1 . Shrewsbury is an ideal getaway with visitors.
Shrewsbury eBike HireBEST FOR: SEEING THE SIGHTS AT A GENTLE PACE
Set off on a self-guided tour of Shrewsbury on one of the town’s new e-bikes. The route is easy to follow with lots of stops along the way, including the Welsh Bridge, Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery and the Victorian-era Shrewsbury Prison. It’s most suitable for ages 14-plus.
Shrewsbury Flaxmill MaltingsBEST FOR: INSPIRING ARCHITECTS
This was the world’s first iron-shaped building when it was built in 1797-a forerunner of the modern skyscraper (摩天大楼). A new visitor centre opened in September-it’s also the end point of the Heritage Trail e-bike tour. An exhibition explores how the building has grown and been repurposed over the years.
Shrewsbury Market HallBEST FOR: FOOD AND SHOPPING
Situated in the centre of town, this was an innovative example of modern architecture when it opened in 1965. Recent upgrades mean it’s now home to more than 70 independent businesses, including traditional market stands, artisan producers, craft shops and antique dealers.
Riverside CabinsBEST FOR: QUIET STAYS
Opened in 2020, Riverside Cabins is a rural collection of wooden cottages built in18th century, a 20-minute drive from Shrewsbury. Cabins sleep between two and six guests and each come with their own hot baths, as well as Wi-Fi and smart TVs. Try your hand at boating along the river, with equipment available to borrow on site. From £ 135 for a minimum of two nights for a family of four.
1. What is an advantage of e-bike tours?| A．They organize architecture lessons. |
| B．They provide professional guides. |
| C．They offer a relaxing way of travelling. |
| D．They are accessible to all ages. |
| A．Shrewsbury eBike Hire. | B．Riverside Cabins. |
| C．Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings. | D．Shrewsbury Market Hall. |
| A．history | B．food | C．transport | D．fashion |
2 . For foreign visitors, Morocco in Africa holds an immediate and enduring fascination. Here are some picks to visit.
The Anti-Atlas
In the mountain playground of the Anti-Atlas, travelers can exercise by trying new hiking routes and connect with locals who share their timeless valleys with generosity and warmth. Take some time to connect with the local people living in the region. A glimpse into their simple life and down-to-earth way of being is good for your heart.
Marrakesh
The “pink city” is one of Morocco’s must-sees—all your senses come to life here. Feel the city’s charm with the rosy colors of the media wall at sunset and the sweet smell of trees in season. For a touch of desert romance, the Agafay Desert and its luxury camping options are within easy reach of Marrakesh, pertect for a night under the stars.
The Sahara Desert
The drive to the Sahara Desert is long, but the emptiness of the Sahara Desert can bring a sense of remoteness that is rare to find these days. Visiting the Moroccan Sahara Desert is an opportunity to disconnect, empty your mind and enjoy being in the middle of nowhere. The wild environment comes to life with a good guide, especially at might when the night sky free of light pollution is filled with stars.
Fez
As the oldest city and study center in Morocco, Fez proudly keeps one foot firmly planted in the past where you will get lost making your way through workshops and market stalls. The fantastically preserved ancient ruins and the Kairaouine Library that is among the world’s oldest libraries are worth a visit.
1. What does the trip to the Anti-Atlas feature?| A．The foreign too a and drınk. |
| B．The enjoyment of the urban life. |
| C．The physical and spiritual experience. |
| D．The gift-sharing events in the mountain playground. |
| A．Feel the city’s romance. |
| B．Enjoy the mountainous lifestyle. |
| C．Sec the scenery of plentiful valleys and runs. |
| D．Get the chance to spend starry nights outdoors. |
| A．The Anti-Atlas. | B．Marrakesh. |
| C．The Sahara Desert. | D．Fez. |
3 . The Debate on Drinking Coffee on an Empty Stomach
There’s a popular belief that drinking coffee on an empty stomach can damage the stomach lining (胃粘膜). This article investigates the validity of these claims and explores the broader influences for gut (肠道) health.
