1 . A series of trains between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day add extra fun, especially for families. Here are four holiday trips to celebrate the season. All aboard!

Cascade Canyon Winter Train

This memorable five-hour steam (蒸汽) train ride takes passengers through the snowy ops of the Rockies and remote wilderness of San Juan National Forest. Enjoy a fireside lunch or a hike along the picture-like Animus River during your hour-long stop.

Aurora Winter Train

This seasonal train heads north from Anchorage to Denali, America’s highest mountain. You can stop after three hours at Talkeetna to ski down the mountain or continue on for another nine hours to Fairbanks for some breathtaking northern lights viewing. Trains leave every Saturday morning, with return trips every Sunday.

Amtrak California Zephyr

Long-distance train trippers love the Zephyr in any season, but winter adds the attraction of pretty snow outside the window as you go over the Rockies. Departing daily all winter from both Chicago and San Francisco, the 51-hour journey offers hotel-level service in a bedroom with a private bathroom and shower. Or, break up the trip with stops to sleep and ski in Denver or Salt Lake City.

The Polar Express

The Polar Express, a Caldecott Medal-winning children’s book and Tom Hanks’ movie, is re-created in 40 Polar Express rides in 24 states, putting more than a million annual passengers in train seats. The story is read and performed by onboard actors, while Santa and dancing chefs who serve hot chocolate and treats add to the fun on the way to the “North Pole”. Most of the rides will take you to scenic places like the Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier, and the Catskills.

1. How long does Cascade Canyon Winter Train stop at the Animus River?

A．One hour.

B．Three hours.

C．Five hours.

D．Nine hours.

2. Which train runs between Anchorage and Fairbanks?

A．The Polar Express.

B．Amtrak California Zephyr.

C．Aurora Winter Train.

D．Cascade Canyon Winter Train.

3. What can passengers do in the Polar Express rides?

A．Enjoy a fireside lunch.

B．See live performances.

C．Cook meals with Santa.

D．Watch Tom Hanks’ movies.

2 . Today, we have some tips to help English learners gain confidence in their English-speaking ability.

Use positive self-talk

Believe it or not, the most important person you talk to every day is yourself. In other words, your own thoughts matter.     1     Be sure to replace unhelpful thoughts or ideas with better one.

    2    

Those who are not confident enough usually speak so softly and fast that they have to repeat themselves several times. To sound more confident, try to slow down your speech and speak loudly enough that anyone in the same room can easily hear you. Many English learners worry that speaking too slowly will make them sound inexperienced.     3    . So avoid worrying that you are speaking too slowly for the people around you.

Speak in full sentences

If you are not confident in a language, you will likely try to say as little as possible when you speak. This is a common problem for language learners.     4     Using complete sentences shows listeners that you are not Afraid to speak English.

Don’t worry too much

One of the biggest problems in speaking a second language is worrying too much about making mistakes.     5     You can also tell your sell that the purpose of speaking a language is to communicate and That/many English learners who can communicate very well make mistakes, too.

A．Read out aloud

B．Speak more loudly and slowly

C．So pay attention to what you tell yourself

D．But speaking too fast may cause more mistakes

E．As your skills grow, your confidence will grow, too

F．Our tip is to speak in complete sentences and give longer responses when possible

G．You should keep in mind that making mistakes is a natural part of the learning process

3 . 语法填空

Some people might be of the opinion that heritages    1     (be) not necessary in the modern world. Maybe for some people they aren’t, but for most of us, being able to explore our heritages gives us many    2     (benefit).

Personal heritages can serve as connection with our past. For example, we might have some of the toys that belonged    3    our ancestors. As a part of our families’ heritages, they are important because they tell us where we come from.

It is true that knowing our personal heritage doesn’t    4     (full) define us. However, it can help us find our starting point in life. It can even help us find out the direction in which we wish to go. For example, if we happen to have people in our families    5    have done great things, we might find that we want to further    6     (they) achievements.

Understanding the cultural heritages, such as homegrown music styles, widely    7     (celebrate) festivals and unique cooking methods, allows us    8     (identify) with other communities that have a similar background. Cultural heritages can actually provide us with a sense of belonging and unity within a group. In a sense, the more globalized the world becomes,    9    more important it is not to lose forever these    10     (tradition) roots (根).

4 . I never planned to move back to my hometown in Ohio when I came home from California! I thought I would ________ there for a few weeks and then I could leave as soon as my dad ________. But one of his doctors told me that he couldn’t live alone anymore and suggested that I take him with me.

