1 . A few weeks ago, I sat with a California farmer named Dave Ribeiro. I asked him what he wished more people knew about farmers. He smiled and said, “That we walk among you. We look like you and talk like you. We have advanced degrees and hobbies, just like you.”
Take Dave: He’s a young man with a music degree. And if you walked past him on the street, you’d never think, “There goes a farmer.”
Is someone like Dave who you picture when you think of a farmer? Probably not. I think that most people would picture a man in his overalls. I can tell you, that does not represent Dave or any of the many other farmers I have gotten to know.
Not only do we have to throw out our stereotypes of farmers, but farming as a whole doesn’t look much like it used to either. We recently sent a team out to see what modern farming looks like, and they found farmers to be completely different from our usual ideas about them and also came across them in some unexpected places.
In a parking lot in a neighborhood of Brooklyn, they met a new crop of young farmers who are trying to bring fresh greens closer to eaters in the city by growing them in high-tech indoor vertical farms. In a Florida field under the flight path of an airport, they discovered farmers with university degrees growing algae (藻类) that might someday fuel our cars. And in a modern farm in California, they observed how farmers are using technology to take the best possible care of their animals.
These farmers all spend their days in very different ways — none of them looks like the stereotypical farmer we have in our mind — but they’re all working on new ways to feed our planet. Not only do we need to change our idea of what farming looks like, but we also need to change our view of where solutions can come from. Feeding all of us is going to take all of us working together.
1. How does Dave describe today’s farmers?A.They often walk on the street. | B.They are leading a very busy life. |
C.They are similar to ordinary people. | D.They have little time to make friends. |
A.They usually wear overalls. | B.They have interesting hobbies. |
C.They are skilled at growing crops. | D.They know modern farming practices. |
A.To deepen connections among farmers. |
B.To study different technologies in farming. |
C.To report on the new developments of farming. |
D.To encourage farmers to use new farming methods. |
A.They all work in the city. | B.They all use high technology. |
C.They all do hard physical work. | D.They all work with universities. |
2 . Tyrion was asked why he reads so much? He answered, “I have a realistic grasp of my own
An old farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early
The grandfather
The boy did as he was told, but all the water
“Look at the basket carefully,” the old man said. The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that he basket was
A.strengths | B.profits | C.virtues | D.benefits |
A.hammer | B.life | C.sword | D.weapon |
A.messages | B.accesses | C.books | D.experiences |
A.balances | B.dies | C.hesitates | D.approaches |
A.rising | B.standing | C.seating | D.sitting |
A.understand | B.confuse | C.acknowledge | D.confirm |
A.unless | B.once | C.though | D.until |
A.curiously | B.anxiously | C.quietly | D.embarrassedly |
A.checked out | B.leaked out | C.cashed out | D.faded out |
A.required | B.controlled | C.asked | D.sent |
A.instead | B.yet | C.though | D.however |
A.important | B.necessary | C.possible | D.impossible |
A.would | B.should | C.might | D.must |
A.same | B.equal | C.distinguished | D.different |
A.changed | B.motivated | C.concentrated | D.reflected |
3 . It was Mother’s Day, but our mother was far away from us. I decided to drive to the
After we arrived, we went hiking, played games, and collected all kinds of flowers and so on.How happy we were! Finally, though, we had to
Suddenly my wife
My wife went up the hill, where an elderly patient was sitting in her
“Mom,” the kids asked, “Who was that? Why did you give her our
Now, every May, our own yard is
A.downtown | B.street | C.supermarket | D.countryside |
A.push | B.run | C.take | D.start |
A.amazed | B.bored | C.tired | D.pleased |
A.apologized | B.called | C.shouted | D.talked |
A.As | B.Before | C.When | D.Until |
A.back | B.foot | C.top | D.edge |
A.yard | B.wheelchair | C.garden | D.room |
A.packed | B.threw | C.handed | D.showed |
A.years | B.weeks | C.minutes | D.days |
A.put | B.sped | C.pulled | D.dragged |
A.waved | B.danced | C.circled | D.ran |
A.money | B.food | C.gifts | D.flowers |
A.sick | B.weak | C.kind | D.lonely |
A.Surely | B.Besides | C.However | D.Generally |
A.grown | B.planted | C.decorated | D.painted |
4 . The sound that woke Damian Languell at 8:15 am was so loud that he assumed it came from inside his house. As he got up to investigate, he heard another sound, this one coming most definitely from outside. Looking out of his bedroom window, he spied a tree engulfed (淹没) in smoke about 500 yards away. A car was wrapped around the tree’s base, its engine on fire.
