1 . “There’s a little black woman walking, spraying (喷洒) stuff on the sidewalks and trees on Elizabeth and Florence...” he told the police. Her neighbor saw her spraying something on the sidewalks and trees and this made him worried. In the call to 911, he described the child as “a little black woman”.
Well, the “little black woman” was actually 9-year-old Bobbi Wilson, a young scientist. The fourth-grader had created her own insecticide (杀虫剂) to fight spotted lanternflies (斑衣蜡蝉). She came across the recipe on TikTok and had recently learned that the harmful species damages trees because they feed on their sap (树液). Bobbi was simply testing out her invention in her neighborhood when the police call was made.
“That’s her thing,” her mother Monique Joseph said. “She’s going to kill the lanternflies, especially if they’re on a tree. That’s what she’s going to do.” Bobbi’s 13-year-old sister, Hayden Wilson, also defended her, noting that Bobbi “was not only doing something amazing for our environment, but she was also doing something that made her feel like a hero”. Luckily, what happened didn’t influence Bobbi’s spirit and has led to some positive experiences for her.
She has since been recognized by several organizations for her environmental efforts. She has also been invited on special tours. One took place at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Another was given by the United States Department of Agriculture of New Jersey at a plant where they discussed lanternflies. But that’s not where her recognition ends! The Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) honored Bobbi with their Sustainability Award for her work to save trees and fight lanternflies.
“We were excited that she was doing that,” Ann Marchioni of the ANJEC said. Ann added that the organization praises volunteers for being “hands-on” in their community. In addition to the award, she and her family got to visit with a group of black female scientists at Yale University. They showed her various labs and even invited her to donate lanternfly specimens (标本) for the university’s work.
1. What made the neighbor call the police?| A．A girl climbing trees. | B．A girl spraying something. |
| C．A girl littering the sidewalks. | D．A girl testing something dangerous. |
| A．Ashamed. | B．Proud. | C．Shocked. | D．Relieved. |
| A．Those whose donations help ANJEC. |
| B．Those who can do something creative in their university. |
| C．Those whose environmental awareness is quite impressive. |
| D．Those who can do something practical in their community. |
| A．Creative and determined. | B．Watchful and serious. |
| C．Friendly and generous. | D．Talkative and strict. |
2 . A few months ago, a friend gifted me a robot sweeper that’s programmed to move around a room and clean as it goes.
When the box arrived, I was afraid the device would detect me and suck up (汲取) data along with the dog hair and dust. But the instructions were easy, and I finally decided not to care.
I powered up the sweeper, watched it leave its docking station to work, and quickly fell in love with my newly shiny floors. I kept shooting its working videos. “I think you’re giving more attention to it than to us,” joked my son.
One day, I returned home and discovered that our front door had blown open and the robot rolled into the yard, trying to clean the flower beds. Even when its brushes were blocked with leaves, bugs and mud, its little wheels bravely kept turning.
The robot acted properly as it was programmed to clean “dirty” things. In a kitchen, dirt can be garden debris (碎片) such as leaves and mud. In a garden, this kind of dirt does not need to be removed. The context is important. The problem for robots is that reading this context is difficult.
This accident inspired me to think more about AI (artificial intelligence). As far as I am concerned, AI is simply well trained and reproduces what it has learned. And it is undeniable that robots are increasingly being given powerful intelligence. Some experts even predict that we will soon see not only AI-enabled robots designed to solve problems according to their instructions, but also those with the ability to judge how they should respond when they are in a different setting.
Maybe this will happen in the near future.
1. What was the author’s concern about the robot sweeper at first?| A．Its after-sales service. | B．Its working efficiency. |
| C．The privacy of her family. | D．The readability of its instructions. |
| A．Enthusiastic. | B．Regretful. | C．Uncertain. | D．Cautious. |
| A．Its program went wrong. | B．It lacked critical thinking. |
| C．Its wheels were badly designed. | D．It failed to work on rough surfaces. |
| A．The accident. | B．Some experts’ thinking. |
| C．Its appeal to the author. | D．The author’s opinion. |
3 . Public Speaking Courses
Complete Public Speaking Masterclass for Every Occasion (Udemy)
If you’re struggling to put yourself out in front of audiences, then joining this Udemy course will be a good decision. In this course, you will be instructed to feel calm and comfortable on stage in front of any number of people while speaking and conveying your message. The comprehensive guide by TJ Walker will help you impress your audience and influence them.
