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. present        B. features        C. concerned        D. reportedly        E. commercial             F. stretches       G. overwhelming H. exceptionally        I. routinely        J. spared             K. broadcasts

Modern media is awash in advertising clutter(杂乱), and who’s to blame? Modern audiences that hate conventional full-length and full-size ads.

Today’s consumers don’t like to pay for content, which ought to create a rich environment for advertisers. Yet these same consumers are prone to click or turn away when a conventional ad appears. The result is ad clutter.

YouTube     1    a combination of full-length ads, skippable ads, lower-screen banners and display ads on the page alongside each video. Newspapers that once considered the front page important now     2    run ads there.

Advertisers integrate plugs(推销) into content to frustrate digital video recorders, which allow viewers to watch programs on a delay and skip regular commercials. If you watch regional telecasts of baseball games, the commercial clutter is so     3    . Ads are visible on the stadium wall behind the home-plate umpire(裁判). On-screen graphics include sponsor logos. And everything is a paid plug--“This call to the coach’s zone is brought to you by Verizon.”

According to the showbiz paper Variety, several streaming services are about to introduce a new twist: commercials that start running whenever a viewer pauses a program. Hulu intends to launch such ads this year. AT&T’s DirecTV and U-verse units will     4    use similar technology to trigger full-motion commercials whenever a viewer tries to take a break.

There’s a lot at stake. According to Variety, National Football League(NFL) TV broadcasts generate an estimated $4.35 billion in ad revenue during the 17-week regular season. NFL     5    are now loaded with mini commercials that pop up when there is a brief pause in the action, often in “double boxes” that show a view of the field in one frame and a(n)    6    in the other.

Interestingly, with no “screen” to work with, radio is one medium that has tried for some time to buck the trend. Many commercial stations trade clutter for clusters--that is, a solid block of commercials running five minutes or more, followed by lengthy commercial-free     7    of time.

But wherever a screen is involved, or a printed page, ad clutter is     8    everywhere. Programmers and advertisers can’t really be expected to limit this; it’s a fact of business. Consumers, on the other hand, can opt for commercial-free content--if they’re willing to pay for it.

But getting limitless content without paying while also being     9    heavy advertising intrusions is impossible. As media environment is permanently cluttered, audiences should be     10    with what they wish for.

2 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

In an age of rapidly growing urbanization, rooftop farming has emerged as a sustainable response     1     the challenge of creating green space in cities. This innovative practice transforms rooftops into mini farms, where vegetables, fruits, and even flowers     2     (plant), providing local residents with fresh produce and adding a touch of nature to urban environments.

Rooftop farming, also     3     (refer) to as vertical agriculture, is more than just a trend; it’s a step towards environmental conservation. Green roofs with vegetation help to absorb sunlight and release moisture, cooling the air and reducing the demand for air conditioning,     4     in turn lessens energy     5     (consume) and carbon emission. Meanwhile, rooftop farms serve as educational platforms,     6     (teach) city dwellers about sustainable agriculture practices and the importance of locally     7     (source) food.

As urban populations continue to grow, rooftop farming fosters community engagement     8     promotes healthier lifestyles by providing access to fresh and organic produce. When we look towards     9     future where environmental consciousness and sustainable practices become increasingly vital, rooftop farming stands as a testament to our ability to cultivate more than just food—we cultivate hope for a     10     (green) and more resilient world.

3 . 选用适当的单词或短语补全短文。

A. untouched	B. preparation	C. disproportionately	D. outlook	E. committed	F. shake
G. redirect	H. target	I. reduced	J. expose	K. typically

Over the past few weeks, many people around the world joined me in celebrating my career firsts — from winning my first Golden Globe to earning my first Oscar. While I am grateful for this unforgettable moment in my professional life, I want to     1    that global spotlight to an issue that is personal to me and that calls for the world’s attention.

My life changed eight years ago when one moment shook my     2    on the world.

It was April 25, 2015, and I was visiting local organizations. Suddenly, a deadly earthquake hit the country. I have never felt the type of fear and panic I felt that day, when the ground beneath shook so powerfully that I was not able to stand on my own feet.

I was fortunate to make through that day uninjured, but not     3    . As we made our way straight to the airport, I saw the ruins and destruction all around me. I couldn’t     4    the thought of how unfair it was that I have a home to go to, unlike the thousands of families whose entire lives were suddenly     5     to rubble (瓦砾).

