Section Ⅰ Use of English Directions: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. Here's a common scenario that any number of entrepreneurs face today: you're the CEO of a small business, and though you're making a nice 1 , you need to find a way to take it to the next level. What you need to do is 2 growth by establishing a growth team. A growth team is made up of members from different departments within your company, and it harnesses the power of collaboration to focus 3 on finding ways to grow. Let's look at a real-world 4 . Prior to forming a growth team, the software company BitTorrent had 50 employees working in the 5 departments of engineering, marketing and product development. This brought them good results until 2012, when their growth plateaued. The 6 was that too many customers were using the basic, free version of their product. And 7 improvements to the premium, paid version, few people were making the upgrade. Things changed, 8 , when an innovative project-marketing manager came aboard, 9 a growth team and sparked the kind of 10 perspective they needed. By looking at engineering issues from a marketing point of view, it became clear that the 11 of upgrades wasn't due to a quality issue. Most customers were simply unaware of the premium version and what it offered. Armed with this 12 , the marketing and engineering teams joined forces to raise awareness by prominently 13 the premium version to users of the free version. 14 , upgrades skyrocketed, and revenue increased by 92 percent. But in order for your growth team to succeed, it needs to have a strong leader. It needs someone who can 15 the interdisciplinary team and keep them on course for improvement. This leader will 16 the target area, set clear goals and establish a time frame for the 17 of these goals. The growth leader is also 18 for keeping the team focused on moving forward and steering them clear of distractions. 19 attractive new ideas can be distracting, the team leader must recognize when these ideas don't 20 the current goal and need to be put on the back burner.
[考点] 考查语义逻辑。 [解析] 空格后提到的,升级率直线上升,收入增加了92%。说明,由于版本变得更加高级,所以选择升级的人数在增加。因此,空格后的内容是推广的结果,故选A项As a result。B项At any rate“不管怎样”;C项By the way“顺便说一下”和D项In a sense“在某种意义上”均不符合语境,故排除。
Part A Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.
Text 1 In the quest for the perfect lawn, homeowners across the country are taking a shortcut—and it is the environment that is paying the price. About eight million square metres of plastic grass is sold each year but opposition has now spread to the highest gardening circles. The Chelsea Flower Show has banned fake grass from this year's event, declaring it to be not part of its ethos. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), which runs the annual show in west London, says it has introduced the ban because of the damage plastic grass does to the environment and biodiversity. Ed Horne, of the RHS, said: "We launched our sustainability strategy last year and fake grass is just not in line with our ethos and views on plastic. We recommend using real grass because of its environmental benefits, which include supporting wildlife, alleviating flooding and cooling the environment. " The RHS's decision comes as campaigners try to raise awareness of the problems fake grass causes. A Twitter account, which claims to "cut through the greenwash" of artificial grass, already has more than 20,000 followers. It is trying to encourage people to sign two petitions, one calling for a ban on the sale of plastic grass and another calling for an "ecological damage" tax on such lawns. They have gathered 7,276 and 11,282 signatures. However, supporters of fake grass point out that there is also an environmental impact with natural lawns, which need mowing and therefore usually consume electricity or petrol. The industry also points out that real grass requires considerable amounts of water, weed killer or other treatments and that people who lay fake grass tend to use their garden more. The industry also claims that people who lay fake grass spend an average of £500 on trees or shrubs for their garden, which provides habitat for insects. In response to another petition last year about banning fake lawns, which gathered 30,000 signatures, the government responded that it has "no plans to ban the use of artificial grass". It added: "We prefer to help people and organisations make the right choice rather than legislating on such matters. However, the use of artificial grass must comply with the legal and policy safeguards in place to protect biodiversity and ensure sustainable drainage, while measures such as the strengthened biodiversity duty should serve to encourage public authorities to consider sustainable alternatives."
