1 . Cows love having an open area of grassland. But in some parts of the world, this is only feasible during the summer. In the winter months, it can become too cold for cows to safely stay outside, so they are kept in a large farm building for warmth. Being kept inside is not always enjoyable for the cows, and their unhappiness is closely connected to less milk production.

For this reason, some cow owners have fitted their cows with VR headsets that run a program specially. The program simulates (模 拟) grassland in summer and was designed for the way that cows get color and light. According to the National Library of Medicine, cows see red most easily but have a hard time telling the difference between blue and green.

Reports from a farm in Moscow, Russia — where the VR headsets were first developed by vets — found in 2019 that the cows that used the VR headsets saw a decrease in anxiety and an improved mood. This led to an increase in milk production, which went from 5.8 gallons to 7 gallons a day.

The cow owner Izzet Kocak from Aksaray, Turkey, heard about this experiment and tried the VR headsets on his cows in December 2021. When Kocak put the headsets on his cows, he found an improvement in the moods of his animals. “They are watching an area of grassland, and it helps lift their spirits. They are less stressed,” he said.

The technology is now being used around the world. According to the BBC, the headsets were made specifically for the“ structural features of cow heads” by vets, and the animals were shown a “unique summer field simulation program”. The familiar sight of an area of grassland is enough to improve the mood of the animals

Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation says that research has shown a connection between a cow’s mood and its milk production. They said, “Examples of dairy farms from different countries show that in a calm atmosphere, the amount of milk increases greatly.”

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

A．Influential.	B．Possible.
C．Necessary.	D．Meaningful.

2. What’s the result of cows wearing the VR headsets?

A．They could tell the difference between blue and green.

B．Their milk production rose accordingly.

C．Their physical health improved greatly.

D．They could adapt to winter easily.

3. What’s Izzet Kocak’s possible attitude towards the VR headsets?

A．Satisfied.	B．Opposed.
C．Indifferent.	D．Concerned.

4. What concept is behind the VR headset program?

A．High tech is necessary in the dairy field.

B．A silent environment helps cows stay healthy.

C．Natural grassland is better for the milk quality.

D．A cow with good moods can produce more milk.

2 . Our friends Nick and Carol moved to Australia in 2017. My husband and I finally saved up enough money to visit them in Sydney.

From the very first day, I had this feeling that here was a place where I could imagine fitting in. We had left England in the cold and rain, and arrived to find Sydney warm and sunny. We spent our days relaxing on the beach, or going into the city to explore.     1     Going back home to England after our trip was really hard. That winter felt very long and cold, and all I could think of was the warm sunshine and big open spaces of Australia. In England, we both worked long hours to afford to live in our little house.     2     When I thought of Nick and Carol’s spacious house in Sydney, and how they both walked to their jobs each morning, I kept thinking to myself, “I want to be there!”

Slowly, we started talking about the idea of moving to Australia. We’d had enough of short, cold, wet days and small houses in England. The crowds and queues of people at home were too much.     3    

Immigration (移民) to Australia is a long process and expensive. It was very exciting when our applications were finally accepted. When we arrived, and flew over the city of Perth, I saw the bright sunshine and the spacious houses and swimming pools below.     4     The ocean was shining blue. It felt right. It felt like home.

There are things I miss about England of course, but I do enjoy all the space in Australia, and the relaxed outdoors lifestyle.     5     To visit, definitely — but not to live. Australia feels like home now.

A．It was time for a change.

B．I saw forests and countryside, too.

C．Will we be going back to England?

D．We had hour-long journeys by car to get to work.

E．We would just step outside into the garden and swim in the pool.

F．In the evening, we’d have a barbecue in Nick and Carol’s garden.

G．The only thing I was concerned about was missing English culture.

3 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. Where does the speaker have breakfast if the weather is fine?

A．In the garden.

B．In the kitchen.

C．In the living room.

