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.

Creativity Is a Human Quality That Exists in Us

When you think about creativity, it might be highly creative people like Mozart, da Vinci or Einstein who spring to mind. They were all considered to be “ geniuses” for their somewhat in their fields. Their type of creativity is unique talents that led to global     1     what’s known as “Big C creativity” ( or historical) and is not very common in everyday life. Not all of us can create works of art or music or scientific theories that are new to the world.But while we can’t all be Mozart, da Vinci or Einstein, many people do enjoy creative activity--through hobbies such as water colour painting or playing the piano. And these types of are often what people think of when asked what being creative looks like.     2     are often wheat people think of when asked what being creative looks like. Our finished pieces may not be     3     with the likes of the great master, but often the process is therapeutic and the end result can be aesthetically pleasing.

On top of hobbies and     4    , we all posses creative attributes that can help as we solve life’s problems and make decisions. It is this type of creativity that enables us to plan different     5     to get to the same destination, or how to fit in a trip to the supermarket when our     6     looks full.

It might not sound very creative, but this aspect of creativity relies on our ability I consider     7     and assess their suitability, as well as how to make decisions based on personal prior experience or what we have learnt formally or informally. These examples are known as “ Small C creativity” or “personal everyday creativity”.

While Big C creativity is valued and celebrated, it is often Small C creativity that has allowed humans to flourish over thousands of years. It sets us apart from other animals and it is also the type of creativity which can be fostered through our education system and beyond into the workplace. Traditionally, research tells us that creativity has been largely associated with the arts. Our previous research has shown that teachers are often able to give examples of creative activity in arts     8    ,but find it harder to do so when asked to describe creativity in subjects such as science.

But there is a growing     9     that opportunities to be creative are found across a broader range of subjects. For instance, engineering provides opportunities to be creative through problem solving, and history gives the opportunity to think creatively about why events happened,and what     10     those involved.

2 . 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.

Communication — a thing of the past?

We all think we communicate all the time, and that’s true. There’s also non-verbal communication you could add into the mix — everything we’re saying when we’re not saying anything. But there’s a(n)     1     between saying things to people, or liking and sharing a post on social media, and communication. I’m quite well connected — there’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, email, iEverything, but sometimes communication starts to feel like a chore. Check this blog post, read that article someone shared,     2     back to someone else, and answer their questions… Sometimes I feel like a cross between Siri and a mad juggler. Nothing seems to go in and I’m always mixing people up — asking someone how their band is going when they can’t play an instrument or how the job search is going when someone’s just written to say how depressed they are that they can’t find a job.

So it was quite a(n)     3     to spend New Year in the Highlands in Scotland with no phone signal, no internet and no ‘communication’ at all, apart from with the people I was with. Suddenly all the pressure to communicate disappeared. All of our conversations became slower, more inverted and far more interesting. We were a group of 12, a(n)     4     of couples and friends, only one of whom I was at university with, so I was meeting a bunch of new people for the first time. Our conversations veered towards the banal and the humdrum in that we often discussed our plans for the day and what we were going to cook in the evening, but often they went a lot farther and a lot deeper. Tucked up on the leather sofas,     5     dinner, we dissected Brexit and one person even changed their     6     entirely! We shared ideas and theories, plots of books and plays and city trips we’d been on, described family troubles and gave advice, listened to work scenarios and offered pointers, and we had to talk and sketch and use words more than ever before, because you couldn’t say, ‘It’s a great film, you should google it later.’ Some of us even had sore throats from talking so much! In such a short     7     of time, due to the proximity of sharing interconnected cottages and verbal communication, I felt much closer to the new people I’d met and been speaking with than some other people I communicate with in my normal life.

I don’t think our common, current methods of communication come close to being in a small house with lots of people and having to communicate     8    . The brevity of Twitter, the showiness of Facebook, all these aspects contribute to a shallow form of communication that doesn’t challenge you to     9     your feelings and motives enough. ‘Liking’ something is an instant response but what does it really say about your opinion of something? It’s a(n)     10     response to millions of other people, whereas you and your thoughts are unique. If we’re not careful, perhaps we might forget how to communicate on a deeper lever.

To see the country, road trips are the only way to go

I am not an enthusiastic air traveler. Bustling through airports, getting checked by security, and standing in lines leave me     1    . But road trips are different. While the transit time is longer, opportunities to get off the     2     path make it worthwhile. I see places and interact with people and cultures that I otherwise tend to miss, rediscovering how far you can go and how much you can experience without leaving the United States. So, when my son said he wanted to tour the Kansas State University campus after receiving an admission offer, we threw our luggage and a case of bottled water in the car and     3     the highway. One attraction of traveling at the speed of a car is the transitions. Arizona’s Meteor Crater, Two Guns, and Painted Desert give way to New Mexican villages, then farm towns. Red rocks become open plains where grain elevators are the only features     4     above endless miles of flatness.

That flatness poses an unexpected challenge when there’s nothing to step behind. Eating on the road can also be a challenge. For basic sustenance, Anthony and I relied on Subway sandwich shops, which offer the same reliable fare at every location. While not exactly a     5     of local cuisine, they didn’t leave us regretting lunch when we returned to clocking miles. Salads were     6     difficult to come by in the college town of Manhattan, Kansas, although we had no complaints about the burgers and barbecue.   

In contrast to airport excursions, which often feature     7     and even confrontations, our trip was entirely pleasant. When you meet folks in their natural environment after hours of     8     scenery, it’s easier to remember just how big the world is and to appreciate that many of its inhabitants are perfectly happy living     9    , and there’s no reason they shouldn’t be.