1. The RHS thinks that plastic grass ______.
A.is harmful to the environment
B.is a hot topic in gardening circles
C.is overpraised in the annual show
D.is ruining the view of west London
A B C D
A
[解析] 本题是细节题。题目问皇家园艺协会对塑料草的看法。根据题干中的RHS和plastic grass定位至首段末句。该句提到,在伦敦西部举办年度展会的皇家园艺协会(RHS)表示,由于塑料草对环境和生物多样性的破坏,该协会已经实施了这项禁令。备选项中只有A项“对环境有害”与文中的because of the damage plastic grass does to the environment and biodiversity相对应,故选A项。首段第二句提到,每年大约有800万平方米的塑料草被出售,但反对意见现在已经蔓延到(级别)最高的园艺界。这里提到的gardening circles与“在园艺界是一个热门话题”无关,故排除B项;C项“在年度展会中被过度夸奖”中的overpraised和D项“正在破坏伦敦西部的景色”中的ruining the view of west London在文中均未提及,故排除。 [参考译文] 为了追求完美的草坪,全国各地的房主都在走捷径——而付出代价的正是环境。每年大约有800万平方米的塑料草被出售,但反对意见现在已经蔓延到(级别)最高的园艺界。切尔西花展已经在今年的活动中禁止使用假草,声称它不是其理念的一部分。在伦敦西部举办年度展会的皇家园艺协会(RHS)表示,由于塑料草对环境和生物多样性的破坏,该协会已经实施了这项禁令。 皇家园艺协会的Ed Horne说:“我们去年推出了可持续发展战略,假草不符合我们的理念和对塑料的看法。我们建议使用真草,因为它对环境有益,包括维持野生动物、缓解洪灾和给环境降温。” 皇家园艺协会的决定是在活动人士试图提高人们对假草造成的问题的认识时做出的。一个声称要“划破人造草的绿色伪装”的Twitter账号,已经拥有超过2万名粉丝。它试图鼓励人们签署两份请愿书,一份呼吁禁止销售塑料草,另一份呼吁对此类草坪征收“生态破坏”税。他们已经收集了7276个和11282个签名。 然而,假草的支持者指出,天然草坪也会对环境造成影响,它需要修剪,因此通常要消耗电力或汽油。假草行业还指出,真草需要大量的水、除草剂或其他处理,而铺设假草的人往往更多地使用他们的花园。该行业还声称,铺设假草的人平均花费500英镑为花园种植树木或灌木,这为昆虫提供了栖息地。 政府在回应去年另一份关于禁止假草坪的请愿书时说,他们“没有计划禁止使用人造草坪”,该请愿书收集了3万个签名。 政府补充道:“我们更愿意帮助人们和组织做出正确的选择,而不是在这种问题上立法。然而,人造草坪的使用必须遵守现有的法律和政策保障措施,以保护生物多样性和确保可持续的排水,而加强生物多样性义务等措施应有助于鼓励政府当局考虑可持续的替代方案。”
2. The petitions mentioned in Paragraph 3 reveal the campaigners' ______.
4. What would the government do with regard to artificial grass? ______
A.Urge legislation to restrict its use.
B.Take measures to guarantee its quality.
C.Remind its users to obey existing rules.
D.Replace it with sustainable alternatives.
A B C D
C
[解析] 本题是细节题。题目问关于人造草坪政府的做法。根据题干中的government和artificial grass定位至末段。该段中提到,人造草坪的使用必须遵守现有的法律和政策保障措施,以保护生物多样性和确保可持续的排水。故选C项“提醒使用者遵守现有规则”。其中,obey existing rules与原文中的comply with the legal and policy safeguards相对应。A项“敦促立法以限制人造草坪的使用”,而文章第五段中提到,政府没有计划禁止使用人造草坪,故排除;B项“采取措施以保证人造草坪的质量”在文中并未提及,故排除;D项“用可持续的替代方案取代人造草坪”中的sustainable虽然在文章结尾处出现了,但文中说的是,加强生物多样性义务等措施应有助于鼓励政府当局考虑可持续的替代方案,与D项表述无关,故排除。