Grabbing buckets of water, Languell and his girlfriend ran to the crash site. The wreck looked worse up close. The car, a 1998 Buick, was split nearly in two, and the tree was where the driver’s seat ought to have been, as if planted there. No one should have survived this crash, and yet there was 16-year-old Quintin Thompson, his terrified face pressed against the driver’s side window, in visible pain. Languell tried putting out the fire with his buckets of water with no success. When the flames got into the front seats, he realized he had to get the boy out of there.
In an act that a police report described as showing “complete disregard for his own safety”, Languell opened the Buick’s back door and crawled in. Thompson was struggling to get free, Languell says. “That’s when I noticed how bad his legs were.” Using a pocketknife he’d had the foresight to bring with him, he sawed through Thompson’s seat belt.
Now that Thompson was free, Languell pulled him out a back window of the vehicle, then dragged the teen to safety before the entire car was engulfed in flames.
Although Thompson suffered multiple fractures (骨折) to his legs, spine, and face, a social media post described him as “looking great, smiling, and joking.” Languell thinks about that day often. “My heart goes out to Thompson. When you are that close to that level of hurt, you feel it so directly.”
1. When Damian heard the big sound, ______.A.he called 911 immediately |
B.he stayed inside his house |
C.he woke up his girlfriend |
D.he got up to see what happened |
A.the police had arrived |
B.the whole car was completely in flames |
C.Thompson was terrified and painful |
D.Thompson was smiling and joking |
A.brave | B.lucky |
C.simple-minded | D.warm-hearted |
A.His own bravery and persistence. |
B.The several buckets of water. |
C.The timely arrival of the police. |
D.The pocketknife Damian carried with him. |
5 . A new study establishes that environmental damage caused by corn production results in 4,300 premature deaths annually in the United States, representing cost of $39 billion.
The paper, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Sustainability, presents how researchers have estimated for the first time the health damages caused by corn production using detailed information on pollution emissions, pollution transport by wind, and human exposure to increased air pollution levels.
The study also shows how the damage to human health of producing a litre (升) of corn differs from region to region and how, in some areas, the health damages of corn production are greater than its market price.
“The deaths caused per litre in western corn belt states such as Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska tend to be lower than in eastern corn belt states such as Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio,” said lead researcher Jason Hill.
It’s important for farmers to have this information so that they can carry out practices that reduce the environmental influence of the crops they grow. Farmers can greatly improve the environmental profile of their corn by using precision agriculture tools and switching to fertilizers that have lower ammonia (氨) emissions. The study’s results also suggest potential benefits from improving nitrogen use efficiency, switching to crops requiring less fertilizer, and changing the location where corn is grown.
Aware that changes in practices can take time and planning, Hill suggests farmers could be offered motivation to switch to crops that demand less applied nitrogen while still offering market and nutritional benefits.
Hill said, “The number of deaths related to corn production could be reduced through these key strategies”.
1. Which of the states has the lowest death rate caused by corn production?A.Nebraska. | B.Illinois. |
C.Indiana. | D.Ohio. |
A.Improve nitrogen use efficiency. |
B.Plant crops with no fertilizer. |
C.Change the corn’s location. |
D.Using precision agriculture tools. |
A.Indifferent. | B.Optimistic. |
C.Pessimistic. | D.Neutral. |
A.Health and lifestyle. |
B.Art and design. |
C.Science and environment. |
D.Fashion and business. |
6 . Population data for European mountain birds have been for the first time combined in a recent study, with worrying results: the abundances of mountain-specialist birds has declined by as much as 10% in the 2000s.
Ecological communities in mountain areas include species not found in any other habitats. These species are also very susceptible to climate change, as global warming is reducing their liveable habitats. In principle, species may relocate further up the mountains, but closer to the top their habitat inevitably shrinks.
