1 . The global secondhand market is expected to increase at three times the rate of the overall global clothing market up to 2027, driven by Gen Z consumers, according to online secondhand platform Thredup.

The company’s 11th annual resale report, released on Wednesday, says Gen Z consumers will account for nearly two-thirds of incremental (增量) secondhand spend as their purchasing power increases. Thredup’s report contains much data and research from analytics firm Globaldata, which conducted a survey of over 3,000 American adults, asking specific questions about their behaviors and preferences for secondhand.

Opportunities exist in great numbers for secondhand platforms to expand business online and connect with Gen Z consumers who already purchase secondhand clothing online. Some 58 per cent of Gen Z who bought secondhand clothing over the last 12 months made at least one purchase online — more than any other generation, the report says.

Demand for secondhand goods is driving retailers (零售商) to rethink their strategies. Some 86 per cent of retail executives say their customers are already participating in resale, up 8 per cent on 2021.“Brands are adopting resale at an accelerated rate to capture more of this demand,” says Thredup president Anthony Marino. “With more than half of Gen Z saying they’re more likely to shop with a brand that offers secondhand alongside new, resale is becoming table stakes (筹码) for retailers.”

One significant question surrounding resale’s growth is whether or not it’s a more eco-friendly way of shopping if customers are still consuming at an ever-rising pace. When secondhand shopping becomes sport-like for a generation of customers, and brands aren’t reducing production levels as they also make profits from resale, experts say it’s not actually a greener option.

“We have a huge issue with overproduction,” says Harriet Vocking, chief executive of the firm Eco-Age. “The fact that there is so much opportunity for resale highlights just how high the production and consumption rates are.” She argues that efforts should be directed at educating consumers and helping them understand the value of their purchases.

1. What does Thredup’s report show about Gen Z?

A．They depend too heavily on online shopping.

B．They are easily attracted to secondhand clothing.

C．They will be leading the way in secondhand sales.

D．They expect to have their purchasing power increased.

2. What does paragraph 4 highlight?

A．Retailers’ comments on resale.	B．The appeal of resale to retailers.
C．Retailers’ expectations of resale.	D．The impact of resale on retailers.

3. What is the major concern for experts like Harriet Vocking?

A．How to increase production.	B．How to make resale sustainable.
C．How to encourage consumption.	D．How to control the resale market.

4. In which section of a website may the text appear?

A．Business.

B．Education.

C．Environment.

D．Technology.

2 . Hawaii lawmakers are considering legislation (立法) that would require visitors to pay for a year-long license or pass to visit state parks. Josh Green is the state’s governor. He said, “We get between 9 and 10 million visitors a year, but we only have 1.4 million people living here.” He added, “Those 10 million travellers should be helping us sustain our environment.” Lawmakers still debating how much they would charge.

The governor campaigned in 2022 on the idea of having all tourists pay a $50 fee to enter the state. Legislators think this would violate US constitutional protections for free travel. They instead think visitors should pay to enter parks and trails. Either policy would be a first of its kind for any US state. Hawaii’s leaders are following the example of other popular tourist areas with similar fees or taxes. They include Venice, Italy, and Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands.

Hawaii State Representative Sean Quinlan is the leader of the House Tourism Committee. He said changes in the activities of travellers are part of Hawaii’s push. He said golf rounds per visitor per day have dropped 30 percent over the past 10 years while hiking has increased50 percent. People are also seeking out isolated places they have seen on social media. The state does not have the money to oversee and protect all these places, he said.

Most state parks and trails are currently free. Some of the most popular ones already charge, like Diamond Head State Monument. That trail leads hikers from the floor of a 300,000-year-old volcano up to the top. It gets 1 million visitors each year and costs $5for each traveller.

A bill currently before the legislature would require visitors over the age of 15to buy a yearly pass to visit forests, parks, trails or “other natural area on state land”. People who live in Hawaii would not need to pay.

1. What does the underlined word “violate” mean in Paragraph 2?

A．Break.

B．Establish.

C．Uphold.

D．Perfect.

2. What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．The decreasing number of tourists to Hawaii.

B．Advantages of Hawaii’s tourism resources.