Dynamic Public Speaking Certification (证明) by University of Washington (Coursera)
Available on Coursera, this online course is perfect for people who want to be excellent dynamic speakers. You will be taught by Dr. Matt McGarrity - a principal lecturer at UW Department of Communication. Designed for beginners, it will help you gain many skills, for instance, public speaking, speech, presentation, and communication.
How to Become a World-class Speaker (Mindvalley)
This Mindvalley course is aimed at training people who have no experience of public speaking and just start to set foot in this area. It has already assisted a lot of people in becoming skillful at speaking and spreading their voice. Lisa Nicholas, your communication coach, is regarded as one of the best speechmakers in the world. Within less than two days, you will get insights into how she masters this art.
Effective Communication: Writing, Design, and Presentation (University of Colorado Boulder)
With the help of this course, you can get better at business communication, including presenting your ideas to your coworkers, handling client (客户) calls, and so on. You’ll also learn how to write effective business emails, along with reports and draft presentations. This course is very popular among people who want to quickly fit in with the workplace.
1. How can the Udemy course benefit learners?| A．Allowing them to study at their own pace. |
| B．Teaching them how to make good life decisions. |
| C．Helping them overcome the fear of public speaking. |
| D．Enabling them to hold comprehensive lectures with TJ Walker. |
| A．They both last for one month. |
| B．They are targeted at beginners. |
| C．They are offered by the same university. |
| D．They train people to be smart speech listeners. |
| A．Dynamic Public Speaking Certification. |
| B．How to Become a World-class Speaker. |
| C．Complete Public Speaking Masterclass for Every Occasion. |
| D．Effective Communication: Writing, Design, and Presentation. |
4 . People who visit Huangsiyang village in Huizhou, Guangdong province, are shocked by the grand scale of its ancient residential buildings. Covering an area of 220,000 square meters, the village was named “Huangsiyang” to express gratitude for the emperor’s kindness. With a history of over 500 years, the village’s architecture dates back to the late Ming Dynasty.
As part of a Guangdong provincial project that targets the high-quality rural (乡村的) development, Huangsiyang has made great efforts to promote its heritage protection and cultural tourism, which have breathed new life into the village. Yang Shouqiang, a village official, explained that the ancient village has more than 20 historical sites, making it the most well-preserved and largest ancient residential group in Huidong county. Yang said the village has attached great importance to education and culture, having produced over 20 examinees who passed the provincial-level exams after being invited to sit for the imperial examinations — the ancient form of the gaokao, China’s college entrance exam.
From 2022 to last year, a total of 65million yuan was invested in the protection and development of Huangsiyang ancient village. Recent surveys have shown significant improvements in the village’s surroundings and internal environment after it took measures to restore architecture and rivers, and improve lighting and other basic facilities. At the same time, the village introduced high-quality homestay (民宿) projects. These homestays preserve the original architectural style of the ancient buildings.
The village has attracted many tourists from the Guangdong — Hong Kong — Macao Greater Bay Area, who take part in team building activities and enjoy unique experiences. The increasing number of visitors to the village is also increasing sales of local snacks and agricultural products. Online promotions of these products have also brought in more tourists to nearby villages.
1. What surprises visitors to Huangsiyang village?| A．Tasty local snacks. |
| B．A history of over 500 years. |
| C．The rural landscape. |
| D．A large number of ancient buildings. |
| A．Prepare for. | B．Go through. | C．Participate in. | D．Put off. |
| A．It benefits a lot from tourism. |
| B．Its education system develops fast. |
| C．It is famous for agricultural products. |
| D．Its environment is damaged due to tourists. |
| A．Old village comes to life |
| B．Old village draws visitors |
| C．Old village values education |
| D．Old village shows traditional culture |
5 . In recent years, multiple studies have illustrated the ways people’s dogs can provide comfort, calm their frazzled nerves, be good listeners, and provide other forms of valuable support, proving that sometimes words are simply not necessary.
When people were asked to perform mental arithmetic (算术) or endure a “cold pressor” test in which their hand is submerged in ice water, those who had their dogs present had smaller increases in their blood pressure and heart rate. More recently, a study in a 2023 issue of the journal Emotion had people engage in a stressful task — involving adding numbers that flashed on a computer screen — then interact with their pet dog, color in a coloring book, or wait quietly for 10 minutes. Those who interacted with their dogs experienced a greater boost in mood and a greater reduction in anxiety than those who waited or tried to destress by coloring.
Research has also found that talking to your dog about emotionally fraught issues can be particularly beneficial. People are more willing to confide (吐露) in their dogs about difficult emotions, such as depression, jealousy, anxiety, apathy, and fear, than they are with their romantic partners or friends. The precise reasons for this may be that pets are good, nonjudgmental listeners because they don’t interrupt or reply. Your relationship with your dog is a safe space because your dog won’t judge you or disagree with you.
