1 . Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has long worked to make her city less dependent on cars. She wanted to see more people using bicycles to get around. Over a number of years, the city government set limits on cars and increased the amount of bike paths from 200 kilometers to over 1,000 kilometers.
This year, Parisians are not complaining about too much automobile traffic. Instead, they say there are too many bikes. “Now, it’s really like a bike traffic jam(阻塞),” Thibault Quere, a spokesperson for France’s Federation of Bicycle Users, said. ”It’s kind of a good difficulty to have, especially when we think about what Paris used to be.”
Some famous roads along the River Seine are completely closed to cars. Now you see people riding bikes, running and walking with their families along the river. In another part of Paris, a bike path on Sebastopol Boulevard is one of the busiest in Europe, after opening in 2019. In one week in early September, it reached a record high of 124,000 riders.
The city will host the Summer Olympics in 2024 and plans to add more bike paths by then. Paris wants to reduce its pollution by half during the games, even as visitors from around the world will be in the city for the event. Organizers say all of the competition sites will be reachable by bike through a 60-kilometer network of bike paths.
The change to Paris, however, has not been easy. With more people using bikes, more people are making mistakes. Some of them are new to cycling and disobey traffic rules. But the environment may be improving. Cycling is good exercise and helps reduce pollution, which is still a problem for the large city. The French government blames atmospheric pollution for 48,000 early deaths in the country each year.
Hidalgo was re-elected in 2020 and plans to keep making what she calls a “Paris that breathes”. Her newest five-year bike plan includes over $250 million for more bike paths and bike parking. The new budget is an increase of over $100 million from her first five-year plan.
1. What can be learned from the second paragraph?A.Hidalgo’s effort has paid off. | B.Parisians prefer to travel by car. |
C.Parisians find it difficult to ride bikes. | D.Quere disagrees with Hidalgo. |
A.To compare the famous roads in France. |
B.To praise people enjoying riding bicycles. |
C.To stress the importance of France in Europe. |
D.To show how busy a cycle path is in Paris. |
A.Tour local bike shops. | B.Ride to competition sites. |
C.Promote the sights in France. | D.Support the athletes around the world. |
A.Friendly. | B.Helpful. | C.Determined. | D.Honest. |
2 . Social media networks have been shown to have greatly changed students’ social behaviour. But the relationship between social media and students’ English language writing has been largely ignored (忽视). So our team of four researchers studied one English as a Second Language (ESL) class at Fiaseman SenirHigh School in Tarkwa, southwestern Ghana. Our research focused on a Form 2 class, made up of 47 students aged 17 and 18 on average. It was one of the largest classes in the school, which offered English as a general subject.
The study found that the students spent really long periods of time on various social media platforms (平台) . But most of the sites they visited were not about learning. That was worrying. One student said, “I visit social media every day. I can’t count. I’m always there. It is very difficult to control my presence there. I truly don’t know what to do.”
We also found that their social media use had resulted in their use of shortened forms of English words-such as “4” in place of “for”, “u” in place of “you” and “d” in place of “the” --in their writing, including in their English examinations. These are the unacceptable written forms of English.
We concluded that the way in which English is being used in examinations by students is being undermined by their use of the English language on social media. This is a growing trend (趋势) that will see students struggle to get ahead in the subject, as more formal English language writing is needed for examinations and further studies.
We recommend that those involved in education should consider connecting teaching practices that take advantage of social media to attract students. This would allow students to learn during their time on social media platforms. Also, teachers should help students choose proper social media sites. They should tell students about the importance and dangers of social media and how to use them, especially for educational purposes.
1. What does the student want to convey through his words?A.He used social media for educational purposes. |
B.He was worried about his privacy on social media. |
C.He lacked the knowledge of properly using social media. |
D.He was interested in new information on social media. |
A.Creativity in English expressions. |
B.More chances to master new words. |
C.Increased competition among them. |
D.Disappointing English writing performance. |
A.improved slowly. | B.proven scientifically. |
C.influenced negatively. | D.corrected effectively. |
A.Guiding students in using social media as a learning tool. |
B.Encouraging students to join in outdoor activities regularly. |
C.Limiting the time of students’ using their phones strictly. |
D.Providing different online courses for students. |
3 . The study by University of Arizona researchers, published in the Creativity Research Journal, finds that creative people are more likely to fruitfully use idle (空闲的) time by letting one idea lead to another.
