1 . The Zero Energy Building in Singapore, which has been entirely powered by sunlight since it began operating in 2009, is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. Transformed from a former workshop, the three- story building may hold the key to the island’s effort to reduce its dependence on imported fuel.
Generally, green building strategies can be categorized into passive and active solutions. Active solutions involve improving lighting and the HVAC(Heating, Ventilation (通风) and Air-conditioning)systems that consume most of the energy in buildings. Passive solutions aim to provide more energy-efficient architectural improvements (such as building envelopes and roofs) to reduce the reliance on active solutions. Research has shown that passive strategies are much less costly compared to active solutions. Therefore, passive design is recommended in many green and sustainable design guidelines.
“However, passive solutions, such as daylight and natural ventilation, are sensitive to climatic and outdoor conditions and therefore have their limitations of application,” said project officer Letchimi Palanisamy. “For example, buildings in the tropics (热带) usually have a North-South direction to avoid facing the sun directly. But the Zero Energy Building has an East-West orientation, which made the task more challenging.”
Innovations that are being tested at the Zero Energy Building include personalized ventilation and a new air-conditioning system patented by the National University of Singapore (NUS). Different plants have also been planted on the roofs and along the walls of the building to reduce heat absorption, yet allow maximum natural ventilation and daylight into the building to lower the need for air-conditioning and artificial lighting. The biggest improvement is the addition of a new roof that can turn sunlight into 500,000KWH of electricity each year.
“The Zero Energy Building is a test bed for the green building technologies in the tropics,” Letchimi Palanisamy said. “If they are successfully commercialized, they will help Singapore cut its energy consumption in the buildings by 50%.”
1. What does the second paragraph mainly focus on?| A．Methods to improve the HVAC systems. |
| B．Ways to classify green building strategies. |
| C．Major innovations adopted in green buildings. |
| D．The benefits and limitations of green technologies. |
| A．Buildings in the tropics usually face the sun directly. |
| B．Passive designs depend heavily on the natural conditions. |
| C．Active strategies are much less expensive than passive solutions. |
| D．The energy consumption in the Zero Energy Building is cut by 50%. |
| A．Natural ventilation. | B．Plants grown along the walls. |
| C．Innovations for maximum daylight. | D．NUS’s air-conditioning system. |
| A．A project profile. | B．An on-site test. | C．An advertisement. | D．A government plan. |
2 . Tourists at the Acropolis this holiday season can walk around the ancient Greek site to see how it looked like 2,500 years ago. They will even see a collection of sculptures that were removed from the site more than 200 years ago and are now on display at the British Museum in London. All they need is a smartphone and an app called Chronos.
They can just point their phones at the Parthenon, and then the sculptures housed in London will app ear back on the temple. Other less widely known features also appear: Many of the sculptures on the Acropolis are painted in striking colors. A statue of Athena in the main hall also stands over a shallow pool of water.
“The only time I’ve seen this kind of technology before was at the dentist,” Shriya Parsotam Chitnavis, a tourist from London, said after checking out the app on a hot afternoon at the hilltop Acropolis. “I’m more of a visual person, so this app has really helped me appreciate it.”
The app employs augmented reality (AR) to place the ancient impression of the site onto the screen, matching the real-world view as you walk around the temple. The app also covers three other monuments at the Acropolis, a neighboring Roman theater and parts of the Acropolis Museum built at the foot of the hill.
Greece’s Culture Ministry is enthusiastic to adopt the AR technology. Another company, Microsoft, partnered with the ministry two years ago to launch a digital tour at ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games in southern Greece.
“The software will offer tourists a more immersive experience, allowing them to share photos and videos from museums and other sources as more content becomes digitized,” said Maria Engberg, co-author of the book Reality Media.
1. How is Shriya Parsotam Chitnavis’s reaction to the software?| A．Positive. | B．Dismissive. | C．Skeptical. | D．Scared. |
| A．The ancient Roman theater. | B．The birthplace of the Olympic Games. |
| C．Parts of the Acropolis Museum. | D．Three other monuments at the Acropolis. |
| A．Unnatural. | B．Adventurous. | C．Painful. | D．Vivid. |
| A．A tourist’s experience at the Acropolis. |
| B．A new way to restore ancient cultural sites. |
| C．A very helpful app to be introduced at the Acropolis. |
| D．The popularity of AR technologies at ancient attractions. |
3 . In spring 1955, Rosalynn Carter was doing what she had been avoiding since she married Jimmy Carter: keeping house and raising children in the same tiny town where they grew up.
But her husband called for help from his family’s farm one day and said that he couldn’t manage the farm on his own. So Rosalynn Carter gathered their sons and returned to the tiny town. Soon she was managing finances and handling customers. “Finally, I got used to our new life and knew more about the business than he did, and he would take my advice about things,” Rosalynn Carter told The Associated Press in 2021.
Their marriage was almost a decade old when she went to the farm, but that was perhaps the true beginning of a partnership that helped Jimmy Carter win the Georgia governor’s office in 1970 and then the White House in 1976. Six years later, they co-founded The Carter Center and committed themselves to charity work for four decades in more than 145 countries, where many children, now adults, were named Jimmy or Rosalynn or Carter. Along that path was a small-town love story that included 77 years of marriage and two decades of family friendship before that. Their shared journey ended on November 19, 2023, with Rosalynn’s death at the age of 96.
