Thirty years ago, Lake Ponkapog in Hartwell, New Jersey, was full of life. Many birds and animals lived beside the water, which was full of fish. Now there are few birds, animals, and fish. The lake water is polluted. It is in a color of dirty brown, and it is filled with strange plants. How did this happen?
First, we must think about how water gets into Lake Ponkapog. When it rains, water comes into the lake from all around. In the past, there were forests all round Lake Ponkapog, so the rainwater was clean. Now there are many homes around the lake. People often use the chemicals（化学制品）in their gardens. They use other chemicals inside their houses for cleaning and killing insects.
There are also many businesses. Businesses use chemicals in their machines of shops. Other chemicals fall onto the ground from cars or trucks. When it rains, the rainwater picks up all the chemicals from home and businesses and then carries them into the lake. They pollute the water and kill the animals.
Boats on the lake are also a problem. Lake Ponkapog is a popular place for motorboats（汽船）. But oil and gas（汽油）from boats often get into the lake. So more bad chemicals go into the water this way.
People in Hartwell are worried. They love their lake and want to save it. Will it be possible? A clean lake must have clean rainwater going into it. Clean rainwater is possible only if people are more careful about chemicals at home and at other chemicals on the ground. And they mustn’t use motorboats any more on the lake. All these may change people’s lives. Only then can Lake Ponkapog be a beautiful, clean lake again.
1. In the past, the water in Lake Ponkapog was made clean by ________.| A．forests | B．rain | C．birds | D．fish |
| A．are always clean | B．can help the animals |
| C．are good for the lake | D．get into the rainwater |
| A．more boats on the lake | B．more dirty things in the lake |
| C．a cleaner lake | D．a dirty lake |
| A．be more careful about chemicals | B．use the water |
| C．grow fewer plants in the gardens | D．use more motorboats on the lake |
| A．boats on the Lake Pankapog | B．why the water is dirty in Lake Ponkapog |
| C．clean rainwater | D．dirty lakes |
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【推荐1】Beatboxing is now very popular. More and more people like to try it. Beatboxing is making drum sounds just by using your mouth and voice.
※Where did beatboxing begin?
Beatboxing is an art form of Hip-hop which began on the streets of New York. The idea of making sounds with our mouths came from African music. African singers often made sounds with their bodies. However, it was on the streets of Harlem where people first used the word beatbox (or two words: beat box). Beat box was drum machines (机器) around the time.
※Beatboxing over the years
Beatboxing became a popular art form between the 1980s and 1990s. Nowadays, people can watch beatboxers on the talent show programs (才艺表演节目) and on YouTube. The Beatbox Battle World Championships (世界锦标赛) first took place in Germany in 2005 and it takes place every three years. In August 2018 it took place in Berlin.
※Try it yourself
There are many good YouTube tutorials on how to beatbox. You can learn a lot. And there’s the old trick of saying “boots and cats” very quickly to make a beat. Go on! You can try it.
1. To try beatboxing, what should people use?| A．Their mouths and voice | B．Their ears | C．Their hands | D．Their legs |
| A．On the streets of New York. | B．From African music. |
| C．On the streets of Harlem. | D．On drum machines. |
| A．2005 | B．2015 | C．2018 | D．2021 |
| A．people | B．changes | C．goals | D．lessons |
| A．Beatboxing is the same as Hip-hop. |
| B．Beatboxing wasn’t so popular before the 1980s. |
| C．It’s very difficult to make a beat box. |
| D．People only watch beatboxes on YouTube. |
【推荐2】Some animals can easily find their way home after a long journey. How do they make it? Scientific research shows that they are born with certain unusual abilities for direction.
A certain kind of ants, for example, can count their steps to avoid getting lost. They can go as far as 110 metres and bring food home. These ants live in the open desert (沙漠), so they have nothing to guide them along the way. It’s like someone walking six kilometres through a dark forest.
Some fish have an unbelievable sense of smell. They can smell even a single drop of their home water in a large sea area. Some sea birds have a similar ability. They are able to make a smell map of their flying area.
Some animals can sense the earth’s magnetic field (磁场), while humans can’t. This magnetic field guides a certain kind of fish when the swim a long way to a place and then back. How can this kind of fish do that? It is still a mystery. Scientists have no good answers yet.
