1 . I grew up in Florida, surrounded by my extended family, but we can trace our ancestry back to Texas when it still belonged to Mexico. Our language, customs and even the names my ancestors called themselves have since largely been lost to forced assimilation (同化). Yet our oral traditions, expressed through storytelling, poetry and jokes, persist.

My grandmother and mother taught me, a lovely girl, that the natural world around us has stories to tell if you listen closely. After all, language is not unique to humans. One of my earliest memories is sitting on my grandmother’s cracked concrete porch watching one of the many doves she had nursed back to health land in her raised hand after she called out to it. When dark storm clouds gathered over the half-finished roof, my mother would take a steak knife from the kitchen to the outside of the house, pointing it to the sky to cut the rain away. My friends thought it was magical how nature seemed to bend to my mother’s will.

It makes sense that I became an author. My life is built around stories. When I lived in New York and Los Angeles, I’d have to hike very far to find a piece of nature to be in—the rare tree in downtown Los Angeles, or the ginkgoes near Inwood Hill Park in New York City. Now in East Tennessee, I walk a few steps past my porch, into my garden—two small pieces of land that borders my two-story white and greenish-blue farmhouse. When I first moved here, non-native European grass blanketed the thirsty clay, red as dried blood. I dug up eight garden beds in the middle of that grass, filling them with plants native to my region: cone flowers and aromatic aster, bee balm and Virginia blue bells. I tried growing squash peppers, yellow watermelon and white eggplant but the plants languished. My land seems to want nothing but flowers. So I am trying my hand at planting zinnias, cosmos and dahlias instead.

If I am creatively blocked, I walk barefoot on the earth, no matter what the season, allowing stories to feed the roots of my entire body. If I have a plot hole I need to fix, I visit my lemon and lime basil, keeping my fingers with their sweet scents (气味).

1. What plays a role in keeping traditions alive in the author’s view?

A．A close family relationship.	B．The practice of storytelling.
C．The values of society members.	D．An atmosphere of growth.

2. What does the third paragraph mainly talk about?

A．How the author became a gardening expert.

B．How the author fed himself with stories.

C．How the author connected with nature.

D．How the author was inspired by stories.

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

A．Stood out.

B．Survived.

C．Developed.

D．Faded away.

4. What can be inferred about the author from the text?

A．She’s a very responsible person.

B．She’s a nature-loving writer.

C．She’s a passionate traveller.

D．She’s a professional gardener.

2 . Here are some musicals on Broadway.

Back to the Future

When Marty McFly finds himself transported back to 1955 in a time machine built by the eccentric scientist Doc Brown, he accidentally changes the course of history. Now he’s in a race against time to fix the present, escape the past and send himself back to the future. It’s recommended for ages 6 and up.

How to Dance in Ohio

At a group counseling center in Columbus, Ohio, seven autistic(患孤独症的) young adults prepare for a spring formal dance—a rite of passage that breaks open their routines and sets off heartbreaking encounters with love, stress, excitement, and independence. It is a story about people standing at the turning point of the next phase of their lives, facing their hopes and fears, ready to make a very big first move and dance. It’s based on the award-winning documentary.

Mother Play

Outside of D.C., Phyllis is supervising her teenage children, Carl and Martha, as they move into a new apartment. Phyllis has strong ideas about what her children need to do and how to succeed, and troubles the child faces when finding their own path. Combining flares of imaginative theatricality, surreal farce, and deep tenderness, this beautiful rollercoaster ride reveals timeless truths of love, family, and forgiveness.

I Need That

Sam doesn’t get out at all, opting instead for the safety of his house in the company of his many things. But when a notice from the government arrives alerting Sam that he must cleanup hi property or face eviction(驱逐), he’s forced to deal with what’s trash, what’s treasure, and whether we can ever know the difference between the two.

1. What can be learned about Back to the Future?

A．It is kid-friendly.	B．It is based on the history.
C．It explores the value of time.	D．It encourages people to connect more.

