1 . 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. amused       B. common       C. complete       D. disconnecting       E. means F. mission       G. perform       H. positive       I. prepared       J. spreading K. struggle

The world of live action role-playing

For many people, the days of playing make-believe (假扮) ended in childhood. But for some, the game of make-believe lives on in Live Action Role-Playing, or LARP. This is a game where people act out characters in a(n)     1     plot. A gamemaster creates the plot and then puts together an event where people     2     the story. Those who find a particular plot interesting sign up for the event. Then the gamemaster, or the players themselves, make up their characters for the story. At the event, each person comes in costume and behaves as their character.

Although pretty much anything goes in LARP, nearly every event involves players completing a(n)     3     together. A gamemaster writes a goal into the plot and usually prepares challenges for the players. For example, a character may hold up the mission, making it hard to     4     the goal. LARP events can be as long as the gamemasters want them to be. They can last anywhere from a few hours to several days.

The genius of LARP is that each event can be any kind of story. The most     5     ones come from fantasy, historical, horror or science fiction genres (体裁). With such a variety of story types, LARP attracts all kinds of people. Some players enjoy LARP as a(n)     6     to practice creating or costume-making. Other players enjoy the challenge of going into different worlds and using their brains to solve puzzles. There are also those who simply want to have fun and make friends.

One     7     LARP players have is coming out of their LARP experiences and returning to the real world. This is especially common after a long event. Most players experience a “bleed,” which describes parts of their LARP experience     8     into their everyday life. Since all the senses — seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting — are at work,     9     becomes difficult. However, researchers agree that the overall effects of LARP are     10    . People of different backgrounds come together to grow their skills, play and express creativity.

2 . Fill in the blank with the given phrases.

A. make comments on   B. stare at   C. be ignorant of   D. be bored with   E. bear repeating F. shortage of   G. be confused with   H. under pressure   I. make sure   J. find fault with K. throughout your life

1. It’s bad manners to ________ others in public.
2. Don’t ________ me. I have spared no effort to complete the job.
3. He will ________ what happened in our classroom yesterday if you don’t tell him the truth.
4. Many citizens are likely to ________ the fast pace of modern life.
5. Please ________ you turn off all the lights before leaving the office.
6. The sugar must ___________ salt, so the soup is sweet.
7. His mother’s expectation of his son’s success put him ________.
8. These well-known stories ________.
9. You can’t avoid making mistakes ________.
10. Sometimes my classmates like to ________ my clothes, which always annoys me.
11. In some large cities of our country, ________ water remains a severe problem.

3 . 选词填空

A. benefit B. closely C. containing D. deprived E. feasted F. fundamental G. introduction H. original I. purchasing J. supply K. typically

The Pleasures of the Table

APRIL 9, 2020 was the darkest day in the recent recorded history of the restaurant industry. The     1     of lockdowns, combined with people voluntarily avoiding others, meant that on that Thursday bookings in America, Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, Ireland and Mexico made via OpenTable, a restaurant-reservation website, whose reservations     2     numbered in the millions plunged to zero.

Being     3     of the dining experience has made people realize how much they value it. Eating out fulfils needs which seem     4     to human nature. People need to go on dates, to seal deals, and to simply have the ability to peer at their fellow humans. At a good restaurant, you can travel without the need to be actually travelling or simply feel rich for a night.

Yet restaurants in their current form are a few hundred years old at most. They do not satisfy some primeval (原始的) urge, but rather those of particular sorts of societies. Economic and social forces have created both the     5     of and demand for restaurants.

People have long     6     outside the home. Archaeologists have counted 158 snack bars in Pompeii, the ancient Roman city destroyed by a volcano in 79 AD—one for every 60 to 100 people, a higher rate than that found in many global cities today. Ready-cooked meals     7     meat and fish were available for Londoners to purchase from at least the 1170s. Samuel Cole, an early settler, opened what is considered to be the first American tavern (酒馆) in1634, in Boston.

These were more like takeaways, though, or stands where food might be thrown in with a drink, than eat-in restaurants. The table d’hôte, which appeared in France around Cole’s time, most     8     resembled the modern restaurant we know and love today. Diners sat at a single table and ate what they were given. Many ofthese early restaurants existed only for the     9     of locals. Strangers were not always welcome.

