1 . I don't realize that I've been at college for nearly one and half year until now. Looking back into the last year, what shall I say? It consisted of both happiness and sadness. Life always goes like this, up and down, as is so exciting. Now when I recall the past, no matter how I felt at that time, they are all treasures for me.
That was the moon festival last year, which was also the first time we went out after we entered the college. It was said that the sea in Dalian was well-known and was also a wonderful place to watch the moon. After getting all the food and drinking ready, we four girls set off for the seaside. There were many people and we picked up a less crowded beach. At first, we enjoyed ourselves by drinking and eating. When the moon turned brighter, we played with the seawater. As a result, we were all drenched with water. Bathing in the moonlight, we ran and laughed. We seemed to land on another world, where was full of fresh air, laughter and love. The laughter is still echoing on my mind so far.
Life doesn't stay the same, occasionally having a particular taste. That is sadness. What impressed me deeply is a failure in a singing competition. It was the first time I had given a performance on such a large stage in front of so many people. I was so nervous that the whole song was performed out of tune. As you could imagine, I was greeted with boos from the audience. I still remembered how dismal I felt that moment and I sat alone crying at the seaside. After that, I talked to mother about it. She told me that it was not a failure; at least, I was brave enough to show myself publicly.
Everything has passed. I’ve stored them at the bottom of my heart. I am in the second grade already. Yet much needs me to challenge. On the way, there's both happiness and distress. However, I will go ahead just all the same.
1. The underlined word ''drenched'' in the second paragraph has a similar meaning with _______.| A．dried | B．wet |
| C．frozen | D．washed away |
| A．full of happiness | B．filled with sadness |
| C．made up of laughter and tears | D．not worth living |
| A．It was wonderful | B．It was disappointing |
| C．The passage doesn’t say | D．It was perfect |
| A．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
| B．Do wrong once and you’ll never hear the end of it. |
| C．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
| D．Time and tide wait for no man. |
2 . Taktak tabulaba?
You probably don’t know how to answer that question---unless you happen to be one of the about 430 people in the world who speak a language called Matukar Panau. Then you would know it means “What are we doing?” Matukar Panau is one of the world’s rarest languages. It is spoken in just two small coastal villages in Papua New Guinea.
Several years ago, David Harrison, a language expert didn’t know much about Matukar Panau either. No one had ever recorded or even studied its words and rules. With so few speakers, the language risked disappearing soon. It was endangered.
Harrison didn’t want that to happen to Matukar Panau. So in 2009, he set out for Papua New Guinea. His goal: use modern technology to help the remaining speakers preserve their native tongue.
But Matukar Panau is far from the only language facing loss. Studies suggest that by the end of this century, nearly half of the 7,000 languages now spoken worldwide could disappear. They’re in danger partly because the only people left speaking them are elderly adults, Harrison says. When those individuals die, their language will die with them. In addition, children may discard a native language and instead use more common global languages, such as Chinese, English or Spanish.
In the United States alone, 134 native American languages are endangered. Harrison says, “language hotspots” exist all over the world. These are places with endangered languages that haven’t been recorded. They include the state of Oklahoma, pockets of central and eastern Siberia, parts of northern Australia and communities in South America.
1. The purpose of using the question “Taktak tabulaba?” is to ________.| A．introduce a new foreign language |
| B．introduce the topic of the text |
| C．show the difficulty understanding Matukar Panau |
| D．stress the importance of Matukar Panau |
| A．get rid of | B．pick up |
| C．hear of | D．learn about |
| A．dying quickly in Siberia |
| B．popular in some special places |
| C．becoming a worldwide problem |
| D．some native tongues |
3 . Animals are natural resources that people have wasted all through our history. Animals have been killed for their fur and feathers, for food, for sport, and simply because they were in the way. Thousands of kinds of animals have disappeared from the world forever. Hundreds more are on the danger list today. About 170 kinds in the United States alone are considered in danger.
Why should people care? Because we need animals. And because once they are gone, there will never be any more.
Animals are more than just beautiful and interesting. They are more than just a source of food. Every animal has its place in the balance of nature. Destroying one kind of animal can create many problems.
