1 . Scientific experts have warned that deadly pandemics(大流行病) are likely to keep happening if action is not taken to protect natural environments. The warning came in a report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, an international expert group that advises governments. The group has more than 130 member states.
The experts called for major efforts aimed at preventing pandemics rather than trying to contain them after they happen. The report urges major worldwide efforts to stop habitat destruction that can lead viruses to jump from wild animals to humans.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals. Scientists have said COVID-19 probably started in bats and began spreading among humans.
In their report, the experts predict that about half of an estimated 1.7 million undiscovered viruses in nature might be able to infect people. Activities such as poaching(偷猎) or clearing forests to grow soy or palm oil can bring humans and disease closer together.
Peter Daszak was the report’s lead writer. He is president of EcoHealth Alliance, an international health, environment and development organization. He said in a statement that even though the experts call for urgent action, “this report is not a misfortune suggesting the world’s going to end and it’s too late.” Instead, Daszak said it should be seen as “an optimistic call for action.”
He noted that the current method for dealing with pandemics is to wait for them to emerge and then try to identify them before they spread. COVID-19 has demonstrated the problems with that plan. Officials attempted to contain COVID-19 after the disease was discovered last year, but it was already too late. “And here we are waiting for a vaccine(疫苗) and drugs to work,” Daszak said. “It’s not a good strategy. We need to do more.”
1. Why does the aim of urging habitat protection need major world efforts?| A．To prevent viruses spreading from animals to humans. |
| B．To stop illegal poaching and forest destruction. |
| C．To control pandemics after they happen. |
| D．To strengthen international cooperation. |
| A．About 1.7 million. | B．About 0.85 million. |
| C．About three fourths. | D．About 130. |
| A．Waiting for pandemics to appear. |
| B．Expecting effective vaccines and drugs. |
| C．Investigating pandemics after they appear. |
| D．Acting earlier and more actively to explore more |
| A．Advice from Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform. |
| B．Experts’ Views on Disease Control and Prevention. |
| C．More Deadly Pandemics if Nature Not Protected. |
| D．Unstoppably Increasing Pandemics. |
2 . My name is Michelle. I'm 27 years old, and I've been writing letters to my pen pal in England for 14 years.
Yes, a pen pal. Rachel and I have been writing letters to each other since the 8th grade. My reading teacher at the time helped our class find pen pals through a company called International Youth Service (unfortunately closed in 2008).
On February 28, 2006, I received a letter back from the girl from England. Our letters started to turn into novellas(中篇小说) pretty quickly. We began spilling our guts to each other about all sorts of teenage stuff—boys, namely.
We continued writing letters throughout college, but they started to slow down with the age of the Internet and Facebook. It was both a blessing and a curse, because if I needed to share something with her right away, I didn't have to wait two weeks for a response. But there was still no better feeling than opening up my mailbox and seeing past the advertisements and campus happenings and finding a letter with her handwriting on the envelope waiting for me.
One would think that we are more connected than ever in a world of text messaging and social media—but honestly, I don't think this could be further from the truth. We are losing the personal touch, the quality of the time it takes to put into a friendship. Think about letter writing—it's not expensive. An international stamp costs $1.15.
It's not the expense. It's the time. The time it takes to go to the store and pick out a card or stationary. The time it takes to actually hand-write a letter. The time it takes to address the envelope, go to the post office, pay, and mail the letter out. And I believe this is what makes letter writing so personal and special.
1. How did Michelle find a pen pal?| A．By reading a novel. |
| B．By travelling to England. |
| C．Through the Internet. |
| D．Through a company. |
| A．Because the Internet occupied more communication. |
| B．Because she didn’t want to wait too long for a reply. |
| C．Because opening up the mailbox is troublesome. |
| D．Because too many advertisements took up the mail box. |
| A．We become closer to each other. |
| B．We are losing the quality time of friendship. |
| C．Letter writing becomes more expensive. |
| D．Letter writing becomes cheaper. |
| A．Letter writing takes too much time. |
| B．Letter communication needs several steps. |
| C．Time spent in letter writing makes it valuable. |
| D．Time spent in letter writing makes it expensive. |
3 . Mary Nafula learned she had cancer a year ago. She survived the cancer treatment, but her hair fell out. The hair loss made the mother of three feel unprotected and weak. Nafula found help at a beauty salon in Nairobi. Women go to salons for haircuts and beauty treatments. But this business in Kenya's capital offers other products. It gave Nafula a wig to cover her head. The wig replaces the natural hair she lost during the treatment.
