1 . When you think of the Himalayas, you may picture tall, rocky, snow-covered peaks. But that’s not true.
The subnival (亚冰雪的) region is the zone between the treeline and the snowline. It is 5 to 5 times as large as the areas of glaciers and permanent snow, which means studying it is vital to understanding the Himalayas as a whole.
The treeline is the edge of an ecosystem where trees are able to grow, and beyond the treeline environmental conditions become too tough to allow tree growth. Meanwhile, snowlines are the boundaries on mountains that separate areas with permanent snow (where snow is present for the majority of the year) from areas with seasonal or no snow.
Researchers used satellite data from 1993 to 2018 to measure plant cover between 4,150 meters and 6,000 meters above sea level. The scientists discovered that the greatest increase in plant cover was between an altitude of 5,000 meters and 5,500 meters. Subnival plants mostly include small shrubs and grasses.
Even areas once completely occupied by glaciers now hold rocks covered with mosses, lichen, and sometimes even flowers. In addition, the snowline seems to be retreating, while the treeline is expanding. This shows that the region is becoming warmer, causing more melting of snow and allowing vegetation to move up in height.
In the past 40 years, 25% of all Himalayan ice has been lost due to global warming. Himalayan glaciers are reducing by about 0.5 meters each year. The rate of glacier melting has doubled in this decade. The melting of glaciers increases water in the region, making it wetter. Receding snow also forces the snowline to move up, providing a greater amount of area for the warm and moist conditions, which are perfect for vegetation growth.
As of now, we do not know whether vegetation will accelerate or slow down the rate of glacier melting.
1. How does the writer develop the third paragraph?| A．By explaining concepts. | B．By providing some examples. |
| C．By analyzing causes and effects. | D．By listing specific data. |
| A．Disappearing. | B．Lengthening. | C．Withdrawing. | D．Widening. |
| A．The snowline moves up. | B．Glaciers are melting faster. |
| C．The subnival area is wetter. | D．Plants grow much better. |
| A．The climate of the Himalayas is changing. | B．Icebergs in the Himalayas have disappeared. |
| C．Plants are diverse in the Himalayas. | D．Plant life spreads in the Himalayas. |
2 . If you're feeling hungry, what’s the easiest way to satisfy your Hunger? Many of Us will reach for a takeaway menu and order some delicious-but possibly unhealthy -food. And our increasingly hectic lives add to our need to buy ready-made food because we always have no time or energy to cook on our own.
Eating options are endless, and new technology means we can feed our desire at the push of a button. Takeaway delivery apps make ordering food quick and convenient. It's estimated that in the UK alone, people eat three million takeaway meals a day, and the three biggest delivery apps together offer a choice of 100 foods from 60,000 restaurants. Amelia Brophy, head of UK Data Products at YouGov, told the BBC that its research suggests that the frequency of takeaways ordered is expected to increase in the future.
It’s no wonder we are tempted to skip the grocery shopping, bypass the kitchen, and tuck into something that someone else has prepared. But ordering a pizza, a spicy curry or a box of noodles, can come at a price both financially and to our health. Eating too much processed and unhealthy fast food has some effect on obesity and the risk of developing certain diseases. A few years ago, the BBC Good Food Nation Survey found most people eating fast food on average two days per week gradually putting on weight.
Of course, reducing salt, sugar and fat is one way to make takeaway food healthier, as well as offering smaller portion sizes. But the best advice for you is to find a recipe book and try making your own nutritious meals. And if you haven't got time, try ordering a healthier alternative from the menu.
1. What does the underlined word “hectic” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Abnormal. | B．Busy. | C．Irregular. | D．Social. |
| A．The various food. |
| B．Their delicious taste. |
| C．Their relatively low price. |
| D．The advanced technology. |
| A．Takeaway foods may do harm to health. |
| B．Takeaway foods make people light-hearted. |
| C．Pizza and noodles are the most popular takeaway foods. |
| D．The UK has the largest number of people ordering takeaway foods. |
| A．To give readers some suggestions. |
| B．To offer readers an alternative menu. |
| C．To find the reason for ordering takeaway foods. |
| D．To choose the best way of making nutritious meals. |
3 . Wouldn’t it be wonderful to travel to a foreign country without having to worry about the headache of communicating in a different language?
