1 . Why do farmers grow crops outside in fields when we can arrange them vertically (垂直地)? The idea of vertical farming was first proposed in 1999. It was seen as a way to save space, reduce air miles and transform old and abandoned buildings, like warehouses. In 2021, Fortune Business Insights valued the global vertical farming market at 3.47 billion dollars. Now, however, this industry is under threat, partly due to rising energy costs.

According to the magazine Science Focus, vertical farming gives ten times the yield (产量) of conventional outdoor farming. However, in order for crops to grow using this method, plants are placed in a controlled environment, grown not under the Sun, but under LED lights and watered with recycled water pumped on a closed-loop system (闭环系统).

Unfortunately, energy prices have risen across the globe. Therefore, this reliance on electricity has meant the last few years have not been easy for the industry. Cindy van Rijswick, from the Dutch research firm RaboResearch, has estimated that operational costs for a vertical farm are around 15% higher now compared to 18 months ago. Infarm, Europe’s largest vertical farming company, made around500 employees redundant (被裁员的) in November 2022 because they needed to downsize. They blamed higher operating costs due to energy increases as one reason for the layoffs.

Another issue related to the cost-of -living crisis and affecting vertical farming is the type of produce grown. This includes herbs such as basil, as well as salad leaves and leafy greens. Compared to traditionally farmed plants, like onions and carrots, these products tend to be more expensive, which could lead to reduced demand as consumers become more cautious about their spending.

So, it seems that a future with food grown under LED lights is looking less and less bright.

1. What is the feature of vertical farming?

A．Saving urban land and achieving zero emissions.

B．Demanding highly technical and complex control.

C．High energy consumption and low output value.

D．Making full use of sunlight and water resources.

2. How does the author develop his idea in Paragraph 3?

A．By making assumptions.

B．By criticizing a typical behaviour.

C．By listing specific data and facts.

D．By referring to a social phenomenon.

3. What can we infer from the text?

A．Vertical farming avoids climate and disaster impacts.

B．Vertical farming costs jumped due to higher energy prices.

C．Vertical farming grows high-value, cost-effective produce.

D．High yield protects vertical farming from market competition.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．Is This the End of Vertical Farming?	B．Is Vertical Farming Highly Efficient?
C．Challenges Industrial Agriculture Faces	D．New Trends in Vertical Agriculture

2 . Hawaii lawmakers are considering legislation (立法) that would require visitors to pay for a year-long license or pass to visit state parks. Josh Green is the state’s governor. He said, “We get between 9 and 10 million visitors a year, but we only have 1.4 million people living here.” He added, “Those 10 million travellers should be helping us sustain our environment.” Lawmakers still debating how much they would charge.

The governor campaigned in 2022 on the idea of having all tourists pay a $50 fee to enter the state. Legislators think this would violate US constitutional protections for free travel. They instead think visitors should pay to enter parks and trails. Either policy would be a first of its kind for any US state. Hawaii’s leaders are following the example of other popular tourist areas with similar fees or taxes. They include Venice, Italy, and Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands.

Hawaii State Representative Sean Quinlan is the leader of the House Tourism Committee. He said changes in the activities of travellers are part of Hawaii’s push. He said golf rounds per visitor per day have dropped 30 percent over the past 10 years while hiking has increased50 percent. People are also seeking out isolated places they have seen on social media. The state does not have the money to oversee and protect all these places, he said.

Most state parks and trails are currently free. Some of the most popular ones already charge, like Diamond Head State Monument. That trail leads hikers from the floor of a 300,000-year-old volcano up to the top. It gets 1 million visitors each year and costs $5for each traveller.

A bill currently before the legislature would require visitors over the age of 15to buy a yearly pass to visit forests, parks, trails or “other natural area on state land”. People who live in Hawaii would not need to pay.

1. What does the underlined word “violate” mean in Paragraph 2?

A．Break.

B．Establish.

C．Uphold.

D．Perfect.

2. What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．The decreasing number of tourists to Hawaii.

B．Advantages of Hawaii’s tourism resources.

C．The increasing financial burden of Hawaii.

D．One reason for wanting to charge tourists.

3. What can be concluded from the text?

A．None of the attractions in Hawaii charge fees currently.

B．The goal to charge fees is to limit the number of tourists.

C．Lawmakers are arguing about whether charging fees is legal.

D．Charging fees is beneficial for Hawaii’s natural environment.

4. What is the text?

A．A news report.	B．A travel guide.
C．A law textbook.	D．A promotional brochure.

