1. Why did the speaker go on the tour?
| A．It was the prize of a competition. |
| B．John asked her to go with him. |
| C．It was her travel plan. |
| A．The drinks. | B．The food. | C．The waiters. |
| A．Disappointing. | B．Amazing. | C．Terrible. |
| A．She rode an elephant. |
| B．She went to the mountains. |
| C．She relaxed in the hotel. |
1. When did the man’s boss call Jeff?
| A．In the morning. | B．In the afternoon. | C．In the evening. |
| A．Over the phone. | B．By e-mail. | C．In person. |
| A．He was sick. |
| B．He was off the day. |
| C．He was working somewhere else. |
| A．Excited. | B．Angry. | C．Surprised. |
1. What are the speakers doing?
| A．Discussing their schedule. |
| B．Packing for a journey. |
| C．Deciding on a present. |
| A．Swimming. | B．Playing basketball. | C．Reading books on modern art. |
| A．Find a basketball. | B．Leave home. | C．Call a taxi. |
4 . Watching movies is great for improving your English. And if you choose films that you enjoy watching, you’ll learn English without even realising it! Here are four movies that are perfect for English learners.
Charlotte’s Web (2006)Story: The power of friendship between a pig(Wilbur)and a spider(Charlotte).
The live-action film, a fine adaptation of E. B. White’s book, will entertain the young audience with cute talking animals and easy-to-follow language. Adults will also be charmed by heartwarming good time and learn to look at the world with curiosity and joy.
Toy Story(1995)Story: A cartoon film about toys that come to life when children and adults aren’t around.
The storylines are clear and the characters use simple but useful language. Though it’s mainly for kids, Toy Story doesn’t feel childish. The story and jokes also attracted adults, so parents would be more likely to take their children to see the film.
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (1971)Story: Things go wrong when a group of kids get a free tour of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.
This film is also great for English learners as it is generally easy to follow. And you’ll hear some extracts(选段) from English literature because Willy often quotes well-known writers such as Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare.
The Sound of Music(1965)Story: A young woman (Maria) becomes the nanny for seven children in a house in the Austrian Alps.
The Sound of Music is a musical and listening to music is one of the best ways to improve your English. Many of the film’s songs have become classics because they’re so catchy.
1. Which movie attracts cartoon lovers most?| A．Charlotte’s Web(2006). | B．Toy Story(1995). |
| C．Charlie & the Chocolate Factory(1971). | D．The Sound of Music(1965). |
| A．They are preferred by housewives. | B．They are musicals. |
| C．They are based on classic works. | D．They have children characters. |
| A．A music blog. | B．A language magazine. |
| C．A movie poster. | D．A toy advertisement. |
5 . Scientists train AI to read human thoughts
Scientists have created a new tool that can turn people’s thoughts into words. It works by using an AI program called GPT-1 to translate brain activity words. In order to achieve this, scientists did a lot.
First, scientists got everything ready before the tests. They invited some volunteers. Each spent sixteen hours listening to stories in a scanner (扫描仪). They imagined the stories as they heard them, and the scanner recorded their brain activity. GPT-1 made connections between the ideas in the stories and the recordings of the listeners’ brain activity.
Then came the tests. The scientists did them in three different ways.
Test 1
The researchers played a new story. GPT-1 was only given recordings of the volunteers’ brain activity. But the words that GPT-1 predicted were very similar to the words in the story that they were listening to. The words weren’t exactly the same, but they often carried the same meaning. For example, when a volunteer was listening to a story about a woman who didn’t have a driver’s license, the program came up with this: “She hasn’t even started to learn to drive yet.”
Test 2
The scientists also carried out the test when volunteers imagined their own stories. “It really works at the level of ideas. The ideas are the same but expressed in different words,” says Alexander Huth, one of the scientists behind the study.
Test 3
The researchers showed the volunteers silent movies, with no spoken words at all. GPT-1 could still figure out the basic ideas.
After the tests, the scientists say that GPT-1 is the first AI program to turn what people are thinking into words without brain surgery (外科手术). The tool isn’t something that can be easily used today, mainly because of the size and the cost of the scanner. In the future, they believe, a similar but cheaper tool could help people who have lost the ability to speak because of an injury or disease.
The scientists say their tool can’t be used to “read people’s minds” without permission. The tool only works if the person wants to share their thoughts.
1. What was the scanner used to do?| A．Record brain activity. | B．Read the volunteers’ ideas. |
| C．Catch the ideas of stories. | D．Work out the ideas. |
| A．Receive sounds. | B．Test the scanner. |
| C．Produce silent movies. | D．Turn recordings of brain activity into words. |
| A．Listening. | B．Imagining. | C．Watching. | D．Reading. |
| A．People who can’t speak. | B．People who can’t hear. |
| C．People who can’t read. | D．People who can’t drive. |
6 . For the students, researchers or simple lovers of knowledge and art, it is a privilege to have a free virtual library at hand, being able to download important texts without spending a single dollar.
