1 . “How the brain perceives time depends on its expectations. The brain can predict the probability that something is going to occur, given that it hasn’t happened yet,” said Dr. Michael Shadlen, a scientist at Columbia University.

Every thought has various “horizons”, Shadlen told Live Science. In a book, for example, horizons lie at the end of every syllable (音节), the end of every word, the end of the next sentence and so on. Time moves according to how we anticipate these horizons, he said.

When you’re really absorbed in something, the brain anticipates the “big picture”, which makes time seem to fly, Shadlen said. But when you’re bored, you anticipate the closer horizons such as the end of a sentence instead of the end of the story; these horizons aren’t knitted together as a whole, and time slows down.

There isn’t a single spot in the brain that’s responsible for how we perceive time in this way. Rather, any area that gives rise to thought and consciousness is likely involved in this task, Shadlen said. “There are almost certainly a lot of timing mechanisms (机制) in the brain,” added Joe Paton, a scientist at the Champalimaud Foundation in Portugal. One mechanism involves the speed at which brain cells activate one another and form a network when you’re performing an activity. The faster those paths of neurons (神经元) form, the faster we perceive time, Paton and his team have found in some animals, such as rats and squirrels.

Another mechanism involves chemicals in the brain. Again, in rats, Paton and his colleagues found that a set of neurons that releases the neurotransmitter dopamine—an important chemical involved in feeling rewarded—impacts how the brain perceives time. When you’re having fun, these cells are more active. They release a lot of dopamine and your brain judges that less time has passed than actually has. When you’re not having fun, these cells don’t release as much dopamine, and time seems to slow down.

1. What can be learned about “horizons” in a book from paragraph 2?

A．They exist throughout.	B．They change our anticipation.
C．They are totally invisible.	D．They are very unpredictable.

2. According to Shadlen, we feel the slow passing of time when ________.

A．our brain anticipates the distant horizons	B．we are engaged in something interesting
C．our brain sees the “big picture” of an event	D．we are anxious to see the ending of a sentence

3. What does Paton think plays a role in our way of perceiving time according to Paragraph 4?

A．An unknown chemical in human brain.

B．A specific timing mechanism in the brain.

C．The speed of brain cells forming a network.

D．The function of brain cells activating each other.

4. How does the author make a point in the last paragraph?

A．By describing a process.	B．By providing examples.
C．By introducing a concept.	D．By listing statistical data.

3 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Summer vacation was finally coming, and Rose couldn’t wait to have a trip with her parents. She recalled the joyful experiences they shared last summer, which filled her with excitement for the upcoming holiday.

“Girls!” Rose heard her father calling. She raced to her big sister’s room, telling her that Dad was calling them, and they rushed downstairs log either. Dad put his arm around Mom and told them that they were going on a trip to the Virunga Mountains of Africa. There were three national parks that they would visit.

Rose and Gina looked at each other. “What?” they said with one voice. Mom told them it would be really exciting to go there on a trip. At 12 years old, Rose would prefer going to an amusement park or a beach. She thought it important to let her parents know she didn’t want to go there but to the beach for a week or two.

“Well,” said Dad, “I have to go for an assignment for the paper. We’re covering the mountain gorillas (大猩猩) because they’re critically endangered these years. So, I thought it’d also be a great place to take a vacation. I’m sure it’ll be very educational for you girls.”

Gina let out a sigh, unable to contain her disappointment. She wanted to say something but Mom interrupted and announced that the trip was set on the next Monday.

“Sit down, both of you.” Dad had on his severe look. “Girls, it’s important for you to know about the world around you. This is a wonderful chance for you to experience and learn an amazing place. Do you know anything about the mountain gorillas?”

The sisters shook their heads.

“Well, get your laptop computer, Gina. I want you to look them up right now,” said Dad, “Rose, there is a book on the bookshelf about the cute mountain gorillas. Find it and read it.”

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。

The girls dragged their feet upstairs.

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The next Monday came and the family set out excitedly.

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5 . When we’re stressed, the brain sends a signal to the adrenal medulla (肾上腺髓质). That signal causes many unpleasant symptoms. Until recently, most scientists believe that muscles have nothing to do with stress because they don’t influence how the brain and the adrenal medulla communicate. In fact, Strick, a leading neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh, says he has long been suspicious of claims that exercises building muscles like yoga can decrease stress. “I need to see that there’s a connection; that there’s a real biological basis,” he says.

