1 . The 2024 “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreigners across the Globe — Calligraphy and Painting Challenge has been officially announced (宣布), which will start on April 1, 2024.
This competition invites painting, calligraphy, and Chinese language lovers from all around the world to take part in this exciting event.
Here we are calling on those who have interest to turn in their creative topics for the competition, with the topic selection process being decided by the public.
If you’re interested, feel free to turn in the topic that you believe fits the requirements of the competition.
Here are what you should follow:
Who can take part
The call for creative topics for the Calligraphy and Painting Challenge is open to any Chinese language lovers worldwide, with no limitations on age or nationality.
When to turn in
If you’d like to take part, you’d better hand in between Jan. 15, 2024 and Mar. 30, 2024 (Beijing Time).
Announcement date
The selected topic for the Calligraphy and Painting Challenge will be announced on Mar. 31, 2024, which also marks the official start for handing in calligraphy and painting works under the selected topic next day.
Methods to hand in
Participants (参与者) can send their topics and related information to Chinesebridge@chineseplus.net. “Chinese Bridge” also accepts direct messages on its official account on Facebook, Instagram, We Chat, and Weibo.
1. Which of the following statements is correct?A.Participants must be more than 18 years old. |
B.The nationality of the participants must be Chinese. |
C.Participants can turn in the topic online or to the office. |
D.Participants can hand in whatever topic suitable for the competition. |
A.June 20, 2024. | B.February 12, 2024. |
C.March 25, 2024. | D.January 28, 2024. |
A.To set up a competition organization. |
B.To announce the opening of a competition. |
C.To collect creative topics for a competition. |
D.To provide some information about a competition. |
Have you ever eaten a “painting”? Here it is, the
As is said, Chen Zi’ang, a great poet in the seventh century (Tang Dynasty), liked to eat brown sugar. But he ate it in
The sugar painting
3 . A team of scientists is studying the sound of the forest in Ecuador to learn how artificial intelligence (AI) could follow animal life in recovering environments.
When scientists want to measure new forest growth, they can study large areas of land with tools like satellites. But understanding how fast and in what number wildlife is returning to an area is more difficult. Sometimes it requires an expert to listen through sound recordings and pick out animal calls.
Jorg Muller, an expert on birds, wondered if there was a different way. So, he turned to bioacoustics (生物声学), which uses sound to learn more about animal life and their living environments. Muller and his team recorded wildlife sounds in Ecuador. They first had experts listen to the recordings and list the sounds of different animals. Then, they examined the sound quality to measure the environment. Finally, they ran two weeks of recordings through an AI computer program trained to understand 75 different bird calls.
The program was able to pick out the calls on which it was trained. However, scientists wondered if the program could correctly identify the number of different kinds of plants and animals in each environment. To see if the program could do that, the team used two different controls. One was from the experts who listened to the recordings, and the second was based on examples from each environment, which can be used to understand biodiversity (生物多样性).
Since the number of sounds that are found to be used to train is limited, the AI program could only identify one-fourth of the bird calls experts could. But it was still able to correctly measure biodiversity levels in each environment, the study said. It also said the results show the AI program is a powerful tool to measure the recovery of animal societies in some forests. The study showed that biodiversity found from recordings can be measured in a cost-effective and complete way and measure environments.
There are still areas for improvement, including the lack of animal sounds on which to train AI models. And the method can only catch animals that use sound to communicate.
1. What does the study focus on?A.Studying plant growth. | B.Observing birds’ behavior. |
C.Understanding AI’s effect on wildlife. | D.Measuring wildlife recovery. |
A.Bioacoustics. | B.Satellite recording. |
C.Sound recording by AI. | D.Direct observation by experts. |
A.Identifying plant species. | B.Tracking weather change. |
C.Measuring biodiversity levels. | D.Identifying all the bird calls. |
A.Measuring more bird environments. |
B.Catching animals that use sound to communicate. |
C.Training the program on a wider variety of sounds. |
D.Having experts study more and understand bird calls. |
4 . We are often told that there’s no
Angela Alvarez is a Cuban-born singer and songwriter who finally
Growing up surrounded by music, Alvarez once told her father she wanted to become a (an)
With time, her kids had kids, and one of her grandchildren, Carlos Jose Alvarez,
Alvarez’s story
The dream reached new
A.sex | B.age | C.identity | D.race |
A.exciting | B.understanding | C.inspiring | D.surprising |
A.released | B.searched | C.created | D.increased |
A.ambitious | B.unique | C.professional | D.temporary |
A.take up | B.get into | C.bring in | D.put aside |
A.comfort | B.concept | C.trouble | D.emotion |
A.intentionally | B.accidentally | C.actually | D.obviously |
A.hidden | B.cited | C.heard | D.written |
A.grasping | B.adapting | C.recording | D.polishing |
A.leave | B.continue | C.keep | D.bear |
A.conclusion | B.peak | C.ending | D.beginning |
A.still | B.never | C.ever | D.even |
A.defends | B.represents | C.makes | D.strengthens |
A.draft | B.insights | C.heights | D.aspect |
A.faith | B.trick | C.competence | D.qualification |
5 . For Cruz, who grew up in Peru’s mountainous region of Cuzco, fog represents a massive opportunity. As a boy, he had to hike for more than an hour every day across hills to collect water from the nearest source. But over time, he realized that during the rainy season, droplets of water would gather in the large leaves of banana trees. So one day he and his father tried to build a canal system with the leaves to collect water and it turned out a success. But afterwards, he moved to Lima at the age of 25.
