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《备战2024年高考英语二轮真题零失误规范训练》（北京专用）
专题15 阅读理解说明文D篇3年真题+最新模拟15篇
（技能+真题+模拟）解析版
目 录
技能专区 1
真题专区 1
模拟专区 9
技能专区：冲刺备考名师提醒，洞悉高考命题规律，提供高效提分干货
一、阅读理解说明文细节理解题注意落实“定位原文”和“同义替换”技巧。
二、数据计算题注重“原文定位”和“细节理解”，弄清来龙去脉再计算。
三、重视说明文“倒三角形”结构，特别是首段和段首的独特引领作用。
四、标题概括题重视三性：概括性、简洁性和新颖性；同时联系首段和关键词。
五、说明文长难句较多增加了理解的难度，落实“括号法”，（从句）（非谓语）
（介词短语）（名词短语）。
六、规范训练目标：做标记，留痕迹；零失误；限时6分钟/每篇。
真题专区：练真题，明方向；练技巧，提能力；练速度，提分数！
（2023北京卷）What is life Like most great questions this one is easy to ask but difficult to answer. The reason is simple: we know of just one type of life and it’s challenging to do science with a sample size of one. The field of artificial life-called ALife for short — is the systematic attempt to spell out life’s fundamental principles. Many of these practitioners, so-called ALifers, think that somehow making life is the surest way to really understand what life is.
So far no one has convincingly made artificial life. This track record makes ALife a ripe target for criticism, such as declarations of the field’s doubtful scientific value. Alan Smith, a complexity scientist, is tired of such complaints.
Asking about “the point” of ALife might be, well, missing the point entirely, he says. “The existence of a living system is not about the use of anything.” Alan says. “Some people ask me, ‘So what’s the worth of artificial life ’ Do you ever think, ‘What is the worth of your grandmother ’”
As much as many ALifers hate emphasizing their research’s applications, the attempts to create artificial life could have practical payoffs. Artificial intelligence may be considered ALife’s cousin in that researchers in both fields are enamored by a concept called open-ended evolution (演化). This is the capacity for a system to create essentially endless complexity, to be a sort of “novelty generator”. The only system known to exhibit this is Earth’s biosphere. If the field of ALife manages to reproduce life’s endless “creativity” in some virtual model, those same principles could give rise to truly inventive machines.
Compared with the developments of Al, advances in ALife are harder to recognize. One reason is that ALife is a field in which the central concept — life itself — is undefined. The lack of agreement among ALifers doesn’t help either. The result is a diverse line of projects that each advance along their unique paths. For better or worse, ALife mirrors the very subject it studies. Its muddled (混乱的) progression is a striking parallel (平行线) to the evolutionary struggles that have shaped Earth biosphere.
Undefined and uncontrolled, ALife drives its followers to repurpose old ideas and generated novelty. It may be, of course, that these characteristics aren’t in any way surprising or singular. They may apply universally to all acts of evolution. Ultimately ALife may be nothing special. But even this dismissal suggests something：perhaps, just like life itself throughout the universe, the rise of ALife will prove unavoidable.
31. Regarding Alan Smith’s defence of ALife, the author is.
A. supportive B. puzzled C. unconcerned D. doubtful
32. What does the word “enamored” underlined in Paragraph 3 most probably mean
A. Shocked. B. Protected. C. Attracted. D. Challenged.
33. What can we learn from this passage
A. ALife holds the key to human future. B. ALife and AI share a common feature.
C. AI mirrors the developments of ALife. D. AI speeds up the process of human evolution.
34. Which would be the best title for the passage
A. Life Is Undefined. Can AI Be a Way Out
B. Life Evolves. Can AI Help ALife Evolve, Too
C. Life Is Undefined. Can ALife Be Defined One Day
D. Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ALife Evolve, Too
【答案】31. A32. C33. B34. D
【解析】
【导语】本文为说明文。文章主要探讨了ALife是否也在不断地进化的问题。
【31题详解】
推理判断题。根据第三段“As much as many ALifers hate emphasizing their research’s applications, the attempts to create artificial life could have practical payoffs. (尽管许多ALifer讨厌强调他们研究的应用，但创造人工生命的尝试可能会有实际的回报)”可知，作者认为创造人工生命的尝试是会有回报的；再结合第二段“So far no one has convincingly made artificial life. This track record makes ALife a ripe target for criticism, such as declarations of the field’s doubtful scientific value. Alan Smith, a complexity scientist, is tired of such complaints. Asking about “the point” of ALife might be, well, missing the point entirely, he says. “The existence of a living system is not about the use of anything.” Alan says. “Some people ask me, ‘So what’s the worth of artificial life ’ Do you ever think, ‘What is the worth of your grandmother ’”(到目前为止，还没有人能令人信服地制造出人工生命。这一记录使生命科学成为批评的成熟目标，比如对该领域可疑科学价值的声明。复杂性科学家艾伦 史密斯厌倦了这样的抱怨。他说，询问ALife的“意义”可能完全没有抓住要点。“一个生命系统的存在与任何东西的使用无关。”Alan说。“有人问我，‘那么人工生命的价值是什么？’你有没有想过，‘你祖母的价值是多少？’”)”可推知，因为还没有人能令人信服地制造出人工生命，才导致使生命科学成为批评（认为其没有科学价值）的成熟目标，作者认为这是不合理的，所以后文引用了Alan Smith的话语对这种观点进行反驳，即关于Alan Smith对ALife的辩护，作者表示支持。故选A。
【32题详解】
词句猜测题。根据划线词上文“Artificial intelligence may be considered ALife’s cousin in that researchers in both fields are enamored by a concept called open-ended evolution (演化).(人工智能可能被认为是ALife的表亲，因为这两个领域的研究人员都被一个叫做开放进化的概念enamored)”可知，人工智能可能被认为是ALife的表亲，说明人工智能和ALife二者间有共同之处，可推测是因为这两个领域的研究人员都被一个叫做开放进化的概念所吸引，所以才有了这种观点。故划线词意为“吸引”。故选C。
【33题详解】
推理判断题。根据第三段“Artificial intelligence may be considered ALife’s cousin in that researchers in both fields are enamored by a concept called open-ended evolution (演化).(人工智能可能被认为是ALife的表亲，因为这两个领域的研究人员都被一个叫做开放进化的概念所吸引)”可知，ALife和AI有一个共同的特点。故选B。
34题详解】
主旨大意题。根据最后一段“They may apply universally to all acts of evolution. Ultimately ALife may be nothing special. But even this dismissal suggests something: perhaps, just like life itself throughout the universe,
the rise of ALife will prove unavoidable.(它们可能普遍适用于所有进化行为。最终，ALife可能没有什么特别的。但即使是这种否定也表明了一些事情：也许，就像整个宇宙中的生命本身一样，ALife的崛起将被证明是不可避免的)”结合文章主要探讨了ALife是否也在不断地进化。D选项“生命在进化。创造ALife的尝试也能进化吗？”是最合适的标题。故选D。
（2022北京卷）Quantum ( 量子 ) computers have been on my mind a lot lately. A friend has been sending me articles on how quantum computers might help solve some of the biggest challenges we face as humans. I’ve also had exchanges with two quantum-computing experts. One is computer scientist Chris Johnson who I see as someone who helps keep the field honest. The other is physicist Philip Taylor.
For decades, quantum computing has been little more than a laboratory curiosity. Now, big tech companies have invested in quantum computing, as have many smaller ones. According to Business Weekly, quantum machines could help us “cure cancer, and even take steps to turn climate change in the opposite direction.” This is the sort of hype ( 炒作 ) that annoys Johnson. He worries that researchers are making promises they can’t keep. “What’s new,” Johnson wrote, “is that millions of dollars are now potentially available to quantum computing researchers.”
As quantum computing attracts more attention and funding, researchers may mislead investors, journalists, the public and, worst of all, themselves about their work’s potential. If researchers can’t keep their promises, excitement might give way to doubt, disappointment and anger, Johnson warns. Lots of other technologies have gone through stages of excitement. But something about quantum computing makes it especially prone to hype, Johnson suggests, perhaps because “‘quantum’ stands for something cool you shouldn’t be able to understand.” And that brings me back to Taylor, who suggested that I read his book Q for Quantum.
After I read the book, Taylor patiently answered my questions about it. He also answered my questions about PyQuantum, the firm he co-founded in 2016. Taylor shares Johnson’s concerns about hype, but he says those concerns do not apply to PyQuantum.
The company, he says, is closer than any other firm “by a very large margin ( 幅度 )” to building a “useful” quantum computer, one that “solves an impactful problem that we would not have been able to solve otherwise.” He adds, “People will naturally discount my opinions, but I have spent a lot of time quantitatively comparing what we are doing with others.”
Could PyQuantum really be leading all the competition “by a wide margin”, as Taylor claims I don’t know. I’m certainly not going to advise my friend or anyone else to invest in quantum computers. But I trust Taylor, just as I trust Johnson.
31. Regarding Johnson’s concerns, the author feels ________.
A. sympathetic B. unconcerned C. doubtful D. excited
32. What leads to Taylor’s optimism about quantum computing
A. His dominance in physics.
B. The competition in the field.
C. His confidence in PyQuantum.
D. The investment of tech companies.
33. What does the underlined word “prone” in Paragraph 3 most probably mean
A. Open. B. Cool. C. Useful. D. Resistant.
34. Which would be the best title for the passage
A. Is Johnson More Competent Than Taylor
B. Is Quantum Computing Redefining Technology
C. Will Quantum Computers Ever Come into Being
D. Will Quantum Computing Ever Live Up to Its Hype
【答案】31A32. C33. A34. D
【导语】本文是一篇议论文。主要论述了“量子计算真的会像它的宣传那样成功吗？”，计算机科学家克里斯·约翰逊和物理学家菲利普·泰勒分别阐明了自己的观点。
31.推理判断题。根据第三自然段“As quantum computing attracts more attention and funding, researchers may mislead investors, journalists, the public and, worst of all, themselves about their work’s potential. If researchers can’t keep their promises, excitement might give way to doubt, disappointment and anger, Johnson warns. （随着量子计算吸引了更多的关注和资金，研究人员可能会误导投资者、记者、公众，最糟糕的是，他们自己的工作潜力。约翰逊警告说，如果研究人员不能兑现承诺，兴奋可能会让位于怀疑、失望和愤怒）”根据最后一段“ But I trust Taylor, just as I trust Johnson.”（但我相信泰勒，就像我相信约翰逊一样）可知，关于约翰逊的担忧，作者是支持的。A. sympathetic同情的，赞同的；B. unconcerned不关心的；C. doubtful怀疑的；D. excited激动的。故选A。
32.细节理解题。根据倒数第二段“The company, he says, is closer than any other firm “by a very large margin ( 幅度 )” to building a “useful” quantum computer, one that “solves an impactful problem that we would not have been able to solve otherwise.” He adds, “People will naturally discount my opinions, but I have spent a lot of time quantitatively comparing what we are doing with others.”（他说，这家公司比其他任何公司都“在很大程度上”接近于制造出“有用的”量子计算机，它“解决了一个有影响力的问题，否则我们无法解决这个问题”。他补充说:“人们自然会不相信我的观点，但我已经花了很多时间来定量地比较我们与他人的做法）”可知，泰勒对量子计算的乐观来源于他对PyQuantum的信心。故选C。
33.词义猜测题。根据第三自然段“But something about quantum computing makes it especially prone to hype,
Johnson suggests, perhaps because “‘quantum’ stands for something cool you shouldn’t be able to understand.”（但约翰逊表明，量子计算的某些方面使得它特别 prone被炒作，可能是因为“量子”代表了一些你不应该理解的酷东西。”）”可知，本句中含有一个原因状语从句，因为““量子”代表了一些你不应该理解的酷东西”，所以它特别容易被炒作。故prone意为“易于……的”。A. Open.开放的；易受损害的；B. Cool. 酷的；C. Useful. 有用的；D. Resistant. 有抵抗力的。故选A。
34.主旨大意题。根据第二自然段“Now, big tech companies have invested in quantum computing, as have many smaller ones. According to Business Weekly, quantum machines could help us “cure cancer, and even take steps to turn climate change in the opposite direction. This is the sort of hype ( 炒作 ) that annoys Johnson.”（现在，大型科技公司和许多小型公司都在量子计算领域进行了投资。据《商业周刊》报道，量子机器可以帮助我们“治愈癌症，甚至采取措施将气候变化转向相反的方向。这种炒作让约翰逊感到恼火。”）”以及最后一段“Could PyQuantum really be leading all the competition “by a wide margin”, as Taylor claims I don’t know. I’m certainly not going to advise my friend or anyone else to invest in quantum computers.（PyQuantum真的能像泰勒所说的那样“以巨大的优势”领先所有竞争对手吗？我不知道。我当然不会建议我的朋友或其他人投资量子计算机。但我信任泰勒，就像我信任约翰逊一样。）”可知，本文主要论述了“量子计算真的会像它的宣传那样成功吗？”，计算机科学家克里斯·约翰逊和物理学家菲利普·泰勒分别阐明了自己的观点。所以短文的最佳标题为“量子计算真的会像它的宣传那样成功吗？”。故选D。
（2021北京卷）Early fifth-century philosopher St. Augustine famously wrote that he knew what time was unless someone asked him. Albert Einstein added another wrinkle when he theorized that time varies depending on where you measure it. Today's state-of-the-art atomic（原子的） clocks have proven Einstein right. Even advanced physics can't decisively tell us what time is, because the answer depends on the question you're asking.
Forget about time as an absolute. What if, instead of considering time in terms of astronomy,we related time to ecology？What if we allowed environmental conditions to set the tempo（节奏） of human life？We're increasingly aware of the fact that we can't control Earth systems with engineering alone, and realizing that we need to moderate（调节）our actions if we hope to live in balance. What if our definition of time reflected that？
Recently, I conceptualized a new approach to timekeeping that's connected to circumstances on our planet, conditions that might change as a result of global warming. We're now building a clock at the Anchorage Museum that reflects the total flow of several major Alaskan rivers, which are sensitive to local and global environmental changes. We've programmed it to match an atomic clock if the waterways continue to flow at their present rate. If the rivers run faster in the future on average, the clock will get ahead of standard time. If they run slower, you'll see the opposite effect.
