国际传播综合能力赛项旨在考查当代大学生国际传播综合能力，赛题涵盖习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想核心内容，涉及经济建设、政治建设、文化建设、社会建设和生态文明建设等领域的重要话题，考查形式包括阅读、写作、翻译、演讲等。部分赛题素材选自《习近平谈治国理政》第一卷、第二卷、第三卷、第四卷，《习近平总书记教育重要论述讲义》、党的二十大报告、《理解当代中国》多语种系列教材、《理解当代中国 大学英语综合教程》和《理解当代中国 核心术语学习手册》（汉英对照）等。
校赛为综合能力赛，进行读写译综合考查，鼓励有条件的院校在读写译考查的基础上增加演讲能力考查，将综合能力优秀的选手推荐参加省赛。
各参赛院校可组织学生参加大赛组委会举办的全国统一线上初赛，也可自行组织选拔。全国统一线上初赛赛题由大赛组委会提供，包括客观题若干道和议论文写作1篇，赛题构成见表1。
表1 校赛赛题构成
省赛设置综合能力和演讲两个分赛项。
参加综合能力分赛项的选手除参加全国统一线上笔试外，还需提交定题演讲视频。综合能力分赛项笔试赛题由大赛组委会提供，包括客观题若干道、汉译英1篇和议论文写作1篇，赛题构成见表2。
演讲分赛项由各省赛组委会自行组织，具体比赛形式见本地省赛通知。
表2 省赛综合能力分赛项笔试赛题构成
国际传播综合能力赛项国赛考查选手的国际传播综合能力。比赛环节分为四轮。
1. 第一轮：书面综合考查
2. 第二轮：定题演讲（3分钟）+回答问题
3. 第三轮：即兴演讲（3分钟）+回答问题（点击此处查看即兴演讲样题）
4. 第四轮：以比赛现场通知为准
第一轮书面综合考查赛题包括客观题若干道、汉译英1篇和议论文写作1篇，赛题构成见表1。
表1 国赛书面综合考查赛题构成
Part I Read and Know
Questions 1-5
Directions: Choose the best answer for each question.
1. Please complete the translation of “礼之用，和为贵”: Make ______ a top priority in the application of rites.
A. peace B. harmony C. agreement D. cooperation
2. Please complete the translation of “四个自信”: the confidence in __________________ of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
A. path, theory, system and culture
B. path, economy, system and culture
C. path, theory, practice and culture
D. path, theory, system and ideology
3. Which of the following is the correct translation of “天下为公”?
A. Everyone is born equal.
B. The world belongs to all.
C. Justice is the most powerful.
D. The commonwealth benefits the people.
4. The meaning of “大信不约” is _________.
A. the greatest trust is not limited to pledges
B. the sincerest promise is not made through words
C. the most persuasive term is not written in agreements
D. the most influential belief is not recorded in holy books
In a bid to step up economic and social progress, it is imperative that all sectors work in unison. _______________________. The public and private sectors of the economy should be mutually reinforcing and beneficial; there is no need for conflict or strife.
—Xi Jinping: The Governance of China II
5. Which of the following sentences best fits in the blank?
A. A thing is yet to be done until it is done.
B. Clear waters and green mountains are invaluable assets.
C. The flame leaps high when everybody adds wood to a fire.
D. Distance tests a horse’s strength, and time reveals a person’s integrity.
Questions 6-11
Directions: Read the texts and answer the questions.
6. What do we know from the news?
A. The zoo was built specifically for filming the documentary series Tiger King.
B. Tiger King was an extremely successful documentary series about animal rights.
C. A federal judge found the cat zoo owner guilty of violating the animal welfare law.
D. All the big cats in the zoo were ordered to be transferred to the federal government.
As the saying goes: If your granny doesn’t recognise what’s in it, it’s probably not real food. Yet half the food we take home is made in factories from a list of ingredients and additives as long as your arm, most of which never found a place in any grandparents’ kitchen cupboard—and wouldn’t in yours or mine today.
The UK is a nation of ultra-processed-food eaters. Our lives have become too fast-paced to cook from scratch and our taste buds now crave the sweet and salty flavors that ultra-processed foods deliver. Our bread is fluffy and sticks to the teeth like candy floss. Our yogurts are super-sweet and creamy. We have ready meals that are shelf-stable (long life without refrigeration), which we can prise open, heat, eat and go.
7. What is the author’s attitude toward ultra-processed food?
A. Critical. B. Impartial. C. Defensive. D. Mixed.
As if a declining population wasn’t bad enough, a rare species of bird in Australia has now forgotten how to sing. The falling numbers of the Regent Honeyeater mean that fewer adults are around to pass on to young males the melodies they need to know to attract a mate—a problem that can only exacerbate the current situation. Some hope lies in the fact that honeyeaters are famously good mimics, and so scientists are investigating if they can be retaught their vocal skills by artificial means in a lab. And perhaps, we cheekily suggest, our feathered friends could be taught some new tunes at the same time? A bit of William Byrd would be an obvious place to start...
