1 . The subject of Jay Owens’s new book has long been trying to kill me. Like millions of people around the world, I am allergic to dust. I have long considered it an enemy. But Owens is out to broaden our perspective.
While each particle (微粒) of dust may be tiny, together they have outsized consequences. Approximately 2bn tons of dust are lifted into the Earth’s atmosphere each year, Owens tells us, both absorbing and reflecting the sun’s energy and seeding clouds — therefore directly affecting global temperatures and climate. Like water, dust is part of an essential ecological cycle.
Owens’s own fascination with dust started in 2015, with a road trip through California. Owens was transfixed by the story of Los Angeles, whose growth and modern existence was only possible through the systematic theft of water and the creation of a dust desert to the east.
Early in the book, Owens unpacks the history of hygiene (卫生), exploring how dirt and our relation to it has changed over centuries, and cleanliness — or the pursuit of it — defines our modern lives. After the Industrial Revolution, emerging ideas about the relationship between dirt and disease made dust something to be fought against- a responsibility that fell on women. The poorest people tended to have the least time and money to clean a house; often, their jobs were to clean the houses of others. “The history of 20th-century cleanliness is, thus, a history not only of the making of sex and class distinctions, but racialised inequalities.”
Perhaps the most emotionally stirring chapter in the book is that in which Owens retells the story of the nuclear age not through mushroom clouds, but through the radioactive dust they left behind. One study estimated that the effects of atmospheric nuclear testing would eventually result in the deaths of 2. 4 million people from cancer, a threat “that has gone substantially unnoticed because radioactive dust is such a delayed killer”.
One reason to think about dust, Owens writes in Dust, is “to challenge ourselves to try to see the world beyond our easy imaginings”.
1. What is the main idea of paragraph 2?| A．The impact of dust on temperatures. |
| B．The amount of dust in the atmosphere. |
| C．The comparison between dust and water. |
| D．The traveling course of dust around the world. |
| A．Thrilled. | B．Inspired. | C．Embarrassed. | D．Shocked. |
| A．It is a distant concern. |
| B．It carries political meanings. |
| C．It changes our relation to nature. |
| D．It is a reflection of tech advancement. |
| A．To introduce a book. | B．To support an author. |
| C．To present a phenomenon. | D．To correct misunderstandings. |
2 . Years ago, I interviewed James Patterson, an advertising manager, about the latest campaign. But all he wanted to talk about was fiction-writing. “I hope to be a writer. It is always in my head,” he said.
I remember thinking: Sure, you and everybody else.
A decade or so later, however, I was surprised to see James on TV, holding up his new book.
Mr. Patterson’s ability to see himself as a writer illustrates a concept known as “possible selves.” The term, coined in 1986 by the social psychologists Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius, grew out of research on self-concept. While self-concepts – “I am a kind person” or “I am a good parent”- are rooted in the present, the researchers found people are also informed by ideas about what they might become and how they might change.
These possible selves, both positive and negative, are closely related to motivation. A violin student who envisions life as a professional musician might be motivated to practice. A person whose feared possible self is an alcoholic may become a non-drinker. In a small study, when young adults were encouraged to envision themselves as either regular exercisers (hoped-for selves) or inactive(feared selves), both groups exercised more in the weeks afterward.
A possible self can take you beyond daydreams, which are often not necessarily grounded in reality. It can come to fruition if you build a bridge from your “now” self to the possible self. “If you’re regularly dreaming of a different career, enroll in a course, shadow someone, take up a hobby or a side job. Making the transition requires you to say now, today, this week, these are the steps I can actually take to attain the goal,” said Daphna Oyserman, a psychology professor at the University of Southern California.
But don’t quit your job just yet. An analysis of career-transition research concluded that successful reinventions require adjustments and re-evaluations as you go. Mr. Patterson, for example, wrote almost a dozen books while still at his ad agency; he found his style only after many tries.
1. Why does the author mention the interview?| A．To show his expectation. | B．To explain his surprise. |
| C．To display Patterson’s ability. | D．To introduce a concept. |
| A．It involves three aspects. |
| B．It allows for personal growth. |
| C．It ensures one a promising future. |
| D．It includes the idea of self-concept. |
| A．The idea of “now”self. |
| B．The wish for the career transition. |
| C．The importance of concrete action. |
| D．The necessity of expert-consulting. |
| A．Different writing styles. |
| B．Multiple research methods. |
| C．Patterson’s success in his advertising business. |
| D．The exploration and adaptation of job transition. |
The two kids were whispering. Their dad, Jason, could hear them, but they didn’t know that. Jason listened intently.
