1 . 阅读下面材料， 在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

Sharifkhuja has loved Chinese movies and culture since childhood. His father is also a huge fan of China. Before his     1    (graduate) from high school, Sharifkhuja’s father thought that his son was an     2    (ambition) person and suggested that he go to China to learn Chinese in the future. Having studied Chinese for two years in Tajikistan, Sharifkhuja finally came to China     3    (pursue) his dream.

Up to now, Chinese language and calligraphy     4    (become) part of his life. In his first calligraphy class, Sharifkhuja said that writing with brushes was     5     amazing experience, which could help him feel the spirit of Chinese culture. Besides,     6     he enjoys most is traditional Chinese music. Sharifkhuja is willing to share his experience in China with     7    (he) family and friends and introduce Tajik culture to his Chinese pals.

Having stayed in China for many years, he hopes to work in the embassy (大使馆)    8     a cultural ambassador between the two countries. Meanwhile, he also plans to return home as a Chinese teacher because     9     (use) the skills he acquired in China to improve the education of his motherland is one of his dreams.

However, no matter what Sharifkhuja chooses, his future will be     10    (close) related to Chinese.

2 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Merriam-Webster     1     (announce) that “authentic” was a top term of the year 2023. The rise of Al helped drive interest     2     the word. And the line between “real” and “fake” (假的) has become     3     (increasing) unclear. As a result, in social media and marketing, “authentic” has become the gold standard for building trust.

3 . This past year an issue has been bothering me. It’s the way scientists talk.

This is not a new concern. Many years ago science writer Susan Hassol and atmospheric scientist Richard Somerville wrote a humorous but serious piece about how the terms that climate scientists use mean one thing to them but often something very different to others. In the climate system, for example, “positive feedback” refers to amplifying (放大) feedback loops (循环), such as the ice-albedo feedback. (“Albedo,” basically means “reflectivity.”)The loop develops when global warming causes Arctic ice to melt, exposing water that is darker and reflects less of the sun’s warming rays, which leads to more warming, which leads to more melting ... and so on. In the climate system, this positive feedback is a bad thing. But for most, it brings to mind comforting images, such as receiving praise from your boss.

Hassol and Somerville call this “speaking in code.” Codes, of course, are not intended for outsiders, but some scientific language is mysterious even to many insiders.

Studies show that strange terms, in fact, confuse people and make them feel excluded (排除在外的). One study showed that even when participants were given definitions for the terms being used, materials full of technical terms made them less likely to identify with the scientific community and decreased their overall interest in the subject. In plain words: terms turn people off.

Of course, technical terms used in regulatory contexts may be hard to change for legal reasons. But if scientists could explain in a more accessible way, it would help us understand their claims and better appreciate their work.

1. What has bothered the author recently?

A．The latest scientific research.	B．The manner scientists behave.
C．The speeches delivered by scientists.	D．The terms employed by scientists.

2. What leads to the development of the loop in “ice-albedo feedback”?

A．Changeable temperature.	B．Lower reflectivity of water.
C．The expansion of Arctic ice.	D．The decrease in the sun’s warming rays.

3. Why do Hassol and Somerville describe scientific language as “code”?

A．Because it is intended for daily use.	B．Because only experts can understand it.
C．Because it rarely gets across to outsiders.	D．Because they want to make the language mysterious.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．Scientists: Please Speak Plainly	B．Insiders: Be Friendly to the Public
C．Turn People off with Technical Terms	D．Get More Engaged in the Scientific World

4 . When the first digital emoticon “:-)” was posted on Sept 19, 1982, by professor Scott Fahlman at Carnegie Mellon University, US, internet history was made. Now, there are more than 3,600 emojis available for us, noted CNN.

“They offer things that words aren’t saying. They clarify that when you say ‘okay’, what kind of okay that is.” Jennifer Daniel—head of the Emoji Subcommittee for the Unicode Consortium, an organization in charge of choosing official emojis—told CNN. Daniel went on to say that emojis add natural elements of face-to-face communication to conversations, such as body language, intonation, volume and eye contact.

