1 . While the benefits of Zoom and other videoconferencing tools made them absolutely essential in the pandemic (疫情), the research suggests that heavy reliance on the technology comes at a cost to creative thinking.

Brucks at Columbia University and her team started their investigation when managers reported having trouble innovating with remote workers. Brucks doubted whether videoconferencing was a factor, suspecting that difficulties coordinating (协调) large, global teams online might be to blame instead.

To find out, the researchers analysed ideas for new products generated by 1,490 engineers for a multinational company. The engineers, who were in Finland, Hungary, India, Israel and Portugal, were randomly paired up and given an hour or so to brainstorm products either in person or over videoconferencing. They then selected their best idea.

Writing in Nature, the researchers report that the engineers produced more ideas, and more innovative ideas, when working face to face. “They are not only generating a larger number of creative ideas, but their best idea is better,” Brucks said. Virtual teams were just as good at selecting the best ideas from a bunch as those that met in person.

“Visual focus is a huge component of cognitive (认知) focus. When you’re focused on the screen and ignoring the rest of the environment, that affects how you approach the task,” said Brucks. “It’s uniquely bad for creativity because it’s inhibiting broader exploration.”

Brucks said the impact on the real world “could be huge”, leading to a division of labour between face-to-face and virtual meetings that could “permanently reshape the office and work schedules”. But she urged businesses to be cautious, because if virtual meetings are cheaper than in-person ones, they may still be more cost-effective.

Asked for tips, Brucks said people could save more creative tasks for in-person meetings, or turn off their camera when coming up with ideas. “I think it unlocks more creative thinking,” she said.

1. Why did Brucks conduct the research?

A．To prove her assumption.

B．To clarify a new concept.

C．To make a comparison.

D．To explain a rule.

2. What is the finding of the research?

A．Face-to-face gatherings promote cross-culture ties.	B．Workers think less creatively in virtual meetings.
C．Individual work generates more innovative ideas.	D．Videoconferencing has an irreplaceable role.

3. What does the underlined word “inhibiting” in paragraph 5 mean?

A．Encouraging.

B．Requiring.

C．Beginning.

D．Preventing.

4. What does Brucks say about virtual meetings?

A．They should be used accordingly.	B．They’ll make office workers divided.
C．They’ll give way to in-person meetings.	D．They help businesses run more efficiently.

2 . Li Ting, 15, from Shanghai, was preparing a talk on some western festivals. She searched online for certain information and made PowerPoint presentations. Wu Qiong, her classmate, was doing his chemistry homework carefully. But he couldn’t work out the last problem even he tried his best. So he took out his mobile phone, opened a special app, and searched the problem. Solutions soon appeared on the screen in several seconds.

Nowadays, many students do homework online with the help of the Internet. They search online, use apps or discuss through QQ and WeChat.

“It’s convenient. You don’t have to wait for your teacher to explain it to you face to face,” according to Wu. “You can also learn by seeing how others work them out. What’s more, it improves students’ abilities. And it’s especially true for new kinds of homework. I am quite skilled at finding information online and using Microsoft Office.”

However, this trend (趋势) also causes problems. Some lazy students just copy the answers online without thinking. Even some ask their classmates to do homework for them. And their teacher may not know the fact.

Anyhow, knowing how to use the Internet is important. The key is to have good self-control. When you come across a difficult problem, think about it by yourself first. Be sure to understand the reasons behind the answers after you have turned to the Internet, or you won’t make progress. It he are not sure about your self-control, ask your parents for help.

1. Both Li Ting and Wu Qiong used the Internet to ___________.

A．play games

B．make friends

C．take exams

D．search information

2. According to Wu, he thinks ___________.

A．the new learning way is difficult

B．students should use the new learning way

C．students should study with the teacher face to face

D．students can copy others’ homework online

3. When a student uses the Internet, he must ___________.

A．have an app	B．have a mobile phone
C．ask his parents for help	D．have good self-control

4. What’s the main idea about the passage?

A．How to learn a language

B．How to do homework

C．What’s the new way of learning

D．What’s a new computer app

3 . Family vlogging — the frequent recording and uploading of personal videos of the family, usually on video sharing website — has become big business nowadays, especially among parents of young children. The more viewers such videos can get, the more money the family can make. At first thought, it does seem like an easy way to make money. However, are we doing right by putting their lives up for public attention?

