1 . 听下面一段独白。请从所听到的内容中获取必要的信息，填入空格中。听录音前，你将有10秒钟的阅题时间，录音读两遍。

A plan for the house
The ground floor	On your left	On your right
	The    1	The dining room
	The games room (leads to the    2    )	The kitchen
The first floor	At the top of the stairs: a(n)    3    landing On the right: the bathroom At the front of the house:    4    bedrooms At the back of the house: a(n)     5

2 . —Do you remember where you and your wife first met 30 years ago?
—It was in a park ________ I came across our old friend Tom yesterday.

A．which

B．when

C．that

D．where

3 . The butterfly was left _________ and disappointed, wanting never to enter another beauty competition in her life.

A．to weep

B．to be wept

C．weeping

D．wept

4 . ________ that you were the president, what would you do ________ the present situation?

A．Assuming; given	B．Assuming; giving
C．Assumed; given	D．Assumed; giving

5 . 此外，通过使用地图和数据，斯诺改变了科学家研究疾病的方式。因此，斯诺被誉为现代流行病之父。(汉译英)

6 . 经过斯诺的不懈努力，饮用水公司开始出售洁净水，世界各地霍乱的威胁大幅降低。(汉译英)

7 . At the age of 12, I withdrew into my bedroom with my guitar. I had neither musical talent — many_______music lessons had proved that — nor musical training. My fingers ached as I tried to press down on the strings without making them buzz (发出嗡嗡声). _______, I worked my way through 2-, 3- and even 5-chord (和旋) songs and discovered the _______ thrills of these musical notes. No one _______ me to do this. I did this myself and of my own free will for a week, and the sense of happiness－ true happiness _______ in absorption in something － has _______ me. Fifty years later, that week’s self-directed practice became a model and _______ for almost every meaningful thing I have done since. It makes me understand the _______ between achievement and accomplishment.

The world favors achievement while _______ accomplishment. The former is the completion of the task imposed (强加) from the outside — the ________ being a path to the next task. The latter is the end point of an activity we have chosen, whose bonus is the sudden ________ of happiness.

The seeking of accomplishment always ________ people. I learned so long ago in that ________ week that simply lifting one finger from the guitar’s C chord, you should get the most moving ________ in tune. I didn’t know then it was a major 7th chord, a favorite of some masters’. I just ________ accomplishment. That’s real human “achievement”.

1.

A．added

B．tailored

C．expected

D．failed

2.

A．Besides

B．Instead

C．Therefore

D．However

3.

A．fruitless

B．matchless

C．effortless

D．senseless

4.

A．wished

B．allowed

C．required

D．invited

5.

A．masked

B．rooted

C．set

D．stuck

6.

A．waited for

B．passed by

C．departed from

D．stayed with

7.

A．exchange

B．reason

C．foundation

D．priority

8.

A．relationship

B．difference

C．balance

D．similarity

9.

A．ignoring

B．avoiding

C．assessing

D．defending

10.

A．origin

B．process

C．decision

D．reward

11.

A．lack

B．need

C．rush

D．dream

12.

A．amazes

B．concerns

C．frightens

D．discourages

13.

A．adventurous

B．dangerous

C．memorable

D．horrible

14.

A．impression

B．performance

C．scene

D．harmony

15.

A．pursued

B．accepted

C．interpreted

D．analysed

8 . On June 6th Columbia University announced that it will no longer co-operate with US News & World Report’s undergraduate rankings. It is the first top-notch institution to do so. Might its departure be the start of a mass departure?

Columbia’s decision follows a rankings scandal last year. In February 2022 one of Columbia’s own maths professors accused the college of fudging its data in several areas. The university later admitted to having used “outdated and/or incorrect methodologies”.

In the 1980s prospective students started to expand their college search beyond their local area, and it was hard to learn about universities and compare them. Hence, US News began ranking America’s top universities in 1983, and has released its findings annually since 1988.

Colleges have gone to great lengths to move up in the ratings. Richard Freeland, Northeastern University’s former president, capped class sizes and hired faculty to improve its spot; it moved from 127th in 2003 to 44th this year. Others went too far. A dean at Temple University’s business school was sentenced to prison and was ordered to pay a $250,000 fine after being found guilty of fraud in relation to artificially inflating his programme’s rankings.

The ranking system used to seem unstoppable. Universities have tried to ditch it before, only to find that doing so can backfire badly. US News still ranks non-participating universities, using publicly available information, and the data often do not go in their favour. Reed College, a liberal-arts college, stopped taking part in 1995. It tumbled from the top quartile to the bottom. Columbia did not submit data for this year’s analysis, citing concerns about Dr Thaddeus’s claims, and its ranking fell from second in 2021-22 (tied with Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to 18th in 2022-23 (tied with the University of Notre Dame).

Recently the mood has begun to change, however, especially among graduate schools. In 2022, of the 15 highest-ranked law schools, only the University of Chicago submitted data. Some undergraduate schools have already opted out this year (Rhode Island School of Design, Colorado College, Stillman College), but none are as prestigious as Columbia.

In May US News announced changes to its ranking methodology. It is moving away from metrics that rely on reputation and towards student outcomes. One way or another, the rankings—and universities more broadly—are in a state of constant change.

1. What is true about the US News undergraduate rankings?

A．It faked the information for the ratings.	B．It filled an information gap at one time.
C．It promoted the quality of higher education.	D．It has been released every year for 40 years.

