1. What does the speaker do?
| A．A medical doctor. | B．A fitness instructor. | C．A swimming coach. |
| A．Focusing on only muscle training. |
| B．Doing too many types of workouts. |
| C．Keeping the same routine all the time. |
| A．Once a week. | B．Twice a week. | C．Three times a week. |
2 . What will people die of 100 years from now? If you think that is a simple question, you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in bio-technology(生物科技). With the help of new medicine, the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents, murder and war. Today’s leading killers, such as heart disease, cancer, and aging itself, will become distant memories.
In discussion of technological changes, the Internet gets most of attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells are the basic units of all living things, and until recently, scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cells, such as those of brain cells, would not last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100, medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so, people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs. The medicine, made up of the basic building materials of life, will build new brain cells, heart cells and so on, in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.
It is exciting to imagine that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic condition of human existence, but many technical problems still must be cleared up on the way to this wonderful future.
1. According to the passage, human death is now mainly caused by ________.| A．diseases and aging | B．accidents and war |
| C．accidents and aging | D．heart disease and war |
| A．Medicine | B．the Internet | C．brain cells | D．human organs |
| A．heart disease will be far away from us |
| B．human brains can decide the final death |
| C．the basic materials of cells will last forever |
| D．human organs can be repaired by new medicine |
Gail Devers, an American athlete and also a three-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field, got her first one in 1992.
In the years leading up to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Devers experienced a series of
Thirty years went by. Today, Devers wants to raise awareness for the disease and
She also says, “My Graves’ disease has made me who I am. Therefore, I always tell people that if I had my life to live over, I would ask for this disease again,” she says. “I believe I’m stronger at
4 . There is nothing like a coast redwood. It is the planet’s tallest tree, up to heights of more than 320 feet into the sky. With trunks that grow to more than 27 feet wide, they can live for over 2,000 years. Some of them living today were alive during the time of the Roman Empire (帝国).
Coast redwoods have survived through thousands of years of natural floods, droughts, tsunamis and fires. They can thrive (茁壮成长) and recover from damage as long as they can count on rainwater and coastal fog banks that roll in every morning. And it is those critical water sources that are disappearing as temperatures continue to rise. The damp conditions the trees like are rarer than they used to be. Coast redwoods now occupy less than 10 percent of their original range.
Their loss will have some consequences, particularly in the vast amount of carbon they store. Redwoods can store 2,600 metric tons of carbon per hectare, more than double the absorption rate of the Pacific Northwest’s conifer trees (针叶树), according to a new research published in Forest Ecology and Management.
David Milarch, an arborist from Michigan, says he feels sorrowful about the disappearing redwoods. He spends his days tracking down the healthiest coast redwood specimens (样本) he can find, cloning them in his own lab, and then planting them in carefully chosen places where they can thrive. Milarch’s goal is both to strengthen the coast redwood gene pool with clones of the strongest individuals, and to store loads of carbon. It’s a complicated mission with a simple philosophy: save the big trees, and they’ll save us.
Milarch explains that we need a practical and measurable solution to fighting against climate change. He believes the redwoods are the answer. However, scientist Mark Maslin cautions against viewing tree planting as a magic bullet, since even fast-growing trees take a long time to grow and be mature enough to reach their maximum carbon-trapping time which climate change cannot afford. As a global society, the most important thing we should do now is to reduce our overall carbon emissions if we want to have any impact on the planet’s climate crisis.
