1 . Demographic changes, such as aging populations and declining birth rates, pose challenges as well as offer opportunities for industries and countries. To overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities, especially to achieve long-term economic sustainability, economies need to enhance policies promoting innovations.
Now many countries in East Asia are facing the aging population and declining working-age population problem. Compared with other advanced countries, Japan encountered the population aging problem at a slightly earlier stage, starting in the mid-1990s. As Japan’s percentage of elderly population to the total population increased, it impacted the country’s economy, leading to a contraction in domestic demand and decline in both production and consumption, and restricting the growth of economy.
Some innovative companies have actively increased outward FDI (Foreign Direct Investment), providing cost advantages from inexpensive overseas labor to maintain their cost competitiveness. However, the global economy is facing the challenge of declining trade owing to the protectionism practiced by certain countries. Consequently, the chances of boosting growth through outward FDI may be limited.
Developing artificial intelligence is another solution to the negative impacts of the demographic changes. AI and robotics will play a crucial role in stimulating productivity and innovation by making payment for the decline in the working-age population, and the following increase in productivity will in turn raise the demand for labor by creating new employment opportunities.
AI, robotics and other advanced technologies give rise to new tasks within their fields and across other sectors. Therefore, it is necessary to employ cooperation policies to support corporations that promote innovations by increasing investment in research and development, facilitating the growth of new companies, and building a perfect system to protect intellectual properties. Since AI and robotics may replace certain jobs, it is essential to address the potential challenges they may create in the labor market and work out strategies to ensure a balanced and comprehensive transition.
1. What do we know about demographic changes from the first two paragraphs?A.There is no need to worry since the changes offer opportunities. |
B.The changes won’t affect the long-term economic sustainability. |
C.Japan is the only advanced country facing the changes at present. |
D.Things should be done to overcome the challenges posed by the changes. |
A.Push. | B.Decrease. | C.Pause. | D.Change. |
A.Favorable. | B.Intolerant. | C.Objective. | D.Indifferent. |
A.Withdrawing investment in research and development. |
B.Adopting policies that encourage innovation of corporations. |
C.Establishing new companies to protect intellectual properties. |
D.Creating potential labor market for more possible employments. |
2 . Whether you are a fine art lover or history enthusiast, there are some museums that you should visit in your lifetime. Here’s a list of the best museums in the world.
LE LOUVRE, PARIS
A visit to the Louvre lets visitors discover ancient civilizations and Western art from the Middle Ages to 1848. The palace of the museum, dating back to the twelfth century and developed by architects from 1200 to 2011, is a lesson in architecture. The most famous art work is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”.
THE UFFIZI GALLERIES, FLORENCE
The museum occupies a large building constructed between 1560 and 1580. It’s famous for its outstanding collections of ancient sculptures and paintings from the Middle Ages to the Modern period, and mainly known for its paintings by Italian artists.
THE BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON
As the first national museum to cover all fields of human knowledge, it was founded in 1753 and opened its doors in 1759. Its eight million objects allow us to explore the diversity of human cultures, and discover the expressions in human being’s life. It boasts the world’s second finest collection of Egyptian antiques.
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK
Also known as “the Met”, it’s the largest art museum in the America. Presenting over 5,000 years of art from around the world, the museum lives in two sites in New York: The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Since its founding in 1870, it has been a treasury of rare and beautiful objects, ranging from European paintings, Egyptian collections to American paintings.
1. Which museum is best known for ancient statues in the Middle Ages?A.The Louvre. | B.The Uffizi Galleries. |
C.The British Museum. | D.The Metropolitan Museum. |
A.Art works from Egypt. | B.Expressions around the world. |
C.Rare objects of human culture. | D.Paintings from Europe and America. |
A.An introduction to arts. | B.An essay on architecture. |
C.A guidebook to museums. | D.A review of Egyptian paintings. |
3 . Across the world, humans purchase around 1.3 billion single-use plastic water bottles a day. Because only about 9% of plastic is recycled, the vast majority of those bottles wind up in landfills, the ocean, or elsewhere in nature.
When beach-loving Madison noticed those plastic bottles during her family’s trips to California, the 12-year-old “just felt like this needed to change,” she told Smithsonian Magazine.
So as she began thinking about what to do for her school science fair back in 2021, the idea of a project centered on reducing plastic pollution quickly came to her mind: she would design an eatable water bottle called the Eco-Hero.
“One of my biggest ambitions for my project was wanting to help the world,” the confident young inventor said in a video on the website.
