1 . Hugely ambitious in scope, The Lord of the Rings occupies an uncomfortable position in 20th century literature. This book of J.R.R.Tolkien’s poses a challenge to modern literature and its defenders. (Tolkien on his _______: “Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, ridiculous, or annoying; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently _________.”) Yet The Lord of the Rings has enjoyed massive and enduring popularity. It would seem that Tolkien’s work supplied something that was _________ among the formal innovations of 20th century fiction, something for which readers were hungry. But what was it, and why was it important?

It seems that the key point lies in Tolkien’s wholehearted rejection of modernity and modernism. This is what so powerfully _________ some readers, and just as powerfully drives away others. In his book J.R.R.Tolkien: Author of the Century, T.A. Shippey expands on this idea by arguing that Tolkien saw his story of Middle-earth not as fiction or invention, but as the _________ of something genuine that had become buried beneath the fairy tale and nursery rhythm.

“However fanciful Tolkien’s creation of Middle earth was,” Shippey writes, “he did not think that he was entirely _________. He was ‘reconstructing’, he was harmonizing conflicts in his source-texts, sometimes he was supplying entirely new concepts, but he was also reaching back to an imaginative world which he believed had once really _________, at least in a collective imagination.”

The book is also deeply grounded in Tolkien’s linguistic expertise （语言专长） —he _________ whole languages for his characters. Sometimes he became so absorbed in the creation of languages, in fact, that he _________ the story itself for months or years at a time, believing he could not continue until some inconsistency（不一致）in his invented world had been resolved. But Tolkien’s great intellect and knowledge is not the source of his ____________; without his storytelling gift, The Lord of the Rings would be little more than a curiosity. And this gift seems to originate straight from his ____________ to break from classical and traditional forms.

Tolkien himself often spoke of his work as something ‘found’ or ‘discovered’, something whose existence was ____________ of him. It’s wise to be careful with this sort of interpretation, but it seems ____________ that he believed his work to be something given, something revealed, which contained a kind of truth beyond measure. ____________, his details have the weight of reality, and because of this his great sweep of story feels real as well; you might say that his ____________ castles are built with a certain amount of genuine stone.

1.

A．books

B．critics

C．readers

D．ambitions

2.

A．dislike

B．challenge

C．review

D．prefer

3.

A．common

B．possible

C．missing

D．funny

4.

A．annoys

B．influences

C．attracts

D．concerns

5.

A．recovery

B．designing

C．analysis

D．questioning

6.

A．taking it down

B．making it up

C．turning it down

D．looking it up

7.

A．remained

B．struck

C．moved

D．existed

8.

A．spoke

B．invented

C．neglected

D．recalled

9.

A．put aside

B．set up

C．look into

D．get along

10.

A．style

B．tension

C．success

D．tradition

11.

A．decision

B．request

C．struggle

D．refusal

12.

A．representative

B．independent

C．conscious

D．thoughtful

13.

A．clear

B．weird

C．unfair

D．pitiful

14.

A．As a result

B．On the contrary

C．Even so

D．What’s worse

15.

A．ancient

B．broken

C．imaginary

D．foreign

2 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Breaking up is hard to do but men’s hearts hurt most

When it comes to break-ups, men suffer more emotional pain than women, a study has found. The first-of-its-kind analysis used online relationships to map the most common problems experienced by couples who told their stories outside the therapist’s office.

A team of researchers at Lancaster University helped to produce the report. Charlotte Entwistle, the lead author, said: “Most of what we know comes from studies of people in couples therapy: a specific set of people. We wanted to understand not only what relationship problems are most commonly experienced by the public, but who experiences by the public, but who experiences which problems more.”

To bridge the gap the team analysed the characteristics of more than 184,000 people who had posted their problems to an anonymous online forum, and they created a “map” of the most common issues.

Communication was the most frequent, cited by nearly one in five people, while one in eight reported that trust was a struggle. The outcomes came as no surprise but the team was taken aback at the obvious gender differences. The theme that kept cropping up was the “heartache” felt, and the team recorded specific words such as “regret”, “break up”, “cry”, and “heart-broken”.

Contrary to expectation, men talked about heartbreak significantly more than women. The findings suggest that the stereotype of men being less emotionally invested in relationships may be inaccurate.

The researchers also found that men were more likely to seek online professional help. Dr Ryan Boyd, the lead researcher, said: “When you remove the traditional social stigmas against men for seeking help and sharing their emotions, they seem just as invested in working through rough patches in their relationships as women.”

The researchers hope that an accurate picture of relationship problems could help couples avoid common setbacks. Boyd said: “This gives us serious hope that we can use help-seeking behavior to better understand all types of social and psychological issues.”

