1 . 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。

Every Wednesday afternoon, Le Duc An, a Vietnamese PhD student at Beijing University of Technology, practices calligraphy in the calligraphy group.

The 33-year-old     1    (study) Chinese calligraphy for nearly three years. “I     2    (expose) to Vietnamese calligraphy when I was a child, and it was one of the things that made the biggest impression on me,” An says.

When he came to Beijing in 2019 for his PhD studies focusing on the environment, he also spent time practicing Chinese calligraphy,     3    (commit) himself in earnest to the journey of learning the art.

    4    (initial), An says that he did not understand the techniques in Chinese calligraphy, but with the help of Professor Liu Hongli, he gradually came to understand the meaning behind the characters and the techniques in calligraphy.

    5    (gain) a deeper understanding of calligraphy, An has visited many ancient sites in Beijing, including the Confucius Temple and the Forbidden City. He has also participated     6     a number of calligraphy competitions, both at school and international events.

An says that places     7     he has seen treasured scrolls of calligraphy have left a profound impression, and are     8     major source of inspiration. “Calligraphy has become a part of me,” An says.“Whenever I see Chinese calligraphy from different     9    (dynasty), and on sculptures and at historical sites, I find myself     10    (impress) by the vastness and depth of Chinese culture.”

2 . 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。

‘Picturesque’ is the word we reach for     1     (describe) the attraction of a charming view or natural scene. In fact, it has a rather evil past. Coming from the Italian word ‘pittoresco’, ‘picturesque’ was seized upon at the end of the 18th Century by upper class British artists who drew     2     (inspire) from the bright colored Italian landscape paintings they’d encountered, while     3     (visit) the great hubs of European culture on     4     became known as The Grand Tour.

But the ‘picturesque’ paintings that artists such as William Gilpin began to create     5     (differ) strikingly from the wide-open and liberating views you find in paintings by such masters of ‘pittoresco’ style as Claude Lorrain or Salvator Rosa.     6     winding paths and curving rivers that lead one’s eye from the shadowy foreground in a Claude painting,     7     the soul-soaring horizons in his sun-soaked distance, are suddenly shut down — the liberating journey of the eye is blocked. Some cultural critics have suggested that the     8     (advocate) of the British picturesque may have been motivated by fear of     9     (politics) revolution spreading from France to England, and so prevented its power in order to keep the ambitions of observers of their work in check. No wonder the US transcendentalist (超验主义者) Ralph Waldo Emerson, who believed in the rise of spirit, once stated     10     (firm): “Pictures must not be too picturesque”.

3 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. How many languages are there in the world now?

A．Around 7,000.

B．Around 3,500.

C．Around 2,000.

2. What may happen by next century?

A．Children will stop learning any new languages.

B．Everyone will start speaking the same language.

C．About half of the world’s existing languages will disappear.

3. Why are people creating “Talking dictionaries” of dying languages?

A．To record what the languages really sound like.

B．To teach the languages to people from other cultures.

C．To help promote communication among people.

4. What does the speaker think of rare languages?

A．They are precious and worth protecting.

B．They are dying out because of technology.

C．They are not meant to be passed down to children.

4 . Believe it or not, English has become the global lingua franca (世界通用语) in the 21st century. The ability to speak English fluently has become a necessity for individuals and countries to participate in the global economy. This is particularly true for countries that are heavily rely on international trade and investment. Singapore is a perfect example of such a country.

Singapore is a small city-state located in Southeast Asia. Despite its small size, it has become one of the most prosperous and innovative economies in the world. This nation has gained a reputation for having a good quality of life, well-developed infrastructure (基础设施), and a favorable climate for businesses. While there are four official languages in Singapore, English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil, English is the most commonly used language in business, education, and government.

English has played a crucial role in Singapore’s economic development. The country’s founding father, LeeKuan Yew, acknowledged the significance of English in the international business environment and made it a priority to promote English learning in Singapore. He saw English as a tool to connect Singapore to the world and attract foreign investment and the government carried out policies to promote English learning.

Singapore is home to many multinational corporations, and English fluency is a critical factor for these companies when selecting employees. Singaporeans’ fluency in English has also made it easier for them to conduct business with other countries, particularly those in the Western world.

