1 . The government's top Great Barrier Reef scientist says a third mass coral bleaching (珊瑚白化) event in five years is a clear signal that the marine wonder is “calling for urgent help on climate change. Corals can recover from mild bleaching, but severe bleaching can kill corals.
Prof Terry Hughes, director of the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, surveyed 1,036 reefs from a plane over nine days in late March.
The marine park authority also had an observer on the flights. The survey has released maps showing that serious levels of bleaching occurred in 2020 in all three sections of the reef northern, central and southern. Some 25% of the reefs were seriously bleached-meaning that more than 60% of the corals on each reef had bleached.
The Great Barrier Reel has experienced five mass bleaching events-1998. 2002,2016, 2017 and 2020 -all caused by rising ocean temperatures driven by global heating. Hughes said there probably would not be the same level of coral death in the north and central regions in 2020 as in previous years, but this was partly because previous bleaching outbreaks had kill off the less heat -tolerant species The 2020 bleaching was second only to 2016 for severity(严重性), Hughes said.
Dr. David Wachenfeld，chief scientist at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, told Guardian Australia "My greatest fear is that people will lose hope for the reef. Without hope there's no action. People need to see these bleaching events, They are clear signals that the Great Barrier Reef is alling for urgent help and for us to do everything we can”.
Measures to improve the ability of recovery of the reef include improving water quality, controlling outbreaks of coral-eating starfish, and research and development to improve the heat tolerance of corals. " However, climate change brings a new scale of impact unlike anything we have seen before. Thus, dealing with the climate problem is the basis for everything else to work, ” Wachenfeld said.
1. What does the underlined word “mild” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Serious |
| B．Strong. |
| C．Steady. |
| D．Slight. |
| A．The majority of the corals on each reef were bleached. |
| B．The survey was carried out on a plane by Hughes alone. |
| C．The 2020 bleaching killed off the less heat tolerant species. |
| D．The 2020 bleaching was worse than those of all the previous years. |
| A．have done everything they can for the reef |
| B．are sure to lose hope for the reef |
| C．will care more about the reef |
| D．will have no action at all |
| A．Improving water quality. |
| B．Making efforts to prevent global warming. |
| C．controlling outbreaks of coral-eating starfish., |
| D．Doing research on the heat tolerance of corals. |
2 . Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service. The Facebook website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates.
The founders had limited the website’s membership to Harvard students at first; however, later they expanded it to various other universities, and eventually to high school students as well. Since 2006, anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old has been allowed to become a registered（注册了的）user of Facebook, though differences exist in the youngest age requirement, depending on local laws. Facebook has more than 2 billion monthly active users as of June 2017. As of April 2016, Facebook was the most popular social networking site in the world, based on the number of active user accounts.
Facebook may be accessed by a large range of desktops, smartphones over the Internet and mobile networks. After registering to use the site, users can create a user profile showing their names and so on. Users can add other users as “friends”, exchange messages, post photos and so on.
Facebook makes most of its income from advertisements which appear on screen, marketing access for its customers to its users.
1. What does the underlined word “launched” in Paragraph 1 mean？| A．Prevented. | B．Started | C．Permitted. | D．Supplied. |
| A．Harvard students. | B．High school students. |
| C．Students in all universities. | D．Old people. |
| A．How to become a Facebook member. | B．How Americans communicate today. |
| C．A brief story of Mark Zuckerberg. | D．A brief introduction to Facebook. |
3 . Germans have a word “wanderlust” which translated into English would be “the desire to wander”. Nowadays the chance to travel is endless. Thanks to cheap air tickets, travelling abroad is very easy and sometimes it's even cheaper to fly out of the country than to travel within your own. So, yes, travelling is cheap but there have to be other reasons to travel and you're right. There are plenty of reasons!