C．The increasing financial burden of Hawaii.

D．One reason for wanting to charge tourists.

3. What can be concluded from the text?

A．None of the attractions in Hawaii charge fees currently.

B．The goal to charge fees is to limit the number of tourists.

C．Lawmakers are arguing about whether charging fees is legal.

D．Charging fees is beneficial for Hawaii’s natural environment.

4. What is the text?

A．A news report.	B．A travel guide.
C．A law textbook.	D．A promotional brochure.

4 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The city of Tianshui, in Northwest China’s Gansu Province, is experiencing a tourism boom     1    (fuel)by its signature dish, the malatang hotpot.     2    (feature)a mix of vegetables, meats and seafood boiled in a peppery soup, it has become an unexpected Internet hit, drawing visitors from across China. Tianshui     3    (welcome)7.54 million tourists since the start of last month, generating tourism profit of 4.37 billion yuan.

A photo of a     4    (visible)exhausted Haiying Malatang staff member went viral online, causing a heated discussion     5     increasing its popularity. According to Ha Haiying, the owner of the restaurant, it is the flavor and affordability     6     contribute to Tianshui malatang’s success.

However, the     7    (spice)delight isn’t the only draw. The increase in malatang     8    (consume)has led to a corresponding rise invisitors to Tianshui’s key attractions, including the Maijishan Grottoes(石窟),     9     UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a temple dedicated to Fuxi.

Tianshui’s local government is taking steps to solidify its position     10     a tourist destination, such as producing convenient seasoning packets so that visitors can recreate the genuine Tianshui malatang at home.

6 . Authorities have moved to tighten oversight of the rapidly expanding semi-prepared food industry, ironing out definitions of precooked dishes and rolling out rules on the use of additives in the sector to ensure food safety. Restaurants are also being encouraged to identify dishes on their menus that include semi-prepared ingredients, a move that experts say will help customers make informed decisions.

The reforms, led by the State Administration for Market Regulation, which oversees product quality and consumer rights, were outlined in a circular issued on Thursday by six government agencies.

Share (股票) prices of companies involved in the semi prepared food sector fell by an average of 2 percent on the A-share market on Monday because of the strengthened oversight Industry insiders said the rules were the first to clarify the definition of semi-prepared food and set out safety and quality standards for the multibillion yuan industry.

China has more than 70, 000 companies making food items that have undergone some preparation but are not fully cooked or ready to eat, according to Xinhua News Agency. Their output value topped 500 billion yuan ($69.4 million) last year and is on track to surpass 1 trillion yuan in a few years, it said.

The new rules differentiate between semi-prepared food-also known as prepackaged meals — and other food items, such as instant noodles, frozen dumplings and salads. They say semi-prepared food must be a dish that can be consumed after simple preparations such as heating or boiling.

Experts said makers of frozen foods such as dumplings and hamburgers will no longer be regarded as being semi-prepared food businesses, and will be unable to ignore regulations in their own sector or enjoy preferential policies tailor-made for semi-prepared food makers. They said the generalization of the concept of semi prepared food had previously created regulatory difficulties.

1. Why is it necessary to oversee the semi-prepared food industry?

A．To raise people’s awareness of food safety concerns.

B．To ban the use of semi-prepared prepared ingredients.

C．To guarantee food safety through strengthened regulations.

D．To encourage restaurants to identify dishes on their menus.

2. What is the third paragraph mainly about?

A．Rules aiming to define semi-prepared food.

B．Great loss suffered by semi-prepared food sect on.

C．Safety and quality standards imposed on food industry.

D．Effects on semi-prepared food industry made by the new rules.

3. Which of the following statement is true?

A．Semi-prepared food can be directly consumed.

B．Instant noodles are considered as semi-prepared food.

C．Semi prepared food makers enjoy preferential treatment.

D．Output value of semi-prepared food is decreasing in China.

4. What is the expert’s attitude towards the regulatory reforms?

A．Ambiguous.

B．Positive.

C．Objective.

D．Indifferent.

8 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What is the Children’s Code about?