As it turned out, the greatest source of stress was the frequent reminder that my son changes     10     like he’s afraid of missing a sharp turn. Fortunately, that’s a travel headache that can be fixed.

Welcoming the Year of the Dragon or the Loong?

As communities worldwide, both within and outside China, participate in diverse festivities to welcome the Year of the Dragon, the mythical creature has become the subject of debate. Some call it a dragon, while others prefer the term “loong”,     1     a discussion about the most accurate translation of this symbol of traditional Chinese culture.

Do dragon and loong convey the same meaning, or do they represent different creatures with     2     connotations? In Western culture,     3     by Greek mythology, the dragon is frequently portrayed as the guardian of treasure, embodying a symbol of greed and destruction. In China, however, the dragon is very positive. It’s an animal that helps humanity and that is     4    , with emperors often referring to themselves as the “true dragon sons of heaven”.

In the Chinese language, more than 100 idioms incorporate the word “dragon”,     5     conveying positive connotations such as excellence, prestige, royalty,     6     and good luck. The term “dragon” remains a pervasive and     7    element in everyday conversations. When people express admiration for a son-in-law, they often refer to him as “a swift son-in-law who rides the dragon”. During weddings, the groom is usually referred to as the dragon and the bride the phoenix.

Why has the loong been translated into English as dragon? In the early 19^th century, British missionary Robert Morrison compiled the first Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary in history, in which he translated the Chinese loong as dragon. The impact of this dictionary was profound, leading to the widespread adoption of the term dragon in the West. Language     8     influences human minds, and as a result, Westerners perceive it intriguing that the Chinese associate themselves with the concept of dragons. In their culture, dragons are symbols of malevolence, contributing to a cultural distortion and misinterpretation.

With China becoming more     9     into the global community and the world becoming more familiar with the Chinese zodiac sign, has the time come to translate the Chinese dragon to loong? The issue of translation may seem trivial. What matters more is conveying the true essence of the zodiac dragon. The Chinese people place great importance on welcoming people globally to immerse themselves in the Year of the Dragon’s celebratory spirit and share in the Spring Festival’s joy, warmth and     10    .

How do AI chatbots answer my questions

Chatbots might appear to be complex conversationalists that respond like real people. But if you take a closer look, they are     1     an advanced version of a program that finishes your sentences by predicting which words will come next. Bard, ChatGPT, and other AI technologies are large language models—a kind of algorithm (算法) trained on exercises similar to the Mad Libs-style questions found on elementary school quizzes. More simply put, they are human-written     2     that tell computers how to solve a problem or make a calculation. In this case, the algorithm uses your prompt and any sentences it comes across to     3     the answer.

Let’s pretend you plugged this sentence into an AI chatbot: “The cat sat on the ______.” First, the language model would have to know that the missing word needs to be a noun to make     4     sense. But it can’t be any noun—the cat can’t sit on the “democracy,” for one. So the algorithm searches texts written by humans to get a sense of what cats actually rest on and picks out the most probable answer. In this scenario, it might     5     the cat sits on the “laptop” 10 percent of the time, on the “table” 20 percent of the time, and on the “chair” 70 percent of the time. The model would then go with the most     6     answer: “chair.” The system is able to use this prediction process to respond with a full sentence. If you ask a chatbot, “How are you?” it will generate “I’m” based on the “you” from the question and then “good” based on what most people on the web reply when asked how they are.

The way these programs process information and arrive at a decision sort of     7     how the human brain behaves. “    8     as this task—predicting the most probable response—is, it actually requires an incredibly advanced knowledge of both how language works and how the world works,” says Yoon Kim, a researcher at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

The beauty of language models is that researchers don’t have to     9     define any rules or grammar for them to follow. An AI chatbot learns how to form sentences that make sense by consuming textual elements, which are common sequences of characters     10     together taken from the raw text of books, articles, and websites. All it needs are the patterns and associations it finds among certain words or phrases.

The Beneficial Effects of Forest Fires

Forest fires are undoubtedly a threat. In the mid-1900s, all forest burns were considered     1    , and firefighters responded to all of these fires whether or not they were burning close to where humans lived. This     2     to forest fires was both expensive and risky. However, more     3     forest managers began to see that forest fires did have benefits. Foresters saw that forest fires were beneficial for trees and soil.

Previously, people believed that forest fires caused     4     damage to trees, however, now forest managers know that trees are the major     5     of fires. Many     6     occurring forest fires, often caused by lightning strikes, are surface fires that burn the understory — the shrubs and herbs from the forest — without damaging the trees in the overstory. In this way, the fire     7     competition from the smaller trees, allowing the larger trees to flourish. Once the understory has been burned away, the forest is less likely to burn from high-temperature fires that can do real damage to the tall trees.

In the past, it was not obvious how forest fires enriched the soil. Today, foresters understand that forest fires improve soil quality by changing the ‘litter’ — dead leaves and branches on the forest floor — to nutrient-rich soil. Normally, litter decomposes very slowly. However, fire releases the     8     in the litter immediately. This creates an increase in the amount of phosphorus and potassium which are key elements that promote tree growth.

As forest managers have leared more about the long-term effects of forest fires, they have realized that forest fires can have beneficial effects and have changed their forest management     9     to reflect this new opinion. It is now recognized that forest fires, are a natural part of forest ecosystems and are beneficial to the trees and soil. As long as fires are no     10     to homes and communities, foresters now often choose to do nothing to stop the fires.