2. When does the speaker usually go to work?

A．At 2:00 p.m.

B．At 6:00 p.m.

C．At 6:30 p.m.

3. How does the speaker usually go home from the restaurant?

A．By bus.

B．By taxi.

C．By train.

4. What do we know about the speaker?

A．She is a violinist.

B．She often eats alone after work.

C．She often reads the newspaper at night.

4 . What is in the man’s bag?

A．Some CDs.

B．Some bottles.

C．Some books.

5 . Our list of summer programs and camps has something for every teenager. It’s time for teenagers explore and comment the great opportunities available on college campuses, nationwide, and overseas.

California College of the Arts’ Pre-College Program

San Francisco, CA

At this week- long program, you’ll join a wide range of groups of creative thinkers and makers “share your passion for art and design. You’ll take college-level courses while earning 3 college credits.

Juniper Young Writers

Amherst, MA

We look for writers whose work shows curiosity and risk-taking, and who are eager to experiment with forms and ideas new to them, in the company of their creative peers. We offer teen poets and writers a self-directed journey into a week of the wild invention. Working independently, participants will gain insight into the creative writing process.

World Virtual Writing Camps

Virtual, Online

Open to teens aged 13-19, World Virtual Writing Camps invite writers to explore new types of literature and learn from famous authors, editors, and educators as they work to share their writing with the world. We welcome you to join our week-long writing camps!

Penn Arts and Sciences Summer High School Programs

Philadelphia, PA

We welcome bright and ambitious high school students from around the world to the Ivy League (常春藤联盟). The program delivers the challenge of an Ivy League course to talented high school students seeking advanced studies. Students can engage with leading professors during the six-week programs.

1. What’s the extra benefit of the California College of the Arts’ Pre-College Program?

A．Free courses.	B．Passion for art.
C．College credits.	D．Journeys of inventions.

2. What do Juniper Young Writers and World Virtual Writing Camps have in common?

A．They are about writing.

B．They require teamwork.

C．They provide a chance to publish works.

D．They provide outdoor adventure experiences.

3. What can students do in the program in Philadelphia?

A．Experience colorful campus life.

B．Meet famous artists and scientists.

C．Do an international writing tour.

D．Take advanced-level courses.

6 . Playing with my 5-year-old child, I sometimes wonder: Why are her made-up games so terribly boring? In Learning to Imagine, psychologist Andrew Shtulman thinks it untrue that kids are uncontrolled wellsprings of imagination. On the contrary, the more we learn, the more imaginative we can become, and learning will not hold back imaginative ideas. Kids, he argues, fail to imagine obvious possibilities.

To gather evidence for this argument, Shtulman explores mechanisms (机制) for expanding imagination. Without support of others or new tools and technologies, people may reject reasonable ideas out of hand, he maintains. Lord Kelvin, for instance, famously denied the possibility of “heavier-than-air flying machines” less than 10 years before the Wright brothers created one. Abstract principles, like those so influential in science and ethics (伦理学), also boost imagination. Finally, imagination grows through exploring alternative models of the world, as in plays, fiction and so on. Across all of these examples, expanding imagination requires building closely on what people already know.

Perhaps counterintuitively (反直觉地), kids relate best to realistic stories. For instance, Walt Disney’s earliest cartoons were disorganized and strange. Only when the cartoons became “reasonably impossible” did they gain mass appeal. Many fictional worlds, from Middle Earth to Hogwarts, rely on reasonable impossibility.

Shtulman cleverly and precisely sails this vast, attractive sea. Learning to Imagine never drags or makes me get stuck on professional words. I wish, however, that there had been more focus on what these findings mean. If education does not hinder imagination, how do we develop it? Shtulman advises us to “engage with, and learn from, the collective knowledge of other people”. AI programs like GPT take that approach, educating themselves on massive data sets.

