1 . As the movie Nomadland revealed to the world, ever since the 2008 financial collapse, people have mowed into vehicles as a way of surviving the high cost of living. The pandemic also fuelled an increase in the nomadic (流浪的) lifestyle.
In 2020, my co-researcher Scott Rankin and I looked at how people who live in vehicles balance work and life. This year, I continued my research to better understand why people live this way.
People of all ages and genders take part in van (面包车) living. The average age of van dwellers (居住者) was 42. After asking respondents to rank the reasons why they chose to live in a vehicle, ranked from top to bottom are: 1) freedom, 2) low cost of living, 3) adventure, 4)connection to nature,5)minimalism,6)avoiding undesirable weather,7)starting a new life, 8)pursuing work in different places, 9)working remotely, 10)to be on their own, 11)to join a partner, 12)to leave a partner.
Above all else, vehicle dwellers sought to be free. Whether they were a re tire n in a $100,000 Mercedes van, or young Canadians working from a $5 ,000 van, respondents wanted to be able to move their home to any place that was best for them. For others, living in a vehicle minimized their costs, allowing them to work less or make the most of their income without paying rent.
As it turns out, van living is not a fad. While many respondents were new to van living, on average, respondents indicated they had been living in a vehicle for an average of 2.5 years. Seventy-eight per cent of respondents permanently lived in a vehicle.
As the housing crisis deepens, we may see more people consider van living as a means of surviving the high cost of living. It will be up to the government to accept this alternative living arrangement, and consider having parking and facilities to support those who choose to live this way.
1. What’s the purpose of the author’s research?| A．To advocate a new lifestyle. | B．To produce a scientific theory. |
| C．To understand a social phenomenon. | D．To improve some people’s living conditions. |
| A．Their top concern is money. | B．They have different motives. |
| C．They value family more than work. | D．They are mainly adventurous people. |
| A．Something that isn’t suitable for all. | B．Something that isn’t likely to last. |
| C．Something that is popular for long. | D．Something that attracts old people. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Tolerant. | C．Approving. | D．Opposed. |
2 . We sometimes think that everything was much better and easier in the past. It’s one of the tricks our minds play on us, especially when we are in low spirits.
Actually, it’s unlikely that things were objectively better in the past. This form of thinking is called rosy retrospection, which is a well-studied cognitive bias. It happens because when we think about the past, we are more likely to focus on positive generalities than annoying details.
If you think back to a holiday with your family five years ago, you’re likely to recall the beautiful views rather than the uncomfortable bed. In other words, the negative details disappear from our memory over time while the positive ones remain.
Rosy retrospection can influence how we make decisions, and it’s one of the reasons why we easily return into problematic relationships. The longer it is since we experienced the negative influence of a relationship, the more likely we are to let the good memories outweigh the bad memories and to perhaps forgive unforgivable behavior. It’s always a good idea to review our nostalgic (怀旧的) feelings with a healthy degree of doubt.
But rosy retrospection does serve an important purpose. It keeps us in a positive state of mind in the present and is important to our psychological wellbeing. In fact, people who tend to remember negative experiences more than positive ones are likely to exhibit psychological disorders. Research generally suggests that our happiest days are still to come. And even if they’re not, it’s still important to believe that they are. Don’t shy away from looking upon the past with a certain degree of nostalgia. But, for the same reason, don’t use the past as an excuse to be unhappy in the present.
1. When we think about the past, we usually .| A．improve present living conditions | B．beautify past experiences |
| C．focus on mind mapping | D．play games to forget bad things |
| A．Having a preference for good memories. | B．Remembering exactly about the details. |
| C．Concentrating on impossible things. | D．Thinking objectively about the past. |
| A．Reviewing the nostalgic feelings critically. |
| B．Ignoring the nostalgic feelings absolutely. |
| C．Forgiving the unacceptable behavior generously. |
| D．Getting back to the problematic relationships bravely. |
| A．The good excuse for present unhappiness. | B．The accuracy of remembering past details. |
| C．The importance of maintaining a positive mindset. | D．The negative impact of recalling past experiences. |
| A．Negative. | B．Subjective. | C．Favorable. | D．Objective. |
3 . “The era of global warming has ended and the era of global boiling has arrived,” the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said after scientists confirmed July 2023 was the world’s hottest month on record.
“Humanity is in the hot seat,” Guterres told a press conference on Thursday. “For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, it is a cruel summer. For the entire planet, it is a disaster. And for scientists, it is clear that humans are to blame. Climate change is here, it is terrifying, and it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”
Guterres urged politicians to take swift action. “The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable. Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy, no more excuses, and no more waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that.”