Crises are not just moments of disaster: They     6     deep existing inequalities. Those living in poverty, especially women and girls, bear the brunt (首当其冲). In the immediately aftermath of a disaster, lack of sanitation (卫生系统), and health facilities     7     affects women. In my time as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Program, I have seen up close how women and girls are often the last to go back to school and to get basic services such as clean water and vaccines. They are also     8    the last to get jobs and loans.

To fully recover from a disaster and be prepared for the next one, the specific needs of women and girls must be factored into the humanitarian response.

This year we are halfway toward the 2030     9     to achieve what the United Nations calls Sustainable Development Goals, a blueprint for a shared global vision of a world without poverty and inequality. What I have learned through my work is that realizing these global goals will only be possible if we achieve true gender equality, everywhere, and in all aspects of life — especially in times of crises — and in     10    for next disaster.

4 . 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. academic B. previously C. submit D. assessed E. classifier F. controversy G. subscribed H. detect I. typically J. access   K. labelled

OpenAI releases “not fully reliable” tool to detect AI generated content

ChatGPT has been creating waves across the internet with its writing ability and responses to requests. The use of ChatGPT has been full of     1     . There have been concerns that students can use this tool to     2     AI-generated work and claim it as their own.

OpenAI, the research laboratory behind ChatGPT, has released a tool designed to     3     whether text has been written by artificial intelligence, but warns it’s not completely reliable – yet. In a blog post on Tuesday, OpenAI linked to a new     4     tool that has been trained to distinguish between text written by a human and that written by a variety of AI, not just ChatGPT.

The tool could be useful in cases where AI was used for “    5     dishonesty” and when AI chatbots were positioned as humans, they said. But they admitted the tool “is not fully reliable” and only correctly identified 26% of AI-written English texts. It also incorrectly     6     human-written texts as probably written by AI tools 9% of the time.

“Our classifier’s reliability     7     improves as the length of the input text increases. Compared to our     8     released classifier, this new classifier is significantly more reliable on text from more recent AI systems.”

Since ChatGPT was opened up to public    9    , it has given rise to a wave of concern among educational institutions across the world that it could lead to cheating in exams or assessments. Lecturers in the UK are being urged to review the way in which their courses were     10    , while some universities have banned the technology entirely and returned to pen-and-paper exams to stop students using AI.

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. technical     B. attributed     C. confined     D. observations     E. sensation     F. totaling     G. anticipatory H. consistent     I. precisely     J. suspicious     K. attached

For centuries, people have described unusual animal behavior just ahead of seismic (地震的) events: dogs barking endlessly, cows halting their milk, toads leaping from ponds. A few researchers have tried to prove a link, but most such attempts have relied largely on anecdotes and single     1    .

Now researchers at the University of Konstanz, along with a multinational team of colleagues, say they have managed to     2     measure increased activity in a group of farm animals prior to seismic activity. During separate periods     3     about four months in 2016 and 2017, the researchers     4     these highly sensitive biologgers and GPS sensors, which can record accelerated movements in any direction, to six cows, five sheep and two dogs living on a farm in an earthquake-prone area of northern Italy to keep track of the activities and the nervousness of animals. “Only now can we do continuous biologging,” says study co-author Martin Wikelski. “Because the     5     possibilities are finally there.”

The paper’s statistical analysis showed animals’ activity significantly increased before magnitude 3.8 or greater earthquakes when they were housed together in a stable — but not when they were out to pasture (吃草). Wikelski says this difference could be linked to the increased stress some animals feel in     6     spaces. Analyzing the increased movements as a whole, the researchers claim, showed a clear signal of     7     behavior hours ahead of tremors.

Besides, it showed that the farm animals appeared to anticipate quakes anywhere from one to 20 hours ahead, reacting earlier when they were closer to the origin and later when they were farther away. This finding is     8     with a hypothesis that animals somehow sense a signal that spreads outward. It holds that in the days before an earthquake, shifting tectonic plates (地壳板块) squeeze rocks along a fault line, causing the rocks to release minerals that force ions into the air, and then the animals react to this novel     9    .

Not involved with the new study, Wendy Bohon, a geologist from Washington, D.C., is     10     of the air ionization idea. Heiko Woith, a geologist at GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences, says the time frame was still too short and points out that limited data collection in many studies makes it impossible to determine whether a measured signal was related to a quake or was simply noise.

