1 . As a worrying number of youngsters take up vaping (电子烟), the Government has announced a crackdown on laws to stop kids from becoming addicted to the dangerous habit.
Disposable (一次性的) vapes are now set to be banned in the UK as part of the Prime Minister’s new legislation (立法) to “stop youth vaping in its tracks”. Recent research shows that one in five teens has now tried vaping, despite it being illegal for under-18s, and half of those who vape between 18 and 24 do so despite having no history of smoking.
Last year, figures showed the number of adults using e-cigarettes in the UK had risen to the highest rate on record at roughly 4.3 million Brits. According to the charity Action on Smoking and Health, almost 1,000 serious adverse reactions to vapes were logged, including five deaths linked to e-cigarettes in the last decade.
And it’s not just over-the-count er vapes at the center of the country’s vaping crisis — fake e-cigarettes with deadly chemicals have sparked concerns. An investigation by the Mirror in 2023revealed one man’s fears for his life after he suffered a collapsed lung as a result of a fake, unlicensed pack of vapes purchased from a corner shop in County Durham.
Alex Gittins,31, thought he bagged himself a bargain but ended up in hospital just hours later. He said: “I noticed an awful chemical taste in the back of my throat, then five to 10minutes later I felt what was like a stitch. I’m lying in A&E thinking I was going to die.”
A regular vaper was told he had just a one percent chance of survival after being left in need of a double lung transplant. Jackson Allard, 22, underwent the life-saving operation on January 1, putting an end to a series of serious health issues.
Medical expert Stephanie Hansen has voice d concerns about the unknown long-term effects of e-cigarettes. She said: “Vaping or e-cigarette use is relatively new, so we don’t necessarily know a lot of the long-term effects of vaping and that’s honestly one of the scariest things about it.”
1. What has the recent research found?| A．20 percent of UK teenagers have once vaped. | B．It’s against the law for teens to buy vapes. |
| C．Vaping is commoner than smoking in the UK. | D．5 people died because of vaping last year. |
| A．To suggest it’s easy to be addicted to vaping. | B．To state vaping ruins people’s health seriously. |
| C．To indicate it’s illegal to buy fake e-cigarettes. | D．To show the number of people vaping is on the rise. |
| A．It remains to be seen in what way vaping affects people. |
| B．It will be long before people know the bad effects of vaping. |
| C．It matters to inform people of the potential danger of vaping. |
| D．It is difficult to prohibit adults from buying e-cigarettes. |
| A．Research into the habits of smokers in Britain. | B．Causes of teens’ addiction to vaping in Britain. |
| C．British health issues drawing public attention. | D．British government prohibiting disposable vapes. |
2 . One morning, Bill McDonald read in the paper that a local man, Joe Day, was sick with lung cancer. That meant it would be Christmas without Joe’s
33 Christmases ago, when Day came home in the afternoon, he found his five-year-old grandson, Nicholas,
However, Day’s cancer had spread to his liver now. He was too
“I want to
On the evening of December 12, with crowds of volunteers cheering him on, Day
Day is
| A．plays | B．jokes | C．toys | D．lights |
| A．something | B．anything | C．everything | D．nothing |
| A．sleeping | B．waiting | C．running | D．drawing |
| A．find | B．buy | C．build | D．raise |
| A．holidays | B．ceremony | C．meeting | D．conference |
| A．dream | B．idea | C．plan | D．work |
| A．removing | B．winding | C．changing | D．throwing |
| A．tree | B．bed | C．house | D．path |
| A．tired | B．bored | C．seared | D．excited |
| A．see | B．make | C．help | D．hear |
| A．look at | B．set up | C．put down | D．turn to |
| A．showed | B．discussed | C．discovered | D．represented |
| A．fixed | B．decorated | C．repaired | D．pressed |
| A．afraid | B．confident | C．worried | D．confused |
| A．though | B．because | C．unless | D．so that |
1. What does the man order?
| A．Chicken-fried steak. | B．Fries and bread. | C．A large orange juice. |
| A．French dressing. | B．Italian dressing. | C．Blue cheese. |
| A．The rice is not ready yet. |
| B．She offers him an old menu. |
| C．They don’t serve pies today. |
| A．He stopped making pies. | B．He quit his job here. | C．He broke his leg. |
| A．He liked the food very much. |
| B．He didn’t eat enough recently. |
| C．He had no money to buy food. |
1. Who is the speaker?
| A．A resident adviser. | B．A housing director. | C．The headmaster. |
| A．After the finals. |
| B．Before a summer vacation. |
| C．At the start of the school year. |
| A．$1. | B．$3. | C．$9. |
| A．The return time. | B．The phone number. | C．The condition of the dorms. |
6 . For decades sleep scientists have thought over the link between dreaming and creative inspiration. They have long thought the insight came from the stage of rapid eye movement sleep, which is rich with dreams and begins around 90 minutes after one falling asleep. But new evidence puts the spotlight on a much earlier phase — the period that separates sleep and wakefulness. In a study by MIT, researchers show that people who take brief naps (小睡) that bring about the beginning of sleep score higher on several measures of creativity than those who undertake the tasks after staying awake.
