1 . If you want to stand out, 10,000 hours of training will take you much further than your natural abilities. Mozart is considered by many as the greatest composer who ever lived. Traditionally, many people ________ outstanding achievements like Mozart’s are due to talent, or even inborn inspiration or ________.

This assumption holds especially true for child prodigies (神童) like Mozart whose music talent ________ the world at the age of six. But looking more ________ at this phenomenon, we find that these individuals actually had to practice countless hours before showing their ________ remarkable talent. In fact, scientists indicate that a prodigy’s training typically ________ at a very early age, with massive time invested in practice.

For example, when the six-year-old Mozart toured Europe to ________ his brilliant piano skills, he had already ________ 3,500 hours of musical training. If you compare this to other pianists who have practiced for as long, Mozart’s ________ wasn’t all that exceptional. It seems that outstanding abilities come from intensive strict practice ________ natural talents. A study shows the only factor directly ________ the students’ level of achievement was the amount of serious practice time: the most ________ performers had practiced for an average of 10,000 hours, while the least skilled had only 4,000 hours of practice. What’s even more revealing is that there were no ________: All of the top performers had ________ great efforts to their practice. It seems that no extraordinary talent can ________ without tough practice.

1.

A．admit

B．assume

C．realize

D．hope

2.

A．motivation

B．progress

C．fate

D．determination

3.

A．amazed

B．excited

C．questioned

D．scared

4.

A．slowly

B．hurriedly

C．widely

D．closely

5.

A．old-fashioned

B．so-called

C．well-organized

D．newly-discovered

6.

A．begins

B．exists

C．ends

D．grows

7.

A．polish

B．spread

C．display

D．broadcast

8.

A．exchanged

B．accelerated

C．undergone

D．missed

9.

A．achievement

B．ambition

C．exploration

D．experience

10.

A．other than

B．rather than

C．as well as

D．in case of

11.

A．putting forward

B．adjusted to

C．bringing up

D．involved in

12.

A．aggressive

B．ordinary

C．energetic

D．gifted

13.

A．limitations

B．principles

C．exceptions

D．evidences

14.

A．devoted

B．adapted

C．saved

D．reduced

15.

A．perform

B．escape

C．suffer

D．shine

2 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. Where are the listeners at the moment?

A．On Green Island.

B．In the water.

C．On a boat.

2. How many islands does the Great Barrier Reef have?

A．120.

B．900.

C．2,000.

3. What makes Green Island different from others in the area?

A．It has a rainforest.

B．It was formed a long time ago.

C．It is home to 8,000 species of fish.

4. Who has the most knowledge about life on the island?

A．The captain.

B．The park guide.

C．The diving guides.

3 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What does the woman ask the man to do?

A．Fix the washing machine.

B．Read the newspaper.

C．Turn off the light.

2. Why did the woman go to Mr Smith’s home?

A．To ask for help.

B．To buy his house.

C．To take care of his kid.

3. What did the man plan to do?

A．Buy some books.

B．Look for a good job.

C．Repair the car.

4 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What does Patrick think of the match?

A．Just so ­so.

B．Fantastic.

C．Disappointing.

2. What has Jenny been doing recently?

A．Watching live concerts.

B．Preparing for her exams.

C．Taking science classes.

3. Where will the speakers probably go next?

A．To a college.

B．To a stadium.

C．To a cafe.

5 . What is the purpose of the woman’s call?

A．To ask about a bill.

B．To pay the gas bill.

C．To open a new account.

6 . When Rony Rolando Herrera was a young boy, he was abandoned by his father, and his mother gave everything she had to raise Rony and his three brothers. Thankfully, Rony’s support did not end with his mother. Through a nonprofit, Rony was enrolled in a child protection program that redetermined his life path. Now, Rony is dedicated to doing the same for the children in his school.

Rony is a science teacher and director of a primary school in San Jose del Cacao, a rural community where hardship, tradition and poverty prevent education from being a priority. “The customs of these communities are from past civilizations and focus on working the land,not developing psychologically or intellectually,” Rony explained.

The barriers to education are most harmful to the most vulnerable, including young girls. As a teacher, it was not uncommon to see his female students, as young as 13 years old, drop   out of school. “They are not empowered to know their rights or to continue with their education. They don’t know that they can change the failed system in their communities that believe women’s only purpose is to reproduce, do laundry and cook,” Rony said.