3 . At some point, something will have to be done about the stuffed toys (毛绒玩具). I haven’t counted them because, truthfully, I’m not prepared to know how many there are. Lately, our neighborhood’s message boards are filled with posts about parents trying to make space, to clear out the things their kids no longer need. The tone of some of these posts can best be described as “emergency”. “Help!” they sometimes begin. “I have to get this out of my house.”

“The proliferation (激增) of children’s toys is the outcome of a long, gradual cultural change,”says Gary Cross, a professor at Pennsylvania State University. To understand how we got here — drowning (淹没于) in all those stuffed toys and bricks — it helps to look as far back as the late 19th century. “Parents were no longer passing their jobs on to the children,” Cross says. “Instead, they connect across generations through the gifting process. From the early 20th century on, goods became the things that define relationships between family members, and the way of marking success as a family.”

Then, how can parents deal with the proliferation of children’s toys at home? Naeemah Ford Goldson, a professional organizer, is also a mom of two. In her own home, Goldson likes to include her kids in the work of sorting out their toys. They know that the items they don’t need anymore will be given to people who can use them, to families who might not be as fortunate as theirs. “Doing so helps them build those habits of letting go,” she says, “so then they don’t become adults who are too dependent on material things instead of experiences, or people, and the memories we make with people.”

Her idea made sense. She told her 5-year-old they should pick some to give to kids in their community who came from another country and had to leave their toys behind. She immediately took a pink bear from the pile.

1. Why does the author present the posts in paragraph 1?

A．To show the popularity of children’s toys.

B．To offer suggestions about choosing children’s toys.

C．To praise the role of social media in buying children’s toys.

D．To introduce the influence too many children’s toys bring about.

2. What has caused the huge increase of children’s toys according to Cross?

A．Children’s demands.	B．The growth of technology.
C．The traditions in the 18th century.	D．The practice of gifting among family members.

3. What does Goldson do to avoid too many toys?

A．Involve her kids in organizing toys.	B．Put away toys for her kids.
C．Buy her kids fewer toys.	D．Sell unwanted toys to neighbors.

4. Which is the most suitable title for the text?

A．The Rise of Toy Stores in Neighborhoods	B．The Importance of Choosing Proper Gifts
C．The Challenge of Managing Children’s Toys	D．The Joy of Collecting Children’s Toys

4 . In January, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta, appeared at a hearing to answer questions about how social media potentially harms children. Zuckerberg opened by saying: “The existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link (关联) between using social media and young people having worse mental health.”

But many social scientists would disagree with that statement. In recent years, studies have started to show a causal link between teen social media use and reduced well-being. One of the most cited studies into this link focused on Facebook.

Researchers tried to discover whether the platform’s introduction across college campuses in the mid-2000s increased symptoms (症状) related to mental health problems. The answer was a clear yes, says Alexey Makarin, a coauthor of the study. “There is still a lot to be explored,” Makarin says, “but to say there is no causal evidence that social media causes mental health issues, and I definitely object to that.”

The concern and the studies come from data showing that social media use in teens aged 13 to 17 is now very common. Two-thirds of teens report using TikTok, and some 60 percent of teens report using Instagram or Snapchat, a 2022 survey found. Another survey showed that girls, on average, spend around 3. 4 hours per day on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, compared with about 2.1 hours among boys. At the same time, more teens are showing signs of depression than ever, especially girls.

As more studies show a strong link between these phenomena, researchers are starting to move their attention to possible solutions. Why does social media use seem to bring about mental health problems? Why do those effects unevenly exist among different groups, such as girls or young adults? And can the good points of social media be teased out (梳理) from the bad points to provide more targeted guidance to teens, their caregivers and policymakers?

1. Why does the author mention Zuckerberg’s words?

A．To introduce the topic.	B．To offer a piece of advice.
C．To present the image of a company.	D．To add background information.

2. What does Makarin’s study find?

A．It is important to network with others.	B．Social media harms teens’ mental health.
C．The Internet plays a key role in our daily life.	D．Messaging tools cause parents mental suffering.

3. Which is the percentage of teenagers using TikTok according to the 2022 survey?

A．34%.

B．60%.

C．67%.

D．76%.

4. What will researchers probably do?

A．Focus on all the Internet users.	B．Turn to teenagers’ caregivers.
C．Limit adults’ social media use.	D．Work out targeted solutions.

