1 . In much of the western United States, drought and access to fresh water is a critical issue. However, recently California came up with a novel solution. The state approved regulations that allow agencies to purify wastewater for drinking. This recycled wastewater may be consumed in homes, schools, and businesses.
As the population in California has exploded in recent decades, the state has struggled to meet demands for fresh water. Recycled wastewater will allow the state to increase access to the precious resource.
Recycled wastewater is not new to the state. It has previously been used in ice hockey rinks (冰球场), for crops, and to generate artificial snow. But now, water agencies will have the option to put recycled wastewater back into pipes for drinking. California is only the second state to allow purified wastewater to be consumed. The first was Colorado in 2022.
While the idea of drinking recycled wastewater may be off-putting, regulators spent more than a decade developing rules and regulations to ensure safety. Independent panels of scientists also reviewed the state’s rules around recycled wastewater consumption. All water will be treated for pathogens (病原体) and viruses before being available for consumption.
So far, the state’s plan has been met with approval from large water agencies. Many of them have plans to construct wastewater recycling plans over the next few years. In Southern California, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has set a goal aiming to produce 150 million gallons of direct and indirect recycled water per day. This water will be in the pipes of the 19 million people throughout the six counties that the agency serves.
Officials are aware that a certain amount of public convincing may still be necessary. However, they remain optimistic about the future of the project, reminding consumers that the water is safe, and that recycled water is already in use in California.
1. Why does California pass new regulations about recycled wastewater?| A．To ease the pressure of drought. | B．To increase the supply of fresh water. |
| C．To recycle the wastewater for industry. | D．To reduce the pollution of the wastewater. |
| A．Surprising. | B．Necessary. | C．Funny. | D．Awful. |
| A．The goal of wastewater recycling is hard to achieve. |
| B．The state’s plan will be conducted by water agencies. |
| C．Southern California will reduce its water production. |
| D．People in California tend to prefer recycled water. |
| A．Many people still disapprove of the project. |
| B．The public are optimistic about the project. |
| C．It will never be suitable to use recycled water. |
| D．The project is the only solution to water shortage. |
1. What are the speakers talking about?
| A．The jewelry. | B．A robbery. | C．A fact. |
| A．The computer. | B．The jewelry. | C．The fridge. |
| A．He has found some traces. |
| B．He is on the way back from Canada. |
| C．He has no idea what has happened. |
3 . Rising food prices have taken a big bite out of what Canadians are able to serve up for dinner but food economists say our ability to cope has been deteriorated by our common decline in cooking skills. “We are less able to cook than we were 30 or 40 years ago, and so it’s much more difficult for us to adapt our diet,” said Mike von Massow, an associate professor at the University of Guelph.
A 2010 federal government report called Improving Cooking and Food Preparation Skills, the most recent of its kind, said that all across the population, processed and pre-prepared foods have been permitted. “Related to this permission is the potential lack of transference of basic, traditional cooking and food preparation skills from parents to children and adolescents,” the report reads.
Moreover, the quality of pre-prepared foods in the market remains uneven, with problems related to the lack of detailed labelling on such products, as well as difficulties in logistics and distribution.
Annie Belov, a 21-year-old student, has taught herself a lot about cooking since food prices started shooting up. “When the inflation (通货膨胀) wasn’t as bad, I was constantly eating out,” said Belov. That might mean food on campus or picking up a prepared item at Safeway when the price was still around $5, she said.
Belov now often makes dishes such as Caesar salad, as well as hearty pasta salads that combine carbs with vegetables and a bit of chicken. Belov said she’s a lot more efficient in the kitchen thanks to building her skills through trial and error. “Now, definitely more than before, I can kind of look in the pantry or in the freezer and be like, ‘OK, yeah, I can make a meal quickly and easily.’”
It’s important to note, however, that cooking skills alone cannot solve the affordability problem, said Elaine Power. And in 2023, Food Banks Canada says food insecurity is rising with inflation and the high cost of living. So while cooking skills can better position people to feed themselves and their families as best they can in forced circumstances, “that doesn’t, and can’t, make up for income that is inadequate in the first place.”