By joining the program PREVENIR, students at Rony’s school are given the opportunity to receive a more comprehensive education that aims to reduce the risks outside of the classroom. Rony elaborates that, “the educational process must be comprehensive. In addition to learning about things like science or biology, children need to know their rights and basic life skills.”

Rony calls himself a “dreamer” and now carries the love he received from both his mother and the humanitarian workers who supported him. He stated, “This type of support changes lives,” and added that even if out of 140 students, only one is impacted, he knows this impact will carry over to future generations, just as it did for him.

1. What really changed Rony’s life?

A．His miserable childhood.	B．His joining in a program.
C．His living circumstances.	D．His mother’s expectations.

2. What can we learn about San Jose del Cacao?

A．The people are intelligent.

B．Traditions are not well-received.

C．Education there is a priority.

D．People there live a conservative life.

3. Which can best describe Rony?

A．Reliable and determined.	B．Humble and supportive.
C．Sympathetic and grateful.	D．Generous and responsible.

4. Which is the most suitable title for the text?

A．Education Provide Chances for Girls

B．A Teacher’s Big Dream Changes Lives

C．Nonprofits Play a Vital Role in Education

D．Protecting Children Requires Intervention

7 . In the last few months, companies, often backed by governments, have raced to launch or begin building AIs for their native languages including Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and multiple Indian languages. But will they ever be able to compete or offer a solid alternative to Silicon Valley’s AI bots like ChatGPT?

Machine learning engineer Yennie Jun started noticing the problem when she was testing ChatGPT-4 in different languages. “I saw that it was slower, and just not as good when using it in Korean and Chinese which usually have good quality training data to draw on,” she said.

Earlier this month Yennie decided to test GPT-4 — the latest AI model from Open AI — with some tricky maths problems. She asked the same maths questions in 16 different languages and found it much better at solving problems in certain languages like English, German and Spanish. In fact, GPT-4 was able to correctly solve the maths problems in English more than three times as often compared to other languages, such as Armenian or Farsi. It wasn’t able to solve any of the tough questions in Burmese or Amharic.

“I think the current state of AI will accelerate inequality. Emerging markets just don’t have the computing power, data sets or the AI resources to compete with the western world’s models,” said Nick Adams, founding partner at Differential Ventures.

However, one promising project launched by India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology aims to improve the amount of training data in low-resourced languages by crowd sourcing. The project invites people to “make your own AI language models better by confirming data”. Participants are played audio from podcasts or shows in different Indian languages and then given digital medals in reward for translating them in their own languages. But there is a mountain to climb. Despite the huge populations of native speakers, only a few thousand people have so far got involved.

1. Why does the author ask the question in paragraph 1?

A．To present an argument.	B．To question building AIs.
C．To introduce the topic.	D．To showcase expectations.

2. What do the underlined words “draw on” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Turn on.

B．Keep on.

C．Focus on.

D．Depend on.

3. What’s Nick’s attitude towards the present situation of AI?

A．Negative.

B．Hopeful.

C．Ambiguous.

D．Tolerant.

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．An AI language model.	B．An approach to training data.
C．A language to translate.	D．A plan launched by India.

8 . Psychologists have defined nostalgia (怀旧) as self-conscious, socially emotional, bittersweet but mainly positive. It develops out of happy memories mixed with a longing for the past and the close relationships we had back then. Often, nostalgia involves five senses. For example, the smell of autumn leaves might spark an intense longing for your childhood home.

Almost everyone experiences nostalgia, although its object tends to vary throughout life. One survey conducted by the psychologist Krystine Irene Batcho found that younger people felt more nostalgia for pets, toys, and holidays than did older people, who felt it more strongly for music. I came of age in the 1980s, and even songs I found hopelessly annoying back then can fill me with nostalgic emotions.

As my colleague Julie Beck has written, nostalgia was originally viewed as an emotional disorder when it was first defined in the late 17th century. And, crucially, it often occurs when people are experiencing negative moods or having bad experiences. Loneliness can be a trigger, as researchers found in 2008. Another is bad weather.

However, despite its association with negative emotions, nostalgia does not cause or increase unhappiness. Rather, nostalgia is a defense response to unhappiness, one that brings relief from a negative mood. Psychologists writing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2006 found that stirring nostalgia in experiments strengthened people’s social bonds, boosted their positive feelings about themselves, and improved their mood. Similar research has shown that when people feel nostalgia, it can fire their sense of life’s meaning, lower an existential (存在主义的) reaction to the idea of death, increase spirituality, and raise optimism.

