1 . The Biggest Stadiums in the World

People have been pouring into stadiums since the days of ancient Greece. In around 80 A.D., the Romans built the Colosseum, which remains the world’s best known stadium and continues to inform contemporary design. Rome’s Colosseum was 157 feet tall and had 80 entrances, seating 50,000 people. However, that was small fry compared with the city’s Circus Maximus, which accommodated around 250,000 people.

These days, safety regulations-not to mention the modern sports fan’s desire for a good view and comfortable seat — tend to keep stadium capacities (容量) slightly lower. Even soccer fans tend to have a seat each; gone are the days of thousands standing to watch the match.

For the biggest stadiums in the world, we have used data supplied by the World Atlas list so far, which ranks them by their stated permanent capacity, as well as updated information from official stadium websites.

All these stadiums are still functional, still open and still hosting the biggest events in world sport.

·Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, Pyongyang D.P.R. Korea. Capacity: 150,000. Opened: May 1,1989.

·Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U. S. Capacity: 107,601. Opened: October 1, 1927.

·Beaver Stadium, State College, Pennsylvania, U. S. Capacity: 106,572. Opened: September 17, 1960.

·Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio, U. S. Capacity: 104,944. Opened: October 7,1922.

·Kyle Field, College Station, Texas, U. S. Capacity: 102,512. Opened: September 24, 1927.

1. How many people could the Circus Maximus hold?

A．104,944.

B．107,601.

C．About 150,000.

D．About 250,000.

2. Of the following stadiums, which is the oldest?

A．Michigan Stadium.

B．Beaver Stadium.

C．Ohio Stadium.

D．Kyle Field.

3. What do the listed stadiums have in common?

A．They host big games.	B．They have become tourist attractions.
C．They were built by Americans.	D．They are favored by architects.

2 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Last summer, Hilda worked as a volunteer with dolphin trainers at a sea life park. Her job was to make sure the tanks were free of any items so that the trainers could train the dolphins to fetch specific items. However, one day after cleaning, one of the dolphins, Maya, presented Hilda with a candy wrapper from the tank. When Katherine, the trainer, saw this, she blamed Hilda for her carelessness. Upset but not discouraged by this event, Hilda decided to do some spying on Maya.

The next morning, Hilda arrived at the park early. She put on her scuba gear (水下呼吸器) and jumped into the tank for her usual, underwater sweep. Finding nothing in the tank, she climbed out of the water just in time to see Katherine jumping in on the other side. After what happened yesterday, Hilda knew what she was doing. She watched as Katherine performed her underwater search, but Hilda wasn’t surprised when she surfaced empty-handed.

During the tank sweeps, Maya had been swimming playfully, but now the dolphin stopped suddenly and swam to the back part of the tank where the filter (过滤) box was located. She stuck her nose down behind the box and then swam away. What was Maya doing back there? Hilda wondered. She jumped back into the water and swam over to take a look behind the box, and her question was answered. Hilda then swam across the tank following Maya’s path and emerged from the water to find Katherine removing her scuba gear. As Katherine turned around, her mouth dropped open. There was Maya at the edge of the tank with a comb (梳子) in her mouth waiting for her treat.

“Maya! Where did you get that?” demanded Katherine, taking the comb and throwing her a fish. “I know where she got it,” declared Hilda climbing out of the tank with a handful of items still wet from their watery, resting place. “What’s all this?” Katherine asked, obviously confused.

注意：
(1)续写词数应为150个左右;
(2)请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

“This is Maya’s secret,” Hilda said with a big smile.

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Now Katherine realized what had been going on.

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3 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

My dad and I had been looking forward to the Stale cross-country race of my senior year of high school, which would be the climax (顶点) of my existence.

I was the fastest runner on my team, and I was supposed to make it into the top fifteen. We had been working towards this race for three years. It was everything to me, and it was everything to my dad. He was a runner and was wild with joy by my success in running. He made it to every race, even flying home early from business trips to see me run. I always listened for his voice, which rang above the crowd-telling me to relax my arms, calling out my time. He pushed me. He cheered for me. He believed in me. We spent countless hours on the sandy canals of Arizona. Breathing in the dust of the desert, the blossoms of the orange trees, and the terrible smell of the dairy farm, we made our way across the city. We pounded miles and miles into our running shoes, marking with every step the path to greatness. It was a journey that was just ours. A dream passed on from one generation to the next.