A．Kids’ ability to go online.

B．Children’s coding ability.

C．Online safety for children.

2. What does YouTube do about hate speeches online?

A．Delete them.

B．Label them.

C．Send an email.

3. What’s the suggestion to parents?

A．Waiting for the changes.

B．Talking with their kids.

C．Accompanying kids online.

9 . Seasonality is a big part of business. For some industries, seasonal patterns are a defining feature. Agriculture is one obvious example; tourism another. Western toymakers notch up a huge proportion of their annual sales during Christmas. Construction is harder during cold weather, when that industry employs fewer people.

Firms less obviously tied to the seasons can still be deeply affected by them, as a recent review by Ian Hohm of the University of British Columbia makes clear. An analysis of social-media posts on the Internet found that dieting-related posts peak in the spring, as the season of body dysmorphia(变形) approaches.

Even when overall demand doesn’t vary greatly between the seasons, preterences change. Beef-eaters buy roasts in the slow-cooking winter season and plump for steaks during the summer months. Starbucks is among those firms that make seasonality a marketing event. The pumpkin-spiced latte is a reliable sign that autumn is on its way, along with falling leaves.

Seasonality also leaves a less obvious imprint(印记) inside organisations. This week, with so many bosses stuck on a mountain for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, productive employees can get on with some work and lazy ones can relax. School holidays offer an obvious form of seasonality, when employees without children are upset that they are covering for colleagues on holiday, and colleagues on holiday are upset that they have children.

Pay decisions are seasonal events, too. The time when employees find out their salary rises and bonuses sets off disappointment and happiness in all workplaces. In some, they are more like tsunamis. The actual date on which bonuses are paid matters too—once the money is safely put in the bank, people are more likely to move jobs.

There are other forms of corporate seasonality. While there isn’t much research on the impact of seasonality within firms, it’s certain that they have their own annual rhythms.

1. Why do people focus on dieting in spring posts according to the analysis?

A．They want to take time to get refreshed in spring.

B．They fear the summer heat will ruin their health.

C．They fear summer will reveal their body shapes.

D．They suffer a lack of proper food during winter.

2. What does the underlined part “plump for” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Throw away.

B．Decide on.

C．Rule out.

D．Turn up.

3. What troubles childless employees during school holidays?

A．Being unable to relax in the absence of the boss.

B．Staying in step with the change of the seasons.

C．Accompanying the children of their colleagues.

D．Sharing the work of the employees with children.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Companies Have Their Own Seasonal Rhythms

B．School Holidays Have an Effect on Companies

C．Corporate Seasonality Has Vast Social Effect

D．Employees Must Watch Beyond the Seasons

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.

From Passion to Structure: The Journey of Small Businesses

Wal-Mart started small. So did Microsoft. So did Apple. So did General Electric and Ford and almost every other company     1     made it big. They didn’t start by acquisition or achieve mass scale overnight. Nearly every company or organization starts the same way: with an idea.     2     an organization grows to become a multi-billion-dollar corporation like Wal-Mart or fails in the first few years, most of them started with a single person or small group of people who had an idea.

At the beginning, ideas     3     (fuel) by passion — that every convincing emotion that causes us to do quite irrational things. That passion drives many people to make sacrifices so that a cause bigger than themselves can be brought to life. Some drop out of school or quit a perfectly good job     4     a good salary and benefits to try to go it alone. Some work extraordinarily long hours without a second thought, sometimes     5     (sacrifice) the stability of their relationships or even their personal health. This passion is so exciting that it can affect others as well.     6     (inspire) by the founder’s vision, many early employees demonstrate classic early-adopter behavior. Relying on their courage, these first employees also quit their perfectly good jobs and accept     7     (low) salaries to join an organization with a 90 percent statistical chance of failing. But the statistics don’t matter; passion and optimism persist and energy is high. Like all early adopters, the behavior of those who join early says more about them than     8     does about the company’s prospects.

The reason why so many small businesses fail, however, is     9     passion alone can’t cut it. For passion     10     (survive), it needs a structure. A WHY without HOWs, passion without structure, has a very high probability of failure.