5 . A major new facility to pull CO₂ out of the atmosphere has started operating in Iceland, which is a boost to an emerging technology that experts say could eventually play an important role in reducing greenhouse gases.

The plant in southwest Iceland is the biggest of its kind, its builder says. It is able to capture 900 tons of CO₂ every year but it needs heat and electricity to work. It is using energy produced from waste and is built on the roof of a waste incineration plant, and through the burning of rubbish, energy is generated.

Human-sized fans are built into a series of boxes. They take CO₂ out of the air, catching it in spongelike filters (过滤器). The filters are blasted with heat, freeing the gas, which is then mixed with water and pumped deep into deep underground basalt caves, where over time it turns into dark-gray stone. Pumping CO₂ into the ground is just one way to deal with it. The makers are also selling the gas to be used again. The CO₂ can be captured just a few 100 miles away. It is pumped through an underground pipeline directly into a greenhouse. Vegetables and plants love CO₂ and higher concentrations of the gas within the greenhouse improve the growth of plants.

By 2050, humanity will need to pull nearly a billion metric tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere every year through direct air capture technology to achieve carbon neutral goals, according to International Energy Agency recommendations. The plant in Iceland will be able to capture 4000 metric tons annually — just a small amount of what will be necessary, but an engineer in Climeworks, the company that built it, says it can grow rapidly as efficiency improves and costs decrease.

“This is a market that does not yet exist, but a market that urgently needs to be built,” said Christoph Gebald who co-founded Climeworks. “This plant that we have here is really the blueprint to further increase the size and really industrialize.”

1. What do we know about the carbon capture facility from paragraph 2?

A．It is built at high altitudes.	B．It uses waste to produce power.
C．It makes Iceland free of air pollution.	D．lt produces lots of heat during operation.

2. What is the third paragraph mainly about?

A．The methods of breaking down CO2.

B．The approaches to reusing waste gas.

C．The necessity of building greenhouses.

D．The workings of the carbon-catching plant.

3. What can we expect from the future carbon capture technology?

A．It will decrease the cost of energy production.

B．It can help reach the carbon neutral goals in advance.

C．It will speed up the reduction of CO2 levels in the air.

D．It may replace the traditional carbon storage system.

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．The capture of CO2 in the atmosphere is able to kill many birds with one stone.

B．CO2 will be delivered to greenhouses after being turned into dark-gray stones.

C．A major new market to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere has started operating.

D．The plants in Iceland greenhouses can capture a small amount of CO2.

5. What is Christoph Gebald’s attitude towards building the plants?

A．Ambiguous.	B．Neutral.
C．Disapproving.	D．Supportive.

6 . While high school does not generally encourage students to explore new aspects of life, college sets the stage for that exploration. I myself went through this _______ process and found something that has changed my _______ at college for the better: I discovered ASL-American Sign Language.

I never felt an urge to _______ any sign language before. My entire family is hearing, and so are all my friends. The _______ language were enough in all my interactions(交往). Little did I know that I would discover my _______ for ASL.

The _______ began during my first week at college. I watched as the ASL Club _______ their translation of a song. Both the hand movements and the very _______ of communicating without speaking _______ me. What I saw was completely unlike anything I had experienced in the ________. This newness just left me ________ more.

After that, feeling the need to ________ further, I decided to drop in on one of ASL club’s meetings. I only learned how to ________ the alphabet that day. Yet instead of being discouraged by my ________ progress, I was excited. I then made it a point to ________ those meetings and learn all I could.

The following term, I ________ an ASL class. The professor was deaf and any talking was ________. I soon realized that the silence was not unpleasant. ________, if there had been any talking, it would have ________ us to learn less. Now, I appreciate the silence and the ________ way of communication it opens.

1.

A．searching

B．planning

C．natural

D．formal

2.

A．progress

B．experience

C．major

D．opinion

3.

A．choose

B．read

C．learn

D．create

4.

A．official

B．foreign

C．body

D．spoken

5.

A．love

B．concern

C．goal

D．request

6.

A．meeting

B．trip

C．story

D．task

7.

A．recorded

B．performed

C．recited

D．discussed

8.

A．idea

B．amount

C．dream

D．reason

9.

A．disturbed

B．supported

C．embarrassed

D．attracted

10.

A．end

B．past

C．course

D．distance

11.

A．showing

B．acting

C．saying

D．wanting

12.

A．exercise

B．explore

C．express

D．explain

13.

A．print

B．write

C．sign

D．count

14.

A．slow

B．steady

C．normal

D．obvious

15.

A．chair

B．sponsor

C．attend

D．organize

16.

A．missed

B．passed

C．gave up

D．registered for

17.

A．forbidden

B．welcomed

C．ignored

D．repeated

18.

A．Lastly

B．Thus

C．Instead

D．However

19.