1. Which is the closest in meaning to the underlined word in paragraph 1?| A．worsened. | B．interrupted. | C．puzzled. | D．upset. |
| A．Failing to attract diners. |
| B．The loss of cooking skills. |
| C．Difficulties in keeping its flavors. |
| D．Shortage of fresh ingredients. |
| A．She suffers a tough financial patch. |
| B．She ends up showing a love of cooking. |
| C．She used to dine out at a restaurant. |
| D．She receives cooking education in schools. |
| A．Lower cost of living. | B．More cooking at home. |
| C．Food security status. | D．Increased income. |
4 . Smart phones provide a palm (手掌)-size window to the world, enabling us to do almost anything at the touch of a button. Smart homes look after themselves, and virtual meeting s mean that for many, time spent commuting is a thing of the past.
So we should have more free time. Time which is now spent sleeping, relaxing or simply doing nothing-right? We recently interviewed 300 people across Europe to understand how they used digital devices in day-to-day life. This research showed that people want to avoid empty periods of time in their lives, so they fill those periods performing tasks, some of which wouldn’t be possible without technology.
Whether it was waiting for a bus, waking in the morning, or lying in bed at night, our research reported that time which would previously be “empty” was now filled with brain training apps, creating lists of things they should do or try based on their social media feed, and other life admin.
On the face of it some of these tasks may seem like examples of tech saving us time. In theory, online banking should mean I have more time because I no longer need to go to the bank in my lunch break. However, our research suggests that this is not the case.
If the idea that you have more time than ever before is making you choke on your coffee, you are not alone. There is growing evidence that while digital technology may help us to save some time, we end up using that time to do more and more things. For many people, it is no longer enough to simply eat dinner, watch TV or maybe do an exercise class. Instead, in an attempt to avoid wasting time, these activities are performed while also browsing the web in search of the ingredients for a more perfect life and trying to develop a sense of achievement.
It seems that people still see going for a walk or actually being with friends as more valuable than being online. Maybe if we put down the phone a little more, we would have the time to actually cook those recipes we watch online.
1. What conclusion can be drawn in the first paragraph?| A．Technology makes our lives easier. |
| B．We can’t live well without modern technology. |
| C．Virtual meeting is a thing of the past. |
| D．A smart home offers you luxury and convenience. |
| A．It is an essential means of relaxation. |
| B．It does good to perform daily tasks. |
| C．It is secretly stolen by technology. |
| D．It forces people to do more work. |
| A．It’s not too late to get free time back. |
| B．Lunch break can be saved by online banking. |
| C．Doing little or nothing is sometimes OK. |
| D．Technology leads to a denser form of life. |
| A．Students in on-line learning. |
| B．Employees working in the bank. |
| C．People relying on digital devices. |
| D．Researchers in the technological lab. |
5 . We are all aware of the damaging pollution that’s created by driving petrol and diesel (柴油) vehicles. Many of the world’s cities are blocked with traffic, creating fumes containing gases such as nitrogen oxides. The solution for a cleaner, greener future could be electric vehicles. But how optimistic should we be? There was much excitement last year when the UK government announced it will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. But is that easier said than done?
The road to global traffic being totally electric is still a long way off. Currently, battery life is an issue — a fully charged battery won’t take you as far as a full tank of petrol. There are also limited numbers of charging points to plug an EV into. Of course, technology is always improving. Some of the biggest tech companies, like Google and Tesla, are spending huge amounts of money developing electric cars. And most of the big car manufacturers are now making them too.
Colin Herron, a consultant on low-carbon vehicle technology, told the BBC: “The big leap forward will come with solid state batteries, which will appear first in mobile phones and laptops before they progress to cars.” These will charge more quickly and give cars a bigger range. Cost is another issue that may discourage people from switching to electric power. But some countries offer incentive, such as cutting prices by reducing import taxes, and not charging for road tax and parking. Some also provide exclusive lanes for electric cars to be driven on, overtaking traditional cars which might be stuck in jams.
These kinds of measures have made Norway the country with the most electric cars per capita (人均) at more than thirty electric cars per 1000 inhabitants. But Colin Herron warns that “electric motoring” doesn’t mean a zero-carbon future. “It’s emission-free motoring, but the car has to be built, the battery has to be built, and the electricity does come from somewhere.” Maybe it’s time to think about making fewer journeys or using public transport.