8. What does the underlined word “exacerbate” probably mean?
A. settle
B. reduce
C. control
D. worsen
9. What is the best title for the text?
A. Songful Dismissal Proves a Worry for a Male Bird
B. Regent Honeyeaters Are Being Pushed to the Brink
C. A New Application of Artificial Intelligence in Music
D. Significance of Artificial Environment in Birds’ Singing
One thing to remember in our age of instant gratification is that friends aren’t found; instead, friends are made—crafted, really—over time. It takes 6 to 8 conversations before someone considers us a friend. We wish we could walk into a party, instantly connect, and walk out arm-in-arm with a new BFF (Best Friend Forever), but really it’s an incremental process. The good news is that the bar to start is low. It’s been shown again and again that, as long as we are mutually kind to each other, we become friends with whomever we see most often. 11 and repetition are key. So put yourself in situations where you see the same faces again and again: a dog park at the same time each morning, a weekly writer’s workshop, or a co-working space.
10. What factor is essential to friend-making according to the text?
A. Mutual affection.
B. Frequent contact.
C. Instant connection.
D. Face-to-face communication.
11. What is the missing word probably?
A. Inclusion
B. Attraction
C. Proximity
D. Diversity
Questions 12-15
Directions: Read the chart and decide whether the following statements are True or False.
12. The chart reflects not only the steady and increasing growth in the use of renewables but also the continuous decline in the growth of non-renewable capacity.
True ( ) False ( )
13. The renewable generation capacity in 2020 was more than six times the non-renewable generation capacity.
True ( ) False ( )
14. The renewable generation capacity has accounted for more than half of total electricity generating capacity since 2015.
True ( ) False ( )
15. The renewable generation capacity has been greater than the non-renewable generation capacity since 2012.
True ( ) False ( )
Part II Read and Reason
Questions 16-18
Directions: Read the texts and answer the questions.
For novice exercisers, morning workouts are often the most dreaded. ①But morning workouts have their advantages. ②These chemicals, along with a few others, boost energy levels, alertness, and focus, which can make you more productive and attentive at work. ③Trading a cozy, nurturing bed for a sterile, unforgiving fitness center can be a rude awakening to say the least. ④Challenging the body triggers the release of endorphins, uplifting one’s mood following exertion.
16. What is the right order of the numbered sentences?
A. ③①④② B. ④①②③
C. ③②④① D. ④③②①
17. Which of the following commits the same logical fallacy as in the text?
A. “My professor, who has a Ph.D. in Astronomy, once told me that ghosts are real. Therefore, ghosts are real.”
B. “I don’t see how you can say you’re an ethical person. It’s so hard to get you to do anything; your work ethic is so bad.”
C. “It is possible to fake the moon landing through special effects. Therefore, the moon landing was a fake using special effects.”
18. What can be concluded from the disagreement between John and Henrietta?
A. John lies when saying the squirrel cannot escape from the hunter’s circle.
B. John believes the hunter is flexible enough to finally get a clear shot at the squirrel.
C. Henrietta thinks the hunter can never get behind the squirrel and shoot it in its back.
D. Henrietta guesses it is the tree that blocks the hunter’s sight to accurately target the squirrel.
Questions 19-25
Directions: Read the texts and answer the questions.
Chinese company Space Transportation wants to take a jab at the growing space tourism market with a winged rocket capable of suborbital travel. The reusable space plane could take wealthy tourists to the edge of space and then land them on the other side of the world in no time.
Space Transportation was founded in 2018 and it managed to raise $46 million to develop its flagship supersonic spaceplane in August, 2021. Although details are still sparse, a video presentation on the company’s website shows passengers boarding a vertical plane attached to a glider wing with two boosters. Once it reaches a high altitude in the stratosphere, the airplane detaches from the auxiliary power, with the wing and boosters landing back on the launch pad on their own.
The developers behind the project seem pretty serious about it. So far, they’ve made 10 flight tests for the self-landing booster rockets, the last of which was done in collaboration with a combustion research lab from Tsinghua University.
In many ways, Space Transportation sounds like the Chinese version of Virgin Galactic and, to a lesser degree, SpaceX. In the summer of 2021, Virgin CEO Sir Richard Branson made headlines after he went on an 11-minute suborbital flight, reaching 55 miles (88 km) above the Earth’s surface. Just a week later, fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos made it past the Kármán Line, the internationally-recognized boundary of space, at nearly 62 miles (100 km) above the Earth’s surface, aboard a capsule launched by Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable rocket.
Global space tourism is projected to reach just $1.7 billion by 2027, according to a report published in 2021. Virgin Galactic has hundreds of reservations for tickets on future flights, sold between $200,000 and $250,000 each. No reservation data has been made public by Blue Origin, but we can presume they’ll soon start making more commercial space tourism flights.
