1 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. attacking       B. beaten       C. bites       D. dignity       E. diverse       F. emotional G. exhibiting       H. link       I. literature       J. strength       K. struggles

Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is the simple story of an old Cuban fisherman who undergoes the most difficult struggle of his life. In the title character, Santiago, Hemingway describes one of the most distinguished examples in American     1     of an individual looking deep within to work up the courage necessary to get through the achievements and sad events that life presents.

Alone on the sea, Santiago continuously     2     to find hope in several seemingly hopeless situations. The old man illustrates Hemingway’s ideal of     3     “grace under pressure”, as he refuses to give in to the enormous obstacles (障碍) presented by the sea. Relying on memories of his youth, Santiago finds the     4     to physically and emotionally carry on throughout the story.

After catching the great marlin (马林鱼) Santiago realizes he is unable to quickly kill the fish, and it proceeds to pull him farther out to sea. Yet, throughout the battle between man and fish the old man begins to recognize a(n)     5     between him and the marlin, repeatedly referring to it as his brother. Both the old man and the fish are only insignificant among the     6     creatures at sea, joined together by the fact that they are at the mercy of the sea.

The fish, therefore, changes from merely being Santiago’s prey (猎物) into a reflection of the old man’s     7     and physical state. When the sharks damage the dead marlin hanging off the side of the boat as Santiago struggles to sail home, the old man fights them off as if they were     8     him. Only when the marlin’s body has been entirely eaten away does Santiago give up, knowing he “was     9     now finally”.

Although the old man seemingly fails once the sharks steal his prize fish, they cannot take away the fact that Santiago has done the unthinkable by staying with and catching a fish “bigger than he had ever heard of”. In spite of not successfully bringing the fish back, Santiago fights with     10    — first to catch the marlin, then to protect his fish from the sharks — and in doing so declares his humanity by remaining resilient (坚韧的) in the face of achievements and sad events.

2 . 选词填空

investigate   inspire   reveal   base   announce   abandon     extend   publish   get into   win

The Hugo Awards, the world’s top sci-fi awards,     1     on Saturday night at the 2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention. Chinese writer Hai Ya’s The Space-Time Painter     2     the Hugo Award for Best Novelette. Hai created the story     3     by a painting masterpiece Qianli Jiangshan Tu (A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains) by Wang Ximeng from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), who painted the work at the age of 18.     4     on the life of Wang, Hai created a painter named Zhao Ximeng, a prodigy that painted for the emperor more than 1,000 years ago. After much misery and suffering, Zhao     5     his physical body and entered a space where a modern policeman that     6     a case concerning an ancient painting     7     his memory. The story, through the twists and turns in Zhao’s life,     8     the political struggles behind this marvelous painting and the struggles and fights of individuals against the torrents of time. Working in the financial industry and a sci-fi fan, Hai, now 33, started writing sci-fi stories in 2016 and     9     his first work in 2019. Pitying on Wang who was so talented but had such a short life, Hai     10     his life through sci-fi, he said in previous interviews.

3 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. touches   B. frequently   C. causes   D. distorted   E. raised   F. offended G. course   H. actually   I. account   J. descriptions   K. possible

Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities is set in the years before and during the French Revolution (1789-1799). During its    1    , French revolutionaries brought down the empire and established a republic of free and equal citizens.

In reading the work, one sees that Dickens    2     some details of the French Revolution. At the beginning, Dickens notes that, in 1775, France was busy spending money. This mention of France’s spending    3     briefly on what is perhaps the major cause of the French Revolution. Before the revolution, the government often borrowed money because it spent more than it    4     in taxes. The increased spending and borrowing made many people’s blood boil, yet Dickens focused instead on the nobility’s oppression and exploitation of the working class, including peasants, as the    5     of the revolution.

Dickens’    6     of the storming of the Bastille fails to mention that the people that stormed the prison was looking for bullets and bombs to use in defense against a    7     attack by the king’s troops. However, Dickens does include some accurate details. The scene that the women knit (编织) as they watch the executions may seem to be an odd detail, but    8     many women did so.

Dickens’ descriptions of the steady stream of sentenced people into prison and the carts taking them to their deaths give readers some idea of how    9     officials jailed and executed people during the Rule of Terror, which lasted about a year. Those executed included people who opposed the revolution, people who    10     the revolutionaries, and even some revolutionaries. About 15 percent were members of the ministry or nobility.

4 . Complete his speech using the correct form of the words below.

grab   violent   weapon   daybreak   desperate   civilization   preservation   construction   nevertheless

I don’t get so much time to read these days, but     1     I will always     2     a science fiction book off the shelf when I have a little time. It’s such a fun genre! I’m currently reading a book called The Third Option.

The book is set in the future at a time when the world is experiencing a long and     3     war with another planet. The other     4     are trying to find a new planet to live on and have decided that the Earth will be theirs. Being more advanced than us, they do not want peace but rather to destroy us.

In a     5     attempt to win the war, humans decide to develop a very deadly     6     that will kill the enemy but also destroy the environment of the Earth. The main character of the book is a scientist called Kate Jones who decides that the     7     of the Earth is too important. She gathers a group of soldiers and scientists together to find an alternative solution. They call their group “    8    ” as they believe they could start a new chapter in human history. While the weapon is under     9     they race against time to stay alive and protect the Earth.

