When I was seven years old, my family moved from Mexico to America. In Mexico, I was a cheerful girl who loved making people laugh with my jokes and inventing fun games to play with my friends. However, when I arrived in America, I found it hard to fit in, and I became quieter.
We lived in a small house with a modest yard where we grew vegetables—my responsibility. While I took pride in watching them grow, there were times when I dreamed of having a beautiful garden like my schoolmate Luella’s, with its delicate tulips (郁金香). Although Luella lived in the same neighborhood as me, we barely knew each other.
It was after a tornado that Luella and I finally became close friends.
The tornado struck on a Sunday afternoon.The gentle breeze transformed into a strong wind, and thick gray clouds filled the sky. Gradually, the tornado took shape, starting as a thin rope and growing into a large black funnel (漏斗). My entire family gathered in the bathroom, seeking shelter from the storm. Terrified, I sat close to my mom, knees in my chest. After the storm had passed, our worries and fears were replaced by relief that we were unharmed and that our house had remained undamaged.
As I stepped outside, I witnessed the extent of the damage the tornado had caused to our neighborhood. Across the street, a tall tree had fallen, crushing Luella’s garden in front of her yellow house. We hurried over to check on it. Fortunately, her family seemed to be away at the time, and no one was injured. However, her once-beautiful garden was in ruins, with the fallen tree destroying the tulips and debris (碎片) spread everywhere. I could only imagine how heartbroken they must feel seeing this.
Then my mom’s usual words rang in my ear, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” and my family started to think about how we could help.
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。
Just at that moment, Luella’s family returned in their car.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Even after the debris was cleared, I could still sense Luella’s sorrow for her lost garden.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. Where is the man probably?
| A．At the office. | B．At home. | C．At a travel agency. |
| A．Go to the theatre. | B．Travel abroad. | C．Meet their friends. |
| A．At 3:15 pm. | B．At 6:15 pm. | C．At 7:00 pm. |
| A．He is sensitive. | B．He is dishonest. | C．He is humorous. |
Honking cars, blasting stereos and babbling neighbors are
The cameras
However, Erica Walker, who studies the joint
On the other hand,
4 . Late last year, in the days before the Dosakian election, a video featuring a well-known journalist and a key candidate circulated on social networks. However, it was absolutely fake (虚假的). The International Press Institute has called this episode in Dosakia the first time that AI deepfakes — fake images, or videos generated by artificial intelligence — have influenced a national election greatly.
Security experts consider misinformation the biggest global risk recently — more dangerous than war, and extreme weather events. A constant stream of people is wrestling with this issue. Now even economists are joining in.
Economist Iyan Smith, and others conduct a real-world experiment to see whether simple, low-cost nudges, or interventions, can be effective. Instead of focusing on the supply side of misinformation like social media platforms, they pay attention to the demand side: increasing our capacity to identify the fake information.
The economists split participants randomly into four different groups. One group was shown a video demonstrating a convincing journey of two people from two different social groups who, before interacting, express negative stereotypes (刻板印象) about the other’s group, overcoming their differences and ultimately regretting unthinkingly using stereotypes to dehumanize one another. Another group completed a personality test that shows them their cognitive traits (认知特点) causing prejudice, hoping to increase their self-awareness, and decrease their demand for misinformation. A third group did both while a control group did neither.
The economists find the simple intervention of showing the video makes the participants over 30 percent less likely to “consider fake news reliable”. But the personality test has little effect. As for participants doing both, they were about 31 percent less likely to view true headlines as reliable. In other words, they became so skeptical that even the truth became suspect.
Smith and his colleagues are far from the first scholars to fight misinformation by helping people to think more critically. University of Weymouth psychologist Lisa Kindle also advocates similar ways to help reject misinformation in the wild.
1. What does the author intend to do in the first two paragraphs?| A．Highlight the risk of AI deepfakes. | B．Discuss the global threat landscape. |
| C．Describe Dosakia’s election outcome. | D．Introduce the concept of misinformation. |
| A．The cognitive trait. | B．The short video. |
| C．The personality test. | D．The negative stereotype. |
| A．Videos reduce misinformation. | B．Deepfakes may discredit truth. |
| C．Misinformation causes dehumanization. | D．Personality tests sharpen thinking skills. |
| A．Battling Fake News | B．Deepfakes in Elections |
| C．The Spread of Misinformation | D．Expanding Thinking Capacity |
“When I grow up, I’m going to travel on my own,” said my little daughter, Sophia, reading her favorite picture book in the sunshine. Her blue eyes sparkled as she looked at the beautiful pictures. “Well, I think you can!” I said, believing in her ambitions.