In 2016, Strick decided to study the connection between muscles and stress by using a method he pioneered. Strick invented a process where he could put a virus into an organ to track the neural network s that connect the brain and the muscles. “So we injected (注入) the adrenal medulla with a virus, and we tracked it back into the brain and then mapped which areas influenced the adrenal,” he says. “And that’s where the surprise came.” Essentially, Strick discovered that our stress response is controlled by more than just the ‘thinking’ part of the brain. Other parts of the brain, including those controlling our muscles, are also sending signals to the adrenal medulla. And the area of the brain that communicates with the adrenal receives signals from the core muscles as well. So, strengthening those muscles, Strick says, can adjust our stress.

When we’re tapping away at a computer in a chair all day, many of us feel more mentally stressed. Strick recommends strengthening the core muscles so that sitting upright all day becomes more natural. “Slump, and then sit up straight,” he says “And see what the difference they make to your mood.”

Strick also says this discovery was a wake-up call for his own health. He credits his children, who persuaded him to try yoga years ago. “And I once said, come on, give me a break. I don’t have time,” he says. “But as it turns out, they’re right.”

1. What can we learn about Strick’s study?

A．He referred to other researchers’ methods.

B．He observed the influence a virus has on the adrenal.

C．He got the result similar to that of previous studies.

D．He found the part of the brain managing muscles can affect stress.

2. What does the underlined word “slump” probably mean in paragraph 3?

A．Sink into a chair.	B．Stand up all of a sudden.
C．Stare at something carefully.	D．Do intense physical exercise.

3. What does Strick think of yoga at the end of the passage?

A．Favorable.

B．Intolerant.

C．Doubtful.

D．Unclear.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Why We Are So Easily Stressed	B．Benefits of Doing Sports Like Yoga
C．Ways of Strengthening Our Muscles	D．Our Muscles Can Affect Our Mood

6 . HARDCORE TANO*C is an independent Japanese music label that is known for releasing music compilations and albums focused on various forms of hardcore techno such as UK hardcore, happy hardcore, and gabber. The label was founded in 2003 by Yoshikazu Nagai (who at the time used the Akai Hito alias), originally under the name of Hardcore Tanoshii, but changed to its current name of HARDCORE TANO*C in 2007 after the release of the album HARDCORE SYNDROME. The label features a store which sells the most notable doujin (同人)music releases, and is well known for their frequent live events that are regularly organized throughout the years, including the annual TANO*C TOUR series of events and the S2TBTANO*C events done in collaboration with kors k’s S2TB Recording label.

From 2011 to 2018, HARDCORE TANO*C were very closely linked with BEMANI, most notably in beat mania IIDX and SOUND VOLTEX. Many of HARDCORE TANO*C’s members were frequent contributors to BEMANI,and KONAMI even collaborated with the label for a few of their own album releases. Their presence also expanded to various other music game titles.

Many guest artists have appeared in HARDCORE TANO*C compilations, including Ryu☆, kors k, DJ Shimamura, m1dy, M-Project, JAKAZiD (as Joshka), Hommarju, Camellia, lapix, C-Show, Maozon, Nhato, Dustvoxx, and Akira Complex.

By the end of 2017, HARDCORE TANO*C has started to produce major artist album releases, containing licensed works done for music games by the circle’s artists. From September 2018, a sub-label directed by DJ Myosuke named HARDCORE TANO*C HARD has been established, which focuses on harsher music. HARDCORE TANO*C is also heavily involved in the 2019 rhythm game WACCA, which is published by MARVELOUS!, with nearly its entire staff contributing to the game.

A song composed by various members of HARDCORE TANO*C, BATTLE NO.1, was planned to be in SOUND VOLTEX IV HEAVENLY HAVEN for the The 8th KONAMI Arcade Championship, under the artist name of TANO*C SOUND TEAM. KONAMI rejected the song (likely due to their poking fun (打趣) of the BEMANI Sound Team moniker, which was at its most extreme in the time of that event), and it later appeared instead in the HARDCORE TANO*C-produced game WACCA on August 1st, 2019. It also appeared in lowiro’s Arcaea as part of the Arcaea× HARDCORE TANO*C Collaboration (联动) and SEGA’s maimai でらっくす Splash. It was added to Muse Dash on February 5, 2021.

