2 . 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.

3 . Using too much water or throwing rubbish into our rivers are clear ways that humans can put our water supply in danger, but we also affect our water supply in less obvious ways. You may wonder how paving(铺砌) a road can lead to less usable fresh water. A major part of the water we use every day is groundwater. Groundwater does not come from lakes or rivers. It comes from underground. The more roads and parking lots we pave, the less water can flow into the ground to become groundwater.

Human activity is not responsible for all water shortages(缺乏). Drier climates are of course more likely to have droughts(干旱) than areas with more rainfall, but in any case, good management can help to make sure there is enough water to meet our basic needs .

Thinking about the way we use water every day can make a big difference, too. In the United States, a family of four can use 1.5 tons of water a day! This shows how much we depend on water to live, but there’s a lot we can do to lower the number.

You can take steps to save water in your home. To start with, use the same glass for your drinking water all day. Wash it only once a day. Run your dishwasher only when it is full. Help your parents fix any leaks(滴水) in your home. You can even help to keep our water supply clean by recycling batteries instead of throwing them away.

1. Which of the following is most likely to lead to less groundwater?

A．Using river water.	B．Throwing batteries away.
C．Throwing rubbish into lakes.	D．Paving parking lots.

2. What can be inferred from the text?

A．All water shortages are due to human behavior.

B．It takes a lot of effort to meet our water needs.

C．There is much we can do to reduce family size.

D．The average family in America makes proper use of water.

3. The last paragraph is intended to _________.

A．show us how to fix leaks at home

B．tell us how to run a dishwasher

C．prove what drinking glass is best for us

D．suggest what we do to save water at home

4. The text is mainly about _________.

A．how human activity affects our water supply

B．how much we depend on water to live

C．why droughts occur more in dry climates

D．why paving roads reduces our water

5 . “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

6 . 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 . When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor, Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known. He never invited us to play in his yard, but he was a very kind person. When Dr. Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting trees. He owned a large field and wanted to make it a forest.

The good doctor had some interesting ideas about planting trees. He never watered his new trees. Once I asked why, he said that watering plants spoiled them, and that if you watered them, each baby tree would grow weaker and weaker, so you had to make things difficult for them and pick out the weaker trees early on. He talked about how watering trees made for shallow (浅的）roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots in search of water under the earth by themselves. Deep roots were very important. So he never watered his trees. He’d planted an oak and, instead of watering it every morning, he’d beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree’s attention.

Dr. Gibbs died several years after I left home. Every now and then, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I watched him plant about twenty-five years ago. They’re very big and strong now. I planted some trees a few years back and carried water to them for a whole summer. After two years of caring too much, whenever a cold wind blows in, they shake a lot.

Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. Mostly I pray (祈祷) that their lives will be easy. But lately I’ve been thinking that it’s time to change my prayer. I know my children are going to face difficulties. There’s always a cold wind blowing somewhere, so what we need to do is to pray for roots that reach deep into the brave heart, so when the rains fall and the winds blow, we could face it strongly and won’t be beaten down.

1. We know from the reading, the doctor ______.

A．didn’t know how to plant trees at all

B．had his own ways of planting trees

C．wasn’t good at his own medical job

D．had nothing to do but plant trees

2. When Dr. Gibbs said “... pick out the weaker trees early on.”, he meant that ______.

A．some weak trees would be easily found out at the beginning

B．he would choose the weak trees to water earlier

C．the weak trees would be sent to his patients later

D．he would not plant weak trees so early anymore

3. The passage tells us that the writer ______.

A．beat all his trees with a rolled-up newspaper

B．often water his trees

C．took too much care of his trees

D．didn’t have a large field

4. The writer wants to change his prayer, hoping that ______.

A．his trees will be stronger than Dr. Gibbs'

B．his trees will not be beaten down

C．his sons will be better at planting trees

D．his sons will be able to face difficulties

5. Which can be the best title of the reading?

A．Watering Trees

B．Growing Roots

C．Doctor and his Neighbor

D．Father and his Children