Then the big day came. It was hotter than normal - too hot. My throat felt like a field of cotton, cracked with the summer heat, as I waited for the gun to fire. I gazed out at the crowd; dozens of familiar faces from church and school flickered across my view. They had come for me. They were counting on me. I saw my dad set his watch, worry and excitement etched across his face. With the sound of a gunshot, the race began.

For the first two and half miles, I felt great. I had never before been so ready for something. The weeks leading up to the race were filled with hard practices and a strict diet. The scorching sun beat upon my back, blinding me with its brilliance. Nothing was going to stop me, though.

注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

However, without warning, my strength was running out.

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I whispered, “I’m so sorry I disappointed you, Dad.”

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5 . A majority of the people do not read the classics. Their reasons begin with the language being too difficult and end with the storyline to distant to the present context. Love for classics is obviously not at first sight.     1     We begin as acquaintances (泛泛之交) and eventually become close friends with private jokes between us. So how does one approach a classic?

Don’t be afraid to be confused.

We get it: it’s hard to power through confusion. It doesn’t feel great when a book makes you feel confused. Every reader has to start somewhere.     2     Instead, be proud of yourself for trying, and get excited about all the new things you’ll learn.

Research, research, research.

    3     Researching the author-and the time and place they were writing about-can help you situate yourself during tricky passages. The author’s experience, viewpoint, and historical context might help you make the connections you might not have otherwise.

Just pick the book up.

This step is self-explanatory. While it’s not hard to just pick a book up, we know how difficult it can be to convince yourself to do so.     4     Take a deep breath, then leap onto the deck (甲板) of Melville’s Pequod or step cautiously through the gates of Castle Dracula.

Remember: there is no right answer.

There is no perfect way to read a classic text. There is no defining interpretation, no singular, exact answer. Your goal as a reader is to discover what aspects and insights are meaningful to you. Enjoy the process.     5     Even if your interpretation of the work isn’t quite perfect, it is still valuable!

A．It is a gradual affair.

B．Allow the book to grow with you.

C．It has some form of historical influence.

D．Before you turn to page one, do some digging.

E．Never beat yourself up for not knowing something.

F．Remind yourself that it’s a new learning opportunity.

G．Consider what confuses you, read with intention, and think critically.

6 . 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?

7 . Ahh... Fish, chips and mushy peas! There is nothing more British than fish and chips. Freshly cooked, boiling hot fish and chips, topped with salt and seasoned with vinegar, packed in newspaper and eaten out-of-doors on a cold and wintry day — it simply cannot be beaten!

    1    

Both Lancashire and London claim to be the first to invent this famous meal. Chips were a cheap, basic food of the industrial north while fried fish was introduced in London’s East End.     2     So was born our national dish of fish and chips!

    3     Mr. Lees sold fish and chips from a wooden shelter in the market. Later he moved the business to a permanent shop across the road. However in London, it is said that Joseph Malin, a Jewish immigrant, opened a fish and chip shop in Cleveland Way within the sound of Bow Bells in the 1860s.

Fish and chip shops were originally small family businesses, often run from the front room of the house and were commonplace by the late 19^th century. Through the latter part of the 19th century and well into the 20th century, the fish and chip trade expanded greatly to satisfy the needs of the growing industrial population of Great Britain. Fish and chips became vital to the diet of the ordinary people.     4    

In 1999, the British consumed nearly 300 million servings of fish and chips. That equates to six servings for every man, woman and child in the country.     5     That’s eight for every one Burger King restaurant, making British Fish and Chips the nation’s favourite take-away.

A．It quickly became a favourite of the workers.

B．People soon decided to put fried fish and chips together.

C．John Lees owned a restaurant and sold the famous pairing.

D．So how, when and where did this British dish come about?

E．There are now around 8,500 fish and chip shops across the UK.

F．Some shops had to employ doormen to control the queue at busy times.

G．The first fish and chip shop in Lancashire is thought to have opened in 1863.