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

A. emerge          B. absorbing            C. subject          D. defining          E. movement F. originally       G. course            H. universally        I. happens        J. constant       K. corresponds

How Long Is a Second?

The length of a second depends on how you’re measuring it. There are 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute — so surely a second is 1/86400, of a day, right? Well, it turns out that     1     time isn’t that simple.

“The second was     2     based on the length of the day,” Peter Whibberley, a senior scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in the U.K., told Live Science. “People observed the sun passing overhead and started measuring its     3     using sundials (日晷). However, sundials have a few disadvantages. Aside from the obvious problem of not being able to read a sundial when the sun isn’t visible, relying on Earth’s daily turning is surprisingly inaccurate. “The turning is not precisely     4    ,” Whibberley said. “The Earth speeds up and slows down over time.” So how can we precisely measure time if using the length of a day is so unreliable?

In the 16^th century, people turned to technological solutions to this problem, and the first recognizable mechanical clocks began to     5    . The earliest mechanical clocks, which were designed to click at a specific frequency, averaged over the     6     of a year.

By around 1940, quartz crystal clocks (石英钟) had become the new gold standard. However, problems arose, and this was where atomic clocks came in. “Atoms exist only in particular energy states and can only change from one state to another by     7     or giving out a fixed amount of energy,” Whibberley explained. “That energy     8     to a precise frequency, so you can use that frequency as a reference for time keeping.” The astronomical second continued to vary. Every few years, scientists must add a second to allow Earth’s slowing turning to keep up with atomic time.

In fact, scientists are discussing whether it’s time to redefine the second again. But while several important questions still need to be answered before this     9    , it’s clear that the strictly correct definition of a second is     10     to change.

2 . 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. engage   B. assess   C.   combination   D. intentions   E. refresh   F. understanding   G.   relaxed   H. consciously   I. return   J. threatens   K. regretfully

“Dealing with money is a basic life skill”

Why financial transactions are about relationships and why the

quality of the relationship is more important than the transaction itself.

British psychologist, William Bloom, has long argued that society would benefit if money flowed more freely-if, for example, people regularly give part of their salaries or profits to charity.

When you say, “Money should flow more freely,” what do you mean?

“There are two metaphors that I like to use for money. One is the energy of the environment and human nature. Money represents a(n)     1     of these energies; it’s a materialized form of energy. The other metaphor is water. If you look at water, it can be still and polluted or, once the dams are opened, it has the ability to     2     itself. Healthy energy flows in the way rich people should allow their money to flow. If they are good, they will know how to give.”

Money still isn’t flowing freely.

A lot of it is dammed up in banks and in the hands of a small percentage of extremely wealthy individuals. “We have to build a society in which we are not threatened by each other. The gap between the rich and the poor     3     social connection and harmony. The Baby Boomers (婴儿潮一代) are too comfortable for too long. Now they have to ask themselves what their politics are, because life is political. This is the time for all of us to     4     politically.”

How can we deal with money in a healthier way?

“When it comes to money, there is a lot of naiveté. Children need to be taught in school that dealing with money is a basic life skill. They need to be able to read a bank statement in a(n)     5     way. When a transaction takes place, this means     6     pausing to say, ‘This exchange affects me in this and this way.’ We are often in too much of a hurry to realize that. We also forget that transactions are first and foremost about relationships. The quality of that relationship is more important than the transaction itself. That’s why Bedouins (游牧民族贝都因人)   always share a cup of tea when they do business together. They understand the need to     7     their relationship with others.”

Another form of flow is giving. Can that be a kind of spiritual practice?

“Humans are paradoxical beings. It is possible to have pure     8     and to get satisfaction as a by-product from your actions. There is the classic idea that giving away money brings a sense of safety and satisfaction. And it does. Being alive in this universe comes from the     9     that you’re part of a flow in the universe. People think highly of altruism (舍己为人), giving away money to someone who cannot see you. Donating money to charity is not just about the material effect but it also allows you to pay attention to what causes you’re supporting. It’s healthy to give without thinking of the material     10    . Money is neutral, like language. It’s all about the way in which it is used.”

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

A. backfire B. compensate          C. extend   D. impressive       E. meaningful F. measure G. needle   H. overall   I. perceive J. punishment   K. typically

Why You Shouldn’t Exercise to Lose Weight

Many of us are lacing up our sneakers and starting (or restarting) exercise regimens (练身计划) in hopes of shedding unwanted pounds. Unquestionably, aiming to be more active is good. But if the main reason is to lose weight, your New Year’s resolution could very well     1    .

