1 . A blue hole is a special kind of underwater cave found inland or in the sea, which forms when the earth above a cave falls in and water fills the space.

An inland blue hole’s water is very still and has different layers. A layer of fresh rainwater floats on top of salt water; the fresh water keeps oxygen from the atmosphere from reaching the salt water; brightly colored bacteria live where the two layers meet.

Diving into blue holes is very dangerous. Near the top of the blue hole, there is a layer of toxic gas, which causes itching, headache, and—in large amounts—death. Divers must also be fast. They have to get in and out of a cave before their oxygen runs out. Additionally, divers have to follow a guideline as they swim through a blue hole because it is very dark inside. Without the guideline, they may get lost.

If blue holes are so dangerous, why do explorers and scientists risk their lives to explore them? The reason is that these underwater caves can provide valuable scientific information. They provide clues about geology, archaeology, and biology. For example, some blue hole creatures probably haven’t changed for millions of years.

The blue holes could even provide clues about astrobiology. For example, divers have found bacteria there that can live without oxygen. Astrobiologist Kevin Hand says the bacteria may be similar to forms of life that might exist on Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, Europa. “Our study of life’s extremes on Earth,” he says, can help increase “our understanding of habitable environments off Earth.”

In addition, the oxygen-free environment of the blue holes preserves bones of humans and animals that fell into the caves long ago. By studying blue holes, we can understand what life was like in prehistoric times. As cave diver Kenny Broad says, “I can think of no other environment on Earth that is so challenging to explore and gives us back so much scientifically.”

1. What’s the main idea of Paragraph 1?

A．The definition of a blue hole.	B．The location of a blue hole.
C．The formation of a blue hole.	D．The structure of a blue hole.

2. Where can bright-colored bacteria be found?

A．In the saltwater layer.

B．In the freshwater layer.

C．In between the freshwater and saltwater layers.

D．In both of the freshwater and saltwater layers.

3. Which of the following best explains the underlined word?

A．The study of life on Earth.

B．The study of life in the universe.

C．The study of life in prehistoric times.

D．The study of life in oxygen-free environment.

4. Which of the following can best describe blue holes?

A．They’re oxygen-free and lifeless.	B．They’re free of air and light.
C．They’re death zones and mysterious.	D．They’re poisonous and dark.

2 . London and Paris are two of Europe’s biggest tourist destinations, just a few hours away from each other by road or rail and an hour’s distance by air. What about the train-ferry combination that many recall fondly from their childhoods? Well, though it’s budget-saving, this option is too time-consuming today, so better leave it to your memories. Since the UK is not part the Schengen Area, passengers need to go through passport control prior to boarding.

Air trips

Though flying between London and Paris is by no means recommended, there are still a few people traveling between the two dynamic cities by air. A very low one-way fare is possible through advanced booking, but of course it’s rare, and that doesn’t include the taxi and rail fares traveling to and from the airports.

* One-way fares from Paris can be as low as 49;

* From London, Air France flies with fares as low as £39(46), and British Airways as low as £48 (56).

Rail trips

The only direct train between London and Paris is the Eurostar, which travels 15 -17 times per weekday. Eurostar’s 2015 edition trains can make the journey in two hours at speeds of up to 320 km/h. Besides, they offer good seating space.

* Fares begin at a reasonable £58(68), round trip;

* The earlier you book, the more you save.

Bus trips

The bus is by far the least expensive and longest way to travel between Paris and London. Eurolines and OUIBUS are two major bus lines traveling between the two capitals. The journey takes between seven and nine hours. Both lines advertise free Wi-Fi.

* One-way Eurolines fares begin at 15;

* One-way OUIBUS fares begin at 15 too, but early bird sales can even lower the fare.

1. Which way is probably the cheapest for a round trip?

A．By train-ferry.

B．By air.

C．By rail.

D．By bus.

2. What special service does the bus trip provide?

A．Free booking.	B．Taxi pickup.
C．Good seating space.	D．Free Wi-Fi.

3. What do the trips have in common with each other?

A．There are different competing companies.

B．They are cheaper if booked ahead of time.

C．They are more expensive from the Paris end.

D．There are still additional fees to be included.

3 . When you are about to go to a boarding school (寄宿制学校) in England, there are many different questions that may come to mind. But once you look at them with some perspective (视角), you will certainly feel easy. Here is a normal boarding day.

Early Morning:

Usually boarders get up around 7:00 am and have around an hour to take a shower and put on their uniform before breakfast.

