1 . The waves were clean and curling one day about ten years ago when surfer Will Rose stepped into the water at Ocean Beach in San Diego, California. Rose was an experienced surfer then in his mid-20s. Midway through his session, he spotted a young surfer, perhaps 10 years old, who’d lost his board and was struggling in a powerful rip current (离岸流). Rose paddled over as the boy was carried underneath a long pier (码头) and s wept rapidly out to sea.
“It was one of the craziest rip currents I’ve ever seen,” Rose recalls.
He traded places with the boy, handing over his board and pushing the younger surfer towards the shore in a breaking wave. Rose held onto a pier pile tightly in the fast-flowing water as a lifeguard hurried over on his own board before helping him back to the beach.
Rose’s act of heroism, new research suggests, is a surprisingly common one for surfers. In a recent survey conducted in New Zealand, scientists found that throughout their lives, surfers reportedly rescue an average of three people who are drowning (溺死) or otherwise struggling in the water. The findings cast new light on the role of surfers: as largely overlooked guardians of the beach.
The study was conducted by Jamie Mead, then a graduate student at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. It began with an online survey of 418 surfers from across New Zealand. Processing the responses, Mead found that these surfers were claiming to have participated in a total of 1,274 rescues, including 296 times when they felt they’d saved a person’s life. Of these rescues, 73 percent took place on beaches without lifeguards present. It showed the crucial role surfers have played in protecting beach goers.
The survey responses also show that in nearly nine out of ten rescues, the people the surfers helped required no further treatment after the incident, and probably left no official record or report of the event.
“We need to get surfers the praise they deserve.” Mead says. The research, Mead writes in his paper, suggests that organizations involved in drowning prevention, “Should work closely with surfing communities on ways to reduce deaths at coastal beaches?”
1. What did Will Rose do when he saw the struggling young boy?A.He ignored the boy. | B.He called for help from a nearby lifeguard. |
C.He helped the boy escape the danger. | D.He helped the boy find his lost surfboard. |
A.To highlight the dangers of rip currents. |
B.To show the bravery and skills of experienced surfers. |
C.To stress the potential dangers faced by young surfers. |
D.To exhibit a typical rescue example by experienced surfers. |
A.The findings of Jamie Mead’s study. | B.The purpose of Jamie Mead’s study. |
C.Jamie Mead’s comments on surfers. | D.Jamie Mead’s advice on drowning prevention. |
A.Surfers deserve public praise. |
B.Increased lifeguard coverage is needed. |
C.Beaches are safe with both surfers and lifeguards present. |
D.Drowning prevention efforts need to involve surfing communities. |
1.阅读的意义;
2.你的阅读习惯。
注意:
1. 词数不少于 80 词;
2.不得出现真实的校名和人名;
3.可以适当增加细节,以使行文连贯;
4.开头已给出,不计入总词数。
Good morning, everyone!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Although we
When
The ancient farm belonging to an officer
The habitat of these birds
7 . Social media scam is a form of phishing in which cybercriminals connect with their victims through social media platforms.
No social media platform will ask its users to click an outside link to update their personal information. Check with the official customer support if you are unsure. Internet users should apply the principle better safe than sorry.
Do not use the same password across all your online accounts. If one account gets hacked, all of them will. It is always better to have distinct login details for each platform as well.
Make sure not to reveal personal information.Do not publish your address, phone number, or place of work on your social media account for your safety.
When you get a strange message, or an offer to buy or sell something on social media, first check if the account is verified.
Social media scams can be financially damaging and emotionally distressing. We hope that these tips will come in handy for you. Remember, safety first in the online world just as it is in the real world.
A.Do not send money to anyone before that. |
B.It usually starts by sending a friend request. |
C.Always use a strong password to improve security. |
D.Create a unique login and password for each platform. |
E.Also, do not give away this information to strangers in conversations. |
F.Be careful of friend requests from unknown individuals, as they may have ill intent. |
G.Before making friends with someone that you do not know, carefully examine the account. |
8 . Three scientists jointly won this year’s Nobel Prize in physics for proving that tiny particles (粒子) could keep a connection with each other even when separated, a phenomenon once doubted but now being explored for potential real-world applications such as encoding information. Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John F. Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger were quoted by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for experiments proving the “totally crazy” field of quantum entanglements (量子纠缠) to be all too real. They demonstrated that unseen particles, such as photons (光子) , can be linked, or “entangled”, with each other even when they are separated by large distances.
In quantum entanglement, establishing common information between two photons not near each other “allows us to do things like secret communication, in ways which weren’t possible to do before”, said David Haviland, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics. Quantum information “has broad and potential effects in areas such as secure information transmission, quantum computing and sensing technology”. The kind of secure communication used by China’s Micius satellite, as well as by some banks, is a “success story of quantum entanglement”, said Harun Siljak of Trinity College Dublin.
The Nobel Committee said Clauser developed quantum theories first put forward in the 1960s into a practical experiment. Aspect was able to correct an error in those theories, while Zeilinger demonstrated a phenomenon called quantum teleportation that effectively allows information to be sent over distances. “Using entanglement you can send all the information which is carried by an object over to some other place where the object is.” Zeilinger said. He added that this only works for tiny particles. “It is not like in the Star Trek films transporting something, certainly not the person, over some distance,” he said.
