1 . 无论遭遇何种极端天气，这位探险家都勇往直前，不畏艰险，其品质让大家印象深刻。(no matter …; whose) (汉译英)

2 . 得知不能使用家电，他们才发现没有省力的设备，做家务十分困难。(until; inform)(汉译英)

3 . Just as it was leaving, Mr. Taylor rushed out and ran after it ____________________, but it was impossible to stop the thieves. (根据句意填空)

4 . The silence was suddenly broken when a large car, with ____________________ and its horn blaring, roared down the arcade. (根据句意填空)

5 . Directions: Fill in the blanks to make the sentences coherent and grammatically correct. Use the proper form of the phrases given in the box. Each phrase can only be used once and there is one phrase more than you need.

bring … to life     be capable of       run out of       apart from adapt … from     be likely to     suffer from       on occasion

1. Once a black hole has formed, it can absorb additional matter like nearby gas and dust, or __________ they can even consume entire stars and solar systems.
2. Let’s explore some of the technologies from science fiction that _________ through the joint efforts of extraordinary scientists so far.
3. The film is based on a 1920 stage play that __________ the Bram Stoker novel.
4. The mouse of the computer sometimes works, but sometimes doesn’t. That’s probably because it __________ batteries.
5. Wolves were once the most widely distributed land mammal (哺乳动物) __________ humans.
6. America __________ a nationwide teacher shortage now due to stresses from pandemic and culture war.
7. I feel like I have to prove myself __________ being a Manchester United player.

6 . Directions: Write the words you have learnt according to the meanings given. The first letter is given.
1. v__________   n. a thing that is used for transporting people or goods from one place to another, such as a car or truck.
2. b__________   n. a small magazine, book or information leaflet
3. e__________   adv. to a very high degree
4. n__________   adj. measuring a short distance from one side to the other
5. r__________   v. to tell somebody that something is good or useful
6. p__________   v. to keep a particular quality, feature, etc.; to make sure that something is kept

7 . The Four-day Work Week

If Liz Truss can reduce a whole premiership to seven weeks, why can’t a standard working week be squashed into something shorter? A six-month pilot (试点) scheme, in which around 3,300 workers from 70 companies are testing out a four-day workweek, is due to conclude this month.     1     Like previous such experiments, it is likely to be praised as a success. A mid-point survey by the trial’s organisers — researchers at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and Boston College — found that the transition had worked well for 88% of surveyed companies.

    2     In particular a four-day week forces firms to think harder about time management. Most businesses in the trial have encouraged employees to leave meetings when they are not contributing, and to be more selective about accepting invitations. Daryl Hine of Stellar, an asset-management company in London, calls this a “diary detox”. This also extends to reducing commutes.

Of the participating organisations, 46% reported maintaining overall output at the same level, and 49% said it had improved.     3     Its HR department has goals for response time to emails; its staff are given so-called net promoter scores, which track how colleagues rate their services. On both counts, they have made “rare” leaps, says Sharon Platts, the company’s chief people officer. Participants say that their employees feel more motivated.

Becoming a four-day operation can be hard in a five-day world, however. Bookishly, an online shop, chose Wednesdays off to avoid having three days in a row when packages are not mailed out; people are warned about the new schedule before they order.     4    

More tests are on the horizon. In January South Cambridge shire District Council will become the first British local authority to try out a four-day week. The lessons learned are likely to be valuable even if the idea does not spread.

A．Sceptics might observe that the companies involved are self-selecting.

B．Advocates say a shorter week delivers a better work-life balance without hurting overall output.

C．The trial’s largest company, Outcomes First Group, tracks indicators for its 1,027 participating employees.

D．The scheme holds useful lessons about productivity.

E．Platten’s, a fish-and-chip shop in Norfolk, gives its 50-or-so employees two days on and two days off to cover the week.

F．But customers are not always prepared to wait, so most firms in the scheme have tried to spread staff more thinly.

8 . As is the fate of anyone running a hotel in Kerala these days, Bijoy George is a man with too much to do. Before pandemic-caused lockdowns began in 2020, he managed 40 employees at the Eighth Bastion Hotel in the charming historic quarter of Kochi, a bustling coastal city. Now that business is back to pre-covid levels he needs the same number of staff again. But he has only 20 workers. His plight is shared with every other hotel, café and bar. It is a result of the state’s hospitality (招待) employees moving all together in large numbers to Qatar, not to watch football but to take up employment tied to the World Cup.

