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 . Imagine ordering something online. Then, imagine that item being delivered in just a few minutes by a drone. Believe it or not, this may be probable in the near future. Drones have been used by militaries since the 1970s. They refer to them as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. However, over the last two decades, drone technology has advanced rapidly and is increasingly available to the public. In fact, drones have already started doing work in many different industries. But is this going to be a good thing or a bad thing?

On the plus side, drones can do many things faster and more efficiently than people. For example, during an emergency, drones can quickly locate injured people by using special cameras. They can also distribute food, water, and medical supplies to people in hard-to-reach or dangerous places.

Drones are not just flying vehicles. Some travel on land and sea, and some even work on farms! Selfdriving tractors are being developed to help out farmers, and flying drones may soon be used to spread seeds. As for the sea, an autonomous sailboat was recently launched to collect data about the ocean and atmosphere.

Drones can truly help people in many ways. They are starting to be used in a wide variety of applications, from healthcare to mining. Even though drones can be very useful, some people believe drones also have some major problems that should be taken into consideration.

One of the biggest concerns about drones is privacy. What if a drone enters your house and takes a look around? Depending on local regulations, there may not be laws preventing drones from doing this. Drone technology is changing so quickly that it’s hard for governments to keep up!

Drones are often used to fly around and collect data. This data is then uploaded to the cloud. Unfortunately, hackers are sometimes able to steal the data when it is being uploaded. Flying drones can also pose a danger to aircraft. Many airports have reported close calls with drones.

Drones are not perfect. In the wrong hands, they can be used for criminal purposes, and even as weapons! However, most people think the positives of drone technology outweigh the negatives. Thus, it is likely that you will be seeing more and more drones in the near future. What is your opinion on drones? Do you think they are worth having around?

1. According to the passage, drones can be applied in many areas EXCEPT that______.

A．drones can quickly deliver the items you order online to your home.

B．drones, equipped with special cameras, can detect the location of the injured.

C．flying drones can be developed to help farmers spread seeds on a farm.

D．drones can unlock the keys to doors and enter the house in case of emergency.

2. Which of the following is likely to happen due to the improper use of drones?

A．They may help hackers collect confidential data and upload the information to them.

B．Airplanes on course may narrowly escaped being crashed into flying drones.

C．They may destroy the food supplies before sending them to people in inaccessible areas.

D．Drones can be granted permission from the local government to access private homes.

3. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

A．Drones to the rescue	B．Drones in fashion
C．Drones: the flying delivery	D．Drones on the road to ruin

3 . My past students are starting to organize a scientific conference for my 60th birthday to be held about a year from now. Their gesture reminded me of Rabbi Hanina’s words: “I have learned much from my teachers, more from my colleagues and the most from my students.”

We all started as students. Just as kids bump into things as they’re learning to _________ the world, many of us have scars from early encounters with our mentors._________ arise when those mentors attempt to establish their authority by trying to make us respect traditional thinking. Memories of these events should encourage us to do better as we_________ roles and mentor others later in life.

For example, the first advice I received from my postdoctoral mentor was to develop specialized skills and focus them on a _________ field, where I would establish myself as the world expert._________ , I decided not to follow this advice as soon as I recognized by drilling down narrowly, one often fails to make further progress. In these situations, the potential for a _________improves with a broader and more flexible perspective, which enables “out of the box” opportunities for drilling deeper around it.

Keeping this in mind, I encourage my students to think broadly and _________ about the most exciting problems in astronomy, such as: “What happened before the big bang?”; “What will happen in our distant cosmic future?”; “What is the nature of dark matter?”; or “When did life start in the universe?”

It is customary to consider a student’s raw potential as a stand-alone commodity whose value can be_________ through examinations. But my experience taught me that young scientists do not blossom into exceptional researchers _________ they are supported by encouraging words and inspiration; these ingredients are as __________ as nutrition and water are for seeds of flowers.__________ the initial belief in the potential of a student to become a successful scientist, this outcome may not come true.

As chair of the Harvard astronomy department for almost a decade, I witnessed many examples of students who were initially very slow to make progress but blossomed academically as soon as they selected a different advisor and a new topic for their Ph. D. A good mentor__________ the strengths of the mentee. As a result, a successful mentoring experience often reflects a good __________ between a fledgling(新手的) scientist and an advisor. They should both be congratulated for their shared academic DNA.

On the one hand, mentors get a kick from Oscar Wilde’s insight: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...” But on the other hand, they should allow students to break free from the __________ path with creativity. The rule of thumb is to give young scholars just enough space to explore freely and learn from their __________ without damaging the direction of their future careers. The learning curves could be steep; some of my 50 students over the past few decades started slow but eventually rose to the greatest heights. Patience is key.

1.

A．process

B．explore

C．reform

D．include

2.

A．Conflicts

B．Negotiations

C．Approvals

D．Mysteries

3.

A．play

B．deny

C．access

D．change

4.

A．commercial

B．strange

C．narrow

D．broad

5.

A．Therefore

B．Additionally

C．However

D．Consequently

6.

A．failure

B．obligation

C．ignorance

D．breakthrough

7.

A．independently

B．mutually

C．temporarily

D．undoubtedly

8.

A．embraced

B．evaluated

C．contained

D．imposed

9.

A．if

B．lest

C．while

D．unless

10.

A．crucial

B．elaborate

C．unpredictable

D．inaccessible

11.

A．Within

B．Given

C．Without

D．Due to

12.

A．spots

B．hides

C．applies

D．recalls

13.

A．argument

B．interaction

C．criticism

D．interview

14.

A．beaten

B．broken

C．chaotic

D．fresh

15.

