1 . The Internet is a global network, which allows digital information to travel around the world. Let’s view some most popular uses of the Internet.

Information search

We search for information every day.     1    . Search engines then provide us with valuable and useful data, information and knowledge at any time, instantly upon our request.

    2    

One of the most significant and popular use of the Internet is email. Email is a common thing that a majority of people check after they have logged (登录) on to the Internet.     3    . Besides the email, today, there are many other online tools and online chat software apps for audio and video chat.

Online shopping

    4    . In the beginning, many people didn’t have trust in the e-commerce website, but that has changed over time. Now we can order anything like clothing, fashion accessories, machines, books, technology things and so on without visiting physical stores.

Education

The Internet plays an important role in effectively shaping today’s school education process. It has the availability and the quality of learning for many students. They can study what they want and whenever they feel the most productive.     5    .

We are witnessing the rise of informal education where college graduates have online access and can sharpen their skills and get faster progress in a specific field.

A．Communication

B．Online bill payments

C．Our habits of buying things have changed a lot

D．They can also attend classes or take exams online at home

E．It is done by typing a question for which we seek specific information

F．Many other personal businesses create their online shops every day

G．The email has enabled easier and faster communication between people

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

4 . Have you ever wondered why most store-bought tomatoes are so tasteless? Does it relate to climate change or soils? The answer has something to do with farmers’ income: Tomato farmers care about output, and the genetic variants (基因变体) associated with output are not associated with tasty tomato flavor, a new study finds.

Is it possible to bring back the rich, sweet flavor of the tomato? To find out, Denise Tieman, research assistant at the University of Florida, explored which genes are associated with tomatoes’ taste.

In an attempt to fix supermarket tomatoes, Florida researchers looked at 398 different types and identified the chemical and genetic makeup of each one. They had participants taste-test 101 varieties, cross-referencing the participants’ favorites with their research findings. They ended up with 13 genetic compositions that are most likely responsible for giving tomatoes their flavor. The researchers then measured the content of the 13 flavor compositions in each of the tomatoes, and identified about250 genetic loci (遗传基因座) that controlled tomato flavor. And the researchers also wanted to explore why supermarket tomatoes have no taste.

It turns out that for industrial growers, it all comes down to priorities (优先性). North American consumers want year-round availability, so farmers started raising their plants for qualities like firmness, shelf life, high output and disease resistance, says Tieman. “Not to discount any of that because it’s all important. We want to have tomatoes in the grocery stores year round and be able to ship them long distances when it’s winter in the north. If they have to be shipped from Florida or Mexico, you need to have all those features.” But as growers planted tomatoes to meet those priorities, the flavor gradually disappeared.

Going back to the old varieties is not an option—at least, not for grocery stores. But the researchers believe that there is hope for a growable tomato that’s both long-lasting and flavorful in about three to five years.

1. What is the main reason for the tasteless store-bought tomatoes?

A．They get little energy from the soil.

B．They are affected by climate change.

C．Tomato farmers prioritize output over flavor.

D．Consumers demand tomatoes with a longer shelf life.

2. What did the researchers mainly do to research the taste of tomatoes?

A．They conducted a survey on tomato consumers.

B．They measured the size and firmness of tomatoes.

C．They analyzed the genetics of different tomato varieties.

D．They interviewed tomato farmers about their growing methods.

3. What’s the researchers’ attitude to developing new tasty tomato varieties?

A．Reserved.

B．Positive.

C．Objective.

D．Dismissive.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．How Are Tasty Tomatoes Produced?

B．New Tomato Varieties to Be Released

C．Risks of Too Much Tomato Consumption

D．Why Do Store Tomatoes Lose Their Flavor?

6 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

It’s the Saturday, 1:00 am, and Stormy, my dog, and I were going on a pre-dawn bird-watching adventure. The weatherman predicted fog, but as we hit the road, it’s clear. Along our journey, I stopped at a petrol station, ensuring Stormy was safely locked in the truck.