”…and now I can’t sleep,” he heard his daughter say. “It’s okay, Ashley. Mom and Dad are sleeping. I’ll help you,” Todd said. “Thanks,” said Ashley.
Jason silently opened his bedroom door. His wife was asleep, and he decided not to wake her up. He watched as the two slinked (溜) down the stairs. He followed, unseen, unheard. The kids went to the living room. He watched as his son, Todd, put a blanket on the floor. He watched as Todd arranged the couch pillows on the blanket, against the couch. Ashley sat on the blanket and held her favorite teddy bear.
“I’ll be right back,” whispered Todd. Jason held still as Todd went to the kitchen. He quietly watched as Todd carefully made two peanut butter and jelly-sandwiches. And he watched as Todd went back to the living room and sweetly handed his sister a sandwich. Ashley gave Todd a smile. Jason wondered what show the kids would watch on television so late at night. He decided to find out before making his presence known. He did not expect to see what he saw next.
Ashley turned on a small flashlight. Todd picked up a book that Jason hadn’t noticed before. One of the two had carried it downstairs. “Okay Ashley, this was one of my favorites when I was little,” said Todd. Jason smiled in his hiding place in the dark. Todd was only nine. He watched, unable and not wanting to look away, Todd read in a voice just above a whisper while Ashley sat and listened and very quietly chewed. Her head rested on her brother’s shoulder, and she looked so peaceful. Could these really be the same children who had been fighting only a few hours earlier?
Todd read another book, which Jason had also not seen earlier. Then Todd said, “That’s all we can do, Ashley. My teacher said we have to get at least eight hours of sleep. Give me a second to eat my sandwich, okay?”
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。
Jason saw the brother was making sure that he did what his teacher said.
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Jason went quietly into his room and opened his journal.
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4 . Kevin Hyde, who has been sailing his whole life, recently invited Joe DiTommasso to Florida on his sailboat. The first part of their
That’s where things went
When Kevin and Joe’s families
Floating for days with no mast, gas, or electricity, Kevin and Joe prayed for
Just when it seemed that all was lost, they got
| A．friendship | B．journey | C．life | D．day |
| A．meal | B．discussion | C．rest | D．plan |
| A．wrong | B．bad | C．wild | D．smooth |
| A．recalled | B．shouted | C．thought | D．smelled |
| A．broke away | B．broke in | C．broke out | D．broke off |
| A．reply | B．work | C．stop | D．escape |
| A．kept | B．found | C．left | D．lost |
| A．behavior | B．search | C．discover | D．invention |
| A．person | B．boat | C．direction | D．radio |
| A．rescue | B．food | C．water | D．free |
| A．lucky | B．regretful | C．excited | D．desperate |
| A．attacks | B．help | C．emails | D．letters |
| A．Luckily | B．Sorrowfully | C．Interestingly | D．Patiently |
| A．studied | B．designed | C．destroyed | D．spotted |
| A．blown | B．expanded | C．pulled | D．exported |
5 . Good note-taking can be very important to academic and professional success.
Use your own language.
Develop your own system of sighs and abbreviations that can help you more quickly take notes and review them.
Skip lines on the paper for later review. As you write your keywords and ideas down, leave space between each line.
| A．Note details at the top of your paper. |
| B．Notes can help you finish projects properly and pass tests. |
| C．Write down key facts, ideas, and details in your own words. |
| D．Summarize what you’ve written on the page in 2-4 sentences. |
| E．Think about the text you’re reading or the lecture you’re listening to. |
| F．For example, “SM” for “scientific method,” or “GH” for “gender history.” |
| G．Having extra room allows you to make additional notes that you may not understand. |
6 . Ocean water can be used to cool buildings. This idea could help cities reduce their carbon footprint and slow climate change. Although plentiful, ocean water is too salty to drink. But it could serve as an important and still largely untapped resource for many coastal cities. The idea came to Zi Zhang shortly after she moved from Michigan to Hong Kong a few years ago to get a PhD in engineering.