The clock registers both short-term irregularities and long-term trends in river dynamics. It's a sort of observatory that reveals how the rivers are behaving from their own temporal frame（时间框架）, and allows us to witness those changes on our smart watches or phones. Anyone who opts to go on Alaska Mean River Time will live in harmony with the planet. Anyone who considers river time in relation to atomic time will encounter a major imbalance and may be motivated to counteract it by consuming less fuel or supporting greener policies.
Even if this method of timekeeping is novel in its particulars, early agricultural societies also connected time to natural phenomena. In pre-Classical Greece, for instance, people “corrected” official calendars by shifting dates forward or backward to reflect the change of season. Temporal connection to the environment was vital to their survival. Likewise, river time and other timekeeping systems we're developing may encourage environmental awareness.
When St. Augustine admitted his inability to define time, he highlighted one of time 's most noticeable qualities：Time becomes meaningful only in a defined context. Any timekeeping system is valid, and each is as praiseworthy as its purpose.
31.What is the main idea of Paragraph 1？
A. Timekeeping is increasingly related to nature.
B. Everyone can define time on their own terms.
C. The qualities of time vary with how you measure it.
D. Time is a major concern of philosophers and scientists.
32. The author raises three questions in Paragraph 2 mainly to________.
A. present an assumption
B. evaluate an argument
C. highlight an experiment
D. introduce an approach
33. What can we learn from this passage？
A. Those who do not go on river time will live an imbalanced life.
B. New ways of measuring time can help to control Earth systems.
C. Atomic time will get ahead of river time if the rivers run slower.
D. Modern technology may help to shape the rivers’ temporal frame.
34. What can we infer from this passage？
A. It is crucial to improve the definition of time.
B. A fixed frame will make time meaningless.
C. We should live in harmony with nature.
D. History is a mirror reflecting reality.
【答案】31. B 32. D 33. C 34. C
【分析】本文是议论文。文章通过讨论时间的定义, 讲述了人们应该和大自然和谐相处, 保护环境。
31.主旨大意题。根据第一段最后一句“Even advanced physics can't decisively tell us what time is, because the answer depends on the question you're asking. (即使是先进的物理学也不能决定性地告诉我们时间是什么, 因为答案取决于你要问的问题)”以及上文列举的哲学家St. Augustine和爱因斯坦对于时间的定义可推断, 第一段主要讲述每个人都可以用自己的话来定义时间。故选B项。
32.推理判断题。根据第二段的“We're increasingly aware of the fact that we can't control Earth systems with engineering alone, and realizing that we need to moderate（调节）our actions if we hope to live in balance. (我们越来越意识到, 我们不能只是用工程学来控制地球系统, 意识到, 如果我们希望保持平衡, 我们就需要调节我们的行动。)”进而提出问题“What if our definition of time reflected that？(如果时间的定义反映那些会怎么样呢)”, 结合前两个问题“What if, instead of considering time in terms of astronomy, we related time to ecology？What if we allowed environmental conditions to set the tempo（节奏） of human life？(如果我们不考虑天文学方面的时间, 而是将时间与生态学联系起来呢？如果我们允许环境条件来设定人类生活的节奏呢)”可推断, 第二段提出的三个问题是为了介绍方法。故选D项。
33.细节理解题。根据第三段的“We've programmed it to match an atomic clock if the waterways continue to flow at their present rate. If the rivers run faster in the future on average, the clock will get ahead of standard time. If they run slower, you'll see the opposite effect. （如果水道继续以目前的速度流动, 我们对它进行了编程, 匹配了一个原子时间。如果河流在未来的平均运行速度更快, 时间就会超过标准时间。如果它们的运行速度较慢, 你就会看到相反的效果。）”可知, 如果河流运行速度得较慢, 原子时间将超过河流时间。故选C项。
34.推理判断题。根据第二段的“We're increasingly aware of the fact that we can't control Earth systems with engineering alone, and realizing that we need to moderate（调节）our actions if we hope to live in balance. (我们越来越意识到, 我们不能只是用工程学来控制地球系统, 意识到, 如果我们希望保持平衡, 我们就需要调节我们的行动。)”和倒数第二段的“Temporal connection to the environment was vital to their survival. Likewise, river time and other timekeeping systems we're developing may encourage environmental awareness(时间与环境的暂时联系对它们的生存至关重要。同样, 河流时间和我们正在开发的其他时间保护系统也可能会鼓励人们提高环境意识)”可推断, 从这篇文章中我们知道我们应该与自然和谐共处, 保护环境。故选C。
模拟专区：做好题才有好成绩！练速度，补漏洞，强信心！
（2024·北京东城·一模）When I teach research methods, a major focus is peer review. As a process, peer review evaluates academic papers for their quality, integrity and impact on a field, largely shaping what scientists accept as “knowledge”- By instinct, any academic follows up a new idea with the question, “Was that peer reviewed ”
Although I believe in the importance of peer review and I help do peer reviews for several academic journals-I know how vulnerable the process can be.
I had my first encounter with peer review during my first year as a Ph. D student. One day, my adviser handed me an essay and told me to have my -written review back to him in a week. But at the time, I certainly was not a “peer”-I was too new in my field. Manipulated data (不实的数据) or substandard methods could easily have gone undetected. Knowledge is not self-evident. Only experts would be able to notice them, and even then, experts do not always agree on what they notice.
Let’s say in my life I only see white swans. Maybe I write an essay, concluding that all swans are white. And a “peer” says, “Wait a minute, I’ve seen black swans.” I would have to refine my knowledge.
The peer plays a key role evaluating observations with the overall goal of advancing knowledge. For example, if the above story were reversed, and peer reviewers who all believed that all swans were white came across the first study observing a black swan, the study would receive a lot of attention.
So why was a first-year graduate student getting to stand in for an expert Why would my review count the same as an expert’s review One answer: The process relies almost entirely on unpaid labor.
Despite the fact that peers are professionals, peer review is not a profession. As a result, the same over-worked scholars often receive masses of the peer review requests. Besides the labor inequity, a small pool of experts can lead to a narrowed process of what is publishable or what counts as knowledge, directly threatening diversity of perspectives and scholars. Without a large enough reviewer pool, the process can easily fall victim to biases, arising from a small community recognizing each other’s work and compromising conflicts of interest.
Despite these challenges, I still tell my students that peer review offers the best method for evaluating studies aird advancing knowledge. As a process, peer review theoretically works. The question is whether the issues with peer review can be addressed by professionalizing the field.
1．What can we learn about peer review in the first paragraph
A．It generates knowledge. B．It is commonly practiced.
C．It is a major research method. D．It is questioned by some scientists.
2．What can be inferred about the example of swans
A．Complexity of peer review ensures its reliability.
B．Contradictions between scientists may be balanced.
C．Individuals can be limited by personal experiences.
D．Experts should detect unscientific observation methods.
3．What is the author’s major concern about peer review
A．Workload for scholars. B．Toughness of the process.
C．Diversification of publications. D．Financial support to reviewers.
4．The passage is mainly about ______.
A．what fuels peer review B．why peer review is imperfect
C．how new hands advance peer review D．whether peer reviewers are underrated
【答案】1．B 2．C 3．D 4．B
【导语】本文是一篇说明文，主要讲的是作者对于同行评议不完美的原因的分析。
1．推理判断题。根据第一段“By instinct, any academic follows up a new idea with the question, “Was that peer reviewed ”(出于本能，任何学者在提出新想法后都会问：“这个想法经过同行评议了吗？”)”可知，从第一段中我们可以了解到同行评议是普遍的做法。故选B。
2．推理判断题。根据第四段“Let’s say in my life I only see white swans. Maybe I write an essay, concluding that all swans are white. And a “peer” says, “Wait a minute, I’ve seen black swans.” I would have to refine my knowledge.(比方说，在我的生活中，我只看到白天鹅。也许我可以写一篇文章，总结说所有的天鹅都是白色的。一个“同伴”说，“等一下，我见过黑天鹅。”我得完善我的知识。)”可知，从天鹅的例子可以推断出个人可能会受到个人经历的限制。故选C。
3．推理判断题。根据倒数第三段“The process relies almost entirely on unpaid labor.(这个过程几乎完全依赖于无偿劳动力。)”和倒数第二段“As a result, the same over-worked scholars often receive masses of the peer review requests.(结果，同样是那些过度劳累的学者经常收到大量的同行评审请求。)”可知，作者对同行评议的主要担忧是对评审的财政支持。故选D。
4．主旨大意题。通读全文，尤其是第二段“Although I believe in the importance of peer review and I help do peer reviews for several academic journals-I know how vulnerable the process can be.(虽然我相信同行评议的重要性，我也为几家学术期刊做同行评议，但我知道这个过程有多脆弱。)”可知，本文主要讲的是作者对于同行评议不完美的原因的分析，因此B选项“why peer review is imperfect(为什么同行评议是不完美的)”是本文的主旨。故选B。
（2024·北京石景山·一模）On Feb. 21, four students were standing on the side of Pacific Coast Highway in
Malibu when a driver going 110 miles per hour lost control of his car and it crashed into the parked vehicles.12 people were killed at the scene, including 2 drivers.
This kind of traffic death shouldn’t be called an accident. In Los Angeles, we seem to have accepted constant carnage (屠杀) in our streets in exchange for maximizing driver speed and convenience. The official responses to proven traffic dangers are mere gestures, if even that.
Los Angeles is a uniquely deadly city with a death rate that is four times the national average. Unsurprisingly, it’s also a city that has been designed with one thing in mind: a concept called level of service, which grades streets on how well they serve those in automobiles. To many Angelenos, that makes sense — to design our streets for car traffic, which is the way many get around the city. Unfortunately, we don’t recognize that there’s a trade-off. We can either have streets bettered for free-flowing traffic, or we can design streets for people to move around safely outside of cars.
City leaders consistently choose for the easy but deadly option. In one recent example, a resident asked the city’s Department of Transportation to block drivers from using Cochran Avenue at Venice Boulevard as a cut-through street, as they were speeding through a quiet residential neighbourhood. The department responded by suggesting a “speed awareness campaign” in which neighbours put up yard signs urging drivers to slow down.
People don’t drive based on signage, but they drive on the design of the street. The trunk roads of Los Angeles such as Venice Boulevard all need to be revised so that people are prioritized over cars. This would include narrowing travel lanes (道), building bike lanes, and banning right turns at red lights. These measures would make drivers feel like they’re in a city and not on a highway. A recent John Hopkins study says this would have substantial safety benefits.
With more than 7,500 miles of streets in the city of Los Angeles, they won’t all be rebuilt anytime soon. But with each road construction project, or each crash, we should be revising streets to make them safer for all road users.
The solution to traffic jam isn’t to make more space for cars. It’s to design the streets to be safe enough for alternatives such as biking, walking and mass transit, especially for the 50% of trips daily in Los Angeles that are less than three miles. The solution to protecting people dining outdoors isn’t crash barriers. It’s a street design that forces drivers to go slowly. The problem is carnage in the streets, and we know the solutions.
5．Why should the traffic death in Los Angeles be called “constant carnage”
A．The traffic accidents happen quite often.
B．Too many people are killed in the traffic accidents.
C．The drivers’ speeding is to blame for the traffic death.
D．City leaders’ consistent choice contributes to the traffic death.
6．What does the word “trade-off” underlined in Paragraph 3 most probably mean
A．Balance. B．Guideline. C．Conflict. D．Resolution.
7．According to the passage, which is a likely solution to the traffic problem
A．To widen travel lanes. B．To add more crosswalks.
C．To arrange more traffic police. D．To punish speeding drivers.
8．Which would be the best title for the passage
A．Drivers first or walkers first B．Traffic death or constant carnage
C．More warning signs or safer designs D．More narrow lanes or speedy highways
【答案】5．D 6．A 7．B 8．C
【导语】这是一篇说明文。短文介绍了洛杉矶街道设计的不合理之处以及改进措施。
5．细节理解题。根据第四段“City leaders consistently choose for the easy but deadly option.”（城市领导人总是选择简单但致命的选项）可知，为什么洛杉矶的交通死亡被称为“持续的屠杀”是因为城市领导的一贯选择导致交通死亡。故选D项。
6．词句猜测题，根据第三段“. To many Angelenos, that makes sense—to design our streets for car traffic, which is the way many get around the city. ”（对许多洛杉矶人来说，为汽车交通设计街道是有意义的，这是许多人在城市里出行的方式）根据下文“We can either have streets bettered for free-flowing traffic, or we can design streets for people to move around safely outside of cars.”（我们可以让街道变得更好，让交通更加畅通，或者我们可以设计街道，让人们在没有汽车的情况下安全地走动。）可知，不幸的是，我们没有意识到应该平衡一下。所以划线词的意思是“平衡”。故选A项。
7．推理判断题。根据最后一段“The solution to traffic jam isn’t to make more space for cars. It’s to design the streets to be safe enough for alternatives such as biking, walking and mass transit,”（解决交通堵塞的办法不是为汽车腾出更多的空间。而是为了设计足够安全的街道，让人们可以选择骑自行车、步行和公共交通，）可知，.增加人行横道可能是解决交通问题的方法。故选B项。
8．主旨大意题。短文介绍了洛杉矶街道的设计导致车道成为了快车道，并导致死亡事故不断地产生。有的部门提出，建议开展一项“速度意识运动”，让邻居们在院子里竖起标志，敦促司机减速。有的提出了解决措施如缩小行车车道，修建自行车道，禁止在红灯时右转。这些措施会让司机感觉他们是在一个城市，而不是在高速公路上。以短文的标题为“更多的警告标志还是更安全的设计 ”切题。故选C项。
（2024·北京朝阳·一模）The streets and roofs of cities all absorb heat, making some urban areas hotter than
rural ones. These “urban heat islands” can also develop underground as city heat spreads downward, and subway tracks and other subsurface infrastructure(基础设施) also constantly radiate warmth into the surrounding earth.