2. What does Mother Play focus on?

A．Parenting.	B．Family relationships.
C．Mother’s troubles.	D．Fiction and reality.

3. Which musical is adapted from true stories?

A．Back to the Future.	B．How to Dance in Ohio.
C．Mother Play.	D．I Need That.

3 . A recent research suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) could hold the potential for predicting sudden cardiac (心脏的) death and assessing an individual’s risk to potentially prevent future deaths. This development may mark a novel step towards prevention and global health strategies.

Professor Xavier Jouven, lead author of the study, said, “Sudden cardiac death, a public health burden, represents 10% to 20% of overall deaths. Predicting it is difficult, and the usual approaches fail to identify high-risk people, particularly at an individual level. We proposed a new approach.”

The scientific team employed AI to analyze medical data obtained from registries and databases in Paris, France and Seattle. They examined records of 25,000 individuals who had experienced sudden cardiac arrest and compared them with data from 70,000 people from the general population. The matching process involved age, sex and residential area. Using AI, the scientists created about 25,000 personalized health models to evaluate the data and identify individuals at high risk of sudden cardiac death. Additionally, they established a risk file for each participant in the study.

The AI analysis was able to identify people who had more than 90% of risk dying suddenly, and it can predict about more than one-fourth of all cases of sudden cardiac death. “We have been working for almost 30 years in the field of sudden cardiac death prediction. However, we did not expect to reach such a high level of accuracy,” said Jouven, who is the founder of the Paris Sudden Death Expertise Center.

Jouven added. “While doctors have efficient treatments, the use of AI is necessary to detect in a given subject a succession of medical information registered over the years. We hope that with a personalized list of risk factors, patients will be able to work with their clinicians to reduce those risk factors and ultimately decrease the potential for sudden cardiac death.”

1. What can be known about sudden cardiac death?

A．It is hard to predict and prevent.

B．Researchers still can do nothing about it.

C．It accounts for the highest percentage of all deaths.

D．Old approaches can effectively identify its high-risk people.

2. What does paragraph 3 mainly talk about concerning the research?

A．Its result.

B．Its process.

C．Its purpose.

D．Its participants.

3. How does Jouven feel about the Al analysis?

A．Worried.

B．Amazed.

C．Annoyed.

D．Disappointed.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The Biggest AI Development in 2024	B．Using AI to Stop Future Cardiac Attack
C．Improved Prediction of Death in Patients	D．Predicting Sudden Cardiac Death Using Al

4 . Jack Prelutsky is an American poet. He is known for his humorous and fantastic poetry for children, which has earned him numerous awards.

Jack Prelutsky was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1940. As a child, he did not enjoy poetry, finding it boring and pointless. Instead, Prelutsky expressed his artistry through music, taking voice and piano lessons. While Prelutsky claims he got into poetry almost by accident, he also states that he was always a poet. It just took him some time to realize his love for poetry.

Prelutsky explored quite a few options before he found his niche in poetry. He was a folk singer and guitar teacher in Greenwich Village in his late teens and early twenties. Prelutsky also held a variety of odd jobs. He worked as a furniture mover, piano mover, taxicab driver, coal shoveler, fruit picker, truck driver and photographer, among other jobs.

At the age of 23, Prelutsky decided to try illustrating. Just before presenting his illustrations to a children’s book editor, he added a few lines of poetry to the pictures. The editor told him that the illustrations were not publishable but the poems showed the talent. Over the next months and years, Prelutsky worked with the editor to create a collection of animal poems inspired by his love of the Bronx Zoo. His first book, entitled A Gopher in the Garden and Other Animal Poems, was published in 1967.

