1 . Now many young people are traveling around the world on their own, not because they have no one to travel with, but because they prefer to go alone.
Kristina Wegscheider from California first traveled alone when she was at college and believes that it is something everyone should do at least once in their life. “It opens up your mind to things and pushes you out of your comfort zone.” Wegscheider has visited 46 countries covering all seven continents.
In foreign countries, with no one to help you read a map, look after you if you get ill, or lend you money if your wallet is stolen, it is challenging. This is what drives young people to travel alone. It is seen as character building and a chance to prove that they can make it on their own.
Chris Richardson decided to leave his sales job in Australia to go traveling last year. He set up a website, The Aussie Nomad, to document his adventures. He says he wished he had traveled alone earlier. “The people you meet, the places you visit, or the things you do, everything is up to you and it forces you to grow as a person.” said the 30-year-old man.
Richardson describes traveling alone like “a shot in the arm”, which “makes you a more confident person that is ready to deal with anything”. He said, “The feeling of having overcome something on my own is a major part of what drives me each day when I’m dealing with a difficult task. I walk around with my head up because I know deep down inside that nothing is impossible if you try.”
The great 19thcentury explorer John Muir once said. “Only by going alone in silence can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness.
1. Which of the following will Kristina Wegscheider agree with?| A．Traveling alone is a necessary experience for everyone. |
| B．It is more meaningful to travel in foreign countries. |
| C．It is comfortable to travel around without a friend. |
| D．Traveling abroad helps people to find new things. |
| A．you have to make things on your own. |
| B．it is hard for you to prove yourself to others. |
| C．you can only depend on yourself whatever happens. |
| D．it will finally build your character. |
| A．He started traveling alone at an early age. |
| B．He was once shot in the arm. |
| C．He used to work as a salesman. |
| D．His website will inspire others to travel alone. |
| A．Travel Abroad | B．Travel Alone |
| C．Travel Light | D．Travel Wide and Far |
2 . The situation of the world’s plants is not good. One fifth of the kinds of plants are in danger of disappearing, according to a report.
“Plants are very vital to human beings,” said Kathy Willis, who led the new report. “Plants provide us with everything—food, fuel, and medicine, and they are very important for our climate controlling. Without plants we would not be here.”
The good news is that deforestation rates around the world have dropped largely since the 1950s. However, this report on the health of plants around the world shows that there is much more to be done.
The report predicts that there are now 390,900 kinds of plants. And about 21 percent of those plants are in danger of disappearing. “The good side is that we’re still discovering lots of new plants, about 2,000 each year,” said Dr. Willis. “The bad side is that we’ve seen a huge change in land cover, mainly caused by cultural activity, with a little bit of climate change in there as well.”
Human activity has a great effect on the danger of plants disappearing. As humans cut down forests to make room for agriculture, towns and cities, biodiversity is lost. This could not only affect our own food supply directly, but also affect the food web.
1. What does the underlined word “vital” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Useless. | B．Friendly. | C．Equal. | D．Important. |
| A．New plants are more than ever before. | B．About half the plants will disappear soon. |
| C．Many new plants are found every year. | D．Plants mustn’t be used to produce medicine. |
| A．We have made little progress. | B．There is a long way for us to go. |
| C．We have achieved our goal. | D．There will be nothing we can do. |
| A．Biodiversity Being Lost | B．Human Social Activity |
| C．Environment Protection | D．Nature Climate Change |
3 . The definition of community has evolved (升华)for me from childhood to the young adult I am now. My mom was born in America but both her parents were from the Bahamas. It was their culture to take care of the elderly and the sick. And my mom has taught me to be caring to those around us because we're all a part of the "community" , an extension of family.
When I was 9 years old, my family moved to Cape Coral, Florida. Both mom and dad worked full-time, so they registered me to attend an after-school program at the Youth Center. Youth counselors (辅导员) would help me with my homework and play games with me and this was where my interest took root. Community service started with me giving back at the Youth Center.