However, neither Virgin Galactic nor Blue Origin seems to be interested in point-to-point travel. In addition to potential space tourism flights, Space Transportation’s vehicle also doubles as a supersonic plane capable of traveling at more than 2,600 mph. SpaceX had plans for a similar concept when it announced its “Earth to Earth” project in 2017, which repurposes its Big Falcon Rocket originally meant to carry passengers to Mars. But Elon Musk’s company hasn’t released any details about this city-to-city passenger transport since then, which may mean it could have been scrapped entirely.
Perhaps SpaceX found city-to-city supersonic travel financially unfeasible, but Space Transportation doesn’t seem deterred. It is planning ground tests by 2023, the first flight by 2024, and a crewed mission by 2025. Looking farther into the future, the Chinese startup dreams of testing an orbital crew space vehicle, the kind that SpaceX uses to ferry crew and cargo to the International Space Station, by 2030.
19. Why does Space Transportation develop its flagship supersonic spaceplane?
A. To realize the reuse of space planes.
B. To fulfill the supersonic space travel plan.
C. To solve the problems of self-landing rockets.
D. To compete with Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX.
20. What can be learned about Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin?
A. Both have launched suborbital flights.
B. Both aim high at sending passengers to Mars.
C. Both have made a fortune from space tourism.
D. Both are interested in the exploration of outer space.
21. What is the purpose of the text?
A. To encourage wealthy people to reserve space flight tickets.
B. To show the fierce competition in the global space tourism market.
C. To disclose the technological bottleneck of self-landing rockets.
D. To report a Chinese company’s progress in developing supersonic rockets.
While technology and construction have progressed rapidly in recent years, allowing structures to be built taller and faster than ever, remnants of colossal ancient monuments remind us that construction techniques from as long as hundreds of years ago had enormous merit as well. In fact, many of the innovations of antiquity serve as foundations of modern construction, with the Roman invention of concrete serving as a cogent example. Other essential ancient construction techniques, such as the arch and the dome, are now often considered stylistic flourishes, with designs like the Met Opera House reinterpreting classical typologies in a modern context.
These reinterpretations have taken many different forms, ranging from the revived use of ancient materials to renewing ancient construction techniques. For example, a new type of rammed earth construction reimagines ancient sustainability from a material standpoint, transforming traditional rammed earth into the stronger cement-stabilized rammed earth (CSRE). Originally consisting of soil, water, and a natural stabilizer (animal urine, animal blood, plant fibers, or bitumen), rammed earth construction has existed for centuries, having been used in monumental ancient projects ranging from the Great Wall of China to Alhambra of Spain. However, CSRE mixes soil, water, and cement instead, improving the material’s strength by orders of magnitude. Yet the main ingredient still being local soil, CSRE thus crucially reduces the negative effects of transporting other materials. CSRE is also cheaper than many other more common building materials, making it a sustainable option for affordable housing as well. The Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology has explored using CSRE to help rural communities to build new houses, while the Western Australian Department of Housing has investigated using CSRE in remote indigenous communities.
However, ancient construction materials and techniques are not only valued for their sustainability—building methods like the ancient Chinese dougong may be thousands of years old, but continue to be reinvented today for different structural and aesthetic needs. Consisting of a wooden bracketing system that once supported overhanging pagoda eaves without the need for nails, Chinese dougong is appreciated by contemporary architects like Kengo Kuma for its traditional significance and aesthetic potential. Kuma designed the unconventional Café Kureon using this technique. Similarly, He Jingtang utilized dougong to design the enormous and outward-expanding China Art Museum, which relies on the technique’s structural qualities to produce the building’s extraordinary tiered roof. Despite being an ancient construction method, contemporary architects thus continue to invent new ways of using dougong today.
With the field of architecture necessarily experiencing a kind of reinvention in light of the ongoing climate crisis, some innovators have looked back to the past in their search for successful and sustainable alternatives to common contemporary construction methods. Although many of these techniques rely on the small-scale use of local materials, it is possible that ancient construction methods may be applicable to large-scale structures as well. As reinventions of old techniques, these changes don’t necessarily constitute a step backward, but may indicate a more eco-conscious future instead.
22. Which of the following words is closest in meaning to the underlined word “cogent” in the first paragraph?
A. convincing B. ancient
C. complex D. innovative
23. Which of the following statements about cement-stabilized rammed earth (CSRE) is true?
A. It has led to an increase in construction costs.
B. It has applications in house building in China and beyond.
C. It is weaker than traditional rammed earth in terms of strength.
D. It is comprised of raw materials from various regions.
24. What can be learned about dougong from the third paragraph?
A. It was primarily used to build pagoda eaves.
B. It was solely present in ancient Chinese architecture.
C. It is employed today mainly to serve sustainable purposes.
D. It is creatively applied to modern constructions by architects.
25. Why do contemporary architects reinvent ancient construction techniques?
A. To achieve sustainability, structural and aesthetic needs.
B. To lower the construction costs for affordable housing.
C. To manifest aesthetic possibilities for modern buildings.
D. To mitigate the negative effects of transporting materials.
Part III Write and Create
Hellotravel is an online community where travel enthusiasts share their experiences and opinions on questions posted by global viewers. You happened to see a question by Tom Harris:
Write him a reply and state your opinion with reasons and examples. You should write between 200 and 250 words.