“It’s hard to think of one of them without the other,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend who saw the couple often during Rosalynn Carter’s last months. “When Jimmy was president. she even attended all White House meetings and discussed what she heard with him at home. They had nightly phone calls when they traveled separately.”
“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished.” Jimmy Carter said in a statement released upon her death. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”
1. How did Rosalynn Carter probably feel when she was asked to work on the farm?| A．Interested. | B．Unconcerned. | C．Proud. | D．Unwilling. |
| A．They bought a new farm in a small town. |
| B．They ran for the Georgia governor’s office. |
| C．They started to do charity work in the world. |
| D．They traveled in different countries as tourists. |
| A．Rosalynn Carter was an ambitious woman. |
| B．The couple were very attached to each other. |
| C．Jimmy Carter was not a qualified president. |
| D．They should not share the secret information. |
| A．Young Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter’s Love Stories |
| B．The World’s Responses to Rosalynn Carter’s Death |
| C．The Close Bond Between Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter |
| D．The Lasting Relationship Between the Carters’ Families |
4 . Here are trips near Beijing for every age, taste, and budget.
Badachu
Badachu takes its name from the eight temples that make up the area’s main attraction. Its history as a religious site goes all the way back to the Tang Dynasty（618-907AD). The first of the eight temples, Chang’an Si, is actually located right outside the park. The second temple, Lingguang Si, is Badachu’s main attraction and the only one that still has monks inside. Take the nearby chairlift（RMB 30）or continue exploring the other temples on foot.
Admission: RMB 10.
Longqing Gorge
Longqing Gorge is known for the Longqing Gorge Ice Sculpture Festival in winter and peaceful mountain views in summer. Often compared to the Yangtze River’s famous Three Gorges, Longqing Gorge also ranks favorably with Guilin’s mountain and water views. Besides sightseeing, tourists can go boating, rock climbing and horseback riding here. Baihua Dong is best avoided, as the only signs of “flowers” are made with plastics.
Admission: RMB 40.
Shang Fang Shan
As a national forest park, Shang Fang Shan is known for its diversity of plants and ancient trees that are over a thousand years old. There are nine caves in the mountain. The best-known one is called Yunshui Cave, meaning “the cave of clouds and water”.
Admission: RMB 40.
Huanghuacheng
If your idea of relaxation is losing yourself in hiking along the wild Great Wall, then Huanghuacheng, which is named after the yellow flowers that blanket the site in summer, is for you. Here you can explore the Great Wall at any time for free. The exploration starts at Jintang Lake and the moon-shaped Huanghuacheng Reservoir, which breaks the Great Wall into three sections. Huanghuacheng is also known as “Water Great Wall” because part of the wall is underwater.
1. How much should you pay if you visit the temples by chairlift in Badachu?| A．RMB 10 | B．RMB 20 | C．RMB 30 | D．RMB 40 |
| A．Go for a sculpture festival in summer. | B．Visit a cave with beautiful flowers. |
| C．Enjoy pretty mountain and water views. | D．See various plants and ancient trees. |
| A．It can be visited free of charge. | B．It is best-known for its natural beauty. |
| C．It is famous for yellow flowers in spring. | D．It offers free access to many religious sites. |
5 . A humanoid robot can relay video and touch sensations to a person wearing a haptic (触觉内) feedback suit and a virtual reality (VR) headset hundreds of kilometres away, offering away for people to attend events without travelling.
The iCub 3 robot is a 52-kilogram, 125-centimetre-tall robot with 54 joints across its body. Its head contains two cameras where a human’s eyes would be, and an Internet-connected computer where the brain would go. Along with the cameras, sensors covering its body send data to the robot’s “brain”. These sensations are then reproduced on a suit and VR headset worn by a remote human operator.
When the operators react to what they see and feel, the suit’s sensors pick up the movements and the robot matches them. “The key is to translate every signal and bit of digital data that can be sent through the network.” says Stefano Dafarra, who was part of the iCub3 team. There can be a small delay of up to 100 milliseconds to capture and transmit the visual shots, but the operator can case this by moving slightly slower than normal.
The team demonstrated the robot at the Venice Biennale, where it wandered through an exhibition while its operator stood 290 kilometres away in Genoa. Dafarra hopes people will use the iCub3 to attend events remotely, reducing the need to travel. “But at present, a fall could be hugely damaging to the robot, and it’s uncertain whether it could stand up again on its own," he says.
“iCub3 is an interesting robot and offers clear advantages from the previous versions.” says Jonathan Aitken, whose laboratory owns a prior version of the robot. However, he is disappointed that the team wasn’t clear in its research about the data transmission requirements of the new version of the robot. “It would be good to know just how much data was required, and what the upper and lower bounds were.” he says.