A study in a 2022 issue of the International Journal of Public Health found that when people interact with their dogs while teleworking, it replenishes the humans’ self-regulatory resources — by engaging in micro-breaks to pet their pup, the people are able to relax and refresh themselves — in ways that interacting with unfurry family members doesn’t.
“Dogs are fantastic at reading us — they can sense when we’re upset — and they are arguably better at reading us than some people are,” says Kogan, a professor in the clinical sciences department at Colorado State University, “because we intuit that our dogs read us so well, we regulate ourselves so as not to upset our dogs, which is helpful for us as well. It’s a positive feedback loop.”
1. What did the study in paragraph 2 find?| A．Interacting with dogs can cause anxiety and stress. |
| B．People with dog companions have lower stress levels. |
| C．Dogs can improve their owners’ academic performance. |
| D．Dogs’ owners tend to reduce stress by coloring or waiting. |
| A．Dogs can help them fix the problems. | B．They get a sense of security from dogs. |
| C．Their partners or friends are not reliable. | D．They have a closer relationship with dogs. |
| A．Replaces. | B．Researches. | C．Refills. | D．Removes. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Unclear. | C．Skeptical. | D．Intolerant. |
6 . Cheerfulness is a powerful way to deal with a world that will always be tough and unjust in one way or another. It is a sign of strength in the face of difficulties. Different from fear, joy, or anger, cheerfulness isn’t something that overcomes you.
◎Acknowledge the difficulties.
Cheerfulness is an honest emotion because you’re not hiding from reality.
◎Don’t focus on the negative.
Whether in your personal life or in society, it’s easy to focus on what’s going wrong. But whatever you focus on, it grows. If you decide to focus on what’s going wrong, those problems will grow in your mind until they consume you.
◎Be grateful for what you have.
◎
No cheerfulness without laughter. So you can watch comedies, browse memes, or joke around with friends. Laughter strengthens your immune system, boosts your mood, makes you feel less pain, and protects you from stress. Laughter is cathartic (精神宣泄的) and infectious. Laugh and brighten the room.
| A．Find your sense of humor. |
| B．Deal with difficulties seriously. |
| C．Focus on the good things you have. |
| D．To a large degree, cheerfulness is a choice. |
| E．You’re not covering your eyes and looking away. |
| F．Acknowledge the problems, but don’t give them too much attention. |
| G．Being cheerful will make you see the world and your own life in a different way. |
7 . Art Gallery of NSW(New South Wales) Exhibition
Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day?
25 November 2023-28 April 2024
Day and night, love and rage, calm and chaos. Enter a world of emotional extremes in this exhibition of the art of Louise Bourgeois, one of the most influential artists of the past century. Born in Paris in 1911 and living and working in New York until her death in 2010, Bourgeois is well-known for her fearless exploration of human relationships across a seven-decade career.
Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day? reveals the extraordinary reach and intensity of Bourgeois’ art, from unforgettable sculptures of the 1940s to her tough yet tender weaving works of the 1990s and 2000s. It also reveals the psychological tensions that powered her search, through a dramatic presentation in two contrasting exhibition spaces. Moving from the well-lit rooms of “Day” to the darkened area of “Night”, viewers will encounter more than 120 works, including many never seen before in Australia.
Tickets can be booked online via the exhibition or event page on our website, or in person at the welcome desk at the Art Gallery. Tickets cannot be exchanged, but if something unexpected happens that prevents you from attending, you can change the date of your reservation in your confirmation email.
1. What do we know about Louise Bourgeois?| A．Her art is conservative. | B．She was an emotional artist. |
| C．She was raised in Paris. | D．Her art explores human relationships. |
| A．Various themes. | B．Contrasting layout. |
| C．Intensive colors. | D．Extraordinary paintings. |
| A．Reschedule the date. | B．Cancel the booking. |
| C．Claim the money back. | D．Exchange the event. |
8 . My two-year-old daughter was playing with groceries in my shopping cart (购物车). A gentleman stood behind me with three
When the line moved forward I started
I was always willing to help others. However, there was a new feeling I
| A．toys | B．bags | C．items | D．dollars |
| A．behaving | B．studying | C．eating | D．resting |
| A．panic | B．hurry | C．mess | D．mood |
| A．failed | B．offered | C．agreed | D．promised |
| A．patiently | B．constantly | C．appreciatively | D．eventually |
| A．respect | B．confidence | C．determination | D．pleasure |
| A．unloading | B．unfolding | C．unwrapping | D．uncovering |
| A．ached | B．broke | C．beat | D．sank |
| A．picking up | B．looking over | C．handing out | D．giving away |
| A．purse | B．card | C．daughter | D．stuff |
| A．annoyed | B．discouraged | C．confused | D．astonished |
| A．hesitated | B．panicked | C．regretted | D．rejected |
| A．confirmed | B．joked | C．smiled | D．insisted |
| A．remembered | B．feared | C．experienced | D．shared |
| A．trust | B．praise | C．thank | D．reward |
A warm, sunny day in early November, especially in the Sierras, was a nice surprise. One look at the cloudless blue sky was all it took to convince me to drive twenty miles into the valley to do early Christmas shopping.
