1 . I grew up on a dairy farm. The particular life location to which I got assigned-“stuck” is a better word if you’ve ever been there -was a small family-owned-and-operated outfit.
I remember the Christmas when our main hired hand dropped out of the work rotation. Sixteen and the oldest of the kids left at home, I was called on to fill in. Halfway through the first day, I realized I had never noticed exactly how much that worker did. For five days I either milked or slept, fed calves (牛犊) or slept. I have to admit this gave me a deep appreciation of how hard my parents worked day in and day out for 30 years, and that understanding solidified my determination to do whatever it took to not stay on that dairy farm my whole life.
Eventually, my determination paid off. I got into college. Now, I no longer have to worry about my father’s voice yelling, “Stace, come out here! We need help!” To be honest, I’m grateful. But at the same time, I also don’t have a compelling reason to be up in time to see the beauty of a sunrise. Nor do I have the opportunity to dance with my sister in the dairy barn, work side-by-side with my dad and hear the old stories.
Now, there are whole stretches of days when I don’t feel any pressing need to even go outside. And I can go months without petting an animal or watching in amazement at their keen sense of the environment around them. Instead, I have neighbors within shouting distance but who feel like they live a planet away.
Eighteen years I lived my life on that dairy, not really knowing there were people who didn’t get up and go out and work together to get the same overwhelming tasks done day after day. Sometimes I wish I had never found out there were.
1. What did the author come to understand on her first day working on the farm?| A．She couldn’t manage so much work. |
| B．Her parents sacrificed a lot for her family. |
| C．The tasks were dull and challenging. |
| D．The work was more demanding than expected. |
| A．Lack of opportunities on the farm. |
| B．A passion for academic study. |
| C．Her dissatisfaction with farm life. |
| D．Encouragement from her parents. |
| A．Mixed. | B．Regretful. |
| C．Content. | D．Relieved. |
| A．She has become tired of her daily routine. |
| B．She misses the connections she had before. |
| C．She regrets leaving her family behind. |
| D．She has lost interest in the beauty of nature. |
2 . Anyone who’s used noise-canceling headphones knows that hearing the right noise at the right time can be vital. Someone might want to remove sirens (汽笛) when working indoors, but not when walking along busy streets. Yet people can’t choose what sounds their headphones cancel.
Now, a team led by researchers at the University of Washington (UW) has developed deep-learning algorithms (算法) that let users pick which sounds pass through their headphones in real time. The system, called “semantic hearing”, works with headphones that stream the captured sounds to a connected smartphone which cancels all environmental sounds. Either through voice commands or a smartphone app, headphone wearers can select which sounds they want to include from 20 classes, such as sirens, baby cries, speech and bird chirps. Only the selected sounds will be played through the headphones.
“The challenge posed to today’s noise-canceling headphones is that the sounds headphone wearers hear need to sync (同步) with their visual senses. You can’t hear someone’s voice two seconds after they talk to you,” said senior author Shyam Gollakota, a UW professor. “This means the algorithms must process sounds in under a hundredth of a second.”
That need for speed is why the system must process sounds on a device such as a connected smartphone, instead of on cloud servers. Additionally, because sounds from different directions arrive in people’s ears at different times, the system must preserve these delays and other clues so people can still meaningfully perceive sounds in their environment.
Tested in environments such as offices, streets and parks, the system was able to capture sirens, bird chirps, alarms and other target sounds, while removing all other real-world noise. When 22 participants rated the system’s voice output for the target sound, they said that the quality improved compared to the original recording. In some cases, the system struggled to distinguish between sounds that share many properties, such as vocal music and human speech. The researchers note that training the models on more real-world data can improve these outcomes. In the near future, the researchers plan to release a commercial version of the system.
