1 . When Kurt Benirschke started collecting skin samples from endangered animals in 1972, he didn’t have a firm plan on what to do with them. As a researcher at the University of California San Diego, he believed that one day these samples would be used to save these animals. A few years later, he moved his collection to the San Diego Zoo, and called it the Frozen Zoo.

For a long time, it was the only project of its kind; however, in recent years, similar conservation efforts have spread globally, and tools that Benirschke didn’t yet have are now available. Today, the Frozen Zoo is the world’s largest animal cryobank(生物冷冻库), holding samples from over 10,500 individual animals from 1,220 species, in the hope that one day science can bring them back as a species.

The Frozen Zoo’s advanced technology is the key to its success in saving species from extinction. By using cryopreservation techniques, the zoo can store cells and tissues from endangered animals. The stored genetic material can be used for research, breeding(繁殖) programs, and potentially even cloning or genetic engineering to restore endangered species.

By protecting the genetic heritage of endangered animals, the Frozen Zoo provides hope for the survival of species that would otherwise be at risk of dying out, and the preservation of Earth’s precious biodiversity. It has inspired the establishment of similar cryobanks worldwide, expanding efforts to conserve endangered species. These cryobanks contribute to the global network of genetic resources, improving cooperation and knowledge exchange. By demonstrating the potential of technology in the preservation of biodiversity, the frozen zoo serves as a powerful tool in raising awareness and driving change.

The Frozen Zoo is like a time capsule, preserving the genetic heritage of endangered species for future generations. It reminds us about the importance of conservation and offers a window into a world that could otherwise be lost forever.

1. What do we know about the Frozen Zoo?

A．It is the world’s oldest and largest animal cryobank.

B．It started with a detailed plan led by Kurt Benirschke.

C．It is a project to explore the evolution of animal species.

D．It was established to protect animals in the San Diego Zoo.

2. How does the Frozen Zoo save species from extinction?

A．By expanding their natural habitats.

B．By raising their survival rate with genetic technology.

C．By preserving their genetic material for further research.

D．By innovating breeding techniques to increase their population.

3. Why does the author mention “time capsule” in the last paragraph?

A．To stress the importance of the Frozen Zoo.

B．To explain the urgency of saving endangered species.

C．To prove the potential value of preserving biodiversity.

D．To show the necessity of cooperative conservation efforts.

4. What words could best describe the Frozen Zoo project?

A．Costly and controversial.	B．Profitable and instructive.
C．Conservative and effective.	D．Pioneering and significant.

2 . When kids get nervous about exams, teachers and parents get nervous about kids’ not living up to expectations, it’s important to stay calm and positive.     1    

Keep a positive attitude

You should be helping your child develop a positive attitude. Your child’s attitude towards exams somewhat depends on you.     2     The other way around, one of the most effective things parents can do is to be positive and offer encouragement and support. Pay much attention and tell him: You can make it! Finally, he will pass the exams.

Behave yourself

How we behave in a moment of success and joy makes a huge difference in building your relationships.     3     The result is that everyone also feels proud and great and your child will want to repeat that behaviour.

    4    

The advice from positive psychology is that if your child achieves something, don’t say: Well done, you are so talented(天赋的). But rather you put the effort in and got the reward.

Never pay your children for exam results

    5     However, offering teenagers cash to do well in their exams is likely to have little effect on their results. If you will only let them do it for money, you are teaching them that studying is a frightening thing to do. You’d better suggest that you’ll organize a family outing as a reward for all their hard work.

A．Believe you have a gift for learning.

B．Praise your children for effort rather than talent.

C．Your active response means they know you’re proud and great.

D．“Payment by results” system is a very common parenting trap.

E．Give your children some money for their wonderful exam results.

F．The following are how to keep everyone calm down and positive through exam time.

G．Punishment and pointing out their faults lead to a terrible mental state.

3 . A mother of nine who started medical school when her youngest child was 4 years old graduated with her degree and plans to be a neurosurgeon (神经外科医生).

Sarah Merrill, now 41, said her journey to medical school began at age 17. She then met her husband and got married. Merrill first thought about going to school part-time to get a degree, but later she decided to follow her dream of attending medical school. Certainly, it was a challenge. Speaking of her successfully returning to university, Merrill thought it was credited to her family largely. “When I was accepted at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, we moved from Pennsylvania to Arizona,” said Merrill, who is moving to Indiana with her family to begin her residency (实习期) in neurosurgery. “In fact, they volunteered these movements. I know it was tough for all of us.”