While substances like alcohol are known to alter the stomach’s defenses, research, a 2013 study of over 8,000 participants living in Japan, shows no substantial link between coffee consumption and the development of ulcers (溃疡).
The idea that coffee induces stomach acid production is well-established, which could theoretically lead to heartburn, especially if consumed on an empty stomach.
If you experience discomfort after drinking coffee, consider cutting down the consumption.
While the debate on the impact of drinking coffee on an empty stomach continues, the evidence leans more towards its safety rather than harm. Monitoring personal symptoms and making small adjustments can help individuals enjoy coffee without discomfort.
| A．Adding some milk can also help. |
| B．However, studies offer mixed results. |
| C．Remember, individual responses can vary. |
| D．Nonetheless, coffee does have an effect on the gut. |
| E．There’s more evidence for coffee’s benefits than harms. |
| F．Many people start their day with a cup before eating anything. |
| G．It suggests that coffee doesn’t harm the stomach lining directly. |
4 . Residing on Hainan, US-raised Xie Fei has established an extensive private museum, filled with his personal collections. Items from NBA stars Michael Jordan and Kobe feature significantly in Xie’s Tianfu Sports Museum. These items mark the beginning of his collection journey.
Around in 2002, he started his own business, a resort hotel highlighting local coffee and showcasing his sports collections to appeal to tourists. Indeed, many tourists expressed an interest in the exhibition, leading to eventually the official opening of his own museum. At that time, Xie, who was still not fluent in Mandarin, found that the museum could be a bridge connecting him to others. His collection began to expand beyond the NBA, embracing richer Chinese items. Since then, he has been searching for more Chinese sports items to add to his collection.
As his valuable collection expanded, he began to feel more responsibility. He decided to donate his more than 2,000 items to the government, while continuing to exhibit them for free in his museum. He funds the museum’s maintenance with the proceeds from his hotel and often invites sports experts to hold activities there.
In recent years, he has frequently taken items from his collection to schools to teach children about the history of Chinese sports. Xie also started collecting local sports memorabilia (纪念品), During this process, he found that records of local sports history were incomplete, so he contacted local scholars and began compiling and filling in the gaps. From the medal of Hainan’s first-ever Games to the traditional sports equipment of local Li and Miao people, after several years of effort, Xie’s museum has been able to organize a special Hainan sports exhibition, while also diving into more detailed historical research.
But the collector’s efforts do not stop there. Looking forward, he has set a new goal. “I want to build a new museum, one that features only Hainan sports memorabilia,” Xiesays, “I want everyone to know how vibrant Hainan’s sports culture is.”
1. Why did Xie Fei open the Tianfu Sports Museum?| A．Tourists enjoyed his sports equipment. |
| B．He was motivated to promote Hainan. |
| C．His resort hotel rose to fame overnight. |
| D．People were fascinated by his collections. |
| A．By raising money from the the public. |
| B．By being financed by the government. |
| C．By working as a part-time teacher. |
| D．By supporting it with the hotel income. |
| A．Xie will participate in the sports games. |
| B．His hard work and dedication were fruitful. |
| C．Ethnic items will be collected nationwide. |
| D．Xie is passionate about tourist development. |
| A．Independent. | B．Ambitious. | C．Considerate. | D．Cautious. |
5 . The holidays can be a divisive season. Because the holidays are full of merriness, some love them. Others can feel troubled by them, affected by the financial pressure and family gatherings often accompanying the holidays.
Begin tracking how you’re feeling on the day-to-day life. You can keep a journal or take a brief walk where you can reflect at the end of your day. Doing this lets you see a pattern of what may be activating your negative feelings.
After getting your triggers written down, let’s make a plan. If it is money fueling the discomfort, let’s strategize how you can cut down the financial expectations. You can select a thoughtful low-cost decoration or a bunch of flowers.