Lessons:

Classes start at 9: 00 am and every lesson lusts for 50 minutes. After two lessons, at 10: 40 am, you’ll have a short break. The next period of classics will include two more lessons.

Lunch:

Lunch is usually held around 12:30 pm at the dining hall, where you’ll join your friends to enjoy a hot dish. After an hour of lunch, you’ll have three or four more lessons to attend.

Dinner:

At 5:00 pm you will have finished your school lessons for the day. Most boarding schools in the UK offer their full boarders different kinds of hot meals to choose from.

Activities/ Sports:

All boarding schools in the UK provide many different kinds of activities for their boarders, such as football, swimming, golf or art.

Prep:

An important part of boarding school life is the supervised homework session known as “prop”. Although “prep” might sound stressful, it’s a great way for you to keep up with your studies.

Free time:

Once you have done all your classes and activities, it’s time to relax.

Bedtime:

In most boarding schools, the lights go out around 10:30 pm.

Being nervous just before you go to a boarding school is completely normal and understandable. Hopefully, knowing the usual routine (常规) can help you. Once you are there, you will also see how exciting life in a boarding school in England can be.

1. What can help you keep up with your studies in the boarding school?

A．Doing activitıes.	B．Having lessons.
C．Enjoying free time.	D．Supervised homework sessions.

2. What do we know about boarding schools in England from the text?

A．Classes usually start at 8:30 am.	B．Students can have a short break after four lessons.
C．They don’t give students any free time.	D．They turn off the lights around 10:30 pm.

3. What is the purpose of the text?

A．To help students know about boarders’ life.	B．To attract more students to boarding schools.
C．To introduce a new school life.	D．To advertise for boarding schools.

4 . A new study in the journal of Tourism Analysis shows frequent travelers are happier with their lives than people who don’t travel at all.

Chun-Chu Chen, an assistant professor at Washington State University, conducted a survey to find out why some individuals travel more frequently than others and whether or not travel and tourism experiences have a lasting effect on happiness and wellness.

The results of his analysis show individuals who pay more attention to tourism-related information and frequently discuss their travel plans with friends are more likely to go on regular vacations than those who aren’t constantly thinking about their next trip. Additionally, participants in the survey who reported regularly traveling at least 75 miles away from home also reported being about 7% happier when asked about their overall well-being than those who reported traveling very rarely or not at all.

“While things like work, family life and friends play a bigger role in overall reports of well-being. The accumulation (积累) of travel experiences’ does appear to have a small yet noticeable effect on self-reported life satisfaction,” Chen said.

Participants in the study were asked about the importance of travel in their lives, how much time they spent looking into and planning future vacations, and how many trips they went on over a year. They were also asked about their life satisfaction. Out of the 500 survey participants, a little over half reported going on more than four pleasurable trips a year. Only 7% of respondents did not take any vacations.

As travel restrictions (限制) due to COVID-19 pandemic begin to relax in the future, the research could have important effects on both tourists and the tourism industry. Based on the results of the study, Chen said travel companies, resorts and even airlines, could launch social media campaigns, such as creating signs about the scientific benefits of vacation, to spark people’s interest in discussing their opinions about travel.

1. What is the benefit of frequent travelling according to the study?

A．Getting more tourism information.	B．Making more friends.
C．Bettering tourism industry.	D．Improving one’s well-being.

2. What does Paragraph 5 mainly talk about?

A．Why the professor carried out the study.

B．How the participants felt about the survey.

C．What the participants were interviewed about.

D．What the participants panned to do in the future.

3. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Tourism industry should improve their service.

B．The results of the study will benefit tourism industry.

C．COVID-19 pandemic will be more serious in the future.

D．People will live a happier life after COVID-19 pandemic.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Travel more and be happier	B．Make good use of travelling
C．Prepare for the tourism development	D．Make travel plans with friends

5 . Buying clothes for special events, hiding the price tickets and returning them to the store the next day has for years been the method of money-saving shoppers. Today people are doing it just for social media.

A survey conducted by the credit card company Barclaycard showed that nearly one in ten UK shoppers admits to buying clothing only to post photos on social media for likes. After the “outfit (装束) of the day” (OOTD) makes it online, they return it back to the store. According to Barclaycard, the “try before you buy” policy of online retailers (零售商) — where people pay for clothing they order online after they try it on at home — could be leading to this rising trend.