“Be like GPT” is not the most heartening message. But while humans cannot learn large amounts of data quickly and easily like AI, human imagination is shared and cooperative. That, at least, is something all of us—5-year-olds and their dads alike-have over the chatbots.

1. What’s the misunderstanding about imagination according to Shtulman?

A．It’s an inborn ability.	B．It helps broaden the mind.
C．Children are full of it.	D．Inventions are based on it.

2. What does expanding imagination depend on?

A．Known information.	B．Realistic principles.
C．Gradual exploration.	D．Supportable arguments.

3. What does the underlined word “hinder” mean in paragraph 4?

A．Improve.

B．Prevent.

C．Stress.

D．Dismiss.

4. What is the text?

A．A research report.	B．A personal diary.
C．A children’s story.	D．A book review.

7 . As China’s cities grow, they are also sinking. An estimated 16 percent of the country’s major cities are losing more than 10 millimeters of height per year and nearly half are losing more than 3 millimeters per year, according to a new study published in the journal Science.

“Land subsidence (下沉) is a problem that almost exists everywhere,” said Robert Nicholls, a climate scientist and civil engineer at the University of East Anglia who reviewed the paper, “To my knowledge, this study is the first to measure land subsidence across many urban areas using state-of-the-art radar (雷达) data from satellites. I believe the majority of the adaptation strategies that we have, and the plans to fight climate change, are inaccurate, just because they did not include land subsidence. Land subsidence is an unheeded problem. It hasn’t been studied the way, for example, sea level rise has been studied.”

The new study was based on satellite radar measurements of how much the ground surface in 82 major cities, accounting for three-quarters of the urban population, moved up or down between 2015 and 2022. The researchers compared these measurements to data on potential contributing factors. Subsidence in these cities is caused in part by the pure weight of buildings, the study found. Groundwater extraction (开采) underneath the cities also plays a role, as do oil drilling and coal mining. These activities leave empty space underground where soil and rocks can press together or collapse.

Being below sea level doesn’t mean a city is automatically destroyed. Much of the Netherlands is below sea level and sinking, but the country has been extensively engineered to prevent flooding in places and to accommodate it in others. Shanghai is already limiting groundwater extraction and is sinking more slowly than other cities. In Japan, groundwater management over the years has proved successful. “It’s difficult to stop subsidence entirely,” Dr. Nicholls said, “You’ve got to live with what’s left. “

1. What do the figures in paragraph 1 imply?

A．Cities grow at an alarming speed.	B．Cities face fierce climate change.
C．Land subsidence is under control.	D．Land subsidence is an urgent issue.

2. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “unheeded” in paragraph 2?

A．Ignored.

B．Identified.

C．Undefined.

D．Overestimated.

3. What may contribute to land subsidence in cities according to the passage?

A．Energy extraction.	B．Overuse of farmland.
C．Population expansion.	D．Uneven distribution of water.

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．City planning calls for joint efforts.

B．Groundwater is to blame for land sinking.

C．Measures can be taken to ease subsidence.

D．Flooding prevention deserves further research.

8 . 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。

An exhibition titled “Learn from the Past and Know the Future: China’s Archaeological (考古学的) Achievements in the New Era” is taking place at the National Museum of China. Nearly 400 of the most recently     1     (unearth) cultural relics from the collections of 43 museums and archaeological institutions are     2     (current) on display.

The exhibits cover a wide range of periods     3     include a variety of fields. The exhibition vividly describes the history of human origins, the     4     (form) of Chinese civilization and its development within the boundaries of China. One striking part of the exhibition is the hand axes (斧),     5     are fundamental tools that were created and used by early humans. They are characterized by both their aesthetic (美学的) and practical     6     (function). Bronzeware is another eye-catching part of the exhibition. A bronze box     7     Yuncheng, Shanxi Province that     8     (date) back to the Spring and Autumn period is famous for its elegant design. And a string-patterned stove vividly reflects the significant role that the Silk Road played in     9     (connect) China with the world.

