1 . The rainforests are alive with the sound of animals. Besides the pleasure of the din (喧嚣), it is also useful to ecologists. If you want to measure the biodiversity of a piece of land, listening out for animal calls is much easier than looking for tracks in the undergrowth. But such “bioacoustic (生物声音的) analysis” is still time-consuming, and it requires an expert pair of ears.

In a paper published on October 17th in Nature Communications, a group of researchers led by Jörg Müller, an ecologist at the University of Würzburg, describe a better way: have a computer do the job. Smartphone apps already exist that will identify birds, bats or mammals simply by listening to the sounds they make. Their idea was to apply the principle to conservation work.

The researchers took recordings from across 43 sites in the Ecuadorean rainforest. Some sites were relatively uncultivated, old-growth forests. Others were areas that had recently been cleared for grazing or cacao planting. And some had been cleared but then abandoned, allowing the forest to regrow. Sound recordings were taken four times every hour, over two weeks. The various calls were identified manually by an expert, and then used to construct a list of the species present. As expected, the longer the land had been free from agricultural activity, the greater the biodiversity it hosted.

Then it was the computer’s turn. The researchers fed their recordings to artificial-intelligence models that had been trained, using sound samples from elsewhere in Ecuador, to identify 75 bird species from their calls. “We found that the AI tools could identify the sounds as well as the experts,” says Dr Müller.

Of course, not everything in a rainforest makes a noise. Dr Müller and his colleagues used light-traps to catch night-flying insects, and DNA analysis to identify them. To their relief, they found that the diversity of noisy animals was a reliable proxy for the diversity of the quieter ones.

The results may have application outside ecology departments, too. Under pressure from their customers, firms such as L’Oreal, a make-up company, and Shell, an oil firm, have been spending money on forest restoration projects around the world. Dr Müller hopes that an automated approach to checking on the results could help monitor such efforts, and give a standardised way to measure whether they are working as well as their sponsors say.

1. What can we learn about Bioacoustic analysis?

A．It makes animal calls attractive.	B．It requires special skill and time.
C．It measures biodiversity easily.	D．It applies to many research fields.

2. What can be inferred from the process of taking recordings in the rainforests?

A．Researchers trained AI models to imitate animal calls.

B．AI tools can identify bird species as well as the experts.

C．Agricultural activities led to a decrease in biodiversity.

D．Researchers used AI tools to conserve rainforests well.

3. What does the underlined word “proxy” in paragraph 5 mean?

A．Accelerator.

B．Assumption.

C．Formation.

D．sign.

4. What’s the potential application of AI in forest restoration projects?

A．Identifying the sponsors.	B．Evaluating the biodiversity.
C．Monitoring the effectiveness.	D．Establishing ecology departments.

3 . 读后续写

Honesty Won’t Let You Down

Asad was a 13-year-old boy who was very honest and hardworking. Recently, he had entered a new school so he had no friends yet. On Monday morning, he was nearly late for school. The night before, his family attended his cousin’s wedding and reached home late, which was why he couldn’t get up on time as usual.

At school, Asad could not pay attention to anything and wanted the bell to ring so that he could buy something to eat. After a few hours, when the bell rang, Asad quickly opened his schoolbag to find his money, but just then he remembered that he had left for school in a hurry in the morning and forgotten to take the money. He looked under his books, hoping to find some money but there was nothing.

Not knowing what to do, he walked out of the classroom and sat on a bench in front of the dining room. He saw a few of his classmates there, among whom was Fahad. He was one of the richest kids in his class but he was very arrogant. But as Asad was new, he didn’t know much about anyone.

Asad thought he might borrow some money from Fahad and return it to him the next day. So he got up and slowly went towards Fahad and asked if he could borrow some money.

Fahad smirked (讥笑) and said, “I knew you were a loser, but I didn’t know you were also a beggar?” Fahad laughed out so loud that the other kids heard and also made fun of Asad.

It was too humiliating (丢脸的) for Asad. He could not answer Fahad and slowly walked back towards an empty bench. He could still hear them laughing at him in the distance. When he reached the bench, he noticed something lying near it. It was a wallet. He picked it up and recognized it was Fahad’s, as he remembered Fahad showing it to his friends and saying that his uncle bought it for him from the UK. There was quite a lot of money inside for a kid.

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。
Paragraph 1:
At first, Asad wanted to keep it a secret and punished Fahad.     
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Paragraph 2:
Then Fahad said, “why are you giving it back?”   
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4 . 语法填空

Heated arguments and cold silences usually happen between parents and their children.     1     is common for teenagers to have difficult relationships with their parents. Teenagers’ physical and mental changes may result     2     such family tensions. You may feel anxious about your height, your weight, your changing voice or spots. You may also have difficulty     3     (balance) your developing mental needs. You often fall into a dilemma (进退两难的困境) between a new desire for     4     (depend) and a continued need for your parents’ love and support. It can be difficult when your parents treat you like a child     5     expect you to act like     6     adult, which may lead to a breakdown in your relationship.

