1 . Modern technology has had a great influence on people's entertainment choices, making them less creative. Do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

Bearing in mind the likely effects of the modern technology on entertainments on today's users are important, because it is an issue that is discussed daily nowadays by people in both the private and public sectors(公共部门). However, does the modern technology benefits all aspects of human society? Some people may answer to the contrary. As far as I can see, current technology is undermining modern people's creative ability by providing individuals sorted ways of relaxation.

The likely effects of modern technology on entertainment for people today are important, because it is an issue that is discussed daily in both the private and public sectors. However, does modern technology benefit all aspects of human society? Some people may answer in the negative. As far as I can see, modern technology undermines people's creative ability by providing individuals pre-digested forms of relaxation.

To begin with , it has been known from the latest resources that modern people prefer to enjoy high-tech ways of recreation. More and more people from all works feel so pressuarable that they turn to modern technology which is supposed to be there providing convenient, time-saving and fresh entertainment while fewer and fewer individuals choose to play jigsaws(拼图) or make some exquisite handicrafts(精美的手工艺品) which is the very things expand their imaginary world and make them more creative in their spare time.

Further more, modern people are more likely to count on current technology whether in physiological or psychological. What is meant by this is that plenty of people fully enjoy the entertaining products such as, TV, MP3 or internet games high-tech brings to them that they spend lots of time on them without doing anything else. Couch-potato syndrome(典型表现) is one such example. The more people rely on those modern entertaining items, the more possible that people form a negative habitual opinion that these high-tech can do everything for them, and the less likely people will be initiative and creative in their life.

It goes without saying that modern technology do bring us low-cost, efficient entertaining products, and these may initiate some individuals' inspiration occasionally. But that's very limited compared to the side effects they give rise to.

In conclusion, it is very important to know that it's the creative ability that make our human society prosperous and flourish. Modern technology is just a powerful tool in the charge of human to benefit our conduction.

1. What is the synonym of “undermining”?

A．supporting

B．weakening

C．strengthening

D．building

2. What high-tech entertainment way do people prefer to enjoy according to the text?

A．Playing jigsaws

B．Making exquisite handicrafts

C．Watching TV, listening to MP3 or playing online games

D．Reading books

3. How does the author think modern technology affects people's creativity?

A．By providing pre-digested forms of relaxation and reducing people's imagination.

B．By making people overly dependent on high-tech products and making them lazy.

C．By making people addicted to entertainment and having no time for creative activities.

D．All of the above.

4. What is the main idea of the article?

A．Modern technology makes people's entertainment choices more diverse.

B．Modern technology has a positive impact on people's creativity.

C．Modern technology weakens people's creativity in some ways.

D．Modern technology has both advantages and disadvantages and needs to be treated correctly.

2 . There is no doubt that human activity has an effect on the planet. We see the evidence (证据) of mankind’ s endeavors all around us. Overall, it seems that human activity harms the Earth more than benefits it makes. As is vividly (生动地) betrayed (背叛) in the photo above, due to over development, there is limited land being set aside for endangered animals.

Absolutely, we should reserve some land for the world’s animals for the following reasons. First, mankind’s need for land is constantly growing. If the demand is not checked controlled in some way, humans will eventually develop all of the earth’s available land. At that time, mankind will have no more room to grow, and all the wild animals will have disappeared, as well as other valuable resources. Second, humans are able to innovate (创新) and can use the land that they already possess in more efficient ways. Animals are unable to do this. Once their land is taken away from them, they will die. Third and last, endangered animals are an important part of the biodiversity of our planet. If they disappear, we cannot predict what the effect will be. Therefore, we should treat such animals as a valuable resource to be protected.

To sum up, the world’s endangered animals are an important resource and we should protect them by setting aside some land for them. Although mankind’s need for land continues to grow, people are intelligent and inventive enough to put the land into use properly. In this way, we can have enough land for farming, housing and industry,and preserve the biodiversity of the planet at the same time.

1. What are some of the reasons to keep some land for the world’s animals?

A．One

B．Two

C．Three

D．Four

2. What can you discover from reading the article?

A．We don’t see evidence of human effort all around us.