“Two big ________,” I said to my dad one night. “Stay in Ohio alone? Or go to California with me? It’s like choosing your own adventure.”

My dad ________ for a second and replied, “Based on my ________ and age, I don’t think I can do either one.”

My dad had lived in Ohio for the past 54 years. And then at 75, I asked him to leave all his life behind and come to live with me, his 31-year-old ________ and trust me to take care of him, something I had never done before. To be honest, I was ________, too. I had to ________ apart of my life as well. But I’d rather have us be terrified together.

After sitting in silence for a few seconds, I added, “If I said you had to ________ California and live with me, how would you feel about that?”

I was ________ shocked by his answer: “Oh, great. But...”

I didn’t even let him ________ his but. It was decided. In less than a month. I cheerfully ________ his apartment up, and bought him a ticket to California.

At first, people kept asking me, “Are you ready to take on this responsibility?”

My ________ was always the same: “I’m his daughter and no one is going to ________ him as much as I do.”

Now, he is living happily with me and I’m ________ that I have done what I had to do.

1.

A．work

B．stay

C．study

D．play

2.

A．recovered

B．left

C．refused

D．agreed

3.

A．schedules

B．places

C．questions

D．surprises

4.

A．slept

B．tried

C．argued

D．thought

5.

A．health

B．income

C．job

D．experience

6.

A．son

B．daughter

C．brother

D．sister

7.

A．annoyed

B．curious

C．terrified

D．comfortable

8.

A．break into

B．go through

C．adapt to

D．give up

9.

A．lead

B．move

C．drive

D．struggle

10.

A．always

B．hardly

C．awkwardly

D．happily

11.

A．write

B．see

C．finish

D．want

12.

A．packed

B．set

C．1isted

D．dried

13.

A．price

B．answer

C．house

D．worry

14.

A．teach

B．attract

C．understand

D．love

15.

A．glad

B．regretful

C．certain

D．unaware

5 . A study published Tuesday in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review found that words expressing angry feelings sound alike in several unrelated languages. They’re less likely than other words to include the sounds L, R, W or Y. And more friendly versions of such words often have these sounds added. The finding suggests that certain rules may link the world’s languages, no matter how different they are.

Ryan McKay, co-author of the paper, happened to discover that some of the English curses (诅咒语) seem to have something in common; They’re often short and include the sounds B, P, T or K. Then Dr. McKay teamed up with his colleague Shiri Lev-Ari to learn whether these rules went beyond English.

During the experiment, they asked fluent speakers of Arabic, Korean, German and Spanish to list the worst words they could think of. Once they’d made a list of each language’s most commonly used curses, the researchers compared these with neutral (中性的) words from the same language. To their surprise, the rules still apply.

Next, the scientists asked the same people to listen to pairs of invented words, such as “yog” and “tsog” and guess which word in each pair was a curse. The subjects were more likely to guess that words without L, R. W and Y, such as “tsog”, were curses. Finally, the researchers looked through the dictionary for English curses and their cleaned-up versions. Once again, the cleaned-up versions included more of the sounds L, R, W and Y.

“Most 20th-century language scientists held that any word could have any meaning,” said Dr. McKay. “With curses, though, the sounds themselves seem to carry meaning. This can shape and change our understanding of how languages are formed.”

“It is the first time for researchers to study curses across languages and the finding is very interesting,” said Benjamin Bergen, a language scientist at the University of California, who was not involved in the study. “But it is just another case of what’s called sound symbolism in the language study: A word sounds like what it means.”

1. Which word is most probably not a leaned-up curse according to the text?

A．Rucy.

B．Buk

C．Yayad.

D．Walawah.

2. What did the researchers do in their last step?

A．Applying their study to more unrelated languages.

B．Studying the neutral words and curses side by side.

C．Asking people to listen to pairs of non-existing words.

D．Comparing English curses with their friendly versions.

3. What did Benjamin Bergen mean?

A．The study method is really unscientific.

B．It will change our understanding in a way.

C．It is not a totally new discovery at all.

D．The selected languages are too limited.

4. What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To introduce a newly published study.

B．To prove the unique rules in English.

C．To tell another way of memorizing words.

D．To show how to use more friendly curses.

6 . The first wave of concerns over artificial intelligence(AI)in 2023 appeared soon after New Year’s Day when classrooms reopened and schools from Seattle to Paris started blocking ChatGPT, a powerful software based on AI large language models, because teenagers were using it to do their homework.

The AI large language models behind such products as ChatGPT work by repeatedly guessing the next word in a sentence after having “learned” the rules from a huge amount of/human-written works. Although they often get facts wrong, their answers appear so natural that Keven, their inventors begin to worry about their possible use for spreading false information.