5 . Recently, after I gave a virtual presentation on my book Indistractable, a listener wrote something in the Zoom chat that drove me crazy, “This is great but wouldn’t work for me. I’m a Gemini (双子星座的人).”

Ironically, the Zoom listener is right. If she thinks she’s incapable, she’ll prove it correct — whether it has anything to do with the stars and moon or not. Her inflexible self-identification denies her the chance to improve her life. It’s incredibly self-limiting.

That’s why we should stop defining ourselves as fixed identities and nouns, and instead start describing ourselves using verbs.

Words are powerful. Linguistic research shows that language shapes people and culture; it can also give us insight into ourselves and our behavior. In a well-known study, researchers Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobsen had all students in the same elementary school take a standard IQ test. Then they randomly selected a group of students, regardless of their test results, and told teachers the group would show “dramatic intellectual growth”. Eight months later, those students scored significantly higher on an IQ test. The study concluded that teachers’ positive perception of students correlated to those students’ high performance on intellectual and academic tests. The labels the children received became a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy (预言).

That’s because language shapes expectations, which shape our reality. If we have experiences that lead us to label ourselves with specific nouns during our life, then we are likely to stick with those labels and the behaviors that go with them.

Using verbs to identify ourselves is an effective method for releasing “trapped priors”—a term in psychology for a perception of reality that’s affected or trapped by past experiences. Verbs are action words well suited to describing short-lived behaviors that can and do change. They don’t lay claim to our entire identity, but they acknowledge that we are people first and foremost, not whatever a singular noun may say we are. So, instead of saying, “I am a procrastinator (拖拉者)”, you should say, “I am a person who often procrastinates.”

By focusing on our behaviors, not fixed characteristics, we can release harmful perceptions of ourselves that hold us back from trying methods that might improve our lives — like those that can help us achieve the critical skill of being indistractable.

1. What does the author want to show through the example of the Zoom listener?

A．The concept of flexible self-identification.

B．His confusion about the way to self-identify.

C．His understanding of proper self-identification.

D．The negative effects of using nouns to define oneself.

2. What does the well-known study imply?

A．Self-fulfilling prophecies change over time.

B．Encouragement promotes students’ improvement.

C．Language usage will have an impact on teaching.

D．IQ has little to do with students’ academic performance.

3. How are teachers expected to evaluate students?

A．By highlighting their behaviors.

B．By focusing on their advantages.

C．By analyzing their typical characteristics.

D．By assessing their academic performance.

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

A．Nouns are more powerful than verbs

B．Your words can determine your future

C．How we define ourselves really counts

D．Our option of words reflects our identity

6 . After the first two people reached Mount Everest in 1953, an average of 12 people a year followed in their footsteps .In 2023 more than 1, 200 people attempted the climb, with 655making it to the top. What was once an “almost deadly” effort is “the new Ironman sport”, argues Will Cockrell, in his new book Everest, Inc.

High-tech equipment and better understanding of the impact of high altitudes(海拔) have brought new appeals to Everest. Everest offers a physically and mentally demanding test for those climbers eager to challenge themselves.

Actually what accounts most for the rising number of climbers is that the Everest mountaineering industry has been right in place. For a fee—between $35,000 and $110, 000—even green hands could be on top of the world. In 1985, climber Dick Bass reached the top at 55, creating a media trend and encouraging tour companies to meet the demand. Then guided expeditions(探险) were growing rapidly.

But in 1996, Jon Krakauer, an American writer, joined one failed expedition. A destructive storm struck, but the guides delayed turning climbers around. Three guides and two climbers died. Later, in a bestseller, Into Thin Air, Mr Krakauer argued that Everest had become a high-end tourist trap. He blamed the guides for their wrong judgment. Many businesses assumed that the book would block them, Instead, fascination with Everest rocketed. In the industry depending on local labor, westerners hired more Nepalese to help.

More people are reaching the top, but more are unfortunate: 18 people were killed in 2023, the highest-ever number. Nepalese authorities say climate change has caused more extreme weather. Mr Cockrell argues that there was no fault on the part of the firms. He advises that Nepali guides consider themselves just in the logistics (后勤)business and generally leave decisions of safety to clients. But inexperienced climbers are bad at this. The disaster in 1996 just showed that even guides get these decisions wrong. Both of them should know well about how to climb Everest safely.

1. Why are the numbers listed in paragraph 1?

A．To encourage people to climb Everest.

B．To prove no mountain can’t be climbed.

C．To remind Everest climbers of the danger.

