【推荐1】For centuries, elephants have played a big role in the world’s economies, culture and religion. The African elephant used to be found all over Africa and the Asian elephant moved from Syria to China to Indonesia. Nowadays, elephants are found in small groups in the south of the Sahara Desert and scarcely in Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and India.

In the early twentieth century, there were close to ten million elephants, and now the elephant number is as low as 252,000 and expected to drop down to 160,000 by 2025. Between 2007 and 2014, the elephant population fell by at least 30%, or 144,000 elephants. As researchers have traveled over the African plains, they only spotted one herd of 36 elephants in an area like the size of Mexico. It is clear that these gentle mammals are disappearing right before our eyes.

There are many reasons why the elephant population has been decreasing, one of which is their habitat. Humans are competing with elephants for living space, and as more and more humans clear the land that is being used by elephants, the elephants have less space. Elephant hunting or “poaching” has been a major factor for the disappearance of this species, and they are killed only for their valuable ivory tusks. Although the trade of tusks is illegal, it is still a common practice in many places.

Often, all the local people living among elephants would be farmers, and found that they could make more money by selling the tusks of one elephant, than doing manual labor for twelve years. That alone makes it really hard to prevent them from killing the elephants.

Some places such as Botswana, have put in extra effort to protect their wildlife from poachers by founding their Botswana Defense Force, which is made up of around 700 specially-trained soldiers that are stationed in 40 different areas. You may feel worried about the present situations elephants are in, but there are ways to help. To find out how you can help elephant conservation, adopt an elephant, or donate, click here.

1. The numbers listed in Paragraph 2 show that       .

A．humans don’t care for elephants

B．elephants have been next to extinction

C．elephants have become gentler than before

D．elephants have gained more attention

2. What is the biggest factor for the disappearing elephants?

A．Less space.	B．A lack of food.
C．Suffering from a disease.	D．Elephant hunting.

3. Why is it hard to ban killing the elephants among the farmers?

A．Their tusks are profitable.

B．Elephants are destroying their fields cruelly.

C．Farmers hope to make a living by selling their meat.

D．Farmers practice their hunting skills by killing elephants.

4. What is the purpose of this text?

A．To persuade readers to make a donation.

B．To guide readers how to protect elephants.

C．To encourage readers to help protect elephants.

D．To introduce the decreasing number of elephants.

【推荐2】In an effort to create more environmentally friendly vacations, Norwegian cruise operator (挪威邮轮公司) Hurtigruten is making a plan to power its ships using dead fish. This doesn’t mean that Norwegian cruise liners will be doubling as fishing ships; the dead fish will come from Norway’s good fishing industry, not as any sort of by-product of the cruise industry. But it s a plan that promises to make use of the leftovers and offcuts of the fishing industry to make shipping less wasteful.

So how do dead fish get transformed into fuel? Organic waste of any kind can be mixed to produce a type of fuel known as biogas (沼气). If it sounds smelly, well…it is, and not just because of the dead fish. Biogas can also have small amounts of hydrogen sulphide, a chemical compound, which can give it a bad egg smell. It’s not a particularly attractive process, but don’ t worry: those smells won’t be given off from your cruise ship’s exhaust. The raw materials in the biogas can be cleaned, which creates liquid biogas.

What others see as a problem, we see as a resource and a solution, said Daniel Skjeldam Hurtigruten chief executive. “By introducing biogas as fuel for cruise ships, Hurtigruten will be the first cruise company to power ships with fossil-free (无化石的) fuel”

Biogas is certainly cleaner than heavy oil, but it’s not exactly carbon-free. So while the plan might be a creative way of making use of organic waste, as well as helping to get rid of fossil fuels, it’s not a perfect solution. However, it’s at least a step in a better direction. And the company will also be stopping single-use plastics on its 17 cruise ships. It’s good to see change happening in a dirty industry.

1. What kind of dead fish will be used in the plan?

A．Those from tourists.

B．Those from restaurants.

C．Those from the cruise industry.

D．Those from the fishing industry.

2. What is the limitation of the plan?

A．Biogas is smellier than heavy oil.

B．The making of biogas isn’t cost-saving

C．Biogas burning produces chemicals containing carbon.

D．The raw materials are not enough to cover the needs.

3. What does the author think of Hurtigruten’s plan?

A．It is all talk.

B．It will be of some help.

C．It is daring.

D．It will cause a debate.

4. What would be the best title for this text?

A．Dead fish will soon make power

B．Norway’s fishing industry meets a challenge

C．Smelly biogas has caused new problems

D．Hurtigruten points out the world resource issue

【推荐3】Oriola Oluwaseyi, 32, makes her way through the busy streets of Ajegunle, a low-income community in Nigeria's commercial center, Lagos.