A new study of downtown Chicago shows underground hotspots may threaten the very same structures that give off the heat in the first place. “Without anyone realizing it, the city of Chicago’s downtown was deforming,” says study author Rotta Loria, an environmental engineer.
Humans aren’t the only potentially affected. “For a lot of things in the subsurface, it’s kind of ‘out of sight, out of mind’,” says Grant Ferguson, a geologist. But the underground world is full of creatures that have adapted to subsurface existence such as insects and snails. As the temperature rises because of climate change and underground urban development, scientists are keeping eyes on the potential implications for underground ecosystems.
But the question of how underground hotspots could affect infrastructure has gone largely unstudied. Because materials expand and contract with temperature change, Rotta suspected that heat coming from underground could be contributing to wear and tear on various structures. To understand how underground temperature difference has affected the ground’s physical properties, he used a computer model to simulate(模拟) the underground environment from the 1950s to now—and then to 2050. He found that by the middle of this century, some areas may lift upward by as much as 0.50 inch or settle by as much as 0.32 inch, depending on the soil makeup of the area involved. Though these may sound like small displacements, Rotta says they could cause cracks in the foundations of some buildings, causing buildings to fall.
Kathrin Menberg, a geoscientist in Germany, says these displacement predictions are far beyond her guesses and could be linked to the soft, clay-heavy soils. “Clay material is particularly sensitive,” she says, “It would be a big issue in all cities worldwide that are built on such material.”
Like climate change above the surface, underground changes occur gradually. “These effects took decades to develop,” Ferguson says, adding that increased underground temperatures would likewise take a long time to dissipate on their own. “We could basically turn everything off, and it’s going to remain there, the temperature signal, for quite a while.”
But Ferguson says this wasted heat energy could also be reused, presenting an opportunity to both cool the subsurface and save on energy costs. Still, this assumption could fail as aboveground climate change continues to boost underground warming. However slowly, this heat will gather beneath our feet. “It’s like climate change,” Rotta Loria says. “Maybe we don’t see it always, but it’s happening.”
9．The author quotes Rotta Loria in Paragraph 2 mainly to _______.
A．make a prediction B．highlight a finding
C．draw a conclusion D．raise an assumption
10．What can we learn from this passage
A．“Urban heat islands” extend underground to spare ecosystems.
B．Surface climate change contributes to the reuse of underground heat.
C．Underground temperatures mirror the ground’s physical characteristics.
D．Buildings may collapse as a potential consequence of underground heat.
11．What does the underlined word “dissipate” in Paragraph 6 probably mean
A．Show. B．Stay. C．Develop. D．Disappear.
12．What does the author intend to tell us
A．Underground climate change is a silent danger.
B．Humans fail to notice the dramatic climate change.
C．Cooling the subsurface helps control urban heat rises.
D．Researching underground heat helps save on energy costs.
【答案】9．B 10．D 11．D 12．A
【导语】本文为一篇说明文，介绍了城市的热量正在向地下传播，这会影响到一些地面建筑材料，且这种变化是不易察觉的，是一种无声的危险。
9．推理判断题。根据文章第一段“The streets and roofs of cities all absorb heat, making some urban areas hotter than rural ones. These “urban heat islands” can also develop underground as city heat spreads downward, and subway tracks and other subsurface infrastructure(基础设施) also constantly radiate warmth into the surrounding earth.(城市的街道和屋顶都会吸收热量，这使得一些城市地区比农村地区更热。随着城市热量向下传播，这些“城市热岛”也会在地下发展，地铁轨道和其他地下基础设施也会不断向周围的地球辐射热量)”说明城市热量在向地下发展，第二段““Without anyone realizing it, the city of Chicago’s downtown was deforming,” says study author Rotta Loria, an environmental engineer.(“在没有人意识到的情况下，芝加哥市中心正在变形，”研究报告的作者、环境工程师罗塔·洛里亚说)”引用Rotta Loria的话突出了这一发现。故选B。
10．细节理解题。根据文章第四段“Because materials expand and contract with temperature change, Rotta suspected that heat coming from underground could be contributing to wear and tear on various structures.(由于材料会随着温度的变化而膨胀和收缩，罗塔怀疑来自地下的热量可能会导致各种结构的磨损)”及“He found that by the middle of this century, some areas may lift upward by as much as 0.50 inch or settle by as much as 0.32 inch, depending on the soil makeup of the area involved. Though these may sound like
small displacements, Rotta says they could cause cracks in the foundations of some buildings, causing buildings to fall.(他发现，到本世纪中叶，一些地区可能会向上抬升0.50英寸或下沉0.32英寸，这取决于该地区的土壤构成。虽然这些听起来像是很小的位移，但罗塔说，它们可能会导致一些建筑物的地基出现裂缝，导致建筑物倒塌)”可知，地下热量的潜在后果是建筑物可能倒塌。故选D。
11．词义猜测题。根据划线词前文“adding that increased underground temperatures would likewise take a long time to(他补充说，地下温度的升高同样需要很长时间才能)”及后文“We could basically turn everything off, and it’s going to remain there, the temperature signal, for quite a while.(我们基本上可以把所有的东西都关掉，温度信号会在那里停留很长一段时间)”可推知，关掉开关，也不会导致地下温度升高立即消失，因此，地下温度升高需要很长时间才能消失，划线词与disappear意思一致。故选D。
12．推理判断题。根据文章第一段“The streets and roofs of cities all absorb heat, making some urban areas hotter than rural ones. These “urban heat islands” can also develop underground as city heat spreads downward, and subway tracks and other subsurface infrastructure(基础设施) also constantly radiate warmth into the surrounding earth.(城市的街道和屋顶都会吸收热量，这使得一些城市地区比农村地区更热。随着城市热量向下传播，这些“城市热岛”也会在地下发展，地铁轨道和其他地下基础设施也会不断向周围的地球辐射热量)”及第二段“A new study of downtown Chicago shows underground hotspots may threaten the very same structures that give off the heat in the first place.(一项针对芝加哥市中心的新研究表明，地下热点可能会威胁到最初散发热量的相同结构)”结合最后一段““It’s like climate change,” Rotta Loria says. “Maybe we don’t see it always, but it’s happening.”(“这就像气候变化，”罗塔·洛里亚说。“也许我们并不总是看到这种情况，但它正在发生。”)”可知，本文介绍了城市的热量正在向地下传播，这会影响到一些地面建筑材料，且这种变化是不易察觉的，因此，作者想要告诉我们“地下气候变化是一种无声的危险”。故选A。
（2024·北京·一模）Several dozen graduate students in London were recently tasked with outwitting a large language model (LLM), a type of AI designed to hold useful conversations. LLMs are often programmed with guardrails designed to stop them giving harmful replies: instructions on making bombs in a bathtub, say, or the confident statement of “facts” that are not actually true.
The aim of the task was to break those guardrails. Some results were merely stupid. For example, one participant got the chatbot to claim ducks could be used as indicators of air quality. But the most successful efforts were those that made the machine produce the titles, publication dates and host journals of non-existent academic articles.
AI has the potential to be a big benefit to science. Optimists talk of machines producing readable summaries of complicated areas of research; tirelessly analysing oceans of data to suggest new drugs and even, one day, coming up with hypotheses of their own. But AI comes with downsides, too.
Start with the simplest problem: academic misconduct.Some journals allow researchers to use LLMs to help write papers. But not everybody is willing to admit to it. Sometimes, the fact that LLMs have been used is obvious. Guillaume Cabanac, a computer scientist, has uncovered dozens of papers that contain phrases such as “regenerate response” — the text of a button in some versions of ChatGPT that commands the program to rewrite its most recent answer, probably copied into the manuscript (原稿) by mistake.
Another problem arises when AI models are trained on AI-generated data. LLMs are trained on text from the Internet. As they churn out (大量炮制) more such text, the risk of LLMs taking in their own outputs grows. That can cause “model collapse”. In 2023 llia Shumailov, a computer scientist, co-authored a paper in which a model was fed handwritten digits and asked to generate digits of its own, which were fed back to it in turn. After a few cycles, the computer’s numbers became more or less illegible.After 20iterations (迭代), it could produce only rough circles or blurry lines.
Some worry that computer-generated insights might come from models whose inner workings are not understood. Inexplainable models are not useless, says David Leslie at an AI-research outfit in London, but their outputs will need rigorous testing in the real world. That is perhaps less unnerving than it sounds. Checking models against reality is what science is supposed to be about, after all.
For now, at least, questions outnumber answers. The threats that machines pose to the scientific method are, at the end of the day, the same ones posed by humans. AI could accelerate the production of nonsense just as much as it accelerates good science. As the Royal Society has it,nullius in verba: take nobody’s word for it. No thing’s, either.
13．The result of the task conducted in London shows that ________.
A．LLMs give away useful information B．the guardrails turn out to be ineffective
C．AI’s influence will potentially be decreased D．the effort put into the study of AI hardly pays off
14．What does “model collapse” indicate
A．The readability of the models’output is underestimated.
B．The diverse sources of information confuse the models.
C．Training on regenerated data stops models working well.
D．The data will become reliable after continuous iterations.
15．According to the passage, people’s worry over the inexplainable models is __________.
A．impractical B．unjustified C．groundless D．unsettling
16．What would be the best title for the passage
A．Faster Nonsense: AI Could Also Go Wrong
B．Imperfect Models: How Will AI Make Advances
C．The Rise of LLMs: AI Could Still Be Promising
D．Bigger Threats: AI Will Be Uncontrollable
【答案】13．B 14．C 15．B 16．A
【导语】这是一篇说明文。短文介绍了人工智能也可能出错。
13．推理判断题。根据第一段中“LLMs are often programmed with guardrails designed to stop them giving harmful replies: instructions on making bombs in a bathtub, say, or the confident statement of “facts” that are not actually true.”（LLM通常被编程为带有护栏，旨在阻止他们做出有害的回复：比如说，关于在浴缸里制造炸弹的说明，或者对事实并非真实的“事实”的自信陈述。）以及第二段“The aim of the task was to break those guardrails. Some results were merely stupid. For example, one participant got the chatbot to claim ducks could be used as indicators of air quality. But the most successful efforts were those that made the machine produce the titles, publication dates and host journals of non-existent academic articles.”（这项任务的目的是打破那些护栏。有些结果很愚蠢。例如，一名参与者让聊天机器人声称鸭子可以作为空气质量的指标。但最成功的努力是让机器生成不存在的学术文章的标题、出版日期和主办期刊。）可知，在伦敦进行的这项任务的结果表明，LLM这些护栏是无效的，并没有能够阻止非真实的信息的生成。故选B项。
14．细节理解题。根据第五段中“‘model collapse’”下文“In 2023 llia Shumailov, a computer scientist, co-authored a paper in which a model was fed handwritten digits and asked to generate digits of its own, which were fed back to it in turn. After a few cycles, the computer’s numbers became more or less illegible. After 20 iterations (迭代), it could produce only rough circles or blurry lines.”（2023年，计算机科学家llia Shumailov与人合著了一篇论文，在论文中，一个模型被输入手写数字，并被要求生成自己的数字，这些数字依次被反馈给它。几个周期后，计算机的数字变得或多或少难以辨认。经过20次迭代，它只能生成粗糙的圆圈或模糊的线条。）可知，一个模型被输入手写数字并被要求生成自己的数字，这些数字依次被反馈给它，经过20次迭代后，只能生成粗糙的圆圈或模糊的线条，而不是数字，由此可知，再生数据的训练使这个模型崩溃，无法正常工作，由此可知，“model collapse(模型崩溃)”表明对再生数据的训练使模型无法正常工作。故选C项。
15．推理判断题。根据第六段“Inexplainable models are not useless, says David Leslie at an AI-research outfit in London, but their outputs will need rigorous testing in the real world. That is perhaps less unnerving than it sounds. Checking models against reality is what science is supposed to be about, after all.”（伦敦一家人工智能研究机构的David Leslie表示，无法解释的模型并非毫无用处，但它们的结果需要在现实世界中进行严格的测试。这也许没有听起来那么令人不安。毕竟，根据现实检验模型才是科学应该做的事情。）可知，根
据文章，人们对无法解释的模型的担忧是不合理的，因为它们的结果需要在现实世界中进行严格的测试。故选B项。
16．主旨大意题。通读全文，尤其根据第三段“But AI comes with downsides, too.”（但人工智能也有缺点.）以及根据最后一段“AI could accelerate the production of nonsense just as much as it accelerates good science. ”（人工智能可以加速废话的产生，就像它可以加速好的科学一样。）可知，文章主要阐述人工智能也会出错，生成虚假信息，所设置的“护栏”并不能起到作用；因此，短文的最佳标题为“更快的废话：人工智能也可能出错”。故选A项。
（2023·北京朝阳·一模）A snake-robot designer, a technologist, an extradimensional physicist and a journalist walk into a room. The journalist turns to the crowd and asks: Should we build houses on the ocean Like a think-tank panel, members of the team dream up far-out answers to the crucial problem, such as self-driving housing units that could park on top of one another in the coastal city center.
The setting is X, the enterprise which considers more than 100 ideas each year, in areas ranging from clean energy to artificial intelligence. Although only a tiny percentage become “projects” with far-reaching creativity, these projects exist, ultimately, to change the world, like Waymo, the biggest self-driving-car company.
In the past 60 years, something strange has happened. As the academic study of creativity has thrived (蓬勃发展), the label innovation may have covered every tiny change of a soda can or a toothpaste flavor, but the rate of productivity growth has been mostly declining since the 1970s. John Fernald, an economist, points out that the notable exception to the post-1970 decline in productivity occurred when businesses throughout the economy finally figured out the breakthrough technology-information technology. John Fernald says, “It’s possible that productivity took off, because we picked all the low-hanging fruit from the IT wave.” Actually. the world economy continues to harvest the benefits of IT. But where will the next technology shock come from
Breakthrough technology results from two distinct activities — invention and innovation. Invention is typically the work of scientists and researchers in labs, while innovation is an invention put to commercial use. Seldom do the two activities occur successfully under the same roof. They tend to thrive in opposite conditions; while competition and consumer choice encourage innovation, invention has historically progressed in labs that are protected from the pressure to generate profit.