But the meanings of emojis are quite different geographically. For example, people in the West prefer to express their feelings through the mouth and chin; so, to show happiness, they often put great emphasis on the corners of the mouth turning up. But in the East, people are more emotionally restrained and their emotions are shown through the eyes instead.

Emojis can be used differently even within the same country. A smiley face with a waving hand is one such example. For most people, this kind of emoji is friendly while some young people use it to show the breakup of a relationship.

Just as language develops, so do emojis. The Unicode Consortium brings out new emojis every year, showing care when it comes to race, gender and other sensitive aspects in new emoji sets. In 2015, it released different skin tones. In 2016, different job emojis were added, such as teacher and firefighter—along with female versions for these jobs. In 2019, emojis of disabled people were added, including emojis of blind people and people in wheelchairs.

What is the future for emojis? They are already shaping social media as existing and new platforms evolve to respond to their expanding uses. Will the emoji evolve to become an international language with the growth of digitalization (数字化)? Or is technology changing so fast that emojis could go the way of the emoticon and fade in popularity after the next big thing comes along? It is hard to predict—even technology and language experts are divided on the subject.

1. Why do we use emojis, according to Daniel?

A．To replace body language.	B．To fully express ourselves.
C．To add fun to the conversation.	D．To stress what we want to say.

2. Which emoji is most likely to be used by people in the West to express happiness?

A．A face with a hand over the mouth.	B．A face with a raised eyebrow.
C．A smiley face with a waving hand.	D．A face with an upward curving of the mouth.

3. What does the underlined word “restrained” mean in the third paragraph?

A．Recognized.

B．Remained.

C．Controlled.

D．Influenced.

4. What does the author think about the future of emojis?

A．It remains to be seen.

B．They will lose favor sooner or later.

C．They will become even more popular.

D．They will develop into a universal language.

5 . Antique, idol, dialogue, geography, grammar, architect, economy, encyclopedia, telephone, microscope… all these common English words have something in common: they originate from Greek. To this list, we could add thousands more words, some common and others less so. Clearly, the Greek language has had an important influence on the English language.

According to one survey, more than 150,000 words of English are of Greek origin. These include technical and scientific terms but also more common words like those above.

Words that starts with ‘ph-’ are usually of Greek origin, for example: philosophy, physical, photo, phrase, philanthropy.

Many English words are formed of parts of words that originate from the Greek language, including the following examples:

phobia (fear of) , as in arachnophobia — the fear of spiders
micro (small) , as in microscopic — so small it’s hard to see
demos (people) as in democracy — government by the people

Greek mythology (神话) has been very influential in Western culture, particularly its art and literature. Unsurprisingly, some common expressions in English come from these ancient myths and beliefs.

“To have an ‘Achilles’ heel” means “to have a weakness”. Achilles was a Greek hero and central character in Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad. He was only weak at his heel. Example sentence: I’m trying to eat more healthily, but chocolate is my Achilles’ heel.

The ‘Midas touch’ is another common expression from Greek mythology. Describing a near-magical ability to succeed at anything one attempts, the expression originates from a story of King Midas, who is remembered for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. Example sentence: My brother’s business is so successful, he really has the Midas touch!

An idiom which has its roots in ancient Greece is ‘crocodile tears’. The phrase might come from the popular ancient belief that crocodiles weep while eating their victims. In fact, crocodiles do lubricate (润滑) their eyes by means of their tear ducts (泪管), usually when their eyes start to dry out after being out of the water for a long time. However, the behaviour is also thought to happen when crocodiles feed. It’s used in English to describe expressions of sadness that are insincere.

1. Why are so many English words listed at the beginning of the passage?

A．To prove that they have much in common.

B．To show the Greek influence on English.

C．To attract the readers’ attention to their origin.

D．To present the popularity of the Greek language.

2. Which kind of the following people express their insincere sadness according to the text?

A．People with crocodile tears.	B．People with Midas touch.
C．People with a phobia.	D．People who have Achilles’ heel.

3. What has great influence on western art and literature according to the text?

A．Words with Greek origins.	B．The forms of the words.
C．Greek mythology.	D．The Greek animals and wars.

4. How is the passage developed?

A．In time order.	B．By listing examples.
C．By comparison.	D．Through cause and effect.

