1 . Some Innovative Buildings

Cube Houses (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
Inspiration: Trees in a forest
Size: About one-fourth the size of a basketball court

As a popular attraction, the 38 Cube Houses are also real houses that people live in! The cubes have concrete foundations and floors with a wood-frame living space on top. The furniture is tailor-made to fit the odd angles. Architect Piet Blom designed the homes based on the idea of “living as an urban roof”.

Wonder Works (Pigeon Forge, the USA)
Inspiration: A laboratory in an Italian-style villa
Size: About nine-tenths the size of a football field

Looking at the cracks in this building, you might think, Is it about to collapse? And how do they get palm trees to grow upside down? But the upside-down features are just for show. This indoor amusement park is actually pretty normal with more than 100 hands-on science exhibits and activities.

Guangzhou Opera House (Guangzhou, China)
Inspiration: Erosion (侵蚀) of rocks and landscapes
Size: About 13 times the size of a football field

The Guangzhou Opera House was designed by Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid. Though nature inspired the architect, she used 21st-century construction and design methods to make her design a reality. GPS positioning and laser techniques helped shape the structure.

Bubble Palace (Cannes, France)
Inspiration: “Habitology”—the idea that habitats should use nature’s curves (曲线)
Size: Almost three times the size of a basketball court

This house may look like a space settlement, but it’s really a 10-bedroom palace. Made of cave-like bubbles, it also has ponds, waterfalls, swimming pools, an outdoor theater and views of the Mediterranean Sea. Architect Antti Lovag had the bubbles built out of iron bars covered with wire web and concrete, and then coated with a mix of fiberglass and plastic.

1. Which building involves a visual trick?

A．Cube Houses.	B．Wonder Works.
C．Guangzhou Opera House.	D．Bubble Palace.

2. What inspired the design of Zaha Hadid?

A．Trees in a forest.	B．A laboratory in a villa.
C．A concept on habitat.	D．A geographic phenomenon.

3. Where is the smallest building of the four located?

A．In China.

B．In France.

C．In Netherlands.

D．In the USA.

2 . 阅读下面材料, 根据其内容和所给段落开头续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Javon was the shortest kid in the class. Since the third grade, he had been smaller than every boy and all of the girls. He’d had to ask Ms. Haygood to get his gym locker changed so that he didn’t have to stretch so much to reach it. For most kids, being short would be a problem, but Javon just never let it bother him. Whether he would grow or not, there was nothing he could do. Javon held a similar attitude to most things.

The one exception was school work. Right before the first day of middle school, his dad had a serious talk with him about college. More precisely, his dad told him that college was expensive. College cost more money than a year’s rent on their apartment and the yearly income of either his dad or his mom. Given that, Javon didn’t understand why anyone would want to go to college. His dad explained some people who worked really hard and got good grades paid less or nothing at all for college. It was called a scholarship. Javon nodded, promising his dad that he would work hard and get a scholarship.

And Javon had worked hard. By middle of seventh grade, Javon was one of the top kids in the class. He was still the shortest, but now he also got called one of the smartest. So, he hadn’t been too concerned when Mr. T announced they were starting a new unit in math. The class started normally enough. But then Mr. T threw a letter into his math problem. He smiled at the class like using letters in math was perfectly normal.

For Javon, math used to be easy. But he could not wrap his mind around using these letters. He couldn’t remember the rules Mr. T had given and he didn’t even understood the ones he did remember. Whenever Mr. T tried to explain, Javon seemed to focus so hard on wanting to understand that he didn’t actually hear what Mr. T said. Before he knew it, he was hopelessly lost in math class. Soon the chapter test came.

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。
The test was cruelly challenging for Javon.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Following his parents’ advice, Javon knocked on the door of Mr. T’s office.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 . 阅读下面材料, 在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

Representing wisdom, power, and wealth, dragons are respected and honored in Chinese culture, which are said     1     (scare) away evil spirits and bad luck. In ancient times, when there was no rain for a long time, people not only prayed     2     rain with a dragon dance,     3     prayed against insect attacks after planting.

