1 . 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.

Gender Equality

In many cultures, women have historically been discriminated against and treated as second-class citizens. Even today, many girls and women encounter significant challenges. Fortunately, there are organizations     1     (strive) to advance equitable treatment of girls and women.

The question remains     2     girls in various locations truly have equal educational opportunities compared to boys. In countries with overwhelming poverty and strict gender roles, girls face a higher likelihood of       3     (pull) out of school. Shockingly, millions of girls worldwide are forced into marriage before reaching 18, which prematurely ends their childhood and hinders their educational journey.

Even in countries       4     educational opportunities are available for girls, their aspirations (志向) can be limited by psychological barriers. Girls who       5     (not witness) women succeed in particular fields often doubt their own ability     6     (enter) those fields. Nonetheless, as more women achieve success, their influence could potentially pave the way for future generations.

The importance of gender equality extends beyond just women; it benefits society as a whole. Research indicates that every dollar       7     (invest) in women’s and children’s health can yield a significant long-term return of $20. Educated women contribute significantly to their communities     8     their work and by transmitting their knowledge and appreciation of education to their children.

Thus, it is essential to promote gender equality     9     we can build a brighter future where everyone has equal opportunities and society as a whole can reap the benefits of a     10     (educated) population.

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.

The Role of Siblings (兄弟姐妹)

It’s common knowledge that the family a child grows up in has a huge influence on the child’s attitudes, beliefs and mental health. People usually owe this influence to the child’s parents, but relationships with brothers and sisters are just as important.

During childhood, siblings see each other every day and spend more time with each other than anyone else,     1    (share) experiences that last all their lives. Siblings are also forced to persevere in their relationships with each other     2     they have some disagreement. This pushes children     3    (practice) conflict resolution skills since they cannot leave the familial relationship, as they could with a friend. But a sibling relationship also offers a safe place to discuss difficult topics     4     fear of abandonment.

Relationships between siblings vary depending on the ages and personalities of the children     5     (involve). Some children form close, unconditional friendships with their siblings     6     others compete with them. Older siblings often teach their younger brothers and sisters useful skills or give them advice, but they can also set bad examples,     7     (lead) their younger siblings to do things that are wrong or foolish.

Once children grow up, they do not see their siblings as often as before     8     they usually no longer live together. Maintaining sibling relationships now takes work, and if siblings do not get along, they can avoid each other. Sometimes siblings become estranged (疏远的),     9     can include everything from feeling distant or tense to having their WeChat Moments     10     (block) to each other. But many sibling relationships improve in young adulthood as the siblings mature. Sometimes the distance helps siblings enjoy other’s company when they do meet.

Siblings help shape each other’s lives, both as children and into adulthood, so taking the time to cultivate positive relationships with siblings is extremely important.

3 . 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.

Was Air Pollution Monet’s Muse (灵感之源)?

Claude Monet was a French painter who lived at the turn of the 20th century, from 1840 to 1926. He is credited as the founder of impressionism, a painting style characterized by its use of many thin brushstrokes     1    (create) a dream-like quality. Impressionist paintings are celebrated for the way     2     seem to capture a sense of life in motion. Monet didn’t just simply paint landscapes; he wanted to convey the sensations he experienced when he saw them.

Many of Monet’s paintings portray the passage of time, like clouds     3     (drift) through the sky. The landscapes in his paintings often have a misty appearance,     4     fog is clouding edges, and concealing objects that are far away. Some researchers have suggested the mist of Monet’s landscapes     5     have actually been air pollution.

Monet was painting at a time when heavy industry was starting to seriously impact the environment. This was especially true in urban centers like London and Paris. The supposition is that Monet’s works reflect the increasing levels of air pollution that Europe       6     (witness) in the late 19th century and early 20th century.     7     Monet’s painting career progressing, background visibility in his paintings seems to gradually decrease.

In letters to his wife, Monet sometimes described the smoke and fog in London, for     8     he obviously had a preference. Evidence suggests that     9     significant number of Monet’s works were influenced, or even inspired, by the way air pollution affected light and vision.     10     air pollution was the muse for one of modern history’s greatest artists might be true.

5 . 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.

6 QUESTOINS FOR VANESSA NAKATE

Vanessa Nakate is a climate activist from Uganda, and a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Q1: What does it mean       1     (be) a UNICEF goodwill ambassador?

I get to meet people on the front lines of the climate crisis. I see my role as     2     (make) their voices louder. I want to shine a light on the issue of climate change and     3     it’s affecting people, especially children.

Q2: You’ve given speeches about the impact     4     climate change. Which has been your most powerful?

One that has been very powerful for me was when I spoke at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Glasgow, Scotland. I     5     (present) the opportunity to ask government leaders, and also business leaders, to do the right thing to ensure that our planet is protected.

Q3: What’s the hardest part of being an activist?

One of the hardest things is having to see the consequences of climate change. For example, the drought in the Horn of Africa, the flooding in Pakistan, or the recent hurricanes in the United States. It’s very sad to see all those events     6     (happen).

Q4: What keeps you motivated to fight climate change?

You’re interviewing me, and I think that’s so       7     (inspire). It gives me the energy for what I’ll do tomorrow. My motivation comes from young people who are doing       8     for our planet.

Q5: What’s the most recent climate-related project you’ve worked on?

In 2019, I launched a project,     9     we gave solar panels to schools in Uganda. The solar panels have helped bring lighting to the schools, which makes education much easier for the children.

Q6: Climate change can feel frustrating and scary for some kids. What advice do you have for them?

To address this big issue, just find one thing you can do,     10     you are not sure about the outcome. After all, no person is too small to make a difference and no action is too small to transform the world.

8 . 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.

It can take a little imagination to see how some innovations might change an economy. Not so with the latest Al tools. It is easy — from a writer’s perspective, uncomfortably so —     1    (think) of contexts in which something like ChatGPT, a clever chatbot which    2    (take) the web by storm since its release in November 2022, could either dramatically boost a human worker’s productivity or replace them outright. The ChatGPT in its name stands for “generative pre-trained transformer”,     3     is a particular kind of language model.

    4    (feed) huge amounts of human-created text, ChatGPT looks for statistical regularities in this data, learns what words and phrases     5    (associate)with others and therefore predict what words should come next in any given sentence and     6     sentences fit together. The result is a machine that can persuasively mimic (模仿) human language.

This capacity     7     mimicry allows ChatGPT to write essays and poetry, think up jokes, formulate code, and answer questions whether to a child or an expert. Its performance is so astonishing     8     many over the past months have been both celebrating and panicking. “Essays are dead,” wrote the cognitive scientist Tim Kietzmann. Others claim that it will finish off Google as a search engine. And the program     9     thinks it may be able to replace humans in jobs from insurance agent to court reporter.

Nevertheless, there is an     10    (underlie) problem that faces any form of artificial intelligence. A computer manipulates (处理) symbols. Its program specifies a set of rules with which to transform one string of symbols into another, or to recognize statistical patterns. But it does not specify what those symbols or patterns mean. To a computer, meaning is irrelevant ChatGPT ”knows" what appears meaningful to humans, but not what is meaningful to itself

9 . In fact, teenagers ________ want to stay slim often pick up unhealthy habits. (用适当的词填空)