Allowing well-funded and diverse teams to try to solve big problems is what gave us the computer and the Internet. Today, we fail to give attention to planting the seeds of this kind of ambitious research, while complaining about the harvest. “Companies are really good at combining existing breakthroughs in ways that consumers like. But the breakthroughs come from patient and curious scientists, not the rush to market,” says John Gertner, the author of The Idea Factory.
“Technology is a tall tree,” John Fernald said. “But planting the seeds of invention and harvesting the fruit of innovation are entirely distinct skills, often mastered by different organizations and separated by many years.” As for me, both of them are essential for technology, although they are relatively independent. “I don’t think X is a planter or a harvester, actually. I think of X as building taller ladders. They reach where others cannot.” he added. Several weeks later, his words were repeated to several X employees. “That’s perfect,” they said. “That’s so perfect.” Nobody knows for sure what, if anything, the employees at X are going to find up on those ladders. But they’re reaching. At least someone is.
17．What is the main purpose of the first two paragraphs
A．To present the process of group discussion. B．To illustrate X’s worry about big problems.
C．To reveal the importance of the crazy ideas. D．To stress the varied backgrounds of the team.
18．What can we learn from the Paragraph 3 — 4
A．Breakthroughs must stand the test of the market.
B．Innovation on necessities can promote productivity.
C．Invention develops slowly under the pressure of profit.
D．The harvest of innovation lies in some ambitious research.
19．What’s X employee’ attitude regarding John Fernald’s view on technology
A．Ironic. B．Uninterested. C．Conservative. D．Supportive.
20．What can be inferred about X from the passage
A．It will focus on innovation. B．It will have its outcome soon.
C．It may bring an encouraging outlook. D．It may give in to its fruitless reality.
【答案】17．C 18．D 19．D 20．C
【导语】这是一篇说明文。文章介绍了在X背景下发明和创新会给人带来令人鼓舞的前景。
17．推理判断题。根据第一段“A snake-robot designer, a technologist, an extradimensional physicist and a journalist walk into a room. The journalist turns to the crowd and asks: Should we build houses on the ocean Like a think-tank panel, members of the team dream up far-out answers to the crucial problem, such as self-driving housing units that could park on top of one another in the coastal city center.(一个蛇机器人设计师，一个技术专家，一个超维物理学家和一个记者走进一个房间。记者转向人群问道：我们应该在海洋上盖房子吗？就像一个智库小组一样，该团队的成员为这个关键问题想出了超乎想象的答案，比如可以在沿海城市中心一个接一个停放的自动驾驶住宅单元。)”以及第二段“The setting is X, the enterprise which considers
more than 100 ideas each year, in areas ranging from clean energy to artificial intelligence. Although only a tiny percentage become “projects” with far-reaching creativity, these projects exist, ultimately, to change the world, like Waymo, the biggest self-driving-car company.(背景是X，这家企业每年会考虑100多个创意，涉及的领域从清洁能源到人工智能。虽然只有一小部分成为具有深远创造力的“项目”，但这些项目的存在最终将改变世界，就像最大的自动驾驶汽车公司Waymo一样。）可知，前两段的主要目的是揭示疯狂想法的重要性。故选C项。
18．推理判断题。根据第五段中“Today, we fail to give attention to planting the seeds of this kind of ambitious research, while complaining about the harvest.(今天，我们没有注意播种这种雄心勃勃的研究的种子，同时抱怨收获。)”和“But the breakthroughs come from patient and curious scientists, not the rush to market(但这些突破来自耐心和好奇的科学家，而不是急于进入市场)”可知，创新的收获在于一些雄心勃勃的研究。故选D项。
19．推理判断题。根据最后一段中“Several weeks later, his words were repeated to several X employees. ‘That’s perfect,’ they said. ‘That’s so perfect.’ Nobody knows for sure what, if anything, the employees at X are going to find up on those ladders. But they’re reaching. At least someone is.(几周后，他的话被重复告诉了几名X的员工。‘太好了，’他们说。‘这太完美了。’没有人确切知道，如果有的话，X的员工会在那些梯子上发现什么。但他们正在努力。至少有人是。)”可知，关于John Fernald对技术的看法，X的员工是支持的。故选D项。
20．推理判断题。根据第二段“The setting is X, the enterprise which considers more than 100 ideas each year, in areas ranging from clean energy to artificial intelligence. Although only a tiny percentage become “projects” with far-reaching creativity, these projects exist, ultimately, to change the world, like Waymo, the biggest self-driving-car company.(背景是X，这家企业每年会考虑100多个创意，涉及的领域从清洁能源到人工智能。虽然只有一小部分成为具有深远创造力的“项目”，但这些项目的存在最终将改变世界，就像最大的自动驾驶汽车公司Waymo一样。)”可知，X可能会带来令人鼓舞的前景。故选C项。
（2024·北京房山·一模）A good meal has a positive impact on one’s mood. Those who feast on Christmas buffet almost enjoy an immediate rise in their blood sugar. That will prompt a flood of chemicals that act as happy hormones to rush through their brains.
But the pleasure goes deeper. Tyrosine and tryptophan are needed for the production, respectively, of dopamine, a neurotransmitter (神经传递素) that controls feelings of pleasure and reward, and serotonin, another such, which helps regulate mood. And cranberries are high in vitamin C, which is involved in converting dopamine to noradrenaline, another neurotransmitter, and a lack of which seems to be associated with depression.
With mental-health disorders rising, a growing number of scientists are investigating how food or nutritional
supplements affect the mind. But separating the brain’s nutritional needs from those of the rest of the body is difficult. Not possible for now, at least. And, compared with other fields, nutritional science is understudied. That is partly because it is hard to do well. Randomised controlled trials (rcts), used to test drugs, are tricky. Few people want to stick to an experimental diet for years. Instead, most nutritional science is based on observational studies that try to establish associations between particular foods or nutrients and diseases. They cannot be used to definitively prove a causal ( 因 果 关 系 的 ) connection between a disease and a particular contributing factor in a diet. But as with smoking and lung cancer, put together enough of these kinds of trials and causal narratives begin to emerge.
It is now clear that some diets are particularly good for the brain. One recent study concludes that sticking to the “Mediterranean diet”, high in vegetables, fruit, pulses and wholegrains, low in red and processed meats and saturated fats, decreases the chances of experiencing strokes, cognitive impairment and depression. Other recent work looking at a “green” Mediterranean diet high in polyphenols found it reduced age-related brain atrophy. Another version, the mind diet, emphasises, among other things, eating berries over other kinds of fruit and seems to lessen the risk of dementia.
Scientists think such diets may work by reducing inflammation in the brain. This, in turn, may affect areas such as the hippocampus, which is associated with learning, memory and mood regulation—and where new neurons grow in adults. Studies in animals show that when they are fed a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids (from walnuts, for example), flavonoids (consumed mainly via tea and wine), antioxidants (found in berries) and resveratrol (found in red grapes), neuron growth is stimulated and inflammatory processes are reduced. This fits with research suggesting that those who regularly eat ultra-processed, fried and sugary foods, which increase inflammation in the brain, heighten their risk of developing depression.
21．Which of the following words can replace “tricky” in Paragraph 3
A．Rare.
B．Tough.
C．Traditional.
D．Contradictory.
22．How do researchers do observational studies in nutritional science
A．By keeping at an experimental diet for years.
B．By carrying out randomized controlled trials.
C．By identifying a particular contributing factor.
D．By comparing findings of certain kinds of trials.
23．What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs
A．A diet rich in fruit is good for cognitive abilities.
B．People fond of sugary foods may be a risk lover.
C．Red grapes add fuel to inflammation in the brain.
D．Drinking tea can solve age-related brain problems.
24．What is mainly discussed in the passage
A．The links between diets and diseases.
B．The significance of Mediterranean diet.
C．The function of various neurotransmitters.
D．The influence of nutrients on mental health.
【答案】21．B 22．D 23．A 24．D
【导语】本文是一篇说明文，主要讲的是食物中的营养素对心理健康的影响。
21．词句猜测题。根据第三段“Few people want to stick to an experimental diet for years. Instead, most nutritional science is based on observational studies that try to establish associations between particular foods or nutrients and diseases. They cannot be used to definitively prove a causal (因果关系的) connection between a disease and a particular contributing factor in a diet.(很少有人愿意多年坚持实验性饮食。相反，大多数营养科学是建立在观察性研究的基础上的，这些研究试图建立特定食物或营养素与疾病之间的联系。它们不能被用来明确地证明某种疾病与饮食中某一特定因素之间的因果关系。)”可知，用于测试药物的随机对照试验是很难进行的，划线词tricky的意思是“困难的”，和tough意思相近，故选B。
22．推理判断题。根据第三段“Instead, most nutritional science is based on observational studies that try to establish associations between particular foods or nutrients and diseases.(相反，大多数营养科学是建立在观察性研究的基础上的，这些研究试图建立特定食物或营养素与疾病之间的联系。)”和“But as with smoking and lung cancer, put together enough of these kinds of trials and causal narratives, it begin to emerge.(但就像吸烟和肺癌一样，把足够多的这类试验和因果叙述放在一起，它就会开始出现。)”可知，研究人员通过比较不同试验的结果在营养科学中进行观察性研究。故选D。
23．推理判断题。根据倒数第二段“One recent study concludes that sticking to the “Mediterranean diet”, high in vegetables, fruit, pulses and wholegrains, low in red and processed meats and saturated fats, decreases the chances of experiencing strokes, cognitive impairment and depression.(最近的一项研究得出结论，坚持“地中海饮食”，多吃蔬菜、水果、豆类和全谷物，少吃红肉、加工肉类和饱和脂肪，可以降低患中风、认知障碍和抑郁症的几率。)”可知，富含水果的饮食对认知能力有好处。故选A。
24．主旨大意题。通读全文，尤其是第三段“With mental-health disorders rising, a growing number of scientists are investigating how food or nutritional supplements affect the mind.(随着心理疾病的增加，越来越多的科学家正在研究食物或营养补充剂是如何影响心理的。)”可知，本文主要讲的是食物中的营养素对心理健康的影响，即“The influence of nutrients on mental health.(营养素对心理健康的影响。)”。故选D。
（2024·北京延庆·一模）It is rapidly emerging as one of the most important technological, and increasingly ideological, divides of our times: should powerful generative artificial intelligence systems be open or closed
Supporters say they broaden access to the technology, stimulate innovation and improve reliability by encouraging outside scrutiny. Far cheaper to develop and deploy, smaller open models also inject competition into a field dominated by big US companies such as Google. Microsoft and OpenAI that have invested billions developing massive, closed and closely controlled generative Al systems.
But detractors argue open models risk lifting the lid on a Pandora’s box of troubles. Bad actors can exploit them to spread personalised disinformation, while terrorists might use them to manufacture cyber or bio weapons. “The danger of open source is that it enables more crazies to do crazy things, “Geoffrey Hinton, one of the pioneers of modern AI, has warned.
The history of OpenAI, which developed the popular ChatGPT chatbot, is itself instructive. As its name suggests, the research company was founded in 2015 with a commitment to develop the technology as openly as possible. But it later abandoned that approach for both competitive and safety reasons. Once OpenAI realised that its generative AI models were going to be “unbelievably potent”, it made little sense to open source them, Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist said.
Supporters of open models hit back, ridiculing the idea that open generative AI models enable people to access information they could not otherwise find from the internet or a rogue scientist. They also highlight the competitive self-interest of the big tech companies in shouting about the dangers of open models, whose intention is to establish their own market dominance strongly.
But there is an ideological dimension to this debate, too. Yann LeCun, chief scientist of Meta, has likened the arguments for controlling the technology to medieval obscurantism (蒙昧主义): the belief that only a self-selecting priesthood of experts is wise enough to handle knowledge.
In the future, all our interactions with the vast digital repository of human knowledge will be mediated through Al systems. We should not want a handful of Silicon Valley companies to control that access. Just as the internet flourished by resisting attempts to enclose it, so AI will thrive by remaining open, LeCun argues.
Wendy Hall, royal professor of computer science at Southampton university, says we do not want to live in a world where only the big companies run generative Al. Nor do we want to allow users to do anything they like with
open models. “We have to find some compromise,” she suggests.
We should certainly resist the tyranny (暴政) of the binary (二进制) when it comes to thinking about AI models. Both open and closed models have their benefits and flaws. As the capabilities of these models evolve, we will constantly have to tweak the weightings between competition and control.
25．What does the underlined word “potent” in Paragraph 4 most probably mean
A．Accessible. B．Powerful. C．Significant. D．Unnoticeable.
26．What can we learn from this passage
A．It needs billions of dollars to develop and deploy open-source models.
B．The field of generative AI systems is dominated by big companies.
C．Only self-selecting experts can handle open models wisely.
D．Users can do anything they like with open models at this moment.
27．Regarding Wendy Hall’s suggestions, the author is ______.
