1 . In today’s digital era, social media users are increasingly coming across fake news online. This leads to the pressing issue: What causes people to fall for misinformation on the Internet?
According to researchers at the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, users can easily fall into an echo chamber (回声室)—a sort of virtual space where users consume only one-sided news, eventually distrusting any opposing views. “We all tend to agree with the group opinion. Hence, people naturally get together with others who hold the same opinion,” said Dongwon Lee, one of the researchers. “But if you’re not cautious, there is a high risk of falling into an echo chamber.”
To prevent this phenomenon, the researchers have crafted a novel tool, a game named ChamberBreaker, to help players resist echo chambers and reduce the rate of fake news spread. The fundamental approach employed by ChamberBreaker centers around a decision-making procedure that mirrors the creation of echo chambers. In ChamberBreaker, a player is tasked with trying to have community members fall into an echo chamber. To begin, the player is randomly assigned a situation that focuses on a health, political or environmental issue, and is presented with six pieces of news on that topic. Then, the player selects news that could cause the other members to fall into an echo chamber while at the same time maintaining their trust. If successful, the community members will fall into an echo chamber and the player will witness the resulting negative effects on the community.
After developing ChamberBreaker, researchers tested it with over 800 subjects to see if it raised awareness of echo chambers and changed news consumption behaviors. The researchers found that those who played ChamberBreaker were significantly more likely to state their intention to observe online information from more diverse perspectives and showed an increased awareness of the echo chamber phenomenon.
Ultimately, the researchers hope that their methodology can excite a greater interest in the scientific and scholarly study related to information consumption. The application of tools like ChamberBreaker, which focuses on fostering analytical reasoning, may lead us towards a more informed online community.
1. What can be learned about an online echo chamber?| A．It encourages well-judged views. |
| B．It gathers like-minded individuals. |
| C．It functions as a virtual reality platform. |
| D．It serves as a tool for identifying fake information. |
| A．Assignment of situations. | B．Trust-building exercises. |
| C．News selection strategy. | D．Community impact assessment. |
| A．The results of scientific testing. |
| B．The theoretical framework of the game. |
| C．The description of the game procedures. |
| D．The common challenges faced during gameplay. |
| A．Reducing news inquiry. | B．Encouraging passive reading. |
| C．Strengthening prejudiced views. | D．Enhancing critical thinking. |
At the end of my junior year, election for student body officers caused quite an excitement among students. It appeared that Debbie would run unopposed for president. Talking among a group of dissatisfied girls, I whispered, “There must be someone who’d run against her.”
Suddenly Liz focused her attention on me. “Why not you?”
“Me? No way. I work after school. I can’t stay for all those meetings. ”
My closest friend, Linda, smiled, “Why not? Just think how great our senior year would be! You could get a real senior trip approved and get better bands for the dances. ”
My little group continued to ignore my protests as they imagined the wonderful changes I could make. By the end of the week, they’d gotten enough signatures to put my name on the ballot (选票).
Debbie and I had very different campaign styles. Because I was always skipping around, I earned the name “Rabbit”. Signs soon appeared around campus with the slogan (口号) “Make your votes count with Rabbit!” My platform aimed for more fun and less restrictions. We wore uniforms and I advocated more free dress days and a broader interpretation of what was acceptable on regular dress days.
My opponent, on the other hand, avoided any implication of silliness on her posters. Catchy slogans had no place in her serious campaign. What she offered was the opening Lawn to all students and a reformatting of the yearbook that would mix ninth through twelfth graders rather than highlight seniors in oversized photos. Gone would be the yearbook with seniors’ quotes and many exciting activities. Lowerclassmen (低年级生) loved Debbie’s idea; would-be seniors, however, were angry.
My classmates supported me and were confident they could persuade enough lowerclassmen to vote my way. Each day I got reports of a few more of lowerclassmen coming to my side.
On election day, I felt fairly confident. I was even looking forward to quitting my job and focusing on school politics.