Then illness struck at home. My grandmother had to have heart surgery and needed hospital treatment. This experience brought me to volunteer at Cape Coral Hospital. I asked if I could learn from the nurse how to give my grandma her medicine and it started here.
I loved being at Cape Coral Hospital. I would bring paperwork to other doctors, bring food to the patients, and make sure the patients were attended. I would help direct visitors to see patients. I would always tell what would cheer the patients up because I had built a relationship with them and their loved ones. I grew to feel the hospital was a part of my community.
After volunteering at the Youth Center and at the Hospital, I've learned that people become sort of an extended family when you care about them. Now I am more considerate of those close to me, neighbors and even strangers who share my resources.
1. Who might be the first to expose the author to the sense of community?| A．Counselors at the Youth Center. |
| B．Nurses at Cape Coral Hospital. |
| C．Her grandparents. |
| D．Her mother. |
| A．They were too busy to take care of her. |
| B．They wanted her to do community service. |
| C．The author couldn't finish her homework on her own. |
| D．Becoming a counselor was the author's childhood dream. |
| A．Cheer the patients up. |
| B．Bring food to the patients. |
| C．Help direct visitors to see patients. |
| D．Serve medicine to her grandmother. |
| A．I Love Volunteering | B．Community Is Family |
| C．My Volunteer Experiences | D．My Community and My Family |
4 . Football is my favorite sport. I loved to watch it, but I had never played in a football game before I went to college. I lacked self－confidence and I doubted if I could do well in a team, which was why I hardly did sports together with others. I just loved practicing playing football in the backyard of my house.
About one month after I went to college, one day some of my classmates said they'd play a football game with some players of another class. I really looked forward to it but never thought I'd join them to play. That day finally came and I went to watch with my classmates. However, just about ten minutes after the game started, one member of our football team got injured and could no longer play. The other members looked worried. Then one of them came to me and asked, “Can you play?” At first, I shook my head, but then I nodded. “Great! Come and play,” he said. I followed him, having no idea at all what to do. To my joy, he asked me to play in defense (防守). Defense was my favorite because I found it more fun and less complicated (复杂的). Then the game began again. There weren't a lot of big kids on the offensive line (攻击线) of the other team and I suddenly gained some self－confidence. About five minutes later, the ball was kicked toward the guard. I thought it was a good opportunity for me. I quickly ran past the guard and got the ball. When the guard came to the offensive line, I kicked the ball. I scored and all my classmates cheered. You may not believe it, but I scored twice that time. The final score was 6—2 and we won. My teammates thought that I did very well and none of them believed I hadn't played in a game before.
That game really changed me. I am a really confident person now and often play football games with my teammates.
1. Why didn't the author play sports with others before?| A．He wasn't interested in sports. |
| B．He wasn't popular with others. |
| C．He couldn't afford time for sports. |
| D．He wasn't confident about his ability. |
| A．excited | B．boring |
| C．anxious | D．angry |
| A．got nervous about watching football games |
| B．decided to become a full－time football player |
| C．was considered the best football player at school |
| D．fell in love with joining others in playing football |
| A．My first football game. |
| B．My most unforgettable experience. |
| C．My way of finding self－confidence. |
| D．My way of scoring at football games. |
5 . What will the future school look like is difficult to make clear, but most experts agree that the school will be electronic in the future .
" Present-day schools will no longer exist in the next century," says a report in The Age. "At that time, future schools will become community-style centers, which run seven days a week,24 hours a day. ” At the same time, computers will surely become a central part of the school in the future.
According to The Age, the distant learning will be popular and students will listen to teachers on computers. Going into classrooms on their computers, students will study at any time, which is very easy for them. However, it is necessary for students to go to the actual school in order to develop some social skills.