1. What’s the innovative feature of the UW’s new hearing system?| A．It can capture noise more precisely. |
| B．It is connected with efficient cloud servers. |
| C．It can customize sounds for users’ preferences. |
| D．It lets wearers perceive the surroundings better. |
| A．They can’t feel the directions of sounds. |
| B．They can’t recognize the target sounds. |
| C．They lack relevant technical support. |
| D．They lack real-time intelligence. |
| A．It’ll come onto the market soon. |
| B．It’ll improve the sound quality. |
| C．It’ll capture sounds from nature. |
| D．It’ll be tested in noisier environments. |
| A．An effective way to avoid noise around us. |
| B．The development of deep-learning algorithms |
| C．A new noise-canceling headphone technology. |
| D．The application of noise-canceling headphones. |
3 . Sweating may not be your favorite thing to do, but it is necessary.
Sweat is known to cool the skin, bringing toxins (毒素) to the surface and giving the skin a healthy glow. Research shows that sweating can increase and maintain skin hydration. However, leaving sweat on the skin for too long can cause skin diseases such as acne.
When you’re hot, your heart beats faster to cool the body, releasing endorphins that cause feelings of joy.
When sitting in a sauna (桑拿浴室), your body temperature rises, so your body works overtime to cool itself down by sweating. And you’ll be better off for it. A 20-year Finnish study found that people who sweated it out regularly in a sauna had a lower rate of sudden cardiac (心脏的) deaths.
·If you sweat heavily during exercise, that’s usually a positive sign. Athletes tend to sweat sooner and more than inactive people. Their bodies have learned to cool down more efficiently during physical activity. A PLOSONE study supports this, showing that long-distance runners not only got sweatier sooner, but also activated more sweat glands, resulting in more sweat than their non-active counterparts.
| A．Sweating supports your heart |
| B．Sweating a lot means that you’re fit |
| C．Sweat is the stuff that floods out when our body temperature rises |
| D．Your sweaty self can also make those around you feel happier too |
| E．Sweating contributes to a decrease in blood pressure to some extent |
| F．So, it’s essential to wash your face and body after sweating |
| G．It’s a natural bodily function that helps to regulate body temperature and prevent overheating |
4 . Random acts of kindness can affect people’s well-being significantly more than expected, according to an August study co-authored by a University of Texas researcher. Based on experiments ranging from giving someone a cup of hot chocolate to delivering cupcakes in the park, the recently published study found that random acts of kindness affected both the giver and receiver significantly more than anticipated. The researchers conducted a total of eight experiments involving students to assess the effects of the acts.
Amit Kumar, the study’s co-author and an assistant marketing and psychology professor at UT, said that although researchers know kindness significantly improves a person’s well-being, people underestimate the effect it will have on the receiver. “One of the interesting questions becomes why people often don’t act in ways that are likely to make them feel better,” said Kumar. “What we were interested in studying here was this belief that these seemingly small pro-social acts can actually make a significant difference in people’s lives.”
Kumar said because people underestimate the positive effects of these acts, more often than not, people don’t perform them.
One of the experiments included UT students engaging in an exercise in which they performed different acts of kindness for others, such as baking cookies or offering a peer a ride home, and then filled out a questionnaire afterward. At the same time, the recipients were contacted and asked how they felt. The researchers found that in all of the experiments, both the recipients and performers ended up in better moods than normal after the act.
Co-author Nicholas Epley said the research is part of a broader research program of people avoiding human connection and not reaching out to others despite its positive impact.
“People do act in line with their expectations, but those expectations can be off,” Kumar said. “If you’re underestimating the positive impact that you’re having on other people, that can prevent you from being kinder more often in daily life,” Kumar remarked. He hopes this research helps people become more aware of their impact on others and be kind when they have the opportunity.
1. What did the recently published study find about random acts of kindness?| A．They affect the giver more than the receiver. |
| B．They affect the receiver more than the giver. |
| C．They are good for interpersonal relationships. |
| D．They can greatly affect people’s happiness. |
| A．Negative. | B．Kind. | C．Dangerous. | D．Active. |
| A．People escaping human contact. | B．People showing random kindness. |
| C．The positive impact of kindness. | D．The importance of human connection. |
| A．Realizing the power of your kindness. |
| B．Acting in line with expectations. |
| C．Having a good opportunity. |
| D．Reaching out to others. |
5 . A family attempting to travel to Australia without flying have arrived in the country after a three-and-a-half-month journey. Shannon Coggins, Theo Simon and their daughter Rosa, 19, left England to begin their 10 thousand-mile trip to Sydney on 16 August. The family was hoping to make it in time for Ms. Coggins’ sister’s wedding on 28 December.
