1 . One single night every January, volunteers all over America search parks, woodlands and pavements to count those without shelter. After seeing their own figures for homelessness increase by 20%between 2022 and early 2023. Jersey officials were shocked into action. Officials spent more on rental assistance for those at risk of becoming homeless. More services for people living rough have led to a rise in sheltered homelessness. The state also gathers real time data. In November New Jersey’s Office of Homelessness Prevention released its own figures , showing unsheltered homelessness falling across the state by 23% year on year.
Newark, New Jersey’s largest city and home to the state’s largest homeless population, recorded a 58% reduction in unsheltered homelessness since the start of the year due to the government’s financial support to reduce street homelessness, improve the shelter system and expand housing and prevention services.
Luis Ulerio, the director of Newark’s Office of Homeless Services, says “there’s just been a lot of hard work behind that number.” Mr. Baraka, the mayor (市长)，converted a local primary school into a 166-bed facility. He built temporary housing out of shipping containers. A second cluster (群) of containers with supportive services, called Hope Village II, will open soon. The containers have been altered to look like little cottages. A third cluster is in the works Mr.Baraka wants to create a pipeline from shelters to transitional housing and then to getting long-term homeless people into permanent housing.
More services for people living rough have led to a rise in sheltered homelessness. The city also provides money for overdue rent to prevent homelessness. Beth Shinn of Vanderbilt University points out that it’s cheaper to give $ 200 to help make due rent for the poor than to pay thousands later. The city also relies on data , updated daily by those working with Newark’s homeless people. Real-time data is crucial , he says , in order to carry out interventions in state policy all on the frontline.
1. What can we learn about homelessness in New Jersey from paragraph 1?| A．It has greatly affected people’s lives. | B．Official efforts are lacking to address it. |
| C．Great progress has been made to ease it. | D．It is the most serious all over America. |
| A．He designed and built the Hope Village series for them. |
| B．He turned a school and shipping containers into o homes. |
| C．He joined a permanent pipeline to the homeless houses. |
| D．He led the volunteers to count people without shelter. |
| A．Extended. | B．Donated. | C．Distributed. | D．Changed. |
| A．Rent should be provided for the poor when it’s due. |
| B．No rent should be charged to stop overdue rent. |
| C．Real-time data should be in place to spot overdue rent. |
| D．A limit should be set to avoid large sum of overdue rent. |
2 . This collection of annual events along the world’s coastlines is worth penciling in your diary.
Festa de Yemanjá, Brazil
It is an annual national party in the country’s oldest city of Salvador. Honouring the Afro-Brazilian Yoruban heritage and the history of the Bahia state capital, this cultural event sees street parades and performances as crowds are dressed in white. The food stands in the city give out fresh cakes to mark the occasion.
Biennale de Dakar, Senegal
Art takes centre stage in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, each summer season for the event. Founded in 1990, the event is the biggest and most exciting in the African art calendar. The energetic capital city makes an amazing backdrop for introducing African artists to a global audience and inviting international artists onto the streets of the city.
Printemps de la Sardine, France
The French town of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie on the Atlantic coast is recognized as the sardine (沙丁鱼) capital of the country. Here, the arrival of the little fish kickstarts the party that takes over the town each spring. From tastings and walking trails to sardine-focused menus at local restaurants and discussions about their role in literature, the two-week celebration lets the delicious local speciality become a focus.
Rock Oyster Festival, the UK
With musical performances from the likes of Nile Rodgers, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Groove Armada and more, the three - day festival also showcases some of the best chefs and restaurants from around Cornwall as well as cooking demonstrations (展示) and masterclasses. Well-known chefs such as Olia Hercules and Andi Oliver share their stories, while over at Mussel Beach, there’s a celebration of live fire cooking.
1. Where does Festa de Yemanjá take place?| A．In Salvador. | B．In Dakar. |
| C．In Cornwall. | D．In Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. |
| A．Amazing calendars. | B．Delicious cakes. |
| C．Street parades. | D．African art shows. |
| A．They focus on literature. | B．They last for two weeks. |
| C．They provide tasty food. | D．They have online training. |
3 . Would you take a trip if you couldn’t use your cellphone? A new tour company called Off the Grid is asking travellers to put their cellphones away and not even use them for photos. The company founder, Zach Beattie, is developing his business, using money he saved from a tech job at a mapping company. He’s hired guides for every trip but will help lead the first few himself.
The first trip is to Lisbon, Portugal, in July. It takes 7 to 10 days, with small groups of up to 16 people. Prices range from $1,500 to $1,650, including accommodations, meals and ground transportation. The plan includes at least three excursions (远足) and two social events, with an emphasis on unique experiences over bucket-list sightseeing. The tour also includes surfing lessons, yoga on the beach, a day of sailing and dinner with a local family.
