1 . Primary and secondary school learners, university students, and guests were invited on Wednesday and were treated to a colorful celebration at the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi, to mark the beginning of the year of the dragon which officially starts on Saturday. The place featured beautiful decorations with red and gold colors and lucky symbols.

Visitors got an opportunity to participate in cultural experiences including painting, papercutting and pot throwing as well as experiencing Chinese cuisines like spicy hotpot, steamed stuffed buns (包子) , Chinese hamburgers, dumplings and barbecue among others. They were also treated to heartwarming performances including face-changing, lion dance, dragon dance, drumming, Chinese opera, Chinese songs and a talent show featuring Chinese traditional clothes as well as a mixture of Chinese and Kenyan fashion.

Leah Muthoni, a student at the University of Nairobi lauded the Chinese cuisines served at the event, especially noodles and dumplings. She also appreciated the decorations, drawings, pictures and performances. Similar feelings were also shared by George Mwita, another student from the University of Nairobi who greatly enjoyed the pot throwing game.

In his welcoming speech, Professor Stephen Kiama, the vice headmaster of the University of Nairobi who doubles up as the Kenya director of the Confucius Institute, hoped this year will be a good year of development because the Chinese dragon horns represent power and strength, while the drums represent courage and energy.

Kiama said the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi has achieved a lot since its establishment in 2005, including winning the Confucius Institute of the Year Award seven times and pioneering the establishment of the Bachelor of Arts in the Chinese language in Kenya. “Last year, with the joint efforts of the various parties and stakeholders we established the first bachelor of education in Chinese in Kenya and we admitted the first group of students,” he said. Kiama hopes that this year the Confucius Institute will gain more force with the blessing of power, courage and vitality from the year of the Chinese dragon. He said the Confucius Institute offers a good platform for cultural exchange between China and Kenya through events like the Chinese Lunar Year celebrations. Kiama hoped that the relationship between China and Kenya would further be strengthened by the blessings of the year of the dragon.

In Chinese methodology (方法论) , the dragon has the power to control seasons, time and harvests, and it’s seen as a symbol of wealth. The Chinese consider dragons to be powerful. sympathetic, wise, kind and warm.

1. What is spoken of as one of the cultural experiences the visitors participated in?

A．Tasting Chinese cuisines.	B．Writing with brushes.
C．Reciting Chinese poems.	D．Guessing lantern riddles.

2. Which can replace the underlined word “lauded” in Paragraph 3?

A．Mixed.

B．Praised.

C．Delivered.

D．Sold.

3. What is the fact about the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi?

A．It has the biggest number of students in Africa.

B．George Mwita is one of the Chinese teachers there.

C．It has won the Confucius Institute of the Year Award seven times.

D．They set up the first bachelor of education in Chinese in Kenya in 2005.

4. What is the best title for the news report?

A．Kiama considers dragons to be powerful and sympathetic

B．Confucius Institute offers good platform for cultural exchange

C．Kiama wishes year of dragon good for development of Confucius Institute

D．Confucius Institute at University of Nairobi marks year of dragon celebrations

2 . The diversity of Australian animals in NSW national parks is extraordinary. Some common species can be found across a range of parks, while others are endemic (特有的) to a specific area. Our national parks are also important shelters for threatened animals, many found nowhere else in the world. The following are some examples.

Albert’s lyrebird

The Albert’s lyrebird is much rarer than the superb lyrebird. Distinguished by its richer brown feather and less delicate tail feathers, it’s protected as a threatened species in NSW.

Cumberland Plain land snail

The endangered Cumberland Plain land snail is only found on the Cumberland Plain, west of Sydney. During drought it digs deep into the soil to escape severe conditions. Its brown shell is thin and fragile (脆弱的).

Australian fur seal The largest fur seal

Australian fur seals are found in isolated rocky outcrops and islands along the NSW coast. They come ashore to form breeding colonies (繁殖地) and can often be seen at Barunguba Montague Island Nature Reserve.

Australian brush turkey

The Australian brush turkey, also known as bush or scrub turkey, can be found in rainforests along eastern NSW. With a striking red head, blue-black feather and booming call, these distinctive Australian birds are easy to spot while bird watching in several NSW national parks.

