1 . You know by now that dirt is good for lots of things: growing plants, feeding worms, even the occasional mud bath. But building houses? Absolutely.
People build houses with dirt because it is plentiful, really cheap, and fireproof. Thick dirt walls keep you warm in winter and cool in summer. And you can build a whole house with few tools other than your own two hands.
In fact, dirt is so good for building things that half the people in the world live in houses made of mud. Maybe even you!
Mud works best for building where it’s dry for most of the year. If there’s too much rain, the walls of your mud house could melt like ice cream on a warm day.But in places that don’t see many storm clouds, mud bricks (砖块),which are baked hard in the sun or in a hot oven, can be as strong and durable as stone. In Africa, some mudbrick buildings have been standing for thousands of years.
In the southwestern United States, American Indians built fourstory apartment buildings from mud bricks called adobe (土坯). And on the Great Plains, the first white settlers saw an ocean of grass as tall as oxen, but few trees for building houses. So they made their houses out of sod, dirt held together by the thick, tangled roots of prairie grass.
Most sod houses became worm food years ago, but many of the buildings you see every day are pure dirt.The bricks that may make up the walls of your house or school are made of clay that’s been baked in a fiery kiln (炉). So the next time someone says a building is made of bricks, correct them. You know it’s really made of plain old dirt.
1. What does the second paragraph mainly tell us?| A．The way to build houses of dirt. | B．The best time to build houses of dirt. |
| C．The reasons to build houses of dirt. | D．The places to build houses of dirt. |
| A．Places where it rains most of the year. |
| B．Places where there are many storm clouds. |
| C．Places where there is little rain all the year around. |
| D．Places where it is cold in winter and hot in summer. |
| A．the grass was as tall as oxen | B．they were as strong as stones |
| C．they could make a garden on the roof | D．they were lack of wood |
| A．Sod houses could be destroyed by worms. | B．Sod houses could last as long as stone ones. |
| C．Sod bricks are baked in the oven. | D．Sod bricks are really made of pure dirt. |
2 . The idea of low material desire, low consumption and refusing to work, marry and have children, concluded as a “lying down” lifestyle, recently struck a chord with many young Chinese who are eager to take pause to breathe in this fast-paced and highly-competitive society.
Many millennials (千禧一代) and generation Zs complained to the Global Times that burdens, including work stress, family disputes and financial strains, have pushed them “against the wall”. They said they hate the “involution(内卷),” joking that they would rather give up some of what they have than get trapped in an endless competition against peers.
“Instead of always following the ‘virtues’ of struggle, endure and sacrifice to bear the stresses, they prefer a temporary lying down as catharsis (宣泄) and adjustment,” said a scholar. “It is no wonder that some young people, under the growing pressures from child-raising to paying the mortgage (按揭) today, would try to live in a simple way and leave the worries behind.”
Interestingly, the majority of millennials and Gen Zs reached by the Global Times, who claim to be big fans of the lying down philosophy, acknowledged that they only accept a temporary lying down as a short rest. It is true that with the great improvement of living conditions, some Chinese youth have partially lost the spirit of hardship and are not willing to bear too much hard work. But in fact, lying down is not entirely comfortable. Young people who lie down always feel guilty about their constant loss of morale (士气) far beyond their reach.
“Young people on campus have both aspirations and confusion about their future, but most of us have rejected setting ourselves up in chains to waste opportunities and challenges,” a postgraduate student told the Global Times. “It’s no use running away. I have to ‘stand up’ and face the reality sooner or later.”
1. What does the underlined phrase in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Warned. | B．Punished. | C．Amused. | D．Touched. |
| A．Improvements in living conditions. |
| B．Growing pressure from family and social life. |
| C．Increasing material possessions from families. |
| D．Temporary adjustment to failure in competitions. |
| A．Understanding. | B．Intolerant. | C．Supportive. | D．Unclear. |
| A．They never really drop their responsibilities. |
| B．They really enjoy the “lying down” lifestyle. |
| C．They find their dreams far beyond their reach. |
| D．They would rather escape than take challenges. |
3 . ChatGPT, a new chatbot model developed by US-based AI research laboratory OpenAI, has quickly become a hit globally due to its advanced conversational capabilities,
It can write emails, computer codes, even academic papers and poems, and has passed a number of tests within seconds. Academicians worldwide are discussing whether AI should be used in education. Some universities have banned it. The New York City’s Department of Education, for example, banned the chatbot from its public school devices and networks, with some people warning that it could encourage more students to cheat, especially in exams.
Many more welcome this app, claiming that, like most technological advances and groundbreaking innovations in history, ChatGPT is a powerful tool for the development of higher education.