参考答案：
Part I Read and Know
1. B; 2. A; 3. B; 4. A; 5. C; 6. C; 7. A; 8. D; 9. A; 10. B; 11. C; 12. False; 13. False; 14. True; 15. False
Part II Read and Reason
16. A; 17. D; 18. C; 19. B; 20. A; 21. D; 22. A; 23. B; 24. D; 25. A
Part III Write and Create
（略）
Part I Read and Know
参考校赛赛题样例，省赛文本难度较校赛有所增加。
Part II Read and Reason
参考校赛赛题样例，省赛文本难度较校赛有所增加。
Part III Read and Question
Questions 17-22
Directions: Read two texts about “not knowing” and answer the questions.
Text A
I’m going to give you three options. You’ll only be OK with one of them, and one of the other two is going to nudge you a little closer to madness. Ready?
Here they are:
1. I am not going to give you an electric shock.
2. I am definitely going to give you an electric shock.
3. I might give you an electric shock.
While it goes without saying which one you’re OK with, which of the other two is starting to make the skin on your forearms itch a little? According to the results of a study, it’s probably not No. 2 (though that’s not going to make me any friends). Rather, it’s what’s behind door No. 3 that stirs up the bats in your belfry, because when we’re facing outcomes imbued with uncertainty, it’s the fact that something bad might happen that gets us.
Researchers recruited 45 volunteers to play a computer game in which they turned over digital rocks that might have snakes hiding underneath. Throughout the game, they had to guess whether each rock concealed a snake, and when a snake appeared they received a mild but painful electric shock on the hand. Over the course of the game, they got better about predicting under which rocks they’d find snakes, but the game was designed to keep changing the odds of success to maintain ongoing uncertainty. In other words, they could only get marginally good at guessing before getting knocked off their game, again and again and again.
In the background, the researchers were running a sophisticated computational learning model to estimate the volunteers’ amount of uncertainty that any given rock was concealing a snake. At the same time, their stress was being monitored via instruments gauging pupil dilation and perspiration.
As it turned out, the volunteers’ level of uncertainty correlated in lockstep with their level of stress: If someone felt “certain”, he or she would find a snake (100% probability that a snake lived there), their stress was significantly lower than if they felt like maybe a snake lived here. In both cases, they’d get a shock, but their stress was jacked with added uncertainty.
“Using our model we could predict how stressed our subjects would be not just from whether they got shocks but from how much uncertainty they had about those shocks,” said lead author Archy de Berker of the UCL Institute of Neurology. “Our experiment allows us to draw conclusions about the effect of uncertainty on stress. It turns out that it’s much worse not knowing you are going to get a shock than knowing you definitely will or won’t.”
What I like about this study is that it touches on a massive swath of life: We evolved to respond this way to uncertainty for excellent reasons—namely, the thing that might be lurking behind that rock or bush or up in that tree could harm, kill, or quite possibly eat us. Our brains are adaptively wired to react this way from far back in our ancestral history. Just because we’ve launched ourselves (and our brains) into this techno-socially advanced era doesn’t mean our brains are reacting less or even differently; they are just reacting to different threatening possibilities—some physical and many more perceptual.
Those perceptual, intangible uncertainties are arguably worse because they morph into different forms in our heads the more we think about them. The world has its monsters, no doubt, but we create many times more in the boundless space of our minds—not to mention the space of minds connected. And this has much to do with crippling fear and anxiety, numbing substance abuse, the appeal of authoritarian leaders, and a host of other topics for another day—all rooted back to the brain’s insatiable craving for certainty.
Text B
It is a good idea to forget many of the things you have learned over the years. Some are outmoded, some incorrect, some too obvious and trite. We also need a fresh approach to things of interest, to see them as if for the first time, to attain “beginner’s mind”. This approach would help make a thing “strange”.
Years ago, when I kept coming across the idea that knowledge is not a good thing, I used to wonder if this was anti-intellectualism. But I kept finding the idea in the work of many brilliant thinkers that I admired. I loved to read and study, and I knew they did. So why were they so negative about knowledge? Here is poet David Hinton’s translation of Chapter 71 of Tao Te Ching:
Knowing not-knowing is lofty.
Not knowing not-knowing is affliction.
Let me go over this beautiful translation as I understand it: If you know the importance of not knowing everything, or anything for that matter, you are way ahead. You know the most important thing. If you don’t appreciate the importance of not knowing everything, you are going to have problems. You will be under the dangerous illusion that you know what life is all about. You will have banished the mysteries that are so important. You will be full of ego, thinking that you know what you are talking about, when in fact you are only defending against your ignorance. The starting point toward wisdom is to acknowledge your basic ignorance, your not-knowing.