1. What do Albert’s lyrebird and Cumberland Plain land snail have in common?

A．They live in the soil.	B．They hate dry conditions.
C．They have long feathers.	D．They are species in danger.

2. What can we know about Australian brush turkey from the text?

A．They breed on the sea shore.	B．They are red from head to tail.
C．They adapt to rainforest climate.	D．They are only seen on isolated islands.

3. Where can we read the text?

A．In a science report.	B．In a personal diary.
C．In a tourist brochure.	D．In an educational magazine.

3 . We went deep into the earth through dark, narrow caves. When I got used to the light, I stood amazed.

A vast lake or even an ocean, spread far beyond where the eye could see. The shore was lined with shining sand, being softly lapped by waves. It was covered with small shells once inhabited by the first living beings. Around this sea stood a huge rock wall being worn away by the endless action of the waves.

I could see far over this great sea because it was being lit up by a strange light. Not sunlight, of course, as we were deep below the surface. Under the “sky”, if it could be called so, being made of rock, were also vast clouds. The light gave no heat, so the place felt rather gloomy (幽暗的). We were shut up inside a vast cave which must have been several miles high.

My imagination was powerless before such wonders. I felt like I was on some distant planet, and was both amazed and rather scared. However, I was energetic by the breezy salty air supplying more oxygen to my lungs. After many days in much narrower spaces, it was a great relief.

We began to walk following the shore. Soon in front of us appeared a tall, dense forest, composed of trees formed like umbrellas. “Mushrooms!” said my uncle. And he was right! There were mushrooms in their thousands, and each at least thirty feet high.

“Now look under your feet!” cried my uncle and I noticed many bones being crushed under our feet as we walked. Might some monsters still roam (漫步) through these gloomy forests? I anxiously surveyed the landscape, but we were the only living creatures here. Thankfully!

Eventually we returned to the cave we had entered from, and I fell asleep with strange thoughts.

— Journey to the centre of the earth

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

A．Caught in.

B．Sought for.

C．Sheltered from.

D．Beaten against.

2. Which words can best describe the scene in the author’s eyes?

A．Huge, strange and amazing.	B．Sunny, windy and wonderful.
C．Salty, narrow and comforting.	D．Cloudy, gloomy and embarrassing.

3. What was found on the shore?

A．A high and thick forest composed of tree-shaped umbrellas.

B．Lots of bones belonging to monsters that might have disappeared.

C．Thousands of mushrooms measuring no more than thirty feet high.

D．A couple of roaming creatures living in the gloomy and distant planet.

4. What can be inferred from the text?

A．The author kept awake in the cave they had entered from.

B．The author thought it strange that he fell asleep in such a cave.

C．The author enjoyed the experience though he felt scared sometimes.

D．The author encountered with a monster before he returned to the cave.

4 . How to Read Candidates’ Body Language in an Interview

Body language matters, especially in interviews.     1     Our posture, gestures, movements or facial expressions can shape our reputations. Learning to read body language is about understanding candidates’ motives.

Reading body language during interviews can provide valuable insights into a candidate’s personality.     2     Here are some common interview body language signals that you can learn to read.

Observe extreme behaviour. A candidate’s harmless action doesn’t mean they won’t fitin well at your company. But be careful about extreme behaviours, like a person constantly checking their phone.

    3     You can read people’s body language by observing changes in their movements or posture. Imagine, for example, that a candidate suddenly starts tapping their foot. Maybe they feel the interview is taking too long. Or perhaps they’re facing an uncomfortable question.

Connect the dots.     4     For example, people may cross their arms when they’re cold. But, when you see a candidate crossing their arms, crossing their legs and balling their fists at the same time, prepare yourself for an aggressive (咄咄逼人的) answer.

Candidate experience greatly depends on an interviewer’s body language. Positive body language can make candidates relax and open up. Negative body language can spark (引发) defensive and reserved reactions.     5    

A．Spot the difference.

B．Ask detailed questions.

C．It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.

D．They don’t necessarily act the same way all the time.

E．However, understanding body language isn’t an exact science.

F．You can’t always tell what a specific gesture means on its own.

