1 . Directions: Fill in the blanks with the proper forms of the phrases given in the box. Note that each phrase can be used only once and there are two phrases more than you need.

hold to   fight off   count on   dedicate… to   be targeted for   keep up with   turn in come across   get in the way   make sure

1. Despite feeling exhausted, he managed to ________ the urge to take a nap and continued working.
2. Traditional publishers need to ________ modern technology if they are to cater for changing consumer preferences and survive in the market.
3. A solemn ceremony was held in the town square, where a grand memorial stone ________ the brave soldiers who lost their lives in the war.
4. The engineer wanted to finish the project on time, but unexpected obstacles kept ________.
5. The suspended officer was asked to ________ his medal to the department supervisor.
6. I ________   you to help me navigate through this challenging time.
7. The organization ________ its mission of promoting environmental sustainability and stayed committed in the face of adversity.
8. While cleaning out the attic yesterday, the woman ________ an old photo album filled with cherished memories.

2 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A．moral	B．fortunes	C．drastically	D．extinct
E．emerged	AB．approach	AC．claims	AD．cautiously
AE．ingredients	BC．managed	BD．object

Stressed out? Get chewing: can a wellness rebrand make Americans buy gum again?

When was the last time you saw someone chewing gum? 1998, maybe? 2007? Chances are, it probably wasn’t recently. Like high heels and affordable housing, chewing gum appears to be going     1    

Gum’s popularity has been fading globally thanks to increased competition from products like breath mints and mobile phones distracting us from impulse purchases while shopping. The pandemic, moreover,     2    ·accelerated gum’s decline.

Even after people     3     from lockdown, sales didn’t recover. Gum sales worldwide in 2023 were 10% below 2018 figures. In the US, the drop has been particularly pronounced: last year 1.2 billion units of gum were sold in the US, 32% fewer than in 2018.

However, chewing gum, in various forms, is one of the oldest habits there is. Stone age teenagers were chewing birch bar k tar possibly for pleasure, medicinal purposes, or to use it as a glue. Gum has also been loaded with cultural meaning and the subject of various     4     panics. Some people believe it is a marker of the bad kids or a habit of the lower class.

Despite a certain amount of social stigma（污名） attached to gum, it has - until relatively recently -been a wildly successful product. That’s thanks to William Wrigley Jr, who was a marketing and advertising genius. Wrigley always     5     to find a way to make gum relevant and insert it into consumer culture. For example, Wrigley advertised the idea that chewing gum was a health aid that would help digestion and would relieve stress.

This year the Wrigley brand’s owner —Mars— came out with an ad campaign it hopes will revive gum’s     6     by positioning it as an almost instant stress reliever. Linking gum with wellness worked in the 1910s, but is it going to work now? Alex Hayes at the food consultancy is     7     optimistic. “The global well ness market is estimated to be worth more than $1.5 trillion, so it’s no surprise that Mars wants a piece of the pie,” Hayes says. “We’ve seen the success of categories such as tea promoting their products via functional     8       and messaging-teas for good sleep, mental clarity, stress relief, etc. So it comes as no surprise that Mars is risking the same     9     .” But he also notes, customers are increasingly worried about processed foods and are eager to move away from artificial     10    . There’s still ongoing discussion on just how effective repositioning chewable plastic as a health supplement is going to be.

3 . Directions: Choose the proper phrase from the box and use its correct form to fill in the blanks. Note thatthere is one word more than you need.

on display        be committed to          be rich in on a regular basis       in place          symbolic of          fight off

1. According to medical research, doing exercise _____can release pressure.
2. The artist’s works are _____ in the museum.
3. Shakespeare was also concerned about whether the money related to his works were _____.
4. Fruits and vegetables are necessary nutrients for human beings in that they _____vitamins.
5. Tu Youyou _____ finding a new anti-malaria treatment when she was in Hainan.
6. The change from long to shor hair is _____ the woman’s need for change in her whole life.

