1 . “When I was young, I had so much energy and I loved building stuff. If I had an idea, I had to build it right away using whatever I could find around me.” says Danish recycle artist Thomas Dambo. When Dambo was just seven years old, he bought some materials from the local market to construct a game room in his parents’ basement. As a teenager, he built a “crazy” castle in his backyard.

Decades later, 42-year-old Dambo is proudly surveying his latest creation: a troll (巨人) called Little Lui. Towering at five meters tall, Little Lui is one of the six trolls hidden in secret corners of the Peel Region of Western Australia as part of Thomas Dambo Giants of Mandurah, an Australian-first exhibition, which will be on show for at least a year. Dambo has made many impressive trolls, which have found homes in the United States, Belgium, China, Denmark, South Korea and so on.

“For me, trolls represent the voice of nature,” Dambo says. This deep respect for the natural world is a central message of Dambo’s practice. Dambo’s troll are made almost entirely from locally sourced recycled wood: their faces from secondhand furniture and their hair from branches and leaves. Taking about 750 hours to complete, each troll is constructed out in nature.

“We are slowly turning the world into a landfill. I hope that by visiting the trolls, people will think of rubbish as a resource. I think it’s really important that the next generation is connected to nature.” Dambo says. “That’s why I tried to design the trolls to appeal to younger people. I want people to be inspired to play and experiment, and to realize they don’t need a lot to create something big and beautiful. Go out, go around the corner and take advantage of whatever is there — you will find a lot of adventure in your own backyard.”

1. Which of the following can best describe young Dambo?

A．Creative.

B．Generous.

C．Independent.

D．Courageous.

2. What do you know about Little Lui?

A．It is kept underground.	B．It is Dambo’s first creation.
C．It will be shown to the public.	D．It will be sent to foreign countries.

3. Which aspect of trolls does paragraph 3 highlight?

A．Their basic theme.	B．Their artistic value.
C．Their expensive materials.	D．Their building procedures.

4. What does Dambo intend to do with his trolls?

A．Inspire more people to take adventures.

B．Encourage the young to approach nature.

C．Help people spend less time playing games.

D．Call on the young to save natural resources.

2 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

As a pioneer bullet train (动车) driver, Li Dongxiao, 52, is part of the history of China’s high-speed railway network. In 2008, he drove China’s first high-speed train,     1     (reach) 350 kilometers per hour, between Beijing and Tianjin.

    2     number on Li’s bullet train driver’s license is 0001, which led the media to give him the name of China’s “first” bullet train driver. “Over 14 years, the length of the network has grown     3     zero to more than 40, 000 kilometers, and more varieties of Fuxing bullet trains have been developed and adopted, ”he said.

However, all those     4     (impress) achievements came from the ground up. Driving at high-speed is among certain     5     (profession) that require strict training. In March 2008, Li, along with some of China’s best train drivers,     6     (select) to undergo training to operate bullet trains at the manufacturer, China CNR Corp. He participated in more than 200 test runs and created a guidebook for bullet train drivers,     7     was named after him as the “Dongxiao Manual”.

China’s high-speed rail network     8     (see) rapid development over the past 20 years. Li’s development has been intertwined with the evolution of China’s high-speed railway system. He no longer     9     (operate) bullet trains himself, but is now head of the Huairou North locomotive depot (机务段) in Beijing, which is the center of train operations, repair and maintenance. Even more importantly, it is     10     all the drivers receive their training.

3 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What happened to Stevie Wonder shortly after his birth?

A．He was unable to see.

B．He couldn’t hear anything.

C．He broke his arm.

2. When did Stevie Wonder have his first hit record?

A．As a child.

B．As an adult.

C．As a teenager.

3. When was Stevie Wonder’s most successful period?

A．In the 1960s.

B．In the 1970s.

C．In the 1980s.