Embracing AI as early as possible is advisable. Higher education institutions should make preparations for including AI in their syllabus (教学大纲). They can start by offering related courses, because by understanding how it works, they can make better use of it. Besides, students with good knowledge of AI are more competitive when it comes to getting a good job, as an increasing number of jobs are being done by computer programmes-some in cooperation with humans, AI-powered education technologies can be adopted to make the learning experience more suitable for each student based on his or her strengths and weaknesses. As for professors, AI can free them from doing some dull tasks so they can concentrate on teaching and interacting with students.
Since we cannot avoid ChatGPT and other AI-powered applications from entering the field of higher education, we should make collective efforts to ensure they have a positive impact on society and the future of education Despite AI helping make learning much more interesting and enjoyable, humans need to work very hard to win the race with technology.
1. Why do some higher education institutions forbid ChatGPT?| A．ChatGPT can write emails and computer codes quickly. |
| B．Some professors might not perform their duties properly. |
| C．Students would have conversations with each other via it. |
| D．Students might seek help from it in completing the exams. |
| A．Fearful. | B．Disapproving. | C．Supportive. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．It offers students an increasing number of jobs. |
| B．It personalizes students’ learning experience. |
| C．It equips students with competitive skills to cooperate with humans. |
| D．It handles uninteresting tasks so students can better focus on learning. |
| A．We should guard against AI apps. |
| B．AI will be more widely used in education. |
| C．The future of education relies on AI apps. |
| D．Humans will be left behind by technology. |
4 . Physical education, or PE, isn’t required for all high school students. In some schools, it isn’t offered for some different reasons. But should high school students have physical education? The answer is certainly “yes”.
Today many people don’t do sports. But as is known to all, doing sports is very important for an adult. Teaching teens the importance of a healthy lifestyle and making fitness plans now can help teens put exercise in the first place as an adult.
High school isn’t that easy. Many students are under a lot of stress. Stress can be harmful to a student’s study and life. Doing sports can help them deal with stress better, helping them live a happier life at school.
The American Heart Association says that 10 million kids and teens suffer from obesity (肥胖症). Teens should get 60 minutes of physical activity per day to control their weight and to help their bones get stronger. The increase in activities that don’t get teens to move around, such as video games and computer activities, means many teens don’t get their required exercise. PE classes act as a public health measure to encourage physical activities and help teens have healthy weights.
Not doing sports increases teens’ risk of developing many diseases. An active lifestyle offers a good way of protection from these health problems. As much as 75 percent of health-care spending goes toward treating medical conditions that can be hindered by lifestyle changes,according to the American College of Sports Medicine.
According to the President’s Council on Fitness,Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN), students who performed five hours of physical activity each week improved their academic (学业的) performance. Students from programs with no physical activity, who used the extra time for classroom study, did not perform better on tests than those who gave up some study time in support of physical education.
1. According to paragraph 2, what does physical education in high school mean?| A．Making teens attach importance to exercise later. |
| B．Removing the stress faced by teens at school. |
| C．Getting teens to encourage adults to exercise. |
| D．Helping teens learn to make good plans. |
| A．Measured. | B．Prevented. |
| C．Shown. | D．Caused. |
| A．means making students choose between sports and studies |
| B．helps students make good use of all their time |
| C．means students adjust to their studies better |
| D．helps students do better in their studies |
| A．Why high school students should receive physical education. |
| B．Why some schools consider physical education important. |
| C．How schools can help students love doing sports. |
| D．How high school students can live a better life. |
5 . How clever can a computer be? Maybe you can get the answer after reading the following passage about a newly-developed US computer program called Smarter Child.
If you ran into Smarter Child online, you would be surprised at this kid’s huge memory. It can remember many facts. For example, Smarter Child knows every baseball player in every team this season and the weather in every city across the US. He also knows every word in the dictionary. However, if you ask Smarter Child other private questions, you will get strange answers. A question about Smarter Child’s age returns, “I’ll be older than you after further study!”, and asking where he lives, you will get, “In a clean room in a high-tech building in California.”
Smarter Child uses the huge information on the World Wide Web as his memory bank. To answer questions about spelling, for example, Smarter Child goes to www.ahdictionary.com. For the weather, he visits www.intellicast.com. He turns to www.the-scientist.com for scientists and www.moviefone.com for a fantastic movie.
Some scientists believe that by joining many systems of the Internet, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the combined (结合的) knowledge of, say, Albert Einstein, Richard Nixon and Britney Spears could be born. However, Smarter Child has difficulty in discerning whether a behavior is right or wrong, which is obvious to any young child. If he wants to think and learn without any help from the programmers like boy-computer David in the movie Artificial Intelligence (AI), he must solve two problems.
