1 . In human behavioral science, bandwagon effect is a cognitive bias (认知偏见) where people assume that an idea or belief is true because many or most others believe in it or have adopted it. As many people already support the belief others also “join the bandwagon” and do not consider questioning the decision or if there is evidence supporting the same. Cognitive biases help people think and reason more quickly, but there is a high possibility of making mistakes.
For example, when talk shows in the west had hosts wearing suits, other people started following the same trend regardless of their working conditions and climate. In India, we have climates ranging from warm to extremely hot and moderately cold conditions. It never gets cold enough for an overcoat. Also, not all shooting locations have air conditioning facilities. Even though the “suit” is not the best fit for working and climatic conditions in India, people still wear it because it is recognized by many people as classy and suitable clothes for talk shows or outdoor media events.
One more fitting example for the bandwagon effect is a whole generation of teens all over the world going crazy over a “Korean” band because they were liked by many others. With all respect to the music they made and their popularity, teens were going crazy even though they didn’t understand a word of what was being listened to. Although the band was covering much needed and sensible subjects like bullying (霸凌), elitism (精英统治), and mental health, not all people following them got the true meaning of the songs. People got onto the “bandwagon” as they wanted to go along with the trend that was a hit throughout the world.
We can use various debiasing (消除偏见) techniques in order to avoid falling for the bandwagon effect. One is to consider alternative options that are not necessarily supported by the majority but may be a better choice. Give yourself some time to think and understand what is it that you really need which will allow you to make decisions in a less biased manner. It’s also important to remember that going with the crowd is not entirely bad. In many situations, it can be beneficial while making a decision, as long as you can do it in a way that allows you to make reasonable decisions.
1. What may people do if they fall for the bandwagon effect?| A．Trust every one around them. |
| B．Do as most people do. |
| C．Doubt people surrounding them. |
| D．Make reasonable choices. |
| A．All the hosts in talk shows wear suits. |
| B．Indian talk show hosts love suitable suits. |
| C．Following trend may make mistakes. |
| D．India weather is agreeable for outdoor media events. |
| A．They all love the members. |
| B．They all appreciated the lyrics. |
| C．Most of them follow the trend. |
| D．Most of them understand the songs. |
| A．Objective. | B．Favourable. | C．Critical. | D．Indifferent. |
2 . Australia may be better known for its beaches and natural wonders — and, of course, kangaroo s and koalas. But it is also a country rich in art and culture. From historical to contemporary art, including both local and international artists, there is a lot to be seen in Australia. Here is a selection of three Australian art galleries and museums to visit.
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Located in Sydney, the Art Gallery of New South Wales is one of the largest art galleries in Australia. It was first founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872. Presenting nearly 40 exhibitions per year, the gallery holds a strong collection of Aboriginal (土著的), Asian, Australian, and Pacific art. European and contemporary art are also present, as well as photographic works.
Location: Sydney, New South Wales
Opening Hours: Daily, 10 a. m. — 5 p. m.(Wednesday s 10 a. m. — 9 p. m.)
Admission: Free entry (a few special exhibitions might require tickets)
Art Gallery of South Australia
The Art Gallery of South Australia holds one of the largest art collections in Australia: almost 47,000 works of art, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, ceramics (陶器), jewelry, and much more. The collection of Australian art is especially renowned, but European, Asian, and North American art are also represented. Located in Adelaide, the gallery welcomes around 512,000 visitors per year.
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Opening Hours: Daily, 10 p. m. — 5 p. m.
Admission: Free entry(charges may apply for some exhibitions)
Heide Museum of Modern Art
The Heide Museum of Modern Art is a museum of modern and contemporary art located in Bulleen, Victoria. It was founded by the couple John and Sunday Reed, who collected a broad range of art themselves. The Heide consists of three exhibition buildings that hold a collection of over 3,500 works in all media. Besides that, a sculpture park and Heide’s heritage-listed gardens can also be visited. Admission fees are required to enter the museum but entrance to the gardens is free.
Location: Bulleen, Victoria
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a. m. — 5 p. m.
