2 . Airlines already place common-sense limits on young passengers. For example, on United Airlines, babies younger than seven days old can’t fly. And lately, there’s been a heated discussion about keeping little ones out of business class. Why draw a line there?

No one’s suggesting a ban on babies, or even kids, from flights. That wouldn’t make sense for passengers or airlines. Banning children from flights would be a financial disaster for airlines. That’s because leisure travel accounts for two-thirds of all air travel incomes, and people sometimes take their kids on vacation with them despite their kids’ screams, tantrums (发脾气) and meltdowns.

But maybe it’s time for a little course correction when it comes to children. Maybe there are places we should keep baby-free, such as a section of the plane, or the entire plane. It will benefit passengers because all or some of them will arrive at their destinations well-rested and ready for their vacation or work.

There are some passengers who believe airlines shouldn’t restrict young passengers from flying anywhere. They think people seem to forget that babies and toddlers are people. Restricting children may be an easy solution, but it will have long-term consequences. They’re not going to like the humans they grow up to be.

There’s an equally convincing argument that we should place sensible limits on babies. Some may have physiological challenges that make a flight unbearable. Others may not have the patience to sit in a pressurized aluminum tube for hours. Some of them are just not ready to sit still for a 12-hour flight. But the biggest challenge for babies and toddlers is the pressure changes on the climb to and fall from cruising (平稳行驶的) altitude.

Babies will keep flying anyway. So there are always a few ways of staying calm when you are seated close to a seat-kicking child who raises the noise level on your next flight, for example, asking a flight attendant for help, buying a good pair of noise-canceling headphones or earplugs or avoiding the babies entirely by booking the red-eye flights.

1. What is the common sense about children taking flights?

A．Children tend to lack patience.

B．Not all children should be banned from flights.

C．Flights shouldn’t ban children from business class.

D．Babies should be accompanied by adults on flights.

2. What do the ban supporters think of babies aboard?

A．Flights have no suitable seats for them.

B．Airlines can’t profit as much from them.

C．They make their parents lose their minds.

D．They are too noisy for other passengers.

3. What result will banning children from flying bring?

A．Children’s mental health will be influenced.

B．Children tend to lose the appetite for flying.

C．Children are likely to be ignored when they grow up.

D．Children will have a weak connection with their family.

4. What does the text mainly talk about?

A．A discussion about keeping little children out of flights.

B．A benefit of passengers on the flights keeping baby-free.

C．A financial disaster for airlines banning children from flights.

D．A new measure to make all passengers happy on the flights.

3 . “In the United States, 40 million Americans are food insecure. They don’t know where their next meal is going to come from,” said Aidan Reilly, who co-founded Farmlink. “Meanwhile, in the United States we’re throwing out over 100 billion pounds of food every year.”

Started during the hard period in spring 2020, Farmlink was initially supposed to help struggling families and food banks. Reilly and his childhood friend James Kanoff were reading and watching news about food shortages, and they learned that local farms were forced to destroy spare produce that they couldn’t sell, especially with restaurants, schools and hotels closed. Reilly, Kanoff and a group of friends worked together over Zoom, text and e-mail to contact farms. They didn’t really set out to start a nonprofit then but just thought it would be great to figure out one way to help starving (饥饿的) people.

With “we’ll come to you” as their catchphrase, the group rented trucks and attempted to do all the food pickup and deliveries themselves. They had a lot of difficulties in the beginning, but they made it work, moving more than one million pounds of produce from farms to food banks within just two months and transforming their project into a massive logistics operation in the process. Word spread, and more and more young people at home during the pandemic reached out to help.

Farmlink has worked with more than 100 farms and 300 communities in the United States, rescuing and moving enough food to distribute (配送) more than 64 million meals. “The bigger Farmlink gets, the bigger our worldview gets. There are everyday Americans who live next to us and don’t know how they’re going to feed their kids. And that’s exactly who we’re doing this for,” Reilly said.

1. What does Aidan Reilly think is the reason for food shortages in the US?

A．The lack of food suppliers.

B．High food prices for most Americans.

C．Underproduction of food in the world.

D．The mismatch between food supply and demand.

2. What did Farmlink do to help people in need?

A．It produced food specifically for them.

B．It collected money by selling produce.

C．It set up food distribution channels.

D．It persuaded the rich to donate food to them.