Let’s delve into the phrase “beginner’s mind”. You can always find a frame of mind in which you are a beginner, maybe once again. You keep coming back to the role of student and novice, open to learning because there is something you know you do not know. How fruitful that attitude is. But you could discover it in any situation, acknowledging and appreciating the extent to which you don’t know something. Sometimes achieving it may require a little bruising to the ego, but that is always a good thing.
When you cultivate not-knowing along with learning, you also allow room for mystery, for the profound and inexplicable parts of life that give you a sense of awe. An appreciation of the unknowable keeps you honest and humble in the best way. The truly wise person knows how important it is not to know everything.
I sometimes find myself giving a lecture or speaking in an interview when I know I don’t know at all what I am talking about. Usually, that is because the topic is unknowable. I often speak about the soul, for instance, yet after years of study I still don’t know just what the soul is.
The trouble with some teachers and leaders is not that they don’t know what they are talking about, but that they don’t know that they don’t know what they are talking about. They go on blissfully using words that even they do not really understand, but they think they do, or at least talk as if they do.
The solution is to admit to our ignorance and try to clear our minds of preconceptions. These are Thoreau’s recommendations. Try to forget what you think you know. Don’t rely on authorities, but simply be in the presence of whatever it is you are concerned with. Finally, aim for “total comprehension” and not just acquaintance.
17. According to Text A, which of the following contributes more to stress levels?
A. Certainty of a positive outcome.
B. Certainty of a negative outcome.
C. Uncertainty of a positive outcome.
D. Uncertainty of a negative outcome.
18. According to Text A, how does uncertainty influence human brains?
A. It provides a higher level of excitement as humans evolve.
B. It triggers an instinctive stress response due to potential threats.
C. It minimizes the tendency to generate imaginary threats.
D. It amplifies the stress response if physical pain is involved.
19. According to Text B, what does David Hinton’s translation of Tao Te Ching suggest?
A. Proper knowledge can lead to wisdom and enlightenment.
B. Self-knowledge of not-knowing may sometimes cause pain.
C. Lack of knowledge can be beneficial to an individual at times.
D. The interpretations of knowledge vary from person to person.
20. According to Text B, how can one benefit from a “beginner’s mind”?
A. It enables one to learn new things faster and more efficiently.
B. It enables one to prove their intellectual superiority over others.
C. It helps one to avoid being disillusioned or disappointed in life.
D. It helps one to maintain great curiosity and keep exploring.
21. Which of the following statements is true concerning the two texts?
A. One of them holds that having much knowledge is beneficial.
B. Both of them have mentioned the benefit of certainty.
C. One text tells us that uncertainty contributes to human progression.
D. The common theme of the two texts is the wisdom of embracing uncertainty.
22. Which of the following questions can be answered using information from BOTH of the two texts:
① How can uncertainty influence human perception?
② Why is it necessary to delve into uncertainty?
A. Only ①.
B. Only ②.
C. Both ① and ②.
D. Neither ① nor ②.
Part IV Translate and Connect
Translate the following passage into English.
新质生产力是以创新为主导、符合新发展理念的先进生产力，摒弃损害、破坏生态环境的发展模式，改变过度依赖资源环境消耗的增长方式，推动经济社会发展绿色化、低碳化，促进经济高质量发展与环境高水平保护协同发展，实现人与自然和谐共生。
Part V Write and Create
参考校赛赛题样例，省赛难度较校赛有所增加。
参考答案：
Part I Read and Know
（略）
Part II Read and Reason
（略）
Part III Read and Question
17. D; 18. B; 19. C; 20. D; 21. C; 22. A
Part IV Translate and Connect
（略）
Part V Write and Create
（略）
Part I Read and Know
Questions 1-5
Directions: Choose the best answer for each question.
1. Please complete the translation of “落实立德树人根本任务”: to ensure that education performs its_____ of _____.
A. fundamental mission; establishing people
B. fundamental mission; fostering virtue
C. basic task; building characteristics
D. basic task; harboring morality
2. What is the correct understanding of “新质生产力”?
A. new qualitative productive forces.
B. new protons found to be a kind of productive force.
C. new qualitative protons as productive forces.
D. new quality productive forces.
3. What is the correct understanding of “发乎情，止乎礼义”?
A. Sentient beings cannot avoid human emotions and that is part of human morality.
B. All human feelings are subject to the constraints of propriety and morality.
C. Sentient beings may display certain emotions which cannot be stopped by propriety.
D. Human feelings can only be stopped before they are displayed fully.
4. We will follow the principle of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend, and we will encourage creative transformation and innovation development of traditional Chinese culture. Guided by the core socialist values, we will develop , promote , and carry forward .
—Xi Jinping: The Governance of China III
A. outstanding Chinese culture, revolutionary culture, advanced socialist culture
B. fine traditional Chinese culture, advanced socialist culture, revolutionary culture
C. advanced socialist culture, revolutionary culture, fine traditional Chinese culture
D. revolutionary culture, advanced socialist culture, outstanding Chinese culture
5. __________________. At present, China is in a period of promising historic opportunities. The overall prospects for development are good, but the road ahead will not be smooth.