But the rise of social media means that everyone, not just superstars, expects to build and maintain a personal brand. Since we’re recording our lives and posting them online for public judgement, getting caught in the same outfits more than once should be avoided. And the cost of all those outfits of the day adds up, which makes returning a popular way.

There are brands that make clothes specially for social media shoppers, like Fashion Nova. “These are clothes made for social media: meant to be worn once, photographed and abandoned,” Allison P. Davis wrote in her report about the brand. Another favourite of the social media age is Rent the Runway, which lets customers rent designer clothing for a fee.

Some, however, are moving in the opposite direction. Groups promoting “work uniforms” have increased greatly in recent years, aiming to free women from “the trouble of clothing decisions”. The concept of the “capsule wardrobe (胶囊衣橱)”, which calls for purchasing a small number of high-quality pieces instead of lots of trendy throwaway clothes, is also making a comeback.

1. What does the survey by Barclaycard suggest?

A．Britons follow the fashion stars closely.

B．Some Britons over-order and return clothes.

C．Britons try on clothes before online purchases.

D．Some Britons send outfits back after taking pictures.

2. What’s Fashion Nova’s special service?

A．Renting top designers’ clothes.

B．Offering customers single-use clothes.

C．Creating unique shopping experiences.

D．Helping shoppers improve their clothing style.

3. What’s the idea behind the “capsule wardrobe”?

A．Better fewer, but better.	B．Less addition, but more enjoyment.
C．Less uniform, and more freedom.	D．More choices, and less trouble.

4. Why does the author write the text?

A．To compare different wearing trends.

B．To introduce Britain’s new wearing trend.

C．To support buying high-quality clothes.

D．To criticize the “try before you buy” policy.

7 . Jenna had graduated first in her class and was ready for new challenge in high school.

However, high school was different. In the first week, Jenna went to try-outs (选拔) for cheerleaders (啦啦队队员). She was competing against very talented girls, and she knew it would be ___________ for her to be chosen. Two hours later, the judge (裁判) read a ___________ of the girls for the second try-out. Her name wasn’t on the list. Feeling ___________, she walked home carrying her schoolbag full of homework.

Arriving home, she started with ___________. She had always been a good math student, but now she was ___________. She moved on to English and history, and was ___________ to find that she didn’t have any trouble with those subjects. Feeling better, she decided not to ___________ math for the time being.

The next day in ___________ class, Jenna spent most of her time working out the problems that had given her so much ___________. By the end of class, she finally got them right. As she gathered (收拢) her books, Jenna ____________ she’d continue to try to fit in at her new school. She wasn’t sure if she’d succeed, but she knew she had to try. High school was just as her mom had said: “ You will feel like a small fish in a big pond instead of a big fish in a small pond. The challenge is to become the best fish you can be.

1.

A．difficult

B．easy

C．boring

D．interesting

2.

A．list

B．paper

C．text

D．map

3.

A．strange

B．happy

C．sad

D．lonely

4.

A．math

B．Chinese

C．English

D．history

5.

A．struggling

B．improving

C．working

D．continuing

6.

A．embarrassed

B．disappointed

C．shocked

D．relaxed

7.

A．work with

B．prepare for

C．worry about

D．give up

8.

A．physics

B．history

C．English

D．math

9.

A．pleasure

B．hope

C．trouble

D．sadness

10.

A．decided

B．accepted

C．refused

D．felt

8 . Lawmakers in Massachusetts have introduced a law that would ban children in the seventh grade or younger from playing tackle football (冲撞式橄榄球). The Act for No Organized Head Impacts to Schoolchildren, or the NO HITS Act, was introduced last month in an effort to protect children’s heads from blows (重击) while at a particularly fragile age.

The bill would cause fines of up to $ 2,000 for each time the law is broken. People who frequently break the law, or those whose actions cause physical harm, would face bigger fines.

“It’s all about kids’ health and we have a number of studies that say that repeated contacts to the head are very bad for you and the younger that starts, the worse it is,” said Paul, who introduced the bill with House Minority Leader Bradley Jones .

According to a 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers examining 111 brains belonging to former NFL (National Football League) players found the brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, in 110 of them. The disease is associated with repeated head injuries, not just concussions (脑震荡), and is generally found in athletes, retired soldiers and others with a history of repetitive brain injuries, according to the Concussion Legacy Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to study, treat and prevent future cases of brain injuries among athletes and other at-risk groups.