B．Human activities harm the planet more than good.

C．There is no constant growth in human demand for land.

D．Animal species are an important part of the planet’s biodiversity.

3. Where did this article come from?

A．Journal of child science	B．Environmental Protection News
C．Global Business Times	D．Industrial news

3 . When consuming information, we try to acquire more signals and less noise. We feel like the more information we consume the more signals we receive. While this is probably true on an absolute basis, Nassim Taleb argues in the book Antifragile that it is not true on a relative basis. As you consume more data and the ratio (比率) of noise to signals increases, you know less about what’s going on and you are likely to cause more unintentional trouble.

The supply of information to which we are exposed under modernity is transforming humans from a calm person to a neurotic (神经质的) one. For the purpose of our discussion, the first person only reacts to real information, and the second largely to noise. The difference between the two will show us the difference between noise and signals. Noise is what you are supposed to ignore; signals are what you need to heed.

In science, noise is a generalization beyond the actual sound to describe random information that is totally useless for any purpose, and that you need to clean up to make sense of what you are listening to. You can use and take advantage of noise and randomness, but noise and randomness can also use and take advantage of you, particularly with the data you get on the Internet or through other media. The more frequently you look at data, the more noise you are likely to get, and the higher the noise-to-signal ratio is.

Say you look at information on a yearly basis—the changes you see will all be large ones. The ratio of signals to noise is about one to one—this means that about half the changes are real improvements or degradations, and the other half come from randomness. But if you look at the very same data on a daily basis, the composition would change to 95 percent noise and 5 percent signals, and the changes you see daily will certainly be small.

1. What opinion does Nassim Taleb probably hold?

A．It’s hard to know the real truth.	B．The noise-to-signal ratio is changing.
C．The information explosion can be harmful.	D．More information brings more signals.

2. What does the underlined word “heed” probably mean in paragraph 2?

A．Notice.

B．Analyse.

C．Solve.

D．Describe.

3. What does paragraph 3 mainly talk about?

A．Causes and harms of more noise.	B．The meaning and impact of noise.
C．The relationship between noise and signals.	D．Advantages and disadvantages of noise.

4. How should we handle information according to the author?

A．Check it frequently.	B．Make use of online data.
C．Look at key changes.	D．Focus on all changes in it.

4 . During my daughter’s first year at school, her teacher dismissed our concerns about her shaky pencil hold by saying: “Don’t worry, handwriting is on its way out. By the time she’s in year 12, they’ll all be typing or voice-dictating their exams.”

Fast-forward 12 long school years and that now grown-up girl is in her final high-school exams. And of the many hours of articles and long and short answers, every single page, line, word and letter will be handwritten. Every single primary-school teacher undertook at the start of each year to fix her handwriting but it never changed.

My high school had company typing classes. It was so boring but I say that typing is the very best thing I learned at school. In all my work—as a health professional, a writer and an online teacher—being able to type efficiently, quickly and exactly has been invaluable. As a writer, I can type reasonably accurate notes during an interview, all while looking at the person I’m speaking with. As writing rates have been inactive or going backwards, I’d have a much harder time if I couldn’t type so well.

A group of friends who went to high school says that I’m fortunate to have had compulsory typing lessons, as some schools only offered it to girls, and some friends deliberately shunned the subject in order to avoid gender-based opinions that they wanted to become a secretary.

You might be thinking that none of this will be an issue for much longer, given how far voice recognition tech has come and how ChatGPT can produce writing within seconds. In fact, the increased availability of AI will perhaps mean that handwritten exams will be around for even longer, as seeing someone put pen to paper is one of the few ways we have of promising original work.

Efficient handwriting and fast and correct typing are skills that perhaps should be more highly valued by educators and employers. Learning to hand-write and type might be boring but I predict that they’ll still be important skills even when today’s little ones are in year 12.

1. What does the example of the author’s daughter prove?

A．Handwriting isn’t out of date.	B．His concern turned out true.
C．Students like voice-dictating exams.	D．Adults can’t fix their handwriting.