A．sympathetic B．puzzled C．unconcerned D．opposed
28．Which of the following would be the best title for the passage
A．How to Keep the Lid on the Pandora’s Box of Open AI
B．Divides on Open AI: technology and ideology
C．Where does the Debate on Open AI End
D．Pros and Cons of Open AI
【答案】25．B 26．B 27．A 28．A
【导语】
本文是一篇议论文。文章主要围绕“生成式人工智能系统应该是开放的还是封闭的”这一论题展开，分析了开放和封闭两种观点的支持者和反对者的论据，以及这一争论背后的技术、安全和意识形态等方面的考量。
25．
词句猜测题。根据划线单词上一段““The danger of open source is that it enables more crazies to do crazy things, “Geoffrey Hinton, one of the pioneers of modern AI, has warned. (现代人工智能的先驱之一Geoffrey Hinton警告称：“开源的危险在于，它让更多的疯子能够做疯狂的事情。”)”可推测，OpenAI意识到其生成式人工智能模型功能很强大。选项A“Accessible (可进入的)”；选项B“Powerful (强大的)”；选项C“Significant (重要的)”；选项D“Unnoticeable (未被注意的)”。故选B。
26．
推理判断题。根据文章第二段“Far cheaper to develop and deploy, smaller open models also inject competition into a field dominated by big US companies such as Google. Microsoft and OpenAI that have invested billions developing massive, closed and closely controlled generative Al systems. (更小的开放式模型的开发和部署成本要低得多，也为谷歌(Google)等美国大公司主导的领域注入了竞争。微软和OpenAI已经投入数十亿美元开发大规模、封闭和严格控制的生成人工智能系统。)”可推测出，生成式AI系统领域主要由大公司主导。故选B。
27．
推理判断题。根据文章倒数第二段“Wendy Hall, royal professor of computer science at Southampton university, says we do not want to live in a world where only the big companies run generative Al. Nor do we want to allow users to do anything they like with open models. “We have to find some compromise,” she suggests. (南安普顿大学计算机科学皇家教授Wendy Hall表示，我们不希望生活在一个只有大公司运行生成式人工智能的世界里，也不希望允许用户用开放模型做任何他们喜欢的事情。“我们必须找到一些妥协”，她建议道。)”以及最后一段“We should certainly resist the tyranny (暴政) of the binary (二进制) when it comes to thinking about AI models. Both open and closed models have their benefits and flaws. As the capabilities of these models evolve, we will constantly have to tweak the weightings between competition and control. (在考虑人工智能模型时，我们当然应该抵制二进制的暴政。开放和封闭模式都有各自的优点和缺点。随着这些模型功能的发展，我们将不断调整竞争和控制之间的权重。)”可推测，作者对于Wendy Hall的建议表示了理解和同情。Wendy Hall认为，尽管开放模型可能带来风险，但我们应该努力解决这些问题，而不是简单地封闭这些系统。作者通过引用Wendy Hall的观点，表达了对她这一立场的理解和支持，认为她提出的观点是合理和有见地的。故选A。
28．
主旨大意题。根据文章第一段“It is rapidly emerging as one of the most important technological, and increasingly ideological, divides of our times: should powerful generative artificial intelligence systems be open or closed (它正迅速成为我们这个时代最重要的技术和意识形态分歧之一：强大的生成式人工智能系统应该是开放的还是封闭的？)”以及全文内容可知，文章主要探讨了关于生成式人工智能系统（Open AI）是否应该开放或封闭的争论。选项A“How to Keep the Lid on the Pandora’s Box of Open AI(如何为开放AI的潘多拉魔盒盖上盖子)”恰如其分地抓住了这篇文章的本质，它讨论了在人工智能模型的发展中，需要在开放性和控制力之间取得平衡。它将人工智能的潜力比作潘多拉的盒子，强调了其好处和风险的双重性质。这个标题表明，有必要仔细管理这个“盒子”上的“盖子”，以确保人工智能的潜力得到利用，同时减轻其潜在的危害。故选A。
（2024·北京·一模）A recent global study, which surveyed 10,000 young people from 10 countries, showed that
nearly 60 percent of them were extremely worried about the future state of the planet. The report, which was published in The Lancet, also showed that nearly half of the respondents said that such distress affected them daily, and three quarters agreed with the statement that “the future is frightening.” This, along with many other studies, shows clearly that climate change is not just a threat to the environment that we inhabit. It also poses a very real threat to our emotional well-being. Psychologists have categorized these feelings of grief and worry about the current climate emergency, a common occurrence among youth today, under the label of “eco-anxiety”.
Eco-anxiety doesn’t just affect young people. It also affects researchers who work in climate and ecological science, burdened by the reality depicted by their findings, and it affects the most economically marginalized (边缘化的) across the globe, who bear the damaging impacts of climate breakdown.
In 2024, eco-anxiety will rise to become one of the leading causes of mental health problems. The reasons are obvious. Scientists estimate that the world is likely to breach safe limits of temperature rise above pre-industrial levels for the first time by 2027.
In recent years, we’ve seen wildfires《备战2024年高考英语二轮真题零失误规范训练》（北京专用）
专题15 阅读理解说明文D篇3年真题+最新模拟15篇
（技能+真题+模拟）原卷版
目 录
技能专区 1
真题专区 1
模拟专区 5
技能专区：冲刺备考名师提醒，洞悉高考命题规律，提供高效提分干货
一、阅读理解说明文细节理解题注意落实“定位原文”和“同义替换”技巧。
二、数据计算题注重“原文定位”和“细节理解”，弄清来龙去脉再计算。
三、重视说明文“倒三角形”结构，特别是首段和段首的独特引领作用。
四、标题概括题重视三性：概括性、简洁性和新颖性；同时联系首段和关键词。
五、说明文长难句较多增加了理解的难度，落实“括号法”，（从句）（非谓语）
（介词短语）（名词短语）。
六、规范训练目标：做标记，留痕迹；零失误；限时6分钟/每篇。
真题专区：练真题，明方向；练技巧，提能力；练速度，提分数！
（2023北京卷）What is life Like most great questions this one is easy to ask but difficult to answer. The reason is simple: we know of just one type of life and it’s challenging to do science with a sample size of one. The field of artificial life-called ALife for short — is the systematic attempt to spell out life’s fundamental principles. Many of these practitioners, so-called ALifers, think that somehow making life is the surest way to really understand what life is.
So far no one has convincingly made artificial life. This track record makes ALife a ripe target for criticism, such as declarations of the field’s doubtful scientific value. Alan Smith, a complexity scientist, is tired of such complaints.
Asking about “the point” of ALife might be, well, missing the point entirely, he says. “The existence of a living system is not about the use of anything.” Alan says. “Some people ask me, ‘So what’s the worth of artificial life ’ Do you ever think, ‘What is the worth of your grandmother ’”
As much as many ALifers hate emphasizing their research’s applications, the attempts to create artificial life could have practical payoffs. Artificial intelligence may be considered ALife’s cousin in that researchers in both fields are enamored by a concept called open-ended evolution (演化). This is the capacity for a system to create essentially endless complexity, to be a sort of “novelty generator”. The only system known to exhibit this is Earth’s biosphere. If the field of ALife manages to reproduce life’s endless “creativity” in some virtual model, those same principles could give rise to truly inventive machines.
Compared with the developments of Al, advances in ALife are harder to recognize. One reason is that ALife is a field in which the central concept — life itself — is undefined. The lack of agreement among ALifers doesn’t help either. The result is a diverse line of projects that each advance along their unique paths. For better or worse, ALife mirrors the very subject it studies. Its muddled (混乱的) progression is a striking parallel (平行线) to the evolutionary struggles that have shaped Earth biosphere.
Undefined and uncontrolled, ALife drives its followers to repurpose old ideas and generated novelty. It may be, of course, that these characteristics aren’t in any way surprising or singular. They may apply universally to all acts of evolution. Ultimately ALife may be nothing special. But even this dismissal suggests something：perhaps, just like life itself throughout the universe, the rise of ALife will prove unavoidable.
31. Regarding Alan Smith’s defence of ALife, the author is.
A. supportive B. puzzled C. unconcerned D. doubtful
32. What does the word “enamored” underlined in Paragraph 3 most probably mean
A. Shocked. B. Protected. C. Attracted. D. Challenged.
33. What can we learn from this passage
A. ALife holds the key to human future. B. ALife and AI share a common feature.
C. AI mirrors the developments of ALife. D. AI speeds up the process of human evolution.
34. Which would be the best title for the passage
A. Life Is Undefined. Can AI Be a Way Out
B. Life Evolves. Can AI Help ALife Evolve, Too
C. Life Is Undefined. Can ALife Be Defined One Day
D. Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ALife Evolve, Too
（2022北京卷）Quantum ( 量子 ) computers have been on my mind a lot lately. A friend has been sending me articles on how quantum computers might help solve some of the biggest challenges we face as humans. I’ve also had exchanges with two quantum-computing experts. One is computer scientist Chris Johnson who I see as someone who helps keep the field honest. The other is physicist Philip Taylor.
For decades, quantum computing has been little more than a laboratory curiosity. Now, big tech companies have invested in quantum computing, as have many smaller ones. According to Business Weekly, quantum machines could help us “cure cancer, and even take steps to turn climate change in the opposite direction.” This is the sort of hype ( 炒作 ) that annoys Johnson. He worries that researchers are making promises they can’t keep. “What’s new,” Johnson wrote, “is that millions of dollars are now potentially available to quantum computing researchers.”
As quantum computing attracts more attention and funding, researchers may mislead investors, journalists, the public and, worst of all, themselves about their work’s potential. If researchers can’t keep their promises, excitement might give way to doubt, disappointment and anger, Johnson warns. Lots of other technologies have gone through stages of excitement. But something about quantum computing makes it especially prone to hype, Johnson suggests, perhaps because “‘quantum’ stands for something cool you shouldn’t be able to understand.” And that brings me back to Taylor, who suggested that I read his book Q for Quantum.
After I read the book, Taylor patiently answered my questions about it. He also answered my questions about PyQuantum, the firm he co-founded in 2016. Taylor shares Johnson’s concerns about hype, but he says those concerns do not apply to PyQuantum.
The company, he says, is closer than any other firm “by a very large margin ( 幅度 )” to building a “useful” quantum computer, one that “solves an impactful problem that we would not have been able to solve otherwise.” He adds, “People will naturally discount my opinions, but I have spent a lot of time quantitatively comparing what we are doing with others.”
Could PyQuantum really be leading all the competition “by a wide margin”, as Taylor claims I don’t know. I’m certainly not going to advise my friend or anyone else to invest in quantum computers. But I trust Taylor, just as I trust Johnson.
31. Regarding Johnson’s concerns, the author feels ________.
A. sympathetic B. unconcerned C. doubtful D. excited
32. What leads to Taylor’s optimism about quantum computing
A. His dominance in physics.
B. The competition in the field.
C. His confidence in PyQuantum.
D. The investment of tech companies.
33. What does the underlined word “prone” in Paragraph 3 most probably mean
A. Open. B. Cool. C. Useful. D. Resistant.
34. Which would be the best title for the passage
A. Is Johnson More Competent Than Taylor
B. Is Quantum Computing Redefining Technology
C. Will Quantum Computers Ever Come into Being
D. Will Quantum Computing Ever Live Up to Its Hype
（2021北京卷）Early fifth-century philosopher St. Augustine famously wrote that he knew what time was unless someone asked him. Albert Einstein added another wrinkle when he theorized that time varies depending on where you measure it. Today's state-of-the-art atomic（原子的） clocks have proven Einstein right. Even advanced physics can't decisively tell us what time is, because the answer depends on the question you're asking.
Forget about time as an absolute. What if, instead of considering time in terms of astronomy,we related time to ecology？What if we allowed environmental conditions to set the tempo（节奏） of human life？We're increasingly aware of the fact that we can't control Earth systems with engineering alone, and realizing that we need to moderate（调节）our actions if we hope to live in balance. What if our definition of time reflected that？
Recently, I conceptualized a new approach to timekeeping that's connected to circumstances on our planet, conditions that might change as a result of global warming. We're now building a clock at the Anchorage Museum that reflects the total flow of several major Alaskan rivers, which are sensitive to local and global environmental changes. We've programmed it to match an atomic clock if the waterways continue to flow at their present rate. If the rivers run faster in the future on average, the clock will get ahead of standard time. If they run slower, you'll see the opposite effect.
The clock registers both short-term irregularities and long-term trends in river dynamics. It's a sort of observatory that reveals how the rivers are behaving from their own temporal frame（时间框架）, and allows us to witness those changes on our smart watches or phones. Anyone who opts to go on Alaska Mean River Time will live in harmony with the planet. Anyone who considers river time in relation to atomic time will encounter a major imbalance and may be motivated to counteract it by consuming less fuel or supporting greener policies.
Even if this method of timekeeping is novel in its particulars, early agricultural societies also connected time to natural phenomena. In pre-Classical Greece, for instance, people “corrected” official calendars by shifting dates forward or backward to reflect the change of season. Temporal connection to the environment was vital to their
survival. Likewise, river time and other timekeeping systems we're developing may encourage environmental awareness.
When St. Augustine admitted his inability to define time, he highlighted one of time 's most noticeable qualities：Time becomes meaningful only in a defined context. Any timekeeping system is valid, and each is as praiseworthy as its purpose.
31.What is the main idea of Paragraph 1？
A. Timekeeping is increasingly related to nature.
B. Everyone can define time on their own terms.
C. The qualities of time vary with how you measure it.
D. Time is a major concern of philosophers and scientists.
32. The author raises three questions in Paragraph 2 mainly to________.
A. present an assumption
B. evaluate an argument
C. highlight an experiment
D. introduce an approach
33. What can we learn from this passage？
A. Those who do not go on river time will live an imbalanced life.
B. New ways of measuring time can help to control Earth systems.
C. Atomic time will get ahead of river time if the rivers run slower.
D. Modern technology may help to shape the rivers’ temporal frame.
34. What can we infer from this passage？
A. It is crucial to improve the definition of time.
B. A fixed frame will make time meaningless.
C. We should live in harmony with nature.
D. History is a mirror reflecting reality.
模拟专区：做好题才有好成绩！练速度，补漏洞，强信心！
（2024·北京东城·一模）When I teach research methods, a major focus is peer review. As a process, peer review evaluates academic papers for their quality, integrity and impact on a field, largely shaping what scientists accept as “knowledge”- By instinct, any academic follows up a new idea with the question, “Was that peer reviewed ”
Although I believe in the importance of peer review and I help do peer reviews for several academic journals-I know how vulnerable the process can be.
I had my first encounter with peer review during my first year as a Ph. D student. One day, my adviser handed me an essay and told me to have my -written review back to him in a week. But at the time, I certainly was not a “peer”-I was too new in my field. Manipulated data (不实的数据) or substandard methods could easily have gone undetected. Knowledge is not self-evident. Only experts would be able to notice them, and even then, experts do not always agree on what they notice.
