1 . My husband made a little two-story house that mirrored our own in color and design for our Little Free Library, while I carefully selected books from our shelves. The idea resonated (引起共鸣) with us immediately — instead of loading boxes into the car for yet another used book sale, we could simply walk them to the roadside.

Fifteen or so years later, it’s safe to say that thousands of books, as well as the occasional DVDs, CDs and jigsaw puzzles have been shared through our little library. Situated on a busy street just a few blocks from a subway station, our little library sees dozens, perhaps hundreds, of passers-by each day.

Many of those who use our library do not hesitate to share their love of this neighborhood resource. One gentleman regularly stops by to pick up books for a nearby retirement home. At other times, we have received cards and gifts, including chocolates and even a personalized drawing from a local artist.

Like the people who use our library, the books that come and go reflect the broad diversity of our city. Arabic, French and Russian books are staples among the dominant English-language books. I’ve even collected favorite books of mine in languages I don’t understand, simply for the joy of adding another edition to my collection. Surprisingly, our library hasn’t dealt with our book storage problem —if anything, we now have more books than ever before.

I have heard some complaints that Little Free Libraries do not always serve the purpose of building community and may compete with our public libraries and independent bookstores. This has not been our experience. We continue to buy more books than we need and we are fiercely loyal users of the public system. Our Little Free Library has enhanced our love of reading and has connected us to a community of book lovers in the heart of our busy neighborhood.

1. Why did the author and her husband create the Little Free Library?

A．To make friends with book lovers.	B．To deal with their unwanted books.
C．To prepare for used book sales.	D．To make use of community resources.

2. What does paragraph 3 mainly talk about?

A．The multiple resources of the library.

B．People’s contributions to the library.

C．The friendships between library users.

D．The author’s impression of her neighborhood.

3. Which of the following can account for the author’s passion for the library?

A．Its superiority to public libraries.

B．Its close distance to a busy street.

C．Its success in solving book storage.

D．Its reflecting city diversity through books.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The Cozy Reading Corner: Promoting Reading

B．The Whispering Pages: Tales from a Shared Library

C．The Little Free Library: Contributing to Tighter Bonds

D．The Magic Bookshelf: Account of Neighborhood Harmony

2 . The first wave of excitement about generative artificial intelligence (AI) has cooled a little. But an entirely new industry centred on generative AI models is taking shape. Three forces will determine what it eventually looks like.

The first factor is computing power, the cost of which is forcing model-builders to become more efficient. Faced with the eye-watering costs of training and running more powerful models, for instance, OpenAI is not yet training its next big model, GPT-5, but GPT-4.5 instead, a more powerful version than its current model, GPT-4. That could give deep-pocketed competitors such as Google a chance to catch up. Its soon-to-be-released cutting-edge model, Gemini, is thought to be more powerful than OpenAI’s current version.

High computing costs have also encouraged the development of much smaller models, which are trained on specific data to do specific things. Replit, a startup, has trained a model to help developers write programs, for instance.

All these models are now fighting for data—the second force shaping the generative AI industry. The biggest, such as OpenAI’s and Google’s, are always hungry: They are trained on more than one trillion words, which amount to more than 250 English-language Wikipedias. As they grow bigger, they will get hungrier.

Generative AI’s hunger for data and computing power makes a third factor more important still: money. Many model-makers are already turning away from generative AI models for the general public, and looking instead to fee-paying businesses. OpenAI, which started life in 2015 as a non-profit venture, has been especially energetic in this regard. It has not just licensed its models to Microsoft, but is setting up tools for companies including Morgan Stanley and Salesforce.

Who will emerge victorious? Firms like OpenAI, with its vast number of users, and Google, with its deep pockets, have a clear early competitive edge. But for as long as computing power and data remain limited, the model-builder with the smartest method to process data could yet steal the lead. So, the AI craze may have cooled, but the drama is just beginning.

1. Gemini is probably more powerful than __________.

A．GPT-4

B．GPT-4.5

C．GPT-5

D．GPT-5.5

2. How is Replit trying to compete with such big companies as OpenAI?

A．By buying the latest technologies abroad.	B．By designing specialized smaller models.
C．By building bigger and smarter models.	D．By partnering with other AI companies.

3. What will be the most important factor in the next round of AI competition?

A．The number of users.	B．The depth of pockets.
C．The computing power.	D．The data-processing methods.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．What Are the Disadvantages of Big AI Models?

B．Who Will Have the Last Laugh, OpenAI or Google?

C．What Are the Determining Factors in the AI Drama?

D．How Can Startups Reduce the AI Model Training Costs?

3 . Having just finished a show in Times Square, Italian rocker Maneskin and his band learned that their Madison Square Garden show scheduled for the week was a sellout. Pleasantly surprised, Maneskin called the news very special, because it’s one of the most important places where every musician can ever dream to perform.

In an era when rock bands seem endangered and most of the top rockers came from the last century, Maneskin and his band seem to be an anomaly. Coming to public attention in 2021 after an unexpected win at the Eurovision Song Contest with their high-energy song, Zitti E Buoni, the Italian band seems to be reviving (复兴) rock music, or at least, providing a breath of hope.

“The band was born out of pure passion between four friends who met in high school,” Maneskin told reporters. “We never had the ambition to make a breakthrough in the music business as a rock band.”

Maneskin thinks that their success has something to do with the band’s experience on the streets of Rome as teenagers. “We had to get the attention of the people. So, we saw that interacting and getting close was something that really worked,” he admitted.

That is carried over to their live show, as they always break away from the main stage for a few songs to get closer to the audience. They also have brought fans onstage. The relationship between the artists and audience was intensified during their South America tours where the band was exposed to some of the most energetic audiences.

“People went crazy. They really screamed at the top of their lungs,” Maneskin laughed.

While they can easily be mistaken for rockers of a new era with their distinctive style and songs like I Wanna Be Your Slave or Supermodel, their music is strongly influenced by the rock of the 1970s and 1980s.

“We grew up listening to the rock music our parents played. When we started playing our instruments, our teachers introduced us to all the classic rock music bands of the past. It’s something that really shaped us into who we are today,” he said.

1. What does the word “anomaly” underlined in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Great success.

B．Classic combination.

C．Unusual thing.

D．Normal phenomenon.

2. What is probably the band’s secret of success according to Maneskin?

A．The interaction with audience.	B．The innovative music.
C．The high energy of the songs.	D．The special performance venues.

3. What does the author imply in paragraph 7?

A．Good rock bands are very rare nowadays.	B．A totally new era of rock music is coming.
C．The 70’s and 80’s are the rock’s best time.	D．The band has not made a big breakthrough.

4. Where is the text most probably taken from?

A．A music review.

B．A news report.

C．An advertisement.

D．A biography.

4 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. Why do white-collar workers turn to farming?

A．To get cheaper vegetables.

B．To reduce stress.

C．To learn farming skills.

2. What do Yang Rui’s kids want to do next year?

A．Buy more land.

B．Grow some rice.

C．Raise some animals.

3. What is the speaker mainly talking about?

A．A popular lifestyle.

B．A monitoring system.

C．An animal farm.