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。

Shanxi Party chief has owed the    1    (remark) achievements in socioeconomic development the northern province has made over the past decade to its     2    (apply) of instructions from central authorities, and to its adaptation of those instructions to the actual conditions of the province.

The past decade has marked a watershed (分水岭) in the province’s development, as its coal-based economy—still a key driver and accounting for 29.2 percent of national coal production last year—becomes increasingly powered by different economic engines, including industries such as the manufacture of    3    (advance) equipment, semiconductors and new materials, as well as big data and green industry. 

    4     the huge impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Shanxi’s GDP increased by 9.1 percent last year,    5    (make) it the third-fastest of all provincial-level regions. Only 2 percentage points of that growth was coal-related.

By making improvements to     6    (it) business environment and governmental services, Shanxi has been able to attract 365 high-tech enterprises, start three national-level research platforms and encourage some 1,400 researchers and professionals     7    (settle) there since last year. 

At present, Shanxi produces 34.46 percent of its electricity from wind, solar energy and other non-fossil sources, and     8    quality of its air and water has markedly improved. These changes were key in attracting 39.9 million tourist visits to the province’s well-protected historical sites last year, at a time     9     national tourism    10    (hit) hard by outbreaks of COVID-19.

2 . 阅读下面材料, 根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段, 使之构成一篇完整的短文。

People often talk about the “walls” that some individuals build around themselves. I was one of those individuals. Long after I divorced and became a single parent, I still wore my wedding ring. Maybe it was because I didn’t want anyone to know that I had failed at something in my life. Wearing that ring helped me pretend that everything was okay.

You think that people can’t see through those kinds of walls. But they do. They just know enough not to let you know that they see you are pretending. One day at work, however, pretending didn’t come that easily. I was on my coffee break with colleagues. Then my cell phone rang and the garage boss told me loudly the car repairs would come to $850. I looked worried. I needed that car to hold down my present job. Without it, I would have to walk fourteen miles to and from work in North Bay. I felt sick. I didn’t have a credit card, and I certainly couldn’t call the $28 in my bank account “savings”. But every problem has a solution, and in my case that meant I had to ask someone else for something—even if it was only a lift downtown after work. Luckily, my colleague Jane volunteered to give me a ride to the garage after work.

I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to come up with bright ideas about how to pay my garage bill. I figured I could borrow $200 from my mom and pay her back at a rate of $2.50 a week. I thought of what I had at home that I could live without and therefore sell. I finally decided the best I could do was to offer to type up invoices (发票) for the garage.

注意:
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在相应位置作答。

When Jane dropped me at the garage that evening, the owner asked me to step into his office.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Before I could say anything, he added, “People who you work with have been coming in here all afternoon.”

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3 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Joe worked as a night watchman in a factory after he graduated from high school. It was a lonely job, but he was content. He stopped by the beach every day on his way home to watch the sunrise.

One day, he was walking on the beach when he noticed a bottle in the surf. Joe picked it up and saw a roll of paper inside it. His heart beat fast. He removed the lid and opened the letter. “Hi! My name is Ritchie. I’m sending this message in the hope that somebody will find it and become my friend.”

It saddened Joe to think of this boy waiting and hoping somebody would answer his message. He took his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the number written near the bottom of the page.

However, the number didn’t exist anymore. Joe was determined to find Ritchie, so he went straight to the city library for help. A librarian took him to a section of the library that felt deserted. There, she pointed him to the shelves filled with old telephone books. She sat down with him, and they searched the telephone books for Ritchie’s phone number together. Two hours later, the librarian let out an excited scream. “I found him!”

“Thank you,” Joe said, quickly copying down the address. He immediately headed for the address from the phone book. He almost screamed when he saw that the house at the address had been transformed into a hair salon. Joe stared at the sign. He held the message from the bottle in one fist and the paper with the address in the other. He walked in and explained everything to the barber. “Ritchie was born with disabilities. He has been using a wheelchair since he was a kid. Well, he’s an old man now. If you still want to find him, I hear he’s at the Serenity nursing home.” Joe thanked the man and drove to the nursing home.

注意：1．续写词数应为150左右;
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

After asking to see Ritchie, Joe was shown to a sunlit room.

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One day, Joe received a call, learning that Ritchie had passed away the previous night.

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6 . I was in first grade in Mrs. Bauer’s class at a time when elementary schools held student gift swaps. I was to _______ toys with Paul, a boy I knew little about.