Merrill and her children often have “homework parties” where they study for their own courses. Merrill’s choice has given a stimulus to her children. Merrill felt touched knowing her 11-year-old daughter wants to become a surgeon and overhearing her son tell his friends his mom’s going to be a cool brain surgeon, though he doesn’t understand that really.

Merrill’s next step into a neurosurgery residency will take her into a male-dominated field where only 5% of board certified neurosurgeons are women. Dr. Michele Halyard at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine said Merrill was known as a focused student. Halyard said, “If you can deal with nine children and keep your reason, the residency should be a piece of cake because no amount of stress will make you fail.”

Merrill had considered choosing a more family-friendly specialty, but, again, chose to dream big and follow her original pursuit. It’s the same advice she would give to all. “Set the goal that is what you’re really enthusiastic about, and it helps to think small. If you know what your priorities are, focus on the next step. Then you’ll get where you want to go.”

1. Why does Merrill speak of their movements?

A．To show the support of her family.

B．To stress her determination to be a doctor.

C．To reflect difficulties in attending college.

D．To describe the process of pursuing her dream.

2. What does the underlined word “stimulus” mean in paragraph 3?

A．Entertainment.	B．Inspiration.
C．Commitment.	D．Confusion.

3. What does Halyard mean in paragraph 4?

A．Merrill will have more stress to handle.

B．Staying focused and sensible is key to success.

C．Being Mom makes Merrill a better doctor.

D．She is confident of Merrill’s being a neurosurgeon.

4. What does Merrill suggest at last?

A．Starting with small things.

B．Getting your priorities right.

C．Being true to your passion.

D．Having the courage to dream big.

4 . When the company OpenAI developed its new artificial intelligence (AI) program, ChatGPT, in late 2022, educators began to worry. ChatGPT could create text that seemed like a human wrote it. How could teachers discover whether students were using language created by an AI chatbot to cheat on a writing task?

As a linguist who studies the effects of technology on how people read, write and think, I believe there are other more pressing concerns besides cheating. These include whether AI, more generally, threatens student writing skills, the value of writing as a process, and the importance of regarding writing as a tool for thinking.

As part of my research on the effects of AI on human writing, I surveyed young adults in the U.S. about some issues related to those effects. One participant said that at some point if you depend on predictive text, you’re going to lose your spelling abilities. Enter “Was Rom” into a Google search and you’re given a list of choices like “Was Rome built in a day”. Type “ple” into a text message and you’re offered “please” and “plenty”. These tools complete our sentences automatically, giving us little chance to think about our spelling, and continuously asking us to follow their suggestions.

Evan Selinger, a philosopher, worried that predictive texting reduces the power of writing as a form of mental activity and personal expression. “By encouraging us not to think too deeply about our words, predictive technology may change how we deal with each other,” Selinger wrote. “We give others more algorithms (算法) and less of ourselves. Automation can stop us thinking and the resulting text didn’t feel like mine anymore.”

I asked ChatGPT whether it was a threat to humans’ motivation to write. The bot responded: “There will always be a demand for creative, original content that requires the unique viewpoint of a human writer.” It continued: “Writing serves many purposes beyond just the creation of content, such as self-expression, communication, and personal growth, which can continue to encourage people to write even if certain types of writing can be automated.”

I was glad to find the program had seemingly admitted its limitations.

1. What is the author’s main concern about ChatGPT?

A．Whether it will lead to students’ cheating.

B．Whether it will shape students’ writing style.

C．How students will make use of it at school.

D．What effects it will have on students’ writing.

2. What will predictive technology do to us according to Evan Selinger?

A．Give us more creative ideas.	B．Make us write like a machine.
C．Encourage us to think more deeply.	D．Make us tend to ignore grammatical mistakes.

3. What can we learn from ChatGPT’s response?

A．Writing will become completely automated.	B．Robots will work with humans in writing.
C．Robot writing will become more creative.	D．Human writing will still matter a lot.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．What impact will AI bring to writing?	B．What is the future of modern literature?
C．How to improve writing with AI’s help?	D．How to apply AI technology to education?

5 . 你班将在下周英语课上就“健康饮食：西式快餐之我见”这一话题进行讨论。请你准备一英语发言稿，内容包括：
1. 西式快餐的好处及其存在的问题；
2. 你的看法及建议。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 题目已为你写好。

My Opinion on Fast Food

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6 . 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。

Should Children Have Smart Phones?

Today, it is common for children to use smart phones every day. Smart phones are very useful for communicating and doing tasks. However, smart phones can also cause unwanted     1     （consequence）,especially when used by young children.