The study was published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

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3 . China's digital economy is expected to provide a strong boost to global economic recovery, but more efforts should be made to bridge the digital divide and promote data flow, said industry experts and top company officials on Friday.

“China’s digital economy, which is indeed in the fast lane, has become a new growth driver of the country’s economic growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It has and will play an important role in driving economic recovery globally,” said Gong Ke, president of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations and executive director of the Chinese Institute for the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development strategies.

“While data is an important factor of digital economy, more effort should be made to bridge the digital divide to benefit more user groups. To be specific, we need to improve infrastructure (基础设施) construction and the sharing of computing power from leading companies to smaller ones,” Gong said.

He made the remarks at a sub-forum of the fourth Hongqiao International Economic Forum during the ongoing China International Import Expo in Shanghai.

Liu Jun, president of Bank of Communications, said that a winner-takes-all phenomenon is happening during the development of the platform-based economy because the country’s digital economy has developed at an unparalleled speed with insufficient supervision over the past decade.

“Therefore, it is necessary to break down the existing information barriers to promote the free flow of data. The value of data cannot be maximized if a certain company uses it exclusively. Data from various departments, fields and industries must be fully combined and correlated,” Liu said.

China’s digital economy reached $5.4 trillion last year in terms of market size, which grew 9.6 percent year-on-year, the fastest worldwide, said the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology a government think tank.

Such rapid development of the digital economy has attracted companies from abroad to participate. They are also expected to explore more new opportunities in the Chinese market.

To embrace the trend, Omron Healthcare said it will leverage its technological competence to develop more digital innovations for the Chinese market.

The Japanese industrial automation giant displayed a series of digitalized products, including smart healthcare management terminals and glucose (葡萄糖) meters at the ongoing expo.

“The rapid growth of Chinas trade, including digital trade, has produced a strong spillover effect for the world and it will enable China’s economy to maintain a long-term positive trend and thus make a contribution to global economic growth, said Zhao Yao, general manager of Omron Healthcare China.

The CAICT report also pointed out that China and the United States are leading global development of the digital economy. The two economies also ranked first and second in terms of the market size of digital economy last year.

1. According to what Gong Ke said we may learn that ________.

A．China’s digital economy takes full advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

B．Global economic recovery will benefit from China’s digital economy the most.

C．Despite covid-19 China 's digital economy pushes global economic growth ahead.

D．Improving infrastructure construction will benefit Chinese people more from the growth.

2. What can be done to break down the barriers on the way to a further development in digital economy?

A．All tech companies should be put under stricter supervision.

B．It is necessary to stop the free flow of data, which is the existing information barrier.

C．To maximize the value of data tends to be applied exclusively.

D．Sharing and free flow of data should be guaranteed through efficient supervision.

3. What does the underlined word “leverage” mean?

A．discover

B．employ

C．improve

D．study

4. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．China’s digital economy is now enhancing the world’s economic growth.

B．Nothing can block China’s digital economy development but over strict supervision.

C．Breaking information barriers with supervision can further China’s digital economy healthily.

D．China’s fast development in digital economy attracts more international investments.

4 . The Thai government intends to further deepen its digital cooperation with Chinese technology company Huawei, senior Thai officials said at a cloud event held in Bangkok this week.

During the Powering Digital Thailand 2022 on Nov 17-19, Thai deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said digital infrastructure (基础设施), such as5G, is crucial to Thailand’s _________ and social development, especially for the country’s post-pandemic economic _________.

Badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism-reliant nation registered an economic reduction of 6.1 percent last year, the worst in more than 20 years. However, the pandemic has significantly speeded the _________ of digital technologies in Thailand, where Chinese tech companies have _________ advantages.

During the pandemic, Huawei used its technology to help local hospitals implement systems for automated medical supply, AI-backed _________ and remote treatment, which greatly improved the _________ of hospitals and made healthcare more _________.

Fueled by Thailand’s digital roadmap, Huawei has focused on helping the country build 20,000 5G stations in the past two years. _________, Thailand has more than 4.2 million 5G subscribers leading in 5G adoption among ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries.

Another strength of Huawei has been its cloud capabilities. Deng Feng, general manager of Huawei Thailand, said Huawei Cloud is the only cloud service _________ with local data centers in Thailand, considering that data localization is a key trend of global enterprises due to government regulations as well as security concerns.

He emphasized the Huawei will support Thailand’s low-carbon and digital development in the future in four areas, including expanding 5G coverage and usage, providing cloud services, creating low-carbon development with digital energy, and __________ industry talents.

Thai Minister of Digital Economy and Society Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn expressed his hopes for __________ cooperation between the Thai government and Huawei to __________ the country’s digital economy, which is targeted to __________ 30 percent of the GDP by 2030.

