4 . Teachers across America are struggling to decide whether to view artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT as friends or enemies in the classroom. Our study on whether AI affects student creativity shows that the answer isn’t always simple.

In the study, we asked college students to brainstorm — without technology — all the ways a paper clip can be used. A month later, we asked them to do the same, but using ChatGPT. We found that AI can be a useful brainstorming tool, quickly generating ideas that can spark creative exploration. But there are also potential negative effects on students’ creative thinking skills and self-confidence. While students reported that it was helpful to “have another brain”, they also felt that using AI was “the easy way out” and didn’t allow them to think on their own.

The results call for a thoughtful approach to using AI in classrooms and striking a balance that inspires students’ creativity while utilizing AI’s capabilities. The good news is that the students in our study generated more diverse and detailed ideas when using AI. They found that AI was useful for kick-starting brainstorming sessions.

When it comes to brainstorming with AI, some students voiced concerns about over-reliance on the technology, fearing it might hurt their own thoughts and, consequently, confidence in their creative abilities. Some students reported a “fixation of the mind”, meaning that once they saw the AI’s ideas, they had a hard time coming up with their own. Some students also questioned the originality of ideas generated by AI. Our research noted that while using ChatGPT improved students’ creative output individually, the AI’s ideas tended to be repetitive overall.

The study results indicate that allowing students to practice creativity independently first will strengthen their belief in themselves and their abilities. Once they complete this, AI can be useful in furthering their learning, much like teaching long division to students before introducing a calculator. That’s to say, teaching students to be creative thinkers rather than rely on AI for answers is the key to answering the question mentioned above.

1. Why were the students required to use ChatGPT after a month in the study?

A．To clarify a concept.	B．To make a comparison.
C．To explain a definition.	D．To present an argument.

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

A．Learning.	B．Designing.
C．Taking advantage of.	D．Having control of.

3. What does paragraph 4 focus on concerning AI?

A．Its negative aspects.	B．Its limited creativity.
C．Its reliable originality.	D．Its potential development.

4. What does the author intend to tell us in the last paragraph?

A．The future of AI use is uncertain.	B．Traditional teaching still has a place.
C．AI’s capabilities are unquestionable.	D．Human creativity should come first.

5 . Could short interactions with other people’s dogs really be good for us?

Nancy Gee, a professor from Virginia Commonwealth University, says there’s growing evidence that levels of the stress hormone cortisol (激素皮质醇) drop in people after just 5 to 20 minutes spent interacting with dogs — even if it’s not their own pet. “Also, we see increases in oxytocin, which is a feel-good kind of bonding hormone,” she says. And it’s not just humans that benefit from these brief exchanges. “We see the same thing in the dogs, so the dogs’ oxytocin also increases when they interact with a human,” says Gee.

And of course, not everyone is a dog person. “They’re not necessarily going to be great for every single person. But for people who really get it, who really connect with the animals, they really can make a big difference,” Gee says.

Research on the health benefits of human interactions with animals — especially with dogs — has exploded in recent years, thanks to funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Waltham Petcare Science Institute. Though the field is still young, Gee says the quality of the evidence is improving all the time, including more randomized controlled trials looking at short interactions. “We’re seeing really nice effects,” she says.

Professor Megan Mueller, whose research focuses on the psychology of human-animal relationships, says watching dogs sniff the grass or explore the world around them makes us pay more attention, too. “They sort of pull you out of your phone and into whatever environment that you’re in.” She says there’s some evidence that the act of really touching a dog might be an important part of their calming effect. For instance, one study done in Canada found that college students reported their improved learning results and reduced feelings of homesickness after brief interactions with dogs, and that effect was much bigger in those who really got to pet the animals. She’s currently running a study that’s found similar results.

1. What can we say about humans’ interacting with other people’s dogs?

A．It’s a two-way street.	B．It’s a risky behavior.
C．It’s human nature.	D．It’s an act of love.

2. Why have so many researchers studied human-animal interaction?

A．This field is new to them.	B．They are supported financially.
C．There is already much to refer to.	D．The research methods are mature.

3. What has Mueller discovered in her study?

A．Watching dogs helps us communicate better.

B．Walking dogs stops us playing on the phone.

C．Interacting with dogs randomly affects us less.