In a recent Wall Street journal article, technology policy expert A lec Ross argued that, within a decade or so. We’ll be able to communicate with one another via small earpieces with built-in microphones. That’s because technological progress is extremely rapid. It’s only a matter of time. Indeed, some parents are so convinced that this technology is imminent that they’re wondering if their kids should even learn a second language.
It’s true that an increase in the quantity and accuracy (准确) of the data loaded into computers make them cleverer at translating “No es bueno dormir mucho” as “It’s not good to sleep too much.” Replacing a word with its equivalent (同义词) in the target language is actually the “easy part of a translator’s job”. But even this seems to be a discouraging task for computers.
It’s so difficult for computers because translation doesn’t—or shouldn’t—involve simply translating words, sentences or paragraphs. Rather, it’s about translating meaning. And in order to infer meaning from a specific expression, humans have to interpret a mass of information at the same time. Think about all the related clues that go into understanding an expression: volume, gesture, situation, and even your culture. All are likely to convey as much meaning as the words you use.
Therefore, we should doubt whether a machine is able to translate the world around us. If people from different cultures can offend each other without realizing it, how can we expect a machine to do better? Unless engineers actually find a way to breathe a soul into a computer, undoubtedly when it comes to conveying and translation meaning using a natural language, a machine will never fully take our place.
1. What does the underlined word “imminent” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Ready. | B．Coming. | C．Helpful. | D．Advanced. |
| A．Their data is not adequate (充足的) enough. |
| B．The real meaning of words can change. |
| C．Their accuracy needs big improvement. |
| D．A soul hasn’t been breathed into them. |
| A．Proper translation can be difficult for humans. |
| B．Slight difference mean little in translation. |
| C．Some machines will translate our world properly. |
| D．Cultures deserve more attention than words used. |
| A．A new language translating machine |
| B．Translation will become easier |
| C．Who Will Be a Better Translator |
| D．Will Language Barrier (障碍) Actually Fall |
4 . Today we can do everything with apps: pay bills, order food and shop for anything. Mobile technology means we can hold the world in our hands. However, when it comes to technology and health care, chances and challenges come together.
Let's start with the ways to get health care. Telemedicine can allow a patient to use technology to see the doctor online and get a diagnosis and instructions without leaving home.
In addition, there are many patient websites. These allow for different kinds of interactions about our health needs without involving the medical team. Setting a date with doctors and reading lab results are readily achieved by technology.
A whole new age of medical care seems likely to come in the future. But every coin has two sides. What might be on the other side of techno-health care?
Firstly, we should think about the health care experience as a whole. A usual visit to a doctor begins with a receptionist, who can see and tell how a patient is doing. This may influence the treatment effect. It's unlikely that a patient website will have such intuition.
Next, sharing the details of one's life requires trust, which takes time to build. This is certainly true in health care, where some of life's best and worst moments involve doctors. The human touch should not be undervalued and is unlikely to be there over the smartphone.
Lastly, test results can be difficult to understand. When someone without a medical degree sees a flagged result with no explanation on the website, there's room for all kinds of stories to form in their minds—and also great worry .
So how does medicine adapt to the new technology age? Very talented companies are working on it. There is medical equipment that can be used at home to send necessary signs and heart sounds through telemedicine. It seems likely that some companies will find a way to explain test results.
But what it will not achieve is the warmth of human interaction and touch. Patients often need someone to listen to-and care about — their journey story, which will never be realized through a human-less technology. Technology should be a tool, but depending on it totally will most certainly have unexpected effects. Let's not allow our humanity to be one of them.