6 . In spite of “endless talk of difference”, American society is an amazing machine for homogenizing people. This includes the uniformity in clothing and communication, as well as the casualness and lack of respect seen in popular culture. People are absorbed into “a culture of consumption” launched by the 19th-century department stores that offered a wide range of goods in an elegant atmosphere. Instead of fancy shops catering to the upper-class, these were stores “anyone could enter, regardless of class or background.” This turned shopping into a public and democratic (民主的) act. The mass media, advertising and sports are other forces for homogenization.

Immigrants are quickly adapting to this common culture, which may not be altogether elevating but is hardly poisonous. Writing for the National Immigration Forum, Gregory Rodriguez reports that today’s immigration is neither at remarkable levels nor resistant to assimilation (融合). In 1998 immigrants were 9.8 percent of population; in 1900, 13.6 percent. In the 10 years prior to 1990, 3.1 immigrants arrived for every 1,000 residents; in the 10 years prior to 1890, 9.2 for every 1,000. Now, consider three indicators of assimilation — language, home ownership and intermarriage.

The 1990 Census revealed that “a majority of immigrants from each of the fifteen most common countries of origin spoke English ‘well’ or ‘very well’ after ten years of residence.” The children of immigrants tend to be bilingual (双语的) and good at English. “By the third generation, the original language is lost in the majority of immigrant families.” Hence, America is described as a “graveyard” for languages. By 1996 foreign-born immigrants who had arrived before 1970 had a home ownership rate of 75.6 percent, higher than the 69.8 percent rate among native-born Americans. Foreign-born Asians and Hispanics “have higher rates of intermarriage than do U.S.-born whites and blacks.” By the third generation, one third of Hispanic women are married to non-Hispanics, and 41 percent of Asian-American women are married to non-Asians.

Rodriguez notes that children in remote villages around the world are fans of superstars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks, yet “some Americans fear that immigrants living within the United States are not influenced by the nation’s assimilative power.”

Are there divisive issues and anger in America? Indeed. It is big enough to have a bit of everything. But particularly when viewed against America’s troubled past, today’s social Indicators hardly suggest a dark and worsening social environment.

1. The underlined phrase in paragraph 1 probably means ________.

A．making people adapt to American consumption culture

B．encouraging people to embrace a democratic lifestyle

C．encouraging people to stick to their own ideas and principles

D．making people behave more similarly in many aspects

2. According to the passage, what can be inferred about the immigrants now in the U.S.?

A．Their adaptation to the common culture is quick but harmful to the society.

B．The scale of immigration is not big and the immigrants welcome American culture.

C．Their children are good at both English and their original language.

D．Hispanic and Asian-American women both prefer to marry native-born Americans.

3. The author mentions Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks in paragraph 4 to ________.

A．provide examples of successful immigrants

B．suggest the weakness of America’s assimilative power

C．show the powerful influence of American culture

D．prove their popularity at home and abroad

4. What is the author’s general attitude towards the cultural assimilation in American society?

A．Optimistic.

B．Concerned.

C．Neutral.

D．Negative.

7 . Do you speak a Chinese dialect in your daily life? While Mandarin is widely spoken by people across China, some local dialects are in danger of dying out. To save them, the Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission launched the Chinese Language Resources Protection Project CLRPP years ago.

This project, which surveyed the language resources of 1,712 locations including 103 with endangered Chinese dialects, has helped China successfully build the largest language resource library in the world. The online library not only meets the needs of professional researchers but also enables the public to access over 5.6 million audio files and over 5 million video files for their dialect learning.

When it comes to the reason, Dr. Zhang, chief expert on CLRPP, once expressed his concerns in an article. “For about over a decade, in Wu dialect areas, children aged 6 to 15 can understand but hardly speak the dialect. Young people above 15 years old sometimes speak it, but not fluently, Zhang said. “If this continues, dialects will disappear in a few decades. When local dialects disappear, where will our nostalgic (怀旧的) feelings find their home?”

As China is a vast country with a wide variety of dialects, national efforts have been made to establish a language resource library. “Most international language protection projects are implemented by separate efforts. But in China, it’s a national project,” said Zhang. Within five years, more than 350 universities and research institutions took part in the project, with over 4,500 professional technicians and more than 6,000 language dialect speakers involved.

