1 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage cohcrent 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.

We Britons have about 60 words for happiness: blissfulness, ecstasy, pleasure, delight...The list is as varied as it is surprising, given that we only just scraped into the top 20 happiest countries in the world this year. Finns, who     1     (name) the happiest nation for the sixth year running, are either onnellinen or iloinen. The latter roughly translates as joyful or glad: you might be iloinen that you’re heading off on boliday. Onnellinen, on the other hand, speaks to the notion of being content with your life,     2     describing a fleeting feeling.

In the decade     3     the first World Happiness Report was released in 2012, four countries have held the top position: Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now Finland. It’s based on an evaluation in which respondents are asked to assess the overall happiness of their current lives on a scale of one to 10.

For the fourth year running, the UK has slipped down the global happiness rankings,     4     (drop) two places to number 19. Even more worryingly, however, the 2022 global Oracle happiness report for the UK specifically found that nearly half of Britons have not felt true happiness in two years. We’re currently behind the US, Israel, New Zealand and Luxembourg, but mercifully ahead of the likes of Afghanistan and Lebanon-currently the two     5     (happy) countries in the world. This persistent decline in British contentment is concerning.

    6     (find) out what we miserable Britons can leam from the Finns, I went to Lake Saimaa — a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Helsinki —   to take part in a masterclass in happiness. It is a resort designed around taking things slowly. Each villa has its own sauna (桑拿浴),     7     (set)in a fragrant pine forest.     8     many friends rightly pointed out, how could anyone not be happy here?

In many ways, though, my admittedly luxurious stay revealed to me     9     the Finns approach happiness for everyone. There’s no doubt they have got a lot of things right — their love of saunas, for one. Known for their health benefits, saunas are fantastic for calming the mind. And with     10     estimated 3 million saunas for a population of just over 5.5 million, they are certainly integrated into everyday life.

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.

Medieval (中世纪的) manners

While I was growing up, “keep your elbows (肘) off the table” was a common remark at dinner time. But, as I learned in our recent podcast episode with medieval historian and author Cybulskie, such remarks have a long history —     1     (date) all the way back to the Middle Ages.

In the medieval period, manners proved more important than today and     2     (prize) particularly by social climbers, because a firm grasp of manners was a way of standing out from the crowd: “It showed you were worldly and educated, and ready to hang out with the most important people of the day.”

But what would have ingratiated (讨好) you with a medieval host, and what kinds of social faux pas (失礼) would have ensured     3     you were never invited back? Practising good hygiene was key, particularly when it came to the dinner table. In this era, dining was a much     4     (intimate) experience, according to Cybulskie, than it is today. When sharing a meal with a dining partner, you would also be sharing cups and plates.

“Don’t blow your nose at the table, or wipe your face on the tablecloth,” Cybulskie advised. As well as listing some behaviour     5     (avoid), Cybulskie shared tips on how to be an attentive dining partner. “You would want to give the best portions of food to your partner at the table,” she said, “and make sure they were comfortable and well taken care of.”

Such social codes were set out in handbooks at the time, one of     6    , The Book of the Civilised Man, written in the early 14th century, was aimed at boys and young men — and, with advice     7     (tailor) to this audience, warned its young readers against “making bodily function jokes at the table”.

Social conventions extended     8     the dining hall. When visiting someone’s house, for instance, it was considered fashionable to wash your hands on arrival,     9     that you didn’t bring dirt inside. Though this is one custom that is in line with us in the 21st century, others feel decidedly medieval: one book asks readers “to make sure you     10     (get) down from your horse before entering someone’s house”.

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.

You may think that mom-and-pop stores are gradually dying out, giving way to chain stores and big business,     1     you would be wrong. The online shopping platform Taobao is a game changer and    2     (revolutionize) the way we buy and sell.

Taobao, or “treasure hunt”, recently became the largest e-commerce website in terms of traffic, surpassing Amazon. It has 190 million    3     (register) users and serves     4     (big) marketplace in the world. Half of China’s Internet users go to Taobao, either to browse, buy or sell, according to Web information company Alexa.