However, animals with such unusual abilities still have difficulty dealing with environmental changes caused by human activities. For example, many birds depend on stars for direction, but they get lost easily a night when city lights are kept on all night. To solve this problem, we can simply turn off some lights at night. Clearly, one small act of humans may mean a lot to animals.
1. How does the writer start the passage?| A．By having a discussion. | B．By telling a story. |
| C．By describing a scene. | D．By giving a fact. |
| A．By imagining the way. | B．By counting their steps. |
| C．By bringing food together. | D．By walking through a forest. |
| A．Secret. | B．Choice. | C．Reason. | D．Feeling. |
| A．To help animals. | B．To travel at night. |
| C．To keep city lights on. | D．To develop unusual abilities. |
| A．Birds’ Sense of Light. | B．Fish’s Sense of Smell. |
| C．Animals’ Sense of Direction. | D．Animals’ Sense of Magnetic Field. |
Rivers are important. One of the most important rivers in the UK is the River Thames. It is 346 km long and it is the deepest (最深的) river in Britain. But the longest river in the UK is the River Severn. It is 354 km long.
Rivers are important to plants (植物). Many of them grow by rivers. Some animals also make their homes on the river banks. They get food from rivers. In Africa, animals such as lions and elephants go to rivers for water.
Rivers also give people food to eat and water to drink. What’s more, they give people chances (机会) to live a better life. People can go to other places by boat. Rivers give water to farms. People can build a dam (修建大坝) across a river. Then people can use the water to make electricity (电).
But there are problems with rivers. One of the problems is that rivers are getting dirty. Another is that people use too much water from rivers. We should learn about the importance of rivers.
1. What do we know about the River Thames?| A．It’s the longest river in Britain. |
| B．It’s not far from the River Severn. |
| C．It’s the deepest river in Britain. |
| A．洞穴 | B．银行 | C．河岸 |
| A．when people began to build dams |
| B．how rivers help with people’s lives |
| C．where plants and animals live |
| A．1. | B．2. | C．3. |
| A．The importance of rivers | B．Rivers around the world | C．Rivers and people |
【推荐1】Manatees (海牛) are huge sea animals. They can be as long as 4 meters and weigh up to 590 kilograms when grown. Although they’re very large, manatees only eat sea grass and other plants that grow in the sea. That’s one reason they’re sometimes called “sea cows”. They spend most of their time in warm water looking for food.
Since 1967 Florida’s manatees have been on the US government’s list of endangered animals. Most threats (威胁) to manatees come from humans. One of the biggest problems the animals face is boats. Manatees are curious (好奇的) and quite slow. That has led to thousands of manatees being hurt or killed by boats. With protection, the number of manatees managed to rise again. At one point, there were only about 2,000 manatees left in Florida. But by 2016, there were about 8,800 manatees.
But now manatees are facing a new challenge: They can’t get enough to eat. Because of pollution, sea grass that manatees depend on began to disappear around 2011. Last year, 1,101 manatees died. That was a record. Most starved to death because they had no grass to eat. Many of the manatees that remain are quite thin.
So last December, government wildlife experts came up with a plan to provide emergency food for the manatees. They decided to feed them on green vegetables like lettuce and cabbage. The feeding place, a warm and clean water area, is popular with the manatees.
This plan is very successful. Around 350 manatees come here every day to get food. Sometimes, as many as 800 manatees can be here. Even so, scientists worry that many more manatees could starve this winter. So Florida is now working to help sea grass beds grow. But that will take time.
1. What can we learn about manatees?| A．Most manatees died from human activities. |
| B．Manatees don’t like boats and always hit them. |
| C．Manatees have been well protected since 1967. |
| D．Manatees are called “sea cows” because of their look. |
| A．挨饿 | B．生病 | C．遇难 | D．害怕 |
| A．there are not enough vegetables |
| B．sea grass will not grow back quickly |
| C．pollution will bring more problems |
| D．manatees are becoming fewer and fewer |
【推荐2】You may have heard that the Yangtze River is China’s longest river. It is almost 6, 400 kilometers long. As the world’s third-longest river, its valley (流域) covers one-fifth of China’s land area. The Yangtze River Economic Belt (长江经济带) covers eleven provinces and cities, making up about forty percent of China’s total population and GDP.
On December 26, 2020, China passed the Yangtze River Protection Law, which came into force on March 1, 2021. It is the first law to protect a waterway in China.
