1 . The Happy Hitchhiker (徒步者)

Several years ago, I decided to visit my best friend, who lived in Napier. _________ I was short of money, hitchhiking was the only way to go. Carrying a small bag on my back, I set off on a sunny morning, and soon I got lifts. I enjoyed the conversation with the drivers, and was _________ enough to have made some distance before it got dark.

As I walked along a tree-lined country road, I _________ where I would spend the night. It was summer and the weather was warm so I thought I could sleep under a tree. An elderly gentleman came up and asked me where I was _________. I told him that I was hoping to get to the next town, “Op-o-tiki”.

He laughed and asked if I _________ “Opotiki”. Being English, I was not familiar with the correct pronunciation and replied that I did. “It’s still a long way. You won’t get there before dark,” he said. “So come with me and we will put you up for the _________ .”

Opotiki was a further 25 km away, so I _________ him to a comfortable, warm house nearby. He introduced me to his wife who was preparing dinner. They invited me to have a nice cup of tea, and even a hearty beef casserole (砂锅).

After dinner we all _________ for a while about where I was from and how I was finding the town, and then I was shown to my room. My host was a retired sea captain, and he told me that he was used to being up early and would wake me up. I had a very comfortable night’s sleep.

The next morning I woke to a cup of tea and a nice hot breakfast. I thanked them for their care, when the lady handed me a sandwich saying that it should _________ me going until I reached Opotiki. We had a laugh and said goodbye with each other. I have never forgotten their amazing __________ .

1.

A．Whether

B．Once

C．Because

D．Although

2.

A．brave

B．funny

C．lucky

D．clever

3.

A．supposed

B．explained

C．discovered

D．wondered

4.

A．blocked

B．headed

C．pointed

D．expected

5.

A．named

B．left

C．meant

D．passed

6.

A．road

B．weather

C．town

D．night

7.

A．followed

B．directed

C．invited

D．promised

8.

A．looked

B．chatted

C．waited

D．guessed

9.

A．keep

B．join

C．mind

D．stop

10.

A．intelligence

B．eagerness

C．honesty

D．kindness

2 . I was preparing for dinner with my husband when our daughter Rikki stormed into the sitting room and marched to the sofa. I glanced out of the window and saw our neighbor Lexi walking slowly back to her house with her head down, looking so _______.

        “Why didn’t Lexi stay longer?” I asked her.

“I don’t want to play with her,” Rikki complained, “I wish she would stop coming over here all the time. Her dress looks terrible and smells disgusting. Everyone in our class chooses to _______ her.” “That’s not her _______ , Rikki. Maybe she doesn’t have anyone to help her.” I said.

“You see, baby,” her father began to say, “I really know how she felt when you showed your _______ to her because I had the same experience when I was a kid. I was the poor kid with hand-me-down clothes, the kid who others looked down on. That _______ never goes away.” He told her he wanted her to be kind and _________ , not judgmental and hurtful. Tears were streaming down her face.

Then we _______ Lexi to come over and have dinner with us. I remembered Lexi coming in all smiles. We gathered together and soon I saw the girls talking and _______ . They had a great time. I could even see a sweet glow in Rikki’s eyes.

Rikki began to think _________ from that day on. Lexi came over a few times after that. They became good friends.

Today, Rikki has a heart of gold. She is always the first to welcome those whom others might __________ and is generous in helping others. I truly believe that day made a major difference in the person she has become today.

1.

A．funny

B．upset

C．relaxed

D．silly

2.

A．punish

B．inspire

C．respect

D．ignore

3.

A．habit

B．attitude

C．fault

D．quality

4.

A．coldness

B．selfishness

C．strictness

D．nervousness

5.

A．dream

B．thought

C．feeling

D．smell

6.

A．honest

B．curious

C．normal

D．helpful

7.

A．assumed

B．invited

C．reminded

D．warned

8.

A．laughing

B．arguing

C．crying

D．shopping

9.

A．actively

B．creatively

C．professionally

D．differently

10.