In addition to writing, Prelutsky has edited various poetry collections and translated poetry from German and Swedish into English. He currently resides in Seattle, where he writes and performs his work. Prelutsky is considered one of the most popular children’s poets. His work pioneered a new era of children’s poetry. In 2006, the Poetry Foundation named Jack Prelutsky the first Children’s Poet Laureate, a position designed to promote poetry for children and raise awareness of the power and relevance of poetry for young people.

1. Why did Prelutsky dislike poetry in his early years?

A．It was too difficult.	B．He wasn’t good at it.
C．He thought it meaningless.	D．It took up too much of his time.

2. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “niche” in paragraph 3?

A．Mistake.

B．Dream

C．Comprehension.

D．Interest.

3. How old was Prelutsky when he published his first book?

A．23.

B．27.

C．40.

D．66.

4. What is the purpose of the text?

A．To introduce a poet.	B．To attract poetry lovers.
C．To display some excellent poems.	D．To encourage readers to write poems.

5 . Traditionally, people have been forced to reduce complex choices to a small handful of options that don’t do justice to their true desires. For example, in a restaurant, the limitations of the kitchen, the way supplies have to be ordered and the realities of restaurant cooking make you get a menu of a few dozen standardized options, with the possibility of some modifications (修改) around the edges. We are so used to these bottlenecks that we don’t even notice them. And when we do, we tend to assume they are the unavoidable cost of scale (规模) and efficiency. And they are. Or, at least, they were.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to overcome this limitation. By storing rich representations of people’s preferences and histories on the demand side, along with equally rich representations of capabilities, costs and creative possibilities on the supply side, AI systems enable complex customization at large scale and low cost. Imagine walking into a restaurant and knowing that the kitchen has already started working on a meal optimized (优化) for your tastes, or being presented with a personalized list of choices.

There have been some early attempts at this. People have used ChatGPT to design meals based on dietary restrictions and what they have in the fridge. It’s still early days for these technologies, but once they get working, the possibilities are nearly endless.

Recommendation systems for digital media have reduced their reliance on traditional intermediaries. Radio stations are like menu items: Regardless of how nuanced (微妙) your taste in music is, you have to pick from a handful of options. Early digital platforms were only a little better: “This person likes jazz, so we’ll suggest more Jazz.” Today’s streaming platforms use listener histories and a broad set of characters describing each track to provide each user with personalized music recommendations.

A world without artificial bottlenecks comes with risks — loss of jobs in the bottlenecks, for example — but italso has the potential to free people from the straightjackets that have long limited large-scale human decision-’making. In some cases — restaurants, for example — the effect on most people might be minor. But in others, likepolitics and hiring, the effects could be great.

1. What does the underlined word “bottlenecks” in paragraph 1 refer to?

A．Facing too many choices.	B．Choosing from limited options.
C．Avoiding the cost of choosing.	D．Having too many desires to satisfy.

2. How can AI meet everyone’s needs?

A．By meeting both ends of supply and demand.

B．By decreasing representations on the supply side.

C．By disconnecting the sides of supply and demand.

D．By reducing people’s preferences on the demand side.

3. What’s the similarity between radio stations and menu items?

A．They are a necessary part in people’s life.	B．They offer limited choices.
C．They depend on digital platforms.	D．They provide reasonable suggestions.

4. What does the text mainly talk about?

A．The variety of human’s choices.	B．Standardized optrarts in daily life.
C．AI settlements to the option bottlenecks.	D．Recommendation systems for digital media.

6 . A sugar replacement called erythritol (赤藓糖醇) has been linked to blood clotting (血液凝固), stroke, heart attack and death, according to a new study.

“The degree of risk was not modest,” said lead study author Dr. Stanley Hazen. People with existing risk factors for heart disease will be twice as likely to experience the risk if they have the highest levels of erythritol in their blood. Erythritol appears to be causing blood platelets (血小板) to clot more readily. Clots can break off and travel to the heart or the brain, causing a heart attack or a stroke.

Erythritol is a sugar alcohol, a carb found naturally in many fruits and vegetables. However, artificially manufactured in massive quantities, erythritol has become an extremely popular additive to low-carb products.