I bought a Matchbox car for Paul. After all, all boys _________ such toys. However, the gift Paul _________ for me was a small plastic Santa Claus on green snow skis. It surely cost much less.

As Paul and other boys raced their new Matchbox cars delightedly in the classroom, I tried to hold back hot tears. Though I felt _________, I started racing my skiing Santa alongside the Matchbox cars. Truthfully, I wasn’t trying to erase any _________ Paul might have felt for giving such a cheap gift. I _________ didn’t want to feel left out.

When school was over, Mrs. Bauer asked me to remain behind for a moment. I sat _________ at my desk, having no idea what I’d done wrong. When we were alone, she said to me with great _________, “I’m proud of you for not showing your _________. That would have hurt Paul’s feelings. You gave him a very nice __________ that made him cheerful, and you should be __________ about that.” Mrs. Bauer’s message, which I didn’t fully __________ at that time, was that it is better to give than to receive.

Afterwards, I became __________ with Paul. I found his socks always had holes in them. He shared a tiny bedroom with two sisters, and his dad had died. That skiing Santa might have been all Paul could __________ to give. I suddenly realized it was far more __________ than any other gift.

1.

A．arrange

B．exchange

C．create

D．share

2.

A．needed

B．identified

C．possessed

D．loved

3.

A．took apart

B．put away

C．picked out

D．checked up

4.

A．excited

B．sorrowful

C．concerned

D．proud

5.

A．amusement

B．punishment

C．puzzlement

D．embarrassment

6.

A．generally

B．simply

C．eventually

D．instantly

7.

A．nervously

B．shyly

C．comfortably

D．casually

8.

A．respect

B．courage

C．kindness

D．confidence

9.

A．shame

B．regret

C．intention

D．disappointment

10.

A．toy

B．tool

C．decoration

D．prize

11.

A．certain

B．hopeful

C．happy

D．serious

12.

A．understand

B．assess

C．remember

D．ignore

13.

A．strict

B．content

C．popular

D．familiar

14.

A．afford

B．choose

C．expect

D．agree

15.

A．useful

B．fashionable

C．precious

D．necessary

7 . During the COVID-19 pandemic (疫情), US citizen Elizabeth Hulanick has turned to toys from her childhood to deal with worry and stress. She started bringing Lego toys to work to build things out of the colorful blocks with her colleagues. She also started playing with Silly Putty, a toy made of special rubbery material that changes colors. She said it brought her comfort.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many adults turned to toys to recall feelings from their childhood. The stresses from the worldwide health crisis only made that trend grow.

Many toy makers see adults’ interest in toys as a durable thing, even after the pandemic fully ends. This so-called “kid-adult” market is a big part of the toy industry. The market is the second-fastest-growing group after customers aged 12 to 17.

Some toy companies are creating new products, services and websites designed for adults. For example, Mattel’s American Girl Cafe recently added alcoholic drinks to their menu after seeing adults show up without children. American Girl makes popular, costly dolls. Last year, the company Build-a-Bear started a website called Bear Cave for customers aged 18 and over. Products include a toy rabbit holding a bottle of wine. Even the fast-food restaurant McDonald’s is marketing to toy-loving adults. It started its adult Happy Meals in October. McDonald’s President and CEO Chris Kempczinski said the company sold half its supply of collectible toys in the first four days of the special deal. The Lego Group has been increasing its products for adults since 2020. It now has 100 toys designed for adult customers. Among the most popular toys for adults are Star Wars and Harry Potter-linked Lego sets.

Genevieve Cruz is senior director at Lego. She said, “The pandemic certainly served as a catalyst (催化剂) for this trend as adults found themselves stuck at home with nothing else to do and a lot of time on their hands. We do believe the trend goes beyond the pandemic.”

1. What’s the author’s main purpose in mentioning Elizabeth Hulanick in paragraph 1?

A．To recommend a fun way to handle stress.

B．To prove the benefits of playing with toys.

C．To introduce the topic to be discussed in the text.

D．To show the popularity of toys among US adults.

2. Which is closest in meaning to the underlined word “durable” in paragraph 3?

A．Long-lasting.	B．Far-reaching.
C．Time-consuming.	D．Brand-new.

3. What conclusion can be drawn about toy companies from paragraph 4?

A．They keep improving service quality.

B．They aim more products at grown-ups.

C．Their marketing direction remains unchanged.

D．Their adult toys sell better than child ones.

4. What’s Genevieve Cruz’s attitude towards the market of adult toys?

A．Opposed.

B．Doubtful.

C．Optimistic.

D．Tolerant.

