1 . Electronic timing is older than most people imagine and was used for the first time more than a hundred years ago at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Initially, the well-known company Ericsson was tasked with developing the technology, but it was the Swedish inventor Ragnar Carlstedt who eventually created the final product.
At the same time, Carlstedt introduced another invention: the finish line camera. The 1, 500-meter Olympic final was extremely close with Arnold Jackson from Great Britain winning by only 0.1 seconds. But it was impossible to decide on the silver medal since the two Americans Abel Kiviat and Norman Taber finished side by side. For the first time in history, the outcome of an Olympic event had to be settled based on a photo finish when Kiviat was judged to be “slightly ahead”.
The significance of these two inventions led a major newspaper to write: “Electronic timing at the Olympic Games. Simultaneous (同时发生的) timing and photography of contestants. A brilliant idea!”
The next step in timekeeping was the photo-finish camera with a time stamp imprinted on each picture, which was introduced at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. The 1948 Olympics saw the introduction of another invention with the continuous slit camera (狭缝摄影机), where a film behind a narrow slit rolls (滚动) with the same speed as the runners. Four years later the clocks were connected to the slit camera giving a solution of 1/100 s. But it was not until 1972 that official times were recorded to the 100th of a second.
The next big step in the eighties was to make the camera digital to speed up the feedback (反馈). But the idea behind the slit camera was kept and is still the basis of all timing systems for athletics used today. The only difference is that now there is a very narrow sensor array ( 阵列传感器) instead of the moving film.
After a century technology has reached the point where the whole timing system can be stored in a smartphone. So in a way, the circle was closed when SprintTimer, a sports timer and photo finish app, was developed in the same place and precisely a hundred years after Ragnar Carlstedt.
1. What do we know about electronic timing?| A．It was created in recent years. |
| B．It was first introduced at the Olympics. |
| C．It was developed by the well-known company Ericsson. |
| D．It was perfected by the Swedish inventor Ragnar Carlstedt. |
| A．The increasing need for a finish line camera. |
| B．The excellent performance of Arnold Jackson. |
| C．The significant role of Carlstedt's another invention. |
| D．The intense competition of the 1,500-meter Olympic final. |
| A．It avoided the use of a moving film. |
| B．It rolled with the same speed as the runners. |
| C．It made a 100th-of-a-second record possible. |
| D．It adopted a new idea for all timing systems used today. |
| A．Further improvement was discontinued. |
| B．The problem was back to the origin. |
| C．A new invention was created. |
| D．The issue was resolved. |
2 . Set 40 kilometers northeast of the city of Ambatondrazaka, the Zahamena National Park's landscape consists of (……组成) valleys surrounded by a flowing mountain range.
It has an overall land coverage of 64, 300 hectares, but only 42, 000 hectares is open to the public due to strict conservation (环境保护) reasons. It receives an average yearly rainfall level of about 6 feet and experiences frequent rain showers even during the dry season between April and October.
One really interesting thing about the Zahamena National Park is that the unique territory of its highland has paved the way for the development of several ecosystems that exist at the same time in this park. This is the reason why the types of wildlife living in one area are different in another, which makes it quite exciting to explore.
This protected area is divided into two parts, with a separate piece of land in the middle where many small villages are situated. These villages are inhabited (居住) by the members of the Sihanaka and Betsimisaraka ethnic groups.
The Zahamena National Park gets its name from the local Zahana Mena tree, an uncommon type of hardwood that grows in the lower regions of this protected area. It is characterized by its resilient (坚韧的) wood that can be rather challenging to cut, join, shape and carve even with modern tools.
Established as a strict natural highland reserve in 1927 (and one of the first of its kind in all of Madagascar), the Zahamena National Park was officially given its national park status (地位) in 1997 and was eventually opened to the public. Due to its remarkable territory and unique biodiversity, this national park was later listed as a key part of the collective UNESCO World Heritage Site called the Rainforests of the Atsinanana in 2007.
1. What can we learn about the Zahamena National Park?| A．It is surrounded by the city of Ambatondrazaka. |
| B．It receives little rainfall during the dry season. |
| C．It is partially open to the public. |
| D．It is divided into three parts. |
| A．The strict conservation rules. | B．The unique weather conditions. |
| C．The special territory of its highland. | D．The influence of several local villages. |
| A．An ethnic group. | B．A type of local tree. |
| C．A traditional tool. | D．A nearby city. |
| A．A brief introduction to the Zahamena National Park. |
| B．A complete guide to visiting the Zahamena National Park. |
| C．Details of Zahamena National Park's great efforts in conservation. |
| D．Reasons for Zahamena National Park becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site. |
3 . Have you ever struggled to understand how someone else feels? Building up your empathy (同理心) skills helps you connect with your friends.
What is empathy?
Empathy is a kind of capability that lets you step into someone else’s shoes and then figure out how they are feeling. For instance, if you can see your friend is upset after losing a football match and you support them by telling them some warm and motivating words, you are showing empathy. Miranda McKeamey set up an organization called EmpathyLab that builds empathy through reading.