To bring her idea to life, Madison built upon the already established method by experimenting with common food materials. She also took inspiration from previous versions of eatable water bottles, though she focused on making hers bigger and more durable. She found that the combination of water, lemon juice, natural gum, and Alginic acid (褐藻酸) resulted in a gel pouch that wouldn’t break, could hold up to 3/4 cup of water, and would last in the fridge for three weeks.
Though she’d like to improve the Eco-Hero by making it able to hold more water, she believes her current version would work well as a replacement for the paper cups used by runners in races. All one needs to do is bite a hole in the water ball, drink the water, and then eat the pouch or throw it away to biodegrade.
Madison hopes the Eco-Hero inspires others to take better care of the planet. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be in a big way,” she told Smithsonian. “People can still make a difference in the world, even if it’s just in a small way.”
1. What inspired Madison’s design of an eatable water bottle?A.Her school’s task. | B.Her family’s urge. |
C.Her love for nature. | D.Her trips to the beach. |
A.It is a copy of the previous versions. |
B.It is made from unbreakable materials. |
C.It is an improvement in size and durability. |
D.It has a hole and should be disposed once used. |
A.Ambitious and creative. | B.Talented and determined. |
C.Courageous and confident. | D.Cooperative and committed. |
A.A good beginning is half done. | B.Small people make big moves. |
C.Where there is a will, there is a way. | D.God helps those who help themselves. |
4 . It’s the textbook beginning of a nightmare: lost on a hiking track, with no water, and an injured dog too heavy to carry.
For JD, Aimee, and their dog Smokey, a two-mile hike had become a
Although David had finished a 15-mile-hike and
David and his mother worked together with the couple to get Smokey to
David
A.Originally | B.Obviously | C.Actually | D.Fortunately |
A.crashed into | B.ran into | C.consulted with | D.beg for |
A.failure | B.memory | C.disaster | D.battle |
A.painful | B.tired | C.flexible | D.sleepy |
A.Above all | B.After all | C.Worse still | D.At last |
A.watched | B.played | C.reported | D.lost |
A.instruction | B.permission | C.exception | D.hesitation |
A.matter | B.work | C.fit | D.improve |
A.Therefore | B.Though | C.Besides | D.However |
A.put | B.figured | C.carried | D.called |
A.happiness | B.safety | C.peace | D.success |
A.relief | B.courage | C.treatment | D.care |
A.hunger | B.curiosity | C.injuries | D.efforts |
A.demanded | B.argued | C.ordered | D.recommended |
A.imagine | B.describe | C.record | D.avoid |
5 . For us, one of the many cultural shocks we experienced was during our time in Bolivia. We spent five months traveling around South America but Bolivia surprised us most. Tourism and the approach to service in Bolivia are, to some extent, underdeveloped, which is not necessarily bad. However, you might get the feeling that the locals don’t like your presence. At times we didn’t feel welcome at all.
Bolivians will stare at you, give angry looks, and often won’t even say hi when you come to their stores and restaurants. After some conversations with locals, we were told that the negative attitude had nothing to do with us. Bolivians are just not used to foreigners and don’t really know how to handle tourists. But we can’t even blame them. After a long and hard time as a Spanish colony, people are still very suspicious of foreigners.
What we loved most and surprised us is how Bolivians keep their traditions alive, which is truly amazing. we often saw locals wearing their traditional clothes and marketing their self-made medicine. These and other efforts to preserve their customs deserve respect. You just can’t see that in many countries in the world.
I loved their clothes so much that l borrowed a traditional Bolivian dress to try to overcome the “tourist vs local barrier” and show the locals on the island that we truly love their culture and appreciate it. The experience was absolutely wonderful. We walked to the sunset point and locals were smiling and waving at us, cheering and we felt like we had a “connecting moment”.
Even though we had this cultural shock and despite the negative feelings at the beginning of our travels in Bolivia, we have to say that we will never forget how special Bolivia was to us.
1. How might newcomers feel about Bolivians?A.They are cold. | B.They are gentle. |
C.They are clever. | D.They are generous. |
A.Foreigners’ rude manners. | B.The location of the country. |
C.The unpleasant history of the country. | D.Local people’s lack of knowledge. |
A.They seldom blame foreigners. | B.They are good at doing business. |
C.They have many self-made items. | D.They preserve their traditions well. |
A.Comforted. | B.Fruitless. | C.Eye-opening. | D.Embarrassed. |
6 . If you are crazy about paintings, you shouldn’t miss the following four famous masterpieces which have stood the test of time.