1. How does technology help health care?| A．It encourages doctors to voice their needs on the websites. |
| B．It offers the patient a convenient way to get a diagnosis. |
| C．It improves relations between doctors and patients. |
| D．It provides a chance to build a medical team. |
| A．An interesting experience. | B．An ability to understand. |
| C．A chance to win. | D．A fair decision. |
| A．Patient websites require trust from doctors. | B．Talented companies can give medical advice. |
| C．Flagged results may cause worry for patients. | D．Medical equipment collects patients' stories. |
| A．Technology can deal with unexpected effects. |
| B．Telemedicine can take the place of usual health care. |
| C．Techno-health care should take humanity into consideration. |
| D．It is difficult for patients to adapt to the new technology age. |
5 . The pandemic has put the future on fast-forward, with one noticeable idea: the drive-in cinema.
In the early 1930s, Richard Hollingshead, a car-parts salesman, had an idea. He'd heard his mother complain about how uncomfortable she found the wooden seats in cinemas. What if she could watch a film from the comfort of her car? To test the thought in his driveway, he put a film projector on the front part of his car, hung a sheet from some trees and invited his neighbors. He patented the idea and in June 1933 opened his first drive in cinema near Camden, New Jersey.
But the idea was slow to take off. By 1945 there were only 96 drive-ins in America. Everything changed in 1949 when Hollingshead's patent was overturned, allowing other companies to open drive-ins without having to pay him tax. With the development of an in-car speaker and perfect synchronization with the on-screen image, the number of drive-ins in America jumped to 2,000 by 1950 and more than 4,000 by 1958.
Drive-in cinemas went into a fall in the late 1950s as shopping malls sprang up in American suburbs. The space occupied by drive-ins was more valuable to property developers as a location for daytime shopping, rather than just showing films in the evening. Besides, more and more people had televisions at home.
The few hundred remaining drive-ins have experienced an unexpected rebirth in 2020 as social-distancing requirements forced indoor cinemas to close. This summer 160 Walmart parking lots were turned into temporary drive-ins. In many ways, the covid-19 outbreak has driven us into the future, promoting the adoption of remote working, online learning, e-commerce and telemedicine. When it comes to drive-ins, however, the pandemic has taken us back to the past.
1. What is a drive-in cinema?| A．A park-in theatre. | B．An indoor theatre. |
| C．A car rental company. | D．A parking space. |
| A．Spreading. | B．Out of date. | C．Registered. | D．Out of favor. |
| A．People didn't like them anymore. | B．They were less interesting than TVs. |
| C．They were purchased by property developers. | D．The space for them was not available anymore. |
| A．The rise and fall of drive-in cinemas. |
| B．The contributions made by Richard Hollingshead. |
| C．The unexpected return of drive-ins during the pandemic. |
| D．The difficult situation of cinemas under the pandemic. |
6 . You may not know a lot of people when you start high school. Even if you know some freshman (新生), you still feel nervous that you don’t know any upperclassmen and teachers. How are you going to make friends among this sea of unknown faces?
Most high schools holds a freshman orientation before school actually starts, which is helpful not only because you can know your way around the buildings and get to meet some of your teachers, but also because you get to meet fellow freshmen. That way，when you show up on your first day of school, you may already recognise a few familiar faces. When you talk to your new classmates, you will probably find that a lot of them are feeling just like you are. They are all new to the school and don’t know what to expect. Talking about a common concern with them can help you develop friendships.
The work in school is something that freshmen are probably worried about. The work in high school builds on what you learnt in middle school, giving you a more advanced knowledge of many subjects. So you may find you have more work to do or that it’s a bit more challenging. If you ever find your work too difficult, teachers can give you extra help.
High school also has more extracurricular activities than middle school does, such as clubs, music and theatre groups and sports teams. This is a good time to explore your interests and try new things.
High school gives you the chance to learn how to manage your time, to develop your social skills and interests, and more importantly, to be more independent and responsible.
