It was a typical Monday morning. My form teacher, Mrs Tan, was going through our exam questions. I pot down some notes and did my corrections.
“Riiiiiiinnnngg!” A high-pitched sound pierced through the air like a knife. Covering my ears in annoyance, realization dawned on me. It was the fire alarm! While I encouraged others to remain as cool as a cucumber, it was in vain. My classmates were all screaming and running around like crazy.
“Calm down, everyone! Please queue up in an orderly manner! We have practised this in the fire drills!” instructed Mrs Tan , sounding anxious.
The class ignored her and continued screaming at the top of their voices. One student even broke down in a fit of panic. I rushed around the class, asking all my fellow students to settle down while waiting for further instructions.
A serious voice soon announced from the speakers in every class, drawing our attention. “All students are to follow their teachers and evacuate(撤离)the building in a calm and organized manner. The fire may have been caused by a gas explosion in the canteen; do not go near there!”
Mrs Tan finally managed to calm the panicky class down. In a strict voice, she told us that we were to use the evacuation route to Gate 6. She arranged the pupils quickly in neat straight rows and led us out of the classroom.
Upon taking my first step out of the classroom, I took a deep breath instantly. The surroundings were hazy(模糊的) as thick smoke came from the canteen. Choking, I unconsciously covered my nose. To make matters worse, the ash from the smoky surroundings hurt my eyes. Coughing anxiously, I tried to see my teacher in the lead, but the air was too hazy for me to see anything clearly. Within less than a minute, I lost sight of my class and was left alone.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
A wave of anxiety washed over me.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Just then, the figure of Mrs Tan waving a torchlight appeared from the smoke.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Demographic changes, such as aging populations and declining birth rates, pose challenges as well as offer opportunities for industries and countries. To overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities, especially to achieve long-term economic sustainability, economies need to enhance policies promoting innovations.
Now many countries in East Asia are facing the aging population and declining working-age population problem. Compared with other advanced countries, Japan encountered the population aging problem at a slightly earlier stage, starting in the mid-1990s. As Japan’s percentage of elderly population to the total population increased, it impacted the country’s economy, leading to a contraction in domestic demand and decline in both production and consumption, and restricting the growth of economy.
Some innovative companies have actively increased outward FDI (Foreign Direct Investment), providing cost advantages from inexpensive overseas labor to maintain their cost competitiveness. However, the global economy is facing the challenge of declining trade owing to the protectionism practiced by certain countries. Consequently, the chances of boosting growth through outward FDI may be limited.
Developing artificial intelligence is another solution to the negative impacts of the demographic changes. AI and robotics will play a crucial role in stimulating productivity and innovation by making payment for the decline in the working-age population, and the following increase in productivity will in turn raise the demand for labor by creating new employment opportunities.
AI, robotics and other advanced technologies give rise to new tasks within their fields and across other sectors. Therefore, it is necessary to employ cooperation policies to support corporations that promote innovations by increasing investment in research and development, facilitating the growth of new companies, and building a perfect system to protect intellectual properties. Since AI and robotics may replace certain jobs, it is essential to address the potential challenges they may create in the labor market and work out strategies to ensure a balanced and comprehensive transition.