Scientists say empathy isn’t something you are born with, it’s a skill you can acquire through learning. One way you can do this is by active listening. When someone is talking to you, listen closely and respond in a way that shows you understand their situations and emotions thoroughly. Reading, advocated by EmpathyLab, is also a great way to boost empathy, since stories can take you inside someone else’s mind and show you the world through their eves and emotions.
Put empathy into action.
| A．How can you have more empathy? |
| B．Who need empathy most in daily life? |
| C．Besides, it also spreads kindness and inspires them to do the same. |
| D．To find out more conducts you can do, log in EmpathyLab.UK.com. |
| E．Only by putting empathy into action can you relate to others’ bad lives. |
| F．She believes even small, supportive actions can have a positive impact. |
| G．Miranda recommends going into the thick of people’s lives to show empathy. |
4 . Signs That You Are Growing
Growing is a lifelong process. Here are the signs that show that you are actually growing and not getting stuck in the process.
Often, we see how badly people look when they get overly upset due to unimportant things. So the first sign of maturity (成熟) is letting the small things go and not getting angry over a tiny detail that didn’t go as you planned.
You start forgiving and understanding other people
When we are young, we are often unforgiving. As we mature, we are better able to understand the world beyond black and white.
You always complete things that matter
Immature people don’t know when to commit (承诺) themselves and their energy or resources are always not well employed.
You accept the possibility of being wrong
Being mature is knowing that you are always growing up. You are never done learning and developing. This means that you don’t set yourself up as the highest authority.
| A．You follow the crowd |
| B．You let the small things go |
| C．Instead, mature people focus on completing things that matter |
| D．Immature and mature people can both have plans for their lives |
| E．Rather, you open your mind to other ideas and new possibilities |
| F．Becoming more understanding is a sign of strength, not weakness |
| G．Mature people appear more confident, however, they are not overconfident |
5 . A preschool teacher decided to add a very special person to her list of students: Her beloved dad!
When teaching kids how to read and write, Lucy Floreshas has given more
Lucy says her Spanish-speaking dad, Luciano, was a little
Her dad was born in Mexico and had a
“Overall, I’m so excited that he chose to
Lucy gives her dad writing lessons three days a week for two hours, and the hard work has
| A．impression | B．sense | C．argument | D．thought |
| A．potential | B．competence | C．opportunity | D．passion |
| A．famous | B．perfect | C．necessary | D．mysterious |
| A．hesitant | B．patient | C．voluntary | D．disappointed |
| A．meanwhile | B．therefore | C．otherwise | D．however |
| A．games | B．speeches | C．lessons | D．adventures |
| A．practicing | B．teaching | C．proving | D．examining |
| A．concerns | B．views | C．requests | D．answers |
| A．admitted | B．created | C．shared | D．designed |
| A．tough | B．different | C．happy | D．special |
| A．inform | B．support | C．provide | D．follow |
| A．construction | B．location | C．bank | D．school |
| A．schedule | B．promise | C．recite | D．want |
| A．kept on | B．came out | C．paid off | D．stopped over |
| A．definitely | B．generally | C．hardly | D．specially |
6 . This week, Google researchers published a paper describing results from an AI tool built to create music. The tool, called MusicLM, is not the first AI music tool to be launched. But the examples Google provided demonstrate musical creative ability based on a limited set of descriptive words.
Several different music examples produced by MusicLM were published online. Some of the generated music came from just one- or two-word descriptions, such as “jazz”, “rock” or “techno (高科技舞曲)”. The tool also created other examples from more detailed descriptions containing whole sentences.
In one example, Google researchers included these instructions to MusicLM, “It is a soundtrack of a game. It is fast-paced and upbeat, with a catchy electric guitar riff (反复乐节). The music is repetitive and easy to remember, but with unexpected sounds ...” In the resulting recording, the music seemed to keep very close to the description. The team said the more detailed the description was, the better the system could attempt to produce it.
The MusicLM model operates similarly to the machine-learning systems used by ChatGPT. ChatGPT and MusicLM both require powerful computers to operate complex machine-learning models. The San Francisco-based company OpenAI launched ChatGPT late last year. ChatGPT has recently received a lot of attention because of its ability to generate complex writings and other content from just a simple description in natural languages. Such tools can produce human-like results because they are trained on huge amounts of data. Many different materials are fed into the systems to permit them to learn complex skills to create realistic works.
However, the MusicLM researchers said there were some risks linked to the new tool. One of the biggest issues the researchers identified was biases (偏好) present in the training data. A bias might be including too much of one side and not enough of the other. The researchers said this raised a question about appropriateness for music generation for cultures underrepresented in the training data.
