1 . Last summer holiday, Aunt Emily took us to a safari park (野生动物园), not far from Liverpool.
I was very happy to go as I had never been to a safari park before. It’s a very interesting park, full of wild animals running freely.
When we got there, we bought our tickets and drove into the park. We were very excited at the thought of going to see the lions. But to get to the lions’ place we had to go through the monkeys’ land first. And that was an unforgettable experience because they climbed all over the car, ate apples and bananas, and threw all kinds of things at us. They seemed very unfriendly.
Anyway, we went on our way to the lions’ place where we had to lock ourselves in the car as we knew lions could be dangerous. A lion came up very close to us. Then it was on the bonnet (车盖). It looked calm but we felt terrified. Aunt Emily, who isn’t very brave, started to call for help. The kids started crying. Only my brother, George, stayed cool. I sounded the horn (喇叭) but nobody heard us.
In the end a guard arrived in his car, and the lion just got off our car and started smelling the guard’s hand as if nothing was the matter.
1. Which animal did the author want to see the most?| A．The lions. | B．The elephants. | C．The monkeys. | D．All of them. |
| A．Because the monkeys might steal things. | B．Because they were afraid of being robbed. |
| C．Because the lions might be dangerous. | D．Because something was wrong with the car. |
| A．Excited. | B．Bored. | C．Interested | D．Scared |
| A．Aunt Emily. | B．George. | C．The guard. | D．The author. |
2 . Several years ago, Jason Box, a scientist from Ohio, flew 31 giant rolls of white plastic to a glacier (冰川) in Greenland. He and his team spread them across 10,000 feet of ice, then left. His idea was that the white blanket would reflect back the rays of the sun, keeping the ice cool below. When he came back to check the results, he found it worked. Exposed ice had melted faster than covered ice. He had not only saved two feet of glacier in a short time. No coal plants were shut down, no jobs were lost, and nobody was taxed or fired. Just the sort of fix we’re looking for.
“Thank you, but no thank you.” says Ralph King, a climate scientist. He told Grey Childs. author and commentator, that people think technology can save the planet, “but there are other things we need to deal with, like consumption. They burned $50,000 just for the helicopter” to bring the plastic to the glacier. This experiment, quote-unquote, gives people false hope that climate change can be fixed without changing human behavior. It can’t. Technology won’t give us a free ride.
Individuals respond to climate change differently. Climatologist Kelly Smith is hardly alone in her prediction that someday soon we won’t be climate victims, we will be climate Choosers. More scientists agree with her that if the human race survives. The engineers will get smarter, the tools will get better, and one day we will control the climate. but that then? “Just the mention of us controlling the climate sent a small shiver down my back, Grey writes.” “Something sounded wrong about stopping ice by our own will,” he says.
Me? I like it better when the earth takes care of itself, I guess one day we will have to run the place, but for the moment, sitting at my desk, looking out at the trees bending wildly and the wind howling, I’m happy not to be in charge.
1. Why does the author mention Jason Box’s experiment in the first paragraph?| A．To introduce a possible solution to climate change. |
| B．To describe a misleading attempt to fix the climate. |
| C．To report on a successful experiment on saving the glacier. |
| D．To arouse people’s attention to the problem of global warming. |
| A．The fight against climate change will not succeed. |
| B．Technology is not the final solution, let alone its high cost. |
| C．It’s best to deal with climate change without changing our behavior. |
| D．Jason’s experiment plays a significant role in fixing climate change. |
| A．Favorable | B．Tolerant | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
| A．But should we fix the climate? |
| B．Is climate change a real problem? |
| C．How can we take care of the earth? |
| D．What if all the glaciers disappeared? |
3 . Most birds, in particular, exhibit some degree of patterns and colours. Australia’s zebra finch (斑胸草雀), for example, was so named because of the zebra-like black and white bars on its tail. But it also has many other colours and patterns, from a bright orange bill to fine white spotting along its reddish-brown sides.
The zebra finch is Australia’s widely distributed grass-finch species, occurring throughout most of mainland Australia. It’s a common and familiar bird in the drier parts of the country.
When we see such a highly patterned bird we presume all individuals of that species have their spots and bars in the same places. But look closer and we’ll see that the quantity and design of these patterns varies between individuals. And every now and then a bird exhibits a more obvious feather variation. Occasionally, we see one that has larger than usual pale areas of feathers or, more rarely, has lost its normal patterning altogether.