1. What do we know about demographic changes from the first two paragraphs?| A．There is no need to worry since the changes offer opportunities. |
| B．The changes won’t affect the long-term economic sustainability. |
| C．Japan is the only advanced country facing the changes at present. |
| D．Things should be done to overcome the challenges posed by the changes. |
| A．Push. | B．Decrease. | C．Pause. | D．Change. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Intolerant. | C．Objective. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．Withdrawing investment in research and development. |
| B．Adopting policies that encourage innovation of corporations. |
| C．Establishing new companies to protect intellectual properties. |
| D．Creating potential labor market for more possible employments. |
3 . On a hot afternoon Rhiannon was driving her old van down the highway. As she
A medical student witnessed the accident and came to her
Luckily, Rhiannon was saved. Not for the bandage, she would not have
Rhiannon also had a message for the other
| A．rolled down | B．broke off | C．turned down | D．switched off |
| A．stick | B．grab | C．touch | D．possess |
| A．handle | B．engine | C．window | D．wheel |
| A．Consequently | B．Automatically | C．Frequently | D．Slowly |
| A．awake | B．astonished | C．unconscious | D．crazy |
| A．vision | B．action | C．rescue | D．mind |
| A．bandaging | B．curing | C．pressing | D．uncovering |
| A．Without delay | B．Out of sympathy | C．For certainty | D．In despair |
| A．tidying | B．removing | C．collecting | D．checking |
| A．suffered | B．struggled | C．stayed | D．survived |
| A．searched | B．browsed | C．received | D．posted |
| A．guidance | B．gesture | C．expression | D．encouragement |
| A．tireless | B．faultless | C．nameless | D．speechless |
| A．apology | B．application | C．invitation | D．appreciation |
| A．peers | B．strangers | C．relatives | D．fellows |
4 . Last year, 138,000 San Francisco residents used Airbnb, a popular app designed to connect home renters and travelers. It’s a striking number for a city with a population of about 850,000, and it was enough for Airbnb to win a major victory in local elections, as San Francisco voters struck down a debatable rule that would have placed time restrictions and other regulations on short-term rental services.
The company fiercely opposed the measure, Proposition F, with a nearly $10 million advertising campaign. It also contacted its San Franciscan users with messages urging them to vote against Proposition F.
Most people think of Airbnb as a kind of couch-surfing app. The service works for one-night stays on road trips and longer stays in cities, and it often has more competitive pricing than hotels. It’s a textbook example of the “sharing economy”, but not everyone is a fan.
The app has had unintended consequences in San Francisco. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported last year, a significant amount of renting on Airbnb is not in line with the company’s image: middle-class families putting up a spare room to help make ends meet. Some users have taken advantage of the service, using it to turn their multiple properties into vacation rentals or even full-time rentals. Backers of Proposition F argued that this trend takes spaces off the conventional, better-regulated housing market and contributes to rising costs.
“The fact is, widespread abuse of short-term rentals is taking much needed housing off the market and harming our neighborhoods,” said ShareBetter SF, a group that supported Proposition F. Hotel unions have protested the company’s practices in San Francisco and other cities, saying that it creates an illegal hotel system.
San Francisco is in the middle of a long-term, deeply rooted housing crisis that has seen the cost of living explode. Actually, explode is a generous term. The average monthly rent for an apartment is around $4, 000. Located on a narrow outcropping of land overlooking the bay, San Francisco simply doesn’t have enough space to accommodate the massive inflow of young, high-salaried tech employees flocking to Silicon Valley.
As the Los Angeles Times reported some San Francisco residents supported the measure simply because it seemed like a way to check a big corporation. Opponents of Proposition F countered that the housing crisis runs much deeper, and that passing the rule would have discouraged a popular service while doing little to solve the city’s existing problems.
1. What is the intention of Proposition F?| A．To place time limits in local election. | B．To set limits on short-term rental. |
| C．To strike down a controversial rule. | D．To urge users to vote against Airbnb. |
| A．It shrinks the living space of middle-class families. |
| B．Users are taken advantage of by the service financially. |
| C．It makes the house market more competitive. |
| D．It indirectly leads to high house rental price. |
| A．To show its sharp population increase. | B．To show its geographic characteristics. |
| C．To support high-salaried tech employees. | D．To explain its worsening housing crisis. |
| A．Objective. | B．Supportive. |
| C．Negative. | D．Uncaring. |
5 . Were it not for my mask’s rubber covering over my nose, no doubt his warm, fishy breath would have made the experience complete, as an adult male Atlantic grey seal (海豹) inspected me to the waters that bathe Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. This was a close and magical swimming-with-seals encounter filmed for BBC Two’s Springwatch four years ago.
