1 . Housing officials say that lately they are noticing something different: students seem to lack the will, and the skill, to deal with ordinary conflicts. “We have students who are mad at each other and they text each other in the same room,” says a teacher. “So many of our conflicts are because kids don’t know how to solve a problem by formal discussion.”
And as any pop psychologist will tell you, bottled emotions lead to silent discontent (不满) that can boil over into frustration and anger. At the University of Florida, emotional conflicts occur about once a week, the university’s director of housing education says, “Over the past five years, roommate conflicts have increased. The students don’t have the person-to-person discussions and they don’t know how to handle them.” The problem is most dramatic among freshmen; housing professionals say they see improvement as students move toward graduation, but some never seem to improve, and they worry about how such students will deal with conflicts after college.
Administrators guess that reliance on cell phones and the Internet may have made it easier for young people to avoid uncomfortable encounters. Why express anger in person when you can vent (发泄) in a text? “Things are posted on someone’s wall on Facebook like: Oh, my roommate kept me up all night studying,” says Dana Pysz, an assistant director at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It’s a different way to express their conflict to each other, consequently creating even more conflicts as complaints go public.” In recent focus groups at North Carolina State University, dorm residents said they would not even deal with noisy neighbors on their floor.
Administrators point to parents who have fixed their children’s problems in their entire lives. Now in college, the children lack the skills to attend to even modest conflicts. Some parents continue to interfere (干涉) on campus.
1. What is the main reason for many roommate conflicts?| A．Students are not good at reaching an agreement about the problems. |
| B．Students are not satisfied with each other. |
| C．Housing directors are not responsible for them. |
| D．Students are not strong-willed. |
| A．Students, especially freshmen, should bottle up their dissatisfaction. |
| B．Students in Florida sit down and have a person-to-person talk once a week. |
| C．Not all students are able to handle conflicts by the time they graduate. |
| D．The number of conflicts among roommates has decreased in the past five years. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Indifferent. | C．Supportive. | D．Unclear. |
| A．They should be involved in their children’s life on campus. |
| B．They should deal with their children’s problems in their whole lives. |
| C．They should constantly contact the administrators of the college. |
| D．They should teach their children the skills to tackle the conflicts. |
2 . Farming is destroying the planet, but there could be a much more environmentally friendly way to feed ourselves: using renewable energy to turn carbon dioxide into food. “This is becoming a reality,” says Pasi Vainikka at Solar Foods, a company that is building the first commercial-scale factory that will be able to make food directly from CO2.
There can be no doubt that immediate attention to find greener ways to grow food is required. Conventional agriculture, including organic farming, causes damage to the environment in many ways. It requires a lot of land, leading to habitat loss and deforestation. It is also the source of a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and releases other pollutants. It isn’t very efficient, either. Crops typically transform less than 1 percent of light energy into usable biomass (生物量).
Instead, Solar Foods plans to avoid photosynthesis (光合作用) altogether, and grow bacteria that use hydrogen as their source of energy. At the factory, renewable electricity will be used to split water to produce hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen will be added to large containers, where the bacteria grow, along with CO2 and ammonia (氨气). The end result will be a yellow powder called Solein.
Solein is made of bacterial cells and is up to 70 percent protein. It can be used as an ingredient in all kinds of foods. “We are aiming at replacing animal-sourced proteins, which we think have the highest environmental impact,” says Vainikka.
Compared with plant crops, Solein will use 100 times less water per kilogram of protein produced, 20 times less land and emit a fifth as much CO2, according to Solar Foods. There are other benefits, too: factories could be situated anywhere in the world and production won’t be affected by weather conditions.
“With Solar Foods and other companies scaling up their systems, this is truly beginning a new era of agriculture,” says Dorian Leger at Connectomix Bio in Germany. “I think these trends are exciting and will help bend the carbon curve as well as lead to improved global food supply security.”