The findings suggest researchers could even exercise some measure of control over the dreaming process by directing people's dreams toward a specific topic. The more frequently people dreamed about that, the more creative they were on tasks related to it. “We can come to the conclusion that dreaming about a topic enhances your subsequent creativity on it,” says Robert Stickgold, a member of the study team.
The experiment took advantage of a glovelike sleep detector, which charts sleep by monitoring one's muscle tone, skin conductance and heart rate through contacts on the wrist and hand. It communicates with an app that issues voice prompts (提示) for dreams and records dream reports.
More than one famous thinker has capitalized on the phase called non-rapid eye movement sleep stage 1,or N1, illustrating the point about generating creative insights. The painter Salvador Dalí would deliberately nap, holding a set of keys above a metal plate, when thinking over an idea for a painting. As he nodded off, he'd drop the keys, which would hit the plate and wake him up, and he'd hold onto the image from his dream. Thomas Alva Edison is said to have used a similar technique with metal balls to gain insights.
“It's exciting because, in principle, people could use the technology themselves to develop creativity,” says Jonathan Schooler, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of California. There seems to be no shortage of folks coming to try it. “So many different kinds of people have visited, knocking on the lab door and asking to have dreams,” co-lead investigator Haar Horowitz says.
1. Which phase boosts creative ideas according to the study?| A．The initial sleep stage. | B．The middle of the sleep cycle. |
| C．The wakefulness after sleep. | D．The rapid eye movement sleep stage. |
| A．Physical changes reflect the sleep phase. | B．Dream contents re late to real life. |
| C．Creativity levels vary with the nap length. | D．The theme of the dream can be guided. |
| A．Encourages. | B．Improves. | C．Tracks. | D．Influences. |
| A．To prove the effect of dreams. | B．To provide support for the findings. |
| C．To interpret the benefits of N1. | D．To give examples of fueling creativity. |
7 . “The Worthington Christian defeated the Westerville North by 2—1 in an Ohio boys’ soccer game on Saturday.” That’s according to a story that appeared last month in The Columbus Dispatch. That lead was written not by a sportswriter, but by an artificial intelligence (AI) tool.
Many news organizations are now examining how AI might be used in their work. But if they begin their “experimenting” with high school sports because they are less momentous than war, peace, climate change and politics, they may miss something crucial. Nothing may be more important to the students who play high school sports, and to their families, neighborhoods, and sometimes, the whole town. That next game is what the students train for, work toward, and dream about. Someday, almost all student athletes will go on to have jobs in front of screens, in office parks, at schools, in hospitals or on construction sites. They may suffer blows and setbacks. But the high school games they played and watched, as well as their hopes and cheers, will stay vivid in their memories.
I have a small idea. If newspapers will no longer send staff reporters to cover high school games, why not hire high school student journalists? News organizations can pay students an hourly wage to cover high school games. The young reporters might learn how to be fair to all sides, write vividly, and attract readers. That’s what some celebrities in sports did, and do.
And think of the great writers who were inspired by sports: Hemingway on fishing, Bernard Malamud and Marianne Moore on baseball, Chen Zhongshi on football, and CLR James on cricket, who said, “There can be raw pain and bleeding where so many thousands see the inevitable (不可避免的) ups and downs of only a game.” A good high school writer, unlike a robot, could tell readers not just the score, but the stories of the game.
1. Why is the lead mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．To introduce an original idea. | B．To show AI’s wide application. |
| C．To bring in the opinion about AI. | D．To stress AI’s importance to news. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Eye-catching. | C．Competitive. | D．Far-reaching. |
| A．Rich in contents. | B．Fair in comments. |
| C．Centered on results. | D．Targeted on readers. |
| A．News Organizations Are Abusing AI | B．High Schoolers Can Do What AI Can’t |
| C．Great Writers Are Crazy About Sports | D．AI Ruins High School Students’ Memory |
8 . Many westerners find it so interesting that they always see Chinese people carry a vacuum (真空) cup no matter which season it is. If you go to a restaurant in western countries, they usually serve you a cup of cold water, sometimes even with ice. And every time when Chinese people ask the waiter if they can change to hot water, actually they may receive a strange look from the waiter or people nearby. Hot water? Seriously? Why do Chinese people drink hot water? The answer may exist in the following aspects.
