1 . In-flight announcements can be crucial in providing important information.     1     But beyond the “necessities”, are passengers being flooded with too many announcements?

Imagine boarding an aircraft late in the evening or during the early hours of the day, eager to get some sleep. After forcing yourself to stay awake for the safety briefing, you fall fast asleep.     2     It’s the captain making an announcement. She’s telling you her name, her first officer’s name, the name of every flight attendant, and of course, the cruising speed and altitude. Was this really necessary and was it worth being woken up for?

    3     It’s anyone deep into a film or two passengers trying to talk to each other. In fact, in-flight announcements automatically pause television shows and movies—sometimes coming through your headphones far louder than the volume of whatever you were watching.

Which announcements are necessary? There are many in-flight announcements that are absolutely necessary. Anything to do with safety and security is, of course, essential. Anything to do with delays and scheduling is also important to know.     4     I think most people care about those as well.

However, anything beyond these is questionable. Of course, the additional announcements are meant to better connect passengers to the flight crew, the airline, and the overall experience of flying.     5     But in my opinion, this comes at the cost of the overall flight experience.

So from my point of view, in-flight announcements have gotten out of control and need to be controlled.

A．In-flight meal options?

B．After all, they are rules that should be obeyed.

C．Actually, most of the passengers are likely to feel sleepy.

D．It’s not just passengers trying to sleep that are interrupted.

E．It also seems polite to introduce those who will serve you.

F．Suddenly, you’re in the air and something has stirred you awake.

G．This might include delays, the local time at destination, and of course, emergencies.

2 . Smart accessories are increasingly common. For example, recently researchers introduced the Thermal Earring (热耳环), a wireless wearable device that continuously monitors a user’s earlobe (耳垂) temperature.

The smart earring model is about the size and weight of a small paperclip. A clip attaches one temperature sensor to a wearer’s ear, while another sensor hangs about an inch below it for estimating room temperature. The earring can be personalized with fashion designs in the shape of a flower, for example, without negatively affecting its accuracy.

“I wear a smartwatch to track my personal health, but I’ve found that a lot of people think smartwatches are unfashionable or uncomfortable,” said co-lead author Shirley. “I also like to wear earrings, so we started thinking about developing smart earrings.”

Creating a wearable device small enough to pass as an earring, yet robust (耐用的) enough that users would have to charge it only every few days, presented an engineering challenge.

“It’s a tricky balance,” said Shirley. “Typically, if you want power to last longer, you should have a bigger battery. But then you sacrifice size. Making it wireless also demands more energy.”

The team made the earring’s power consumption as efficient as possible, while also making space for a Bluetooth chip, a battery and two temperature sensors. Instead of pairing it with a device, which uses more power, the earring uses Bluetooth advertising mode—the transmissions a device broadcasts to show it can be paired. After reading and sending the temperature, it goes into deep sleep to save power.

In a study of six users, the earring outperformed a smartwatch at sensing skin temperature during periods of rest. It also showed promise for monitoring signs of stress, eating and exercise. But they need more data to train their models for each use case and more thorough testing before the device might be used by the public.

For future versions of the device, Shirley is working to integrate heart rate and activity monitoring. She’s also interested in potentially powering the device from solar or kinetic energy from the earring swaying.

1. What can be learned about the smart earrings from paragraph 2?

A．Its target users.	B．Its design.
C．Its energy consumption.	D．Its application.

2. What difficulty did the researchers meet when inventing the earrings?

A．Selecting a light material.

B．Testing out wireless connection.

C．Charging the smart earring quickly.

D．Balancing the size and the energy capacity.

3. What is mainly talked about in paragraph 6?

A．How the earrings read and send the temperature.

B．What the researchers did to save energy of the earrings.

C．How the researchers paired the earrings with bluetooth.

D．What principles the researchers used in the invention.

4. What is Shirley working on?

A．Putting the smart earrings into market.

B．Testing the smart earrings on the patients.

C．Adding more functions to the smart earrings.

D．Comparing smart earrings with other smart products.

3 . As dawn breaks over the Rockies, the streets of Colorado awaken, walkers and cyclists moving through the city’s streets. But beneath this lies a growing concern: the safety of these road users is increasingly under threat.