    5     Taobao borrowed its original business model from eBay when it started up in 2003, the student soon became the master. Just three years later, eBay shut down its site and now Taobao controls about 80 percent of the country’s online shopping market.

It charges almost     6     to list items for sale and makes most of its money from advertising. It also plans to share transaction data with its users so they can cash it on buying trends. This allows anyone with an idea and a computer to start a viable business, doing away     7     the need for significant start-up capital.     8     opening up a store on the high street selling to passersby, the world is every Taobao user’s oyster.

A friend of mine is a typical. She opened up a store selling children’s clothing near Nuren Jie,     9     was a popular market in Beijing. It was not a great success but her online sales through Taobao went ballistic. She closed the store and is now e-commerce only.

Effectively, taobao has become the country’s high street, but with global reach.     10     China is the world’s manufacturing base, it is relatively easy for individuals to source cheap goods and sell at a reasonable markup. Micro-stores are opening in their thousands every day and delivering an amazing variety of goods.

4 . 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 Impact of Visual Cues on Behavior

During the energy crisis in the 1970s, Dutch researchers began to pay close attention to the country’s energy usage. In one suburb near Amsterdam, they found that some homeowners used 30 percent less energy than their neighbors     1     the homes being of similar size and getting electricity for the same price.

It turned out that the houses in this neighborhood were nearly identical except for one feature: the location of the electrical meter. Some had one in the basement.     2     had the electrical meter upstairs in the main hallway.     3     you may guess, the homes with the meters located in the main hallway used less electricity. When their energy use was obvious and easy to track, people changed their behavior.

Every habit     4     (initiate) by a cue, and we are more likely to notice cues that stand out. Unfortunately, the environments where we live and work often make it easy not to do certain actions     5    there is no obvious cue to trigger the behavior. When the cues that spark a habit are subtle or hidden, they are easy     6     (ignore).

By comparison, creating obvious visual cues can draw your attention toward a    7     (desire) habit. I’ve experienced the power of obvious cues in my own life. I used to buy apples from the store, put them in the crisper (储藏格) in the bottom of the refrigerator, and forget all about them. By the time I remembered, the apples     8     (go) bad. I never saw them, so I never ate them.

Eventually, I took my own advice and redesigned my environment. I bought a large display bowl and placed it in the middle of the kitchen counter. The next time I bought apples, that was     9     they went. Almost like magic, I began eating a few apples each day simply because they were obvious,     10     (facilitate) the formation of a healthy eating habit rather than keeping them out of sight.

5 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages 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.

What Can One City Do?

People around the world are concerned about global warming and are talking about ways to stop it. The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States, is doing more than just talking. Cambridge wants to become a world leader in energy-efficient buildings.

Today, Naema Omar is improving her 80-year-old house in Cambridge. To keep the heat inside in the winter, she is filling the space inside the walls with insulation(绝缘). Insulation is usually made from chemicals, but in her house, she is using     1     new - insulation made from recycled blue jeans and other clothes. She has also put in a new type of light called an LED lamp    2     uses only a tiny amount of electricity. The light-bulbs in it last for 20 to 30 years before needing     3     (change).

But eco-friendly insulation and lighting are much more expensive than the usual kind     4     many people in Cambridge can’t afford them. A group called Cambridge Energy Alliance (CEA)     5     (work) to solve this problem. They want to help every resident and business in the city conserve energy. People can ask the group to come and look at     6     they can make their house or office building eco-friendly. The CEA then makes them a plan to save 15 to 30 percent on heating, gas, water, and electricity. Then the group help people borrow money to pay for the improvements. The money that people save by being     7     (efficient) should be enough to pay back the loan.

It was ten years ago that the city of Cambridge decided to try to reduce its carbon emissions. More than 80 percent of the carbon dioxide     8     (produce) in Cambridge comes from buildings - not from cars     9     successful, the program will not only save a lot of energy but also make new jobs for local people. Workers    10     (need) to put in insulation, install better doors and windows, and make other energy improvements on buildings. The CEA hopes that their program will be an example for other cities.