The first is that computers find it difficult to read web pages because the files are sorted in different ways. That’s why programmers need to tell Smarter Child where to look for the weather. It would be a much more difficult task to let him find it by himself. Another problem is that while Smarter Child can deal with information more exactly and faster than any human, he needs programmers to make better systems that allow machines to solve problems of common sense, which is a huge challenge.
1. What may be unknown to Smarter Child?| A．His age. | B．The weather in New York. |
| C．A word in the dictionary. | D．A player’s name of the Boston Redsox. |
| A．www.moviefone.com | B．www.intellicast.com |
| C．www.the-scientist.com | D．www.ahdictionary.com |
| A．Preventing. | B．Copying. | C．Inventing. | D．Telling. |
| A．He has a huge memory. | B．He can think and learn independently. |
| C．He can make a weather forecast. | D．He deals with information fast. |
6 . Eyes can speak
Much meaning can be conveyed, clearly, with our eyes, so it is often said that eyes can speak.
The same is true in our daily life. If you are stared at for more than necessary, you will look at yourself up and down to see if there is anything wrong with you.
Looking too long at someone may seem to be rude and aggressive.
However, when two people are engaged in a conversation, the speaker will only look into the listener’s eyes from time to time to make sure that the listener does pay attention to what the former is speaking.
Actually, eye contact should be made based on specific relationships and situations.
| A．That’s what normal eye contact is all about. |
| B．But things are different when it comes to staring at the opposite sex |
| C．Therefore, continuous eye contact is limited to lovers only. |
| D．On the contrary, it will give him away. |
| E．After all, nobody likes to be stared at for quite a long time. |
| F．Do you have such kind of experience? |
| G．If nothing goes wrong, you will feel annoyed at being stared at that way. |
7 . Imagine a plate holding two strawberries, identical in appearance. One came out of a supermarket box, meaning it was probably harvested when it was still unripe. By the time it reached the plate it may have been off the vine for two weeks. The other strawberry was picked from a garden minutes before being eaten.
Supermarket strawberries are not entirely without advantages: they are convenient and still available even in winter months. But the two berries differ from each other in the same way that hearing music in a concert hall differs from listening to it on an old CD player. The home-grown fruit is an eatable case for making a home garden.
Your columnist, who long considered gardening a complete waste of time, advances this argument with great enthusiasm. Planting cool-weather greens, as gardeners across the north-east of America are now doing, can seem nonsense, since convenient, continuously well-stocked supermarket shelves are available all week. But the same could be said of cooking: there are many cheap and decent restaurants around, so why bother to make your own meals?
That attitude misconstrues the ultimate appeal of gardening: it mistakes the product for the purpose. It is true that a garden can produce tomatoes and carrots of incomparable sweetness, and celtuce and herbs that taste like themselves rather than the plastic they are usually packaged in. While finding, let’s say, celtuce in the shops can take some time, effort, and expense, growing your own vegetables ensures a reliable supply.
On the other hand, a garden, especially in the early years, can produce little but frustration. Green hands may plant the wrong crops for their soil. And even expert gardeners can lose a season’s harvest to uncooperative weather.
No matter. The real joy of gardening is the time spent doing it. The deepest pleasure-as with cooking. Writing or almost anything worthwhile — is in the work itself. To garden is to patiently, lovingly and diligently help life become strong and healthy, in the ground and above it.
1. What can we know about the supermarket strawberries?| A．They look distinct from home-grown ones. | B．They give out pleasant and fresh smell. |
| C．They are picked days before fully grown. | D．They are planted typically in winter. |
| A．Misinterprets. | B．Transforms. | C．Mistrusts. | D．Highlights. |
| A．To warn readers not to take up gardening easily. |
| B．To advise readers to work in harmony with nature. |
| C．To make readers reflect on the methods of gardening. |
| D．To help readers have a whole picture of gardening. |
| A．It’s a difficult and time-consuming process. | B．Products of gardening make it worthwhile. |
| C．The time and efforts invested make it a delight. | D．It reduces the cost of purchasing vegetables. |
8 . On one summer weekend, my wife, son and I entered an eight-kilometre running race on mountain trails. Now, when the race started, our son took off quickly.
Unluckily, after going about half the course, I realized my watch on my wrist was gone. Discouraged, I told my wife to go on ahead, and I would return to see if I could find it. After running back for some time, I found my broken watch off the trail.