1. In which way is English fluency important?

A．It’s the official language of all countries.

B．It’s a tool to attract overseas investors to invest.

C．It’s the only language spoken in the global economy.

D．It’s necessary to communicate with neighboring countries.

2. What do we know about Singapore in paragraph 2?

A．Government officials have a high quality of life.

B．It is the most economically powerful country in Asia.

C．It likes to work with Chinese people.

D．English is its preferred language.

3. What role did LeeKuan Yew play in Singapore’s promotion of English learning?

A．He made policies to learn English to be related to the world.

B．He was a huge fan of English related business.

C．He recognized the importance of English in the global economy.

D．He made schools to teach British accents in order to join the world.

4. What is the author’s attitude towards English?

A．He believes English is critical.

B．He believes that English learning is very competitive.

C．He thinks learning English is easy.

D．He believes that learning English improves the sense of cooperation.

5 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. Why did the speaker come to China?

A．To study.

B．To do business.

C．To visit friends.

2. How long did the speaker stay in China?

A．About 2 weeks.

B．About 10 weeks.

C．About 3 months.

3. What did the speaker fail to find on her own?

A．Salad.

B．Bread.

C．Tomato sauce.

4. How did the woman understand what the speaker wanted?

A．By using hand gestures.

B．By asking for her son’s help.

C．By using a translator device.

6 . 根据下面短文内容, 在短文的空格处填上一个恰当的词, 使短文完整、通顺。
     As an English-learner, you must know some common idioms. An idiom (习语) is a phrase that cannot be understood word by word. It often needs real-world environment and much life     1     to understand.

“It’s not rocket science”

“It’s not rocket science” is a common English idiom that’s used to show how     2     something is, especially compared to rocket science. It has the same meaning     3     the-very-popular idiom — “it’s not brain surgery (手术).’’ We don’t really know     4     it came from; We just know it was commonly used in the late 1900s. For example, to cheer a friend up, you may say to him, ”Get yourself together! It’s really not rocket science.“

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is an idiom that     5     “don’t risk everything on one plan or idea .” The phrase suggests that someone puts all the eggs they have in one basket and is then at risk of breaking the basket and losing     6     they worked hard for. The first example of the idiom     7     in the 17th century in writing. It was likely in Spanish or Italian. There is a wonderful quote from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. It reads, “It is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket.”

“Call it a day”

“Call it a day” is a simple idiom. It is used when someone wants to tell others they’re done with work for the day. That “work” could be their job, exercise, a creative activity, cooking, or housework. According to Dictionary. ”Call it a day“ first appeared in writing in 1919.     8     you want your workers to go home and get some rest, you can say, “Okay, let’s call it a day here and start work again tomorrow.”

7 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. Who is the speaker probably talking to?

A．Chinese teachers.

B．School students.

C．Newspaper reporters.

2. How many ways are mentioned about the benefit of learning Chinese well?

A．Two.

B．Three.

C．Four.

3. What can contribute to respect and admiration?

A．Rich cultural knowledge.

B．Academic performance.

C．Exciting and brilliant culture.

4. What does the speaker mainly talk about?

A．Who enjoys learning Chinese well.

B．Why learning Chinese well matters.

C．How you can learn Chinese well.

8 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. Who is the speaker probably talking to?

A．Chinese teachers.

B．School students.

C．Newspaper reporters.

2. How many ways are mentioned about the benefit of learning Chinese well?

A．Two.

B．Three.

C．Four.

3. What can contribute to respect and admiration?

A．Rich cultural knowledge.

B．Academic performance.

C．Exciting and brilliant culture.

4. What does the speaker mainly talk about?

A．Who enjoys learning Chinese well.

B．Why learning Chinese well matters.

C．How you can learn Chinese well.

9 . 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. replace       B. trustworthy               C. apparently                    D. pick E. owe             AB. expressing        AC. land                    AD. ironically AE. version       BC. position               BD. challenging

What Is 2023’s Word of the Year, According to Dictionaries?

What word defined the past year for you? Find out if your answer matches the actual word of the year from four famous dictionaries.

