1 . Brothers Mike and Nick Fiorito had a smooth life in the first 30 years. _________, they decided to quit their highly paid jobs since they realized that they often felt unfulfilled. At first they felt _________ about future without knowing what to do, but eventually they came up with an idea to help the homeless folks after _________ their poor situation on the street.

They _________ Blankets of Hope with their own efforts, which turned into a global nonprofit organization that also encourages kindness in schools. The brothers sent the blankets to schools. The kids would write the notes, and then _________ the brothers in delivering the blankets to homeless shelters in their local communities. They _________ students so that every blanket includes a note handwritten in classrooms to _________ homeless folks across the country.

Now, their organization is very _________ — reaching nearly 20,000 people in need across America, Canada and Mexico.

Adults can _________ as well. They can make efforts by donating on a GoFundMe page so that the brothers could have enough money to purchase the blankets. Thanks to people’s generous __________, the brothers aimed at __________ another 20,000 blankets this winter. And they expected these blankets would not only keep people warm, but provide a friendly __________ to another soul. The brothers tried to do what they could to make a __________ despite the sweat. They are __________ that more and more people can join them in __________ the kindness.

1.

A．Occasionally

B．Frequently

C．Consistently

D．Unexpectedly

2.

A．confused

B．prosperous

C．indifferent

D．curious

3.

A．assuming

B．acknowledging

C．resembling

D．witnessing

4.

A．backed down

B．backed up

C．set up

D．cooperated with

5.

A．shunned

B．invaded

C．assisted

D．posed

6.

A．acclaimed

B．involved

C．preserved

D．dominated

7.

A．inspire

B．promise

C．thank

D．teach

8.

A．exquisite

B．fascinating

C．challenging

D．successful

9.

A．disrupt

B．participate

C．commemorate

D．depict

10.

A．glory

B．friction

C．contribution

D．victim

11.

A．giving away

B．giving in

C．handing in

D．wearing out

12.

A．comprehension

B．connection

C．barrier

D．assessment

13.

A．difference

B．date

C．decision

D．estimate

14.

A．objective

B．prosperous

C．hopeful

D．potential

15.

A．understanding

B．receiving

C．paying

D．spreading

2 . 语法填空

Dr. Richard Fairhurst,     1     author of the book The New Age of Invention, is now     2    ( interview) by the reporter from Between the Pages. In Richard’s opinion, there     3    ( be ) golden ages of invention throughout history and he also mentions the four great     4    (invent) in Ancient China and the great ones in the West. But now most of the new great inventions are tech-based, for example, virtual reality and     5    ( wear) tech.     6    addition, important advances in medicine and environmental science have been made thanks to     7    ( increase) computer power. And an intelligent walking house is capable of     8    ( use) GPS technology to travel to different places. The     9    ( impress) stuff makes the interviewer surprised.     10    inspires Richard to invent things is recognising a problem that needs a solution.

3 . 语法填空

In December 1938 , Winton went to Prague    1       ( aid) people who were escaping    2     the Nazis. Winton saved    3     ( frighten) Jewish children whose lives were    4     danger. He used    5     (donate) funds and his own money to pay the 50 pounds per child that the British government required. During World War II, Winton served    6       an officer and then worked for international charities. Winton lived    7    common life and never mentioned his efforts to save the 669 children.     8    , that all changed in 1988. A forgotten journal     9    ( bring) his actions to public attention. Winton received various    10     ( honour).

4 . 语法填空

When Ryan was still    1     schoolboy in Canada, he wanted to make a     2    (different) for the world. After learning the news of freshwater     3    (short) in developing African countries , he made his plan     4    (earn) money to build a well. He cleaned windows    5     did gardening for others and finally got enough money with the help of people around him. In Uganda he saw the well and many    6     (delight) students.     7     (late), his experience led him    8     (set) up a foundation to help more people.     9     Ryan did really inspired more people to make their dreams a    10     (real).

5 . The 2024 Science Fiction Short Story Contest

The 2023 Science Fiction Short Story Contest just came to an end. Welcome to our 2024 Science Fiction Short Story Contest sponsored by Science Fiction Association in our city. The contest is to encourage amateur and semi-professional writers to reach the next level of proficiency. We will look for engaging openings, good character development, well-structured plotting, powerful imagery, humorous language, unique word or phrasing choices, and convincing endings. Come to show the world your fantasy imagination and storytelling talents!

Requirement

A qualifying story must have strong science fiction or fantasy elements and must be shorter than 7,500 words. Your entries must be original works of fiction. If you have received prizes for your fiction writing from any source or your story has been published in any paying publication, you are no longer qualified.

Past winners of our contest are no longer qualified.

No reprints, fan fiction or poetry, please.

Judge and Prize

Judges will provide feedbacks for all qualifying contest entries. First-round judges will consist of Science Fiction Association members and volunteers. The professional writers’ decision is final.

The champions, runners-up and honorable mentions will receive prizes including cash prize, a certificate of achievement, Science Fiction Association Press books, and a free membership to Science Fiction Association, All winners can select their books and either take them immediately or ask for them to be shipped later.

