1 . Online shoppers would rather receive an offer for a product or service than make their own offer, according to a study led by a Michigan State University scholar that has implications for the fast-growing e-commerce industry. The findings may come as a surprise given that shopping online is an anonymous (匿名的) process that seemingly can give consumers more confidence to drive a hard bargain, said Don Conlon, Professor of Management in MSU’s Broad College of Business.

But the study found that participants who made their own offers were less successful in sealing the deal and, when they were successful, worried they overpaid. Many shoppers found the process of researching an offer to be a hassle. “Americans are very busy, and it’s less time-consuming to be the one receiving the offer rather than the one proposing the offer,” Conlon said. “People tend to be happier when they’re in the receiver role.”

Online spending in the United States is expected to jump 45 percent in the next four years, from $226 billion this year to $327 billion in 2017, according to Forrester Research Inc. Nevertheless, researches into this prosperous market remain largely focused on the strategies of companies, rather than those of shoppers. Conlon’s study is, obviously, a rare exception.

Conlon got the idea for the study after considering the difference between two popular sites for hotels and airline flights, priceline.com, which takes bids, and hotwire.com, which provides offers. Using these two models, Conlon and his fellow researchers conducted a series of experiments with more than 850 people who were charged with booking a fictional hotel room and acquiring a fictional antique car. Not only did participants prefer to receive bids, Conlon said, but they also secured more deals in that receiver role. Further, when they had to make the bids, they were left more mentally taxed and regretful.

From an industry perspective, putting customers in the receiver role may help fill more hotel rooms and airplane seats. “If you're a business with a lot of product,” Conlon said, “you may want to be the one making the offers.” However, when selling single items, such as an antique car, accepting bids may be a better option since that typically drives up the price, he said.

1. What can we learn from Para.1?

A．The result of the study gives customers more confidence.

B．Scholars aren’t surprised at the findings of the study.

C．Online shoppers don’t bargain as much as expected.

D．E-commerce industry drives more hard bargains.

2. It can be concluded from Conlon’s experiments that _______.

A．online shopping is time-consuming

B．given prices can promote online sales

C．online businesses provide a lot of products

D．receiving offers makes online shoppers regretful

3. The underlined word “taxed” in Para.4 probably means _______.

A．burdened

B．numbed

C．relieved

D．challenged

4. The passage is mainly about_______.

A．the big advantages of online shopping

B．the rapid development of online shopping

C．online shoppers’ preference for taking offers

D．online companies’ strategies to improve service

2 . Nowadays, students seem to be increasingly glued to their phones. Reading books is a great way to help fight that addiction, but how can students get a good reading habit?

    1    

You want to start reading and aren’t quite sure where to go.     2    . It doesn’t matter what form of text it is, so long as it’s interesting. A good place to start is online articles.     3     . Once you’re comfortable with reading short pieces of text, move on to short novels or magazines. It’s recommended that you pick books with awards, because that’s probably a safe bet.

Read step by step and consistently.

Longer pieces of text and thick novels may seem intimidating(令人胆怯的), but an important thing to remember is that you don’t have to read the whole thing in one day.     4    . Read a little every day. It doesn’t matter if it’s 10minutes or 30, so long as you actually sit down and read. Something that can help with this is that you get yourself a small cozy reading corner, so you can get in the mood to read. Also, bring your book everywhere. I mean it.     5    .

A．There are many websites with a variety of topics, ranging from animals to politics.

B．Read it on the plane, in queues, instead of looking at your phone.

C．What you have to remember to do is to be consistent.

D．Where can you go to look for books?

E．I recommend looking for things that interest you.

F．Don’t read too difficult books.

G．Read right books.

3 . Tornadoes

Tornadoes are essentially funnels of air rotating as fast as 300 miles per hour. Of course, not all tornadoes are so dangerous.     1     Such small tornadoes occur in many places around the world, even in southern Taiwan, where several are usually reported every spring.

It is, however, the big tornadoes that receive the most attention.     2     There can be flocks of dead birds dropping out of the sky, chickens still alive but with all of their feathers gone, pieces of straw stuck in trees. In a 1999 US storm, violent winds from one tornado lifted a church into the air and dropped it onto a house. In the same storm, a baby was whipped from its mother’s arms and, miraculously, found alive in a nearby tree.

