1 . Jennifer Destefano answered a call from a number she did not recognize. “Mom, I messed up,” her daughter’s voice told her, crying. “These bad men have me.” A man went on to demand money, or he would drug her daughter and leave her in Mexico. But while she kept him on the phone, friends managed to reach her daughter, only to discover that she was, in fact, free and well on a skiing trip in Arizona. The voice used on the phone was a fake.
Voice cloning’s influences will be huge. For several years, customers have been able to identify themselves over the phone to their bank and other companies using their voice. Not even a gifted mimic (巧于模仿的人) could fool the detection system. But the arrival of cloning will force adaptation in order to prevent cheating.
Creative industries could face the impact too. Voice actors’ skills, trained over a lifetime, can be copied in seconds. But some actors may, in fact, find cloning congenial. Val Kilmer, who has lost much of his voice to throat cancer, was delighted to have his voice restored for “Top Gun: Maverick”.
Another industry that will have to come to cope with the rise of clones is journalism. Now who will trust a story based on an audio clip (片段)? Slightly easier to manage might be the false positives: recordings claiming to be someone but which are fakes. The opposite problem — the false negatives — will appear when public figures deny real recordings. Proving that a clip is genuine is bard, perhaps even impossible. Journalists will need to show how they obtained and stored audio files.
The term “fake news” had existed long before voice cloning. Now, ever more people caught in a crime are likely to defend themselves. “It wasn’t me.” And many people will have even more reason to believe them.
1. What does Jennifer Destefano’s experience suggest?A.The high frequency of fake news. | B.The rising crime rate in Mexico. |
C.The danger of voice-cloning technology. | D.The value of bravery in an emergency. |
A.illegal | B.embarrassing | C.striking | D.agreeable |
A.Late Beetles’ songs have been restored by voice cloning. |
B.A pop star claims a real recording untrue. |
C.Journalists prove their reports with audio clips. |
D.The police identify a criminal through voice. |
A.Voice cloning is increasingly used in journalism |
B.Voice cloning is challenging our traditional ideas |
C.Voice cloning is impacting different aspects of our life |
D.Voice cloning is re-establishing life styles for the better |
2 . Textile (纺织品) waste is a growing problem for our environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported the US throws away more than 11 million tons of clothing every year. That is why some small businesses spotting the problem are beginning to recycle in ways they haven’t before.
Create Good Company is a clothing company that tries to produce sustainable (可持续的) clothing and repurpose older clothing into updated fashionable items. Maggie. Hendricks, the owner of Create Good Company, said, “If you can revamp what you find, why wouldn’t you do that instead of buying new things? It’s a big issue not to create new waste. I would say we are 90%recycled materials.”
According to the EPA, the average consumer (消费者) throws away 81.5 pounds of clothes every year. “Anywhere between 10%-17%of the waste that’s going into landfills (废弃物填埋场) is made up of things like textiles and clothing,” said Danny Katz with the CoPIRG Foundation.” A lot of the clothing that we’re producing doesn’t even get worn, so it’s going right to the landfill or even being burned and contributing to pollution that way. It’s really worrying.”
This is why businesses like Create Good Company exist—to use outdated clothing and turn it into dresses or jackets.
“There’s just so much waste and so many big companies that might not think about it,” Hendricks said. “Just standing with other like-minded people who are interested in sustainability is important.”
Another important element Hendricks has focused on is creating these items and selling them at an affordable price.
“Sustainability sometimes is green washed in companies and they make things more expensive,” Hendricks said. “That’s not how we become a sustainable world. I think making products affordable is important to me. I want to buy things that are better for the environment without throwing my pocketbook in the fire.”
