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.

While some robots     1     (intend) to assist humans, robotics can also reproduce realistic limb-like functions for those that have lost arms, legs and other parts of their bodies. These prosthetics (义肢) have existed in one form or another     2     at least ancient Egyptian times. Early limb replacements involved     3     (use) materials such as wood or leather for support and balance. In the 1960s, the capabilities of prosthetics to enhance lives were explored. This included incorporating lightweight carbon-fibre material into prosthetics    4     amputees (截肢者) could partake and succeed in sporting activities.

However, it wasn’t until 1986 that electronic prosthetic limbs     5     (explore). Scottish inventor David Gow began his mission to make existing pneumatic(充气的) arms easier to use, lighter in weight and more functional. This led to the first bionic (仿生的) arm being ready for use in 1998. The first user of this bionic arm was a man named Campbell Aird, who lost his arm     6     cancer. After experiencing the benefits of an electrically powered, lightweight limb, Aird said at the time: “For the first time in 16 years I     7     (reach) above my head to pick a book off a shelf. It was a great moment for me.

Today, pioneering work in robotics is allowing     8    who are missing a limb to explore the world with better balance, accuracy, precision, speed and in some cases, even touch.     9     new competitive event called the Cybathlon has been established to compare the speed, skills and efficiency of robotic limbs. The “arm prosthesis race” is designed to rank new robotic arms in sensory feedback, palm rotation ability and coordination in handling objects of different sizes, shapes and weights. Twenty countries partake in this event,     10     (far) driving the innovation of life-changing technology.

3 . Directions: Fill in the blanks with the proper form of the given verbs.

Robot Chef Learns to Twirl (旋转) Pizza Like a Pro

Pizza has a proud history of fueling late-night lab work, and scientists in Naples—an Italian city famous for its pizza—have easy access to some of the world’s tastiest take-out. But what inspires engineer Bruno Siciliano is not that first bite     1     much as how the dish is made.

“Preparing a pizza involves an extraordinary level of agility and dexterity (敏捷和灵巧),” says Siciliano, who directs a robotics research group at the University of Naples Federico Ⅱ. Stretching a deformable object like a lump of dough (面团) requires an accurate and gentle touch. It is one of the few things humans can handle, but robots cannot—yet.

Siciliano’s team     2     (develop) a robot able to make a pizza pie. RoDyMan (short for Robotic Dynamic Manipulation) is a five-year project     3     (support) by a €2.5-million grant from the European Research Council. Like a human chef, RoDyMan must throw the dough into the air to stretch it,     4     (follow) it as it spins and anticipating how it will change shape.

RoDyMan has been working this spring toward a milestone: stretching the dough     5     tearing it. To guide the robot, Siciliano’s team asked master pizza chef Enzo Coccia to wear a suit of movement-tracking sensors. “We learn [Coccia’s] motions, and we copy them with RoDyMan,” Sciliano says.

RoDyMan uses visual sensors in its head to track the dough in real time. Using software, it can train     6     to handle the pizza like a chef would. The robot     7     (map) the dough’s position and tracks how it moves. Through practice, the robot     8     get better—much like humans develop “muscle memory.” Researchers hope RoDyMan’s technology can lead to a new generation of robots that will perform tasks in ways     9     are accurate and responsive, if not more lifelike.

Yet Siciliano admits that     10     compares with a traditional chef. “I would never eat a pizza made by a robot,” he says. “It would not have the taste a real pizzaiolo, with his soul, would put in it.”

4 . Directions: Fill in the blanks with the proper form of the given verbs.

Talking to your therapist over Zoom is as helpful for anxiety and depression as going to in-person therapy. The virtual session, moreover, can be delivered at lower costs, according to a new study conducted in the U.K.

Online therapy has become more and more prevalent since the COVID pandemic,     1     lockdowns forced lots of therapists online. The new study suggests that one of the biggest benefits of virtual therapy     2     be that it can allow people to get treatment faster, which increases their quality of life and reduces the amount of additional medical care they require.

“The actual cost of mental health care doesn’t come from treating these conditions     3     from not treating them,” says co-author Ana Catarino.

Questions emerge about     4     to deliver mental health interventions online best. Catarino and her team compared ieso’s Internet-delivered CBT, which featured a therapist working one-on-one with patients through a text chat,     5     the other services for anxiety and depression offered by the NHS, which covered a variety of therapies.

