1 . Habitat Restoration Member—Pinnacles National Park
American Conservation Experience (ACE), a nonprofit Conservation Corps, in partnership with Pinnacles National Park, is seeking one habitat restoration member to contribute to habitat restoration projects alongside National Park Service (NPS) staff.
Start Date: March 6,2024
Estimated End Date: July 21,2024
Location Details/ Description: Pinnacles National Park in Paicines, California
Position Overview: The ACE members will directly serve within the Division of Research and Resource Management at Pinnacles National Park. The members will serve as part of a crew conducting invasive (入侵的) plant treatment and habitat restoration efforts (80%). Additional duties (<20%) may include projects on other resource-related projects.
Living Allowance (津贴): The ACE member is expected to contribute 40 hours / week and will receive a living allowance of $600/week to offset (抵消) the costs of foo and incidental expenses, distributed every two weeks.
Housing: Housing is the responsibility of the member and not provided by ACE or NPS.
A personal vehicle is highly recommended.
Qualifications:
*Members must be a U. S. citizen or permanent resident.
*Ability to be both self-directed, and be a positive, contributing member of a group.
*A driver’s license.
*Ability to perform the essential duties of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.
*Must be able to hike up to ten miles per day carrying equipment weighing up to 40 pounds
*Must be willing to mix, load, and apply herbicides (除草剂) with the direct guidance of a licensed applicator.
Preferred:
*Practical knowledge of a wide range of field restoration skills and invasive plant control techniques.
*Bilingual (双语的) applicants are encouraged and welcome.
1. What is a primary responsibility of the ACE members?| A．Cleaning the park. | B．Restoring habitats. |
| C．Providing training for NPS staff. | D．Conducting resource-related projects. |
| A．$300. | B．$600. | C．$1,200. | D．$2,400. |
| A．Being able to work alone. |
| B．Becoming a licensed applicator. |
| C．Being able to speak at least two languages. |
| D．Hiking at least ten miles per week carrying 40-pound equipment. |
2 . Filming in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest
The Kamas Ranger District handles film permits for the Kamas district of the Wasatch- Cache National Forest.
To ensure that permits are issued in time for filming, the Forest Service requests that application form be handed in three to four weeks prior to filming.
The fee structure for filming in the National Forest is as follows:
Filming Special Use Fee1 to 10 people-$150 per day
11 to 30 people-$200 per day
31 to 60 people-$500 per day
Over 61 people-$600 per day
Film Monitoring Fee
1 day filming-FREE
Extra days-$200 per day
Additional FeesAdditional fees will be charged in the following situations:
Large production (greater than 100 people), multiple site filming that may require additional film monitoring to protect natural resources and a performance agreement in the form of a deposited check.
Upon approval, a Special Use Permit will be issued with a bill for collection. Checks should be made payable to “USDA Forest Service, ” and payment must be received before filming.
NoteSome areas of the forest are especially sensitive to impacts from vehicles, domestic animals, and people. These areas include wetlands, streams, lake shorelines, and most meadow areas. Filming requests in these sensitive areas will require special surveys to determine possible environmental impacts. The request may be denied.
1. What is one expected to do for filming?| A．Issue the permit weeks before filming. | B．Submit the application form in advance. |
| C．Give top priority to time arrangement. | D．Outline the fee structure in the forest. |
| A．$1200. | B．$200. | C．$1400. | D．$600. |
| A．Paying the bill in cash. | B．Entry into the sensitive areas. |
| C．Production with over 61 people. | D．Filming in different sites. |
3 . When the people first came round, they were all sitting around drinking tea nervously and occasionally glancing at the cupboards. I didn’t like the atmosphere. I was beginning to wonder why I had asked these people round to go through my stuff and take what they wanted. This is what happens when you open your home to your family and friends, telling them they can help themselves to everything within it.
Last month, I moved abroad to study for two years, taking just a single suitcase with me. I couldn’t afford to keep my flat, so when it came to my possessions, I decided to offer them up for a long-term loan. It’s not recycling, or even freecycling: I’m calling it “share cycling”. It was my beloved tent that formed the premise (前提) of it. I made the decision as I thought about the pointlessness of putting stuff into storage for two years. Instead, I imagined someone I loved putting my tent onto their back and setting off into the countryside in the summer sunshine. I was moving to the other side of the world, but this made it feel as though I would still be with my friends. To get rid of it all, I had an open house, inviting everyone I knew to take my property.
Now I am sitting in a flat on the other side of the world as rain is pouring down outside, forcing the street sellers to shelter under doorways and umbrellas. I feel very far from my home and my stuff. That list made of the things I want back? I’m not sure how much I’ll need them. I don’t miss any of my belongings. Instead, my mind now is filled with thoughts of my family and friends.
