1 . 选词填空

encourage   take off   sudden   stop   breathe   serious   danger   hospital   life rush     shock     thanks to     help     but     shout

It was a bright afternoon when Jonathan Bauer and his 13-year-old daughter, Ava, were driving home on the bridge.     1    , not far ahead of them, a black truck run from one side to the other and caused a     2     accident, hanging over the railing (栏杆) of the bridge. Bauer     3     the car in time to avoid hitting it.

After making sure Ava was okay, Bauer got out of his car to see if anyone needed     4    . And then a shout came from the truck. The driver’s door was opened and a man climbed out. He     5     to the railing. Bauer ran up beside him and saw a car seat in the water. Next to it was a girl, about two years old. She was floating (漂浮) on her back, kicking and     6    . Bauer waited for the driver to do something,     7     he didn’t move. Maybe he was completely     8    . Bauer knew the little girl was in great     9    .

“Ava!” Bauer shouted. “Stay by the car!”

He     10     his shoes and quickly jumped into the shallow water. Bauer swam to the girl and lifted her out of the water: eyes closed, not     11    . He patted (轻拍) her back to force the water out of her body.     12     his first aid, her eyes were opened and she breathed again. A moment later a lifeboat pulled up and both were helped to get on the boat. An ambulance (救护车) waited on the bridge. Minutes later, they were taken to the nearest     13    .

Ava Bauer is     14     by her father’s actions and she wants to become a firefighter so that she could save     15     like him. “That girl is going to live a whole life because of him.” she says. “It’s great.”

4 . 阅读下面文本，并从方框的单词或短语中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项，选项中有两项有多余项。

A. entering     B. position     C. intended        D. applied for    E. eager             F. graduating from               G. unhappy

After     1     college, Jade gave up the high-paying     2     in a department (部门) of the province, but    3     a job at the charity organization. He     4     to make a contribution to charity. Besides, he was     5     to do a favor (帮助) to the native people.

5 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. houses   B. approaching   C. appear   D. talent   E. exclusively F. lowered   G. hiding   H. limits   I. dramatically   J. natural   K. sensitive

Dolphin Senses

New research involving trained dolphins seems to further prove that these animals can sense electricity. The     1     may allow them to better lock onto hidden fish hunted and direct the path.

The ability to sense electric fields is known as electroreception(电感受). All animals produce a weak electric field, but electroreception has almost     2     been found in water creatures. About a decade ago, scientists published research suggesting that some dolphins have passive electroreception. And in 2021, researchers in Germany released their own study finding that dolphins likely have it, too.

This new research is a follow-up to that latter study by the same team—one intended to better describe the     3     of electroreception in bottlenose dolphins. The researchers teamed up with scientists from the Nuremberg Zoo, which currently     4     six dolphins. They specifically worked with two bottlenose dolphins named Donna and Dolly. They first trained them to rest their jaws on a metal bar in the water, and then to respond to an electric field     5     them by swimming away within five seconds. They then gradually     6     the strength of this field to test the dolphins’ sensitivity.

The findings further prove that bottlenose dolphins can indeed sense electricity, but suggest that some dolphins are better at it than others. Donna, for instance, was a bit more     7     and able to respond correctly to a weaker field than Dolly.

The electroreception found in dolphins doesn’t     8     to be as strong as it is in the typical shark, but it’s probably still useful enough for them to find fish     9     underneath sand, stones or mud within a few centimeters away. Other studies have suggested that dolphins also possess a sense that acts as a sort of     10     GPS for them. So these dolphins’ electroreception might provide an explanation for that ability as well, Huttner said.

6 . 阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后用方框中所给词的适当形式填空。每个词限用一次。

mouse   be   eat   health   stop   few   hungry   say   see   sometimes   body

Snake meat is popular in restaurants. Some people think eating snakes is good for their     1    . But these people don’t know that snakes feed on     2     and worms (虫), so there are many parasites (寄生虫) in snakes’     3    . They may     4     bad for our health. And we’re sorry     5     a butcher’s knife kill more snakes now.

An English newspaper     6    , “People eat about 1,000 tons of snakes every year in China. In Shenzhen,    7    , people serve 10 tons of snakes on dinner tables in a day. ”

If we continue (继续) to    8     snakes, there will be a vicious circle (恶性循环). If people eat more snakes, snakes are becoming fewer and fewer. But mice are becoming more and more, there will be     9     crops.

This will make more people     10    . Who wants to see such a bad thing happen? So people must     11    eating snakes. To protect snakes is to protect ourselves.

7 . 请先阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后用方框中所给词的适当形式填空，并将其填到答题卡的相应位置，每个词限用一次。

popular   know       like          difficulty        course       their        how        ability        early        get          new

Social media posts (上传) about a cooking    1     for school kids, as part of a life skill program carried out in 2022, are increased. They become     2     on the Internet and cause a lot of discussion.

According to a(n)     3     document on compulsory education (义务教育), first and second graders should learn     4     to peel fruits and make tea and get basic knowledge of nutrition (营养). Besides, they also need to develop the     5     to take part in basic cooking at home. Students in grades five and six are expected     6     basic cooking skills such as boiling. They are also required to be able to prepare a good meal for     7       own families.