1. What’s the main idea of the first paragraph?

A．Some basic information about HARDCORE TANO*C.

B．The founder and members of HARDCORE TANO*

C．C. The relationship between Yoshikazu Nagai and HARDCORE TANO*C.

D．The relationship between BEMANI and HARDCORE TANO*C.

2. Among the following members, who has NOT shown up in this music label’s compilations?

A．Camellia.

B．Laur.

C．Maozon.

D．Akira Complex.

3. What can we know about the rhythm game WACCA?

A．It was produced by HARDCORE TANO*C last year.

B．None of MARVELOUS!’s employees is working for it.

C．The song BATTLE NO.1 was included in this game.

D．It had a collaboration with Muse Dash in Feb, 2021.

4. Arcaea has collaborated with both HARDCORE TANO*C and WACCA. As a player of Arcaea, what should you do?

A．Try playing WACCA if possible.

B．Spread bad comments about HARDCORE TANO*

C．Only cheer for the game or the artist you like.

D．Ask the official staff about the song selection petulantly.

7 . 阅读下面材料, 根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段, 使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Twinkling glass pieces fall in an unevenly timed rain while reflecting dead worlds as they always do. The girl at the center of it all focuses on a piece reflecting something new, however, and of this world still existing.

Tears fall from her eyes, but the reason is yet grasped by her. Her mind still recovering, she agonizes over the loss of everything she had before, falling all around her. But, also, she agonizes over the loss of her zeal. The memory reflected shows a better and ignorant time, as she walked into a trap she’d created for herself. Even if she knew where it would lead-these shiftless travels inviting senselessness-would she have done it all again, just to be happy?
The red in the glass is that of the red in her clothes, and she grasps the shard tightly to add the red of her hand to it, blurring past and present, running warm over the shimmering surface. She feels, again, but she feels so much more than before. She feels, overwhelmingly, regret.

These were times that, almost with pride, she had moved meaninglessly. She had gathered the Arcaea to enjoy them, and not thought even a bit as to why. She had brought on herself a torturous and tedious hedonistic existence, a manufactured and blinding prison. She had done it all for nothing, and nearly lost herself. And to a question of “Why?” there was never an answer. Just to be happy? That hadn’t been it either. Collapsed on her knees, choking through cries with the memory over her breast, she knows the weight of her errors. She had surrounded herself in love and life so much that it came to disgust her, and that truth grieves her. In grief the girl cries, thinking as much as she can, about everything that has happened, and what anything meant.

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:

She no longer openly weeps, sitting among shimmering glass with dried tears on her cheeks and dried blood in her hands. Fear, worry, and regret have ended, so she now has to look out ahead.

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Paragraph 2:

If she wants to press on, she must have a reason.

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8 . When you teach a child how to solve puzzles, you can either let them figure it out through trial and error, or you can guide them with some basic rules and tips. Similarly, incorporating (合并) rules and tips into AI training — such as the laws of physics — could make them more efficient and more reflective of the real world. However, helping the AI assess the value of different rules can be a tricky task.

Researchers report that they have developed a framework for assessing the relative value of rules and data in “informed machine learning models” that incorporate both. They showed that by doing so, they could help the AI incorporate basic laws of the real world and better navigate scientific problems like solving complex mathematical problems and optimizing experimental conditions in chemistry experiments.

“Embedding human knowledge into AI models has the potential to improve their efficiency and ability to make inferences, but the question is how to balance the influence of data and knowledge,” says first author. Hao Xu of Peking University. “Our framework can be employed to evaluate different knowledge and rules to enhance the predictive capability of deep learning models.”

Generative AI models like ChatGPT and Sora are purely data-driven — the models are given training data, and they teach themselves via trial and error. However, with only data to work from, these systems have no way to learn physical laws, such as gravity or fluid dynamics, and they also struggle to perform in situations that differ from their training data. An alternative approach is informed machine learning, in which researchers provide the model with some underlying rules to help guide its training process.