A．required

B．caused

C．allowed

D．expected

20.

A．easy

B．popular

C．quick

D．new

7 . “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity, ” said the American talk show host Oprah Winfrey. I’ve never watched her show, but when a self-made billionaire gives life advice it’s probably worth listening to.

Her point is that blind luck is very rare. You may have to be lucky to find a good job these days but that does not mean you should sit at home waiting for the opportunity to come to you. If you’re a Chinese, you may already be familiar with the tale of a farmer waiting by a tree stump for a rabbit to run out and break its neck.

A book by the UK psychologist Richard Wiseman, called The Luck Factor, argues we can all make ourselves luckier. It’s most about going to a temple to burn some incense in hopes that the gods will give you good fortune, but practical advice you can follow each day.

Wiseman conducted an experiment as part of his studies. First he divided volunteers into two groups: those who said they were lucky in life and those who said they were not. He gave everyone a newspaper and asked them to look through it to count how many photographs it had inside. On average, the unlucky people took about two minutes to count the photographs while the lucky people took just seconds. Why? On the second page of the newspaper, a command, “Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper,” was written in big letters. The unlucky people mostly did not spot the message.

It’s easy to compare this situation to a young person looking for jobs in a local paper. They might search so hard for one type of position that they miss an even better opportunity. People who are “lucky”, in fact, keep an open mind and don’t go through the same routine every day.

In a word, try to turn bad luck into good. Even if you do fall down and break a leg, the time spent at home can be used wisely to study English.

1. Which of the followings most agrees with the writer’s point?

A．Success is for those who are prepared.	B．Rome was not built in a day.
C．All is not gold that shines.	D．A good heart defeats ill fortune.

2. What do you know about Oprah Winfrey?

A．She became famous through her family background.

B．She was very lucky and seldom suffered difficulties in her life.

C．She is a British talk show host.

D．She became successful by her own effort.

3. The writer quoted the Chinese tale of a farmer in order to show ________.

A．man can defeat mature	B．luck is your own hand
C．bad luck can turn into good	D．never waiting for the chance to come

4. From the experiment Wiseman drew the conclusion that ________

A．lucky people are quick-minded	B．unlucky people are slow to read
C．lucky people often have an open mind	D．unlucky people are more creative

5. The underlined word “spot” is the closest in meaning to “________”.

A．Discover

B．Mark

C．Make

D．Receive

8 . Bowhead whales can live 200 years or longer. How they do it is no longer among the secrets of the deep.

Scientists have mapped the genetic code of this long lived whale species. The international effort found unusual features in the Arctic whale’s genes. Those features likely protect the species against cancer and other problems related to old age. The researchers hope their findings will one day translate into ways to help people too.

“We hope to learn what is the secret of bowhead whales living longer, healthier lives,” says Joao Pedru de Magalhes. He is a gerontologist   at the University of Liverpool in England. (Gerontology is the scientific study of old age. ) He is also a co-author of the study that appeared in Cell Reports. His team hopes, he says, that its new findings might one day be used to improve human health and preserve human life.

        No other mammals are known to live as long as the bowhead whales. Scientists have shown that some of these whales have lived well beyond 100 — including one that survived to 216. For perspective, if he were still alive, Abraham Lincoln would be turning just 211 this year.

Dr. Magalhäes’ team wanted to understand how the bowhead can live so long. To find out this, the experts analyzed the animal’s complete set of genes, called its genome. Those instructions are coded in the animal’s DNA. The team also compared the whale’s genome to that of people, mice and cows.

The scientists discovered differences, including mutations, in the whale’s genes. Those changes are linked to cancer, aging and cell growth. The results suggest that the whales are better than humans at repairing their DNA. That’s important because damaged or flawed DNA can lead to disease, including some cancers.

Bowhead whales are also better at keeping abnormally dividing cells in check. Together, the changes appear to allow bowhead whales to live longer without developing age related diseases such as cancer, said Magalhäes.

1. What can you know from the passage?

A．How bowhead whales five so long is still a mystery to scientists.

B．Bowhead whales live the longest among all the sea animals.

C．Most bowhead whales can live beyond 100.

D．The result of the research may be beneficial to human life span.

2. The example of Lincoln mainly wants to indicate that ________.

A．Lincoln died one hundred years age	B．Lincoln should have lived much longer.
C．the lifetime of bowhead whales is very long.	D．their study unlocked the secret of Lincoln’s death.

3. The bowhead whale can live so long mainly because ________.

A．it faces little danger in its life

B．its DNA has a strong ability of self-repairing

C．it has a complete set of genetic instructions

D．its living environment is better than that of humans

4. The underlined word “flawed” is the closest in meaning to________.

A．Disabled

B．Changed

C．Misled

D．repaired

5. The passage tends to tell the readers that ________.

A．the bowhead is the animal which lives the longest

B．scientists have found ways to treat humans’ disease

C．scientists have new findings in search of bow head whales

D．bowhead whales may unlock the secrets of a long, healthy life

9 . Backpacking (背包旅行) through Africa, I always carried some food with me _______ I couldn’t find something to eat.

