1 . With artificial intelligence (AI) seemingly working its way into every technology out there, one area where it’s considered particularly promising is in helping doctors. And already, AI is entering some doctors’ offices.
Dr. Michael Mansour of Massachusetts General Hospital is an early user who’s helped by a form of AI that could someday change the way doctors get information. When a patient comes in with unknown infection (感染), Mansour turns to a computer program called UpToDate. It’s a common tool, with more than 2 million users at 44,000 health care organizations in over 190 countries. Basically, it’s Google for doctors — searching a huge database (数据库) of articles written by experts in the field, who are all getting information from the latest research.
Wolters Kluwer Health, the company that makes UpToDate, is trying to incorporate (整合) AI so that doctors can have more of a conversation with the database.
Some doctors hope to use AI to comb through a patient’s medical history before an appointment (预约). In some cases, Dr. June-Ho Kim, who directs a program on primary care at Ariadne Labs, says AI technology may also help primary care doctors look after patients without the help of specialists. “It will free up specialists’ time to focus on more difficult cases that they need to really home in on, rather than the ones that could be answered through a few questions,” he says.
Dr. Marc Succi, who was a co-worker of Kim, says, “AI will finally prove to be a trusted medical tool. AI won’t replace doctors, but doctors who use AI will replace doctors who do not. It will become very common just like designing a PPT on a computer. It’s that level of leap.”
1. How does UpToDate help a doctor?| A．It looks after patients. | B．It does a temperature test. |
| C．It offers useful information. | D．It leads patients to doctors. |
| A．Concentrate on. | B．Adapt to. |
| C．Waste time on. | D．Have interest in. |
| A．The difficulty of writing. | B．The user-friendlines s of AI. |
| C．The importance of a doctor. | D．The advantages of office software. |
| A．AI in the Field of Medicine | B．The Challenges of AI |
| C．Changes That AI Has Brought | D．Doctors at Home or in the Office |
2 . The Fire Festival is celebrated in northern Ghana. It’s a holiday we had never heard of before we came to live in a village here as Peace Corps community volunteers. It’s unbelievably great.
On the Fire Festival — Bugim Chug u in the local language — drums beat a quick and regular rhythm that locals dance to in a circle of bodies, men and women, the old and young, holding torches of burning grass above their heads, which stands for the light and getting off negative energies.
At this moment, this festival is being held at the beginning of the lunar year. The locals are all so involved in the celebration that they don’t pay as much attention to us as they normally will. When they find us getting involved as they are, they dance more vigorously and scream with joy.
Danielle, a friend of mine in the Peace Corps, says, “That we join in the celebration is significant because foreigners here are typically seen as the representatives of other organizations, not as people who are willing to join in the Fire Festival rituals (仪式). But in fact, we are dancing and celebrating as one.”
Our two-year Peace Corps service will finish up in mid-November. We can think of no better way to say goodbye than by celebrating the Fire Festival with the villagers we’ve come to know. The festival lets us see a different side of them — and lets them see a different side of us. The neighbors who sell rice are now the women who urge us to run faster and dance harder at the Fire Festival. And rather than view us as low-key (低调的) volunteers, they see us as the ones who have crazy dance steps with wild screams.
1. Why did the author go to northern Ghana?| A．To find a job. | B．To go traveling. |
| C．To study further. | D．To do voluntary work. |
| A．Annoyed. | B．Excited. | C．Confused. | D．Worried. |
| A．The steps to dance well. |
| B．How the locals celebrate the Fire Festival. |
| C．How the author and Danielle help the locals sell rice. |
| D．The reason why the author and Danielle joined in the festival. |
| A．Practice makes perfect. |
| B．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
| C．When in Rome, do as the Romans do. |
| D．The grass is always greener on the other side. |
3 . Dede Gardner was born in Chicago in 1967 and studied English at Columbia University. Seventeen years after her graduation, she worked as President of Plan B Entertainment, a production company started by Brad Grey.
At Plan B, Dede finds stories to make into films. Jeremy Kleiner, who is now co-president of Plan B, says Dede was his mentor (导师) before he joined her as a producing partner. “I’ve had the honor to work with her for almost 20 years,” he says. “She’s just a one-of-a-kind person in so many ways. She is very brave and views storytelling as the focus of her films.”
