1 . People can’t live well without music. It’s quite necessary in people’s life. Music has a magic energy to help people. It will bring people many surprises.
It can help you free from heart pain. When you feel sad, you can try listening to the music. It will calm you down. You enter the music world. You pay more attention to the music than your sadness.Then the “dark clouds” slowly clear up.
It is also a strong driving force. For example, when you win a match, you certainly have a great mood. At this time, exciting music will arouse (激起) your fighting. It will push you forward and you will continue to work harder.
Music include (囊括了) much knowledge, such as the language and the history. You can learn a lot from it. Different nations make their own special music. Different music expresses different ideas.You can explore different cultures behind the music. As a useful tool (工具), music teaches you to better understand foreign cultures and love them.
1. In this passage, how many surprises does music bring to people?| A．One. | B．Two. |
| C．Three. | D．Four. |
| A．bad weather. | B．heart sadness. |
| C．low music. | D．hard work. |
| A．Because it will push people forward. |
| B．Because it will help people learn more. |
| C．Because it will calm people down. |
| D．Because it will make people love each other. |
| A．The language. | B．The ideas |
| C．The habits. | D．The cultures. |
| A．The Knowledge of Music. | B．The Music World. |
| C．The Exciting Music. | D．The Power of Music. |
2 . The internet, once only a tool for communication, has quickly become a gateway to countless gaming adventures. Online gaming, the born of this digital revolution, has reshaped the landscape of entertainment, offering players an absorbing escape into virtual world.
Before the internet age, gaming was a communal experience. However, it wasn’t until the dawn of the internet that gaming truly underwent a revolution. The transformative power of the internet transcends geographical boundaries (边界), connecting games from every corner of the globe in a shared virtual playground. Online gaming is a cultural phenomenon that reflects the evolution of digital society. It becomes increasingly vital to look at its impact on individuals, communities.
Today, online gaming has transformed into a huge industry. The options for online gaming are endless. This evolution has been fueled by advancements in technology. The rise of online gaming platforms has revolutionised the way we play, offering a large number of convenience factors that have carried its popularity forward to new heights. Gamers can instantly access a vast library of titles with just a few clicks.
With the power of smartphones at our fingertips, gaming is no longer limited to consoles (操控台) and PCs. Online gaming agrees with the fast-paced lifestyles of modern-day enthusiasts. Mobile internet connectivity allows players to visit cyber space whenever and wherever they please. As the lines between the physical and digital worlds are not clear, online gaming stands as evidence of the incomparable convenience and accessibility afforded by the internet.
The internet has not only provide access for gaming but has also redefined gaming itself, promoting connections among community members, shaping identities. Yet, in the wonders of online gaming, we must proceed with caution and mindfulness. Let us raise self-awareness, setting healthy boundaries, and seeking support when needed, ensuring that everyone can enjoy the wonders of online gaming in a safe and welcoming environment.
1. Which of the following best describes the effect of online gaming on entertainment?| A．Revolutionary. | B．Puzzling. | C．Indirect. | D．Satisfying. |
| A．Focused on. | B．Went beyond. | C．Agreed with. | D．Drew up. |
| A．It needs to be carefully viewed and treated. |
| B．It enables players to visit virtual world at any time. |
| C．It causes enthusiasts to live in a fast-paced lifestyle. |
| D．It breaks down the boundaries between smartphones and PCs. |
| A．Virtual Worlds Bring Us Wonders. |
| B．The Social Impact of Mobile Gaming. |
| C．Online Gaming: The New Frontier of Entertainment. |
| D．The Digital Revolution: Internet Transforms Gaming. |
3 . “Only when I take the needle out and touch silk thread(线)do I feel fully comfortable.” says Zou Yingzi, an inheritor of Su embroidery(刺绣), an ancient craft that originated from the garden city of Suzhou in Jiangsu province.
From Zou’s mother to her grandmothers, all the women in her family are good at needlework, particularly Su embroidery, which features complicated stitches(针法)and the creative use of silk threads dyed in various colors. Su embroidery goes back more than 2000 years. Over centuries needlework had been a must-learn skill for women, who were responsible for making clothes for their families. It was a tradition that mothers should make wedding clothes with exquisite embroidery containing many special stitches for their daughters.
