一、单选题
根据以下材料，回答1-20题。
Caravanserais were roadside inns that were built along the Silk Road in areas such as China, North Africa and the Middle East. They were typically 1 outside the walls of a city or village and were usually funded by local governments of 2 .
The word ‘caravanserai’ is a 3 of the Persian words ‘karvan’, which means a group of travellers or a caravan, and ‘saray’, a palace or enclosed building. The term caravan was used to 4 groups of people who travelled together across the ancient network for safety reasons, 5 merchants, travellers or pilgrims.
From the 10th century onwards, as merchant and travel routes become more developed, the 6 of the caravanserais increased and they served as a safe place for people to rest at night. Travellers on the Silk Road 7 possibility of being attacked by thieves or being 8 to extreme weather conditions. For this reason, caravanserais were strategically placed 9 they could be reached in a day’s travel time.
Caravanserais served as an informal 10 point for the various people who travelled the Silk Road. 11 , these structures became important centres for cultural 12 and interaction, with travellers sharing their cultures, ideas and beliefs, 13 talking knowledge with them, greatly 14 the development of several civilisations.
Caravanserais were also an important marketplace for commodities and 15 in the trade of goods along the Silk Road. 16 , it was frequently the first stop merchants looking to sell their wares and 17 supplies for their own journeys. It is 18 that around 120,000 to 15,000 caravanserais were built along the Silk Road, 19 only about 3,000 are known to remain today, many of which are in 20 .
1、第1题
A、displayed
B、occupied
C、located
D、equipped
解析：
根据语境分析，题干描述的是这些驿站的位置特点，通常位于城墙或村庄之外，因此应选择表示位置的动词。选项中只有C. located符合题意，表示位于某地。其他选项的意思与语境不符。因此正确答案为C。
根据以下材料，回答21-25题。
The weather in Texas may have cooled since the recent extreme heat, but the temperature will be high at the State Board of Education meeting in Austin this month as officials debate how climate change is taught in Texas schools.
Pat Hardy, a conservative member of the board who sympathises with the views of the energy sector, is resisting proposed changes to science standards for pre-teen pupils. These would emphasise the primacy of human activity in recent climate change and encourage discussion of mitigation measures.
“In the national standards, everything has to do with climate change — that’s very lopsided,” she claims. “There are as many scientists working against all the panic of global climate change as there are those who are pushing it. Texas is an energy state and we need to recognise that. You need to remember where your bread is buttered.”
Most scientists and independent experts sharply dispute her views. “What millions of Texas kids learn in their public schools is determined too often by the political ideology of partisan board members, rather than facts and sound scholarship,” says Dan Quinn, senior communications strategist at the Texas Freedom Network, a non-profit group that monitors public education. “They casually dismiss the career work of scholars and scientists as just another misguided opinion.”
A study last year by the National Center for Science Education, a non-profit group of scientists and teachers, looking at how state public schools across the country address climate change in science classes, gave barely half of US states a grade B+ or higher. Among the 10 worst performers were some of the most populous states, including Texas, which was given the lowest grade (F) and has a disproportionate influence because its textbooks are widely sold elsewhere.
Glenn Branch, the centre’s deputy director, cautions that setting state-level science standards is only one limited benchmark in a country that decentralises decisions to local school boards. Even if a state is considered a high performer in its science standards, “that does not mean it will be taught”, he says.
Another issue is that, while climate change is well integrated into some subjects and at some ages — such as earth and space sciences in high schools — it is not as well represented in curricula for younger children and in subjects that are more widely taught, such as biology and chemistry. It is also less prominent in many social studies courses.
Branch points out that, even if a growing number of official guidelines and textbooks reflect scientific consensus on climate change, unofficial educational materials that convey more slanted perspectives are being distributed to teachers. They include materials sponsored by libertarian think-tanks and energy industry associations.