3. Who will Farmlink mainly help according to Reilly’s words?

A．All Americans.	B．People in poor countries.
C．People living nearby.	D．Parents with starving kids.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．A Project Widening Our Worldview

B．A Bridge Between Spare Food and Starvation

C．A Nonprofit Organization for Food Production

D．A Group of People Fighting Against Food Waste

5 . Janet, now 37, was playing with her new pet dog, Stitch, who jumped up, grabbed her sleeve, and tore several holes in her sweater with its sharp teeth. Instead of throwing the sweater away, Janet decided to repair it.

She turned to “visible repairing,” an idea of repairing clothes that leaves an obvious fix. She added bright flowers and other small designs to damaged clothes. “Every time you do a repair, it’s like having bought a new piece of clothes,” says Janet.

Actually, repairing is a great opportunity to realize the urgent (迫切的) need to reduce waste. Sadly, we have become used to replacing things instead of repairing them — and the rubbish is piling up. Worldwide, we throw away 92 million tons of cloth every year. Electronic waste is another growing problem: About 50 million tons of it is created each year around the world.

The good news is that fixing things can help deal with the waste problem. There are some solutions. Due to information online, the popular how-to site iFixit.com , a database (数据库) with nearly 100,000 repair brochures for everything from electronics to clothing, has promoted more than 100 million repairs. In addition, since the first Repair Café opened in2009 in Amsterdam, more than 2,700 cafés have been set up to offer in-person fix-it help in various countries. Organizers set up events, and volunteers with repair knowledge bring their tools. They will try to fix whatever people bring in, for free, and teach visitors how to do repairs themselves.

Fixing things is part of a larger change toward a circular economy —the idea that instead of throwing away things once they are broken or out of date, we reuse or repair them, keeping them out of the landfill (垃圾填埋场) for as long as possible. According to a 2023 report from Circle Economy, a Netherlands-based NGO, if the world changed to a circular economy, we could lower the amount of waste by a third.

1. What is the author’s purpose in mentioning Janet?

A．To praise her way of protecting pets.

B．To introduce special clothing designs.

C．To call for attention to repairing things.

D．To market the products of fixed clothes.

2. What can we learn from the numbers in paragraph 3?

A．The action of replacing things is wise.

B．The behaviour of repairing things is popular.

C．The need for reducing clothes is urgent.

D．The problem of producing waste is serious.

3. How do people deal with the waste problem according to paragraph 4?

A．By teaching volunteers repair knowledge.

B．By sharing tips on opening repair cafés.

C．By providing information to the repair database.

D．By offering online and off line help to encourage repairs.

4. Which of the following behaviours contributes to the circular economy?

A．Jim threw away a used bike.	B．Jackson mended a torn sofa.
C．Sue replaced a worn carpet.	D．Windy removed a broken vase.

6 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. How did the woman know Jesse was in hospital?

A．Jesse told her.

B．The police called her.

C．Dr. Andrews phoned her.

2. How might Jesse get injured?

A．He crashed into a tree.

B．He caused an accident.

C．A tree fell on his car.

3. What does the man want to do in a few hours?

A．Pass some tests.

B．Get something to eat.

C．Give the woman more information.

7 . I was hiking with Sam and Kyle to show them a cliff where they could feel the sea spray on their faces. I knew the area could be dangerous, but I was not worried for I had hiked there many times.

We sat in the sun and watched the waves throw themselves against the rock. Then I crept (爬) up to the edge, Kyle right behind me. I found a seat-shaped place and sat down with much contentment. When Kyle came near, I gave him my place. He settled in and I moved a few feet over where the smooth rock had no holds.

Suddenly, a monstrous wave came. I felt myself starting to slide. The water washed me off the cliff and forced me under. I screamed for help. I swam hard for the shore. I was not a strong swimmer but I tried rimming for shore anyway, battling the warm water the best I could. Soon, I realized the sea had swept me farther out.

“Sam!” I yelled. “Kyle, help me and send a helicopter!” After about thirty minutes, I saw a helicopter. I could see Sam and Kyle looking anxiously from it. My eyes lit up and my heart missed a beat. The helicopter buzzed overhead, and then kept on going. I floated on my back to make myself more visible, my body pale in contrast to the darker ocean. When the helicopter came by again, I moved my arms and legs desperately to attract their attention. Again, the helicopter disappeared. Helpless, I stared in disbelief as they missed seeing me twice in a row. Deciding that I needed to save my energy, I continued floating on my back and closed my eyes.