Colouration and patterning in all animals is caused by a range of pigments (色素). Melanin (黑色素) is responsible for blacks and browns, and a lack of this pigment can cause a partial or total loss of an individual’s dark patterning. The two main terms that describe these abnormalities are albinism (白化病) and leucism (白色亚种). Both conditions are genetic and both can lead to a very similar physical appearance. Leucism, however, causes a lack of the pigment cells that produce melanin. But albinism causes the production of melanin pigment to be reduced or absent.
Can we distinguish between the two conditions without the help of a cellular biologist? Yes. Albino animals have fully unpigmented red eyes. Leucistic animals, on the other hand, never completely lose pigment from the eye, although they can have blue eyes due to a partial loss of pigment.
Why don’t we see more albino or leucistic birds? Because the lack of melanin reduces the strength and lastingness of the affected birds’ feathers, making them more easily broken. Additionally, the birds’ vision and hearing is negatively affected, making them less able to hunt. The brighter feathers and lack of patterning also make them easier for attackers to see.
1. What can be learned about Australia’s zebra finch?| A．It is one of the rarest birds in Australia. |
| B．It is mostly covered with bright orange feathers. |
| C．It acquires its name from its tail colours and patterns. |
| D．It has the same spots and bars in the same places. |
| A．Recall. | B．Suppose. | C．Deny. | D．Recommend. |
| A．By setting assumptions. | B．By presenting opinions. |
| C．By giving explanations. | D．By drawing conclusions. |
| A．They have quite good hearing. | B．They have completely red eyes. |
| C．They have easily broken feathers. | D．They have excellent hunting skills. |
I like staying overnight at my Gramma’s house — that is, until Gramma starts telling me how wonderful my cousin Maya is. Then it’s Maya this and Maya that until I don’t ever want to hear another word about her.
That’s why I wasn’t too excited when Gramma called me on the phone to “come on over and bring your pajamas.” When I got there, it was worse than I’d expected. There, in Grandpa’s big leather rocker, sat Maya, all dressed up and formal-looking and wearing fancy shoes as if she’d just been to a party.
“Surprise, Kristen!” Gramma said. “Your cousin Maya and her parents have traveled in from the East Coast on business. Maya gets to stay with us this afternoon.” Gramma chattered away about how excited she’d been for this surprise get-together, and how cousins ought to get to know each other better.
I hung my baseball cap in the closet and set my backpack by the stairway, all the time smiling and nodding as if I’d been waiting forever for this chance to spend an afternoon with Maya. Grandpa’s chair squawked (咯咯叫) as Maya rocked back and forth. It’s the chair I like best in the house, the one I usually sit in. I sat down on the sofa across from her.
Shortly, Gramma went off to the kitchen to “see about some lunch,” she’d said. That left me stuck in the living room with rocking Maya.
She was still small but taller than I’d remembered her from her last visit four years ago. She was good at small talk, though, and was chatting away about how nice it was to see me again. But I could tell that she didn’t really think so. The last time she was here, we’d had hours of fun together building caves out of Gramma’s sofa pillows.
After that, I’d heard about her only through Gramma’s tales. Maya taking piano lessons. Maya learning math. Maya, Maya, Maya. Now Maya was here, looking great with the latest haircut and a fancy dress.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Glancing down at my jeans and my old sneakers, I wished I hadn’t come.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“How do you know all these things about me?” I asked.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . There is such a thing as a free lunch, it turns out, as long as you don’t mind too much what it is. Tamara Wilson found hers a few streets away from her west London home — and as well as picking up some unwanted bread and fruit that would otherwise be thrown away, she made a new friend.
Wilson is one of 3.4 million people around the world using an app designed to encourage people to give away rather than throw away surplus (剩余的) food. “It’s such a small thing, but it makes me feel good and my neighbour feel good. And a lot of small acts can end up making a big difference,” she said.
The last few years have seen an explosion in creative ways to tackle food waste by linking supermarkets, cafes, restaurants and individual households to local communities. Olio, the app used by Wilson, saw a fivefold increase in listings during 2022, and the signs are that this rapid growth is continuing into 2023, said Tessa Clarke, its CEO and co-founder.
About a third of all food produced globally is wasted, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Almost 1.4 billion hectares of land — close to 30% of the world’s agricultural land — is dedicated to producing food that is never eaten, and the carbon footprint of food wastage makes it the third contributor of CO2. Reducing food waste is one of the most effective ways of tackling the global climate crisis.
Olio, Clarke said, was an attempt to change this on a small, local scale. “The app connects people with others who have surplus food but don’t have anyone to give it to because so many people are disconnected from their communities.” Users of Olio post images of surplus food that others in the neighbourhood might want. Olio also has a network of 24,000 volunteers who collect surplus food from local supermarkets and stores for app users to claim.