The Nigerian mother of four is pushing through people and things in the streets to collect plastic waste bottles from retail stores. In the evening, Oluwaseyi will drop the bottles at Moritz International School where her 8-year-old daughter attends primary school. The bottles will act as a down payment for her daughter's tuition. As a small trader earning a little from trading car engine oil at busy Ajegunle Market in Nigeria's economic center, Lagos, Oluwaseyi does not earn enough to cover the annual 18,000- naira( around $ 50) school fees.

"Whenever a new session is about to start, sometimes we get worried when there is no money," Oluwaseyi said. However, thanks to a recent partnership with Africa Cleanup Initiative （ ACI ）, a non-governmental organization with focus on sustainability （可 持续 性），Oluwaseyi's daughter's school now accepts the plastic bottles, also known as PET bottles, in exchange for school fees. Through a program called Recycles Pay, ACI collaborates（合作）with schools in low-income communities to allow parents who are unable to afford fees for their children to pay using plastic bottles they collect.

Twice a month Oluwaseyi visits her daughter's school with bags full of sorted plastic bottle recyclable. The cost of tuition is determined by how many PET bottles she has collected.

“My daughter's headmaster introduced me to this program last year, and I subscribed to the project because I knew it was something to relieve myself of the burden of spending money on the fees," she said. "The program has given me a method to channel the funds I would have spent on school fees," she added.

There are more than 450,000 megatons（百万吨）of plastic waste discarded（丢弃） in Lagos waters every year, according to reports in local media. Nigeria generates huge amounts of plastic waste, and according to a 2017 Ocean Atlas report, Nigeria is ranked number 11 in the world for plastic pollution, posing health risks to citizens and causing environmental damage.

1. What does Oriola Oluwaseyi do while going through streets in her community?

A．Collect plastic waste bottles.

B．Trade with retail stores.

C．Sell car engine oil.

D．Raise money for her daughter's tuition.

2. What is the program Recycles Pay aimed at?

A．Protecting community environment.

B．Helping children who drop out of school.

C．Enabling poor students to pay tuition.

D．Raising people's sustainable awareness.

3. What can we learn about Oluwaseyi from the fifth paragraph?

A．Her daughter's headmaster is the leader of the program.

B．She hesitated for a little while about subscription at first.

C．She collected bottles to get money to support the poor.

D．The program helps her get through the financial problem.

4. What's the author's main purpose in writing the last paragraph?

A．To highlight the water pollution in Nigeria.

B．To show the program is of benefit to the country.

C．To prepare for writing about the next topic.

D．To criticize the huge amounts of plastic waste in Nigeria.

【推荐1】A new generation addiction is quickly spreading all over the world. Weboholism（网瘾）, a twentieth century disease, affects people from different ages. They surf the net, use e-mail and speak in chat rooms. They spend many hours on the computer, and it becomes a compulsive habit.   They cannot stop, and it affects their lives.
Ten years ago, no one thought that using computers could become compulsive behavior that could affect the social and physical life of computer users. Such behavior has seriously affected teenagers and college students. They are likely to log(写日志) on computers and spend long hours at different websites.
They become hooked（着迷） on computers and gradually their social and school life is affected by this situation. They spend all free time surfing and don’t concentrate on homework, so this addiction influences their grades and success at school. Because they can find everything on the websites, they hang out there. Moreover, this addiction to websites influences their social life.
They spend more time in front of computers than with their friends. The relation with their friends changes. The virtual life becomes more important than their real life. They have a new language that they speak in the chat rooms and it causes cultural changes in society.
Because of the change in their behavior, they begin to isolate themselves from society and live with their virtual friends. They share their emotions and feelings with friends who they have never met in their life. Although they feel confident on the computer, they are not confident with real live friends they have known all their life. It is a problem for the future. This addictive behavior is beginning to affect all the world.

1. The main idea of the passage is about__________.

A．the cause of weboholism

B．the advantage of weboholism

C．the popularity of weboholism

D．the effect of weboholism

2. We can infer from the passage that_______.

A．weboholism has the greatest effect on teenagers

B．students can hardly balance real and virtual life

C．people are addicted to games on the Internet

D．virtual life is more vivid and attractive than real life.

3. Which of the following is NOT true of weboholism?

A．It contributes to the development of the web.

B．The chat room language may change social culture.

C．The problem will be getting more and more serious later.

D．People addicted to the web often become inactive in real life.