For one thing, as the children grow up, they increasingly become aware that what they do needs to be admirable enough for the public to enjoy — Being young children, they also would want to do whatever it takes to please others. They then feel the pressure to be perfect, and as that is something not always possible, they become anxious and stressed. Comments from viewers and the expectations of sponsors (赞助者) can also affect the parents’ reactions towards their children.

Another problem is the lack of privacy in the children’s lives. As the children reach adolescence, there is a greaser need for personal space. At 12 or 13, very few children would appreciate being filmed while eating or having a conversation with their friends. Teenhood is a time of significant change in an individual, both physically and emotionally, and is a time when parents need to protect their children and guide them, instead of exposing them to the eyes of the public.

Family vlogging can be irresistible, given how it allows parents to bring greater fun to their family lives. There is also the easy money and the fame to look forward to. Indeed, all would probably go well, but only as long as parents keep in mind that, if not managed well, making their children live their lives in the unforgiving eyes of the public could prove to be a big mistake.

1. How does vlogging about children’s lives influence the family?

A．Children will get used to public attention.

B．Children may suffer from too much pressure.

C．Parents may show no concern for their children.

D．Parents become addicted to exposing their children to the public.

2. How does the writer mainly develop his argument?

A．By providing examples	B．By listing numbers
C．By making comparisons	D．By analyzing causes

3. What’s the writer’s purpose of writing the text?

A．To introduce a new big business

B．To show how vlogging influence people’s lives.

C．To persuade parents to watch out for comments from viewers.

D．To convince parents of the danger of vlogging about children’s lives.

4. What’s the writer’s attitude to vlogging about children’s lives?

A．negative

B．positive

C．neutral

D．uninterested

4 . Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word. For the other blanks, fill in each blank with one proper word. Make sure that your answers are grammatically correct.

OpenAI Announces ChatGPT Successor GPT-4

OpenAI has released GPT-4, the latest version of its hugely popular artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.

The new model can respond to images by providing recipe suggestions from photos of ingredients as well as writing captions and descriptions. It can also process up to 25,000 words, about eight times as many as ChatGPT. Millions of people have used ChatGPT since it     1     (launch) in November 2022. Popular requests for it include writing songs, poems, marketing copy, computer code, and helping with homework,     2     teachers say students shouldn’t use it. ChatGPT answers questions     3     (employ) natural human-like language, and it can also imitate other writing styles such as songwriters and authors, using the Internet as its knowledge database.

There are concerns that it could one day take over many jobs currently     4     (do) by humans. OpenAI said it     5     (spend) six months on safety features for GPT-4, and on human feedback. However, it warned that it     6     still be subject to sharing disinformation.

GPT-4 will initially be available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers,     7     pay $20 per month for easy access to the service. It’s already powering Microsoft’s Bing search engine platform. The tech giant has invested $10b    8     OpenAI.

GPT-4 has “    9     (advanced) reasoning skills” than ChatGPT, OpenAI said. The model can, for example, find available meeting times for three schedules.

OpenAI also announced new partnerships with language learning app Duolingo and Be My Eyes, an application for the visually impaired,     10     (create) AI Chatbots which can assist their users using natural language.

However, like its predecessors (被替代的事物), OpenAI has warned that GPT-4 is still not fully reliable and it may invent facts or make reasoning errors.

5 . Ways Your Cell Phone Affects Your Body and Mind

First, some good news. Your phone can keep you safer. A study found that 137 more lives were saved per 100,000 patients when people called 911 from a mobile phone rather than from a fixed one.     1    

Scanning your phone right before bed can cause sleep disorder. To avoid that, make a habit of not using your phone for at least 30 minutes before you close your eyes.