◆Internet Archive
It is a non-profit digital library created in 1996 by Brewster Kahle. In addition to millions of books available to the general public, it also hosts a large number of video (movies), audio (music) and software files, etc. It is not necessary to register to access the information, so any user can easily view and download it, although those who decide to register obtain other benefits such as access to more than 1.3 million copyrighted e-books.
◆InfoBooks
Read, Learn, Grow… is the slogan of the digital library. It is divided into three sections to facilitate the search for content, and the first called “Best books to read” focuses on a special collection of various topics classified by famous authors. The second is “Free books and texts”, where you will find public domain literature that you can download, and the third section contains resources to improve your reading.
◆Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a site that has available sixty thousand “free” books that are free of copyright so to speak, since the rights according to certain laws have expired in this case. That is why they can be downloaded with total peace of mind. The Project Gutenberg also has an Open Audio book Collection, almost 5,000 titles from 2023, via a Project Gutenberg collaboration with Microsoft and MIT. These use neural text-to-speech technology for more natural-sounding computer-generated audio books. These audio books are also available on major music/podcast platforms.
1. What most attracts users to Internet Achive?| A．Private software files. |
| B．Easy access to plenty of e-books. |
| C．Classic music of limited edition. |
| D．Various movies of authorized edition. |
| A．Search InfoBooks, Section 1 online. |
| B．E-mail Brewster Kahle to obtain directly. |
| C．Download Software files from Internet Achive. |
| D．Wait for distributions from Project Gutenberg. |
| A．Audio resources are provided online. |
| B．Materials can be adjusted to different users. |
| C．Copyrights of some books are out of date. |
| D．They provide reading strategies training. |
7 . Every year—for more than 15 years running—Amazon editors come together to decide on the Best Books of the Year. Below are the top 4 picks, along with quotes from the editors.
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
“Though divided by centuries, three women, who share a unique connection to the natural world and to one, another, tell their amazing stories of coldness, danger, and survival in a beautifully written novel that is an impressive read.” —Seira Wilson
Happy Place by Emily Henry
“Emily Henry’s latest has all the feels!More than your standard second-chance romance, Happy Place is about the beauty, pain, and joy that come with biological families, chosen families, growing up and apart, and how—as adults—we deal with this thing called life.”—Kami Tei
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann
“Please get ready. This true story of violence and murder, adventure, and ambition on the high seas is a page-turner. You can almost feel the salt stuck on your skin as the ship and its noisy shipmen fight against the bad weather and each other for becoming rich and famous. David Grann,once again, has made history come alive.” —Al Woodworth
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
“I will not soon forget Lady Tan. A historical story grounded in women, medicine, and tradition, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is heart-touching, and I found myself underlining throughout this inviting read.” —Kami Tei
1. What is Happy Place mainly about?| A．Adventures of adults. | B．Connection to nature: |
| C．Mixed feelings of life. | D．Challenges of growing up. |
| A．Ann Napolitano. | B．Emily Henry |
| C．David Grann. | D．Lisa See |
| A．They are set in history. | B．They are about women. |
| C．They cover several centuries. | D．They focus on dangers of life. |
In our weekly staff meeting, our editor Ashley was not pleased with the quality of our reporting. “Our readership is way down. We need better stories for this Thursday’s school newspaper. Does anybody have any ideas?” she said.
I handed her my article about our basketball team beating Deerfield High School the previous night by one point. “Sports stories are fun,” she said, “but not good enough for the front page. We need something to really get people ‘s attention.”
After our meeting, we left the newsroom together and heard someone screaming, “Perry is missing!” Perry was a big red parrot and had been our school mascot (吉祥物) for ten years. He played an important role in students’ lives, both in and out of class. He had also been a constant presence at school events, inspiring a sense of unity among students.
Everyone gathered around Perry’s empty cage, heartbroken. Suddenly, a student from the crowd came over and showed me a photo. “You’re a reporter for the school paper, right? I happened to take this yesterday,” he said. In the photo was a Deerfield High School basketball player with something large hidden under his shirt around the size of a parrot.
“He must have stolen Perry to get back at us for winning the game!” Ashley cried. We hurried back to the newsroom, agreeing to run the photo on the front page with the headline “Deerfeld Stole Perry.” “This is just the story we need. Everyone will read it,” Ashley said confidently.
After she left, I took a closer look at the photo. The clock in the background read 4:15 pm, but our game against Deerfield hadn’t started until 4:30 pm. Why would the boy have taken Perry before we even played? An uneasy feeling came over me that we might have falsely accused someone.
I went to Perry’s usual caretaker to ask if he knew Perry was missing. ”He’s not missing. He’s retired. He’s ready for some quieter days,“ he said. Learning the truth, I immediately told Ashley and suggested writing a story to say goodbye to Perry.
