1 . I write this on a spring morning, in the van I have called home for two years now.

From one small window, I have a view of joggers pounding the sunny path by the Oxford Canal, and the other looks onto the busy railway line along which trains travel from Southampton Docks to Birmingham.

The woods where I’ve parked my van have grown up between them. This ancient van, a vehicle designed for freedom and the open road, has proved a stable solution for surviving the current housing crisis.

I became a travel writer after my studies ended, committing to brief “residencies” with museums and art centres—where temporary accommodation is often provided in exchange for producing new work about a community. Over the years that followed, living and working on location in the polar regions or Scandinavia or the Alps, not settling down for very long, meant wherever I landed was always “home”.

During the pandemic it was necessary to adopt a more permanent engagement with locality. Oxford had often drawn me back. It’s a crossroads of reality and the imagination, the perfect city for a writer.

It takes a surprising amount of work to keep a tiny home in order: buying a used van online; ensuring the smooth running of a gas cooker and car batteries; fetching water and emptying the mobile toilet. I began to enjoy taking care of my immediate surroundings. Over the summer, I worked to turn waste-ground into a wild garden, replacing weeds with wild plants.

I made friends with the self-sufficient boaters living nearby, always ready to share knowledge on the low-carbon simplicity of life without electricity. I’ve learnt that comfort can be found away from the bright infrastructure of urban life: in watching the birds that nest in the tree and the foxes playing in the woods at dawn, in making a cup of coffee on a spring morning.

My step away from conventional housing has been a necessary act of personal economy, but the benefits include taking nothing for granted, and unexpected delight.

1. Why did the writer make the van his home?

A．Because the feature of the van and that of his occupation are matching.

B．Because the van is equivalent to a crossroads of reality and the imagination.

C．Because the views of joggers and trains outside the van can relieve his pressure.

D．Because living and working on location in the polar regions are appealing to him.

2. What does “immediate surroundings” in Paragraph 6 refer to?

A．a used van

B．a gas cooker

C．a wild garden

D．a mobile toilet

3. Which of the following is the benefit of unconventional housing?

A．Joining joggers to do exercise.	B．Keeping a tiny home in order easily.
C．Improving the economy of Oxford.	D．Embracing delightful surprises.

4. What’s the writer’s attitude towards living in the van?

A．Cautious.

B．Ironical.

C．Favorable.

D．Neutral.

2 . Riding the bus to school could be keeping some kids out of class. Most school buses run on fuel. Those buses send out pollution, including tiny particles and gases. Bus riders get exposed to high levels of this pollution. When breathed in, it can lead to breathing problems, such as asthma (哮喘), which may keep kids home from school. But replacing the worst-polluting buses should cut down on student absences, a new study shows.

The study focused on schools that were asked to take part in a U. S. government program. The program offered schools cash back for money spent on cleaner school buses. The 2, 816 school districts in the new study all asked for the money. But not all got it. Only 383 were picked to receive funding. Winning districts could buy new buses and desert old ones.

The program started in 2012. From 2012 to 2017, the winning districts very likely had less bus pollution. And a year after getting new buses, student attendance had improved in those districts. For an average district of 10, 000 students, about six more students attended school each day in the winning districts. Districts that replaced the oldest buses had an average of 45 more students in school each day.

Those numbers may sound small, but they can add up, says Meredith Pedde, an environmental epidemiologist (流行病学家). Almost 3 million U. S. kids ride school buses more than 20 years old, her team figures. Replacing all of those old buses could mean 1.3 million fewer student absences each year, the data suggest. And school attendance matters for student achievement.

Now the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a new program for school buses.   It’s offering $5 billion through 2026 to replace old fuel buses with cleaner ones. Almost all U. S. school districts can apply for the new rebates. But schools in low-income areas and in rural areas will get priority. Kids in these areas tend to face the most health risks from old buses, EPA notes. And anything that cuts air pollution, Pedde says, should improve student health.

1. What is the primary reason why riding the bus to school might lead to student absences?

A．Serious fuel shortage for school buses.

B．Lack of available seats on school buses.

C．High risk of disease spreading in a bus.

D．High levels of pollution from school buses.

2. What does Meredith Pedde suggest about the impact of replacing old buses?

A．It increases health risks for students.

B．It is a costly and ineffective measure.