Nafula describes her new feelings of confidence in herself. "We can take all the challenges that accompany us, knowing that we are going to heal," she says. Cancer deaths are rising from 37,000 reported cases in 2012 to almost 48,000 currently. Doctor Gladwell Kiarie is a cancer specialist at The Nairobi Hospital. She says the rise in cancer deaths is probably a result of lifestyle changes and more testing for cancer. "We are smoking more. We are taking alcohol more," Kiarie said. "Our traditional diets have changed. We have more fatty foods. We have less water and greens in our foods."
Nafula says she is happy to have a wig and to be free from criticism on the streets and in the public transport vehicles called "matatus." Nafula described being very sick and trying to ride in a matatu. She was told "You should not enter the matatu because cancer can infect us." Diana Akech is the owner of the beauty salon where Nafula got her wig. Akech started doing beauty makeovers （翻新）five years ago after a friend got cancer. The friend lost her hair, but Akech gave her a wig. "Let me say my friend gave me the willpower to keep doing this... She's in heaven right now and I am sure she's very proud of what I'm doing." Recovering from cancer can be long and painful. A wig can reduce the pain and show patients that they are not alone.
1. What does the underlined “wig” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．A popular hat. | B．A beautiful mask. |
| C．A piece of artificial hair. | D．A pair of fashionable sunglasses. |
| A．Because there are not enough beauty salons to offer special products. |
| B．Because testing for cancer causes people to suffer from cancers. |
| C．Because people in Kenya are too poor to be treated. |
| D．Because the unhealthy lifestyles mainly lead to more cancers. |
| A．People living with cancers in Kenya are usually discriminated. |
| B．Nafula has recovered from her cancer completely. |
| C．More and more people in Kenya will quit smoking. |
| D．Wearing a wig is the best way to treat cancer. |
| A．A friend of Diana Akech dying of cancer. |
| B．The functions of wearing a wig. |
| C．The reason for the appearance of the wig. |
| D．The help from a friend to open a salon. |
4 . Beijing Museum of Natural History
Address: 126 South Tianqiao Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing
Websites: www.bmnh.org.cn/en/(En)；www.bmnh.org.cn/(Cn)
Hours: 9:00-17:00 (no entry after 16:00)；Closed Mondays (closed days may vary on national holidays, winter and summer vacations )
E-mail: office@bmnh.org.cn
General admission fee: Free (passport required for entry)
Ticket booking: yuyue.bmnh.org.cn (24 hours available)； (+86-10)67027702 (9:00-16:00)
The Beijing Natural History Museum was the first large-scale natural history museum in China after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It is a large natural history museum focusing on specimen (标本) collection, research and education in the fields of paleontology（古生物学), animals, plants and anthropologyn(人类学).
The museum houses a collection of more than 270,000 zoological and other specimens. Permanent displays can be found in the Halls of Paleontology, Zoology, Botany and Mankind Evolution(进化). Its spacious galleries contain some fine specimens of fossils including various invertebrates (无脊椎动物), mammals, early humans, reptiles, dinosaur skeletons and eggs excavated in China. It also contains a large collection of minerals, as well as a fantastic display of naturally carved and polished stones used in the traditional Chinese art of miniature rockery(假山).
The Hall of Paleontology features fossils from the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras, forming a wordless chronicle of prehistoric life that flourished (繁荣) between 1 and 500 million years ago. Among the exhibits are a 22-meter Mamenxi dinosaur fossil which is 140 million years old, a flying Yi dinosaur and a swimming Yu dinosaur.
1. At which time is absolutely impossible for visitors to enter the museum?| A．10:00 am on Monday. |
| B．4:05 pm on Friday. |
| C．11:00 am on Tuesday. |
| D．2:00 pm on Sunday. |
| A．www.bmnh.org.cn/en/. | B．www.bmnh.org.cn/. |
| C．office@bmnh.org.cn. | D．yuyue.bmnh.org.cn. |
| A．Learn some knowledge about mankind evolution. |
| B．Enjoy a famous painting by a master. |
| C．Buy some specimens to do research. |
| D．Carve and polish stones by himself or herself. |
5 . When you’re on a fishing boat, you may see flocks of birds following in your track, hoping to catch a snack. Now scientists say they can use those birds’ behavior to track illegal fishing boats.