My “sharecycling” plan ties me to them. A friend took my tent to a music festival. And my favourite picture ended up on the wall of my best friend’s flat back home. It’s like I’ve pressed “pause” on my city life rather than “stop”, making the move easier.
1. What’s the author’s feeling in paragraph 1?| A．Embarrassed. | B．Uncomfortable. | C．Passionate. | D．Insecure. |
| A．The idea of “sharecycling”. | B．The experience of moving abroad. |
| C．The idea of putting stuff into storage. | D．The experience of living in the countryside. |
| A．Seeking a more affordable flat. | B．Protecting street sellers from the rain. |
| C．Making a list of things she wants back. | D．Missing her family and friends far from home. |
| A．Moving on isn’t always a good option. |
| B．I got rid of nearly everything I owned. |
| C．Don’t stuff your house with useless things. |
| D．Giving away my belongings made my move easier. |
4 . Workers at the National Galleries of Scotland recently experienced quite a surprise after they X-rayed a painting by Vincent van Gogh. Hidden on the back of the painting Head of a Peasant Woman, which Van Gogh completed in 1885, was a self-portrait (自画像) of the Dutch painter. No one had ever found it.
The hidden self-portrait had been covered by glue and cardboard that had been attached to the back of the painting. “It was absolutely exciting,” Lesley Stevenson, the museum’s worker, said about the discovery. “We weren’t expecting much of the little painting when we performed the scans,” she said. But museum experts quickly changed their expectations when they looked at the X-rays. “We didn’t see much of the peasant woman, but we saw the lead white that Van Gogh used for his face showing up after the X-ray went through the cardboard,” she added.
Van Gogh painted Head of a Peasant Woman as part of a series of works focused on the working-class residents of Nuenen, a small farming community in the southern part of the Netherlands where he lived briefly in the 1880s. The woman in the painting is Gordina de Groot, a farm worker. She wears a white headpiece. In a letter that Van Gogh penned about the series in 1885 to Anton Kerssemakers, a friend, he described his excitement at his working-class subjects. “I’m working with great pleasure these days, for I would rather paint people than paint anything else,” he wrote.
Van Gogh also loved creating self-portraits, producing about 20 paintings of himself by the end of his life while he was living in Paris. Recreating his own image was a cheap way for him to practice portraiture as he didn’t have to spend money hiring models, according to a report.
Art historians at the National Galleries hope that the hidden self-portrait may help us understand the life of the artist. The museum is currently considering how to best remove the unwanted protective materials without harming the painting.
1. What can be learned about the self-portrait on the back of the painting?| A．It isn’t in very good condition. | B．It describes a well-known woman. |
| C．It wasn’t known to exist for a long time. | D．It was sold to another artist by Van Gogh. |
| A．It was a wonderful surprise. | B．It failed to meet her expectations. |
| C．It was the result of her great efforts. | D．It deepened her understanding of Van Gogh’s life. |
| A．He was encouraged to try different subjects. |
| B．He was glad to find his love for figure paintings. |
| C．He was attracted by the lifestyle of people in Nuenen. |
| D．He wanted to improve the living conditions of the farmers. |
| A．X-rays can do harm to artworks |
| B．Van Gogh sent a secret message to his friend |
| C．Modern technology has a great influence on art |
| D．Van Gogh’s hidden self-portrait draws public attention |
5 . American researchers say they have developed a method to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the sea. The researchers say the process can be an additional way to help reduce CO2 from the environment to fight the effects of climate change.
Plants and currents in the ocean absorb large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. The sea is estimated to have drawn in about 30 percent of carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution. But carbon emissions also make oceans more acidic (酸性的). It can hurt coral reefs, which are sensitive to ocean acidity. Reef damage then do damage to the growth of many kinds of sea life.
Gaurav Sant, director of UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management, said the technology is meant to use the ocean’s natural abilities to reduce carbon levels in the sea. The process sends an electrical charge through seawater flowing through tanks on a large boat. That sets off a series of chemical reactions that turn the carbon emissions into a solid mineral that includes calcium carbonate (碳酸钙). The seawater then returned to the ocean and can pull more carbon dioxide out of the air. The calcium carbonate settles to the sea floor.
The process has already been demonstrated in California. Researchers are working on plans to launch another project in Singapore. The two projects are expected to be fully operational by 2025. Researchers say they are expected to remove thousands of tons of CO2 per year. If successful, the plan is to build additional centers to remove millions of tons of carbon each year.
But experts say even if that amount of carbon can be removed, that is still thousands of times less than what will be needed to effectively reduce climate change. Margaret Leinen, director of an ocean research center, said, “While the process will likely be effective, I question how much effect it will have on climate change over a long period.” Sant said the success of such technology will greatly rely on “how fast you can build the centers”.
