1 . Scientists regularly make vital new discoveries, but few can claim to have invented an entirely new field of science. Chemist Carolyn Bertozzi is one of them. Her discovery of biorthogonal chemistry (生物正交化学) in 2003 created a brand-new discipline of scientific investigation, which has enabled countless advances in medical science and led to a far greater understanding of biology at a molecular (分子的) level. On October 5, Bertozzi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, jointly with two other professors. She is also the only woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize in science this year, after an all-male line-up in 2021.
Bertozzi was the middle daughter of an MIT physics professor and a secretary. Few predicted that Bertozzi would be the most famous person in the family. While her academic performance was not bad in high school, she was fond of playing soccer. She end ed up being admitted to Harvard University. Despite her talent in soccer, she found it too time-consuming and quit the sport to devote herself to academics.
But before becoming a rock star scientist, Bertozzi almost became an actual rock star. When she started at Harvard, she was tempted to major in music. That idea was “unpopular” with her parents, and she was timid about defying them. Instead, she chose the premed (医学预科的) track that included classes in math and sciences, and declared herself a biology major at the end of her first year of college.
Her interest in music did not completely fall by the wayside, however. Bertozzi played keyboards and sang backup vocals for a hair metal band. Bertozzi, however, did not play with the band for long. Once the band’s practices and performances conflicted with her labs and classes, there was only one outcome.
Plus, she’d soon have organic chemistry to think about a course which is infamous for weeding out pre-meds. Without any clear career ambitions up to that point, Bertozzi had been thinking about possibly becoming a doctor when, in her sophomore year (大二学年), she suddenly fell so head over heels in love with her chemistry course that she couldn’t tear herself away from her textbooks long enough to go out on Saturday nights. A torture to many was pure pleasure for her. Bertozzi changed her major from biology to chemistry a year later.
Bertozzi has sometimes joked about her having missed out on her chance to follow Morello to LosAngeles. “I didn’t get on that bus, and my playing is now limited to ‘The Wheel's on the Bus Go Round,’ I’m waiting for my sons to get old enough to appreciate 1980s heavy metal!”
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?| A．Bertozzi is one of those scientists who made significant new discoveries. |
| B．Bertozzi was the only female to win a Nobel Prize in science in 2021. |
| C．Bertozzi played keyboards and sang backup vocals throughout her college years. |
| D．Bertozzi initially planned to become a doctor. |
| A．tell | B．disobey | C．approach | D．threaten |
| A．easy and enjoyable |
| B．difficult to pass for pre-med students |
| C．popular among hair metal band players |
| D．a required course for all college students |
| A．Brave and sympathetic. |
| B．Athletic and critical. |
| C．Humble and passionate. |
| D．Talented and creative. |
As a child, I grew up in a modest neighborhood where access to books was limited. My parents installed in me a love for reading, and I longed for more knowledge. That’s when Mrs. Henderson, a retired teacher with a passion for books, decided to establish a little library in our community.
The library was a small wooden structure, almost like a dollhouse, situated at the end of our street. Mrs. Henderson filled it with a variety of books, from children’s stories to classics and non-fiction. The library was free for anyone in the neighborhood to use, and it quickly became a hub for the curious minds of our community, myself included.
I vividly remember the first time I stepped into that tiny library. The shelves were packed with books of all kinds. I felt like I had entered a treasure trove. I started borrowing books regularly, and the more I read, the more I thirsted for knowledge.
It wasn’t just the books that made this library special; it was Mrs. Henderson herself. She would spend hours talking to each child, helping them choose books that matched their interests. She made learning fun and accessible, and she inspired us to dream big.
注意：续写词数应为 150 左右。
As I continued to visit the library, my horizons expanded. I read about places I had never seen, met characters with diverse backgrounds and experiences, and learned about different cultures and perspectives.
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Every time I entered the library, I could always see Mrs. Henderson busy with the books. She knew us by name, our favorite genres, and our wildest dreams. One day,
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3 . Willie Sutton, a once celebrated American criminal, was partly famous for saying he robbed banks because “that’s where the money is.” Actually, museums are where the money is. In a single gallery there can be paintings worth more, taken together, than a whole fleet of jets. And while banks can hide their money in basements, museums have to put their valuables in plain sight.
Nothing could be worse than the thought of a painting as important as The Scream, Edvard Munch’s impressive image of a man screaming against the backdrop of a blood-red sky, disappearing into a criminal underworld that doesn’t care much about careful treatment of art works. Art theft is a vast problem around the world. As many as 10,000 precious items of all kinds disappear each year. And for smaller museums in particular, it may not be a problem they can afford to solve. The money for insurance on very famous pictures would be budget destroyers even for the largest museums.
