1 . The environmental practices of big businesses are shaped by a fundamental fact that offends our sense of justice. A business may maximize the amount of money it makes by damaging the environment and hurting people. When government regulation is effective, and the public is environmentally aware, environmentally clean big businesses may out-compete dirty ones, but the reverse is likely to be true if government regulation is ineffective and the public doesn’t care.

It is easy to blame a business for helping itself by hurting other people. But blaming alone is unlikely to produce change. It ignores the fact that businesses are not charities but profit-making companies, and they are under obligation to maximize profits for shareholders by legal means.

Our blaming of businesses also ignores the ultimate responsibility of the public for creating the conditions that let a business profit through destructive environmental policies. In the long run, it is the public, either directly or through its politicians, that has the power to make such destructive policies unprofitable and illegal, and to make sustainable environmental policies profitable.

The public can do that by accusing businesses of harming them. The public may also make their opinion felt by choosing to buy sustainably harvested products; by preferring their governments to award valuable contracts to businesses with a good environmental track record; and by pressing their governments to pass and enforce laws and regulations requiring good environmental practices.

In turn, big businesses can exert powerful pressure on any suppliers that might ignore public or government pressure. For instance, after the US public became concerned about the spread of a disease, transmitted to humans through infected meat, the US government introduced rules demanding that the meat industry abandon practices associated with the risk of the disease spreading. But the meat packers refused to follow these, claiming that they would be too expensive to obey. However, when a fast-food company made the same demands after customer purchases of its hamburgers dropped, the meat industry followed immediately. The public’s task is therefore to identify which links in the supply chain are sensitive to public pressure.

Some readers may be disappointed or outraged that I place the ultimate responsibility for business practices harming the public on the public itself. I also believe that the public must accept the necessity for higher prices for products to cover the added costs of sound environmental practices. My views may seem to ignore the belief that businesses should act in accordance with moral principles even if this leads to a reduction in their profits. But I think we have to recognize that, throughout human history, government regulation has arisen precisely because it was found that not only did moral principles need to be made explicit, they also needed to be enforced.

My conclusion is not a moralistic one about who is right or wrong, admirable or selfish. I believe that changes in public attitudes are essential for changes in businesses’ environmental practices.

1. The main idea of Paragraph 3 is that environmental damage__________.

A．is the result of ignorance of the public

B．requires political action if it is to be stopped

C．can be prevented by the action of ordinary people

D．can only be stopped by educating business leaders

2. In Paragraph 4, the writer describes ways in which the public can__________.

A．reduce their own individual impact on the environment

B．learn more about the impact of business on the environment

C．raise awareness of the effects of specific environmental disasters

D．influence the environmental policies of businesses and governments

3. What pressure was given by big business in the case of the disease mentioned in Paragraph 5?

A．Meat packers stopped supplying hamburgers to fast-food chains.

B．Meat packers persuaded the government to reduce their expenses.

C．A fast-food company forced their meat suppliers to follow the law.

D．A fast-food company encouraged the government to introduce regulations.

4. What would be the best heading for this passage?

A．Will the world survive the threat caused by big businesses?

B．How can big businesses be encouraged to be less driven by profit?

C．What environmental dangers are caused by the greed of businesses?

D．Are big businesses to blame for the damage they cause to the environment?

2 . 阅读下面短文，根据所给情节进行续写，使之构成一个完整的故事。

I needed to do something in my community (社区) in order to complete the community service hours required to graduate from high school. Some of my friends had signed up to spend time at a soup kitchen, so I did, too. It seemed like a good thing to do.

I thought that we would just be passing out dinners to those in need, but I found out we would be doing everything from preparing to serving the dinner. We began preparing the food, from mixing salad dressing to separating frozen meat. Much still needed to be done before dinner was served, but already outside the building many homeless people were gathering. It wasn’t until a couple of hours later that we opened the doors and began serving dinner.

As the line of people came toward me, I got a little scared. I’d come face to face with the homeless: How should I act? How would they treat me? Would they hate me for having more than they did? While some of the people looked very friendly, some of them looked so dangerous. I didn’t have too much time to worry about it. I was assigned (分配) to serve the salad with the lady next to me. She smiled at me and said if I needed help, she’d be right there, which I found quite comforting.