As the start of the competition approaches on November 20th, workers are quitting at a rate Mr. George says he has never seen in his 22 years in the business. Qatar, a country with a population of under 3m, will have welcomed more than 1.5m visitors before the matches conclude on December 18th. That means finding staff to run all the new hotels that have been built along with other venues that have been pressed into service to profit from the sports fans.

Kerala has long been a significant source of hospitality workers for Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries. Its state government provides good schools with English-language instruction but few jobs. More than 2m people, 17% of its working population, already work overseas, largely in the Gulf.

The appeal of Qatar is straightforward. Starting salaries approach $1,000 a month, more than six times the level for similar jobs in Kerala. To replace those who have left, Kerala’s employers have been casting their nets wider. Recruiters have been extending their searches to many other Indian cities. But that means the most common word on name-tags pinned to the breast pockets of workers is “trainee”.

Among the many skills that need to be taught, says Mr. George, is smiling at customers — the failure to do so a result of shyness among those new to the workforce. The danger is that after a week or so when confidence grows, even these employees may slip away to the Gulf.

Most contracts run for three months, concluding at the end of December, not long after the World Cup final. Returning workers will be welcomed back with open arms. Filling the gaps is even more important as Indian tourism and weddings have restarted. The reunions, though, may be short-lived. The game these workers will have learned from the World Cup is how to be paid better. That means leaving India.

1. The underlined sentence in paragraph one implies that __________.

A．other hotels, cafes and bars will share Bijoy’s 20 employees

B．other hotels, cafes and bars will have to lay off some workers

C．other hotels, cafes and bars also send the workers to Qatar

D．other hotels, cafes and bars also find it hard to employ enough workers

2. Which of the following DOESN’T contribute to hospitality workers in Kerala taking up jobs in Qatar?

A．Millions of tourists have to be served during the World Cup.

B．Hospitality workers are in high demand with new hotels and venues open for business in Qatar.

C．Qatar provides good education and English training for potential workers in Kerala.

D．The salaries of similar jobs in Kerala are much lower than those in Qatar.

3. Which of the following difficulties do Kerala’s employers face due to lack of workers?

A．Kerala’s employers have to take on new employees in Asian cities.

B．Many of the new employees will pin their name tags to their breast pockets.

C．The new employees will not greet the customers as a result of shyness.

D．The new employees may soon follow the trend of going to the Gulf.

4. What makes the reunions between Indian workers and employers probably a short-lived one?

A．Jobs outside India can provide Indian workers with a more decent life.

B．It will soon be the off season for Indian tourism and weddings.

C．Another grand occasion will soon begin in the Gulf.

D．The workers only sign short-term contracts with the employers in India.

9 . Armed with a toolkit of techniques and tricks to calm the mind and bring focus back to your body, you can stop stressful situations from sabotaging your day, says Katy Georgiou.

GROUND YOURSELF

Making contact with the ground is your baseline go-to response for stress. This technique can be especially helpful if you find your stress regularly turns into panic. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, place your feet flat on the ground so that you feel stable, and then close your eyes. If you’re able to sit on the floor cross-legged or to lie down flat, then even better.

Think of this as earthing: really connect with the ground beneath your body. Some studies suggest that this simple act can help reduce or relieve symptoms of stress such as pain and fatigue, reduce blood pressure, and improve sleep. If you’re feeling disconnected from the world, it can also remind you that you belong to it and are a crucial part of it — the ground will always be there for you.

LOVE THYSELF

Adopting regular, daily or weekly routines for self-care can be very containing, creating consistency amid all sorts of stressful life events happening around you. Looking in the mirror each day can actually remind you that you exist, so feel free to factor some reflective gazing into your daily routine, whether it’s while applying moisturiser, shaving, or brushing your hair. Studies have shown that being confronted with your reflection can have powerful effects, taking us out of our heads and into the immediate present. For added effect, pay attention to the way your products interact with your hair and skin as you apply them.

Playing around with smells, colours and textures in your hands will also engage your senses. Using a scented shampoo or smoothing on body lotion after a warm bath can be easy ways to do this.

