1 . Different ways have been applied to dealing with waste paper, specifically used newspapers. Some people put them in the recycling area, while others keep them as wrappers (包装纸). While these are both good measures, a Japanese publishing company had a better idea for their end use.
The Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd. invented the “Green Newspaper”, which allows people to grow plants with it. This unique newspaper was published on Greenery Day, which is focused on environmental news and made of green paper with seeds placed into it. What makes it even more special is the ink (油墨) used to print words and photos, which is made from plants. The publisher advises readers to tear the used newspaper into small pieces and plant them in a container with soil. They should water them, like they would do for any plant. Within a few weeks, the seeds will grow into plants.
This brilliant concept was invented by Dentsu Inc., one of Japan’s most famous advertising companies, which works with the publishing company on the initiative (倡议). The publisher’s belief is environmental sustainability (持续性). As its mission statement says, “The Mainichi doesn’t take action only through information, but also by solving global issues.” With joint efforts, this initiative has reached the corners of Japan and sold around millions of copies daily. Other such initiatives producing plantable paper are also seen in India and the US.
About 95 million trees are lost for producing newspapers every year. The Internet, the number of whose users stands for 62.5 percent of the population worldwide, has influenced how people read news and the print readership has dropped greatly. However, the reinvention and reimagination of this newspaper will bring about a change in the publishing industry as well as having an environmental influence.
1. Why was the Green Newspaper invented?| A．To get newspapers cheaper. | B．To make the most of waste paper. |
| C．To improve the printing. | D．To advertise the publishing company. |
| A．It uses high-tech materials. | B．It provides energy for seeds. |
| C．It’s printed with plant-based ink. | D．It’s published to celebrate Greenery Day. |
| A．It’s easier said than done. | B．Everything comes to one who waits. |
| C．Many hands make light work. | D．Actions speak louder than words. |
| A．About 59 million trees are lost for producing newspapers. |
| B．The Internet has changed the way people read news totally. |
| C．The popularity of the Internet leads to the fall of the print readership. |
| D．The “Green Newspaper” will encourage more people to protect the environment. |
2 . Canada is a vast and diverse country that offers plenty of incredible tourist destinations. From wonderful natural landscapes to lively cities, Canada has something for every traveler. Here’s a guide to some of Canada’s top tourist destinations.
Banff National Park, AlbertaLocated in the Canadian Rockies, Banff National Park is a breathtaking destination known for its turquoise (绿松石) lakes, snow-covered mountains, and plentiful wildlife. Explore the landmark-Lake Louise, hike to amazing viewpoints, and spend time in the natural hot springs.
Niagara Falls, OntarioNiagara Falls is one of the world’s most famous natural attractions. Witness the steep (陡峭的) power and beauty of the grand falls from various viewpoints. Take a boat tour, visit the Butterfly Conservatory, or enjoy the lively atmosphere of Clifton Hill.
Toronto, OntarioAs Canada’s largest city, Toronto offers an impressive experience. Discover the famous CN Tower, explore the busy neighborhoods of Kensington Market and Distillery District, and visit world-class museums such as the Royal Ontario Museum and Art Gallery of Ontario.
Whistler, British ColumbiaWhistler is a well-known winter sports destination, famous for its world-class ski slopes and winter activities. In summer, enjoy hiking, mountain biking, and golfing in the impressive mountain scenery.
1. What can visitors do in Banff National Park?| A．Go boating. | B．Go skiing. |
| C．Appreciate waterfalls. | D．Enjoy hot springs. |
| A．Banff National Park, Alberta. | B．Niagara Falls, Ontario. |
| C．Toronto, Ontario. | D．Whistler, British Columbia. |
| A．Tourism. | B．Culture. | C．Fashion. | D．Sport. |
3 . Over the last century, engineers all over the world have spared no effort to achieve the unachievable in bridge design.
Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge
No bridge is as long as the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge in the world. The 164.8-kilometre-long bridge built in 2011 in China serves as part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway. The trip from Ningbo to Jiaxing that previously took 4.5 hours has been reduced to two, thanks to this bridge.
Rio-Niterói Bridge
Completed in 1974, the Rio-Niterói Bridge in Brazil is the second-longest bridge in all of Latin America connecting the cities of Rio and Niterói across the Guanabara Bay. The Rio-Niterói Bridge is technically known as a “box-girder (箱形梁)” bridge, made of special concrete. It receives an astonishing 140,000 (or more) vehicles per day.