Let’s say in my life I only see white swans. Maybe I write an essay, concluding that all swans are white. And a “peer” says, “Wait a minute, I’ve seen black swans.” I would have to refine my knowledge.
The peer plays a key role evaluating observations with the overall goal of advancing knowledge. For example, if the above story were reversed, and peer reviewers who all believed that all swans were white came across the first study observing a black swan, the study would receive a lot of attention.
So why was a first-year graduate student getting to stand in for an expert Why would my review count the same as an expert’s review One answer: The process relies almost entirely on unpaid labor.
Despite the fact that peers are professionals, peer review is not a profession. As a result, the same over-worked scholars often receive masses of the peer review requests. Besides the labor inequity, a small pool of experts can lead to a narrowed process of what is publishable or what counts as knowledge, directly threatening diversity of perspectives and scholars. Without a large enough reviewer pool, the process can easily fall victim to biases, arising from a small community recognizing each other’s work and compromising conflicts of interest.
Despite these challenges, I still tell my students that peer review offers the best method for evaluating studies aird advancing knowledge. As a process, peer review theoretically works. The question is whether the issues with peer review can be addressed by professionalizing the field.
1．What can we learn about peer review in the first paragraph
A．It generates knowledge. B．It is commonly practiced.
C．It is a major research method. D．It is questioned by some scientists.
2．What can be inferred about the example of swans
A．Complexity of peer review ensures its reliability.
B．Contradictions between scientists may be balanced.
C．Individuals can be limited by personal experiences.
D．Experts should detect unscientific observation methods.
3．What is the author’s major concern about peer review
A．Workload for scholars. B．Toughness of the process.
C．Diversification of publications. D．Financial support to reviewers.
4．The passage is mainly about ______.
A．what fuels peer review B．why peer review is imperfect
C．how new hands advance peer review D．whether peer reviewers are underrated
（2024·北京石景山·一模）On Feb. 21, four students were standing on the side of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu when a driver going 110 miles per hour lost control of his car and it crashed into the parked vehicles.12 people were killed at the scene, including 2 drivers.
This kind of traffic death shouldn’t be called an accident. In Los Angeles, we seem to have accepted constant carnage (屠杀) in our streets in exchange for maximizing driver speed and convenience. The official responses to proven traffic dangers are mere gestures, if even that.
Los Angeles is a uniquely deadly city with a death rate that is four times the national average. Unsurprisingly, it’s also a city that has been designed with one thing in mind: a concept called level of service, which grades streets on how well they serve those in automobiles. To many Angelenos, that makes sense — to design our streets for car traffic, which is the way many get around the city. Unfortunately, we don’t recognize that there’s a trade-off. We can either have streets bettered for free-flowing traffic, or we can design streets for people to move around safely outside of cars.
City leaders consistently choose for the easy but deadly option. In one recent example, a resident asked the city’s Department of Transportation to block drivers from using Cochran Avenue at Venice Boulevard as a cut-through street, as they were speeding through a quiet residential neighbourhood. The department responded by suggesting a “speed awareness campaign” in which neighbours put up yard signs urging drivers to slow down.
People don’t drive based on signage, but they drive on the design of the street. The trunk roads of Los Angeles such as Venice Boulevard all need to be revised so that people are prioritized over cars. This would include narrowing travel lanes (道), building bike lanes, and banning right turns at red lights. These measures would make drivers feel like they’re in a city and not on a highway. A recent John Hopkins study says this would have substantial safety benefits.
With more than 7,500 miles of streets in the city of Los Angeles, they won’t all be rebuilt anytime soon. But with each road construction project, or each crash, we should be revising streets to make them safer for all road users.
The solution to traffic jam isn’t to make more space for cars. It’s to design the streets to be safe enough for
alternatives such as biking, walking and mass transit, especially for the 50% of trips daily in Los Angeles that are less than three miles. The solution to protecting people dining outdoors isn’t crash barriers. It’s a street design that forces drivers to go slowly. The problem is carnage in the streets, and we know the solutions.
5．Why should the traffic death in Los Angeles be called “constant carnage”
A．The traffic accidents happen quite often.
B．Too many people are killed in the traffic accidents.
C．The drivers’ speeding is to blame for the traffic death.
D．City leaders’ consistent choice contributes to the traffic death.
6．What does the word “trade-off” underlined in Paragraph 3 most probably mean
A．Balance. B．Guideline. C．Conflict. D．Resolution.
7．According to the passage, which is a likely solution to the traffic problem
A．To widen travel lanes. B．To add more crosswalks.
C．To arrange more traffic police. D．To punish speeding drivers.
8．Which would be the best title for the passage
A．Drivers first or walkers first B．Traffic death or constant carnage
C．More warning signs or safer designs D．More narrow lanes or speedy highways
（2024·北京朝阳·一模）The streets and roofs of cities all absorb heat, making some urban areas hotter than rural ones. These “urban heat islands” can also develop underground as city heat spreads downward, and subway tracks and other subsurface infrastructure(基础设施) also constantly radiate warmth into the surrounding earth.
A new study of downtown Chicago shows underground hotspots may threaten the very same structures that give off the heat in the first place. “Without anyone realizing it, the city of Chicago’s downtown was deforming,” says study author Rotta Loria, an environmental engineer.
Humans aren’t the only potentially affected. “For a lot of things in the subsurface, it’s kind of ‘out of sight, out of mind’,” says Grant Ferguson, a geologist. But the underground world is full of creatures that have adapted to subsurface existence such as insects and snails. As the temperature rises because of climate change and underground urban development, scientists are keeping eyes on the potential implications for underground ecosystems.
But the question of how underground hotspots could affect infrastructure has gone largely unstudied. Because materials expand and contract with temperature change, Rotta suspected that heat coming from underground could be contributing to wear and tear on various structures. To understand how underground temperature difference has affected the ground’s physical properties, he used a computer model to simulate(模拟) the underground environment
from the 1950s to now—and then to 2050. He found that by the middle of this century, some areas may lift upward by as much as 0.50 inch or settle by as much as 0.32 inch, depending on the soil makeup of the area involved. Though these may sound like small displacements, Rotta says they could cause cracks in the foundations of some buildings, causing buildings to fall.
Kathrin Menberg, a geoscientist in Germany, says these displacement predictions are far beyond her guesses and could be linked to the soft, clay-heavy soils. “Clay material is particularly sensitive,” she says, “It would be a big issue in all cities worldwide that are built on such material.”
Like climate change above the surface, underground changes occur gradually. “These effects took decades to develop,” Ferguson says, adding that increased underground temperatures would likewise take a long time to dissipate on their own. “We could basically turn everything off, and it’s going to remain there, the temperature signal, for quite a while.”
But Ferguson says this wasted heat energy could also be reused, presenting an opportunity to both cool the subsurface and save on energy costs. Still, this assumption could fail as aboveground climate change continues to boost underground warming. However slowly, this heat will gather beneath our feet. “It’s like climate change,” Rotta Loria says. “Maybe we don’t see it always, but it’s happening.”
9．The author quotes Rotta Loria in Paragraph 2 mainly to _______.
A．make a prediction B．highlight a finding
C．draw a conclusion D．raise an assumption
10．What can we learn from this passage
A．“Urban heat islands” extend underground to spare ecosystems.
B．Surface climate change contributes to the reuse of underground heat.
C．Underground temperatures mirror the ground’s physical characteristics.
D．Buildings may collapse as a potential consequence of underground heat.
11．What does the underlined word “dissipate” in Paragraph 6 probably mean
A．Show. B．Stay. C．Develop. D．Disappear.
12．What does the author intend to tell us
A．Underground climate change is a silent danger.
B．Humans fail to notice the dramatic climate change.
C．Cooling the subsurface helps control urban heat rises.
D．Researching underground heat helps save on energy costs.
（2024·北京·一模）Several dozen graduate students in London were recently tasked with outwitting a large language model (LLM), a type of AI designed to hold useful conversations. LLMs are often programmed with guardrails designed to stop them giving harmful replies: instructions on making bombs in a bathtub, say, or the confident statement of “facts” that are not actually true.
The aim of the task was to break those guardrails. Some results were merely stupid. For example, one participant got the chatbot to claim ducks could be used as indicators of air quality. But the most successful efforts were those that made the machine produce the titles, publication dates and host journals of non-existent academic articles.
AI has the potential to be a big benefit to science. Optimists talk of machines producing readable summaries of complicated areas of research; tirelessly analysing oceans of data to suggest new drugs and even, one day, coming up with hypotheses of their own. But AI comes with downsides, too.
Start with the simplest problem: academic misconduct.Some journals allow researchers to use LLMs to help write papers. But not everybody is willing to admit to it. Sometimes, the fact that LLMs have been used is obvious. Guillaume Cabanac, a computer scientist, has uncovered dozens of papers that contain phrases such as “regenerate response” — the text of a button in some versions of ChatGPT that commands the program to rewrite its most recent answer, probably copied into the manuscript (原稿) by mistake.
Another problem arises when AI models are trained on AI-generated data. LLMs are trained on text from the Internet. As they churn out (大量炮制) more such text, the risk of LLMs taking in their own outputs grows. That can cause “model collapse”. In 2023 llia Shumailov, a computer scientist, co-authored a paper in which a model was fed handwritten digits and asked to generate digits of its own, which were fed back to it in turn. After a few cycles, the computer’s numbers became more or less illegible.After 20iterations (迭代), it could produce only rough circles or blurry lines.
Some worry that computer-generated insights might come from models whose inner workings are not understood. Inexplainable models are not useless, says David Leslie at an AI-research outfit in London, but their outputs will need rigorous testing in the real world. That is perhaps less unnerving than it sounds. Checking models against reality is what science is supposed to be about, after all.
For now, at least, questions outnumber answers. The threats that machines pose to the scientific method are, at the end of the day, the same ones posed by humans. AI could accelerate the production of nonsense just as much as it accelerates good science. As the Royal Society has it,nullius in verba: take nobody’s word for it. No thing’s, either.
13．The result of the task conducted in London shows that ________.
A．LLMs give away useful information B．the guardrails turn out to be ineffective
C．AI’s influence will potentially be decreased D．the effort put into the study of AI hardly pays off
14．What does “model collapse” indicate
A．The readability of the models’output is underestimated.
B．The diverse sources of information confuse the models.
C．Training on regenerated data stops models working well.
D．The data will become reliable after continuous iterations.
15．According to the passage, people’s worry over the inexplainable models is __________.
A．impractical B．unjustified C．groundless D．unsettling
16．What would be the best title for the passage
A．Faster Nonsense: AI Could Also Go Wrong
B．Imperfect Models: How Will AI Make Advances
C．The Rise of LLMs: AI Could Still Be Promising
D．Bigger Threats: AI Will Be Uncontrollable
（2023·北京朝阳·一模）A snake-robot designer, a technologist, an extradimensional physicist and a journalist walk into a room. The journalist turns to the crowd and asks: Should we build houses on the ocean Like a think-tank panel, members of the team dream up far-out answers to the crucial problem, such as self-driving housing units that could park on top of one another in the coastal city center.
The setting is X, the enterprise which considers more than 100 ideas each year, in areas ranging from clean energy to artificial intelligence. Although only a tiny percentage become “projects” with far-reaching creativity, these projects exist, ultimately, to change the world, like Waymo, the biggest self-driving-car company.
In the past 60 years, something strange has happened. As the academic study of creativity has thrived (蓬勃发展), the label innovation may have covered every tiny change of a soda can or a toothpaste flavor, but the rate of productivity growth has been mostly declining since the 1970s. John Fernald, an economist, points out that the notable exception to the post-1970 decline in productivity occurred when businesses throughout the economy finally figured out the breakthrough technology-information technology. John Fernald says, “It’s possible that productivity took off, because we picked all the low-hanging fruit from the IT wave.” Actually. the world economy continues to harvest the benefits of IT. But where will the next technology shock come from
Breakthrough technology results from two distinct activities — invention and innovation. Invention is typically the work of scientists and researchers in labs, while innovation is an invention put to commercial use. Seldom do the two activities occur successfully under the same roof. They tend to thrive in opposite conditions; while competition
and consumer choice encourage innovation, invention has historically progressed in labs that are protected from the pressure to generate profit.
Allowing well-funded and diverse teams to try to solve big problems is what gave us the computer and the Internet. Today, we fail to give attention to planting the seeds of this kind of ambitious research, while complaining about the harvest. “Companies are really good at combining existing breakthroughs in ways that consumers like. But the breakthroughs come from patient and curious scientists, not the rush to market,” says John Gertner, the author of The Idea Factory.
“Technology is a tall tree,” John Fernald said. “But planting the seeds of invention and harvesting the fruit of innovation are entirely distinct skills, often mastered by different organizations and separated by many years.” As for me, both of them are essential for technology, although they are relatively independent. “I don’t think X is a planter or a harvester, actually. I think of X as building taller ladders. They reach where others cannot.” he added. Several weeks later, his words were repeated to several X employees. “That’s perfect,” they said. “That’s so perfect.” Nobody knows for sure what, if anything, the employees at X are going to find up on those ladders. But they’re reaching. At least someone is.
17．What is the main purpose of the first two paragraphs
A．To present the process of group discussion. B．To illustrate X’s worry about big problems.
C．To reveal the importance of the crazy ideas. D．To stress the varied backgrounds of the team.
18．What can we learn from the Paragraph 3 — 4
A．Breakthroughs must stand the test of the market.
B．Innovation on necessities can promote productivity.
C．Invention develops slowly under the pressure of profit.
D．The harvest of innovation lies in some ambitious research.
19．What’s X employee’ attitude regarding John Fernald’s view on technology
A．Ironic. B．Uninterested. C．Conservative. D．Supportive.
20．What can be inferred about X from the passage
A．It will focus on innovation. B．It will have its outcome soon.
C．It may bring an encouraging outlook. D．It may give in to its fruitless reality.
（2024·北京房山·一模）A good meal has a positive impact on one’s mood. Those who feast on Christmas buffet almost enjoy an immediate rise in their blood sugar. That will prompt a flood of chemicals that act as happy hormones to rush through their brains.