According to a joint report released by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company earlier this month Thailand’s digital economy is expected to __________ $30 billion this year, up 51 percent, making it the second-largest market in Southeast Asia after Indonesia.

Huawei’s Rotating Chairman Guo Ping said the company will continue __________ and building a tech ecosystem to facilitate faster digitalization in Asia-Pacific, and invest $100 million over the next three years to build a startup ecosystem in the region.

1.

A．economic

B．educational

C．national

D．industrial

2.

A．crisis

B．concerns

C．tendency

D．recovery

3.

A．appreciation

B．adoption

C．industrialization

D．significance

4.

A．negative

B．instructive

C．competitive

D．conclusive

5.

A．discovery

B．interview

C．regulation

D．diagnosis

6.

A．efficiency

B．localization

C．construction

D．symbolization

7.

A．sensible

B．accessible

C．feasible

D．remarkable

8.

A．Irrelevant

B．Currently

C．Respectively

D．Fundamentally

9.

A．instructor

B．indicator

C．provider

D．adopter

10.

A．discovering

B．investing

C．cultivating

D．distinguishing

11.

A．routine

B．revolutionary

C．reasonable

D．comprehensive

12.

A．facilitate

B．propose

C．integrate

D．emphasize

13.

A．appeal to

B．account for

C．add up

D．strive to

14.

A．sacrifice

B．invest

C．receive

D．exceed

15.

A．innovating

B．qualifying

C．purchasing

D．postponing

5 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.

A．How to book a movie ticket.	B．Whom to see a movie with.
C．Whether to see a movie.	D．Where to see a movie.

2.

A．It has been widely criticized.	B．It has received good comments.
C．It has a totally different style.	D．It has been reviewed many times.

3.

A．It creates better atmosphere.	B．He likes the company of strangers.
C．It is much more relaxing.	D．He dislikes Marvel’s old movies.

4.

A．She felt very tired.	B．She tried to avoid the tall guy.
C．She needed some sleep	D．She’d like to see the tiny details.

6 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.

A．The importance of bees to agriculture.

B．The factors in causing the decline of bees.

C．The reasons for choosing a day for bees.

D．The ways to increase the diversity of bees.

2.

A．The change in their food forms.	B．The disappearance of their homes.
C．The loss of some plants.	D．The poor harvest in agriculture.

3.

A．Raising awareness of protecting bees.	B．Keeping more people away from bees.
C．Inspiring more art works about bees.	D．Encouraging professors to keep bees.

7 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. division B. submits C. range D. Naturally E. suppliers F. unopposed G. commercial H. potential I. dominated J. Therefore   K. head

When Yoshino akira, a Japanese chemist, worked on rechargeable batteries in the 1980s, it was with a view to powering portable devices. His Nobel prize-winning research led to the first     1     lithiumion (Lion) battery. These now power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles (EVS). But the Japanese firms that, building on Mr Yoshino's work,     2     the Lion business early on have lost their edge. CATL, China's battery giant, and the energy arm of LG, a South Korean group, have surpassed Japan's Panasonic as the world's largest     3     of EV batteries. Others are catching up in the production of materials and components.

Japanese battery-makers want to regain their rightful place at the     4     of the pack. To do so they are betting on solid-sate batteries. These still shuttle lithiunions between the anode (阳极) and the cathode (阴极) to charge and discharge, but the electrolyze (电解液) where this shutting happens is solid not liquid. That makes the batteries more stable and potentially more powerful. It also avoids the need for bulky cooling systems, required for fast-charging Lion systems. Cars equipped with solid-state batteries could be lighter, which increases     5    .

Japan     6     more battery-tech patents a year than any other country; second ranked South Korea files half as many. Japanese firms and inventors accounted for more than one in two solid-state-related patents between 2014 and 2018. More are coming. Industrial and chemicals firms, of which Japan has plenty, are preparing for the materials needed to bring the technology to market.

Murata, a big manufacturer which bought Sony's battery     7     in 2017, plans to begin mass-producing smaller solid-state batteries this autumn. Nakajima Norio, Murata's boss, sees "lots of     8     in wearables", since the batteries do not bum or get hot (which is hwy they are already used in things like pacemakers). Honda and Nissan, two other carmakers, are also eyeing the technology.

    9    , if making solid-state batteries were easy, manufacturers would be mass-producing them. It isn't. Water stains the materials, so factories must be kept ultra-day. Mitsui Kinzoku, an engineering firm, has been testing mass production of solid electrolytes and found that it is "indeed a very difficult process", in the words of Takahashi Tsukass, who is involved in the project.