The discovery of the connection between erythritol and cardiovascular issues was purely accidental. Hazen’s research had a simple goal: find unknown chemicals or compounds in a person’s blood. To do so, the team analyzed 1,157 blood samples. “We found this substance that seemed to play a big role, but we didn’t know it was erythritol, a sweetener until later,” said Hazen. To confirm the findings, the team tested another two batches of blood samples and found that higher levels of erythritol were connected to a greater risk of heart attack, stroke or death within three years.

“This certainly sounds an alarm,” said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of a hospital inDenver. “Science needs to take a deeper div e into erythritol and in a hurry, because this substance is widely available right now. If it’s harmful, we should know about it.”

Hazen agreed,“I normally don’t get up on a pedestal (崇高地位) and sound the alarm, but this is something that I think we need to be looking at carefully.”

1. About the risk, what does Hazen’s word in paragraph 2 mean?

A．It is not worth considering.	B．It is removed by erythritol.
C．It should not be underestimated.	D．It is just present in people with disease.

2. What do we know about erythritol?

A．Its quality is uncertain.	B．It has been used widely in food.
C．It is manufactured by artists.	D．It mainly exists in fruits.

3. What can be concluded from the last two paragraphs?

A．Erythritol is not available to people.

B．Hazen likes warning people about potential dangers.

C．People have realized that erythritol is dangerous.

D．Further research should be done on erythritol.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．The Accidental Discovery of a New Sweetener

B．The Potential Health Risks of Erythritol Uncovered

C．The Rise of Erythritol as a Popular Sugar Substitute

D．The Surprising Benefits of Erythritol in Diet Products

7 . Climate change is causing more areas to turn into deserts. This issue is affecting the lives of 250 million people as land that used to be good for farming becomes dry and unproductive. Around one-third of the world’s land is impacted, including regions in Africa, southern Europe, Asia and America.

Sand to Green is a Moroccan company that can transform a patch of desert into a sustainable (可持续的) and profitable plantation in five years, according to Wissal Ben Moussa, its co-founder and chief agricultural officer. The solution is using agroforestry (农林业)to create a new kind of agriculture that is sustainable and that can be resilient (有适应力的) in front of climate change.

The system can be set up close to any source of salty water, which Sand to Green cleans using energy from the sun. It then grows different types of fruit trees and plants together in the same area—a method called mixed planting—and waters the plants’ roots directly with the cleaned water, to reduce water loss to the air. The soil is regenerated using what Sand to Green calls “green manure”, a mixture that includes compost, biochar(生物炭)and microorganisms that help the soil “wake up”. Biochar is a form of charcoal that can help dry soil hold on to water.

In a five-hectare trial in southern Morocco that’s been running since 2017, Sand to Green has tried out a variety of plants in search of the best performers. Among the intercropping herbs (草本植物) that have been successfully trialed are rosemary, geranium, vetiver and citronella, which Ben Moussa describes as “very low-maintenance and very high-profit”.

Sand to Green is now working to scale up to a 20-hectare commercial site, also in southern Morocco. It says a site of that size would cost around $475,000 to set up and would start bringing financial returns in about five years.

According to Ben Moussa, with this system they create biodiversity, which means better soil, healthier crops and a bigger yield. The plantation can generate 1.5 times more yield, thus making more money than a farm that grows only one type of crop in the same space.

1. What phenomenon does the author describe in paragraph 1?

A．Deforestation.	B．Desertification.
C．Global warming.	D．Urbanization.

2. Why did Sand to Green use agroforestry?

A．To preserve the crop’s survival rate.

B．To protect water from pollution.

C．To make a new type of soil.

D．To help people adapt to climate change.

3. What can we learn about Sand to Green?

A．It aims to plant more trees.

B．It earns a good reputation.

C．It develops new plants.