    2     People now spend more than five hours a day typing and tapping, and feel eyes achy. About 60 percent of Americans experience discomfort, such as dryness, eye tiredness, and even headaches. Try taking a break from screens every 20 minutes.

When you are awake, a single sound on your phone can signal the coming news. However, this can weaken your ability to focus on a task.     3     It can even encourage creative ideas when you are alone. When you’re bored, four different areas of your brain become active and work together to pull in thoughts and combine them in unique ways.

Memory suffers too.     4     Instead of relying on the instructions from your phone’s GPS, older adults choose the old way, which increases activity in a part of the brain important for memory. Taking pictures with your phone may also harm your memory.

It would be easy to avoid all these problems by simply putting down your phone. The problem: It isn’t so easy.     5     And researches have proved this real. Of course, there are many phone apps to help you control your phone addiction. Or you can just let the battery rundown and forget about it!

A．But there are plenty of worries too.

B．Your phone can do damage to your eyes.

C．Silence your phone or simply put it away can help.

D．Walking with your face in your phone can be dangerous.

E．People may feel painful when separated from their phones.

F．Your hand may feel painful when you hold your phone too long.

G．Using a map and trying to remember it may be better for your brain.

6 . Digital technologies are taking up too much of our time and attention. Many of us will spend a significant part of our lives staring at screens, missing out on satisfying relationships and feeling more emotional pain. For many years, we’ve been taught that the solution to this potential harm is some form of digital detox (脱瘾), which mainly shows us what not to do after our digital addiction.     1     Try the following three steps to achieve balance in your and your family’s digital life:

Determine your problem times

Identify the times and situations when being on screens is making your life worse. It could be when you are streaming a TV series right before bed, feeling depressed afterward and losing hours of sleep. Or you could be getting stuck on your device at the dinner table and end up getting distracted.     2     Identify your top two or three problem situations.

    3    

Once you identify the pain points, for example, scrolling (滚动浏览) on TikTok for hours keeps you from sleeping and makes you feel depressed afterward), ask yourself: What is screen time replacing and what goals is it serving? In other words, what are you actually hungry for? You might be endlessly scrolling because you want to feel uplifted at the end of the day. Write down the things you really want.

Try a substitute

    4     It’s crucial to pick something that consistently makes you feel good. For example, if your goal is social connection, make plans for a nice meal with a friend or take that weekly meeting in person rather than via Zoom. If your goal is inspiration, schedule time for oil painting, reading historical fiction or whatever it is that uplifts you.     5     And at last, you will become empowered, healthy and wise digital citizens.

A．Identify your true desire.

B．Determine your pain points.

C．Pretty soon, these replacements will make you feel more satisfied.

D．But the only way to truly gain control is to take positive steps in advance.

E．Or maybe you are inefficient at work because you’re doing too much online shopping.

F．Ask yourself how you can meet those needs through something other than screen time.

G．If your digital life is out of balance, reducing time on devices is an important first step.

7 . 语法填空

Recent literature has put the spotlight on how technology and social media are shaping the next generation, and the consensus(共识)seems to be that it’s a sharp double-edged sword. New research published in Computers in Human Behavior is no exception.The study,led by faculty at Wellesley Centers for Women, found that     1     (join)social media specifically, Snapchat and Instagram before age 11 was significantly linked to more “problematic digital behaviors”     2     (compare) to those who joined the platforms when they were older.

The team surveyed over 750 middle schoolers in the Northeast United States, and found that those who joined these platforms at or below age 10 had more internet buddies that parents would disapprove of, and visited more social websites that     3     (frown) upon.They also showed more “unsympathetic online behaviors” and were more likely to become victims of online bullying or harassment. Altogether, it was a jumble of (一堆)problematic digital moods. Of course,that might not be news to social media giant Facebook. Some recent leaks in the Wall Street Journal revealed how the platform was aware for some time     4     it was “toxic” for teen girls, and also detailed its ambitions to lure teens and pre-teens with targeted kid-specific products.     5     almost all social media, including Twitter and TikTok, Facebook’s rules require users to be at least 13 years old to join. However, people     6     sign up self-report their own dates of birth, so it's hardly an effective firewall, and by commonsense, it's nearly a given that packs of children are roaming(漫游)the social media universe. In fact, “one-third of our sample had already started using social media at age 11 or 12 and another one-third had begun at age 10 or younger,” study author Linda Charmaraman said in a statement.     7     that doesn't mean it’s a lost cause. The study's findings also suggest parents can combat the harmful impacts by limiting how often their kids check social media, or restricting phone usage. Participants who reported such parental controls showed     8     (lessen) negative effects.