People became more worried when various AI products started to create not just texts but novel images, music and human voices, which threatened the livelihoods of anyone who writes, draws or sings for a living. It led to strikes by Hollywood writers and actors and legal challenges from artists and bestselling authors. Some of the most respected scientists even warned that the technology’s unchecked progress was possibly threatening human existence. “In the longer term, they might manage our attention,” pioneering AI scientist Fei Fei Lisaid. “They would tell us which video to watch, which book to read or whose communication to respond as AI technology’s abilities improve rapidly. They could be a very good assistant, but also with really big risks.”

Li hoped that 2023 is going to be a year for people to think about what Al is, how to use it and what the effects are — all the good, the bad and the ugly.

“It’s easy to forget that they are not the first wave of AI products. Computer vision techniques developed by Li and other scientists have helped sort through a huge database of photos to recognize objects and individual faces and guide self-driving cars. Speech recognition advances have made voice assistants like Siri and Alexa a normal thing in many people’s lives,” said Tom Gruber, co-founder of Siri Inc.

1. Why did schools try to stop their students from using ChatGPT?

A．ChatGPT often got facts wrong in the class.

B．Students spent too much time on the software.

C．ChatGPT helped students spread false information.

D．Students used the software to cheat at their homework.

2. What are the second and third paragraphs mainly about?

A．AI’s training costs.	B．ATs amazing abilities.
C．AI’s possible threats.	D．AI’s fast developments.

3. What would Tom Gruber most probably suggest people do?

A．Think carefully about AI’s impact.	B．Welcome AI technology
C．Do use ChatGPT more carefully.	D．Upgrade ChatGPT in time.

4. Where is the text most probably taken from?

A．A news report.	B．A guide book to a software.
C．A product review.	D．An introduction to a person.

7 . For most of December, Adele Adkins had the top-selling album in Australia, followed by Ed Sheeran, and then there was a collection of songs that took everyone by surprise.

Songs Of Disappearance is a collection of calls from endangered Australian birds. Last month, it briefly reached No.3 on the country’s top 50 albums chart (排行榜) — ahead of Taylor Swift.

Anthony Albrecht, a PhD student at Charles Darwin University, produced the album with Professor Stephen Garnett. “I knew it was a crazy thing to suggest. But Stephen’s a little bit crazy like me and he let me do it,” Albrecht said.

Songs Of Disappearance was published with a university report which found that 1 in 6 Australian bird species are now threatened. The album records 53 of those species.

“Some sing what you might think of as bird songs, but not all of them,” said SeanDooley, who represents the conservation organization Bird life Australia. “Songs from the golden bowerbird sound like a death cry from some sci-fi series. And the love songs from Christmas Island frigate bird, which has a piece of skin hanging under its mouth that caninflate (膨胀) like a huge red balloon, sound as bizarre as its unusual looks.”

There’s also the Christmas Island pigeon. When people hear that pigeon, they might think that it’s a human making silly noises, Dooley added.

The Charles Darwin University and Bird life Australia report does document successes in protecting endangered birds, the hope being that the album will protect more species.

“The increased awareness can make a difference,” Dooley said. “When we have a community on board, that brings pressure to the government to do the right thing. We know that these conservation actions do work.”

1. Whose album reached No.1 on the chart in December?

A．Taylor Swift’s.

B．Adele Adkins’.

C．Ed Sheeran’s.

D．Anthony Albrecht’s.

2. What can be learned from the university report?

A．About 53 bird species are threatened in Australia.

B．It has not found success in protecting endangered birds.

C．One sixth of Australian bird species are now endangered.

D．Music is very powerful in encouraging people to protect birds.

3. Which is closest in meaning to “bizarre”in paragraph 5?

A．Strange.

B．Beautiful.

C．Loud.

D．Sharp.

4. What does Sean Dooley think of Anthony Albrecht’s project?

A．Crazy.

B．Amusing.

C．Uncreative.

D．Helpful.

8 . As I walked to the market this morning, I saw a poorly dressed old man with a towel covering his face sitting in front of a shop. I ____ he was a beggar looking for charity. I made a mental note that on my way back from the market I should give him whatever ____ I had.

A few feet away was a young man on the pavement ____ in a drunken state and no one who passed by took any ____ . I thought in my mind it was some good-for-nothing, drunkard who had ____ all his money on alcohol. I finished all my shopping, and walked back along the same road. When I reached the beggar, I put out my hand full of change ____ him asking him to take it. He shook his head as though saying that he did not need it. I ____ and pushed it into his hand .