For example, when farmers killed large numbers of hawks(老鹰), the farmers stores of corn and grain were destroyed by rats and mice. Why? Because hawks eat rats and mice. With no hawks to keep down their numbers, the rats and mice multiplied quickly.
Luckily, some people are working to help save the animals. Some groups raise money to let people know about the problem. And they try to get the governments to pass laws protecting animals in danger.
Quite a few countries have passed laws. These laws forbid(禁止)the killing of any animals or plants on the danger list. Slowly, the number of some animals in danger is growing.
1. What is the best title for the passage?| A．Save the Animals | B．Useful Animals |
| C．Laws for Animals | D．Animals in Danger |
| A．they give us a source of food | B．they are beautiful and lovely |
| C．they give us a lot of pleasure | D．they keep the balance of nature |
| A．Became more | B．Became less |
| C．Turned black | D．Ate food |
| A．people have known the importance of animal protection a long time ago |
| B．the number of hawks is on the decrease |
| C．animals play an important role in people’s life |
| D．many countries passed laws forbidding the killing of any animal |
4 . Plastic is used for food packaging(包装) and water bottles as well as many other things you use every day. Look around, plastic is all over! Sadly, much of plastic waste is thrown into waste lands or washed into the sea, breaking down into particles. Particles are often taken in by animals or fish. Unless you are the one who only eats vegetables, it is highly likely that you are also eating this plastic. Besides, when you drink soft drinks from a plastic bottle, you also have the danger of drinking a dangerous chemical. It has been proved that plastic is connected with some types of diseases and young children’s growth.
A plastic bottle can break down into enough small pieces on each seaside in the whole world. They have also been discovered to collect in large amount in sea locations where winds and currents(洋流) are weak.
How do you help to solve the problem? Use a stainless steel(不锈钢) bottle. It is an obvious way to deal with the problem that has been ignored for many years. Many countries become increasingly more familiar with the pollution that is damaging the environment. It’s easy to understand why steps are being taken to discover things to replace the plastic.
If you use a stainless steel water bottle, you can help cut the number of using plastic bottles, which are thrown away and break down gradually. It may even take 1000 years to fade away. In a word, even by doing something as small as changing your water bottle to a stainless steel one, you could make the world a better place to live for future generations.
1. What does the underlined word “particles” mean in paragraph 1?| A．Tiny pieces of plastic. | B．Healthy drinks to humans. |
| C．New bottles. | D．Useful materials. |
| A．They change people’s eating habits. |
| B．They affect people’s ways of choosing food. |
| C．They change people’s attitudes to soft drinks. |
| D．They may make people suffer from some kinds of diseases. |
| A．Winds in the sea are often weak in some seasons. |
| B．Chemicals of animals in the sea are easy to collect. |
| C．Many countries are suffering the pollution of plastic. |
| D．Plastic will completely be replaced by other things in the future. |
| A．A major use of plastic bottles. |
| B．A large amount of plastic on the seaside. |
| C．The future development of plastic bottles. |
| D．The bad influence of plastic bottles and its solution. |
5 . Robert Jarvik, born on May 11, 1946 in Michigan and raised in Stamford, is a medical scientist and researcher, who played an important role in the invention of the artificial heart. He was interested in medicine from a young age. He watched his father perform operations and gained a patent (专利权) for a machine applied in the medical operation before he graduated from high school.
Jarvik attended Syracuse University and considered a career in art. When his father developed heart disease suddenly, he decided then to work on a medical career. He applied to medical schools, but was not admitted to any schools in the US. Before long, he was admitted to the medical school in Italy and stayed there for two years. He returned to get a degree in medicine from New York University in 1971.
After working for a period of time, Jarvik got a job in the organ transplant (器官移植) program at the University of Utah in 1972. He worked with the director of the program, Willem Kolff, who invented the kidney dialysis (肾透析) machine.
By the time Jarvik came to the University of Utah, the organ program had already developed the primary artificial heart. He improved it by creating a diaphragm (横膈膜), which solved many issues with the heart. Eventually, he created the first artificial heart in 1981, the Jarvik-7, to be placed in a human patient, which was considered one of the most important inventions in human history.