1. What can we learn about carbon emissions from the text?| A．Most of them are taken in by the oceans. |
| B．They can harm many kinds of sea life indirectly. |
| C．Removal of them poses a serious threat to coral reefs. |
| D．They will decrease ocean acidity when absorbed by seawater. |
| A．How a series of reactions form. |
| B．How an electrical charge is sent. |
| C．How the carbon emissions turned into a solid material. |
| D．How the ocean reduces carbon levels with its own natural abilities. |
| A．Opposed. | B．Concerned. | C．Approving. | D．Disbelieving. |
| A．The approaches to protecting coral reefs. |
| B．The construction of industrial-sized centers. |
| C．The process of reducing CO2 from the environment. |
| D．The techniques to remove calcium carbonate from the sea floor. |
6 . We all have habits we’d like to break, whether it’s biting your fingernails, or eating late at night. But why are these habits so hard to break?
Our brain seeks to minimize effort and space, and this kind of automatic brain behavior is referred to as “chunking”. Chunking aids in creating a new habit pattern in cells of the brain. It’s like a task you do every day that you no longer really have to think about.
This process is a three-step loop. Step 1 is the cue. Step 2 is the routine. And Step 3 is the reward. The cue and reward eventually intertwine (交织), creating anticipation and cravings (渴望), another essential part of habits. Because we go into an automatic mode during routines, our brains stop fully participating in decision-making. Our habits will automatically unfold every time there is a cue.
So, how to break the habits, like biting your nails? Psychologists suggest that first you think about when you bite your nails. Are you nervous or bored? In the case of boredom, nail-biting offers a “physical stimulation”. So next, mark down every time you feel bored and have the compulsion to bite your nails. But then you want to make a “competing response”. Whenever you feel the desire to bite, you immediately put your hands in your pockets. Next, find a substitute (替代品) that provides a quick physical stimulation, like knocking your fingers slightly on the desk. This allows for one habit to be replaced by another with a similar reward but also uses the same cue.
So when you are ready to take on a bad habit, just remember, figure out what your body is actually craving, use the same cue and the reward that serves the correct purpose, and be patient to help build that new habit.
1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．Why skills are hard to master. |
| B．Why habits are difficult to break. |
| C．How the brain minimizes effort and space. |
| D．How cells help form chunking in our brain. |
| A．To prove it is a bad habit. |
| B．To show how a habit is formed. |
| C．To state psychologists’ opinion. |
| D．To explain how to give up a habit. |
| A．Opportunity. | B．Ambition. | C．Desire. | D．Responsibility. |
| A．Finding a substitute stimulation. |
| B．Making full use of the brain. |
| C．Figuring out the reward. |
| D．Serving the correct purpose. |
7 . Birders get nervous when they see landscapes covered in wind turbines (涡轮机). When the wind gets going, their blades (叶片) can turn around at well over 200km per hour. It is easy to imagine careless birds getting cut into pieces and wind turbines do indeed kill at least some birds. But a new analysis of American data suggests the numbers are negligible, and have little impact on bird populations.
Erik Katovich, an economist at the University of Geneva, made use of the Christmas BirdCount, a citizen-science project run by the National Audubon Society. Volunteers count birds they spot over Christmas, and the society gathers the numbers. He assumed, reasonably, that if wind turbines harmed bird populations, the numbers seen in the Christmas Bird Count would drop in places where new turbines had been built. Combining bird population and species maps with the locations and construction dates of all wind turbines, he found building turbines had no noticeable effect on bird populations.
Instead of limiting his analysis to wind power alone, he also examined oil-and-gas extraction (开采), which has boomed in America over the past couple of decades. Comparing bird populations to the locations of new gas wells revealed an average 15% drop in bird numbers when new wells were drilled, probably due to a combination of noise, air pollution and the disturbance of rivers and ponds that many birds rely upon. When drilling happened in migration centers, feeding grounds or breeding locations, bird numbers instead dropped by 25%.
Wind power, in other words, not only produces far less planet-heating carbon dioxide and methane than do fossil fuels. It appears to be significantly less damaging to wildlife, too. Yet that is not the impression you would get from reading the news. Dr Katovich found 173 stories in major American news media reporting the supposed negative effects that wind turbines had on birds in 2020, compared with only 46 stories discussing the effects of oil-and-gas wells.
1. What does the underlined word“negligible”in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Insignificant. | B．Inaccurate. | C．Inconsistent. | D．Indefinite. |
| A．Previous studies. | B．Relevant data. |
| C．Reasonable prediction. | D．Experiment results. |
| A．Oil-and-gas extraction has expanded in America. |
| B．Birds are heavily dependent on rivers and ponds. |
| C．Many factors lead to the decline of bird populations. |
| D．Well drilling poses a serious threat to birds' survival. |
| A．Wind turbines could share the sky with wildlife. |
| B．More evidence is needed to confirm the finding. |
| C．Wind power will be substituted for fossil fuels. |
| D．Wind turbines deserve wider media coverage. |
8 . It’s commonly acknowledged that our lives are ruled by algorithms (算法), but have we really collectively understood how they have transformed our culture and personality?