I was _______ through a local market one day when I chanced upon a jar of _______ jam. I could find tins of apple and strawberry in every corner store but this was the _______ time I had seen peach. I took it.

For the next few weeks, when I was feeling the need for a little _______, I would carefully _______ the lid and spoon a bit on to a biscuit. Mmm, delicious. I didn’t _______ it with anybody. It sat safely in my _______, taken out on only special _______.

Once cold and cloudy afternoon, while I was waiting for a local bus, it started to rain. Everybody spread out for ________ and so did I. But I was already wet through so I quickly searched through my pack for some ________ clothes.

In my hurry to ________ further discomfort. I forgot that the jar of jam was ________ in my clothing. One forceful yank (猛拉) and my ________ jar of jam crashed to the concrete ground, breaking into pieces.

I was so sad that I almost cried. And then, in the corner of my eye, I noticed an old woman in rags ________. Without hesitation, she bent down and picked up the half of the jar that still looked ________. Still ________, she stuck two fingers into the jar, scooped out the ________ jam and placed it into her toothless mouth. Carefully, like fish bones, she ________ the pieces of glass. She studied the broken container ________ she was certain that there was nothing left. Then she left.

My bus arrived shortly after and, as we drove off, I wondered if the jam would taste the same to me.

1.

A．unless

B．if

C．in case

D．in order that

2.

A．looking

B．buying

C．getting

D．running

3.

A．apple

B．orange

C．peach

D．strawberry

4.

A．last

B．best

C．other

D．first

5.

A．meal

B．treat

C．rest

D．drink

6.

A．remove

B．put

C．take

D．close

7.

A．divide

B．eat

C．share

D．separate

8.

A．pocket

B．pack

C．corner

D．store

9.

A．situations

B．conditions

C．surroundings

D．occasions

10.

A．protection

B．space

C．shelter

D．warmth

11.

A．beautiful

B．rain

C．warm

D．dry

12.

A．avoid

B．experience

C．defeat

D．overcome

13.

A．thrown

B．buried

C．covered

D．locked

14.

A．expensive

B．useless

C．precious

D．priceless

15.

A．going

B．leaving

C．running

D．approaching

16.

A．all right

B．bad enough

C．broken

D．damaged

17.

A．standing up

B．sitting up

C．bending over

D．watching out

18.

A．rest

B．remaining

C．extra

D．spare

19.

A．swallowed up

B．brought out

C．ate up

D．spat out

20.

A．until

B．unless

C．after

D．since

10 . Books have incredible power. Between their _________, readers can be transported to anywhere imaginable and become just about anyone or anything. _________ , many children all over the world don’t have access to books.

For several years now, Maria Keller, a teenager from Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been trying to _________ that fact.

When she was 8 years old, Maria already loved reading. She also noticed that some of her classmates didn’t read as much as she did. When she asked her mother why that was, her mother said that they might not be able to _________ books. Maria had never thought of this. She could not _________ that some children didn’t have bedtime stories read to them, and she became _________ to change this.

With her mother’s help, Maria _________ Read Indeed, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to collecting and distributing books to children _________.

During the early stages of Read Indeed, Maria set the _________ of collecting and distributing 1 million books by the time she was 19.

It didn’t take long to __________ that goal—to date, she has collected over 2.4 million books and has __________ them to many states and countries around the world.

She said, “I can not live without books. As I continue my mission, I have learned that the number of kids who have no books is in the hundreds of millions. So I just can’t __________ , even after reaching my __________ goal of 1 million books.”

She recently set a new goal: to __________ donations to kids in need in every state in the US and every country in the world. She keeps track of her __________ on a large map at the warehouse where her books are stored and sorted.

1.

A．themes

B．pages

C．blanks

D．columns

2.

A．However

B．Besides

C．Instead

D．Meanwhile

3.

A．accept

B．introduce

C．change

D．understand

4.

A．choose

B．spare

C．afford

D．keep

5.

A．decide

B．explain

C．believe

D．agree

6.

A．excited

B．worried

C．satisfied

D．determined

7.

A．contacted

B．created

C．studied

D．discovered

8.

A．in safety

B．in danger

C．in trouble

D．in need

9.

A．goal

B．point

C．rule

D．limit

10.

A．set

B．put

C．reach

D．start

11.

A．sold

B．shipped

C．lent

D．returned

12.

A．set off

B．get away

C．give off

D．give up

13.

A．common

B．original

C．important

D．distant

14.

A．distribute

B．collect

C．attach

D．devote

15.

A．experience

B．research

C．progress

D．investment