G．Be aware of mistakes to preserve a positive candidate experience.

5 . Right now someone is speaking or thinking in a language that is on the verge of disappearing. Of the world’s roughly 7,000 spoken languages, one dies every 40 days, according to one estimate — languages like Babanki, spoken in Cameroon.

And some of the places where rare languages are the most concentrated are also most vulnerable (易受影响的) to climate change. Especially, linguists call global warming the final nail in the coffin (致命一击) for more than half of humanity’s language disappearing.

Let’s take Vanuatu, a South Pacific island nation, for example. It’s very small, but it has 110 languages spoken there, which is the highest density (密度) of languages in the world. It is also one of the countries most at risk of sea level rise and climate change. There, you can often see perfect hurricanes.

So if rising seas or storms force people in Vanuatu to move to Australia, what happens to the language they speak? Well, what often happens is that they aren’t necessarily displaced with the same people in their community, and also, even if they are displaced with other people in their community, they and their children will often adopt the language of Australia, the dominant language there because it’s economically advantageous for them to speak the new language, the dominant language. And their language dies.

However, there is so much culturally lost when a language dies. It is because the language carries so much local knowledge and culture.

In fact, in the 1970s, it was something like 2,000 native speakers of Hawaiian remained. But activists launched some schools where children are taught from birth, usually by kind of grandparents, and now more than 18,700 people speak it. And the same thing happened in New Zealand in the 1970s. Only 5% of young Maori people spoke the language, but now something like 25% now speak it.

1. What do we know about Vanuatu?

A．Its most languages have died out.

B．It is sensitive to climate change.

C．It witnesses various disasters every year.

D．It is the highest density of population in the world.

2. What will happen to people who are forced to leave Vanuatu for Australia?

A．They lose their advantages in economy.

B．They have few chances to speak their own language.

C．They fail to contact people in their previous community.

D．They willingly teach their kids the language of Australia.

3. What is the author’s attitude towards language disappearing?

A．Favourable.

B．Concerned.

C．Doubtful.

D．Unclear.

4. What does the last paragraph want to convey?

A．More languages are faced with dying out.

B．It’s a must for kids to learn their mother tongue.

C．Grandparents play a vital role in passing down languages.

D．More efforts have been made to save endangered languages.

6 . If you mention “voice technology”, most people think of Siri, Alexa or Cortana. While personal artificial intelligence (AI) assistants are becoming increasingly popular in our everyday lives, they are just one use of voice tech, and are primarily designed for adults.

Irish tech company SoapBox Labs wants that to change. The company has developed speech recognition technology designed specifically for children, and it’s already in use across a range of applications, from toys to education apps.

Children’s voices differ from that of adults. “Typically, they have a higher pitch (音高), and may use different language or speech patterns, which regular voice technology cannot always pick up on.” explains Patricia Scanlon, the founder of SoapBox. “It’s understandable that an industry that has spent decades working on technology and only focusing on adults runs into a fairly significant problem when they try to apply it to children.”

Rather than making slight changes to the available voice technology already on the market, SoapBox builds its voice engine from scratch-focusing on children aged 2 to 12. The company says it created a data set to train its AI system, made up of thousands of hours of children’s speech collected in real-world noisy environments-kitchens, classrooms and cars-from kids of all ages, accents and dialects (方言)，from a total of 192 countries.

This opens up a whole new market, for which there’s growing demand. More than 8 billion digital voice assistants are expected to be in use, and there is an increased focus on adapting the tech for children.

SoapBox, which is selling a technology rather than a product, has attracted more than 50 clients from around the world. The technology can help a child learn to read or learn a language. It acts as a helpful adult, reacting immediately to the child and giving them one-on-one time, and it can also help to record a child’s progress and provide recommendations to a teacher or parent.

1. What makes SoapBox different from Siri?

A．Its use of voice tech.

B．Its creative use of AI.

C．It is designed for children.

D．It is used on many applications.

2. What can we infer according to Scanlon in paragraph 3?

A．A lot of effort has gone into developing SoapBox.

B．Voice technology has much room for development.

C．There has been great demand for a system like SoapBox.