4 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can onlybe used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A.function        B.total          C.worthwhile          D.distinguishing       E.achievements F.flowing   G.acknowledge   H.promising   I.treatment     J.prescribed     K.suffered

Over the last 150 years, the field of medicine has accomplished many astonishing things. Some of these medical     1     are well-known, antibiotics, vaccines and organ transplants, for example. Here are three success stories in the world of medical science.

Surviving without a Heart

On July 2, 2008, D’Zhana Simmons from South Carolina was given a heart transplant. She     2     Kfroma condition called dilated cardiomyopathy(扩张型心肌病), which meant that her heart was weakened and her blood wasn’t being pumped efficiently. Her new heart failed to     3     properly, so doctors fitted two pumps to keep her blood     4     while they went looking for a new heart. It was almost four months later, on October 29, that another transplant was carried out successfully. In     5    , she’d lived without a heart for 118 days. This is thought to be the longest a pediatric patient has been kept alive without any heart at all.

Waking People from Comas

In1999, a patient in a persistent vegetative state(植物人状态) due to a motor accident was seen to be twitching(抽动) by one of his nurses. His doctor     6     a common sleeping pill, zolpidem, in case this twitching was caused by discomfort. The doctor crushed it on a spoon, fed it to the patient, and was shocked when just half an hour later, the comatose(昏迷的)person made a noise for the first time in five years. This simple     7     has since been tried with several other patients with marvelous results. Not all patients respond--in fact, around forty percent don’t show any improvement--but those who are successfully rescued from their comas are finally able to     8     their loved ones, and even have conversations.

Restoring Sight to the Blind

Blindness is not a single, uniform condition; it can be variously caused by problems in the eyes, the nerves and the brain. Thanks to machine implants, people who were completely blind sometimes become capable of    9     colours and describing objects.

The device works like a digital camera, creating an image and then sending signals through nerve cells to the brain. Doctors were also able to restore sight to a man who had been blind for forty-three years; they did this with the help of stem cells, one of the most     10     fields in medicine. Neither of these treatments are yet perfect, but they show what science may be capable of in the future.

5 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. craft     B. delicate C. displayed D. document E. enthusiasm   F. featuring G. focus H. highlighting I. involved J. recognized K. stunning

A Destination to Treasure

With the popularity of various online platforms, more and more people would like to share what they saw and what they did in life and travel. Long, a video blogger, is an example.

One of the videos featured on Long Yan's account on the short-video platform Douyin is a tour through the     1     natural landscape and folk customs of Guizhou Province. Long has produced more than 170 such videos,     2     the unique charm of destinations in the southwest of the country. In his view, Guizhou's natural and cultural landscape,       3    mountains, lakes and rivers, diverse ethnic customs and deep, profound history deserve to be better-known by online audiences.

Over the past three years, Long's video content has undergone noticeable changes.He originally focused on natural scenery but has been increasingly     4     in deeper exploration of humanity and cultural heritage.

Since December, Long launched his own project, aiming to     5     100 examples of intangible cultural heritage across the country in three years. To do his part, Long has     6     stories about inheritors of intangible cultural heritage and helped more people witness their commitment to their    7    . Long was exposed to a variety of fascinating examples of intangible cultural heritage. “It occurred to me that landscape scenery has a better chance of continuing to exist than human cultural forms do," he says. “That heritage would disappear quickly if not recorded and broadcast.” His first intangible cultural heritage video was about the     8     leaf-vein embroidery technique practiced in Tongren city,Guizhou.

Long has been     9     by Douyin as a “rural guardian" contributing to village development, and has delivered six videos on intangible cultural heritage so far. He has already seen positive results from his initial work. Many of his young followers have shown     10     for experiencing what he has posted. "They really enjoy intangible cultural heritage, and are rooting for the revival of traditional culture, as well as the establishment of national self-confidence," he says.