1. Which of the following statements about quantum entanglements is NOT true?A.Scientists were doubtful whether it exists in the real world. |
B.The Nobel Prize winner has put it into practical experiment. |
C.Two particles can actually be connected regardless of distances. |
D.The more distant 2 photons get, the less entangled they’ll become. |
A.Affecting. | B.Transforming. |
C.Communicating. | D.Spreading. |
A.The achievements these 3 scientists have got individually. |
B.The explanation for information transmission over large distances. |
C.The clarification that science fiction is no equal to scientific theory. |
D.The reason why these 3 scientists share this year’s Nobel Prize in physics. |
A.Classical physics can be applied to tiny particles. |
B.Quantum physics is the focus of modern physical research. |
C.Particles, photons, and quanta are all the basic composition of matter. |
D.Quantum entanglements can contribute to more cutting-edge technologies. |
9 . Artificial intelligence(AI)models have long surpassed (超过) just creating text responses and images. Now, with only one sentence, OpenAI’s latest text-to-video model, Sora, can turn your words into video with good visual quality while faithfully following your content instructions.
Sora is said to perform better than many other existing models with similar functions. The Al model can create video at suitable aspect ratios (屏幕高宽比) for different devices, such as both widescreen videos and vertical videos that we usually see on social media. It also lets users quickly test out content in lower quality before making the high-quality version, which helps speed up output.
Aside from this, its ability to present videos in a realistic and smooth manner is amazing. Sora can create detailed scenes with several characters, scientific types of motion, and accurate subject and background details while generating multiple shots with a single video. Beyond the user’s requests, it also understands how these elements exist in the real world. For example, reflections in the water changes as a woman walks by.
Sora’s performance wouldn’t be possible without its helpful assistant, ChatGPT, which transforms simple sentences into detailed descriptions. improving the accuracy of output according to the user’s prompts (提示语).
However, the current model isn’t perfect. It may have trouble accurately showing how things move in a complicated scene and might not get how one action leads to another. For example, if someone eats part of a cookie in a Sora-made video, the cookie might not look like it’s been bitten into. The model might mix up directions like left and right, and find it hard to describe events in the right order.
As of February, Sora is still in the testing stage of development. OpenAI is now inviting cybersecurity professionals to make random attacks on Sora’s system, aiming to test the model’s possible weaknesses and risks. Sora has also been open to some visual artists, designers and filmmakers. Their feedback (反馈) will assist OpenAI in enhancing the model to better serve creative professionals.
1. What is the main focus of paragraphs 2-3?A.Sora’s strengths. | B.Sora’s variety. |
C.Sora’s development. | D.Sora’s techniques. |
A.By specifying user input. | B.By providing verbal feedback. |
C.By examining sample videos. | D.By improving video quality. |
A.To stress Sora’s potential safety risks. |
B.To illustrate Sora’s existing limitations. |
C.To show Sora’s perfect performance. |
D.To explain the concept of a space time patch. |
A.It has been made available to various industries. |
B.Its commercial release has been called off. |
C.It has exposed alarming security issues. |
D.It is undergoing testing and improvement. |
10 . In a recent heartwarming story, Mr. Sun has touched the hearts of many by using AI face-swapping technology to create a video message from his late father.
The touching video captures Sun’s emotions as he replicates his father’s appearance and voice to convey a message of well-being to his grandmother. The entire process of face-swapping and video creation took a lot of effort and lasted nearly half a month, during which Sun couldn’t help but shed tears as he missed his deceased father.
In 2022, Sun’s father was diagnosed with a rare condition known as appendiceal mucinous adenocarcinoma (阑尾黏液腺癌). Despite Sun’s efforts to seek medical treatment for his father, the disease progressed rapidly, and his father passed away in 2023.
Concerned about his grandmother’s fragile health, the family decided to keep Sun’s father’s passing a secret. They fabricated (编造) a story, telling the elderly woman that her son was still receiving treatment in a Beijing hospital. The prolonged separation depressed the grandmother a lot, who continuously expressed her longing to speak with her son.
In a creative attempt to comfort his grandmother, Sun, inspired by science fiction films, decided to use AI face-swapping technology to create a video message from his father. Prior to recording the video, he even shaved off his bear d to look more like his late father. By using AI software, he successfully transformed his appearance into that of his father, delivering a heartfelt message to his grandmother: “Mom, it’s Jihai. I’m doing well in Beijing.” Despite the relatively low pixel (像素) quality, the grandmother believed the well-intentioned fabrication.
Sun admitted that his emotions almost broke down within the half-month, as every mention of his father’s name or a glance of his photograph brought great sorrow. He also expressed uncertainty about how long he can keep up the fabrication and whether he will make use of face-swapping again. Nevertheless, he is determined to follow in his father’s footstep to be a strong support for his family.
1. What does the underlined word in paragraph 2 mean?A.Copies. | B.Paints. | C.Recalls. | D.Preserves. |
A.By seeking medical treatment for his father. |
B.By making up to look like his father. |
C.By showing his father’s previous photographs and voice to her. |
D.By telling a white lie and giving his father an online rebirth. |
A.It was a laborious process. | B.Sun will employ face-swapping again. |
C.Sun got inspiration from science-fiction films. | D.The images this technology made were unclear. |
A.Creative and honest. | B.Optimistic and generous. |
C.Considerate and responsible. | D.Talented and courageous. |