I have always had this feeling of wanderlust. It started from me wanting to explore my local woods at the back of my garden as a young girl and as I have grown, so has my sense of adventure. And I found my local woods being replaced with the Brazil wetland, Pantanal, where I went last summer in search of jaguars, snakes and crocodiles. The thing with travelling is that it's always different. Even if you went to the same country, to the same town and stayed in exactly the same hotel, it would be a completely different experience. The people you meet will be different, and they will tell you their own travelling stories: stories of holiday romances, holiday worries and stories that seem so outrageous that you can hardly believe them until something similar happens to you.
Or maybe the difference is you? Maybe you have changed since last time you were there? And that's the thing with travelling—it changes you. When you travel you are forced to experience a new culture. Whether it's eating a guinea pig, or staying with a family where neither of you speak a common language and you have to communicate through hand actions and smiles, the experience gives me itchy feet to do it all again. And although wanderlust is a German word, the English idiom “to have itchy feet” has a similar idea. Someone who has itchy feet needs to leave or travel. This desire to explore is found not only in language but in us.
1. According to Paragraph 2, what is the most important part of travelling?| A．Having different experiences. |
| B．Hearing many travelling stories. |
| C．Experiencing holiday romances. |
| D．Taking more adventures. |
| A．interesting | B．surprising | C．moving | D．disappointing |
| A．Staying with a family without common languages. |
| B．Communicating through hand actions and smiles. |
| C．Eating a guinea pig with a family. |
| D．Experiencing a different culture. |
| A．give various reasons for travelling |
| B．encourage people to travel abroad |
| C．explain the German word “wanderlust” |
| D．share the writer's travelling experiences |
4 . On an autumn afternoon, a remote sheep farm in southern Greenland is quiet. The silence is abruptly broken when dozens of sheep come thundering across the hills overlooking the farm. Walking after them are Lars Nielsen and his 37-year-old son Kunuk Nielsen.
The Nielsen family has owned and run the farm since 1972. Kunuk says the summers now are longer than when he was a child and that drought has become a problem. The fields are not so green as those in the old days. He has to buy hay (草料) from European countries.
The effects of a warming climate are obvious on the land. While he intends to struggle on, his older brother Pilu has chosen a different path.
Pilu, 40, lives in Qaqortoq in the south of Greenland -- a town of about 3,000 people. Ten years ago, he got his helicopter pilot's license and is now part owner of a small company called Sermeq Helicopters. It caters to construction and telecommunication workers and an increasing number of foreign tourists.
Pilu says he loves his family's sheep farm. But he saw that warming temperatures were making remote areas of Greenland more accessible and wanted to look for other opportunities. His company's most popular tours include a visit to Greenland's glaciers.
The warming temperatures are also affecting traditional ways of life, particularly hunting. The sea ice is changing; it's becoming less so that hunting on ice becomes more difficult. When there's no sea ice, it's difficult to use dog sledges (雪橇)，and the whole culture around having dogs and dog sledges and doing traditional hunting on the ice is sort of diminishing.
Besides, many Greenlanders, like Pilu, are leaving the countryside for towns and the capital city Nuuk, where opportunities are greater. A report found that Nuuk's share of Greenland's population grew from 17.2% in 1977 to 29.2% in 2014. If there were enough houses in Nuuk, the share would even be bigger.
1. What problem does Kunuk Nielsen's farm face?| A．Lack of workers. | B．Less food for his sheep. |
| C．Less space forhissheep. | D．Lack of foreign markets. |
| A．By casting a shadow on its business. |
| B．By making it hard for locals to earn a living. |
| C．By promoting the development of its tourism. |
| D．By making more remote areas suitable for living. |
| A．Occurring. | B．Operating. |
| C．Adapting. | D．Decreasing |
| A．Housing pressure. | B．Climate change. |
| C．Weakeconomy. | D．Poor living conditions. |
5 . More than 10 years ago，it was difficult to buy a tasty pineapple (菠萝)．The fruits that made it to the UK were green on the outside and，more often than not，hard with an unpleasant taste within.Then in 1996，the Del Monte Gold pineapple produced in Hawaii first hit our shelves.