6 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. application	B. currently	C. initial	D. detection	E. previously	F. feasibility
G. primarily	H. intelligent	I. active	J. availability	K. predictable

The agricultural sector is going to face enormous challenges in order to feed the 9.6 billion people that the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) predicts are going to inhabit the planet by 2050: Food production must increase by 70% by 2050, and this has to be achieved in spite of the limited     1     of arable (适合耕种的) lands, the increasing need for fresh water (agriculture consumes 70 per cent of the world’s fresh water supply) and other less     2     factors, such as the impact of climate change, which, according to a recent report by the UN could lead, among other things, to changes to seasonal events in the life cycle of plants and animals.

One way to deal with these issues and increase the quality and quantity of agricultural production is using sensing technology to make farms more “    3    ” and more connected through the so-called “precision agriculture”.

Precision agriculture, also known as “smart farming”, is not new, In the beginning, it was about position technologies     4    , but it is becoming more complex moving towards all the aspects of agriculture.

It’s something that’s already happening, as corporations and farm offices collect vast amounts of information from crop yields, soil-mapping, fertilizer     5    , weather data, machinery, and animal health. In a subset of smart farming, Precision Livestock Farming (PLF), sensors are used for early     6     of reproduction events and health disorders in animals.

The European Union has sponsored several projects on the topic. The     7     running EU-PLF project, for instance, is designed to look at the     8     of bringing proven and cost-effective Precision Livestock Farming tools from the lab to the farm.

Several private companies are also starting to be     9     in this field, such as Anemon (Switzerland), eCow (UK), Connected Cow (Medria Technologies and Deutsche Telekom). Smart fishing is at     10     stage with some projects in Europe, South Korea, North America and Japan.

7 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. wonder   B. regular   C. doubt D. physically E. breathing F. wealth G. functioning   H. flexibility I. flow J. generally K. mood

Sometimes it’s the simplest daily practice that can have the biggest impact on your health, and yoga is proof of that. Although most forms of yoga aren’t considered to be as intense as other workout regimens, practising yoga on a daily basis has been scientifically demonstrated to help you mentally and     1    . Through breath work, meditation and holding poses that increase strength and     2    the body and mind gain benefits from yoga that positively impact your long-term health. It’s no     3    people have been practising yoga for over 5000 years, and that the number of Australians practising yoga doubled between 2008 and 2017 to over two million, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Yoga teacher, Jenni Tarmar, shares, “we have a     4    of research demonstrating that a regular mindfulness practice - the act of paying attention to the sensation in the body, thoughts and emotions without judgment - can reduce stress and help us to feel calmer, more productive, and     5    more even-keeled in our daily lives.”

After evaluating yoga history and research, one 2014 review published in Frontiers in Human Neouroscience concluded that     6    yoga practice can help facilitate self-regulation. Another study of adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 found that practising yoga positively benefited emotional regulation and self-esteem. “Movement releases beneficial neurotransmitters (神经转发器) in the brain, which helps us feel good as well as assist in     7    regulation,” says yoga instructor, Evan Lawrence. “One of the things that I like about yoga specifically is that there is, at the same time, a focus on physical movement and     8    .”

According to associate professor of psychiatry, Dr Gail Saltz, “practising yoga improves overall blood     9    to the body, including the brain, which is helpful for cognition and memory.”

One 2019 review published in Brain Plasticity concluded that behavioural interventions like yoga can help “mitigate age-related and neurodegenerative decline” due to the positive effects a daily practice has on different parts of the     10    brain, like the hippocampus (which plays a major role in learning and memory) and the prefrontal cortex (cognitive control functions).