C．It helps to improve student attendances.

D．It has no significant effect on absences.

3. What does the underline word “rebates” in Paragraph 5 probably refer to?

A．Financial aids.

B．School posts.

C．Health benefits.

D．Public resources.

4. What is the purpose of the text?

A．To describe the potential risk of school buses.

B．To talk about the use of cleaner school buses.

C．To discuss the importance of decreasing absence.

D．To call on the government to improve school buses.

3 . Remember This

There are a handful of people with uncommonly good memories. But AJ is unique. Her extraordinary memory is not for facts or figures, but for aspects of her own life. Such a memory for autobiographical detail was previously unknown and neuroscientists have coined a new term to describe her condition: hyperthymestic syndrome (超忆综合症).

It would seem initially as though having a memory like AJ’s would make life qualitatively different — and better. Our culture bombards us with new information, yet so little of it is captured and cataloged in such a way that it can be retrieved later. What would it mean to have all that otherwise lost knowledge at our fingertips? It would be a great benefit if it made us more confident and, in some fundamental sense, smarter. To the extent that experience is the sum of our memories, and wisdom the sum of experience, having a better memory would mean knowing more about the world and about oneself. How many worthwhile ideas have gone unthought because of our memory’s shortcomings?

The greatest geniuses in ancient and medieval times were described as people of superior memories, and there is a long tradition of memory training in many cultures. But over the past millennium, we’ve gradually replaced our internal memory with what psychologists refer to as external memory, a vast superstructure of technological crutches that mean we don’t have to store information in our brains. We have calendars to keep track of our schedules, books (and now the internet) to store our collective knowledge, and photographs to record our experiences. But has anything been lost in this process?

The whole point of our nervous system is to develop a sense of what is happening in the present and what is about to happen in the future, so that we can respond in the best possible way. Our brains are fundamentally prediction machines, and to work they have to find order in the chaos of possible memories. Our brains receive a huge amount of data but most of this does not need to be reflected upon or remembered.

Not surprisingly, drug companies are searching for chemicals that might halt the tide of forgetting. But this raises some troubling ethical questions. Would we choose to live in a society where people have vastly better memories? In fact, what would it even mean to have a better memory? Would it mean remembering things only exactly as they happened, free from the revisions and exaggerations that our mind naturally creates? Would it mean having a memory that forgets traumas (创伤) ? Would it mean becoming AJ?

1. In the second paragraph, what is the writer’s attitude towards people having better memories?

A．He thinks only a few people are capable of achieving this.

B．He believes some information in our culture is not worth acquiring.

C．He is confident that scientific progress will ensure this in the near future.

D．He appreciates that our lives might improve as a consequence.

2. What is the writer’s purpose in the third paragraph?

A．To compare attitudes towards collective knowledge.

B．To illustrate the growing use of aids to memory.

C．To describe how psychology has affected our understanding of memory.

D．To explain how improved knowledge has led to technological development.

3. The word “chaos” in paragraph 4 is used to refer to______.

A．some people’s perception of the world they live in

B．the many conflicting opinions about how the brain functions

C．the result of people not getting rid of irrelevant information

D．different ways in which a damaged brain can impair memory

4. What does the writer suggest about the development of memory drugs?

A．Many people are opposed to this kind of research.

B．It is hard to be precise about their effect.

C．The benefits for society would be immense.

D．Trauma victims should be a priority.

4 . I’m pretty good at sticking with things even when they get hard. Bad relationships, unpleasant workplaces, ______ sports — I’ve hung on for months and even years longer than I should have, convinced the situation would ______ if I refused to give up.

After all, isn’t every success story littered with ______? Didn’t Beyoncé lose Star Search, and didn’t Oprah get fired from her first TV job? Quitting is a sign that you lack patience and strong will, or so I was raised to believe.

______, if I look back on all the things I eventually quit, my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. I’ve wasted immeasurable time and energy dragging my heels, determined that I could ______ everyone if I just kept going.

All of us are constantly making tricky choices between going further into familiar territory and ______ to expand our horizons. This is known as the exploration-exploitation trade-off. When we are younger, it’s advantageous to go far on the side of exploration, trying lots of new things because we have plenty of time to ______ later. But as we age, it’s often smarter to double down.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t quit something just because you’ve put a lot of time into it. Economists call this the sunk cost fallacy (谬误): People are more likely to ______ something if they’ve invested a lot of money or effort into it, even when it’s clear that they should ______ their losses and jump ship. This practice is normal and ______, but it’s also unreasonable. If an activity or relationship is making you miserable, that’s important information you shouldn’t ignore.