For starters, exercise — at least the kind most of us do — is     2     ineffective for weight loss. Take walking, for example. A 150-pound person who walks briskly for 30 minutes will burn, on average, around 140 calories. That’s equal to one can of soda — not exactly a great return on your investment of time and effort. It’s much easier just to skip the soda.

Studies     3     show that doing moderate-intensity aerobic exercise such as walking for 30 minutes a day, five days a week — the amount recommended for good health — typically produces little or no weight loss by itself.

When moderate exercise is added to diet, the results are equally not     4    . Pooling data from six trials, researchers found that a combination of diet and exercise generated no greater weight loss than diet alone after six months.

In studies where exercise has produced     5     weight loss, participants burned at least 400 to 500 calories per session on five or more days a week. To achieve that, sessions need to go well beyond what most of us are willing or able to do. And even if we manage to exert that much effort, our bodies often     6     by boosting appetite and dialing down metabolism, effects that over time limit how many pounds we shed.

Perhaps the biggest problem with exercising to drop pounds is that it turns physical activity into     7    . How many times have you heard someone say (or said yourself) “I’ll need to do extra exercise” after eating too much during the holidays or at a celebratory dinner?

The point is that we’re more likely to     8     exercise positively and actually do it when we focus on our well-being rather than our weight. The incentive may be an improved mood or less stress. Others may find that exercise makes them feel physically and mentally stronger.

Of course, the benefits of physical activity     9     well beyond these. It’s been shown to reduce the risk of multiple diseases. It can also improve sleep and boost energy.

By all means, striving to exercise regularly in the new year is perhaps the most important thing you can do for your health. But to improve the odds of success, focus on how movement helps you feel better physically and emotionally — and forget about how it moves the     10     on the scale.

4 . 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. contrast   B. instructed   C. concentrating   D. potential   E. touching   F. played G. better   H. specialized   I. spot   J. follow   K. tracing

Unfamiliar Music May Help People Chat at Parties

If you want your guests to be particularly sociable at an upcoming party, make sure you play music they probably haven’t heard before.

To explore how background music affects the way we     1     conversations, researchers Jane Brown and Gavin Bidelman conducted a study analyzing the brain activity of 31 individuals aged21 and 33. During the experiment, participants listened to 72 minutes of an audiobook (有声读物), which the pair used as a replacement for     2     on someone talking, while background music was accompanied by the audiobook for most of the time.

For half of the experiment, the participants were asked to focus on2-minute parts of an unfamiliar audiobook read by a man. The rest of the time, they were told to focus on four background songs, which were similarly     3     for2 minutes at a time. This     4     in voices aimed to assess participants’ ability to shift attention between two distinctly different voices.

During the experiment, all the participants wore     5     caps to monitor the electrical activity taking place in their brains. This     6     of electrical activity was the key. It allowed Brown and Bidelman to discover how efficiently these individuals could focus on either the audiobook or the music when     7     to do so. The finding revealed that the participants could     8     turn their attention to the audiobook if the background music was unfamiliar to them.

Following the task, the participants completed a music perception survey evaluating their musical skills, such as the capacity to     9     whether a pair of similar-sounding tunes are the same. Notably, those with lower musical scores demonstrated slower attentional shifts between songs and audiobooks, suggesting a(n)     10     link between musical ability and attention management skills.

5 . 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. estimates       B. lack       C. potential       D. crucial       E. transforms       F. rejected                   G. anxiety          H. unemployed        I. routine        J. impact        K. affects

Joblessness is far more than an economic misfortune. It can be psychological disaster for the     1     and their families. It can cause illness, divide families and create a downward spiral (螺旋式下降) of feelings of worthlessness and     2     of self-esteem. According to research done by M. Harvery Brenner, associate professor of health at Johns Hopkins University, every 1% increase in the unemployment rate     3     37,000 deaths over the next 6 years, including over 20,000 deaths from heart attacks, 900 suicides and nearly 500 deaths from cirrhosis of the liver (肝硬化). In addition, Brenner     4     that 7,500 unemployed or their families will be admitted to prison after committing a crime or to a mental hospital. “The     5     goes well beyond the individual who loses a job,” said Brenner. “Stress caused by economic factors     6     our national life at every level.” Men who have been socialized as the family breadwinner are especially hard hit by unemployment. They suffer greater depression and     7     and have a higher possibility of psychotic behavior than men who are employed. “Nine month on this seems to be a     8     point when hope and patience give out,” said a leading psychologist. “After that illness, suicide, alcoholism, divorce, and even crime grow at an epidemic (流行的) rate.” Left without a job, many workers feel they have nothing to look forward to. They miss their co-workers and the     9     of going to work. For many, the sense of hopelessness grows worse every time they are     10     for a new job. When this happens often enough, the rejection unemployed workers feel may be exacerbated (恶化) if some friends and neighbors avoid them as if they had a contagious disease (传染病).