D．Touching dogs makes us learn more effectively.

4. What's the suitable title for the text?

A．Owning a Dog Is Not for Everybody	B．Petting Dogs Briefly Does Us Good
C．Dogs Interact with Humans on Purpose	D．Dog Ownership Is a Big Responsibility

6 . Staying focused can be a challenge even when you are doing one thing at a time.     1    , concentrating might appear impossible. Here are a few strategies that can really help you.

Unfocus your brain.     2    . It’s a place where your unfocused mind often make better decisions. This involves pairing your daydreaming with some unimportant activities such as walking and gardening. Doing this several times a day can offer your mind a fresh approach to the job at hand.

Block interruptions before diving into important work. Our days are filled with distractions (干扰), from others and ourselves. To help, turn off text messaging and social media notifications. Pretty basic?     3    . When distracting interruptions are shut off, your brain will get a chance to complete full sentences of thought.

    4    . Do you feel more sharp-minded in the morning? Or are you more clear-minded late in the night? Either way, it doesn’t matter as long as you can do the most important tasks when your brain is at its best performance. Avoid spending your best brain hours doing unimportant work. Instead, reserve it for the big tasks.

Try new hobbies. Hobbies not only give you fun, but also can help you come up with creative solutions to problems you’re facing at work or home.     5    .

A．Release your mind occasionally

B．Make friends with your body clock

C．If you purposefully let your mind wander

D．Then with multiple tasks going on in the world

E．Sure, but they are vital when you want a deep dive into focus

F．So occasionally engage in your favorite activities to unload your stressed brain

G．Schedule into your workday some breaks to let your mind wander into a dreamland

7 . If you’re a white-collar worker working at an office, it’s unlikely that anyone can guess exactly what you do from your clothes. That’s not true for lots of the people you interact with. The bus driver who gets you to your destination, and the people on reception as you enter the building — they’re likely to be wearing some kind of corporate uniform. A poll of American workers conducted last summer by Gallup found that although most employees wear casual clothes, almost a quarter wear a uniform.

Some employers require uniforms, since they help ensure a level of professionalism in appearance, project a brand identity with useful job-specific features, and send a clear signal to customers about whom they should approach with questions.

Those customers draw different conclusions if staff are in uniform. A study by Robert Smith of Tilburg University and his colleagues asked people to imagine being on the receiving end of poor service when picking up a pizza. They were then shown pictures of uniformed or non-uniformed employees. Participants were more likely to blame the company than the individual for a bad experience when a uniform was involved. If corporate clothing makes each worker seem more representative of their employers, the authors suggest that it may be a good idea not to give it to inexperienced workers.

Uniforms can also affect the psychology of employees. In 2012, Hajo Adam and Adam Galinsky coined the term “unclothed cognition” to describe the effect that specific clothes have on the way people think and feel. In one study, Emilie Caspar of Ghent University gave participants the option to apply minor electric shocks to other people in return for money; those dressed in Red Cross uniforms showed more empathy than those in normal outfits.

The effects uniforms have on workers will obviously vary. The obvious objection to uniforms is that they lack individuality. But employees who don’t have to wear a formal uniform tend to have their own pattern of dressing, thus forming another informal uniform.

1. What do we know about white-collar office workers?

A．They must follow strict rules about uniforms.

B．Their way of dressing reveals their job duties.

C．Their clothes may not be relevant to their work.

D．They wear uniforms to inspire customers’ interest.

2. What did the participants do in the study in Para. 3?

A．They imagined being served in a shop.

B．They dressed up in employees’ uniform.

C．They were asked to work in a pizza shop.

D．They ordered pizza from uniformed employees.

3. Why are workplace uniforms disliked by some people?

A．They block customers’ en-clothed cognition.

B．They re an expression of being inexperienced.

C．They are inferior to their own pattern of dressing.

D．They lack an express on of wearers’ individuality.

4. Where is the text most probably taken from?

A．An essay on fashion trend.

B．A review of workplace culture

C．A guidebook about making clothes.

D．An introduction about social customs.

9 . Navarre Scott Momaday became the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize after publishing his first novel, House Made of Dawn, in 1968.