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. address       B. challenges       C. imaging       D. monitor       E. navigate       F. operations       G. respond H. setting        I. short               J. successive     K. worth

Satellites Can Help Us Fight Climate Change

At the beginning of 2021, President Joe Biden exclaimed that “science is back” as we continued our efforts to     1     the COVID emergency. That phrase continues to ring true across the federal government. Science and its applications are being used at every agency to deal with public health     2    , build new transportation infrastructure, inform policy decisions and tackle the climate crisis.

Recently the Interior Department’s U.S. Geological Survey assumed     3     of Landsat 9 from NASA, which built and launched it in 2021.This satellite is designed to     4     Earth’s land, water and other natural resources. Landsat missions support environmental sustainability and climate resilience. The Landsat program, which launched in July 1972, has helped us understand our planet and the changes that are occurring on it. That partnership has propelled research and observation forward through the launch of     5     Landsat satellites, each replacing its predecessors and working in tandem with new capabilities and strengths.

I attended the historic launch of Landsat 9 in California. It was nothing     6     of amazing. I toured the mission control center and met a young scientist from the Navajo Nation living far away from home. She uses Landsat     7     to see her home from many miles away, and with such data, she enables her community to manage water resources in the face of a changing climate. This is the power and beauty of science at work.

All around the globe, scientists are using Landsat and other imagery to interpret what is happening on Earth today and to compare it with the 50 years’     8     of data the Landsat program has collected.

This science-based program and those like it across federal agencies are powerful tools in our efforts to responsibly manage our resources. Their prioritization helps to demonstrate the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to lead with science. So, too, the resources provided through the president’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act will be key to the development of longer-term sustainability measures as we     9     to climate change, including building more resilient communities and protecting our natural environment.

Landsat NEXT is the upcoming mission we will develop with NASA to power better science and decision-making for the next 50 years. Science is indeed     10     us on a path to a brighter future.

7 . Directions: 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. distributed     B. localize       C. broadcast     D. briefing       E. attached       F. existing       G. boost H. emerging       I. involved       J. crack            K. response

Chip flow interrupted

A stable global supply chain of chips had been maintained before disruptive moves by the US.

Two of the US’ top chipmakers—NVIDIA and AMD-were ordered to stop exports of two high-end chips to China on Aug 31. The ban     1     sophisticated (精密的) chips for graphics processing units (GPUs); which have been widely used in applications including AI and creative production.

This came after US President Joe Biden signed an order to pass the $52.7 billion (about 369.5 billion yuan) semiconductor chip manufacturing subsidy (补贴) and research law on Aug 25.

It aims to     2     efforts to “make the United States more competitive with China’s science and technology efforts”, Reuters noted.

Biden also signed the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 into law on Aug 9. According to the act, chip makers that shift their factories to the US can receive subsidies and tax benefits with     3     conditions that restrict US companies from increasing investments in China for 10 years.

“The US and its allies,” Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google and a financier for the Bill Clinton, Obama and Biden presidential campaigns, said in March, “should utilize targeted export controls on high-end semiconductor manufacturing equipment... to protect     4     technical advantages and slow the advancement of China’s semiconductor industry”.

In     5     to the US latest act, Woo Jin-hoon, a guest professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, wrote for China Daily, this is “a move that can be profitable for the US in the short term, but harmful in the long run”.

The design, manufacturing and even raw materials of a complete and complex product like semiconductors (especially chips) are usually     6     across many different countries and regions, forming a huge trade network.

No matter how hard countries or regions try to support their own manufacturing bases and     7     their production, a certain degree of interdependence among countries and regions is unavoidable, China Daily commented.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Sept 1 at a press     8     that the US move is typical “sci-tech hegemony (霸权)”.

“With its technological advantages, the US has abused the concept of national security and its state power to     9     down on the development of     10     economies and developing countries,” said Wang. “The move violates market economy principles, harms international economic and trade orders and disrupts the stability of global industrial and supply chains.”

8 . Direction: 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. labour              B. manner              C. highlighting        D. circumstances              E. updated F. characterised        G. integrated             H. admirable              I. accommodate              J. overseeing       K. flexible

The house of the future? A sun-filled, shape-shifting, shed-share paradise

What will homes be like 10 years from now? Judging by the winners of the Home of 2030 competition, sharing will be key.

Shared home-working spaces, communal garden sheds and houses built using apps—these are just some of the ideas in the winning proposals for the government’s Home of 2030 competition to develop prototype “homes fit for the future”,    1    the “best of British design”. The aim was to imagine what the best age-adaptable, energy-efficient, healthy homes might look like in 10 years’ time; but, according to the winning architects, most of the best ideas have been around for generations.

