A. To persuade. B. To entertain. C. To analyze. D. To report.

B

Michael and his wife, new residents in a San Francisco apartment, learned about their neighbor Jeff Dunan's volunteer work for Bangladesh Relief, an organization that provides food, clothing and essential supplies for disadvantaged people in northern Bangladesh, Inspired, Michael donated $ 150 to Dunan's GoFundMe campaign. However, a credit card notification alerted him to an unintended $ 15 ,041 charge.

When he saw the five-figure number, he was confused, Soon, it all made sense, Michael's credit card number started with four and one. Clearly, he accidentally began typing his credit card information while his cursor(光标) was still in the donation box.

Michael planned to call Dunan to explain, but before he had the chance to do that, he started receiving Facebook messages from Shohag Chandra, the charity's Bangladesh-based program manager, thanking him for his generous donation. After he looked through the photos of people holding thank yosigns that read his name, Michael's heart sank. He felt terrible that he had to withdraw his handsome donation. Once his original contribution was refunded, he decided to donate $ 1 ,500.

Although Michael had told his family and friends about the tale, he decided to share it publicly on social media, after Dunan told him the organization was desperately in need of funds. “The least 1 could do was take the time to post this story online and see if I could inspire other people to donate to the cause,” Michael said.

Little did he know, though, that the story would be seen far and wide, ending up raising more than $ 120 ,000 for Bangladesh Relief in the span of only a few weeks- about eight. times Michael's mistaken donation. According to Dunan, more than 3, 700 people have contributed because of Michael's post. Michael has been stunned(震惊) by the ongoing outpouring of support. “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this reaction,” he said.

“People can be amazing when they come together for something like this."

24. How did Michael make the large donation?

A. He input an incorrect amount. B. He encountered a system error.

C. He was greatly inspired by Dunan. D. He entered wrong credit card details.

25. Why did Michael's heart sink according to Paragraph 3?

A. He saw people in despair. B. He failed to offer enough money.

C. He didn't receive the full refund. D. He realized the scale of his mistake.

26. What motivated Michael to share the story on social media?

A. Dunan's request for publicity. B. A desire for personal recognition.

C. The organization's urgent need for funds. D. Pressure from his family and friends.

27. What message does the story convey?

A. Actions speak louder than words. B. Many hands make light work.

C. Always prepare for a rainy day. D. A good beginning is half of victory.

C

Carl Wieman, a Nobel Prize- winning physicist at Stanford University, excelled in the lab, where he created the Bose- Einstein condensate(玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚态). However, his mastery in the lab did not extend to the classroom. For years, he wrestled with what seemed to be a straightforward task: making undergraduates comprehend physics as he did. Laying it out for them- explaining, even demonstrating the core concepts of the discipline- was not working. Despite his clear explanations, his students' capacity to solve the problems he posed to them remained inadequate.

It was in an unexpected place that he found the key to the problem: not in his classrooms but among the graduate students(研究生) who came to work in his lab. When his PH. D. candidates entered the lab, Wieman noticed, their habits of thought were no less narrow and rigid than the undergraduates. Within a year or two, however, these same graduate students transformed into the flexible thinkers he was trying so earnestly, and unsuccessfully, to cultivate. “Some kind of intellectual process must have been missing from the traditional education," Wieman recounts.

A major factor in the graduate students' transformation, Wieman concluded, was their experience of intense social engagement around a body of knowledge- the hours they spent advising, debating with, and recounting anecdotes to one another. In 2019, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences backed this idea.Tracking the intellectual advancement of several hundred graduate students in the sciences over the course of four years, its authors found that the development of crucial skills such as generating hypotheses(假设), designing experiments, and analyzing data was closely related to the students' engagement with their peers in the lab, rather than the guidance they received from their faculty mentors(导师).

Wieman is one of a growing number of Stanford professors who are bringing this “active learning” approach to their courses. His aspiration is to move science education away from the lecture format, toward a model that is more active and more engaged.

28. What problem did Carl Wieman have with his undergraduates?

A. Making them excel in the lab. B. Demonstrating lab experiments.

C. Facilitating their all-round development. D. Enhancing their physics problem-solving.

29. Which of the following best describes the graduate students who first joined Wieman's lab?

A. Limited in thinking. B. Resistant to new ideas. C. Flexible and earnest. D. Experienced and cooperative.

30. What is crucial for developing students' intelligent thought according to the 2019 study?

A. Intense lab work. B. Peer pressure and evaluation.

C. Academic interaction with fellows. D. Engagement with external society.

31. Which of the following can be a suitable title for the text?

A. Transforming Graduates' Habits B. Carl Wieman's Nobel Prize Journey

C. The Nobel-Prize Winner's Struggles D. Carl Wieman's Education Innovation

D

Since the 1950s, some 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced globally, of which only about 10% has ever been recycled. Yet environmentally conscious companies and consumers continue to look to recycling as a way to ease the plastic problem. Manufacturing giants claim to be committed to making more of their products and packaging from recycled

materials. However, this confidence masks(掩饰) a complex web of issues around plastic recycling. Recycling rates remain extremely low and critics argue that we should look at alternative ways to tackle plastic pollution.

While many plastics have the potential to be recycled, most are not because the process is costly, complicated and the resulting product of a lower quality than the original. Despite rising demand for recycled plastic，few waste companies turn a profit. Part of this is because virgin plastic- linked to oil prices- -is often cheaper than recycled plastic, meaning there is little economic incentive to use it. Worse yet, much of our plastic waste is difficult to recycle. Lightweight food packaging, like a mozzarella packet, contains different plastics, dyes and toxic additives(添加剂). This dirty mix means plastic recycled through mechanical methods- the most common form- can only be melted down and moulded again a couple of times before it becomes too fragile to be reused. And the nature of the process means plastic recycling has a carbon footprint of its own.