Smart phones are convenient not only for children,     2     for the rest of family members as well. With them. parents always know the real-time location of their children. Smart phones can also promote better interactions with friends, regardless     3     their locations. They're useful when children are doing their homework and need     4     （assist）. Children can get some information that can help them to understand learning materials more quickly and     5     （well）.

But parents should provide correct guidance on how to use smart phones     6     （proper）. Without parental guidance, children can spend more than five hours each day     7     （use）smart phones. Teenagers tend     8     （waste）nearly eight hours a day on their phones. Addiction to smart phones may cause lower academic grades. Frequent use of smart phones may affect the quality and quantity of sleep,     9     can lead to weakened immunity（免疫力）, reduced focus and depression（抑郁症）.

Therefore, without proper guidance, parents shouldn't allow children to use smart phones for a long period of time. Only when children want to communicate with friends and do research for learning projects, can they     10     （give）smart phones.

7 . In 1984, a Japanese runner, Yamada, unexpectedly won the champion of the Tokyo Marathon. When asked how he _________ it, he said, "With wisdom.”

At that time, people thought the runner who ran first was _________ secretive. Marathon is a sport of strength and endurance（耐力）. You won't have the _________ to win the race unless you have good physical quality and patience. It is _________ that saying you can win the race with wisdom.

Two years later. Yamada took part in the Italian International Marathon in Milan, Italy and he _________ again. When asked to tell his _________ to success again. Yamada _________ said, "It's wisdom." This time, people didn't _________ him any more. Instead, people were _________ by what he said.

Ten years later, the puzzlement was solved. Yamada wrote in his book. "Every time, before the game, I would drive along the marathon route, writing down some important signs along the __________ . For example, the first sign was a bank. the second was a big tree, the third was a red house…. After the race __________ . I tried my best to __________ to the first sign. After reaching the first sign. I __________ to dash to the next sign at the same speed until I finished the __________ . At first, I did not know the secret, and I set my __________ at the flag on the finishing line more than 40 kilometers away. __________, I was tired after running less than ten kilometers and I was __________ by the long distance ahead."

In life, the reason we give up __________ is not that it is too difficult, but that we set too __________ a goal for ourselves. If we break our large goal down into small ones, we will have more confidence in __________ it.

1.

A．caught

B．had

C．worked

D．made

2.

A．approximately

B．deliberately

C．especially

D．willingly

3.

A．talent

B．benefit

C．challenge

D．chance

4.

A．ridiculous

B．contradictory

C．dangerous

D．enjoyable

5.

A．failed

B．helped

C．won

D．injured

6.

A．determination

B．secret

C．desire

D．preference

7.

A．even

B．thus

C．still

D．always

8.

A．think highly of

B．make fun of

C．take control of

D．keep track of

9.

A．inspired

B．embarrassed

C．puzzled

D．delighted

10.

A．way

B．street

C．bank

D．mountain

11.

A．finished

B．delayed

C．stopped

D．began

12.

A．yell

B．jump

C．rush

D．bow

13.

A．forgot

B．continued

C．agreed

D．pretended

14.

A．race

B．wonder

C．voyage

D．situation

15.

A．behavior

B．criterion

C．decision

D．goal

16.

A．In addition

B．By comparison

C．As a result

D．For instance

17.

A．amazed

B．blessed

C．marked

D．discouraged

18.

A．halfway

B．altogether

C．midnight

D．nowadays

19.

A．small

B．large

C．easy

D．clear

20.

A．realizing

B．believing

C．changing

D．testing

8 . Do you want to reach your full potential? A big part of that is managing your risks. There are risks in different parts of your life.     1     Here I'd like to share my lessons on how to manage risks.

Always be prepared for the worst-case scenario（情况）.

A common mistake in risk management is ignoring the worst-case scenario. Many people are overconfident about the future, especially during good times.     2     But guess what? It takes just one such event to ruin everything. So be prepared for it.

Always have alternatives.

    3     In Getting to Yes, a book on negotiation, the best alternative is called BATNA: Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. The better your BATNA is, the stronger your bargaining power is. The worst position to be in is to have no alternative at all. In that case, the other party can dictate whatever they want and you have no choice but to say yes.

Make sure the alternatives are uncorrelated（不相关的）.

For the alternatives to really reduce your risks, they need to be uncorrelated.     4     For example, let's say you have two income streams but both of them depend on traffic from Google. When something goes wrong with Google's traffic, both of them will go down because they are correlated. You should instead build your second income stream in a way that doesn't depend on Google.

Take higher-level risks.

When you manage your risks well, you will have a strong foundation to take higher-level risks. Taking higher-level risks is important if you want to reach your full potential. Otherwise, you will just stay in a comfort zone.     5    

A．Higher-level risks appear constantly.