D．It produces good results.

4. What does the underlined phrase “scale up” mean in paragraph 5?

A．Expand.

B．Object.

C．Refer.

D．Prefer.

8 . My family visited the coastal town of St. Pete Beach. Florida. With its pretty sandy beaches, deep blue waters and year-round sunshine, it’s clear to see why St. Pete is a popular tourist destination among travelers from around the world.

Just a few feet from our apartment, we found ourselves walking on white sand towards the bright blue ocean. We were soon greeted by a man offering us the use of one of his luxury beach cabanas (小屋) for the day at a very reasonable price and settled into a full day of relaxation. The peaceful atmosphere was a true escape from the hustle and bustle (喧嚣) of the city. It was so easy to while away the days from morning until dusk, enjoying the warmth of the sun’s rays and getting lost in a good book, before taking a quick swim in the calm waters to cool off.

Once the sun set, there was a various range of bars and restaurants to choose from just a few steps away. The warm evening atmosphere was peppered with the mouthwatering smell of sizzling freshly-caught fish. The only hardship was trying to decide where to dine each evening with so many tasty options!

After a while, we began to desire a bit more adventure on our trip which, to our delight, we discovered was easy to come by. On one of our outings, we took a boat trip to the undisturbed island of Egmont Key State Park. There we explored the ruins of a military outpost built in 1898 and a 150-year-old working lighthouse. The island is also a protected wildlife reserve. On our return journey, we were excited to discover we were being followed by over a dozen dolphins, who were taking turns to leap out of the water playfully in the wake of our boat.

1. What made the author’s family select St. Pete Beach as the destination?

A．Water sports.	B．The city’s busy nightlife.
C．Some historical buildings.	D．The beautiful beach and weather.

2. Why did the family decide to spend a day in a beach cabana?

A．Because of some fun activities.

B．Because of a cost-effective offer.

C．Because of near historical landmarks.

D．Because of the distance of it from their apartment.

3. What troubled the author’s family when they chose a place to eat?

A．Friendly atmosphere in each restaurant.

B．High prices in most restaurants.

C．Diverse choices available.

D．Family members’ preferences for food.

4. What added excitement to the family’s return boat trip?

A．The presence of a wildlife expert in the boat.

B．Dolphins following and playing around the boat.

C．The discovery of hidden treasures on the boat.

D．A surprising visit from some local residents.

9 . When people respect you, they see you in a very positive light. They admire you for your qualities that can be quite inspirational for people. Respectful people are patient and very calm.     1     — they take their time to form opinions and come to a decision that is good for all. Respectful people also have an air of authority and can command a room full of people only with their voice. Here are some of the behaviors of respectful people.

Active listening

Respectful people listen actively to others.    2    . They don’t interrupt the person by asking questions to show that they are focused and interested in what the other person is saying.

Empathy

They are highly empathetic. They put themselves in other people’s shoes. They are considerate of people’s situations. They show kindness and are understanding towards others.    3    .

Reliability

    4    . They are very reliable. They keep their promises and follow through on their commitments. They can be counted on to do what they say they will do. They are ever ready to help people.

    5    

These people communicate in a respectful manner. They are polite even when they disagree with someone. They avoid using critical language and focus on finding common ground with others. They try to find a solution to problems in a very analytical manner.

A．Inner confidence

B．Respectful communication

C．They don’t judge people quickly

D．This alone will not change the views others have of you

E．This is the second feature that makes them well respected among others

F．They are fully present at the moment and give their full attention to the speaker

G．People can depend on these kinds of people without fearing they will leave them

10 . 假定你是李华，随着科技的发展，机器人将成为人们生活中的一部分，为了让同学们更好地了解机器人，你校决定举行主题为“The Development and Application of Robots”的演讲比赛。你有意向参加，请你用英语写一篇演讲稿，内容包括：
1. 机器人的发展；
2. 机器人的应用。
注意：1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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