Although large museums have had their share of embarrassing robberies, the greatest problem is small institutions. Neither can afford heavy security. Large museums attach alarms to their most valuable paintings, but a modest alarm system can cost $500,000 or more. Some museums are looking into tracking equipment that would allow them to follow stolen items once they leave the museums. But conservators are concerned that if they have to insert something, it might damage the object. Meanwhile, smaller museums can barely afford enough guards, relying instead on elderly staff.
Thieves sometimes try using artworks as money for other underworld deals. The planners of the 2006 robbery of Russborough House near Dublin, who stole 18 paintings, tried in vain to trade them for Irish Republican Army members held in British prison. Others demand a ransom (赎金) from the museum that owns the pictures. Once thieves in Frankfurt, Germany, made off with two major works by J.M.W. Turner from the Tate Gallery in London. The paintings, worth more than $80 million, were recovered in 2012 after the Tate paid more than $5 million to people having “information” about the paintings. Though ransom is illegal in Britain, money for looking into a case is not, provided that police agree the source of the information is unconnected to the crime. All the same, where information money end s and ransom begins is often a gray area.
1. Why do smaller museums face a greater challenge in preventing art theft?| A．They lack experienced staff. |
| B．They cannot afford high-tech security systems. |
| C．They do not have valuable artworks. |
| D．They lack interest in art conservation. |
| A．It might damage the artwork. |
| B．It is too expensive for smaller museums. |
| C．It is difficult to insert into the paintings. |
| D．It is ineffective for valuable paintings. |
| A．the thieves demanded a ransom from the Tate Gallery |
| B．the Tate Gallery regained the lost paintings illegally |
| C．the money paid was considered an information fee, not a ransom |
| D．the police requested the Tate Gallery to pay the money |
| A．to remind criminals to protect and preserve the painting |
| B．to give suggestions on how to avoid the crimes of art theft |
| C．to urge museums to set up more advanced security systems |
| D．to make people aware of art theft and the necessity of good security systems |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用(\) 划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词;
2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第 11 处起)不计分。
World Wetlands Day, celebrating annually on 2 February, aims to increase aware and understanding of the importance of wetlands to humans and the globe. It also spreads information about what valuable wetlands are and encourages individuals and governments to take actions to prevent their loss. The day was first organized by a group of environmentalist who wanted to celebrate and protect wetlands.
Wetlands are ecosystems which water is the primary factor controlling the environment and the associated plant and animal life. Wetlands are disappearing at a rate three times fast than forests, making them the Earth’s most threatened ecosystems. Human activities, such as agriculture development, urbanization, pollution, overfishing and climate change, have contributed the loss of wetlands.
Actions needed to save the world’s wetlands from disappearing and restore those we have already lost. That’s because of wetlands provide critical habitats for a vast variety of wildlife, offering valuable opportunities for outdoor recreation, and play a crucial role in flood control.
5 . Tetraplegia (四肢瘫痪) patients are prisoners of their own bodies, unable to perform the slightest movement. Researchers have been working for years to develop systems that can help these patients carry out some tasks on their own. “Assistance from robots could help these people recover some of their lost abilities, since the robots can perform tasks in their place.”
Professor Billard carried out a study with Professor José del R.Millan. They have developed a computer program that can control a robot using electrical signals sent out by a patient’s brain. No voice control or touch function is needed, patients can move the robot simply with their thoughts. This involved developing an algorithm (运算法则) that could adjust the robot’s movements based only on a patient’s thoughts.
To use the system, all the patient needs to do is to look at the robot. If the robot makes an incorrect move, the patient’s brain will send an “error message” through a clearly identifiable signal, as if the patient is saying “No, not like that.” The robot will then understand that what it’s doing is wrong. The process goes pretty quickly — only three to five attempts are usually needed for the robot to figure out the right response and achieve the patient’s wishes.
“The robot’s AI program can learn rapidly, but you have to tell it when it makes a mistake so that it can correct its behavior,” says Professor Millán. “Developing the detection technology for error signals was one of the biggest technical difficulties we faced.” Iason Batzianoula, the study’s lead author, adds, “What was particularly difficult in our study was linking a patient’s brain activity to the robot's control system — or in other words, ‘translating’ a patient’s brain signals into actions performed by the robot.”