Zou’s studio in Suzhou is full of her work. Flowers, cats, butterflies and scenes from nature become vivid and real on silk fabric. One can even make out a single strand(股)of a cat’s fur. A single silk thread can be separated into 16 or more strands, which in most cases are too thin to be seen. Su embroidery is also known for its rich colors, elegant designs and clean stitches. All these characteristics, which distinguish it from other embroidery styles in China, have long been connected with the natural environment and lifestyle of Suzhou. “To some extent, Su embroidery is close to paintings.” says Zheng Lihong, an art professor at Soochow University in Suzhou. “Many artists offered their ink paintings and calligraphy for embroiderers to recreate.”
Zou can now skillfully apply various stitching techniques to different parts of her creations. Techniques to stitch a cat’s eyeball, its hair and its tail are different. “Su embroidery is an art form created by women who live in a city that boasts an artistic lifestyle.” Zheng comments.
1. What does the underlined word “exquisite” in paragraph 2mean?| A．Motherly. | B．Likely. | C．Beautiful. | D．Grateful. |
| A．To make the works more lifelike. |
| B．To make the works more creative. |
| C．To make the threads too thin to be seen clearly. |
| D．To make Su embroidery distinguish from others. |
| A．Su embroidery is widely spread. |
| B．Su embroidery is created by women artists. |
| C．Su embroidery is famous for its color and design. |
| D．Su embroidery is closely related to paintings and calligraphy. |
| A．A guidebook to a museum. | B．A review of modern painting. |
| C．A culture column in a magazine. | D．A research paper on the art of design. |
In high school, I was the kind of student who preferred to remain unnoticed, hiding in the shadows of my louder and more outgoing classmates. Singing was a secret joy that I held close to my heart, but the fear of being judged and laughed at kept me from ever sharing it openly.
One unexpected day, during a school-wide meeting, a popular song filled the air, and I found myself singing along absentmindedly. Little did I know that my music teacher, Miss Johnson, had overheard my unguarded moment.
Days later, after the final bell rang, Miss Johnson approached me with a kind smile.“ I heard you singing during the meeting,” she said, her voice filled with surprise. “You have a beautiful voice. Have you ever considered participating in the school’s singing competition?”
My heart sank. I shook my head, my voice barely noticeable as I whispered, “I’m too shy. I couldn’t do that.”
Miss Johnson’s eyes twinkled with understanding.“ Shyness is just a wall you’ve built around yourself,” she said gently. “But with practice and courage, you can break through it. I see potential in you, and I believe in you.”
Her words touched me deeply, and for the first time, I felt a little brave. I decided to take her ad vice and start practicing. I sang in my room, alone, with the door closed, every day after school. I faced the mirror, pretending there was an audience before me, and I sang with all my heart. My voice was initially low and uncertain, but with every passing day, it grew stronger and more confident.
Miss Johnson continued to encourage me, reminding me that talent was meant to be shared. She said, “Your voice is a gift , and the world deserves to hear it. Don’t let shyness rob you of that opportunity.”
Inspired by her words, I gathered all my courage and signed up for the singing competition.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150 左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The day of the singing competition finally arrived.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________As the last music note disappeared, the audience erupted in applause.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . At 33, I did something brave, or some would say stupid. I
In 2012, I started a company to teach girls to code. We immediately see our girls’
Some people worry about our budget deficit (赤字), but I worry about our
| A．ran for | B．lied to | C．voted against | D．traded with |
| A．on | B．off | C．inside | D．behind |
| A．classic | B．simple | C．different | D．complex |
| A．risky | B．perfect | C．stupid | D．beautiful |
| A．fear | B．effort | C．trouble | D．struggle |
| A．code | B．answer | C．deficit | D．character |
| A．random | B．blank | C．marked | D．broken |
| A．used | B．saved | C．cracked | D．deleted |
| A．mess | B．success | C．progress | D．difference |
| A．honesty | B．bravery | C．generosity | D．determination |
| A．face | B．avoid | C．admit | D．expect |
| A．why | B．how | C．when | D．where |
| A．doubt | B．danger | C．uncertainty | D．imperfection |
| A．earn | B．risk | C．impact | D．enjoy |
| A．inspired | B．accepted | C．tolerated | D．protected |
6 . Some songs might speak to your soul even if you don't know the words. The almost magical way that music reflects and influences our emotions led American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to declare it the “universal language of mankind”. But how universal is it really?