According to the new article, the abundance of European mountain birds has in fact declined in line with climate change projections.
The recently released study examined the population trends of 44 bird species in the 2000s in the mountain and fell regions of Fennoscandia, Great Britain, the Alps and the Iberian Peninsula. A decline was seen in 14 of the observed species, while eight of them saw significant increase.
“On average, population decline among the species studied was 7% over the 13-year research period, making the situation of mountain birds distinctly worse compared to, for example, European forest birds, whose numbers did not change during the same period,” explains Aleksi Lehikoinen, an Academy of Finland research fellow at the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus (part of the University of Helsinki), who headed the study.
The situation is the direst for species that only inhabit mountain regions and are unable to live in other European environments. For these species, known as mountain specialists, the numbers dwindled by as much as 10% during the monitoring period.
1. What can we get from the passage about European mountain birds?A.They are newly found species. |
B.They can be found at any place of the world. |
C.The number of the birds has decreased greatly. |
D.The number of the birds has increased greatly. |
A.Air pollutions. |
B.Global warming. |
C.Human activities. |
D.Competition with other species. |
A.All 44 bird species decreased. |
B.Only 8 of the species declined. |
C.14 of the observed species declined. |
D.There was no change in the number of the bird species. |
A.Serious. | B.Useful. |
C.Suitable. | D.Waterless. |
7 . The story of Santa Claus began hundreds of years earlier. During the fourth century, a Roman Catholic church official called Nicholas of Myra became famous for his many good actions. Nicholas was made a saint after his death and it became common in northern Europe to hold a celebration on December 6th, the day Nicholas died. All kinds of stories were told about saint Nicholas and the Dutch brought one of these stories with them to America. They believed that each year the saint rode a white horse from home to home. He gave presents to children who had been good, and coal or straw to children who had been bad. Other Americans who lived nearby greatly enjoyed the Dutch celebrations. They decided to make saint Nicholas part of their own celebration of Christmas. But he got a new name Santa Claus. It was taken from the Dutch words for Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus. The Dutch imagined Saint Nicholas to be a serious, even frightening person, who could punish as well as give gifts. But in 1822, an American named Clement C. Moore wrote a Christmas poem for his children, the poem called A Visit from St. Nicholas, created a completely new Santa Claus. Dr. Moore described a short, happy, little man who rode in an open sleigh. The sleigh was pulled from house to house by eight white reindeer. At each house Santa delivered gifts by dropping them down the chimney into the fireplace. Dr. Moore’s poem was published in a newspaper in New York, in 1823. It soon became popular all over America and it became the source for the Santa Claus American children still believe in today.
An American artist named Thomas Nast also played a part in creating Santa Claus. Beginning in 1860’s, Mr. Nast drew pictures of Santa Claus for an American publication called Harper’s Weekly. These pictures showed a fat, smiling old man with a red nose and white beard. He was dressed in a red suit with white fur and a black belt. Today more than one hundred years later, that same Santa Claus can be seen everywhere at Christmas time.
1. Nicholas died ________.A.on December 25th | B.on December 6th |
C.in 1822 | D.in 1823 |
A.he lived during the fourth century |
B.he was a Roman Catholic Church official |
C.he did a lot of deeds |
D.he lived in Myra, the ancient capital of Lycia |
A.gave presents to each child |
B.gave nothing to the bad children |
C.gave coal or straw to the bad children |
D.gave presents to the adults |
A.a newspaper | B.a poem |
C.a chimney | D.a forest |
8 . I stood in the front of the classroom like a specimen (标本) under examinations of 23 pairs of eyes. I began stuttering (结巴) and gave wrong answers to some questions.