Rethink how to love yourself rather than care for others too much. If you have to be with someone, are you at risk of yourself because of arguments or conflicts?
| A．Keep track of your daily actions. |
| B．It will help you get through the tense situation. |
| C．Hosting a gathering can be another costly issue. |
| D．Feeling joyless during the holidays can be really awful. |
| E．You can also offer meaningful time spent with loved ones. |
| F．The truth is that it is hard to engage with people who hurt you. |
| G．Let’s begin by identifying what is causing you the intense anxiety. |
6 . Hundreds or even thousands of jackdaws (寒鸦) are known to launch into the winter sky at once from the treetops at sunrise, and then split into smaller groups to feed throughout the day. Now, ecologists know that this synchronized (同步的) departure is timed with a complicated behavior called “consensus decision-making”, where the majority agree to take action.
To figure it out, researchers in the United Kingdom recorded hundreds of hours of their bird calls in Cornwall over several months. They measured when the first jackdaws began their calls, how loud the birds were, and how quickly the swell (增强) of calls rose, and then compared these sounds to footage (镜头) of those birds’ departures. The team found that the jackdaw group left together once the chorus of calls reached a critical mass--the more rapidly the chorus swelled, the earlier the birds left.
“They all leave together in a few seconds. The sky just fills with black birds forthwith. It is just like a black snowstorm,” Alex Thornton, an ecologist at the University of Exeter, UK, told New Scientist. Every call is a jackdaw casting its vote to leave. “At first you just get a few calls, then more and more birds join in and it builds and builds. And the steeper the increase, the earlier they leave,” Thornton added. On rare occasions, when the intensity of the chorus doesn’t build enough and the jackdaws don’t agree, the birds instead launch off in small numbers.
The team also found that once jackdaws reached a consensus they departed almost immediately, with hundreds of individuals flying in less than five seconds. When scientists played past recordings of calls back to the jackdaws, getting in the way of the group’s natural crescendo (渐强的声音), they were able to push forward the birds’ launching by more than six minutes. The birds did not, however, change their launch times in response to other noises.
“The gregarious (群居的) birds prefer to leave as a group, although each jackdaw will have a slightly different preference as to when they want to leave, based on factors like their size and hunger,” Alex Dibnah, a University of Exeter graduate student and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “Leaving the roost (栖息处) together has various benefits, including safety from predators and access to information such as where to find food.”
This research shows the critical role vocalizations (发声) play in group decision-making for this species. One next step for this research, according to the authors, is to figure out how human-created noises might affect this process and the spread of information throughout these communities.
“Imagine a big roost near a town or busy road,” Thornton said. “If the birds can’t hear each other and can’t form a consensus to leave together, it could have big impacts on their population.”
1. What is the purpose of the research in Cornwall?| A．To understand how jackdaws reach an agreement. |
| B．To study what makes jackdaws’ departure time unique. |
| C．To make a comparison of jackdaws’ calls with other birds’. |
| D．To assess the importance of jackdaws’ complicated behaviors. |
| A．Frequently. | B．Gradually. | C．Traditionally. | D．Immediately. |
| A．It can reach an agreement within seconds. |
| B．Its launch times vary little from season to season. |
| C．It can distinguish its natural calls from other noises. |
| D．It makes no response to the past recordings of calls. |
| A．The impacts of human hunting on jackdaws’ population. |
| B．The effects of noises on jackdaws’ group decision-making. |
| C．The way jackdaws spread information in their communities. |
| D．The role of jackdaws’ vocalizations in group decision-making. |
7 . A humanoid robot can relay video and touch sensations to a person wearing a haptic (触觉内) feedback suit and a virtual reality (VR) headset hundreds of kilometres away, offering away for people to attend events without travelling.
The iCub 3 robot is a 52-kilogram, 125-centimetre-tall robot with 54 joints across its body. Its head contains two cameras where a human’s eyes would be, and an Internet-connected computer where the brain would go. Along with the cameras, sensors covering its body send data to the robot’s “brain”. These sensations are then reproduced on a suit and VR headset worn by a remote human operator.