Hartland Covered Bridge
The Hartland Covered Bridge is the world’s longest covered bridge. The 1,282-foot-long bridge was opened in 1901 and has been on Canada’s list of National Historic Sites since 1980. Although it was originally built without a roof, the bridge was capped with wooden materials during the repairs in 1921.
Jiaozhou Bay Bridge
The newly-built Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in China was named “world’s longest bridge over water” by Guinness Book of World Records in 2011, a title previously held by the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. The dispute was settled when the title of “longest continuous bridge over water” was given to the causeway, with the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge receiving the title of “longest bridge over water”.
1. On which of the following can trains pass?| A．Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge. |
| B．Rio-Niterói Bridge. |
| C．Hartland Covered Bridge. |
| D．Jiaozhou Bay Bridge. |
| A．It is a busy bridge. | B．It was built in 1980. |
| C．It has a roof. | D．It is a wooden bridge. |
| A．In America. | B．In Brazil. | C．In Canada. | D．In China. |
4 . For the past four years I had been having up to 30 seizures (癫痫发作) a day. It made me
Despite
One day, my friend Kerri asked if I wanted an assistance dog. I knew there were guide dogs for the
Soon after, I
It’s
| A．think | B．hide | C．suffer | D．learn |
| A．personal | B．countless | C．formal | D．impressive |
| A．sleeping | B．working | C．replying | D．breathing |
| A．warmth | B．fun | C．safety | D．independence |
| A．deaf | B．blind | C．injured | D．elderly |
| A．wrote | B．learnt | C．overheard | D．planned |
| A．warn | B．attract | C．follow | D．hit |
| A．burn out | B．break in | C．come on | D．drop by |
| A．saved | B．addressed | C．met | D．invited |
| A．rose | B．lay | C．struggled | D．played |
| A．sensed | B．caused | C．touched | D．cried |
| A．action | B．attack | C．guide | D．help |
| A．boss | B．teacher | C．partner | D．listener |
| A．risked | B．stopped | C．kept | D．saved |
| A．thankful | B．anxious | C．excited | D．patient |
5 . Anyone who’s lived through middle school knows those years can be particularly challenging. Some researches show youths across the U.S. are struggling with mental health. The physical health benefits of bike riding have been well-documented. Wilson, a researcher at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, and his co-authors carried out a new study to see if taking part in a cycling program could result in measurable changes in mind for teenagers.
The study involved more than 1,200 students, ages 11 to 14. Students participated in a cycling class for at least three days a week, for a period of 6 weeks. They learned cycling safety and practicing skills outdoors while raising their heart rate and just having fun. The students completed standardized questionnaires before and after the program designed to measure their health.
“We know cycling can benefit the body. Our research shows how it benefits the mind and social relationships as well. Bike riding can be an ideal activity for adolescents because of the benefits it offers,” said Wilson.
“Cycling engages several parts of brain function. You are looking at your hearing, you’re balancing, you’re navigating and turning. Oftentimes, you’re doing it with someone else, so there’s the positive effect of company or group activity,” said Allan Reiss, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.
While exercise has powerful mental health benefits, it’s not universal. For example, previous research has shown that teenage girls are at higher risk of mental health problems like depression and anxiety than boys. The current study found that, while middle school girls reported increased well-being after participating in the cycling program, that increase “may just reach the kind of baseline level for male students,” Wilson said. And other aspects of healthy living are also important, noted Wilson. The study found that teenagers who didn’t limit screen time to a maximum of two hours a day, or who got less than the recommended 8.5 hours of sleep, saw less improvement in their well-being, he said.
1. What does the new study mainly focus on?| A．Challenges in middle school. | B．Youths in America. |
| C．Physical benefits of cycling. | D．Mental effects of bike riding. |
| A．Attend the cycling class for a week. |
| B．Learn how to keep safe while cycling. |
| C．Raise their heart rate by cycling indoors. |
| D．Design questions to measure their health. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Doubtful. | C．Unclear. | D．Negative. |
| A．Application of the research results. |
| B．Doubts about the research methods. |
| C．Further explanation of the research findings. |
| D．Supporting evidence from previous research. |
6 . I was 6 years old when my father told me we were leaving the Big Apple Circus (马戏团). Until that point, I had spent most of my life on the circus lot, playing with the other circus kids. The circus, by its nature, is one that has a loose structure. So the early years after my leaving the circus to sit in a classroom all day felt more like a prison.