1. What’s the principle behind the humanoid robot?| A．It conveys sensations to the wearer and acts accordingly. |
| B．It receives commands from an operator through the Internet. |
| C．The cameras take pictures and then interact with the sensors. |
| D．The computer in the robot processes the data and gives orders. |
| A．Medical consultation. | B．Sports events. |
| C．Outdoor workouts. | D．Virtual tourism. |
| A．It fails to appeal to potential investors. |
| B．Its performance hasn’t been evaluated clearly. |
| C．Its present version still requires to be updated. |
| D．Its transmission of data came across technical problems. |
| A．Humanoid robots with sense of touch catch on |
| B．iCub 3 robot combines with VR to benefit more people |
| C．Humanoid robots let people see and feel things remotely |
| D．New advances in technology enable people to travel at work |
6 . Tokyo restaurant Sushiya no Nohachi reportedly serves great sushi, but it is most famous for its gimmick—making the world’s smallest sushi with a single grain of rice.
Located in Asakusa, a slightly quieter part of Tokyo, Sushiya no Nohachi is the place to go if you want to enjoy the tiniest, most adorable sushi in the world. Each piece is made with only a grain of rice and a tiny slice of topping wrapped in the thinnest piece of nori(海苔). Every served piece is actually perfect, which hints at the amount of work and patience that Bes into making them. They are the work of Hironori Ikeno, the chef of Sushiya no Nohachi, who came up with the idea in 2002 when a client asked him how small he could make his sushi. He answered, “as small as a grain of rice”, and proceeded to demonstrate that he wasn’t kidding. Over the years, the restaurant has become internationally famous for making the world’s smallest sushi.
Despite its size, miniature sushi actually takes a bit longer to make than regular-sized me, because of the precision and concentration required to put the tiny ingredients together. That is part of the reason why the restaurant only prepares tiny sushi for customers a few times a week and no more than five times a day, although they do sometimes make exceptions for foreign visitors who travel to the restaurant just to experience the world’s smallest sushi.
“I had a client from Sweden who came just to see my tiny sushi and the moment she saw it, she literally cried with joy.” Hironori Ikeno said.
Interestingly, one cannot simply order the tiny sushi at the restaurant. It is served for f re upon request with a regular-sized sushi course. Considering the sushi served at this place is reportedly delicious, you should probably be more excited about that. Plus, it also justifies the gimmick that the restaurant is so famous for.
1. What does the underlined word “gimmick” in paragraph 1 probably refer to?| A．A class to teach cooking skills. |
| B．A trick to attract customers. |
| C．A plan to promote the sushi. |
| D．A dish to win over opponents. |
| A．His pursuit for perfection. |
| B．The curiosity of a customer. |
| C．The requirement from his boss. |
| D．A bet he made with others. |
| A．Take more time to make one |
| B．Unpopular among customers |
| C．costs more money to buy one |
| D．needs more expensive materials |
| A．Diversity of the customers. |
| B．His lack of experience. |
| C．Special treatment to foreigners. |
| D．His sense of achievement. |
Casey Ryan works in a well-known newspaper as a famous photographer. After work, he likes to take an adventure in the wildness and take some photos. Whenever photographer Casey heads into the wildness, he brings along his drone (无人机) to take some photographs from a bird’s eye view.
Having the drone with him on a recent trip to the Willamette National Forest in the Cascade Mountain Range in Oregon saved his and another person’s lives.
That day, Casey was driving through the Willamette National Forest. When he arrived at his destination, he began to use his drone to take many photos, and the beautiful places made him excited. These photos made him feel a strong sense of achievement.
With a good harvest, he began to drive home. On the way home, he came across a stranger whose car was stuck. At that time, Casey was still in the deep forest. Casey volunteered to help get it out without hesitation. Unluckily, he got his own car stuck in a ditch (沟) while trying to help, leaving both people in trouble with no cell phone service for miles around.
“I am so sorry for making your car stuck here. What can we do now?” the stranger said with anxiety.
“Don’t worry! Let’s think it over! Maybe I can call my wife for help,” Casey said.
“But here is too out-of-the-way. It is surely no cell phone service. How can we call for help?” the stranger said disappointedly.
Just as they were wandering, Casey immediately recalled a movie he’d seen recently in which a character typed some messages in the phone and used a drone to lift his phone high enough to catch cell phone service in a similar situation. When the stranger heard the idea, he felt pleasantly surprised. Just right, Casey had a drone. Casey walked quickly to his car.
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。
Casey pulled out the drone and took out his phone.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Nearly an hour after the messages were sent out to his wife, the rescuers arrived.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________注意：1.词数100左右；2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Since 1950s, there has been a debate about whether the money spent on space exploration is worthwhile. I
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Beijing roast duck
Beijing roast duck, known for its unique taste and rich historical significance,
The Beijing Duck Museum, founded by Quanjude,
1. How did the speaker become a photographer in demand?
| A．By teaching in workshops. |
| B．By starting a business. |
| C．By taking small jobs. |
| A．The stress of producing perfect work. |
| B．Decreased interest in photography. |
| C．Constantly changing hobbies. |
| A．Expanding the business. |
| B．Taking photography trips abroad. |
| C．Finding out more forms of photography. |
