1 . Great Barrier Reef Choking on Pollutants
Attempts to protect the Great Barrier Reef are failing. A report released Monday by the government in Australia says water quality in the Great Barrier Reef is far below what it should be. It showed that pollution have decreased, but not enough to reach environmental targets.
Sediment (沉淀物) and chemicals can weaken coral, hurting its ability to feed and grow. Coral are live animals that take root in the ocean floor, but they are not plants. Reefs are the hard skeletons (骨架) left at the bottom of the sea by small marine creatures called polyps (珊瑚虫). The polyps then form the larger structure of a reef. Corals also are some of the most diverse ecosystems on the entire planet. They can make a home for invertebrates, crustaceans, fish, and sea snakes.
Steve Miles is Queensland’s environment minister. He says the research shows the Reef needs more protection. “Over that five-year period, we did see some progress towards our targets. Sediment is down 12 percent and pesticides (杀虫剂) loads are down 30 percent. But what is most disturbing is that these results are far from our targets. Progress towards these targets flat-lined in the period 2013-2014. If one of my kids came home with a report card like this, I would be a bit disappointed. There is more bad news here than good news. ” said Steve Miles.
The report also found that fewer than one-third of Queensland’s sugar plantations used techniques to reduce the use of pesticides. Only 28 percent of land managers managed their land properly. They had reduced harmful water run off to protect the health of the Reef. The official target is a 90 percent reduction in pesticide use within three years.
Scientists at the University of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences published their findings Wednesday, July 18 in the journal Science Advances. It found between 1992 and 2010, the recovery rate dropped by an average of 84 percent. But there is hope. The study also found some corals can recover quickly if “acute and chronic stressors” are lessened.
Meanwhile, the Australian government released its updated reef protection plan Friday. It clearly states global temperatures must be stopped from rising in order to save the world’s largest living structure.
1. What does the underlined word “They” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Diverse ecosystems. | B．Sediment and chemicals. |
| C．Reefs and corals. | D．Small sea creatures. |
| A．He is satisfied with the protection of the Reef. |
| B．He thinks that the Reef needs more protection. |
| C．He feels angry with what his children did. |
| D．He is very happy about the Reef progress protection. |
| A．Not increase significantly. | B．Disappear. |
| C．Speed up. | D．Miss the chance. |
| A．were tough to deal with | B．failed to manage their land properly |
| C．reduced the amount of harmful water | D．were eager to quit pesticide soon |
| A．A news report. | B．A science fiction. |
| C．A book review. | D．A guide book. |
2 . In the 1960s and 1970s, the greatest fear was that the human race, and possibly all advanced life forms on the planet, could be wiped out by nuclear missiles. Today, however, environmental problems have taken over as the greatest risk to life on Earth. Scientists are thinking of ways to lower this risk, such as replacing coal and oil with forms of renewable energy. But they are also preparing for the worst: what can we do if the terrifying scenes in films such as The Day After Tomorrow happen in real life? What is our plan B for Earth?
One option is to explore other planets to see if we could live on them. The most likely choice is Mars, which is relatively close to Earth and has an environment less hostile than that of other planets. Mars has fascinated people since ancient times, and today our interest in Martian exploration is greater than ever before. Besides, more governments are making efforts to educate the public on the Red Planet.
There is no doubt that humankind is drawn towards Mars. However, sending people there will require all the skill, courage and intelligence. While the Moon can be reached within days, it would take months to reach Mars, travelling through dangerous solar radiation. And even if the first settlers do reach Mars safely, they may not be able to return to Earth — ever. Staying alive will be a daily challenge, but as proved by the Biosphere 2 experiment, not impossible. As early as the 1980s, scientists were building Biosphere 2 in the Arizona desert, consisting of a closed space in which people, animals and plants could live together. Although the two-year experiment was not a success, it did provide us with a better understanding of how humans might be able to live on another planet.
For now, human settlement of Mars is still decades away. Until we are finally able to live on another planet, we need to take much better care of our own. Right now, it's the only one we have!