Gradually, a noise grew louder. I soon realized a helicopter was overhead. The crew had seen me, but it might be too late. Waves of exhaustion overwhelmed me. My leg muscles tightened uncontrollably. “This is it,” I thought, as I gave up to the weight that was pulling me down.

Then, I felt a strong arm wrap across my chest and turned to see a rescue diver. He asked me if I was alright. The next thing I knew was that I was in the air. The waves that had just been big enough to kill me suddenly seemed small.

1. Which of the following can best describe the author in paragraph 2?

A．Curious and careful.	B．Happy and relaxed.
C．Proud but disappointed.	D．Anxious but satisfied.

2. Why couldn’t the author swim back to shore?

A．He met with fast wind.	B．He couldn’t perform his best.
C．He was not a strong swimmer.	D．He was not used to the warm water.

3. What did the author do to increase his chances of being seen by the passing helicopter?

A．He tried to preserve his energy.	B．He made his arms pale.
C．He yelled at the helicopter.	D．He floated on his back.

4. What does the author’s thought “This is it” mean?

A．The disaster came to an end as expected.	B．He finally got the rescue he needed badly.
C．He was convinced he was about to drown.	D．The waves were not big enough to kill him.

8 . Many people try to make society change for the better. The real challenge is how to get good solutions to scale up(按比例放大)for major change. New research suggests that social change may depend on the relationship between beneficial behaviors and policies.

The research, conducted by the University of Maine, University of Vermont and Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, attempted to understand how society can accomplish major, transformative social change, particularly the kind of social change necessary to solve the growing problem of climate change.

The researchers studied a behavior that benefits groups, but does not spread without pol- icy support, such as a costly measure to relieve the effects of climate change. They created a mathematical model, which simulates (模拟) a society where agents live in groups and adopt the beneficial behavior of peers. That behavior, given the right conditions, can spread like viral, but not if the institutional costs are too high.

“Large-scale social change is not just policy or behavior, but the emergence of a new self- reinforcing (自我强化)system that combines both. This allows us to ask new questions, such as “how would a new pattern of behavior and policy spread?’” says Laurent Hébert-Dufresne, lead author on the study.

The results showed that both behavioral change and policy change are required to achieve large-scale social change-and that they need to happen together. Though neither can get the job done on its own, policy change is especially critical. They found that sometimes the beneficial behavior can spread too far. In some cases, the spread of behavior beyond groups with supporting policy can reduce its perceived success and slow the spread of the policy, thereby limiting beneficial social change overall.

In future research, the team aims to apply these types of models to all sorts of beneficial social change, particularly the challenge of tackling climate change.

1. What factor may determine social change according to the research?

A．Beneficial behavior.

B．Good policies.

C．Public awareness.

D．Rules and beneficial action.

2. What is the purpose of the research?

A．To understand what social change is.

B．To figure out the way society changes.

C．To accomplish trans-formative social changes.

D．To tackle the growing problem of climate change.

3. What will the researchers do next?

A．Put theory into practice.

B．Write essays about their study.

C．Take challenges of climate change.

D．Do surveys on their research subject.

4. In which section may the text appear in a newspaper?

A．Travel.

B．Amusement.

C．Society.

D．Economy.

10 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式，并将答案填写在答题卡上。

For the fifth year in a row, Finland is the world’s     1    (happy) country, according to World Happiness Report rankings based     2     (large) on life evaluations (评估) from the Gallup World Poll.

The Nordic country and     3     (it) neighbors Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland all score very well on the measures the report uses     4     (explain) its findings. These measures include healthy life expectancy, GDP per capita, social support in times of trouble, and high social trust, generosity in a community     5     people look after each other and freedom to make key life     6    (decision).

Denmark comes in at No. 2 in this year’s rankings,     7     (follow) by Iceland at No.3. Sweden and Norway are the seventh and the eighth respectively (分别地). Switzerland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg take places 4 through 6,     8     Israel coming in at No. 9 and New Zealand rounding out the top 10.

Another bright point in this year’s report is that worry and stress went down in the pandemic’s second year. “For the young, life satisfaction has fallen, while for those over 60, it has risen,” according to the report.

John Helliwell, one of the report’s three founding editors, admits that there’s a sense that crises bring out either the best     9     the worst in societies.

“But in general, people are too worried about the goodwill in the societies they live in, so when the actual disaster       10     (happen) and they see other people responding positively to help others, it will raise their opinion both of themselves and of their fellow citizens,” Helliwell said.