Barney Clark, a retired dentist suffering from serious heart disease, received the Jarvik-7 transplant on December 2, 1982. He lived for 112 days after the operation, but the transplant was considered a success. Though receiving criticism for the risk referred to transplant an artificial heart, the Jarvik-7 still became very important for patients who were waiting for a heart. In 1987, Jarvik moved to New York City and formed Jarvik Research Inc. He began developing a new heart — the Jarvik 2000. This smaller machine fits inside a patient’s heart rather than replacing the entire organ.
1. What method does the writer use to develop the passage?| A．By discussing research experiments. |
| B．By following the natural time order. |
| C．By presenting some research results. |
| D．By comparing opinions from different fields. |
| A．items | B．incidents |
| C．problems | D．debates |
| A．His father developed heart disease suddenly. |
| B．He received a patent for the medical operation. |
| C．He took part in the organ program at the University of Utah. |
| D．He was refused to be admitted to any medical school in the US. |
| A．He invented the kidney dialysis machine. |
| B．He created the first artificial heart in 1981. |
| C．He created a diaphragm to fit inside a patient’s heart. |
| D．He did the first heart transplant operation for a heart patient. |
6 . Royal Dutch Shell is launching a $ 300 million and forestry program, at a time when an increasing number of oil companies are putting money in carbon offset (碳补偿)plans to meet climate goals. The company will spend the money over the next three years on projects to store carbon, including large forests in the Netherlands and Spain, and will start offering motorists the option of purchasing carbon offsets when they buy petrol at the pump.
The executives of the company explained that these carbon offset projects were a new business opportunity for Shell, as well as a way to meet its climate targets. “We believe that over time we will be building a business, because these carbon credits will become more valuable as carbon becomes more limited," they said. Shell recently decided to cut its net carbon footprint (碳排放)by 2-3 percent in five years, which includes emissions (排放)from the products it sells. The company plans to produce carbon credits from the forestry projects, then sell these credits on to customers buying its oil and gas products, or apply the credits to its own operations to lower its carbon footprint.
Plants absorb carbon dioxide as they grow and restoring forests and other natural areas is considered one of the simplest ways to store carbon. However, the voluntary market for carbon credits based on forestry projects has its critics, as projects in developing countries can be hard to monitor. Shell's move has also been criticized by some environmentalists. They worried that there was a risk of " greenwash when companies invested in forestry projects. "There is an entire debate about whether forestry projects truly reduce emissions or not," they said, pointing out that planting in one area could cause deforestation (滥伐森林)to another.
Shell said it would rely on the third party to ensure its forest program to meet the Voluntary Carbon Standard and strict biodiversity requirements. Mark Lewis, head of climate change investment research at BNP Paribas, said, " Planting trees to offset emissions, as far as it goes, is a step in the right direction."
1. What is popular among oil companies these days?| A．Studying climate changes. |
| B．Launching forestry programs. |
| C．Working out carbon offset plans. |
| D．Attracting motorists to buy their petrol. |
| A．By quitting the emissions of its products. |
| B．By reducing its carbon footprint by a quarter. |
| C．By limiting the oil used by its own operations. |
| D．By putting carbon credits it produces on the market. |
| A．The projects can't really stop carbon emissions. |
| B．The projects are hard to monitor in poor countries. |
| C．The projects may lead to deforestation in other forests. |
| D．The projects haven't met strict biodiversity requirements. |
| A．Discount. | B．Cheat. |
| C．Decline. | D．Change. |
7 . Cruz Genet, 11, and Anthony Skopick, 10, couldn’t agree. Were the birds out on the ice ducks or geese? So on a cold January evening last year, the two friends ventured (冒险) onto the frozen pond near their homes in Frankfort, Illinois, to get a better look. First, they threw a rock onto the ice to test it, Cruz told NBC 5 Chicago. “Then we stepped on it.” Convinced the ice would hold their weight, Anthony took a few steps, but then he fell through the seemingly frozen surface.