1. What was the biggest threat to humans in the 1960s and 1970s?| A．Human race themselves. | B．All advanced life forms. |
| C．Nuclear missiles. | D．Environmental problems. |
| A．It's closest to the earth. |
| B．It has relatively appropriate living conditions. |
| C．It has drawn the public's attention in recent years. |
| D．It has a more hostile environment. |
| A．Humans have visited Mars. |
| B．The Biosphere 2 experiment proved to be valueless. |
| C．Humans will have to go and live on another planet. |
| D．Our Plan A includes developing renewable energy resources. |
| A．The Traveler. | B．Environmental Concerns. |
| C．All About Space. | D．Biology for Fun, |
3 . Renewable energy projects, including onshore and offshore wind and solar farms, have so far been subsidized (资助) by government support schemes. This has led to some to complain that clean energy is pushing up bills.
However, the most recently approved offshore wind projects will most likely operate with ‘negative subsidies’ -- paying money back to the government. The money will go towards reducing household energy bills as the offshore wind farms start producing power in the mid-2020s.
This is the conclusion of an analysis by an international team led by Imperial College London researchers published today in Nature Energy.
Lead researcher Dr Malte Jansen, from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial, said: “Offshore wind power will soon be so cheap to produce that it will undercut fossil-fueled power stations and may be the cheapest form of energy for the UK. Energy subsidies used to push up energy bills, but within a few years cheap renewable energy will see them brought down for the first time. This is an astonishing development.”
The analysis for five countries in Europe, including the UK, focused on a series of government auctions (拍卖) for offshore wind farms between February 2015 and September 2019. Companies that want to build wind farms bid in the auctions by stating the price at which they will sell the energy they produce to the government.
These are known as ‘contracts for difference’ or CfDs. If a company’s bid is higher than the wholesale electricity price on the UK market once the wind farm is up and running, then the company will receive a subsidy from the government to top up the price.
However, if the stated price (规定价格) is less than the wholesale price, then the company will pay the government back the difference. This payback is then passed through to consumer’s energy bills, reducing the amount that homes and businesses will pay for electricity.
The winning companies said they could build new offshore wind farms for around £40 per megawatt hour (MWh) of power. This was a new record set by these wind farms with bids 30 percent lower than just two years earlier.
1. What does the passage mainly talk about?| A．Offshore wind farms to be built in the UK could reduce household energy bills by producing electricity very cheaply. |
| B．Offshore wind farms will not be subsidized by government in the near future. |
| C．The importance of CfDs. |
| D．The operation of negative subsidies. |
| A．will stop producing power in the mid-2020s |
| B．are paying money back to the government |
| C．will help reduce household energy bills |
| D．will all operate with ‘negative subsidies’ |
| A．make up |
| B．take up |
| C．cover |
| D．fill up |
| A．The renewable energy projects will lead to some to complain that clean energy is pushing up bills. |
| B．The company whose bid is less than the wholesale electricity price will receive a subsidy. |
| C．The stated electricity price is now higher than the wholesale electricity price. |
| D．Fossil-fueled power will be soon produced cheaply. |
| A．Curious. |
| B．Pessimistic. |
| C．Indifferent. |
| D．Optimistic. |
| A．A science fiction. |
| B．A financial magazine. |
| C．An advertisement. |
| D．A science report. |
4 . As digital devices （设备）have taken over society, “keyboard activity is now often recommended as a substitute for early handwriting," a new study notes. The idea is that typing may be easier for young children.
“Some schools in Norway have become completely digital," notes Audrey Vander Meer, the new study's leader, who measures brain activity to better understand learning and behaviors. She works at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. The human brain has developed to interact with the world in as many ways as possible, she notes. She believes that young children should learn to write by hand successfully, and, at the same time learn to manage a keyboard.
Using a pen involves more of the brain than using a keyboard, her new findings show. This is because writing and printing involve complex movements that activate more areas of the brain. The increased brain activity, "gives the brain more 'hooks' to hang your memories on," she explains.
Think about it. The same movement is required to type each letter on a keyboard. By comparison, when we write, our brain needs to think about and recover memories of the shape of each letter. We also need to use our eyes to watch what shapes we're writing. And we need to control our hands to press a pen or pencil to shape the different letters. All of this uses and connects more areas of the brain.
Along the way, these processes appear to “open the brain up for learning", says Vander Meer. So learning through only one format — digital — could be harmful, she worries.