Recent statistics reveal a reality, with fatalities (死亡) rising, casting a shadow over Colorado’s busy streets. Among these fatalities is the story of Nick Cordova, a cyclist whose life was cut short, becoming a catalyst for change and a symbol of the urgent need for safer streets.

In the wake of these accidents, the community has found a discomforting way to remember and advocate: the “ghost (幽灵) bike”. Painted white and chained near the site of fatal accidents, these bikes are used to remind people of the lives lost and the critical need for change. The recent rescheduling of a “ghost ride” memorial for Nick Cordova emphasizes the community’s resolve.

Janice Jim, vice president of CycleWR, emphasizes that while some cities have excellent bicycle infrastructure (基础设施), the battle is far from over. Areas like Victoria St in Kitchener, known for accidents, are in great need of attention and improvement. Jim’s words mirror a view shared by the majority: the infrastructure can and must be better, for the sake of all who share the road.

The concept of Vision Zero, an initiative aimed at getting rid of all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, fair mobility for all, has found a foothold in Colorado. However, the journey towards this ambitious goal is faced with challenges. Funding and policy changes are the foundations upon which this vision rests.

Advocates argue that investment in cyclist safety isn’t just a matter of public health; it’s an investment in the very fabric of the community, an acknowledgment that every life is precious and deserving of protection. As Colorado stands at this crossroads, the push for more funding and policy changes continues, fueled by stories like Cordova’s and the unyielding spirit of those left to carry the torch.

1. Which word can best replace the underlined word “catalyst” in paragraph 2?

A．Barrier.

B．Fuel.

C．Fear.

D．Link.

2. Why are “ghost bikes” placed in the street?

A．To serve as a reminder.	B．To mark dangerous areas.
C．To add to shared bikes.	D．To prove the government’s action.

3. What can we know about Vision Zero?

A．It is put forward by Cordova.

B．Its realization needs policy support.

C．Its aim is to get rid of all traffic accidents.

D．It has been achieved in Colorado.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．The Story of Cordova	B．The Concept of Vision Zero
C．Colorado’s Ghost Bikes	D．Colorado’s Call for Street Safety

4 . Phil Gibson didn’t set out to revolutionize how seniors record their life stories. He was just having a dinnertime conversation.

In the summer of 2006, Gibson’s mother-in-law Jane mentioned that she had recently visited a friend in a rest home. She was disappointed that the woman had faded so much.

“People didn’t recognize how active this woman had been when she was healthy,” Gibson recalls. “My mother-in-law told me she wished there was a board attached to her friend’s bed that could display her poems, stories and artwork so people could realize the passion this woman had had when she was younger.”

Shortly after this conversation with his in-laws, Gibson, 48, made another unexpected discovery.

“I was at dinner with a group of business friends and was shocked by the fact that every one of us had experienced a major life-changing event with one of our parents or in-laws passing away in the last three months,” Gibson said. “In conversations, it was clear that none of us had prepared for losing that valuable connection to our histories and these very important people in our lives.”

So Gibson began to create a new, easy-to-use website to collect senior and family stories. After nearly a year of development and testing, he launched a free online service called GrearLifeStories.com. The site guides anyone through the process of capturing, sharing and preserving the life stories of previous or current generations before they are lost forever.

These new technologies are the latest developments to give seniors, family members, and caregivers tools to help improve the mental, emotional, and physical health of older adults. As tools, they offer seniors a structured way of telling their life stories and passing their legacies along to future generations. And they often enable family members to be more compassionate, informed and effective in providing care.

Recording the life story of a senior can often be an activity that benefits both the young and the old and actually, everyone can benefit from the process of helping a senior recall treasured life memories.

1. What made Gibson’s mother-in-law feel let down?

A．Her friend couldn’t recognize her.

B．Her friend went to live in a rest home.

C．Her friend’s health condition was worsening.

D．Her friend lost talent for literary creation.

2. Why did Gibson mention his dinner with friends?

A．To prove how valuable friendship is.

B．To indicate anyone is likely to experience loss.

C．To show friends’ attitude toward the changes in life.