1. Who is this passage written for?| A．Freshmen’s parents. | B．Middle school students. |
| C．Freshmen at high school. | D．Upperclassmen in high school. |
| A．Game. | B．Training. |
| C．Discussion. | D．Examination. |
| A．The work in high school. | B．The freshman orientation. |
| C．The ability to make friends. | D．The relationship with teachers. |
| A．develop their interests and try new things |
| B．make new friends |
| C．improve their learning ability |
| D．build up healthy bodies |
7 . The ice around Alaska is not just melting. It's gotten so low that the situation is endangering some people's food and jobs.
“The seas are extraordinary warm. It is affecting the ability for Americans in the area to put food on the table right now,” said University of Alaska climate expert Rick Thoman.
Ocean temperatures in the Chukchi and North Bering seas are nearly 5°C above normal, satellite data shows.
“The northern Bering and southern Chukchi Seas are baking. And there are immediate local and economic influences along the state's western and northern coastlines. Birds and sea animals are showing up dead and sea temperatures are warm enough to support algae (藻类) to grow rapidly, robbing sea animals of oxygen and sunshine.” he said.
Many coastal Alaska towns are facing dire situation since they depend on fishing to support their economy and feed people who live there.
“Much of what the people eat there comes from food they harvest themselves,” said Brian Brettschneider at the International Arctic Research Center. “If people can't get out on the ice to hunt seals or whales, that affects their food security. It is a human crisis (危机) of survival.”
The warming is a sure signal of a warming planet, according to Brettschneider.
“This event is unquestionably a reflection of our changing climate. And this year's conditions will have a lasting effect. These extraordinary warm waters will take a while to cool off as winter approaches, and later and thinner ice is expected in the coming winter.” he said.
“What is happening in coastal Alaska is what is coming in one sense for everybody else,” he said. “Most people are feeling the effects of climate change even if they don't know it. Changes are happening, and changes will be more obvious. ”
1. Why is the food for people in Alaska at risk according to Rick Thoman?| A．The sea water is too warm for creatures in the sea. |
| B．Climate change causes the increasing death of sea creatures. |
| C．Fishers are forced to quit their jobs because of climate change. |
| D．Higher temperature produces poisonous plants that can't be eaten. |
| A．Inconvenient | B．Familiar. | C．Sudden. | D．Awful |
| A．Positive. | B．Curious. | C．Concerned. | D．Unclear. |
| A．People can do nothing to deal with climate change. |
| B．Climate change makes people in Alaska live a hard life. |
| C．More efforts should be made to protect the sea life in Alaska. |
| D．There are many reasons why the ocean in Alaska is warming. |
8 . Having a light electric bike that can be folded(折叠) in to fit your backpack would be very practical, don’t you agree? Well, it seems Smacircle is the answer.
Inventors have created an electric bike called Smacircle which is not only as light as two newborn babies but folds up and fits in a backpack. The ebike can reach speeds of 20km/h and is controlled with a smartphone app.The ebike folds up into a backpack in less than ten seconds, by which time it’s no taller than 49cm. It weighs a little over 7kg and can be suitable for riders of different sizes. Powered by a 240W motor and built-in battery, this ebike allows you to ride up to 20km distance.
The first models have been made and tested, and its makers are seeking further investment with an aim to bring it to the mainstream market. Chinese designers believe it might change the way people commute (通勤) to work. They can avoid crowded public transport, simply go through heavy traffic, perfect to commute in the city when their destination is too far to walk yet too close to drive.
CEO Gavin Yang, from Shenzhen in China, said, Smacircle is a special creative design invented to fill in the gap in short commute personal transportation. Their team has spent countless hours on research and development, and are determined to bring the people the best possible solution for short commutes, he said.
As it has not yet hit the market, there is no price available. We have spent almost two years developing this Smacircle ebike and now we have made the concept a reality, said Mr Yang.
