1 . States will be able to force more people to pay sales tax when they make online purchases under a Supreme Court decision Thursday that will leave shoppers with lighter wallets but is a big financial win for states.

The Supreme Court’s opinion Thursday overruled a pair of decades-old decisions that states said cost them billions of dollars in lost revenue annually. The decisions made it more difficult for states to collect sales tax on certain online purchases.

The cases the court overturned said that if a business was shipping a customer’s purchase to a state where the business didn’t have a physical presence such as a warehouse or office, the business didn’t have to collect sales tax for the state. Customers were generally responsible for paying the sales tax to the state themselves if they weren’t charged it, but most didn’t realize they owed it and few paid.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the previous decisions were flawed. “Each year the physical presence rule becomes further removed from economic reality and results in significant revenue losses to the States,” he wrote in an opinion joined by four other justices. Kennedy wrote that the rule “limited States’ ability to seek long-term prosperity and has prevented market participants from competing on an even playing field.”

The ruling is a victory for big chains with a presence in many states, since they usually collect sales tax on online purchases already. Now, rivals will be charging sales tax where they hadn’t before. Big chains have been collecting sales tax nationwide because they typically have physical stores in whatever state a purchase is being shipped to. Amazon.com, with its network of warehouses, also collects sales tax in every state that charges it, though third-party sellers who use the site don’t have to.

Until now, many sellers that have a physical presence in only a single state or a few states have been able to avoid charging sales taxes when they ship to addresses outside those states. Sellers that use eBay and Etsy, which provide platforms for smaller sellers, also haven’t been collecting sales tax nationwide. Under the ruling Thursday, states can pass laws requiring out-of-state sellers to collect the state’s sales tax from customers and send it to the state.

Retail trade groups praised the ruling, saying it levels the playing field for local and online businesses. The losers, said retail analyst Neil Saunders, are online-only retailers, especially smaller ones. Those retailers may face headaches complying with various state sales tax laws. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council advocacy group said in a statement, “Small businesses and internet entrepreneurs are not well served at all by this decision.”

1. The Supreme Court decision Thursday will ______.

A．better businesses’ relations with states

B．put most online businesses in a dilemma

C．make more online shoppers pay sales tax

D．force some states to cut sales tax

2. It can be learned from paragraphs 2 and 3 that the overruled decisions ______.

A．have led to the dominance of e-commerce

B．have cost consumers a lot over the years

C．were widely criticized by online purchasers

D．were considered unfavorable by states

3. According to Justice Anthony Kennedy, the physical presence rule has ______.

A．hindered economic development	B．brought prosperity to the country
C．harmed fair market competition	D．boosted growth in states revenue

4. In dealing with the Supreme Court decision Thursday, the author ______.

A．gives a factual account of it and discusses its consequences

B．describes the long and complicated process of its making

C．presents its main points with conflicting views on them

D．cites some cases related to it and analyzes their implications

2 . AI can transform education for the better

As students return to classrooms for the new year, it is striking to reflect on how little education has changed in recent decades. The sector remains a digital laggard (落后者). American schools and universities spend 2% and 5% of their budgets, _________, on technology, compared with 8% for the average American company.

When the pandemic forced schools and universities to shut down, the moment for a digital _________ seemed close when the market value of online tutoring providers like Chegg and Byju’s both increased. However, once covid was brought under control, classes continued much as before.

If the pandemic couldn’t overcome the education sector’s _________ to digital interruption, can artificial intelligence? ChatGPT-like generative AI, which can converse cleverly on varieties of subjects, certainly _________. So much so that educationalists began to _________ that students would use it to cheat on essays and homework. Increasingly, however, it is generating excitement as a means to provide _________ tutoring to various students and speed up boring tasks such as marking.

Learners, for their part, are _________ the technology. Two-fifths of undergraduates reported using an AI chatbot to help them with their studies. Indeed, the technology’s popularity has raised awkward questions for companies like Chegg, which was losing customers _________ ChatGPT. Yet there are good reasons to believe that education specialists like Chegg who employ AI will eventually _________ generalists such as OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.

For one, AI chatbots often talk nonsense, an unhelpful trait in an educational context. “Students want content from __________ providers,” argues Kate Edwards, chief pedagogist at Pearson, a textbook publisher. The company has not allowed ChatGPT and other AIs to __________ its material, but has instead used the content to train its own models, which it is embedding into its set of learning apps.

__________, as Chegg’s Mr Rosensweig argues, teaching is not merely about giving students an answer, but about presenting it in a way that helps them learn. Understanding pedagogy (教学法) thus gives education specialists an __________. Pearson has designed its AI tools to __________ students by breaking complex topics down, testing their understanding and providing quick feedback, says Ms Edwards. Byju’s is incorporating “forgetting curves” for students into the design of its AI tutoring tools, refreshing their memories at personalized __________.

Bringing AI to education will not be easy, but once answers on how to make use of this technology become clearer, such a development will certainly deserve top marks.

1.

A．respectively

B．appropriately

C．totally

D．ultimately

2.

A．divide

B．reverse

C．boom

D．withdrawal

3.

A．tendency

B．resistance

C．attention

D．anxiety

4.

A．serve the purpose

B．break the ice

C．take the initiative

D．do some good

5.

A．maintain

B．panic

C．doubt

D．wonder

6.

A．personalized

B．individualistic

C．characteristic

D．attentive

7.

A．attempting

B．declining

C．opposing

D．embracing

8.

A．for

B．under

C．to

D．in

9.

A．detect

B．transform

C．overtake

D．enhance

10.

A．comprehensive

B．advanced

C．distinguished

D．trusted

11.

A．give away

B．take in

C．bring about

D．hold up

12.

A．By contrast

B．Despite this

C．What’s more

D．As a result

13.

A．applause

B．edge

C．hesitation

D．improvement

14.

A．convince

B．engage

C．capture

D．challenge

15.

A．intervals

B．cost

C．mercy

D．best

3 . 我逐渐明白，颜宁之所以被世界认可并被授予杰出女科学家称号是因她对卓越的追求和对研究的投入。(dawn) (汉译英)

________________________________________________________________________________________

5 . The heartfelt laughter of the children in the playground, which seemed to __________ the mood of the entire neighborhood, brought a wave of joy and lightheartedness that lasted long after the sun had set.

A．affect

B．infect

C．conquer

D．arouse

6 . In the depths of their mutual understanding, they shared a bond so strong that it __________ respect and affectionately nurtured their love for each other.

A．directed

B．motivated

C．commanded

D．deserved

7 . “Blossoms Shanghai”, a television drama __________ a decade-long journey of A Bao’s personal growth, __________ a strong sense of empathy and nostalgia in its viewers, who reflect on the nature of love, loss, and the enduring power of human connection.

A．featured, evoking	B．being featured, evoked
C．featuring, evokes	D．having featured, evokes

8 . __________ to what you study can lessen stress, so it’s suggested that you choose a major or career path you love and enjoy.

A．Drawn

B．Being drawn

C．To be drawn

D．Having drawn

10 . Promising news came nearly a month __________ the patient had the chip implanted (植入) __________ he could control a computer mouse with his brain.

A．that… when

B．that… what

C．since… where

D．after… that