And it's not all bad: According to the research, those who joined social media before age 11also showed     9     (great) civic engagement within the online community--such as posting supportive content or fostering events and activism for social issues. Also,regardless of when they joined social media, early adolescents displayed more positive digital behaviors overall than negative ones.

As the first children raised in the social-media era grow into their 20s and 30s,the effects of the internet revolution will likely become more profound, and we can expect that the need     10     (understand) how tech shapes kids in their most impressionable years will only become more urgent.

8 . 在你校网络安全月即将到来之际，校英文报正在征集相关稿件。请你就网络安全话题投稿，具体内容包括：
1. 网络安全的重要性；
2. 安全上网的具体建议；
3. 号召大家重视网络安全。
注意
1. 词数80左右；
2. 题目已给出，不计入总词数。

Staying Safe on the Internet

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9 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The Internet has clearly affected all     1     (level) of education by providing endless possibilities for learning. I believe the future of education is a networked future. People can use the Internet to create and share knowledge and develop new ways of teaching and learning that excite students’ imagination at any time, anywhere,     2     (use) any device. By connecting and empowering students and educators, we can speed up economic growth and enhance (增强) the well-being of society throughout the world. We should work together, over a network,     3     (build) a global learning society.

The Internet is an inexhaustible (无穷尽的) source of information. What’s     4     (much), the Internet has enabled users to move away from their former passive role as recipients (接受者) of messages     5     (give) by traditional media     6     an active role, choosing what information to receive, how, and when. The information recipient even decides whether     7     not they want to stay informed.

Today, you can use the Internet to access libraries, art galleries, news archives, and other information sources from anywhere in the world: I believe this is a key advantage in the education field. The web is a(n)     8     (amaze) resource for enhancing the process of building knowledge.

Besides its communicative purposes, the Internet     9     (become) an important tool for exchanging knowledge and education since it entered our lives; it is not just an information source, but a channel (渠道) for connecting other people and groups     10     are working on related research topics.

10 . Cyber-bullying (网络欺凌) may take place in the online world, but it is no less damaging than in the real world. The Internet has become a kindness desert, a place where few flowers bloom. Bullying is pretty common.     1     According to those bullied, they’re usually seen as being different from the crowd. They are unique.

Being bullied is a frustrating and painful experience. Online bullying can really hurt others, and it can have serious consequences.     2     Some people have even committed suicide because they were harassed (侵扰) online and didn’t think it would ever stop. Here are some valuable tips to help you address a bully and protect yourself in a safe way.

Don’t blame yourself.     3     It’s only the bully’s fault, so don’t blame yourself for his or her shortcomings.

Stay away from bullies. Bullies hope you interact with them so that they have an excuse to keep picking on you. When the bully starts orally attacking you, remove yourself from the situation if you can, simply by walking away.

    4     Try as you might to ignore the bullies when they are saying ugly things about you. Remind yourself that you are a great person and that nothing the bullies say matters.

Speak out. Nobody has the right to make you feel unsafe, uncomfortable or unhappy. Find someone you can talk to, your teacher or your parent and tell them what’s going on.     5     Follow these tips and you should feel well-equipped to deal with your bullies the next time they attack.

A．Keep track of bullies.

B．Be sure you’re wonderful.

C．Adults can offer help if they know about the problem.

D．Being bullied can make you feel alone, scared, and hopeless.

E．Your parents are willing to help you when recognizing your problem.

F．If you are being bullied, it’s essential to know that it is never your fault.

G．Studies have found that nearly one-third of all students are bullied each year.