1. What is the main idea for the passage?| A．It mainly introduces Smacircle. |
| B．It advertises for the ebike. |
| C．Gavin Yang looks for business partners. |
| D．Gavin Yang has changed how people travel. |
| A．The bike is 94cm tall after you fold it. |
| B．You can ride within 20km with a full battery. |
| C．The ebike has been made a reality in the market. |
| D．Everyone can commute to work on the ebike. |
| A．Beat. | B．Cross. | C．Reach. | D．Affect. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Worrying. | C．Unsure. | D．Positive. |
9 . There are many reasons to skip deep-fried fast food, one of which is the challenge of dealing with used cooking oil. But researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered amusing method of transforming this useless waste product into an affordable plastic ink for 3D printers. And there’s more good news! The ink can breakdown naturally, unlike conventional 3D printing resins (树脂).
Professor Andre Simpson is director of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto. He first became interested in the idea when he got a 3D printer around three years ago. After noticing that the molecules (分子) used in commercial resins resembled fats found in cooking oil, he wondered whether such a molecule could be created using waste cooking oil.
Using old cooking oil from a local McDonalds restaurant close to a campus, Professor Simpson and his research team applied a one-step chemical process in the lab, using about one liter of used cooking oil to make just under half of that amount in resins. The resin was then used to print a plastic butterfly that was structurally and thermally (热地) stable. This means that it won’t crumble or melt above room temperature.
Speaking to Goodnet, Professor Simpson outlined his high hopes for the creative and cheaper route to recycling that waste cooking oil: “Normally 3D printing resins come from fossil fuels, but by recycling used cooking oil into a high value product, we hope it will reduce the financial barriers, which should be a win-win for the environment.
Professor Simpson is also excited that the new lower cost of this 3D printing material will open up access to the near-limitless creative opportunities. “We hope that as the resin can be made very cheaply, it could reduce the 3D printing cost, so the technology is available to everyone,” he explains.
1. How do the researchers deal with the waste cooking oil?| A．Produce 3D printers from it. |
| B．Make plastic inkfor3D printers from it. |
| C．Throw it away as waste products. |
| D．Use it as 3D printing resins directly. |
| A．Swell up | B．Get up | C．Break up | D．Heat up |
| A．They are much stronger. | B．They can be recycled easily. |
| C．They are lower in cost. | D．They won’t breakdown naturally. |
| A．Researchers Invent New 3D Printers. | B．Waste Cooking Oil Finds a New Life. |
| C．3D Printing Resins Bring More Hopes. | D．A High-tech Product Changes Our Lives. |
10 . A message appeared in my Facebook Messenger inbox. It was from a woman I met briefly through a friend. “Hello, lady. Invite you to join my next challenge group — we’ll be focusing on fitting in 30 minutes of exercise, balanced nutrition and motivation. Let me help you reach your goals!”
I laughed and ignored it. Though I’m a little fat, I’m healthy. But the meaning behind the message stuck with me all day. The more the day went on, the heavier her message weighed on me. The insecurity about my body was brought to life by one little Facebook message. That got me thinking about stepping away from social media.
But what drove the nail into my Facebook coffin was when I posted a photo — and five minutes later my son asked how many “likes” it got.
Likes equal acceptance and approval, which need to come from within. I unknowingly set a dangerous example as it won’t be long before he has his own phone and the freedom to post his own pictures. I didn’t want him to wait for his friends to “like” them and like and accept him. He should know his self-worth doesn’t rely on what others think or click.
I deactivated my Facebook account. At first I felt lost. I missed the mindless scrolling while waiting in lineups. I carried a book with me. I’d been in the habit of checking Facebook as first thing in the morning and last thing at night, so I had to come up with some new habits.
And the results were immediate once the fog of Facebook disappeared. We were much happier as a family because I was completely present and the break left me feeling better about myself, my family, my home and my life.
1. Why did the author feel the message heavier on her?| A．Her figure attracted others’ attention. | B．Her passion for keeping fit decreased. |
| C．Her fitness began to worry her. | D．Her private information was given away. |
| A．Difficulties in getting “likes”. | B．Possible influence on her son. |
| C．Problems with online safety. | D．Lack of time for reading. |
| A．Changed. | B．Canceled. | C．Hid. | D．Set. |
| A．Return to a Normal Life | B．Hello, Happiness |
| C．Develop a Good Habit | D．Goodbye, Social Media |