—Xi Jinping: The Governance of China III
Which of the following sentences best fits in the blank?
A. Exaltation of the virtuous is fundamental to governance.
B. Nip the problem in the bud when it is in the making; prepare yourself for risks yet to emerge.
C. Prepare in advance against the unexpected, which is a basic principle of governing a country.
D. One should be mindful of possible danger in times of peace and downfall in times of survival.
Part II Read and Reason
Questions 6-9
Directions: Read the texts and answer the questions.
Scientists in China have unearthed a never-before-seen type of ore that contains a rare earth element. The ore, dubbed niobobaotite, is made of niobium, barium, titanium, iron and chloride, the South China Morning Post reported.
It’s the niobium that is causing excitement: This light-gray metal is currently used mostly in the production of steel, which it strengthens without adding significant weight. Niobium is also used in making other alloys (materials made of mixes of metals) and can be found in particle accelerators and other advanced scientific equipment because it is a superconductor at low temperatures, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry.
The deposit was found in Baotou City in Inner Mongolia on Oct. 3, 2023. The brownish-black ore is the 17th new type found in the deposit and one of 150 new minerals found in the region, according to the China National Nuclear Corporation.
The discovery may be a windfall for China, which currently imports 95% of its niobium, according to the South China Morning Post.
“Depending on the volume and quality of this niobium, it could make China self-sufficient,” Antonio H. Castro Neto, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS), told the newspaper.
Currently, Brazil holds the distinction of being the world’s primary supplier of the rare earth metal niobium, with Canada following as a distant second. The United States is taking steps to establish its own source, as per information from the U.S. Geological Survey.
There is an ongoing initiative to establish a niobium mine and processing facility in southern Nebraska known as the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project. If successful, this project would mark the sole niobium mine in the United States, reported Live Science.
Additionally, niobium’s demand may increase in the future as researchers are actively exploring the development of niobium-lithium and niobium-graphene batteries, which could have a substantial impact on various technological applications.
S&P Global says that niobium-lithium batteries offer the advantage of reducing the risk of fires when used alongside lithium. Additionally, these batteries have the benefit of faster charging times and the ability to be recharged more frequently compared to conventional lithium batteries.
In May, researchers at the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials at the NUS, which is developing niobium-graphene batteries, said the batteries could last around 30 years—10 times longer than lithium-ion batteries—and they can be fully charged in less than 10 minutes.
6. What is the most newsworthy aspect of the reported discovery?
A. First discovery of niobobaotite in China.
B. Niobium’s volume and quality in the ore.
C. World scarcity of niobobaotite.
D. Solution to China’s need for niobium.
7. What can be learned about niobium from the text?
A. It is indispensable to the mass production of steel.
B. Its mixture with other metals enhances superconductivity.
C. Its current suppliers include Brazil, Canada, and the U.S.
D. It will probably revolutionize future battery technology.
Since the earliest times in China, eremitism was a concern of the most educated and erudite classes, and was integrated into both practical and philosophical teachings of ethics and politics. The legendary figures of the past were given intellectual and moral credence by the most insightful levels of the culture, a phenomenon not seen to such an extent anywhere in the world, where recluses and hermits have been viewed with bemusement and suspicion if not outright scorn. Hence it is essential to a history and understanding of eremitism to study the hermits and recluses of China.
Eremitism anywhere is freely chosen as a moral and intellectual if not social ideal. Properly speaking, it has never been involuntary, coerced, or the product of mental instability. This is especially true in China where a criterion for evaluating true eremitism—distinguishing recluses, partial recluses, and true hermits—evolved early, even in preliterate times.
Because only the affluent and educated had the opportunity to pursue reclusion based on moral principles in ancient China, concepts of reclusion were tied directly to political and social factors affecting the moral individual. Renunciation of office, power, and security, undertaken voluntarily, was precisely the proof of integrity that distinguished the solitude of a shaman, peasant, or woodcutter living in a remote mountain or far-away village from the reclusion of an urban and literate official.
This initial observation does not mean that becoming a recluse was merely the pose of a rich man who might have family money to soften the economic blow of quitting a lucrative post in the city. For many, eremitism was an uncushioned blow for the sake of moral principles. For others, it was a philosophical liberation for which material simplicity or hardship was not unwelcome. And for still others of modest or poor families, reclusion was the option of an educated but principled individual.
The Western terms for hermit and monk are based on the terms for solitude and aloneness, but the equivalent Chinese terms are more flexible and descriptive, for there are many nuanced ways of pursuing reclusion, and they do not automatically exclude social relations.
Thus the practitioners of reclusion were often referred to in oblique terms that accounted for status and motive. These terms underscore the notion in Chinese eremitism that deliberate isolation and physical removal from society were not the main criteria but rather disengagement. This disengagement was derived from the potential for withdrawal from political or institutional services. These men did not altogether remove themselves from society but removed themselves from what they considered corrupt and immoral services or circumstances.