When the operators react to what they see and feel, the suit’s sensors pick up the movements and the robot matches them. “The key is to translate every signal and bit of digital data that can be sent through the network.” says Stefano Dafarra, who was part of the iCub3 team. There can be a small delay of up to 100 milliseconds to capture and transmit the visual shots, but the operator can case this by moving slightly slower than normal.
The team demonstrated the robot at the Venice Biennale, where it wandered through an exhibition while its operator stood 290 kilometres away in Genoa. Dafarra hopes people will use the iCub3 to attend events remotely, reducing the need to travel. “But at present, a fall could be hugely damaging to the robot, and it’s uncertain whether it could stand up again on its own," he says.
“iCub3 is an interesting robot and offers clear advantages from the previous versions.” says Jonathan Aitken, whose laboratory owns a prior version of the robot. However, he is disappointed that the team wasn’t clear in its research about the data transmission requirements of the new version of the robot. “It would be good to know just how much data was required, and what the upper and lower bounds were.” he says.
1. What’s the principle behind the humanoid robot?| A．It conveys sensations to the wearer and acts accordingly. |
| B．It receives commands from an operator through the Internet. |
| C．The cameras take pictures and then interact with the sensors. |
| D．The computer in the robot processes the data and gives orders. |
| A．Medical consultation. | B．Sports events. |
| C．Outdoor workouts. | D．Virtual tourism. |
| A．It fails to appeal to potential investors. |
| B．Its performance hasn’t been evaluated clearly. |
| C．Its present version still requires to be updated. |
| D．Its transmission of data came across technical problems. |
| A．Humanoid robots with sense of touch catch on |
| B．iCub 3 robot combines with VR to benefit more people |
| C．Humanoid robots let people see and feel things remotely |
| D．New advances in technology enable people to travel at work |
8 . Over the past few decades, technology has advanced at an unprecedented rate, revolutionizing industries and shaping new ways of life.
According to the International Telecommunication Union, a key advocate of technological advancement, the rapid growth of technology has significantly improved the quality of life in numerous communities. It cites studies that show the integration of technology into daily lives has led to increased efficiency, more access to information, and even progress in healthcare in numerous regions.
Those who embrace technological progress argue that it creates new opportunities for individuals and businesses alike. For instance, farmers in remote areas can now access real-time market information and weather updates through smartphones, enabling them to make more informed decisions about their crops. Additionally, small businesses can expand their reach globally through online platforms.
Furthermore, critics fear that the unchecked growth of technology may have negative impacts on society and the environment. For example, the rise of social media and the internet has led to an increase in cyberbullying, privacy concerns, and the spread of misinformation. Moreover, the overuse of technology may contribute to do-nothing lifestyles and other health issues.
One thing is certain about technological progress — it is an inevitable trend. The rapid pace of innovation and the widespread availability of technology make it impossible to turn back.
| A．But how can we take control of technology to our advantage? |
| B．The question arises: Is technological progress beneficial for all? |
| C．This digital divide can lead to increased social and economic gaps. |
| D．However, critics of technological advancement hold a different view. |
| E．These advancements have been particularly evident in rural and underserved areas. |
| F．It ensures that the benefits of technological progress are shared equally across society. |
| G．The challenge now is finding ways to command the power of technology to benefit all. |
9 . For some of us, going to the dentist for routine check-ups is a thing of the ordinary. But for many people around the world, especially those in impoverished (贫困的) areas, having dental improvement and their teeth checked simply isn’t possible. A Brazilian dentist Felipe Rossi has devoted himself to helping changing that situation.
Growing up in USA, Felipe Rossi had just obtained the Bachelor of Medicine Degree and was about to start a master’s degree in Pediatric Dentistry (儿童口腔学) when a journey to his father’s home — Balsabo in Brazil — converted his initial plan. “All locals didn’t have access to dental care, and consequently, many of them suffered deformed teeth or even loss of teeth, leading to many people not daring to laugh with mouth open.” Felipe Rossi recalled. “A desire was planted in my heart. That is, to use my skills to bring healthy smiles to people suffering from dental problems.”