2. Why was the author grateful for learning typing at school?

A．It earned him a big come.	B．It made him work more effectively.
C．It brought more job chances for him.	D．It helped him survive his hard life.

3. What does the underlined word “shunned” in paragraph 4mean?

A．Put up with.	B．Keep away from.
C．Take advantage of.	D．Get used to.

4. What does the author think handwriting may ensure?

A．The application of AI.	B．The value of education.
C．The originality of our works.	D．The efficiency of exams.

5 . Chocolate makers are expected to raise prices this year because of higher costs of cocoa from exporters like Ivory Coast. The West African country is the world’s largest cocoa producer. Hershey is the largest producer of chocolate products in the United States. It said last month it plans to raise prices on all of its products because of the rising cost of ingredients. Ingredients are the things used to make a food or product.

Demand for chocolate in America increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and cocoa producers in places like Ivory Coast are struggling to keep up with that demand. Experts say one reason for that is climate change.

Harvard University researchers estimate that by 2030 parts of West Africa will be too hot and dry to produce much cocoa. The West African countries of Ghana and Ivory Coast together produce 70 percent of worldwide cocoa supply.

Cocoa farmer Raphael Konan Kouassi recently took VOA to his farm. Huge green and yellow cocoa pods hung from trees. He said his trees are producing less because of rising temperatures and less rainfall than usual.

“Almost all of the young plants die in the high season. If you have not been able to get water to them, you have no cocoa,” Kouassi said.

Kouassi receives government assistance in the form of cocoa trees. But he said the government gives out trees at the wrong time of year. Because of this, the young trees have a difficult time surviving.

Christian Bunn is with the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, a worldwide scientific organization. Bunn said information about how the climate is changing can inform farmers about how to better care for their crops.

“What we’re seeing is that the onset of both dry and wet season can change. It’s less reliable. During the season, there may be breaks in terms of rain during the dry season, or there’s a dry spell during the wet season,” Bunn said.

The data show it may be better for farmers to stop producing cocoa and instead grow a variety of different crops, he said.

But the chief of one Ivorian company that supplies The Hershey Company said higher prices for cocoa could be welcomed by farmers. Olga Yenou said, “My opinion is that these farmers should have better prices, should earn more, because they work hard. Most are poor,” Yenou said.

Her wish appears to be coming true. As climate change continues to have effects on production, prices continue to rise.

1. What is the main reason for the rise in the price of chocolate?

A．Increase in labor costs.	B．Increase in transportation costs.
C．Increase in ingredient costs.	D．Increase in preservation cost.

2. What can we know from the passage?

A．Ivory Coast is the largest cocoa producer around the world.

B．Sales of chocolate in the America declined during the pandemic.

C．The climate in parts of West Africa is very humid.

D．The dry weather is benefit for the cocoa trees to survive.

3. Which word can best describe the feeling of Kouassi when received assistance from government?

A．Excited.

B．Thankful.

C．Surprised.

D．Disappointed.

4. What did Christian Bunn advice farmers to do according to the passage?

A．Planting various crops instead of planting coco trees.

B．Paying attention to the weather forecast every day.

C．Investing more money in coco trees.

D．Seeking help from the government.

6 . For the past decade, one of the most linguistically (语言学地), diverse places in the world, square mile after square mile, has been my home: Queens, New York.

The soundtrack outside my door is extraordinary: On any given block, passing voices speak varieties of Polish, Ukrainian, Egyptian Arabic, Mexican Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish, Dominican Spanish, and all the forms of New York City English they give rise to.

As a person who studies languages: I can usually distinguish them from one another, but understand only a part of what people are saying.

Users of Seke, a language from five villages in Nepal with 700 speakers, live a subway ride away. In certain stores, Albanians, Bosnians, Serbs, and Montenegrins all reunite, using the languages of the former Yugoslavia as if the country still existed. No group has a majority, or even 15. percent of the neighborhood, and most are at just 5 or 10 percent. English acts, for the most part, as a vital lingua franca (通用语). This’ last point is crucial, because a city can be a haven (避难所) for diversity but also an end point.