1. Which statement can we infer from the question at the end of Paragraph 1?| A．Electric vehicles may not solve the traffic problems. |
| B．Probably it is hard to procure a greener future by means of electric vehicles. |
| C．We should not be too optimistic about the future. |
| D．It’s not a good idea to replace petrol vehicles with electric ones. |
| A．Improvements. | B．Drawbacks. | C．Communications. | D．Bonuses. |
| A．Putting solid-state batteries in electric cars first will be a “great leap forward”. |
| B．There are four obstacles on the road to global traffic being totally electric. |
| C．Electric cars might not get stuck in traffic jams in the future. |
| D．Electric motoring will create a zero-carbon future. |
| A．Total Electric Traffic: a Long Way to Go. |
| B．Electric Power or Petrol: a Tough Decision to Make. |
| C．Petrol and Diesel Vehicles: a Main Source of Gases. |
| D．Electric Vehicles: a Road to a Modern Society. |
6 . Flip-flops (人字拖) are the most popular type of shoe in the world. They’re comfortable, they’re easy to wear and they’re inexpensive. Unfortunately, most of them are also terrible for the environment. In Kenya, this is a huge problem, and around 90 tons of flip-flops wash up on its shores annually.
In the late 1990s, when Julie Church was working as a marine (海洋的) conservationist in Nairobi, she found an entire beach “just covered in flip-flops”. Around that time, Church also noticed children making toys out of the thousands of flip-flops that had made their way to the country’s beaches. She began working with the kids’ mothers to encourage them to not just collect the shoes, but also turn them into artworks. The families could then sell this art at local markets, providing another means of income.
The idea took off, and in 1998, Church founded Ocean Sole as a nonprofit. This year alone, the organization has upcycled more than 750,000 flip-flops and collected more than 47,000 kilos of waste. Additionally, Ocean Sole directly impacts more than 1,000 Kenyans, many of whom work as flip-flop collectors or artists, and contributes 10% to 15% of overall income to career and educational programs for residents, as well as beach cleanup and conservation efforts.
Ocean Sole is continuously growing and looking to keep waste off Kenya’s beaches and out of its water. When it comes to growing the Ocean Sole organization, Church has three “mantras (真言)”: trust to trade, trade to awareness, and awareness to protection. Church would like to put together toolkits and other resources to bring this concept to other places around the world that have similar problems. Ocean Sole is also encouraging companies to use more eco-friendly materials when making flip-flops. “I think it’s time for us to start looking for an alternative shoe, or an alternative material, to fit that kind of fashion need,” Church has said. “Our products need to develop.”
1. What was the main reason for founding the nonprofit?| A．To help Kenyans get healthy. |
| B．To develop children’s hands-on skills. |
| C．To protect Kenya’s marine environment. |
| D．To provide children with artistic flip-flops. |
| A．It is growing in a controlled way. |
| B．It has a smaller impact than expected. |
| C．It is running for profit since founded. |
| D．It has achieved many things with one move. |
| A．Lead the fashion trend. | B．Advance their products. |
| C．Practice her three “mantras”. | D．Develop global cooperation. |
| A．Environmental challenges in Kenya. |
| B．Flip-flops are out of date in Kenya. |
| C．Ocean Sole turns flip-flops into art. |
| D．Ocean Sole develops a new national art. |
1. 支持的理由；
2. 反对的原因；
3. 你的观点。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Can students bring cell phones into campus?
With the increasing popularity of smartphones, more and more students bring them to school. However, the debate over whether students should be allowed to bring phones to school continues.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
8 . The 2023 EF English Proficiency (水平) Index (EPI) that measures English language ability worldwide shows a worrying problem about English language proficiency. The index is based on test results from 2.2 million people in 113 countries.
Results were reported for the first time in 2015. Since then, the English proficiency of young people has decreased by 89 points. The EPI defines young people as being 18 to 20 years of age, and it notes that they are mostly stable with big decreases in a few large countries. India, Indonesia and Mexico showed the largest ability decreases among youth.
The report noted that the decrease appears to have taken place when the COVID-19 pandemic impacts normal education. There has been a decrease in Mexico for nearly 10 years. However, working adults, about 26 years old and older, have been improving their English since 2015. It is still widely acknowledged that the value of a shared language is most recognized in the workplace. English creates possibilities for individuals and productivity for organizations.
Results also show a difference between men and women, which is called a gender gap. Men’s English ability has improved by 14 points since 2015, while women’s has decreased by 19 points. The lack of women in international jobs is one reason for the gender gap. But the gender gap among those aged 18 to 25 might demonstrate a problem caused by educational systems themselves or a social problem schools are failing to address.