In Filterworld: How algorithms flattened culture, Kyle Chayka argues convincingly that the rise of algorithm-driven feeds, used everywhere online from Instagram to Spotify, has led to a more uniform culture. Our tastes and desires increasingly don’t belong to us, but to algorithms that are designed to keep people engaged at all costs. If the collection of our tastes truly shapes our entire personality, then this loss is more psychologically damaging than it first appears. Aimlessly scrolling (滚屏) through Netflix or TikTok may seem harmless, but over days, months or years, we lose touch with what we like and enjoy.
Taste-making algorithms are inescapable. Chayka shows this by working through all corners of life: what we wear(TikTok), where we eat(Google Maps), music we listen to(Spotify), even who we date or marry(Tinder). This universe of algorithm-driven decisions has society-wide implications: “It extends to influence our physical spaces, our cities, and the routes we move through…flattening them in turn.” No one gets out of the Filterworld untouched.
If you’re lucky enough not to need any sort of algorithm-based system for your work, then you have the option to step back from algorithms for a while. But if your friend suggests a film recommended on X/Twitter or you feel the need to buy those shoes suddenly everyone has started wearing after social media advertisements, what are you to do? It all feels fruitless.
This Filterworld may be inescapable, but there is hope. You can start by engaging more with the media you do choose to consume. This could mean reading up about a film you watched or paying artists you like directly. Even the thoughtful act of recommending an album (专辑) to a friend is more rewarding than a random TikTok feed. As Chayka says, resistance to algorithms “requires an act of willpower, a choice to move through the world in a different way.”
1. What is Kyle Chayka’s opinion on algorithms?| A．They improve our tastes. | B．They make our culture more alike. |
| C．They help to identify our personality. | D．They contribute to psychological problems. |
| A．The society with advanced technology. | B．The world without social media platforms. |
| C．The network of algorithm-driven decisions. | D．The community free from algorithmic influence. |
| A．Limiting the use of social media platforms. | B．Making choices based on friends’ suggestions. |
| C．Getting more involved with the selected media. | D．Disconnecting from social media advertisements. |
| A．Algorithms: Cultural Takeover | B．The Secret of Algorithms |
| C．Social Media: Cultural Messenger | D．The Rise of Digital Platforms |
9 . I have always been proud of my handwriting, a skill I was taught in grade school. The teacher was teaching us the Palmer Penmanship Method, drilling into us the importance of forming big flowing lines when we wrote g’s and s’s as well as beautiful f’s that in my mind were like fairy tale princesses wearing fancy hats while extending their right foot. We were strictly prohibited from using block letters on our homework, as they lack the beauty.
Now it becomes apparent that young people no longer learn cursive(草书). They type everything, mostly on their phones. Beautiful handwriting is a thing of the past. This has become a source of great sadness among traditionalists.
But recently something happened that shook my faith in cursive. To my complete disbelief, not one but two of my close friends complained about the handwriting on my postcards. They were grateful for the beautiful postcards I regularly sent, but they said they honestly couldn't read a thing I had written. One friend went so far as to ask if I could use block letters next time so that she could understand what I was writing.
Initially, I was angry. I had made the effort to cover an entire postcard with what I viewed as not just handwriting but calligraphy. But then I showed an English friend a postcard I'd just written, and he said that the only thing that was readily understandable was the letters “U. S. A.” The rest of it, he politely suggested, looked like “chicken scrawl”.
Looking at the postcard dispassionately, I unwillingly admit that he has a point. All the m’s and n’s run together, and the l’s look like l’s. The a’s are indistinguishable from the q’s. So, from now on, I'm taking their advice and using block letters to communicate.
In fact, I just now sent an old friend a postcard. But this time, I simply wrote—in big block letters:
DEAR ALICE:
HI.
JOE.
I hope she gets the message.
1. What do we know about the Palmer Penmanship Method?| A．It is characterized by big flowing lines. | B．It is rarely appreciated by traditionalists. |
| C．It was not allowed in students'homework. | D．It is viewed as a trend in handwriting styles. |
| A．The popularity of block letters in recent times. |
| B．The younger generation’s disinterest in cursive. |
| C．His friends’ failure to comprehend his postcards. |
| D．His English friend's suggestion on postcard design. |
| A．To deliver his message clearly. | B．To improve his handwriting skills. |
| C．To win praise from his friends. | D．To show his passion for calligraphy. |
| A．The wide use of cursive. | B．The sad decline of cursive. |
| C．The value of preserving cursive. | D．The technique of writing in cursive. |
10 . 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 |