The family saved up for several years to pay for the trip, which has cost them much more than air tickets would have done. They travelled through Kazakhstan, China, Laos, Thailand and Indonesia, and finally arrived in Dili, hoping to find a boat to cross the Timor Sea to Darwin, Australia. From there they planned to take a bus to Sydney.
“The world is a huge thing, and one personal thing that I do will never make the difference that we need but I want to live by my principles,” Ms. Coggins said. “I want a clean world for my daughter when she’s growing up in the future and the grandchildren. But the world is getting hotter. There is so much going on in Australia here at the moment with floods and fires, and I think we’ve all got to take that seriously.”
“All three of us have campaigned in different ways for action on climate change, so we decided our journey to Australia would have to be as low-carbon as practical,” Mr. Simon said.
The family arrived on the other side of the world just in time. But they said there were many moments during their journey across continents and oceans when they thought they might not make it to Australia. A conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the danger of travelling through Iran, forced them on a four day detour (绕行) through Russia where Mr. Simon almost get arrested.
“It hasn’t always been easy, but it was worth it”, Mr. Simon added. “We want to keep this beautiful planet, don’t we?”
1. Why did the family travel to Sydney?| A．To take a global tour. | B．To attend a wedding. |
| C．To explore the nature. | D．To advocate saving energy. |
| A．They couldn’t afford the air tickets. |
| B．They joined a nationwide campaign. |
| C．They were afraid of the terrible weather. |
| D．They tried to reduce their carbon footprints. |
| A．Mr. Simon was arrested when going through Russia. |
| B．The family was discontent with the adventurous trip. |
| C．The family’s journey was not quite straightforward. |
| D．The family didn’t manage to reach Australia at last. |
| A．Tough but worthwhile. | B．Smooth but expensive. |
| C．Relaxing and incredible. | D．Inappropriate and disappointed. |
6 . Hummingbirds are small birds but they’re the Olympic gymnasts of the flying world. They have strongly muscled bodies and rather long wings. They fly around at remarkable speeds and fly in all directions, including backward and upside down.
To achieve such agillity（敏捷）, hummingbirds use distinct modes of visual processing to control different types of flight. Their brains can make rapid transitions from visual signals to motor outputs. They take in lots of complicated visual information and make a flight plan out of that. Recently, the researchers have uncovered a unique mode that guides hummingbirds’ speed when they are flying forward.
The findings come from an experiment of more than 3,500 hummingbird flights inside a 12-foot-long tunnel（通道） with a branch at one end and a feeder at the other. Moving light patterns cast on the tunnel walls influence how the hummingbirds see things while flying.
The researchers expected that if the hummingbirds were using visual clues to control their forward flight speed, they would see the birds speed or slow with lights cast on the side walls. But instead, it seemed that they had their own way of knowing how fast to go for forward flight. When moving up or down, however, the birds based their motor commands on the cast light patterns they saw.
This special ability helps hummingbirds fly safely and quickly. This knowledge could be useful for improving drone（无人机）technology, helping engineers develop better ways for drones to predict and respond to changes in their surroundings. “If we can develop a mathematical model for this visual processing, it could be very useful for drones.” says Bo Cheng, a mechanical engineer, at Pennsylvania State University.
1. What contributes most to hummingbirds’ agility in flight?| A．Their small size and light body. |
| B．Their strong muscles and long wings. |
| C．Their strong sense of direction. |
| D．Their own way to handle what they see. |
| A．By placing barriers in the tunnel. |
| B．By changing the position of the feeder. |
| C．By projecting moving light patterns. |
| D．By adjusting the brightness of the tunnel. |
| A．Surprising. | B．Discouraging. |
| C．Satisfactory. | D．Amusing. |
| A．Wild bird protection. | B．Math-based game design. |
| C．Behavioral and brain science. | D．Bio-inspired technology application. |
7 . Best Poetry Writing Contests in 2024
The Poetry. com ContestPoetry. com offers monthly contests for poets worldwide to build passion and enjoyment for the creative poem writing process! Poems remain anonymous (匿名) before applicants vote on what they believe should be the winning entry.
