【推荐1】Antarctica is known for being a vast land of ice and snow, a place too cold for most life. Despite this, the continent is slowly starting to turn warm. According to the Guardian, the Antarctic has registered (登记) a new high temperature for the first time on record, prompting fears of climate instability in the world’s iciest place.

On Feb 9, Brazilian researchers at Seymour Island reported a temperature of 20. 75 C on the icy continent of Antarctica. It was almost a full degree higher than the previous record of 19. 8 C, taken on Signy Island in January 1982.

This record-breaking reading was taken at a monitoring station in the northern part of Antarctica. According to Brazilian soil scientist Carlos Schaefer, the temperature was documented during a 20-year-long research project. The focus of this project is to study the effect that climate change has on the permafrost (永久冻土) within the region. Permafrost is soil that stays frozen for at least two years. Although this is a record high for Antarctica, Schaefer stressed that “We can’t use this to anticipate climatic changes in the future. It’s simply a signal that something different is happening in that area. ”

But in fact, the last high temperature reading was in the 19 C range. These higher temperatures can cause ice and glaciers (冰川) in Antarctic regions to melt. The Antarctic peninsula (半岛)—the long finger of land that stretches toward Argentina—is most dramatically affected. Scientists saw glaciers that have retreated by more than 100 meters in Discovery Bay where the snow melted in little more than a week, leaving dark exposed rock. This melted ice leads to a rise in sea levels that can threaten the safety of coastal areas. It’s believed to be behind an alarming decline of more than 50 percent in chinstrap penguin (帽带企鹅) colonies, which are dependent on sea ice.

Like American writer Ernest Hemingway once said, “The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for. ” We should do everything we can to help save our planet. Otherwise, it may become too hot for us to fix.

1. What did Brazilian researchers report on Feb 9?

A．Signy Island is the warmest region in the Antarctic.

B．Antarctica hit a record high temperature of 20. 75 C.

C．The average temperature of Antarctica ranges from 19. 8 C to 20. 75 C.

D．Antarctica’s new record temperature is a full degree higher than the previous decade.

2. What’s the main purpose of the 20-year-long research project?

A．To predict possible climatic change in the future.

B．To monitor Antarctica’s contributions to world climate change.

C．To explain why the permafrost may cause glaciers to melt.

D．To examine how the permafrost is influenced by climate change.

3. What does the underlined word “retreated” probably mean?

A．Moved backward.

B．Increased in size.

C．Covered a certain area.

D．Proceeded in an opposite direction.

4. According to the text, the melted glaciers may lead to ________.

A．the pollution of ocean water

B．the release of various viruses

C．threats to penguin habitats

D．disappearances of coastal cities

【推荐2】England is not a big country: from north to south and from east to west it is only about three hundred miles across. But for a small country it has a surprising range of climate(多样性的气候). People who have never visited England or who have visited only one part of it often make the mistake of thinking that it is a cold and wet country. Except for the summer months of June to September, this is probably true of the north of England and the Midlands. In the south, however, the climate is much more pleasant. One result is that when people retire(退休)from the job in the north, they often prefer to move down to the south.

Perhaps the warmest part of the country is the southwest, which consists of (is made up of)the counties(郡)of Devon and Cornwall, where palm trees, bamboo and many semitropical(亚热带)plants grow well. Flowers and vegetables ripen(成熟)as much as a month earlier than those elsewhere. Farmers in the areas gain a higher price for their vegetables and flowers because they are ready earlier. In winter there may be several feet of snow in other parts of England but there will probably be no snow at all in the southwest. This may be one of the reasons why the southwest is one of England’s most popular holiday areas.

1. England is a country ________.

A．with a cold and wet climate

B．with a pleasant climate

C．with a surprising climate

D．with climates of various kinds

2. According to the passage, ________.

A．flowers and vegetables from Devon are on the market one month earlier

B．farmers in the southwest grow as many vegetables and flowers as farmers elsewhere

C．people in the southwest have to pay a higher price for vegetables and flowers

D．vegetables in Cornwall ripen as much as a month earlier than flowers

3. In the north of England and the Midlands, ________.

A．it is cold and wet all the year round

B．the climate is pleasant as a whole

C．it is warm most of the time in a year

D．only the summer is not cold or wet

【推荐3】请认真阅读下面短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词。
注意:每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。

Time for Americans to act on climate change

The climate crisis is worsening at a rate that is becoming harder and harder to ignore. For more than two decades, scientific reports have made it clear that global warming is real, that humans cause it and that the consequences will be disastrous.