    3     Although scientists now know a great deal about tornadoes, they still cannot determine exactly when and where one will form. In addition, the path of a tornado can also be impossible to predict. It is unlikely to move in a straight line, and will often turn quickly. A tornado might blow down a line of houses, then suddenly lift up and leave one home unhurt, then touch back down and destroy the rest of the line.

To better understand tornadoes, scientists have developed special heavy-duty vehicles and weather-monitoring equipment that allow them to make close-up observations of these dangerous storms. Radar equipment is put on trucks and driven near a tornado, where it records wind speeds and other weather data.     4    

In addition, better communication and warning systems are also helping to reduce deaths and injuries in many tornado-prone areas. Radio and television warnings as well as sirens help to alert people to potential danger. Public awareness is also important. When tornadoes do occur, people must act quickly. They should move immediately to a safe place such as a basement or under a strong stairway and cover themselves with blankets or heavy coats.     5    

A．Either big storms or small ones can form quickly causing damage to some degree.

B．These bring not only death and destruction, but also stories of strange phenomena.

C．Many more are small storms that form quickly and disappear, causing little or no damage.

D．A tornado can arrive so unexpectedly that a matter of seconds can mean the difference between life and death.

E．Driving the radar hundreds of miles to chase down a tornado is a best job that can be quite dangerous.

F．What makes tornadoes so dangerous is not just their great power but also their unpredictable nature.

G．Scientists often have to drive the radar hundreds of miles to chase down a tornado — a job that can be quite dangerous!

4 . Our green spaces are shrinking, despite all the benefits they give us. If we want to save them, we need to value the ecosystem and health and wellbeing services they offer.

Sheffield city council’s balance sheet shows its parks as a £16m liability (负担). Traditional accountancy methods focus on a park’s saleable value, or its operational costs associated with maintenance. So England’s 27,000 parks are considered as financial liabilities rather than the amazing asset to our health and wellbeing that any of their 37 million regular users could vouch for. They also deliver a range of ecosystem services such as improved air and water quality, flood risk reduction by absorbing water run-off, and cooling the urban environment as well as providing much-needed habitat for wildlife. By using a “natural capital” accounting approach that puts a value on all these social, environmental and economic contributions, Sheffield discovered that for every £1 spent on its parks, they generate £34 of benefits.

Yet this true value is not widely measured or recognised. As Ian Walmsley, Stockport council’s green space manager told the Communities and Local Government select committee parks inquiry, “an argument has never been successfully made that if you spend a certain amount of money on a park, there will be a saving in the health budget and therefore you should take money out of the health budget and put it into parks”. As a result, the MPs inquiry report published last week warned that parks are at a tipping point of decline, threatened by a 92% reduction in their budgets since 2010-11 because of local authority cuts. Less money means fewer park rangers, less maintenance, more litter, dog poo and antisocial behaviour, including gang and drug-related activities, and gradually much-loved local parks turn into dangerous and unappealing areas. Tragically it’s the small, green spaces in poorer, built-up areas that suffer disproportionate cuts to park keepers and maintenance. We have been here before. Uncared-for, litter-strewn parks were characteristic of Thatcher’s Britain before an injection of public spending by a Labour government and £850m of lottery cash brought them back to life.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Andrew Hinchley, green space development officer at the London Borough of Camden, told MPs if we had new ways of valuing the services parks provide for improving water quality, for example, then you could ask water companies to pay towards their upkeep.

The committee wants councils to publish strategic plans to recognise the real value of parks and to set out how they will be managed (possibly by a charitable trust, as Newcastle is looking into) to maximise their contribution to wider local authority goals such as promoting healthier lifestyles. It suggests the government’s obesity strategy could fund parks. It also suggests that it could be a legal requirement for councils to produce such strategies.

1. According to the text, parks are regarded as financial liabilities because ________.

A．the area of the park is gradually decreasing due to poor protection

B．the budget for the construction of the park is gradually decreasing

C．the value of the park is low by using a “natural capital” accounting approach

D．the traditional accountancy methods focus on a park’s saleable value

2. According to the text, which of the following is NOT the benefit of the park?

A．Improving air and water quality.