But years later, I found areas that interested me. I took the skills I had learned from being onstage and applied them to broadcasting. And so when Boston’s news station WBUR offered me a job out of college, I jumped at the chance. Along the way, I found I really enjoyed the work. I became WBUR’s news reporter. The flexibility and adaptability I’d learned in the circus as a child helped me do my job naturally and easily in a stressful situation — whether it was a destructive tornado outside Boston, or the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013.
But then a serious infectious disease appeared. Suddenly, for the first time in my adult life, I went for a year without doing any shows. But it became clear to me that performing was what I truly wanted. For me, the circus symbolizes who I am. And stages have always been where I’ve felt the most free. Some people get nervous before they go onstage, but by assuming (扮演) the character of Jacques ze Whipper and drawing a stupid moustache on my face, all my social anxiety disappears.
Circus performances go beyond age, socioeconomic status (地位), and even language. It’s the type of performance where you can go anywhere in the world to entertain anyone — help anyone forget their troubles for 5, 10, and even 30 minutes. And most importantly, for me, it means coming home.
1. How did the author feel in the early years of school?| A．Curious. | B．Unfree. | C．Loose. | D．Impatient. |
| A．He did it for his father. | B．He did it against his will. |
| C．He risked his neck doing it. | D．He took to it like a duck to water. |
| A．A means of living. | B．A chance to go anywhere. |
| C．A part of his identity. | D．A way to forget his troubles. |
| A．To express his love for circus performances. |
| B．To stress the value of performing. |
| C．To share his personal experiences in a circus. |
| D．To discuss the problem of choosing a job. |
7 . I opened the door of our campervan (房车). My two cats, Gatinha and Jon Snow,
A month earlier, Wade, 35, and I thought we were ready for our travel in
Knowing we couldn’t leave our two rescue cats behind, we decided to bring them with us. After doing some
For the first few days they
Looking back,
| A．jumped | B．bent | C．fell | D．stopped |
| A．shouted | B．stretched | C．folded | D．disappeared |
| A．heartbreaking | B．imaginary | C．breathtaking | D．disturbing |
| A．time | B．budget | C．energy | D．facility |
| A．quit | B．ignored | C．took | D．changed |
| A．library | B．school | C．home | D．hotel |
| A．make | B．save | C．collect | D．donate |
| A．practice | B．thought | C．discussion | D．research |
| A．common | B．fascinating | C．rare | D．natural |
| A．force | B．adapt | C．move | D．lead |
| A．focused on | B．messed up | C．stuck to | D．escaped from |
| A．dependent | B．anxious | C．confident | D．tolerant |
| A．Amazingly | B．Suddenly | C．Regretfully | D．Doubtfully |
| A．ordered | B．reminded | C．taught | D．trusted |
| A．exchanging | B．choosing | C．abandoning | D．experiencing |
8 . In the days before the internet, critical thinking was the most important skill that informed citizens could have. But in the digital age, according to Anastasia Kozyreva, a German psychologist, an even more important skill is “critical ignoring.” With such an overabundance of information, we need to first decide what’s worth our attention and time, and what’s not.
The first strategy is self-nudging. This involves avoiding low-quality information so that we have more quality time for ourselves. It also involves the removal of distracting things from the environment around you. Of course, we need to stay informed of world events, so we can’t just ignore the internet altogether. When you do go into social media, Kozyreva recommends setting time limits, which prevents you from losing track of time as you click on one attractive link after another.
The next strategy is lateral (横向的) reading. Its purpose is to improve judgments about the reliability of information, and to protect you from false and misleading information. The strategy involves opening a new web page to find out more about the source of the information. Likewise, it’s also good to check the source of the information in an internet post. Headlines are often cheating. They’re designed to attract attention, not provide information. The main idea of the article may be completely contrary to the implication in the headline. A sensational claim may provide a link with a headline that seems to support it, but a careful reading of the original source shows it doesn’t.
We live in a digital age in which we’re overwhelmed with information, much of it of poor quality. Train our critical ignoring skills and we can get the benefits of the internet while we avoid falling victim to those who try to control our attention.
