1 . This week I saw a video of a mountain climber lying on the back of the Sherpa guide who helped rescue him.

Gelje says he was_______a client toward the summit ofEverest last month when he noticed another climber_______a rope, alone, in what's called Everest's“death_______”.These are the highest_______, where temperatures can drop below minus 30 degrees Celsius, where human cells begin to________without oxygen.

Gelje stopped the climb of his own client. Then he rescued the________stranger, left hanging for his life,and________him for about six hours, to an area called theSouth Col, where another guide joined in the_______.

“We________the climber in a sleeping mat,”Gelje said,“dragged him on the snow, or carried him in______ on our backs to Camp Three, which is still more than 7,000 meters high.”

A helicopter met them to lift the________climber down to the base camp. He was taken to a hospital, and has since returned home to Malaysia.

We don't know how the Malaysian climber_______himself in danger. But the two guides who grow up in and know those________saw a stranger in danger, and risked their own lives to________him. As Gelje said,“Saving one life is more________than praying at the church.”

1.

A．urging

B．sponsoring

C．guiding

D．contacting

2.

A．hanging onto

B．spreading out

C．checking on

D．passing down

3.

A．foot

B．sea

C．climate

D．zone

4.

A．destinations

B．directions

C．reaches

D．ranges

5.

A．wander

B．die

C．multiply

D．dry

6.

A．freezing

B．missing

C．appealing

D．demanding

7.

A．supported

B．dragged

C．pressed

D．comforted

8.

A．conversation

B．activity

C．rescue

D．operation

9.

A．lied

B．relaxed

C．wrapped

D．lifted

10.

A．tears

B．pain

C．need

D．turns

11.

A．injured

B．frightened

C．committed

D．trapped

12.

A．found

B．ensured

C．exposed

D．behaved

13.

A．cliffs

B．caves

C．mountains

D．rivers

14.

A．protect

B．caution

C．approach

D．save

15.

A．extraordinary

B．important

C．selfless

D．available

2 . Seven years ago, my wife bought me a terrific birthday present. For $70, she   _________ me two garden plots of land 20 feet by 20 feet from the Skokie Park District, which come with free _________ to fresh water from faucets, no _________. The football field of garden is a true place of beauty, costing the Park District very little to _________, with the water pipes being the only _________ capital investment.

My _________ is that gardening is good exercise accessible to people far into late middle age and beyond, deeply beneficial and _________ by couples and groups of friends. My garden neighbors and I, once _________, share ideas and encouragement. My daughter loves to help me _________ the wild weed, and the whole family loves the good fresh food, some of which I give to friends and neighbors.

I __________ about $300 to $400 a year but harvest literally 10 times the __________ of fresh produce—and I’m far from the best gardener!

We need to __________ one another while respecting each other as individuals, as carriers of subcultures, as positive people. Human difference is easier to accept with __________ when we know each other and are building something together.

And who doesn’t need to have __________ and get some exercise and eat great food? Community gardening is a wholly __________ activity.

1.

A．sold

B．offered

C．guaranteed

D．rented

2.

A．use

B．access

C．storage

D．entrance

3.

A．comment

B．difference

C．charge

D．way

4.

A．measure

B．decorate

C．design

D．operate

5.

A．initial

B．risky

C．heavy

D．wise

6.

A．responsibility

B．qualification

C．ambition

D．experience

7.

A．occupied

B．divided

C．beloved

D．possessed

8.

A．lecturers

B．strangers

C．farmers

D．competitors

9.

A．harvest

B．irrigate

C．grow

D．classify

10.

A．waste

B．collect

C．earn

D．invest

11.

A．habit

B．value

C．room

D．time

12.

A．calm down

B．appeal to

C．connect with

D．believe in

13.

A．doubt

B．curiosity

C．care

D．dignity

14.

A．fun

B．money

C．fame

D．fortune

15.

A．tolerant

B．specific

C．positive

D．convenient

3 . In America, the “Big Dig”, a highway project that resulted in a mess of traffic in the centre of Boston for years, came in five times over its initial budget. Even the Germans get huge projects wrong. Conception to operation of Berlin Brandenburg Airport has taken 30 years, with seven missed opening dates. The airport ended up costing $8.2 billion. However, the original estimate was about $2.7 billion.

Huge projects like Berlin Brandenburg Airport are the subject of an amusing new book called How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner. Mr. Flyvbjerg sets up a database of over 16, 000 projects and data analysis reveals that only 8.5% of the projects meet their initial estimates on cost and time, and 0.5% of them achieve what they set out to do on cost, time and benefits.

Over-optimistic time and cost estimates originate from both psychological and political perceptions: the reliance on intuition (直觉) rather than data, and a problem that Mr. Flyvbjerg calls “strategic misrepresentation”. This is when budgets are intentionally reduced in order to get things going. And once the projects are under way, they will not be stopped, because money spent on them will thus be wasted.