This year, Dede is the only woman to have won two Best Picture Oscars, for Moonlight and 12 Years a Slave. Before, together with Kleiner, she won seven films to Best Picture nominations (提名) including Selma in 2015, The Big Short in 2016 and Minari in 2021.
“Basically, whatever Dede does, it turns to gold,” says Jessie Buckley, one of the stars of Women Talking. “Dede has also changed the culture of making movies. She is always there to make the set feel comfortable when we are obviously coming across difficult things. She’s a great example to follow. She’s very careful with protecting the workers’ voice.”
Dede is actually exploring a much healthier and kinder way to make movies. She’s a producer who consciously thinks about creating a set where there is care. That includes making sure there are therapists (治疗专家) on set for all the workers in case there are emergencies happening.
1. Who set up the company Plan B Entertainment?| A．Brad Grey. | B．Dede Gardner. |
| C．Jessie Buckley. | D．Jeremy Kleiner. |
| A．Storytelling. | B．Action. | C．History. | D．Adventure. |
| A．Moonlight. | B．Selma. | C．The Big Short. | D．Minari. |
| A．She is strict with her partners. | B．She always avoids difficulties. |
| C．She is successful and thoughtful. | D．She is a medical expert. |
4 . George jumped on an e-scooter (电动摩托车) and went to a supermarket. At the end of the ride, a message appeared on the screen: “Your ride was carbon-free.” These words showed the environment-friendly marketing of e-scooter companies. But George, then a graduate student, and his adviser, Johnson had doubts about them.
E-scooters have appeared in cities over the last two years. Sure, they don’t produce waste gases. “But you have to think about the other things that are required to have the e-scooter charged (充电) and ready for you to use,” Johnson said. So he and his students decided to work out the full environmental influence of e-scooters over their lifetimes.
The researchers bought an e-scooter and separated it into parts. They worked out the greenhouse gas emissions (排放) while people make it. They also looked at the resulting air and water pollution. Those influences were great. They found that materials and production accounted for about half of the e-scooter’s global warming influence.
Those results depend heavily on e-scooters’ long life. Bird’s first e-scooters lasted about 3—4 months, and the newer Bird Zeros are said to make it to about 10 months. However, one study found that e-scooters in Louisville, Kentucky, only survived about 29 days. If such short lifetimes are common, it would worsen the true influence of materials and production mentioned above, Johnson said.
Luckily, there are ways to reduce the environmental influence of e-scooters. They suggest that companies take steps to increase e-scooters’ lifetimes. They also suggest simplifying the collection process. Not every e-scooter needs to be picked up. About one in six e-scooters still had a full charge at the end of the day.
1. Why does the author talk about George’s riding an e-scooter?| A．To introduce the environmental benefits of e-scooters. |
| B．To describe e-scooter companies’ marketing methods. |
| C．To bring in research on e-scooters’ environmental influence. |
| D．To show the popularity of e-scooters among university students. |
| A．Disadvantages of e-scooters. | B．The development of e-scooters. |
| C．Preparations for the use of e-scooters. | D．The reason for their research on e-scooters. |
| A．Their lifetimes are too short. | B．Their charging rates are low. |
| C．They use too much electricity. | D．They need to be charged frequently. |
| A．They need to be managed better. | B．They shouldn’t be collected at night. |
| C．They need more support and attention. | D．They should be banned from production. |
1. What day is today?
| A．Monday. | B．Wednesday. | C．Thursday. |
| A．In the west. | B．In the north. | C．In the south. |
| A．Cloudy and windy. | B．Windy and rainy. | C．Mild with light rain. |
| A．On Friday. | B．On Saturday. | C．On Sunday. |
1. What does the man want to do?
| A．Book a ticket. | B．Reserve a room. | C．Order a taxi. |
| A．At 9:00 in the morning. | B．At 11:30 in the morning. | C．At 11:30 in the evening. |
| A．7372-9232. | B．7322-9232. | C．7372-9322. |
1. What seems to have been heard?
| A．Someone is walking. | B．The wind is blowing. | C．A pet is playing |
| A．Going out to check. | B．Turning on the light. | C．Going to sleep quietly. |
1. Where does Richard work?
| A．In New York. | B．In Washington D. C. | C．In San Francisco. |
| A．Sleeping. | B．Working | C．Watching TV. |
| A．Some books fell off the bookshelf. |
| B．The windows were broken. |
| C．Some chairs fell over. |
| A．Hand in the report. | B．Continue with his work. | C．Go back home quickly. |
9 . It was nearly midnight when my wife Rita and I were driving home from the University of Illinois, where our son Randy was a freshman. Rita was asleep in the passenger seat. I headed north, wondering what on earth had made us take the afternoon off to drive to the university and back, a six-hour round trip. All for nothing.