Actually, water quality became a matter of debate in the 1930s in China, when the water supplies were polluted. In order to prevent people from infectious diseases, the government suggested people drinking boiled water, because they considered it a way to kill off bacteria. They always boiled water daily and stored it in a kettle to keep the water warm for the day. Even now, you can find hot water devices everywhere, in schools, factories, and government departments across the country.
Besides, it is well known that Chinese people prefer hot meals every day. Therefore, some parents always teach their children to drink hot water with meals, because they think mixing cold liquids with hot meals is really bad for the stomach, and cold liquids may solidify fats in your stomach, which can cause digestive problems, while hot liquids aid in digestion.
According to the traditional Chinese medicine, health is due to an internal balance of Yin and Yang. In the Yin-Yang theory, water is Yin-type while hot stuff is Yang-type, drinking hot water can enrich Yin and tonify (滋补) Yang in your body, keeping Yin and Yang in balance. If you have cold symptoms or other Yin-type imbalances such as frequent chills, thirst, depression or sleepiness, hot water plays the role of the Yang and brings your body back into balance. Doctors of traditional Chinese medicine always tell patients to drink more hot water.
1. Why did the author describe the scene in paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic. | B．To compare East with West. |
| C．To narrate an experience. | D．To illustrate a phenomenon. |
| A．Water quality was improved by boiling water. | B．Infectious diseases struck the country seriously. |
| C．Polluting substances entered the water supplies. | D．More devices were introduced to keep water warm. |
| A．Hot water can cure people of depression. |
| B．Cold liquids may soften fats in people’s stomach. |
| C．Drinking water with meals does good to digestion. |
| D．Imbalance of Yin and Yang contributes to ill health. |
| A．Why Do Chinese People Drink Hot Water? | B．Hot Water & Cold Water, Which is Better? |
| C．The Cultural Differences Home and Abroad. | D．Drinking Water is Essential to Human Health. |
9 . In January 2020, I left for a mission, along with a 75-person crew. I had got to know everyone quite well, which made me feel confident that everything would run smoothly. The main goal of the mission was to voyage through the water, identifying boats and aircraft with our sensors while remaining undetected. We were the eyes and ears of the French navy, 300 metres under the ocean.
Being in a submarine (潜水艇) is a bit like being in a spaceship. Letters from family were allowed to keep crew members motivated, but for safety and caution, all communication from the crew’s families was seen first by navy staff who removed any content that could cause panic on board.
In February 2020, as Covid-19 started to emerge in Europe, the navy began to block all Covid-19-related news in our life. Throughout March and April, we had no idea that Covid-19 was even a thing, let alone that France was under strict lockdown.
The day finally came when we were set to come back. The radio channels on the submarine announced the news: “There is a deadly virus, and the country is locked down.” Actually, the information didn’t make any sense to me at that time. “Lockdown” was a new word to me. I didn’t know what to expect.
When I got out of the submarine. I got my phone back and received weeks’ worth of panicked messages. I took a train back to Paris, where my family lives, and was completely lost. People had masks and gloves on. I put over my mouth a fireproof mask that had been given to me by the navy. I just thought, everyone is hiding their mouths, so I’ll do it, too, even though I didn’t know why.
1. What can we know about the mission?| A．It lasted for 3 months. | B．75 persons participated in it. |
| C．It served for the French navy. | D．Its main task was to explore the ocean. |
| A．His grandfather passed away. | B．His mother came across an accident. |
| C．His girlfriend would break up with him. | D．His son was elected captain of the soccer team. |
| A．Cellphone access. | B．Submarine sensors. |
| C．Calls from families. | D．Radio channels broadcast. |
| A．Confused. | B．Relaxed. | C．Excited. | D．Panicked. |
1. Who is probably the speaker?
| A．A reporter. | B．A teacher. | C．A writer. |
| A．He read a book. |
| B．He looked after the horse. |
| C．He enjoyed the snow. |
| A．Sad. | B．Moved. | C．Casual. |
| A．Help those around us as much as we can. |
| B．Read as many books as we can. |
| C．Be grateful for what we have. |