My neighborhood has its signature sound, but there are several dozen others that are just as diverse, each in a different way.

These are the places where the Endangered Language Alliance, the nonprofit I co-direct, has recorded New Yorkers speaking more than 100 languages that the survey and other data sets say don’t officially exist, and more than 700 in total.

That linguistic portrait makes clear that early-21st-century New York City is a last haven for endangered languages—ones that are being hounded out of existence elsewhere. And this deep linguistic diversity is among the least explored but possibly most important factors in New York’s history and makeup. New York’s soul can be found in the existence of these many, many languages, explaining New York’s particular capacity for tolerance and its ability to “make room” for others.

1. What is the author’s occupation?

A．An economist.

B．A historian.

C．A linguist.

D．A reporter.

2. What can be inferred about the languages in New York City?

A．They are close to disappearing.	B．They are mainly spoken by villagers.
C．English is the most popular language.	D．Most of them are not officially recognized.

3. What does the underlined word “hounded” in the last paragraph probably mean?

A．Protected.

B．Threatened.

C．Respected.

D．Accepted.

4. From which book might the text have been taken?

A．Language City.	B．The Development of Languages.
C．Endangered Languages in New York.	D．The Importance of Language Diversity.

7 . How Taking Short Vacations Can Improve Your Well-Being at Work

Without doubt, the nonstop demands of work and life can be bad for your well-being, exhausting your physical resources and cognitive capacities-and possibly resulting in adverse health and performance results.

    1     Research emphatically shows that vacations improve our physical and mental health while also boosting our performance at work. Perhaps surprisingly, they can even increase the likelihood of receiving a pay raise or promotion.

    2     In fact, nearly half of U.S. workers take less time off than their job allows, leaving an average of 9.5 days of paid time off (PTO) on the table, according to a 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center. And for 30 percent of employees, this unused vacation time doesn’t roll over to the next year.     3     taking mini-vacations throughout the year can improve their overall well-being. That means you can just use a long weekend to explore a new small town in your state, go camping in a national park, or do a biking tour of your local wineries.

We know that being on vacation feels good and that it’s good for us.     4     Naturally, there is the expense, and the bill involved in long trips-room, board, airfare, rail, sightseeing, everything-can be daunting.     5     The Pew survey of over 5,900 U.S. workers found that 49 percent of participants indicated they worried they might fall behind at work if they take more vacation time.

No wonder, then, that most people don’t use all their vacation time. And over half (52 percent) of U.S. employees work while on vacation.

A．If working hard is the way to earn more bread,

B．Even if many workers don’t use all their PTO,

C．Taking a real break is important for so many reasons.

D．But that doesn’t mean we always use our vacation time.

E．So why do we neglect to take all the time we’ve earned?

F．Do you know why people like to take vacations whenever possible?

G．It also turns out that taking extended time away from the office causes a lot of stress.

8 .

69% of the travelers try to put down their smartphones on vacation.	1/3 of Americans always spend their time on the phone on holiday.		16% of UK travelers always check their phones on vacation.		Most important objects USA:  Mobile phone AUS:  Camera UK:  Sunscreen
Holidays booking (预订)
3/4 of the travelers prefer to book trips online.		84% of Americans say they are most likely to book online.		3% of Australians book travel by phone.

根据材料内容选择最佳答案。
1. What do one third of Americans always do during trips?

A．They always try to put down their phones.

B．They always use a lot of sunscreens.

C．They always take cameras with them.

D．They always spend time on the phone.

2. How many countries are mentioned in the text?

A．two

B．three

C．four

D．five

3. How do some Australians choose to book trips?

A．

B．

C．

D．

4. Where do most people prefer to get advice when making travel plans?
①From social media users.
②From other travelers’ reviews.
③From family and friends.
④From travel companies.
⑤From travel guides.

A．①④

B．②⑤

C．②③

D．④⑤

5. Which of the following is TRUE?

A．The text is written to change travelers’ habits.

B．UK travelers use mobile apps the least during trips.

C．Sunscreen is the most important object for a US traveler.