Here’s how it works: Researchers attached data recorders to the backs of 169 albatrosses (信天翁) in the Southern and Indian oceans. The devices weighed only an ounce and a half, but they included a GPS and were able to detect the presence and intensity of radar signals coming from boats. That information was then transmitted by satellite, so the researchers could track the location of the birds-and thus the radar-emitting boats-in real time.
The scientists then cross-checked that data against the known locations of boats, gathered from a system that boats use to declare themselves, called the Automatic Identification System (AIS). And differences appeared frequently.
More than a third of the times the birds’ recorders detected radar signals, and therefore a boat, no such boat appeared in the official log (航海记录)—meaning that the vehicles had likely switched off their Automatic Identification Systems—something the researchers say probably happens in illegal fishing operations.
The work suggests birds could be an effective boat-monitoring tool—as long as illegal fishing operations don’t target the birds. Fortunately, such a task would be difficult.
“Around fishing vessels, you can get hundreds of birds at any one time that are all flying around. So it’s not really possible to target a specific bird. And the birds with recorders on are not marked in any way. So it’s difficult for fishermen to pick out a specific bird," said study author Samantha Patrick, a marine biologist at the University of Liverpool.
Patrick’s bigger concern is that albatrosses often get hooked on fishing lines. And though regulations have been established to protect against that happening—with success—illegal boats don’t necessarily obey. So scientists might be underestimating the risk posed to albatross populations. But this system could mean that those illegal boats may have a tougher time flying under the radar.
1. What behavior of albatrosses can be used to track illegal fishing boats according to scientists?| A．Seeking snacks on a boat. |
| B．Following a boat to catch food. |
| C．Monitoring the location of the boats. |
| D．Keeping an eye open for illegal activities. |
| A．To carry a GPS. |
| B．To record the birds’ behavior. |
| C．To help satellite transmit information. |
| D．To detect radar signals from boats. |
| A．They are probably fishing illegally. |
| B．They needn’t declare themselves. |
| C．They don’t want to emit radar signals. |
| D．They want to avoid being followed by albatrosses. |
| A．Birds—Humans’ Friends |
| B．Data Recorders—A Helper to Albatrosses |
| C．AIS—A System to Declare Locations of Boats |
| D．Albatrosses—A Tool to Monitor Illegal Fishing Boats |
6 . Four Best Places to Travel for a Girls Holiday
Cannes
When you think France, often the famous capital Paris comes to mind. But this holiday is for the girls that want to live like the stars for a weekend or two, and have budgeted for it too. Not only does it offer a beautiful view, you will feel like celebrities as you wander around the place film stars call home during the Cannes Film Festival.
Brazil
One of the few places on Earth is warm all year-round, where temperatures rarely dip below 20℃. Brazil is the perfect destination for a girls holiday. For the girls group with the most visitors, the place for you is Rio de Janeiro. The iconic Rio Carnival, is truly where Brazil comes to life in an explosion of colour and passion. Full of parades, shows and dancing in the streets, the perfect party.
Thailand
Ko Pha Ngan is renowned (闻名的) for its monthly Full Moon party. This night long lunar celebration draws visitors from all over the world and is an absolute must. While nursing your hangover, move on to Phuket, where you'll find the Elephant Shelter, home to rehabilitated elephants. Observe as they socialize freely, bathe and help prepare food for the herd.
Amsterdam
Known for its artistic heritage, elaborate (精致的) canal system and museums, Amsterdam is packed with adventures waiting to be had. Start your trip right with a canal tour. The history of Amsterdam is intimately connected with water. Floating down Amsterdam's canals is the most magical and memorable way to discover the city especially with a glass of wine or two.
1. What can visitors experience in Cannes?| A．They can learn to budget. |
| B．They can watch various parades. |
| C．They can feel like famed entertainers. |
| D．They can pay a visit to film stars' home. |
| A．Cannes. | B．Phuket. | C．Rio. | D．Amsterdam. |
| A．A canal tour. | B．Various museums. | C．Artistic heritage. | D．Thrilling adventures. |
7 . Food labels already indicate how good or bad a product is for you. But good or bad for the planet? That’s often much less clear. Now a growing number of brands are labeling their products to show their climate impact.
