1 . 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. mystery       B. obviously       C. experience       D. former       E. fact       F. critically G. celebrity       H. aged       I. previous       J. present       K. object

In the Journal of Social Psychology, two U. S. researchers published the first serious study of a question that seems to be troubling millions. Almost every     1     from Bill Gates to Kesha, is required to have an answer: What advice would you give to your younger self?

Robin Kowalski and Annie McCord asked more than 400 participants, all     2     over 30. They got some entertaining replies like “Don’t marry her”. But we’re little closer to making clear the     3     that has always bothered me: What, precisely, do people take themselves to be doing when they ask themselves this question?

Pretty     4    , it rests on a paradox(悖论). You only acquired the wisdom on which your advice is based by making the mistakes you’re now advising your     5     self to avoid. For example, many respondents gave some answers “Stop being so afraid” - of failure, of other people’s judgements, of life. Excellent advice, but you’ll never feel its force until you’ve first acted afraid and seen where that got you.     6    , as the saying goes, is a harsh teacher. It makes you sit the test first and only gives you the lesson afterwards.

Of course, if “advising your younger self” were just a happiness - boosting technique to remind you of what you’ve learned in life, nobody could     7    . However, browsing the replies to the study, what you sense, far more frequently, is regret. People truly wish they had not married so young, chosen a career to please their parents, or spent the money instead of saving it. And this only brings into focus on the     8     that regret is a basically self-contradictory(自相矛盾的)emotion. You’re feeling it because you’ve grown into the kind of person who can look back     9     on what you did in the past. This means that, judged by your     10     values, you’ve emerged from your life experience better than before. Therefore you ought to be happy rather than regretful.

The important thing isn’t what you might have done differently in the past, if you had been someone that you couldn’t have been back then. It’s what you’d do now. For many people, I know, this can be a huge challenge. But unlike changing the past, it has the great advantage of not being impossible.

2 . 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.

Cars of tomorrow

Since 2008, when General Motors’ then boss delivered a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas     1     (offer) a glimpse of car making’s digital future. This year nearly 200 automotive firms signed up     2     the online event, which got cracking on January 5th. GM’s current chief, Mary Barra, addressed a speech that day.     3     other big carmakers, GM did not show up in person. But GM’s virtual show signaled how rapidly cars are evolving from oil—filled lumps of metal into devices stuffed with silicon.

Ms. Barra talked about GM’s transformation from automaker to platform innovator, celebrated its advances in commercial electric vehicles and autonomous driving, and     4     (release) a battery-powered version of the Chevrolet Silverado pickup. Rival firms raced to appear even more innovative. BMW demonstrated a system that changes a car’s paint colour at the press of a button. Mercedes-Benz went so far as     5     (claim) that its Vision eqxx concept, with interior materials fashioned from bamboo, cactus and mushroom, and a battery—powered range of 1,000km, was “reinventing the car”. Not     6     (overtake), consumer-electronics giants showed off their automotive stuff. Sony, a Japanese one, surprised many attendees     7     it announced a possible raid into car-making.

Other announcements were     8     (fancy) but more telling when it comes to the digitization of car-making. Mobil eye, the self-driving arm of Intel, which supplies chips to many big car firms, announced expanded deals with Ford, Geely and Volkswagen. Qualcomm, another chip-maker, inked new     9     with Volvo, Honda and Renault.

The courtship between carmakers and chip firms will only intensify. The worldwide chip shortage that knocked nearly 8m units off global car output is thankfully easing and annualized global car production could return to pre-pandemic levels by the second half of 2022, according to an investment bank. Still, car bosses are desperate to avoid a repeat. Many look enviously at Tesla,     10     own intimate rapport with semiconductor suppliers celebrated its full-year output for 2021 to a total of 930,000 vehicles.