“You can’t get much more     2    and adaptable than the Georgian townhouse,” says Jennifer Beningfield of Openstudio, leader of one of the two winning teams announced today. “We’ve taken this very simple model and     3    it for the 21st century. Our idea was to create infinite choice and variation from something very simple.”

Her team’s scheme imagines a terraced (排房的) housing type made from two standard components, a base unit and a loft, joined with “connector” pieces, taking into account multiple configurations (布局) over time as family     4    change. Standing between the homes, the connectors would     5    stairs and a lift, as well as storage and shared workspace. One of the most important aspects since the pandemic, says Beningfield, is providing “space to work from home, without having your laptop on the kitchen table”. Each home would have its own private outdoor space, while they would all back on to large communal gardens, arranged in the     6    of a traditional London square.

Built off-site to demanding Passivhaus standards, with a twin wall timber frame, the homes would be     7    by generous 2.7m high ceilings and tall 2.5m windows and doors, massively increasing the amount of daylight brought into the rooms, compared with most new-build spec housing. Beningfield, who studied and worked in South Africa and the US, says that off-site construction is crucial, given the shocking build quality of so many new homes in the UK – which she fears will only get worse after Brexit, if much of the skilled     8    is forced to leave.

As is so often the case with blue-sky (纯理论的) ideas competitions, the ambitions of the Home of 2030 winning teams are     9    – and, in this case, completely buildable – but there is little evidence to suggest that either the government or the volume housebuilding sector has any intention of putting them into practice. For that, we must look to Sunderland in 2023, and hope that a(n)    10    union of other councils, communities and smaller-scale builders have the imagination to follow their lead.

9 . Directions: 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. adapt     B. challenging     C. points     D. infection     E. vulnerable     F. optimistic G. transmissible     H. restrictions       I. lessened     J. impact     K. moderate

When Will Life Return to Normal?

If 2020 felt hellish, be warned that we aren’t out of the fire yet, even if we are moving in   the right direction. Welcome to 2021, aka purgatory.

There is little doubt that vaccines hold the key to ending the pandemic. A recent modeling study predicted that vaccinating just 40 per cent of US adults over the course of 2021 would reduce the coronavirus     1     rate by around 75 per cent and cut hospitalizations and deaths from covid-19 by more than 80 per cent.

But all this is still some way off. In the meantime, we will have to    2     to a middle ground where some people are protected but not others. As Adam Kleczkowski, a mathematical biologist at the University of Strathclyde UK,     3     out, supplies of the various vaccines are limited, distributing them is    4    , immunity takes a few weeks to develop and the protection they offer isn’t 100 percent.

In the northern hemisphere, he says, the most likely scenario is a third wave of covid-19 in the new year, requiring further lockdowns and    5     for up to five months. “ Realistically we’re in for a longer ride than we hope for.” he says.

Tim Spector at King’s College London, who leads the Covid-9 Symptom Study in the UK,   also predicts a third wave. But if lots of healthcare workers and    6     people have been vaccinated, the mortality rate will be lower and the pressure on the healthcare system    7     , he said at a recent Royal Society of Medicine seminar.

The upsides of ever-widening vaccination will kick in around April. He said, “I’m    8     that if we can just get our mental state together until Easter, we can hang on in there.”

There are still many things we don’t understand about this virus, however, and we may well be in for some surprises in the coming year that throw that trajectory（轨）off course. As this magazine went to press, for example, there was widespread speculation about the     9     of a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus circulating in the UK that may be more highly     10    .

In Australia, the goal will be to keep the virus from resurging as the summer fades into autumn, says epidemiologist Catherine Bennett at Deakin University in Melbourne. A recent outbreak in Sydney has led to new restrictions.

10 . 阅读下面句子，根据句意，从方框中选择恰当的词或词组并用其正确形式填空。

Have an impact on                      reliable               submit                    reveal                 be responsible for Make up one’s mind                 barrier                 figure out            end up               competitive

1. You need a degree to be ________ in today’s job market.
2. We need more ________ information before we can take action.
3. The mountains acted as a natural ________ to the spread of the disease.
4. The movie we wanted to see was sold out so we ________ seeing a different one.
5. If you ________ something, it is your duty to deal with it and make decisions relating to it.
6. Those interested in the position should ________ their applications to the Student Union.
7. A survey of the British diet ________ that a growing number of people are overweight.
8. We had a very productive meeting because I felt we ________ a lot of problems.
9. Technological innovation ________ the country’s economy quite considerably.
10. Summer vacation is coming, but I can’t ________ where to take my vacation.