1 . 选词填空

A. overwhelm       B. discipline          C. honesty        D. integrity        E. countries F. ability             G. outweighing       H. corporate       I. intelligent       J. territories

For CEOs, creativity is now the most important leadership quality for success in business,     1     even integrity and global thinking, according to a new study by IBM.

The study is the largest known sample of one-on-one CEO interviews. Over 1,500     2     heads and public sector leaders across 60 nations and 33 industries were polled. They were asked what drives them in managing their companies in today’s world.

A manager at IBM Global Business Services expressed surprise at this key finding, saying that it is very interesting that coming off the worst economic conditions they’d ever seen, CEOs didn’t return to traditional management     3    , existing best practices, rigor or operations. In fact, they did just the opposite.

About 60 percent of CEOs polled cited creativity as the most important leadership quality, compared with 52 percent for     4     and 35 percent for global thinking. Creative leaders are also more prepared to break with the traditions of the industry, enterprise and revenue models, and they are 81 percent more likely to rate innovation as a “crucial capability. ”

Other key findings showed a large gap between views of North American CEOs and those from other     5    . For example, in North America, 65 percent of CEOs think integrity is a top quality for tomorrow’s leaders, whereas only 29–48 percent of CEOs in other territories view it as such. While company leaders in North America will bring more integrity to the job, they also expect far more regulation than foreign heads.

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. adjustments B. emit C. hit D. lanes E. players   F. preventing G. semi-autonomous H. shift I. supervising J. traditional   K. worn-out

Baby Steps Toward Autonomy…

Companies, like Google and Tesla, didn't even exist when Toyota introduced the Prius in1997. However, they have become major     1     in the auto industry recently. Both of them aim to introduce fully autonomous cars ---that is, cars that drive themselves---within the next several years.

Self-driving cars are expected to be much safer than human-driven ones. But even if the first robot cars     2     the roads in the next few years, most of us probably won't give up driving entirely for at least another 15 or 20 years. In the meantime,     3     cars will gradually take over certain aspects of driving.

Companies have been adding     4     features to cars since the 1990s---things like adaptive cruise control, which uses sensors to adjust a car's speed based on the traffic in front of it, and automated parallel parking. Some cars automatically stop—or at least slow down—if a driver doesn't step on the brake in time to avoid a crash. In a certain model developed in 2017, the driver will be able to change     5     simply by hitting the turn signal for two seconds (the car will take care of the rest). Within a few years, cars may be able to determine when an accident is likely and make     6    to the cabin---moving seats, closing windows , retracting the steering wheel.

Even better than preparing for a crash, of course, is     7    one. Some vehicles     8     warnings when they detect, through cameras and sensors, that a driver is getting sleepy. Future cars might take over for     9     drivers---or automatically pull to the side of the road and shut down. Biometrics(生物识别技术）could aid this process. If a car has sensors that can measure a driver's breath and heart rate, it could     10     into self-driving mode when a driver has a heart attack.

3 . 选词填空
in a whisper;   first aid;   in disguise;   trip over;   carry. . . through. . .
1. We feel quite secure now because of presence of policemen ____________ in the public.
2. I helped an old lady who ____________ by a fallen branch on the road.
3. The knowledge of ____________ is a necessity, which can save someone’s life.
4. My teacher’s help ____________ me ____________ those hard days in senior high school.
5. The two students were talking to each ____________ when I came into the room.

4 . 选词填空

refer to, ups and downs, date back to, relate to, play an important role in, all the way, lead to, point of view, be based on

1. What he said at the meeting didn’t ________ you.
2. Robots are ________ industrial production.
3. We plan to put on a play named Alice in Wonderland, which ________ a movie of the same title.
4. Generally speaking, we will experience ________ before we succeed.
5. As far as I know, most of the Great Wall ________ the Ming Dynasty.
6. Long-term stress (压力) can ________ a variety of serious mental illnesses.
7. Breathing the fresh air, we three talked and laughed ________.
8. This law ________ our daily life.
9. From my ________, we should do some voluntary work in our free time.

5 . 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. urgent     B. transformative     C. presents       D. grabbed     E. declaration F. collective G. capacity H. worsening I. determined J. foundation K. responsibility

Save the World

The United Nations issued a report last week warning that humans are destroying nature at such a rate that life on Earth is at risk. When the report came out, it naturally     1     headlines. But obviously it did not hijack the news agenda in the manner of a major terrorist attack or     2     of war.

The report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is clear on what’s at stake and what needs to change. IPBES chair Robert Watson says the “overwhelming evidence”     3     an “ ominous (凶兆的)picture”.   “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is     4     more rapidly than ever,” Robert Watson said. “We are biting the very     5     of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.” The report says it’s not too late if we make “    6     changes” ----fundamental, system-wide reorganization ----- at every level from local to global, we need to focus on how to make that happen.