D．To explain how he got the idea of collecting stories.

3. What is the significance of GreatLifeStories.com?

A．It teaches the old advanced technology.

B．It provides a tool for the old to earn money.

C．It promotes the general well-being of the old.

D．It offers seniors a platform to interact with each other.

4. In which section of a website might this text appear?

A．Society.

B．History.

C．Literature.

D．Technology.

5 . One of the best essay contests of 2024, this competition sponsored by the Writer’s Digest promotes nonfiction of all kinds: “personal or political, traditional or experimental”, but your essay should be at least 1,000 words and 1,500 words at most.

Eligibility (资格):

Students are eligible to participate if they are in grades nine through twelve in any of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. territories, or if they are U. S. citizens/lawful permanent residents attending high school overseas. Students may be attending a public or private school. Entries from home-schooled students are also accepted.

Submission:

Fill out the online registration form. All fields on the online form are required, including uploading a Microsoft Word (doc. or docx.) file of your original work with a title in English which should include a comprehensive list of sources consulted. Entries must be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman.

Teacher or parent: Student registration forms must have a teacher or parent name. That person may review the submitted essay and act as the key contact.

Do not place your last name or your school’s name on any of the pages of the essay.

Your essay will be disqualified if it does not meet the requirements or is submitted after the submission date of 11:59 p.m. EDT on June 1, 2024.

Prizes:

$1,000 to the writer of the winning essay, in addition to an all-expense paid trip to the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference! The runner-up wins a writing coaching package valued at $650 and the third, a diversity editing package valued at $350.

1. Who can participate in the contest?

A．A Chinese teenager.	B．A high school teacher.
C．An American tenth-grader.	D．A professional writer.

2. What is a requirement for the entry?

A．Uploading a Word version of the original work.

B．Writing personal name on the first page of the entry.

C．Filling in the application form and posting it in time.

D．Making sure of the words of the entry beyond 1,500.

3. What will be the second prize?

A．A free trip.	B．A cash prize.
C．A diversity editing package.	D．A writing coaching package.

6 . The Eden Project, an educational charity in Cornwall, England, is committed to connecting people with each other and their environment. Here is the basic information about the Project.

Outside Gardens

Exploring miles of paths in the Outside Gardens, you’ll discover landscapes featuring beautiful sculptures and plants used for medicine, fuels, materials and food. These gardens are particularly child-friendly places for children to learn and play.

Rainforest Biome

Follow the path deep into the Rainforest Biome to feel the heat of the largest indoor rainforest environments in the world: Tropical Islands, Southeast Asia, West Africa and Tropical South America.

Walk across the Rope Bridge that stretches across the forest between two of the tallest trees in the 50-metre-high Biome to learn how the rainforests help regulate the climate. Travel through floating clouds on the Cloud Bridge to get a sense of how rainforests reflect sunlight and help cool the planet. Stop by the Carbon Platform to see how the growing rainforest takes in CO₂ and stores it in wood, leaves, roots and soil. Visit the Biodiversity Platform to explore how plants eat, drink, reproduce and protect themselves from danger without moving.

Mediterranean Biome

Take an unforgettable journey through the landscapes of the Mediterranean Europe, South Africa and California and discover the amazing variety of plants growing in these regions.

Explore the diverse and fantastical plants in the Western Australia Garden in this biome. This garden, created in cooperation with Kings Park and Botanic Garden in Perth, Western Australia, features the wonderful plants native to the Mediterranean region of Australia.

Annual Pass

Our Annual Pass gives you unlimited-entry for a whole year!

Adult	Senior (60+)	Student	Children (5—16)	Children (5-)
£29.50	£27.50	£24.50	£10	Free

1. What can children do in the Outside Gardens?

A．Enjoy rainforests.	B．Have picnics.
C．See beautiful artworks.	D．Carve sculptures.

2. Where should visitors go if they want to learn about how plants adapt?

A．The Rope Bridge.	B．The Carbon Platform.
C．The Cloud Bridge.	D．The Biodiversity Platform.

3. How much should be paid if a senior couple wants to frequent the Project?

A．£60.

B．£55.

C．£29.50

D．£24.50.