B．Symbolizing the city civilization.

C．Cooling the urban environment.

D．Providing much-needed habitat for wildlife.

3. Due to the reduction in budgets, what could probably happen?

A．The government will take money out of the health budget.

B．The local authorities will centralize the management of the park.

C．Much-loved local parks will turn into unwelcoming places.

D．The true value of the park will be widely measured or recognised.

4. What can be learned from the last two paragraphs?

A．The committee has published strategic plans to recognise the real value of park.

B．It could be a legal requirement for councils to produce such strategies.

C．The local citizens should pay for the improving water quality.

D．The Labour government will spend £850m of lottery cash to revive the park.

5 . A new survey reviews that more than 60% of websites and apps intended for Canadian children may be collecting personal information and passing it on to a third party. The survey was completed by the Global Privacy Enforcement Network, which reviewed 1,494 websites and apps.

Focusing on trends among Canadian users, the sweep team reviewed 118 websites and apps targeted directly at children, as well as 54 that are known to be popular with and used by kids. The team’s findings showed that more than 50% of Canadian sites collect personal information from children, including names, addresses, phone numbers and photos, audio or video. In addition, 62% of sites admitted they may show that personal information to third parties. Another 62% allowed the user to be redirected to a different site, and only 28% of the sites and apps involved any form of parental control or protection.

A member of the team Tobi Cohen, outlined a few of the sites that did and did not live up to the standards of children’s privacy online. She praised both Family.ca and Lego.com for their message boards that did not allow users to post personal information, and noted that santasvillage. ca asked users to provide their full name and email address. Gamezhero.com was also singled out for allowing users to display personal information, including names, age, sex and locations. Pbskids.org, on the other hand, was praised for only offering generic, pre-set avatars (头像) and barring users form uploading personal photos.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada refused to release a full list of the websites and apps reviewed. When asked what would be done with results, commissioner Daniel Therrien said that companies reviewed in the sweep would be kept informed of the findings. “It’s our usual practice after conducting a sweep to write a number of companies to point out the things that we’ve seen, to sometimes ask that things be changed, and on the whole the companies react positively to these requests.” Therrien added.

In an attempt to help kids better understand why their privacy matters, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has created a lesson plan for kids in Grade 7 and 8 that explains the Global Privacy Enforcements Network and has kids conduct privacy reviews of their own.

“We know that companies are not the only ones responsible for the protection of kids’ privacy.” Therrien said. “Parents and teachers obviously have a role. We have a role, particularly in the area of increasing awareness of privacy issues among the public.”

Matthew Johnson, director of education at Media Smarts, said that the sweep’s results were sadly unsurprising. Media Smarts, an Ottawa-based non-profit digital literacy outfit intended to improve media literacy and empowering the youth to better engage with media, offers age-appropriate tips to parents concerned with keeping their kids safe online.

Johnson explained that in addition to educating themselves on the issue, the best thing parents could do to protect children’s privacy online is to educate kids on the importance of the function of their personal data. He mentioned an initiative by Media Smarts called Privacy Pirates, an online game that aims to teach kids at the age of seven to nine that all forms of personal information should be protected and added that their personal information has value and they should think twice before giving it out.

1. We can conclude from the data mentioned in Paragraph 2 that ________.

A．parents must be to blame for letting out their kids’ privacy

B．the time that children spend on the Internet should be limited

C．more children have realized the importance of personal privacy

D．more attention should be paid to the protection of kids’ privacy

2. What will most of the companies do when receiving a request from the sweep team?

A．They will help kids better understand why their privacy matters.

B．They will ask the team never to make their website public.

C．They will ask for further information about the research.

D．They will take some measures actively in response.