In 2013, Hong Kong built a system that used seawater to cool part of the city. The system pumps cold seawater into a plant with heat exchangers. The seawater absorbs heat to chill (冷却) pipes full of circulating water. That chilled water then flows into buildings to cool their rooms. This type of system tends to use far less energy than typical air conditioners. Zhang wondered: How much water and energy had this way saved Hong Kong? And why weren’t other coastal cities doing this? Zhang and her team set out for answers The group focused on Hong Kong and two other big coastal cities: Jeddah and Miami. The idea was to see what it might look like if all three adopted city-wide saltwater systems. The cities climates were quite different. But all three were densely populated, which should minimize some costs.
All three places would save lots of freshwater, the researchers found. Miami could save 16 percent of the freshwater it uses each year. Hong Kong, with more non-drinking-water needs, was saving up to 28 percent. Estimated energy savings ranged from just 3 percent in Jeddah to 11 percent in Miami. These savings came from the more efficient saltwater air conditioning. Also, the cities would need less energy to treat salty wastewater than they have been using to treat sewage now.
Though costly to build, saltwater-cooling systems could pay off in the long run for many cities. And because these systems use so much less electricity, they’re greener and emit (排放) less carbon-rich greenhouse gases. Scientists refer to this as a type of decarbonization (脱碳).
1. What is Zi Zhang’s idea about sea water in paragraph 1?| A．Using sea water to cook. |
| B．Using ocean water to cool buildings. |
| C．Using sea water to stop climate change. |
| D．Using ocean water get rid of carbon footprint. |
| A．The functions of sea water. | B．The energy use in buildings. |
| C．The purpose of Zi Zhang’s research. | D．Hong Kong’s sea water use system. |
| A．To prove Zi Zhang’s idea. | B．To attract readers’ attention. |
| C．To show the writer’s caution. | D．To explain Zi Zhang’s theory. |
| A．Objective. | B．Ignorant. | C．Doubtful. | D．Approving. |
7 . Dangerous drivers can be anywhere. Drunk, sleepy and distracted driving can sometimes end tragically, notes Jeesung Lee, 17. This rising high-school junior in South Korea attends St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju. He wondered whether AI could help warn people of such drivers. A system he’s designed can now warn drivers when other drivers near them are acting dangerously.
Jeesung’s system can find cars traveling at dangerous speeds or suddenly switching lanes (车道). His computer program then sends a message to cellphones in the area. It can text drivers to watch out. Live video surveys many major roads around the globe, often for traffic reports, especially to assess what happened after an accident occurs, Jeesung notes. His AI-based program instead aims to head off accidents.
It monitors streaming video in real time. Jeesung trained his computer program with publicly available videos showing car accidents. He then tested his system using video it hadn’t seen. It correctly identified dangerous driving some 80 percent of the time, the teen now reports. It also sends out warnings less than two seconds after spotting risky driving.
You can’t get those warnings just yet. To do so, Jeesung wants to use GPS to pinpoint the locations of phone users. That would require permission from South Korea’s government, he notes. But the system should prove quick and reliable, Jeesung says. And it should cost little, he adds. It needs no additional hardware. And his system can be used with existing cameras.
Car accidents are a leading cause of death and injuries. Jeesung hopes a system like his can limit these. He aims to continue improving and testing the system in Jeju and eventually go global.
1. What caused Jeesung to design the system?| A．Feeling sleepy in class. | B．Playing computer games. |
| C．Seeing dangerous drivers. | D．Acting wrongly after drinking. |
| A．To speed up cars. | B．To stop accidents. |
| C．To report accidents. | D．To survey main roads. |
| A．The system will be cheap. |
| B．Existing hardware is of little use. |
| C．Jeesung can know the locations of phone users. |
| D．South Korea’s government has given Jeesung permission. |
| A．He is warm-hearted. | B．He is ambitious. |
| C．He has a lot of money. | D．He has an expensive car. |
Living in the shadow of my two elder sisters at college who already had their lives planned out since they were little, I was always undecided about everything. As a teenager, I was fickle (反复无常的). I would like one thing for a week and then hate it the next. But I was constantly searching for the beginning of the rainbow. Changing my dream from a vet to an astronaut, I thought there were various options available to me. However, my parents would shake their heads and repeatedly asked me such questions as, “Why can’t you be more like your sisters? What are you going to do with your life? Aren’t you interested in anything at all?” After a couple of shrugs (耸肩), my parents usually stopped talking. I was not sure if they gave up or anticipated my dull reactions. I often responded, “I couldn’t answer all of your questions now.”