Admission: Adult-$20, free for children under 16 (other concessions can be found on the museum’s website)
1. What do Art Gallery of New South Wales and Art Gallery of South Australia have in common?| A．They were totally free to visit. |
| B．They were founded by private persons. |
| C．They are largest art galleries in Australia. |
| D．They have noted Australia and Asian art collections. |
| A．$ 20. | B．$ 60. | C．$ 40. | D．$ 32. |
| A．Writers. | B．Artists. | C．Archaeologists. | D．Photographers. |
3 . School Rules
All students are expected to read and learn the School Rules. These rules aim to make each each student aware of the value of self-control, orderliness and the need to develop a sense of responsibility for their own behavior and for the larger community of which they are a part.
Dress regulations
The school expects its students to wear their full school uniform correctly and with pride.
Punctuality, absence and illness
Should a student be ill during school hours, he is to go straight to the School Medical Center.
·Proper behavior is expected within and around buildings and on the sporting field at all times.
·Students are not to enter laboratories, language rooms, the Technics and music rooms until invited to do so by teachers.
·The riding of bicycles or skateboard is prohibited along the front drive.
·No knives, explosives or dangerous materials may be brought into the school or boardinghouses.
·Students are forbidden to interfere with fire safety equipment.
| A．Safety |
| B．Punishment |
| C．All students must be at school on time |
| D．Appropriate action will then be taken there |
| E．An automatic fine will be imposed if this occurs |
| F．Uniform and shoes will be clean and in good repair |
| G．Students riding bicycles must wear an approved bicycle helmet |
4 . The release of OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video AI tool last month was met with a mix of worries and excitement from researchers who are concerned about misuse of the technology. The California-based company showcased Sora’s ability to create photorealistic (超级现实主义的) videos from a few short text prompts (提示词), with examples including clips of a woman walking down a neon-lit (霓虹灯闪烁的) street in Tokyo and a dog jumping between two windowsills.
Tracy Harwood, a digital-culture specialist at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, says she is “shocked” by the speed at which text-to-video artificial intelligence (AI) has developed. A year ago, people were laughing at an AI-produced video of the US actor Will Smith eating spaghetti. Now some researchers are worried that the technology could upend global politics in 2024.
OpenAI, which also developed ChatGPT and the text-to-image technology DALL·E, first released Sora on 15 February, announcing that it was making the technology “available to red teamers to assess critical areas for harms or risks”. Red teaming’ refers to the process of conducting simulated attacks (模拟攻击) or exploration of a technology to see how it would cope with criminal activity, such as the creation of misinformation and hateful content, in the real world.
Sora isn’t the first example of text-to-video technology; others include Gen-2, produced by Runway in New York City and released last year, and the Google-led Lumiere, announced in January. Harwood says she has been “underwhelmed” by some of these other products. “They are becoming more and more ordinary in what they present to you,” she says, adding that the programs require very specific prompts to get them to produce compelling (引人入胜的，可信的) content.
Misinformation is a major challenge for these text-to-video technologies, Harwood adds. “We’re going to very quickly reach a point in which we are flooded with a barrage of (一连串) really compelling-looking information. That’s really worrying.”
1. Why did some researchers worry about the the release of Sora?| A．Because the videos Sora creates will be untrue. |
| B．Because Sora needs many prompts to create videos. |
| C．Because they are worried about the misuse of technology. |
| D．Because they don’t have ability to create videos themselves. |
| A．Overturn. | B．Update. | C．Overcome. | D．Disturb |
| A．Sora is the first example of its kind. |
| B．Sora may be helpful in real world. |
| C．Sora is flooded with misinformation. |
| D．Sora is an ordinary product of its kind. |
| A．The release of Sora raised questions. |
| B．Sora is a new t hreat to global politics. |
| C．Sora becomes a vital tool to create videos. |
| D．Misinformation is a major challenge for Sora. |
5 . Anne Sullivan was born on 14 April 1866 in Feeding Hills, Agawam, Massachusetts. Her family lived in extreme poverty. When she was five years old, Sullivan contracted the bacterial eye disease trachoma (沙眼), a painful infection that left her nearly blind. When she was eight, her mother died, and two years later, her father gave up his children as he could not raise them on his own.