If you don’t get energy out of doing something, it can be a(n) ______ that this is not for you or that there’s something better you could be doing. Or it could be a sign that you should ______ your goals. Maybe your yogurt startup might not win over investors, but you could still make and sell yogurt at the farmers’ market on weekends.

In fact, dogged persistence in the face of energy-sucking disappointment can ______ depression, and then make you suffer from diseases in the long run.

But the good news is that people can learn to pay better attention to these moments when they’re happening and make ______. The art of quitting isn’t about just letting go whenever there’s an obstacle. It’s about being able to let go when there’s no ______ to success anymore.

1.

A．engaging

B．demanding

C．inevitable

D．leisure

2.

A．worsen

B．occur

C．improve

D．continue

3.

A．frustrations

B．determinations

C．attempts

D．inspirations

4.

A．Therefore

B．Additionally

C．For example

D．However

5.

A．amaze

B．scare

C．distress

D．compliment

6.

A．breaking up

B．looking up

C．standing up

D．backing up

7.

A．venture

B．specialize

C．explore

D．relax

8.

A．benefit from

B．approve of

C．stick with

D．withdraw from

9.

A．evaluate

B．avoid

C．overlook

D．cut

10.

A．human

B．crazy

C．sensible

D．tricky

11.

A．indication

B．desire

C．occasion

D．recognition

12.

A．accomplish

B．upgrade

C．modify

D．maintain

13.

A．prevent

B．trigger

C．relieve

D．contract

14.

A．researches

B．choices

C．changes

D．resolutions

15.

A．shortcut

B．barrier

C．guarantee

D．pathway

6 . In 1666, Sir Isaac Newton, observed light entering a prism (三棱镜), and from this experience he made a brilliant discovery about light and colour; that white light is made up of a spectrum of several colours. He was _______ with light, and believed that it had a close relationship to the concept that the early modern scientist knew as ‘the vegetable spirit’, which was an idea that Newton coined.

Newton was _______ awed (敬畏) by the beauty and complexity of nature. Over time, he concluded that the massive variety of life and processes that occur in nature, such as growth and _______, meant there must be some _______ force making it all happen. He believed that the ‘vegetable spirit’ was that _______, and he thought it might be linked with the power of light.

To those only familiar with Newton’s discoveries in _______ and physics, the idea of the ‘vegetable spirit’ might seem _______, and even pseudo-scientific. However, this idea was closely _______ with a subject that he is not very often known for studying, and yet spent a great amount of his time devoted to: alchemy. In his lifetime, Newton wrote around one million words on alchemy (炼金术), which shows how committed he was to the _______. Through his research into alchemy, Newton hoped to ________ the secret of the ‘Vegetable spirit’, or the spirit of life.

Newton was not the first person to turn to alchemy in order to find what he was looking for, and was in fact one of the last in a long line of alchemists who sought to use the art for the purpose of discovering the universe’s remarkable secrets.

The ________ of alchemy can be traced back 2,000 years before Newton to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. In fact, the word ‘alchemy’ may be derived from Khem, which was an Ancient Greek ________ for Egypt. Even though alchemical tradition often states that the ________ father of the practice was Hermes Trismegistus, it is very difficult to ________ the root of alchemy to one person. On the other hand, it is much more likely that the first proto-alchemists were Egyptian metalworkers, who would have worked with several different types of metal. It was gold that had the most ________, therefore many focused their attention on this precious metal. Dyers and medicine-makers were also linked to early alchemy.

1.

A．satisfied

B．experienced

C．attracted

D．fascinated

2.

A．constantly

B．casually

C．hardly

D．seemingly

3.

A．development

B．disappearance

C．death

D．peace

4.

A．struggling

B．driving

C．leading

D．pulling

5.

A．nature

B．spirit

C．force

D．power

6.

A．mathematics

B．science

C．spirit

D．nature

7.

A．uncomfortable

B．strange

C．reasonable

D．objective

8.

A．relevant

B．stuck

C．dealt

D．associated

9.