Mr. Flyvbjerg speaks highly of Pixar’s methodical approach to developing and testing films in great detail before they go into production. He also tells the story of how Frank Gehry’s well-developed architectural models helped ensure the success of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Narrowing down the producing window of a project before it is actually carried out reduces the probability of unexpected events.

Big customized projects are particularly likely to run into trouble. However, the more a project can be divided into standardized processes, the better its prospects are. Projects run into problems for specific reasons as well as general ones: Britain’s trouble is not something that China has to worry about, for instance. But the iron law is that if you plan strictly and standardize where possible, you are less likely to dig yourself into a hole.

1. How does the author introduce the topic of the passage?

A．By making a contrast.	B．By giving an explanation.
C．By presenting examples.	D．By showing an experience.

2. What message does Bent Flyvbjerg’s data analysis convey?

A．Projects’ success rates can be estimated.

B．Projects’ desired outcome can’t be achieved.

C．Most projects suffer overspending and delays.

D．Most projects lack comprehensive data analysis.

3. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．Failures in decision-making.	B．Methods of reducing massive costs.
C．Strategies for getting work done.	D．Reasons behind inaccurate estimates.

4. What is the key to preventing projects getting into trouble?

A．Planning thoroughly in advance.

B．Analyzing specific and general reasons.

C．Focusing on efficiency of projects.

D．Drawing lessons from former experiences.

4 . If you look at the dynamic “Global Temperatures” map on NASA’s website, you can see the historic temperature change over time across the planet as the timeline goes from 1880 to the modern day. By 2019, the entire planet is in red, orange, and yellow colors, indicating temperatures much higher than the historical average in every country and human inhabitance.

If the timeline went to 2023, the map would look even worse. That’s because the summer of 2023 was the hottest ever, according to ocean monitors. July was the hottest month in recorded history. Next July could be worse. Unless we do something quickly, we face dealing with more and more dangerous and expensive natural disasters in the future.

Forest fires sent smoke from Canada across the North American continent, causing New York City to have the worst air quality in its recorded history. Heavy rainstorms fell on Vermont and the Northeastern United States in just a couple of days in the middle of July, which exceeded the amount that area would usually receive in two months and caused extreme damage to homes and businesses. Around the same time, flash flooding in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — north of Philadelphia — killed nearly a dozen people.

Erich Fischer, a researcher specializing in climate studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is concerned that natural disasters could get much worse in the future—and in ways we cannot predict. He called for a “strike for climate justice,” which actually took place on Sept. 15, 2023. “The strategy needs to be twofold (双重的) . We need to decrease carbon emissions as much as realistically possible. That is already happening with people using electric cars and other green technologies. At the same time, we also need to find ways to predict the risk of natural disasters ahead of time,” said Erich Fischer.

1. Why does the writer mention the data on NASA’s website in paragraph 1?

A．To explain a concept.	B．To introduce a topic.
C．To provide a solution.	D．To make a prediction.

2. What does the third paragraph mainly tell us?

A．The severity of natural disasters.	B．The worst air quality in New York City.
C．The extreme damage by flash flooding.	D．The cause of the forests fires in Canada.

3. What did Erich Fischer suggest to deal with the current situation?

A．He advocated a twofold strategy.

B．He suggested forbidding carbon emissions.

C．He required people to use more electric cars.

D．He emphasized the awareness of climate changes.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The Hottest Month in History	B．Natural Disasters in the World
C．Extreme Weather Could Get Worse	D．Green Technology Would be Needed

5 . Photographers from China were among the top prize winners at the 14th Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, organized by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, in London.

Chinese photographers featured significantly and won _________ in three categories and one of the individual awards, with the most remarkable _________ being the young photographer award, jointly won by Yang Hanwen and Zhou Zezhen, both aged 14, for their _________: Andromeda Galaxy: The Neighbor.

The official awards news release described their picture as “a _________ photograph of one of the Milky Way’s closest and largest neighbors” that showed the lively _________ of a nearby galaxy, stars piercing (穿透) through the _________ and emphasized the wonder of the magnificent sight.

The image was _________ by Laszlo Francsics, one of this year’s judges. “It is an excellent sight _________   by young Chinese teenagers, who also demonstrate their extraordinary talent in _________ a deep-sky photo,” says Francsics.

Hanwen, one of the two Chinese winners, says, “I think this photo shows how __________ our nearest neighbor is.” “One of the main functions (功能) of the competition is to __________ more people to fall in love with astronomy by showing the beauty of the __________,” says Zezhen, the other teenager who won the award.

“The __________ for the competition is incredibly high,” says Ed Bloomer, an astronomer. “It was really satisfying to see how many competitors __________ themselves to capture unusual, rarely imaged or __________ events: There are some things you won’t have seen before, and even some things that won’t be seen again.”

1.

A．diplomas

B．fortunes

C．titles

D．prizes

2.

A．effect

B．motivation

C．success

D．enthusiasm

3.

A．imagination

B．image

C．exploration

D．reflection

4.

A．fascinating

B．terrifying

C．puzzling

D．disturbing

5.