8. How does the author describe hermits and recluses in the context of Chinese culture?
A. They are highly principled and learned individuals.
B. They are affluent but underappreciated individuals.
C. They are misunderstood due to their education and power.
D. They are envied because of their knowledge and wealth.
9. What is a defining characteristic of eremitism in Chinese culture?
A. Deliberate isolation for freedom.
B. Returning to nature to seek inspiration.
C. Stepping away from immoral services.
D. Physical removal from a complex work environment.
Part III Read and Question
Questions 10-15
Directions: Read two texts about longevity and answer the questions.
Text A
Sometime in late 2015, researchers seemed to deliver a blow to Pollyannas everywhere. Happy people did not live longer than sad people, after adjusting for factors like the state of a person’s health. The study, published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, looked at survey results from nearly 720,000 women and concluded that happiness, when considered independently from other factors, had no bearing whatsoever on how long people lived.
But many experts challenged that finding, taking issue with the study design, which removed as variables (or, in scientific terms, controlled for) factors like how much a woman slept and whether she exercised. “The very reasons happy people live longer are some of the things The Lancet controlled for,” says Sarah Pressman, associate professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California at Irvine, who has been researching happiness for about a decade. “Positive emotion is good for you.”
That may seem obvious, even to skeptics. Proving it scientifically can be tricky, however. Happiness studies usually rely on self-reported data, which is by nature subjective. Beyond that, it’s just difficult to navigate the channels of cause and effect, given the many factors that influence mood and health. Still, a large body of literature shows that there does appear to be a link between a good mood and a longer life.
A 2011 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that older people who reported being the least happy died at nearly twice the rate in the next five years as people who reported being the most happy. Even after adjusting for factors like illness, finances and depression, people who were the happiest still had a 35% lower risk of death.
Another study of older adults found that happier people retained their physical function better than those who weren’t happy; their walking speeds even declined more slowly. And in one 2003 experiment, researchers found that when they exposed people to a common cold virus, happiness level was a strong predictor of who got sick and who stayed well, which they could see by measuring people’s mucus production and the levels of antibodies in their blood.
To Pressman, the existing research taken together settles the question: It does help to be happy. “The more interesting question is, why?” she says. That’s a puzzle researchers are now trying to solve. Pressman and other researchers think happiness has specific benefits for the body that cannot be chalked up solely to healthy lifestyle choices, like exercising, or the absence of negative emotional factors, like chronic stress. Scientists already know that negative emotions can cause a cascade of biological reactions that harm the body. Chronic stress increases inflammation, and inflammation has been linked to a host of health problems. So it isn’t a stretch to think that happiness, too, may lead to changes in the body’s systems that influence certain diseases. But what, exactly, does happiness do? How does a positive disposition affect somebody’s health? And, vitally, what are the best ways to get happier in a way that makes a difference?
Pressman isn’t sure yet, but she’s investigating one idea. Her experiments have found that people who smiled while receiving a needle injection rated the ordeal as 40% less painful than those who didn’t—a testament to faking it until you make it. And their heart rates didn’t increase as much in response to the stress of the injection, either.
“Now when I go to the doctor’s office, I smile when I get a shot,” she says. “It’s amazing that it works. We’re still trying to unpack why.”
Text B
Over the past century, the average life expectancy in developed countries has increased by 30 years, from roughly age 50 to 80. Vaccines, sanitation, antibiotics, and other advances allow many more people to survive infectious diseases that used to kill them during childhood.
Longer life spans overall have been a public health success. But they have also created a new and important gap: Healthspan, usually defined as the period of life free of chronic disease or disability, does not always match longevity.
By one calculation, based on the World Health Organization’s healthy life expectancy indicator, an American who expects to live to 79 might first face serious disease at 63. That could mean 15 years lived in sickness. Indeed, aging is the biggest risk factor for cancer, heart disease and dementia.
One reason for this gap is that, for decades, biomedical research and clinical practice have focused on treating individual diseases, which can extend lives but not necessarily healthspan.
During the past 10 years medicine has started to take a different approach based on the biology of aging (a field called geroscience). “We’re now saying our focus should be on extending healthy life rather than just length of life, and slowing aging is the tool to do it,” says Jay Olshansky, a longevity expert. There are molecular and cellular processes in all our tissues and organs that determine both lifespan and healthspan. These “pillars of aging” include DNA damage, the aging or senescence of individual cells, inflammation, and stress responses.
Natural variations in these factors are mostly the result of environmental differences. Genes also play a role, accounting for about 25 percent of the variability, more in extreme cases. The upshot is that some people age faster than others, and with biological aging comes susceptibility to disease and disability.
How do you assess biological age? Molecular markers such as chemical modifications to DNA are one way, says computational biologist Morgan Levine. “Do your cells have a pattern of chemical tags like someone who is 20 or 30 or 40?” she asks.