“In psychology and neuroscience, most studies on human thoughts either prompt (提示) participants to think in a certain way or ask them to report on thoughts they experienced, but less is known about how thoughts naturally arise and unfold over time in unprompted contexts,” said Jessica Andrews-Hanna, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and senior author of the paper. “This is where our study comes in.”
The researchers divided the study into two parts. For the first experiment, the researchers asked each participant to sit alone in a room for 10 minutes without any access to digital devices. In the absence of any particular prompt, the participants were asked to voice their thoughts aloud in real time. The recorded files from 81 participants were then transcribed (转录) and analyzed.
The first experiment found that creative people were more engaged in their thoughts when they were left alone without distractions, such as cell phones and the Internet. “Creative people rated themselves as being less bored, even over those 10 minutes. They also spoke more words overall, which indicated that their thoughts were more likely to move freely,” said Andrews-Hanna.
For the second experiment, over 2,600 adults answered questions through a smartphone app called Mind Window, developed by Andrews-Hanna and her graduate student Eric Andrews. Participants who self-identified as being creative reported being less bored during the idle time.
The researchers are continuing this line of work using their Mind Window app. They encourage people to download and use the app to help scientists understand how people across the world think in their everyday lives. “Understanding why different people think the way they do may lead to promising interventions to improve health and well-being,” said Andrews-Hanna.
1. What do Andrews-Hanna’s words in paragraph 2 focus on?A.The necessity of the study. | B.The value of former studies. |
C.The participants of the study. | D.The process of former studies. |
A.They spoke out what they thought. | B.They recorded their own voices. |
C.They remembered some prompts. | D.They finished a number of reports. |
A.They made better use of digital devices. |
B.They enjoyed idle time more than others. |
C.They were more likely to understand others. |
D.They were more willing to share their thoughts. |
A.Educational. | B.Fashionable. | C.Expensive. | D.Beneficial. |
4 . Looking out of the window of his truck, Bob Fitzgerald sees dying forests and empty farmland. Fitzgerald says the land has been in his family since the 17th century. “I can show you land around here that people grew tomatoes on when I was a little boy. And now it’s gone.”
Climate change is making things worse. As sea levels rise, salt water is entering rivers and other waterways. As a result, the land is becoming too salty for crops to grow on. Hundreds of millions of people will be forced to move inland because of rising waters.
Kate Tully, a researcher in the University of Maryland, wants to keep coastal farmers in business as the seas rise. She has seen the forests filled with pine trees killed by the increasingly salty soil. The United States Department of Agriculture gave Tully and other researchers $1.1 million to study the problem. She and her team hope to give farmers ways to stay on their land.
They are testing different crops on pieces of land around the Eastern Shore. “Sorghum (高粱) is my new favorite crop because it can grow without rain and it can grow with lots of rain.” The grain (谷物) crop may be a good choice to feed the nearly 600 million chickens kept in the area each year. As farmers know, chickens can deal with salt, dry weather conditions and heavy rains. Yet just being able to grow a crop is not enough. The crop has to bring in money.
Some people believe the land should be given back to nature. They say the fields should be turned into wetlands, which are popular with duck hunters. “There’s money in duck hunting,” Tully said. “Hunting organizations will pay farmers for hunting on their land. Farmers could make a lot of money from duck hunting.”
Tully and her team are just getting started. It will be a few years before they really understand how to save the farms.
1. What is the purpose of Paragraph 1?A.To lead to the main topic. | B.To describe the farm scenery. |
C.To illustrate a memorable experience. | D.To provide the background information. |
A.To help farmers stay on their land. | B.To study new crops for coastal farmers. |
C.To study climate change in recent years. | D.To help farmers start their own business. |
A.Concerned. | B.Doubtful. | C.Positive. | D.Negative. |
A.Climate Change Making Things Worse. | B.Rising Seas Forcing Changes on Farms. |
C.Coastal Farmers Saving Their Homeland. | D.Scientists Teaching Farmers to Plant Crops. |
5 . The first wave of concerns over artificial intelligence(AI)in 2023 appeared soon after New Year’s Day when classrooms reopened and schools from Seattle to Paris started blocking ChatGPT, a powerful software based on AI large language models, because teenagers were using it to do their homework.