My job is to get people to love and connect with nature, but the experience still left me feeling both excited and conflicted. Is it possible that we get a little too close, and love nature a little too much? Certainly, for anyone working in wildlife media and tourism, the reality is that habitats and many species often can’t handle longtime close contact with humans.
Marine mammals they may be, but seals must regularly return to dry land, hauling (牵引) themselves out of the water to rest, digest, and reproduce. Haul-out sites are typically inaccessible beaches or rocky tiny islands after the tide falls away. These safe places become a terrifying drop when disturbed, particularly by walkers, dogs and boats full of wildlife tourists. When frightened, seals prefer escaping into shallow seas or, worse still, hard rocks, risking broken jaws or bones.
In Scotland in February 2021, a ban came into force that stopped the fisheries industry from shooting seals. Prior to this, seals in Scotland could be shot under licence. Seal groups and charities are revising their policies to no longer encourage people to seek out encounters with seals either in or out of the water, especially during the winter months when the grey seal pupping (产崽) season is in full swing.
No matter how much we love seals, remember they are terrified of us, so we really need to enjoy them from a distance. But that is not to say there can’t be a connection. Joining organised surveys helps monitor seals as well as the health of our waters. The marine mammals have much to deal with, including climate change, and we have a lot to learn from these envoys (使者) from the sea.
1. Why did the author film swimming-with-seals encounter four years ago?| A．To get people close to nature. | B．To inspect an Atlantic grey seal. |
| C．To challenge himself in the waters. | D．To promote BBC Two’s TV programme. |
| A．Contradictory. | B．Tolerant. | C．Uncertain. | D．Supportive. |
| A．To define the haul-out sites of seals. | B．To introduce the living habit of seals. |
| C．To prove humans’ disturbance to seals. | D．To present the safety problem facing seals. |
| A．Stopping shooting seals completely. |
| B．Leaving seals alone especially in winter. |
| C．Reducing the influence of climate change on seals. |
| D．Connecting with seals indirectly by protecting them. |
6 . Rising sea levels, extremes of weather and more droughts and floods will all destroy the world’s energy systems as global warming picks up its pace, a new report has found.
Energy companies are quite often cited as part of the problems of climate change, generating the lion’s share of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, amounting to around 60% of the total. But they will also suffer as global warming worsens.
Many large plants are particularly threatened by floods because they lack protection from sudden storms. Electricity distribution networks are also likely to be affected.
Christoph Frei, secretary general of WEC, said governments must play a key role in ensuring the world’s important infrastructure is protected. Climate change is certain to affect the energy sector. We need powerful policy frameworks to unlock the long-term investments that are urgently needed to deliver the future we want. Leadership will be required at all levels.
Despite efforts to increase energy efficiency, the amount of energy used globally is still set to rise. But the effects of this could be reduced if companies spend more energy on renewable and low-carbon forms of energy.
However, there is little sign so far that energy companies around the world have got this message. Fossil fuels continues to dominate new investment in energy generation capacity, according to the International Energy Agency. Besides, we have failed in creating a global price for carbon emissions, which could help to reverse this trend.
Another key focus must be energy distribution networks, according to the report, as new technology can be used to make them “smart”, saving energy by distributing energy from generators to users in more intelligent ways.
“The time has come to get real about the challenges facing the energy sector,” Frei said.
Philipes Joubert, executive chairman of WEC’s global electricity initiative and former president of Alstom Power, said large companies are taking note. “Leading businesses in this sector are increasingly realising that business as usual is no longer acceptable.”