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；2. 续写部分分为两段, 每段的开头语已为你写好。
However, by the end of the day, the votes were counted and Debbie was declared the winner.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________That’s when I noticed my teacher Mr. Laskey, who turned to me and smiled. “Congratulations!”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Chen Sifang, a 23-year-old student from Beijing Normal University, gives movie
The class is part of a nonprofit project
Chen recalls that it took the volunteer lecturers six hours
After consulting with her fellow volunteers, Chen selected 30 movies
Besides the children, their parents were also drawn to the big screen. A film could
4 . John, 69, wanted to retire from running his small-town grocery store. However, he didn’t want to
John’s parents opened the store in 1940, and John
Then last summer, Elizabeth, who grew up in a nearby town,
In a matter of months, the community
John, for his part, is
| A．give | B．cause | C．lead | D．leave |
| A．handed | B．took | C．turned | D．looked |
| A．changing | B．standing | C．closing | D．developing |
| A．considered | B．opposed | C．missed | D．avoided |
| A．list | B．spot | C．line | D．market |
| A．calls | B．charges | C．offers | D．complaints |
| A．Gradually | B．Eventually | C．Annually | D．Constantly |
| A．addiction | B．attention | C．adaptation | D．access |
| A．defended | B．blessed | C．approached | D．equipped |
| A．dividing | B．downgrading | C．transforming | D．restoring |
| A．sat up | B．stepped up | C．sped up | D．spoke up |
| A．disrespect | B．commitment | C．ties | D．contributions |
| A．invested | B．borrowed | C．saved | D．collected |
| A．purchase | B．promote | C．sell | D．rent |
| A．excited | B．frightened | C．annoyed | D．astonished |
5 . What comes to mind when you think about chocolate? A candy bar at Halloween? Ice cream on a hot day?
For Ibrahim, a 12-year-old boy from the West African country of Ghana, chocolate is not about sweet treats; it is about bitter work.
To change the harmful practices like this, some farms use an approach called Fairtrade.
Consumers like you can play a role as well. You can buy Fairtrade chocolate if possible, pressure candy companies to change their labour practices, or ask local stores to sell Fairtrade products.
Chocolate has a hidden story that affects children like Ibrahim—children who want a happy future just like you do.
| A．You have the power to change the story. |
| B．The labels on chocolate do not tell his story. |
| C．Fairtrade is a way of doing business that prohibits child labour. |
| D．You can also take action through the Fairtrade Schools network. |
| E．On many farms, children like Ibrahim perform difficult farming tasks. |
| F．Cocoa trees grow in the tropical climates of Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. |
| G．With more income, farmers can pay adult workers and can send their children to school. |
6 . AI could make it less necessary to learn foreign languages. That is good news for travelers, bad news for soulful connection.
Travel has long been a motivator for study — unless people start to feel AI tools offer a good-enough service. Some are concerned that apps are turning language acquisition into a dwindling pursuit. Douglas Hofstadter, a writer, has argued that something important will disappear when people talk through machines. He describes giving a hesitant, difficult speech in Mandarin, which required a lot of work but offered a sense of achievement at the end. Who would show off taking a plane to the top of Mount Everest?
Others are less worried. Most people do not move abroad or have the kind of sustained contact with a foreign culture that requires them to put in the work to become fluent. Nor do most people learn languages for the purpose of humanizing themselves or training their brains. On their holiday, they just want a beer and pizza.
As AI translation becomes a more popular labour-saving tool, people will divide into two groups. There will be those who want to challenge their minds, put themselves in other cultures or force their thinking into new pathways. This lot will still take on language study, often aided by technology. Others will look at learning a new language with a mix of admiration and confusion, as they might with extreme endurance (忍耐力) sports: “Good for you, if that’s your thing, but a bit painful for my taste.”
But a focus on the learner alone misses the fundamentally social nature of language. It is a bit like analyzing the benefits of close relationships to heart health but overlooking the inner value of those bonds themselves. When you try to ask directions in broken Japanese or make a joke in hesitant German, you are making direct contact with someone. And when you speak a language well enough to tell a story with perfect timing or put subtle (微妙的) shading on an argument, that connection is still deeper.