Vander Meer also points out that taking notes by hand stimulates （激发）"visual notetaking". Rather than typing blindly, the visual note-taker has to think about what is important to write down. Then, key words can be "interlinked by boxes, and arrows, and supplemented by small drawings".
1. What is the main idea of the text?| A．Digital devices are popular with students. |
| B．Handwriting beats typing in taking notes. |
| C．The process of taking notes changes thinking. |
| D．The new study makes contributions to science. |
| A．Communicate with the world. | B．Rely on keyboard activity. |
| C．Learn to write by hand. | D．Master basic drawing skills. |
| A．By studying how the brain develops. | B．By observing social phenomena. |
| C．By assessing functions of senses. | D．By comparing ways of taking notes. |
| A．Relationship. | B．Fashion. |
| C．Culture. | D．Science. |
5 . Turtles have a habit of eating plastic objects floating in the sea, which may kill them. Many believe that it is because floating plastic bags look similar to jellyfish, which many types of turtles love to eat. However, lots of plastic objects that turtles eat do not look like jellyfish at all. Joseph Pfaller of the University of Florida doubts that the smell of sea micro-organisms（微生物） which live on floating plastic objects attract turtles to eat.
The kind of idea first appeared in 2016. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, noticed that certain chemicals, especially dimethyl sulphide（二甲基硫）, which can be found on plastics where micro-organisms live, are those which many seabirds sniff（嗅）to find food. These birds are more likely to eat plastics.
Since turtles usually appear above the sea surface and sniff the air when going to their feeding areas, Dr. Pfaller believed that they are following these same chemicals like those seabirds and mistakenly think that floating plastic objects are edible.
To test that idea, he and his team did an experiment using loggerhead turtles. They exposed 15 turtles to four smells: the smell of clean water; the smell of turtle-feeding food; the smell of a clean plastic bottle; and the smell of a bottle that had been kept in the ocean for five weeks to allow micro-organisms to grow on it. When sniffing both the smell of turtle-feeding food and that of five-week-old bottles, turtles kept their noses out of the water more than three times as long, and took twice as many breaths as they did when sniffing the smell of fresh bottle-plastic or clean water.
Though they have not yet tested whether dimethyl sulphide on the five-week-old bottles cause turtles to eat plastic objects, Dr. Pfaller and his team think it is highly possible.
1. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word "edible"?| A．pleasing the eyes | B．suitable for use as food |
| C．holding the attention | D．concerned with actual use |
| A．Seabirds prefer the smell of the plastic bottles. |
| B．Seabirds feed on the food similar to the turtles'. |
| C．Seabirds produce a certain micro-organism. |
| D．Seabirds break up the plastics without difficulty. |
| A．To suggest a new way to study turtles. |
| B．To stress the importance of sea protection. |
| C．To introduce the findings on the cause of turtles' death. |
| D．To discuss the overusę of the plastic bottles. |
| A．Education. | B．Entertainment. |
| C．Science. | D．Health. |
1. How should we read the following sentence with proper pauses?
| A．Buffalo buffalo Buffalo/ buffalo buffalo/ buffalo Buffalo buffalo. |
| B．Buffalo buffalo/ Buffalo buffalo buffalo/ buffalo Buffalo buffalo |
| C．Buffalo buffalo Buffalo/ buffalo buffalo buffalo/ Buffalo buffalo. |
| D．Buffalo buffalo/ Buffalo buffalo/ buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. |
| A．The relative pronouns in English can be omitted. |
| B．In English, place names can be used as adjectives. |
| C．The city has the same name with a kind of American bison. |
| D．The word buffalo has the same form of singular and plural. |
| A．Wandering the Earth |
| B．Linguistics Around Us |
| C．Popular Animal Science |
| D．Collins English Grammar |
7 . Most online fraud （诈骗）involves identity theft. Passwords help. But many can be guessed. Newer phones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers often have strengthened security with fingerprint and facial recognition. But these can be imitated. That is why a new approach, behavioural biometrics （生物统计学），is gaining ground.
It relies on the wealth of measurements made by today's devices. These include data from sensors that reveal how people hold their phones when using them, how they carry them and even the way they walk. Touchscreens, keyboards and mice can be monitored to show the distinctive ways in which someone's fingers and hands move. These features can then be used to determine whether someone attempting to make a transaction （交易）is likely to be the device's habitual user.