The Seashore Primary School is an imaginary school in the future created by the Education Department of Australia. At this school, all the teachers and students have laptop computers . Teachers check messages and call students back on a special telephone system and students use telephones to search for information or speak to their experts who teach their lessons. Besides, all the lessons are related to all sorts of subjects and all the students have their own learning plans created by teachers .
As one headmaster says, a laptop computer is students5 library, data storage （数据存储）as well as the bridge to a wider world. Technology has changed the emphasis of future learning. Thus, well pay more attention to the learning of kids rather than the teaching.
1. According to the report in The Age, students in future schools will _______.| A．have no teachers | B．study at a set time |
| C．mainly study online | D．never go to actual school |
| A．telephones are important in Australia |
| B．how future schools will work |
| C．every student needs a learning plan |
| D．students enjoy getting in touch with teachers |
| A．The Schools in the Future |
| B．Great Changes in Technology |
| C．The Seashore Primary School |
| D．Actual Schools to Be Replaced |
6 . People have different ways of dealing with a common cold. Some take over the counter medicines such as aspirin while others try popular home remedies(治疗) like herbal tea or chicken soup. Yet here is the tough truth about the common cold: nothing really cures it.
So why do people sometimes believe that their remedies work? According to James Taylor, professor at the University of Washington, colds usually go away on their own in about a week, improving a little each day after symptoms peak, so it's easy to believe it's medicine rather than time that deserves the credit, USA Today reported.
It still seems hard to believe that we can deal with more serious diseases yet are powerless against something so common as a cold. Recently, scientists came closer to figure out why. To understand it, you first need to know how antiviral drugs work. They attack the virus by attaching to and changing the surface structures of the virus. To do that, the drug must fit and lock into the virus like the right piece of a jigsaw(拼图), which means scientists have to identify the virus and build a 3D model to study its surface before they can design an antiviral drug that is effective enough.
The two cold viruses that scientists had long known about were rhinovirus(鼻病毒) A and B. But they didn't find out about the existence of a third virus, rhinovirus C, until 2006. All three of them contribute to the common cold, but drugs that work well against rhinovirus A and B have little effect when used against rhinovirus C.
''This explains most of the previous failures of drug trials against rhinoviruses,'' study leader Professor Ann C. Palmenberg at the University of Wiscons in Madison, US, told Science Daily.
Now, more than 10 years after the discovery of rhinovirus C, scientists have finally built a highly detailed 3D model of the virus, showing that the surface of the virus is, as expected, different from that of other cold viruses.
With the model in hand, hopefully a real cure for a common cold is on its way. Soon, we may no longer have to waste our money on medicines that don't really work.
1. What does the author think of popular remedies for a common cold?| A．They are quite effective. | B．They are slightly helpful. |
| C．They actually have no effect. | D．They still need to be improved. |
| A．By breaking up cold viruses directly. |
| B．By changing the surface structures of the cold viruses. |
| C．By preventing colds from developing into serious diseases. |
| D．By absorbing different kinds of cold viruses at the same time. |
| A．The surface of cold viruses looks quite similar. |
| B．Scientists have already found a cure for the common cold. |
| C．Scientists were not aware of the existence of rhinovirus C until recently. |
| D．Knowing the structure of cold viruses is the key to developing an effective cure. |
| A．Drugs against cold viruses | B．Helpful home remedies |
| C．No current cure for common cold | D．Research on cold viruses |
7 . For decades, China had wanted a Nobel Prize in science. Tu Youyou, a researcher who helped to develop a malaria（疟疾）medicine, finally won the country that honor.
In fact, Tu is not the only scientist in China who is catching the world’s attention. In 2016, the Nature journal published a list of the top 10 science stars in China. Gao Caixia and Cui Weicheng are two of them.
Gao Caixia has been devoted to genetic engineering for her whole career. She is known for using CRISPR-Cas9, the revolutionary gene-editing technique that is sweeping through biology labs around the world – in crops.