1. What does the word “dwindling” mean in paragraph 2?| A．Growing. | B．Lasting. | C．Declining. | D．Challenging. |
| A．Using AI tools to do the translation. |
| B．Doing the work that gives you satisfaction. |
| C．Making effort to learn a new language. |
| D．Studying a language aided by technology. |
| A．People should stretch their minds in life. |
| B．AI translation tools offer a good service. |
| C．Extreme endurance sports are worth trying. |
| D．Language learning builds deep connection. |
| A．Language learning benefits learners alone. |
| B．Language learning is of value to human health. |
| C．We should reflect on language learning methods. |
| D．We should adopt a new angle on language learning. |
7 . Anxiety has followed me around like a lost dog looking for a bone for years now. I feel it the most strongly when I’m worried about my health or my daughter’s health. I feel an unusual sensation and all of a sudden: panic! My worries are not limited to health concerns though, and they go in the direction of anxiety about the future of the world, worries about my finances, and fears that I’m not good enough.
Let me go back a few decades, back to when anxiety wasn’t part of my life. When I was a child, I loved art. I drew and I colored because that’s what I enjoyed. I went to college to become an art teacher. When I finished school in May of 2001, I had a part-time design job, and after the event of September 11th, 2001, I knew I needed to travel, to get out of the safe life I was living in my hometown. That’s when my creative practices fell by the wayside.
Luckily, after the birth of my daughter in 2014, the desire to create came back. At first, I was using a tiny corner of a bedroom in our rental house to paint. Eventually we bought a house, and I had the space to spread out, ready to paint whenever the urge struck. That’s when I started noticing something important: Painting stilled me in a way that nothing else did. It eased my fears and anxieties in a way other practice (deep breathing, etc) did not, at least not as consistently. When anxious thoughts start, I know what to do. I head into my studio, grab some materials, and start creating. Soon enough, the worries are gone and instead my mind is quiet.
I think the reason why painting is so helpful for my anxiety is that, in order for me to be anxious, I have to be worrying about the future and what it holds. When I’m doing an activity that requires my full concentration, I have to be in the moment. It doesn’t matter if you’re artistic. The only thing that matters is finding a way to be here, in the now, instead of in the unknowable future.
1. Which word can best describe the writer in paragraph 1?| A．Cautious. | B．Insecure. | C．Considerate. | D．Impatient. |
| A．After her daughter was born. | B．When she studied in college. |
| C．When she was still a little child. | D．After some big event happened. |
| A．Painting makes her stay in a place. | B．Colors of painting calm her down. |
| C．Painting is a very creative activity. | D．Painting makes less room for worries. |
| A．What is important is to seize the moment. | B．Anxiety may sometimes be beneficial to life. |
| C．It is necessary to learn some art in childhood. | D．Painting is the best way to ease people’s mind. |
8 . Between 1901 and 2023, the Nobel Prizes and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 621 times to 1,000 people and organizations. With some receiving the Nobel Prize more than once, this makes a total of 965 individuals and 27 organizations. Below, you can view the full list of 2023 Nobel Prizes and Nobel Prize winners.
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2023
Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses (脉冲) of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023
Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman “for their discoveries concerning DNA that enabled the development of effective vaccines (疫苗) against COVID-19”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023
Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov “for the discovery and combination of quantum dots (量子点)”
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2023
Jon Fosse “for his innovative works which give voice to the unsayable”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2023
Narges Mohammadi “for her fight against the unfair and cruel treatment of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”
The Noble Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences 2023
Claudia Goldin “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes”
For further information, you can click here.
1. Whose achievement directly contributes to people’s heath?| A．Pierre Agostini. | B．Katalin Karikó. | C．Alexei I. Ekimov. | D．Jon Fosse. |
| A．They make breakthroughs in scientific field. |
| B．They show concern for women’s condition. |
| C．They conduct their research in Asian countries. |
| D．They fight for the freedom of working women. |
| A．A science website. | B．A literary magazine. |
| C．A research paper. | D．A science textbook. |
9 . As the sun shines, people will flock to parks to breathe the fresh air. But air pollution is worsening in many places around the world.
Unfortunately, in the western tradition, neither materialist nor idealist theoreticians give enough consideration to this basic condition for life. As for politicians, despite proposing restrictions on environmental pollution, they have not yet called for it to be made a crime. Wealthy countries are even allowed to pollute if they pay for it.
But is our life worth anything other than money? And why do we find it more difficult to get the clean air? Do the woods, which are often described as “the lungs of the planet”, no longer, offer us the gift of breathable air by releasing oxygen? No! In fact, they do give off the oxygen, but their capacity to renew the air polluted by industry has long reached its limit. If we lack the air necessary for a healthy life, it is because we have filled it with chemicals and weakened the ability of plants to regenerate it. As we know, rapid deforestation combined with the massive burning of fossil fuels is an explosive recipe for a permanent disaster.