8 . Directions: After reading the sentences below, fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. emerge   B. enthusiastic     C. manual   D. options   E. polish F. rate     G. remote       H. serve     I. signal     J. subject   K. workout

1. His experience in the field will ________ as a valuable advantage to the company’s new project.
2. Her ________ control allowed her to access various functions from a distance, making her life more convenient.
3. She felt energetic after her morning ________, ready to tackle the day ahead.
4. The technician handed me the ________ so I could understand how to operate the new machinery.
5. We were presented with several ________ for the dinner menu, ranging from vegetarian to sugar-free dishes.
6. She took a moment to ________ her speech, ensuring that it was clear and engaging for the audience.
7. Employees should be aware that they will be ________ to periodic performance reviews.
8. How would you ________ the quality of service at the new restaurant?
9. After months of hiding, the artist decided to ________ from his studio and unveil his latest masterpiece.
10. He raised his hand to ________ that he had a question during the meeting.

9 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. allowing   B. detectable   C. hazard     D. irresponsible E. linked    F. optimism   G. punishing   H. routes     I. sowed     J. unavoidable   K. widespread

Time for a clean-up

You are probably aware of the term “forever chemicals”, if not entirely clear on the specifics. What they are is a class of around 16, 000 artificial compounds called PFAS that break down very slowly, if at all in the environment and our bodies. They are extremely useful, but also a potential     1     to wildlife and human health. After more than 80 years of     2     and often unlimited use, PFAS pollution is more or less everywhere, from the soil on our farms to the rain that waters them. In all likelihood, you have a(n)     3     amount of these chemicals in your body.

A growing body of research has     4     exposure to some types of PFAS to harmful effects, such as kidney disease, immune dysfunction and certain types of cancer. Just a few parts per trillion of some forms accumulated over time is enough to be damaging. Moreover, exposure is more or less     5    . Skipping greaseproof (防油的) packaging or filtering tap water may limit acute exposure, but there are many other pollution     6    . In any case, for most of us, it is already too late.

How did we let it come to this? To some extent, society is reaping what it     7     by permitting so many novel chemicals to be released without a proper system to test their safety first. That has to change, and not just for PFAS. Time and again we find, too late, that industrial chemicals are harmful—as now seems the case with those in some climbing shoes—while     8     the firms that make them to carry on business as usual. There is nothing illegal in that. Nevertheless, the PFAS industry has been extremely     9    . There is good evidence that some producers have known for decades that the chemicals could cause harm, but actively confuse that knowledge. As the science of PFAS advances, there is     10     that they can be replaced, as well as rounded up (聚集) from the environment and destroyed.

10 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. mix       B. specialty          C. extraordinary            D. distinguish        E. private F. contribute       G. expose        H. shifted     I. challenges     J. respective     K. favored

Many of us grow up dreaming of becoming an astronaut. Ever wonder what it takes to be one?

Take NASA for example.

In order to catch NASA's eye, would-be astronauts must not only stand out in required skills and pass physical and psychological exams, but also find unique ways to    1     themselves from the harsh competition.

NASA's requirements for becoming an astronaut have changed over the years. Originally, it     2     candidates with a military flight background, with at least 1,000 hours spent in command of a jet aircraft. In 1978, however, NASA    3     its focus to a more varied group of astronauts:scientists and engineers with at least three years of experience in their     4     fields.

During the years of shuttle missions, everyone had a    5     : some would focus on robotics,others on spacewalks or maintenance. To work on the space station, astronauts must be able to perform all tasks, which encourage applicants to acquire different experiences. Jeanette Epps, an astronaut, studied aerospace engineering, worked at Ford Motor Company and took a job with the CIA before joining NASA. She says astronauts’ varied backgrounds     6     to their ability to adapt and learn anything quickly.

After ensuring that candidates are U. S. citizens and that they satisfy basic education and experience requirements, the selection committee enters a gray area.“We’re not really looking for one thing, just a good     7     of things,”said Duane Ross, the manager for astronaut candidate selection and training.

To the committee, candidates who take on    8     outside of the workplace demonstrate curiosity and energy. Many astronauts who don't have a military background do hold a(n)    9    piloting license. Some are enthusiastic mountain climbers, scuba divers or skiers. Others are musicians, dancers, or play competitive sports. Choosing to    10     themselves to different, extreme environments counts as another way to stand out from the crowd.