Although sometimes it may seem impossible to get along as a family, you can take action     7     (improve) the situation. The key to keeping the peace is regular and honest communication. It is completely normal to suffer from the stress     8     is caused by parent-child tensions.     9     (fortunate), this stormy period will not last. Everything     10     (turn) out all right in the end, and the changes and challenges of your teenage years will prepare you for adulthood.

5 . By now, we are all aware that social media has had a tremendous influence on our culture, in business, on the world-at-large. Social media websites revolutionized the way people communicate and socialize on the Web. However, aside from seeing your friend’s new baby on Facebook, or reading about Justin Bieber’s latest conflict with the law on Twitter, what are some of the real influences?

Social networks offer the opportunity for people to re-connect with their old friends and acquaintances, make new friends, share ideas and pictures, and many other activities. Users can keep pace with the latest global and local developments, and participate in campaigns and activities of their choices. Professionals use social media sites like LinkedIn to enhance their career and business development. Students can work together with their peers to improve their academic and communication skills.

Unfortunately, there are a few downsides too to social networking. If you are not careful, immoral people can target you for cyber bullying and disturbance on social sites. School children, young girls, and women can fall victim to online attacks which can create tension and suffering. If you are a victim of cyber bullying, do not take it lying down, but try to take appropriate legal action against the attacker.

Many companies have blocked social networks as addicted employees can distract themselves on such sites, instead of focusing on work. In fact, studies show that British companies have lost billions of dollars per year in productivity because of social media addiction among employees.

Also, what you carelessly post on the Internet can come back to trouble you. Revealing (泄露) personal information on social sites can make users vulnerable (易受伤害的) to crimes like identity theft, stalking, etc. Many companies perform a background check on the Internet before hiring an employee. If a potential employee has posted something embarrassing on social media, it can greatly affect their chances of getting the job. The same holds true for our relationships too, as our loved ones and friends may get to know if we post something undesirable on social networks.

Social media has its advantages and drawbacks as each coin has two sides. It is up to each user to use social sites wisely to enhance their professional and social life, and exercise caution to ensure they do not fall victim to online dangers.

1. Paragraph 2 mainly shows that social networks ________.

A．help students finish their homework	B．offer professionals good chances
C．benefit users in various ways	D．guide users to make right choices

2. Faced with problems caused by social media, some companies ________.

A．forbid the use of social networks during work time

B．avoid posting embarrassing information

C．refuse to hire potential addicted employees

D．take legal action against the attackers

3. The main purpose of this passage is to ________.

A．share experiences in using social media	B．remind people to wisely use social media
C．provide some advice on social problems	D．raise public awareness of social problems

4. Which of the following shows the development of ideas in this passage?

A．	B．
C．	D．

7 . When I was a child, I began learning to play the piano, which was my favourite musical _____, but I was forced to give up when I started my middle school so that I could concentrate more on my studies.

It’s one of my biggest _____ to stop practising the piano when I recall sadly today. During the following years, I kept telling my piano teacher that I would _____. However, I didn’t keep my promise because I was occupied with my study. _____ I lost touch with my teacher. Some years later, my teacher died. I was very sad because I lost such a good teacher. She was a very warm and gentle person. It hurts me to think she may have been _____ that I never returned. I haven’t taken lessons since then but to be honest, I _____ to. Sitting at the piano, I couldn’t help recalling many memories — times of my practising at home and playing before my teacher and one time my teacher _____ me after I played entire pieces of music wrong in front of her colleagues. I was so _____ that I could hardly say anything. But her _____ helped ease my shame. These memories, ______, good or bad, never caused my courage for playing the piano again.

This thought then led me to think that ______ is like music, and that we all try to play different ______ in the instrument of our life. Sometimes the pitch (音准) ______ when we play it well, but sometimes we are out of tune. However, we all continue to create our own ______ style of music. No matter what style our music is, it is important that we sing the songs of joy, quietness and love. Though I may never make it back to piano lessons, it doesn’t ______ that I’ve stopped making music.

1.

A．room

B．performance

C．instrument

D．stage

2.

A．successes

B．decisions

C．regrets

D．hobbies

3.

A．perform

B．graduate

C．leave

D．return

4.

A．Actually

B．Constantly

C．Gradually

D．Suddenly

5.

A．disappointed

B．glad

C．astonished

D．amazed

6.

A．liked

B．wanted

C．needed

D．decided

7.

A．instructed

B．hurt

C．punished

D．respected

8.

A．frightened

B．moved

C．excited

D．embarrassed

9.

A．happiness

B．comfort

C．satisfaction

D．sigh

10.

A．instead

B．meanwhile

C．therefore

D．however

11.

A．life

B．learning

C．attitude

D．enjoyment

12.

A．cards

B．roles

C．sports

D．games

13.

A．hard

B．surprising

C．wonderful

D．complex

14.

A．unique

B．boring

C．common

D．similar

15.

A．matter

B．mean

C．report

D．appear

8 . 假定你是李华，想参加英语短视频大赛，正在为已拍摄的短视频撰写英文介绍。请给外教Mr. Smith写封邮件，请他帮忙指导。邮件内容包括：
1.视频简介；
2.寻求建议。
注意：
1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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