Swedish food company Felix is one of them. For two days in October, Felix opened a pop-up store in Stockholm, where all items were priced based on their carbon footprint. The bigger their emissions, the higher the price. The idea was to demonstrate how easy it is for shoppers to make climate-friendly choices when products are clearly labeled.
“We know that the numbers alone don’t make sense to consumers,”says Sjöberg, Felix’s marketing manager, “To give the figures meaning, we have created a climate scale that clearly shows the current average and which climate footprint is low.”
Evaluating a food’s true carbon footprint isn’t easy and brands are teaming up with specialist platforms that deal with data using complex calculation tools to work out emissions across the whole production chain.
Oatly calculates the footprint of its oat-based drinks, from the agricultural processes all the way to the grocery store, with the help of CarbonCloud, a startup spun out of research at Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden. “We have developed a web platform that allows the food producers to perform detailed climate assessments without them needing to understand any of the science or the mathematics behind it,”explains CarbonCloud CEO David Bryngelsson.
Companies like Oatly input information including their ingredients, energy use, waste production and how products are shipped, and CarbonCloud's web tool does the rest.
CarbonCloud has done assessments for hundreds of products and brands including Estrella, Nude and Naturli, and says interest is increasing rapidly.
At the moment the food industry doesn’t have a standardized approach to calculating carbon figures, but Sjöberg says the most important thing is to give consumers the information that9s currently available.
“In the future, hopefully we will see a common ground for how we calculate and how we label products,” he says. “But as for right now, the climate can’t wait.”
1. What is special about the products in the pop-up store in Stockholm?| A．They are climate- friendly. |
| B．They are good for people's health. |
| C．They are priced based on carbon emissions. |
| D．They are labeled to show nutrition contents. |
| A．Felix. | B．Oatly. | C．Estrella. | D．CarbonCloud. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Skeptical. | C．Carefree. | D．Negative. |
| A．A newly-opened food store. |
| B．A growing trend of labeling food. |
| C．A new approach to calculating carbon footprint. |
| D．A climate scale to show current average carbon emissions. |
8 . A flock of wild mandarin ducks(鸳鸯) are the biggest draw in the West Lake scenic area in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, with tourists flocking from around the country to see them. However, some of the tourists have been feeding the ducks, even pulling them by the neck to force-feed them. On Monday, a video claiming that some of the ducks had died from over-feeding went viral on social networking sites.
Although there are prominent signboards warning people against feeding them, tourists just cannot hold back. Some even believe the ducks are underfed and they are doing them a favor, little realizing that their action can be detrimental to the birds' health.
Human food does not always go down well with ducks, particularly potato chips, as the oily snack can damage the health of mandarin ducks. However, tourists can frequently be seen feeding the ducks food that the birds cannot digest. Besides, feeding the ducks could stop them from competing in the wild to find their food. If they become dependent on food provided by humans, they will lose their survival skills. Also, by giving food to them, the tourists are polluting the environment. Especially, food thrown into the water could harm the ecosystem there.
However, the tourists know little about the harm they cause to the environment and there is a need to create awareness about it. Meanwhile, the number of mandarin ducks at West Lake has dropped from 336 last year to 260 this year. Maybe the declining numbers will wake the tourists up to this reality.
1. What is the main reason for the ducks' death in the West Lake according to the passage?| A．The ducks are fed with oily snacks. | B．The tourists fail to see the warning signs. |
| C．The tourists feed the ducks too much food. | D．The tourists kill the ducks by pulling their necks. |
| A．harmful. | B．sensitive. | C．vital. | D．beneficial. |
| A．Human food is not suitable for ducks to digest. |
| B．Food thrown into the water does harm to the ecosystem. |
| C．Tourists' feeding ducks may have a bad effect on ducks and the environment. |
| D．Ducks may lose their survival skills if receiving food from people all the time. |
| A．More mandarin ducks are seen in the West Lake this year than before. |
| B．People have already known the damage they did to the mandarin ducks. |
| C．More mandarin ducks are likely to be introduced to the West Lake in the future. |
| D．It's high time that people should be aware of the harm to ducks caused by overfeeding. |
9 . The United Nations predicts worldwide temperatures over the next five years may at times rise to more than 1. 5 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial levels. The U. N. 's World Meteorological (气象的) Organization,WMO, said the prediction suggests continued warming could present a challenge to climate change goals set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit world temperature rises through major cuts in human-caused greenhouse gases.