But the pleasure goes deeper. Tyrosine and tryptophan are needed for the production, respectively, of dopamine, a neurotransmitter (神经传递素) that controls feelings of pleasure and reward, and serotonin, another such, which helps regulate mood. And cranberries are high in vitamin C, which is involved in converting dopamine to noradrenaline, another neurotransmitter, and a lack of which seems to be associated with depression.
With mental-health disorders rising, a growing number of scientists are investigating how food or nutritional supplements affect the mind. But separating the brain’s nutritional needs from those of the rest of the body is difficult. Not possible for now, at least. And, compared with other fields, nutritional science is understudied. That is partly because it is hard to do well. Randomised controlled trials (rcts), used to test drugs, are tricky. Few people want to stick to an experimental diet for years. Instead, most nutritional science is based on observational studies that try to establish associations between particular foods or nutrients and diseases. They cannot be used to definitively prove a causal ( 因 果 关 系 的 ) connection between a disease and a particular contributing factor in a diet. But as with smoking and lung cancer, put together enough of these kinds of trials and causal narratives begin to emerge.
It is now clear that some diets are particularly good for the brain. One recent study concludes that sticking to the “Mediterranean diet”, high in vegetables, fruit, pulses and wholegrains, low in red and processed meats and saturated fats, decreases the chances of experiencing strokes, cognitive impairment and depression. Other recent work looking at a “green” Mediterranean diet high in polyphenols found it reduced age-related brain atrophy. Another version, the mind diet, emphasises, among other things, eating berries over other kinds of fruit and seems to lessen the risk of dementia.
Scientists think such diets may work by reducing inflammation in the brain. This, in turn, may affect areas such as the hippocampus, which is associated with learning, memory and mood regulation—and where new neurons grow in adults. Studies in animals show that when they are fed a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids (from walnuts, for example), flavonoids (consumed mainly via tea and wine), antioxidants (found in berries) and resveratrol (found in red grapes), neuron growth is stimulated and inflammatory processes are reduced. This fits with research suggesting that those who regularly eat ultra-processed, fried and sugary foods, which increase inflammation in the brain, heighten their risk of developing depression.
21．Which of the following words can replace “tricky” in Paragraph 3
A．Rare.
B．Tough.
C．Traditional.
D．Contradictory.
22．How do researchers do observational studies in nutritional science
A．By keeping at an experimental diet for years.
B．By carrying out randomized controlled trials.
C．By identifying a particular contributing factor.
D．By comparing findings of certain kinds of trials.
23．What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs
A．A diet rich in fruit is good for cognitive abilities.
B．People fond of sugary foods may be a risk lover.
C．Red grapes add fuel to inflammation in the brain.
D．Drinking tea can solve age-related brain problems.
24．What is mainly discussed in the passage
A．The links between diets and diseases.
B．The significance of Mediterranean diet.
C．The function of various neurotransmitters.
D．The influence of nutrients on mental health.
（2024·北京延庆·一模）It is rapidly emerging as one of the most important technological, and increasingly ideological, divides of our times: should powerful generative artificial intelligence systems be open or closed
Supporters say they broaden access to the technology, stimulate innovation and improve reliability by encouraging outside scrutiny. Far cheaper to develop and deploy, smaller open models also inject competition into a field dominated by big US companies such as Google. Microsoft and OpenAI that have invested billions developing massive, closed and closely controlled generative Al systems.
But detractors argue open models risk lifting the lid on a Pandora’s box of troubles. Bad actors can exploit them to spread personalised disinformation, while terrorists might use them to manufacture cyber or bio weapons. “The danger of open source is that it enables more crazies to do crazy things, “Geoffrey Hinton, one of the pioneers of modern AI, has warned.
The history of OpenAI, which developed the popular ChatGPT chatbot, is itself instructive. As its name suggests, the research company was founded in 2015 with a commitment to develop the technology as openly as possible. But it later abandoned that approach for both competitive and safety reasons. Once OpenAI realised that its generative AI models were going to be “unbelievably potent”, it made little sense to open source them, Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist said.
Supporters of open models hit back, ridiculing the idea that open generative AI models enable people to access
information they could not otherwise find from the internet or a rogue scientist. They also highlight the competitive self-interest of the big tech companies in shouting about the dangers of open models, whose intention is to establish their own market dominance strongly.
But there is an ideological dimension to this debate, too. Yann LeCun, chief scientist of Meta, has likened the arguments for controlling the technology to medieval obscurantism (蒙昧主义): the belief that only a self-selecting priesthood of experts is wise enough to handle knowledge.
In the future, all our interactions with the vast digital repository of human knowledge will be mediated through Al systems. We should not want a handful of Silicon Valley companies to control that access. Just as the internet flourished by resisting attempts to enclose it, so AI will thrive by remaining open, LeCun argues.
Wendy Hall, royal professor of computer science at Southampton university, says we do not want to live in a world where only the big companies run generative Al. Nor do we want to allow users to do anything they like with open models. “We have to find some compromise,” she suggests.
We should certainly resist the tyranny (暴政) of the binary (二进制) when it comes to thinking about AI models. Both open and closed models have their benefits and flaws. As the capabilities of these models evolve, we will constantly have to tweak the weightings between competition and control.
25．What does the underlined word “potent” in Paragraph 4 most probably mean
A．Accessible. B．Powerful. C．Significant. D．Unnoticeable.
26．What can we learn from this passage
A．It needs billions of dollars to develop and deploy open-source models.
B．The field of generative AI systems is dominated by big companies.
C．Only self-selecting experts can handle open models wisely.
D．Users can do anything they like with open models at this moment.
27．Regarding Wendy Hall’s suggestions, the author is ______.
A．sympathetic B．puzzled C．unconcerned D．opposed
28．Which of the following would be the best title for the passage
A．How to Keep the Lid on the Pandora’s Box of Open AI
B．Divides on Open AI: technology and ideology
C．Where does the Debate on Open AI End
D．Pros and Cons of Open AI
【答案】25．B 26．B 27．A 28．A
（2024·北京·一模）A recent global study, which surveyed 10,000 young people from 10 countries, showed that nearly 60 percent of them were extremely worried about the future state of the planet. The report, which was published in The Lancet, also showed that nearly half of the respondents said that such distress affected them daily, and three quarters agreed with the statement that “the future is frightening.” This, along with many other studies, shows clearly that climate change is not just a threat to the environment that we inhabit. It also poses a very real threat to our emotional well-being. Psychologists have categorized these feelings of grief and worry about the current climate emergency, a common occurrence among youth today, under the label of “eco-anxiety”.
Eco-anxiety doesn’t just affect young people. It also affects researchers who work in climate and ecological science, burdened by the reality depicted by their findings, and it affects the most economically marginalized (边缘化的) across the globe, who bear the damaging impacts of climate breakdown.
In 2024, eco-anxiety will rise to become one of the leading causes of mental health problems. The reasons are obvious. Scientists estimate that the world is likely to breach safe limits of temperature rise above pre-industrial levels for the first time by 2027.
In recent years, we’ve seen wildfires tear through Canada and Greece, and summer floods ruin regions in Pakistan that are home to nearly 33 million people. Studies have shown that those impacted by air pollution and rising temperatures are more likely to experience psychological distress.
To make matters worse, facing climate crisis, our political class is not offering strong leadership. The COP28 conference in Dubai will be headed by an oil and gas company executive. In the UK, the government is backtracking on its green commitments.
Fortunately, greater levels of eco-anxiety will also offer an avenue for resolving the climate crisis directly. According to Caroline Hickman, a researcher on eco-anxiety from the University of Bath, anyone experiencing eco-anxiety is displaying entirely natural and rational reactions to the climate crisis. This is why, in 2024, we will also see more people around the world join the fight for climate justice and seek jobs that prioritize environmental sustainability. Campaigners will put increased pressure on fossil fuel industries and the governments to rapidly abandon the usage of polluting coal, oil, and gas.
It’s now clear that not only are these industries the main causes for the climate crisis, they are also responsible for the mental health crisis, which is starting to affect most of us. Eco-anxiety is not something we will defeat with therapy, but something we will tackle by taking action.
29．What can we learn from the passage
A．The cause of eco-anxiety is emotions existing in our mind.
B．People in developed countries are more likely to suffer from eco-anxiety.
C．Eco-anxiety is a new kind of psychological disease due to climate change.
D．The author is disappointed about government behaviour towards climate crisis.
30．What does the underlined word “breach” in Paragraph 3 most probably mean
A．Break. B．Reach. C．Raise. D．Affect.
31．As for Caroline Hickman’s opinion on eco-anxiety, the author is .
A．puzzled B．favourable C．suspicious D．unconcerned
32．What would be the best title for the passage
A．Who Is to Blame for Eco-anxiety
B．How Should You See Eco-anxiety
C．How Will Eco-anxiety Be Resolved
D．Why Do People Suffer from Eco-anxiety
（2016·北京朝阳·一模）Is It Worth Buying Organic Food
Organic food, grown without artificial chemicals, is increasingly popular nowadays. Consumers have been willing to pay up to twice as much for goods with organic labels (标签). However, if you think paying a little more for organic food gets you a more nutritious (有营养的) and safer product, you might want to save your money. A study led by researchers at Stanford University says that organic products aren’t necessarily more nutritious, and they’re no less likely to suffer from disease-causing bacteria, either.
The latest results, published in the Annuals of Internal Medicine, suggest that buyers may be wasting their money. “We did not find strong evidence that organic food is more nutritious or healthier,” says Dr. Crystal Smith-Spangler from Stanford. “So consumers shouldn’t assume that one type of food has a lower risk or is safer.”
For their new study, Smith-Spangler and her colleagues conducted a review of two categories of research, including 17 studies that compared health outcomes between consumers of organic against traditional food products, and 223 studies that analyzed the nutritional content of the foods, including key vitamins, minerals and fats.
While the researchers found little difference in nutritional content, they did find that organic fruit and vegetables were 20% less likely to have chemicals remaining on the surfaces. Neither organic nor traditional foods showed levels of chemicals high enough to go beyond food safety standards. And both organic and traditional meats, such as chicken and pork, were equally likely to be harmed by bacteria at very low rates. The researchers did find that organic milk and chicken contained higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, a healthy fat also found in fish that can reduce the risk of heart disease. However, these nutritional differences were too small, and the researchers were
unwilling to make much of them until further studies confirm the trends.
Organic food is produced with fewer chemicals and more natural-growing practices, but that doesn’t always translate into a more nutritious or healthier product. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) states that “Whether you buy organic or not, finding the freshest foods available may have the biggest effect on taste.” Fresh food is at least as good as anything marketed as organic.
33．The new research questions whether organic food ________.
A．should replace traditional food
B．has been overpriced by farmers
C．is grown with less harmful chemicals
D．is really more nutritious and healthier
34．Smith Spangler and her colleagues found that ________.
A．organic food could reduce the risk of heart disease
B．traditional food was grown with more natural methods
C．both organic and traditional food they examined were safe
D．there was not a presence of any forms of bacteria in organic food
35．Which of the following is relatively healthier according to the passage
A．Organic chicken and pork.
B．Organic milk and chicken.
C．Traditional chicken and pork.
D．Traditional fruit and vegetables.
36．What is the author’s attitude toward organic food
A．Doubtful. B．Positive. C．Unconcerned. D．Approving.
（2023·北京东城·二模）September 2022 was apparently the month artificial intelligence essay anxiety boiled over in academia, after a user of an AI writing service claimed to be getting straight A’s with essays “written” using artificial intelligence. Most professors expressed concern. One wrote, “Grading something an AI wrote is an incredibly depressing waste of my life.”
As all this online depression was playing out, I asked my students, who were mostly majors in writing, to submit a 2,000-word proposal about a local issue. I asked them to rely on the AI as much as possible. After reviewing their 22 AI essays, I can tell you confidently that the technology just isn’t there. My students used free accessible text generators online and put in a lot of effort. But, if I had believed these were genuine student essays,
the very best would have earned somewhere around a C or C-minus. Many of the essays had obvious red flags for AI generation: outdated facts, quotes from prior university presidents presented as current presidents, fictional professors and named student organizations that don’t exist. At the same time, the students reported that using AI required far more time than simply writing their essays the old-fashioned way would have.
There has been a fair amount written about the supposed impressiveness of AI-generated text. There are even several high-profile AI-written articles, essays or even scientific papers or screenplays that showcase this impressiveness. In many of these cases, the “authors” have access to higher-quality language models than most students are currently able to use. But, more importantly, the published examples are generally the polished form of professional writers and editors. In contrast, many of my students’ AI-generated essays showed the common problems of student writing—uncertainty about the appropriate writing style, issues with organization and transitions, and inconsistent paragraphing. Obviously, producing a quality essay with AI requires having high writing skill and revising skill to produce appropriate outputs.
My experimental so tells me that a good assignment sheet is the best defense against AI essays. If your assignment is “Describe the reasons for the U.S. Civil War”, you are more likely to get AI or downloaded essay submissions. My assignment was a challenge because it asked students to address local issues of concern. There are just not enough relevant examples in the data the AI text generators are drawing from.
It has been just over five years since computer scientists declared, “We should stop training radiologists(放射科医生) now. Deep learning is going to do better than radiologists.” Well, we’re still training radiologists, and there’s no indication that deep learning is going to replace human doctors anytime soon. In much the same way, I strongly suspect full-on robot writing will always and forever be “just around the corner”.
37．What can we learn about the students in the experiment
A．Their writing efficiency was affected.
B．Their essays were better structured.
C．They preferred AI-written essays.
D．They overcame AI’s weaknesses.
38．What does the author imply in Paragraph 3
A．Online text generators are far from reliable.
B．Genuine student essays deserve higher marks.
C．Students need to have better mastery of technology.
D．Revising applications decide the quality of AI essays.
39．In the author’s opinion, what may discourage the use of AI text generators
A．Standard criteria B．Strict regulations..
C．Clear instructions. D．Unique writing tasks.