A．mentors

B．imitations

C．fortune

D．mistakes

4 . Directions: Complete the passage with the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. There is one extra that you do not need.

A. imperfections                  B. virtual              C. admittedly        D. distortion          E. spark             F. surprisingly G. focus   H. repeat   I. increasingly                J. heightened   K. mixed

Feeling Ugly on Zoom

Jane, a 40-year-old mental health professional from Ireland, never worried too much about how she looked. However, when her job went fully     1    , she found herself desperately anxious about Microsoft Teams (video) meetings. Her face looked rounder, her nose looked bigger, and her top lip looked thinner than she had ever noticed it while looking in the mirror.

“I’ve always thought that I was attractive, and people would always compliment my looks in person,” Jane says. “But on video, nobody was saying how nice it was to see my pretty face.”

In June 2021, Jane took matters into her own hands — or rather, her lips — and got her wrinkles plumped with filler. She was so pleased with the results that she plans to     2     the process every year.

As the pandemic forced the masses into video conferences throughout 2020, researchers noticed a phenomenon they called “Zoom dysmorphia” (畸形恐惧症). After months of remote meetings and social gatherings — and seeing their own faces on screen — more and more people became focused on their physical     3    . Shadi Kourosh, a Massachusetts dermatologist (皮肤科医生), coined the term after her clinic reopened for in-person appointments in the summer of 2020, when she noticed a huge increase in consultations for cosmetic procedures. Even more     4    , with the return to face-to-face interaction, consultation requests are not slowing down. While the trend may not only be attributable to Zoom, it is clear that the age of video conferencing has opened up a Pandora’s box of physical and mental insecurities.

Psychological studies have long associated time spent in front of the mirror with one’s     5    feelings of insecurity. However, Kourosh says that looking at yourself on a screen is more like looking into a funhouse mirror than an actual one. Front-facing cameras, with their close     6    , can distort (使……失真) people’s appearance, making eyes look smaller and noses seem bigger. Plus, people are not used to watching themselves while trying to pay attention to other people.

Doctors who perform cosmetic procedures are familiar with how the phenomenon of body dysmorphia has become     7     worsened in recent years by retouched (润饰的) celebrity photos or, even more recently, by social media filters. But most people are self-aware enough to know a social media filter is not real life. Zoom dysmorphia is tricker because people simply were not aware that video calls could cause     8    . These types of insecurities also affect a much broader section of society. Not everybody has a Snapchat account, but almost anybody who worked from home during the pandemic used video conferencing. The impact can be profound and lasting.

Jane has    9     feelings. Her job will be online for the foreseeable future. Feeling less attractive on screen than in real life, she is considering a rhinoplasty (隆鼻术) to improve her confidence. “But resolving my anxiety about my physical appearance is likely to     10    its own kind of insecurity,” she says. “It feels juvenile (幼稚的) as a 40-year-old women to think about my looks like a teenager. There’re bigger problems in the world.”

5 . For the longest time, the predominant description about renewable energy featured awkward technologies, high costs, and burdensome allowance. In the _______ of strict and far-reaching policy changes, the chances for mass adoption seemed slim. Electric vehicles (EVs) simply couldn’t go the distance, and LED lights were unattractive and _______.

But now that these technologies have come of age, a new story is being written. Around the world, businesses, governments, and households are taking advantage of more cost-effective low-carbon technologies.

_______ advances in information technologies (IT), green solutions can be introduced into business operations successfully. And as public support for these technologies has grown, so have the _______ for scaling up to a fully sustainable energy system.

As in any rapid transition, a full understanding of what is happening has _______ events. Many present energy producers find it hard to believe that their world is undergoing a revolutionary change, so they insist that their heavily polluting technologies will remain _______ and necessary for some time to come. Journalists, too, describe the transition with a degree of _______, because it is their job to be suspicious. And politicians and regulators are cautious to adopt a new perspective, _______ they are already struggling to keep up with the pace of change in the energy industry.

To be sure, _______ doesn’t come without setbacks, as the recent growth in energy-related greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions shows. Yet there is no doubt that the future of energy will be __________ different from the recent past. In fact, the __________ is happening even faster than we think, for example, coal-fired power plants are shutting down faster than ever, and plans for new natural-gas plants are being replaced with more cost-effective wind and solar options. And as the shift toward renewables gains good trends, it will be easier for elected officials to pursue more climate-friendly policies and regulations, thereby creating a(n) __________ circle of change.

As the green transition comes of age, it will offer solutions to all of humanity’s energy needs, placing a clean, prosperous and secure low-carbon future well within reach. Yet even as we hug __________, we must not lose sight of the fact that climate change is speeding up. With GHG emissions __________ to rise, the future of humanity hangs in the balance. One hopes that the shift to __________ energy will tip the scale in our favor.

1.

A．license

B．absence

C．application

D．promotion

2.

A．invisible

B．unbelievable

C．inevitable

D．unaffordable

3.

A．Instead of

B．Owing to

C．In case of

D．According to

4.

A．resources

B．revolutions

C．prospects

D．priorities

5.

A．caught up with

B．compared with

C．taken place of

D．fallen behind

6.

A．relevant

B．inferior

C．synthetic

D．experimental

7.

A．mixture

B．caution

C．conflict

D．approval

8.

A．in case

B．so that

C．even though

D．the moment

9.

A．significance

B．invention

C．happiness

D．progress

10.

A．dramatically

B．economically

C．independently

D．equivalently

11.

A．interaction

B．modernization

C．motivation

D．transformation

12.

A．natural

B．potential

C．positive

D．original

13.

A．influence

B．optimism

C．estimation

D．extension

14.

A．starting

B．failing

C．emerging

D．continuing

15.

A．sustainable

B．traditional

C．available

D．industrial