D．Most travelers like to communicate with their friends on vacation.

9 . New research from the University of Portsmouth has shown a marked increase in shipping in the North East Atlantic. Scientists now warn that more monitoring is required to help protect sea life.

Researchers at the University of Ponsmouth have discovered that rates (率) of shipping in the North East Atlantic area rose by 34 per cent in a five-year period. The research is the first detailed survey of shipping activity in the North East Atlantic. Researchers used data from over 530 million vessel (船) positions recorded by Automatic Identification System(AIS). They looked at the change in shipping between 2013 and 2017 across ten different vessel types. In total the study area covered 1.1 million km², including waters off Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany,Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal. Spain, and the UK.

Lead author, James Robbins said: “This change is likely to put more pressure on the marine (海洋的) environment, and may influence the protection of at-risk species. Renewed monitoring effort is needed to make sure that protective measures are enough to save species under threat in a changing environment.”

Some of the greatest shipping increases were found in areas close to the Spanish coast. The Espacio Marino de la Costa da Morte saw a rise of 413 percent in vessel activity. It is an area used to protect seabirds.

Dr. Sarah Marley, Visiting Researcher at the University of Portsmouth, said: “Shipping is the most widespread human activity in our oceans, carrying a set of threats-from unnoticeable effects like underwater noise pollution to serious results when ships hit whales.”

Professor Alex Ford. from the University’s Institute of Marine Sciences, said: “Given the well-documented effects that shipping can have on the marine environment, it is necessary that this situation continues to be monitored-particularly in areas used to protect vulnerable (脆弱的) species which may already be under pressure.”

1. What can we say about the new research?

A．It started in 2013.	B．It is the first of its kind.
C．It was carried out by AIS.	D．It covers the whole Atlantic.

2. What do the underlined words “This change” in paragraph 3 refer to ?

A．Rapid population growth.

B．Rising global temperatures.

C．The huge increase in shipping.

D．The disappearance of marine life.

3. What does Dr. Sarah Marley want to tell us in paragraph 5?

A．Shipping plays an important role in the local economy.

B．Shipping can be a danger to the marine environment.

C．Noise pollution is closely related to human activity.

D．Marine areas should be monitored more carefully.

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

A．New waterways across the Atlantic

B．The shipping industry in the North East Atlantic

C．New research opens windows into life under the water

D．Sea life needs better protection from an increase in shipping

10 . For primary and middle school students, being able to cook has become a must. They will also need to learn how to plant vegetables, raise chickens or ducks and fix computers or fridges under new requirements for labor education. The MOE(教育部) brought out a new standard for labor education in schools last year. Starting from the 2022 fall term, students in primary and middle schools have to take courses on labor skills at least once a week.

Labor education helps students value hard work. The new standard includes three types of labor tasks: housework, school labor and community volunteer services.

Schools in China have traditionally placed more focus on studying, and many have seen housework as a waste of children’s time. But according to the MOE, labor education must be built up to help students improve social values and develop an interest in labor.

Liu Fang, am other of 6-year-old twins in Beijing, strongly supports labor education. For the past year, she has trained her daughters to do housework and make simple dishes for the family.

“The main idea is to let them share duty as family members and become independent as they can,” said Liu. “Through doing housework, their hand-eye coordination(手眼协调), time management and organization skills can be trained and it’s also good to help them relax.”

Through such education, Liu said her twins have found fun in doing housework and are more independent.

1. What CAN’T a middle school student learn through labor education?

A．How to plant vegetables.

B．How to be more careful in class.

C．How to fix computers or fridges.

D．How to raise chickens or ducks.

2. What can we know about the new labor education standard?

A．It started in the fall term of 2022.

B．It is for students from primary school to college.

C．Students have to take labor courses twice a week.

D．It includes two types of labor tasks.

3. Schools in China ________ before labor education.

A．pay more attention to students’ study	B．let students study to cook
C．pay more attention to students’ health	D．let students do housework

4. What does Liu Fang think of labor education?

A．It’s too simple for students.	B．It helps students develop different skills.
C．It is boring for students.	D．It is a waste of students’ time.