Anne was transferred to the Perkins School for the Blind on 7 October 1880. Anne was terribly behind in her education, and the rough manners required to survive in the almshouse (救济院) made it difficult for her to fit in among a student group that was mainly composed of children of the rich. Yet, she soon closed the gap with her classmates with iron-willed determination. Sullivan underwent a series of eye operations that significantly improved her vision. In June 1886, she graduated as the best one of her class.
Sullivan arrived at Helen Keller’s house on March 5, 1887. Sullivan immediately began to tea ch Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand, starting with“d-o-l-1” for the doll that she had brought Keller as a present. At first, the work was slow and frustrating; Keller had no understanding of connecting objects and words. However, after a month of Sullivan’s constant and patient efforts, there was a breakthrough. As Sullivan spelled the word water in one hand while running cool water over the other, Helen Keller made the connection that the gestures symbolized “water.”
Sullivan’s breakthrough in communicating with Keller came the next month when Helen realized that the motions her teacher was making on the palm of her hand while running cool water over her other hand symbolized the idea of “water.” Keller later recalled, “I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten — a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.”Having released the genie (精灵) of language out of the bottle, Keller nearly exhausted Sullivan with her zeal to learn the names of the other objects in her world. Within six months under Anne Sullivan’s guidance, Keller learned 575 words.
It was no less a person than Mark Twain who described Anne Sullivan as a Miracle Worker. Sullivan not only conquered the darkness of her own early life but opened the world to a young girl cut off and alone. Anne Sullivan’s resolute spirit should inspire all of us.
1. What can we learn about Sullivan from the first two paragraphs?| A．She was deserted by her father because of her illness. |
| B．She couldn’t fit in the almshouse due to her bad manners. |
| C．She was the best student in the Perkins School for the Blind. |
| D．She went through a rough and tough childhood. |
| A．She was too frustrated to learn. |
| B．She was a slow language learner. |
| C．She could not interact with others. |
| D．She could not connect objects with words. |
| A．Interest is the best teacher. |
| B．A patient teacher is helpful. |
| C．Persistence is the key to success. |
| D．A good beginning is half done. |
| A．A Miracle Teacher: Anne Sullivan |
| B．Sullivan’s Determination to Teach |
| C．Keller’s Rough Journey of Learning Words |
| D．An Inspiring Language Learner: Helen Keller |
6 . Tonight, our family was going out to play under the full moon.
My husband Todd and I first started going on full moon walks for ourselves, as we needed these little doses of moonlight to stay happy, though sometimes we had to hike through the forest to find a perfect spot. But after we became parents, we did this for our children. We wanted to show Sierra and Bryce that it was not necessary to travel far from home to have an adventure and learn something new, and that there was much magic in the natural world, available to all.
Once we arrived at our location, Sierra and I stood holding hands, waiting to cheer the full moon in its rising — a thin sliver of the moon emerged above the ridge of the mountain afar. Soon, more of the moon came out until it turned into a brilliant orange sphere (球体). Todd explained to Sierra and Bryce that the moon generates no light, but simply acts like a mirror, reflecting the sunlight back to us. “Does the moon’s face change?” Bryce asked. I told him that the moon moves around the earth, but does not spin (旋转) by itself, so the same side of the moon is always facing the earth. Sierra remarked that the moon looked larger when it was rising. I explained that it is a visual illusion (错觉) because it is so close to the horizon that the moon magically tricks our eyes into comparing it with nearby objects.
Much of the knowledge that I shared with the kids was learned from my parents. During my childhood, they would take me on educational adventures out in the woods, and as I later found, so did their parents. So every time I go for a full moon walk with my beloved family, I thank those wise educators who came before me.
To educate, sometimes all it takes is going outdoors and gazing up at the heavens.