Being a hard-working and reliable child, she could help do the housework skillfully. She had the potential to make her dreams come true. However, we were poor farmers, and all profit had to go back into the farm to keep it going.
When Sophia was ten, a tornado (龙卷风) struck Texas, destroying our farm. We were forced to deal with everything that we faced. This disaster completely changed our lives. My husband, Steve, was disabled by the tornado. After trying and failing at several methods of earning income, finally he decided to become a baker (面包师).
We purchased a small bakeshop, fully equipped, and moved it onto our farmland. In fact, our bakeshop business did very well. Regrettably, Steve did not. His disability was so severe that after several months of trying he simply could not continue. The bakeshop closed.
While our family was going through difficult times, the dream and spirit of Sophia was not lost. She was doing well in school, and I smiled the day I read Sophia’s essay entitled, “Things I would like to do.” Topping the list were these words: I want to travel someday. Again I whispered, “Maybe you can someday.”
A few years later, Sophia started high school and enrolled in a foreign language class in her second year. This class occasionally organized a trip abroad. One day, she came home from school, hardly able to control her excitement, and said, “Mum, our class will arrange for us to travel abroad.”
“Fantastic!” I said. “You can achieve your dream!”
“But it would probably cost a lot of money to go,” she said.
She was right. My salary paid the bills, and nothing was left. Steve was still unable to work. Our hearts sank deeply.
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。
Sophia’s face lit up the moment she thought of her father’s bakeshop.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————Orders came flooding in.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————6 . For more than 60 years bringing the cost of food down had been one of the greatest challenge of the 21 century. That cost, however, is not in immediate cash, for most food is now far cheaper in relative terms than in 1960.
The cost is in the unintended damage of the very methods of food production that have made the food cheaper: in the pollution of water, the weakness of soil, the destruction of wildlife, the harm to animal welfare and the threat to human health caused by modern industrial agriculture.
First mechanisation, then mass use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and now genetic engineering — modern industrial farming has seemed unstoppable, as the yields of produce have soared. But it comes with extensive loss of wildlife and habitat, soil degradation and fertilizer run-off.
Put it together and it’s like a battleground, but consumers rarely make the connection at the dinner table. The problems are called “externalities” by economists because they’re not part of the main transaction, like growing and selling wheat. These costs aren’t directly paid by the producers or consumers.
But the costs to society can amount to shocking sums. According to a research by Professor Jules Pretty at the University of Essex, repairing the damage caused by intensive farming in one particular year costs £2, 343m in the UK alone, almost as much as the total UK and EU spend on British farming in that year.
Can the true cost of food be brought down? In some countries, moving away from industrial agriculture to address hunger is difficult. However, in developed countries, it’s more possible. Governments should support sustainable farming that benefits the environment, economy, health, and animal welfare. Instead of immediately switching to organic farming, Professor Pretty suggests adopting a “Greener Food Standard” which would push the market towards more sustainable environmental practices than the current norm, while not requiring the full commitment to organic production. This standard would guide farmers on better practices in farming, promoting a shift towards a more sustainable agricultural system for both producers and consumers.
1. What is the cost associated with food production?| A．Immediate cash loss. | B．Increased agriculture yields. |
| C．Promotion of organic farming. | D．Impairment to human welfare. |
| A．The costs are included in the price. | B．The costs lie in food growing and selling. |
| C．The costs aren’t directly visible to people. | D．People aren’t affected by modern farming. |
| A．Giving up clean-up efforts. | B．Overlooking global hunger. |
| C．Making flexible farming policies. | D．Adopting full organic approaches. |
| A．Critical. | B．Supportive. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Mindless. |
| bring... to life, prior to, expose... to..., deny... to... speed up, set…apart from, consist of, proceed to |
1. With these sufficient data, we are now able
2. In order to support the fight against COVID-19 in Yichang, Hubei province, Fujian sent a medical team
3. The basketball star donated a big sum of money to build a school in his hometown with a belief that a good education shouldn’t
4. The bridge
5. The rapid development of science and technology
6. With ancient civilizations
7. A wise mother never leaves her children
8. Dunch refers to a meal enjoyed subsequent to lunch but
Special#2，Please
My flight arrived in San Diego around midnight, and by the time I drove home and got into bed it was nearly 2:00 a. m. I was tired and jet-lagged when I dragged myself out of the bed. Nevertheless,I had to be up bright and early that morning: I was the opening keynoter(主旨发言人) at a national conference.