The scientific community has become increasingly panicked over the past year. The latest assessment from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change painted a far more terrible picture than its previous analyses, and the long-awaited National Climate Assessment made clear that climate change represents a severe threat to human health as well as our economic security. Out of this panic came the treaty(条约)reached this past weekend by world leaders to keep the Paris climate agreement alive.

Yet many Americans still don’t regard the threat as a key priority for our government, and support President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris treaty. Campaign contributions from fossil fuel companies have convinced elected officials to look the other way. A certain amount of despair has resulted in widespread apathy(漠然).

But there is another reason that has been discussed far less openly. While a growing number of people understand that climate change will have significant worldwide consequences, many Americans have an intuitive(直觉的)belief that their nation is more capable than others of adapting to a changed environment. Why? Because they have before.

This historical success, however, resulted from the federal government taking science seriously, and making investments to urge revolution and innovation.

But these innovations did not happen by themselves, or simply because of the United States’ rich resources. They depended on consistent support from the leaders about the need to take action when faced with crises. This has been especially true in the environmental crisis.

President Bill Clinton had a shockingly modest record of advancing climate security, particularly given that his vice president, Al Gore, had been one of the most outspoken environmentalists in Congress. By far Clinton’s biggest accomplishment was assigning Gore to participate іn thе Куоtо Рrоtoсоl negotiations. Сlіntоn сhоѕе, hоwеvеr, tо аvоіd whаt ѕurеlу wоuld have been a terrible fight in the Senate to gain approval of the treaty. While this effort probably would have failed, it would have signaled to the American people how seriously the Democratic Party took climate change.

Thus, the time has clearly arrived for progressive candidates to start campaigning on a platform built around the need for a sustainability revolution. Such a plan should include a carbon tax, well-funded clean energy research, evolved agricultural policies and smarter public transport. Given that Generation X and millennials(千禧一代)never bought into the fiction that the United States is immune to the dangers of global warming, the time is ripe to make climate security a crucial government responsibility. Only by doing so can we begin the long-overdue(拖延好久的)campaign to save the planet.

Time for Americans to act on climate change

Introduction	More and more people have become     1     of the severity of climate crisis. It is human beings that are to     2     for the real global warming and should     3     for what they have done.
Worldwide efforts	Given that human health as well as our economic security is     4     a severe threat caused by climate change, Paris Climate Treaty has been reached by world leaders.
Current American’s responses	A negative attitude	Unable to grasp the seriousness of the threat, many Americans are in     5     of President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris treaty.
	6     for responses	Elected officials turn a deaf ear to the threat on account of their     7     relationship with fossil fuel companies. A certain amount of despair has resulted in widespread apathy. Many Americans are wildly     8     about their ability to a changed environment.
Earlier American’s responses	A(n)     9     attitude	Wisely assigning his vice president to participate in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations, President Bill Clinton took climate change seriously.
	Inspiration form responses	The Democratic Party used to take adequate notice of the potential crisis of the climate change.
10	It is high time for Americans to begin the long-overdue campaign to save the planet.

【推荐1】A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.
“It’s extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components (元件),” said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.
They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, but then has to be matched well to everything it’s connected to,” said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.
While this first robotic flyer is linked to a small, off-board power source, the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source, so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites, in farmers’ fields or on the battlefield. “Basically it should be able to take off, land and fly around,” he said.
Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead,” he said. “So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”
1. The difficulty the team of engineers met with while making the robotic fly was that __________.

A．they had no model in their mind

B．they did not have sufficient time

C．they had no ready-made components

D．they could not assemble the components

2. It can be inferred from paragraphs 3 and 4 that the robotic fly __________.

A．consists of a flight device and a control system

B．can just fly in limited areas at the present time

C．can collect information from many sources

D．has been put into wide application

3. Which of the following can be learned from the passage?

A．The robotic flyer is designed to learn about insects.