Behavioural biometrics make it possible to identify an individual's unique motion fingerprint"，says John Whaley, head of Unifyid, a firm in Silicon Valley that is involved in the field. When coupled with information about a user's finger pressure and speed on the touchscreen, as well as a device's regular places of use—as revealed by its GPS unit一that user's identity can be pretty well determined.
Used wisely, behavioural biometrics could be a great benefit. In fact, Unifyid and an unnamed car company are even developing a system that unlocks the doors of a vehicle once the pace of the driver, as measured by his phone, is recognised. Used unwisely, however, the system would become yet another electronic spy on people's privacy, permitting complete strangers to monitor your every action, from the moment you reach for your phone in the morning, to when you throw it on the floor at night.
1. What is behavioural biometrics for?| A．To ensure network security. | B．To identify network crime. |
| C．To track online fraud. | D．To gather online data. |
| A．By restricting and detecting the access to an account of users. |
| B．By spotting and revealing a device's regular places of use. |
| C．By monitoring and comparing the ways users interact with devices. |
| D．By offering and analyzing the operating system of devices. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Concerned. | C．Objective. | D．Favorable. |
| A．Health and wealth. | B．Science and technology. |
| C．Finance and economics. | D．Books and arts. |
8 . Beaches are not only great for lying on and doing water sports, and in fact one of the best ways of enjoying them is a classic beach walk. Here at iWantSun.co.uk we’ve been searching the globe to find you the world’s best and most famous beach walks, and here’s our pick of the top. Click on the most interesting walks and join our tourist program.
The Footpath of the Gods, Amalfi Coast, Italy
The name says it all really and you truly feel excited there, walking along this wonderful mountain path, which offers some of the most striking views on the planet. The path begins at the town of Bomerano to charming Positano along the UNESCO World Heritage area of the Amalfi Coast. The whole walk will take you about four and a half hours to complete and pass over narrow rocky paths.
Sydney’s Great Coastal Walk, Australia
Sydney’s coastline is one of the most beautiful and diverse landscapes in the world. Here you have national parks, historic sites, shining and quiet beaches all in one place. Sydney’s Great Coastal Walk runs all the way from Barren Joey in the north to Royal National Park in the south and takes an unbelievable seven days to complete. However, if you’re not up to doing the full walk, there are many different parts of the walk that you can do right in the city itself. Walking from the city’s famous Bondi Beach to the sweeping curve(大半径曲线) of Bronte Beach takes just an hour, which takes in some top sceneries.
Great Ocean Walk, Australia
The Great Ocean Walk covers 104km along Victoria’s famous Great Ocean Road, located on the southern coast of Australia, from the holiday town Apollo Bay to the splendid Twelve Apostles. The Twelve Apostles are the area’s famous stone landmarks which stand out like giants from the sea. The walk passes through a range of landscapes and sights, from national parks, famous surfing spots and deserted beaches, to wild coastlines, waterfalls, lush(茂盛的) forests, historic lighthouses and ghostly(幽灵似的) ship wrecks(残骸). Day walks and shorter three-hour walks such as The Wreck Beach Walk or the Lighthouse Cemetery and Lookout Walk can also be enjoyed.
So next time when you’re looking for a beach holiday, don’t just think about the holiday towns and the sand, but consider a more active sun holiday. If you have interest in any of the above places, please contact us, and we can give you the best services.
1. When you arrive at Amalfi Coast, _____.| A．the scenic beauty can fill you with charm |
| B．the walking can be started from Positano |
| C．you must be fed up with the footpath |
| D．narrow rocky paths may trap you |
| A．It takes more than a week to complete. |
| B．It really has the longest coastline in the world. |
| C．It provides visitors with a variety of great landscapes. |
| D．It starts from Barren Joey in the south. |
| A．Apollo Bay is at the end of the Great Ocean Walk |
| B．visitors have various walking choices in the Great Ocean Walk |
| C．the Twelve Apostles stand below the surface of the sea |
| D．most visitors have to finish the 104 km walk quickly |
| A．an online advertisement | B．travel magazines |
| C．a handbook to tourists | D．a poster in a foreign travel agency |
9 . Maybe you take vitamins supporting brainpower, or store these foods that improve brain health. But new guidelines from the ANN（American Academy of Neurology）suggest there's something better you can do to keep your mind sharp.
