1 . In an era where data centers are becoming increasingly vital for our digital society, China has begun a groundbreaking endeavor to push the boundaries of innovation and sustainability.
Nestled off the coast of Sanya, Hainan province, China is in the process of constructing the world’s first commercial underwater data center. This project aims to revolutionize the industry by using the power of the ocean depths while saving a significant amount of energy and land. With the potential to equal the computational (计算的) abilities of about 6 million conventional personal computers, this underwater data center is bound to be a game-changer.
The data center modules (模块) of China’s underwater facility are being carefully installed on the seafloor at depths of around 35 meters. Designed to withstand the harsh underwater conditions, these modules are expected to operate sustainably for up to 25 years. Each watertight storage module weighs an impressive 1,300 tons and boasts the capability to process over 4 million high-definition images every 30 seconds. When combined, the entire facility is projected to match the computational power of surprising 6 million conventional PCs working together.
The construction of the underwater data center is a result of collaboration between Sanya officials and several Chinese tech firms. With the initial deployment of one storage module in April and the recent addition of a second module, the project is well underway. The ambitious plan aims to have a total of 100 modules fully operational by 2025, marking a significant milestone in sustainable data center development.
The motivation behind this pioneering project extends beyond technological advancement. By choosing an underwater data center, China is actively addressing the challenges of land conservation. Traditional data centers can occupy vast amounts of land, often equal to the size of multiple soccer fields. In contrast, this underwater marvel takes up minimal dry space, preserving land for other essential purposes. Additionally, the use of natural seawater cooling reduces the strain on traditional energy sources, leading to a significant reduction in carbon emissions. This environmentally conscious approach agree with global sustainability goals and sets an example for the industry to follow.
1. Why does China start the data centre project?| A．To push the boundaries of the country. | B．To innovate the digital field. |
| C．To use the power of the ocean depths. | D．To save a significant amount of energy and land. |
| A．China has successfully constructed a data center. |
| B．The whole underwater facility weighs 1300 tons. |
| C．The facility is more powerful than a conventional data centre. |
| D．All the modules are not equipped. |
| A．Cooperation | B．Conflict | C．Compromise | D．Conclusion |
| A．By analyzing the fact. | B．By providing reasons. |
| C．By making comparison. | D．By giving examples. |
2 . Walking down a path through some woods in Georgia, I saw a water puddle ahead on the path. As I reached the puddle, I was suddenly attacked! Yet I did nothing for the attack was so unpredictable and from a source so totally unexpected. I was being attacked by a butterfly!
Having stopped attacking, I took a step forward. My attacker rushed me again. I retreated a step while my attacker relented in his attack. Yet again, I tried moving forward and I was rammed in the chest over and over again. I wasn’t sure what to do, other than to retreat a third time. After all, it’s just not every day that one is attacked by a butterfly. This time, though, I stepped back several paces to look the situation over. My attacker moved back as well to land on the ground. That’s when I discovered why my attacker was charging me only moments earlier. He had a mate and she was dying. She was beside the puddle where he landed.
Sitting close beside her, he opened and closed his wings as if to fan her. I could only admire the love and courage of that butterfly in his concern for his mate. He had taken it upon himself to attack me for his mate’s reason, even though she was clearly dying and I was so large. He did so just to give her those extra few precious moments of life in case I was careless to step on her. Now I knew why and what he was fighting for. There was really only one option left for me. I carefully made my way around the puddle to the other side of the path, though it was only inches wide and extremely muddy. His courage in attacking something thousands of times large r and heavier than himself just for his mate’s safety justified it. I couldn’t do anything other than reward him by walking on the more difficult side of the puddle. He had truly earned those moments to be with her, undisturbed.
I left them in peace for those last few moments, cleaning the mud from my boots when I later reached my car. Since then, I’ve always tried to remember the courage of that butterfly whenever I see huge obstacles facing me. I use that butterfly’s courage as an inspiration and to remind myself that good things are worth fighting for.