A．worry about

B．turn away

C．depend on

D．communicate with

3 . A recent global study, which surveyed 10,000 young people from 10 countries, showed that nearly 60 percent of them were extremely worried about the future state of the planet. The report, which was published in The Lancet, also showed that nearly half of the respondents said that such distress affected them daily, and three quarters agreed with the statement that “the future is frightening.” This, along with many other studies, shows clearly that climate change is not just a threat to the environment that we inhabit. It also poses a very real threat to our emotional well-being. Psychologists have categorized these feelings of grief and worry about the current climate emergency, a common occurrence among youth today, under the label of “eco-anxiety”.

Eco-anxiety doesn’t just affect young people. It also affects researchers who work in climate and ecological science, burdened by the reality depicted by their findings, and it affects the most economically marginalized (边缘化的) across the globe, who bear the damaging impacts of climate breakdown.

In 2024, eco-anxiety will rise to become one of the leading causes of mental health problems. The reasons are obvious. Scientists estimate that the world is likely to breach safe limits of temperature rise above pre-industrial levels for the first time by 2027.

In recent years, we’ve seen wildfires tear through Canada and Greece, and summer floods ruin regions in Pakistan that are home to nearly 33 million people. Studies have shown that those impacted by air pollution and rising temperatures are more likely to experience psychological distress.

To make matters worse, facing climate crisis, our political class is not offering strong leadership. The COP28 conference in Dubai will be headed by an oil and gas company executive. In the UK, the government is backtracking on its green commitments.

Fortunately, greater levels of eco-anxiety will also offer an avenue for resolving the climate crisis directly. According to Caroline Hickman, a researcher on eco-anxiety from the University of Bath, anyone experiencing eco-anxiety is displaying entirely natural and rational reactions to the climate crisis. This is why, in 2024, we will also see more people around the world join the fight for climate justice and seek jobs that prioritize environmental sustainability. Campaigners will put increased pressure on fossil fuel industries and the governments to rapidly abandon the usage of polluting coal, oil, and gas.

It’s now clear that not only are these industries the main causes for the climate crisis, they are also responsible for the mental health crisis, which is starting to affect most of us. Eco-anxiety is not something we will defeat with therapy, but something we will tackle by taking action.

1. What can we learn from the passage?

A．The cause of eco-anxiety is emotions existing in our mind.

B．People in developed countries are more likely to suffer from eco-anxiety.

C．Eco-anxiety is a new kind of psychological disease due to climate change.

D．The author is disappointed about government behaviour towards climate crisis.

2. What does the underlined word “breach” in Paragraph 3 most probably mean?

A．Break.

B．Reach.

C．Raise.

D．Affect.

3. As for Caroline Hickman’s opinion on eco-anxiety, the author is         .

A．puzzled

B．favourable

C．suspicious

D．unconcerned

4. What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Who Is to Blame for Eco-anxiety?

B．How Should You See Eco-anxiety?

C．How Will Eco-anxiety Be Resolved?

D．Why Do People Suffer from Eco-anxiety?

4 . Artificial intelligence is almost twice as accurate as a biopsy (活组织检查) at judging the aggressiveness of some cancers, experts say. Cancer kills 10 million people globally every year, according to the WHO. But for patients the disease can be prevented if detected instantly and dealt with quickly.

A recent study suggested an AI algorithm (算法) was far better than a biopsy at correctly grading the aggressiveness of sarcomas (肉瘤), a rare form of cancer. Researchers hope AI will improve outcomes for patients by giving doctors a more accurate way of grading tumours (肿瘤). Because high-grade tumours can indicate aggressive disease, the tool could help ensure those high-risk patients are identified more quickly and treated instantly. Low-risk patients could also be spared unnecessary treatments, follow-up scans and hospital visits.

Researchers say the algorithm could be applied to other types of cancer in future. The team specifically looked at retroperitoneal sarcomas, which develop at the back of the abdomen and are difficult to diagnose (诊断) and treat due to their location. They used CT scans from 170 patients with the two most common forms of retroperitoneal sarcoma — leiomyosarcoma and liposarcoma. Using data from these scans they created an AI algorithm, which was then tested on 89 patients in other countries. In grading how aggressive the tumour was, the technology was accurate in 82% of the cases, while biopsies were 44%.