1. What does the underlined word “this” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Traveling far from home. |
| B．Learning something new. |
| C．Hiking through the forest. |
| D．Going on full moon walks. |
| A．The children were unwilling to participate. |
| B．Todd mentioned a mirror to explain the sunlight. |
| C．The children showed great curiosity about the moon. |
| D．The author used a magic trick to explain the larger moon. |
| A．Proud and stubborn. |
| B．Learned and inspiring. |
| C．Confident and determined. |
| D．Adventurous and ambitious. |
| A．Nature is the best classroom. |
| B．It takes a village to raise a child. |
| C．It is good to learn at another man's cost. |
| D．All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. |
7 . Our future selves used to be a riddle. Now, thanks to social media filters (滤镜), we can stare them right in the face. People fell in love with TikTok this month to share themselves “aging” in real time using a filter “Time Travel”. Set to a sad song, the effect shows the user’s face slowly getting older, complete with wrinkles and sunspots.
Camera filters that age you have been around for years. But advancements in AI are making the results more real. Doctor Aleksandra Brown said the TikTok “Time Travel” filter does well in guessing how a given face would age.
As we get older, our facial skin thins, fat dissolves (溶解) and gravity pulls everything downward. Not everyone is pleased about this. One of Brown’s friends didn’t like watching time fly past. She couldn’t stand watching herself age 50 years in 15 seconds—could life really go by that fast? Brown cried herself after using the aging effect on her own young daughter. She won’t live to see her daughter get that old, she pointed out.
For other people, the “Time Travel” filter brought up unexpected positive feelings. Actor Jonathan Bennett shared a video saying his own filtered face recalled happy memories of his late father. Nicole Loehle, a 24-year-old in New Jersey, tested the effect with her boyfriend. It gave her a new viewpoint, she said, she could imagine the relationship lasting into their old age.
There’s no correct way to age. But it’s important to remember that no one can stop time or undo its effects. “I keep trying to view aging as a gift,” Brown said. “Some people don’t get to age, unluckily.”
1. What can people do with the “Time Travel” filter?| A．Recover from a sad mood. |
| B．Recall their happy childhood. |
| C．Foresee their aging appearance. |
| D．Remove their wrinkles and sunspots. |
| A．Reminder of the flight of time. |
| B．Instructions on using the aging filter. |
| C．Working principle of the aging filter. |
| D．Reactions to the aging effect of the filter. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Negative. | C．Indifferent. | D．Ambiguous. |
| A．“Time Travel”: Slowly or Quickly |
| B．“Time Travel”: to Enjoy or to Suffer |
| C．“Time Travel”: to Develop or to Drop |
| D．“Time Travel”: Backward or Forward |
8 . What has the size of a soccer ball but can jump from the Statue of Liberty’s feet to her eye level? A new record-setting robot. An engineer at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Elliot Hawkes, has been working on this robot for seven years with his colleagues. “It started out as a stick with weights and rubber bands (橡皮筋)”, he remembers. After years of work, the robot has reached heights of 30 meters, higher than any other jumping robot or living animal.
These researchers studied how animals jump. They looked into leaping (跳跃的) frogs, spiders, kangaroos, dogs and more. But Hawkes’ group didn’t want to copy any of these animals. Instead, the team learned what features set the limits for animal jumpers.
“It’s very exciting,” says Cynthia Sung, a roboticist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She was impressed with how high the robot jumped. And getting as high as possible was the main goal here. However, for the robot to be useful, it will need some improvements. “They don’t have any steering (转向装置) at all,” notes Sung. That means this robot can’t control its jump height or direction. Sung’s team has made its own jumping robot, named REBOund. That robot can’t jump very high. But it can be programmed to jump to any of several different heights.
Hawkes’ team is working to add steering to their robot. These researchers hope to send their robot to the moon, so they also want to find a way for it to make collections there. A jumper can go to places a robot with wheels can’t. Hawkes’ team is already working with NASA. They hope to turn their robot into a space explorer.
1. Why did the researchers look into how animals jump?| A．To draw inspiration for the robot’s appearance. | B．To find reasons for their jumping limits. |
| C．To make the robot jump like them. | D．To develop new rubber bands |
| A．Her REBOund is much better. | B．Her REBOund is a big breakthrough. |
| C．Hawkes’ new robot can jump much higher. | D．Hawkes’ new robot needs to be more practical. |
| A．They seem reserved about it. | B．They are doubtful about it. |
| C．They have high hopes for it. | D．They are very concerned about it. |
| A．A new way to explore the moon. | B．A new method of building robots. |
| C．A new approach to jumping higher. | D．A new record-setting leaping robot. |
9 . When we’re studying a new language, many of us approach it with dread. If we make a mistake or say something wrong, we judge ourselves strictly. But as it turns out, however, we’d benefit by shifting (转移) our focus and worrying less about getting it right, according to Marianna Pascal, a communication skills trainer.