Scholars aren’t sure exactly why nostalgia works; some have inferred that recalling happy memories strengthens “valued aspects of the self” in situations when we might otherwise feel lonely or unworthy. Either way, its emotional intensity allows the joy of the past to overpower the unpleasantness of the present, a little escapism that helps get us through the bad times.

1. What do the psychologists think of nostalgia?

A．Always painful.	B．Primarily positive.
C．Seldom intense.	D．Usually unconscious.

2. Why is the author’s experience mentioned in paragraph 2?

A．To show the objects of nostalgia change with age.

B．To illustrate annoying music often leads to nostalgia.

C．To highlight the young are more likely to be nostalgic.

D．To demonstrate nostalgia has an impact on emotions.

3. In which situation may people easily feel nostalgia?

A．Attending a lively class.	B．Engaging in a family reunion.
C．Staying alone in an empty room.	D．Joining in a joyful birthday party.

4. What may be a benefit of nostalgia?

A．Maintaining self-respect.	B．Shaping personal insights.
C．Escaping from daily chaos.	D．Enhancing one’s self-worth.

9 . You have an exam tomorrow and you’re not feeling prepared. With only a few waking hours to go, how is it best for you to spend your time?     1    . They will improve your exam success and relieve your exam anxiety.

Get organized

Time-poor students should use a planner to identify the times available for study and block out those times in the planner.     2    . You can also get a study folder and keep it organized, using it regularly to review your study notes and materials. Being organized with your study materials helps you to be organized in your thinking, too, as you can easily access the materials you need.

Take, make, interact with and reflect on notes

Taking notes is important. An active note-taking process is important to help you transfer new information from short-term memory and then recall it more easily after it is stored in the long-term memory.

    3    

Research has found the rate you forget information is minimized if you interact with (reread/discuss/write) new information within 24 hours of first receiving it. A second, shorter repetition within 24 hours brings recall back up to 100%. A third repetition within a week for an even shorter time brings recall back to 100%.

Research shows learning is more effective if the type of material being studied is mixed and study periods are spaced out over time.     4    .

Self-testing

So once you have a good set of notes, what is the best way to interact with them? Self-testing is a powerful way to study and learn.     5    . Good organization of where you store your flash cards and effective use of them are essential to maximize their study potential. It’s good to mix up sets of flash cards and study them in short bursts.

A．You may try four strategies here

B．Keep interacting with the content

C．It will be over in a few hours anyway

D．Focus on one thing for an extended time

E．Flash cards are also tools to help you to self-test

F．Then actually be disciplined and use that time to study

G．So, you’d better mix up study sessions with various practices

10 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Alicia, a high school student known for her artistic talents and compassionate nature, was working on a painting in the school courtyard when she noticed a new student named Leo sitting nearby, looking curious yet lonely. Curious, Alicia approached Leo and carried on a conversation.

“Hi, I’m Alicia. What brings you to the courtyard today?”

“I’m Leo. I like to sit here and observe. It helps me feel a bit more connected to this new place.”

Alicia listened intently (专心地), her heart going out to him. She knew first hand how challenging it could be to adjust to a new place. After learning that Leo had a passion for art, Alicia smiled warmly, “Well, if you’re interested, I’m part of the art club. It’s a really welcoming group, and we’re always looking for new members.”

“But I’m not sure. I’m a bit shy when it comes to sharing my art.”

“There’s no pressure to share if you’re not comfortable. But, I think you’d really enjoy it.It’s a safe space where creativity is celebrated.”

He agreed to come to the next art club meeting, his heart filled with hope.

At the art club meeting, Alicia introduced Leo to the other members, a diverse group of students who shared a love for art and creativity. They welcomed Leo with open arms, and soon he felt like he had found a second home.

Inspired by Alicia’s kindness, Leo started to share his art work with the group. His pieces were a reflection of his innermost thoughts and feelings, touching everyone who saw them.

One day, as Alicia and Leo were walking home from school, they came across a mural (壁画) that had been ruined by graffiti (涂鸦).

注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Alicia felt saddened by the sight, but Leo saw an opportunity.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The community art project was a huge success.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________