1 . The past few months have brought electrifying news that, for the first time, a gene treatment has provided some hearing to children born with deafness.
Eli Lilly announced this week, for example, that a profoundly deaf boy from Morocco given its treatment as part of a clinical trial in Philadelphia can now hear. And five children in China treated similarly at younger ages gained hearing with some able to verbally communicate without their cochlear implants (人工耳蜗). Their hearing recovery, first covered by the press in October 2023, is described in detail this week in The Lancet.
“It’s an enormous achievement,” says geneticist Karen Avraham of Tel Aviv University. Otolaryngologist (耳鼻喉科专家) and gene therapist Lawrence Lustig of Columbia University, whose lab was among the first to test the same approach in mice, agrees. “Other than cochlear implants, we haven’t really had any successful treatments to treat deafness,” he notes.
The various efforts from companies and academic centers each use a virus to insert the same gene, OTOF, into the children’s inner ear so the so-called hair cells there can sense sound and transmit it to the brain.
The new deafness treatments add to a string of recent successes for the gene treatment field, but also raise questions. The ear’s hair cells don’t divide, so the new copies of OTOF they contain should persist and continue to instruct the cells to make OTOF. Gene expression could drop off over time or the ear could mount an immune response that shuts it off.
But Lustig is optimistic that the various challenges will be overcome. “Now that we’ve got one success story, there’s going to be more money coming in to fund some of these other projects,” he says.
1. What do we know about the new treatment?| A．It is a totally mature practice. | B．It’s a China-only clinical trial. |
| C．It uses a virus to sense sound. | D．It aims to treat the deafness. |
| A．Breakthrough. | B．Regret. | C．Disappointment. | D．Adventure. |
| A．The brain refuses to receive it. |
| B．Gene stops to produce hair cells. |
| C．Gene expression might be weakened. |
| D．Companies really profit a lot from it. |
| A．Electrifying News Based on Some Clinical Trials |
| B．Gene Treatment That Brings Deaf Children Hope |
| C．Ways How Scientists Develop Cochlear Implants |
| D．Challenges About the New Deafness Treatment |
2 . When my son Reace celebrated his sixth birthday two years ago, he made a wish that I would get a transplant. Less than a week later, his wish came true when I received new
Born with a breathing disease, I was able to manage my
After four months on the list, I
I am extremely grateful to my
| A．medicines | B．gifts | C．lungs | D．hearts |
| A．condition | B．weight | C．stress | D．emotion |
| A．therefore | B．however | C．otherwise | D．besides |
| A．scheduled | B．hospitalized | C．listed | D．selected |
| A．barely | B．previously | C．temporarily | D．basically |
| A．tasks | B．challenges | C．decisions | D．concerns |
| A．necessary | B．fundamental | C．impossible | D．contradictory |
| A．missed | B．received | C．returned | D．rejected |
| A．symptom | B．damage | C．trouble | D．difference |
| A．sick | B．nervous | C．sensitive | D．innocent |
| A．catching | B．holding | C．losing | D．recovering |
| A．Fortunately | B．Actually | C．Possibly | D．Eventually |
| A．understood | B．experienced | C．recalled | D．wondered |
| A．normal | B．distinguished | C．disabled | D．responsible |
| A．doctor | B．nurse | C．child | D．donor |
Among the Han people, which make up a vast majority of
This ceremony started from the clan society (氏族社会) and continued to be held until the Qing Dynasty. The Manchu rulers then felt that this ceremony was
When a young man reached 18 or 20 years old, the capping ceremony,
There are other interesting customs concerned. For example, boys of the Yao nationality have to pass about ten dangerous tests and take oaths (宣誓)
4 . It wasn’t until after I graduated from college, and realized that there’s no such thing as all-encompassing (包罗万象) knowledge, that I was able to read for pleasure. A sense of curiosity directed me and I started to see dictionaries as field guides to the life of language. Looking up words felt less like a failing than an admission that there are lots of things I don’t know and an opportunity to discover just how many.
I prize my 1954 copy of Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition. I often consult it, during evening games of Scrabble or midday magazine reading. When I come across unfamiliar words while reading novels, I look them up. When I start encountering these words elsewhere, the linguistic (语言的) universe seems to shrink to the size of a small town.