At first, Gao was unwilling to take up gene editing using CRISPR-Cas9 because her lab at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology in Beijing had already created mutations（变异）in 82 genes using an older type of technology. But after thinking carefully about it, she decided to give it a try.
After a year of hard work, her lab finally succeeded. Gao worked on genetic engineering in wheat, a crop that is famous for being difficult to work with. Now she is considered one of the best in the world at engineering wheat.
Cui Weicheng is the developer of China’s record-setting Jiaolong submersibl（e 潜水器）. He is now a professor at Westlake University. In 2012, Cui rode inside China’s Jiaolong submersible and reached a depth of more than 7,000 meters in the Pacific.
Thanks to Jiaolong and the 57-year-old developer, China is now one of only a few nations that can explore the deep sea. Jiaolong can travel deeper than any other manned research submersible currently in use, which shows China’s increasing ambition and leadership in deep-sea research.
1. Why is Tu Youyou mentioned at the beginning of the passage?| A．To show one of China’s long-held dreams. |
| B．To stress the importance of the Nobel Prize. |
| C．To praise Tu Youyou for her contributions. |
| D．To introduce more top Chinese scientists. |
| A．Because she failed in her attempt to study other crops. |
| B．Because she was expert at wheat engineering. |
| C．Because wheat is hard to be genetically engineered. |
| D．Because wheat is the most widely planted crop in China. |
| A．He teaches about sea at a university. |
| B．He developed Jiaolong submersible. |
| C．He is devoted to genetic engineering. |
| D．He reached the bottom of the ocean. |
| A．China’s Science Stars | B．China’s Nobel Prize Dream |
| C．Gao Caixia－China’s Crop Engineer | D．Cui Weicheng－China’s Deep Diver |
8 . Music is an art that almost everyone enjoys. Everyone can make sounds by singing，banging a stick, plucking(弹) a tight string or blowing through pipe. All over the world, many kinds of music have developed as people find out how to make sounds in different ways. There are so many kinds of music to hear that you can soon find a kind that you like.
People can get all kinds of feelings hearing music. Music can make you march of dance; it can make you feel happy or sad. More than other arts, music can affect your moods and feelings. This is why music is so popular.
Every country has its own kind of music. In France many people like dance music played on the accordion(手风琴), and many Americans enjoy banjo(班卓琴) music. Spain is famous for its guitar music, and India for the twanging sound of the sitar.
Many people like music in their own national style. But there are also people who enjoy classical music and pop music, which have spread throughout the world with the help of the record player and radio.
However, there are still great differences between the music of the west and that of the east. Many of the instruments are very different. The guitar and the sitar are both instruments in which strings are plucked by fingers, but they two not sound alike.
The musical differences between the east and the west are not only in the instruments, but also in ways the notes are put together.
1. Music is an art that is very popular in the world because ______．| A．everybody can make a beautiful music |
| B．people can get different feelings from music |
| C．music can only make people happy |
| D．music is much better than other arts |
| A．America | B．France |
| C．India | D．Spain |
| A．all countries and races have the same kind of music |
| B．the musical differences between the east and the west are only in the instruments |
| C．all the French people enjoy dance music played on the accordion |
| D．different people like different kinds of music |
| A．Music | B．Music—the Best Art |
| C．How to Enjoy Music | D．Different Music |
9 . The connection between people and plants has long been the subject of scientific research. Recent studies have found positive effects. A study conducted in Youngstown，Ohio，for example, discovered that greener areas of the city experienced less crime. In another，employees were shown to be 15% more productive when their workplaces were decorated with houseplants.
The engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)have taken it a step further changing the actual composition of plants in order to get them to perform diverse，even unusual functions. These include plants that have sensors printed onto their leaves to show when they’re short of water and a plant that can detect harmful chemicals in groundwater. ＂We’re thinking about how we can engineer plants to replace functions of the things that we use every day,＂explained Michael Strano, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT.