5. It can be learned from the text that fake grass ______.
Text 2 It's easy to dismiss as absurd the federal government's ideas for plugging the chronic funding gap of our national parks. Can anyone really think it's a good idea to allow Amazon deliveries to your tent in Yosemite or food trucks to line up under the redwood trees at Sequoia National Park? But the government is right about one thing: U.S. national parks are in crisis. Collectively, they have a maintenance backlog of more than $12 billion. Roads, trails, restrooms, visitor centers and other infrastructure are crumbling. But privatizing and commercializing the campgrounds would not be a cure-all. Campgrounds are a tiny portion of the overall infrastructure backlog, and businesses in the parks hand over, on average, only about 5% of their revenues to the National Park Service. Moreover, increased privatization would certainly undercut one of the major reasons why 300 million visitors come to the parks each year: to enjoy nature and get a break from the commercial drumbeat that overwhelms daily life. The real problem is that the parks have been chronically starved of funding. An economic survey of 700 U.S. taxpayers found that people would be willing to pay a significant amount of money to make sure the parks and their programs are kept intact. Some 81% of respondents said they would be willing to pay additional taxes for the next 10 years to avoid any cuts to the national parks. The national parks provide great value to U. S. residents both as places to escape and as symbols of nature. On top of this, they produce value from their extensive educational programs, their positive impact on the climate through carbon sequestration, their contribution to our cultural and artistic life, and of course through tourism. The parks also help keep America's past alive, working with thousands of local jurisdictions around the country to protect historical sites and to bring the stories of these places to life. The parks do all this on a shoestring. Congress allocates only $3 billion a year to the national park system—an amount that has been flat since 2001 (in inflation- adjusted dollars) with the exception of a onetime boost in 2009. Meanwhile, the number of annual visitors has increased by more than 50% since 1980, and now stands at 330 million visitors per year.
1. What problem are U.S. national parks faced with? ______
A.Decline of business profits.
B.Inadequate commercialization.
C.Lack of transportation services.
D.Poorly maintained infrastructure.
A B C D
D
[解析] 本题是细节题。题目问美国国家公园面临着什么问题。根据题干中的U. S. national parks定位至第二段。该段提到,美国国家公园正处于危机之中,它们的维修费积压总额超过120亿美元。道路、步道、洗手间、游客中心和其他基础设施都摇摇欲坠。说明美国国家公园面临着“基础设施维护不善”的问题。故选D项。文章第三段中只提到,公园里的商业平均只向国家公园管理局上缴其约5%的收入,但美国国家公园商业利润以及商业化程度如何在文中并未提及,故排除A项“商业利润下降”和B项“商业化程度不高”;文章首段末句以反问的形式表明作者不认同让亚马逊的快递送到你在约塞米蒂国家公园的帐篷里的做法,与美国国家公园是否“缺少运输服务”无关,故排除C项。 [参考译文] 联邦政府填补国家公园长期资金缺口的想法很容易被认为是荒谬的。真的有人认为让亚马逊的快递送到你在约塞米蒂国家公园的帐篷里,或者让餐车在红杉国家公园的红杉树下排队是个好主意吗? 但有一件事政府是对的:美国国家公园正处于危机之中。总的来说,它们的维修费积压总额超过120亿美元。道路、步道、洗手间、游客中心和其他基础设施都摇摇欲坠。 但将露营地私有化和商业化并不是包治百病的办法。露营地在整个基础设施积压中只占很小的一部分,而公园里的商业平均只向国家公园管理局上缴其约5%的收入。 此外,增加私有化肯定是削弱每年有3亿游客来到公园的主要原因之一:享受自然,从淹没日常生活的商业鼓声中休息一下。 真正的问题是这些公园长期缺乏资金。一项针对700名美国纳税人的经济调查发现,人们愿意支付一大笔钱以确保公园及其项目完好无损。约81%的受访者表示,他们愿意在未来10年内支付额外的税收,以避免对国家公园的任何资金削减。 国家公园为美国居民提供了巨大的价值,既是消遣的地方,又是自然的象征。除此之外,它们还通过广泛的教育项目创造价值,通过碳封存对气候产生积极影响,对我们的文化和艺术生活做出贡献,当然还有旅游业。这些公园还有助于保持美国的历史活力,与全国数千个地方司法机构合作保护历史遗迹,并让这些地方的故事鲜活起来。 公园里的一切都是靠小额拨款经营的。国会每年仅向国家公园系统拨款30亿美元——这一数额自2001年以来一直没有变化(按通货膨胀调整后的美元计算),除了2009年的一次增长。与此同时,自1980年以来,每年的游客数量增加了50%以上,现在每年可达到3.3亿人次。