7 . According to a survey, nearly a third of all adults reported that they sometimes struggle to make basic decisions.     1    , try these strategies from decision-making experts.

Let go of the idea of making perfect decisions

Much of the pressure you feel comes from how much you associate your choices with your identity. For example, you are always worried about sending the wrong message about who you are and what you stand for.     2     In fact, it can keep you from making any good decision at all.

Just allow yourself three to five options

The grocery store is as good a place as any to get struck by indecision. If you walk in without a shopping list, you might spend twenty minutes picking up boxes and putting them down. Sometimes, there are just too many options to process any of them meaningfully, because we can handle about three to five choices on average.     3    .

Practice trusting yourself

It is normal to rely on friends for fit checks or for movie recommendations.     4     try to resist the urge and make more of those choices on your own. And then look at what is the outcome of the decision, so that you can build up trust in your ability to know what’s right for you in any given moment.

    5    

Whether it’s about choosing how often you’re going to hit the gym, or deciding when you’ll go grocery shopping for the week, sticking to your old habits or starting new ones is a great way to reduce stress.

A．Rely on routines

B．Set clear boundaries

C．That’s a lot of burden to carry

D．But if you find yourself asking for advice for every little thing

E．Seeking opinions is something that contributes to indecisiveness

F．So next time you are unable to decide what shoes or clothes to wear

G．So when you’re indecisive next time, limit your choices to a manageable range

8 . As home gardeners in the US page through seed catalogs (目录册) and pick out their favorite plants this week, there’s a new seed that has never been available to them before: a purple tomato. It is the first genetically engineered food crop to be directly marketed to home gardeners and the seeds went on sale Saturday.

The lending scientist behind the tomato is Cathie Martin. About 20 years ago, she set out to create a transgenic (转基因的) tomato, using DNA from a purple snapdragon, which is an unrelated eatable flower. Her goal was to develop a tomato with high levels of anthocyanins, chemicals that give blueberries, blackberries, eggplant and purple cabbage their color. Research has shown that anthocyanins also have anti-cancer and anti-aging effects.

“It’s normal for tomatoes to make these healthy chemicals. But they typically don’t make them very much in the fruit,” Martin told reporters in an interview. “They normally appear in the leaves and stems.”

So she started with, separating the DNA in the snapdragon flower that turns on and off the purple color. Next, she used a basic technique that was figured out by scientists in the 1980s to introduce it into a certain bacteria so that the tomato could then take in the foreign genetic material and express this new gene.

The result? In a paper published in Nature, Martin found that the purple tomato had, per weight, as much anthocyanin as a blueberry or eggplant, and that the mice who ate a diet mixed with purple tomatoes lived 30% longer than those who didn’t.

“Americans eat more tomatoes annually, so it makes the nutritional benefits more accessible,” Martin said.

Of course, some people have raised health concerns about eating genetically engineered foods. But these foods were introduced three decades ago and studies have not shown any harm.

“The purple potato is another great example of how the outcomes and applications of such biotechnologies can improve our life,” Martin said.

1. What can be inferred from the second paragraph?

A．Tomatoes usually do not produce anthocyanins.

B．The wild purple snapdragon might be poisonous.

C．Many purple fruits may postpone the aging process.

D．The purple tomato was widely available 20 years ago.

2. What can we know about the technique used to produce the purple tomato?

A．It is a relatively old method.	B．It was invented by Cathie Martin.
C．It puts the DNA directly into the potato.	D．It was used to separate the DNA in the flower.

3. What does Cathie Martin think of the genetically engineered foods?

A．Unprofitable.

B．Safe.

C．Expensive.

D．Unreliable.

4. From which is the text probably taken?

A．An advertisement.

B．A handbook.

C．A short story.

D．A science report.

9 . On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement calling on school districts to move start times to 08:30 or later for middle and high schools, so that students can get at least 8.5 hours of sleep a night. It notes that making middle and high schoolers start classes before 08:30 threatens their health, safety and academic performance.

“It’s a very powerful statement about the importance of sleep. But it’s horrifically challenging to move the start schedules up and back.” Dr. Judith Owens tells NPR. “Letting teenagers sleep later sets off a series of adjustments. Teachers have to change their schedules, and older children who sit younger ones might no longer get home first.”

