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2 . The news that Derby has approved what promises to be Britain’s largest urban rewilding project so far is very welcome. The 320-hectare Allestree Park will, subject to detailed consultation, be given over to a range of habitats and perhaps even see the reintroduction of species such as dormice and red kites.
Urban rewilding - which is not the same as urban green space, however extensive - can take many forms. They
But in fact, some of the most successful projects have been
Urban rewilding,
The pressure for development means that there will always be tension with
In these mid-pandemic, post-Brexit, austerity-bitten (财政紧缩的) times, the financial arguments can be hardest to
| A．differ | B．originate | C．range | D．develop |
| A．transporting | B．attaching | C．leading | D．transforming |
| A．mature | B．established | C．reputational | D．accidental |
| A．specifically | B．fundamentally | C．previously | D．primarily |
| A．bring about | B．serve as | C．contribute to | D．rely on |
| A．breeding | B．launching | C．introducing | D．favoring |
| A．by contrast | B．for instance | C．in itself | D．in the meanwhile |
| A．appreciations | B．perceptions | C．insights | D．recovery |
| A．encounter | B．sustain | C．create | D．promote |
| A．recreational | B．political | C．industrial | D．commercial |
| A．qualified | B．maintained | C．reserved | D．cultivated |
| A．linked to | B．inseparable from | C．dismissed as | D．equivalent to |
| A．value | B．profit | C．benefit | D．worth |
| A．approve | B．counter | C．settle | D．consider |
| A．fundamental | B．essential | C．overwhelming | D．obvious |
3 . Transition. It’s a pleasant word and a calming concept. It means going surely and sweetly from somewhere present to somewhere future. Unless, that is, it is newspapers’ ‘transition’ to the
Just look at the latest print circulation figures. The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and many of the rest are down overall between 8% and 10% year-on-year, but their websites go ever higher.
All of that may well be true, depending on timing, geography and more.
One is the magazine world, both in the UK and in the US. It ought to be
As for news and current affairs magazines — which you’d expect to find in the eye of the digital storm — they had a 8.4% increase to report. In short, on both sides of the Atlantic, although some magazine areas went down, many showed rapid growth.
You can discover a
So if sales in that area have fallen so little, perhaps the
Already 360 US papers—including most of the biggest and best — have built paywalls around their products. However, the best way of attracting a paying readership appears to be a deal that offers the print copy and digital access as some kind of
Of course this huge difference isn’t
| A．publishing | B．online | C．ideal | D．unknown |
| A．On the other hand | B．After all | C．To begin with | D．For instance |
| A．stop | B．exist | C．emerge | D．fit |
| A．regulated | B．advancing | C．collapsing | D．minimized |
| A．solid | B．simple | C．creative | D．changeable |
| A．cultural | B．common | C．scientific | D．similar |
| A．later | B．harder | C．clearer | D．slower |
| A．all | B．neither | C．both | D．either |
| A．service | B．system | C．crisis | D．figure |
| A．right | B．vague | C．designed | D．mixed |
| A．made up | B．told apart | C．took over | D．held on |
| A．joint | B．mysterious | C．modern | D．complex |
| A．In other words | B．On the contrary | C．What’s more | D．Even so |
| A．new | B．sad | C．big | D．good |
| A．spared | B．updated | C．noticed | D．edited |
4 . With advances in electronics and neuroscience, researchers have been able to achieve remarkable things with brain implant devices. In addition to restoring physical senses, scientists are also seeking innovative ways to
For years, scientists have been trying to control and use neutral inputs to give a voice back to people whose neurological damage prevents them from talking. Until now, many of these brain-computer interfaces have
The brain is undamaged in these patients, but the neurons - the pathways that
The researchers started with high-resolution brain activity data collected from five volunteers over several years. These participants - all of whom had normal speech function - were already undergoing a
From there, the UCSF team worked out a two-stage process to recreate the spoken sentences. First, they created a decoder to
Other research has tried to decode words and sounds directly from neural signals,
Using this method, the researchers successfully reverse-engineered words and sentences from brain activity that
| A．offer | B．facilitate | C．initiate | D．influence |
| A．signs | B．consciousness | C．signals | D．waves |
| A．featured | B．neglected | C．rejected | D．missed |
| A．expressions | B．muscles | C．languages | D．masks |
| A．contribute to | B．communicate with | C．match with | D．lead to |
| A．daily | B．delicate | C．repetitive | D．tough |
| A．growing | B．producing | C．checking | D．monitoring |
| A．track | B．map | C．organize | D．design |
| A．copy | B．transform | C．follow | D．interpret |
| A．physical | B．virtual | C．individual | D．external |
| A．considering | B．creating | C．skipping | D．moving |
| A．other than | B．aside from | C．regardless of | D．rather than |
| A．roughly | B．barely | C．similarly | D．formally |
| A．spell | B．identify | C．parallel | D．invent |
| A．version | B．fluency | C．pronunciation | D．accuracy |
The National Institutes of Health defines the disorder as “a medical condition characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite harmful social, occupational or health consequences.” Yet despite how popular it is, most people who have the disorder do not receive treatment for it, even when they reveal their drinking problem to their primary care doctor or another health care professional.