First, don’t immerse yourself in despair, because despair leads to inertia (惰性) and doing nothing means certain disaster. Every action to save nature will improve our     7     and personal futures and the only action to respond to a threat of this scale is with     8     action rooted in optimism. Second, we need focus, just like when rescue teams arrive on a scene and use the concept of “triage(伤员鉴别分类)” to ensure the most     9     cases get treated first. Saving the natural world needs that kind of thinking. We don’t have the     10     to do everything at once. We need to make hard choices.

6 . 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. nutritional   B. objected   C. sustainable   D. comparison   E. motivational   F. projected G. necessarily   H. popularity     I. unsweetened       J. previously   K. source

Plant-based Milk

There are nutritional differences between types of milk, from oat to soy to cow’s. Plant-based milks have been growing in     1     for years, but the nutritional content of different milks and milk alternatives vary, with disagreements between brands too. The global dairy alternatives market is     2     to grow from $22.25 billion in 2021 to $53.97 billion in 2028, according to a report by Fortune Business Insights. In February 2022, the world’s first potato milk launched in the UK, which bills itself as “the most     3     plant-based dairy alternative on the market.”

While some people choose dairy alternatives, cow’s milk is an excellent     4     of calcium, protein, and vitamin D. It’s also working better than water when people feel thirsty, according to a small study by St Andrews University in Scotland. However, some people stay away from dairy because of intolerance of the mouthfeel or environmental concerns, and for some, the     5     factor is health. Nutritional reports of milks vary, with some offering more fiber, fat, protein, carbs, sugar, and calories than others.

Dietitians recommend choosing fortified plant-based milks. Plant-based milks are not     6     “healthier” than dairy, and when following a plant-based diet, dietitians recommend ensuring your dairy-free milk alternatives are fortified with essential vitamins and minerals. “Fortified means that they are added by the manufacturer and so will be on the ingredients list, or advertised on the front,” dietitian Nichola Ludlam-Raine     7     told Insider.

“Choose milk alternatives that are fortified with vitamins such as vitamin B12 and vitamin D, in addition to the minerals calcium and iodine,” she said. The     8     content of milk varies in terms of protein, carbs, and fiber. Cow’s milk, for example, contains lots of calcium and vitamin D, as well as protein. Soy milk is often fortified with calcium, and is also high in protein. For the purpose of this     9    , Insider selected popular brands of each milk, selecting     10     options wherever possible, per cup. Here’s some nutritional information on our website to bear in mind when choosing which milk to have in your coffee, on your cereal, or alongside a cookie.

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

A. aggressiveness	B. crewed	C. dropped	D. hatred	E. indication	F. inevitably
G. previously	H. realistic	I. sponsored	J. stretched	K. stuck

A record-breaking caver

In 1988, Véronique Le Guen set a world record for the most time spent alone in an underground cave by a woman. For 111 days, Le Guen went without clocks or any information from the outside world and lived in a cold, damp cave 80 metres below ground at Valat-Negre in southern France. At this depth, not even the temperature of the cave—a constant, damp 9°C—could give her any     1     whether it was day or night, making it very difficult for her to know when to sleep.

Devices     2     to her skin on the head during the experiment revealed that Le Guen’s sense of time quickly failed. On one occasion she slept for 18 hours, but when she woke up, she thought that she had     3     off for only a couple of minutes. In the cave, she read around 80 books, took thousands of blood samples and developed a temporary     4     of the experiment’s leader, Michel Siffre. The man himself had     5     spent 205 days in a cave in Texas in 1972.

“I feel a wave of enormous     6     that dominates my spirits,” Le Guen wrote in her diary. “One after the other, I look at each of the instruments of my suffering. A crazy desire overcomes me to smash and destroy everything.”

The experiment was set up to see how humans tolerate, or not, states of extreme isolation and sensory deficiency. These are circumstances people will almost certainly face up to in any serious     7     exploration of the solar system. Travelling to Mars, for example, would take around seven months, so a round trip plus time spent on the planet could     8     involve about 18 months of extreme isolation. NASA was interested early on in the project and     9     Siffre’s Texas journey.

Siffre’s last major cave experiment ended in 2000, after he spent 75 days alone in the Clamouse cave in southern France. Nowadays, the International Space Station provides a more     10     test bed for the type of isolation future astronauts may have to compete with.

8 . 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. species	B. informed	C. awareness	D. indicate
E. additional	F. figures	G. advanced	H. sticking
I. state	J. reliance	K. based

Sensors for Houseplants

Over the past two years Jasmin Moeller, a 38-year-old in Germany, has been buying more houseplants, making her feel more comfortable.

Actually, the fact that people have spent much more time     1     at home has started a trend to bring more nature inside. In the UK, the latest     2     show that 2021 houseplant sales were 29% higher than in 2020. It is a similar picture in other countries, with sales of houseplants in the US rising by 18% last year, for instance.