Actually, my parents just had high expectations that never seemed to be fulfilled. Plus, like other parents, they just wanted to give the best to me and expected me to achieve success. The arguments with my parents seemed childish. One day, my mother made her thoughts clear, “Your grades aren’t high enough. No schools are going to want you, dear. We didn’t pay so much money for nothing.” Hesitating for a while, I said, “No matter what you say, I believe I will enter a good college.” Still, I let my emotions control myself.
Certainly, I had never planned not to go to college. After another debate with my mom, I decided to make a change. No longer would I sit back and let my parents mistake me for a bad boy. It was time to take action.
I knew it was a crucial year at high school. Releasing my feelings, I began to collect all the knowledge I had learned and review it with all my heart. I didn’t argue with my parents any more, but instead turned to my sisters for help and tried my best to study. Finally, I took the national college entrance examination with ease and confidence.
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。
A few days later, I received a call from my school, saying my college acceptance letter had arrived.
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My parents excitedly said behind me, “Well, open the envelop!”
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9 . Reshaping the world for a fossil fuel-free future means working quickly. Climate scientists say carbon emissions must stop by 2025 to minimize environmental damage. And by designing computational materials together with makers who can build and test them quickly, scientists can rapidly develop technologies like more powerful solar cells and car batteries.
Michael is the name of a supercomputer devoted to just one task―discovering the ultimate battery system. Researchers at University College London will use Michael to digitally build and test prototypes (原型) in every new material and type of cell possible to improve battery life, performance and price.
Finding a resilient (弹性的) design for solid-state batteries would be a huge breakthrough for electric vehicles and energy storage. Lighter, longer-lasting and cheaper solid-state technology could vastly improve vehicle range and charging time. And the energy from solar and wind power could be more efficiently stored until ready for use.
Scientists working in the US and the UK led the way in the 1970s in developing the lithium-ion (锂离子) battery used in today’s electric cars, laptops and cameras, But commercial units were only developed once the Japanese electronics giant pushed the technology forward for mass production. Partnerships between companies and universities could ultimately crack solid-state battery design. Oxford University and some companies are looking to win the international race to create a durable product. But they are only one among many.
Replacing liquid used in lithium-ion batteries with a solid conductor may take large digital processing. Electric vehicle makers are working with a computer giant to find successful designs that may include cheap and plentiful materials found in seawater. An electric vehicle maker is partnering with NASA to open a solid-state battery plant that uses no rare or expensive metals. The plan is to create a large database of materials that can be mixed and matched for the best combinations.
But computational materials may be needed in virtually every industry. And by rapidly classifying millions of substances on their ability to conduct electricity, their toughness, or the way they reflect light, AI and supercomputers can speed up the process of creating materials for just about anything.
1. What message does paragraph 1 convey?| A．It’s too fast to design computational materials. |
| B．It’s too late to reshape the fossil fuel-free world. |
| C．Developing green energy can reduce carbon emissions. |
| D．Developing technology can speed up carbon emissions. |
| A．Heavy and solid. | B．Light but breakable. |
| C．Less-costly and workable. | D．Expensive but efficient. |
| A．To show the weakness of mass production. |
| B．To show the good trend of the cooperation. |
| C．To show the difficulty of the battery design. |
| D．To show the development of British technology. |
| A．Michael Is Devoted to Storing Solar Energy |
| B．Companies and NASA Will Push Technology Forward |
| C．Electric Vehicle Makers Are Struggling to Solve Air Pollution |
| D．Supercomputers and AI Can Create Future Low-carbon Industries |
1. What does the speaker do?
| A．A journalist. | B．A student. | C．A TV host. |
| A．A university. | B．A top college. | C．A news agency. |
| A．The one without change. |
| B．The one that keeps him busy. |
| C．The one that needs to be done secretly. |
| A．Find a job. | B．Continue his study. | C．Travel around the country. |
