1 . Antibiotics, which can destroy or prevent the growth of bacteria and cure infections, are vital to modern medicine. Their ability to kill bacteria without harming the patient has saved billions of lives and made surgical procedures much safer. But after decades of overuse, their powers are fading. Some bacteria have evolved resistance, creating a growing army of superbugs, against which there is little effective treatment. Antimicrobial (抗菌的) resistance, expected to kill 10 million people a year by 2050 up from around 1 million in 2019, has been seen as a crisis by many.

It would be unwise to rely on new antibiotics to solve the problem. The rate at which resistance emerges is increasing. Some new drugs last only two years before bacteria develop resistance. When new antibiotics do arrive, doctors often store them, using them only reluctantly and for short periods when faced with the most persistent infections. That limits sales, making new antibiotics an unappealing idea for most drug firms.

Governments have been trying to fix the problem by channeling cash into research in drug firms. That has produced only limited improvements. But there is a phenomenon worth a look. Microbiologists have known for decades that disease-causing bacteria can suffer from illnesses of their own. They are supersensitive to attacks by phages, specialized viruses that infect bacteria and often kill them. Phages are considered a promising alternative to antibiotics.

Using one disease-causing virus to fight bacteria has several advantages. Like antibiotics, phages only tend to choose particular targets, leaving human cells alone as they infect and destroy bacterial ones. Unlike antibiotics, phages can evolve just as readily as bacteria can, meaning that even if bacteria do develop resistance, phages may be able to evolve around them in turn.

That, at least, is the theory. The trouble with phages is that comparatively little is known about them. After the discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic, in 1928, they were largely ignored in the West. Given the severity of the antibiotic-resistance problem, it would be a good idea to find out more about them.

The first step is to run more clinical trials. Interest from Western firms is growing. But it is being held back by the fact that phages are an even less appealing investment than antibiotics. Since they are natural living things, there may be trouble patenting them, making it hard to recover any investment.

Governments can help fun d basic research into phage treatment and clarify the law around exactly what is and is not patentable. In time they can set up phage banks so as to make production cheaper. And they can spread awareness of the risks of overusing antibiotics, and the potential benefits of phages.

1. We can learn from paragraphs 1 and 2 that        .

A．doctors tend to use new antibiotics when the patients ask for them

B．antimicrobial resistance is developing more rapidly than predicted

C．new antibiotics fail to attract drug firms due to limited use of them

D．previous antibiotics are effective in solving modern health problems

2. What is phages’ advantage over antibiotics?

A．They can increase human cells when fighting bacteria.

B．They are not particular about which cells to infect and kill.

C．They can evolve accordingly when bacteria develop resistance.

D．They are too sensitive to be infected by disease-causing bacteria.

3. According to the passage, the obstacle to phage treatment is that        .

A．there is little chance of patenting phages in the future

B．governments provide financial support for other research

C．the emergence of superbugs holds back drug firms’ interest

D．over-dependence on antibiotics distracts attention from phages

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Governments fail to stop the use of antibiotics.

B．Phages could help prevent an antibiotics crisis.

C．Development of antibiotics is limited by phages.

D．Antimicrobial resistance calls for new antibiotics.

2 . Ads, news, movies, TV shows, and many other types of media all want you to accept their messages at face value. However, you should look beneath the surface and ask questions to decode what the media message is really saying. You need to ask yourself two basic questions: Who is the source of the message? How is it trying to get your attention?

Question 1: Who is the source of the message?

(Picture A) Knowing who is responsible for a message can reveal its true intention, as well as any possible prejudice. Just take the picture above as an example. Why are we asked to ban the impacts? Don’t forget that the source at the bottom plays a part. If, sometimes, the source isn’t clear, we can look for it by checking legal documents.

Question 2: How is it trying to get your attention?

(Picture B) The obvious part of a message is called the text, which includes any language, imagery, music, or anything else you can see or hear. The implied part of a message is called the subtext, and it’s suggested by the content rather than directly seen or heard. We as individuals then decide how to interpret this subtext based on our personal ideas, world views, and expectations. People with different perspectives might interpret the same piece of message differently. Mind that some media may just take advantage of the prejudice.

(Picture C) Photo control is nearly as old as photography itself, but modern technology has made it common and easy to do. Using photo editing software, almost anyone can make big changes to an image, from adjusting colors and lighting to adding and removing content. That’s why you should always keep a critical eye on images in the media. Some media may hold back or overstate information, like an advertisement that makes the products appear more effective than they really are.

(Picture D) Social media users can also give themselves a digital transformation with a little effort. They can make themselves look however they like in just a few moments. But since these edited images are presented as reality, they can affect our mental well-being. By constantly seeing pictures of artificially superb people, some of us may start to believe that these pictures are genuine, and that we can never live up to these unrealistic ideals. This type of harmful thinking can lead to all sorts of mental and emotional health concerns.