I had never seen so many people wanting food. They were of all ages and nationalities. Most of them wore clothes that were torn and dirty. Some looked like they had tally given up on life, while others seemed to be making the best of the situation, smiling and joking. Some were better off than others, but they all needed a good meal and a warm place to eat. It saddened me to think of how many people there were who didn’t have a place to call home and the only food they got came from a soup kitchen.

注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4. 续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:

As they came in my direction, I put on my brightest and happiest smile.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:

I was so happy that I had earned my service hours in this way.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Flash floods hit Longcaogou of Pengzhou, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province on Saturday. Seven people     1     (kill) and eight others slightly injured. Local authorities announced on Sunday, noting that some tourists     2     were camping in the dried-up river were trapped in the flood after failing     3     (escape) in time.

More than 500     4     (rescuer) are conducting a search of valleys and rivers to find lost tourists over the weekend, said local authorities, adding that at least 15 professional rescue teams,     5     (include) mountain rescue and diving rescue teams, are taking part in the rescue work. The rescue work at the scene     6     (draw)to a close.     7     Longcaogou was hit by floods in 2015 and 2017, it has not stopped tourists from visiting the area.

Meanwhile, Longcaogou has been     8     (wide) recommended on social media platforms     9     a “new Instagram-worthy location” and a “nice holiday resort.” Many bloggers posted pictures of the valley’s beautiful scenery and their trips on     10     lifestyle-sharing platforms with captions recommending that people go there.

4 . When I was seven years old and my sister Amy was just five years old, we were playing on top of a bunk bed. I thought without help or any ________ from me at all, suddenly Amy disappeared off of the top of the bunk bed and   ________ with a crash on the floor. I nervously peered over the side of the bed and saw that she had landed ________ on her hands and knees on the ground. I was nervous because my parents had ________ me with making sure that we played as ________ as possible. I saw my sister’s painful face threatening to ________ from her mouth and threatening to wake up my parents. So I did the only thing my little seven-year-old ________ could think to do to change this ________. I said, “Amy, Amy, wait. Don’t cry…No human lands on all fours like that. Amy, I think this means you’re a unicorn (独角兽). “ ________, that was cheating, but there was nothing in the world my sister would want more than the unicorn. Instead of crying, instead of ________ our play, with all the negative consequences that would have waited for me, a smile ________ across her face. She climbed onto the bunk bed again with all the grace of a baby unicorn, with one ________ leg.

What we ________ unconsciously at that tender age is something called positive psychology. It’s not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens (棱镜) through which your brain ________ the world that shapes your reality. And if we can change the lens, believe me we can change every single educational and business ________ at the same time.

1.

A．hug

B．drag

C．risk

D．push

2.

A．perceived

B．completed

C．landed

D．exploded

3.

A．crazily

B．painfully

C．happily

D．widely

4.

A．provided

B．awarded

C．shared

D．charged

5.

A．safely

B．warmly

C．loudly

D．mildly

6.

A．jump

B．erupt

C．complain

D．mourn

7.

A．face

B．head

C．brain

D．soul

8.

A．tragedy

B．chance

C．shock

D．legend

9.

A．Oppositely

B．Obviously

C．Similarly

D．Consequently

10.

A．ceasing

B．continuing

C．envying

D．replacing

11.

A．proceeded

B．slid

C．spread

D．stretched

12.

A．broken

B．slim

C．freezing

D．dead

13.

A．adapt to

B．come across

C．pay for

D．point out

14.

A．changes

B．imagines

C．views

D．creates

15.

A．appearance

B．person

C．protest

D．outcome

5 . Rahul Aggarwal was in medical school when he got the surprising news that his mother-a fit woman in her 40s-had been diagnosed with type2 diabetes (糖尿病). “I always thought of diabetes as a disease of people at higher weights and with certain lifestyle practices.” he recalls, “but my mom was an Indian American woman with a healthy weight and good diet and exercise practices.”

Aggarwal, now a clinical fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston began thinking about how diabetes seems to affect certain ethnic and racial groups. It quantified diabetes risk in minority groups to determine if current screening recommendations are correct and equal.