AI could also recognize leiomyosarcoma and liposarcoma in 84% of sarcomas tested, while radiologists were able to identify them in 65% of the cases. Christina Messiou, the study leader, said: “We’re incredibly excited by the potential of this state-of-the-art technology, which could lead to patients having better outcomes through faster diagnosis. As patients with retroperitoneal sarcoma are routinely scanned with CT, we hope this tool will eventually be used globally, ensuring that not just specialist centres can reliably identify and grade the disease.”

Richard Davison, chief executive of Sarcoma UK, said the results looked “very promising”. He added: “People are more likely to survive sarcoma if diagnosed early. One in six people with sarcoma cancer wait more than a year to receive an accurate diagnosis, so any research that helps patients receive better treatment and support is welcome.”

1. According to the passage, AI is capable of        .

A．grading the risk of sarcomas

B．measuring the scale of sarcomas

C．providing cancer treatment for clinicians

D．classifying cancers with its advanced algorithm

2. What can be inferred from this passage?

A．More sarcomas can be detected with the help of AI.

B．Biopsies will be replaced by AI algorithm in identifying cancers.

C．More patients suffering from cancers will benefit from AI algorithm.

D．AI algorithm has been applied in hospitals for detecting most cancers.

3. What is the passage mainly about?

A．AI has a profound market in curing cancers.

B．New treatments for sarcomas are well underway.

C．AI helps identify high-risk and low-risk patients.

D．AI does better in assessing some types of sarcomas.

5 . Researchers hope brain implants will one day help people with aphasia(失语症) to get their voice back—and maybe even to sing. Now, for the first time, scientists have demonstrated that the brain’s electrical activity can be decoded and used to reconstruct music.

A new study analyzed data from 29 people monitored for epileptic seizures(癫痫发作), using electrodes(电极) on the surface of their brain. As participants listened to a selected song, electrodes captured brain activity related to musical elements, such as tone, rhythm, and lyrics. Employing machine learning, Robert Knight from UC Berkeley and his colleagues reconstructed what the participants were hearing and published their study results. The paper is the first to suggest that scientists can “listen secretly to” the brain to synthesize(合成) music.

To turn brain activity data into musical sound, researchers trained an artificial intelligence (AI)model to decode data captured from thousands of electrodes that were attached to the participants as they listened to the song while undergoing surgery. Once the brain data were fed through the model, the music returned. The model also revealed some brain parts responding to different musical features of the song.

Although the findings focused on music, the researchers expect their results to be most useful for translating brain waves into human speech. Ludovic Bellier, the study’s lead author, explains that speech, regardless of language, has small melodic differences—tempo, stress, accents, and intonation—known as prosody(韵律). These elements carry meaning that we can’t communicate with words alone. He hopes the model will improve brain-computer interfaces (BCI), assistive devices that record speech-associated brain waves and use algorithms to reconstruct intended messages. This technology, still in its infancy, could help people who have lost the ability to speak because of aphasia.

Future research should investigate whether these models can be expanded from music that participants have heard to imagined internal speech. If a brain-computer interface could recreate someone’s speech with the prosody and emotional weight found in music, it could offer a richer communication experience beyond mere words.

Several barriers remain before we can put this technology in the hands—or brains— of patients. The current model relies on surgical implants. As recording techniques improve, the hope is to gather data non-invasively, possibly using ultrasensitive electrodes. However, under current technologies, this approach might result in a lower speed of decoding into natural speech. The researchers also hope to improve the playback clarity by packing the electrodes closer together on the brain’s surface, enabling an even more detailed look at the electrical symphony the brain produces.

1. What can we learn from the study?

A．Electrodes can analyze musical elements.

B．The decoding of brain data helps recreate music.

C．Machine learning greatly enhances brain activity.

D．The AI model monitors music-responsive brain regions.