8 . Restaurants, farmers, and food businesses are turning to chemistry and physics to address the problem of food waste. Some companies are testing coverings to slow the ripening process in fruit and packets to keep food fresh. Others are developing digital sensors that can tell when meat is safe to eat.

Experts say growing awareness of the costs of food waste has led to more efforts to deal with the problem. ReFed is a group that studies food waste. It says new businesses raised $300 billion in 2021, double the amount raised in 2020, to solve the problem. The group says that in 2019, around 35 percent of food available in the US — worth about $418 billion — went unsold or uneaten. The US Environmental Protection Agency says that food waste is the largest kind of material placed in local waste areas. And the agency notes that rotting food gives off methane, a gas that is not good for the environment.

ReFed says 225,000 kilograms of food could be kept out of waste areas each year with special, high-tech coverings. Many companies are working on ways to help reduce food waste. Swedenbased Innoscentia is developing a sensor that can show if meat is safe to eat by measuring the buildup of microbes (微生物) inside its container. And Ryp Labs, based in the US and Belgium, is working on a sticker for fruits and vegetables that would give off gas to slow ripening. SavrPak has developed a plant-based packet that can fit inside a container and take in moisture (水分), helping the food inside stay crispy.

“The science is promising, but it’s only part of the solution,” said Yvette Cabrera, who is the director of food waste for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Most food waste happens at home. Reducing food sizes, buying smaller quantities, or improving the accuracy of freshness date could have even greater effects than new technology. Overall as a society, we don’t value food as it should be valued,” Cabrera said.

1. According to paragraph 2, food waste in the US has caused ______.

A．great economic losses	B．seasonal food shortages
C．growing awareness of food safety	D．serious water pollution

2. What’s the function of the high-tech covering developed by SavrPak?

A．Maintaining the freshness of meat.	B．Keeping food from getting wet.
C．Freeing food from microbes.	D．Preventing fruits and vegetables from ripening.

3. In Cabrera’s opinion, what matters more in reducing food waste?

A．Developing new technology.	B．Promoting Empty Plate Campaign.
C．Shortening the process of producing food.	D．Changing people’s consuming habit.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Dealing with Food Waste Calls for Combined Efforts

B．Public Awareness Is the Key to Handling Food Waste

C．Food Waste Remains a Hard-to-handle Problem Worldwide

D．Companies Develop Technologies to Deal with Food Waste

9 . Elito Circa is a Filipino artist who rose to fame for using his own blood to create canvas (油画布) paintings, which has attracted both praise and criticism over the years.

Born in a poor family that couldn’t afford to buy proper art supplies, Elito Circa experimented with a variety of unusual mediums as a child, including tomatoes, but it was when he accidentally scraped (刮破) his hand that he discovered the art medium that would mark his artistic career—his own blood. He quickly realized that the blood was not only harder to erase from the canvas, but it also made his artworks his own in a way that he had never imagined before.

Every time he scraped his body, young Elito used the blood as paint, but as he grew older he realized that his “paint” needed to be supplied stably, so he started visiting a clinic in Manila to have it drawn periodically. Nowadays, he stops by the clinic about once every three months. He then stores his blood in a freezer in his studio.

Although Elito has been criticized for his use of blood as paint in the past few years, the Filipino artist has always made it clear that he wants to change people’s view of blood through his art. “People are afraid of blood, because in their minds, blood means death,” Elito said in an interview. “But I want to twist that belief. That’s why I’m addressing its use because I want people to think that it’s not death, but love and life.”

It’s unclear how much of his own blood Elito Circa has stored in his art studio, but it must be a lot, because he has announced a plan to create the largest ever “blood painting” on a 100-meter canvas next year, expecting to set a new world record.

1. Why did Elito Circa become well-known?

A．Great details were reflected in his artworks.

B．He used a special art medium in his artworks.

C．He showed extraordinary skills in his artworks.

D．Unique thoughts were expressed in his artworks.

2. What made Elito Circa paint with blood?

A．His family’s economic conditions.	B．His great interest in experiments.
C．His strong desire to stand out.	D．His rich artistic imaginations.

3. How did Elito achieve a stable supply of “paint”?

A．By keeping himself in shape.	B．By scraping his body periodically.
C．By having his blood drawn regularly.	D．By collecting blood from a local clinic.

4. Which of the following proverbs can best describe Elito Circa’s story?

A．Practice makes perfect.

B．He who laughs last laughs best.

C．God helps those who help themselves.

D．Go your own way regardless of what people say.