What does the history of the restaurant say about its future? In recent weeks, global restaurant reservations have risen back up close to their pre-pandemic levels. The long-term future of the restaurant is less clear. The pandemic has led to many people     10     much more takeout food than before, while others rejoice in their newfound love of cooking. Restaurants have little choice but to continue to adapt.

4 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. suspects       B. maintains       C. angles       D. devotion       E. lend F. favor            G. determined       H. analytical       I. inventive       J. credit        K. stirring

The Alphabet Murders

Tony Randall stars as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in the director Frank Tashlin’s extravagant 1965 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “The ABC Murders,” infusing the sleuth’s punctilious style with     1    nerdiness. When Poirot turns up in London to see his tailor, he learns that a circus clown named Albert Aachen has been killed, and he decides to solve the case. Then a bowling instructor named Betty Barnard is murdered, and Poirot     2     the killer of working his or her way through the alphabet. Tashlin transforms the mystery into a giddy parody of Alfred Hitchcock’s films: borrowing his highly inflected, riotously     3     visual styles, Tashlin creates a sort of live-action cartoon, with distorting     4    yielding disorienting juxtapositions, whether from the explosive results of a dish of kidneys flambé or during balletic capers at a bowling alley. In an intricate set piece, Tashlin transforms a casino’s glossy formalities into a theatre of horror, though his subject isn’t bloody murder but its irresistibly macabre, media-friendly allure—the power of such tales to liberate creative energy and     5    the oppressive dullness of daily life an invigorating jolt.—Richard Brody (Streaming on Amazon and playing Sept. 3 on TCM.)

Cinderella Man

Russell Crowe teams up with the director Ron Howard for the story of the boxer James J. Braddock, who fell from     6    during the Great Depression, only to claw his way back and snatch the world heavyweight title in 1935. Crowe lends the character a     7    dourness (冷酷), refusing to turn Braddock’s bewildering comeback into a victory parade—a good thing, too, for without that unsmiling restraint the whole saga might sound too good to be true.

Braddock is presented as a man without sin; his wife, Mae (Renée Zellweger),     8    a rosy-cheeked optimism even when food is scarce; and their children form a group portrait of well-scrubbed     9    . Anybody whose memory resounds to “Raging Bull,” with its bedevilled hero, will feel badly shortchanged by this picture, yet Howard is the right man for     10    simplicity, and his casting is on the money. Braddock’s opponents are gratifyingly bisonlike, and Paul Giamatti, looking natty in a gray plaid suit and tie, has a ball in the role of Joe Gould, the trainer who stood by his man. Released in 2005.—Anthony Lane (Reviewed in our issue of 6/6/05.) (Streaming on Amazon, HBO Max, and other services.)

5 . Directions: Complete the sentences with the words or phrases in the box.Each word or phrase can only be used once.There is one extra that you do not need.

A. attach       B. provoke       C. renovate D. wander       E. switch       F. decline G. initiate       H. symbolize       I. capture

1. Indeed, crude oil   (原油) prices rose after Biden’s announcement, in anticipation that he may__________
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to push oil prices as high as   $100   per barrel.
2. In all of 2020, global large-scale companies had the capacity to__________40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2)—less than half the volume of carbon produced worldwide in a single week.
3. Along the way, passengers have the chance to__________through whitewashed   villages,   feel   the   sea   breeze in picturesque harbors, and explore ancient ruins.
4. The two things he is sure to__________most importance to are the freedom of the individual and the sovereignty (主权) of his country.
5. The survey predicted that the quality of the educational provision and standards pupils achieve might
__________significantly due to lack of funds.
6. The report proposed that the authority__________a new project to enable anyone to put forward any technologies for disease control.
7. The options, one to build an entirely new facility and a second to__________ the existing facility and add a
new part, both come with price tags of several hundred million dollars.
8. Temperatures will remain mild   until winds__________to the northwest after midnight.

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

at fault, watch out for, feel free, seek out, be keen on, make a go of, act out

1. Given that there is a living to be made at night, and given that alternative daytime trades are thoroughly occupied, natural selection has favoured bats that________ the night-hunting trade.
2. The island has always had a magical attraction for tourists, among whom many British artists once________ this “little paradise”.
3. The older labor-intensive machinery still operating in United States integrated plants is________ because of the poor performance of the United States industry.
4. To stimulate the farming industry which had greatly suffered a lot from the economic changes, the government________ any program that pushes the Japanese back towards farming.
5. The company successfully avoided the risks, which________ for a very long time.