A．problem

B．practice

C．mystery

D．career

10.

A．complete

B．hide

C．uncover

D．restore

11.

A．secrets

B．discoverers

C．origins

D．traditions

12.

A．expert

B．custom

C．term

D．subject

13.

A．basic

B．biological

C．imaginary

D．founding

14.

A．tie

B．show

C．stick

D．involve

15.

A．popularity

B．value

C．amount

D．usages

7 . 我们都没有想到，那个曾经腼腆的男孩竟然能在演讲比赛中一举夺魁。 (It) (汉译英)

8 . In the roughly 250 years since the Industrial Revolution, the world’s population, like its wealth, has exploded. Before the end of this century, however, the number of people on the planet could shrink for the first time since the Black Death. The root cause is not an increase in deaths, but a drop in births. Across much of the world the fertility rate, the average number of births per woman, is collapsing. Although the trend may be familiar, its extent and its consequences are not. Even as artificial intelligence (AI) leads to optimism in some quarters, the baby bust (婴儿荒) hangs over the future of the world economy.

Whatever some environmentalists say, a shrinking population creates problems. The world is not close to full and the economic difficulties resulting from fewer young people are many. The obvious one is that it is getting harder to support the world’s pensioners. Retired folk draw on the output of the working-aged, either through the state, which requests taxes on workers to pay public pensions, or by cashing in savings to buy goods and services or because relatives provide care unpaid. But whereas the rich world currently has around three people between 20 and 64 years old for everyone over 65, by 2050 it will have less than two. The implications are higher taxes, later retirements, lower real returns for savers and, possibly, government budget crises.

Low proportion of workers to pensioners are only one problem resulting from collapsing fertility. Younger people have more of what psychologists call “fluid intelligence”, the ability to think creatively so as to solve problems in entirely new ways. This youthful energy adds to the accumulated knowledge of older workers. It also brings change. Patents filed by the youngest inventors are much more likely to cover breakthrough innovations. Older countries and their young people are less enterprising and less comfortable taking risks. Because the old benefit less than the young when economies grow, they have proved less keen on pro-growth policies, especially housebuilding. Creative destruction is likely to be rarer in ageing societies, restricting productivity growth in ways that compound into an enormous missed opportunity.

Eventually, therefore, the world will have to make do with fewer youngsters—and perhaps with a shrinking population. With that in mind, recent advances in AI could not have come at a better time. A productive AI economy might find it easy to support a greater number of retired people. Eventually AI may be able to generate ideas by itself, reducing the need for human intelligence. Combined with robotics, AI may also make caring for the elderly less labour-intensive. Such innovations will certainly be in high demand.

If technology does allow humanity to overcome the baby bust, it will fit the historical pattern. Unexpected productivity advances meant that demographic time-bombs (人口定时炸弹) failed to explode. Fewer babies mean less human genius. But that might be a problem human genius can fix.

1. What can be learned from the first paragraph?

A．The collapsing fertility rate is to blame for the shrinking population.

B．Black Death marked the shrinking number of people for the first time.

C．Industrial Revolution weakened the increase of the world’s population.

D．The public are familiar with the extent and the influence of the baby bust.

2. What makes it harder to support the world’s pensioners?

A．Close relatives have refused to take care of the old without being paid.

B．The output of the working-aged which the old can draw on is shrinking.

C．The old have cashed in savings to cover expenses of goods and services.

D．The government has requested taxes on younger employees to pay pensions.

3. Why does “fluid intelligence” (in Paragraph 3) suffer in ageing societies?

A．Because older workers boast more accumulated knowledge.

B．Because the old benefit less than the young in creative destruction.

C．Because collapsing fertility results in low proportion of workers to pensioners.

D．Because restricting productivity growth compounds into a missed opportunity.

4. The best title for the passage is probably _____.

A．The Old Pensioners Make a Comeback	B．Artificial Intelligence Leads to a Bright Future
C．The Measures to Overcome the Baby Bust	D．The Effect of the Baby Bust on Economy

9 . 很多人反对在岛上修建核电站，担心废水可能会排入海洋，污染海洋生物。(for fear that) (汉译英)

10 . 除了推出智能电子产品外，这个公司与客户深化合作，探索数字化转型和可持续发展的道路。 (launch) (汉译英)