1. We can learn from the passage that         .

A．the media hope that you can make sense of their true meanings

B．finding the sources of media helps to form a sensible judgment

C．text is more important than subtext when we analyze the messages

D．photography and photo editing software date back to the same time

2. Your aunt finds her newly-bought belt doesn’t make her so stylish as advertised. Which picture can illustrate the case?

A．Picture A

B．Picture B

C．Picture C

D．Picture D

3. This passage can be found under the section of ________.

A．Mass Media Reading	B．Content-Targeted Advertising
C．Deconstructing Web-pages	D．Persuasive Language Recognition

3 . Every summer, as a child, I spent with my parents the annual family holiday, flying away from our home in the West Midlands to their birthplace in Ireland.

I enjoyed it, but once, I behaved differently and left home. Package tours and long-distance flights became my idea of a holiday. I then went and ran into an Englishman who also came of Irish stock, and we both felt the urge to renew our knowledge of Ireland.

It was important for us to discover something different from our childhood visits. So that’s how we came to drive along the winding St John’s Point Peninsula (半岛) in Donegal, part of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, to visit a unique part of the 20th-century history — the Donegal Corridor.

When anyone drives to the point where the land runs out, he sees giant white stones fixed firmly in green grass spelling out “EIRE” and “70”, while the Atlantic wind fiercely blows across the headland and the ice-white waves smash into the rocks below. The meaning behind the stones? They date back to the Second World War when St John’s Point was number 70 in a total of 83 Look Out Points (LOPs), observation stations set up and maintained by Ireland all around its coast.

There lies a bit of curious UK-Ireland history. Although Ireland was officially neutral during the war, the Battle of the Atlantic was being fought close to Irish shores, and these LOPs, staffed by local volunteers known as Coast watchers, passed on information on activities connected with the sea and weather fronts to London.

At St John’s Point, we were standing right under the Donegal Corridor, a long narrow area of airspace in which Ireland ensured safe passage during World War II to planes in the RAF (Royal Air Force) from bases in the UK-governed North of Ireland. The stone markings acted as reference points to aircrews.

Standing on this rough area of land surrounded by the wild and windy ocean brought home to us the conditions in which the Coast watchers and aircrews in the RAF cooperated in a shared history.

I revolted against my family tradition that summer, and I fulfilled my aim of discovering something new and absorbed all Donegal has to offer: empty golden beaches, mysterious ancient stone circles, folk music and crafts, and tasty food. I had fallen in love with Ireland all over again.

1. What can we learn about the author from paragraphs 1 to 3?

A．She met a childhood friend from Ireland that year.

B．She and that Englishman both had Irish ancestors.

C．She took package tours and long-distance flights every year.

D．She explored the Wild Atlantic Way with her family members.

2. The giant white stones were important during WWII because         .

A．the Battle of the Atlantic took place right close to them

B．weather information from the UK was sent through them

C．they functioned as reference points to aircrews in the RAF

D．they ranked at the top in the 83 LOPs around the Irish coast

3. The expression “revolted against” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to         .

A．worried about

B．passed on

C．celebrated

D．disobeyed

4. Which might be the best title of the passage?

A．A Global Journey	B．Discovering Undiscovered Donegal
C．Happy Holidays	D．Escaping from the West Midlands

4 . Paris has long been at the heart of the history of flight. It is where the Montgolfier brothers went up in the first hot-air balloon in 1783, and where Charles Lindbergh completed the first one-person transatlantic areophane journey in 1927. Next year, if all goes to plan, Paris will witness the birth of another industry________, when Volocopter, a German maker of electric aircraft, launches a flying-taxi service during the Olympic Games. At the Paris Airshow in June, Volocopter and some of its competitors displayed a new generation of________flying machines designed for urban transport.

The electrification of aviation (航空) has often been dismissed as a pipe dream, with batteries assumed too heavy a______for traditional fuel in an airborne vehicle. For longer journeys, that may well be true. Yet upstarts like Volocopter are betting that electrification can________a boom in demand for clean and quick air journeys over shorter distances.

The main form of a flying taxi under________, called an electric vertical (垂直的) take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, is expected to carry up to four passengers plus a pilot. Powered by batteries, it is predicted to be both quiet enough to reduce complaints in crowded cities, and fast: capable of up to 300kph, enough to comfortably________a car, especially the one stuck in traffic. And optimists believe the absence of traffic in the sky will also make eVTOLs well-suited to ________ operation. They could prove handy for transporting goods, too. That vision has inspired________predictions. For example, Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, estimates global spending on eVTOLs could hit $1,000 billion by 2040!

Regardless of the above________expectations, challenges remain. One problem is technical certification, which is turning out to be a(n)________process as aviation regulators work on an entirely new form of aircraft. Late last year, due to regulatory delays and some other factors, Joby, a Silicon Valley startup, was forced to________its launch by one more year until 2025. Many have even longer to go. The bigger question is — is the business of flying taxis_______practicable? EVTOLs currently range in price from $1 million to $ 4 million. Some believe that their cost may come down as the industry develops. Brian Yutko of Wisk, a maker backed by Boeing, says that flying-taxi rides will be accessible to________in the near future. And Joby promises that its fares will be comparable to catching a common taxi. ________, there is an opposite belief that eVTOLs are likely to remain expensive. Some studies suggest the cost could end up as high as $7 per kilometer, many times a regular taxi fare. That means, even without a pilot, flying taxis may remain a convenience________only to a lucky few.