One of his latest projects has been to make plants glow(发光)in experiments using some common vegetables. Strano’s team found that they could create a faint light for three-and-a-half hours. The light，about one-thousandth of the amount needed to read by，is just a start. The technology, Strano said, could one day be used to light the rooms or even to turn trees into self-powered street lamps.
In the future，the team hopes to develop a version of the technology that can be sprayed onto plant leaves in a one-off treatment that would last the plant’s lifetime. The engineers are also trying to develop an on and off＂switch＂where the glow would fade when exposed to daylight.
Lighting accounts for about 7% of the total electricity consumed in the US. Since lighting is often far removed from the power source(电源)-such as the distance from a power plant to street lamps on a remote highway-a lot of energy is lost during transmission(传输).Glowing plants could reduce this distance and therefore help save energy.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．A new study of different plants. |
| B．A big fall in crime rates. |
| C．Employees from various workplaces. |
| D．Benefits from green plants. |
| A．To detect plants’ lack of water |
| B．To change compositions of plants |
| C．To make the life of plants longer. |
| D．To test chemicals in plants. |
| A．They will speed up energy production. |
| B．They may transmit electricity to the home. |
| C．They might help reduce energy consumption. |
| D．They could take the place of power plants. |
| A．Can we grow more glowing plants? |
| B．How do we live with glowing plants? |
| C．Could glowing plants replace lamps? |
| D．How are glowing plants made pollution-free? |
10 . Though plastic shopping bags are cheap and useful, they cause widespread pollution. Now, we may have an unlikely helper to help clean up our garbage — a small wax worm.
The worm’s hidden skills were discovered by accident. About two years ago, Federica Bertocchini, a developmental biologist at the Spanish National Research Council and an amateur beekeeper, was cleaning out bees’ nest that had been filled with worms. She removed the worms and put them in a plastic bag while doing the cleaning. After finishing, she went back to the room where she had left the worms, and found they had escaped from the bag. When she checked, she saw that the bag was full of holes.
Realizing she may have made an important discovery, Bertocchini teamed up with other researchers to conduct further research. They began by placing 100 worms on some plastic bags and discovered that over a 24-hour period, the worms managed to chew through 92 milligrams of plastic. The researchers make an appropriate judgment that at this rate, the group of worms could degrade (降解) an average-sized 5.5-gram plastic bag within a month. To rule out the possibility that chewing was causing the degradation, the researchers spread the soft wet substance inside the body of some recently dead worms on a sheet of plastic. Sure enough, even the liquid was able to eat through the material, confirming that the worms have plastic-digesting enzymes (酶).
While the news is certainly encouraging, not everyone is convinced. The Michigan State University’s Ramani Narayan believes the tiny pieces of microplastics released by the plastic-eating worms would pick up harmful substances and transport them up the food chain, causing, even more, harm to the environment and human health. Susan Selke, director of Michigan State University School of Packaging, is concerned that the worms will not be able to survive in an oxygen-free landfills where large amounts of waste material are buried under the earth.
However, Bertocchini is not planning to transport worm armies to landfills. Instead, the researcher wants to identify the enzyme that helps degrade the plastic. The researcher says, maybe we can find the molecule (分子) and produce it on an industrial level, rather than using a million worms in a plastic bag.
1. What did the experiment of using dead worms find out?| A．Worms’ chewing may cause the degradation. |
| B．A plastic-eating chemical exists in wax worms. |
| C．Dead worms are effective in dealing with plastic. |
| D．It takes a long time for worms to degrade plastic. |
| A．Objective | B．Convinced | C．Questioning. | D．Optimistic. |
| A．The structure of plastic-degrading enzymes. |
| B．The use of other worms in disposing plastic. |
| C．Wax worms’ adaptability to the landfill environment. |
| D．The chance of producing wax worms on a large scale. |
| A．Can wax worms save the environment? |
| B．Wax worms have an appetite for plastic. |
| C．Why do wax worms have plastic-eating skills? |
| D．Hungry worms join the fight against plastic pollution |