B．Your alternatives should be correlated.

C．As a result, they ignore the worst thing that could happen.

D．To put your risks under control, you should have alternatives.

E．Moving to the next level requires you to move to the unknown.

F．The better you manage them, the better your chance to move forward will be.

G．If they are still correlated, they could all go down when something bad happens.

9 . A Canadian professor. Karl Moore, has written two articles on the role of different personality types in business. In one article, Moore estimates that around 40% of the population is introverts（内向的人）, 40% is extroverts（外向的人）and 20% is ambiverts who can show both characteristics. In another paper, he finds that extroverts are 25% more likely to be in a high-earning job than the introverts who are less outgoing. This study also finds that the children of richer families are more likely to be extroverts.

Although it is easy to assume that the extroverts are most likely to go further in their lives, it is possible that working in a highly-paid job makes people more confident and outgoing. Or it could simply be that children who grow up in richer homes are less likely to face the kind of stressful events that hurt self-confidence. People with higher self-confidence may apply for more demanding jobs and may be more likely to believe that their efforts will be rewarded. Those with less confidence may feel it is not worth trying too hard.

But introverts should not give up hope of climbing the slippery social ladder. His study also finds that once appointed as CEOs, the introverts are more likely than extroverts to surpass the expectations of bosses and investors, because they usually expect less from the introverts.

Any advice for the introverts and extroverts?

Moore suggests that the introverts must try to show enthusiasm, or make an inspiring speech, when the situation calls for it. And extroverts, who have a tendency to speak the loudest and most often, need to shut up and listen to their teams—not just because when the bossy speaks first, others will be unwilling to disagree.

Eventually, Moore puts his hope in the ambiverts. He finds that they can be good salespeople because they are not only able to listen to their clients and understand their needs but also have the energy to sell their firms' goods and services. Moore thinks that successful CEOs have to become ambiverts at times in order to succeed.

1. What has Karl Moore found about the extroverts?

A．They usually come from poorer families.	B．They are less confident than the introverts.
C．They are more likely to earn more money.	D．They account for a quarter of the population.

2. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．The hope for the ambiverts.	B．The problems with the extroverts.
C．The importance of self-confidence.	D．The reasons for the extroverts' success.

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined word "surpass" in paragraph 3?

A．Live up to.

B．Go beyond.

C．Adapt to.

D．Take control of.

4. What is Moore's advice for the introverts?

A．To listen to the others.	B．To be more enthusiastic.
C．To be ready to disagree.	D．To speak first and be bossy.

10 . Record-breaking. Abnormal. Dangerous. That’s how the National Weather Service described the heat wave hitting much of North America.

The heat wave has already broken all-time high temperature records in places unaccustomed to such extreme heat. For example, Oregon’s capital city, Salem, recorded the highest temperature in its history on Sunday: 130F, breaking the old mark by 4 degrees. The temperature hit 104F in Seattle. It was an all-time record for the city better known for rain than heat and was the first time the area reached such a high temperature since records began being kept in 1894.

Weather forecasters said the heat wave was caused by an extended “heat dome”which allowed hot air from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic to stream northward over much of North America.

This current heat wave was yet more evidence of the impact of human-caused climate change. “When it comes to record-breaking heat events, the study has been run for event after event in region after region in year after year. And the answer is almost always the same,” said Kristie Ebi, a professor at the University of Washington “The days-long heat wave is a taste of the future as climate change reshapes global weather patterns.”

“Another aspect that we see connected to climate change but that we don’t hear about as much is the fact that there is also a lot more water in the atmosphere now. As we warm the oceans and warm the air, there is more evaporation（蒸发）and that wetter air makes us feel hotter,” added weather forecaster, Jennifer Francis. “A combination of high temperature and moisture（湿度）in the air means dangerous conditions for the young, elderly or others who are not healthy. Please drink plenty of water; stay out of the sun and in air-conditioned rooms.”

1. What was the previous temperature record in Salem?

A．104F.

B．126F.

C．130F.

D．134F.

2. What is the root cause of the present heat wave in North America?

A．The climate change.	B．The northward air streams.
C．The extended "heat dome".	D．The moisture in the atmosphere.

3. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．The Dangerous Heat Wave Will Last Long

B．A Heat Wave Roasts Much of North America

C．Measures Must Be Taken to Protect the Young and Elderly

D．The "Heat Dome" Is Expected to Cover the Pacific Northwest

4. Where can the text be found?

A．In a first aid guidebook.	B．In a weather forecast.
C．In a news report.	D．In a professor's lecture.