Many people     8     the life skill program. “This should have been done     9    . Children nowadays are short   of physical activities and none of my students     10     the difference between wheat and rice,” said a user on the Internet. “Life is about learning. Children’s wisdom and character are shaped (塑造) as they face       11       again and again,” another user said.

8 . Direction: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. auto-complete             B. determine             C. essentially             D. grammatical       E. grouped F. indicating                    G. instructions             H. likely                    I. resembles             J. rigidly K. simple

How do AI chatbots answer my questions

Chatbots might appear to be complex conversationalists that respond like real people. But if you take a closer look, they are     1     an advanced version of a program that finishes your sentences by predicting which words will come next. Bard, ChatGPT, and other AI technologies are large language models—a kind of algorithm (算法) trained on exercises similar to the Mad Libs-style questions found on elementary school quizzes. More simply put, they are human-written     2     that tell computers how to solve a problem or make a calculation. In this case, the algorithm uses your prompt and any sentences it comes across to     3     the answer.

Let’s pretend you plugged this sentence into an AI chatbot: “The cat sat on the ______.” First, the language model would have to know that the missing word needs to be a noun to make     4     sense. But it can’t be any noun—the cat can’t sit on the “democracy,” for one. So the algorithm searches texts written by humans to get a sense of what cats actually rest on and picks out the most probable answer. In this scenario, it might     5     the cat sits on the “laptop” 10 percent of the time, on the “table” 20 percent of the time, and on the “chair” 70 percent of the time. The model would then go with the most     6     answer: “chair.” The system is able to use this prediction process to respond with a full sentence. If you ask a chatbot, “How are you?” it will generate “I’m” based on the “you” from the question and then “good” based on what most people on the web reply when asked how they are.

The way these programs process information and arrive at a decision sort of     7     how the human brain behaves. “    8     as this task—predicting the most probable response—is, it actually requires an incredibly advanced knowledge of both how language works and how the world works,” says Yoon Kim, a researcher at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

The beauty of language models is that researchers don’t have to     9     define any rules or grammar for them to follow. An AI chatbot learns how to form sentences that make sense by consuming textual elements, which are common sequences of characters     10     together taken from the raw text of books, articles, and websites. All it needs are the patterns and associations it finds among certain words or phrases.

9 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box .Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. acquired     B. consistently     C. regained     D. nightmare     E. native     F. acceptance     G. effective     H. hid     I. distinguished     J. countless     K. recalled

When Roberto Feliz came to the United States from the Dominican Republic, he knew only a few words of English. Education soon became a(n)     1    . “I couldn’t understand anything,” he said. He     2    from his teachers, came home in tears, and thought about dropping out.

Then Mrs. Malave, a bilingual educator, began to work with him while teaching him math and science in his     3     Spanish. “She helped me stay smart while teaching me English,” he said. Given the chance to demonstrate his ability, he     4     confidence and began to succeed in school.

Today, he is a(n)     5    doctor, runs his own clinic, and works with several hospitals. Every day, he uses the language and academic skills he     6     through bilingual education to treat his patients.

Roberto’s story is just one of     7     success stories. Research has shown that bilingual education is the most     8     way both to teach children English and ensure that they succeed academically. In Arizona and Texas, bilingual students     9     outperform their peers in monolingual programs. Calexico, California, implemented bilingual education, and now has dropout rates that are less than half the state average and college     10     rates of more than 90%. In El Paso, bilingual education programs have helped raise student scores from the lowest in Texas to among the highest in the nation.

10 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. inky   B. ashore   C. facility   D. worldwide   E. female   F. conclusions   G. double    H. confused I. Talk   J. preservation   K. typically

Several deep-sea fish have been mysteriously washed up on California’s beaches this year, leaving marine biologists     1    .

The latest Pacific football fish to be washed     2     in the state was spotted near Encinitas last Friday. A surfer found the strange fish dead on Swami’s Beach and alerted lifeguards, who then notified scientists. Scientist Ben Frable then collected the unusual animal for research and     3     purposes.

The fish is black, almost spherical in shape and has sharp teeth. It has a strange external body sticking out from its head with multiple branches, used to attract prey in the     4     blackness of the deep ocean.

The fish found on Swami’s Beach is a mature     5     measuring nearly 13 inches in length and weighing around 5.5 pounds.

Pacific football fish are very rarely seen considering that they are     6     found at depths of between 650 and 2,600 feet. Only 31 known fish have ever been collected     7    and it has never been seen in the wild, so scientists know very little about the species.

Despite the fact that the fish are rarely seen, three of them have been washed up on California’s beaches this year —including one that was spotted last month at Black’s Beach, north of San Diego. The three sightings this year     8     the total number of sightings on record in California, and it’s the     9     of the town among the experts working at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, which has four fish in its collection.

Despite the series of recent sightings, experts said, it’s hard to jump to any     10    about why this is happening.