Cruz rushed to help his panicked friend. However, the pond swallowed him, too. Cruz managed to lift himself out of the extremely cold water and onto a more solid section. He then gingerly worked his way toward Anthony. But the ice didn’t hold, and he fell in again. This ime, he couldn’t get out.
The boys were up to their necks in icy water and quickly losing feeling. Any chance of their freeing themselves was slipping away. Cruz was sure that he was going to die.
Anthony’s older sister had seen the boys fall through the ice and started screaming, wishing someone to save them.
John Lavin, a neighbor driving nearby on his way to the grocery store, heard her. He quickly pulled over. Seeing the boys, he grabbed (抓住) a nearby buoy (救生圈), kicked off his shoes, and ran into the cold water, struggling his way through the ice. Lavin made his way to Cruz and Anthony and pulled them back to land.
The boys were taken to the hospital, where doctors discovered that their five- minute stay in the water had lowered their body temperature nearly ten degrees. Fortunately, they have fully recovered, though they are still a little amazed by their fearless neighbor. “Just to think,” says Cruz, “if he hadn’t been there, I could have died.”
1. Why did the boys venture onto the frozen pond?| A．To have a better look at the frozen pond. |
| B．To catch the birds in the pond with rocks. |
| C．To find out what the birds on the ice were. |
| D．To test the thickness of the ice in the pond. |
| A．Casually. | B．Proudly. |
| C．Firmly. | D．Cautiously. |
| A．Anthony’s older sister’s cry for help. | B．Cruz’s loud and frightening scream. |
| C．Their shoes along the nearby pond. | D．Their neighbors’ pulling them back. |
| A．Hard-working and helpful. | B．Warm-hearted and courageous. |
| C．Curious and selfless. | D．Active and generous. |
8 . It happens from time to time that after a whole morning of studying, you are tired in the afternoon. It’s then that you might want to eat something sweet, perhaps a Coke or a chocolate bar, to lift your mood. After all it’s popularly believed that a “sugar rush” gives us energy.
But a study published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews in April suggests that sugar can make us feel worse rather than boost our moods.
The German and UK researchers collected data from 31 studies involving nearly 1,300 adults. They studied the effect of sugar on various aspects of mood, including anger, alertness, depression and tiredness.
They found that people who have too much sugar become more tired and less alert within an hour and that these feelings become more intense over time.
According to the researchers, when people take in sugar their blood sugar levels rise rapidly, leading to a burst of energy and a short “feel good” period. However, as they begin to digest the sugar, their blood sugar levels decrease quickly leading to a bad feeling.
To remain on a “high” people are likely to eat more and more sugar until they become addicted to it. As with caffeine, this prevents the body from relaxing, leaving people feeling tired and less alert.
But the study findings needn’t make us think we must give up sweet food altogether. According to the World Health Organization, it is healthy to have the sugars found naturally in fruit, vegetables and milk so long as these make up less than 5 percent of daily total energy intake.
So the next time you feel tired and can’t concentrate, perhaps you should think twice before you bite into a chocolate bar. Maybe a spot of exercise at midday would be a better idea!
Tips for beating afternoon fatigue.
* Head outside and sit in the daylight for 10 minutes.
* Get into the routine of a mid-afternoon cup of tea.
* Plan group activities for midday.
* Add variety to your routine.
1. What does the underlined word “boost” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．harm | B．improve | C．control | D．change |
| A．They felt more tired. | B．They felt relaxed. |
| C．They were more alert. | D．They felt energetic. |
| A．Our mood is connected to our blood sugar levels. |
| B．Taking in more sugar benefits mental health. |
| C．Getting caffeine is another way to relax. |
| D．Sugar and caffeine are all the same. |
| A．Give up sweet food. | B．Have a bar of chocolate. |
| C．Do an hour of exercise. | D．Eat foods with natural sugars. |
9 . B
The African grey parrot’s ability to talk and mimic sounds makes it a charming companion. African grey owners often report that their greys oftentimes talk in context and can understand their people’s emotions(情感). The African grey parrot is not just a top talker — this bird is also known for its extreme intelligence, which gives them the name ＂The Einsteins of the Bird World＂.