1. Why did the butterfly attack the author?| A．To let him rescue his mate. | B．To teach him about love. |
| C．To protect the puddle. | D．To warn him off his mate. |
| A．Admiring. | B．Annoyed. | C．Absent-minded. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．He cured the dying butterfly. | B．He left the butterflies alone. |
| C．He stepped on the butterfly carelessly. | D．He fought with the butterfly. |
| A．A battle with a butterfly | B．A walk around a puddle |
| C．A true story of courage and love | D．A travel in Georgia |
3 . Italki works with Emmersion and Oxford Online Placement Test to provide online language tests for language learners.
Test contents:
Italki Language Test is powered by Emmersion, which offered two kinds of test contents, Emmersion Speaking test and Emmersion Grammar test. The Emmersion Speaking test is available for 7 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Italian, and is mostly designed to use neutral accents and not focus on a specific dialect. However, the Spanish test uses a Latin American accent, and the Portuguese test leans towards a Brazilian accent. The Emmersion Grammar test is available for 5 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian.
OOPT, Oxford Online Placement Test includes an English Grammar test.
Expiration (有效期):
1. OOPT is valid for a year from the purchase date.
2. Italki Language test is valid for 1 year after purchase. You can take up to 4 times tests within one purchase. To take the test, you need to activate (激活) it to start. Italki Language Test won’t limit you to activate the same language for these 4 tests. You can choose any available language you want to activate each time.
What should I prepare before taking the Italki Language Test?
A stable internet connection.
An updated internet browser. Chrome is recommended, but here, you’ll find a list of compatible (可兼容的) browsers and equipment, including mobile devices and computers: https://support.emmersion.ai/support/solutions/articles/60000703287-device-and-browser-requirements.
A quiet environment with little or no background noise.
A headset with a built-in microphone (Optional).
How long will the test take?
The test will ask you 40-45 questions, which should take 15 minutes to 30 minutes.
However, it depends on you. The computerized adaptive testing adapts to the examinee’s level. There isn’t a set number of questions, and the questions won’t always be the same. For the OOPT test, please make sure that you click “submit” to complete your test within the one-hour time limit. Otherwise, you won’t get a score as the exam didn’t finish in time.
1. How many foreign languages are available for a Spanish student in an Emmersion Grammar test?| A．one | B．four | C．five | D．seven |
| A．A quiet environment. |
| B．The Chrome browser. |
| C．A computer. |
| D．A headset with a built-in microphone. |
| A．Accents are not acceptable in the test. |
| B．You should stick to one language for tests within one purchase. |
| C．The numbers of questions in the test are not fixed. |
| D．You should click “submit” within 45 minutes in an OOPT text. |
4 . Is there a friend of yours who always sings out of tune (曲调) but never realizes it? Don’t be so hard on them — they may have amusia — the inability to tell the difference in tunes.
Apart from singing out of tune, people with amusia may also find it hard to recognize music they’ve heard before without the help of song lyrics. Besides, people who suffer from Amusia can have difficulty in recognizing melodies and a total inability to tell between different musical sounds, according to Live Science. However, people with amusia can recognize common environmental sounds as well as the high and lows sounds in human voices, meaning that this inability can be specially related to music.
In many cases, people who have amusia are born with it, as 46 percent of these individuals’ family members were found to have similar conditions, according to a 2017 study. Brain imaging shows that their brains receive and respond to music pitch (音高) information, but it is not reaching conscious awareness, meaning that the mind can’t understand the information.
Scientists at the University of Otago in New Zealand also think that amusia is related to people’s special processing skills. They invited people with amusia, musicians and students from non-musical backgrounds to perform a task related to spacial imagination. They were asked to decide whether pairs of images are the same object moving around or mirror images.
The result showed that the amusia group made more mistakes than the other two groups. Amusia might be related to the way brain stores information about the high and low sounds in songs, according to the study.
Although those who aren’t confident about their singing skills often say they’re “tune-deaf”, people with amusia only make up about 1.5 percent of the population, as shown in the 2017 study. “Like dyslexics (诵读困难者) can learn how to read, those with amusia should be able to better their ability to recognize tunes if they start early enough,” Isabelle Peretz, a professor of psychology from the University of Montreal in Canada, told Live Science.