D．To show climbing Everest is well-received.

2. Which factor plays the biggest part in the Everest climbing trend?

A．The more mature climbing routes.

B．The advanced climbing equipment.

C．The enhanced knowledge of climbing.

D．The rise of Everest mountaineering industry.

3. What happened after Into Thin Air was published?

A．More job opportunities were offered.

B．Guides were punished for their faults.

C．Enthusiasm for Everest became stronger.

D．Climbing Everest became an expensive trap.

4. What does the author think is responsible for the deaths in climbing Everest?

A．Lack of knowledge of safety.	B．The guides’ irresponsibility.
C．Increasing extreme weather.	D．Absence of logistics support.

7 . A four-year-old dog named Kob became a hero in its neighborhood by discovering a possibly life-threatening gas leak (泄漏) in its owner’s front yard.

This dog’s actions not only _______ its surroundings, but also stressed the importance of the behavior of our furry friends.

The story began when Kob, _______ by 28-year-old Chanell Bell, started digging a large hole in the yard. At first, Bell thought this was typical dog _______, but as the hole grew larger, she became _______. Recognizing that Kob’s actions were unusual, she trusted the dog’s judgment, considering its normally well-behaved nature.

After _______ a recent gas leak in her home, Chanel _______ a gas detecting (探测) tool. She followed her sense and chose to use the tool to _______ the newly dug hole by Kob.

Finding gas coming out of the hole, Bell _______ contacted the authorities about the issue.

“If it wasn’t found, the _______ would have continued to escape into our homes,” Bell said. “We were told it could have caused ________ health effects like breathing issues, brain damage, and even ________. They told me that something as simple as ________ a light could have caused a burst!”

During the repairs, workers ________three main gas leaks in Bell’s neighborhood caused by aging ________. It took the workers over three days to repair the leaks and replace the old equipment.

Throughout the repairs, the workers________ Kob for saving the neighborhood.

1.

A．matched

B．beautified

C．saved

D．explored

2.

A．admitted

B．owned

C．trained

D．cured

3.

A．behavior

B．effort

C．appearance

D．responsibility

4.

A．disappointed

B．encouraged

C．confident

D．concerned

5.

A．fearing

B．avoiding

C．recording

D．experiencing

6.

A．bought

B．repaired

C．shared

D．researched

7.

A．decorate

B．mark

C．fill

D．examine

8.

A．secretly

B．obviously

C．immediately

D．regularly

9.

A．oil

B．gas

C．air

D．water

10.

A．serious

B．extra

C．special

D．similar

11.

A．injury

B．trouble

C．death

D．failure

12.

A．looking into

B．turning on

C．fixing up

D．breaking down

13.

A．missed

B．changed

C．doubted

D．discovered

14.

A．services

B．design

C．equipment

D．places

15.

A．praised

B．inspired

C．held

D．protected

8 . Aviation is a big polluter. Cutting the sector’s impact on global warming is high on the agenda. Although many governments are regulating emissions from cars and trucks, air transportation is technologically rooted in old patterns.

Facing the reality that the sector will keep emitting a lot, ICAO has established an international carbon-trading plan—Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, or CORSIA. This encourages wide use of offsets (抵消) : aviation companies can buy emissions credits or invest in sectors that store carbon, such as forestry, to allow them to carry on as normal. CORSIA aims to keep CO2 emissions at 2019 levels through such purchases for emissions over that year’s baseline. ICAO predicts that increasing demand might reach 1. 7 billion tons by 2035, potentially making aviation the largest offset market in the world.

Yet offsetting faces a fundamental challenge: the size of the offset requires estimating flows of warming pollution that would have occurred if the carbon-removal project hadn’t existed, and comparing them against flows with the project in place. The former — a baseline that is unobservable — is a hotbed for shady accounting.

The vast majority of offsets today and in the expected future come from forest-protection and regrowth projects. The track record of reliable accounting in these industries is poor, because they lack convincing baselines. Even with oversight, forest projects are often troubled by wild assumptions, for example that trees would disappear completely from these areas in the absence of those projects, even when there are other forest protections in place. Such assumptions drive up baselines and flood the market with huge volumes of offsets. They make it easier for accountants to claim a net reduction in emissions even though the atmosphere sees little or no benefit. These problems are essentially unfixable. Evidence is mounting that offsetting as a strategy for reaching net zero is a dead end.

In our view, this approach could prove dangerously narrow. Removing aviation’s impact on global warming means upending the industry. The longer that reality is overlooked, the harder it will be to find effective solutions.