The new type of pineapple looked more yellowygold than green. It was slightly softer on the outside and had a lot of juice inside.But the most important thing about this new type of pineapple was that it was twice as sweet as the hitandmiss pineapples we had known.In no time，the Del Monte Gold took the market by storm，rapidly becoming the world’s bestselling pineapple variety，and delivering natural levels of sweetness in the mouth，up until then only found in tinned pineapple.
In nutrition (营养) it was all good news too.This nicetasting pineapple contained four times more vitamin C (维生素C) than the old green variety.Nutritionists said that it was not only full of vitamins，but also good against some diseases.People were understandably eager to be able to buy this wonderful fruit.The new type of pineapple was selling fast, and the Del Monte Gold pineapple rapidly became a_fixture in the shopping basket of the healthy eaters.
Seeing the growing market for its winning pineapple，Del Monte tried to keep the market to itself.But other fruit companies developed similar pineapples.Del Monte turned to law for help，but failed.Those companies argued successfully that Del Monte’s attempts to keep the golden pineapple for itself were just a way to knock them out of the market.
1. We learn from the text that the new type of pineapple is________.| A．green outside and sweet inside |
| B．goodlooking outside and soft inside |
| C．yellowygold outside and hard inside |
| D．a little soft outside and sweet inside |
| A．It was rich in nutrition and tasted nice. |
| B．It was less sweet and good for health. |
| C．It was developed by Del Monte. |
| D．It was used as medicine. |
| A．that people enjoy eating |
| B．that is always present |
| C．that is difficult to get |
| D．that people use as a gift |
| A．allowed other companies to develop pineapples |
| B．succeeded in keeping the pineapple for itself |
| C．tried hard to control the pineapple market |
| D．planned to help the other companies |
6 . A company in San Francisco, California, has found a way to turn used plastic bottles into women’s shoes.
Every day, millions of Americans drink water and other liquids from plastic bottles. More than 60 million of them are thrown away each day. Many of the plastic bottles end up in landfills or are burned with other waste products.
A San Francisco start-up company called Rothy’s, however, turns this plastic waste into environmentally friendly shoes. Roth Martin is the company’s co-founder. He explains how they turn plastic into soft material for women’s feet. They take the plastic, clean it, and break it down into small pieces. Then they press them through a device that makes soft fibers. Those fibers are then combined together. This is done by a 3D machine. It is designed to reduce waste while making the shoes. The knitted stuff and the inner part of the shoe are then attached to the shoe’s outer part, called the sole (鞋底). This outer sole is also made from environmentally friendly material: responsibly sourced no-carbon rubber.
Rothy’s shoes are sold online. They are flat shoes, with either a rounded or pointed toe. They come in different colors and designs. They cost either $ 125 or $ 145 per pair, depending on the design. After American actress Gwyneth Paltrow discovered them last year, the demand for the shoes grew. Martin says there is no shortage of material to fill that demand. “We’re not going to run out of water bottles any time soon. So we have a limitless supply of material, and I think that is a good sign for our future.” When the environmentally friendly shoes wear out, customers can return them at no cost to a company that uses the recycled materials to make other products.
For now, the shoes are only available to be shipped in the United States. However, the company says it will add international shipping in the near future.
1. What does the underlined word knitted in the third paragraph mean?| A．attached | B．combined |
| C．fixed | D．repaired |
| A．The design and color. | B．The reasonable price. |
| C．The star power of Gwyneth Paltrow. | D．The company’s advertisement. |
| A．To introduce a new way of recycling plastic waste. |
| B．To describe the process of making shoes. |
| C．To advertise a new kind of shoes. |
| D．To stress the importance of environmental protection. |
7 .
