According to a recent survey, violence (暴力) did happen in schools. Students showed their fear and parents and teachers were also
The topic of school violence is
If I meet with school violence, I will not answer violence with violence, for it will lead
All in all, we students should be responsible for
2 . You might think people all over the United States have WiFi — wireless Internet service — and mobile phones. But there is no such service in Green Bank, West Virginia, a tiny town four hours from the US capital, Washington D. C. Fewer than 150 people live in Green Bank, which has two churches, an elementary school and a public library. It is also home to the largest radio telescope in the world.
There is a ban (禁令) on WiFi in Green Bank, along with anything else that can create electromagnetic (电磁的) waves. Officials say the waves could disturb the signals (信号) the telescope receives.
For many Americans, a visit to Green Bank is a little like returning to the 1950s. To get there, you must read road signs because there is no GPS service in the town. People can connect with the Internet through telephones, but wireless service is not allowed.
The observatory (天文台) is one of the largest employers in the area. The National Science Foundation (NSF) spends about $8.2 million a year to operate the observatory, telescope and educational center.
Jonah Bauserman is a technician. If he supposes there is a signal that is not allowed in the zone, he drives to the house where the signal is coming from and checks it. But once a week, when the device is cleaned, some banned devices are allowed near it.
People in the town respect the work of the scientists. And they say they are happy to live without WiFi and mobile phones. “You know, instead of sitting here with our phones and other devices we’re out fishing, hunting and going to each other’s houses.” Everyone knows each other and communication is almost always face to face.
1. What will you see when you pay a visit to Green Bank?| A．GPS service. | B．Guide posts. | C．Cellphone towers. | D．Radiocontrolled toys. |
| A．Following signals from cellphones. | B．Cleaning the telescope once a week. |
| C．Listening for signals from outer space. | D．Protecting the telescope from being affected. |
| A．Great wealth. | B．Many job chances. |
| C．A healthier lifestyle. | D．Much difficulty in life. |
| A．An American Town Without WiFi and Mobile Phones |
| B．Good Relationships Between People in an American Town |
| C．The Largest Radio Telescope in the World |
| D．A Better Life Without Wireless Devices |
3 . A new study finds sales of sugary drinks obviously fell across several US cities, after they carried out soda taxes (汽水税) aiming those drinks — and those changes continued over time. Taxes ranged from 1 to 2 cents. For a 2-liter bottle of soda, that comes out to between 67 cents to $1.30 extra in taxes.
“While prior (先前的) studies have looked at the impact of soda taxes, they usually studied one city at a time. This new study looked at the overall effect of the taxes on several cities to get an idea of what might happen if these taxes were more widespread — or enlarged to the state or national level,” says Scott Kaplan, an economics professor and the study’s lead author.
Kaplan and his co-workers found that prices for sugary drinks went up by 33.1% and purchases (购买量) went down by basically the same amount. So when people had to pay more for sugary drinks, they reduced their purchases — the effect was large and continued.
As Kaplan notes, “Sugary drinks make up a quarter of all the added sugar we see in the average adult American diet. And that’s a really big amount.” Jennifer Pomeranz, a professor at the School of Public Health, says, “Taxes that aim sugary drinks are good public health policy because these drinks have no nutritional (营养的) value, but they are linked with diet-related diseases. Too much added sugar is linked to a host of poor health outcomes, including overweight and heart disease.” Last month, WHO called on countries to increase taxes on sugary drinks as a way to promote healthier diets.
Today, the sugary drink industry’s strategy of offering consumers more choices with less sugar is working, and nearly 60% of drinks sold have zero sugar. The calories that people get from drinks have decreased to the lowest level in decades.
1. What’s the difference between the new study and the prior ones?| A．The range. | B．The challenge. | C．The expense. | D．The benefit. |
| A．They bought them in overseas markets. |
| B．They turned to the government for help. |
| C．They cut down the drinks’ consumption. |
| D．They added sugar to drinks by themselves. |
| A．To better protect people’s health. |
| B．To encourage research into drinks. |
| C．To improve the nutrition of drinks. |
| D．To make more money for the government. |
| A．It is a short-sighted decision. |
| B．It is a success story. |
| C．It benefits sugary drinks industry. |
| D．It upsets customers. |
4 . Recently it has dawned on the government that closing more than 1,000 of England’s railway station ticket offices would not be very smart politics.The transport secretary, Mark Harper,announced that train operators had been asked to withdraw the cost-cutting strategy, which the government itself had originally pushed on them.The writing was already on the wall in the summer,when public anger led to an extension of the consultation period on the proposed closures.By the time it ended,750,000 responses had been recorded,99%of them negative.
The public’s concerns were over future access to travel advice and information,assistance for disabled people,safety at understaffed stations,and consequences for the digitally excluded. But the passionate opposition also underlined a widespread sense that railway stations must be more than transit(交通)zones.Combined with a reformed ticketing system,that insight should now inform a positive approach to breathing life into England’s railways and attracting more people back on to trains.