A quarter of adults aged 80 to 84 experience mild cognitive（认知的）impairment, according to AAN. To address the widespread problem, a group of neurologists and Alzheimer's（阿尔兹海默氏症的）experts went through existing studies to determine the best way to prevent and treat cognitive impairment, and you might be surprised by what they included and what they didn't.
Surprisingly, the AAN guidelines don`t include any medicine or dietary（饮食的）recommendations. The authors emphasize there haven't been any high-quality, long-term studies finding foods or medicine can help cognitive impairment. The guidelines also say doctors can consider suggesting cognitive training to patients with memory loss but not to rely on it. So far, the report authors say the evidence is too uncertain to say for sure if brain exercises, like memory and attention training or problem solving for everyday issues associated with memory loss, are beneficial. Still, these brain exercises can't do any harm.
But there was one big discovery from the new guidelines. Doing physical exercise just twice a week could improve cognitive impairment. What's more, ANN had older adults attend either biweekly health classes or sessions of aerobics（有氧运动）, strength training, balance exercises, and multitasking training. Six months later, the ones who'd exercised regularly scored better on cognitive health and memory tests.
AAN now recommends doctors tell patients with memory loss to exercise twice a week to keep their minds sharp. This is the best time to exercise if you want to improve your memory. It looks like you've got just one more reason to clear time in your schedule for a workout- even if it's only on the weekends.
1. What does the underlined word "impairment" in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Decline. | B．Error. |
| C．Development. | D．Increase. |
| A．A quarter of adult Americans suffer from brain damage. |
| B．Neurologists have confirmed the best way to keep mind sharp. |
| C．Public opinions on treatment of cognitive impairment may be overturned. |
| D．An increasing number of scientists are involved in the study of Alzheimer. |
| A．Foods containing vitamins are advised to keep your mind sharp. |
| B．Medicine is of significance in preventing and treating cognitive impairment. |
| C．Working out on a regular basis is recommended to improve your memory. |
| D．Doctors are suggested to depend on cognitive training to treat patients with memory loss. |
| A．Exercise. | B．Health. |
| C．Culture | D．Entertainment. |
10 . Everyone can be angry. But if you take the time to actually examine your anger instead of just “feeling angry” you’ll have a better understanding of yourself. Knowing why you feel so angry can provide you with some surprising answers. These answers can enable you to grow spiritually and mentally.
I can give you a personal example. I went to a meeting once and I was verbally attacked(言语攻击) over an application I supported at my workplace. Various people went on and on about how terrible this system was and that it never worked. That didn’t bother me that much. But I was absolutely furious at the comment, “Your job is pointless.”
I was upset that they would treat me that way. But once I took the time to think about what was really making me so mad, I learned a lot. I realized that the comment was more true than I wanted to admit. In the big scheme of things, my job was pointless. It wasn’t what I really wanted to be doing with my life and this is what frustrated me the most. Here I was pouring part of my heart and soul into a job I didn't even want to do. I was using it as crutch(依靠) because I didn’t have the confidence in myself to take the scary(令人害怕的) road toward what I really wanted to do. As soon as I realized that, a lot of my anger just melted away. I also realized that I needed to start focusing on what I really wanted to do.
I now consider this incident as a great gift. It got me back on track to move in the direction I want to go with my life. I probably wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn’t taken the time to figure out why I was really so angry.
1. What does the underlined word “furious” probably mean?| A．Surprised. | B．Relaxed. |
| C．Amazed. | D．Angry. |
| A．Because he didn’t do his job wholeheartedly. |
| B．Because he didn’t make enough money. |
| C．Because he couldn’t get on well with his colleagues. |
| D．Because he didn’t have the chance to realize his potential. |
| A．The author isn’t easy to become angry any longer. |
| B．The author has achieved success in his present career. |
| C．The author received a lot of gifts after the incident. |
| D．The author was forced to quit his job. |
| A．A diary. | B．A guidebook. | C．A magazine. | D．A novel. |
