6 . Which is more important for parents, making more money to give the kids a better life or spending more time with them? It is a problem for parents and it is not easy to decide. A new study shows that today’s parents are spending more time with their children than parents in the past. According to the study, today’s college-educated mothers spend about 21.2 hours a week taking care of their children. But women with less education spend about 15.9 hours. Before 1995, it was only 12 hours.

Dads are spending more time on ball games. Before 1995, fathers with college educations only spent about 4.5 hours a week playing with their children. Today, it increases to 9.6 hours a week. For fathers with high school education, the time goes up from 3.7 hours to 6.8.

These days, parents don’t care more about the cleaning or the cooking. They are trying their best to spend time with their families. As for the kids, they don’t mind how much time their parents spend with them. They just want to enjoy the time their parents do be with them.

So, take part in the kids’ activities when you are with them, such as helping with homework or playing soccer with them.

1. How long do college-educated mothers spend taking care of their kids a week?

A．About 9.6 hours.	B．About 12 hours.
C．About 15.9 hours.	D．About 21.2 hours.

2. What can we know from the new study?

A．Women with less education spend about12 hours staying with their kids,

B．Mothers in the past spent less time staying with kids than mothers these days.

C．Mothers with college education are lazier than those with less education.

D．Dads spend more time staying with their kids than mothers do.

3. How long did fathers with college education spend with kids a month before 1995?

A．About 4.5 hours.	B．Less than 9 hours.
C．About 13.5 hours.	D．About 18 hours.

4. What do kids care about according to the text?

A．They care about how much money their parents can make.

B．They care about how much time their parents spend with them.

C．They care if their parents are really with them.

D．They care if their parents can give them a better life.

7 . Keeping animals safe on the road

Roadkill is not a rare sight when driving down most highways and sometimes also on roadways in cities.     1    . A recent study has measured, for the first time, the damage that can be caused to animals in urban areas on China’s fast-developing road network.

    2    . Li Zhongqiu and his team from Nanjing University’s School of Life looked at the problem in cities, where roadkill could have an even larger impact.

They chose Nanjing as the study subject, where there are more than 9,700 kilometers of paved roads. A total of nine roads were chosen for the research, including three national highways.     3    . The researchers then monitored the roads every two weeks over a year. The team recorded a total of 293 individual roadkill cases. Birds made up nearly half the total, making them the most susceptible (易受影响的) group to roadkill.     4    . “This may be owing to the large number of stray (流浪的) cats and dogs in urban areas,” Li said. “Abandoned pets are more likely to wander into traffic.” Also, there are a large number of black birds in East China, and they can be attracted by flies or other insects, leading to further accidents.     5    . This may be owing to the fact that some warm-blooded animals have to go out and search for food during these times when food is hard to find. “Roadkill has resulted in the decline (下降) of urban animal populations and must be taken seriously,” Li said. The researchers also call on policymakers to put forward related traffic rules and animal protection rules, such as speed limits and traffic controls.

A．You may not feel good about seeing roadkill

B．The object is to educate people about road safety

C．The length of the roads combined was over 224.27 kilometers

D．It refers to animals being hit by cars or other vehicles by accident.

E．Cats, dogs and blackbirds were the three commonly killed animals

F．In the past, research in China focused on roadkill in nature reserves

G．Roadkill incidents are more likely to happen in November and January

8 . With the rising cost of living, a growing number of adult children are moving back in with their parents. While lots of parents will enjoy the chance to spend more time with their grown-up children, having them move back in can also cause some problems.     1     ?

Sit down and talk

While the situation is clearly hard for the parents, Counselling Directory member Octavia Landy advises them to take a step back. “     2     ,” says Landy. “Talk with your kids. Parents need to find out: How are they? What would they like to happen in their life?”

    3    

When things get heated, it can be easy to just storm off and not really hear each other out. But every effort needs to be made, on both sides, to properly listen. “As parents, you need a cool head,” suggests Landy. “Bring the conversation back to the matter at hand, and listen to your kids.”

Set clear boundaries (界限)

“Boundaries and communication lie at the heart of this difficult situation,” says Landy. “At the moment, it feels as if no boundaries will lead to a sense of anger on your part. Consider what your boundaries look like.     4     . It’s important to check in with your kids on how things are going.”

Ask yourself what you need to feel happy in your home

Landy suggests parents ask themselves what they need to feel happy and safe in their home—and the answer might be a difficult one to come to terms with. “It might mean that you need to ask your kids to leave,” she says. “    5    .”

