1 . Popular topics during 2023 Spring Festival
E-CNY
Currently, 17 provincial-level regions in China have begun the use of digital yuan, or e-CNY. The Tianjin branch of China Construction Bank has also launched a digital yuan promotion activity, offering discounts of up to 50 percent to those who spend digital yuan on shopping during the Spring Festival holiday.
January box-office market
The first month of 2023 took a giant leap and became the highest-earning January of all time in China, selling a total of 201 million tickets for 10 million screenings in over 10,000 cinemas. Insiders said people started a new custom of going to cinemas during the Spring Festival and China’s improvement of COVID-19 control measures further made the January box-office earnings rise.
Tourism market
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said the tourism market recovers remarkably, with an increase of 23.1% compared to the same period last year. As for the income of the domestic tourism industry, travel data showed Chengdu, Shanghai and Guangzhou were the top 3 domestic destinations. It is also said that more than 2.3 million people have crossed the border, with 1.2 million entering and 1.1 million exiting.
The year of the cat instead of rabbit
Why? Legend has it that the cat and the rat were riding across a river on an ox to win the last seat in the zodiac (生肖) when the rat pushed the cat into the water and won the race. However, in the Vietnamese version — where there was no rabbit — the cat could swim and ended up arriving first. Funny as the story is, the change actually has something to do with language misunderstanding, as the word tied to the sign of the rabbit and pronounced mao (卯) is similar to mèo, the Vietnamese word for cat.
1. What may people in Tianjin do during the Spring Festival?| A．Get encouraged to go shopping. |
| B．Use e-CNY to promote an activity. |
| C．Start a new custom of traveling. |
| D．Offer discount to someone in need. |
| A．Bouncing back out of the same reason. |
| B．Encouraging a new trend during the holiday. |
| C．Experiencing a sharp decline several years ago. |
| D．Using statistics to show the industrial recovery. |
| A．Lack of rabbit in their country. |
| B．Different legends about the zodiac. |
| C．Similar pronunciation with certain Chinese. |
| D．Vietnamese’s preference for swimming eats. |
2 . As the World Cup approaches in Qatar, “made in China” are having increasing presence in this biggest football bonanza across the globe, with Chinese brands betting on amounting sponsorship to enhance their international influence.
Wanda Group, Hisense Group, Vivo and dairy company Mengniu are four official Chinese sponsors of FIFA, while Wanda has become one of FIFA’s seven corporate partners, along with Coca-Cola, Adidas, Hyundai-Kia, Qatar Airways, Qatar Energy and VISA.
Apart from big companies, manufacturers from Yiwu in Zhejiang Province, China’s small commodity hub, are also witnessing their growing influence during the world-renowned sports event. From footballs, national flags and trophy (奖杯) ornaments to horns and whistles, over 60 percent of souvenirs are produced in Yiwu for this year’s World Cup. “In terms of the global industrial supply chain, ‘made in Yiwu’ has already become a worldwide commercial symbol originating from China, which indicates ‘reliance’ and ‘trust’ ”, said Song Xiangqing, an economist and the vice-president of the Commerce Economy Association of China.
Lusail, Qatar’s biggest stadium to hold the World Cup final, was built by China Railway Construction Corp International, costing a total of 770 million.
CCTV news reported that Chinese companies mainly from Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces have also provided more than 10,000 container houses for the World Cup, used as accommodation for tourists and football fans.
“The World Cup sponsorship by a large number of Chinese companies is a demonstration of China’s economic power, and makes the globe feel the power of Chinese brands,” Song said.
According to Deloitte’s report, football generates an annual output of more than 500 billion across the world. For example, in 2016, Hisense spent 100 million to become an official sponsor of the World Cup in Russia. Sales volume of Hisense TV surged nearly three times after the game kicked off, reaching a record high.
“However, sponsoring sports events should not be dismissed simply as marketing stunts (噱头),” Song said, “as overseas markets have complex social systems and ethnic cultures, Chinese brands need to consolidate the foundation first, and build up themselves in product, service and platform.”
1. Which of the following is FIFA’s corporate partner?| A．Hisense Group. | B．Vivo. |
| C．Wanda Group. | D．Dairy Mengniu. |
| A．Spending $100 million to become an official sponsor. |
| B．Joining in the construction of Qatar’s biggest stadium. |
| C．Producing over 60% footballs and national flags for the event. |
| D．Providing container houses as ambulance for visitors and fans. |
| A．Chinese brands broaden their international influence by providing sponsorship. |
| B．Participating in the World Cup brings infinite chances for Chinese companies. |
| C．Chinese commerce has earned the best reputation for being reliable. |
| D．Chinese brands have laid solid foundation in the overseas markets. |
| A．By doing some studies. | B．By listing some facts. |
| C．By stating some opinions. | D．By making comparisons. |
3 . The fragrance of pressed grapes perfumes the mountain air in the small village of Tharma in Sangri county of the Tibetan autonomous region this time of year.