| Dear Mary, I’m a young professional working for a company. I’ve been in the same workplace for a couple of years, and there are many things I love about it. A few months ago, however, I got a new boss. He never gave me positive feedback, but leaned over my shoulder and disliked everything I did. When I tried talking to him about my concerns, he suggested I give up. The stress being too much to bear, I moved to another job in the same company. While the pay was lower, it would allow me to take some classes to improve myself. Here’s the problem. At the beginning, I agreed to help with small tasks from my old department while it searched for my replacement(接替者). But it seems that my old boss isn’t actively searching. I am still under as much stress as I was working for him full time, but now I’m getting less pay. How do I deal with this situation without jeopardizing my new position, which fits my education schedule so well? Rose |
| Dear Rose, You have probably realized that it was a mistake to make such an open-ended offer. You should have suggested helping out with certain tasks for a certain period of time, which would have made your old boss replace you timely. Now here’re two ways. First, communicate what’s going on to your new boss. Don’t make it a huge complaint, just be matter-of-fact. You thoughtfully offered to help your old department through a transitional(过渡的) period for the good of the company—but you can’t keep doing two jobs forever, and you want to focus on doing the best you can in your new role. Your new boss needs to know that this is happening—and, frankly, should immediately step in to handle the matter without further discussion. Second, you should say no if necessary. The next time your old boss asks you to do something, tell him that while you are happy to help him, you must give your new job your full attention. Remember you’re not complaining, or starting a fight; you simply have the company’s best interests in mind. Your old department needs to move on—and you need to do your new job. Mary |
1. What’s the problem with Rose now?
| A．She’s getting on badly with her new boss. |
| B．She’s getting less pay for her new job. |
| C．She’s overworking for her old boss. |
| D．She’s losing interest in her new job. |
| A．Preventing. | B．Damaging. | C．Benefiting. | D．Refusing. |
| A．Accepting tasks without certain limits. | B．Asking for too much from the company. |
| C．Refusing many tasks from the new boss. | D．Losing her job from the old department. |
| A．Balancing the old and new jobs. | B．Making more huge complaints. |
| C．Saying no to any given tasks. | D．Having open communication. |
8 . Our tolerating ability is indeed way beyond our imagination.But not until the very critical moment will we realize our potential tolerating ability.
There was a woman in the countryside who got married at the age of 18 and had to escape with her two daughters and a son wherever she could at the age of 26 due to the Japanese army’s invasion.Many people could not bear the suffering of being a fugitive(逃亡者)and wanted to commit suicide.Knowing that，she would come to those people and soothed them by saying，“Don’t do that silly thing.There are no such setbacks that we could not overcome.The Japanese armies are bound to be driven away one day！”
Finally，she insisted until the day when all the Japanese armies were kicked out of China.However，her son died of disease without sufficient medicine and nutrition in those days of hardships.Her husband，after knowing the death of his son，lay in bed for two days without eating and drinking anything.She said to her husband in tears，“We have a tough destiny，but however tough our lives will be，we should persist in our efforts.”
After she gave birth to the second son，her husband died of edema(水肿)，which almost blew her away.But eventually，she recovered and embraced the three young children，saying，“My sweethearts，don’t feel scared.You still have me，your dear mum！”
It took her painstaking efforts to raise her children up，and the life of her family was getting better and better.Two daughters were married and so was her son finally.She said to everyone she met，“Look! What I said is absolutely right.There are no such setbacks that we could not overcome! My life is so happy now！”
She lived until 86.Before she went to Heaven，she said to her children，“You all should live to your best.There are no such setbacks that we could not overcome！”
1. What does the underlined word “soothed” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Criticized. | B．Evaluated. |
| C．Thrilled. | D．Comforted. |
| A．Japanese invasion. |
| B．Her husband’s death. |
| C．Lack of nutrition and medicine. |
| D．A disease called edema. |
| A．the woman led a tough life |
| B．the woman showed great love to her kids |
| C．hardships can be overcome with an iron will and strong tolerating ability |
| D．invading other countries would make people there suffer a lot |
