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 15-day Spring Festival is the biggest holiday of the year for many Chinese to leave from their jobs to travel home and see their loved ones. But along with gathering come a lot of traditions aimed at making sure the year ahead is lucky and happy.
Here are some key dos and don’ts that many Chinese follow before and after the Lunar New Year.
DOs
Set off fireworks
The more fireworks or firecrackers you set off, the better.
Not only do you light up the night sky with a symphony of color, but the loud banging sounds are thought to scare off evil spirits.
Eat dumplings
Eating dumplings is a popular tradition in northern China because dumplings not only taste good but also look like pieces of gold.
Clean your home
Sweep, mop, vacuum, steam-do anything and everything to make sure your home is clean before the midnight on Lunar New Year eve. The aim here is to free your home from any bad luck that’s accumulated over the past year.
DON’Ts
Wash or cut your hair
Leave your hair as it is on the first day of the New Year.
The Chinese character for hair is the same first character in the word for prosperity(发达).
This means washing or cutting it off is seen as washing your fortune away.
Clean post-New Year
Cleaning of any kind on the first day is strictly forbidden.
You clean your home to avoid any bad luck before the New Year - now you want to be sure not to wipe, sweep or wash away any of the good luck that arrives after midnight.
Buy books
It’s bad luck to buy them during the 15-day Spring Festival.
The Chinese word for "book" (shū) sounds exactly the same as the word for "lose’"-so buying a book is considered an invitation to bad luck.
Also, avoid giving books as gifts to anyone, because it’d be like wishing bad luck upon them.
1. Why is the Spring Festival the best time for many Chinese people according to the text?| A．They can enjoy a lor of delicious dishes. |
| B．They can get together with their family members. |
| C．It’s time for them to say good-bye to the past year. |
| D．The festival will bring them good luck and happiness. |
| A．setting off fireworks | B．enjoying tasty dumplings |
| C．cleaning your home | D．leaving your books untouched |
| A．Advertisement. | B．Literature. |
| C．Culture. | D．Travel. |
10 . The pupils of Grange town High have been busy getting to know their newest and tallest classmate, a 7-meter-tall giraffe outside their school
The giraffe is a huge sculpture made by a local artist. The school's headmaster noticed the sculpture in the artist's garden as he drove past one day. He thought it would be perfect for his school. “I knew everyone would love it,” he said, “because our basketball team is known as Grange town giraffes, and they wear giraffes on their shirts. So I asked them to write a letter to the artist, asking how much it would cost to buy the giraffe. He was very kind and got it ready to deliver in six weeks - all for nothing. It was expected to arrive on Sunday morning so that the pupils would see it when they got to school on Monday - at that time they had no idea that we were getting it.
The artist, Tom Bennett, was a university professor of chemistry before he left that job in 2006 and only took up metalwork a couple of years ago. “I've always drawn pictures,” he said, “I can even remember doing it on my first day at school - I drew a horse. I wanted it to be the best horse picture ever, but I don't think I succeeded.” Tom's first metalwork was a bicycle for two that he and his wife could go cycling on together. “It was a most uncomfortable bike ever created,” he said, “So I gave up making bicycles and went into sculpture instead.”
Meanwhile, the pupils at Grange town High are very happy with their new classmate. “We are going to hold a competition to give it a proper name.” said one girl. “Everyone likes the expression on his face, so perhaps that will give us some ideas.”
1. According to the text, the giraffe _______________.| A．was as tall as a basketball player | B．was given to Grange town High for free |
| C．was sent to Grange town High on Monday | D．was specially made for a basketball team |
| A．excited | B．nervous | C．worried | D．confident |
| A．He learned a lot about sculpture at university. | B．He visited Grange town High |
| C．He was good at drawing, especially horses. | D．He showed interest in art at an early age. |
| A．It was a difficult job to name a giraffe. |
| B．Tom Bennett is well-known as a sculptor. |
| C．A metal giraffe arrived at Grange town High. |
| D．The Grange town Giraffe is a strong basketball team. |