Grape cultivation in the county, which is the highest location on the planet where grapes are grown, sits at an average altitude of 3600 meters above sea level. It has increased the wealth of the residents and created a whole new local industry that is prospering. Organic grape growing was introduced to the county, which is blessed by a mild climate and moderate sunshine, via an Aid-Tibet project funded by Hunan province, and since 2011,the cultivation area has increased from less than 1 hectare(公顷) to nearly 666 hectares. The vineyards in Sangri county were recognized in 2021 for their production of green, pollution-free products.
“The harvest season for grapes and the best time for making wine are right now. We’ve finished with picking the grapes and we’ve been busy making wine lately,” Luo Minglu, a manager at Sangri County Pakdrub Rongshun Zhuangyuan Co-which operates the business-was quoted as saying by China News Service.
The company has played a key role in bringing suppliers and local households together to produce wine and other products that have improved the standard of living in the area.
Between 2016 and 2022, the company’s cumulative (累积的) grape yield reached 590 metric tons. More than 500 villagers were employed last year, with more than 2.9 million yuan($406,000) spent on salaries. The grape yield and the wine production of the company had reached 350 tons and 150 tons by 2022, respectively.
Yangjen Lhamo, an employee at Sangri County Pakdrub Rorgshun Zhuangyuan, said she and her sister have worked at the company for years, and not only do they enjoy their toils and spoils (辛勤劳作) but the vineyards are located very close to home. “I earn nearly 6,000, yuan a month, and I am very pleased with my job,” she said. “Thanks to the good policies from the government, it is easy to have a better life if we work hard.
1. What makes Sangri suitable for grape cultivation?| A．An altitude of 3600 meters from the horizon. | B．The fertile soil in Sangri county of this region. |
| C．The climate neither too hot nor too cold. | D．The ample sunshine and the rainfalls. |
| A．To present their satisfying working conditions. |
| B．To describe their busy but meaningful daily lives. |
| C．To explain the good policies from the government. |
| D．To show the improving standards of living in this area. |
| A．A scientific paper. | B．A meeting minute. | C．A newsreel. | D．A travel brochure. |
| A．World’s highest grapes cultivate better life in Tibet. |
| B．Grape yield and ecological balance go hand in hand. |
| C．The wine production is booming in China. |
| D．Grape industry soared up in Sangri. |
4 . Has Iceland had its last whaling season?
Iceland’s last whaler has no plans to stop. But as global demand slows for whale meat, his business may be over anyway.
Iceland is a member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) but goes against the 88-nation body’s ban on commercial whaling, in force since 1986. In 2006, the country began setting quotas(配额) for whale hunts in its waters. This year, after a four-year suspension caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Hvalur’s hunt restarted, from June through September. Iceland’s current quota of 161 fin whales(长须鲸) applies to the western region covered by the company’s license, which will be out of date at the end of 2023.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which last assessed fin whales in 2018, lists them in danger, largely because of their decrease by commercial whaling during the 20th century. Fin whales are speedy swimmers, and with the appearance of steam-powered ships and explosive harpoons, they became easier to catch. Since the 1970s, however, hunting restrictions have allowed these whales to rebound. The most recent estimate, in 2007, of fin whale numbers in the Iceland region was about 30,000.
In February, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, Iceland’s Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries, told local news outlets that “there is little to justify allowing whaling” because of the controversial nature of the industry and the low demand these days for whale meat.
The percentage of Icelanders who oppose fin whaling has more than doubled since 2013, while the percentage of supporters ‘has fallen more than 20 percent, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Only 2 percent of Icelanders say they eat whale meat regularly, and 84 percent had never tried it, a 2018 Gallup poll found.
“Continued whaling is a fool’s game, really, on the cost of the planet, biodiversity, the climate,” says Astrid Fuchs, policy manager at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, a nonprofit dedicated to marine conservation and welfare.
1. The Iceland’s whaling industry stopped for a while because.| A．global demand for whale meat is declining. |
| B．International Whaling Commission (IWC) forbids Iceland to carry on. |
| C．the pandemic has influenced it for years. |
| D．the whaling company’s license will be invalid. |
| A．There are restrictions on fin whales hunting. |
| B．Steam-powered ships and explosive harpoons appeared. |
| C．Humans killed the fin whales severely in the last century. |
| D．Some Icelanders eat whale meat regularly. |
| A．Hvalur’s license will not be out of date until 2023. |
| B．With the help of hunting restrictions, the number of fin whales has increased. |
| C．Svandís Svavarsdóttir is in favor of whaling. |
| D．The percentage of Icelanders who support fin whaling is 20 percent. |
| A．Hunting and Conservation of Whales Worldwide. |
| B．Favorable: opposition to The Whaling Industry. |
| C．Endangered Fin Whales by Iceland’s Whaling. |
| D．Definite: The Last Season of Iceland’s Whaling. |
5 . From various competition gears (用具) that accompanied athletes from Team China winning medals to the huge traffic and exposure brought by Chinese 18-year-old skier star Gu Ailing who wore Anta items in her room on social media, Chinese domestic sports brands have emerged (显露) on one of the world’s largest sporting stages, and Anta has turned out to be the clear winner.