3. Daniel Therrien seems to stress in Paragraph 6 that ________.

A．the team should develop a good relationship with the companies

B．the protection of kid’s privacy involves joint efforts from adults

C．the public is unaware of their role in protecting kids’ privacy

D．the sweep team’s work is worth nothing without parents’ help

4. According to Johnson, parents should ________.

A．guide their kids to play online games

B．get kids to know the value of their privacy

C．set a good example to their kids in daily life

D．think twice before giving personal information out

6 . “Roses are red. Violets are blue.” As an English poem tells us, most things we see in the world have a certain color. However, if a red rose shrinks (缩小) to the world of nanometers (纳米), chances are you might see it in orange, yellow, or blue, depending on its size. This incredible phenomenon is due to the quantum effect (量子效应).

An element’s properties (性质) are largely determined by how many electrons it has, noted the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. However, when matter shrinks to nanometers, its properties are determined by its size. Based on this effect, Alexei Ekimov from Russia and Louis Brus and Moungi Bawendi from the US received the Nobel Prize in chemistry this year for the discovery and development of quantum dots (量子点), semiconducting nanoparticles (半导体纳米粒子) that are usually 2 to 10 nanometers in size.

“Quantum dots have many fascinating and unusual properties. Importantly, they have different colors depending on their size,” said Johan Aqvist, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Quanturn dots absorb light and then release it at another wavelength (波长). The smaller the dot is, the shorter the wavelength is, resulting in a bluer light. Likewise, the larger it is, the redder the light will be.

The research by the three scientists opened up a whole new world for chemistry. The light from quantum dots is pure and bright, providing more convenience and enjoyment in many aspects of our lives.

In hospitals, quantum dots are applied to bioimaging (生物成像) and traceable (可追踪的) drug delivery. They can guide doctors when they remove tumors (肿瘤). The dots are much brighter than traditional organic dyes (染料). In our homes, we enjoy pure and dynamic light from TV and computer displays using QLED technology (Q stands for quantum dots). In labs, chemists make use of light from quantum dots to catalyze (催化) chemical reactions.

Looking ahead, scientists believe that quantum dots could help in the making of tiny sensors and thinner solar cells. , as well as in encrypted (加密的) quantum communication. Quantum dots have been benefiting humankind in many ways. However, our exploration of them is still at an early stage.

1. What determines the color of quantum dots?

A．Their sizes.	B．The wavelength they emit.
C．The material they are made of.	D．The amount of light they absorb.

2. In what aspects are quantum dots being used in hospitals?
a. Biological imaging       b. Write a prescription (开处方)
c. Tumor removal       d. Dye usage       e. Drug delivery

A．a, b, c

B．b, c, e

C．a, c, e

D．a, d, e

3. What’s the main idea of this article?

A．Explored the potential application fields of future quantum dots.

B．The importance of quantum effect in determining an element’s properties.

C．Introduction to three scientists who have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

D．The discovery and development of quantum dots and their applications in different fields.

7 . My son just turned 14 and does not have a smartphone. When he graduated from Grade 8, he was the only kid in his class without one. He asks for a phone now that he’s going to high school. I say no, he asks why, I explain(yet again), and he pushes back.

“You can choose to do things differently when you’re a parent,” I told him. But sometimes, I wonder if I’m being too stubborn or unfair.

The more I research, the more confident I feel in my decision. Many studies link the current mental health crisis among adolescents to fundamental changes in how they socialize, namely, the shift from in-person to online interaction.

But other parents challenge my perspective. “He must feel so left out!” Then there are the parents who tell me with profound sadness that they wish they had delayed their teenager’s phone ownership longer than they did. They urge me to hold out.

If teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 are truly spending an average of 8 hours 39 minutes per day on their devices, as stated in a 2021 survey conducted by the non-profit research organization Common Sense Media, then what are they not doing? Kids absorbed in their devices are missing out on real life, and that strikes me as really sad.

I want my son to have a childhood he feels satisfied with and proud of. I want it to be full of adventures, imaginative play and physical challenges which he must sort out himself—and emerge stronger—without asking for me at the push of a button.

The easiest and simplest way to achieve these goals is to delay giving him a smartphone.

Some think my son is missing out or falling behind, but he is not. He does well in school and extracurricular activities, hangs out with his friends in person, and moves independently around our small town. He swears (发誓) he’ll give his own 14-year-old a phone someday, and I tell him that’s fine. But recently, he admitted that he missed the beautiful scenery on a drive to a nearby mountain because he had been so absorbed in his friend’s iPad.