CLEAR YOUR MIND

Abandon all your thoughts and try to focus only on your surroundings. What can you see, hear, smell, taste and touch? Identify three things you can hear, one thing you can taste, four things you can see and two things you can feel on your skin. Pick out colours in the room you are sitting in, notice textures and different kinds of light. If somebody is with you, tell them what you are experiencing. The point here is that your senses are your best and easiest route back to feeling calm, by coming out of your head and rooting yourself back in the present. This is incredibly helpful if you’re having a panic attack or flop response.

1. If your friend Jane always feels worn out and suffers from sleep deprivation, which of the following techniques will you especially recommend to her?

A．Connect her body to the ground beneath her.

B．Adopt a daily gaze at her reflection in the mirror.

C．Exchange her scentless shampoo for an aromatic one.

D．Focus on what she can see, hear, smell, taste and touch.

2. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE according to the passage?

A．Lying down flat can better relieve your stress.

B．Grounding yourself can give you a sense of belonging to the world.

C．Brushing your hair while looking in the mirror can remind you of your existence.

D．Those having a panic attack should shut their senses down.

3. The passage is intended to __________.

A．help people understand themselves better

B．introduce some practical methods for stress management

C．emphasize the significance of exploiting multiple senses

D．promote a mindset of living in the moment

10 . Are fields full of solar panels (太阳能电池板) a bad thing for England’s green and pleasant land? Some figures at the top of the UK government certainly think so.

“I think one of the most ___________ sights when you’re driving through England is seeing fields that should be full of crops or livestock full of solar panels,” said Liz Truss, then UK prime minister, in August. “___________ lands … should be used for food production.”

This is an issue in many other countries too. China, ___________, is reportedly considering a ban (禁令) on ___________ on farmland and in forests. In England, existing rules already ___________ solar farms on the most productive agricultural land. Nevertheless, the UK government was reportedly planning to effectively ban them on most English farmland.

With Rishi Sunak, who has previously criticized solar farms on farmland, now having replaced Truss, it is unclear whether the UK government will ___________ the ban nationwide as planned, but ___________ of solar on farmland must know three things.

First, a lot of food is being turned into biofuels — even though food-based biofuels increase greenhouse emissions, harm biodiversity and ___________ food prices.

Second, plants aren’t great at  ___________ solar energy. Crops typically turn less than 1 per cent of the solar energy that hits them into useable biofuel, whereas solar panels ____________ about 20 per cent of light energy into electricity.

Third, farming is very polluting, ____________ a third of global greenhouse gas emissions as well as many other pollutants. In the UK in 2020, 121,000 hectares were used to grow crops for producing heat, electricity or biofuels ____________ food. That is five times as much as the 23,000 hectares covered by ground-mounted solar.

To see which is a better use of land, let’s ____________ what we get from solar panels and biofuels. Per year, a hectare of wheat can produce enough bioethanol (生物乙醚) for a car to drive around 23,000 kilometres, Simon Evans at the climate site Carbon Brief has calculated. A hectare of solar, by contrast, can produce enough electricity in a ____________ for an electric car to drive 2,570,000 kilometres. So a hectare of solar gets you 50 to 110 times further — and with much less pollution along the way. This is why it makes no sense ____________ or environmentally to ban solar on farms, while continuing to allow farms to grow foods and turn them into biofuels.

1.

A．unlikely

B．rare

C．impressive

D．depressing

2.

A．Agricultural

B．Empty

C．Unused

D．Native

3.

A．as a result

B．on the contrary

C．on the other hand

D．for instance

4.

A．crops

B．solar

C．livestock

D．pollutants

5.

A．expand

B．exert

C．exclude

D．exploit

6.

A．enforce

B．intend

C．survive

D．suffer

7.

A．advocates

B．opponents

C．neutralists

D．politicians

8.

A．drive down

B．push up

C．bid up

D．hold on

9.

A．producing

B．consuming

C．capturing

D．supplying

10.

A．put

B．throw

C．pressure

D．convert

11.

A．competing for

B．responsible for

C．allowing for

D．calling for

12.

A．rather than

B．in spite of

C．due to

D．out of

13.

A．analyze

B．assess

C．evaluate

D．compare

14.

A．month

B．week

C．year

D．decade

15.

A．economically

B．mathematically

C．spiritually

D．chemically