In other countries, the pattern of climate change practices in schools is just as patchy. A study this year by Unesco, the UN agency, of educational policies and curricula in 46 member nations showed that, while 92 per cent made at least one reference to environmental themes, the depth of inclusion was very low on average. More than half of members made no mention of climate change in policy and curricula documents, and just 19 per cent discussed biodiversity. “More needs to be done to prepare learners with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to act for our planet,” the report concluded.
Aaron Benavot, professor of education policy and leadership at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and one of the report’s co-authors, warns that measurement remains difficult. “More and more countries are embedding into their national curricula a topic like environmental studies or ecology,” he says. “But, because climate education is not a separate subject, it’s difficult to know how much time and priority it is given.”
2、In paragraph 1, the weather in Texas is mentioned to
A、forecast a policy shift in Texas schools.
B、stress the consequences of climate change.
C、indicate the atmosphere at the board meeting.
D、draw the public’s attention to energy shortages.
解析：
第一段提到德克萨斯州的天气作为引入，主要是为了描述即将在州教育委员会会议上出现的紧张气氛，因为官员们正在争论德克萨斯州学校如何教授气候变化的问题。因此，天气在这里被提及是为了表明会议的气氛和即将讨论的问题，即选项C。其他选项如预测政策转变、强调气候变化的后果和吸引公众关注能源短缺问题并不是该段的主要目的。
根据以下材料，回答26-30题。
Communities throughout New England have been attempting to regulate short-term rentals since sites like Airbnb took off in the 2010s. Now with record-high home prices and historically low inventory, there’s an increased urgency in such regulation, particularly among those who worry that developers will come in and buy up swaths of housing to flip for a fortune on the short-term rental market.
In New Hampshire, where the rental vacancy rate has dropped below 1 percent, housing advocates fear unchecked short-term rentals will put further pressure on an already strained market. The State Legislature recently voted against a bill that would’ve made it illegal for towns to create legislation restricting short-term rentals.
“We are at a crisis level on the supply of rental housing,” said Nick Taylor, executive director of the Workforce Housing Coalition of the Greater Seacoast. Without enough affordable housing in southern New Hampshire towns, “employers are having a hard time attracting employees, and workers are having a hard time finding a place to live,” Taylor said.
However, short-term rentals also provide housing for tourists, pointed out Ryan Castle, CEO of a local association of realter. “A lot of workers are servicing the tourist industry, and the tourism industry is serviced by those people coming in short term,” Castle said, “and so it’s a cyclical effect.”
Short-term rentals themselves are not the crux of the issue, said Keren Horn, an expert on affordable housing policy. “I think individuals being able to rent out their second home is a good thing. If it’s their vacation home anyway, and it’s just empty, why can’t you make money off it?” Horn said. Issues arise, however, when developers attempt to create large-scale short-term rental facilities — de facto hotels — to bypass taxes and regulations. “I think the question is, shouldn’t a developer who’s really building a hotel, but disguising it as not a hotel, be treated and taxed and regulated like a hotel?” Horn said.
At the end of 2018, governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts signed a bill to rein in those potential investor-buyers. The bill requires every rental host to register with the state mandates they carry insurance, and opens the potential for local taxes on top of a new state levy. Boston took things even further, requiring renters to register with the city’s Inspectional Services Department.
Horn said similar registration requirements could benefit struggling cities and towns, but “if we want to make a change in the housing market, the main one is we have to build a lot more.”
3、Which of the following is true of New England?
A、Its housing supply is at a very low level.
B、Its communities are in need of funding.
C、Its rental vacancy rate is going up slowly.
D、Its home prices are under strict control.
解析：
根据文章中的句子“Now with record-high home prices and historically low inventory（现在房价创纪录的高位，库存历史低位）”，可以得知新英格兰的住房供应处于非常低的水平。因此，选项A是正确的。文章没有提到新英格兰的社区需要资金、租赁空置率正在缓慢上升或房价受到严格控制，因此选项B、C和D都是不正确的。
根据以下材料，回答31-35题。
If you’re heading for your nearest branch of Waterstones, the biggest book retailer in the UK, in search of the Duchess of Sussex’s new children’s book The Bench, you might have to be prepared to hunt around a bit, the same may be true of The President’s Daughter, the new thriller by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. Both of these books are published next week by Penguin Random House (PRH), a company currently involved in a stand-off with Waterstones.
