1 . 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。

By December of this year, students in Jiangsu will likely have a new way     1    (pay) tuition fees: paying by the digital yuan, or e-CNY. This is     2     Jiangsu province will encourage the use of e-CNY in its education system, according to a plan recently     3    (release) by the Jiangsu Education Department. Students will     4    (probable) pay examination registration fees and receive scholarships in digital yuan. They are also encouraged to pay in digital yuan for ordinary consumption (消费) on campus. China     5    (start) creating the digital version of the renminbi in 2014. Liu Ting is a resident of Suzhou, one of the first pilot     6    (city) for e-CNY announced by the People’s Bank of China in April 2020. “If you want to use e-CNY to buy something, you just need to download the e-CNY app and open     7     account,” Liu told Teens. “Then you can use it to scan the payment code in off line shops.”

One benefit of e-CNY is that it is safer compared to Alipay and WeChat payment. E-commerce (电子商务) platforms     8     accept payments by e-CNY will not have access to users’ personal information. In addition, “the use of e-CNY can reduce trade costs for smaller businesses,” said Zhou Maohua, an analyst at China Everbright Bank. At present, third—party payment platforms such as Alipay and WeChat require certain fees when money is transferred (转账) through them. E-CNY payment,     9    , can transfer money directly from buyers to sellers, which will greatly reduce trade costs.

The     10    (develop) of e-CNY has progressed steadily. Data from the central bank shows that the value of digital yuan in circulation (流通) reached 13.61 billion yuan by the end of 2022. China is still working to expand its usage in more areas.

3 . AI, 5G, cloud computing and other digital technologies are not only changing our lives but shaping the economy as well.

China’s six major commercial banks are stepping up digital wallet efforts to provide new drive for the e-CNY (数字人民币) trials in the country, as reported by Shanghai Securities News on March 23.

“The functions and properties of the-CNY are exactly the same as those of the paper currency, except that the form is digital,” said Mu Changchun, head of the People’s Bank of China’s Digital Currency Research Institute.

Many people are puzzled by e-CNY and electronic payments. “Digital currency has the characteristics of both paper money and electronic payment,” said Wu Qianhong, a professor at the School Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University. “In theory, digital currency can replace paper money, Alipay and WeChat payments.”

Compared with Alipay and WeChat payments, e-CNY features anonymity (匿名性) and security. E-commerce platforms that accept payments via e-CNY will not have access to user’s personal information. E-CNY users can open an anonymous digital wallet by registering a mobile phone number, and telecom operators cannot disclose (泄露) customer information to the central bank or any third-party institutions. Mu noted that e-CNY user’s privacy protection is at the highest level among all the existing payment tools.

Similar to Alipay and WeChat payments, using e-CNY requires an account. After obtaining the other party’s account number, users can enter the amount of digital money to transfer (转钱) and then enter the payment password to complete the transaction (交易). However, the process behind these transfers are different. For electronic payments, the transfer has to go through a third party, and the receivers will get the transferred money only when they withdraw money from banks. But e-CNY transfers only need a payer and a receiver to complete a transaction. Therefore, it guarantees risk-free payments, according to Wu.

In simple terms, e-CNY can be considered “money”, while electronic payments are like “wallets”.

1. What can we know about e-CNY?

A．It is issued by six major commercial banks.

B．It combines paper money and electronic payment.

C．It is designed to replace Alipay and WeChat payments.

D．It has exactly the same function as other payment tools.

2. How does e-CNY protect user’s privacy?

A．By limiting access to personal information.

B．By storing personal data in the central bank.

C．By opening a unique digital wallet for each user.

D．By linking telecom operators to a mobile phone number.

3. What can be concluded from Paragraph 6?

A．E-NCY transfers require to go through a third party.

B．E-NCY is more convenient than other electronic payments.

C．E-NCY can be transferred without the receiver’s information.

D．E-NCY and electronic payments ensure security in the same way.

4. What’s the main purpose of the text?

A．To promote the use of e-NCY.

B．To inform readers of digital RMB.

C．To compare different types of payments.

D．To describe the impact of digital technologies.