With the support of his parents, Felipe formed an NGO (non-government organization) called Porsorriso to give free oral treatments to individuals with low incomes who require cleaning. fillings, crowns, restoration work and more. His team is composed of approximately 30 registered volunteers who go with him to poor towns and villages in Brazil.
Sponsorship is generally provided by two private companies. Individuals may also make donations through the ‘Smile Solidarity’ program, where they can choose monthly amounts to contribute. Porsorriso also holds regular fundraisers to afford the cost of providing free dental services around the country.
As noble as its objective is, Felipe admits that Porsorriso is “struggling to survive” because of the huge cost of providing dental work and the constant fundraising events they have to hold to keep the NGO in normal functioning. “Challenging as it is, it did bring healthy teeth as well as renewed confidence to the locals. We will continue this transformative act whatever difficulties we will face”. Felipe said with a strong will.
1. How does the author introduce the topic of the text?| A．By posing a contrast. |
| B．By reporting an event. |
| C．By assuming a situation. |
| D．By making an appeal. |
| A．The support from his parents. |
| B．The passion for dental health. |
| C．The encounter with local s lacking dental care. |
| D．The professional skills and knowledge from college. |
| A．Hopeful and diligent. |
| B．Faithful and ambitious. |
| C．Intelligent and creative. |
| D．Charitable and dedicated. |
| A．It gives free oral treatments to anyone in need. |
| B．It is cooperated by Felipe Rossi and the local authority. |
| C．It is financially supported by corporations and individuals. |
| D．It holds regular fundraisers to educate people about dental care. |
10 . The best way to really see a city is to explore it slowly by walking around. It’s easy, healthy, and also benefits the environment. When on foot, you can do as the locals do. Here’s what you can find under your own steam.
Best for families: Planetenweg, Zurich
The 2,854 ft-tall, forest-covered peak that towers from Zurich’s doorstep is the envy of every European city. To get there, try the four-mile, two-hour-long route on Planetenweg. This family-friendly wander cuts in and out of spruce forests and gives you a proper flavour of being up in the mountains without ever actually leaving the city.
Best for arty vistas: Ekebergparken, Oslo
Come at sunrise or sunset, when the sky blazes above shining fjords (峡湾) and transforms the dark, rocky islands into shadows, and you can see why Oslo’s Ekebergparken inspired Munch to paint The Scream. Starting at the Ekebergparken Museum, the two-mile sculpture trail (小道) winds through pine, fir and ash forest, where plenty of phenomenal works of art await — Dalí’s surrealist Venus de Milo with Drawers and Damien Hirst’s Anatomy of an Angel among them.
Best for getting off the beaten track: Vienna Ugly, Vienna
The guided walks led by locals across Vienna dive into neighbourhoods that are off the usual tourist trail. Among them is Vienna Ugly, a 2.5-hour wander through Leopoldstadt and Innere Stadt. At the end of the tour, you’ll vote on which of the city’s buildings are the ugliest. Tours from £9.
Best for architecture: Ørestad, Copenhagen
Copenhagen rode high as World Capital of Architecture 2023. A guided walk with the Danish Architecture Center throw you in at the architectural deep end for 2.5 hours, taking you to Copenhagen’s Ørestad neighbourhood on the island of Amager. From £18.
1. What attracts travelers to Planetenweg?| A．Mountains. | B．Local flavour. | C．Art works. | D．Architecture. |
| A．Planetenweg, Zurich, | B．Ekebergparken, Oslo. |
| C．Vienna Ugly, Vienna. | D．Ørestad, Copenhagen. |
| A．They are free of charge. | B．They feature a voting activity. |
| C．They are guided tours. | D．They go deep into the forests. |