D．SoapBox understands adults’ voice better than that of children.

3. What did SoapBox use to build its voice engine?

A．Recordings of 192 dialects.

B．Data from a previous system.

C．Speech from people of all ages.

D．Newly-collected speech of children.

4. What does the underlined word “recommendations” in the last paragraph mean?

A．Markets.

B．Suggestions.

C．Experiments.

D．Problems.

7 . A great skill to have is the ability to solve problems effectively, specifically interpersonal and behavioral problems. In order to achieve this, you need to follow a few key requirements.     1    

First, you should understand “why” the problem exists.     2     If you know something about why the problem exists, you’ll have a better time to resolve the problem. Let’s take the example of a child who doesn’t want to come to school. Before you can reach a solution, it is important to find out why the child doesn’t want to come to school.

Once you have clearly identified the problem, you need to understand what you have control over and what don’t.     3     You may not control whether a child comes to school, but you are able to deal with the barrier to the child not wanting to attend school.

Don’t jump to conclusions. Once you have all of your information, analyze it carefully and look at it from various viewpoints. Be as objective as possible and don’t be quick to judge.     4     This is a time for you to use your critical thinking skills.

    5     How many options do you have? Are you sure? Which options seem reasonable? Have you weighed the pros and cons (事物的利与弊) of your options? Are there any limitations of your options? Are there any options better than others and why? Are there advantages and disadvantages you need to take into consideration?

A．Now determine your options for solutions.

B．Remain judgment-free as much as possible.

C．Ask yourself questions about what options you have.

D．That means figuring out the actual root cause of the problem.

E．Read on to find how to become a more effective problem solver.

F．The strategies in problem-solving are good lifelong skills to have.

G．Your efforts must be within the areas where you are in the driver’s seat.

8 . Writer Andrew Leland started losing his sight 20 years ago, when he was in high school, as a result of a progressive eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa (色素性视网膜炎). His first experience of loss of sight happened temporarily at night, in which he was confused that everyone else seemed to see in the dark so much better than he did. Over the years, his disease has progressed gradually. He’s now legally blind, although he still has a narrow field of vision, which allows him to see about 6% of what a fully sighted person sees.

Leland analogized his vision to the view you might get by looking through a toilet paper tube or a keyhole. He said, “Imagine having that toilet paper tube tied to your head and trying to walk down the street; there’s a whole bunch of things you don’t see but that you really ought to, like dogs.”

In his new book, The Country of the Blind, Leland writes about losing his vision and preparing for blindness, how his condition impacts his identity, how the world sees him and his marriage, and something valuable he has learned.

He said he was not going to try to tell people that having vision was not an unbelievably useful thing for a human being for many reasons. When talking about the experience of being alive and being conscious, he referred to James Joyce — Joyce believed that he was only losing one world among many, and that vision was only a tiny part of experiences when he was going blind.

He thought if you looked at the things that blind people were capable of imagining, like John Milton writing Paradise Lost as a blind person, there was this unbelievable richness in humans’ consciousness that vision had nothing to do with. Other realms (领域) such as the mental and emotional realms were all so rich that they could also help unfold things on earth before you.

1. What do we know about Leland?

A．He went totally blind in high school.

B．He experienced night blindness at first.

C．He was born with a narrow field of vision.

D．He was aware of his condition throughout.

2. Which is closest in meaning to “analogized” underlined in paragraph 2?

A．Connected.

B．Reduced.

C．Compared.

D．Exposed.

3. Why is James Joyce mentioned?

A．To help explain an opinion.

B．To stress the value of good vision.

C．To state his considerable influence.

D．To show the inconvenience of blindness.

4. What message is conveyed in the last paragraph?

A．Practice is the best teacher.

B．The blind have more vivid imagination.

C．Things are not set in concrete.

D．Vision is not the only window in the world.

9 . A film, also called a movie, is a work used to communicate ideas, stories, feelings, beauty and much more through the use of moving images. This article therefore introduces some right movies or TV series which will benefit students in one way or the other.