B．Animals are not allowed in biological experiments.

C．There used to be few ways to study how insects fly.

D．Wood’s design can replace animals in some experiments.

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Father of Robotic Fly

B．Inspiration from Engineering Science

C．Robotic Fly Imitates Real Life Insect

D．Harvard Breaks Through in Insect Study

【推荐2】The latest study by the University of Florida has found that eating from smaller, less beautiful, and even paper plates will help prevent overeating. Eating with a fork instead of a spoon can help you lose weight, the researchers say. Much to their surprise, they find that putting mirrors in the dining room will also help reduce weight.

The researchers asked 185 college students to choose a chocolate cake or a fruit salad, and evaluated the taste. Those who ate in a room with a mirror scored the taste of junk food much lower than those in a room without a mirror. But the taste of fruit salad remained the same in any case.

Lead scientist, Dr. Ata Jami, says that a glance in the mirror tells people more than just about their physical appearance. It enables them to view themselves objectively and helps them to judge themselves and their behavior in the same way that they judge other people.

The mirrors were found to push people to compare and match their own behavior with accepted social standards. The researchers believe it proves that people don’t want to look in the mirror when they feel they are following the social standards. When they look in the mirror with mouths full of junk food, feelings of discomfort and failure can be increased. Therefore, the presence of the mirror lowers the taste of unhealthy food.

However, researchers say this is only the case if people select the food they are eating, because they are responsible for that choice. The researchers suggest that mirrors be placed in dining rooms and other eating spaces, so that people will start eating more healthily.

1. Researchers are amazed to find that ______.

A．paper plates make food look nicer

B．people using a fork will eat more

C．mirrors can help people lose weight

D．people will eat more in front of a mirror

2. What can be inferred from the study?

A．Some teenagers got involved in it.

B．People were required to eat with a spoon.

C．People preferred a chocolate cake to a fruit salad.

D．The mirror may not affect the taste of healthy food.

3. According to Dr. Ata Jami, the mirror ______.

A．makes people judge others correctly

B．makes people well judge themselves

C．is a necessary part of people’s daily life

D．can only show the appearance of a person

4. How does the mirror affect the taste of junk food?

A．By making people hungry.

B．By showing the social standards.

C．By attracting people to healthy food.

D．By causing a feeling of discomfort.

【推荐3】From old times, crows(乌鸦)have been famous for their cleverness. They use tools, work out problems, and even enjoy playing. Scientists have studied carefully how crows go about these activities.

To make tools, crows cut off leaves with their ''mouths'', shape them, and use them to look for bugs(虫子)in wood or plants. Just as a carpenter carries his tools with him, a crow will carry its tool around. When the leaf isn’t needed for the moment, the bird stores the tool at its feet or somewhere else.

To test wild crows' abilities to work out problems, scientists placed food outdoors in covered bowls. They watched with interest as the birds smartly opened the bowls to get the food. Scientists also found out that crows can make use of the traffic. For example, crows would drop a nut on the road and wait for a car to run over the nut to break it.

Besides, crows seem to enjoy playing. Young crows will carry a stick or nut into the air, drop it, and fly to catch the object as it falls.

So just how smart are crows? Perhaps a crow will never do tricks as a dog will. But scientists agree that there’s a lot going on in the brain of a clever crow.

1. We learn from paragraph 2 that a crow may store the _______ at its feet or somewhere else.

A．leaf	B．mouth
C．wood	D．bowl

2. Scientists placed food outdoors in covered bowls in order to test _____.

A．whether crows make tools	B．whether crows enjoy playing
C．how much crows like the food	D．how crows work out problems

3. The writer uses a(n) ______ to show how crows make use of the traffic.

A．survey	B．guess
C．example	D．experiment

4. This passage mainly discusses the ______ of crows.

A．tricks	B．foods
C．happiness	D．cleverness

【推荐1】It has been two months since I moved to China, but its digital advancement hasn’t stopped impressing me ever since. One of the major things that I cannot imagine living without anymore is mobile payment. There are two major mobile payment apps here, Alipay and Wechat Pay. Both have similar payment features, though Wechat is more like a social media. That’s why I will focus on this “super app”.