2. Increased privatization of the campgrounds may ______.
Text 3 The Internet may be changing merely what we remember, not our capacity to do so, suggests Columbia University psychology professor Betsy Sparrow. In 2011, Sparrow led a study in which participants were asked to record 40 factoids in a computer ("an ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain," for example). Half of the participants were told the information would be erased, while the other half were told it would be saved. Guess what? The latter group made no effort to recall the information when quizzed on it later, because they knew they could find it on their computers. In the same study, a group was asked to remember both the information and the folders it was stored in. They didn't remember the information, but they remembered how to find the folders. In other words, human memory is not deteriorating but "adapting to new communications technology," Sparrow says. In a very practical way, the Internet is becoming an external hard drive for our memories, a process known as "cognitive offloading." Traditionally, this role was fulfilled by data banks, libraries, and other humans. Your father may never remember birthdays because your mother does, for instance. Some worry that this is having a destructive effect on society, but Sparrow sees an upside. Perhaps, she suggests, the trend will change our approach to learning from a focus on individual facts and memorization to an emphasis on more conceptual thinking—something that is not available on the Internet. "I personally have never seen all that much intellectual value in memorizing things," Sparrow says, adding that we haven't lost our ability to do it. Still other experts say it's too soon to understand how the Internet affects our brains. There is no experimental evidence showing that it interferes with our ability to focus, for instance, wrote psychologists Christopher Chabris and Daniel J. Simons. And surfing the web exercised the brain more than reading did among computer-savvy older adults in a 2008 study involving 24 participants at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles. "There may be costs associated with our increased reliance on the Internet, but I'd have to imagine that overall the benefits are going to outweigh those costs," observes psychology professor Benjamin Storm. "It seems pretty clear that memory is changing, but is it changing for the better? At this point, we don't know."
1. Sparrow's study shows that with the Internet, the human brain will ______.
Text 4 Teenagers are paradoxical. That's a mild and detached way of saying something that parents often express with considerably stronger language. But the paradox is scientific as well as personal. In adolescence, helpless and dependent children who have relied on grown-ups for just about everything become independent people who can take care of themselves and help each other. At the same time, once cheerful and compliant children become rebellious teenage risk-takers. A new study published in the journal Child Development, by Eveline Crone of the University of Leiden and colleagues, suggests that the positive and negative sides of teenagers go hand in hand. The study is part of a new wave of thinking about adolescence. For a long time, scientists and policy makers concentrated on the idea that teenagers were a problem that needed to be solved. The new work emphasizes that adolescence is a time of opportunity as well as risk. The researchers studied "prosocial" and rebellious traits in more than 200 children and young adults, ranging from 11 to 28 years old. The participants filled out questionnaires about how often they did things that were altruistic and positive, like sacrificing their own interests to help a friend, or rebellious and negative, like getting drunk or staying out late. Other studies have shown that rebellious behavior increases as you become a teenager and then fades away as you grow older. But the new study shows that, interestingly, the same pattern holds for prosocial behavior. Teenagers were more likely than younger children or adults to report that they did things like unselfishly help a friend. Most significantly, there was a positive correlation between prosociality and rebelliousness. The teenagers who were more rebellious were also more likely to help others. The good and bad sides of adolescence seem to develop together. Is there some common factor that underlies these apparently contradictory developments? One idea is that teenage behavior is related to what researchers call "reward sensitivity." Decision-making always involves balancing rewards and risks, benefits and costs. "Reward sensitivity" measures how much reward it takes to outweigh risk. Teenagers are particularly sensitive to social rewards—winning the game, impressing a new friend, getting that boy to notice you. Reward sensitivity, like prosocial behavior and risk-taking, seems to go up in adolescence and then down again as we age. Somehow, when you hit 30, the chance that something exciting and new will happen at that party just doesn't seem to outweigh the effort of getting up off the couch.