1. The energy companies are also sufferers because _________.| A．they are responsible for climate change |
| B．their greenhouse gas emissions make up 60% of the total |
| C．some sudden natural disasters have a great effect on them |
| D．the government provides no protection for them |
| A．Positive. | B．Concerned. | C．Optimistic. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．Energy Companies Are to Blame for Their Behaviours |
| B．Renewable and Low-carbon Forms of Energy Will Be a Trend |
| C．Energy Distribution Networks Must Be Smarter |
| D．The World’s Energy Systems Suffer from Climate Change |
7 . Many industries are facing a shortage of labour. Warehousing has grown rapidly. And robots are now indispensable, picking items off shelves and helping people pack an exponentially rising numbers of boxes. They are even beginning to walk slowly along some pavements, delivering goods or food right to people’s doors. Having more robots to boost productivity would be a good thing.
And yet many people fear that robots will destroy jobs. A paper in 2013 by economists at Oxford University was widely misinterpreted as meaning that 47% of American jobs were at risk of being automated.
In fact, concerns about mass unemployment because of robots are overblown. The evidence suggests robots will be ultimately beneficial for labour markets. A Yale University study found that an increase of one robot unit per 1, 000 workers boosted a company’s employment in Japan. Another study, by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues elsewhere, looked at Finnish firms and concluded that their use of advanced technologies led to increases in hiring.
For all that, the march of the robots will bring big changes to workplaces. The skills and firms that are rewarded will shift, too. But that need not be the disaster many fear. One supposed example of “bad automation” is self-service checkouts in supermarkets because they displace human workers. Checkout staff who retrain to help customers pick items from aisles may well find that dealing with people in need is more rewarding than spending all day scanning barcodes.
Certainly, some people will be on the losing end of change even as the robots make society as a whole better off. One lesson from the freewheeling globalization of the 1990s and 2000s is that the growth in trade that was overwhelmingly beneficial contributed to a political backlash (强烈抵制) because the losers felt left behind. That’s one more reason why firms and governments would do well to recognize the value of retraining and lifelong learning. As jobs change, workers should be helped to acquire new skills, including how to work with and manage the robots that will increasingly be their colleagues.
The potential gains from the robot revolution have just started. It won’t be the plot in some films where the robots fight against their human masters and cause mass unemployment.
1. What does the underlined word “indispensable” mean in Paragraph 1?| A．Essential. | B．Spare. | C．Detective. | D．Complicated. |
| A．To prove that robots will not be a disaster. |
| B．To remind us of the big changes at workplaces. |
| C．To illustrate checkout staff will scan barcodes slowly. |
| D．To tell firms the value of retraining and lifelong learning. |
| A．It will push losers to leave behind. |
| B．Robots may lead to mass unemployment. |
| C．People will help robots to gain new skills. |
| D．Robots and people may become co-workers. |
| A．Jobs will be at risk due to robots. |
| B．No evidence shows that robots will destroy jobs. |
| C．Lifelong learning will quickly boost mass employment. |
| D．People have benefited a lot from the robot revolution. |
The buzzwords (时髦术语) “brittle college students” have gone viral on the Internet recently among mounting concerns over
Such comments have caused heated discussions over the declining physical
“These young people were mainly diagnosed (诊断) with trauma, abdominal pain, chest tightness, hyperventilation, acute alcoholism, and cholecystitis. Most cases were caused by
A report pointed out that unhealthy lifestyle is common
9 . About ten years ago, logging into Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram would mostly show posts from friends and family in the order they were posted. Today, these platforms present a mix of content, tailored by algorithms (算法) to match users’ interests, whether it’s plants, sports, cats, or politics.
Kyle Chayka, a writer for The New Yorker, discusses this topic in his book, Filterworld. He explains that algorithms analyze user data to predict and influence what they will likely engage with. This means that instead of a simple, chronological feed, users encounter a dynamic stream, constantly adapting to their preferences. Chayka examines how these algorithmic recommendations control what we consume, from music and movies to food and travel destinations. He argues that this machine-driven selection process has turned us into passive consumers, making our preferences and tastes more similar.
