2 . Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passages 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.

Smart TV channels a sense of frustration

The phenomenon of watching less or not watching TV has mirrored a plunge in traditional TV sales in recent years.

“I haven’t watched TV at home for almost five years.” The same sentiment is a true portrayal of many Gen-Zers today. In the past when entertainment options     1     (limit), TV dominated. Nowadays, computers, mobile phones and tablets, all of     2     offer more content, have overtaken TV in the viewing stakes.

“Watching     3     (much) or not watching TV is the inevitable result of the diversification of entertainment for young people. The programs offered by the major TV stations is increasingly unable to meet the needs of young people, and a few minutes of advertisements are added at every turn,     4     (make) it difficult to compete with mobile phones and tablets,” says Li Dadi at Haige Business Watch, a public WeChat account     5     (dedicate) to business analysis.

The phenomenon mirrors a plunge in traditional TV sales in recent years. A report by All View Cloud, a data analysis company, says that domestic TV sales in 2020 were 44.5 million units, down 9.1 percent year-on-year; and sales revenue was 120.9 billion yuan ($19.1 billion), down 11.7 percent.

However, not watching traditional TV does not mean     6     (not use) the actual set. The current development of smart TV is not just a tool for watching programs on the box. The three major video content providers, Tencent Video, iQiyi and Youku, have all launched TV applications. People     7     also cast the content of their mobile phones onto the TV at any time. Leaning on the sofa and watching a 55-inch big screen is still much more comfortable than lying on the bed with a 6.1-inch mobile phone.

However, compared with the rapid development and profit growth of internet smart TV, complaints about a decline in service experience have come to light.

A woman’s complaint over her newly bought TV set has echoed across Chinese social media recently. In her video, posted on Douyin, she says most people watching TV now are elders, and a TV cannot be turned on     8     two remote controls at least. After she finally turned it on, advertisements popped up and lasted for more than 10 seconds. The various charging apps, all required to be purchased to allow for viewing,     9     (make) the experience worse. Without a VIP membership, there came another 70-second advertisement     10     she could finally watch a proper TV series. “I miss the simple TV set of my childhood,” she said.

3 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fil 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.

People regularly engage in “presenteeism”—going to work while ill. It’s the opposite of absenteeism.

On the face of it, being sick at work might sound like     1     employers might favor, with some work preferable to none at all. Besides, such employees display a strong ethic, job dedication and loyalty. But research generally finds health consequences for present-but-ill employees, with higher medical costs and greater reductions in productivity than absenteeism would cause.

Employees who recover at home are     2    (productive) than persistently ill employees struggling at work     3    (meet) job demands, research shows.

“Organizations need to think about this, develop policies and get first-level managers     4    (involve) who are closest to the probably sick employees,” said Gary Johns, a professor at Concordia University in Montreal. He’s reviewed the academic literature addressing corporate and employee impacts     5     presenteeism.

“Giving employees accommodation and support can be good all the way around,” he said, “They are under so much pressure to go to work     6     they are polluting the place or are affecting their own health downstream. But this needs     7    (manage) so you do not burn people out physically and abuse them and create problems. It takes a sensitive hand.” he said.

Ill employees make more mistakes, communicate less effectively and produce lower quality work. Presenteeism among pharmacists, one study found,     8    (result) in more prescription errors. Nevertheless,     9     practising absenteeism, medical workers tend to be on the job, even with contagious illnesses.

Job insecurity, strict attendance policies, teamwork, demanding clients and     10     positive attendance culture are among the factors promoting presenteeism. That, in turn can worsen existing medical conditions, damage the quality of life and lead to impressions of ineffectiveness because of declines in productivity.

4 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fil 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.

Have you ridden an electric bike? If not, you should probably stop reading this article and go find one. Hire one on the street. Borrow your neighbour’s. Steal one if you     1    . Sitting on the saddle, with the help of the motor, you will magically become half as old and twice as fit. You will feel like Lance Armstrong in his prime after an appointment with his doctor. And this,     2     it turns out, is all about the bike.

Electric cars get the hype, but in 2021, e-bikes far outsold them in the US and nearly matched battery vehicles in the UK. They democratise cycling,     3     (convert) those who don’t want to arrive at their destination sweaty and exhausted. On an e-bike, hills are no problem. You can carry a couple of kids as passengers and transport 150kg of cargo. Under UK law, the motor cuts out above 15.5mph, but you can still make short trips with ease.

E-bikes have reinvented the wheel, in a helpful way. They break the dynamic of cyclists versus other road users,     4     nearly everyone can now be a cyclist. I     5     (convince) the main reason more people don’t ride e-bikes is that they don’t know about them. A mile on     6     produces fewer carbon emissions than the food required to cycle a mile on a pedal bike.

But it’s not all good news. The London Fire Brigade has been called to an e-bike or e-scooter fire on average every two days this year. Tragically, in January, a 21-year-old woman became the first person     7     (die) in an e-bike fire in London.