Dictionaries heighten my senses: They direct my attention into a conversation with language. They make me wonder what other things I’m blind to because I haven’t taught myself to notice them yet. Recently spotted examples include orrery, “a mechanical model, usually clockwork, devised to represent the motions of the moon and Earth (and sometimes also other planets) around the sun.” The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) also tells me that the word comes from the fourth Earl of Orrery, for whom a copy of the first machine was made, around 1700. Useful? Obviously not. Satisfying? Deeply.
Wikipedia and Google answer questions with more questions, opening up pages you never asked for. But a dictionary builds on common knowledge, using simple words to explain complex ones. Using one feels as if I’m prying open an oyster (蚝) rather than falling down a rabbit hole. Why leave solvable mysteries up to guesswork?
For me, dictionaries are a door into that kind of uncalculated knowledge-seeking. They remind me that following your curiosity instead of brushing it aside is one of the best ways I know to feel connected to more than what’s right in front of you.
1. What can we know about the author?| A．He merely read for fun before graduation. |
| B．He longed to learn about all knowledge. |
| C．He considered dictionaries chances of enrichment. |
| D．He admitted being a failure when learning languages. |
| A．To introduce a word. | B．To indicate a finding. |
| C．To clarify a concept. | D．To support a statement. |
| A．Encountering new problems. | B．Entering a different world. |
| C．Acquiring essential common sense. | D．Simplifying tough questions. |
| A．Jaw-dropping. | B．Eye-opening. | C．Mind-numbing. | D．Labour-saving. |
5 . Building artificial intelligences that sleep and dream can lead to more dependable models, according to researchers who aim to mimic (模仿) the behavior of the human brain.
Concetto Spampinato and his research members at the University of Catania, Italy, were looking for ways to avoid a phenomenon known as “disastrous forgetting”, where an AI model trained to do a new task loses the ability to carry out jobs it previously excelled at. For instance, a model trained to identify animals could learn to spot different fish species, but then might lose its ability to recognize birds. They developed a method of training AI called Wake-Sleep Consolidated Learning (WSCL), which mimics the way that our brains reorganize short-term memories of daily learning when we are asleep.
Besides the usual training for the “awake” phase, models using WSCL are programmed to have periods of “sleep”, where they analyze awake data from earlier lessons. This is similar to human spotting connections and patterns while sleeping.
WSCL also has a period of “dreaming”, which involves novel data made from combining previous concepts. This helps to integrate previous paths of digital “neurons (神经元)”, freeing up space for future concepts. It also prepares unused neurons with patterns that will help them pick up new lessons more easily.
The researchers tested three AI models using a traditional training method, followed by WSCL training. Then they compared performances for image identification. The sleep-trained models were 2 to 12 percent more likely to correctly identify the contents of an image. They also measured an increase in how much old knowledge a model uses to learn a new task.
Despite the results, Andrew Rogoyski at the University of Surrey, UK, says using the human brain as a blueprint isn’t necessarily the best way to boost AI performance. Instead, he suggests mimicking dolphins, which can “sleep” with one part of the brain while another part remains active. After all, an AI that requires hours of sleep isn’t ideal for commercial applications.
1. WSCL was developed to help improve AI’s ______.| A．reliability | B．creativity | C．security | D．popularity |
| A．Generate new data. | B．Process previous data. |
| C．Receive data for later analysis. | D．Save data for the “awake” phase. |
| A．The application of WSCL. | B．The benefits of AI research. |
| C．The findings of the research. | D．The underlying logic of WSCL. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Prejudiced. | C．Pessimistic. | D．Unconcerned. |
6 . A city can become famous and experience a significant increase in visitors due to the influence of a well-liked film or a TV drama. For audiences, stepping into the scenes and experiencing the daily lives of the characters has become a new travel trend. Over the past year, several films and TV dramas have put their shooting locations into the public spotlight.
Qingdao in Shandong province
The Wandering Earth 2, a sci-fi that explores digital life and space journey, showcases impressive sci-fi scenes.90 percent of the film was shot in different places of Qingdao city, including the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge-the world’s longest cross-sea bridge, and the TAG Art Museum. For sci-fi fans, visiting Qingdao to explore the movie’s filming locations has become a popular trend.