As a teacher who’s spent 20 years in Malaysia helping people speak better English, Pascal noticed that some students didn’t get a high language level but could still communicate very effectively. She remembers one specific student named Faisal. Despite not knowing much English, she says, “This guy could just sit and listen to anybody very calmly, clearly, and then he could respond and express his thoughts beautifully.”
She also observed some students knew quite a bit of English but struggled to make themselves understood. Pascal noticed that a lot of these students’ attitude towards English is like her daughter’s attitude towards playing the piano. Pascal says her daughter hated piano and hated practicing, because she was afraid of being wrong. To her, her success in piano was measured by how few mistakes she made.
Then she shared her experience in a cafe. The person sitting next to her was playing a game while his friends watched, and he just wasn’t a very good player. But at the same time, she saw something amazing. Even though this guy was terrible and his friends were watching him, there was no embarrassment or shyness. There was no feeling of being judged. Instead, he focused completely on the task at hand. Pascal says, “I suddenly realized that this is it. This is the same attitude that people hike Faisal have when they speak English.”
Pascal believes that speaking a language isn’t like those exams many of us had to take in grade school, where a tiny mistake would result in a big red X from the teacher, In the real world, what matters is whether we can make ourselves understood. She says, “If you want to speak English well, don’t focus on yourself but focus on the other person and the goal you want to achieve.”
1. What does the underlined word “dread” mean in paragraph 1?| A．Fear. | B．Doubt. | C．Curiosity. | D．Confidence. |
| A．To provide some advice. | B．To offer some details. |
| C．To state a reason. | D．To present a fact. |
| A．Never minding others’ opinions. | B．Not judging a person too soon. |
| C．Improving through practicing. | D．Playing a game with patience. |
| A．It is important for teachers to encourage students in exams. |
| B．It is OK to make small mistakes in speaking a language. |
| C．Language has to be fluently spoken in daily life. |
| D．Language is an art difficult to fully master. |
10 . The most-visited museums in the United States
The National Museum of Natural History
It is free of charge and is open 364 days a y year. Opening its doors in 1910, the museum has a collection of over 14646 million specimens (标本) of plants, animals, rocks, human remains, and human cultural artifacts, the largest natural history collection in the world. It is also home to about 180 professional natural history scientists who focus on the study of natural and cultural history in the world.
The National Callery of Art
Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in 1937. Its collection includes many donated works of art. The Gallery’s collection of paintings, drawings, sprints, photographs, medals, and decorative arts traces (追溯) the development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas and the largest mobile created by Alexander Calder.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
It is the largest art museum in America. It was s founded in 1870 with its mission to bring art and art education to Americans. The museum’s collection contains works of art dating back to the ancient Near East and ancient Egypt. It includes works of art from many European Old Masters as well as many collections of American art. The museum is home to collection of musical instruments, costumes, and decorative arts.
The Museum of Modern Art
It is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The institution was conceived (构想) in 1929. It moved to several locations in its early years, and John D. Rockefeller Jr. finally donated the land for its permanent (永久的) site. The collection includes architecture, drawings, paintings, photographs, prints, artists’ books, films, and electronic media.
1. Which museum would you go to if you are curious about Western art history?| A．The National Gallery of Art. | B．The Museum of Modern Art. |
| C．The Metropolitan Museum of Art. | D．The National Museum of Natural History. |
| A．To store works of art of different countries. | B．To satisfy people’s thirst for museums. |
| C．To make Americans learn about art. | D．To document American history. |
| A．It once changed locations for several times. | B．It was recommended by John D. Rockefeller |
| C．It has historical and natural collections. | D．It was founded in Midtown Manhattan in 1929. |