Geroscientists have yet to deliver a pill or treatment that can slow or reverse what the pillars of aging do. But they are excited about some possibilities. For example, senolytic drugs target senescent cells, which no longer divide but linger in the body instead of being cleared by the immune system. Research has shown that these “zombie cells” secrete proteins that interfere with other cells’ health. The zombies have been linked to osteoarthritis, cancer and dementia. For a 2015 study, researchers used senolytics to remove senescent cells in mice and delayed, prevented or alleviated multiple disorders. They also note that few popular wellness claims about “prolonging your youth” are grounded in evidence.
For now, one way to extend healthspan, perhaps unsurprisingly, is through preventive maintenance. Experts recommend routine medical checkups, staying on top of cholesterol levels and blood pressure, and following guidelines such as those from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition for body fat percentage, lean body mass and bone density. “Know where you are so if something needs to be tweaked you can take steps to do that,” says Matt Kaeberlein, founding director of a research institute and chief executive officer of a health tech company.
Those steps are also familiar: Common-sense nutrition, sleep, exercise and social connection are the four main factors. “The reason those things work is because they modulate the biology of aging,” Kaeberlein says. For example, regular low- or moderate-intensity exercise helps to prevent cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. How much extra health can these steps get us? “Ten years is probably pretty realistic,” Kaeberlein says.
10. What is the finding of the 2015 study published in The Lancet in Text A?
A. Happiness bears no direct relevance to longevity.
B. Sad emotions do not affect how long one can live.
C. A person’s emotional stability determines their lifespan.
D. Unhappy people live as long as those who are happy.
11. According to Sarah Pressman, what aspect of happiness research is particularly intriguing?
A. The ability to control for variables like sleep and exercise.
B. The link between happiness and physical function.
C. The causal relationship between happiness and longevity.
D. The impact of happiness on the immune system.
12. What can be learned about biological aging from Text B?
A. It can be managed with the help of chemical modifications.
B. It can be assessed by observing patterns of physical changes.
C. It is sometimes regarded as a result of genetic variability.
D. It makes people more vulnerable to diseases and disability.
13. What does Text B suggest about preventive maintenance?
A. It impacts healthspan less than genetic factors.
B. It requires regular intake of prescribed medications.
C. Continuous physical monitoring and intervention are crucial.
D. Actions such as diet, sleep and exercise could help extend healthspan.
14. Regarding the impact of happiness on longevity, how do Text A and Text B differ?
A. Text A and Text B both agree that happiness is beneficial to health.
B. Text A shows negative effects of happiness, while Text B shows positive outcomes.
C. Text A links happiness to longevity, while Text B does not address happiness directly.
D. Text A supports the idea that happiness has no impact on longevity, while Text B disagrees.
15. Which statement reflects a common theme in both texts about factors affecting longevity?
A. Both texts emphasize the importance of treating individual diseases to improve healthspan.
B. Both texts highlight the role of positive emotions in reducing the risk of chronic diseases.
C. Both texts suggest that focusing on the biology of aging may improve healthspan.
D. Both texts argue that happiness has little impact on longevity.
Part IV Translate and Connect
Translate the following passage into English.
天人合一，是中国传统文化处理天和人关系的基本立场，是中国人民独特的宇宙观。从道法自然、天人合一的中国传统智慧，到创新、协调、绿色、开放、共享的新发展理念，中国把生态文明建设放在突出地位，融入中国经济社会发展各方面和全过程，努力建设人与自然和谐共生的现代化。
Part V Write and Create
You are a columnist for an international magazine named Cultural Mosaic. You are invited to write an essay in response to the passage below with your reasons and examples. In your essay, you should discuss the role of cultural works based on Chinese literature in telling Chinese stories to the world. You should choose your own title and write between 350 and 400 words.
From Page to Screen: Global Appeal of Chinese Stories
In recent years, an increasing number of films, TV series, and video games based on Chinese literary works have gained popularity on the world stage, attracting audiences from different cultural backgrounds. Two such examples are the film The Wandering Earth adapted from the science fiction of the same title and the video game Black Myth: Wukong based on the Chinese classic Journey to the West.
People remark that the success of today’s phenomenal Chinese-developed cultural works is not only reflected in the technological innovation featuring stunning visual and auditory performances, but also in the integration of artistic value with Chinese philosophical thoughts, moral concepts, and imagination.
The growing global influence of such visual media demonstrates the impressive potential of China’s cultural industry. This has sparked the audience’s interest in delving deeper into the original texts, which is believed to open an insightful window for them to understand China.
参考答案：
Part I Read and Know
1. B; 2. D; 3. B; 4. C; 5. C
Part II Read and Reason
6. D; 7. D; 8. A; 9. C
Part III Read and Question
10. A; 11. C; 12. D; 13. D; 14. C; 15. C
Part IV Translate and Connect
（略）
Part V Write and Create
（略）
【写以言志】模块评分标准
【译以通意】模块评分标准
【演讲】模块评分标准
【注】演讲时间为3分钟，超过3分15秒或不足2分45秒，均适当扣分。