The problem began late last year, when PRH confirmed that it had introduced a credit limit with Waterstones “at a very significant level”. The trade magazine The Bookseller reported that Waterstones branch managers were being told to remove PRH books from prominent areas such as tables, display spaces and windows, and were “quietly retiring them to their relevant sections”.
PRH declined to comment on the issue, but a spokesperson for Waterstones told me: “Waterstones are currently operating with reduced credit terms from PRH, the only publisher in the UK to place any limitations on our ability to trade. We are not boycotting PRH titles but we are doing our utmost to ensure that availability for customers remains good despite the lower overall levels of stock. We are hopeful with our shops now open again that normality will return and that we will be allowed to buy appropriately. Certainly, our shops are exceptionally busy. The sales for our May Books of the Month surpassed any month since 2018.”
In the meantime, PRH authors have been the losers. Big-name PRH authors may suffer a bit, but it’s those mid-list authors, who normally rely on Waterstones staff’s passion for promoting books by lesser-known writers, who will be praying for an end to the dispute.
It comes at a time when authors are already worried about the consequences of the proposed merger between PRH and another big publisher, Simon & Schuster—the reduction in the number of unaligned UK publishers is likely to lead to fewer bidding wars, lower advances, and more conformity in terms of what is published.
“This is all part of a wider change towards concentration of power,” says literary agent Andrew Lownie. “The publishing industry talks about diversity in terms of authors and staff but it also needs a plurality of ways of delivering intellectual contact, choice and different voices. After all, many of the most interesting books in recent years have come from small publishers.”
We shall see whether that plurality is a casualty of the current need among publishers to be big enough to take on all-comers.
4、The author mentions two books in Paragraph 1 to present
A、an ongoing conflict.
B、an intellectual concept.
C、a prevailing sentiment.
D、a literary phenomenon.
解析：
作者在第一段提到两本即将出版的书是为了呈现出一个正在进行中的冲突。这两本书由同一个出版商出版，而这个出版商与Waterstones之间存在分歧，导致这些书在书店中的展示位置受到影响。因此，作者提到这两本书主要是为了引出这个冲突话题。
根据以下材料，回答36-40题。
Scientific papers are the recordkeepers of progress in research. Each year researchers publish millions of papers in more than 30,000 journals. The scientific community measures the quality of those papers in a number of ways, including the perceived quality of the journal (as reflected by the title’s impact factor) and the number of citations a specific paper accumulates. The careers of scientists and the reputation of their institutions depend on the number and prestige of the papers they produce, but even more so on the citations attracted by these papers.
Citation cartels, where journals, authors, and institutions conspire to inflate citation numbers, have existed for a long time. In 2016, researchers developed an algorithm to recognize suspicious citation patterns, including groups of authors that disproportionately cite one another and groups of journals that cite each other frequently to increase the impact factors of their publications. Recently, another expression of this predatory behavior has emerged: so-called support service consultancies that provide language and other editorial support to individual authors and to journals sometimes advise contributors to add a number of citations to their articles.
The advent of electronic publishing and authors’ need to find outlets for their papers resulted in thousands of new journals. The birth of predatory journals wasn’t far behind. These journals can act as milk cows where every single article in an issue may cite a specific paper or a series of papers. In some instances, there is absolutely no relationship between the content of the article and the citations. The peculiar part is that the journal that the editor is supposedly working for is not profiting at all — it is just providing citations to other journals. Such practices can lead an article to accrue more than 150 citations in the same year that it was published.
How insidious is this type of citation manipulation? In one example, an individual — acting as author, editor, and consultant — was able to use at least 15 journals as citation providers to articles published by five scientists at three universities. The problem is rampant in Scopus, a citation database, which includes a high number of the new “international” journals. In fact, a listing in Scopus seems to be a criterion to be targeted in this type of citation manipulation.