2. What hopefully makes it possible to expand the model to speech?

A．The prosody of speech.	B．The collection of brain waves.
C．The emotional weight of music.	D．The reconstruction of information.

3. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．Unlocking the Secrets of Melodic Mind	B．Brain Symphony: Synthesized Human Speech
C．BCI Brings Hope to People with Aphasia	D．Remarkable Journey: Decoding Brain with AI

6 . Are you ready to become an international UN Volunteer?

You can contribute your time, skills and knowledge through volunteering with the UN. This is an opportunity to create a positive impact and be a significant force for achieving peace and development. Make a difference to the lives of many!

The first step to volunteer abroad with the UN is to determine whether you meet the minimum requirements. If this is the case, register your profile in our Unified Volunteering Platform. Then, you may apply for assignments that are in high demand or even in highly specialized areas.

The minimum age to serve as an international UN Volunteer is 18 years old. However, there are specific requirements for various categories: UN Youth Volunteers, including University Volunteers, must be aged 18-26, UN Volunteer specialists must be at least 27years old, and UN Expert Volunteers must be 35 years of age and above.

There may also be requirements of relevant professional and academic experience, as well as language proficiency (熟练). Refer to the Description of Assignment for the UN Volunteer assignment for the position you are applying for because different assignments have their specific requirements.

All UN Volunteers must display a commitment to the values and principles of volunteerism and the activities of the United Nations and the UN Charter, and an ability to work in a multicultural environment and with local partners and communities. They should be prepared to adjust to difficult living conditions in sometimes remote locations. UN Volunteers should be professional, with strong interpersonal and organizational skills.

1. Which is a requirement for being an international UN Volunteer?

A．Having a positive impact.

B．Being younger than 18 years old.

C．Having relevant work experience.

D．Being talented in foreign languages.

2. If selected as a UN volunteer, one will need to       .

A．show his education level

B．improve local living conditions

C．follow the rules of the activities

D．communicate with others efficiently

3. Which of the following statements is correct according to the passage?

A．Every assignment has its particular requirements.

B．If you meet the requirements, you can register by email.

C．UN Volunteers will work in remote locations independently.

D．As a volunteer, you should make principles of volunteerism.

7 . “Your mother needs a new heart,” my father told me when I called on that December afternoon. An unrelenting optimist, he spoke as if she merely needed to have a part replaced. But, although my two sisters and I knew that our mother had heart problems, this news still made us frozen for a while with our eyes widening in disbelief.

Dr. Marc Semigran of the transplant team reviewed my mother’s medical history. She’d had an irregular and rapid heartbeat for most of her life. Her present treatment — the use of a series of cardioversions, or electric jolts, to restore a normal heartbeat — would not work in the long-term. She had an enlarged and weakened heart, as well as a faulty valve.

“With medication,” Dr. Semigran said, “you have a 60 percent chance of living six months. You could have a longer life with a transplant, but there are risks. You’re at the top end of the age group of sixty years old. The lungs and other organs must be healthy and strong. While the transplant surgery is actually a straightforward procedure, acceptance by the body is the difficult thing.”

My family came together, trying to provide strength and work out what to do. We’d already gone from shock, over our mother’s condition, to worry that she wouldn’t be a suitable recipient. Despite of the risk, we chose to believe that she would make it eventually.

Word came later in December that she had been accepted into the programme. Dr. Jeremy Ruskin told us one of the reasons she had been accepted was that she had such strong family support.

One Monday in May, at about 8 p. m., my mother received a phone call from the hospital that a heart was available. As she was about to be wheeled off, my father took her face in his hands and looked into her eyes. His look said everything about their 42-year relationship.

The heart transplant operation was successful and the conditions could not have been better.

The irony of the transplant process is that one family’s loss is another’s gain; that tragedy begets fortune. It is a kind of life after death, our hearts beating beyond us. We developed a feeling of love for this new part, of gratitude for the doctors, for the process, and for those people who made a decision just for humanity.

1. How did the sisters feel to the news that their mother needed a new heart?

A．Frightened.

B．Astonished.

C．Worried.