The AI large language models behind such products as ChatGPT work by repeatedly guessing the next word in a sentence after having “learned” the rules from a huge amount of/human-written works. Although they often get facts wrong, their answers appear so natural that Keven, their inventors begin to worry about their possible use for spreading false information.
People became more worried when various AI products started to create not just texts but novel images, music and human voices, which threatened the livelihoods of anyone who writes, draws or sings for a living. It led to strikes by Hollywood writers and actors and legal challenges from artists and bestselling authors. Some of the most respected scientists even warned that the technology’s unchecked progress was possibly threatening human existence. “In the longer term, they might manage our attention,” pioneering AI scientist Fei Fei Lisaid. “They would tell us which video to watch, which book to read or whose communication to respond as AI technology’s abilities improve rapidly. They could be a very good assistant, but also with really big risks.”
Li hoped that 2023 is going to be a year for people to think about what Al is, how to use it and what the effects are — all the good, the bad and the ugly.
“It’s easy to forget that they are not the first wave of AI products. Computer vision techniques developed by Li and other scientists have helped sort through a huge database of photos to recognize objects and individual faces and guide self-driving cars. Speech recognition advances have made voice assistants like Siri and Alexa a normal thing in many people’s lives,” said Tom Gruber, co-founder of Siri Inc.
1. Why did schools try to stop their students from using ChatGPT?A.ChatGPT often got facts wrong in the class. |
B.Students spent too much time on the software. |
C.ChatGPT helped students spread false information. |
D.Students used the software to cheat at their homework. |
A.AI’s training costs. | B.ATs amazing abilities. |
C.AI’s possible threats. | D.AI’s fast developments. |
A.Think carefully about AI’s impact. | B.Welcome AI technology |
C.Do use ChatGPT more carefully. | D.Upgrade ChatGPT in time. |
A.A news report. | B.A guide book to a software. |
C.A product review. | D.An introduction to a person. |
6 . Most children now chat daily either online or through their mobile phones.
Sometimes the online world, just like the real world, can cause problems, such as bullying (恃强凌弱) or arguments.
A.Going online is great fun. |
B.Computer studies are part of schoolwork now. |
C.The language of chat is strange to many parents, too. |
D.There are some websites that are not suitable for the children. |
E.To keep children safe, your management must cover the family computer. |
F.They are connecting to a huge number of other children all over the world. |
G.Surfing the Internet takes up too much of the time that should be spent on lessons. |
7 . People duck responsibility for reasons ranging from simple laziness or a fear of failure, through to a sense of feeling frightened by the scale of a problem or a situation. Whatever the reason, if people fail to take responsibility, they’ll fail in their jobs, they’ll fail their teams, and they’ll fail to grow as individuals. All of this makes it important to address the issue.
Signs of not being responsible
There are several signs to watch out for. These include:
Lacking interest in their work, and in the well-being of the team
Blaming others for mistakes and failures
Missing deadlines
Avoiding challenging tasks and projects, and not taking risks
Regularly complaining about unfair treatment by team leaders and members and engaging in self-pity
Avoiding being dependent on others for work, advice and instructions
Lacking trust in team members and leaders
Ways to encourage responsibility
Start by talking
Your first step is to talk to the individuals concerned. Are there circumstances that are contributing to the situation, or problems that you can deal with?
Communicate roles, responsibilities and objectives
Your people need to know clearly what their roles and responsibilities are. Ensure that you have an up-to-date job description for each team member, and be as detailed as possible about every responsibility that they have.
Re-engage people
Your people will be more engaged if their work is supported with their values. Talk to them to find out what they are. Then, illustrate how their daily tasks and responsibilities go with those values.
Give plenty of praise
Finally, be sure to give your people plenty of praise when they do take responsibility. And help them improve by providing them with regular, effective and fair feedback.
1. What will happen if John fails to take responsibility?A.He can complete his jobs. |
B.His teams may suffer. |
C.His growth will continue. |
D.He will lose his life. |
A.“It’s not my fault.” |
B.“I’ll have it completed tomorrow.” |
C.“It’s tough, but I can manage it.” |
D.“I need resources to solve the problem. ” |
A.Let him know their specific tasks. |
B.Get them to find out the values of work. |
C.Praise them for their good jobs. |
D.Have a chat with him to find out problems. |
1. 调查结果描述;
2. 观点分析;
3. 你的看法。
注意:
1. 词数80左右;
2. 短文题目已给出。
Which Matters More-Major or University?