Deadline

The contest will be limited to the first 60 qualifying entries. While the submission deadline is September 30th, 2024, we may close off the entry for the year sooner if the response is larger than expected. The winners will be published on December 31th.

Notice

Please place your contact information for possible awards.

There is no entry fee. Please submit only one entry per author.

1. What is the activity about?

A．Story telling.	B．Story writing.
C．Writer training.	D．Writer recommending.

2. What is a requirement for the science fiction of the contest?

A．It can come as the form of a poem.	B．It should be over 7,500 words long.
C．It must be the author’s original one.	D．It is supposed to be published before.

3. Who will finally determine the winners?

A．Professional writers.	B．Amateur writers.
C．Science Fiction Association members.	D．Science Fiction Association volunteers.

6 . Ana Lizana works for the East Anglia ONE project-the largest of shore wind farm in Europe, made up of 102 turbines (涡轮) and powering around 500, 000 homes. It’s expected to be the model for offshore wind farms around the UK. A journalist is interviewing her.

Journalist: You’ve bad great career development. How did that happen?

Ana: My excellent female engineer manager taught me to be disciplined (训练有素的) and organized at work. I’m proud of being one of the few female electrical engineers on the project but all the women are from Spain. Scottish Power found it difficult to acquire female electrical engineers from the UK. In Spain, the industry is more equal because the numbers of boys and girls who study engineering are the same.

Journalist: What do the pupils ask when you visit them?

Ana: The schoolchildren ask me about my salary, because most of them want to be lawyers or doctors or do economics for banking. Girls in the UK don’t regard engineering as an opportunity. I tell them that I enjoy what I’m doing and that we provide and generate electricity for everybody.

Journalist: What’s the worst thing that has gone wrong?

Ana: For a tight programme, the worst thing is when we lose time. That can be the most stressful. My responsibility is about making sure it’ll be on time and is ready.

Journalist: How do you feel at weekends?

Ana: Tired! This project is a full marathon. You cannot work every day at 100pc but you need to try to be at 80pc. The weekend is all about rest and filling myself with new energy.

Journalist: What is the most satisfying thing about your work?

Ana: To know that you are creating a project that can generate electricity just by using wind. You are working on something great and being useful, and sharing knowledge with colleagues.

1. What can we learn about the East Anglia ONE project?

A．It contains more than 102 turbines

B．It’s the largest wind farm in Europe.

C．It provides electricity for 500.000 people.

D．It’s likely to set an example to British of shore wind farms.

2. Ana Lizana feels the most stressed when             .

A．she is asked about her salary

B．she trains and organizes girls

C．she shares knowledge with colleagues

D．she fails to generate electricity as quickly as possible

3. We can make a safe conclusion from the text that            .

A．the UK needs more female electrical engineers

B．Spain has more boys than girls studying engineering

C．Scottish Power calls for male engineers from the UK

D．Europe generates most electricity just by using wind

7 . Personalized medicine changes conventional medicine which typically offers blanket recommendations and offers treatments designed to help more people than they bam but that might not work for you. The approach recognizes that we each possess unique characteristics, and they have an out size impact on our health.

Around the world, researchers are creating precision tools unimaginable just a decade ago: superfast DNA sequencing(排序); tissue engineering, cell reprogramming, gene editing, and more. The science and technology soon will make it possible to predict your risk of cancer, heart disease, and countless other illnesses years before you get sick. The work also offers prospects for changing genes in removing some diseases.

Last spring, researchers at the National Cancer Institute reported the dramatic recovery of a woman with breast cancer, Judy Perkins. The team, led by Steven Rosenberg, an immune(免疫的) treatment pioneer, had sequenced her cancer cells’ DNA to analyze the sudden change. The team also removed a sampling of immune cells and tested them to see which ones recognized her cancer cells' genetic faults. The scientists reproduced the winning immune cells by the billions and put them into Perkins to attack her cancer cells. More than two y cars later. Perkins, a retired engineer from Florida, shows no signs of cancer.

Thirty years ago, scientists thought that it would be impossible to understand our genetic rules and sequence the 3.2 billion pairs of different elements in our DNA. “It was like you were talking fairytales,” Kurzrock said. “The conventional wisdom was that it would never happen. Never And then in 2003, never was over.”

It took the Human Gene Project 13 years, roughly one billion dollars, and scientists from six countries to sequence one gene complex. Today sequencing costs about a thousand dollars. The latest machines can produce the results in a day. The technology, combined with advanced cell analysis, clarifies the astonishing biochemical variations that make every human body unique.

1. What can we know about personalized medicine?

A．It has emerged a decade before.

B．It offers blanket recommendations.

C．It uses genetic information to help patients.

D．It administers treatment intended for most people.

2. Which best describes those precision tools?

A．Promising.

B．Highly risky.

C．Fruitless.

D．Strictly confidential.

3. What happened in the process of treating Judy Perkins' breast cancer?

A．Sequencing her immune cells.

B．Reprogramming her cancer cells

C．Analysis of her life style changes.