1. What’s the purpose of paragraph 1?| A．To attract more researchers. | B．To introduce the topic of this text. |
| C．To state the research of tetraplegia. | D．To show sympathy for the patients. |
| A．By sensing the touch. | B．By monitoring computers. |
| C．By reading people’s thoughts. | D．By following voice commands. |
| A．Challenging. | B．Cost-effective. | C．Fruitless. | D．Time-consuming. |
| A．The development of mind-controlled robots. | B．The sufferings of the tetraplegia patients. |
| C．The complexity of the algorithm. | D．The promising future of robots. |
6 . Have you ever found picking out the face of a friend in a group photo is sometimes hard, especially when everyone crowds together? In the same way, it can also be hard to read a passage of text when the letters are too close together. In fact, a new study shows that spacing the letters farther apart can help anyone read faster, and possibly understand more.
Dyslexia is a common reading disorder. Crowded text was especially difficult for people with dyslexia to read. So researchers wanted to see if increasing the spacing between letters would help.
Steven Stagg, a scientist, studies how people think and learn. His team recruited 59 students between 11 and 15 years old, thirty-two of whom had dyslexia. While the researchers recorded them, each student read two passages out loud. One passage was in its original format. In the other, there was an increase of 2.5 points in the spacing between the litters. The recording allowed the scientists to measure their reading speed and count any mistakes, such as skipped words.
People with dyslexia often employ aids to help them read, such as colored overlays (覆盖物). This time they are offered by the researchers. Those colored overlays didn’t help either group of kids. However, kids with dyslexia read the wider-spaced text 13 percent faster than the text with original spacing. These kids also made fewer mistakes. Students without dyslexia read faster, too, although only by 5 percent.
This is very good news. It means teachers and publishers can print material with extra spacing between litters. Readers with dyslexia won’t feel singled out by having to use special aids for reading. An organization called Readability Matters is working on these issues. The group is trying to get tech companies to make changes that should make reading easier.
Stagg says, “Some methods have shown mixed results, but Letter spacing seems to be the one thing that everyone is finding works.”
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To make the article interesting. |
| B．To present a common problem. |
| C．To lead to the topic of the article. |
| D．To provide a new solution. |
| A．They may understand everything while reading wider-spaced text. |
| B．They may read faster than normal kids while reading wider- spaced text. |
| C．They may free from dyslexia after increasing letter spacing. |
| D．They may feel singled out while using colored layouts for reading. |
| A．Science study. | B．Campus life. |
| C．Star stories. | D．Business. |
| A．Readers Try to Improve Reading Speed |
| B．You Just Need More Space |
| C．Colored Overlays Are Helpful Aids |
| D．Dyslexia Affects Reading Speed |
7 . Climate breakdown threatens to cause a global food production crisis. The UN forecasts that by 2050, feeding the world will require a 20% expansion in global water use for agriculture. It is hard to see how agriculture can feed the population of the planet, let alone toward the end of the century and beyond. Agriculture is a major cause of climate breakdown, and both river and air pollution. Industrial fishing is similarly driving ecological collapse in seas around the world.
However, at this critical time, farming (a new kind of food technology) is creating astonishing possibilities to save both people and the planet. Farming will enable the return of vast areas of land and sea to nature, greatly reducing carbon emissions (排放物). It means an end to the employment of animals, a stop to overfishing, and a dramatic reduction in cutting down forests and the use of pesticides (杀虫剂). It is the best hope for stopping the destruction of the planet and, if it is done right, it means cheap and abundant food for everyone.
We are about to welcome one of the biggest economic transformations, of any kind, for 200 years. Arguments continue about plants against meat-based diets; however, new technologies will soon make these arguments irrelevant. Before long, most food will come neither from animals nor plants, but from micro-organisms (微生物).
Not only will food be cheaper, it will also be healthier. Due to the fact that farming creates food products built up from simple components rather than broken down from complex ones, hard fats and other unhealthy components can be screened out. Meat will still be meat, but it will be grown in factories rather than in the bodies of animals. Fats will still be fats, but food is likely to be better, cheaper and much less damaging to the living planet.
1. What is the major cause of sea ecological breakdown?| A．Food production. | B．Global farming. |
| C．Industrial fishing. | D．Climate breakdown. |
| A．Its benefits. | B．Its security. | C．Its research. | D．Its limits. |
| A．Sea animals. | B．Wild plants. | C．Micro-organisms. | D．Farm products. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. | C．Disapproving. | D．Unclear. |