1. What causes the decrease of coast redwoods?| A．Forest fires. | B．Soil pollution. |
| C．Climate warming. | D．Human overcutting. |
| A．To show the importance of redwoods to the environment. |
| B．To introduce the approach to reducing carbon pollutants. |
| C．To state the role of the Pacific Northwest’s conifer trees. |
| D．To explain the difficulty of protecting coast redwoods. |
| A．By seeking ideal specimens to clone. |
| B．By exploring ways to raise their adaptability. |
| C．By improving water sources in coastal places. |
| D．By creating a wet growing environment for them. |
| A．Scientists need to find ways to make redwoods grow faster. |
| B．Growing redwoods is an efficient solution to climate change. |
| C．Protecting redwoods can be much costlier than Milarch thought. |
| D．Reducing carbon emissions should be a priority (优先考虑) in solving climate crisis. |
5 . I used to think my life was perfect. My mom had her dream job and a beautiful office, and I had my own room with a computer and a garden to
But something
We started a new
I never knew Rosica, their daughter,
Looking back, I realize that the hurricane
| A．care for | B．worry about | C．dream of | D．search for |
| A．visited | B．joined | C．injured | D．hit |
| A．awkward | B．unexpected | C．annoying | D．unlucky |
| A．brought | B．booked | C．offered | D．recommended |
| A．challenge | B．request | C．wealth | D．kindness |
| A．hardly | B．carefully | C．naturally | D．clearly |
| A．sold | B．rented | C．showed | D．opened |
| A．business | B．project | C．tradition | D．life |
| A．campuses | B．dinners | C．journeys | D．competitions |
| A．family | B．volunteers | C．community | D．supporters |
| A．after | B．before | C．during | D．as |
| A．cooking | B．storytelling | C．singing | D．housekeeping |
| A．brought about | B．resulted from | C．made up for | D．got away with |
| A．saved | B．controlled | C．enriched | D．recorded |
| A．adventure | B．effort | C．party | D．disaster |
1. 表达祝贺；
2. 肯定她的演讲；
3. 希望她能够分享提高英语口语的方法。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Amy,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
China has made all the preparations for further space
Sending civilians into space
8 . A Goodwill employee finds $42,000 in donated clothing and returns it to the owner.
The discovery came during a regular day on the job as Andrea Lessing, a goodwill employee, was performing her routine quality examination on closing items on the sales floor. As she pulled out two sweaters tied together from a donation box, she felt something heavy left. She first assumed the items were just books. When she pulled the sweaters apart, to her astonishment, she found lots of envelopes filled with $100 bills. The cash was in $100 bills and totaled $ 42,000 dollars.
Andrea Lessing is used to discovering unique treasures in the varied collection of donated items her store receives daily. She always tries to be a good example to her daughter, so she immediately did the right thing and reported the cash finding. Luckily, the store's manager was then able to locate and return the money to the donator who had mistakenly placed the cash in the wrong box.
Andrea, mother of a six year old girl, admitted it was hard for her to do with that much money. Some might have thought that it was Andrea's lucky day, having a small fortune. However, the temptation to keep the cash by herself was just a passing thought. Andrea's honest nature inspired her to do the right thing.
Without hesitation, she handed the cash over to the store's manager so they could find the right owner. Andrea was not expecting a reward, but the owner of the money surprised her with a 1000 reward. Andrea was teary eyed and overcome with joy as her “good deed” flowed right back to her. She plans to spend part of the reward money on a memorable birthday party for her daughter.
1. What happened to Andrea Lessing?| A．She collected donated clothing as rubbish. | B．She lost some cash while working. |
| C．She found unique treasures in donated items. | D．She failed to be a good example to her daughter. |
| A．She is an honest and strong willed mother. | B．She can't resist the great temptation of money. |
| C．she has already been promoted as the manager. | D．She refused the reward from the owner of the cash. |
| A．Upset. | B．Excited. | C．Worried. | D．Proud. |
9 . Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) said they have completed the most detailed virtual reality (VR) map of the universe ever created. The map permits users to “travel through space and time”. With the help of VR headsets, users can visit places in the universe virtually. The software program is called the Virtual Reality Universe Project, or VIRUP.