1. What is the author’s purpose in mentioning conventional agriculture in paragraph 2?| A．To demonstrate its influence on crops. |
| B．To compare different farming methods. |
| C．To provide an example of agricultural types. |
| D．To highlight the urgent need for alternatives. |
| A．Its storage condition. | B．Its production process. |
| C．Its ingredient materials. | D．Its investment potential. |
| A．it is protein-rich |
| B．it is resource-efficient |
| C．its production is weather sensitive |
| D．its production is location-independent |
| A．The prospect of Solein remains to be seen, |
| B．Solein can help achieve global food safely. |
| C．Solein will dominate the agricultural development. |
| D．The use of Solein may help reduce carbon emissions. |
3 . Going to the Basque Country of Spain, linguistically (就语言角度来看), a Briton may feel he is entering not just another country but perhaps another continent. Familiar world languages — Spanish and French — suddenly give way to Basque, with its strange-looking words of tongue-twisting (绕口的) length. Basque is unrelated to the Indo-European family that includes almost all European languages.
Its survival has not been assured. The rule of Francisco Franco from 1939 to 1975 centralised the state and he insisted that citizens speak Spanish. Public use of Basque was forbidden. When Franco died, the Basque-speaking population was mostly old and rural. For a language, this usually means extinction.
Since the 1980s the number of speakers has grown by almost 350,000, out of a regional population of 2. 1 million. In 2017 two-thirds of pupils were studying in schools where Basque was the language of instruction, up from around 14% in 1984; 87% of 10 to 14-year-olds are estimated to know the language. This is why, in the most recent big survey, the Basque-speaking population (41%) almost matched the non-Basque-speakers (44%). The other 15% are said to understand Basque but struggle to speak it.
But there is another side to the story. In the Basque Country, just 376,000 people have the language as their first, passed down to them in the home. Basque is weakest in the three provincial capitals, where the population is dominated by people from Spanish-speaking homes. Even as the knowledge and influence of the language are growing, actual usage outside schools still seems to be reducing. A similar story could be told of Irish, Welsh, and Maori.
What would it take to get people to live with these languages, as opposed to merely acquiring them? Some Basques say sadly that in a mixed group in which just one person is uncomfortable in Basque, the rest quickly switch to Spanish. They say that in Catalonia, a similar group is more likely to insist on continuing in Catalan, which, for this and unrelated historical reasons, is far more widely spoken in its territory than Basque.
1. What confused a Briton when entering the Basque Country of Spain?| A．Basques tend to have a large vocabulary. |
| B．Spanish is much more widely used than French. |
| C．Basques speak much faster than other Europeans. |
| D．Basque differs significantly from other European languages. |
| A．The factor behind Basque’s decline. |
| B．The achievements of Francisco Franco. |
| C．The links between Basque and Spanish. |
| D．The history and development of Basque. |
| A．Population growth. | B．School education |
| C．Economic development. | D．Cultural awareness. |
| A．It leads to discomfort in Basque. | B．It will soon be replaced by Catalan. |
| C．It is decreasingly used in daily life. | D．It confuses many Spanish speakers. |
1. 使用时存在的问题;
2. 提出建议。
注意：1. 写作词数应为80个左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
How to use a scanning translation pen properly?
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5 . Today, there are more humans on Earth than ever and nature is in freefall. In just 50 years, wildlife populations have dropped on average by 69 percent. In the same period, our population has doubled, and demand for non-living and living material from Earth has grown six times. The biggest contributors to biodiversity (生物多样性) loss are habitat destruction and over-development of species, both driven by completely unsustainable consumption (不可持续的消耗) and caused by increasing human numbers. It is important that we address this over-consumption, and that means thinking seriously the influence our species’ population growth is having on the breakdown of the natural world.
December’s biodiversity summit (峰会) in Canada didn’t meet the challenges we face. Only two of the 23 topics are intended to address consumption and speak of “greatly reducing overconsumption”. But the message is unclearly defined and unquantified (未被量化的), short of necessary facts for any real application. Given all the goals of the former biodiversity protection plan were missed, it is truly impossible to imagine that governments will gather the bravery to catch the chance.