The Arnolfini Portrait
Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, an oil painting on wood produced in 1434, in which a man and a woman hold hands with a window behind him and a bed behind her, is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces in the National Gallery, London. This painting is as visually interesting as it is famed. It is also an informative document in fifteenth-century society, through Van Eyck’s heavy use of symbolism—while husbands went out to engage in business, wives concerned themselves with domestic duties.
The Starry Night
Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night, oil on canvas, a moderately abstract landscape painting of an expressive night sky over a small hillside village, during his 12-month stay at the mental hospital near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France between 1889 and 1890. When the Museum of Modern Art in New York City purchased the painting from a private collector in 1941, it was not well known, but it has since become one of Van Gogh’s most famous works.
The Harvesters
The Harvesters is an oil painting on wood completed by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1565. It depicts the harvest time which most commonly occurs within the months of August and September. Nicolaes Jonghelinck, a merchant banker and art collector from Antwerp, commissioned this painting. The painting has been at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City since 1919.
Guernica
Guernica, a large black-and-white oil painting, was painted by the Cubist Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso in 1937. The title “Guernica” refers to the city that was bombed by Nazi planes during the Spanish Civil War. The painting depicts the horrors of war and as a result, has come to be an anti-war symbol and a reminder of the tragedies of war. Today, the painting is housed at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofaí in Madrid.
1. Which of the following paintings was produced earliest?A.The Arnolfini Portrait. | B.The Starry Night. |
C.The Harvesters. | D.Guernica. |
A.It was painted on wood in oil. |
B.It wasn’t widely recognized before 1940s. |
C.It described the painter’s life in hospital. |
D.It was given away to the museum by a private collector. |
A.Pieter Bruegel the Elder. | B.Vincent van Gogh. |
C.Jan van Eyck. | D.Pablo Picasso. |
7 . I was heading home after giving my colleague a lift. I took a
Then the snow started and was coming down
The call left me in
Then I saw a big
A.shortcut | B.turn | C.look | D.risk |
A.soon | B.fast | C.lightly | D.suddenly |
A.locked | B.closed | C.frozen | D.broken |
A.follow | B.cover | C.mark | D.remember |
A.plan | B.clue | C.doubt | D.problem |
A.awake | B.calm | C.warm | D.still |
A.confusion | B.trouble | C.embarrassment | D.panic |
A.confirmed | B.found | C.posted | D.checked |
A.looking at | B.going through | C.searching for | D.carrying out |
A.tip | B.comment | C.like | D.message |
A.inspired | B.relieved | C.convinced | D.amazed |
A.policeman | B.creature | C.shadow | D.figure |
A.fighting | B.avoiding | C.checking | D.reporting |
A.goal | B.danger | C.depth | D.direction |
A.hope | B.love | C.gratitude | D.pride |
8 . When a new worker at a charity shop found lots of $100 bills inside two old sweaters, she thought that they must be fake(假的).
The shop at Goodwill Industries then realized they were certainly
Andrea Lessing was in the back
“Her birthday is coming up, so I can actually give her an amazing birthday
But Lessing said she
She reported the
The owner, who had
Reportedly, it’s not just the
“I made the right
And, her belief that “if you do something good, then something good will
A.real | B.clean | C.free | D.different |
A.wearing | B.selling | C.organising | D.producing |
A.sign | B.money | C.sweater | D.check |
A.mother | B.sister | C.cousin | D.daughter |
A.card | B.gift | C.party | D.cake |
A.explained | B.noticed | C.proved | D.believed |
A.lost | B.spare | C.extra | D.stolen |
A.user | B.buyer | C.owner | D.partner |
A.heard | B.thought | C.forgotten | D.questioned |
A.clothing | B.book | C.computer | D.food |
A.oldest | B.largest | C.strangest | D.hardest |
A.teams | B.finds | C.choices | D.stories |
A.decision | B.business | C.connection | D.preparation |
A.give way to | B.hold on to | C.make up to | D.come back to |
A.saved | B.collected | C.discovered | D.borrowed |
1. 音乐的重要性;
2.个人经历;
3. 音乐对你的影响。
注意:1. 词数80-100 词左右;2. 可适当增加细节,以使行文连贯。
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10 . 假定你是李华,得知你的美国笔友Tom上周来到中国。他对孔子很感兴趣,所以你决定邀请他到曲阜游玩并一起去逛“三孔”(即孔府、孔庙和孔林)。请根据下列要点给他写一封电子邮件。内容包括:(1)表示欢迎;(2)行程安排。
注意:(1)词数120;(2)开头已给出,不计入总词数;(3)可适当增加细节,以使行文连贯。
Dear Tom,
I’m more than glad to learn that you came to China last week.
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Yours,
Li Hua