6 . 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.

You might not know yourself as well as you think. According to a new study, people are relatively accurate judges of only some of their behaviors.     1     most previous studies on how well people know themselves have been done on long-term personality traits, this new study probes how well people understand     2     they are acting from one moment to the next. Researchers asked participants to wear audio recorders that automatically activated every 9.5 minutes between 7 a.m. and 2 a.m. to record 30 seconds of audio. These participants were then emailed surveys four times a day     3    (ask) them to recall how outgoing, agreeable, or conscientious they were during a particular hour of the day. The study used data from 248 participants, all of     4     answered questions about their behavior for two consecutive weeks and wore the audio device for one of those weeks.

Six laboratory assistants rated each participant’s audio clips     5    (see) how their observations compared with people’s assessment of     6    . The six assistants were generally in agreement with one another about how the people they were observing     7    (act). Further, participants’ ratings of their own behaviors agreed with observers’ for how outgoing and how conscientious they were being. But the agreement between participants and outside observers was     8    (small) for agreeableness. Some of this discrepancy could be because the observers used only audio clips, and thus could not read cues     9     body language, but there are probably other explanations,     10     people should be able to hear when a participant is being kind versus being rude. The weak agreement between how participants thought they were acting and what observers heard could be because people would rather deny rude behavior.

7 . 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.

Is It Dangerous for Micro plastics to Be in the Body?

A new study suggests invasive medical procedures may be an overlooked route of micro plastics exposure, raising concerns about the potential health risks of plastic     1     (get) in the body.

Based on heart tissue samples collected from 15 people who underwent heart operations, scientists discovered tens to thousands of individual microplastic pieces in most tissue samples analyzed—although the amounts and materials     2    (vary) between participants. According to the analysis, a fraction of the plastic pieces identified had a diameter too large to likely enter the body through inhalation(吸入) or ingestion (食入), which indicated that the heart operation     3    (it) may “permit direct access of micro plastics to the bloodstream and tissues.” The researchers cited previous scientific investigation showing that micro plastics have been detected in the air in operating rooms and could directly enter a patient organs are exposed to the air during surgery. The types of plastics    4    (detect) might also offer evidence that micro plastics could be introduced during surgery.

“Previous studies have shown that micro plastics have been found in a number of human tissue samples — blood, lungs, breast milk, feces — which     5    (believe) to come from food, water supplies, or by inhalation,” says Dr. O'Toole, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky. “The importance of this study seems to be that routine medical procedures may introduce them as well.”

    6    micro plastics get into the body, some scientific evidence has highlighted potential health hazards. An analysis looking at 17 previous reports    7    (involve) the impact of micro plastics on human cells, determined that ingesting micro plastics may contribute to cell death, allergic response, and damage to cell walls.

“Chronic exposure may also lead to health problems associated with inflammation (炎症), such as diabetes or liver disease,” says O’Toole. “The danger to one’s health may depend on    8    long these particles have been in the heart. If just introduced during the procedure, micro plastics are probably not    9    immediate concern, but they may cause long-term problems if not cleared.”

While the health implications are still unknown, and limiting exposure in our modern society maybe difficult, avoiding plastic packaging and plastic products when possible might reduce some risk.

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.

Why more young Americans are cyber-bullying themselves

On a Friday night in 2016, Natalie Natividad, a 15-year-old in Hebbronville, took an overdose of pills after enduring months of cyber-bullying. Most of the alleged taunts(所谓的嘲弄)—that she was ugly, that she should kill herself—came on After School, an app    1     allows classmates to discuss one another anonymously(匿名地). Her act led to an investigation. The app’s operators tracked which accounts had sent the abuse, while officials interviewed teachers and students. “We just want some justice,” said Natalie’s sister. “     2     is bullying, I hope that they stop.”

There were no bullies to find. The inquiry revealed that Natalie     3    (send) the abusive messages to herself secretly. Such anonymous “digital self-harm” is increasingly common. But why do it?