Alcohol abuse can be driven by a complex variety of factors, including stress, depression and anxiety, as well as a person’s genetics, family history and socioeconomic circumstances. Many people kick their heavy drinking habit on their own or through self-help programs like Alcoholics Anonymous or SMART Recovery. But relapse (复发) rates are very high. Research suggests that among all the people with alcohol use disorder who try to quit drinking every year, just 25 percent are able to successfully reduce their alcohol intake long-term.
Alcohol is one of the most common forms of substance (物质) abuse and a leading cause of preventable deaths and disease, killing almost 100,000 Americans annually and contributing to millions of cancers, car accidents, heart attacks and other ailments. It is also a significant cause of workplace accidents and lost work productivity, as well as a driver of tense family and personal relationships. Yet for a variety of reasons, people who need treatment rarely get it from their physicians.
Studies suggest that a major barrier to people seeking treatment is that they believe that quitting drinking is their only option. That view is driven by the popularity and long history of 12-step programs like A. A. that consider quitting drinking as the only solution to alcoholism. For some people with severe drinking problems, that may be necessary. But studies show that people who have milder forms of alcohol use disorder can improve their mental health and quality of life, as well as their blood pressure, liver health and other aspects of their physical health, by lowering their alcohol intake without quitting alcohol entirely. Yet the idea that the only option is to quit suddenly can prevent people from seeking treatment.
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6 . The Hardest Novel I’ve Ever Read
For the last three months, I have glared at its fat heavy form on my floor with a vague sense of personal failure. I have opened Ulysses twice, determined to finish it, and managed to get all the way to page 46. I have read so little both times that I have never bothered using a bookmark.
Why do I get stuck?
There are a few other “worthy” works of literature I have yet to read, including Infinite Jest and War and Peace.
The English writer Virginia Woolf thought Ulysses was nonsense as she complained in her diaries about the pressure to finish reading it. By contrast, Vladimir Nabokov, the author who wrote Lolita expressed deep love for it.
Some people love Ulysses, so where am I getting wrong? My ultimate hope is that the struggle will be worth the effort and I can proceed victorious onto page 800 or so, on my third fourth, eighteenth try. Something tells me I will get there in the end.
| A．I’m not entirely sure myself |
| B．A lot of them are weighty tomes (巨著), but I like big books |
| C．It seems that reading Ulysses is a big different experience for everyone. |
| D．Even when staring at pages without absorbing a word, I thought nice thoughts about it |
| E．They, however, only cause me a slight sense of shame that I have not read or enjoyed them |
| F．I have been amused and charmed by the first two or three chapters, and then puzzled and bored. |
要点提示：
1. 认真学习党史。2. 向老一辈共产党人学习。3. 用实际行动传承优良传统。
开头已给出。
参考词汇：共产党人communist
Dear schoolmates,
From 1921 to 2021, the Chinese Communist Party has gone through a century of struggle and is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary.