Scopus itself has all the data necessary to detect this malpractice. Red flags include a large number of citations to an article within the first year. And for authors who wish to steer clear of citation cartel activities: when an editor a reviewer, or a support service asks you to add inappropriate references, do not oblige and do report the request to the journal.
5、According to Paragraph 1, the careers of scientists can be determined by
A、how many citations their works contain.
B、how many times their papers are cited.
C、the prestige of the people they work with.
D、the status they have in scientific circles.
解析：
根据第一段中的描述，科学家的职业生涯取决于他们发表的论文的数量和声誉，而论文的声誉则取决于被引用的次数。因此，科学家的职业生涯可以被他们论文被引用的次数所决定。所以，正确答案是B，即科学家的工作表现可以通过他们论文被引用的次数来衡量。
根据以下材料，回答41-45题。
Directions: The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. For questions 41-45, you are required to reorganize these paragraphs into a coherent text by choosing from the list A-H and filling them into the numbered boxes. Paragraphs A, E and H have been correctly placed. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
[A] Last year marked the 150th anniversary of a series of Yellowstone photographs by the renowned landscape photographer William Henry Jackson. Jackson snapped the 1st-ever shots of iconic landmarks such as the Tetons, Old Faithful and the Colorado Rockies. On a late 19th-century expedition through the Yellowstone Basin that was conducted by the head of the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, Ferdinand V. Hayden. The team included a meteorologist, a zoologist, a mineralogist, and an agricultural statistician.
[B] Two centuries ago, the idea of preserving nature, rather than exploiting it, was a novel one to many U.S. settlers. One of the turning points in public support for land conservation efforts — and recognizing the magnificence of the Yellowstone region in particular — came in the form of vivid photographs.
[C] As an effective Washington operator, Hayden sensed that he could capitalize on the expedition’s stunning visuals. He asked Jackson to print out large copies and distributed them, along with reproductions of Moran’s paintings, to each member of Congress. “The visualization, particularly those photographs, really hit home that this is something that has to be protected,” says Murphy.
[D] Throughout the trip, Jackson juggled multiple cameras and plate sizes using the “collodion process” that required him to coat the plates with a chemical mixture, then expose them and develop the resulting images with a portable darkroom. The crude technique required educated guesses on exposure times, and involved heavy, awkward equipment — several men had to assist in its transportation. Despite these challenges, Jackson captured dozens of striking photos, ranging from majestic images like his now-famous snapshot of Old Faithful, to casual portraits of expedition members at the camp. While veterans of previous expeditions wrote at length about stunning trail sights, these vivid photographs were another thing entirely.
[E] The journey officially began in Ogden, Utah on June 8, 1871. Over nearly four months, dozens of men made their way on horseback into Montana and traversed along the Yellowstone River and around Yellowstone Lake. That fall, they concluded the survey in Fort Bridger, Wyoming.
[F] Though Native Americans (and later miners and fur trappers) had long recognized the area’s riches, most Americans did not. That’s why Hayden’s expedition aimed to produce a fuller understanding of the Yellowstone River region, from its hot springs and waterfalls to its variety of flora and fauna. In addition to the entourage of scientists, the team also included artists: Painter Thomas Moran and photographer William Henry Jackson were charged with capturing this astounding natural beauty and sharing it with the world.
[G] The bill proved largely popular and sailed through Congress with large majorities in favor. In quick succession, the Senate and House passed legislation protecting Yellowstone in early 1872. That March, President Ulysses S. Grant signed an act into law that established Yellowstone as the world’s first national park. Some locals opposed the designation, the decision was largely accepted — and Jackson’s photos played a key role in the fight to protect the area. “I don’t believe that the legal protection would have happened in the time frame that it did without those images,” says Hansen, journalist and author of Prophets and Moguls, Rangers and Rogues, Bisonord Bears: 100 years of the national Park Service.