Jiangmen in Guangdong province
The hit show The Knockout made Jiangmen an important tourism destination. As the hometown for many overseas Chinese, the city features historical cultural street scenes and South Asian-style architecture. The city has recorded more than 3.34 million trips in the past two months, which has generated over 3.4 billion yuan of tourism income, reflecting a notable rise of 124.3 percent compared to the same period the previous year.
Ningbo Museum in Zhejiang province
The primary setting for the sci-fi TV drama Three-Body Problem, Ningbo Museum, has caught significant attention. The museum integrates regional cultural features, traditional architectural elements, and modern techniques. Following the TV show’s release, daily visitor numbers rocketed to 5,000, marking a remarkable 220 percent year-on-year increase.
Taiyuan Ancient County in Shanxi province
Full River Red, directed by Zhang Yimou, set the Taiyuan Ancient County on fire with excitement. The movie highlights the county’s complex and narrow streets. The county now draws over 40,000 tourists every day, a significant rise compared to the daily 20,000 previously. Notably, one-third of these tourists were from outside Shanxi province, according to local statistics.
1. Which place best suits visitors who appreciate buildings of foreign style?| A．Qingdao city. | B．Jiangmen city. |
| C．Ningbo Museum. | D．Taiyuan Ancient County. |
| A．Its characteristic streets. | B．Its disastrous fire. |
| C．Its increasing population. | D．Its economic growth. |
| A．Their income depends heavily on tourism. | B．Their architecture integrates different cultures. |
| C．They are famous for their historical landmarks. | D．They become a hit through films or TV dramas. |
7 . Initial conversations can have a huge impact on how relationships develop over time. People are often stuck in the impressions they think they might have made the minute they finish speaking with someone for the first time: “Did they like me or were they just being polite?” “Were they deep in thought or deeply bored?”
To find out whether these worries are necessary, we have conducted nearly 10 years of research. In our studies, participants in the UK talked with someone they had never met before. Afterward, they were asked how much they liked their conversation partner and how much they believed that their conversation partner liked them. This allowed us to compare how much people believed they were liked to how much they were actually liked.
Time and time again, we found that people left their conversations with negative feelings about the impression they made. That is, people systematically underestimate how much their conversation partners like them and enjoy their company — a false belief we call the “liking gap”.
This bias (偏见) may seem like something that would occur only in initial interactions, but its effects extend far beyond a first impression. Surprisingly, the liking gap can constantly affect a variety of relationships, including interactions with coworkers, long after the initial conversations have taken place. Having a larger liking gap is associated with being less willing to ask workmates for help, less willing to provide workmates with open and honest feedback, and less willing to work on another project together.
There are numerous strategies to minimize your biased feelings. One place to start is shifting your focus of attention. Try to direct your attention to your conversation partner, be genuinely curious about them, ask them more questions, and really listen to their answers. The more you’re zeroed in on the other person, and the less you’re focused on yourself, the better your conversation will be and the less your mind will turn to all the things you think you didn’t do well.
1. Why did the author carry out 10 years of research?| A．To dismiss national concerns. | B．To check out a potential bias. |
| C．To enhance human communication. | D．To develop harmonious relationships. |
| A．Fewer chances of new projects. | B．Underestimation of their ability. |
| C．Bad relationships with people around. | D．Low willingness to interact with others. |
| A．Restate opinions. | B．Deliver warnings. | C．Give suggestions. | D．Make a summary. |
| A．Liking Gap May Influence Work Performances |
| B．First Impressions Rely On Initial Conversations |
| C．People Probably Like You More Than You Think |
| D．How People Like You Matters Less Than You Assume |
| A．A time conflict. |
| B．A troublesome accountant. |
| C．An undecided marketing plan. |
1. Why did the man stop watching the program last night?
| A．It was aired too late. | B．It lasted too long. | C．It was full of ads. |
| A．Issuing cash cards. | B．Buying products. | C．Running a series of ads. |
| A．Striking. | B．Disturbing. | C．Astonishing. |
1. How many parts does the speaker’s diving training consist of?
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. |
| A．Academic stuff. | B．Practical skills. | C．Classroom work. |
| A．She got her ears blocked up. |
| B．She enjoyed the freezing water. |
| C．She went under the water smoothly. |
| A．Proud. | B．Lucky. | C．Confident. |