6 . 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. pursuits        B. interests        C. comparable   D. innovation     E. schedule F. options        G. realization       H. routes        I. subjects        J. recipes       K. motivated

Creativity Is a Human Quality That Exists in Us

When you think about creativity, it might be highly creative people like Mozart, da Vinci or Einstein who spring to mind. They were all considered to be “ geniuses” for their somewhat in their fields. Their type of creativity is unique talents that led to global     1     what’s known as “Big C creativity” ( or historical) and is not very common in everyday life. Not all of us can create works of art or music or scientific theories that are new to the world.But while we can’t all be Mozart, da Vinci or Einstein, many people do enjoy creative activity--through hobbies such as water colour painting or playing the piano. And these types of are often what people think of when asked what being creative looks like.     2     are often wheat people think of when asked what being creative looks like. Our finished pieces may not be     3     with the likes of the great master, but often the process is therapeutic and the end result can be aesthetically pleasing.

On top of hobbies and     4    , we all posses creative attributes that can help as we solve life’s problems and make decisions. It is this type of creativity that enables us to plan different     5     to get to the same destination, or how to fit in a trip to the supermarket when our     6     looks full.

It might not sound very creative, but this aspect of creativity relies on our ability I consider     7     and assess their suitability, as well as how to make decisions based on personal prior experience or what we have learnt formally or informally. These examples are known as “ Small C creativity” or “personal everyday creativity”.

While Big C creativity is valued and celebrated, it is often Small C creativity that has allowed humans to flourish over thousands of years. It sets us apart from other animals and it is also the type of creativity which can be fostered through our education system and beyond into the workplace. Traditionally, research tells us that creativity has been largely associated with the arts. Our previous research has shown that teachers are often able to give examples of creative activity in arts     8    ,but find it harder to do so when asked to describe creativity in subjects such as science.

But there is a growing     9     that opportunities to be creative are found across a broader range of subjects. For instance, engineering provides opportunities to be creative through problem solving, and history gives the opportunity to think creatively about why events happened,and what     10     those involved.

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

A. digesting       B. distinction        C. examine       D. identical        E. intervening F. live             G. mixture            H. perspective     I. shock            J. space       K. texting

Communication — a thing of the past?

We all think we communicate all the time, and that’s true. There’s also non-verbal communication you could add into the mix — everything we’re saying when we’re not saying anything. But there’s a(n)     1     between saying things to people, or liking and sharing a post on social media, and communication. I’m quite well connected — there’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, email, iEverything, but sometimes communication starts to feel like a chore. Check this blog post, read that article someone shared,     2     back to someone else, and answer their questions… Sometimes I feel like a cross between Siri and a mad juggler. Nothing seems to go in and I’m always mixing people up — asking someone how their band is going when they can’t play an instrument or how the job search is going when someone’s just written to say how depressed they are that they can’t find a job.

So it was quite a(n)     3     to spend New Year in the Highlands in Scotland with no phone signal, no internet and no ‘communication’ at all, apart from with the people I was with. Suddenly all the pressure to communicate disappeared. All of our conversations became slower, more inverted and far more interesting. We were a group of 12, a(n)     4     of couples and friends, only one of whom I was at university with, so I was meeting a bunch of new people for the first time. Our conversations veered towards the banal and the humdrum in that we often discussed our plans for the day and what we were going to cook in the evening, but often they went a lot farther and a lot deeper. Tucked up on the leather sofas,     5     dinner, we dissected Brexit and one person even changed their     6     entirely! We shared ideas and theories, plots of books and plays and city trips we’d been on, described family troubles and gave advice, listened to work scenarios and offered pointers, and we had to talk and sketch and use words more than ever before, because you couldn’t say, ‘It’s a great film, you should google it later.’ Some of us even had sore throats from talking so much! In such a short     7     of time, due to the proximity of sharing interconnected cottages and verbal communication, I felt much closer to the new people I’d met and been speaking with than some other people I communicate with in my normal life.