If that is his version of admitting I’m right, I’ll take it.

1. What is the author’s primary concern regarding giving her son a smartphone?

A．Her son’s social life.	B．Her son’s well-being.
C．Her son’s time management.	D．Her son’s academic performance.

2. What is the main point the author intends to express in paragraph 5?

A．Her doubts about the reliability of a teenage survey.

B．The rise of smartphone addiction among teenagers.

C．The potential negative effects of excessive phone usage.

D．The factors contributing to teenage smartphone addiction.

3. What quality does the text suggest the author wants her son to develop in his childhood?

A．Team spirit	B．Leadership
C．Self-reliance	D．Critical thinking

4. What can be inferred about the author’s son?

A．He is struggling academically.

B．He no longer desires a smartphone.

C．He is easily influenced by his friends.

D．He has realized the drawbacks of excessive screen time.

8 . A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool called ChatGPT has excited the Internet community with its superhuman abilities to solve math problems, produce college articles and write research papers. Some educators are warning that such Al systems will change the world of learning, teaching, and research, for better or worse.

Ethan Mollick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, sees its benefits as a learning partner. He has used it as his own teacher’s assistant, for help with preparing a lecture and grading instructions for MBA students. “You can ask it to find a mistake in your writing and correct it and tell you why you got it wrong,” he said. “It’s really amazing.”

But the superhuman assistant has its limitations (局限). ChatGPT was created by humans, after all. OpenAI has trained the tool using a large dataset of real human conversations. It sometimes lies to you, with confidence. There have been situations in which ChatGPT won’t tell you when it doesn’t have the answer.

That’s what Teresa Kubacka, a data scientist based in Zurich, Switzerland, found when she experimented with the language model. “I asked it about something that I thought that I know doesn’t exist (存在) so that I can judge whether it actually also has the idea of what exists and what doesn’t exist.” she said. ChatGPT produced an answer so specific sounding, backed with citations (引文), that Kubacka had to find out whether the made-up thing was actually real. “This is where it becomes kind of dangerous,” she said.

ChatGPT doesn’t produce good science, says Oren Etzioni, the founding CEO of the Allen Institute for AI. But he sees ChatGPT’s appearance as a good thing. He sees this as a moment for review. “ChatGPT is just a few days old, I like to say,” said Etzioni. “It’s giving us a chance to understand what he can and cannot do and to begin the conversation of ‘What are we going to do about it?’”

1. How did Ethan Mollick feel about ChatGPT?

A．It could be used in many different fields.

B．It was popular with university students.

C．It would replace teachers’ assistants.

D．It was advantageous to him.

2. What did Teresa Kubacka’s experiment with ChatGPT find?

A．The Al tool is not dependable sometimes.

B．The Al tool always gives wrong answers.

C．The Al tool does not always answer questions.

D．The Al tool gives dangerous guidance sometimes.

3. What does Oren Etzioni mean by saying those words in the last paragraph?

A．It is too early to discuss ChatGPT’s limitations.

B．ChatGPT is open for review and suggestions.

C．ChatGPT is worth praising for its superhuman abilities.

D．It takes time to see whether ChatGPT works well or not.

4. Which of the following shows the organization of the text?

A．	B．
C．	D．

9 . 阅读下面短文，根据题目要求回答问题。

Reading is one of the most critical activities anyone can engage in for his or her success in life. It is essential for both children and adults because it exposes an individual to new things and equips them to become effective problem solvers.Sometimes, reading ends being a hobby to many people, or even a career. It is from reading that exploration arises.

Reading forms a fundamental part of self-improvement. Through it, people become better in understanding the world around them. It is through this vital activity that people gain a deep understanding of specific topics that are of interest to them. For instance, one can read an article or any other piece of writing on how to improve one’s self-confidence. It is thus through reading that it becomes possible for one to create a structured path towards better understanding of issues and well-informed decision making.

Further, reading is crucial as it helps one to prepare to take action. Usually, before taking an action on anything, one seeks guidance and help. Guidance can be obtained from people who have gone through similar situations. However, some people turn to reading as a source of knowledge and guidance about a situation. In the 21st century,guidance and help goes a long way in influencing decision making. For example, one can read on how to cook a meal, how to play football, or even the best places to go for a vacation. In such situations, reading helps people prepare before they take any significant steps.