1. According to Paragraph 1, children growing into adolescence tend to ______.
[解析] 本题是主旨题。题目问这篇文章主要讲的是什么。文章开篇就提到Teenagers are paradoxical“青少年是矛盾的”;第二至五段是通过研究讨论青少年自相矛盾的表现,指出其亲社会性和叛逆性之间存在着正相关关系;最后两段探讨了青少年自相矛盾的原因是由于“社会奖励的敏感性”。因此,这篇文章主要讨论的是“为什么青少年是自相矛盾的”,故选A项。B项“为什么青少年对风险敏感”和C项“青少年如何发展亲社会性”属以偏概全,不能概括文章主旨,故均排除;文中只有第一段中出现了independent,后文并未围绕independent展开讨论,因此D项“青少年如何变得独立”同样不能概括主旨,故排除。
Part B Directions: Read the following text and match each of the numbered items in the left column to its corresponding information in the right column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.
Net-zero rules set to send cost of new homes and extensions soaring
New building regulations aimed at improving energy efficiency are set to increase the price of new homes, as well as those of extensions and loft conversions on existing ones. The rules, which came into effect on Wednesday in England, are part of government plans to reduce the UK's carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. They set new standards for ventilation, energy efficiency and heating, and state that new residential buildings must have charging points for electric vehicles. The moves are the most significant change to building regulations in years, and industry experts say they will inevitably lead to higher prices at a time when a shortage of materials and high labour costs are already driving up bills. Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders, says the measures will require new materials, testing methods, products and systems to be installed. "All this comes at an increased cost during a time when prices are already sky high. Inevitably, consumers will have to pay more," he says. Gareth Belsham, of surveyors Naismiths, says people who are upgrading, or extending their home, will be directly affected. "The biggest changes relate to heating and insulation," he explains. "There are new rules concerning the amount of glazing used in extensions, and any new windows or doors must be highly insulated." Windows and doors will have to adhere to higher standards, while there are new limits on the amount of glazing you can have to reduce unwanted heat from the sun. Thomas Goodman, of MyJobQuote, says this will bring in new restrictions for extensions. "Glazing on windows, doors and rooflights must cover no more than 25% of the floor area to prevent heat loss," he says. As the rules came into effect last Wednesday, property developers were rushing to file plans just before the deadline. Any plans submitted before that date are considered to be under the previous rules, and can go ahead as long as work starts before 15 June next year. Builders which have costed projects, but have not filed the paperwork, may need to go back and submit fresh estimates, says Marcus Jefford of Build Aviator. Materials prices are already up 25% in the last two years. How much overall prices will increase as a result of the rule changes is not clear. "Whilst admirable in their intentions, they will add to the cost of housebuilding at a time when many already feel that they are priced out of homeownership," says Jonathan Rolande of the National Association of Property Buyers. "An average extension will probably see around £3,000 additional cost thanks to the new regs." John Kelly, a construction lawyer at Freeths law firm, believes prices will eventually come down. But not in the immediate future. "As the marketplace adapts to the new requirements, and the technologies that support them, the scaling up of these technologies will eventually bring costs down, but in the short term, we will all have to pay the price of the necessary transition," he says. However, the long-term effects of the changes will be more comfortable and energy-efficient homes, adds Andrew Mellor, of PRP architects. "Homeowners will probably recoup that cost over time in energy bill savings. It will obviously be very volatile at the moment, but they will have that benefit over time."
A. The rise of home prices is a temporary matter.
41. Brian Berry
B. Builders possibly need to submit new estimates of their projects.
42. Gareth Belsham
C. There will be specific limits on home extensions to prevent heat loss.
43. Marcus Jefford
D. The new rules will take home prices to an even higher level.
44. John Kelly
E. Many people feel that home prices are already beyond what they can afford.
45. Andrew Mellor
F. The new rules will affect people whose home extensions include new windows or doors.
G. The rule changes will benefit homeowners eventually.
1.