As a report published this autumn by the Campaign for Better Transport sets out,there is an urgent case for fairer ticketing reform across the network.For over a decade,the relative cost of taking the train rather than the car has skyrocketed,as fares have risen while fuel duty has been frozen.Over a third of the public are confused by the numerous types of ticket available,and the complex regulations that apply to them.Why should an anytime return from Chelmsford to London cost &32.60,when to cover the same distance from Grays to London costs E 13.40?
The failed attempt to shut down ticket offices had its roots in a short-term ministerial response to falling revenues(收入).But as the country strives to achieve a challenging green transition,the government should work to establish a simpler,fairer ticketing system that offers imaginative rewards to take the train;and to develop an ambitious plan for our stations —one that reflects their important role in the lives of the travelling public.
1. What does the underlined words in the first paragraph probably mean?| A．The public expressed their anger. |
| B．The proposal was put up on a wall. |
| C．Unfavorable outcome was expected. |
| D．The government adopted the policy. |
| A．They have expanded their services. |
| B．They have undergone ticketing reform. |
| C．They have included more transit zones. |
| D．They have seen a decline in public favor. |
| A．The popularity of car ownership. |
| B．The development of ticketing reform. |
| C．The problems of the ticketing system. |
| D．The application of complex regulations. |
| A．Rising Prices of Train Travel |
| B．Urgent Calls for Rail Revival |
| C．Failed Closure of Railway Stations |
| D．Tough Route to Green Transit Initiatives |
5 . Drive through any suburb in the U. S. today, and it’s hard to miss the recycling bins that have become companions to America’s trash cans. Recycling has become common, as people recognize the need to care for the environment. Yet most people’s recycling awareness extends (延伸) only as far as paper, bottle, and cans. People seldom find themselves facing the growing problem of e-waste.
E-waste rapidly increases as the techno-fashionable frequently upgrade to the most advanced devices, and the majority of them end up in landfills (填埋). Some people who track such wastes say that users throw away nearly 2 million tons of TVs, VCRs, computers, cell phones, and other electronics every year. Unless we can find a safe replacement (替代品), this e-waste may get into the ground and poison the water with dangerous toxins (霉素), such as lead, mercury, and arsenic. Burning the waste also dangerously contaminates the air.
However, e-waste often contains reusable silver, gold, and other electrical materials. Recycling these materials reduces environmental problems by reducing both landfill waste and the need to look for such metals, which can destroy ecosystems.
A growing number of states have passed laws to ban (禁止) getting rid of e-waste. Still, less than a quarter of this waste will reach lawful recycling programs. Some companies advertising safe disposal (处理) in fact merely ship the waste to some developing countries, where it still ends up in landfills. These organizations prevent progress by unsafely disposing of waste in an out-of-sight, out-of-mind location.
However, the small but growing number of cities and corporations that do handle e-waste responsibly represents progress toward making the world a cleaner, better place for us all.
1. What can we know from the first paragraph?| A．E-waste cannot be put into trash cans in the U. S. |
| B．Many Americans now have access to recycling bins. |
| C．Most Americans have realized the dangers of e-waste. |
| D．Most of America’s trash cans are made of recycled material. |
| A．Pollutes. | B．Heats. | C．Attacks. | D．Reduces. |
| A．Much e-waste is still not properly handled. |
| B．Some developing countries welcome e-waste. |
| C．Laws have played a major role in getting rid of e-waste. |
| D．The e-waste buried in the landfills won’t destroy ecosystem. |
| A．To tell us how to recycle &waste. |
| B．To talk about the future of e-waste. |
| C．To discuss if it’s necessary to, recycle e-waste. |
| D．To encourage people to deal with e-waste properly. |
6 . Desk toys are simple toys made for office workers. They make wonderful presents for those who spend lots of time on the job and need a break from a stressful working environment.
One consistently popular office toy is the Zen garden.
Allowing workers to have fun items such as desk toys will make them feel more comfortable, more appreciated, and more at home in their office. In large corporations, it can also show potential customers or clients that the organization is made up of individuals rather than being faceless. However, too many displays can damage a healthy and serious working environment.
Finding desk toys for a hard worker can be fun, and the large selection allows for many tastes. Not all desk toys are childish in nature.
