1 . How to improve your home’s energy efficiency

Ensuring that your home is energy-efficient possibly keeps your bills right down and helps you play your part in the fight against climate change.     1    .

Insulate (使隔热) your loft

Most of your home’s wasted energy will attempt to escape through your roof. To stop it in its tracks, you must invest in having your loft insulated.    2    , but it will be sure to save you over £100 a year.

    3    

By investing in a top-of-the-line boiler, you’ll no doubt tap into an extra of savings. What’s more, making this kind of investment will also be sure to lower your home’s carbon emissions. When choosing a new boiler, give precedence (优先) to those that fall in or near the “A” category. Whatever you do, just don’t slip towards the lower end of the scale.

Fit double glazing (双层玻璃)

    4    . This is because double-glazed windows and doors trap more heat than regular ones, ultimately meaning they will stop you from having to put your heating on as much or as high. The initial investment demanded in this instance can be costly, which is why you should consider making use of the Help to Buy Windows Scheme.

Keep an eye on your energy consumption

Only when you know how much energy you use can you take action with regards to being less wasteful and more resourceful. This means that you should make a conscious effort to keep an eye on your energy consumption.    5    , you might want to consider fitting an energy monitor in your home. Generally, this type of technology will cost between £25 and £40.

A．Update your boiler

B．Maximize the boiler

C．To assist you in rising to this challenge

D．Taking such action may demand some cost in advance

E．Double-glazed windows will increase your energy consumption

F．Take these steps, and you’ll be living in an energy-efficient home

G．Double glazing will make a massive difference to your annual energy bills

2 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Putian wood carving, one of the four well-known     1     (category) of the art of Chinese wood carving, originated in the Tang and Song Dynasties.     2     (serve) as a national intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) item in China, it is a traditional folk carving technique of southeast China’s Fujian Province.

Zheng Chunhui, Lin Jianjun and Chen Yushu are three     3     (exception) representatives of wood carving masters. Zheng is a provincial-level inheritor (继承人) of the wood carving art,     4     not only excels in traditional wood carving technique,     5     expresses his love for his family and nation through his works. To promote the art, Zheng opened a unique wood carving gallery, which is the     6     (one) in Putian run by an individual and free to the public. The delicately made wood carving works by Lin     7     (shine) at a BRICS summit (峰会) several years ago, and meanwhile, the Chinese-style antique furniture pieces that are made by Chen     8     (show) at many international exhibitions over the past few years.

Putian city is home     9     over 2,600 wood carving companies, and the wood carving works     10     (create) there were sold to more than 20 countries and regions around the world last year.

3 . The summer after my freshman year college, I had to get my first job. This was probably one of the _________ tasks I have ever had to do. I had never held a job when I was in high school because my parents wanted me to put all my _________ into my studies.

At first, it was very hard. I filled out dozens of _________ but got no calls back in the first two weeks. It made sense because I had _________ no job experience. All I could _________ was that being a high school graduate and a year of college.

However, halfway through the third week, I finally got a call back from one of the places I _________. We had set up a meeting time, and after my _________, I was more than ready to start working the following Monday. I was _________ at the chance of working for my wages.

When I started, it was very clear that I was not _________. I made mistakes with orders and often __________ sales promotions (推销). My parents made a bet I would not __________ the first two weeks, and I would be back looking for more __________. However, I stuck with it.

After working a while, I got better at orders, and always __________ the cheaper options for customers. A couple of weeks later, I had been told by the manager that I had __________ the award of the best employee of the month. It taught me a lot about responsibility and gave me the __________ of working.

1.

A．funniest

B．worst

C．hardest

D．lightest

2.

A．energy

B．motivation

C．wisdom

D．ambition

3.

A．questionnaires

B．surveys

C．certifications

D．applications

4.

A．exactly

B．absolutely

C．partly

D．doubtfully

5.

A．explain

B．claim

C．interpret

D．offer

6.

A．signed up

B．applied to

C．checked in

D．headed for

7.

A．interview

B．graduation

C．arrangement

D．performance

8.

A．surprised

B．disappointed

C．excited

D．worried

9.

A．skilled

B．frightened

C．patient

D．satisfied

10.

A．avoided

B．abandoned

C．postponed

D．forgot

11.

A．spend

B．last

C．continue

D．wait

12.

A．ideas

B．expectations

C．jobs

D．instructions

13.

A．sold

B．produced

C．kept

D．recommended

14.

A．confirmed

B．received

C．guaranteed

D．become

15.

A．confidence

B．importance

C．expectation

D．hope

4 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. Why is the man giving the woman the information?

A．They had a conversation on this topic before.

B．She is reading books on this subject.

C．He is giving her tasks.