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9 . The rise of body neutrality You define (定义) beauty yourself. You are more than a number in measurement. Love yourself the way you are. Body positive messages like theses seem to be everywhere from social media to TV advertisements.
Body positivity’s aim to boost acceptance and appreciation of a variety of body types and sizes may explain why it has such a broad appeal. While some find the body positivity movement to be helpful, others have begun calling the movement toxic and suggesting it may be time to move on from this way of thinking.
More recently, people have voiced concerns. Some feel that the focus on loving your looks actually strengthens society’s stress on appearance over other values. Much body positivity content in advertisements may bring a stereotype (刻板印象) to viewers because it does little to challenge the hidden assumption that people are valued mainly for their appearance. Therefore, the movement still encourages people to be graceful and engage in beauty practices from head to toe. And if you fail to be body positive, it’s you that are at fault.
Many are now moving away from the body positivity movement and the pressures that come from it entirely, and instead are getting behind the body neutrality (中立) movement. Instead of focusing on physical appearance, body neutrality is a profound idea that we can exist without having to think too much about our bodies.
We are all more than just our bodies. We are complicated beings with a range of emotions and feelings about our bodies. And because body neutrality de-emphasizes (不强调) the focus on appearance, it motivates us to better acknowledge all the things our bodies are able to do. Being grateful for being able to take up your hobbies and appreciating your body for what it’s capable of doing are both examples of body neutrality.
Body neutrality can be beneficial to us. It is associated with the positive body image and mental well-being. The good news is that there are many ways you can develop body neutrality, including writing-based treatment, yoga and spending time in nature.
1. What does the underlined word “toxic” in Paragraph 2 mean?A.Inspiring. | B.Dangerous. | C.Influential. | D.Useless. |
A.It upsets overweight people. |
B.It overstates the role of advertising. |
C.It attracts too much attention to appearance. |
D.It challenges the traditional standards of beauty. |
A.Keep fit and you will be confident. |
B.Accept the imperfection of your body. |
C.Appreciate your abilities instead of your body. |
D.Treasure your appearance rather than other values. |
A.①②/③④/⑤/⑥ | B.①/②③/④⑤⑥ |
C.①/②/③/④⑤/⑥ | D.①②/③/④⑤/⑥ |
10 . In the coming era of budget cuts to education, remote learning could become a common thing.
The appeal to those in charge of education budgets to trade teachers for technology is so strong that they tend to ignore the disadvantages of remote learning. School facilities are expensive to build and maintain, and teachers are expensive to employ. It’s true that online classes do not require buildings and each class can host hundreds of people, which can result in greater savings, but moving away from a traditional classroom in which a living, breathing human being teaches and interacts with students daily would be a disaster.
Physically attending school has hidden benefits: interacting with peers and communicating with teachers are important skills to cultivate(培养)in young people. Moreover, schools are more than simple places of traditional learning. They are also places that provide meals, places where students receive mental help and other support.
Those policy-makers are often fascinated by the latest technology in education and its potential to transform education overnight. But online education does not allow a teacher to keep a struggling student after class and offer help. Educational videos may deliver academic content, but they are unable to make eye contact or assess a student’s level of engagement. Distance education will never match the personal teaching in a traditional classroom. In their first 18 years of life. American children spend only 9% of their time in school. Yet teachers are expected to prepare them to be responsible citizens, cultivate their social skills, encourage successful time management, and improve their capacity to compete in a competitive job market. Given these expectations, schools should not become permanently “remote”.
The power of the classroom is rooted in the qualities of the people gathered in the same place, at the same time, including their nature, empathy, devotion and so on. Technology, no matter how advanced, should simply be a tool of a good teacher.
1. What is one possible benefit of students attending school physically?A.Transforming traditional teaching. |
B.Eating nutritionally-well-balanced-meals. |
C.Growing into living and breathing human beings. |
D.Developing relationships with peers and teachers. |
A.It may reduce face-to-face interaction. |
B.It may make many teachers jobless. |
C.It may add to student’s financial burden. |
D.It may revolutionize classroom teaching. |
A.complexity | B.inequality | C.responsibility | D.capability |
A.It lacks humanity. | B.It can‘t meet personal needs. |
C.It is still not advanced. | D.It can’t track students’ growth. |