Despite the success of the app, it was hard to make a difference to the huge scale of food waste, Clarke added. “Even though we’re doing well, we’ve only scratched the surface (触及表面). But if everyone makes small changes in the world, we’d dramatically reduce the amount of food that ends up in bins (垃圾桶).”
1. What does the author want to show by telling Wilson’s story?| A．People tend to use apps to order food. | B．People prefer to make friends on apps. |
| C．People find a high-tech fix to food waste. | D．People show more concern for each other. |
| A．Global warming. | B．Loss of land. | C．World hunger. | D．Poverty and inequality. |
| A．It sells surplus food to those in need. | B．It allows volunteers to slay connected. |
| C．It provides a platform for people to promote food. | D．It fills the information gap between green communities. |
| A．It is a great success. | B．It requires joint efforts. |
| C．It is beyond human power. | D．It has won public support. |
6 . On a bright sunny day, I stared my day off by volunteering at the L. A. Food Bank. My reason for volunteering at the food bank was to satisfy my need to help others and leave a
By helping pack food items. I was able to make as significant impact on my community by helping people fight
| A．change | B．message | C．blank | D．chance |
| A．established | B．examined | C．entered | D．equipped |
| A．shabby | B．steady | C．tidy | D．noisy |
| A．check in | B．give up | C．show off | D．move out |
| A．aid | B．duties | C．awards | D．test |
| A．appointed | B．begged | C．forced | D．persuaded |
| A．consumed | B．inspected | C．searched | D．replaced |
| A．abandoned | B．delivered | C．packed | D．explored |
| A．represent | B．shelter | C．deserve | D．contain |
| A．studio | B．factory | C．museum | D．theatre |
| A．bank | B．list | C．step | D．row |
| A．quickly | B．secretly | C．casually | D．anxiously |
| A．burden | B．thought | C．regret | D．interest |
| A．recognize | B．welcome | C．help | D．visit |
| A．focus | B．respect | C．wisdom | D．ambition |
| A．understood | B．counted | C．led | D．heard |
| A．leadership | B．technical | C．social | D．business |
| A．prove | B．discover | C．stress | D．guarantee |
| A．fear | B．loneliness | C．hunger | D．doubt |
| A．direction | B．identity | C．belonging | D．satisfaction |
7 . Most of us would like to be more creative, but we assume there is little we can do about it. Psychology professor K. Anders Ericsson claims that with enough practice, any of us can become experts. However, he is quick to add that this requires a specific kind of practice that Ericsson calls ‘deliberate practice’: that is, pushing beyond one’s comfort zone and setting goals that are above one’s current level of performance. He says he has yet to find the limits on being successful and he doesn’t believe them to be real.
Ericsson has looked primarily at artistic and athletic skills, but can these findings apply to creativity? Most experts agree that even if most people cannot hope to become creative geniuses, they can learn to become more creative through practice. Psychologists claim that there are actually two levels of creativity, which they refer to as’Big C’ and ‘small c’. Big C creativity applies to breakthrough ideas, ones that may change the course of a field or even history. Small c creativity refers to everyday creative problem solving, like creating a new recipe or improving a process, which psychologists subdivide further into similar and different thinking. Similar thinking involves examining all the facts and arriving at a single solution. In contrast, different thinking involves coming up with many possible solutions. What most people think of as creativity generally involves different thinking and can be taught, practised and learnt.
Even with practice, different thinking alone cannot make one creative, however. Scott Barry Kaufman, a cognitive psychologist, says that most creative people share one personality quality: openness to new experience. Since this quality and these processes have been identified, less creative people can try to emulate them. Normally, we tend to reproduce what we already know because creative ideas move us into unfamiliar territory involving risks and following the usual behaviors is comfortable.
Moving outside of our comfort zone, engaging indeliberate practice and tolerating contradictory ideas, risk and failure are all things we can learn to do better. It is unlikely that doing so will transform any of us into creative geniuses, but it does have the potential to increase our level of creativity.
1. Why does Ericsson think he can’t find the limits?| A．No restrictions exist. | B．Practice makes perfect. |
| C．Each one can succeed. | D．The goal is ambitious. |
| A．Settling in outer space. |
| B．Building a plastic doghouse. |
| C．Developing robots to look after the old. |
| D．Explaining the theory of evolution in class. |
| A．Justify. | B．Limit. | C．Copy. | D．Assess. |
| A．We can learn to be more creative. |
| B．Life is full of various challenges. |
| C．It’s better to take deliberate practice. |
| D．Most can become creative geniuses. |
8 . Schools in the US and elsewhere are announcing bans on the recently released AI — powered ChatGPT out of fear that students could use the technology to complete their assignments. However, bans may be practically impossible given how difficult it is to detect when text is composed by ChatGPT. Is it instead time to rethink how students are taught and evaluated?