Ana, a 20-year-old from Alabama, says she wanted to see     4     someone would stand up for her. At 14, she anonymously posted insults about her appearance to Ask. com, a public question-and-answer site. Then she waited for other people     5    (defend) her. Her motivations, to express self-loathing(厌恶) and to get a reaction, are some of the most common among children who abuse themselves online. In fact, over half of those     6    (interview) say digital self-harm achieved what they had hoped for.

However, much about digital self-harm is still poorly understood. Even the reason for its recent increase has puzzled researchers. Mr Hinduja guesses that the rise is related to increasing emotional instability among adolescents. That     7    (reflect) in a host of other online trends. Some young people turn to a less direct version — seeking out existing self-destructive content.     8     hint that they want a response by posting emotional confessions on social media in the hope that friends will comfort them.

As a technological matter, identifying digital self-harm is relatively easy. Usually this involves finding the computer or account that created the harmful material. The harder part is     9     to do after that, says Mr Patchin. Teachers and parents     10     treat digital self-harm as an indication of other underlying problems. The worst response, according to Ms Englander, would be to dismiss evidence of bullying simply because it might be faked.

9 . 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.

English spelling is ridiculous. Sew and new don’t rhyme. Kernel and colonel     1    . The English spelling system, if you can even call it a system, is full of this kind of thing. Most people     2    (raise) with whatever language learn to read and write it to a very high level of accuracy.

Admittedly, for a non-native speaker, precise mastery usually involves a great deal of confusion and frustration. Part of the problem is that English spelling looks deceptively similar to other languages that use the same alphabet but in a much     3    (consistent) way.

English began its return as a written language in the 14th century. Over generations, it had crept back in among the nobility, as well as the clergy,     4     French and Latin were still the languages of educated and official pursuits.

Some spellings got entrenched this way, by     5    (print) over and over again in widely distributed texts, very early on. The word ghost, which had been spelled and pronounced in Old English, took on the ‘gh’ spelling     6     the influence of Flemish-trained compositors. It was such a commonly encountered word in English text, particularly in the phrase holy ghost and other translations of Latin,     7     it just began to look more common.

Other spellings     8    (arise), and were then cemented through the power exerted by the visual shape of similar words. The existence of ‘would’ and ‘should’, for example, brought about the spelling of ‘could’. There was no explicit intention     9    (make) them look the same, but the frequency of their appearance nudged (推动) them toward ending up that way.

Had the Norman invasion not interrupted the literary tradition of Old English, we might have ended up with a similar situation — old English would have continued to be the basis of the writing tradition that would have later been set into type. Instead, we had     10     number of parts moving and changing independently from each other.

10 . Directions: After reading the passages 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.            

(A)

Apple confirms that the iPhone is getting USB-C

There has been a lot of consumer demand and regulatory push on Apple to change the iPhone’s charging port     1     the lightning connector to USB-C. Earlier this month, the European Parliament voted in favor of the law     2     required phonemakers to adopt USB-C connectors from 2024 — increasing pressure on the tech giant to make the switch.

Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior Vice President of marketing, confirmed on Tuesday that the company     3    (observe) EU’s ruling, but stopped short of sharing any other detail.

Speaking at Wall Street Journal’s WSJ Tech Live event, Joswiak didn’t seem pleased with     4     governments across the world are approaching this issue. A decade ago     5     the EU was promoting micro USB connectors, the firm had a disagreement with them. While the regulatory body’s aim was     6    (reduce) the type of power adaptors consumers were using to make it easier on them, Apple approached the problem differently.

    7    (launch) the lightning connector almost 10 years ago, Apple is the primary connector for many devices including the iPhone, the iPad, and Airpods. Over the last couple of years, Apple has released iPads using USB-C     8     the primary connector — including the latest baseline iPad.

The EU is just one of the regions     9    (push) for a common charger for mobile phones. In June, Democratic senators including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ed Markey sent an open letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo asking the US to follow the EU’s steps. Currently, a common connector rule     10    (consider) among countries like Brazil and India.