Let’s expect plenty more experiments with electric aircraft in the years ahead.

1.

A．cooperator

B．competitor

C．observer

D．pioneer

2.

A．wind-driven

B．battery-driven

C．gas-driven

D．solar-driven

3.

A．substitute

B．shelter

C．treatment

D．desire

4.

A．regulate

B．maintain

C．unlock

D．reverse

5.

A．pressure

B．attack

C．development

D．repair

6.

A．underestimate

B．update

C．outpace

D．overdo

7.

A．rigid

B．autonomous

C．attentive

D．illegal

8.

A．daring

B．discouraging

C．unclear

D．ordinary

9.

A．technological

B．unrealistic

C．rewarding

D．enthusiastic

10.

A．efficient

B．simple

C．lengthy

D．intelligent

11.

A．put off

B．speed up

C．object to

D．approve of

12.

A．historically

B．technically

C．theoretically

D．economically

13.

A．the learned

B．the disabled

C．the seniors

D．the masses

14.

A．Furthermore

B．However

C．Fortunately

D．Consequently

15.

A．affordable

B．valuable

C．unbelievable

D．unsuitable

5 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A．attractive       B．bothered       C．building       D．contrasts E．crossed       F．demonstrates       G．dramatically       H．greyed I．instrumental       J．sustaining       K．vividly

A Review on Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s film about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man known as “the father of the atomic(原子的) bomb”. As a drama about genius, pride and error, it    1    the life of the American theoretical physicist who helped research and develop the two atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two cities in Japan, during World War II.

Oppenheimer is a great achievement, partly because it    2    relates that period of history thanks to Nolan’s lifelike filmmaking. Nolan goes deep and long on the    3    of the bomb, but he doesn’t restage the attacks and there are no documentary images of the dead or cities in ashes.

The story tracks Oppenheimer across decades, starting in the 1920s with him as a young adult and continuing until his hair    4    . The film touches on his personal and professional milestones, the controversies that    5    him, and the attacks that nearly ruined him. Besides, the friendships and romances    6    him, yet also troubling, are also described.

The path of Oppenheimer’s life    7     shifted at Berkeley. He was once only an academic there, but his identity changed after Germany entered Poland by force. By that time, Oppenheimer had become friends with Ernest Lawrence, a physicist who invented the historic particle accelerator (粒子加速器) and played a(n)     8    role in the Manhattan Project. And Oppenheimer also met the project’s military head and was then made director of Los Alamos, where much of his later research on nuclear weapons took place.

François Truffaut once wrote that “war films, even those who support peace, even the best, willingly or not, present wars in a certain    9    way.” That is why Nolan refuses to show the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing millions of souls. In the film, you hear that Oppenheimer’s famous words    10    his own mind as the mushroom cloud rose: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Nolan is actually reminding audience to reconsider the roles they can play in the world.

6 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Buy Now, Pay Later Spending

Buy now, pay later(BNPL) spending is expected to rise to record levels this holiday season. With so many young “buy now, pay later” shoppers already in debt from this short-term financing tool not requiring interest, questions emerge: Why do these shoppers use such a tool? And what risks does it pose to their budgets in the months     1     (come)?

The many Generation Z and millennials (typically around 40 years and younger) tend to use this short-term financing,     2     allows them to buy items and pay for them over time. Offered mostly by financial technologies, BNPL allows these customers to pay back their purchases     3     interest and with the first payment usually made at checkout. The most common “buy now, pay later” plan is     4     customers make four equal payments and pay off the debt in six weeks. It’s been a lifeline for some people, such as a university student     5     weekly income is not big enough. “BNPL provides consumers with flexible payment options so they     6     manage spending,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights. That is of great importance for many consumers, especially     7     with a tendency to purchase higher-cost items.

However, since BNPL     8     (appear), warnings from experts have come into our view. They have been indicating that it’s financially unhealthy to form such a spending habit. According to New York Federal Reserve economists, BNPL may encourage debt to increase over time,     9     (influence) a consumer’s ability to meet non-BNPL commitments, or users to over extend themselves. Users should also note that     10     interest is not charged on the loan, they’ll be hit with late fees for missed payments, which can add up quickly, says the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

8 . 如今许多工厂缺乏有专业技能的工人，这就是为什么他们的工资高于许多大学毕业生。(lack v.)(汉译英)

9 . 花盆落到楼下的地面上摔得粉碎，差一点砸中一些正在玩耍的孩子。(narrowly)(汉译英)

10 . 意识到理财的重要性，她不再花钱如流水，然后开始平衡收支了。(realize 分词)(汉译英)