Cambridge Dictionary’s     1     for 2023 is hallucinate. The common definition of hallucinate is “to see or hear things that are not really there because of illness or drugs.” In 2023, however, to hallucinate can mean something different, thanks to AI. According to Cambridge’s alternate definition of hallucinating, “when an artificial intelligence hallucinates, it produces false information.” Sure, using AI can be fun for creating dog selfies or could even help you     2     a job, but it’s likely to produce misleading or made-up facts — or “hallucinating.”

Those dictionary people are     3     all on the same page. Similar to Cambridge, Collins Dictionary’s word of the year is the broader term AI. ChatGPT was released in late 2022, with companies attempting to use it to cut costs, worrying employees that it would     4     their jobs. AI pioneers and creators began     5     concerns that AI could be “dangerous” and operated by “bad actors.” President Biden even issued an executive order on “safe, secure and     6     artificial intelligence.”

With Merriam-Webster’s word authentic, we have an AI trifecta (三连胜)! While its core meaning is the same — “not false or imitation” — it should     7     its popularity in 2023 to AI, with the rise in deepfake videos and the potential use of AI in entertainment. However, being authentic is also about being “true to one’s own personality, spirit or character.” Are the public figures you look up to being true to themselves? As people search for authenticity, Merriam-Webster notes, “    8    , with ‘authentic content creators’... authenticity has become a performance.”

Oxford slides in at the last minute with a totally different word of the year for 2023: rizz. This noun means “style, charm or attractiveness”. It’s believed to be a shortened     9     of the word charisma, a special magnetic charm or appeal. It also hints at a changing attitude in 2023. “It’s interesting to see a contrasting word like rizz come to the forefront, perhaps showing that this year more of us are opening ourselves after a few     10     years and finding confidence in who we are,” notes Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages.

10 . Whenever anyone asks me what tech I’d like to see invented, I always say the universal translator, which lets you understand and speak any language.

Meta AI recently announced the start of the universal speech translator (UST) project, which aims to create AI systems that enable real-time speech-to-speech translation across all languages, even those that are spoken but not commonly written. Meta says that today’s AI translation models are focused on widely-used written languages, and that more than 40% of primarily spoken languages are not covered by such translation technologies.

According to Meta, the model is the first AI-powered speech translation system for the unwritten language Hokkien (闽南语), a Chinese language spoken in southeastern China. The system allows Hokkien speakers to hold conversations with English speakers, a significant step toward bringing people together wherever they are located.

To build UST, Meta AI focused on overcoming three important translation system challenges. It addressed data scarcity by getting more training data in more languages and finding new ways to use the data it had found. It solved the modeling problems that arise as models grow to serve many more languages. And it sought new ways to improve on its results.

Meta AI claims that the techniques it pioneered with Hokkien can be extended to many other unwritten languages—and eventually work in real time. For this purpose, Meta has released the Speech Matrix, a large collection of speech-to-speech translations, which enables other research teams to create translation models for other languages.

Artificial (人工的) speech translation could play a significant role in our world. For interactions, it will enable people from around the world to communicate with each other more smoothly, making the social net more interconnected.   For content, using artificial speech translation allows you to easily localize content.

Yashar Behzadi, CEO and founder of Synthesis AI, believes that technology needs to enable more natural experiences if the digital world is to succeed.   He says that one of the current challenges for UST models is the computationally expensive training that’s needed because of the wide range and very slight differences in meaning or sound of languages. Also, to train strong AI models requires vast amounts of typical data. A significant bottleneck to building these AI models in the near future will be to ensure training data collect the privacy in agreement with rules and law.

1. What is the feature of the UST project?

A．It changes spoken languages to written forms.

B．It attracts wider attention to written languages in translation.

C．It adds 40% of spoken languages into translation technology.

D．It enables real-time speech-to-speech translation across all languages.

2. What does the word “scarcity” underlined in Paragraph 4 most probably mean?

A．Lack.

B．Mistake.

C．Recovery.

D．Management.

3. What do we know about UST?

A．It is expensive to collect typical data.

B．It increases the use of a certain language.

C．Its techniques are finally developed for Hokkien.

D．It helps inspire interactions and content localization.

4. Which would be the best title for the passage?

A．AI Translation: Make Translation Faster

B．AI Translation: Meet You in All Languages

C．Unwritten Language: Bring People Together

D．Unwritten Language: Translation Challenge