“When you’re somewhere new, there’s a lot to see and a lot of cool and interesting people to meet,” Beattie said. “Your phone can distract (使分心) you.” The phone ban won’t be enforced quite as strictly as it seems at first glance. “We want it to be voluntary,” he said. “We’re not collecting phones and throwing them in a locked trunk. It’s held by you, but put in your pocket, and you state your intentions for the week, whether that’s checking your social media once or twice a day or a total blackout.”
Tour-goers also get a “dumbphone” without Internet access that’s loaded with numbers for group leaders and other participants, both for emergencies and to promote socializing. Participants may bring regular cameras, but Beattie is hiring a photographer for each tour so there will be plenty of photos to remember the trip. Once the trip is over, participants will have access to those photos for use in social media posts.
1. What can be learned about Zach Beattie?| A．He set up his business at his own expense. |
| B．He is always guiding every trip personally. |
| C．He forbids tourists to take along cellphones. |
| D．He used to earn his living in a tour company. |
| A．The trip features sightseeing. |
| B．Participants live in homestays. |
| C．Air ticket is covered in the cost. |
| D．Tourists experience water sports. |
| A．Lock their phones in a trunk. |
| B．Post their photos on social media. |
| C．Free themselves from their phones. |
| D．Shift their focus onto dumbphones. |
| A．Take photos. | B．Access the Internet. |
| C．Record the trip. | D．Contact group members. |
4 . This question has fascinated behavioural scientists for decades: why do we give money to charity?
The explanations for charitable giving fall into three broad categories, from the purely altruisic (利他的)— I donate because I value the social good done by the charity. The “impurely” altruistic— I donate because I extract value from knowing I contribute to the social good for the charity. And the not-at-all altruistic— I donate because I want to show off to potential mates how rich I am.
But are these motives strong enough to enable people to donate as much as they would want to? Most people support charities in one way or another, but often we struggle to make donations as often as we think we should. Although many people would like to leave a gift to charity in their will, they forget about it when the time comes.
Many people are also aware that they should donate to the causes that have the highest impact, but facts and figures are less attractive than narratives. In a series of experiments, it was found that people are much more responsive to charitable pleas that feature a single, identifiable beneficiary(受益者), than they are to statistical information about the scale of the problem being faced. When it comes to charitable giving, we are often ruled by our hearts and not our heads.
The good news is that charitable giving is contagious—seeing others give makes an individual more likely to give and gentle encouragement from an important person in your life can also make a big difference to your donation decisions— more than quadrupling them in our recent study. Habit also plays a part— in three recent experiments those who volunteered before were more likely to do donate their time than those who had not volunteered before.
In summary, behavioural science identifies a range of factors that influence our donations, and can help us to keep giving in the longer term. This is great news not just for charities, but also for donors.
1. What can we learn about people who do charitable giving?| A．Most people support charity as often as they think they should. |
| B．Some people don’t want to leave a gift to charity until the time comes. |
| C．Those who donate because they can gain an advantage are purely altruistic. |
| D．Some people send money to charity simply to tell others they are wealthy. |
| A．Not revealing the names of the donors. |
| B．Showing figures about the seriousness of the problem. |
| C．Telling stories that feature a single, recognizable beneficiary. |
| D．Reminding people to write down what to donate in the will in advance. |
| A．People will learn from others and follow the suit. |
| B．Many people are familiar with charitable giving. |
| C．Charitable giving helps the beneficiary in all aspects. |
| D．Charitable giving can bring a lot of benefits to donors. |
| A．To persuade more people to donate. |
| B．To explain the science behind why people donate. |
| C．To criticize some false charitable giving behaviours. |
| D．To explore approaches to making people donate more. |
5 . “In the United States, 40 million Americans are food insecure. They don’t know where their next meal is going to come from,” said Aidan Reilly, who co-founded Farmlink. “Meanwhile, in the United States we’re throwing out over 100 billion pounds of food every year.”
Started during the hard period in spring 2020, Farmlink was initially supposed to help struggling families and food banks. Reilly and his childhood friend James Kanoff were reading and watching news about food shortages, and they learned that local farms were forced to destroy spare produce that they couldn’t sell, especially with restaurants, schools and hotels closed. Reilly, Kanoff and a group of friends worked together over Zoom, text and e-mail to contact farms. They didn’t really set out to start a nonprofit then but just thought it would be great to figure out one way to help starving (饥饿的) people.
With “we’ll come to you” as their catchphrase, the group rented trucks and attempted to do all the food pickup and deliveries themselves. They had a lot of difficulties in the beginning, but they made it work, moving more than one million pounds of produce from farms to food banks within just two months and transforming their project into a massive logistics operation in the process. Word spread, and more and more young people at home during the pandemic reached out to help.