There, shocked by the water shortages and expensive water supply that some of the city’s poorest residents were faced with, Cruz set up El Movimiento Peruanos sin Agua in 2005. The idea was to deploy the method he learned in his hometown on a larger scale, which would provide free, independently sourced and easily accessible water to those who needed it most. He began installing (安装) a traditional fog catcher model developed in the 1980s.
At the highest point of Los Tres Miradores, there is a curious set of large structures that resemble a fleet of ships in the sky. They are so-called “fog catchers”. Netted devices, made of high density Raschel polyethylene and spanning several meters wide, are lined up at the top of a misty mound and linked by a network of tubes that lead to storage containers. The 40 fog catchers there provide enough water for 180 families, whether to bathe, clean, drink or to irrigate crops on small garden patches.
Supporters believe that fog catchers have the potential to improve water supply for communities around the world among the ever-challenging circumstances. German researcher Lummerich says, “They are cheap, easy to construct.” In a world searching for water supply systems, it is one important puzzle piece that can make an essential difference locally.
However, there are some issues. For one, fog catchers require space, which is not always easy to come by in cities, let alone urban slums. At the same time, fog catchers must be properly cleaned and maintained to stay effective. Most crucially, appropriate climate conditions are required. Fog isn’t everywhere.
1. What does the underlined word “deploy” probably mean in paragraph 2?A.Employ. | B.Adjust. | C.Design. | D.Study. |
A.The reason why Cruz installed fog catchers. |
B.The difficulties of constructing a canal system. |
C.The installation and benefits of fog catchers. |
D.The inspiration Cruz gained to build a canal system. |
A.High costs. | B.Public opposition. |
C.Space limitation. | D.Climate conditions. |
A.Urban Areas: A Struggle for Sufficient Water |
B.Innovative Water Collection Techniques in Peru |
C.The Global Water Crisis and Possible Solutions |
D.Fog Catchers: A Local Solution with Global Potential |
An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year -old highly educated son. Suddenly a crow (乌鸦) perched (栖息) on their window.
The father asked his son, “what is this?” The son replied, “It is a crow.”
After a few minutes, the father asked his son for the second time, “What is this?” The son said, “Father , I have just now told you, it is a crow!”
After a little while, the old father again asked his son for the third time, “What is this?”
At this time some expression of irritation (恼怒) was felt in the son’s tone when he said to his father with a rebuff (生硬回绝) . “It’s a crow , a crow.” A little while later, the father again asked his son the fourth time, “ What is this?”
This time, the son shouted at his father, “ Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again, although I have told you so many times ‘IT IS A CROW’. Are you not able to understand this?’
A little while later the father went to his room and came back with an old tattered (发皱的) diary, which he had maintained since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page. When the son read it, the following words were written in the diary:
“Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa, when a crow was sitting on the window. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied to him all 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question. I did not at all feel annoyed but I rather felt love for my innocent son.
注意:
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150词左右;
2. 续写部分分为两段,每段的开头语已为你写好;
Paragraph 1:
After reading the diary,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
Feeling ashamed , the son got down on his knees before his father.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1. Which sport did Peter probably take part in?
A.The relay race. |
B.Swimming. |
C.The table tennis. |
A.Betty. | B.Joe. | C.The man. |
I always wondered how people would react if I tried to approach a stranger for help in a busy place like a street corner or in a bustling mall. I personally have hurried past a stranger who tried to catch my attention in a busy place.
Yesterday I had a taste of being stuck in such a desperate situation where your only hope of help would have to come from a total stranger.
I was in a busy shopping mall buying a large piece of luggage. After the purchase in one of the large and expensive shops, I picked up my phone from my pocket to call my driver waiting in the parking lot and my phone was dead.
I then requested the shop assistant selling me the luggage, which was not cheap at all, if she could ring the number of my driver for me. She replied, still all smiles, “I’m sorry Sir, but it is the shop policy that we cannot use mobile phones while working in the shop.”
As I was wondering what kind of policy that was, I saw a nice-looking teenage boy coming toward me. Remember my wife’s interesting theory that beautiful people are more likely to give you a hand when you’re in trouble, I thought I might have a chance. But before I could say a word, he walked past me. It turned out he simply didn’t see me.
I waited in the mall but it seemed nobody bothered to look at me. Disappointed and tired, I got out of the shop on to the busy street in front. I stood there with people rushing by, looking at their faces to see if they will show kindness to me. I began wondering how many times I had reacted to strangers like the shop girl and the teenager.
注意:1. 续写的短文词数应为100左右;2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
That was when I saw a young mother with her two kids.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally a man wearing a cheap T-shirt and dirty jeans seemed to notice me.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1.该人物的简介;
2.该人物对你的影响。
注意:
1.写作词数应为80左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Person of the Year
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When it comes to animals in China, one iconic creature (动物) comes to mind: the black and white giant panda. This national animal is
Chengdu Panda Base
Try to visit in the morning
As well as living, breathing pandas, there are some