.
When I finished the book, I knew why Henry loved it. In our book club discussion, he described how Brown’s pictures and words had made the story feel real. When talking about its final scenes, where Roz leaves to find repairs for her injured body, Henry cried again. His previous reading experiences had cheerful, “happily-ever-after” endings, but this book introduced him to the beauty of complex emotions. I tried to explain how sadness can enhance the meaning of happy moments, but failed to fully convince him.
Once our discussion ended, Henry requested to buy The Wild Robot Escapes and instantly fell in love with it. He read the first two books repeatedly, so you can imagine his excitement when we finally got a copy of The Wild Robot Protects.
We both agree it is worth the wait. Roz leaves the island again to stop an underwater threat: “the poison tide.” Brown expertly balances between breathtaking adventure and unsettling ideas- not just happiness and sadness, but also, given the climate-change undercurrents, hope and despair.
And, here’s something special about Roz: her physical clumsiness and confusion about life, conveyed through her expressive eyes and downturned mouth. Her story reflects the challenges of surviving in a strange place, much like a child’s journey. Readers love Roz. They learn from her. Even better, they learn alongside her. Roz gave Henry the power to push through the first book’s sad parts, getting him ready to appreciate that, sometimes, sadness isn’t a bad thing to feel.
1. What drove the author to read The Wild Robot?| A．Its tragic ending. | B．Henry’s tearful recommendation. |
| C．Its attractive cover. | D．Henry’s emotional response to it. |
| A．Family and community. | B．Concerns of global issues. |
| C．Exploration of the ocean. | D．Man-robot relationship. |
| A．Her childlike expressions. | B．Her robotic power. |
| C．Her struggling experiences. | D．Her adventurous spirit. |
| A．Misfortune inspires great literary works. | B．Robot stories work like magic on children. |
| C．Book discussions help kids survive tragedies. | D．Reading literature facilitates personal growth. |
9 . Do you ever find yourself saving the good things in life for some distant moment in the future? Maybe you have a collection of fancy plates that only see the light of day on special occasions, or perhaps you’re waiting for the perfect time to wear that beautiful dress put away in your closet.
In a recent conversation with leading psychologist Dr. Alison McClymont, we explored the idea of giving ourselves permission to enjoy the good things now, rather than waiting for an uncertain future.
But why do we feel the need to save things for best?
Welcoming the joy of everyday life can be seen as an act of self-love. We are supposed to surround ourselves with things that bring us happiness, even in ordinary moments.
| A．So, why not start now? |
| B．Well, it’s time to reconsider. |
| C．By doing so, we can boost our overall well-being. |
| D．After all, there will be more happiness in store for us. |
| E．Actually, cultural and generational factors play a crucial role. |
| F．The reason may be that our well-being is closely related to abundance. |
| G．If we deny ourselves small moments of joy, we may never get them again. |
Born into a medical family, Amar, a 15-year-old boy, was expected to be a doctor, but deep down in his heart, he was eager to take up writing as his future career. He was in a great dilemma whether to pursue his dream or live up to his parents’ expectation. until one day when his father gifted him a parrot.
The parrot had two hazy lines in her neck: black and red. Amar knew the hazy lines mark the stage of learning. “When there is a good teacher, how can his student be stupid” ,he used to believe. It was absolutely true.
Metto’s cage was yellow with a big door and a shiny silver rod (杆) running through the centre. Metto’s world was fantastic, surrounded by eight-foot white walls with some plum trees. And a lawn, with a palm tree in the middle, was dotted with multiple-color roses.
Back home from school every afternoon, Amar always slid the door of the cage up for Metto to set her free nearby the palm tree. Metto could set herself free because she learned how to slide up the door but she had never tried to do so. It was either love with Amar or, might be, she had never tasted the taste of a bigger world.
Amar always talked with Metto in Pashto (普什图语). Whenever Amar fished out peanuts from his pocket, Metto talked frequently “Toti choori khore” —parrot! Wanna eat choori. She had learned one more sentence after meeting with a friend belonging to jungle outside the white walls. She always said that at the end of meal “Da wakht bam teer she”—this shall to be passed, which Amar had never taught her.
Amar saw her friend coming daily and sitting in the plum tree nearby Metto’s cage. He let them and did nothing. “The new one can never succeed in winning her. After all, I feed her well. She will never leave me”, Amar murmured. But he didn’t know the new teacher had taught her something the old one hadn’t. It was the outer world with untouchable horizon.
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。
One day, on the way to feed her, Amar was shocked at what Metto was doing.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
His head hanging down; Amar came back home after long running.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