A team of more than a dozen researchers and countless undergraduates set out to collect and interpret descriptions and recordings of musical performances around the world. Their first finding: Music is indeed universal. Or at least statistical modeling strongly suggests that more than 99% of societies have music. Then, they analyzed the song descriptions for sixty very different societies and looked at different qualities related to song performance.
As they classified the songs, they found that three dimensions (方面) accounted for more than a quarter of the variability between songs. The first was how formal or informal a song was. Songs high in formality had large audiences and lots of instruments, often involved ceremonial events, and frequently had adult-only audiences. Informal events had smaller audiences, including children, or no audience at all. The second was how arousing a song was to its listeners. Lively events involving lots of dancing were high on this dimension, while a low value reflected a calmer event, like someone singing to themselves or a baby. The last was how religious song was. Songs used in ceremonies were high in religiosity, while those without a spiritual context scored low.
The researchers applied their findings to four widespread categories of music: lullabies (摇篮), dance songs, love songs and healing songs, and found clear trend. Most dance was highly arousing and formal, but low in religiosity. Lullabies were mostly low in formality and low in arousal. And healing songs scored high in all dimensions while love songs were low in all dimensions. Even more interesting, the distribution of these behaviors was similar in all societies studied.
Scholars say that their database could fuel future research into even more inspiring questions about music universals. And their method might be used to pick out patterns in other hard-to-analyze fields, like storytelling or visual art.
1. How was the research conducted?| A．By making comparison and contrast. | B．By finding similarities. |
| C．By collecting and analyzing data. | D．By illustrating examples. |
| A．Lullabies. | B．Dance songs. | C．Love songs. | D．Healing songs. |
| A．Promising. | B．Unpredictable. | C．Impractical. | D．Limited. |
| A．Songs can speak to your soul only if you know their words. |
| B．Differences in formality lead to the variability between songs. |
| C．Music is classified by the number of audience and instruments. |
| D．Research on the universals of music can help explore other fields. |
7 . In an attempt to explore unknown environments, a Chinese team created an octopus (章鱼) — inspired flexible robotic arm capable of sensing and controlling objects in limited spaces and underwater.
According to the study published in the latest edition of Science Robotics, the robot allowed blindfolded human operators to guide its arm, using suckers (吸盘) to pick up various objects, including a toy shark and a smooth metal ball, via a single-finger glove.
This new invention created by a team of researchers, led by Wen Li from Beihang University was inspired by the octopus, which moves its soft arms to catch its games with sensitive suckers.
A simple strategy like this can be used as a model for robotic grasping, controllable with a few inputs, as well as a highly deformable arm with sensing capabilities.
Wen’s team fixed electronics and circuits into the robots while maintaining their deformability. The researchers presented a stretchable electronics-integrated soft octopus arm with 16 air-driven devices and multiple degrees of freedom.
The robot's stretchable, liquid-metal-based electronic circuit can stand super stretching force to perform tasks autonomously in a limited environment, findings from the study showed.
The soft arm with two rows of sensory sucking cups that connect with the wearer's finger can perform a reaching-grasping-returning motion across a range of up to 1.5 times its original arm length, similar to the biological counterpart (对应方), the study revealed.
“This robotic model provides new prospects and development ideas for the future interactive applications of flexible robots, including medical robots, seabed exploration robots, and so on” said the expert.