Like Stars on Earth

This is a heart touching Indian movie that tells the story of a boy named Ishaan Awasthi. He is an 8-year-old boy with dyslexia (阅读障碍) and this greatly influences his performance in school. Ishaan has an amazing talent for art and painting, but no one would like to know him and be his friends until a new art teacher, Ram Nikumbh, arrives. He takes special interest in Ishaan and discovers Ishaan’s problem and his artistic talent.

The Social Network

It tells us the story of young Mark Zuckerberg who is an undergraduate at Harvard and also a computer genius (天才). He begins to work on an idea which grows into a globally recognized social network called Facebook. This makes Mark one of the youngest billionaires existing.

Grownish

Filled with real life situations and grown up people, this series takes us back to university-lifestyle. Grownish through four amazing seasons, teaches us how to navigate (驾驭) the university through the eyes of Zoey Johnson. Zoey is a talented fashion designer and stylist who seems to have the world all planned out for her.

King of Boys 2

If you haven’t already seen the first movie in this series, you should take two steps back so you don’t get lost in this political (政治的) forest. This movie is the type that has you sitting at the edge (边缘) of your seat from start to finish. King of Boys 2 takes us to the underworld of a truly dirty game called “politics”.

1. Why is the 8-year-old boy named Ishaan doing poorly in school?

A．He has difficulty reading.	B．His teachers dislike him.
C．He fails to make new friends.	D．He takes no interest in studies.

2. Who founded Facebook?

A．Ram Nikumbh.	B．Mark Zuckerberg.
C．Zoey Johnson.	D．Ishaan Awasthi.

3. What is King of Boys 2 about?

A．An art teacher’s story.	B．A computer genius.
C．A fashion designer’s growth.	D．A political game.

10 . The Chinese Students and Scholars Association in the UK held a Spring Festival gala (庆典) on Wednesday in London to count down to the Chinese New Year. More than 900attendees, including representatives from British universities and education institutions, as well as Chinese students and scholars, joined to enjoy a feast of Chinese culture.

This year’s Chinese New Year falls on Saturday, and 2024 is the year of the dragon based on the Chinese zodiac. The dragon is considered by the Chinese people to represent dignity, prestige, and fortune.

The festival gala, with a theme of “Soaring Dragon’s Spring Melody”, featured Chinese folk music, dance, singing, martial arts performance and more.

During the event, Zheng Zeguang, China’s ambassador to the UK, made a speech to the attendees, highlighting major accomplishments achieved in the past year and stating China’s future development focuses.

He pointed out that China will determinedly pursue high-quality development and Chinese modernization to advance the great rejuvenation (复兴) of the Chinese nation. China will also call for an equal and orderly multipolar (多级的) world as well as for inclusive economic globalization that benefits all, Zheng noted. “Our motherland has bright prospects for future growth,” he said.

The ambassador praised Chinese students and scholars for being hardworking and behaving in a controlled way, saying that the number of Chinese students in the UK has significantly increased due to the transformation of China. “I hope you will carry on the tradition of patriotism. I hope you will ai m high and work hard. I hope you will unit e and help each other, as well as make friends widely. I hope you will grow into the backbone of the nation in the near future,” he said.

Alistair Fitt, vice-headmaster of Oxford Brookes University, extended warm wishes of good fortune and prosperity in the year of the dragon and expressed hope for progress in Sino-British relations. “I am very sure that our two great nations will continue to expand all of our very successful relationships,” he said.

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

A．The condition of being strange and alone.	B．The condition of being respected and admired.
C．The condition of being large and frightening.	D．The condition of being followed and monitored.

2. Why has the number of Chinese students significantly risen in the UK according to Zheng Zeguang?

A．Advertising activities have been organized well in China to promote British universities.

B．Chinese students are most attracted by the scenery in the UK.

C．The education fees in the UK have been reduced.

D．Great changes have taken place in China.

3. What does Alistair Fitt mainly express in the last paragraph?

A．His suggestions.

B．His surprises.

C．His arrangements.

D．His expectations.

4. What is the best title for the news report?

A．Spring Festival gala brings joy to Chinese students in UK

B．Chinese students in UK count down to Chinese New Year

C．Warm wishes of good fortune expressed in year of dragon in UK

D．China’s ambassador to UK states China’s future development focuses