If you’ve seen a Chinese New Year parade (庆祝游行), you’ve probably seen a colorful dragon     4     (wind) its way down the street. The dragon dance,     5     time-honored traditional folk activity in Chinese culture dating back to the Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago,     6     (observe) during festive celebrations much like the lion dance. Dragon dances can be performed in different ways with dragon costumes of different colors.     7     (specific), as many as 9 to 15 dancers use long poles to guide the dragon’s head and snakelike body, the tricks of     8     are often jumps or moves that make the dragon turn in     9     (variety) of ways.

The culture of dragon and lion dances has spread beyond China to southeast Asia, and even to some regions with significant Chinese communities in Europe, America, Australia, and New Zealand. It has become a     10     (substance) symbol of Chinese culture.

5 . On Sept. 17, 2022, a father and son set out to begin the first of three legs of the Ironman competition in Cambridge, Maryland. Jeff Agar, 59, and his son, Johnny Agar, 28, weren’t the ______ participants. Johnny has cerebral palsy (脑瘫), resulting in his difficulty walking and muscle weakness. Jeff would act as his arms and legs, ______ carrying the weight of his son throughout the race. To ______ as completion, competitors must complete a(n) ______ 140 miles of swimming, bicycling and running in under 17 hours.

From the day Johnny was born, Jeff and his wife refused to let their son be ______ by disability. ______ to show Johnny that he could pursue his dream of being an athlete, when he was 15 years old, they ______ him up with my Team Triumph, an organization that helps kids with ______ engage in endurance (耐力) sports.

Johnny became ______ to racing, and Jeff wanted to be a part of it. Jeff began waking up at 4 am to run while ______ Johnny in a racing chair. Every morning, he ______ himself to run increasingly longer distances.

After 16 hours, 55 minutes and 35 seconds, the father and son ______ the finish line together. As the crowd ______ and congratulated Johnny, Jeff kept a low ______ . “He didn’t want attention to his finish line moment,” says Johnny. “He wanted it to be ______ .”

1.

A．distinct

B．typical

C．ambitious

D．amateur

2.

A．consciously

B．anxiously

C．hopefully

D．literally

3.

A．qualify

B．emerge

C．serve

D．continue

4.

A．impressive

B．smooth

C．frightening

D．exhausting

5.

A．given away

B．turned down

C．taken on

D．held back

6.

A．Forced

B．Discouraged

C．Determined

D．Prepared

7.

A．signed

B．cheered

C．lifted

D．brought

8.

A．experiences

B．difficulties

C．capacities

D．disabilities

9.

A．sensitive

B．attracted

C．limited

D．important

10.

A．pushing

B．comforting

C．displaying

D．treating

11.

A．permitted

B．warned

C．drove

D．persuaded

12.

A．drew

B．left

C．spotted

D．crossed

13.

A．thanked

B．surrounded

C．encountered

D．disturbed

14.

A．voice

B．rate

C．profile

D．grade

15.

A．theirs

B．mine

C．yours

D．his

6 . If you’re struggling to save money, you’re not alone. Less than half of Americans have enough emergency savings to cover at least three months’ expenses.     1     . Here are several practical ways to help you spend less.

    2    

If you want to determine how to save money, you need to figure out how to spend less of it. Many bank statements include categorized spending reports. These can provide a good sense of where your money has been going and identify opportunities to reduce your costs. If you’re married, making this review process a shared task can help cut expenses and increase savings.

Be a strategic grocery shopper

While you’ll need to keep buying groceries despite higher prices, you can make an effort to avoid throwing away unused food. As you make your grocery list, think about what ended up being thrown away last time. Those who made a shopping list in advance throw away less food.     3    

Break up with brand names

A comparison of ingredients and labels on things like noodles may show affordable alternatives to be just as nutritious and high-quality as the top-shelf ones.     4     . Try to find more affordable alternatives for any such brand-name household items you may be buying.