2. What is probably the function of endorphins (内啡肽)?

A．To clear harmful chemicals.

B．To remind people of injuries.

C．To produce pleasant feelings.

3. Which part of personal development has the woman focused on?

A．Diet.

B．Sleep.

C．Physical exercise.

4. What may the woman do next?

A．Purchase a pet.

B．Enjoy meaningful moments with her family.

C．Visit friends and have dinner with them.

5 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What instrument did the speaker play when she was young?

A．The piano.

B．The guitar

C．The violin

2. Where is the theater located?

A．In London.

B．In Sydney

C．In New York

3. Why is winning this competition important to the listeners?

A．They’ll meet famous performers.

B．They’ll have a brighter future.

C．They’ll get a chance to travel the world.

4. How many hours will the performances last?

A．Three.

B．Four.

C．Seven.

6 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. Who did Sam go to the fashion show with?

A．A family member.

B．Some friends.

C．A designer.

2. Which show did Emma miss?

A．The sports clothes show.

B．The children’s fashion show.

C．The costume show.

3. Who disliked the sports clothes show?

A．Sam and Anna.

B．Sam and Melissa.

C．Emma and Anna.

7 . The next generation of scientists and inventors is already finding approaches to address society’s problems. A group of high school students and their instructor report a solution to the problem of lead (铅) pollution in drinking water — an inexpensive faucet (水龙头) attachment that removes this poisonous metal. Unlike conventional filters currently on the market, theirs includes a container made of eco-friendly plastic and indicates when it’s “used up” by turning the tap water yellow.

“A few years ago, I saw a video of a woman in Michigan turn on her tap water, and it came out brown.” says Rebecca Bushway, the project’s principal investigator. “That made me think — because there’s really no safe level of lead in drinking water, wouldn’t it be nice to have a water filter that could tell you your water is polluted, well before it turns brown because of lead?”

Bushway, as a science teacher, wondered aloud to her chemistry class if there was a little filter that they could make from inexpensive components to easily remove lead. The students were excited about the idea, and they started thinking about the project in 2020.

The students discussed designs for an attachment to screw (用螺丝固定) a filter onto a sink’s faucet. Then in the spring semester of 2021, they 3D printed the attachment and a 3-inch-tall filter housing, using eco-friendly plastic. They filled the containers with some chemical powder. Next, the students added a tiny spectrophotometer (分光光度计) with a single-wavelength LED to the bottom of the filter container. They installed an indicator light that turns on as soon as the detector identifies the yellow color of the lead iodide (碘化铅).

The team’s goal is to make and sell their filters for less than $1 each. Because the housings use eco-friendly plastic, the cost could trend a little higher, but the material would help reduce the overall environmental impact of the filter.

The process of developing the filter has been very fulfilling. “Ultimately, this experience has shown students they can make a difference to somebody, and that there are problems they can fix with science,” said Bushway.

1. What shows that the filter is running out according to the text?

A．The change of the water’s color.	B．The change of the filter housing’s color.
C．The times of the filter being used.	D．The flash of the indicator light.

2. What inspired Bushway to remove lead in the water?

A．Her personal experience in Michigan.	B．The unsafe water used by a woman.
C．A lack of safe drinking water.	D．The experiments carried out in her class.

3. What can be inferred from paragraphs 4 and 5?

A．Chemical powder reacts with the lead in the water.

B．A detector is fixed to identify the lead iodide.

C．The students have developed eco-friendly plastic.

D．The filter has an advantage over others in price.

4. What is the author’s purpose in writing this passage?

A．To advertise a product to remove lead to readers.

B．To highlight the hardships the inventors encounter.

C．To praise the young for shouldering responsibilities.

D．To stress the importance of environmental protection.

8 . Do you have plastic bottles at home? Did you throw empty plastic bottles into the trash, just because you didn’t know how to use them? However, there are many interesting things you can do with empty plastic bottles!     1    

●Spray for your garden.     2     Then adjust the rubber bracelet to the mouth of the bottle, and make sure the plastic bottle mouth neatly fits through the hole in the lid. When everything is ready, you will have a spray bottle for your garden!

●Separate eggs. Do you find it challenging to separate eggs? In some recipes, you just need the yolks (蛋黄) or the whites, but the process is a bit complicated.     3     Break the egg into a bowl. Remove the lid from the bottle and pinch a little. Then continue the pressure, put the ends into the yolks and stop the pressure. In this way, the yolks will be absorbed into the bottle while the whites will remain on the plate.

    4     When making biscuits, you may need tools to cut them. Plastic bottles will do again. Making a homemade biscuit cutter from plastic bottles is the best way to reuse plastic bottles, as you never know the situation when you need to use it. You just need a small or a large plastic bottle depending on your needs.     5     And then take one of two sections to cut the biscuits.