Even if they can get the technology right, Japanese firms are not running     10    , as they had seen in Liion's early days. Most big carmakers, including Ford, Hyundai and Volkswagen, have solid-state cars in the works. They may want to make the batteries themselves. That's some solid competition.

8 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. invisible             B. regularly            C. contributes             D. mercy         E. moderately          F. trapped               G. amateurs               H. remaining    I. decline                 J. comparable          K. bragging

The sale of The Washington Post to Jeff Bezos is just the most recent episode in the decline and fall of professional journalism. By selling out to a mega-billionaire without any newspaper experience, the Graham family has put a priceless national asset at the     1     of a single outsider. Perhaps Jeff Bezos will use his new plaything responsibly; perhaps not; if not, one of the few     2     sources of serious journalism will be lost.

The crisis in the English-speaking world will turn into a disaster in smaller language zones. The English-speaking market is so large that advertisers will pay a lot to gain access to the tens of millions of readers who     3     click onto The New York Times or The Guardian. But the Portuguese-reading public is far too small to support serious journalism on the Internet. What happens to Portuguese democracy when nobody is willing to pay for old-fashioned newspapers?

The blogosphere can’t be expected to take up the     4     of serious journalism. First-class reporting on national and international affairs isn’t for     5    . it requires lots of training and lots of contacts and lots of expenses. It also requires reporters with the well-trained capacity to write for a broad audience. The modern newspaper created the right incentives, but without a(an)     6     business model for the new technology, blogging will degenerate into a postmodern nightmare — with millions     7     without any concern for the facts.

We can’t afford to wait for the     8     hand to come up with a new way to provide economic support for serious journalism. To be sure, the financial press has proved     9     successful in persuading readers to pay for online access; and mainstream media are now trying to imitate this success. Each news article on the web will end by asking readers whether it     10     to their political understanding. If so, they can click the yes-box, and send the message to a National Endowment for Journalism — which would obtain an annual appropriation from the government. This way, serious journalism will succeed in gaining mass support.

9 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank. Write your answers on the answer sheet.

John, an ESL tutor of a community college, moved to New York City with all the members of his family. John is a remarkable teacher, so     1     (be) his students for several years, we all missed him very much since he left. It was not long     2     John came back to North Carolina to handle some rounding-off (结束) affairs, ESL teachers and we students held a small party for him.

At the party,     3    people walked around and talked with each other cheerfully, I certainly would not lightly give up that good opportunity to learn English. Then I tried to think of all sorts of topics to converse with Monica, another ESL teacher.

Just before I was about     4     (run) out of my topics of conversation when I heard John said to others loudly, “I dig New York!” I immediately asked Monica seriously, “Is it really difficult to find a job in New York? Why does John, such     5     outstanding ESL teacher, have to do laborious work?”

Looking puzzled, Monica asked, “Why do you have such a feeling?”

“Haven’t you heard him say that he     6     (dig) New York? Is he building a tunnel?” I replied. When she finally understood     7     I said, Monica laughed so hard as to narrowly escape spewing (喷出) her food in her mouth. Wearing a broad smile, she gestured to us to stop talking, and then asked us, the ESL students,     8     we knew the meaning of “I dig New York.” All of us shook our heads and said no. Monica then requested John to explain it to us.

    9     turns out that, in American slang, “I dig New York” means, “I love New York.” Though few people say like that nowadays, we can still find it     10     (use) in literary works.

10 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Seniority in Promotion Is Not a Wise Business Practice

It's not always an easy decision for companies when it comes to filling managerial spots. In the past promoting an employee has been popularly handled by means of basic analysis of the employees' past performance nod seniority, In some cases, the individual's performance has been considered more important while in others the amount of time they have been with the company has been the deciding factor. Nevertheless, seniority is a standard that has never been left out, However, in the contemporary business world, the importance of seniority in promotion is being destroyed as a growing number of companies look outside of their organizations when trying to fill top managerial spots.

Unlike experienced employees who have been with the company for a long time, new people are mare likely generate creative ideas. In rapidly changing markets, innovative and creative talents are sought by many companies in order to adapt to the market. To meet their needs, companies have more to gain by selecting outside employees since they are more willing to try new techniques and less afraid of breaking tradition when introducing new ideas. Thus, rather than promoting existing employees, it might be a wiser management decision to bring in outside talent.

An additional advantage to this new system is that it prevents employees from feeling that they only need to wait for their seniority to provide them with a promotion. Simply put no matter how long they have been with the company, employees have to contribute diligently to the organization if they want to move up the career ladder, As soon as people realize that the company could just as easily bring in a new person, employees will stop judging themselves against each other because they are no longer competing against their colleagues but everyone in the entire industry. As a result, they will begin to show more effort to bring the level of their work up to what they imagine is a much higher standard.

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