Farmlink has worked with more than 100 farms and 300 communities in the United States, rescuing and moving enough food to distribute (配送) more than 64 million meals. “The bigger Farmlink gets, the bigger our worldview gets. There are everyday Americans who live next to us and don’t know how they’re going to feed their kids. And that’s exactly who we’re doing this for,” Reilly said.
1. What does Aidan Reilly think is the reason for food shortages in the US?| A．The lack of food suppliers. |
| B．High food prices for most Americans. |
| C．Underproduction of food in the world. |
| D．The mismatch between food supply and demand. |
| A．It produced food specifically for them. |
| B．It collected money by selling produce. |
| C．It set up food distribution channels. |
| D．It persuaded the rich to donate food to them. |
| A．All Americans. | B．People in poor countries. |
| C．People living nearby. | D．Parents with starving kids. |
| A．A Project Widening Our Worldview |
| B．A Bridge Between Spare Food and Starvation |
| C．A Nonprofit Organization for Food Production |
| D．A Group of People Fighting Against Food Waste |
6 . If sales generally feel hard to resist, the sale in front of Arron Schurevich was the ultimate test: a new car just like the one he’d loved. And it was more than a 20% discount. “I figured that I would be a fool not to take advantage of that,” says Schurevich. After he drove the car off the lot, the deal turned sour. The brand-new car quickly needed repairs. Schurevich now jokes that he paid a tax for being a fool.
Why is it so hard for the human brain to resist a discount? Spotting something you’d like to buy activates your brain’s reward circuitry (奖赏回路). It gets especially heightened if it’s something you’ve been fascinated by — say, the same car you’ve enjoyed for years. Additionally, the discount itself often registers as a win, delivering its own kind of joy, says Jorge Barraza, a consumer psychologist at the University of Southern California.
“Not only are we getting the product,” Barraza says, “but we’re also getting that reward that we discovered something; we’ve earned this extra thing.”
Stores, of course, know all this and try to push our buttons. “Limited-quantity, limited-time, scarcity-marketing promotions—they get people’s blood pumping,” says Kelly Goldsmith, who studies this as a marketing professor at Vanderbilt University.
It’s really hard to always approach sales rationally. One buying strategy experts recommend is to make a shopping list in advance and then, stick to it. Another is to research items — beforehand or on the spot, checking online — to weigh whether the sale is really a good deal.
“The human brain has essentially evolved to feel first and think next, which is why you need to give yourself time to cool off from your instant reaction when in front of a sale,” says Goldsmith.
1. What is the purpose of telling Arron Schurevich’s story?| A．To explain the way to promote sale. | B．To inform readers of an important test. |
| C．To introduce the topic of the passage. | D．To show the advantage of products on sale. |
| A．Brain’s reward circuitry needs activating. | B．It’s hard to resist a discount for some reasons. |
| C．Buying discounted products has consequences. | D．It’s worthwhile to approach sales rationally. |
| A．Stores are good at pushing buttons. | B．Stores tend to affect people’s health. |
| C．Stores help consumers earn extra things. | D．Stores know how to attract consumers with sales. |
| A．Calm down in front of a sale. | B．Make a shopping list ahead of time. |
| C．Research items on the spot or online. | D．Avoid buying any discounted items. |
7 . The Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge is a science competition for U. S. middle-school students. It's run by Society for Science, which also publishes Science News Explores. The 30 finalists in this year's competition traveled to Washington, D. C. and also showed off their research projects.
Sharanya Chudgar, 14 years old, is one of the finalists in the competition and built a trash-collecting robot. The wheeled machine of the robot uses sensors to spot litter and a pan to pick it up. The robot's metal-detecting sensor helps it sort garbage from recyclables. And a light sensor can let the robot's solar panel angle itself toward the sun, collecting as much energy as possible.
Sharanya got the idea to build her trash collector by participating in litter cleanups. "When I signed up to volunteer at our local trash cleanup, I saw how much litter poliution there was and I knew that I had to fix this problem," Sharanya says. "People do have very limited time and resources, right? But robots don't. So it was then that my project idea formed in my head."
"Building the robot is my favorite part of this project," Sharanya says. "Ever since first grade, I've loved building Legos and building my robot felt just like building a Lego. But this project was a completely new experience since I hadn't ever had any experience in robotics before. Throughout the project, I had to use tons of power tools and I even had to cut pieces of metal to certain lengths. Whenever I needed to use a power tool, I had to turn to my dad who was always there to help out if necessary."
"It might seem difficult at times, but sticking to this and changing just one variable at a time gets you the best results," Sharanya says. This middle school scientist is solving global problems of litter pollution. For some, a science project might be an assignment or a fun hobby. But for Sharanya, doing research can also be a chance to help others and make the world a better place.