Challenge yourself to a spending freeze

One way that can be effective in taking control of your finances is a spending freeze, during which you cut all unnecessary spending for a set period.     5     . The extra money you’ll have at the end of the month can be added to savings or used to pay down debt.

A．Review your spending habits

B．Compare other banking options

C．So take extra time to plan out your upcoming meal

D．Saving money isn’t easy these days but it’s not impossible

E．Prices remain high on expenses such as housing, food and transportation

F．This gives you a sense of just how much you’re spending on nonessentials

G．The same concept may apply to non-food items such as paper and hand soap

7 . Even minor changes in behavior can have a positive environmental impact. Therefore, it is suggested to remove or reduce single-use plastic bags from your shopping trips, because the bags break down slowly, causing them to linger in landfills. But how long does a plastic bag really stick around?

The Center for Biological Diversity estimates that it takes a bag roughly 1000 years to break down. The term “break down” is a little misleading, though. Plastic ends up photodegrading (光降解) from ultraviolet (紫外线) radiation because the majority of microorganisms cannot eat it. And even after the bags degrade, the micro-plastics they leave behind may still harm the environment.

While 1000 years seems long, it is only an estimate. Since the invention of plastic bags in the 1950s or so, humankind has never actually seen the substance break down in real time. Instead, scientists have adopted respirometry tests (呼吸运动测量法), which helps estimate the breakdown rate of an organic substance by measuring the CO₂ that the microorganisms produce when breaking down the material. When an organic substance, such as food waste, is present, CO₂ levels rise, which allows scientists to estimate the rate of breakdown. However, because plastic bags don’t produce any CO₂,—microorganisms aren’t eating them, the bags are just sitting there. If buried in a landfill and sheltered from ultraviolet light, plastic bags will last a very long time.

Bags have an impact on the environment beyond just their removal. It takes fossil fuels to make bags; one estimate puts this amount at 12 million barrels (桶) of oil annually. And after a bag has served its purpose in a consumer’s hands, it may then enter the food chain for wildlife. Plastic that builds up along the food chain is consumed by creatures like birds and fish.

While reducing the use of plastic bags is a good idea, choosing a cloth bag might not be the habit that will help the environment the most. The carbon footprint left by the cloth bags must be countered by thousands of uses.

1. What does the underlined word “linger” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?

A．Reproduce.

B．Integrate.

C．Emerge.

D．Last.

2. What do we know about the breakdown of plastic bags?

A．Its duration of 1000 years is an overestimate.

B．Exposure to ultraviolet light is essential to it.

C．Respirometry tests effectively estimate its rate.

D．The level of CO2 released during it usually rises.

3. What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．The multiple environmental costs of plastic bags.

B．The consumption of fuels for plastic bag production.

C．The harm of plastic bags to the food chain for wildlife.

D．The challenge of removing plastic bags from the ecosystem.

4. Which of the following is proposed according to the last paragraph?

A．Declining plastic shopping bag offers.	B．Reducing the production of plastic bags.
C．Reusing the same cloth bag repeatedly.	D．Switching from plastic bags to cloth ones.

8 . Joyce Loaiza lives alone, but when returning to her apartment at a senior community, she often has a chat with a friendly female voice. The 81-year-old is among the first in the United States to receive the robot ElliQ made by Intuition Robotics, which has been the only device using artificial intelligence specifically designed to address loneliness of the old.

Looking like a small table light, the device has an eyeless, mouthless head. It remembers each user’s interests and their talks, helping create a special experience with each new discussion, which can be as deep as the meaning of life or as light as a small joke. “She’ll make comments like, ‘I would go outside if I had hands, but I can’t hold an umbrella,’” said Loaiza. ElliQ also plays music and provides spiritual sayings. It leads exercises, asks about the owner’s health, and gives reminders to take medicines and drink water. It can also support video calls and contact family, friends, or doctors in an emergency.