“It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5℃and avoid the very worst of climate change but only with dramatic, immediate climate action. We have seen some progress, but none of this is going far enough or fast enough. Accelerating temperatures demand accelerated action.”
The WMO secretary general, Petteri Taalas, said, “The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is more urgent than ever before. Climate action is not a luxury but a must.”
Other climate scientists confirmed the findings. Karsten Haustein at Leipzig University found the world was 1.5℃ hotter in July 2023 than in the average July before industrialisation.
Marina Romanello, a climate and health researcher at University College London, said, “We have data showing how the very foundations of health are being undermined by climate change. But we still have time today to turn the tide and to ensure a liveable future for us and our children.”
1. What made Guterres feel worried?| A．Global economy. | B．Natural disasters. |
| C．Serious pollution. | D．Rising temperatures. |
| A．To appeal to quick action. | B．To change people’s concept. |
| C．To frighten the general public. | D．To make his report vivid. |
| A．By analyzing some facts. | B．By quoting some experts. |
| C．By offering statistics. | D．By giving explanations. |
| A．Global Bailing: It Is Time to Act. |
| B．Global Boiling: Who Is to Blame? |
| C．Global Boiling: It Isn’t That Serious |
| D．Global Boling: What Measure Should Be Taken? |
4 . With the winter holiday on the way and time on your hands, you might be looking for something to read. The following are four great books for you.
The Bright Side
Chad Otis is an author and illustrator. His new book, The Bright Side, is about finding hope in desperate situations. Its hero is a boy who lives with his family in an old school bus because they can’t afford to live anywhere else. This is something Otis experienced when he was a kid. He wants kids who are going through similar struggles to know, “You are not alone. Stay strong. Stay optimistic.”
Bunheads
In Bunheads, Misty Copeland tells the story of how she fell in love with dance. As a girl. Copeland was shy and afraid of talking in front of people. Dance helped her get past her fears. “Ballet gave me a language to communicate in a way that worked for me,” she told TFK. “Ballet allowed me to speak... through my body.”
Little Daymond Learns to Earn
Linle Daymond Learns to Ear n teaches kids about money. It’s by Daymond John, who is one of the stars of Shark Tank. With a little creativity and the help of his friends, little Daymond starts a small business. “Every single business that you create does one thing — it finds solutions to problems in life,” he says.
Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots
What’s the difference between a fact and an opinion? Sometimes, it can be hard to tell them apart. Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots is a new picture book. It teaches kids about facts and opinions. The book uses robots to show the difference between the two. Michael Rex wrote and illustrated the book, in which he asks questions of the reader.
1. What is Chad Otis’s purpose in writing The Bright Side?| A．To teach some life skills. | B．To share his life story. |
| C．To inspire kids in difficulty. | D．To help kids to make money. |
| A．They put profit first. | B．They launch new products. |
| C．They make discoveries. | D．They focus on solving problems. |
| A．Chad Otis. | B．Michael Rex. | C．Daymond John. | D．Misty Copeland. |
5 . These days, there’s barely a world leader who doesn’t talk up science. For example, the India’s Prime Minister was the main performer at the annual Indian Science Congress, held in Nagpur, where he encouraged the nation’s researchers to do the science needed to make India self-reliant.
The message to researchers is crystal clear: leaders see science as essential to national prosperity, well-being and, of course, competitiveness. So, is research fit for the challenge of advancing, refining or critiquing these goals? Not exactly. And it won’t be until there is fundamental reform to the gateway to a research career: PhD training.
As Nature and other publications have frequently reported, PhD training worldwide has been in trouble for some time. Students’ stipends (生活津贴) are not enough in most countries, creating a cost-of-living crisis. Early-career researchers constantly report concerns about a constant lack of support and poor-quality supervision, with senior researchers rarely trained in mentorship (指导).
Furthermore, PhD candidates are inadequately prepared for the cross-disciplinary working and large teams that characterize cutting-edge science today. This is especially true for careers outside academic research, where the overwhelming majority of PhD candidates will be heading.
It is not all bad. Universities in a small number of high-income countries have reformed, or are reforming, PhD assessment. But in most places, and especially in low- and middle-income countries, a candidate’s work is still evaluated using a single-authored paper. In many countries, candidates must publish in a journal before they get a PhD, something that critics say could fuel profitable publishing.