Temperatures in the valley are between eight and ten degrees higher than those in the foothills where we live, so I enjoyed the warmth and sunshine as I walked from store to store. Around sunset, I searched through my purse for my cellphone, only to discover it wasn’t there. After a frustrating search I finally found it under the car seat and sighed with relief.
I called my husband and heard the panic in his voice. ”I’ve been trying to call you. It started snowing up here half an hour ago, “he shouted into the phone.
“Well. I’ll stop and put the chains on when I get up there so I can make it home,” I sighed. My husband coughed nervously and cleared his throat. “Uh, I forgot to put the chains back in the trunk when I cleaned the car out yesterday,” he said. I resisted the urge to scream. “I think you can make it home if you leave now and drive slowly following the tire tracks in the road when you get to the snow,” my husband said before I hung up.
I drove slowly toward the 2600-foot elevation(高地) where we lived. My biggest challenge would be to get over the bridge, then up the hill on the other side. The snow was falling harder when I reached the bridge. I blinked back tears.
A truck was driving across the bridge ahead of me. My hopes soared. Those big tires would make a good path through the snow. The path from the truck tires helped until I reached the end of the bridge and started up the hill. The tires started spinning and the car started to slide back down the hill.
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。
When my car finally stopped, I heard someone rapping on the window.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I started walking home, hoping to get to a place where I could use my phone on the way.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________10 . Campaigners opposing the building of new wind farms often point to the possibility that the blades of wind turbines (涡轮机) can cut careless birds to bits. No one doubts that wind turbines kill some birds. But a new analysis of American data, published in Environmental Science & Technology, suggests the numbers have little impact on bird populations.
Wind power has expanded dramatically in America over the past 20 years. Many studies have analysed the effects in specific locations or on specific bird species. But few have looked at the effects on wildlife at the population level. Dr. Katovich, an economist at the University of Geneva, used the Christmas Bird Count, a citizen-science project. Volunteers count birds they spot over Christmas, and the society edits the numbers. Its records stretch back over a century.
Dr. Katovich assumed, reasonably, that if wind turbines harmed bird populations, then the numbers seen in the Christmas Bird Count would drop in places where new turbines had been built. He combined bird population and species maps with the locations and construction dates of all wind turbines in America, with the exceptions of Alaska and Hawaii, between 2000 and 2020. He found that building turbines had no obvious effect on bird populations. That reassuring finding held even when he looked specifically at large birds that many people believe are particularly easy to be struck.
Dr. Katovich didn’t limit his analysis to wind power alone. He also examined oil-and-gas extraction (提取). Like wind power, this has boomed in America over the past decades. Comparing bird populations to the locations of new gas wells revealed an average 15% drop in bird numbers when new wells were drilled, probably due to a combination of noise, air pollution and the disturbance of rivers and ponds that many birds rely upon. When drilling happened in places designated by experts as “important bird areas”, bird numbers instead dropped by 25%. Such places are typically migration hubs, feeding grounds or breeding locations.
Wind power, in other words, not only produces far less planet-heating gas than fossil fuels. It appears to be significantly less damaging to wildlife, too. Wind turbines might look dramatic, but their effect on birds isn’t.
1. What does a new analysis find about wind farms?| A．They take the lives of careless birds. | B．They improve birds’ living conditions. |
| C．They do little harm to bird populations. | D．Their harmful effects on birds vary a lot. |
| A．By counting bird numbers in different locations. |
| B．By relating bird numbers to turbines’ distribution. |
| C．By researching perfect places to build turbines. |
| D．By studying the decline of birds near turbines. |
| A．The wide spread of wind turbines. | B．The over-development of farming. |
| C．The lack of environmental concern. | D．The drilling of wells for oil and gas. |
| A．Wind Turbines and Birds Can Co-exist | B．Oil Drilling Shares the Sky With Birds |
| C．Several Factors Lead to Bird Decline | D．Campaigners Oppose Bird Disturbance |