The plant world urges us in silence that it’s time for us to care for our breath and put emphasis on the interdependence which exists between our humans and the plant world. We will have access to clean air only when humans learn to share life, both with each other and with plants. This task is both ethical and political because it can be fulfilled only when each takes it upon himself and only when it is accomplished together with others. The lesson taught by plants is that sharing life expands and enhances the sphere (范围) of the living, while dividing life into so-called natural or human resources diminishes it. We must come to see the air, the plants and ourselves as the contributors to the preservation of life and growth, rather than productive potentialities at our disposal. Perhaps then we would finally begin to live, rather than being concerned with bare survival.
1. The western politicians are accused by the author because they ______.| A．give priority to wealthy countries |
| B．don’t protect ordinary people’s right |
| C．fail to pass laws to limit environmental pollution |
| D．attach importance to theory rather than practical action |
| A．Our relationship with the plant world. |
| B．Large-scale deforestation across the world. |
| C．The capacity of plants to renew polluted air. |
| D．The reasons hidden behind the serious air pollution. |
| A．By showing respect for plants. | B．By using all natural resources. |
| C．By preserving all forms of life. | D．By pooling their efforts together. |
| A．Expanding the sphere of living. | B．Sharing life with nature. |
| C．Developing nature’s potentials. | D．Controlling the resources. |
10 . Amazon sometimes makes us check a box to save money. Those orange “coupon” (优惠券) banners below the price on Amazon’s online store are confusing. Why does Amazon make through the extra step of clicking a box to “save $2 when you apply this coupon?” Why doesn’t the coupon just apply automatically?
The answer lies in the subtle but highly effective way Amazon and other stores use shopping psychology to influence our buying decisions. By making us click a box, Amazon hopes to avoid the “cart abandonment” problem—when shoppers add something to their virtual shopping cart but don’t end up buying it.
That’s a big challenge for online retailers. They miss out on billions of dollars of potential sales annually because of shoppers thinking twice about buying a product. Around 70% of online shopping carts containing at least one item are eventually abandoned, according to the Baymard Institute, an e-commerce consultancy based in Copenhagen.
The top reason customers walk away: They say they were just browsing and weren’t ready to make a purchase. So companies look for persuasion tactics (策略) to get shoppers to follow through and click the “buy” button. Amazon’s tactic to display a coupon option, instead of just automatically showing a discounted price, gives shoppers an extra incentive (动机) to make the purchase right away, say marketing experts.
Customers also want to be rewarded for the effort they put in to shop. It may not feel like much to click a box—but it does make a difference. Amazon’s coupon box puts customers in a more active and engaged role in landing a reward, making it more visceral (发自内心的) for them, said Tamara Masters, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, who studies shopping psychology.
“By consciously seeing and clicking on the coupon box, instead of just having the coupon applied automatically the reward can be felt more acutely,” Masters said. That’s a benefit to Amazon in the long run. “When a consumer feels rewarded after making an effort to purchase something, they are more willing to buy and more willing to pay,” she added.
The coupon box is just one of the ways Amazon targets shoppers looking for bargains. Amazon also has a standalone page on its website for coupons on select brands. If shoppers go to the page, they can clip the coupons virtually and don’t have to take the extra step of checking a box.
This approach is designed to reach the shoppers who will shop exclusively based on which brands are offering coupons, which are different than products on sale, price promotions or discounts.
1. Why does Amazon apply the coupon box to help customers save money?| A．To avoid the abandonment of coupons. |
| B．To ensure customers make wise choices. |
| C．To increase customers’ chance of buying. |
| D．To recommend good products to customers. |
| A．Their effort to get a reward. | B．Their expectations of price. |
| C．Their curiosity about the reward. | D．Their desire to make a difference. |
| A．It is a losing bat in the long term. | B．It can provide much convenience |
| C．It might cause consumers complaints. | D．It’s a reliable way to encourage purchase. |
| A．It will save shoppers’ time to check a box. |
| B．It persuades select brands to offer coupons. |
| C．It tries various means to target different shoppers. |
| D．It plans to reduce unfair competition among brands. |