The system’s strains have become more obvious because the number of people doing PhD training has been rising sharply. According to the 2022 book Towards a Global Core Value System in Doctoral Education, the number of PhDs awarded in India increased from 17,850 in 2004 to 25,095 in 2016; US figures climbed from 48,500 to 69,525 over the same period. If researchers are to meet society’s expectations, their training and mentoring must escape the nineteenth century.
1. Why is the India’s Prime Minister mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．To indicate India’s serious scientific landscape. |
| B．To imply more researchers are in great demand in India. |
| C．To show leaders’ emphasis on scientific research. |
| D．To demonstrate more and more people take an interest in science. |
| A．The reforms in science. | B．The significance of mentorship. |
| C．The creation of academic culture. | D．The issues early-career researchers face. |
| A．Disappointed. | B．Satisfied. | C．Indifferent. | D．Enthusiastic. |
| A．PhD education is developing gradually. |
| B．The reforms in PhD training admit of no delay. |
| C．The number of PhDs awarded has increased in India and the US. |
| D．The demand for researchers’ meeting society’s expectations is pressing. |
6 . Predicting extreme weather events is a tricky business. Changing climate conditions have increased the frequency of severe storms, floods, and heatwaves, along with larger wildfires. As a result, scientists are using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for more accurate forecasts that help to minimize damage and save lives.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have worked together with meteorologists (气象学家) to analyze more than 50,000 weather satellite images to quickly identify storms. They found comma-shaped cloud formations that often lead to severe weather such as hail, blizzards, high winds, and thunderstorms.
Computers were then taught using computer vision and machine learning to automatically detect these clouds from satellite images, with almost 100 percent accuracy, in less than a minute. By refocusing meteorologists’ attention on potential storm cloud formation the AI tool helped predict 64 percent of severe weather events and beat established detection systems.
Expensive supercomputers are often used to process vast amounts of data needed for accurate weather prediction. But powerful Al methods can run on smaller computers. Climate risk and planning company ClimateAI uses a technique to downscale global weather forecasts to a local scale, cutting down on costs and computing power.
It uses a machine learning technique that pits two neural networks against each other. The neural networks - designed to work like neurons connected in the brain-fight and train each other using global weather data until they get a result.
Using this method ClimateAI researchers generate highly accurate and inexpensive local forecasts for hours or days ahead. And because it is not as costly, it allows poorer countries affected by climate change to use forecasts to change the way they farm, build bridges, roads, or homes, and adapt to extreme weather.
Average costs associated with extreme weather events in the United States have increased steadily since 1980. These have costly impacts on cities’ basic services, infrastructure, housing, human livelihoods, and health. AI helps us to calculate that risk and can be used as a preventive measure.
1. What can be inferred from Para.1?| A．Inaccurate forecasts minimize the destruction. |
| B．AI enhances accuracy in making weather prediction. |
| C．Less natural disasters are caused by climate change. |
| D．Changeable climate decreased the frequency of serious storms. |
| A．Being steadier. | B．Being cheaper. |
| C．Being quicker. | D．Being more precise. |
| A．To explain how ClimateAI works. |
| B．To introduce why AI methods are used. |
| C．To show where ClimateAI can be applied. |
| D．To identify what effects of the AI tool has. |
| A．Critical. | B．Approving. |
| C．Objective. | D．Indifferent. |
7 . Many of our family traditions centered around food. We’d gather in the kitchen for every birthday and holiday and enjoy delicious food. My grandparents always held Christmas dinner, which included chicken cacciatore, sausage, meatballs and salad. But right before we sat down to eat, my grandmother would pull me aside to show me the dish she made just for me: fresh pasta (意大利面) with tomato sauce.
It was a simple dish, but to me it was warm food that filled me with happiness. But more than that, it made me feel like I belonged. I was a shy kid and, in many situations, I felt ignored. And here was my grandmother, showing me that I mattered.
Years went by; I moved away and got married. I’d visit throughout the years and my grandmother would serve up a plate of pasta.
When my daughter was born in 2020, for the first time in my life I wasn’t about to make the trip back home for Christmas. I cooked my family’s traditional foods and my husband and I had a big meal that included, of course, fresh pasta. I had a video call with my grandmother and showed her the pasta. Shortly after the holidays she passed away unexpectedly.
It seemed so unfair that my grandmother passed away soon after I became a parent. I’d hold my daughter and think about how I could tell her what an amazing great-grandmother she had.
In my sadness I came to an answer: food. Late at night after my daughter had gone to bed, I’d go to the kitchen and learn how to make fresh pasta, cooking my grandmother’s recipes. Before long I started experimenting, making a bit changes to classic recipes. When my daughter got a little older, I began making special dishes for her with my grandmother’s flavors in mind.