The bird is medium-sized, dusty-looking and almost pigeon-like. It has a bright red tail, intelligent orange eyes, and a stunning scalloped(扇形的) pattern to its feathers. Their diet in the wild consists mostly of nuts, seeds, fruits, and leafy matter.
At home, African greys need plenty of toys that challenge their intelligence, such as food searching and puzzle toys. Nutri-Berries by Lafeber Company are a perfect choice, which, with a balance of grains, seeds and other nutrients in the shape of a berry, encourages African greys to hold, bite off, and even play with, just as they do in the wild.
African greys seem especially affected by stress and disturbing noise in their environment and can be put more at ease by placing one corner of the cage against a wall as opposed to in the middle of a room.
African grey parrots are more likely to suffer from lack of Vitamin-A/beta-carotene, and therefore benefit from eating vegetables high in beta-carotene, such as cooked sweet potato and fresh kale. Lack of Vitamin-D is another concern, especially for greys on a poor diet. Offering a balanced, pill-shaped diet, such as Nutri-Berries, helps prevent vitamin and mineral shortage.
1. Why are African grey parrots called ＂The Einsteins of the Bird World＂?| A．Because of their brain size. | B．Because of their intelligence. |
| C．Because of their talking ability. | D．Because of their rich emotions. |
| A．Puzzle toys for birds. | B．A type of round fruit. |
| C．A brand of bird food. | D．Wild Intelligence games. |
| A．They are smart and love to have fun. | B．They are medium-sized with blue eyes. |
| C．They may get ill due to lack of Vitamin E. | D．They prefer to stay in the middle of the room. |
| A．In science fiction. | B．In a travel guide. |
| C．On a shopping website. | D．In a wildlife magazine. |
10 . Remember Vitainwater’s “free of rolling screen for a year” challenge that dared people to be free from smart phones for a whole year will win $ 100,000? Well, Elana Mugdan, a New York woman, has been into it for eight months, and just four months away from claiming grand prize.
Vitaminwater made news headlines last December when it announced its unique challenge. Thousands of people applied to be chosen as the perfect candidate to spend a year without touching their smart phones, but in the end, the only person who got to try and survive for an entire year without a handheld smart phone was Elana Mugdan, a 29-year-old fiction writer from Queens, New York. Eight months into the challenge, she claims it has been a free and eye-opening experience that shows her just how dependent she becomes on her smart phone. Even though there are times when she misses her handheld smart phone, she plans to go on living without it even after the challenge ends, because she really doesn’t want to go back to days when she abused it, wasted time, stayed up all hours of the night on it, and was obsessed with social media.
But not having access to her smart phone really made certain situations a lot harder than she could have imagined them before. “Many people did me a favor. However, once, I almost got stranded (滞留) in the SeaTac airport because the phone number I’d written down was wrong, and I had no way of referring to the right one, no way of calling a cab, and no one in the state who could help me,” the young writer said.
Another time, her car’s “check engine” light turned on while she was driving in an unfamiliar area at night. She couldn’t use her phone’s GPS location feature, r even check what the light meant on Google or find a nearby car repair shop. Still, she learned to overcome these situations. And now she claims the last eight months of phone-free life have been one of the best adventures of her life and that she’ll keep it for another four months.
1. What’s the challenge “free of rolling screen for a year”?| A．People free from smart phones can live a richer life. |
| B．People living a telephone-free life can be awarded every year. |
| C．People living without computers for a year will win grand prize. |
| D．People spending a year free from smart phones will get a reward. |
| A．satisfied with | B．accustomed to |
| C．addicted to | D．popular with |
| A．It’s fantastic to have someone to help her all the way. |
| B．It’s unimaginable to lose her phone number on the way. |
| C．It’s unnecessary to refer to information with a smart phone. |
| D．It’s difficult to get out of the trouble without a smart phone. |
| A．She couldn’t live without a smart phone. |
| B．She finds no one can help her in the adventure. |
| C．She has not won the grand $ 100,000 prize yet. |
| D．She used to use her smart phone to write fiction. |