In November last year, our population reached 8 billion and there are predictions that it will reach 10.4 billion in the 2080s. The goal of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity is for us to live “in harmony (和谐) with nature” by 2050. Let me make it clear: there is no doubt that the 1.7 billion more people predicted will make this greatly harder to achieve. However much we try to reduce our consumption and our influence, every plan and rule that moves us forward will have a gradually lower influence.
And let me say it again: it isn’t about any particular humans among those billions, this is about us as a species of resource-consuming organism.
We must now ensure governments deal with their tasks with great efforts instead of any short-sighted, short-term solutions. Tolerating (忍受) the cruel idea that economic growth is the answer to our problems, and totally ignoring unsustainable population growth, must end. Or we all die.
1. What’s the function for the first paragraph?| A．To conduct a survey. | B．To explore the reason. |
| C．To introduce the topic. | D．To discuss a problem. |
| A．It is far from contenting the author. | B．It has pointed the way to our future. |
| C．It clears up many people’s confusion. | D．It helps deal with the consumption issues. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By showing data. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By defining a concept. |
| A．Tolerate existing issues and wait. |
| B．Put population growth in second place. |
| C．Expect economic growth to solve the problem. |
| D．Let governments adopt effective solutions wisely. |
On social platform Xiaohongshu, data shows that the number of city walk-related topic posts
A city walk is
By “roaming” on foot, city walkers can better feel the texture and listen to the
The appeal of a city walk lies in the young generation’s changing attitude
7 . How to Build a Natural Swimming Pool
Whether you like to practice your dolphin dives or idle away the day on a raft, swimming is one of summer’s perfect pleasures. With a minimum of materials, you can create a cooling summer retreat in your backyard.
Though common in Europe, natural swimming pools, are in their early stage in the United States. You can ask most American swimming-pool contractors (承包商) to build a backyard pool.
But in recent years, a few builders and a growing number of homeowners have learned how to build pools.
Natural swimming pools require no harmful chemicals, are fairly low-tech.
| A．The plants enrich the pool with oxygen. |
| B．Chances are that they will roll out a long list of goods. |
| C．You can make your pool as shallow or as deep as you want. |
| D．And once established, they call for only a bit of management. |
| E．It is the most ecological and economic way to build a conventional pool. |
| F．They don’t rely on a mass of manufactured materials and chemical additives. |
| G．The result is an ecological system that is relatively inexpensive to construct. |
8 . The Greek historian Herodotus is said to have made one of the earliest lists of the Seven Wonders of the World. These were man-made structures, including the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. More recent times saw natural alternatives to these wonders of classical architecture proposed: waterfalls, mountains, canyons, reefs. Dramatic landscapes, features and wildlife, and the pleasure and excitement they offer to visitors, are staples (主要部分) of tourism.
As environmental awareness has risen, attitudes to such sightseeing have changed. Yes, it is exciting to visit remote forests or spot rare species.But travelling to very distant destinations is carbon-intensive when flights or long road journeys are involved, and conservation can be made more difficult as well as assisted by sightseers. There is a balance to be struck, and some governments and businesses around the world try to maximise the benefits while minimising the harm. Colombia, for example, recently introduced laws aimed at promoting sustainable tourism.
Most of us understand better than ever that there are costs as well as benefits associated with exploring. One of the six pledges (誓言) proposed by an environmental campaign launched last month, The Jump, is to “holiday local”, taking short flights once every three years and long flights very rarely. Fortunately, the UK’s 15 national parks, 86 areas of outstanding natural beauty (known in Scotland as national scenic areas), and countless other landscapes that are without formal status, but beloved nonetheless, mean that there is no shortage of special places for domestic nature tourists to visit--while a host of European beauty spots are accessible by rail.