注意:1.续写词数应为150左右:
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
To my surprise, Ashley insisted on reporting the “Deerfield Stole Perry” story.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________On Thursday, the paper came out with the headline “Bye-Bye, Perry” on the front page.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9 . Re-purposing diapers to make building materials would reduce the amount of garbage that goes to a landfill. It could also make homes more affordable. Maybe giving used diapers a new use could help tackle both problems.
Building material—especially those that are used for strengthening structures — are often expensive. They’re often the biggest hurdle to making homes affordable. So researchers have previously investigated unusual materials that could save costs. These materials included many that would otherwise pile up as waste, such as fly ash.
“There is a big need in developing countries such as the Southeast Asian nation, Indonesia. There, demand for low-cost housing outstrips what’s available. The number of people in Indonesia’s cities has climbed by about 4 percent per year in the last 30 years. By 2025, more than two-thirds of Indonesians are expected to live in urban areas. Indonesia’s population boom is intensifying the demand for housing,” says Siswanti Zuraida, an environmental engineer in Indonesia.
“Despite the need for more affordable housing, there are significant problems that stand in the way of adopting diapers,” Zuraida says. Used diapers contain wood pulp, cotton and plastic, which are potentially useful building materials. Diapers plastic components would have to be separated from the organic fibers, a complicated recycling process currently available only in developed nations. And Indonesia’s building regulations restrict together-materials to bricks, wood, steel and concrete (which is used to hold bricks together) — materials that also bear a high cost in terms of carbon emissions.
But reusing diapers might not be that environmentally friendly, especially on a large scale. “It’s tricky to separate dirty diapers from waste and disinfect them. So it would take a lot of energy to recycle diapers. It’s maybe worthwhile to start thinking about ways to replace single-use diapers with something less frequently thrown away,” says Christof Schrofl, a chemist who works at Technische Universität Dresden in Germany.
1. Which statement describes the idea of re-purposing diapers best?| A．No pains, no gains. | B．Waste not, want not. |
| C．Kill two birds with one stone. | D．Great minds think alike. |
| A．Phase | B．Barrier. | C．Goal. | D．Advantage. |
| A．It is illegal to use diapers as building material in Indonesia. |
| B．Making building materials has little effect on climate warming. |
| C．The plastic components in diapers can make buildings stronger. |
| D．Developed countries have difficulty separating organic fibers on diapers. |
| A．Indifferent | B．Supportive. | C．Admiring. | D．Objective. |
10 . A kindhearted family put themselves in a risky situation to rescue an aggressive owl that had become trapped in a soccer net. One morning, the Larsons discovered a trapped owl on the football field. They immediately wanted to rescue the poor owl, but they found that the owl was very aggressive. Fearful of the owl’s sharp claws and beak, Dave Larson approached with caution when he discovered the bird in his family’s soccer goal in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
In the dramatic footage, the distressed owl can be seen tangled in the netting while Dave slowly but surely attempts to cut the bird free. During the proceedings, Dave’s wife, Sue, filmed the rescue, which saw the startled bird snap at Dave on numerous occasions, stretching out its claws every time he got close. Fortunately, the family was able to free the distressed bird, with their son Travis sharing the clip online where they were showered with praise for assisting the animal on September 27.
Sue said: “We were very nervous knowing how strong and sharp his beak was, which he kept snapping to scare us. He also kept stretching his claws out every time we got close to him. We were able to feel a little more at ease when the owl eventually realized we weren’t trying to hurt him, and he seemed to relax and let us cut him free. As soon as he flew away, there was instant relief of the situation. But it was more happiness at knowing he was alright and being able to see him fly and move without injury.”
This beautiful story warms people’s hearts and also tells us that man and nature need to coexist in harmony. When we take care to protect Nature, Nature rewards us generously; when we exploit Nature ruthlessly, it punishes us without mercy. We need to have deep reverence for Nature, respect Nature, follow Nature’s laws and protect Nature, so as to build a homeland of harmonious coexistence between man and Nature.
1. Who uploaded the video of freeing the owl online ?| A．Dave Larson. | B．Travis Larson. | C．Sue Larson. | D．Kyle Larson. |
| A．Mean and unfeeling. | B．Objective and impartial. |
| C．Enthusiastic and impractical. | D．Kind and friendly. |
| A．The owl realized they were trying to help him instead of hurting him. |
| B．The owl was severely injured and couldn’t move anymore. |
| C．The owl called the traffic police and the insurance company. |
| D．The owl didn’t sleep well yesterday morning and was tired. |
| A．Protecting the Environment Right Now | B．Keeping Up with the Larsons |
| C．Kindhearted Couple Free Aggressive Owl | D．A Natural Art Museum In the Larsons’ House |