Educators are starting to question what it means to assess student learning if an AI can write an essay or paper similar to, or even better than, a student would — and the teacher can’t tell the difference. Many teachers believe the time-honored learning tradition will be destroyed from the ground up by Chat GPT. The Los Angeles Unified School District in California first blocked the use of ChatGPT on networks and devices in December 2022.
However, removing technology from the classroom can mean undesirable consequences, such as creating more obstacles for students with disabilities, says Trust. Additionally, restricting the use of ChatGPT on school networks and devices can’t stop students from using ChatGPT at home and in libraries.
It is also unclear if anti-cheating software can reliably detect AI-assisted writing. OpenAI is working to develop a digital watermark that can help teachers and academics spot students who are using ChatGPT to write essays. Open AI’s attempts to watermark AI text, however, hit limits.
Instead of worrying about how ChatGPT could enable cheating, educators should ask what motivates students to cheat in the first place and work on developing relationships of trust, says Jesse Stommel at the University of Denver in Colorado.
“Talk to students really frankly about what ChatGPT’s capable of, what it’s not,” says Stommel. “Have students use it to write an essay about Jane Austen and gender dynamics, and then have them read that essay and peer review it and think about what ChatGPT gets right and wrong.”
1. What does the author suggest schools do?| A．Adjust teaching and assessment. |
| B．Meet different demands from students. |
| C．Prohibit the use of ChatGPT in classrooms. |
| D．Break with the traditional teaching method. |
| A．Dark future of ChatGPT. | B．Educators’ worrying concern. |
| C．Crisis of traditional learning. | D．Difficulty in telling AI’s writing. |
| A．Amused. | B．Hopeful. | C．Shocked. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．AI helps students tell right and wrong. |
| B．Students should write about famous writers. |
| C．Educators should guide students to use AI properly. |
| D．The trust between teachers and students is hard to form. |
9 . For making contact and communicating with a person, effective eye contact is essential to our everyday interaction with people, and also to those who want to be effective communicators in public places.
Generally in Western societies and many other cultures, eye contact with a person is expected to be regular but not overly persistent.
Overly lasting eye contact is also a sign of a person’s over-awareness of the messages they are giving. In the case of people who try to lie to someone, they may distort (扭曲) their eye contact so that they’re not avoiding it.
However, Scotland’s University of Stirling found that, in a question-and-answer study among children, those who maintained eye contact were less likely to come up with the correct answer to a question than those who looked away to consider their response.
| A．This is a widely recognized indicator of lying |
| B．Constant eye contact is often considered to be rude |
| C．Eye contact is the act of looking into someone’s eyes |
| D．But there’s something you may not know about eye contact |
| E．Overpowering eye contact can make the other person excited |
| F．Even between humans and non-humans, lasting eye contact is sometimes unadvisable |
| G．Eye contact, as a socializing device, can take a surprising amount of effort to maintain |
10 . The Spotlight Effect
Have you ever felt as if the entire world was watching while you made a mistake? Well, here’s some good news: it’s likely that no one even noticed.
The spotlight effect exists because we all get used to seeing things through our own eyes. Every person is the main character in his or her story, and the events of our lives seem to have great importance.
The spotlight effect is a very common part of the human experience. However, in some cases, it can lead to extreme social anxiety and nervousness around other people. Everyone suffers some degree of social anxiety. We all care about what others think, and we all want to be liked. It’s normal to wonder about what effect we have on other people.
Learning about the spotlight effect is important because it can help us reduce our anxiety. Next time you feel like everyone is staring at you, remind yourself that it’s just your mind playing tricks on you.
| A．However, this can be a problem when the anxiety is too much to handle. |
| B．That’s why fewer people notice the embarrassing circumstances they encounter. |
| C．Another good exercise is to make an effort to notice the people around you, rather than focusing on yourself. |
| D．The spotlight effect is a trick of the mind that makes us believe that people notice us more often than they really do. |
| E．What you can do at this moment is to ignore them. |
| F．We are so busy examining ourselves that we actually observe very little about everyone around us. |
| G．It can also appear when we score a big goal, ask someone on a date, or do a good deed. |