D．Identification of cancer-fighting cells.

4. What's the last paragraph mainly talking about concerning sequencing?

A．Its wide applications.	B．Its recent advances.
C．Its major disadvantages.	D．Its attractive prospects.

8 . 同学们，在过去的学习生活中，你一定经历过很多次尝试，可能有成功、有失败、有欣喜、有泪水……请以“My First Try”为题，用英语写一篇短文，记录你成长中的第一次尝试。
要求：
1.100词左右(开头已给出，不计入总词数)；
2.文中不得出现真实人名和校名。
My First Try

When it comes to the topic of “My First Try”,

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9 . The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most diverse places in America, a wonderful place filled with people from all backgrounds. Each of them drew something different from their own experience. Their stories are the focus of Status Update, an exhibition of 14 projects offered by Dundon and former WIRED contributor Pete Brook. The show at SOMarts uses personal tales to show the Bay Area’s culture.

The Bay Area is a microcosm (缩影) of the national melting pot, a place where people of color comprise 58 percent of the overall population and are a majority in four of the region’s five countries, San Francisco in particular is the type of place where you can’ t walk down the street without hearing another language. Yet the change is not all for the better. The gap between rich and poor is widening at a frightening speed, and San Francisco is becoming less diverse as minorities escape from the city for more affordable communities elsewhere in the region.

Status Update reflects these changes and the challenges they bring. Joseph Rodriguez’s Faces of Foreclosure features quiet images of people like Ethel Gist, who lost her home in the East Bay suburb of Brentwood six years ago. Photographer Sam records Oakland resident Shannon and his efforts to provide for his daughter. And Laura Morton documents millennials (千禧一代 )hoping to make their way to the top in Silicon Valley in her series Wild West Tech.

Status Update starts a conversation about how the Bay Area is changing, and what people can do to build up a more just equitable (公正的) society. “I hope people walk away from this show with a little more respect for our neighbors and communities and the ways we depend on one another.” Dundon says. “we’re all out here together”

1. What are the artworks in Status Update mainly about?

A．The real lives of people in the Bay Area.

B．The beautiful construction of the Bay Area.

C．The friendliness of people in the Bay Area.

D．The technological development of the Bay Area.

2. What is happening in San Francisco?

A．It is facing a rapid economic slowdown.

B．The population has been falling in recent years.

C．More and more local people tend to speak the same language.

D．It is getting harder and harder for minorities to afford their lives.

3. What’s the most suitable subject of Status Update?

A．Sharing the successful experience of the Bay Area.

B．Recording the diversity and change of the Bay Area.

C．Introducing the long and rich history of the Bay Area.

D．Showing the past, the present and the future of the Bay Area.

4. What does Dundon expect of visitors?

A．They can know more about themselves.

B．They can open their hearts to other people.

C．They can respect the people around them.

D．They can develop an interest in diverse cultures.

10 . Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, started erupting late Sunday in the U.S. island state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The volcano last erupted 38 years ago. But it is not expected to put people in danger.

At this point, melted(熔化的) rock, called lava, is predicted not to come near populated areas, but officials warned people to be ready to move away. The path of lava flows can change quickly.

Island officials warned people to stay away from the areas where lava is coming out because it can shoot 30 to 60 meters in the air. The gas coming from the eruption is also harmful. At the moment, however, the state said air quality on the island is good.

The eruption is a new experience for many people on the island. There are more than twice as many people living there compared to the last time Mauna Loa erupted. State officials are most concerned about an area about 50 kilometers to the south of the volcano where about 5,000 people live.

There is some concern about a weak area on the southwestern part of the mountain. If lava escapes from that area, it could threaten places where people live in just hours or days. The lava has never come up through that area during past eruptions.

The lava could flow toward the city of Hilo, which has about 45,000 people. That could take about a week. Scientists say they hope the lava flows like it did in 1984, when it moved slowly.

Hawaii mayor is Mitch Roth. He said the eruption “will be remarkable”, but he does not think it will cause problems for people visiting Hawaii. He said many people come to Hawaii to see volcanoes, but they have to travel a long way to a national park. Now, they can see an eruption much more easily. “You can just look out your window at night and you’ll be able to see Mauna Loa erupting,” he said.

1. Why did officials give people a warning?

A．The way lava flows is uncertain.	B．Air quality on the island isn’t good.
C．The lava can shoot 60 meters at least.	D．The lava will reach where people live.

2. Why do some people worry about the weak area?

A．It is near populated places.	B．No lava has come up through it.
C．Many people live there.	D．It can stop eruptions.

3. What does Mitch Roth agree with?

A．People had better leave Hawaii soon.

B．The eruption is a possible danger to visitors.

C．It is convenient to watch an eruption in Hawaii.

D．The eruption is a once-in-a-century natural wonder.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．People in Hawaii Are Ready to Escape

B．Volcanoes in Hawaii Always Attract Visitors

C．Damage of Volcano in Hawaii Is Not Clear

D．World’s Largest Active Volcano Erupts in Hawaii