The average user interacts with ElliQ more than 30 times a day and more than 90 percent report lower levels of loneliness, Intuition Robotics CEO Dor Skuler said.

Brigham Young University professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad, who studies the effects of loneliness on health, worries that a device like ElliQ might have short-term helpful effects but it could make people less likely to seek human contact. She noted that the difficult feeling of loneliness should push people to reconnect socially.

Skuler and state officials agreed that ElliQ is not an alternative to human contact. But some older people cannot leave home or do not have many friends. Charlotte Taylor, director of an Area Agency on Aging, said Covid-19 left many older people more disconnected. Her agency has provided 300 ElliQs which, she believes, help the situation. She said, “People generally like her and she makes them smile.”

1. What can we infer from Loaiza’s comments on ElliQ?

A．It sometimes fails to be of any help.	B．It is humorous and has the human touch.
C．Some of its comments make no sense.	D．It shows an interest in the outside world.

2. What concerns Holt-Lunstad about ElliQ?

A．Its inefficiency to ease loneliness.	B．Its failure to push people to reconnect.
C．Its potential for being addictive.	D．Its replacement for human interactions.

3. How does Taylor find ElliQ?

A．Novel.

B．Popular.

C．Satisfying.

D．Advanced.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Chatty Robot Helps Seniors Fight Loneliness	B．AI-based Device Is to Dominate Elders’ Life
C．ElliQ: a Revolutionary Innovation in AI Field	D．ElliQ: a Remarkable Assistant after Covid-19

9 . At first glance, 15-year-old Kenan Pala seems like a typical teenager, playing video games with his friends, but he also loves finance and economics and invests in the stock (股票) market. He founded Kids4Community, a nonprofit offering volunteer projects for kids, when he was just 12.

The idea came out of his family’s experience. Pala’s parents came to the U.S. from Turkey in 1998 and founded a company. “We started very little here,” said Pala’s mother. “But for the help we got along the way, we wouldn’t have been where we are.” The Palas wanted their children to live by this lesson, so they encouraged them to give back to the community.

Anyone can donate with Kids4Community, but its events are intended for kids. Pala’s organization aims to boost young people’s involvement in community efforts because many organizations don’t let children volunteer.

Last month, Kids4Community volunteers made 2,000 hygiene kits containing shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and other supplies. Kids4Community organizes the event annually and distributes the kits to the needy through Christmas Day. In fall, the group’s efforts are focused on disaster victims. Over the years, it has made care packages for survivors of earthquakes and Hurricanes.

Another key focus is homelessness — an issue that has taken on particular significance. Years ago, Pala was jogging along the beach when he came across a sickly baby seal (海豹), surrounded by people who were caring for it and calling for help. “Hours later, I saw a homeless person, also sick and needing help, but people were just ignoring him,” Pala said. Now, Kids4Community organizes initiatives both to meet physical needs of the homeless and give them a sense of dignity and hope.

In the coming years, Pala wants to expand Kids4Community’s reach beyond San Diego and perhaps beyond California.

1. What does the Pala family lesson convey?

A．Responsibility.

B．Forgiveness.

C．Gratitude.

D．Struggle.

2. What does Kids4Community mainly work on in autumn?

A．Disaster relief.	B．Supplies delivery.
C．Disaster forecast.	D．Supplies production.

3. Why is Pala’s experience with the seal mentioned?

A．To advocate wildlife conservation.	B．To launch the initiatives for the homeless.
C．To praise the warm-hearted people.	D．To account for his attention to homelessness.

4. Which of the following best describes Pala?

A．Disciplined and reliable.	B．Committed and consistent.
C．Insightful and intelligent.	D．Public-spirited and enterprising.

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