1. What inspired the invention of the robotic arm according to the passage?| A．The limited spaces underwater. |
| B．The special biological structure of the octopus. |
| C．The desire to explore the living environment of octopus. |
| D．The team work of the researchers from Beihang University. |
| A．Powerful. | B．Changeable. | C．Steady. | D．Active. |
| A．Plastic circuits. | B．Suckers of octopuses. |
| C．Electronic sensors. | D．Arms of octopuses. |
| A．Octopus is a very magic underwater creature. |
| B．Creativity plays a very important part in science. |
| C．The unknown world offers possibility for innovation. |
| D．One invention can bring about a chain reaction of breakthroughs. |
8 . Amy was a dear little girl, but she often tended to waste time in getting ready to do her tasks, instead of doing them at once as she ought to.
In the village in which she lived, Mr. Thornton kept a store where he sold fruit of all kinds, including berries in their season. One day he said to Amy, whose parents were quite poor, “Would you like to earn some money? ”
“Oh, yes,” replied she, “for I want some new shoes, and papa has no money to buy them with. ”
“Well, Amy,” said Mr. Thornton, “I noticed some fine, ripe blackberries in Mr. Green’s field today, and he said that anybody was welcome to them. I will pay you thirteen cents a quart (度量单位) for all you will pick for me”
Amy was delighted at the thought of earning some money; so she ran home to get a basket, intending to go immediately to pick the berries.
Then she thought she would like to know how much money she would get if she picked five quarts. With the help of her slate (书写板) and pencil, she found out that she would get sixty-five cents.
“But supposing I should pick a dozen quarts,” thought she, “how much should I earn then?” “Dear me!” she said, after figuring a while, “I should earn a dollar and fifty-six cents.”
Amy then found out what Mr. Thornton would pay her for fifty, a hundred, and two hundred quarts. It took her some time to do this, and then it was so near dinner time that she had to stay at home until afternoon.
As soon as dinner was over, she took her basket and hurried to the field. Some boys had been there before dinner, and all the ripe berries were picked. She could not find enough to fill a quart measure.
1. Why did Mr. Thornton invite Amy to pick berries?| A．To help her buy new shoes. | B．To help her make some money. |
| C．To help her get rid of bad habits. | D．To help her enter the fruit business. |
| A．Calculate how much she earned. | B．Make use of her slate and pencil. |
| C．Ask for permission from her parents. | D．Get a basket and pick berries quickly. |
| A．Considerate and smart. | B．Reasonable and realistic. |
| C．Idealistic and impractical. | D．Unselfish and independent. |
| A．Lost Blackberries. | B．A Girl Picking Berries. |
| C．How Much Amy Can Earn. | D．The Money Amy Didn’t Earn. |
9 . Post of Executive Director of the AEC Committee
Asia Economic Cooperation (AEC), with 21 Member Economies, is a unique cooperative economic forum that has been successful in promoting regional economic growth through trade and investment liberalization, and capacity building since its foundation in 1989. It has achieved this through open dialogue, trust building and voluntary commitments.
The AEC Committee, based in Singapore, fulfils an important role is supporting the AEC process, including policy, technical and communications services to an extensive range of shareholders.
AEC is looking for a dynamic Executive Director for a 3-year term (with the option for a 1-3year extension) to lead the Committee from January 2025.
The successful candidate should be from an AEC Member Economy and must possess strong leadership qualities, public sector experience, senior management experience, and organizational development experience, high political sensitivity and multilateral work experience, preferably in trade or economic related areas. The candidate should also have managed multi-cultural work environment. The candidate must indicate how their experience and qualifications match those required.
Extensive travel is expected.
More information on AEC can be found at our website www. aec. org. Applications should reach us no later than 15 July 2024 via e-mail hr-recruit@aec. org or mailed to the Human Resource Director, AEC Committee, 35 Heng Mui Keng Terrace, Singapore119616.
Your application must indicate how your experience and qualifications match those required.
Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.
1. What do we know about the The AEC Committee?| A．It is based in Singapore. | B．It leads the AEC process. |
| C．It deals with political issues. | D．It has 21 Member Economies. |
| A．Strong political background. | B．High-level leadership expertise. |
| C．Advanced multi-linguistic skills. | D．Sharp environmental awareness. |
| A．Cover Story. | B．News Updates. |
| C．Career Opportunities. | D．Volunteering Information. |