But this is one area where the evidence is unequivocal, the statement stresses. As children become teenagers, their sleep-wake cycle shifts two hours later. So it’s difficult, if not impossible, for them to go to sleep before 22:30. As a result, the Academy has found that 59% of middle schoolers and 87% of high schoolers are getting less than the recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep a night.

“There’s a price to pay for that,” the statement warns. “Studies have found that lack of sleep in teenagers increases the risk of traffic accidents, and makes them easier to get depressed and overweight. Instead, teens who get more sleep do better academically, with better standardized test scores and better quality of life.”

Drinking coffee to get through the day or sleeping more on weekends doesn’t make up for the sleep shortage, the statement notes. “It’s not simply about getting teenagers to go to bed early or removing electronics from the bedroom. Those are important things, but the biology plays a more decisive role.”

As someone who has to wake up a sleepy-eyed middle schooler at 06:20 every morning, I’m praying that our school district will adopt a later start time. I know that science doesn’t necessarily determine policy. But how about a nice increase in standardized test scores?

1. What does Dr. Judith Owens stress?

A．The inconvenience for some families.	B．The problems caused by lack of sleep.
C．The difficulties of changing start times.	D．The importance of getting enough sleep.

2. What is the most important factor in determining teenagers’ sleep time?

A．The diet.

B．The biology.

C．The sleep habit.

D．The environment.

3. What does the author imply in the last paragraph?

A．Later start times are also good for schools.

B．Authorities should base their policy on science.

C．Children are usually tired on Monday mornings.

D．Schools should put students’ interest in the first place.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Worries about Teenagers’ Health

B．Strong Oppositions to an Old School Policy

C．A Review on the Current School Start Times

D．A Powerful Call for Later School Start Times

10 . With her first song on social media in 2019 and her first Grammy win in the best African Music Performance category four years later, Tyla has become the new face of African pop.

For many listeners, Tyla’s 2023 hit song “Water” was their first taste of the sound of amapiano, which is a new musical movement that started in the towns of South Africa in the 2010s. Roughly translated from Zulu to mean “the pianos” or “piano people,” amapiano is a mix-up of a few different types of music: jazz, deep house, kwaito and log drum percussives. “Amapiano is the mainstream music of South Africa’s party scene,” says Moma, a Sudanese-American DJ. “And it has become a lifestyle there.”

Moma first heard amapiano in 2016 when he hopped in a taxi in South Africa. He tipped his driver $50 to let him download the music and took the sounds back to the US. As the music started to move around America, Tyla was perfecting her own version of it back home in South Africa.

She started singing on TikTok and dropped her first song, “Getting Late” in 2019, to show her parents that she was serious about pursuing a career in music after high school. Based on the track, they agreed to give her one year to make it happen.

It took a few months for Tyla and her team to shoot the video for “Getting Late”, with no backing, no budget. But when they finally uploaded it to TikTok in early 2021, labels noticed.

In the video, Tyla’s taken the building blocks of amapiano and added elements of pop made by stars like Rihanna (to whom critics and fans are now comparing her) and Justin Bieber. Her signature sound has been called “pop-iano”.

After publishing “Water” in July 2023 and noticing it had become a piece of trending audio on the app, Tyla and her team created a dance challenge in August. Tyla’s performance during the competition really made a splash. “It introduced me to a wider audience than I had ever imagined,” Tyla says. “It has positively changed my life.”

1. What can we say about Moma?

A．He is a famous music writer.	B．He introduced amapiano to the US.
C．He helped Tyla study amapiano.	D．He created a different type of music.

2. What was Tyla’s parents’ reaction to her career choice?

A．Unconcerned.

B．Supportive.

C．Doubtful.

D．Unclear.

3. Which element is added to amapiano by Tyla?

A．African pop.

B．Jazz.

C．Deep house.

D．Kwaito.

4. Which is closest in meaning to “made a splash” in the last paragraph?

A．Ended in a disaster.	B．Took plenty of time.
C．Was sharply criticized.	D．Attracted a lot of attention.