4 . Born in Congo, Dieuveil grew up in Germany and began his career in some of Europe’s best establishments. He opened his restaurant Meza Malonga in 2020, where dinner is not just a meal but also a tour of the African continent. Delicately plated dishes feature the Nile perch from Uganda, Algerian olive oil, and Penja pepper from Cameroon. By combining ingredients and food cultures from different countries in Africa with some modern elements, Dieuveil has created his own cuisine that represents not only the heritage and traditions of a vast and varied, continent but also the latest trends. Undoubtedly, such integration has received international applause.

However, Dieuveil’s ambitions are not just for himself. After setting up the digital platform “Chefs in Africa”, which to date has connected over 4,000 professional chefs to career opportunities and the skill development, Dieuveil created a training school to produce the next generation of cooking pioneers. He is on a mission to lay the foundations of an innovative fine-dining scene on the African continent that can compare with Europe’s — but in a distinctive, African way.

When it comes to the understanding of fine dining, different from Europe’s emphasis on exclusivity and competitiveness, Dieuveil focuses more on integration. “If you want to go far, you must share with people,” he says. And his Afro-fusion cuisine has been shaped by this philosophy of sharing. To better understand the diverse traditions, dishes and ingredients of Africa, he went into villages and met with the grandmothers, as they’re usually the masters of amazing, old techniques. These villagers shared their local cuisine and family recipes, teaching Dieuveil regional fermentation (发酵) and preservation processes.

To ensure the quality of fresh produce, Dieuveil sources all his vegetables from his three-hectare organic farm in northern Rwanda, where he continues his “food revolution” by establishing the connection with remote and underserved communities, and involving more students coming from countries across Africa. He said, “Africa is the garden of the world and has an amazing diversity of food. What is happening now with African cuisine and the exposure we are getting are clear indications that our food revolution is already here.”

1. What makes Dieuveil’s cuisine a success?

A．The fascinating mix of the old and the new.

B．The use of imported ingredients and cookers.

C．The balance of international and local flavors.

D．The fine dining environment and table setting.

2. Why did Dieuveil visit the villages in Africa?

A．To share his philosophy.

B．To publicize his organic food.

C．To draw inspiration for his dishes.

D．To seek excellent cooks for his restaurant.

3. How does Dieuveil feel about the development of his food revolution?

A．Amazed.

B．Satisfied.

C．Pessimistic.

D．Concerned.

4. Which of the following can best describe Dieuveil?

A．Ambitious and decent.	B．Generous and responsible.
C．Talented and humorous.	D．Creative and determined.

5 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

If you’re into ancient Chinese architecture, check out 73-year-old Wang Yongxian on Douyin,     1     Chinese version of TikTok. Wang has built a large following for his in-depth knowledge and live streams. A     2     (retire) architect in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, Wang makes sketches (草图) and models to illustrate structural concepts, and often streams     3     the spot at buildings he is lecturing about. One viewer told China Report that Wang’s video on bucket arches, also     4     (call) dougong — one of the most important     5     (element) in traditional Chinese architecture, helped them thoroughly understand this unique building method.     6     (show) its complex system of wooden interlocking brackets (托架), Wang used a model that he     7     (careful) separated into different parts as he lectured. Unlike many fashionable online celebrities, Wang wears an understated Zhongshan suit     8     has since become his signature. Fans told China Report that Wang’s courses have made understanding ancient Chinese architecture accessible, which     9     (be) his aim when he started live streaming. “An ancient building is much     10     (precious) than an ancient painting or porcelain (瓷器), because it shows China’s ancient culture in a comprehensive and three-dimensional way,” Wang told China Report.

6 . Who is the woman’s hero?

A．Tim Berners-Lee.

B．Stephen Hawking.

C．Steve Jobs.

7 . Zong Qinghou, a soft drinks giant from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, died of an illness at the age of 79. There has been much mourning at his passing on Feb. 25, 2024 as he was well-known as the founder of a company, headquartered in his hometown in the late 1980s, which later developed into the Wahaha Group, a major soft drinks company.

He is known to the public for three things — his rags-to-riches rise, his long-term frugal (节俭的) lifestyle, and his devotion to promoting China’s national industries. Forbes ranked him, with a wealth of about $5.9 billion, No.53 among Chinese billionaires last year.