Top Prize: $500
Additional prizes: personalized Poetry. com gifts for runners-up
Entry fee: $25
Deadline: December 31, 2024
Wine Country Writers’ Festival Writing ContestWelcome to the 4th annual Wine Country Writers’ Festival (WCWF) writing contest. Three categories and over$1,800 total value in cash and prizes are to be awarded. Enter your short fiction or nonfiction (2,000 words max) or up to 48 lines of poetry. Judged blindly by professional writers. No previously published works.
Top Prize: $200
Additional prizes: free registration package to the Wine Country Writers’ Festival
Entry fee: $11
Deadline: June 02, 2024
Tom Howard Poetry ContestWelcome to the 20th annual Tom Howard Poetry Contest. Submit your published or unpublished work, a poem in any style, whether it rhymes or not.
Top Prize: $3,000
Additional prizes: $200 for 10 honorable mentions
Entry fee: $20
Deadline: October 01, 2024
The One Page Poetry ContestOne Page Poetry focuses on the art of expressing a poetic theme on a single page, whether your poem is four lines or forty, whether yours is a love poem, inspirational poem, or just one that is fun. We welcome all poetic forms, as long as they fit on a single page.
Top Prize: $2,000
Additional prizes: 2nd: 1,000; 3rd: 500
Entry fee: $25
Deadline: September 30, 2024
1. Which of the following offers the highest top prize?| A．The Poetry. com Contest. | B．WCWF Writing Contest. |
| C．Tom Howard Poetry Contest. | D．The One Page Poetry Contest. |
| A．It is held once a year. | B．It has honorable mentions. |
| C．It judges entries blindly. | D．It accepts other types besides poetry. |
| A．They charge $25 for entry fee. |
| B．They have professionals as judges. |
| C．They require poems on one page. |
| D．They offer tailored gifts as prizes. |
8 . Despite his slim body of work, J. D. Salinger was one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century. His short stories, many of which appeared in The New Yorker, inspired the early careers of writers such as Phillip Roth, John Updike and Harold Brodkey.
Born on January 1, 1919, in New York, Salinger was a restless student, attending New York University, Ursinus College and Columbia University. While taking classes at the latter, he met Professor Whit Burnett, who was also the editor of Story magazine. Burnett, sensing Salinger’s talent as a writer, pushed him to create more often and soon Salinger’s works were appearing not just in Story, but in other big-name publications such as Collier’s and the Saturday Evening Post.
His career had started to take off, but then, like so many young American men around that time, World War II interrupted his life. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Salinger was drafted into the army, serving from 1942 to 1944. During that time, however, Salinger kept writing for a new novel whose main character was a deeply unsatisfied young man named Holden Caulfield.
When Salinger returned to New York, he quickly set about resuming his life as a writer and soon found his work published in his favorite magazine, The New Yorker.
He also pushed on with the work on his novel about Holden Caulfield. Finally, in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye was published. The book earned its share of positive reviews, but some critics weren’t so kind. But over time the American reading public ate the book up and The Catcher in the Rye became an essential part of the academic literature course. To date, the book has sold more than 65 million copies.
In 1953, two years after the publication of The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger moved from New York City to Cornish, New Hampshire. There, Salinger did his best to cut off contact with the public and significantly slowed his literary output. He only published one new story, the 25,000-word Hapworth 16, 1924, before his death on January 27, 2010, in Cornish, New Hampshire.
1. Who had a great influence on J. D. Salinger?| A．Phillip Roth. | B．Whit Burnett. |
| C．John Updike. | D．Harold Brodkey. |
| A．Continuing. | B．Saving. |
| C．Wasting. | D．Risking. |
| A．It was published during World War II. |
| B．It has sold less than 65 million copies. |
| C．It was well received by American readers. |
| D．It features an old man as the main character. |
| A．He stopped writing when he was in the army. |
| B．He wrote lots of short stories in his later years. |
| C．His literary output was very low in his later years. |
| D．He had moved to New York City just before he died. |
9 . What if our bodies had a new way — other than our eardrums — to hear the world around us? That’s what neuroscientist David Eagleman wondered five years ago. Then he looked at the body for answers and saw a huge sound jack (插孔). “We have this huge input channel called our skin,” he says, “and we aren’t using it.”