[H] Perhaps most importantly, the images provided documentary evidence that later made its way to government officials. Weeks after completing the expedition, Hayden collected his team’s observation into an extensive rep aimed at convincing Senators and Representatives, along with colleagues at government agency like the department of Interior that Yellowstone ought to be preserved.
41→A→42→E→43→H→44→45
6、第41题
A、[B] Two centuries ago, the idea of preserving nature, rather than exploiting it, was a novel one to many U.S. settlers. One of the turning points in public support for land conservation efforts — and recognizing the magnificence of the Yellowstone region in particular — came in the form of vivid photographs.
B、[C] As an effective Washington operator, Hayden sensed that he could capitalize on the expedition’s stunning visuals. He asked Jackson to print out large copies and distributed them, along with reproductions of Moran’s paintings, to each member of Congress. “The visualization, particularly those photographs, really hit home that this is something that has to be protected,” says Murphy.
C、[D] Throughout the trip, Jackson juggled multiple cameras and plate sizes using the “collodion process” that required him to coat the plates with a chemical mixture, then expose them and develop the resulting images with a portable darkroom. The crude technique required educated guesses on exposure times, and involved heavy, awkward equipment — several men had to assist in its transportation. Despite these challenges, Jackson captured dozens of striking photos, ranging from majestic images like his now-famous snapshot of Old Faithful, to casual portraits of expedition members at the camp. While veterans of previous expeditions wrote at length about stunning trail sights, these vivid photographs were another thing entirely.
D、[F] Though Native Americans (and later miners and fur trappers) had long recognized the area’s riches, most Americans did not. That’s why Hayden’s expedition aimed to produce a fuller understanding of the Yellowstone River region, from its hot springs and waterfalls to its variety of flora and fauna. In addition to the entourage of scientists, the team also included artists: Painter Thomas Moran and photographer William Henry Jackson were charged with capturing this astounding natural beauty and sharing it with the world.
E、[G] The bill proved largely popular and sailed through Congress with large majorities in favor. In quick succession, the Senate and House passed legislation protecting Yellowstone in early 1872. That March, President Ulysses S. Grant signed an act into law that established Yellowstone as the world’s first national park. Some locals opposed the designation, the decision was largely accepted — and Jackson’s photos played a key role in the fight to protect the area. “I don’t believe that the legal protection would have happened in the time frame that it did without those images,” says Hansen, journalist and author of Prophets and Moguls, Rangers and Rogues, Bisonord Bears: 100 years of the national Park Service.
解析：
根据文章内容，文章首先介绍了William Henry Jackson拍摄的Yellowstone照片的重要性（A），然后讨论了保护自然观念的转变（B），接着描述了Jackson在拍摄过程中面临的挑战和技术（D），然后说明了Hayden探险队的目标和成员（F），之后介绍了Yellowstone成为第一个国家公园的历程（G），最后说明了这些照片对政府官员的影响以及他们如何支持保护Yellowstone的证据（H）。因此，正确的顺序应该是A→B→D→F→G→E→H。
二、简答题
7、Directions: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
(46) AI can also be used to identify the lifestyles choices of customers regarding their hobbies, favuorite celebrities, and fashions to provide unique content in marketing messages put out through social media.
解析：
此句主要讲述了人工智能在识别消费者生活方式选择方面的应用，包括分析消费者的爱好、喜爱的名人和时尚趋势等，以便为社交媒体发布的营销信息提供独特的内容。因此，翻译时需要准确传达这些信息，将原文的意思清晰地表达出来。
8、(47) Some believe that AI is negatively impacting on the marketer’s role by reducing creativity and removing jobs, but they are aware that it is a way of reducing costs and creating new information.