Language protection not only relies on the government and experts but also on the involvement of billions of language users. The project supports schools to set up some extracurricular classes so students can learn dialects and local opera performances. Currently, the second stage of the project is underway. Its main tasks include the deeper development of digital applications, such as digital and mobile dictionaries for dialects as well as multilingual textbooks.

1. What do we know about CLRPP?

A．It has provided a large number of audio and video files for researchers.

B．It has saved at least 103 endangered Chinese dialects from 1,712 locations.

C．It has played a vital role in setting up an online library for dialect learning.

D．It has made a collection of all the endangered dialects in different locations.

2. What can we infer from Dr. Zhang’s words?

A．Young children in Wu area can no more speak the dialect.

B．Natives have urgent desire to save the dialects in the future.

C．The fluency of local dialects raised much concern nationwide.

D．People may lose a sense of belonging as local dialects die out.

3. What differs China with other countries in language protection?

A．Only China has libraries for protection of language resource.

B．Chinese government has invested more on language protection.

C．China is home to more types of dialects than other countries do.

D．People in China made joint efforts to protect their local dialects.

4. Which is helpful to language protection?

A．Promotion of local opera performances.

B．Mobile dictionaries for Chinese learning.

C．Further exploration of existing textbooks.

D．Extracurricular classes of digital development.

8 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Learning languages has many advantages: feeling confident when travelling abroad, making friends     1    (international), being able to read books in the original(原版的), and a lot more, like studying and working in other     2    (country). Most people live under the stereotype(刻板印象)that they lose their learning abilities with age. However, if faced     3     a challenge when there is no other way except to learn the new foreign language, adult people can show great results. Before     4    (decide)how to learn a new language, the first thing is to decide in which situation the language is to be used.

If the target is, for example,    5    (travel)or find new business at some international events, a course focusing on speaking practices is recommended(推荐). The     6    (base)vocabulary and conversational structures(结构), studied and practised heavily during a short period of time, may lead to the needed result, which might be the ability to communicate on the streets or support     7     small business talk. Usually the two or three months of study     8    (be)enough to start communicating. However, if brought back shortly to the usual environment, the person might lose the majority of knowledge if there would not be any supporting practice afterwards. Unfortunately, without practical usage     9     further development, the language abilities may go away as easily as they came. The language cannot     10    (learn)once and forever.

9 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写 一个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。请在答题卡指定区域作答。

Low-Hanging Fruit

If you are the first person to arrive at an apple tree during harvest time, you can easily find some low-hanging fruit. These are the apples that     1     (be) on the branches closest to the ground. Low-hanging fruit describes the most obvious or     2     (easy) things to do to help you reach a goal. Anyone or anything     3     can be won over or gained very easily is low-hanging fruit. Here is an example: “Changing the company logo is low-hanging fruit. It won’t cost much, and I can do it in an hour.”

10 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Have you ever wondered     1     we say maidongxi (买东西) instead of mainanbei, and shangcesuo (上厕所) rather than xiacesuo? Many Chinese words have directions in them, and there is lots of history and culture     2     (hide) behind.

The origin of maidongxi     3     (date) back to the Tang Dynasty, when two markets gained     4     (popular) in capital Chang’an. One was called the East Market while the other was called the West Market. When shopping, people usually went to the East Market first,    5    then the West Market. This practice gave rise to the term of maidongxi.

Another case is yijian xiangzuo (意见相左).    6    great many Chinese are right-handed, and they may feel     7     (convenient) if they use their left hand to write or use chopsticks. Therefore, in ancient Chinese, “left” was easily linked to being different, such as yijian xiangzuo. Likewise, if people don’t accept common     8     (belief), we may say they are following pangmen zuodao.

Then came the story of shangcesuo and xiachufang. In ancient times, houses were laid out in a certain way,     9    gate would face south with a bathroom in the northeastern top and the kitchen in the southeastern bottom. In Chinese, we talk about “the north” as shang and “the south” as xia. So people would say they were going “up” to the bathroom and “down” to the kitchen. Shang and xia also reflect social status. For example, the emperor     10     (call) huangshang and dianxia usually means the prince.