So Eagleman, along with Scott Novich, his student at Baylor College of Medicine, created the Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer, or VEST. The VEST is worn like it sounds. Through 32 tiny motors, it translates sound waves into vibrations (振动) on your back.
First, a computer or smartphone picks up sounds from your surroundings and breaks down the sound sample into a set of specific frequencies. Each frequency band in the set sets off one of 32 motors in the VEST. With time and practice, your brain learns to unconsciously interpret the series of vibrations as sound — and individual sounds as words in a language.
“There is no theoretical reason why this can’t be almost as good as the ears,” says Eagleman. So far, he has trained deaf people to recognize single words through the VEST. He hopes to eventually help them understand sentences, and then full conversations. Just like with language, Eagleman discovered, children — whose brains are more shapable — learned to interpret the VEST more easily than adults did.
Eagleman says his device could one day be deployed in dozens of professions to better understand complex environments. A pilot could interpret a plane’s condition through the VEST’s vibrations. An astronaut could literally feel the health of the International Space Station. Eagleman and Novich’s startup, Neo Sensory, plans to develop the VEST for all kinds of uses, so someday we all can experience this sixth sense. “The possibilities are endless for the kind of information we could be streaming in,” says Eagleman.
1. What is the VEST?| A．A huge input channel on the body. | B．A computer-smartphone connector. |
| C．A processing program with tiny motors. | D．A wearable sound-vibration transformer. |
①motors to be activated ②sounds to be decomposed ③words to be interpreted
| A．①②③ | B．②③① | C．①③② | D．②①③ |
| A．Assessed. | B．Employed. | C．Detected. | D．Invented. |
| A．Listen with Your Skin | B．Hear Your Sixth Sense |
| C．To Listen or Not | D．Here to Hear. |
10 . Mathcamp
Mathcamp is an intensive 5-week-long summer program for mathematically talented teenagers, designed by the Mathematics Foundation of America to expose them to the beauty of advanced mathematical ideas and to new ways of thinking. Attendees can expect a comprehensive curriculum comprising lectures, workshops, and collaborative math projects, with an extensive range of subjects.
At Mathcamp, students can explore undergraduate and even graduate-level topics while building problem-solving skills that will help them in any field they choose to study. They can also study with mathematicians who are passionate about their subject, from internationally known researchers to graduate students at the start of their careers.
Eligibility:
We invite applications from high-school and middle-school students from around the world who are passionate about mathematics. Students between ages 13 and 18 are eligible (有资格的).
Cost: $5,000 (Financial Aid is available on a case-by-case basis)
Location: University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA
About the application:
Application materials for our 2024 summer program will be available on January 10, 2024 and all applications received by the deadline (March 6, 2024) will receive equal consideration.
An application to Mathcamp includes the following:
•Some information about your Math Background: where you are now in learning the material that's traditionally covered in high school. We do not require school transcripts (成绩单); instead, we ask for self-reporting of your content knowledge.
•A short piece of writing About You, where you can tell us a little more about yourself, your interest in math, and why you want to come to Mathcamp!
•Your solutions to the Mathcamp 2024 Qualifying Quiz.
•(Optional) A scholarship application, if you require financial assistance to attend Mathcamp. Each applicant's final admissions decision will be determined no later than May 31, 2024.
Program Dates: June 30 — August 4, 2024
1. What can attendees do in the program?| A．Volunteer as a math teacher. | B．Apply for college admission. |
| C．Meet famous mathematicians. | D．Gain scholarship for high school study. |
| A．An essay about the future career. | B．The answers to the Qualifying Quiz. |
| C．A recommendation letter for schloarship. | D．An official school report on mathematics. |
| A．On January 10, 2024. | B．On March 6, 2024. |
| C．On May 31, 2024. | D．On June 30, 2024. |