D．Annoyed.

2. Which is the factor to affect the possibility of their mother’s heart transplant?

A．Her abnormal heart beat.

B．The age of over sixty years old.

C．Her willingness to the transplant.

D．The adaptation of the new heart in the body.

3. What made the transplant team decide to have the operation?

A．That her lungs were healthy.

B．That a new heart had been found.

C．That her family were expecting the operation.

D．That her family trusted the doctors' medical level.

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Family support is of great importance.

B．Fortune favors those who are optimistic.

C．Confidence helps patients overcome difficulties.

D．Getting prepared before accepting a treatment matters.

8 . It was 4:30 pm. As I was packing up, I noticed my colleague had left his laptop bag in the office. So I decided to bring it to him. It took me about 15 minutes to get to his house, where I _____ the bag and got right back on the road.

Suddenly a snowstorm came and within minutes I was in a whiteout. I stopped because I was afraid of driving into a farmer’s field, or worse. I kept the car _____ to stay warm and called 911.They told me to sit tight and wait things out for the night.

Those seconds after the call were _____. Breathe, I told myself. Panicking won’t help.

I texted my colleague, joking about my good deed ending in _____. He suggested I share a satellite view of my _____ on my social media. And I did so, praying that anyone who knew the residents of the nearby farms could get me rescued.

Waiting in the car, I doubted whether _____ would be able to come. Soon enough, though, I got a message from someone who was going to put me in touch with them.

At 8 pm, I saw a tall figure in a yellow raincoat striding toward me in the dark, carrying a flashlight. I’d never been more _____ to see someone in my life. It was André Bouvier, who’d walked about 550 yards to come get me, fighting the wind and snow each step of the way.

He turned around and started to trudge through the snow, sure of the direction. I drove behind him, feeling my heart begin to beat more _____. When we reached his house, I burst into tears, all my fears turning into relief and _____.

The experience has been a game changer for me. I now ______ challenges with a sense of calm I’d not known before. But best of all, it brought André into my life.

1.

A．dropped off

B．filled up

C．set aside

D．put away

2.

A．locked

B．parked

C．signaling

D．running

3.

A．painful

B．critical

C．disappointing

D．impressive

4.

A．failure

B．smoke

C．disaster

D．mystery

5.

A．route

B．location

C．direction

D．destination

6.

A．news

B．help

C．hope

D．faith

7.

A．satisfied

B．surprised

C．relieved

D．worried

8.

A．slowly

B．excitedly

C．nervously

D．strongly

9.

A．recognition

B．admiration

C．satisfaction

D．appreciation

10.

A．identify

B．present

C．approach

D．anticipate

9 . At my first lesson in Chinese calligraphy, my teacher told me plainly: “Now I will teach you how to write your name. And to make it beautiful.” I felt my breath catch. I was curious.

Growing up in Singapore, I had an unusual relationship with my Chinese name. My parents are ethnically Chinese, so they asked fortune tellers to decide my name, aiming for maximum luck. As a result, I ended up with a nonsense and embarrassing name: Chen Yiwen, meaning, roughly, “old”, “barley (薏米)” and “warm”.

When I arrived in America for college at 18, I put on an American accent and abandoned my Chinese name. When I moved to Hong Kong in 2021, after 14 years in the States, I decided to learn calligraphy. Why not get back in touch with my heritage? I thought.

In calligraphy, the idea is to copy the old masters’ techniques, thereby refining your own. Every week, though, my teacher would give uncomfortably on-the-nose assessments of my person. “You need to be braver,” he once observed. “Have confidence. Try to produce a bold stroke(笔画).” For years, I had prided myself on presenting an image of confidence, but my writing betrayed me.

I was trying to make sense of this practice. You must visualize the word as it is to be written and leave a trace of yourself in it. As a bodily practice, calligraphy could go beyond its own cultural restrictions. Could it help me go beyond mine? My teacher once said to me, “When you look at the word, you see the body. Though a word on the page is two-dimensional, it contains multitudes, conveying the force you’ve applied, the energy of your grip, the arch of your spine.” I had been learning calligraphy to get in touch with my cultural roots, but what I was really seeking was a return to myself. Now I have sensed that the pleasure out of calligraphy allows me to know myself more fully.