There are different opinions about why the decrease exists. Many people think artificial intelligence (or AI) tools could also be a key reason. Jeannie Tse is a country manager at EF Hong Kong and Macau. He thinks that while AI has changed the way young people work and learn, the importance of schools, teachers and face-to-face instruction remains. “I don’t believe that AI can completely replace language learning, but educators can use AI to enhance language learning methods,” said Jeannie Tse.
1. Why are working adults trying to improve their English?| A．To increase their income and knowledge. |
| B．To be involved in better working environment. |
| C．To obtain more chances and better working efficiency. |
| D．To create a harmonious working environment for themselves. |
| A．Most women don’t like international jobs. |
| B．Educational systems contribute to the gender gap in English proficiency. |
| C．Women’s English proficiency decreases with age. |
| D．There widely exists the phenomenon of discrimination against women. |
| A．Objective. | B．Positive. | C．Uncertain. | D．Uncaring. |
| A．Young People’s Attitudes towards English Vary |
| B．English Learning Has Become a Burden Worldwide |
| C．Results from a Report Show some Alarming Problems |
| D．Young People’s English Language Ability Is Decreasing |
9 . We are encountering real-world examples of how AI can harm human relations. As digital assistants such as Alexa or Siri become popular, we become accustomed to talking to them as though they were alive. Writing in these pages several years ago, Judith Shulevitz described how some of us are starting to treat them as friends and therapists. Shulevitz herself says she confesses (忏悔) things to Google Assistant that she wouldn’t tell her husband. If we grow more comfortable talking to our devices about our secrets, what happens to our human marriages and friendships? Designers and programmers typically create devices whose responses make us feel better—but may not help us be self-reflective or think over painful truths. As Al goes deeper into our lives, we must face the possibility that it will prevent our emotions and deep human connects.
Besides, we will fight with some other challenges. The age of driverless cars, after all, is upon us. These vehicles promise to considerably reduce the exhaustion and distraction that put human drivers in danger, thus preventing accidents. But what other effects might they have on people? Driving is a very modern kind of social interaction, requiring high levels of cooperation. I worry that driverless cars, by taking away from us an occasion to exercise this ability, could contribute to its decline.
Not only will these vehicles be programmed to take over driving duties and hence to remove from humans the power to make moral judgments (for example, about which pedestrian to hit when a crash is unavoidable) , they will also affect humans with whom they’ve had no direct contact. For instance, drivers who have steered awhile alongside an autonomous vehicle traveling at a steady, changeless speed might drive less attentively, thus increasing their likelihood of accidents once they’ve moved to a part of the highway occupied only by human drivers. Alternatively, experience may reveal that driving alongside autonomous vehicles travelling in perfect accordance with (按照) traffic laws actually improves human performance.
Either way, we should be careful to launch new forms of AI without first taking such unexpected social effects into account. We must apply the same effort that we apply to the hardware and software that make self-driving cars possible to managing AI’s potential effects on those outside the car. After all, we install brake lights on the back of your car not just, or even primarily, for your benefit, but for the sake of the people behind you.
1. What can be inferred about human relationships from the first paragraph?| A．AI will lead to distant inter-personal relationships. |
| B．We will feel comfortable speaking to others online. |
| C．AI will enable people to communicate more with others. |
| D．We will be more self-reflective in interaction thanks to Al. |
| A．drivers’ interaction with the cars |
| B．drivers’ exhaustion and distraction |
| C．our ability to cooperate with others while driving |
| D．our ability to deal with emergencies while driving |
| A．They may be better at making more judgments than human drivers. |
| B．They need to vary their speed to make contact with human drivers. |
| C．They may make human drivers in other cars drive more safely. |
| D．They need to force human drivers to concentrate in the car. |
| A．To present the challenges brought by AI. |
| B．To explain the reason why AI may harm human relations. |
| C．To put forward how to solve the unexpected effect of AI. |
| D．To discuss the advantages and disadvantages of driverless cars. |
South Koreans have enjoyed their first close-up look of new baby giant pandas at a name-revealing ceremony that is also
What to name the twin sisters was widely discussed among netizens after they were born on July 7 in theme park Everland. The names were
The baby pandas,
Everland said it would monitor the twins’ health