I don’t want to spoil it by saying too much but l highly recommend this book if you enjoy this genre!

6 . Read the introduction to a science fiction novel and complete the passage using the correct forms of the words in the box.

explore             translate             discover             regard             represent            set up             recruit write             get caught up             connect

Science fiction    1     by many people as a mirror through which our future can be freely imagined and    2    . The Three-Body Problem,     3    by Chinese writer Liu Cixin, is one of those astonishing predictions about the future. The work was first published in a Chinese sci-fi magazine in 2006 and printed as a three-volume book in 2008. When the first volume    4     into English by Chinese-American author Ken Liu, it attracted attention around the world, becoming the first Asian winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel. The book    5     many themes such as space exploration, alien contact, AI, and the future of humans.

The Three-Body Problem begins with the stories of two unrelated people, Ye Wenjie and Wang Miao. Ye     6    to join a secret project in a remote area of China, which    7     to contact alien life forms. In the other story, set 20 years later, Wang Miao     8    in a popular online game called “Three Body”, in which people live on an unknown planet with three suns. But Wang discovers it is more than a game—it uncovers a great danger threatening human existence. How are these two people’s stories     9    ? And how will their behaviour change Earth’s future and the civilisations of other planets? Answers to all these questions are waiting to     10    when you go on reading.

7 . Complete the script below using the words in the box.

bet            case          downstairs          duty          occasions          ought to          settle          tailor

THE MILLION POUND BANK NOTE   ACT 2, SCENE 2

N=Narrator            A=Ambassador            P=Portia            H=Henry

N: After that, it seemed like everyone in London was talking about Henry. The American ambassador to Britain invited Henry to an upper-class party. Henry felt it was his     1    to go. He wanted to maintain a good relationship with the ambassador in     2    others found out just how poor he really was.
A: Ah, there you are.
P: （to Henry）How do you do?
A: Mr Adams, my special guest, Miss Portia Langham.
H: How do you do?
A: If you’ll excuse me, I must go    3     to see the other guests. （He leaves,）
P: Won’t you sit down, please?
H: Yes, I’d love to… with your permission. Thank you, Miss.
P: That poor, dear ambassador. He hates these    4     almost as much as I do. Nothing but talk, talk, talk. And no one says anything anyone wants to hear, do they?
H: No, I    5     they don’t.
P: The ambassador tells me you are a rich man. He tells me you are the talk of London. Why, it seems that every banker and     6    in the city is eager to meet you.
H: Yes, I’ve heard. I can’t understand why, really. I’m not so special as that.
P: Are you planning to    7     in London?
H: Well, I hadn’t really thought about it much.
P: You    8     think about it.

10 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. certainly          B. previously       C. survived     D. categorize   E. version     F. confirming G. specializing   H. count            I. posed          J. overstated   K. manuscripts

Rare copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio sold for almost $10 million Wednesday, becoming the most expensive work of literature ever to appear at auction, according to Christie’s.

The collection of 36 plays, published shortly after the playwright’s death, is one of only five complete copies still in private hands, the auction house said.

The First Folio is considered among the most important collections of literature in the English language. It contains 18 works that had not     1     appeared in print, and would otherwise have been lost to history, including “Macbeth” and “Twelfth Night.”

Published in 1623 by the actors John Heminge and Henry Condell, friends of the English playwright, the book is formally titled “Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies,” based on the three genres the pair used to     2     the plays.

The     3     sold on Wednesday was the first complete copy to appear at auction since one went for $6.1 million in 2001. It was put up for sale by Mills College in Oakland, California, which had kept the item in its collection since 1977.

After a six-minute bidding battle between three telephone buyers, the item was purchased by book dealer and antiquarian Stephan Loewentheil for $9.98 million. In a phone interview following the sale, he described Shakespeare’s original folios as the “holy grail of books.”

“(The First Folio) is the greatest work in the English language,     4     the greatest work of theater, so it’s something that anyone who loves intellectualism has to consider a divine object,” said Loewentheil, who owns stores     5     in rare books and photography in New York and Maryland.

In a press statement, head of books and     6     at Christie’s, Margaret Ford, said it was “befitting” that Shakespeare’s work now holds the auction world record “given its tremendous significance and influence around the globe.”

Although around 750 copies of the First Folio were produced, just 235 are known to have     7     to the present day. Of these, only 56 are considered to be complete, with almost all of them now held by institutions in the US and UK, according to Christie’s, whose sale catalog said the item’s “extraordinary rarity ... cannot be     8    .”

Believing that the copies in private hands might “never to come to market again,” Loewentheil said that there may not be “too many more chances left” to obtain a copy.

The book came in a binding dating back to the early 19th century. It was sold alongside a letter by Shakespeare scholar Edmond Malone from 1809     9     its authenticity.

The final sale price exceeded the auction house’s estimates, which had predicted top bids of $4 million to $6 million. A number of other items at Wednesday’s sale sold for seven-figure sums — including a Ming dynasty carpet that went under the hammer for over $1.7 million — providing further evidence that the top end of the auction market is weathering some the challenges     10     by the pandemic.

“For the great objects that really matter, the markets for art, literature and photographs have remained very strong,” Loewentheil said.