Chayka points out that algorithms make us passive by always showing us content that we’re unlikely to click away from but won’t find too unexpected or challenging. This constant stream of recommendations reduces our exposure to diverse or challenging content, subtly shaping our preferences and behaviors.
Moreover, Chayka points out that algorithms also pressure content creators, like musicians and artists, to tailor their work to fit these digital platforms. For instance, musicians on Spotify or TikTok might focus on creating catchy hooks at the beginning of their songs to grab the listener’s attention.
Despite the strong presence of these algorithms, Chayka believes that regulation could reduce their influence. He suggests that if Meta, the parent company of Facebook, were required to separate its various services, like Instagram or WhatsApp, and make them compete with each other, it could give users more control and choice over their digital consumption.
In summary, the change from simple, time-ordered social. media posts to algorithm-driven content has a big impact on both the viewers and the creators, influencing what we see, hear, and even think. Chayka’s insights highlight the need for greater awareness and potentially more regulation in our increasingly digital world.
1. According to the text, how have social media platforms changed in the past ten years?| A．They show posts in a time-based order. |
| B．They prioritize posts from friends and family. |
| C．They make adjustments to satisfy users’ needs. |
| D．They provide more content to meet different needs. |
| A．They make users more active consumers. |
| B．They shape users’ preferences and behaviors. |
| C．They reduce the influence of content creators. |
| D．They expose users to diverse and challenging content. |
| A．By encouraging musicians to create longer songs. |
| B．By discouraging musicians from using catchy hooks. |
| C．By giving musicians more control and choice over their music. |
| D．By requiring musicians to create their work to fit the platforms. |
| A．Tech companies should have more departments. |
| B．Social media algorithms give content creators less opportunities. |
| C．Social media algorithms flatten our culture by making decisions for us. |
| D．Network platforms have increased the common recommendations for 10 years. |
10 . If you’ve noticed you’re getting less while your bill almost stays the same, it’s not just you. “Shrinkflation” — reducing a product’s size or quantity while keeping its price stable — is showing up in shops around the world.
As the global economy struggles with inflation (通货膨胀), rising material costs and higher human cost, consumers are bearing the increasing production prices. “Consumers are more likely to notice how their purchases are affecting their wallets than the amount of product lost when sizes decrease,” says Mark Stiving, the chief pricing educator at Impact Pricing. As a result, companies use shrinkflation to make consumers “less painful”.
Yet even as shrinkflation comes with inflation, the problem doesn’t end after inflation does. Once the new sizes are on the shelf, they are likely to stay that way. “Shoppers don’t have a choice. They have to adapt themselves to the changes,” adds Stiving. There are rare exceptions, but companies generally take the opportunity to get more profits.
For many companies, shrinkflation seems to be unavoidable. In food industry, for example, where customers are highly sensitive to price, lifting prices might make customers jump ship to another brand. But facing the continuous inflation, the companies have to do something to maintain their profits. Introducing small reduction in the size of their goods should enable them to improve profits while keeping their prices competitive. But once customers notice the change, they might feel fooled, leading to a loss of trust and confidence.
Some grocers are using stickers to remind shoppers of shrinkflation, but still, it’s a tough hit to the bottom line — especially because the price of products generally doesn’t fall as inflation does. Consumers may need to examine both price and size sensibly as they shop, and make sure they don’t fall into the trap of that super size on the shelf.
1. Why does shrinkflation make consumers “less painful” according to Stiving?| A．Shrinkflation reduces human cost. |
| B．Shrinkflation raises purchasing power. |
| C．Consumers become more aware of size. |
| D．Consumers experience little increase in cost. |
| A．The concerns of shoppers. | B．The interests of companies. |
| C．The impact of shrinkflation. | D．The phenomenon of inflation. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Objective. |
| C．Dismissive. | D．Unclear. |
| A．Draw a bottom line. | B．Put warning stickers. |
| C．Choose smaller packs. | D．Make a conscious decision. |