It is also through reading that one may gain experience from other people. Since books and other reading materials are written by different people from varying backgrounds, reading exposes a reader to different experiences. Through such experiences, a reader may hasten their success towards a goal since they might avoid similar mistakes made by other people. Books contain successes, failures, and advice from different people and it is assumed that life is too short to repeat mistakes committed by other people in the past. In the case of success, one might read on the best ways to make money and avoid certain mistakes along this path. Learning about and getting to understand people who have succeeded is essential for someone who intends to follow the same path.

1. According to the author, why is reading essential for both children and adults?
__________________________________________________________
2. How does reading help people to prepare before taking an action?
__________________________________________________________
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
▷   Through reading, people may learn about different stories and experiences, so they may repeat the mistakes made by other people in the past.
__________________________________________________________
4. Please present the benefits that reading has brought to you and give examples.(In about 40 words)
__________________________________________________________

10 . In the world of digital health, Silicon Valley-based Mindstrong stands out. It has an amazing idea: that its app, based on mental functioning research, can help detect (探测) troubling mental health patterns by collecting data on a person’s smartphone usage—how quickly they type or scroll, for instance.

The promise of that technology has helped motivate Mindstrong a lot since it launched last year; already more than a dozen counties in California have agreed to use the company’s app for patients.

Mindstrong works by collecting information about how people are typing and running it through a machine to determine which data can predict their emotional state. The idea is to use that data to build a “normal” pattern—so it can be compared against someone’s typing habits on any given day. If the habits look abnormal, the app can send messages to a health care provider. And one of Mindstrong’s most encouraging results is that its app can even predict how a person will feel next week—kind of like a weather app for your mood.

The app can detect a seven-point change on the Hamilton Rating Scale for depression (抑郁). That kind of difference could indicate a patient who is not normally depressed now shows signs of mild or moderate (适度的) depression, or that a person with moderate depression is now showing signs of a very severe condition, knowing which could be very powerful for a clinician and for someone taking care of a patient.

Does the app live up to its promise? There’s no way to tell. Almost no one outside the company has any idea whether it works. Most of the company’s key promises aren’t yet supported by published, peer-reviewed data — leading some experts to wonder if the technology is ready for the real world.

Based on her own research, one expert in digital health and mood said she’s doubtful that Mindstrong can, in a general population, work as well as the company promises. MIT’s Picard said that while there are ways to predict or detect mood changes, you usually need more than just a single type of data to do so.

The company’s website describes five completed clinical trials (临床试验), but it has not yet published the results of any. Only a handful of other published works — all from the last year — have proved how well it works.

Besides, there are plenty of issues that could affect typing speed，which Mindstrong hasn’t figured out how to deal with yet. Sticky fingers after lunch, full hands at an airport, wearing gloves during winter, or a broken hand might also affect a person’s typing speed — and therefore the app’s performance.

However, according to the company’s founder, Dr. Paul Dagum, they’ve done several successful clinical tests on its memory and detective function for depression, for anxiety and for mental decline. “We’re confident, we’re already seeing some really exciting results.” said Dr. Dagum.

Last year, Mindstrong doubled the company’s workforce to 42 employees and it launched a partnership with Harvard T.H School of Public Health to deal with depression treatments.

And about 15 counties—including the county with the largest population in the United States, Los Angeles County—will be spending about $60 million over the next four years to bring companies like Mindstrong into their health care system to help them get better services to people with mental illnesses like depression.

1. How does Mindstrong predict or detect mood changes?

A．By sending some messages to a health care provider.

B．By comparing against other people’s data in the app.

C．By building a normal pattern of people’s typing habits.

D．By analyzing the collected information of phone usage.

2. People doubt Mindstrong probably because _________.

A．the single type of data is not that enough	B．its clinical trials haven’t been completed
C．nobody outside the company supported it	D．it can’t be used when they are at the airport

3. What is the purpose of the passage?

A．To argue for a media.	B．To introduce a new app.
C．To explain a phenomenon.	D．To report an event.