It is also worth noting that the design of the exhibition hall was inspired by the unique spatial (空间的) structures of the archaeological sites, offering audiences the chance     10     (understand) the relationship between archaeological work and its outcomes better.

9 . Sustainable travel is now one of the fastest-growing movements. Its goal is to meet the needs of the tourism industry without harming natural and cultural environments.     1     Here are some concrete ways to reduce your environmental impact as a traveler.

    2     Travel doesn’t have to be about going somewhere far away. It’s the art of exploration, discovery and getting out of your comfort zone, all of which can just as well be nearby. Find somewhere nearby you haven’t been, get in your car, and go for a visit. You never know what you’ll come across.

Make greener transportation choices. After walking, public transportation is the next best way to explore new destinations.     3     When it comes to longer distances, buses and trains are your best way of getting around, both of which can be quite an experience in and of itself.

Avoid over-visited destinations. If you can, avoid places with over-tourism. You’ll find fewer crowds and lower prices, and you also won’t be putting as much pressure on local communities struggling to keep up. And, from a personal-enjoyment point of view, who wants to deal with crowds or long lines? No one.     4    

Take a nature-related trip. If you want to better understand and appreciate the natural world, try taking a trip with the single purpose of connecting with nature.     5     I promise that when you come home, you’ll have a new viewpoint on why we’re all so focused on being environmentally friendly these days.

A．Stay close to home.

B．Find an ideal place to explore.

C．Sustainable travel can be useful to support communities.

D．Not only is it better for the environment, but it’s cheaper as well.

E．Get in touch with the world in a way that sitting at home doesn’t.

F．If not managed properly, tourism can have incredibly negative impacts.

G．Visiting less-visited destinations can be much more enjoyable and rewarding.

10 . Is diet soda safe? If you’re concerned about sugar, diet products seem a better option, sweet and not so bad for you. Wrong! Drinking diet soda regularly can increase your risk of diseases. Despite the fact that we call these drinks “diet”, the artificial sweeteners they contain are linked to weight gain, not loss.

There’s the latest evidence that they increase the risk of depression, which comes from a new analysis by researchers at Harvard Medical School. The team drew upon a data set of nearly 32,000 female nurses, ages 42 to 62 when the study began. It turned out that the nurses who consumed the most diet drinks had a 37 percent higher chance of depression, compared to those who drank the least or none.

Diet soda also increases your risk of stroke (中风), according to a separate meta-analysis that included 72 studies. Looking for the causes behind the stroke, researchers took various blood measurements when 12 healthy volunteers in their 20s drank water, soda, or diet soda. The result showed that both sodas slowed the flow of blood within the brain. Though the effect didn’t seem sufficient to cause stroke, slower blood flow could have accumulating effects.

Other researchers have found that diet soda increases the risk of dementia (痴呆), from data from nearly 178,000 volunteers tracked over an average of nine years. That’s not a big surprise. An earlier study of about 4,300 volunteers concluded that drinking diet soda every day was tied to three times the risk of dementia over the following decade. The researchers looked at brain scans and the results of mental function assessments. A daily diet soda was linked to smaller brains and aggravates long-term memory, two risk factors for dementia.

Avoiding depression, stroke, and dementia is an obvious goal for whoever desires to age healthily. So you know what to do.

1. How does the author present his point of view?

A．By analyzing causes.	B．By giving opinions.
C．By quoting specialists.	D．By presenting research.

2. What effect might diet soda have on people?

A．Slight weight loss.	B．Increased blood flow.
C．Raised depression risk.	D．Severe mental decline.

3. Which can best replace the underlined word “aggravates” in paragraph 4?

A．Deletes.

B．Worsens.

C．Motivates.

D．Stimulates.

4. What might the author advise us to do?

A．Quit consuming diet sodas.	B．Limit the daily sugar intake.
C．Set achievable health goals.	D．Follow fixed aging process.