Momaday didn’t feel that the recognition was as deserving as others thought. The Kiowa writer had always considered himself a poet above all else. “I don’t think of myself as a novelist,” he told the Los Angeles Times’s Edward Iwata. “I still feel poetry is the highest form of literature.” Many years after House Made of Dawn’s publication, he still saw its success as an accident.

Momaday died at age 89, and he left behind an astonishing literary achievement. His barrier-breaking novel paved the way for a new generation of Native American authors, including James Welch, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich and Joy Harjo. His distinctive style and vivid descriptions make the comparison to poetry appropriate. “That’s exactly what it was,” says Kevin Gover, a citizen of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. “It really reads like poetry. It is quite unique. I’ve seen very little that’s like it before or since.”

Momaday was born on February 27, 1934, in Lawton, Oklahoma. When he was a baby, the family relocated to a reservation in Arizona. They moved once again to Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico, when he was 12. Momaday has said that the main character of his first novel is a combination of the troubled individuals he knew as a child at Jemez Pueblo. After earning a master’s degree and PhD in English from Stanford University, Momaday taught at several institutions. He wrote House Made of Dawn in the mornings before class.

“House Made of Dawn was about what it means to be Native in contemporary circumstances,” says Gover, who remembers following the novel’s publication and rise to literary praise when he was a child. “Momaday was from my part of the country, down in southwest Oklahoma. I remember we were all amazed — not that we could appreciate when we were kids the quality of his work — but just the fact that somebody like us had produced something that was winning such praise.”

1. What did Momaday think of his winning the Pulitzer Prize?

A．It’s rewarding.	B．It’s honorable.
C．It’s unexpected.	D．It’s challenging.

2. Why does the author list Native American authors in paragraph 3?

A．To compare Momaday with them.

B．To emphasize Momaday’s influence on them.

C．To help readers understand Momaday’s book.

D．To tell Momaday’s writing style comes from them.

3. Which most impacted Momaday’s creation of House Made of Dawn?

A．Lawton, Oklahoma.	B．Stanford University.
C．The reservation in Arizona.	D．Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico.

4. What does Gover intend to say in the last paragraph?

A．It’s hard for Native American authors to succeed.

B．Modern society favors the literary creation.

C．House Made of Dawn wasn’t a hit at first.

D．He has loved literature since childhood.

10 . Mrs. Oren, with her family, lived down the block from us. We were four kids living with our parents happily.

Our happiness _______. I was 14 and my youngest sister was 4 when our mother passed away suddenly. _______, Mrs. Oren always stayed by our side. I was already an “independent” teenager, but she _______ my youngest sister every day while our dad was _______ and the rest of us were at school.

My morning _______ on school days included getting up with the alarm clock as Dad already went to work, and _______ the “kids” to get them ready for school. One morning, I felt so _______ while making breakfast. The next thing I _______ was that I was lying on the floor in the _______, with the world spinning around me.

It was heartbreaking that I soon ________ my sisters crying and throwing up. But I could do nothing, feeling so ________. Suddenly, the door opened and Mrs. Oren came in! We were ________ to the hospital in her car. It turned out that she came to our house that morning ________ to look after my youngest sister, only to find the frightening ________. Later, Mrs. Oren told us we all got gas poisoning.

What would have happened to us but for a caring ________ who kept an eye on us every day?

1.

A．returned

B．approached

C．ended

D．spread

2.

A．Eventually

B．Fortunately

C．Temporarily

D．Particularly

3.

A．attended to

B．picked up

C．got back

D．came across

4.

A．in need

B．in the way

C．out of sight

D．at work

5.

A．business

B．movement

C．routine

D．career

6.

A．referring to

B．asking about

C．calming down

D．waking up

7.

A．relaxed

B．worried

C．dizzy

D．dynamic

8.

A．suppose

B．remember

C．forecast

D．reconsider

9.

A．kitchen

B．living room

C．bedroom

D．hall

10.

A．spotted

B．heard

C．imagined

D．left

11.

A．responsible

B．unprepared

C．unnoticed

D．desperate

12.

A．connected

B．rushed

C．forced

D．limited

13.

A．as usual

B．at first

C．by chance

D．in person

14.

A．result

B．truth

C．action

D．scene

15.

A．teacher

B．classmate

C．neighbor

D．relative