解析：
此题要求考生根据给出的段落，简述人工智能对营销人员的影响。段落中提到，一些人认为人工智能对营销人员的角色产生了负面影响，因为它减少了创造力和工作机会。但同时也意识到，人工智能是一种降低成本和创造新信息的方式。因此，答案应包括这两方面的影响，既要提到人工智能对营销人员的挑战，也要提到其带来的机遇和优势。
9、(48) Algorithms used to stimulate human interactions are creating many of these concerns, especially as no-one is quite sure what the outcomes of using AI to interact with customers will be.
解析：
可能的担忧：
- 对人工智能算法的不确定性引发的担忧。由于算法的结果难以预测，人们可能会担心这些算法在刺激人类互动时可能会产生不可预知的结果。
- 对人工智能与客户互动结果的担忧。人们可能不确定这些互动是否会达到预期的效果，或者是否有可能产生负面的影响。
对应的策略：
- 增加算法的透明度和可解释性。开发者应尽可能公开算法的工作原理和决策过程，以增加人们对算法的信任。
- 进行充分的研究和测试。在将AI用于客户互动之前，需要进行广泛的测试和评估，以确保其效果和安全性。
- 建立反馈机制。在使用AI进行客户互动时，需要建立有效的反馈机制，以便及时获取用户的反馈，并根据反馈进行调整和优化。
- 提高公众对AI的认知和了解。通过教育和宣传，提高公众对AI的理解和接受程度，以减少对未知事物的恐惧和担忧。
10、(49) If customers are not willing to share data, AI will be starved of essential information and will not be able to function effectively or employ machine learning to improve its marketing content and communication.
解析：
此题考查对句子的理解和转述能力。题目中的句子主要阐述了如果客户不愿意分享数据，人工智能将会受到的影响。具体解析如下：
- 首先，句子提到“如果客户不愿意分享数据”，这是影响人工智能功能的关键因素。
- 接着，“AI will be starved of essential information”表示人工智能将缺乏必要的信息。
- “将无法有效地发挥作用”说明了没有客户数据，人工智能的效能将大打折扣。
- “也无法使用机器学习来改善其营销内容和传播”进一步强调了数据对于人工智能在市场营销和内容传播方面的重要性。
综上，客户不愿意分享数据将导致人工智能缺乏必要的信息，无法充分发挥其功能，并影响其在市场营销和内容传播方面的表现。
11、(50) The non-intrusive delivery of the marketing message in a way that is sensitive to the needs of target customers is one of the critical challenges to the digital marketer.
解析：
该题目是一个关于数字营销中的非侵入式传播策略的问题，强调了要满足目标客户的需求同时避免过于侵入客户的私人空间或干扰其体验的重要性。对于具体的解答，需要结合数字营销的实践案例，针对特定的营销目标和目标客户的特性来提出相应的策略和建议。因此，这是一个开放性的问题，没有固定的答案。
12、Directions:
Write a notice to recruit a student for Prof. Smith’s research project on campus sports activities.
Specify the duties and requirements of the job.
Write your answer about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET. Do not use your own name in the notice. Use “Li Ming” instead. (10 points)
解析：
此通知是为了招募一名学生参与Smith教授关于校园体育活动的研究项目。文中明确指出了该职位的职责和要求，包括收集关于校园体育活动的数据，与运动员、员工和教职员工进行交流，并记录他们的经验。此外，学生还需要负责组织与教授或其他研究团队成员的会议。对于候选人的要求包括高度的组织能力、耐心以及对运动有浓厚的兴趣。最后，通知中提供了申请的方式，即通过电子邮件联系。
13、Directions:
Write an essay of 160-200 words based on the picture below. In your essay you should
1) describe the picture briefly
2) interpret the implied meaning, and
3) give your comments
You should write neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. (20 points)
解析：
本题要求写一篇基于图片的短文，需要描述图片、解读隐含意义并给出评论。在描述图片时，需要简洁明了地描述图片中的场景和人物；在解读隐含意义时，需要关注图片中的细节，推断出图片所要表达的主旨；在给出评论时，可以结合自身的理解和经验，对图片中的情景进行评论。回答时需要条理清晰，语言流畅，符合英文表达习惯。
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