1. According to the article, what is the main difficulty faced by people with amusia?| A．Recognizing tunes. | B．Identifying human voices. |
| C．Understanding song lyrics. | D．Noticing common sounds in nature. |
| A．Amusia is common among children. |
| B．Amusia is a result of brain damage. |
| C．Many individuals with amusia are born with it. |
| D．Those who are tune-deaf often suffer from amusia. |
| A．People with amusia have strong spa cial imagination skills. |
| B．People with amusia struggle to decide the shape of images. |
| C．Amusia may be affected by one’s level of music education. |
| D．Amusia may be related to how the brain stores sound information. |
| A．Go for medical treatment. | B．Sing frequently with friends. |
| C．Learn how to read earlier in life. | D．Start to explore and learn music early. |
5 . “I never thought that I would beat the tumor.” says a cancer patient in Lanzhou in Northwest China’s Gansu province. The man adds that he is particularly grateful for heavy ion therapy he received, at a follow-up visit following several rounds of treatment revealing that his cancer cells had disappeared.
A research team from the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed the country’s first medical heavy ion accelerator with independent intellectual property rights, and put it into clinical application. Cancer treatments employing heavy ion accelerators can bombard a target with high-energy electrons to kill cancer cells. Compared to traditional therapy such as radiation, heavy ion treatment is considered to be more balanced, exposing healthy cells to less radiation. The treatment period is shorter and the therapy can more effectively control cancer cells.
In 1993, researchers proposed to carry out basic research on heavy ion cancer treatment during an academic conference held in Tianshui, Gansu. In 2006, China followed the United States, Japan and Germany to become the fourth country to successfully carry out heavy ion clinical treatment, when four cancer patients participated in preliminary clinical trials for heavy ion therapy. In 2015, China’s first such accelerator, with independent intellectual property rights, rolled off the production line in Wuwei, in Gansu. On March 26, 2020, the accelerator was put into operation, and by the end of June this year, more than 750 patients completed their therapy at Wuwei’s heavy ion treatment center, with remarkable curative effects. The follow-up statistics showed that the three-year local tumor control rate reached 84 percent among 46 clinical trial participants.
Heavy ion therapy is highly effective in treating a wide range of solid tumors and can be used in cases where surgery is not possible or unsuitable, when a patient is sensitive to conventional radiation therapy, or prone to relapse following such therapy. This includes tumors located in the central nervous system, head, neck, skull base, chest and abdomen. So far there have been several cases where people have recovered from cancers by the therapy.
1. Why is the man in para.1 mentioned?| A．To celebrate a successful treatment. | B．To bring up a new kind of therapy. |
| C．To show his cancer cells had disappeared. | D．To show the man is brave and lucky. |
| A．China is the first country to carry out heavy ion clinical treatment. |
| B．In 2006, the United States, Japan and Germany successfully carried out heavy io n clinical treatment. |
| C．Heavy ion cancer treatment is more beneficial to patients than traditional therapies such as radiation. |
| D．Heavy ion cancer treatment is of great help in treating a certain kind of tumor. |
| A．The time of the heavy ion cancer treatment. |
| B．The reason why researchers develop heavy ion cancer treatment. |
| C．Persons benefiting from heavy ion cancer treatment. |
| D．The development of heavy ion cancer treatment in China. |
| A．To give some successful examples of the new treatment |
| B．To explain the process of the new treatment. |
| C．To show the difficulty of the new treatment. |
| D．To conclude the value of the new treatment. |
6 . Never climbed before? It doesn’t matter! Boulders In door Climbing Centre is a fantastic outing for the whole family that’s guaranteed to pack your day with fun and adventure! No experience is necessary.
Under the guidance of qualified instructors, you will step outside of your comfort zone in a safe and controlled environment. All equipment is provided—just bring your spirit of adventure and your willingness to challenge yourself! Boulders specializes in introducing people of all abilities into this vertical (垂直的) world in a fun, safe and inclusive way!
With climbing walls that reach between 4 to 12 metres in height, Boulders, whose task is to teach you all the skills required to climb safely, is designed to train the bravest explorer. You will learn how to move around the climbing wall in a safe manner, and how to differentiate (区分) between grades and varieties of techniques.