The findings showed that online therapy was     6     (effective) than the other forms of care. What was most interesting was why. The researchers found that patients who were offered the therapist-guided CBT program got treatment faster. As a result, their quality of life improved more quickly, and they used fewer other medical services.

The paper is likely to “make a big splash” because the authors showed that the success of the virtual CBT program was linked to the fact that it provided patients with a therapist’s guidance every step of the way.

It’s not surprising that virtual therapy works well, says Haim Weinberg, a licensed psychologist. Studies outside the U.K. have found the same, he says. But there is still some bias     7     virtual therapy as somehow second-best, and there are not yet many     8     (establish) training programs to get mental health professionals comfortable with providing care online.

Virtual care won’t be right for every person, but the new study’s results suggest the need to expand access     9     patients aren’t left waiting for help. These findings stress the importance of developing clinical interventions that     10     (prove) to be effective and that can be used at scale to match the demand we know.

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.

Microsoft bakes ChatGPT-like tech into search engine Bing

Microsoft is baking ChatGPT-like technology into its search engine Bing,     1     (transform) an Internet service that lags far behind Google into a new way of communicating with AI.

Though the new version is now limited to desktops and has no interface for smartphones,     2     most people now access the Internet, Mehdi, a Microsoft executive, has said that the technology will scale to millions of users in coming weeks and come to the smartphone apps.

The improvement may give the software giant a cutting edge     3     other tech companies in capitalizing on the worldwide excitement surrounding ChatGPT, a tool that     4     (awaken) millions of people to the possibilities of the newest AI technology in the past few weeks.

Aside from it, Microsoft is also integrating the chatbot technology into its Edge browser. “Think of it as faster, more accurate, more powerful technology     5     (tune) for search queries”, said Mehdi.

The shift to making search engines more conversational — able to confidently answer questions     6     offer links to other websites — could change the advertising-fueled search business, but also poses risks if the AI systems don’t get their facts right. Their opaqueness (不透明性) also makes it hard to source back to the original human-made images and texts,     7     the new Bing includes notes that reference the source data.

“Bing is powered by AI, so surprises and mistakes are possible. Make sure to check the facts.” is a message that appears at the bottom of the preview version of Bing’s new homepage. As an example of how it works, Mehdi     8     (quiz) it on 1990s-era rap, showing its ability to distinguish between the song “Jump” and “Jump Around”. He also used it to show how it could plan a vacation or help with shopping.

Google has been cautious about such moves. But in response to pressure due to ChatGPT’s popularity, Google announced on Monday a new conversational service named Bard that will be available to a group of “trusted testers” before     9     (release) globally this year.

Chinese tech giant Baidu also announced a similar search chatbot coming later this year. Other tech rivals such as Meta and Amazon have been researching similar technology, but Microsoft’s latest moves aim to position     10     at the center of the ChatGPT zeitgeist (时代潮流).

6 . 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.

Imagine for a moment that your unborn child has a rare genetic disorder. Not     1     at least vaguely familiar, such as sickle-cell anaemia or cystic fibrosis, but rather a condition     2     (bury) deep within the medical dictionary. Adrenoleukodys trophy, maybe. Or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

Would you, when your child is born, want to know about it? If effective treatments were available, you probably would. But if not? If the outcome were fatal, would your interest in knowing about it depend on whether your newborn had five years of life    3     (look) forward to, or ten? Or 30?

Today these questions are mostly hypothetical. Precisely because they are rare, such disorders are seldom noticed at birth. They manifest (显现) themselves only gradually, and often with unpredictable severity. But that may soon change. Twenty years after the first human genome     4     (map), the price of whole-genome sequencing has fallen to a point     5     it could, in rich countries at least, be offered routinely to newborns. Parents will then have to decide exactly how much they want to know.

Early diagnosis brings with it the possibility of early treatment. Moreover, sequencing the genomes of newborns could offer a lifetime of returns. A patient’s genome may reveal     6     drugs will work best in his or her particular case for conditions such as ADHD, depression and cancer. Combined with information about someone’s way of life, it could highlight easily neglected health risks such as cancers and cardiovascular disease, leading to better preventive measures. A database of genomes,     7     (match) to living people, would be a benefit to medical research. The fruits of that research, in turn, would make those genomes more useful to their owners as time goes on.