One recent survey found that Windsor Great Park and Kew have become Britain’s most popular attractions, while Covid has created difficulties for indoor spaces which do not apply to outdoor ones.
As we face an environmental emergency that grows ever more dangerous, it is essential to cultivate (培养) appreciation for nature that surrounds us. In a small way, holiday outings to watch dragonflies, kingfishers or seals, or be surrounded by trees that are coming into leaf, could help us to focus on what matters.
1. Why does the author mention the Greek historian?| A．To compare historic and modern structures. |
| B．To bring natural wonders into focus. |
| C．To show the change in architectural style. |
| D．To reveal the popularity of tourism. |
| A．It stepped up efforts to conserve rare species. |
| B．It introduced laws aimed at stimulating the tourism industry. |
| C．It banned sightseers from going to remote forests. |
| D．It reduced people’s negative impacts on the environment. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Concerned. | C．Critical. | D．Uninterested. |
| A．Nature tourism: travel lightly |
| B．Eco-friendly tourism during Covid |
| C．Discovery of European beauty spots |
| D．International tourism: wait before setting out |
9 . In 2022, campaign group Fashion Revolution Chelsea dye a garden for its Chelsea Flower Show presentation. An ancient craft, natural dyeing is a practice whose time has come again, with hand tie-dyed fashion also making a comeback in recent years.
The revival has been encouraged by Covid lockdowns, “which allowed people to explore the craft at home, says natural-dyeing enthusiast and teacher Susan Dye. It’s unlikely, though, that the practice would have caught on in quite the same way if not for a continually growing discomfort about fashion’s heavy footprint. From carbon emissions to animal cruelty, fashion is under considerable inspection. “Put it this way, 97% of dyes used in the industry are petrochemically (石油化学产品) based,” says sustainable fashion consultant Jackie Andrews, who helped advise the UN Ethical Fashion Initiative. We’ve got net zero targets which mean we’re going to have to remove all those petrochemicals from the manufacturing cycle.
Fashion is a huge polluter. According to the UN Environment Program, the industry is responsible for up to one-fifth of all industrial water pollution—due to the fact that most clothes today are produced in poorer countries where regulation is weak and enforcement weaker. Waste water is dumped directly into rivers and streams, poisoning the land as well as the water sources of people and animals who rely on them.
It’s easy to see why someone who cares about people, planet and animals, as well as clothes, might turn to natural plant dyeing. From the beauty of the raw materials—often wild plants-to the property of only bonding with natural fiber like cotton and linen (亚麻布) from the minor footprint of recycling old clothing that has grayed or faded over time to the vibrant and long-lasting dyeing results, plant dyeing feels like a quiet act of rebellion. This is why, while beginners start with simply changing their clothes’ color, new worlds open. Many of today’s natural dyers grow their own dye plants, run local community workshops, and advocate for change in industrialized fashion systems and beyond.
1. What is the main reason for the growing discomfort mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．The adoption of petrochemical-based dyes |
| B．The disturbing consequences of the fashion industry. |
| C．The fashion industry’s focus on luxurious designs. |
| D．The challenging net zero targets to be achieved. |
| A．By making a comparison. | B．By listing numbers |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By introducing a new topic |
| A．A protest against turning to natural fiber. |
| B．An objection to recycling old clothing |
| C．A resistance to vibrant colors in natural dyeing |
| D．A struggle for a sustainable fashion industry |
| A．The Environmental Impact of Natural Dyeing |
| B．The Return of Natural Dyeing with Ethical Appeal |
| C．Fashion Revolution’s Dye Garden Presentation |
| D．The Petrochemical Dye Industry and Its Challenges |
Being nearsighted is far more common than it once was. The case rate of myopia (近视) in Americans
Myopia results when eyeballs are
Some experts connect the myopia to the many hours young people spend in staring at
This new study shows that a lack of direct sunlight may damage vision. Strong correlations (关联) were found between current eyesight and