1. Which of the following saying can best describe “critical ignoring”?| A．Rob Peter to pay Paul. | B．Make something out of nothing. |
| C．Birds of a feather flock together. | D．Separate the sheep from the goats. |
| A．Improving study equipment. | B．Managing our own time well. |
| C．Avoiding access to social media. | D．Staying informed of what happened. |
| A．By focusing on headlines. | B．By reading posts at random. |
| C．By searching for original sources. | D．By consulting authorities for advice. |
| A．To clarify a concept. | B．To promote an app. | C．To describe a scene. | D．To make a proposal. |
9 . To humans, roads mean connection and escape; to other life-forms, they spell death and division. A half-century ago, just 3 percent of land animals met their end on a road; by 2017 the number had greatly doubled.
Considering the outsize effects of roads, it’s perhaps surprising that they didn’t truly receive their scientific due until the late 20th century. In 1993, Richard Forman, a landscape ecologist, coined an English term: “road ecology,” defined loosely as the study of how “life changes for plants and animals with a road and traffic nearby.” As the 1990s wore on, road ecology gained steam.
Like most people, I at once cherish animals and think nothing of piloting a 3,000-pounddeath machine. One summer, in Alaska, I hit a songbird–a death I didn’t discover until I found the delicate splash of feathers the next day. I’d killed it unconsciously. But I could do nothing.
Road ecology offers one path through this thicket (灌木丛). North America and Europe constructed their road networks with little regard for how they would affect nature. Today, in theory, we know better. Road ecology has revealed the danger of thoughtless development and pointed us toward solutions. Over the last several decades, its practitioners have constructed bridges for bears, tunnels (隧道) for turtles. In Kenya, elephants move slowly beneath highways and railroads via passages as tall as two-story houses.
And road ecology has yielded more than crossings: We’ve also learned to map and protect the migrations of certain animals, to design roadsides that nourish bees and butterflies– proof that old mistakes need not be permanent.
Today we’re entering a period that might fairly be considered the golden age of road ecology. The coming years will undoubtedly be transformative ones for our road network. Still, whether we can ever truly undo the harms of our concrete-coated world is far less certain.
1. What may be the reason for the doubled death number by 2017?| A．Road noises. | B．Traffic accidents. | C．Natural disasters. | D．Hunting activities. |
| A．Songbirds were common in that area. | B．The songbird’s death was undervalued. |
| C．Driving a car was necessary for his job. | D．He was much troubled by the songbird. |
| A．Far-reaching. | B．One-sided. | C．Short-lived. | D．Unnoticeable. |
| A．How Roads Have Transformed the Natural World | B．What Measures Should Be Taken to Protect Animals |
| C．How Road Ecology Will Change the Future World | D．What Difficulties Humans face in Road Construction |
10 . It is a bright cold day in April and Paul Blachut is busy as usual. From behind the bar of a restaurant, he has a good view of the river. He can see that, along the shore, many visitors are cooling their feet in the river.
Among those are a mother and her two teenage daughters. They’re standing on the edge of the riverbank, playing with an inflatable (充气的) tube when, suddenly, the girls lose their footing and are caught in the river’s current. It all happens so fast. The girls desperately grab on to the tube, which their mother is sitting in, dragging her into the river, too. Now all three are being carried away by the fast current.
A bystander races to the restaurant and shouted for help. Despite having no lifesaving training, Blachut rushes to the riverbank, quickly pulling off his T-shirt. Then he jumps into the river. He doesn’t care about the cold; all he can think about is saving the women.
As Blachut gets closer to them, he can tell that the mother seems to be in the most trouble; her head is now submerged. He recalls how a lifeguard saves people in a movie so he tries this, but in vain. Without hesitation, Blachut dives under the drowning woman, pushing her upward and using that momentum (冲力) to push her toward the shore. Then he dives into the current again, swims quickly downstream and manages to get hold of one of the teenagers, and get her out in the same way he did her mother. He is out of strength and luckily, the girl’s sister is helped out by someone else.
Several onlookers express their admiration for Blachut following the incident, but he is modest about his role. “The whole rescue only took two or three minutes” he says today, adding that he is happy to have received high praise from his boss for his courage. Indeed, it was a job very well done.
1. What might Blachut be?| A．A visitor. | B．A waiter. | C．The boss. | D．A lifeguard. |
| A．She loses her footing while playing. | B．She is dragged into the river by accident. |
| C．She jumps into the river to save her daughters. | D．She loses control of the tube and flows with it. |
| A．Blachut’s rich lifesaving experience. | B．The method Blachut recalls in a movie. |
| C．The slow speed of the river current. | D．Blachut’s ability to make quick decisions. |
| A．Health. | B．Travel. | C．Inspiration. | D．Entertainment. |