The WMO said there was a 20 percent chance that the yearly average temperature will rise above 1.5 Celsius higher than the pre-industrial average levels in at least one year. The report identifies 1850-1900 as the pre-industrial period. That does not mean that the average would be crossing the long-term target of 1.5 Celsius that scientists have set as the limit for avoiding catastrophic（灾难性的)climate change.
Temperatures over the last five years have been the warmest on record,the WMO reported. Temperatures over the next five years are very likely to be within the range of 0.91 to 1.59 Celsius above pre-industrial levels, it predicted. Almost all of the world, except for parts of the southern oceans, are likely to be warmer than the recent past, which is defined as 1981 to 2010. Southern Africa and Australia, where fires last year destroyed millions of hectares (公顷)，will probably be drier than usual through 2024, the report said. Africa's Sahel region is likely be wetter,while Europe should see more storms.
Maxx Dilley, the WMO's director of climate services, told the Associated Press the predictions are worrisome. "It shows how close we're getting to what the Paris Agreement is trying to prevent,”he said. Still, Dilley added that it would not be impossible for countries to reach the target set in Paris, of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, by the end of the century. Petteri Taalas, the WMO Secretary-General,added,"While COVID-19 has caused a severe international health and economic crisis, failure to cope with climate change may threaten human well-being, ecosystems and economies for centuries.”
1. What can we infer about the continued warming?| A．In an alarming trend. | B．Out of control. |
| C．At a steady speed of rising. | D．Within the range of permission. |
| A．Temperatures will have a sudden rise. |
| B．People in Africa should get more help. |
| C．Fires in Australia will last over 5 years. |
| D．Our living environment is getting worse. |
| A．Carefree. | B．Objective. |
| C．Concerned. | D．Ignorant. |
| A．Global impact of Climate change. |
| B．The most serious challenge we face. |
| C．The predictions about temperature rise. |
| D．The methods of coping with continued warming. |
10 . “Tomorrow we will see the Golden Gate Bridge,” said Peter. “I have never seen a golden bridge before.”
Peter's father smiled, but said nothing.
The next morning, his father took Peter to the bridge. Peter first saw it from far away. How big it looked! But then he saw the bridge was red!
“The bridge isn't golden!” he said. “Why is it called the Golden Gate Bridge?”
“It isn't named for its color,” said his father. “It is named for the Golden Gate.”
“What is the Golden Gate?” asked Peter.
“A gate is either an opening, or the thing that closes the opening,” said his father.
“ The Golden Gate is an opening in the land. Water from the sea comes through this opening into San Francisco Bay.”
“Oh,” said Peter. “And the bridge goes over the opening. But why is the opening called the Golden Gate?”
“Years ago men came to California to look for gold,” his father said. “Many came by ship. They came into the bay through that opening. For them it was a gate to gold. They named it the Golden Gate.”
“Well,” said Peter, “I still think the bridge should look golden.”
When getting home, he sent a letter to a California paper. he said:” Red is not the right color for the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge should look golden, the way most people think it does.”
Peter sent $14.78 with his letter. “The money is to help paint the bridge gold, ” he wrote.
Many people read Peter's letter in the newspaper and things began to happen! Some people sent money. A big company gave real gold to make gold paint. A paint company made the paint.
But some people still wanted the bridge to be red!
Will the Golden Gate Bridge ever be golden? It will, if enough people feel as Peter does. How do you feel about it?
1. Why did father smile when hearing his son’s words?| A．His son had never seen a red bridge before. |
| B．His son was too delighted to visit the bridge. |
| C．His son was about to see the bridge tomorrow. |
| D．His son misunderstood the color of the bridge. |
| A．The color of the bridge. |
| B．The shape of the bridge. |
| C．The location of the bridge. |
| D．The function of the bridge. |
| A．Astonished. | B．Puzzled. |
| C．Determined. | D．Frustrated. |
| A．A firm made a gold paint by using real gold. |
| B．The government painted the bridge golden. |
| C．Some people were against the change of the color. |
| D．Some people raised money for the golden bridge. |
