1 . 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. competing     B. incredibly     C. issued     D. influential     E. barely F. hosting     G. highlight       H. stage     I. diagnosis     J. related K. commitment

Shanghai Is Full Speed Ahead

After decades of experience in the field, Shanghai is strengthening its reputation as a global leader in     1     top-level, professional sports events.

Last month’s Shanghai Sailing Open, held from March 26—31 on Dishui Lake, was a typical example of the city’s world-famous excellence, attracting over 300 competitors, including a six—time world champion of Poland, a gold medalist at the Hangzhou Asian Games, and China’s former Olympic champion Xu Lijia;     2     in sailboats and yachts, sailors sang praise on the competition environment and overall atmosphere of the event.

Shanghai’s     3     to developing its sports scene has been key to this success. In 2015, the Shanghai government     4     a plan to speed up the development of its sports industry, including a proposal to develop the city into a world-renowned sports hub within 10 years.

According to the “2023 Shanghai sports event influence     5     report”, Shanghai held 118 major sports events last year, with 36 of those international-level events, including the ATP 1000 Shanghai Masters, the Shanghai Marathon, and the Shanghai Half Marathon, which were rated as the city’s most     6     sports events last year.

This year, besides the recent Shanghai Sailing Open and various district-organized half marathon events, the city will continue to     7     sports competitions such as the Shanghai Half Marathon, the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix, the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, and the Olympic Qualifier Series.

The success of sports development in Shanghai is closely     8     to a policy of top-level construction. In addition to top—level international competitions, top—tier home teams, and professional leagues, brand events are staged year-round to     9     the city’s characteristics. Linking sports with culture, commerce, tourism, and exhibitions is another feature of the city’s sports environment, helping to     10     maximize the economic benefits. Spectators can expect to be treated to the very best in urban sports and that organizers will strive to provide a warm atmosphere of sports, art, music, and culture.

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. precisely       B. statistical       C. gender       D. enrolled       E. restriction       F. spotted G. frank       H. execute       I. identified       J. confidence       K. dramatically

Female Grandmaster—Hou Yifan

Even by the standard of chess geniuses, Hou Yifan stood out. It wasn’t so much the way she played the game     1     with an aggressive but flexible style. It was that she was a girl. Thirteen years after she became a Grandmaster, at the age of fourteen, people still mentioned two big hairpins that used to pin back her bobbed hair. “I never felt     2     or limitations,” she told me recently from her home in Shenzhen, China, where she is a professor at Shenzhen university’s Faculty of Physical Education.

“My parents never told me that as a girl you should do this or that,” she said. “Teachers never shaped my views in that way.” These days her hair falls to her shoulders and black cat’s-eye glasses frame her face. She speaks English quickly and     3    . She is the only woman among the hundred best chess players in the world.

Chess is not like basketball or soccer. Men and women face one another on equal terms, and no one can tell the     4     of a player from the moves on a scorecard. Still, of the seventeen hundred and thirty-two Grandmasters in the world, just thirty-eight are women. Much of this gap stems from how many women compete versus the number of men who do: around sixteen percent of tournament players are     5     as female and most of them are children. As a purely     6     matter, you would expect few, if any, women at the extreme of the rankings. Still, this appears to be an incomplete explanation of the inequality at the top of the game, about which Hou is     7    . “You cannot deny it, you cannot pretend it doesn’t happen,” she told me, of the absence of women from chess highest echelon(梯队). For years, she has been the only one who stood a chance.

Hou was born in 1994 in Xinghua, a small city near China’s coast. As a child she     8     a chess set in a shop window and liked the shapes of the pieces. When she was five, she started playing the game with other kids at the home of a chess teacher and showed enough talent that her parents     9     her a year early in the local school which had a chess program. She and her classmates would consult a large chess dictionary and write out the first few moves of famous openings on a sheet of paper. Then they would set up their boards, dutifully     10     their copied instructions and launch their wild attacks.

She moved to Shandong with her mother and attended chess classes. Two years later, she joined the national team and won the girls under ten championship in 2003. In the next year, she finished boys under ten tournament tied for first.

3 . 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. peak            B. bound       C. considerate          D. announced     E. defeated          F. related             G. determination       H. measure     I. fever               J. serve               K.   considerable

It was very hot outside. The Chengdu Little Warriors were facing off against the Legendary Mighty Dragons of Beijing at a local indoor skating-rink (溜冰场). When I arrived, the Little Warriors, whose oldest player was eight years old, had just     1     their northern competitors. Near the lockers, a poster advertised hockey classes. Olympic     2     has begun to spread so far south that Chengdu now has nine skating-rinks and local hockey leagues for both kids and adults. It clearly shows China’s     3     to take the opportunity of holding the Olympics to promote winter sports across the country.

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games were praised as a success by almost every     4    : the wonderful opening ceremony, the tight security, the large crowds of     5     volunteers, and Team China’s place atop the gold-medal rankings. Each aspect of the event signaled the country’s arrival as a world power, capable of competing with the best and winning.

If 2008 was about China getting a seat at the table, the 2022 Winter Olympic Games     6     a different purpose. China's status as a global power is no longer in question. Beijing 2022 will not be just a two-week sporting event but the     7     of a multi-year campaign to promote winter sports. “ We no longer need to put on shows of ten thousand people performing Tai Chi,” said Zheng Kan. “ Now we just want to show that we are relatable.”

While the audience for winter sports may still be a small, relatively rich group, it is growing. To prove his commitments (承诺) to winter sports, President Xi Jinping     8     a “ three hundred-million-person winter-sports plan.” The plan is aimed at raising China’s participation rate in winter sports from less than two percent to twenty-two percent. Some schools in Beijing have already introduced courses     9     to winter sports. A high-speed rail line that was opened at the end of 2019 cuts travel time between Beijing and Zhangjiakou, where many of the events will be held in 2022, to under an hour.

With all these efforts, the 2022 Winter Olympic Games are     10     to be wonderful and unforgettable.