The researchers said they combined the largest data set of information about the universe to create the 3D experience.People can see the virtual universe through VR equipment or with 3D glasses in a theater. Jean-Paul Kneib, the director of EPFL’ s astrophysics laboratory (天体物理学实验室) , said that one of the best parts of the project was putting together parts of the data set “into one framework”. “You can see the universe at different scales一nearby us, around the Earth,around the solar system, at the Milky Way level,” Kneib said.
VIRUP produces images that can appear as close as one meter or seemingly at an infinite (无限的) distance. It aims to get many kinds of visitors. This includes both scientists looking to get a virtual picture of the data they collect and people seeking a new way to explore the universe. There are different versions of the software. A smaller version is aimed at the public and a larger one is meant for scientists or astronomy experts.
The project combines information from eight databases. It includes at least 4,500 known exoplanets (外星行星) ,tens of millions of galaxies (星系) and hundreds of millions of space objects. More than 1.5 billion light producing objects from the Milky Way alone are included. The researchers expect to continually add data, meaning the virtual experience will keep getting better with time. Future databases could include space rocks called asteroids in our solar system or farther objects in our galaxy.
Yves Revaz, an astrophysicist of the EPFL, called the system “a very efficient way of visiting all the different scales that compose our universe.” Revaz added: “A very important part of this project is that it’s a first step toward treating much larger data sets which are coming.”
1. What can people do through the software program?| A．Visit the Milky Way for real. |
| B．Travel to the past through time. |
| C．View the universe with VR equipment. |
| D．Explore the formation of the solar system. |
| A．It allows users to download 3D images. |
| B．It combines different databases into a whole. |
| C．It is accessible to both astronomy experts and common people. |
| D．It guides scientists to adjust the distance for detecting objects. |
| A．The limitations of the project. | B．The signifcance of the project. |
| C．The different versions of the project. | D．The huge data source of the project. |
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. | C．Uncaring. | D．Doubtful |
10 . When I was a child growing up in Ohio, the butterflies would sometimes pass through on their way to Mexico. And it was wonderful to see football fields full of them—and I wanted to revisit that on a larger scale (规模). I knew I had to go to see the migration (迁徙) in Mexico.
But I was on a budget. I didn’t want to rent a car in Mexico or take a bus to Valle de Bravo, the starting point for most butterfly journeys, so I called the guys at The Muddy Boot, travel experts in Mexico who can make almost anything happen at a reasonable price.
And so, on January 2, I found myself in The Muddy Boot van (面包车), being driven for two hours from Mexico City to Valle de Bravo, a lovely town on a volcanic lake which is a central point for the butterfly journeys. I booked a two-night stay at the Hotel Rodavento, an all eco-friendly hotel with individual wooden houses spreading throughout the forest and around a lake.
The first reserve I visited was Piedra Herrada, a popular destination, as it is only 40 minutes away from Valle de Bravo. The climb up is tiring. It is advisable to hire a horse. But the horse cannot take you all the way, and there is some hiking in thin air, so you must be patient, drink a lot of water, and be in reasonably good shape.
The walk is more than worth it though. As I struggled to catch my breath, I looked up and lost my breath again. At first glance, the trees had turned into different shapes, but on closer look, every inch of them was covered with butterflies.
A few flew through the air (Most of them were not warm enough). As the sun rose, they began to come alive. Soon the air was filled with flying butterflies, transforming the forest into something magical and straight out of a fairy tale.
1. Why did the author choose to take The Muddy Boot van?| A．She didn’t like a car. | B．She preferred to travel alone. |
| C．She wanted to save some money. | D．She hoped to reach the destination earlier. |
| A．It is a very high mountain. | B．It is far from Valle de Bravo. |
| C．It is full of wild animals. | D．It is only accessible by riding a horse. |
| A．Becoming healthier. | B．Breathing in fresh air. |
| C．Finding trees of different shapes. | D．Seeing the butterfly migration. |
| A．A news report. | B．A scientific paper. |
| C．A travel diary. | D．A commercial advertisement. |