Such a powerful new technology create new dangers. Widespread screening for thousands of potentially harmful genes may be counterproductive: some results may worry parents unnecessarily, because some genetic variations,     8     occasionally indicative of disease, are not strongly so. Parents may not want to unlock all the secrets that their newborn’s genome might reveal. Some may indeed prefer not to know about conditions that cannot be treated. Adult-onset illnesses pose a different dilemma — a reasonable position is that it     9     be up to the children themselves, once grown, to decide whether they want to look at their genomic information. A further concern is that data will not be kept secure, and may be leaked or otherwise misused     10     some point in the future.

7 . Directions: After reading the passages 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.

The illegal ivory trade (象牙贸易) has been a major problem in Africa for decades. Poachers (偷猎者) and hunters have killed hundreds of thousands of elephants to obtain this precious material. Now the areas in which they do it are taking action. The International Union for Conservation (保护) of Nature (IUCN) announced on Dec 3 that key states     1     poaching takes place have made a promise to stop the ivory trade and protect Africa’s elephants.

Recently, top officials and experts from 30 states met to discuss how to protect Africa elephants. The conference,     2     (organize) by the IUCN and the government of Botswana, was held in Gaborone, Botswana’s capital city.

In     3    1980s, as many as 1 million elephants across Africa were killed for ivory. The ivory     4     (use) to make jewelry and other items. This continued until 1989,     5     the convention (大会) on International Trade in Species voted to ban all trade in ivory. Then, elephants’ population slowly began to increase.

According to the IUCN, 2011 saw the highest levels of poaching and illegal ivory trading in at least 16 years. Around 25,000 elephants were killed in Africa that year. “With an estimated 22,000 elephants illegally     6     (kill) in 2012, we continue to face a critical situation,” said John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary- General.

At the meeting, key Africa states where elephants make     7     home agreed to develop a “zero-tolerance approach” to poaching. The deal calls for tough sentences for poachers and hunters, and increased cooperation between states where poaching and hunting is a big problem. All participants at the conference agreed to sign the deal. With these states     8     (come) together, there may be hope for elephants.

8 . Directions: After reading the passages 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.

Despite the popularity of dieting and exercising, more people are bigger than they used to be.

The US is the     1     (overweight) country in the world. But     2     many people’s surprise, China ranks second, with 46 million obese (肥胖的) adults and 300 million overweight.

So why are so many Chinese getting overweight?

According to The Wall Street Journal, China’s weight has grown with its economy. With incomes growing, families     3     afford to eat a lot more food -especially fatty foods like meat. From 1980 to 2013, the average Chinese’s meat consumption       4     (increase) from 12.7kg to 60kg per year.

Unhealthy lifestyles also contribute to China’s obesity problems. Many Chinese families are eating more deep-fried and junk food while exercising little.

It is also likely       5     the family planning policy has created a land of little emperors,       6     are spoiled by their parents and not asked to do any labor at home, commented The Wall Street Journal.

The trend could lead to big problems, as obesity can have severe health consequences. According to the World Health Organization, around 2,8 million adults die each year     7     of obesity-related diseases such as diabetes (糖尿病), heart diseases and cancer.

    8     (encourage) exercise among Chinese, the government is working to increase the nation’ public sporting areas to 1.5 square meters per capita by 2015, Xinhua reported. It is also considering adding PE to the national college entrance examination.

9 . 语法填空

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more commonly     1     (know) as ‘Mahatma’ (meaning ‘Great Soul’) was born in Porbandar, Gujarat, in North West India, on 2nd October 1869, into a Hindu Modh family. His mother, Putlibai, hadn’t received much education but she knew a lot about social affairs and matters of court, and could participate     2     (intelligent) in the talks that took place among the ladies of the royal court.

She used to visit a temple regularly. Gandhi used to accompany her to the temple.     3    , he admitted he was not attracted by the pomp there. But     4     left a lasting mark on his mind was the genuine piety of his mother and her determination to adhere to even the hardest vows     5     the pursuit of her beliefs. To cite an instance, in the rainy seasons, she would vow not to take her meals     6     she saw the sun, and would often have to go without food by the time her children who spotted the sun shouted to her, and she came out to see the sun     7    .

Both Gandhi and his mother were deeply religious although they were not scholars. Many religious visited their house and     8     (engage) in religious discussions. These discussions and     9     atmosphere of the piety in the house must have sown the seeds of faith and tolerance in the mind of young Gandhi. In     10     (late) years, they became the foundation of Gandhi’s firm belief that all religions deserve equal respect.