1. What does the underlined word “revamp” in paragraph 2 mean?A.Share. | B.Decorate. | C.Replace. | D.Improve. |
A.The use of old clothing. | B.The cost of textile pollution. |
C.The effect of clothing waste. | D.The future of the textile industry. |
A.Its sales. | B.Its price. | C.Its producer. | D.Its quality. |
A.The EPA’s measures to reduce textile waste |
B.Small businesses working to prevent textile waste |
C.Textile businesses’ social responsibility and their waste |
D.Consumers being aware of the seriousness of textile waste |
1. What business does the speaker do?
A.Book. | B.Party. | C.Credit card. |
A.To express thanks to them. | B.To talk about the discounts. | C.To discuss their bookings. |
A.The history of her business. | B.The closing of her business. | C.The reopening of her business. |
A.She stayed at home. | B.She went to a party. | C.She saw a movie. |
1. Why was the speaker in the river?
A.To get water for picnic. | B.To catch a fish. | C.To get a piece of wood. |
A.Six. | B.Eight. | C.Ten. |
A.He jumped into the river. |
B.He was too scared to move. |
C.He ran to look for their father. |
A.His father. | B.His brother. | C.A passer-by. |
6 . The family unit of parents and children is the most important in our life. However, a common complaint (抱怨) nowadays is “my parents have no time for me” or “my children prefer to spend time with their friends”. So what is the reason for such complaints?
One of the basic parenting rules is that parents should spend time with their children. This is the time when parents can show their love and care for their children, physically and emotionally. Similarly, the children can show that they appreciate their parents’ love and this brings about a strong parent-child relationship. Both parties get advantage.
Busy work is one reason why parents don’t spend time with their children. They are the bread winners, wanting their children to have the best. Often both parents had to work to support the family. So, the children turn to their friends who are there to offer a helping hand and a shoulder to cry on. They open up to their friends more than their parents. Another choice for parents is the maid (女佣) who is always there.
When parents get home from the office and the children from school, they are on their own-one parent prepares a meal, the other and children either in front of the computer or their iPhones. They spend time together at a meal but each is more buried in his own thoughts rather than what the others are thinking about.
What can be done to correct the situation? Both parents and children can reschedule their activities with the purpose of spending more time together. Have common interests like watching a football game. This will help develop a close and healthy relationship. Having quality time together takes effort, but it’s worthwhile.
1. What’s the author’s purpose of raising a question in the first paragraph?A.To make a fact clear. | B.To offer an opinion. |
C.To lead in the topic. | D.To start a conversation. |
A.Political organizations. | B.Social activities. |
C.Groups of people. | D.Rules of family. |
A.Parents are busy with work. |
B.Parents ask them to join friends. |
C.Parents want them to have the best. |
D.Parents need to make bread to support family. |
A.Require maids to step in. |
B.Turn to iphones for help. |
C.Develop different interests. |
D.Have quality time together. |
7 . A growing number of Chinese young generations are looking for new methods to relieve (缓解) stress, which include raising unusual “pets”, hugging (拥抱) trees, watching stress relief videos and playing other stress-relieving toys.
A new toy called “mango dog” recently is becoming popular among young people.
At the same time, a young media worker finds the joy in watching fun videos before sleeping. “I especially enjoy watching stress relief videos, like washing blankets and cutting soap.
The popularity of these stress relief methods reflects young people’s need to relieve emotional pressure. According to public data, there are more than 800 companies in China with names, businesses, products, or services with the term “stress relief”.
A.Tree hugging is another choice |
B.Other toys have also become popular |
C.Playing with Chinese puzzles is comfortable |
D.For the youth, the “mango dog” has special meaning |
E.They also feel a connection with nature by hugging trees |
F.After watching them, I feel the stress of the day is relieved |
G.And the number is expected to grow even higher in the future |
8 . More than 170,000 people in California are unhoused. Even as the state has poured resources into fighting against the problem, the number of people without homes has ticked upward in recent years. On the surface, the state has one key advantage for people without a reliable roof over their heads: relatively consistent and livable weather. So one of my first thoughts when I heard news of a horricane attacking Los Angeles was just “What will happen to the city’s homeless population?”
City agencies quickly took action. As it became clear that the Los Angeles region could experience an extreme downpour and subsequent flooding, outreach teams fanned out across the river bank and dam areas across the city that have become home to a significant unhoused population, offering support to move them into shelters and motels (汽车旅馆).