I know that no matter how hard I try, my daughter will never have a bowl pasta with sauce exactly like the ones my grandmother would make for me. While that makes me sad, she’ll still get to have my pasta sauce. I know there’re two things she’ll never lack for in this life: pasta and love.
1. What did the author say about her grandmother’s homemade pasta?| A．It was a special birthday gift for her. | B．It brought her a sense of belonging. |
| C．It was loved by every family member. | D．It took a lot of time and energy to prepare. |
| A．She didn’t share pasta with her husband. |
| B．She didn’t give her grandmother a call. |
| C．She didn’t prepare many traditional family foods. |
| D．She didn’t have a chance to eat her grandmother’s pasta. |
| A．To honour her grandmother. | B．To give her daughter a surprise. |
| C．To meet her grandmother’s wish. | D．To be a role model for her daughter. |
| A．It isn’t easy to make. | B．It isn’t to her daughter’s liking. |
| C．It tastes exactly the same as her grandmother’s. | D．It shows her love for her daughter. |
| A．Different types of pasta | B．The origin of pasta |
| C．Love through pasta | D．Pasta for Christmas |
8 . A recent global study, which surveyed 10,000 young people from 10 countries, showed that nearly 60 percent of them were extremely worried about the future state of the planet. The report, which was published in The Lancet, also showed that nearly half of the respondents said that such distress affected them daily, and three quarters agreed with the statement that “the future is frightening.” This, along with many other studies, shows clearly that climate change is not just a threat to the environment that we inhabit. It also poses a very real threat to our emotional well-being. Psychologists have categorized these feelings of grief and worry about the current climate emergency, a common occurrence among youth today, under the label of “eco-anxiety”.
Eco-anxiety doesn’t just affect young people. It also affects researchers who work in climate and ecological science, burdened by the reality depicted by their findings, and it affects the most economically marginalized (边缘化的) across the globe, who bear the damaging impacts of climate breakdown.
In 2024, eco-anxiety will rise to become one of the leading causes of mental health problems. The reasons are obvious. Scientists estimate that the world is likely to breach safe limits of temperature rise above pre-industrial levels for the first time by 2027.
In recent years, we’ve seen wildfires tear through Canada and Greece, and summer floods ruin regions in Pakistan that are home to nearly 33 million people. Studies have shown that those impacted by air pollution and rising temperatures are more likely to experience psychological distress.
To make matters worse, facing climate crisis, our political class is not offering strong leadership. The COP28 conference in Dubai will be headed by an oil and gas company executive. In the UK, the government is backtracking on its green commitments.
Fortunately, greater levels of eco-anxiety will also offer an avenue for resolving the climate crisis directly. According to Caroline Hickman, a researcher on eco-anxiety from the University of Bath, anyone experiencing eco-anxiety is displaying entirely natural and rational reactions to the climate crisis. This is why, in 2024, we will also see more people around the world join the fight for climate justice and seek jobs that prioritize environmental sustainability. Campaigners will put increased pressure on fossil fuel industries and the governments to rapidly abandon the usage of polluting coal, oil, and gas.
It’s now clear that not only are these industries the main causes for the climate crisis, they are also responsible for the mental health crisis, which is starting to affect most of us. Eco-anxiety is not something we will defeat with therapy, but something we will tackle by taking action.
1. What can we learn from the passage?| A．The cause of eco-anxiety is emotions existing in our mind. |
| B．People in developed countries are more likely to suffer from eco-anxiety. |
| C．Eco-anxiety is a new kind of psychological disease due to climate change. |
| D．The author is disappointed about government behaviour towards climate crisis. |
| A．Break. | B．Reach. | C．Raise. | D．Affect. |
| A．puzzled | B．favourable | C．suspicious | D．unconcerned |
| A．Who Is to Blame for Eco-anxiety? |
| B．How Should You See Eco-anxiety? |
| C．How Will Eco-anxiety Be Resolved? |
| D．Why Do People Suffer from Eco-anxiety? |
9 . Artificial intelligence is almost twice as accurate as a biopsy (活组织检查) at judging the aggressiveness of some cancers, experts say. Cancer kills 10 million people globally every year, according to the WHO. But for patients the disease can be prevented if detected instantly and dealt with quickly.