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Li Hua
8 . “You’d be an intermediate (中级学生),” the clever salesgirl at the Apple Store said brightly. She was talking about the free classes one could sign up for. An intermediate, I thought with pride. “I’ve used Macs since they had green text and discs,” I said, eager to strengthen my position. “And I had a Mac Classic for years.” She smiled, or maybe she was thinking, “If it’s been that long, why are you still an intermediate?”
Why does one remain an intermediate? Sometimes it’s a matter of opportunity: Leaving New England was a blow to my cross-country skiing. No longer living on the banks of a river held up kayaking. Horseback riding, too, requires an opportunity. I know, however, a friend I rode with as a child bought herself a retired police horse in her 40s. A devoted kayaker would not have been prevented by the highways lying between her and rivers.
Sometimes, it’s ability. I have taken up piano later in life. I love music, but I can see that I have no particular gift for it. Gardening was another late job. I wasn’t a natural at that, either.
I admit I’m a little ashamed of being an intermediate. It seems to imply a lack of focus, an unwillingness to push myself to go deeper or further. Do I lack the persistence to become an expert? Am I too easily distracted to put in the 10,000 hours reportedly required to achieve mastery?
Maybe I have to accept that, for now at least, intermediate is my sweet spot. I’ve moved past the frustrations of beginnerhood without meeting the demands of expertise. A beginner is a beginner and an expert is just that. But an intermediate can be low, medium, or high. And wherever you are as an intermediate, you can always go forward, try harder, and learn more.
Who of us can claim to be an expert parent, wife, husband, child, or friend? At best, we’re the high intermediate with much to learn.
1. What did the writer want to prove to the salesgirl in the first paragraph?| A．Her position as a lifelong intermediate. |
| B．Her good knowledge about Apple computers. |
| C．Her eagerness to attend free courses. |
| D．Her ability to afford to buy expensive computers. |
| A．They are only excuses. |
| B．They appear just by accident. |
| C．They are waiting in our life. |
| D．They just come and go. |
| A．The writer’s worries. |
| B．The writer’s disappointments. |
| C．The writer’s curiosities. |
| D．The writer’s doubts. |
| A．It means the possibility to make improvement. |
| B．It marks the beginning to achieve mastery. |
| C．It presents the opportunity to become an expert. |
| D．It rids people of the difficulty to move on. |
回信中需要包含如下内容：
1. 感谢他的关心
2. 介绍学校的管控措施（可能需要的单词：口罩（mask），消毒（sterilize）核酸检测（nucleic acid test）,隔离quarantine 疑似病例suspected case）
3. 对战胜疫情的信心
注意：1. 字迹必须清晰，卷面整洁
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯
3. 字数不少于100字
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From the time when I was a child, my mother made it clear that she did not like nursing homes（敬老院）. I remember her saying that nursing homes were terrible places. Whenever my mother mentioned the topic. she would shake her finger at me and add a warning:"If you put me in one of those places, I'll not forgive you! "I knew my mother's wishes and wanted to obey.
Fortunately, my mother lived near me, and for many years it was easy to check on her and help with her care. But with each passing year, my mother experienced a decline in her physical and mental abilities. After ninety, when she was diagnosed with dementia(老年痴呆症) , she needed more assistance with the normal activities of daily living and required close observation just for her own safety.
During the passage of time, I, too, was getting older, I had my own mobility（移动性） issues and health concerns, As the days passed, it became clearer that some changes were needed. If I had to go out for groceries（食品杂货）, I couldn't leave her alone. When I slept, my mother was un-watched, and she could get out of bed and wander off.
Fortunately, while I was figuring out what to do, a brand-new nursing home was built in our town, I toured the nursing home and discovered that they could provide a private room for my mother. They also had staff members that were very professional and well-trained, I tried to convince myself that the new nursing home was the best and safest place for my mother, but I seemed to hear my mother's words and see her finger shake in front of my eyes.
注意:
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
Eventually，I decided and shared my plan with Mom.
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The big day came finally.
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