There’s even a café on site with free Wi-Fi, so send the children to climb and check in with the office while you’re enjoying a skinny latte! Boulders offers a wide range of climbing activities, including:
Climbing classes for children, families, students and adults
Birthday parties for all ages
Children’s holiday activities
Soft play for children 7 years old and under
Climbing-Introduction courses
Opening hours: Mon.-Thur. 10: 00-22: 00
Fri. 10: 00-21: 00
Sat.-Sun. 10: 00-18: 00
Price: Adults £15 Child £10
The price includes entry to the wall after the session, your one-off registration fee and shoe hire.
Family pass: £38
Up to 4 persons. Rental shoes & chalk included.
1. Who are the potential customers of the climbing center?| A．Qualified instructors | B．Children interested in climbing indoors |
| C．Experienced climbers | D．People addicted to climbing outdoors |
| A．Adventurous spirit |
| B．Skills required to professional climbing |
| C．How to move around the climbing wall in a good manner. |
| D．How to combine grades with techniques |
| A．£40 | B．£25 | C．£35 | D．£38 |
7 . The 2024 “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreigners across the Globe — Calligraphy and Painting Challenge has been officially announced (宣布), which will start on April 1, 2024.
This competition invites painting, calligraphy, and Chinese language lovers from all around the world to take part in this exciting event.
Here we are calling on those who have interest to turn in their creative topics for the competition, with the topic selection process being decided by the public.
If you’re interested, feel free to turn in the topic that you believe fits the requirements of the competition.
Here are what you should follow:
Who can take part
The call for creative topics for the Calligraphy and Painting Challenge is open to any Chinese language lovers worldwide, with no limitations on age or nationality.
When to turn in
If you’d like to take part, you’d better hand in between Jan. 15, 2024 and Mar. 30, 2024 (Beijing Time).
Announcement date
The selected topic for the Calligraphy and Painting Challenge will be announced on Mar. 31, 2024, which also marks the official start for handing in calligraphy and painting works under the selected topic next day.
Methods to hand in
Participants (参与者) can send their topics and related information to Chinesebridge@chineseplus.net. “Chinese Bridge” also accepts direct messages on its official account on Facebook, Instagram, We Chat, and Weibo.
1. Which of the following statements is correct?| A．Participants must be more than 18 years old. |
| B．The nationality of the participants must be Chinese. |
| C．Participants can turn in the topic online or to the office. |
| D．Participants can hand in whatever topic suitable for the competition. |
| A．June 20, 2024. | B．February 12, 2024. |
| C．March 25, 2024. | D．January 28, 2024. |
| A．To set up a competition organization. |
| B．To announce the opening of a competition. |
| C．To collect creative topics for a competition. |
| D．To provide some information about a competition. |
8 . “I was captivated by weightlifting during the London 2012 Olympic Games,” says Fiona Clements, a software developer working in London. “I think it’s partly because the effort is so obvious—you can see every flash of doubt, pain and happiness of success on the athletes’ faces.”
Clements was 48 at the time. She thought she’d left it far too late to even consider trying it, but then she kept thinking about it. “It took until September 2022, but I finally went for it.” Clements signed up for a beginner’s class with Sally Moss, a strength coach who is an expert in Olympic lifting, and loved it from her first class. Now 58, Clements can lift 50kg and push 21kg overhead. She says she has never felt stronger.
Resistance training, to use the term for any type of exercise where you’re working against weight, whether it’s using dumbbells(哑铃), exercise bands or just your own body weight, is extremely beneficial.
“I just thought that it would be impossible to make a difference to my body as an older woman,” says Joann a Blacker, a small business owner, who took up strength training at 53. “I’d gained weight and felt awful. I certainly didn’t think that weightlifting would be the way I would change my body.”
Blacker can now lift 40kg for 10 repetitions and feels more than ready to deal with training alone. Clements, at the same time, has already signed up with her local gym, for the days she’s not training with Moss. “I can feel these bands of hard muscle when I move my arms and legs that I’m pretty sure weren’t there before,” she says. “But the best part is that I’m actually able to understand the sport I love. It still feels like magic when that bar goes overhead.”