A recent study suggested an AI algorithm (算法) was far better than a biopsy at correctly grading the aggressiveness of sarcomas (肉瘤), a rare form of cancer. Researchers hope AI will improve outcomes for patients by giving doctors a more accurate way of grading tumours (肿瘤). Because high-grade tumours can indicate aggressive disease, the tool could help ensure those high-risk patients are identified more quickly and treated instantly. Low-risk patients could also be spared unnecessary treatments, follow-up scans and hospital visits.
Researchers say the algorithm could be applied to other types of cancer in future. The team specifically looked at retroperitoneal sarcomas, which develop at the back of the abdomen and are difficult to diagnose (诊断) and treat due to their location. They used CT scans from 170 patients with the two most common forms of retroperitoneal sarcoma — leiomyosarcoma and liposarcoma. Using data from these scans they created an AI algorithm, which was then tested on 89 patients in other countries. In grading how aggressive the tumour was, the technology was accurate in 82% of the cases, while biopsies were 44%.
AI could also recognize leiomyosarcoma and liposarcoma in 84% of sarcomas tested, while radiologists were able to identify them in 65% of the cases. Christina Messiou, the study leader, said: “We’re incredibly excited by the potential of this state-of-the-art technology, which could lead to patients having better outcomes through faster diagnosis. As patients with retroperitoneal sarcoma are routinely scanned with CT, we hope this tool will eventually be used globally, ensuring that not just specialist centres can reliably identify and grade the disease.”
Richard Davison, chief executive of Sarcoma UK, said the results looked “very promising”. He added: “People are more likely to survive sarcoma if diagnosed early. One in six people with sarcoma cancer wait more than a year to receive an accurate diagnosis, so any research that helps patients receive better treatment and support is welcome.”
1. According to the passage, AI is capable of .| A．grading the risk of sarcomas |
| B．measuring the scale of sarcomas |
| C．providing cancer treatment for clinicians |
| D．classifying cancers with its advanced algorithm |
| A．More sarcomas can be detected with the help of AI. |
| B．Biopsies will be replaced by AI algorithm in identifying cancers. |
| C．More patients suffering from cancers will benefit from AI algorithm. |
| D．AI algorithm has been applied in hospitals for detecting most cancers. |
| A．AI has a profound market in curing cancers. |
| B．New treatments for sarcomas are well underway. |
| C．AI helps identify high-risk and low-risk patients. |
| D．AI does better in assessing some types of sarcomas. |
10 . Researchers have long known that the brain links kinds of new facts, related or not, when they are learned about the same time. For the first time, scientists have recorded routes in the brain of that kind of contextual memory, the frequent change of thoughts and emotions that surrounds every piece of newly learned information.
The recordings, taken from the brains of people awaiting surgery for epilepsy (癫痫), suggest that new memories of even abstract facts are encoded (编码) in a brain-cell order that also contains information about what else was happening during and just before the memory was formed.
In the new study, doctors from the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University took recordings from a small piece of metal implanted in the brains of 69 people with severe epilepsy. The implants allow doctors to pinpoint the location of the flash floods of brain activity that cause epileptic happening. The patients performed a simple memory task. They watched a series of nouns appear on a computer screen, and after a brief disturbance recalled as many of the words as they could, in any order. Repeated trials, with different lists of words, showed a predictable effect: The participants tended to remember the words in groups, beginning with one and recalling those that were just before or after.
This pattern, which scientists call the contiguity effect, is similar to what often happens in the card game concentration, in which players try to identify pairs in a row of cards lying face-down. Pairs overturned close are often remembered together. The way the process works, the researchers say, is something like reconstructing a night’s activities after a hangover: remembering a fact (a broken table) recalls a scene (dancing), which in turn brings to mind more facts, like the other people who were there.
Sure enough, the people in the study whose neural (神经) updating signals were strongest showed the most striking pattern of remembering words in groups. “When you activate one memory, you are reactivating a little bit of what was happening around the time the memory was formed, and this process is what gives you that feeling of time travel,” said Dr Michael J. Kahana.
1. What does “contextual memory” refer to according to the text?| A．Memories about the past facts. |
| B．Unrelated facts linked together. |
| C．Ideas and feelings around new facts. |
| D．New facts encoded into brain alone. |
| A．To track the brain activity of contextual memory. |
| B．To find the brain activity causing epilepsy. |
| C．To show the formation of memory. |
| D．To test the new cure for epilepsy. |
| A．Implication. | B．Similarity. | C．Contrast. | D．Neighborhood. |
| A．The feature of the research method. | B．The category of the research subjects. |
| C．A brief summary of the research process. | D．A further explanation of the research results. |