So, how does this story relate to us in everyday life? Although everyone wants to live a comfortable life, the truth is that we often face pain and struggle.
| A．I realized I'd got my toe injured. |
| B．I grabbed it, and quickly put it into my pocket. |
| C．You discover you are simply thankful for being alive. |
| D．However, my wife and I stayed back and ran together. |
| E．Now, most people think of running races on neighbour streets. |
| F．Actually, the key to real happiness is turning pain into something positive. |
| G．As it turned out, both my wife and son had won first place in their age groups. |
9 . What limits you from hiking more often? If not having a suitable hiking partner is keeping you out of the woods, why not take a look at the great hiking clubs across Canada?
Yukon Outdoors ClubMembership cost: $10 for a single membership
Description: The club organises day hikes, backpacking trips, mountain biking, and cross-country skiing trips for members to gain new skills and valuable information. The trips are open to everyone and range from easy to moderate to difficult.
UBC Varsity Outdoor ClubMembership cost: Students $40; non-UBC students $60
Description: The UBC Varsity Outdoor Club is a social group that hikes and rock climbs. Members lead trips, run skills workshops, and host presentations. Members can borrow equipment from the club. The UBC VOC has also constructed a few huts in the Coast Mountains.
Pender Harbor Hiking GroupMembership cost: Free
Description: The Pender Harbor Hiking Group offers a way for members to meet like-minded people and get fit. Hikes are scheduled two months in advance, so check the website regularly to find a hike that suits you! Hikes are usually one and a half to two hours long every Monday and Wednesday morning, but some full-day hikes are scheduled, depending on member interest.
Vernon Outdoors ClubMembership cost: A single membership is $25, and students pay $10. Children are free when they come with a registered family member.
Description: The Vernon Outdoors Club is an active group that enjoys hiking and cycling. Members are encouraged to share their activity ideas and interests. The group organises a Tuesday Activity each week.
1. If you want to learn some mountain biking skills, which club will you choose?| A．Vernon Outdoors Club |
| B．UBC Varsity Outdoor Club |
| C．Yukon Outdoors Club |
| D．Pender Harbor Hiking Group |
| A．They are mostly held on weekends. |
| B．Their schedule is always emailed to the members. |
| C．More full-day hikes are offered than half-day hikes. |
| D．They are arranged two months ahead of time. |
| A．$50 | B．$60 | C．$75 | D．$125 |
10 . According to the Solar Energy Industry Association, the number of solar panels installed(安装)has grown rapidly in the past decade, and it has to grow even faster to meet climate goals. But all of that growth will take up a lot of space, and though more and more people accept the concept of solar energy, few like large solar panels to be installed near them.
Solar developers want to put up panels as quickly and cheaply as possible, so they haven’t given much thought to what they put under them. Often, they’ll end up filling the area with small stones and using chemicals to control weeds. The result is that many communities, especially in farming regions, see solar farms as destroyers of the soil.
“Solar projects need to be good neighbors,” says Jordan Macknick, the head of the Innovative Site Preparation and Impact Reductions on the Environment(InSPIRE)project. “They need to be protectors of the land and contribute to the agricultural economy.” InSPIRE is investigating practical approaches to “low-impact” solar development, which focuses on establishing and operating solar farms in a way that is kinder to the land. One of the easiest low-impact solar strategies is providing habitat for pollinators(传粉昆虫).
Habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change have caused dramatic declines in pollinator populations over the past couple of decades, which has damaged the U.S. agricultural economy. Over 28 states have passed laws related to pollinator habitat protection and pesticide use. Conservation organizations put out pollinator-friendliness guidelines for home gardens, businesses, schools, cities—and now there are guidelines for solar farms.
Over the past few years, many solar farm developers have transformed the space under their solar panels into a shelter for various kinds of pollinators, resulting in soil improvement and carbon reduction. “These pollinator-friendly solar farms can have a valuable impact on everything that’s going on in the landscape,” says Macknick.
1. What do solar developers often ignore?| A．The decline in the demand for solar energy. |
| B．The negative impact of installing solar panels. |
| C．The rising labor cost of building solar farms. |
| D．The most recent advances in solar technology. |
| A．Improve the productivity of local farms. |
| B．Invent new methods for controlling weeds. |
| C．Make solar projects environmentally friendly. |
| D．Promote the use of solar energy in rural areas. |
| A．To conserve pollinators. | B．To restrict solar development. |
| C．To diversify the economy. | D．To ensure the supply of energy. |
| A．Pollinators: To Leave or to Stay | B．Solar Energy: Hope for the Future |
| C．InSPIRE: A Leader in Agriculture | D．Solar Farms: A New Development |