2. If a college does not cooperate with US News, ______.

A．it will be ordered to pay a fine	B．it will be excluded from the list
C．its ranking will suffer consequently	D．its spot in the ranking won’t be affected

3. The underlined word “capped” in the fourth paragraph is closest in meaning to ______.

A．limited

B．increased

C．inflated

D．maintained

4. It can be inferred from the passage that US News undergraduate rankings may focus more on ______ in the future.

A．scores given by former students	B．donations from all walks of life
C．evaluations from other colleges	D．earnings for college graduates

9 . I spoke to my parents last night and for a moment I forgot I wasn’t really speaking to them, but to their digital replicas (复制品). They live inside an app as voice assistants constructed by the company HereAfter AI.

In fact, my parents are still alive and well; their virtual versions were made to help me understand the technology. Grief tech, which lets you “talk” with the people you’ve loved and lost, has been appearing in science fiction. But now it’s becoming a reality. Although the thought of it makes some frightened, it’s not hard to see the appeal that people might turn to digital replicas for comfort.

However, there is one major limitation. These replicas may sound like someone you love, but they know nothing about you. Anyone can talk to them, and get the same reply in the same tone. “The biggest issue with the technology is the idea that you can generate a single universal person,” says Justin Harrison, founder of a technological service.

Creating a virtual avatar you can have more conversation with contributes to your feeling connected to someone you loved and lost, says Erin Thompson, a clinical psychologist. But a grieving person needs to know that these bots can only capture a small part of someone rather than replace healthy, functional human relationships.

And there are other risks. Any service that allows you to create a digital replica of someone without that person’s participation raises complex moral issues. While some might argue that permission is less important with someone who is dead, can’t you also argue that the person who generated the other side of the conversation should have a say too? And what if that person is not, in fact, dead?

If digital replicas become mainstream, there will inevitably need to be new regulations around what we leave behind online. And we’ll be better off if we cope with the possibility of these replicas’ misuse before, not after, they reach mass adoption.

Anyway, I feel lucky to still have the precious opportunity to spend more time with my parents, face to face, no technology involved.

1. Which of the following is not a drawback of digital replicas?

A．They can’t vary their response accordingly.

B．They can’t mirror every aspect of a person.

C．They may pose threat to the interests of people alive.

D．It’s hard to gain permission from someone who is not alive.

2. What’s the author’s attitude towards grief tech?

A．Favorable.

B．Reasonable.

C．Critical.

D．Indifferent.

3. According to the last two paragraphs, what inspiration did the author draw from his experience?

A．Technology is advancing faster than imagined.

B．Safety risks can be surely avoided by regulations.

C．Replicas will not be misused before widely adopted.

D．Cherish the beloved ones when they are still around.

4. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．Reflections on grief tech.	B．Ways to overcome our grief.
C．Technology to change our life.	D．Controversy over digital replicas.

10 . In our human-centric view, the ability to shoot ink or change colors may seem odd, but you know what’s really odd? Menopause (更年期). You can count species other than humans known to experience and outlive menopause on one hand. Only Oracs (虎鲸) and some whale populations have females that live long past their reproductive years to become grandmothers. But a new, landmark study confirms that at least one population of chimpanzees can now be added to the list.

The discovery comes as the result of 21 years’ worth of observing the Ngogo community of wild chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Studying urine from 66 Ngogo females, aged 14 to 67, showed that their hormone levels changed after approaching 50, confirming they were in menopause. Interestingly, 50 is also the age when many people begin to experience menopause. “It’s really cool to finally have that piece of the puzzle come into place,” says Catherine Hobaiter, a primatologist who was not part of the new study.

But Catherine points out that the Ngogo community lives in a chimp paradise: the resource-rich, well-protected Kibale National Park that also lacks leopards, their main predator. And because the Noggo community is found in the heart of the park, its only neighbors are other chimps — not humans who can expose chimpanzees to viruses that have devastated other communities. “The Ngogo population may be an outlier (局外人) when it comes to the rest of the species,” she cautions.

And there is a question concerning “the grandmother effect”, according to which a grandmother has a decidedly beneficial effect on her children and grandchildren. Chimpanzees do not form long-term pair-bonds and females leave in search of new communities when they reach maturity, which means grandmother chimpanzees likely don’t know who their grandchildren are in the same way humans or even orcas do. What they do after the menopause remains a question of interest. “And that’s all future work to be done.” said Catherine.

1. What can be learned about menopause?

A．It is rare among animals.	B．It is unique to human beings.
C．It just occurs at the age of 50.	D．It is experienced only by females.

2. What does the underlined part in paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Scientist have found the solution to menopause.

B．What happens to the 66 Ngogo females remains a puzzle.

C．There is a puzzle whether chimpanzee females experience menopause.

D．The latest discovery casts new light on the puzzle of animal menopause.

3. Why does Catherine mention the living situation of the Ngogo community?

A．To stress the importance of protecting chimpanzees from viruses.

B．To remind researchers of the potential limitation of the new study.

C．To prove that Ngogo chimpanzees are perfect subjects of the study.

D．To argue that the discovery of the new study is completely groundless.

4. How is the last paragraph developed?

A．By offering a definition.	B．By drawing a conclusion.
C．By presenting relevant facts.	D．By giving examples and opinions.