“Stormy, hang tight,” I whispered, stepping out into the night air.

Back on the highway, as we were near the marshlands, a heavy fog began to swallow everything. At a sharp bend, my truck hit soft ground, and I lost control. “Oh, no!” Panic set in as the vehicle slid off the road with a bang, falling down a steep bank and into the water.

In the strange silence that followed, I was floating inside the car, gently carried downstream by the canal. “Come on, door,” I said, switching uselessly at the handle. It won’t move; the electrical system had shorted out due to the water. “I’ve got a glass breaker,” I reminded myself, reaching for the tool in the center part.

With each failed attempt to break the window — the glass bouncing back at me — I felt a growing sense of urgency. Water moved over the floorboards, cooling my feet. “Stormy, stay calm,” I said, lying down to kick at the window with all my strength. But my efforts only met resistance.

As the water level rose threateningly close to the ceiling, fear clawed at my heart. In a last effort, I dived behind the seat for my toolbox. “Got to find something solid.” My hands brushed against the cold metal toolbox, then the fire extinguisher (灭火器). “This might work.”

“Here goes everything,” I thought, holding the extinguisher and hitting it against the window. The impact resounded through the car, but the glass holds firm. “Not yet,” I begged under my breath, as the extinguisher bounced harmlessly away.

The water kept rising, and so did my fear. A voice inside me screamed to give up, but another thought pierced through — Stormy. “For Stormy, I can’t quit.” Just then, I sensed a pause in the water’s rise.

An unspoken sound said, “You have more time. What will you do?”

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

“I’ll fight harder,” I promised aloud.

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Exhausted, we caught the now flooded vehicle, waiting for daylight.

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7 . People don’t usually become homeless suddenly. It’s a chutes-and-ladders (阶梯状) process. A large new statewide study takes a closer look at the period just before homelessness, by asking a representative sample of almost 3,200 homeless people from all over the state about the dilemma they fell into, and what would have helped.

Some of the findings were unsurprising: in the state with the nation’s largest homeless population, people are unhoused because they don’t have enough money, or have experienced trauma (创伤). A quarter of all survey participants had experienced family violence, and their lives and health get much worse once homelessness strikes. But some of the report’s data run counter to popular perception: for example, most homeless people are not from out of state, contrary to the common belief that homeless people move to California for the weather and policies.

The study’s lead author, Dr. Margot Kushel, says there’s a “doom loop” of homelessness, where people have jobs that don’t cover living expenses, so they lose their homes, and the resulting instability makes it harder to keep their jobs.

Kushel points to really exciting models of homelessness prevention, where in low-income communities, they’ll have subway and bus posters saying, “Are you at risk of becoming homeless? Call us.” These programs might offer anything from cash to finding landlords or roommates. “What was really striking to us was how little money people thought it would have taken,” says Kushel. Most participants suggested that less than $500 a month, or a onetime payment of $10,000, would have kept them housed. Kushel cautions that the vast majority of mental health issues among the study participants are anxiety and depression. It’s likely that the lack of resources results in those conditions, rather than the illness causing the homelessness. “The driving issue is clearly the deep poverty,” Kushel says.

1. What does the study focus on?

A．The homeless’ nationalities.	B．The current situation of the homeless.
C．Homeless people’s previous experiences.	D．The solution to wiping out homelessness.

2. Which of the followings surprised the researchers?

A．Deep poverty gives rise to homelessness.

B．Most participants have experienced domestic violence.

C．The majority of homeless people are native Californian.

D．Homeless people move to California for the weather and policies.

3. What does the underlined phrase “doom loop” probably mean in paragraph 3?

A．A terrible circle.	B．A different situation.
C．An improved condition.	D．An unpredictable future.

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．Anxiety and depression caused homelessness.	B．People expected a very low charge of housing.
C．Homeless prevention exists in all communities.	D．The program offers accommodation free of charge.