I don’t think our common, current methods of communication come close to being in a small house with lots of people and having to communicate     8    . The brevity of Twitter, the showiness of Facebook, all these aspects contribute to a shallow form of communication that doesn’t challenge you to     9     your feelings and motives enough. ‘Liking’ something is an instant response but what does it really say about your opinion of something? It’s a(n)     10     response to millions of other people, whereas you and your thoughts are unique. If we’re not careful, perhaps we might forget how to communicate on a deeper lever.

9 . Directions: Complete the following passages 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. identically     B. beaten     C. lanes     D. curiously     E. changing     F. hit     G. cold     H. sample     I. rising     J. differently     K. friction

To see the country, road trips are the only way to go

I am not an enthusiastic air traveler. Bustling through airports, getting checked by security, and standing in lines leave me     1    . But road trips are different. While the transit time is longer, opportunities to get off the     2     path make it worthwhile. I see places and interact with people and cultures that I otherwise tend to miss, rediscovering how far you can go and how much you can experience without leaving the United States. So, when my son said he wanted to tour the Kansas State University campus after receiving an admission offer, we threw our luggage and a case of bottled water in the car and     3     the highway. One attraction of traveling at the speed of a car is the transitions. Arizona’s Meteor Crater, Two Guns, and Painted Desert give way to New Mexican villages, then farm towns. Red rocks become open plains where grain elevators are the only features     4     above endless miles of flatness.

That flatness poses an unexpected challenge when there’s nothing to step behind. Eating on the road can also be a challenge. For basic sustenance, Anthony and I relied on Subway sandwich shops, which offer the same reliable fare at every location. While not exactly a     5     of local cuisine, they didn’t leave us regretting lunch when we returned to clocking miles. Salads were     6     difficult to come by in the college town of Manhattan, Kansas, although we had no complaints about the burgers and barbecue.   

In contrast to airport excursions, which often feature     7     and even confrontations, our trip was entirely pleasant. When you meet folks in their natural environment after hours of     8     scenery, it’s easier to remember just how big the world is and to appreciate that many of its inhabitants are perfectly happy living     9    , and there’s no reason they shouldn’t be.

As it turned out, the greatest source of stress was the frequent reminder that my son changes     10     like he’s afraid of missing a sharp turn. Fortunately, that’s a travel headache that can be fixed.

10 . 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. noble     B. might     C. distinct     D. splendour     E. significantly     F. integrated        G. predominantly     H. shaped     I. integral     J. generating     K. underlying

Welcoming the Year of the Dragon or the Loong?

As communities worldwide, both within and outside China, participate in diverse festivities to welcome the Year of the Dragon, the mythical creature has become the subject of debate. Some call it a dragon, while others prefer the term “loong”,     1     a discussion about the most accurate translation of this symbol of traditional Chinese culture.

Do dragon and loong convey the same meaning, or do they represent different creatures with     2     connotations? In Western culture,     3     by Greek mythology, the dragon is frequently portrayed as the guardian of treasure, embodying a symbol of greed and destruction. In China, however, the dragon is very positive. It’s an animal that helps humanity and that is     4    , with emperors often referring to themselves as the “true dragon sons of heaven”.

In the Chinese language, more than 100 idioms incorporate the word “dragon”,     5     conveying positive connotations such as excellence, prestige, royalty,     6     and good luck. The term “dragon” remains a pervasive and     7    element in everyday conversations. When people express admiration for a son-in-law, they often refer to him as “a swift son-in-law who rides the dragon”. During weddings, the groom is usually referred to as the dragon and the bride the phoenix.

Why has the loong been translated into English as dragon? In the early 19^th century, British missionary Robert Morrison compiled the first Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary in history, in which he translated the Chinese loong as dragon. The impact of this dictionary was profound, leading to the widespread adoption of the term dragon in the West. Language     8     influences human minds, and as a result, Westerners perceive it intriguing that the Chinese associate themselves with the concept of dragons. In their culture, dragons are symbols of malevolence, contributing to a cultural distortion and misinterpretation.

With China becoming more     9     into the global community and the world becoming more familiar with the Chinese zodiac sign, has the time come to translate the Chinese dragon to loong? The issue of translation may seem trivial. What matters more is conveying the true essence of the zodiac dragon. The Chinese people place great importance on welcoming people globally to immerse themselves in the Year of the Dragon’s celebratory spirit and share in the Spring Festival’s joy, warmth and     10    .