1. What does the underlined word “captivated” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Uninterested. | B．Attracted. | C．Upset. | D．Satisfied. |
| A．She was fearful of the pain. | B．She found it hard to get a top coach. |
| C．She was doubtful about its lasting effects. | D．She thought she was too old to have a go. |
| A．She increased her willpower. | B．She improved her body shape. |
| C．She found a part-time job in this field. | D．She had her busy daily life changed. |
| A．She has a deeper understanding of it. | B．She suggests starting it at a local gym. |
| C．She enjoys muscle-building most of all. | D．She finds it more magic than hard work. |
9 . As a child, I used to visit my grandfather’s shirt shop in Milan. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized how
I remember the shop being filled with
Our afternoon play was to choose the fabric and the tie that would
As I grew older, I began to appreciate the value of the matching game, and I found myself
Now, as I walk through the streets or
Looking back on those
He will always be a(n)
| A．troubled | B．cozy | C．popular | D．comfortable |
| A．papers | B．fabrics | C．instruments | D．machines |
| A．previously | B．casually | C．carelessly | D．freshly |
| A．waste | B．result | C．sense | D．limitation |
| A．fight against | B．go with | C．cope with | D．draw on |
| A．taste | B．touch | C．sound | D．smell |
| A．drawn | B．deserted | C．forced | D．urged |
| A．education | B．advertisement | C．entertainment | D．design |
| A．surf | B．establish | C．purchase | D．decorate |
| A．impressed | B．left | C．impacted | D．attracted |
| A．mornings | B．decades | C．afternoons | D．seconds |
| A．sportsmanship | B．craftsmanship | C．membership | D．friendship |
| A．grateful | B．responsible | C．eager | D．prepared |
| A．performer | B．cheat | C．inventor | D．inspiration |
| A．lose | B．search | C．cherish | D．decline |
10 . Facial recognition technology is mostly associated with uses such as the authentication of human faces, but scientists believe they’ve found a new use for it—saving seals.
Researchers have developed SealNet. The system is a database of seal faces created by taking pictures of many harbor seals in Maine’s Casco Bay. The research team found the tool’s accuracy in identifying the mammals was close to 100 percent.
The researchers are working on increasing the size of their database to make it available to other scientists. Increasing the database to include rare species could help efforts to save them. The Mediterranean monk seal is thought to be the world’s most at-risk seal with only a few hundred animals remaining.
Creating a list of seal faces and using machine learning to identify them can also help scientists know where in the ocean seals are. Marine mammals move around a lot and are hard to photograph in the water. Scıentists need to be able to identify individuals.
SealNet is designed to identify the face in a picture. It recognizes the seal’s face based on information related to the eyes and nose shape, as it would a human. A similar tool called PrimNet, which is for use on primates, had been used on seals earlier, but SealNet performed better.
Seals and other ocean mammals have long been studied using satellite technology. Using artificial intelligence to study them is a way to bring conservation into the 21st century. Facial recognition technology could provide valuable data.
“Once the system is perfected I can picture lots of interesting environmental uses for it,” said Michelle Berger, a scientist. “If they could recognize seals, and recognize them from year to year, that would give us lots of information about movement, how much they move from site to site.” He added that harbor seals give important information about the environment around them.
1. What can we learn about SealNet from the passage?| A．It increases the size of the database. |
| B．It identifies the mammals accurately. |
| C．It performs more poorly than PrimNet. |
| D．It includes rare species movement. |
| A．It identines which seal is at risk in the ocean. |
| B．It recognizes the shape of a seal in a picture. |
| C．It helps scientists know the location of the seals. |
| D．It gives information about the animals around seals. |
| A．It can provide information of the surroundings. |
| B．It can recognize the seals for a year. |
| C．It can increase the number of seals. |
| D．It can provide information about migration. |
| A．To present a high-tech method to protect seals |
| B．To introduce the species of seals |
| C．To explain why seals are in danger |
| D．To propose new methods to recognize seals |