“We are trying to teach AI models the laws of physics so that they can be more reflective of the real world, which would make them more useful in science and engineering. We want to make it a closed loop (闭环) by making the model into a real AI scientist,” says senior author Yuntian Chen of the Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo.

1. How did the author introduce the topic of the text?

A．By assessing basic rules.	B．By comparison of similarity.
C．By explaining laws of physics.	D．By analysis of human learning.

2. What does the underlined word “embedding” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Planting.

B．Stressing.

C．Employing.

D．Revealing.

3. What makes generative AI models underperform?

A．They’re dependent too much on data.

B．They’re inflexible to carry out new tasks.

C．They struggle to learn new things.

D．It’s tough for them to deal with familiar situations.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Informed machine learning may be an alternative to generative AI.

B．Helping the AI assess the value of different rules can be a tricky task.

C．Generative AI models can be more reflective of the real world in the future.

D．Balancing training data and human knowledge makes AI more like a scientist.

9 . 阅读下面材料, 根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段, 使之构成一篇完整的短文。

This…was turning out to be a strange meeting. Though the one in black doesn’t know it, the one white is beginning to share the darker girl’s lack of enthusiasm. Like a fire in a sudden chill wind, her hope flickers and wanes. Now she grows uncomfortable, anxious, and wary. A slight but unshakable atmosphere drifts between them, one that feels unmistakably off. To her, it seems as though their very meeting is something the world finds to be simply…“wrong”. The ever-present glass, now scattered unevenly throughout and above the broken grounds, reflects that strange feeling.

Ordinarily, these shards would flock to them without their bidding：“happiness”to the girl in white, “tragedies” to the girl in black. Right now, every piece of glass in the air stands still. Perhaps half a hundred mirrors are quietly

suspended around the girls, half-catching images of the empty place that surrounds them. When the girl in white tries to call out to them, they will not even waver. It unsettles her：happiness placed beside horror, equally glinting and equally motionless. The only piece that will follow her is the one she can hold—the one that set her free.

She stares hard at the shadow girl.“If we’re in this together, ”she begins, leaning forward, “then what do you think about staying together?We…We could help each other, and maybe…”

She stops. The other girl is staring into the empty, canvas-like sky with a blank and uninformative expression. She doesn’t seem to be listening, but in truth she has followed every word.

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:

“Maybe…”the dark girl echoes.

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Paragraph 2:

And the remnant of the girl she used to be, the Tairitsu who had first woken up in this world, rebelled against the prospect of “the end”—against the idea of giving up.

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10 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

A Regret

As I sat on the couch, my heart was filled with guilt. I recalled how terrible my mistake was, regretting my every move.

It was finally the start of the school holidays. As soon as I reached home, I jumped into my bed. “Freedom!” I shouted with joy.

“Tim, stop relaxing. Didn’t you say that you wanted to learn how to skate? Your father bought you a new skateboard. He will start teaching you tomorrow!” my mother said with delight. Immediately, I jumped out of my bed and sped downstairs. Lying on the dining table was a wonderful skateboard with my name carved on it. The colours, shape and size of each pattern were incredible.

“Can I start now?” I questioned impatiently. My mum shook her head and firmly said that it was too dangerous. A frown (皱眉) filled my face. Disappointed, I took my new skateboard up to my room.

As I stared at the window, I realized how perfect the weather was. The sun was shining, and the birds were singing. There were not many people as well. “No one will know that I stole out secretly and it will not be dangerous. There aren’t many people anyway!” Without hesitation, I tiptoed out of the house. “I can’t wait any longer! I can’t wait!” I spoke to myself in a whisper.

At a nearby park, I placed the skateboard on the ground. Despite being clueless on how to skate, I found a creative way to do so. One of my favourite moves was sitting on the skateboard, with two hands on it, using my legs to move forward.

Not long after, I crowned myself “Master of Skating”. I finally got the hang of it and was skating all around. “My method is amazing!” I announced. At that moment, I saw a long and steep slope (陡坡). My face lit up and I quickly headed towards it. I was filled with confidence to the edge. I flew down the slope with excitement and joy.

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。

Suddenly a six-year-old boy rushed into my path because his ball had rolled away.

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Fortunately, his injuries were minor and not infected but I got severely lectured by my parents.

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