A．Cut off the biscuits.

B．Make biscuits easily.

C．Cut the bottle into half.

D．So next time take advantage of them.

E．Use bottles to kill garden pests effectively.

F．Don’t worry, and you can solve this problem with a plastic bottle.

G．For this trick, you only need to drill a few holes in a plastic bottle.

9 . A Hollywood-quality movie may soon be only a few text prompts away. OpenAI last week revealed its latest, world-shocking technology: a text-to-video app called Sora that can produce photorealistic short videos lasting up to a minute.

The company hasn’t released Sora to the public yet, but the artificially generated videos it created for its demonstration were stunning. In one, the detailed prompt involves people walking through Tokyo while cherry blossoms are flying through the wind. The resulting video was a mind-blowing exercise in world-building, showing a couple walking in a detailed streetscape that is unmistakably Tokyo. Perhaps even more awe-inspiring is that Sora does not merely produce videos that fulfill the demands of the prompts. It improvises (即兴创作) in a way that suggests a talent for storytelling.

“Good grief,” said Loz Blain in New Atlas. “We’d better try to deal with the speed at which this technology is advancing. The wheel, the steam engine, the airplane, the computer, the Internet... None of them ever sped up like this. If you look closely, you can’t tell that these very short videos aren’t real. But it’s impossible to say whether this technology is nearly as good as it’s going to get. Videos made a year ago, using the AI tool Midjourney, couldn’t even display the correct number of fingers on a hand. But Sora now creates a world as you describe. Get ready for the next wave of ‘AI disruption (颠覆)’ as Sora shakes the entertainment industry.”

Yet costs are increasing, too. Estimates of the cost of building out AI systems have varied from hundreds of billions to 7 trillion dollars over the coming years. Where’s the money going to come from? With OpenAI’s current valuation approaching $100 billion, traditional investors are largely priced out. Governments may be one possible solution, but many are likely to have national security concerns about backing this technology.

Such concerns are well founded. It’s simply impossible to know how these systems will be misused until they’re out in the wild. While OpenAI has the ability to prevent violent pictures, disinformation is much harder to police. Faked videos could so w confusion and chaos. At the very least, OpenAI should wait until after November to bring Sora to the public.

1. Why does the author mention the resulting video in paragraph 2?

A．To show Sora has a better gift for writing stories.

B．To show Sora has the potential to create great videos.

C．To show the video is as good as a Hollywood-quality one.

D．To show the video is a stunning result of human wisdom.

2. What is Loz Blain’s attitude towards the future of Sora?

A．Dismissive.

B．Unclear.

C．Optimistic.

D．Objective.

3. What can be inferred about the technology from the last two paragraphs?

A．It is bound to cause confusion and chaos.

B．Traditional investment in it is a possible option.

C．Governments are doubtful about its development.

D．Possible problems related to its use remain to be seen.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Sora: a Rising Star of Video-Making	B．Sora: an Admirable Genius at Storytelling
C．Sora: a Troublemaker of Public Safety	D．Sora: a Potential Promoter of Film Industry

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

In Texas, a concerned father named Bradley learned that his 17-year-old son, Brad, was causing trouble at school. It wasn’t just a one-time occurrence; Brad’s physics teacher had complained multiple times about his constant talking during class. As a result, Bradley was faced with the challenge of finding an effective way to discipline his son and teach him a valuable lesson.

In a moment of inspiration, Bradley came up with an idea that parents around the world would later praise him for. He decided to teach his son a lesson. He declared, “If we receive another call from your physics teacher, I will go to your school and sit beside you in class.”

However, Brad didn’t take his father’s words seriously and continued his loose conduct in his physics class. And his father received another call from the teacher, and now it was time for the father to keep his promise.

Friday arrived, and Bradley, who normally had this day off from work, was awakened by his wife. He reluctantly got ready to go to his son’s school. Upon arriving at the school, he made his way to Brad’s physics classroom. The other students chatted joyfully, unaware of what was about to happen. Bra d entered the room as usual, and to his shock, he saw his father sitting by his desk. It hit him like a ton of bricks. His dad had actually come to school and was sitting right next to him in class. The once happy-go-lucky teenager was now filled with embarrassment and regret.

Throughout the class, Bradley silently observed his son’s behavior. He witnessed first-hand the disruptive comments and constant talking that had been causing so much trouble. It was clear that Brad was not taking his education seriously, and his father realized that something needed to be changed.

注意： 1.续写词数应为150个左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
After the class ended, Bradley apologized to the physics teacher for his son’s behavior.
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Later that day, when Bra d returned home, his father was already waiting for him.
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