Yet it is one thing to buy a houseplant and quite another to successfully look after it. Luckily, some     3     sensors for indoor plants may help those without professional skills in gardening. These devices, usually solar powered and connected wirelessly to a user’s smartphone, should be inserted into the soil next to the plants. Then, they show in real time the     4     of the plants.

A sensor made by German firm Greensens has approximately 5000 plant     5     on its app database. Like a traffic light system, the app uses red, yellow and green faces to     6     how plants are doing. For example, red reveals that the plant is dying, while green means it’s in perfect condition. Besides, users are regularly     7     of what they should do with plants.

Another app released by German business Fyta tells users how their plants are by analyzing the uploaded pictures of the plants. It also includes     8     content other apps rarely offer, such as cultural history of some plants, so users can learn more about their plants.

However, Botanist Silver Spence is worried that     9     on these sensors may affect users’ gardening skills negatively. And David Anglov recommends that amateurs try their best to establish their own     10     of what a plant needs in various situations through careful observation.

Back in Germany, Ms Moeller says she is sure that the sensors are helping her improve gardening skills.

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. fertile   B. rewoven C. deep-rooted D. recapture   E. produce   F. needlessly G. foodstuffs H. minerals   I. worthlessly   J. document   K. deforested

The Promise of the Circular Economy

The origins of the expression “waste not, want not” can be traced to the 1500s.We feel bad when we expend resources     1     (like leaving lights on when we’re away) or throw out things that shouldn’t have become trash (like uneaten, past-its-prime produce). This is a     2     guilty feeling.

But we do waste in ways big and small. The result is this shocking fact: Of the     3    , fossil fuels, and other raw materials that we take from the Earth and turn into products, about two-thirds end up as waste. And, more likely than not, that waste is part of a larger environmental problem.

“Plastic trash drifted into     4     soils, rivers and oceans. A third of all food rotted, even as the Amazon was     5     to produce more,” writes senior environment editor Robert Kunzig in “The End of Trash”. Climate change is what happens when “we burn fossil fuels and spread the waste – carbon dioxide -- into the atmosphere.”

What if we could     6     waste and turn it into something else? This concept, called the circular economy, is not entirely new. For generations, in Prato, Italy, old wool sweaters have been reduced to their knitting thread and     7     into new clothes. And environmentalists have supported the ideas of “reduce, reuse and recycle” since the 1970s.

Kunzig was sent to     8     where the new circular economy is taking hold. They found a lot of examples. In London, researchers are feeding rotted farm     9     to insects, which are made into animal feed. In hotel kitchens around the world, chefs are reducing waste from     10     like cookies, yogurt and Coke with AI garbage cans that measure it.

“It reminds me of a line in Diner, a movie I love: If you don’t have good dreams, you got nightmares.” Kunzig said, “The circular economy is like that -- it’s a dream we have to try to make real.”

10 . 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. incredibly	B. contract	C. approached	D. basis	E. essential	F. blankets
G. professionally	H. granted	I. strikes	J. mutual	K. breakthroughs

The Father of Cool

It is evening, near freezing. The city is practically empty. Fog     1     the Pittsburgh Railroad Station. A young engineer walks the platform, his brain occupied with a problem that has obsessed him for months. And then it     2     him—the Archimedean lightning bolt (闪电) of inspiration. The answer is literally all around him: It’s the fog itself!

The young man’s name is Willis Haviland Carrier. On that foggy night in 1902, he hit upon the theory that became the     3     for modern air-conditioning technology.

Carrier graduated from university as a mechanical engineer in June 1901. A month later, he began working for the Buffalo Forge Company, a firm that   produced heating and exhaust systems     4    . The summer of 1901 was     5     hot. A printing company became frustrated with varying humidity (湿度) levels when trying to print in color. The same paper had to be printed four times in four colors, and if the humidity changed between print runs, the paper would slightly expand or     6    . Even a millimeter’s misalignment (错位) looked awful.

Early the following year, the printing company     7     Buffalo Forge, asking it to devise a system to control humidity in the air as well as the temperature. The firm turned to the 25-year-old Carrier.

By the early 1850s, two     8     in cooling had been achieved: a French engineer designed the first absorption refrigerator; and an American physician was     9     a patent for a machine to make ice. From then on, the challenge would lie in controlling humidity instead of lowering temperature.

Carrier’s partial solution involved circulating cold water and then balancing their temperature with the rate of air flow. It was at the Pittsburgh Railroad Station that the solution came to him. Few other inventors have had such an impact on modern life and yet remained so little-known. Air conditioning, in a sense, has become     10    . And for most of us, the simple ability to cool our homes amid the summer’s heat is more than enough reason to be grateful for Carrier’s fogbound moment of genius.