The rise of rental e-bikes has also annoyed pedestrians, who find them     8     (discard) on pavements like giant cigarette butts, obstructing buggies(童车) and wheelchairs. Also, the sector has even been problematic for investors. VanMoof a Dutch company     9     chic e-bikes were popular in the pandemic—went bankrupt this week,     10     having proclaimed itself “the most funded e-bike company in the world” when it raised $128m in 2021.

5 . 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.

Duolingo: Millions Aspire to be Multilingual

Follow the money, follow the language app. In 2009, Luis Ahn and his postgraduate student Severin Hacker launched Duolingo, a free app with an annoying green owl as its mascot (吉祥物). Although its unique selling point is a childish competitiveness, with league tables, elaborate boxes spilling cartoon jewels, and a high TikTok profile, it     1    (soar) ahead of its competitors ever since.

Duolingo now teaches more than 40 languages to more than 70 million students, 54%       2     are aged between 18 and 34. It has a paid-for version for those who want to avoid advertisements.     3     it has yet to turn a profit, in 2019 Forbes Magazine counted it among the 25 next billion-dollar startups. In February this year alone, it     4    (register) more than 13 million new downloads.

It is an early adopter of the advanced artificial intelligence model GPT-4, its offerings     5    (include) look-at-me gimmicks such as courses in Star Trek’s Klingon, but also minority languages such as Xhosa and Navajo. The length it takes    6    (complete) a course varies. However, the 216 units currently available in Spanish — its    7    (popular) language, with more than 30 million learners — would take several years of a 15-minute-a-day habit.

While few actually complete a course, Duolingo, like its many competitors, shows that there is an aspiration to be multilingual. Earnest academic papers have been written about how much these learners benefit.     8    demonstrate that it is a useful aid in classroom teaching, while others point out that it will never enable anyone to conduct a complex conversation about astrophysics, or get beyond the earliest stages of fluency.

Both are right. Languages are social constructs that exist to enable communication between people. While apps cannot replace interpersonal conversation or immersion in a culture, they    9     supplement it. Their success should serve as a wake-up call: a reminder    10     foreign languages have a valuable role to play in any fit-for-purpose education system, as much for personal enrichment as for career advantage in a networked world.

6 . 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.

Talking With — Not Just to — Kids Powers How They Learn Language

Children from the poorer families begin life not only with material disadvantages but cognitive ones. Research for decades    1     (confirm) this, including a famous 1995 finding by psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley: By age four children raised in poverty have heard 30 million fewer words, on average, than their peers from wealthier families. That gap has been linked to shakier language skills at the start of school,     2    , in turn, predicts weaker academic performance.

But just the quantity of words a child hears is not the most significant influence on language acquisition. Growing evidence has led researchers     3     (conclude) quality matters more than quantity, and the most valuable quality seems to be back-and-forth communication — what researchers call conversational turns.

A paper     4     (publish) last week in Psychological Science brings a new kind of support to this idea, offering the first evidence that these exchanges play a vital role in the development of Broca’s area, the brain region most closely associated with     5    (produce) speech. Further, the amount of conversational turns a child experiences daily outweighs socioeconomic status in predicting both the activity in Broca’s area and the child’s language skills.

The researchers confirmed the classic 1995 finding that, overall, kids from wealthier families hear more words. And small     6     their sample was, they even confirmed the 30-million-word gap between the poorest and richest children. But they found that “by far     7     (big) driver for brain development was not the number of words spoken but the conversations,” Gabrieli says.

The researchers calculated that a child’s verbal ability score increased     8     one point for every additional 11 conversational exchanges per hour.

The study is a “very, very important” addition to a growing body of work, says developmental psychologist Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, director of the Infant Language Laboratory at Temple University. “We have known for quite a while that conversational turns — or     9     in my work we call conversational duets — are very important for building a foundation for language and maybe for learning generally. What remains to be done is to link it     10     we know it has to be linked.”

7 . 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.

Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II has announced her surprise abdication in a new year TV address. She will formally step down on 14 January, which will be 52 years to the day     1     she became queen. “I will leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik,” she announced.

Unlike British royal tradition, there will be no formal crowning ceremony for Crown Prince Frederik,     2     is 55. Instead, his accession will be announced from Amalienborg Castle in Copenhagen on the day. He will take her place as King of Denmark and head of state in the country — which is a constitutional monarchy --       3     in Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Queen Margrethe revealed that she came to the decision after a period of reflection     4     (follow) surgery on her back in early 2023. “The surgery naturally gave rise to thinking about     5     the time had come to leave the responsibility to the next generation,” she said.

“Although the duty and position of regent     6     (hand) down for more than 1,000 years, it is still difficult to understand that the time has now come for a change of throne,” she said in a statement. Queen Margrethe is a popular figure in Denmark, and many Danes had expected her to remain on the throne until her death. “She is to us     7     Queen Elizabeth was to you,” Danish journalist Tine Gotzsche told the BBC.