A．So, what can parents do

B．Put everything in good order

C．Be prepared to listen patiently

D．Are they cheered by the news from home

E．You’d better set a proper time for a family meeting

F．Work together to set basic rules and a timeline to be reviewed

G．If you fear your kids get homeless, then address these fears directly

9 . For those of us who grew up watching Star Trek, exploring space has been about discovering strange new worlds. And there are plenty of worlds to explore in time, but we still need major technological advancements to reach planets that are light years away.

What we are doing in space today is providing unbelievable benefits right now, right here on Earth. From space, we can monitor, manage and care for our planet. Satellite-based sensors show us the short- and long-term effects of human activity on our environment. Many companies are using their interest in space to help solve problems here, from using hyperspectral imaging(高光谱成像), which enable us to map vegetation(植被) and rain forests, to microsatellites that provide global connectivity for the network of things.

My company, OneWeb, is focusing on what I believe is one of the world’s most important issues: the need for equal access to the Internet. The Internet has become our economic lifeblood. And yet, nearly half of the world’s population doesn’t have Internet access. Space is playing a key role in bridging this digital divide. OneWeb is launching 1,980 satellites to help bring Internet access to people everywhere, and our first production satellites are already flying in space and have shown very high download speeds.

Fiber and cable Internet access technologies already cover most financially viable(可行的) major cities. Similarly, these regions will also be the first to be served with 5G. Poor communities are the last to get connected, and without connectivity, those communities have no chance to lift themselves from poverty. OneWeb’s satellites will reach every community in the world and enable equal access to the Internet for the world’s less developed places.

Fifty years from the day when man first walked on the moon, we are still only approaching the possible. There will be tens of thousands of new satellites, space stations and factories in the coming years to bring advancements in communications, scientific research, monitoring the earth, exploring space and more. This is exciting, but we must take action carefully.

1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?

A．Benefits space exploration can bring to us.

B．Problems space exploration leads to.

C．Steps of space exploration requires.

D．Equipment space exploration needs.

2. What is OneWeb aiming to do?

A．Increase download speeds.

B．Narrow the gap in Internet learning.

C．Help people set up and maintain a website.

D．Enable people to make use of the Internet equally.

3. What can be inferred from the text?

A．More than six decades ago, man first walked on the moon.

B．More than half of the world’s people have no access to the Internet.

C．OneWeb’s satellites will make it possible for most people to be served with 5G.

D．Without the Internet, poor communities can hardly help themselves out of poverty.

4. What will the writer probably continue to write about in the following paragraph?

A．The risks of furthering space exploration.

B．The value of setting up space stations.

C．The way we could monitor our earth.

D．The features of microsatellites.

10 . The first wave of concerns over artificial intelligence(AI)in 2023 appeared soon after New Year’s Day when classrooms reopened and schools from Seattle to Paris started blocking ChatGPT, a powerful software based on AI large language models, because teenagers were using it to do their homework.

The AI large language models behind such products as ChatGPT work by repeatedly guessing the next word in a sentence after having “learned” the rules from a huge amount of/human-written works. Although they often get facts wrong, their answers appear so natural that Keven, their inventors begin to worry about their possible use for spreading false information.

People became more worried when various AI products started to create not just texts but novel images, music and human voices, which threatened the livelihoods of anyone who writes, draws or sings for a living. It led to strikes by Hollywood writers and actors and legal challenges from artists and bestselling authors. Some of the most respected scientists even warned that the technology’s unchecked progress was possibly threatening human existence. “In the longer term, they might manage our attention,” pioneering AI scientist Fei Fei Lisaid. “They would tell us which video to watch, which book to read or whose communication to respond as AI technology’s abilities improve rapidly. They could be a very good assistant, but also with really big risks.”

Li hoped that 2023 is going to be a year for people to think about what Al is, how to use it and what the effects are — all the good, the bad and the ugly.

“It’s easy to forget that they are not the first wave of AI products. Computer vision techniques developed by Li and other scientists have helped sort through a huge database of photos to recognize objects and individual faces and guide self-driving cars. Speech recognition advances have made voice assistants like Siri and Alexa a normal thing in many people’s lives,” said Tom Gruber, co-founder of Siri Inc.

1. Why did schools try to stop their students from using ChatGPT?

A．ChatGPT often got facts wrong in the class.

B．Students spent too much time on the software.

C．ChatGPT helped students spread false information.

D．Students used the software to cheat at their homework.

2. What are the second and third paragraphs mainly about?

A．AI’s training costs.	B．ATs amazing abilities.
C．AI’s possible threats.	D．AI’s fast developments.

3. What would Tom Gruber most probably suggest people do?

A．Think carefully about AI’s impact.	B．Welcome AI technology
C．Do use ChatGPT more carefully.	D．Upgrade ChatGPT in time.

4. Where is the text most probably taken from?

A．A news report.	B．A guide book to a software.
C．A product review.	D．An introduction to a person.