Choose desk toys to match the personality of the owners, but take care to consider their working environments and whether the toys are appropriate.
| A．Those toys are usually inexpensive and popular. |
| B．Anyone who works in an office needs a desk toy. |
| C．Some desk toys are actually children’s toys for adults. |
| D．However, these toys actually prove the complete opposite. |
| E．It usually consists of a shallow wooden box filled with sand. |
| F．So many offices and workplaces disapprove of or forbid the use of them. |
| G．In fact, many can add to the beauty and interesting atmosphere of an office. |
7 . 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. |
1. What happened to the woman at the beginning?
| A．She lost her phone. |
| B．She couldn’t find the way. |
| C．She was trapped in heavy snow. |
| A．The car was running out of gas, |
| B．She stopped to answer a call. |
| C．The engine couldn’t work properly. |
| A．By drinking hot tea. | B．By using the car heater. | C．By having more clothes on. |
| A．They called an ambulance, |
| B．They led the woman to her home. |
| C．They helped the woman go to the main road. |
9 . From AI-made jokes to Harry Potter fashion videos, AI can be used to make funny stuff. But can it be as funny as a human? And if it can, does it present a danger to comedy writers in the future? That’s something performers have been looking at in this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, running from Aug. 4 to Aug. 28.
Anyone can put on a show at the Fringe, and this year even robots were getting in on the act. One of Fringe’s big shows used a small robot to come up with jokes from audiences’ suggestions, which were then performed by humans. The results could be very funny, but sometimes they weren’t funny at all. That was part of the point, explained Piotr Mirowski, the show’s co-maker. “We do not use humans to ‘show off’ AI; instead, we use AI ‘to show’ its limitations, to showcase human creativity on the stage,” said Mirowski, according to The Guardian.
Comedian Pierre Novellie said that it will take a long time for AI to get good at creating comedy. “Comedy is the last thing that AI is going to get near,” Pierre told Sky News. “Even normal human comedians struggle to ‘tune’ their jokes ‘for’ the right crowd at the right time, every time. But that’s what’s interesting about stand-up (独角喜剧) and fun.”
But Peter Bazely, a performer at the Fringe, said he’s using AI to make jokes for him because he’s out of ideas. One of Bazely’s shows had him playing a supporting role to “an entirely computer-generated comedian” called AI Jesus.
The Fringe review website, Chortle, talked about today’s AI concerns: “In a world where artists are worried that AI could end up doing their jobs for them, Bazely is said to be praying this one will do exactly that.”
The reasons for companies wanting to use AI are certainly understandable, but the dangers they present to many people’s jobs are becoming more and more real, and that’s not very funny. In May, leaders in the AI industry signed a document warning that AI could present an extinction-level danger and “should be a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war”.
1. What does the underlined “That” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Performing jokes made by robots. | B．Robots’ jokes are very popular. |
| C．Robots’ jokes sometimes are not fun. | D．Using humans to show off AI. |
| A．AI limits the creativity of humans. |
| B．It is not easy for AI to replace comedians. |
| C．AI responds well to audiences’ suggestions. |
| D．The audience of comedy is hard to appeal to. |
| A．He has got difficulty in making comedies. |
| B．He doesn’t want to play supporting roles any more. |
| C．He believes AI Jesus won’t replace human comedians. |
| D．He thinks jokes made by AI can make his shows popular. |
| A．To promote the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. |
| B．To display the joys and sorrows of comedians. |
| C．To warn the public of the existing danger of AI |
| D．To raise public concern for the possible threat of AI. |
10 . Josie, who is 17 years old, said, “Why do my parents do the same things they tell me not to do? For example, my mum stops me from shouting through the walls and asks me to go and speak to her face-to-face, but she always shouts through the walls to me. What can I do?”
That is a very good point. Parents can be completely inconsistent (不一致), and usually they don’t realize it. You see this a lot in many things like smartphones. Parents always say to their kids, “Oh, you can’t use that. That device (设备) is bad for you, so stop using it at the table. It’s harmful.” But then they are on theirs continually. So what do you expect teenagers to do?
The whole “Do as I say, not as I do” thing is an annoyance, especially for a teenager who is dying for independence and respect but isn’t getting them.
What can teenagers do with it? I would say you should point it out by calmly saying something like “You tell me not to scream through the walls, but you do it to me, so you can understand where I’m coming from. That’s not ideal.” They might object to it, but I think most parents who care about being parents would logically say, “That’s a reasonable point.”
There are a lot of conflicts (矛盾) going on between teenagers and their parents, but a lot of studies show that the conflicts are resolved a lot more when they turn into a dialogue.
If you can talk at a time when you’re both feeling a bit calmer, like just in the kitchen or doing something unimportant, then go in and say, “Can I just mention it? You tell me not to do this, but you do it too.” If you can approach it in a more calm and stress-free manner, most parents will respond positively.
1. How did Josie feel according to her words in paragraph 1?| A．Hopeful. | B．Bored. | C．Proud. | D．Confused. |
| A．The parents’ smartphones. | B．The tables in the house. |
| C．The devices in the house. | D．The teenagers’ points. |
| A．Object to it personally. | B．Complain of it continually. |
| C．Talk with their parents calmly. | D．Do some studies differently. |
| A．To list a fact. | B．To offer a suggestion. |
| C．To show a result. | D．To ask a new question. |