Similar laws have been considered elsewhere in the country, including California and Illinois last year, though they didn’t secure enough votes to become law. Those against previously proposed (提议的) bans have argued that adequate progress has been achieved to make the sport safer and that the sport offers too many benefits for children to totally avoid it.

Several former NFL players, who have been directly or indirectly affected by CTE, have argued differently, however. “I made the mistake of starting tackle football at 9 years old. Now, CTE has taken my life away.Youth tackle football is all risk with no reward,” Nick Buoniconti, a former NFL player, told CNN last year.

1. Why was the law introduced by lawmakers in Massachusetts?

A．To ban children from doing sports too young.

B．To make tackle football safer for players.

C．To keep young children from suffering brain injuries.

D．To encourage the popularity of some safe sports.

2. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．The fines of playing tackle football incorrectly.

B．The causes of the new law in Massachusetts.

C．The consequences of breaking the new law.

D．The reason why the sport is forbidden.

3. What does the author want to show by mentioning the 2017 study?

A．Brain injuries can really be prevented with action.

B．Repeated head blows can result in brain diseases.

C．NFL players used to pay much attention to CTE.

D．Future cases of brain injuries can be reduced.

9 . Once a gentleman was traveling in a train. He felt ___and got down at a station to look for some water. But when he got to the water tap, the train had started. He ran back but __ the train.

It was getting late and he decided to spend the night at the station. The next morning he asked about the next___. He came to know that the next train was on the other day. So he decided to find a place for a day's stay. It was getting ___and he could not find a place near the station.

At last he reached a small village. He asked a villager __ he could stay in his house for a night. The villager agreed. The villager cooked him food and ___him a room to stay. But he did not ask for anything in return.

At seven in the evening, the gentleman heard a knock at the door. The villager opened the door. It was a__ man in black. He asked the man to pay his debts(债务).

The next morning, the gentleman ___some money on the bed. When the villager found the money, he also found a note. It said: "You __me but didn't want any pay from me. Yesterday I heard the conversation between you and the rich man. I knew that you were in need of ________. This is what you need.”

1.

A．hung

B．thirsty

C．tired

D．busy

2.

A．caught

B．missed

C．got

D．saw

3.

A．bus

B．ship

C．plane

D．train

4.

A．dark

B．clean

C．dirty

D．quiet

5.

A．and

B．or

C．if

D．but

6.

A．gave

B．built

C．had

D．bought

7.

A．poor

B．rich

C．ugly

D．nice

8.

A．forgot

B．remembered

C．left

D．borrowed

9.

A．cooked

B．taught

C．talked

D．helped

10.

A．food

B．money

C．time

D．house

10 . A new study published this week in the journal Nature Communications has concluded that a 100 percent change to organic food production in England and Wales would actually lead to a great increase in greenhouse gas emissions (排放). In turn, this would contribute to further climate change.

Although organic farming directly pours out fewer emissions than conventional farming — around 20 percent lower for crops and 4 percent for farm animals — it produces especially less food. As to this study’s findings, total organic agriculture in England and Wales would produce 40 percent less food. With less food in the market, the countries would need to increase food imports, which would produce more global greenhouse gas emissions.

Organic farming also increases the amount of absorbing carbon, a process where carbon dioxide (CO2) is “absorbed” out of the atmosphere and captured by plants and stored in the soil. However, even a total change to organic farming would only be equal to a tiny part of the higher emissions from overseas land use.

“We predict a drop in total food production of 40 percent under a fully organic farming process, compared to conventional farming, if we keep to the same national diet,” Dr Adrian Williams, lead author and reader in Agri-Environmental Systems at Cranfield University, said in a statement. “This results from lower crop quantity, because output is limited by a lower supply of nitrogen, which is mainly from other crops or solid waste from cattle on the grassland.”

Nevertheless, it is important to note that organic farming still holds some useful benefits for the environment, such as reducing exposure to chemicals and improving the varieties of creatures. In conclusion, the study suggests that organic farming will continue to play a key role in solving the world’s environmental problems. However, it’s just one part of a much wider solution.

1. What will total organic agriculture bring to England?

A．More food imports.	B．More species crop.
C．More main food.	D．More fresh oxygen.

2. How does organic farming increase the amount of absorbing carbon?

A．By changing CO2.	B．By giving off CO2.
C．By producing CO2.	D．By taking in CO2.

3. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．The advantages of organic farming.

B．The results caused by organic farming.

C．The solution to the environment problems.

D．The ways to reduce organic farming.