Queen Margrethe attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, and they celebrated their respective jubilees in the same year. She had not been expected to become Queen when she was born. But when she was 13, Danish law changed to allow women     8     (take) the throne. More than a decade ago, Queen Margrethe reflected that she was inspired by the late British Queen “that I understand that I must dedicate my life to my nation like she has done, and in that way she has been very important to me.”

Queen Margrethe is     9     (long)-serving monarch in Danish history, after surpassing King Christian IV, of Denmark and Norway. Gotzsche said the Danish royal transition is a moment of     10     (mix) celebration and sadness. “She has always been there, she has been ageing with all of us,” she said, but added: “the Crown Prince is in a very good position to take over, the succession is laid out — it’s very logical, and it absolutely makes sense.”

8 . 语法填空

007 in the Kitchen

As a man who cheerfully sing in the shower without any embarrassment, I won’t feel shameful to admit that I also love playing loud music when cooking in the kitchen. But     1     might make things a tiny little bit awkward is the type of music I play, and consequently the feelings I derive (获得) from it.

One of     2     all-time favourites is the James Bond Theme. Immersed (沉浸) in the tension it creates while chopping veggies into small pieces, I always find it impossible     3     (not picture) myself as a well-trained special agent with license to kill. And all of a sudden moving to the music without missing     4     beat seems to have a lot to do with national security.

As the music plays, the killer instinct in my blood is unleashed (被释放), which makes     5     (fry) a piece of bloody steak as easy as taking candy from a diabetic (糖尿病的)man who no longer wishes to eat candy. All I need to do is to act promptly without mercy.

However, there will be other times when the success of the whole mission counts on whether I    6     remove the bones from the fish. Believe it or not, the complexity of this process is no     7     (great) than that of defusing (拆除)a time bomb. So in this scenario,     8     giving in to the music easily, I must constantly and consciously control myself so as not to be carried away. After all, a fish-bone     9     (catch) in the throat is as uncomfortable as it can be.

Of course, in the end,     10     impossible the mission seems, like the plot of every Hollywood spy movie, the cook can always save the day.

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.

A place where young people can shine

Kindergarten Without Walls is a unique concept different from the traditional model of education.     1     (house) in a small general store, this unconventional “kindergarten” opens its doors for free to mainly migrant children and children in difficulty. It     2     (offer) a range of activities — from singing and dancing to painting, watching movies, reading books, and playing games — since 2018. The Kindergarten Without Walls sounds like the ultimate dream for any child.

The kindergarten is funded by its founder Tang Haoduo,who aims to create a supportive and caring community for children in the neighborhood. And the volunteers come from different walks of life.     3     the weather is, they will step in as teachers on time, offering their time and expertise to the children. Tang, an art teacher at a public junior high school,     4     (involve) in social art practice for 5 years by the end of this November. His vision gives migrant children a chance to express and enjoy     5    . As an artist, his dream was to establish a space that is not just a short-term endeavor, but a long-term commitment to     6     (build) a community of artistic expression and cooperation.

Zhu, an art practice researcher, notes that the starting point of this Kindergarten is humble and down-to-earth. “Tang is an ordinary person     7     neighborhood, where the kindergarten is located, is not different from his own life,” she says. Zhou believes healing from personal trauma (创伤) is a joint effort requiring the support and involvement of a compassionate community     8     a lonely journey. “The     9     (good) part of Tang’s project lies in the authentic growth of the relationships between the children, families, neighbors, and broader community. It is the spontaneous, beautiful things in people and the community     10     grow naturally, given an opportunity”, she says.

10 . 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

Print journalism Cannot Fade Away

Close your eyes and think back to the last time you picked up a physical (实体的) copy of a print publication. Maybe it was at the newspaper stand at the airport. Maybe it was at a relative’s house or a hair salon.

    1     this may seem old-fashioned to some, I have always enjoyed waking up in the morning to read the newspaper. Even as a child, I would search for The Washington Post to read the daily edition of Kids Post while I     2     (eat) breakfast. It is hard for me     3     (watch) print journalism fade away as digital platforms become most people’s primary source of news.

Since the introduction of the Internet in the early 1990s, society     4     (find) other ways to display news and information. The Internet is everywhere, from phones to laptops. This makes accessing news much     5     (easy), because it is at one’s fingertips at all times. The spreading of news began to change from solely print journalism to digital outlets (途径). Anyone can post online. Users can easily edit pages from websites such as Wikipedia or post publicly     6     social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook. Digital media     7     make news more readily available, but it raises questions about the most important rule of journalism: accuracy.

Readers may get tired of the constant spread of misinformation (虚假消息) over time. This attitude works in favor of print journalism, which is an effort     8     deserves to be appreciated. Every day, as the public opens the fresh pages of their favorite publication, it is important to stop and think about     9     dedication (奉献) goes into creating that body of work. Behind the scenes of every publication is a team of journalists working tirelessly to keep the public     10     (inform) of current events.

While print journalism is currently in this state of continuous change, the future of its existence lies within the hands of the public. As long as readers continue to value accuracy and journalists stick to this rule, print journalism does not have to fade away.