【推荐2】There is a famous story about how Walt Disney was inspired to build Disneyland. The story goes that during an afternoon visit to Griffith Park located near the Burbank Studios, Walt took a seat while his two young daughters rode the merry-go-round. Walt thought there should be a place where both children and their parents could enjoy spending some time together in an environment that would be both entertaining and pleasing to the eye, so with this thought came the idea for Disneyland.

Walt’s original plan was to build an eight-acre park located near the Burbank Studios that would be a place for his employees and their families. Those plans were put on hold because of the start of World War II. By 1952, Walt had created a special department that was devoted to planning his dream.

Finally in 1953, the first steps in building the park happened when Walt employed the Stanford Research Institute to make a survey to determine the best possible location for the future park. Considering population growth and the future freeway construction (建设), they finally found a location in Anaheim and 160 acres of land were bought for the site of the new park.

The building of the park was very expensive and to collect money for the project, Walt developed the idea of the “Walt Disney’s Disneyland” television show. It turned out to be a marvelous idea—not only gaining the money to build the park but also presenting the park to the American public.

Construction officially began on July 21, 1954, and it was an ambitious (野心勃勃的) building schedule of less than one year to complete the new park for the projected opening day. Walt watched over the park’s construction and progress continued with just a few minor hold-ups. Finally, the park was ready for the Opening Day on July 17, 1955.

1. What inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland?

A．The special design of Griffith Park.	B．A trip to a park with his daughters.
C．Requests from his family and employees.	D．The idea to build a park for his daughters.

2. What is mainly considered in choosing the location of Disneyland?

A．Walt Disney’s personal preference.	B．The natural environment.
C．The advice of the public.	D．Local traffic.

3. What can we learn about the construction process?

A．It was smooth generally.	B．It was affected by World War II.
C．It was completed later than expected.	D．It was influenced by a shortage of money.

4. Where is the next most likely from?

A．A travel journal.	B．An autobiography.
C．A magazine.	D．A guidebook.

【推荐3】Traffic Management

Traffic lights are key tools for regulating traffic now.They are not, however, perfect.Drivers exchange the traffic jams that would happen at unmanaged crossings for a pattern of stop-go movement that can still be annoying, and which burns more fuel than a smooth passage would.

Creating such a smooth passage means adjusting a vehicle's speed so that it always arrives at the lights when they are green.That is theoretically possible, but practically hard.Roadside signs wired to traffic lights can help get the message across a couple hundred metres from a crossing, but such signs are expensive, and are not widespread.Margaret Martonosi and Emmanouil Koukoumidis at Princeton University, and Li-Shiuan Peh at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, however, have an idea that could make the process cheaper and more effective.Instead of a hardwired network of signs, they propose to use mobile-phone applications.The driver must load the team's software, named SignalGuru, into his phone and then put it on a special thing attached to the inside of his car's windscreen, with the camera lens （镜头） pointing forward.SignalGuru is designed to detect traffic lights and track their status as red, yellow or green.It broadcasts this information to other phones in the area that are fitted with the same software, and — if there are enough of them, the phones thus each know the status of most of the lights around town.Using this information, SignalGuru is able to calculate the traffic-light schedule for the area and suggest the speed at which a driver should travel in order to avoid red lights.

Tests in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where five drivers were asked to follow the same route for three hours, and in Singapore, where eight drivers were asked to follow one of two routes for 30 minutes, revealed that SignalGuru was capable of predicting traffic-light activity with an accuracy of 98.2% and 96.3% respectively, in the two cities.This was particularly impressive because in Cambridge the lights shifted, roughly half-way through the test, from their unbusy schedule to their afternoon-traffic schedule, while in Singapore lights are adaptive, using detectors fixed under the road to determine how much traffic is present and thus when a signal   should change.In neither case was SignalGuru fooled.

Fuel consumption fell, too —by about 20%.SignalGuru thus reduces both annoyance and fuel use, and makes going back and forth to work a slightly less horrible experience.

1. Roadside signs wired to traffic lights are not the best way to create a smooth passage because____________.

A．they are too costly and not widely used

B．they are expensive and easily break

C．they are complex and confusing to drivers

D．they are theoretically possible but practically useless

2. SignalGuru is an application used on____________..

A．a camera	B．a computer
C．a mobile phone	D．a GPS system in one's car

3. With the information it collects and processes, SignalGuru is able to____________..

A．help drivers avoid traffic accidents	B．allow drivers to adjust their speed
C．change the traffic lights in advance	D．send information to all cell phones

4. The tests in Cambridge and Singapore were impressive because SignalGuru____________..

A．proved to be unreliable	B．operated at a high speed
C．understood drivers' schedules	D．functioned rather stably