As I stood there, ____ of my great act of charity, the beggar slowly got up, walked up to the young man lying on the pavement, and shook him awake, ____ him something close to his ear. I stood there watching with ____ as he walked to the tea shop, where he asked for something for which he paid with the money I gave and ____ a bread. He then went back to the young man, and helped him to ____ and eat the bread.

He noticed that I was still there so he said , “That young boy has not eaten for two days and has no energy even to sit up. That is why he ____   on the pavement.” Suddenly I felt so ____and admired the nonjudgemental ____ of a man who has so little compared to me.

1.

A．decided

B．suspected

C．recalled

D．admitted

2.

A．food

B．opportunity

C．change

D．job

3.

A．suddenly

B．obviously

C．probably

D．gradually

4.

A．chance

B．picture

C．advantage

D．notice

5.

A．wasted

B．made

C．earned

D．raised

6.

A．towards

B．over

C．past

D．for

7.

A．shouted

B．insisted

C．compromised

D．commanded

8.

A．jealous

B．confident

C．proud

D．hopeful

9.

A．showing

B．leaving

C．handing

D．asking

10.

A．joy

B．amazement

C．thrill

D．disappointment

11.

A．delivered

B．shared

C．collected

D．brought

12.

A．sit

B．lie

C．stand

D．wash

13.

A．begged

B．collapsed

C．died

D．slept

14.

A．sad

B．down

C．great

D．small

15.

A．patience

B．tolerance

C．integrity

D．generosity

9 . How Weather Affects Our Mood

The weather supplies many metaphors (隐喻) for our changeable minds. Moods can brighten and darken, futures can be under a cloud, and relationships can be stormy.    1    , but does it also influence our moods?

Of the many aspects of weather, sunshine is the most closely tied to mood. Although the link is weaker than many people imagine, sunlight has repeatedly been found to increase positive moods and reduce tiredness.    2    . Happy people tend to be more favorable toward one another, and people are more helpful when the sun is shining. One study even found that diners in Minnesota, US, tipped more generously on sunny days.

    3    . A study showed that university admissions officers stressed the academic qualifications of applicants more on cloudy days, and their non-academic qualities more on sunny ones.

    4    . The more it departs (偏离) from an ideal of around 20C, the more discomfort we feel. One study found that rates of helping others decreased as temperatures dropped below or rose above this value.

Indeed, the effects of weather on mood depend on our behavior and on how we think.     5    . A study by US psychology researcher Matthew Keller and his colleagues showed that beneficial effects of warm and sunny conditions on mood were only seen in people who had spent more than 30 minutes outdoors that day. Good weather even had negative effects on mood for people confined (限制) indoors, who perhaps looked enviously (嫉妒地) outside at the solar fun they were missing.

A．Similarly, grey weather may encourage serious and calm thinking

B．Aspects of weather beyond heat and sunshine have also been shown to affect mood

C．Weather provides a vivid language for describing our emotional atmosphere

D．Temperature can also affect our mind and behavior

E．But the effects of weather on mood are not entirely biological

F．Anything that changes our moods can affect our behavior

G．Basically, weather will only influence us if we are outdoors experiencing it

10 . 阅读下面短文, 在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Celebrating tradition: The enchanting Mute Festival of Qixuan village

Qixuan village, a remote Yi village located deep in the     1     (east) mountains of Xiangyun county, Yunnan province, hosts an extraordinary “Mute Festival” every year on the eighth day of the Chinese Lunar new year. This event shows respect for their ancestors and seeks blessings for a prosperous year ahead.

This age-old tradition     2     (exist) for centuries, rooted in local customs and a touching legend of a mute woman who saved the village from drought and     3     (starve) through her sacrifice. Over time, the festival has evolved from a simple tradition into a well-organized celebration.

During the festival, visitors can not help but notice the careful preparations     4     (undertake) by the villagers.     5     (suffer) a three-year epidemic, they remain commitment to a joyful life and the preservation of tradition. They     6     (diligent) arrange food, drinks, decorations, and gifts, sticking to age-old practices.

    7     the chilly mountain winds, both enthusiastic villagers and visitors thrive. When the Mute parade reaches the square, the striking mute dance will begin. With     8     diverse range of dance forms, the performance is raw, natural, and free-spirited.

One of the most striking moments is     9     the lead dancer, the Great Mute, initiates his dance, the entire village synchronize (同时发生) their movements. This unified rhythm mirrors the heartbeat of the land and its cherished traditions     10     reveals the timeless beauty of traditional culture in our ever-changing world.