Anta has been the sportswear partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee since 2009. As the official sportswear provider of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Anta used its smart technology to equip 12 event teams of Team China in events including short track speed skating, skeleton and curling. Some of Anta’s Olympic licensed products have also become targets of Chinese social media users to snap up, especially the hats and shoulder bags in the shape of Bing Dwen Dwen, with the strong recommendation from foreign athletes, which sold out quickly on Anta’s online flagship store.
The Chinese sports equipment maker also owns brands such as Fila, Salomon and Descente. According to a ranking by sports new media sportsmoney, Fila and Descente held the first two positions in terms of the number of individual or team medal winners wearing the brand’s clothes when competing and receiving the awards as of February 18.
Phenix, a long established technical Alpine skiwear brand that has been acquired by China Dongxiang Group, enjoyed an outstanding performance as the sponsor of Team Norway uniforms, which won its 16th gold medal of the Beijing Games on Sunday, a record for a single country at a Winter Olympics.
The Winter Olympic Games has promoted many home-grown brands like Anta, Li Ning and Peak to global star brands and they emerge more strongly in competing with foreign sports competitors, industry analysts told the Global Times. With advanced technology and a promising future after the Beijing Winter Olympics, domestic sports brands are set to see huge growth opportunities on global markets with stronger brand awareness, they said.
1. What can we learn about Anta from the passage?| A．Chinese athletes are all fans of the brand. |
| B．Some of its licensed products have been a hit online. |
| C．It owns brands such as Fila, Phenix, and Descente. |
| D．It has sponsored the Chinese Olympic Committee for a decade. |
| A．The foreign sportswear competitors remains competitive. |
| B．The homegrown brands need to grow stronger brand awareness. |
| C．Anta, LiNing and Peak are long established global star brands. |
| D．There will be a great potential for national sports brands to realize. |
| A．National sportswear brand Anta has turned out to be the winner. |
| B．Domestic sports brands gain great popularity home and abroad. |
| C．Winter Olympics pored to have promoted domestic sports bands. |
| D．Winter Olympics witnessed fierce competition between different brands. |
| A．Culture | B．Entertainment | C．Science | D．Business |
6 . China’ s booming coffee business has made it the second most important market for global giant Starbucks, behind only its home U.S. market. But it’s also providing fertile ground for new and innovative (勇于创新的) players catering to local preferences. One of the latest in that group is Shanghai-based chain Manner Coffee, which, together with other similar homegrown names, are reshaping the country’s coffee drinking landscape.
This year alone has seen 16 financing events in China’s coffee sector, with more than 5 billion yuan ($784 million ) pouring into the space. Even the infamous Luckin Coffee, which was removed from the Nasdaq last year after being exposed for massive fraud (欺诈), is once again attracting investors’ attention.
Dubbed (被称作) as a seller of “street coffee” priced between 10 yuan and 20 yuan per cup, equal to $ 3 or less, Manner quickly became popular among young office workers for its less expensive price and high quality.
Manner and the other up-and-comers are thriving on a China coffee market that is growing at a healthy 15% per year. After expanding slowly in its first three years, Manner’s store count rose from just eight at the end of 2018 to 194 this year, with 165 in Shanghai and the rest in Beijng, Shenzhen, Chengdu and other cities. It plans to keep expanding outside of Shanghai by opening up to 100 new stores a year.
Meanwhile, Starbucks reported its same-store sales in the Chinese market grew by just 19% in its financial third quarter, down sharply from 91% growth in the previous quarter, due in part to weak year-ago figures from stores affected during early stages of the pandemic in 2020. The company forecast that growth would slow further still in the following years.