For weeks Randy had been telling me how much fun he was having in football matches. I suddenly got the idea to show up and cheer my son, like we did in high school.
Just several hours earlier, Rita and I had met him on the field. We watched the young go on to the field, warm up, and then…there was something wrong. Randy ran over. “We cannot hold a competition today. The other team doesn't have enough players,” he said. It was not a big deal. I tried to comfort myself. But I'd just driven three hours to get here and I'd had my heart set on seeing my son in action. Instead, we took Randy out for pie and coffee.
As I was driving on the road, a memory rushed back to me when I was a Boy Scout (童子军). Our team made a canoe (独木舟) journey down the Fox River. My dad drove miles to see me. About a mile downriver we came to a bridge. I looked up and there he was. Dad was standing right on the bridge. He didn't shout like others. He simply waved until we passed underneath. But several miles later, on the next bridge, there he was again. And the one after that. And the next. My dad had taken the chance to show he was always with me.
At last I understood the most important thing I could do for my son — just be there, even if it meant driving a long way.
1. How did the author feel at first when he was driving home with his wife?| A．Hopeless. | B．Shocked. | C．Unhappy. | D．Worried. |
| A．To cheer their son on. | B．To watch a football match. |
| C．To have a meal with their son. | D．To encourage their son to study hard. |
| A．To show how his dad cheered him on. | B．To show he missed his dad very much. |
| C．To show he lived a happy life when young. | D．To show how his dad showed his love to him. |
| A．Be strict with his children. | B．Just be there with his children. |
| C．Have more patience with his children. | D．Do what he could to help his children. |
10 . Depending on your view, the recorder (竖笛) is an instrument of “incredible functions” or a tool of annoyance that has bothered primary schools for too many generations. But now, it faces extinction, with one of the UK’s top music schools reporting an 80% decline in the number of young people playing it in the last 10 years.
The instrument’s future is so imperilled that the European Recorder Teachers Association is trying to bring it back to life again so it does not go the way of the lute. The ERTA argues that if the recorder was good enough for the Beatles, it has a place in modern music today. Tom Redmond, the principal of Chetham’s school of music in Manchester, said only three of its pupils practised the recorder, compared with 15 a decade ago. “More pupils were taking up the piano or other instruments,” said Redmond. “The ones that became really popular are the ones students spend more time playing alone. With the instruments being more socially or orchestral based, there has been a decline.”
Redmond also said that this problem extended “beyond the recorder itself” and was a mirror of the future of music. “Like removing any plant or animal from an ecosystem, removing the recorder has a huge ripple effect (连锁反应) beyond just the instrument. You need these instruments to create the inspiration for music, and without that, there is less excitement for it and to learn music,” he said. Chris Orton, a recorder tutor and chair of the ERTA, is leading the fight against the instrument’s extinction. He said, “The recorder is increasingly overlooked by students, and yet it has a rich history and incredible attractions. As well as making beautiful sounds, it’s an accessible instrument in that it is low-cost compared to other woodwind instruments, and it’s light and easy to carry.”
1. What does the underlined word “imperilled” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Bright. | B．Distant. | C．Confusing. | D．Endangered. |
| A．The piano is easier to learn than the recorder. |
| B．Music education is necessary for all students. |
| C．The recorder plays an important role in music. |
| D．Nature is a rich source of inspiration for musicians. |
| A．It needs to be improved. | B．It is very difficult to play. |
| C．It deserves more attention. | D．It is a top choice for students. |
| A．The Recorder is Heading for Extinction | B．Music is Increasingly Influencing the Youth |
| C．Technology Brings New Life to Instruments | D．The UK Fights Against the Recorder’s Fate |