In the summer of 2016, I worked as an assistant teacher at a children’s day camp. Lacking in experience, I
One day I suddenly
One month after my summer job
A.refused | B.failed | C.struggled | D.hesitated |
A.calling on | B.fighting with | C.staring at | D.learning from |
A.battle | B.difference | C.link | D.joke |
A.hoped | B.realized | C.regretted | D.remembered |
A.suggestion | B.occasion | C.situation | D.decision |
A.burst | B.slipped | C.rushed | D.stepped |
A.anxiously | B.cautiously | C.eagerly | D.calmly |
A.surprised | B.embarrassed | C.disappointed | D.amused |
A.just | B.even | C.ever | D.still |
A.recognition | B.information | C.evaluation | D.discussion |
A.chance | B.right | C.ability | D.intention |
A.continued | B.ended | C.started | D.returned |
A.Therefore | B.However | C.Besides | D.Otherwise |
A.heart | B.eyes | C.ears | D.soul |
A.popular | B.complex | C.strange | D.unique |
9 . Even though these monuments are extremely well known, they hold secrets that not many people are aware of.
Empire State Building
On the 103rd floor of the Empire State Building in New York, there is a secret observation deck that not a lot of people know about. To access the balcony, you have to take a series of elevators and then a very steep, narrow staircase. The observation deck isn’t open to the public, but many celebrities have been photographed there.
Eiffel Tower
There is a secret apartment and office at the very top of the Eiffel Tower that has just recently become open to the public. In 1889, Gustave Eiffel, the engineer of this famous Paris landmark, built himself a private apartment and office. It has been restored and has wax models of Gustave, his daughter, and American inventor Thomas Edison on display.
Statue of Liberty
There is actually a room in the torch of the Statue of Liberty that showcases breathtaking views of the city. People used to be able to visit that room until 1916 when German agents blew up a nearby wharf (码头). The explosion sent broken pieces into the raised arm of Lady Liberty, making the staircase up to the hidden room unsafe.
Disneyland
Hardcore Disney fans might think they know all of the secrets of the park, a famous U.S. landmark, but many haven’t heard of Club 33. This exclusive restaurant is hidden behind an unmarked door in Disneyland’s New Orleans Square. If you want to dine here on your next trip to Disneyland, don’t get your hopes up. It costs $25,000 to join the club, plus an annual fee of $12,000.
1. What do the monuments have in common?A.They are all in Europe. |
B.They all have skyscrapers. |
C.They are all the best-known. |
D.They all hide little-known secrets. |
A.Disneyland. | B.Eiffel Tower. |
C.Statue of Liberty. | D.Empire State Building. |
A.Attractive. | B.Expensive. |
C.Wonderful. | D.Beautiful. |
10 . When I was a baby, I entertained you and made you laugh.Whenever I was “bad”, you’d shake your finger at me and ask: “How could you?”—— but then you’d give up, and roll me over for a belly scratch and I believed that life could not be any more perfect.
My housetraining was a long process, because you were terribly busy, but we worked on that together. We went for long walks, runs in the park and car rides. We stopped for ice cream. I took long naps in the sun waiting for you to come home at the end of the day.
Gradually, you began spending more time at work and on your career, and more time searching for a human mate. Eventually, you fell in love. She, now your wife, is not a dog person, but I still welcomed her into our home. I was happy because you were happy. Then the human babies came along and I shared your excitement, I was fascinated by their pinkness, how they smelled, and I wanted to mother them too. Your wife was afraid I would bite them. But nevertheless, as they began to grow, I became their friend.
Now, you have a new job in another city and you and they will be moving to an apartment that does not allow pets. You’ve made the right decision for your “family”, but there was a time when I was your only family.
I was excited about the car ride until we arrived at the dog pound. It smelled of dogs and cats, of fear, of hopelessness. You filled out the paperwork and said: “I know you will find a good home for her.” They shrugged and gave you a pained look. The children were in tears as they waved me goodbye. And “How could you?” were the only three words that swept over my mind.
Is it better to live with hope or without hope? At first, whenever anyone passed my pen, I rushed to the front, hoping it was you, that you had changed your mind and that this was all a bad dream.
My beloved master, I will think of you and wait for you forever. I hope you receive more faithfulness from your family than you showed to me.
1. Who tells this story?A.A dog. | B.A child. | C.A dog’s owner. | D.A dog trainer. |
A.He had a newborn baby. | B.His wife did not like the dog. |
C.He was moving into a new building. | D.He thought the dog tootroublesome. |
A.It hoped to be adopted by another family. | B.It continued to love its former owner. |
C.It did not trust humans any more. | D.It was excited about the pound. |
A.relieved | B.aggressive | C.scared | D.loyal |