D
[解析] Brian Berry出现在第四段。他说,在价格已经高得离谱的情况下,所有这些都会增加成本。消费者将不得不支付更高的价格。说明,对于消费者来说,新规定会让原本就很高的房价继续升高。故选D项“新规则将使房价达到一个更高的水平”。 [参考译文]
[解析] Gareth Belsham出现在第五段。他提到,关于扩建部分使用的玻璃数量有了新的规定,任何新的窗户或门都必须是高度绝缘的。说明,新规定对考虑升级或者扩建房屋的人们有影响,故选F项“新规定将影响那些在扩建房屋时安装了新门窗的人”。其中,extensions和new windows or doors均为文章中的原词复现。第六段中提到,对你可以拥有的玻璃数量有了新的限制,以减少来自太阳的不必要的热量。而不是“为了防止热量流失,对房屋扩建将会有具体的限制”,故排除C项。
3.
B
[解析] Marcus Jefford出现在第九段。他提到,那些已经计算了项目成本,但还没有提交文件的建筑商可能需要重新提交新的估算。因此,“建筑商可能需要提交新的项目估算”是对该段内容的同义转述,故选B项。
4.
A
[解析] John Kelly出现在第十一段。他表示,房价最终会降下来,但短期内不会。后面还提到,他认为随着市场适应新的要求以及支持这些要求的技术,这些技术的推广最终会使成本下降。故选A项“房价上涨只是暂时的问题”。
5.
G
[解析] Andrew Mellor出现在末段。他表示,随着时间的推移,房主可能会通过节省能源账单来弥补这一成本。目前,这显然是很不稳定的,但随着时间的推移,他们会从中受益。可知,“规则的改变最终将使房主受益”是对该段内容的同义转述,故选G项。
Section Ⅲ Translation Directions: Translate following text into Chinese. Write your translation on the ANSWER SHEET.
1. In the late 18th century, William Wordsworth became famous for his poems about nature. And he was one of the founders of a movement called Romanticism, which celebrated the wonders of the natural world. Poetry is powerful. Its energy and rhythm can capture a reader, transport them to another world and make them see things differently. Through carefully selected words and phrases, poems can be dramatic, funny, beautiful, moving and inspiring. No one knows for sure when poetry began but it has been around for thousands of years, even before people could write. It was a way to tell stories and pass down history. It is closely related to song and even when written it is usually created to be performed out loud. Poems really come to life when they are recited. This can also help with understanding them too, because the rhythm and sounds of the words become clearer.
1. Directions: An art exhibition and a robot show are to be held on Sunday, and your friend David asks you which one he should go to. Write him an email to 1)make a suggestion, and 2)give your reason(s). Write your answer in about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET. Do not use your own name in your email; use "Li Ming" instead.
[范文] Dear David, How's everything going on? I am writing to this email for the purpose of recommending an art exhibition to you, which will take place at 2.00 p. m. next Saturday. Reasons for my recommendation are as follows. The first point I need to say is that the art exhibition has gained great popularity in recent days, especially considering that you are keen on art and have a talent in drawing. In addition, it is on Saturday that the exhibition will held. And it's a good way for you to relax yourself. I hold a view that you may find it worthwhile to have a try. Just one more thing, it will completely satisfy your expectations and your curiosity about the world of art, which will enable you to develop your aesthetic needs and broaden your horizons. I hope the above is useful to you. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.
Yours sincerely, Li Ming
Part B
1. Directions: Write an essay based on the chart below. In your essay, you should 1)describe and interpret the chart, and 2)give your comments. Write your answer in about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
[范文] In the line chart, we can see the remarkable changes in the health literacy level of Chinese residents between 2012 and 2021. It can be clearly seen that the data increased gradually from 8.80% in 2012 to 10.25% in 2015. However, the figure rose substantially over the next 6 years, reaching 25.40% in 2021. Although many factors may contribute to this phenomenon, I would like to consider the following ones. First, it is universally acknowledged that an increasing number of residents spend more time and energy on personal health, due to the enhancement of living standards. They aspire to live longer and more healthily. Second, the construction of medical facilities has been greatly improved. Recently, more and more residents have access to enjoying better health care services and medical treatments. Third, the improvement in personal thoughts and ideas contributes to the increasing health literacy as well. Thus, enhancing health literacy has gained much popularity. In conclusion, the tendency shown in the chart is an inevitable result of social and economic development. And the trend will, as expected, continue for a long period.