40．What is the main purpose of the passage
A．To assess AI’s influence on students’ writing.
B．To discuss the threat of AI to the teaching of writing.
C．To appeal for the appropriate application of AI text generators.
D．To analyse the differences between genuine and Al-written essays.
（2023·北京丰台·二模）Coastal cities worldwide are squeezed by two opposing forces: urban sprawl (扩张) and the rising sea. This struggle is intensely visible in the flatlands where expanding neighborhoods routinely flood and saltwater flooding damages the river mouths that protect communities from the worst of our climate crisis.
Massive resources are being put into environmental restoration projects, and development is subject to many layers of approvals. Yet in 2022 the commissioners of a coastal city voted to expand a legal boundary that contains sprawl to allow a 400-acre warehouse project. They are failing to see the value of this land in the greater ecosystem.
Wetlands, coastal plains and forests do cheaply (or even for free) what seawalls and pumps do at a cost of billions of dollars. They are vital infrastructure (基础设施) that makes us more resilient against climate change, and the cost of destroying them or weakening their ability to function must be factored into the decisions we make to build and grow.
To do so, the economic incentives to develop any natural landscape should be weighed against the protective economic value that land already provides. Economists call this an “avoided damage” valuation. Local planning boards might consider the value of a sand dune or swamp in flood protection versus the expense of replacing it with a seawall and water pump system. Maintaining and restoring natural infrastructure to support healthy functioning saves money, time and lives.
The concept of “natural capital”, or the idea that ecosystem services should be valued in a similar manner as any form of wealth, dates back to the 1970s. Markets have always valued wood as a commodity (商品), for example, but not the services that came along with producing it, such as soil maintenance, carbon storage, and nutrient cycling. We didn’t need a market for resources that industrialists saw as abundant (丰富的) and endlessly renewable. This exploitative (开发资源的) assumption turned out to be very wrong. Failing to measure the benefits of ecosystem services in policy and management decisions is a major reason many of those ecosystems disappeared.
It also seems crass to place a dollar amount on ecosystems that we’d rather view as priceless, existing for their own sake and valuable to humans in ways that are beyond capitalism. This preciousness is ethically sound. But
developers have long confused pricelessness with worthlessness, allowing them to profit without paying for the consequences of destroying the environment.
Economic value is never the only reason nature is worth preserving; it is simply a powerful, underused tool to help us make decisions about how to live more sustainably in a climate-changed world. If policy makers considered natural infrastructure in the language of economics, they might recognize just how deeply we rely on it.
41．What are the first two paragraphs mainly about
A．The consequences of the saltwater flooding.
B．The cause of the urban sprawl and the rising sea.
C．An approval to an environmental restoration project.
D．The problem caused by the expansion of coastal cities
42．What can we learn from the passage
A．The idea of natural capital can enhance the profit of commodity.
B．The economic growth boosts the protection of natural landscape.
C．The abundance of resources is not the reason for devaluing them.
D．The exploitation of nature reflects the “avoided damage” valuation.
43．What does the underlined word “crass” in Paragraph 6 probably mean
A．Inadvisable. B．Beneficial.
C．Relevant. D．Unrealistic.
44．What is the purpose of the passage
A．To appeal for stricter control over city scale.
B．To propose the use of nature as infrastructure.
C．To stress the importance of ecosystem services.
D．To promote public awareness of nature protection.
（2023·北京西城·一模）Technology seems to discourage slow, immersive reading. Reading on a screen, particularly a phone screen, tires your eyes and makes it harder for you to keep your place. So online writing tends to be more skimmable and list-like than print. The cognitive neuroscientist Mary Walt argued recently that this “new norm” of skim reading is producing “an invisible, game-changing transformation” in how readers process words. The neuronal circuit that sustains the brain’s capacity to read now favors the rapid absorption of information, rather than skills developed by deeper reading, like critical analysis.
We shouldn’t overplay this danger. All readers skim. Skimming is the skill we acquire as children as we learn to
read more skillfully. From about the age of nine, our eyes start to bounce around the page, reading only about a quarter of the words properly, and filling in the gaps by inference. Nor is there anything new in these fears about declining attention spans. So far, the anxieties have proved to be false alarms. “Quite a few critics have been worried about attention span lately and see very short stories as signs of cultural decline,” the American author Selvin Brown wrote. “No one ever said that poems were evidence of short attention spans.”
And yet the Internet has certainly changed the way we read. For a start, it means that there is more to read, because more people than ever are writing. If you time travelled just a few decades into the past, you would wonder at how little writing was happening outside a classroom. And digital writing is meant for rapid release and response. An online article starts forming a comment string underneath as soon as it is published. This mode of writing and reading can be interactive and fun. But often it treats other people’s words as something to be quickly harvested as fodder to say something else. Everyone talks over the top of everyone else, desperate to be heard.
Perhaps we should slow down. Reading is constantly promoted as a social good and source of personal achievement. But this advocacy often emphasizes “enthusiastic”, “passionate” or “eager” reading, none of which adjectives suggest slow, quiet absorption.
To a slow reader, a piece of writing can only be fully understood by immersing oneself in the words and their slow comprehension of a line of thought. The slow reader is like a swimmer who stops counting the number of pool laps he has done and just enjoys how his body feels and moves in water.
The human need for this kind of deep reading is too tenaciousfor any new technology to destroy. We often assume that technological change can’t be stopped and happens in one direction, so that older media like “dead-tree” books are kicked out by newer, more virtual forms. In practice, older technologies can coexist with new ones. The Kindle has not killed off the printed book any more than the car killed off the bicycle. We still want to enjoy slowly-formed ideas and carefully-chosen words. Even in a fast-moving age, there is time for slow reading.
45．What is the author’s attitude towards Selvin Brown’s opinion
A．Favorable. B．Critical. C．Doubtful. D．Objective.
46．The author would probably agree that.
A．advocacy of passionate reading helps promote slow reading
B．digital writing leads to too much speaking and not enough reflection
C．the public should be aware of the impact skimming has on neuronal circuits
D．the number of Internet readers is declining due to the advances of technology
47．What does the underlined word “tenacious” in Paragraph 6 probably mean
A．Comprehensive. B．Complicated. C．Determined. D．Apparent.
48．Which would be the best title for the passage
A．Slow Reading Is Here to Stay
B．Digital Technology Prevents Slow Reading
C．Screen vs. Print: Which Requires Deep Reading
D．Reading Is Not a Race: The Wonder of Deep Reading
（2023·北京·三模）All the Light We Cannot See is about a blind girl named Marie-Laure, who lives in Paris, France, in the 1930s. When the Nazis invade in 1940, she and her father are forced to leave the city. They escape to a countryside town to hide with Marie-Laure’s great uncle, Etierine. After several months, Marie-Laure’s father gets arrested. She continues to live with Etienne, and they start passing on secret signals to aid the French Resistance movement.
Werner Pfennig is a German orphan with a hobby of listening to science and music programs on an old radio. Developing a talent for fixing radios, he is later hired by the Nazis to help them track enemy radio signals during the war. One day, he picks up a signal that is coming from Etienne’s home in France.
Anyway, Maric-Laure and Werner meet and develop a strong relationship. Can these poor souls find a way to escape this horrible war together
Anthony Doerr is an American author from Cleveland, Ohio. Critics have praised Doerr’s writing for his short, sharp sentences and attention to detail. All the Light We Cannot See is his second novel, which was published in 2014. It quickly became a New York Times best-seller and won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The amazing novel gives readers a look at the ugly face of war. Throughout the book, we see how war can destroy people’s lives in the blink (眨眼) of an eye. Characters such as Etienne and Marie-Laure’s father disappear in an instant and are never heard from again. However, war is also shown to bring out the best in people. The characters who survive must show great courage and strength when they face challenges.
Another important idea is the importance of science and technology. Doerr suggests that technologies, such as the radio, are helpful to society if they are used with good intentions. However, if technologies fall into the hands of evil (邪恶), they can cause great destruction.
49．How does Marie-Laure and Etienne help fight against Nazis
A．By providing information. B．By joining French army.
C．By tracking radio signals. D．By making their life public.
50．Anthony Doerr’s writings are highly thought of because .
A．they are short in length B．they are full of interesting details
C．he is a prize winner D．he is economical with words
51．What can we learn from the last paragraph
A．Science and technology should be valued. B．War destroys everything on its way.
C．Technology is a double-edge sword. D．Technology plays a key role in war.
52．In which section of a magazine is the passage most likely to be seen
A．Great Writers. B．Book Club.
C．Everyday Hero. D．Hit Movies.
（2023·北京·三模）A video circulated on social media earlier this year, showing a tourist opening the door of a vehicle, reaching out an arm and attempting to stroke a passing lioness. The lioness shrugged him off, but it could have easily gone horribly wrong.
Reckless behaviour around wildlife risks the safety of both people and animals. People risk being attacked, mauled (撕咬) and possibly killed, while animals can be harmed, removed or put down, irrespective of whether they were only defending themselves. Animal attacks can also cast a destination in a negative light, causing temporary closures or scaring off visitors. All just so someone could boast that they had stroked a lion or captured a moment on a camera phone.
“Tourists are getting more and more reckless around wildlife and the source of the problem is social media.” says wildlife photographer Anette Mosshachers. “People risking their lives or doing stupid things with wildlife are after ‘likes’ and followers, something to show off on social media,” says Mossbacher. “The greater the risk, the more ‘likes’ they get. With some clients, it seems like a sickness or addiction.”
Yet social media is not entirely to blame. People have always taken risks for an experience. Foolish behavior and a tendency to get cocky around dangerous animals must have been around since the dawn of humanity. A hunger for attention online might drive some of the current madness, but some individuals might be trying to recreate a piece of the action they have seen on television. Perhaps the adrenaline (肾上腺激素) rush when close to wild animals causes an evaporation of common sense.
“There’s a worrying lack of awareness that animals several times our size, weight, speed and strength can easily hurt us,”says wildlife photographer David Lloyd. “I don’t think parks are doing enough to raise awareness. Tourists need to know how their presence can affect wildlife. A good example is cheetahs (猎豹) on vehicle rooftops. It may be a thrill for the bystanders, but the consequences if a mother cheetah falls off would be severe. She would no longer be able to hunt, so her cubs could easily starve.”
“People aren’t getting the education about why they need to stay away from wildlife, including avoiding
diseases, keeping people secure and letting wildlife be wild,” says Philip Muruthi, vice president of species conservation and science for the African Wildlife Foundation. “We need to educate tourists through signs, pamphlets and frontline drivers. We should stick to guidelines, and there needs to be enforcement through the law.”
53．What can we learn about reckless behaviour around wildlife
A．It harms tourists more than animals.
B．It enables tourists to get intimate with animals.
C．It may bring more profits to a tourist destination.
D．It may get animals killed for defending themselves.
54．As for Mossbacher’s opinion on what drives people’s reckless behavior, the author is______.
A．sympathetic B．disapproving
C．doubtful D．indifferent
55．What does the underlined word “cocky” in Paragraph 4 probably mean
A．Selfish. B．Frightened.
C．Arrogant. D．Shocked.
56．What can we conclude from the passage
A．Parks are expected to take more responsibilities for educating tourists.
B．Raising tourists’ awareness means stressing the danger of animals to them.
C．More regulation of the tourist industry is the key to raising tourists’ awareness.
D．Penalties rather than education can stop people taking silly risks around wildlife.
（2023·北京海淀·三模）The question of how trucking capacity is growing or declining is common in industry, but the reality is that demand fluctuations are far more important to monitor as they swing much more violently.
Since December of 2018, the total tractor count from for-hire fleets (non-private) has grown 18%, according to the FMCSA, but has never shown a monthly change of over 2%. By contrast, the Outbound Tender Volume Index (OTVI), a measure of total truckload demand, has grown 12% over the same period, but monthly fluctuations topped 20% at times.
Even before the pandemic, the OTVI had 5-7% monthly swings in demand. Given the OTVI measures total tenders and is not a pure proxy (指标) for shipments, it is reflective of how fast demand-side conditions change in trucking.
The point is that capacity shifts are slow and stable, while demand changes much more rapidly and is very unpredictable over time. This is the consummate struggle of supply chains and transportation companies across the
globe — how much infrastructure (capacity) is needed to be able to flex up but not have too much overhead when demand softens
The process of ordering and seating a truck takes close to a year. That truck can haul roughly seven 500-mile loads per week, or 360 loads per year. This only occurs if shipping patterns are consistent and drivers are readily available, and neither are true. So it isn’t a pure question of how much capacity is available in aggregate, but are those trucks available in the right places at the right times in general This metric is extremely difficult to attain.
Since demand is uneven and spread unevenly throughout the country, trucks and drivers need to exceed the number of shipments available. So even if capacity grows by 1%, it just increases the chances that loads will be covered marginally.
Probably more important than any of the previous points is that there are already measures of the relationship between supply and demand in trucking. Tender rejection rates (OTRI) and spot rates (NTI) measure when capacity is meeting demand in the contract and spot markets, respectively.
There is little use for knowing how much capacity is available in the for-hire freight market other than being interesting. But there is exceptional value in knowing how well capacity and demand are lining up and in what direction they are trending. Since December 2021 tender rejection rates have fallen from over 20% to under 4%, while spot rates are down 27%.
Demand-side indicators are probably the most crucial to getting the earliest signs of market shifts, while rejection rates and spot rates answer the two most important questions that companies want answered: Can I get a truck and how much will it cost me
57．The Outbound Tender Volume Index ________.
A．is a proxy for shipments only
B．is a measure to track truckload demand
C．can tell the current trucking capacity in the US
D．can tell the relationship between supply and demand in trucking
58．What problem do supply chains and transportation companies face commonly
A．How capacity can meet the changing demand.
B．How capacity and demand can be predicted.
C．What facilities are needed to ship the goods.
D．What trucks can function the best.
59．What can we tell about OTRI and NTI
A．They are both measures in the contract and spot markets.
B．They are of little use to know the capacity and demand.
C．They can change the uneven demand situation in the US.
D．They can hel

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