The river is in great need of protection because something is wrong with it. For example, because of overfishing and water pollution, the river’s Chinese paddlefish has died out there. There’s also desertified land and soil pollution near the river.
According to the law, fishing will not be allowed in all of the Yangtze’s natural waterways, including its major tributaries (支流) and lakes. Those who are caught fishing will be fined (罚款) 50, 000 to 500, 000 yuan.
Digging sand will be strictly limited (限制) in the river. Many companies are digging sand along the river. However, this has led to lower water levels of the river, which has caused the river’s water to decline.
Companies and factories along the river will need to focus on green development. If their activities do harm to the waterways, they will be moved away, the law says.
1. What does Paragraph 1 tell us about the Yangtze River? ________
| A．How old it is. |
| B．Why it’s important. |
| C．What problems it has. |
| D．Where it joins the sea. |
| A．It was passed on March 1, 2021. |
| B．It came into force about ten years ago. |
| C．It has increased the population of the area. |
| D．It’s the first law to protect a waterway in China. |
| A．Why the river needs protection. |
| B．How the river is being polluted. |
| C．When Chinese paddlefish died out. |
| D．How the river will be protected. |
| A．People can’t fish in the river’s major tributaries. |
| B．Digging sand will not be allowed in the river anymore. |
| C．Companies along the river will be moved to other places. |
| D．Anyone who causes pollution will be fined at least 50, 000 yuan. |
【推荐3】Many people know that rubbish is a big problem on the planet Earth. What many people don’t know is that rubbish has become a problem in outer space too.
According to BBC News, there are more than 22,000 pieces of space rubbish around the Earth. And these are just the things that we can see from the Earth. There are also millions of smaller pieces of rubbish that we can’t see.
Things, like bits of old spaceships or satellites (卫星), move around the planet so fast that even a very small piece can break important satellites or become dangerous to astronauts. If the smallest piece of rubbish crashed (碰撞) a spaceship, something would go wrong.
To make things worse, when two things in space crash, they break into many smaller pieces. For example, when a US satellite crashed an old Russian rocket in 2009, it broke into more than 2,000 pieces, increasing the amount of space rubbish.
To make space rubbish less, countries have agreed that all new space tools can only stay in space for 25 years at most. Each tool must be built to fall safely into the Earth’s atmosphere (大气层) after that time. In the upper parts of the atmosphere, it will burn up.
Many scientists also suggest different ways to clean up space rubbish. In England, scientists are testing a special net that can be sent into space. The net catches the rubbish and then pulls it into the Earth’s atmosphere to burn up. The Germans are building robots that can collect pieces of space rubbish and bring them back to the Earth to make it safe.
“The problem is becoming more difficult because we’re sending more things into space to help people use their mobile phones and computers,” says Marco Castronuovo, an Italian space researcher.
“The time to act is now. The longer we leave the problem, the bigger it will become.” he says.
1. What does the underlined word “these” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Telescopes. | B．Satellites. | C．Pieces of space rubbish. | D．BBC News reports. |
| A．It burns up after it re-enters the atmosphere. |
| B．It often stops the view of telescopes on earth. |
| C．It could force new space tools to travel at slower speed. |
| D．It may crash into other space tools causing damage or death. |
| A．the tools can be reused later | B．the tools don’t become space rubbish |
| C．the earth’s atmosphere can stay clean | D．the effects of space flight can be studied |
| A．Catch it with nets. | B．Use robots to collect it. |
| C．Burn it in the earth’s atmosphere. | D．Send it further away from the earth. |
| A．Environment. | B．Local News. | C．Education. | D．Fashion. |
【推荐1】Gone with the Wind was one of the most popular books in history. Margaret Mitchell spent about 10 years writing the 1,037-page book. It was the top American fiction bestseller in 1936 and 1937 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The film was also a big hit.
In 1926, taking her husband’s advice, Margaret Mitchell began to write Gone with the Wind to stay busy. She never dreamed of becoming a famous writer. However, her road to success offers important lessons to today’s writers.
Write what you know. Mitchell didn’t experience the Civil War, but her friends did, and she heard many stories about it.
Start with a timeless theme. When a terrible situation happens, some people rise to the challenge while others don’t have the ability. Mitchell’s heroine（女主角）succeeds in saving her family and building a good business. Going through the hard life in Europe, readers at that time understood Scarlett’s situations and knew that survival（生存）was possible.