So far, I’ve been overwhelmed by how convenient life can be with Wechat. It is present in every aspect of people’s daily life, from paying water and electricity bills, meals, cinema tickets to hailing a taxi, following news, and chatting with friends. Most merchants have adopted it, from tiny local street food stalls to high-end stores. A cashier may be surprised if you do not pay with Wechat or Alipay at the grocers or in restaurants. And it seems like the entire payment industry has encouraged this shift to mobile payment, equipping payment terminals (终端) with QR code scanners to simplify payments. Mobile payments are so common here that I realize that I can perfectly survive if I forget my wallet at home one day because most days I just don’t take it out of my bag!

As mentioned earlier, Wechat is also a major social media platform with about one billion daily users, which is more than the entire population of the European Union. So I have to say Chinese technological and digital development is a real miracle.

1. What does the underlined word mean in Paragragh 2?

A．encouraged.	B．shocked.
C．confused.	D．panicked.

2. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Wechat is more a social media than Alipay.

B．All merchants have adopted mobile payment.

C．A cashier may be surprised if you pay with Wechat or Alipay.

D．It causes trouble if you don’t take your wallet with you.

3. The best title of the passage might be ________.

A．The Different Pinions About Mobile Payment

B．The Development of Mobile Payment

C．The Popularity of Chinese Mobile Payment

D．Two Major Apps of Mobile Payment

【推荐3】Geothermal (地热的) power generation is one of our most stable renewable energy resources. Heat generated below the Earth’s surface can provide an almost unlimited supply to power and heat homes. And while geothermal electricity only accounts for around one percent of global generation, that is set to at least triple by 2050.

The Geysers in California is the world’s largest geothermal electricity complex. It produces enough electricity from its 18 power plants for 725,000 homes, totaling 20 percent of the state’s renewable energy. Superheated “dry steam” is channeled from a large sandstone reservoir heated by a large magma chamber (岩浆房) more than four miles beneath the surface.

Heat is captured from its passage through the rock and the heated water converts into electricity. Cooled water is then recycled and pumped back to gather more heat. EGS (enhanced geothermal systems) technologies will open up many more sites for geothermal energy. “You can effectively put a power plant anywhere,” said Will Pettit, director of the Geothermal Resources Council. “All you have to do is drill deep enough and you will find hot rock.”     

Most geothermal plants actually use a flash steam technique, where hot water (at 360F or 180C) is drawn up, passed into lower pressure tanks and flashed into steam to power a turbine (涡轮机). Binary cycle (双元循环) plants are the growth technology because they can operate at lower water temperatures and more diverse geographical locations. They use moderately hot water to heat a secondary fluid with a lower boiling point—as low as 135F—to drive turbines.

Geothermal plants already emit 11 times less carbon dioxide per unit of electricity than the average US coal power plant. They can also operate 24 hours a day to provide a solid base load for homes and businesses.

There are drawbacks too. Seismic activity around drilling wells is a factor. High investment costs are another. But the US government is backing the sector with multi-million dollar funds to push forward advanced EGS research. Geothermal energy is set to play a big part in the low-carbon electricity future.

1. What is the significance of EGS (enhanced geothermal systems) technologies?

A．They have made geothermal energy less sustainable.

B．They have greatly reduced the need for drilling in geothermal sites.

C．They allow for more efficient use of geothermal resources.

D．They have opened up new methods of generating electricity from water.

2. What can be inferred from paragraph 4?

A．Power plants are not affected by water.

B．Hot water is used to power a turbine directly.

C．Binary cycle plants are less restricted to sites.

D．A flash steam technique is a must in geothermal plants.

3. What does the author think of geothermal power?

A．Perfect.

B．limited .

C．impractical.

D．promising.

4. What is the main idea of the article?

A．Businesses have been competing to gain an advantage in geothermal power.

B．Geothermal power is likely to be a great chance to sustainable power.

C．Traditional power has been replaced by geothermal power in America.

D．EGS technologies have come into widespread application around the world.