1. What can be known about the trash-collecting robot?| A．It is environment-friendly. | B．Its solar panel can't turn. |
| C．It has multiple purposes. | D．Its shape is like a human. |
| A．The limited natural resources. | B．The encouragement from the locals. |
| C．Her trash cleanup experiences. | D．Her participation in the competition. |
| A．To express her thanks to her father. | B．To show her love for the project. |
| C．To explain the difficulty of the project. | D．To tell her interest in building Legos. |
| A．Unconcerned. | B．Negative. | C．Critical. | D．Approving. |
8 . In the United States alone, 119 billion pounds of food is wasted each year according to the nonprofit organization Feeding America. Yet, over 44 million Americans go hungry every day. If this seems like a huge gap, this is due both to the process of distributing the food and to the food waste that affects the world’s ability to sufficiently raise its entire population. However, several New York City(NYC) communities have found an effective way to reduce food waste—community fridges.
These fridges represent a grassroots way to increase access to food and fight against food waste. The community fridges offer a way for people to give fresh food that they will not eat to others who need it. They first surfaced in New York City in 2020. These community fridges offer a ray of hope to people who were struggling to afford or find food during supply chain issues and rising food prices.
Community fridges offer a way for food that would otherwise be wasted to be redistributed. However, another wonderful effect of reducing food waste is the ability to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change. As food gets bad in landfills, it gives off methane, which is the second most common greenhouse gas. This means that food waste is responsible for up to ten percent of global emissions—which is a pretty large number! Placing food that would otherwise go uneaten in a community fridge can help to reduce these emissions.
Although there are some negative side effects of community fridges, their benefits usually outweigh their negatives. Volunteers clean and maintain the fridges. Some community fridge nonprofits even use renewable energy to power the refrigerators. Although the community fridge may be misused by some, these instances are sparse. Now, the idea of the community fridge has spread. These fridges, also known as “friendly fridges”, will be found in cities throughout the United States.
1. Why is “a huge gap” mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．To seek for ways to feed the hungry. | B．To lead in the problem of food waste. |
| C．To point out the population crisis in the US. | D．To show the effect of reducing food waste. |
| A．It helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions. |
| B．It motivates companies to make energy-saving fridges. |
| C．It is the best solution to global climate change. |
| D．It brings down food prices by offering more supplies. |
| A．Ordinary. | B．Serious. | C．Reasonable. | D．Rare. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Doubtful. | C．Hopeful. | D．Indifferent. |
9 . China is to hire five young volunteers and send them to Laos at the end of April to provide six months’ voluntary service, symbolizing the start of China’s voluntary service overseas programme.
The organizers, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China and the China Young Volunteer Association, are now recruiting five healthy Chinese citizens between the age of 20 and 40 from the community who can communicate in English, with college education and working and voluntary experience.
“It is the first step for Chinese volunteers before they can provide service abroad and marks a significant move in the development of a volunteer sector in China,” said committee official Hou Baosen.
The committee plans to continue the programme by sending volunteers to neighbouring countries in the future, aiming to boost the development of regional economies in targeted countries and strengthen communication between volunteers of the two countries.
According to an agreement made on March 17 between China’s Young Volunteers Action Guiding Centre under the committee and a teenager development centre in Laos, the five volunteers will work respectively as Chinese and English teachers, computer and network trainers and medical experts.
Financially backed by a domestic company, the volunteers will enjoy a monthly subsidy of 800 yuan (US$ 96), and have their air tickets, medical treatment costs and insurance covered.
Inquiries can be made by telephone on 010-85212239 and applications must be submitted before April 10.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．Stating the main idea of the text. |
| B．Announcing a decision of an organization. |
| C．Drawing readers’ attention to the news. |
| D．Sharing good news with readers. |
| A．High English level. | B．Good health. |
| C．College education. | D．Computer skills. |
| A．The development of national economy. |
| B．Chinese better understanding of overseas cultures. |
| C．More interactions between volunteers of the two countries. |
| D．A boom in trade between China and Laos. |
| A．A research report. | B．An recruiting ad. |
| C．An invitation. | D．A notice. |
10 . China will pay more attention to the research and development of techniques and equipment
“Deep-sea mining has become
“A large proportion of the metals I mentioned, which are extensively used at Chinese factories, needs to be imported.
Internationally, some Western nations have owned key technologies and the capability of manufacturing major hardware
However, China lags behind in terms of knowledge, technology and hardware, which highlights the importance of
| A．a new frontier of international competition |
| B．a new study of great importance |
| C．used for deep-sea mining |
| D．used for marine exploration |
| E．mining them from seabed |
| F．government attention and investment |
| G．required in deep-sea mining |