During a recent lesson, my teacher pointed at the word I had just finished, telling me: “This word is much better. I can see the choices you made, your calculations, your flow. Trust yourself. This word is yours.” He might as well have said, “This word is you.”

1. What did the author initially think of her name “Chen Yiwen”?

A．It was lucky so she gladly accepted it.	B．She felt proud of its symbolic meaning.
C．She understood the intention but still disliked it.	D．Its strange pronunciation made her embarrassed.

2. The author decided to learn calligraphy to ______.

A．pick up a new hobby	B．reconnect with her origin
C．gain insights into a new culture	D．fit in with local community

3. From the teacher’s words, the author learns that calligraphy ______.

A．reflects the creator’s spirits	B．comes from creative energy
C．highlights the design of strokes	D．depends on continuous practice

4. What does the author intend to tell us?

A．Appreciate what our culture offers.	B．Find beauty from your inner self.
C．A great teacher leads you to truth.	D．We are the sum of what we create.

10 . “Assume you are wrong.” The advice came from Brian Nosek, a psychology professor, who was offering a strategy for pursuing better science.

To understand the context for Nosek’s advice, we need to take a step back to the nature of science itself. You see despite what many of us learned in elementary school, there is no single scientific method. Just as scientific theories become elaborated and change, so do scientific methods.

But methodological reform hasn’t come without some fretting and friction. Nasty things have been said by and about methodological reformers. Few people like having the value of their life’s work called into question. On the other side, few people are good at voicing criticisms in kind and constructive ways. So, part of the challenge is figuring out how to bake critical self-reflection into the culture of science itself, so it unfolds as a welcome and integrated part of the process, and not an embarrassing sideshow.

What Nosek recommended was a strategy for changing the way we offer and respond to critique. Assuming you are right might be a motivating force, sustaining the enormous effort that conducting scientific work requires. But it also makes it easy to interpret criticisms as personal attacks. Beginning, instead, from the assumption you are wrong, a criticism is easier to interpret as a constructive suggestion for how to be less wrong — a goal that your critic presumably shares.

One worry about this approach is that it could be demoralizing for scientists. Striving to be less wrong might be a less effective motivation than the promise of being right. Another concern is that a strategy that works well within science could backfire when it comes to communicating science with the public. Without an appreciation for how science works, it’s easy to take uncertainty or disagreements as marks against science, when in fact they reflect some of the very features of science that make it our best approach to reaching reliable conclusions about the world. Science is reliable because it responds to evidence: as the quantity and quality of our evidence improves, our theories can and should change, too.

Despite these worries, I like Nosek’s suggestion because it builds in cognitive humility along with a sense that we can do better. It also builds in a sense of community — we’re all in the same boat when it comes to falling short of getting things right.

Unfortunately, this still leaves us with an untested hypothesis (假说): that assuming one is wrong can change community norms for the better, and ultimately support better science and even, perhaps, better decisions in life. I don’t know if that’s true. In fact, I should probably assume that it’s wrong. But with the benefit of the scientific community and our best methodological tools, I hope we can get it less wrong, together.

1. What can we learn from Paragraph 3?

A．Reformers tend to devalue researchers’ work.

B．Scientists are unwilling to express kind criticisms.

C．People hold wrong assumptions about the culture of science.

D．The scientific community should practice critical self-reflection.

2. The strategy of “assuming you are wrong” may contribute to ______.

A．the enormous efforts of scientists at work	B．the reliability of potential research results
C．the public’s passion for scientific findings	D．the improvement in the quality of evidence

3. The underlined word “demoralizing” in Paragraph 5 means ______.

A．discouraging

B．ineffective

C．unfair

D．misleading

4. The tone the author uses in talking about the untested hypothesis is ______.

A．doubtful but sincere	B．disapproving but soft
C．authoritative and direct	D．reflective and humorous