In short, I needed to recover quickly. A hearty breakfast in the early morning sun was what I needed. I headed for Carlos & Annie’s, a popular restaurant located in the heart of the seaside town.
“I’d like steak and eggs, please,” I said to the waitress after I had finally found a table in the restaurant. “Oh, I'm sorry,” she apologized. “We're out of Special#2. We've served the last of our steaks. How about Special#14?” “Oh, no steak and eggs?” I couldn't seem to accept it.
I'm not sure if it was my heartfelt sigh that caught Carlos, the owner's attention. His warm, caring brown eyes seemed determined to pinpoint the best solution. He then said, “You know, I think I did see one final steak back
there.”Pressing my luck,I quickly declared, “Wow,that would be great. But you know, I’m not sure if I want a breakfast stenk at all. What I really want is a steak—one that’s two inches thick, tender and juicy, served medium rare.” “Not to worry,” Carlos assured meand left. The young waitress gave me a wink(眨眼) and said with a knowing smile, “Carlosis being Carlos again!” I did not give her words much thought.
Then, I noticed Carlos as he left the restaurant through the side door and walked into a neighborhood grocery store across the street. Carlos exchanged morning greetings with everyone he knew and even helped the owner of the bookstore next door by holding the items that filled her arms. Then he reentered the restaurant with a bag in his hand.
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。
Paragraph 1: Within minutes，an exact Special#2 was in front of me.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: I was about to leave when I learned Carlos had already sold the restaurant.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________10 . While some allergies (过敏症) disappear over time or with treatment, others last a lifetime. For decades, scientists have been searching for the source of these lifetime allergies.
Recently, researchers found that memory B cells may be involved. These cells produce a different class of antibodies known as IgG, which ward off viral infections. But no one had identified exactly which of those cells were recalling allergens or how they switched to making the IgE antibodies responsible for allergies. To uncover the mysterious cells, two research teams took a deep dive into the immune (免疫的) cells of people with allergies and some without.
Immunologist Joshua Koenig and colleagues examined more than 90, 000 memory B cells from six people with birch allergies, four people allergic to dust mites and five people with no allergies. Using a technique called RNA sequencing, the team identified specific memory B cells, which they named MBC2s that make antibodies and proteins associated with the immune response that causes allergies.
In another experiment, Koenig and colleagues used a peanut protein to go fishing for memory B cells from people with peanut allergies. The team pulled out the same type of cells found in people with birch and dust mite allergies. In people with peanut allergies, those cells increased in number and produced IgE antibodies as the people started treatment to desensitize them to peanut allergens.
Another group led by Maria Curotto de Lafaille, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, also found that similar cells were more plentiful in 58 children allergic to peanuts than in 13 kids without allergies. The team found that the cells are ready to switch from making protective IgG antibodies to allergy-causing IgE antibodies. Even before the switch, the cells were making RNA for IgE but didn’t produce the protein. Making that RNA enables the cells to switch the type of antibodies they make when they encounter allergens. The signal to switch partially depends on a protein called JAK, the group discovered. “Stopping JAK from sending the signal could help prevent the memory cells from switching to IgE production,” Lafaille says. She also predicts that allergists may be able to examine aspects of these memory cells to forecast whether a patient's allergy is likely to last or disappear with time or treatment.
“Knowing which population of cells store allergies in long-term memory may eventually help scientists identify other ways to kill the allergy cells,” says Cecilia Berin, an immunologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “You could potentially get rid of not only your peanut allergy but also all of your allergies.”
1. Why did scientists investigate the immune cells of individuals with and without allergies?| A．To explore the distinctions between IgG and IgE. |
| B．To uncover new antibodies known as IgG and IgE. |
| C．To identify cells responsible for defending against allergies. |
| D．To reveal cells associated with the development of allergies. |
| A．Make. . . less destructive. | B．Make. . . less responsive. |
| C．Make. . . less protective. | D．Make. . . less effective. |
| A．MBC2s make antibodies and proteins that prevent allergies. |
| B．Memory B cells generate both RNA for IgE and the corresponding protein. |
| C．JAK plays a role in controlling antibody production when exposed to allergens. |
| D．Allergists are capable of predicting whether an allergy will last or disappear. |
| A．RNA Sequencing Is Applied in Immunology Research |
| B．Specific Cells Related to Peanut Allergies Are Identified |
| C．Unmasking Cells’ Identities Helps Diagnose and Treat Allergies |
| D．Newfound Immune Cells Are Responsible for Long-lasting Allergies |