Don’t let others look down on you. In April 1935, Harold Latham of Macmillan was looking for new writers in Mitchell’s town, but Mitchell didn’t give her work to Latham at first. When a friend said Mitchell could never write a book, the young writer got angry. She then brought her manuscript（手稿）to Latham’s hotel.
If you wait until your work is “ready”, you may never let go of it. While she wrote a great story, she didn’t think it was ready. Her timing, however, was perfect.
1. The first paragraph mainly shows Gone with the Wind ________.| A．was a great book for a movie | B．was a huge success |
| C．was the most famous book in America | D．was very long |
| A．To become a famous writer. | B．To tell about the Civil War. |
| C．To make her husband happy. | D．To kill the time. |
| A．People can live through the difficult life. | B．It is normal to feel helpless sometimes. |
| C．Women should depend on themselves. | D．People should learn to help each other. |
| A．Because she was sure that her work was ready. | B．Because she wanted to surprise Harold Latham. |
| C．Because she wanted to show her friend was wrong. | D．Because her friend’s words encouraged her. |
| A．How Gone with the Wind came out. |
| B．Why Gone with the Wind was famous. |
| C．Some unknown stories about Gone with the Wind. |
| D．Lessons from Mitchell’s road to success for today’s writers. |
【推荐2】Are friends making you yawn (打哈欠)? That’s a good thing.
People yawn when they are tired or bored. Some people yawn when other people do. This is called contagious (会传染的) yawning. Hearing a yawn may make a person yawn. Even thinking about yawning can make a person yawn.
Contagious yawning is related to (有关) feelings. The same neurons (神经元) send messages (信息) to the brain (大脑) and to the rest of the body as well. Scientists say contagious yawning happens more with friends and family.
People who are good at understanding (理解) other people’s feelings may yawn more. It seems to start when children are four or five years old. That is when children start to feel what other people feel. In old age (年龄), feeling what others feel doesn’t happen as often, so yawning slows down too.
Men and women both yawn when friends and family yawn. They don’t yawn much when strangers (陌生人) yawn. Women probably yawn more often when they see others yawn, because they are better at feeling what other people feel.
The ability (能力) to feel more may help women in other ways. It might make them better at skills (技能) with feelings. Being a parent is one of those skills. Talking and living in groups are other skills using feelings.
1. According to the passage, some people yawn when ________.| A．they are happy | B．they send messages |
| C．people around them yawn | |
| A．five-year-olds can feel what other people feel |
| B．children learn how to yawn from their parents |
| C．children yawn when they play with friends |
| A．They yawn a lot with strangers around. |
| B．They may be better at parenting skills. |
| C．They yawn more in old age. |
| A．Contagious yawning. | B．Yawning and women. | C．Yawning between friends. |
【推荐3】Hello, my name is Alice. Do you want to know something about Chinese food? In China, there are many different kinds of food. Some of them are popular. Among them, dumplings are the real Chinese food.
Everyone in China likes dumplings very much, and there are many different kinds of dumplings. Some have beef and vegetables in them, and some have eggs and carrots in them. But I love eating dumplings with vegetables and pork (猪肉).
Usually people make dumplings at home. If you have no time to make them, you can buy them in a supermarket. Then you take them home and eat them with vinegar(醋).
The Spring Festival is very important in China. When it comes, we make dumplings, and usually we put a coin(硬币) in a dumpling. We think that if one eats the dumpling with the coin in it, he can be lucky in the new year.
Welcome to China. I’ll ask you to eat the real Chinese food: dumplings.
1. What does the underlined word “popular” mean?| A．liked by many people | B．bought at high prices |
| C．made by few people | D．seen as healthy food |
| A．beef and vegetables | B．eggs and carrots |
| C．vegetables and pork | D．meat and carrots |
| A．it is good for health | B．they think it is lucky |
| C．it is a real Chinese food | D．they have many coins |
| A．Alice may live in China. | B．You must eat dumplings with vinegar. |
| C．People eat dumplings only in the Spring Festival. | D．Everyone across the world likes dumplings. |
| A．The Spring Festival | B．Alice’s Favorite Food |
| C．A Real Chinese Food | D．Dumplings with Coins |