Despite that, it’s obvious that the effects of climate change will hit the most vulnerable (脆弱的) hardest. We see this globally as extreme weather events hit countries that have contributed the least to the problem.
The most notable connection between climate change and the US housing crisis is the threat extreme weather poses to unhoused people. More unhoused people are affected as climate change drives increasingly unpredictable weather. People without homes know how to respond to expected seasonal events. But events like a near-hurricane in Los Angeles or a wildfire in ‘Maui can catch populations with limited access to information off guard.
Another link worth considering is the way in which climate change creates more homelessness and further stresses on housing systems. Hurricane Katrina, for example, displaced 800, 000 people. Four years later, 12,000 people remained without shelter.
Housing has been — and will continue to be — a key issue in Maui too as it recovers from the wildfire that killed more than 100 people. Maui has already had a housing crisis, the result of a high cost of living driven in large part by the tourism industry. And, now, many more are left looking for places to stay. Ashley Kelly, the chief operating officer at Hawaii’s Family Life Center, said: “Finding housing for any new clients is just not possible right now.”
1. What contributes to the increase of the unhoused population in California?A.Its mild weather. |
B.Its inclusive local culture. |
C.Its limited basic facilities. |
D.Its relaxed state policies. |
A.They built dams to prevent flooding. |
B.They moved homeless people to safe places. |
C.They sought low-cost housing from city agencies. |
D.They surrounded the river bank to keep people away. |
A.Mysterious. | B.Exceptional. | C.Changeable. | D.Difficult. |
A.Ways of Americans relocating disaster-affected populations. |
B.The significance of timely weather updates for the homeless. |
C.The link between climate change and the housing crisis in the US. |
D.Approaches of homeless Americans to dealing with natural disasters. |
Recently, a group of children from Nanning, Guangxi, wearing orange down jackets and blue pants, took
Each day, their attractive presence is trending on
To express gratitude for the hospitality (好客) received in Heilongjiang, a lot of tangerines from Lipu of Guangxi
10 . The Stanford marshmallow (棉花糖) test was originally conducted by psychologist Walter Mischel in the late 1960s. Children aged four to six at a nursery school were placed in a room. A single sugary treat, selected by the child, was placed on a table. Each child was told if they waited for 15 minutes before eating the treat, they would be given a second treat. Then they were left alone in the room. Follow-up studies with the children later in life showed a connection between an ability to wait long enough to obtain a second treat and various forms of success.
As adults we face a version of the marshmallow test every day. We’re not tempted by sugary treats, but by our computers, phones, and tablets — all the devices that connect us to the global delivery system for various types of information that do to us what marshmallows do to preschoolers.
We are tempted by sugary treats because our ancestors lived in a calorie-poor world, and our brains developed a response mechanism to these treats that reflected their value — a feeling of reward and satisfaction. But as we’ve reshaped the world around us, dramatically reducing the cost and effort involved in obtaining calories, we still have the same brains we had thousands of years ago, and this mismatch is at the heart of why so many of us struggle to resist tempting foods that we know we shouldn’t eat.
A similar process is at work in our response to information. Our formative environment as a species was information-poor, so our brains developed a mechanism that prized new information. But global connectivity has greatly changed our information environment. We are now ceaselessly bombarded (轰炸) with new information. Therefore, just as we need to be more thoughtful about our caloric consumption, we also need to be more thoughtful about our information consumption, resisting the temptation of the mental “junk food” in order to manage our time most effectively.
1. What did the children need to do to get a second treat in Mischel’s test?A.Take an examination alone. | B.Share their treats with others. |
C.Delay eating for fifteen minutes. | D.Show respect for the researchers. |
A.the calorie-poor world and our good appetites | B.the shortage of sugar and our nutritional needs |
C.the tempting foods and our efforts to keep fit | D.the rich food supply and our unchanged brains |
A.Be selective information consumers. | B.Absorb new information readily. |
C.Use diverse information sources. | D.Protect the information environment. |
A.Eat Less, Read More | B.The Later, the Better |
C.The Marshmallow Test for Grownups | D.The Bitter Truth about Early Humans |