The current standard was released in 2021 by the U. S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which issues evidence-based guidance on disease prevention. The recommendation is to test adults aged 35 to 70 for diabetes if they are overweight or obese, defined as having a body mass index (BMI)of 25 kg/m2 or more. Aggarwal and his cooperators looked at the lowest-risk individuals qualified to screen under that rubric(评价量规). The researchers were shocked to find that the rate was about double for Hispanics and even higher among Black and Asian Americans. They concluded that to detect diabetes equally across all these groups, you would need to test Asian Americans with a BMI of 20 and Black and Hispanic individuals with a BMI of just 18. 5-measures considered to be in the healthy range.

Ngo-Metzger, who was the USPSTFs scientific director from 2012 to 2019, notes that “most studies of diabetes were done in middle-aged white individuals,” She argues that they ‘should be revised. “The study found that you would miss so many Blacks, Hispanics and Asians when you use these guidelines. I think it’s a kind of harm.”

1. What can we learn about Aggarwa’s mother?

A．She seldom had exercise.

B．She was diagnosed with diabetes at an old age.

C．Her poor diet and overweight accounted for her disease.

D．Her disease probably had a connection with her race.

2. What’s Ngo-Metzger’s attitude towards the current screening standard?

A．Critical

B．Positive

C．Neutral

D．Indifferent

3. What is the text mainly about?

A．New findings about cure diabetes.

B．The causes of diabetes are complicated.

C．More and more people suffer from diabetes.

D．The current screening standards are not proper.

4. What might be talked about in the following passage?

A．Detecting diabetes early.

B．Diabetes prevention.

C．Revising the current screening standard.

D．New ways to cure diabetes in the future.

6 . I’m Gu Ailing Eilleen, a professional freeskier, and twin-tipped skis, 22-foot halfpipes (U型滑道) and double-cork rotations are my main sources of adrenaline (肾上腺素), the truly addictive core of extreme sports.

Though it’s easy to label extreme sport athletes as fearless, the countless hours I’ve spent visualizing tricks and practicing them in foam pits and on airbags suggest otherwise. Instead of ignoring fear, we build unique relationships with it.

The work begins with visualization. I take a deep breath and close my eyes. As I go up the huge takeoff slope, I imagine extending my legs to maximize lift. Then I picture twisting my upper body in the opposite direction I intend to spin, generating force before I allow it to move back the other way.

1440 degrees. I smile. Then I open my eyes.

It doesn’t take much, unfortunately, for uncertainty to override confidence. Imperfect preparation moistens my palms and makes each breath shallower than the last. The feeling isn’t panic, but something like dread. Danger! cries every evolutionary instinct. Every freeskier’s goal is to recognize the minute differences between excitement and uncertainty in order to maximize performance while minimizing the risk of injury.

Finally, there’s pressure, an energy source that can be employed in many ways. I’m proud of the work I’ve done to cope with pressure by improving my self-esteem and minimizing my need for external validation. No matter how much time passes, I’ll always be a hopeless romantic when it comes to fear.

1. According to Gu, what mainly makes athletes fall in love with extreme sports?

A．The honor she will obtain if they win a match.

B．The athletes social status will be improved after winning.

C．The money they will be rewarded in the case of winning.

D．The athletes experience the feeling of excitement during the sport.

2. Why do athletes become fearless in extreme sports?

A．They are born fearless.	B．They overcome fear by practice.
C．They are forced to be fearless.	D．They just ignore fear.

3. What does “moisten” underlined in paragraph 5 refer to?

A．break

B．improve

C．unfold

D．wet

4. Which is the most suitable title for the text?

A．Gu Ailing is on the way to success.	B．I admit it, I am in love with fear.
C．How Gu Ailing overcomes her fear.	D．All success comes from hard work.

7 . Four newest novels

If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal

What Animal Intelligence Reveals about Human Stupidity

by Justin Gregg. Little, Brown, 2022 ($29)

The book is a snappy read but lingers: it left me wondering why we don’t respect signals of intelligence from other species-and more deeply consider how our own intelligence works against us. -Darcy B. Kelley

Meet Us by the Roaring Sea

A Novel by Akil Kumarasamy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2022 ($27)

Set in a future of eye scans, carbon credits and advanced Al. Akil Kumarasamy’s new novel nonetheless feels surprisingly like home-even as it tests the boundaries of self and story.

Doctors and Distillers

The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails

by Camper English. Penguin Books, 2022($18, paperbound)

Your favorite cocktail may very well have its roots in medicine of generations past. With immense wit and charm, author Camper English traces millennia to explore how civilizations used the fermented and distilled beverages to do everything from hydrating the workforce to fending off the Black Death.