A．colors

B．shapes

C．structures

D．sizes

6.

A．temperature

B．darkness

C．coldness

D．cloud

7.

A．presented

B．stored

C．highlighted

D．introduced

8.

A．created

B．predicted

C．tracked

D．observed

9.

A．processing

B．analyzing

C．designing

D．appreciating

10.

A．quiet

B．beautiful

C．distant

D．mysterious

11.

A．demand

B．persuade

C．allow

D．attract

12.

A．atmosphere

B．environment

C．universe

D．earth

13.

A．standard

B．intention

C．desire

D．application

14.

A．enjoyed

B．challenged

C．treated

D．devoted

15.

A．slight

B．ordinary

C．familiar

D．temporary

6 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What type of photography did the woman start with?

A．Street photography.

B．Fashion photography.

C．Nature photography.

2. Why does the woman like street photography?

A．It’s challenging.

B．It tells her story.

C．It documents ordinary life.

3. What will the woman give the man?

A．A photo.

B．A storybook.

C．A magazine.

7 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What is the man doing?

A．Conducting a survey.

B．Asking for directions.

C．Planning a trip.

2. What is the woman happy with about the train?

A．Its space.

B．Its Internet.

C．Its speed.

3. What do we know about the train today?

A．It was too crowded.

B．It broke down halfway.

C．It ran behind schedule.

4. What improvement impressed the woman?

A．The information display facilities.

B．Bigger boards for train times.

C．More seats on the platforms.

8 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What is the purpose of National Hugging Day?

A．To create a chance for people to get refreshed.

B．To expand the positive effects of hugging.

C．To promote an event related to hugging.

2. How will daily hugs affect a child?

A．He will be smarter.

B．He will be more sociale.

C．He will be more open-minded.

3. What can we learn from the talk?

A．Animals hug more than people do.

B．Hugs happen in various situations.

C．Hugging requires immediate actions.

9 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. Who did the man meet while waiting for the woman?

A．Norman.

B．Mr Pope.

C．Mrs Pope.

2. Why can’t the man hear the woman clearly?

A．There is something wrong with his ears.

B．The woman speaks in a low voice.

C．It is too noisy nearby.

10 . Imagine this. You need an image of a balloon for a work presentation and turn to an AI text-to- image generator, like Midjourney or DALL-E, to create a suitable image. You enter the prompt (提示词) “red balloon against a blue sky” but the generator returns an image of an egg instead.

What’s going on? The generator you’re using may have been “poisoned”. What does this mean? Text-to-image generators work by being trained on large datasets that include millions or billions of images. Some of the generators have been trained by indiscriminately scraping online images, many of which may be under copyright. This has led to many copyright infringement (侵害) cases where artists have accused big tech companies of stealing and profiting from their work.

This is also where the idea of “poison” comes in. Researchers who want to empower individual artists have recently created a tool named “Nightshade” to fight back against unauthorised image scraping. The tool works by slightly altering an image’s pixels (像素) in a way that confuses the computer vision system but leaves the image unaltered to a human’s eyes. If an organization then scrapes one of these images to train a future AI model, its data pool becomes “poisoned”. This can result in mistaken learning, which makes the generator return unintended results. As in our earlier example, a balloon might become an egg.

The higher the number of “poisoned” images in the training data, the greater the impact. Because of how generative AI works, the damage from “poisoned” images also affects related prompt keywords. For example, if a “poisoned” image of a Picasso work is used in training data, prompt results for masterpieces from other artists can also be affected.

Possibly, tools like Nightshade can be abused by some users to intentionally upload “poisoned” images in order to confuse AI generators. But the Nightshade’s developer hopes the tool will make big tech companies more respectful of copyright. It does challenge a common belief among computer scientists that data found online can be used for any purpose they see fit.

Human rights activists, for example, have been concerned for some time about the indiscriminate use of machine vision in wider society. This concern is particularly serious concerning facial recognition. There is a clear connection between facial recognition cases and data poisoning, as both relate to larger questions around technological governance. It may be better to see data poisoning as an innovative solution to the denial of some fundamental human rights.

1. The underlined word “scraping” (para. 2) is closest in meaning to ____.

A．facilitating

B．collecting

C．damaging

D．polishing

2. According to the passage, adding poisoned data might ____.

A．increase the accuracy of returned information

B．cause users to forget the prompt key words

C．interfere with the training of generative AI

D．discriminate against great masterpieces

3. What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs?

A．Data poisoning is somehow justified to direct attention to human rights.

B．Computer scientists has learned to respect the copyright of most artists.

C．Nightshade is being abused by human rights activists to recognize faces.

D．The issue of technological governance has aroused the lawyers’ interest.

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Data Poisoning: Government Empowering Citizens to Protect Themselves

B．Data Poisoning: Addressing Facial Recognition Issues Among Artists

C．Data Poisoning: Risks and Rewards of Generative AI Data Training

D．Data Poisoning: Restricting Innovation or Empowering Artists