1. What can we learn about MusicLM?| A．It is the first AI music tool to be launched. |
| B．It requires detailed descriptions of full sentences. |
| C．It creates music based on simple descriptive words. |
| D．It generates complex writings from a simple description. |
| A．They can take the place of musicians. | B．They have gained commercial success. |
| C．They don't have any practical use in life. | D．They are based on huge amounts of data. |
| A．Creating music with strong biases. | B．Requiring too much training data. |
| C．Being difficult for some people to use. | D．Producing music works with no creativity. |
| A．The future of humans with AI | B．A new AI tool to make music |
| C．Music created by some AI tools | D．AI and its function in culture development |
1. 写信目的；
2. 阐述看英文电影给你带来的益处；
3. 期待回复。
注意：写作词数应为80左右。
Dear Mr Smith,
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
8 . Xie Xiaohua has been working as a special education teacher for the past 26 years. Because of her adherence (坚守) to her work, she has won the heart of hundreds of children in special needs.
“It is my greatest happiness to care for them,” said the 48-year-old Xie, who has been working at a special education school since 1996. Fully aware of the difference between special education and general education, Xie provides specialized care to each student according to their physical conditions and helps them with learning and living. For example, she had taken the responsibility of looking after a student with physical disability for nine years until the student graduated from the school.
In 2013, Xie’s workload became heavier after she was assigned(指派) to work at the school’s rehabilitation (康复) center, which had been built ten years ago. To make sure that every child received suitable training, she worked out specific plans for them. For children with mental disability, Xie patiently taught them to master basic skills. She also spent lots of time training children with hearing and speech problems to work on their pronunciation.
Starting in 2015, the school carried out an activity of offering door-to-door education to students who could not attend school because of severe physical disabilities. Xie was among over 30 teachers tasked with tutoring(辅导) those students. The teachers have walked over 60, 000 kilometers over the past seven years because many villages where the students live are located in mountainous areas.
“Although we do feel tired sometimes, we feel our work is valuable after seeing their progress, even just a little bit.” Xie said.
1. Which statement may the author agree with according to the text?| A．Xie’s students have difficulty living a normal life. |
| B．Xie’s students’ homes are very far away from school. |
| C．Xie’s students can’t catch up with others in their studies. |
| D．All Xie’s students can be provided door-to-door education. |
| A．In 1996. | B．In 2003. | C．In 2013. | D．In 2015. |
| A．Tiring but meaningful. | B．Boring but rewarding. |
| C．Demanding but well-paid. | D．Dangerous but respectable. |
| A．The changes in a special school. | B．The students in a special school. |
| C．The education in a special school. | D．A devoted teacher in a special school. |
Tomb-Sweeping Day, also known
The holiday has a long history,
During the holiday, families will
In recent years, Tomb-Sweeping Day
Despite these changes, Tomb-Sweeping Day remains an important
10 . ChatGPT is back in the headlines again as OpenAI, the company behind the incredibly popular chatbot, has now introduced a powerful new language model – GPT-4.
First announced on March 14, GPT-4 goes beyond the capability of the previous language model known as GPT-3.5. The most impressive new feature is its ability to use images as prompts (提示). Its image-based outputs can be as simple as describing the contents of a refrigerator. But they can also be complex like interpreting a series of images to explain what a joke is supposed to be.
But GPT-4’s advancements don’t stop there. The new language model can code (编程) classic games like Tetris (俄罗斯方块) in a matter of minutes, produce the code and layout for a website based on a hand-made drawing, and change the tone and style of its responses. And, perhaps to the worry of teachers, GPT-4’s ability to pass tests has greatly topped the previous version’s. According to CNN, GPT-4 passed a simulated (模拟的) law school bar exam (律师资格考试) with a score in the top 10 percent of test takers, unlike GPT-3.5 which only scored at the bottom 10 percent.
GPT-4 will also see greater use as a tool to power other apps and services. Duolingo, a US educational technology company, plans to use GPT-4 in their upcoming Duolingo Max function to help users improve their language studies through dynamic AI conversations and answer explanations. Another organization looking to use the software is Be My Eyes, which wants to introduce a digital assistant to help visually impaired (视障的) users better understand the world around them. Even the government of Iceland plans on creating a five-year fund to support the digital preservation of the Icelandic language using the software.
However, there are still pitfalls (隐患) in the new language model. GPT-4 still struggles to be completely accurate with its responses, especially with newer information after September 2021. GPT-4 also still occasionally “hallucinates (产生错觉)”, meaning that it will insist that wrong information is true.
1. What is the most outstanding new feature of GPT-4?| A．Its ability to code classic games quickly. |
| B．Its ability to produce website layouts. |
| C．Its ability to use images as prompts. |
| D．Its ability to change the style of its responses. |
| A．It failed the test. |
| B．It scored in the middle of test takers. |
| C．It scored at the bottom 10 percent of test takers. |
| D．It scored in the top 10 percent of test takers. |
| A．To preserve its language digitally. |
| B．To improve government work efficiency. |
| C．To facilitate students’ language learning experiences. |
| D．To develop a digital assistant for visually impaired people. |
| A．It struggles with outdated information. |
| B．It can produce inaccurate responses. |
| C．It cannot correct wrong prompts. |
| D．It has difficulty interpreting complex contents. |