1. What does the underlined phrase “fertile ground” in paragraph 1 probably mean here?| A．Limited space. | B．Fat chance. |
| C．Rich soil. | D．Necessary conditions. |
| A．Starbucks is creating the country’s coffee-drinking landscape. |
| B．Starbucks was removed from the Nasdaq last year due to fraud. |
| C．Manner Coffee has a cheaper price and superior quality. |
| D．Manner Coffee plans to expand is overseas market. |
| A．To show that new players are starting to bite into Starbucks’ lunch. |
| B．To prove that Luckin Coffee is an unusually successful hit. |
| C．To explain the fast increase of Starbucks in the Chinese market. |
| D．To present the promising future of the U.S. coffee market. |
| A．Manner Coffee becomes fashionable worldwide “street coffee”. |
| B．Manner Coffee joins hand with Starbucks to develop business. |
| C．Manner Coffee replaces Starbucks both at home and abroad. |
| D．Manner Coffee takes on Starbucks in China with “street coffee”. |
7 . Like the move from horse-drawn carriages to vehicles powered by internal-combustion engines, the change from cars powered by fossil fuels to electric vehicles (EVs) will have a profound effect on personal transport. The Epidemic worldwide caused a 20% drop in global light vehicle sales in 2020, to about 70m, but they pick up in 2021. And the proportion of vehicles powered by batteries will grow quickly.
The increasing share price of Tesla, provides a big motivation for newcomers to catch up. Tesla may lead in battery technology and software, but to make those advantages stick, it must prove that “production hell” is behind it. Scaling up manufacturing has caused Tesla its biggest headaches.
Big name carmakers face an equally discouraging challenge: Learning how to write software. Electric cars require integrated software, not just to ensure that batteries and motors work together to provide the best performance, but to connect the car to the outside world.
And what of the Tesla followers, from China’s li, Nio and Xpeng to American firms such as Fisker, Lucid and Nikola? Cash from excitable investors has poured in and it is the same with big name carmakers—as are tech giants, keen to get involved as transport goes digital. Can the followers persuade investors that they have patent technology that will give them a long-term advantage?
Eye-catching Advertisements of vehicles are one thing, but as the industry’s trouble shows, working out how to make cars at scale, when softwares are as important as brakes and bodywork, is quite another. The coming year will make clearer which of Tesla’s competitors, new and old, can stay in race.
1. What is the trend of electric cars industry?| A．Uncertain. | B．Challenging. | C．Promising. | D．Disappointing. |
| A．Learning how to write the software. | B．Expanding its production capacity. |
| C．Connecting the car to the outside world. | D．Competing with many newcomers. |
| A．Their share prices are catching up with those of Tesla. |
| B．They are mostly established companies. |
| C．Their biggest problem is technical one like improving brakes and bodywork. |
| D．They are attracting investment. |
| A．The Battle Within the Electric-Vehicle Industry |
| B．Expanding Production Capacity—the Headache of Electric Cars Industry |
| C．New Companies Are Catching up in Electric-Vehicle Industry |
| D．Electric Cars—Your Future Choice |
Mechanization of Xinjiang's cotton sector approaches 90%
A total of 2 million
The increase
In Shaya county, many tractors can be seen
Aksu, a major cotton-growing area in
“It is encouraging
9 . Many workers have had no choice but to adapt to working from home in recent months since offices shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic (新冠疫情). And the noisy situation and endless housework may result in a terrible emotion. A new option is waiting for you. That is WFH: work from a hotel.
Hotel Figuero
A special program titled Work Perks aims to reposition some of 94-year-old Hotel Figuero’s 268 rooms as day-use offices.
According to Managing Director Connie Wang, the set-up launched in June and is a great opportunity to get out of their houses with high-speed Wi-Fi, unlimited printing privileges and free parking. The 350-square-foot rooms sell for $ 129 per day, with an option to extend to an overnight stay for an additional $ 20.
The Wythe
A boutique hotel in Brooklyn. The hotel recently announced a partnership with co-working office space company Industrious through which it is recycling 13 second-story guest rooms to serve as offices for up to four people.
Each of the rooms has a small outdoor platform, and dogs are welcome. Pricing starts at $ 200 and goes up to $ 275, depending on how many people use the space.
The Sawyer
The Sawyer, in Sacramento, California, is offering pool cabanas (更衣室) for use as outdoor offices, complete with fast Wi-Fi, free parking and catered lunch for $ 150 per day.
HotelsByDay
Yannis Moati founded HotelsByDay back in 2015. That company has grown to include more than 1,500 hotels, and has seen a significant increase in the number of inquiries for day-use bookings lately.
Moati said the current situation will force hotels to upgrade themselves to stay alive, and he predicted that offering rooms for day-use only is one of the directions they will go.
1. How much should one pay for a 24-hour stay in Hotel Figuero?| A．$ 129. | B．$ 149. | C．$ 150. | D．$ 200. |
| A．The Wythe. | B．The Sawyer. |
| C．HotelsByDay. | D．Hotel Figuero. |
| A．He started a program titled Work Perks. |
| B．He has upgraded at least 1,500 rooms. |
| C．He usually predicts everything correctly. |
| D．He is optimistic about the WFH trend. |