Yet besides, it is also worthwhile to think over the question about whether his success in business can be imitated today and what lessons policymakers can learn from his self-made business success as they try to enrich the soil for setting up business.

Before winning a contract (合同) to work as a salesperson of a small school-run factory selling writing materials, iced treats and soft drinks in Hangzhou in 1987, Zong worked as a traveling salesman for nearly a decade after working for 15 years on various posts in local farming communities with Grade-9 education.

His sharp business sense, which he owed to poverty instead of the genes (基因) of the Zhejiang business community, enabled him to recognize business opportunities at a time when the country had just carried out the change from a planned economy to a socialist market one.

The broad space he enjoyed as a sales representative of the factory enabled him to continuously sharpen his sales strategies and enlarge his network of business partners. That not only helped him gather the start-up funds he later used to contract the whole factory, but also influenced his later management style, which he summed up as always trying to make things simpler.

As he told the media, it is the spirit of adventure of his generation and their down-to-earth work style that deserve attention, not his lifestyle, which was a personal choice.

1. Which aspect of Zong Qinghou does Paragraph 2 focus on?

A．His habits.	B．His interest.
C．His lifestyle.	D．His achievements.

2. Why is Zong Qinghou’s early experience mentioned in Paragraph 4?

A．To tell how he won contracts.	B．To tell how different his life was.
C．To show the ways to run a business.	D．To show its influence on his business.

3. What made Zong Qinghou find the chance to start his business?

A．His sharp sense in business.	B．His broad space and freedom.
C．His long-term simple lifestyle.	D．His business community’s genes.

4. Which of the following best describes Zong Qinghou?

A．Modest.

B．Determined.

C．Knowledgeable.

D．Humorous.

8 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入 1 个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Yang Jiang was a well-known Chinese playwright, translator, and author. She belonged to     1     unique and beautiful existence in Chinese literature. She was the first Chinese academic     2    (translate) Miguel de Cervantes’ Spanish novel Don Quixote to Chinese and at that time, her translation     3     (honor) as the recreation of the original work       4     the basis of loyalty.

Yang was born into a rich family in 1911,     5    (original)named Yang Jikang. After eventually     6     (graduate) from Soochow University, she enrolled at the graduate school of Tsinghua University. She met her husband there, Qian Zhongshu, another acclaimed writer in China.

Other than translations, Yang     7     (author) many plays, novels, and essays during her writing career. Her short novel Mr. Wang,     8    (write) in 1984, was selected as an article in the textbook. In 1986, she got the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise, a famous Spanish civil order, for her     9     (achieve) in Don Quixote. Her bestseller was We Three in 2003,     10     sales exceeded 180,000 copies in two months. Yang passed away in 2016, at the age of 105.

9 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Sun Zi Bingfa, or The Art of War, is one of the most     1     (influence) military books in the whole history of humankind and     2     (read) for more than 2,000 years. Sun Tzu, a legendary military Chinese strategist during the Spring and Autumn Period, is regarded as the ultimate master of war.

Sun Tzu moved to the State of Wu in 532 BC, and later completed the great military work    3     (compose) of 13 articles altogether,     4     he fully demonstrated his insight into warfare. He suggested     5     (analyze) the conditions between one side and the rival before drawing the war plan. He emphasized the victorious general must be familiar with his enemies just as    6     himself. He also explained two types of decisive factors: the objective and stable one, like the     7     (effective) of the army; and the subjective and changeable one, like the spirit of the soldiers. He believed that competition of economy between states is     8     nature of war. Meanwhile, the supreme art and goal of war is     9     (defeat) the enemy with strategies instead of only force. His spirit and wisdom    10     (unique) remind us that peace is the common objective we should pursue.

10 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What made Catherine start boxing?

A．A film.

B．A friend.

C．A game.

2. What did Catherine’s family think of her when she took up boxing?

A．Brave.

B．Smart.

C．Crazy.

3. What does Catherine usually do before a boxing match?

A．Stay relaxed.

B．Go camping.

C．Get training.

4. What is the best thing Catherine gains from doing boxing?

A．Friendship.

B．Fitness.

C．Respect.