1. What does aviation refer to in the passage?

A．A project which needs revising.	B．A resource which needs trading.
C．A market which needs expanding.	D．An industry which needs reforming.

2. Why should aviation companies buy emissions credits?

A．To support the development of forestry.	B．To earn the largest profit in offset market.
C．To keep the levels of emission unchanged.	D．To make up for emissions over the baseline.

3. What can we infer from paragraph 4?

A．Too many offsets are filling the market now.

B．Some projects may cheat to create more offsets.

C．Offsetting contributes a lot to reducing emissions.

D．Trees would totally disappear without the projects.

4. What is the author’s attitude towards the CORSIA?

A．Disapproving.

B．Confused.

C．Favorable.

D．Unconcerned.

9 . If you frequent any kind of public transportation, then you’re well aware of certain types of passengers and passenger habits that are annoying. But it’s not just other passengers that get angry, there are certain things that drive the train attendant crazy.     1    . Maybe next time you’ll be able to spot the people doing some of these on the train.

•Taking up too much space

We’ve all been there in that moment when someone boards a train trying to take several huge items with them to wherever they’re trying to go. They wind up taking up way too much space and blocking seats.    2    . Train attendants are the ones who bear the brunt of it (首当其冲) because they have to figure out how to deal with this person’s stuff without upsetting all the other passengers. It adds unnecessary conflict and makes the attendant’s job much harder.

•Eating

    3    . It’s a totally different thing to be eating a big meal consisting of last night’s dinner leftovers. Not only is it typically unsettling for other passengers who then have to smell leftover chicken and whatever else you’re eating, but it’s bound to make a mess that attendants will then have to clean up after they depart the train.

•    4    

For some reason, people have a bad habit of talking very loudly to one another to a point where you can hear them from opposite sides of the train cart (车厢). This goes for playing music as well. Some people like to play music through their phone. This really bothers fellow passengers on the train.     5    ? The train attendant.

A．Being really loud

B．Arguing with others

C．Here are some of the most annoying things

D．Then who would be in charge of playing music on the train

E．It’s one thing if you’re having something small such as an apple

F．This can make things uncomfortable for everyone else on the train

G．Plus when other passengers complain, guess who has to take care of it

10 . In recent years, much of my life as a consumer has shifted to what I like to call background. As I’ve subscribed to more apps and streaming platforms, significant sums of my money tend to slip away each month without my ever thinking about it.

Think of it as an automated trade. Spending without the trouble of spending. Acquaint ion without action. Or thought.

But while this flood of subscriptions was sold to me on the condition that it would make my life more trouble-free, there was a certain shock I felt upon discovering how much I was spending without realizing each month ($179.45).

You see, the thing about background spending is that it tends to happen, well, in the background without your full attention. And there lies the point.

“Hand over your credit card details and let us take care of the rest,” these companies promote. But by again sing their name, we’ve become lazy, positive consumers. And this laziness breeds (导致) more laziness because most of us can’t be bothered with conducting regular reviews of our subscription spending. We’re too lazy to even notice or cancel it!

I know it’s not just me who is suddenly living life as a smart-braised subscriber. The average consumer spends $273 per month on subscriptions, according to a 2021 study of 2,500 by digital services firm West Morose. Not a single person surveyed knew what his actually monthly spending was.

It’s understandable why this model is so attractive to businesses. As companies questioned traditional advertising models, subscription offered the promise of “selling once and earning forever.” And while subscription services have been around for decades (think Wine of the Month Club), more customers have been willing to sign up thanks to the widespread availability of smartphones and the increasing ease of home delivery.

While these subscription promise ease and happiness, not all of us are satisfied. Last year, the Kameny Institute found 40 percent of consumer believe they have too many subscriptions. Almost half of us also think we pay too much for streaming video-on-demand subscriptions.

1. What can we know about background spending in paragraph 2?

A．Its purpose.

B．Its feature.

C．Its procedure.

D．Its requirement.

2. What makes it possible for background spending to happen?

A．Its attractive price.	B．Some people’s poor habit.
C．Its secure service.	D．Some people’s addiction to it.

3. Why is the subscription model appealing to businesses?

A．It offers good home delivery services.

B．It is like traditional advertising models.

C．It is popular among smartphone producers.

D．It brings repeated profits through a single sale.

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards background spending?

A．Supportive.

B．Doubtful.

C．Critical.

D．Unclear.