The Milky Way

An Autobiography of Our Galaxy by Moiya McTier

Grand Central Publishing, 2022 (26)

Moiya McTier assumes the role of cosmic interpreter to let our galaxy tell her own story. As a character the Milky Way is a cross between a Greek goddess and GLaDOS. the artificially super intelligent computer system from the Portal video-game series.

1. Which book talks about the theme of intelligence of species?

A．Doctors and Distillers	B．The Milky Way
C．If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal	D．Meet Us by the Roaring Sea

2. What do the four books have in common?

A．They are all hard-covers.

B．They come out in the same year.

C．They share the same topic.

D．They are published by the same publishing.

3. How much should Tom, who wants to buy two of the books pay at least?

A．$44

B．$54

C．$56

D．$53

8 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

Earlier this June, the Olympic Council of Asia announced that the 2022 Asian Games,       1     was originally scheduled for September in Hangzhou, would be postponed due to the pandemic situation. According to the Games’ organizing committee, all 56 competition venues and 31 training venues will be     2     (gradual) opened to the public from July 1.

Sports centers with relatively low operation costs will provide free admission to their gymnasiums, squares, and track and field venues. Those     3     (design) to host competitions—such as rowing, shooting and cycling — will hire professional teams to run the venues and maintain facilities. It     4     (anticipate) that these venues will offer sports-related experience activities to the public. Venues located in universities will stage     5    (variety) of sports events, improving their utilization (使用) beyond their daily use in students’ education.

The committee has promised to open venues     6     a controlled and orderly manner as it tries to protect and maintain the quality of the facilities. Each venue will establish     7     operation and maintenance team     8     (ensure) that the venue will meet the requirements of the Asian Games.

The opening of the venues and facilities     9     (emphasize) the important roles that the 2022 Asian Games play in enhancing sports culture, meeting the growing needs of citizens,     10     gaining experience for holding high-level competitions.

9 . It’s a sunny afternoon, and my wife Barbara is at the park again, counting and recording the number of eggs laid by monarch butterflies.     1     Nobody is Paying Barbara, but she considers herself lucky to be a “Citizen Scientist”.

When volunteers participate as assistants in activities like these, they are engaging in citizen science, a valuable research technique.     2     Some of them are science teachers or students, but most are simply amateurs who enjoy spending time in nature. They also take pride in aiding scientists and indirectly helping to protect the environment. The movement they are involved in is not a new one.     3     One of the earliest projects of this type is the Christmas Bird Count, started by the National Audubon Society in 1900. And citizen science projects are developing more than ever.

In formal studies, Professional scientists and other experts need to maintain the highest possible standards.     4     Some might argue that citizen scientists cannot maintain the necessary attention to detail, or that amateurs will misunderstand the context of the investigation and make mistake when collecting and organizing. In other words, can citizen science be considered truly reliable?

    5     The first focused on volunteer knowledge and skills. In this study, a scientist asked volunteers to identify types of crabs. He found that almost all adult volunteers could perform the task well. The second study compared professional and non-professional methods. Both proved successful. Results like these suggest that research assisted by amateurs can be trusted when scientists organize it.

A．Two recent studies show that it can.

B．In fact, its roots go back over a hundred years.

C．It invites the public to assist in gathering information.

D．The best citizen science projects are win-win situations.

E．She was awarded the “Citizen Scientist“ which is a great honor.

F．Their research must not only be thorough, but also objective and accurate.

G．After collecting her data, she’ll share it with the professional scientist who hired her.

10 . It has been known for some time that children are able to learn at breathtaking speed. But how does it work? That’s what researchers have now found out. Using an artificial intelligence tool and an eye-tracker that tracks the movements of a baby’s eyes, scientists from the Thunders Research Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior investigated one of children’s greatest mysteries and came to a surprising conclusion.

It may seem very different, but babies are certainly not lying around randomly. “Babies don’t explore the world by chance, with their eyes falling on it. Babies have a strategy if they want to understand the world. First, they look for those pieces of information that allow them to understand other information faster and more efficiently. On the contrary, if they see an object or event from which they can learn nothing further, they simply reject it. Only the information useful to them, they select.” says Dr Francesco Poli.

That sounds easier, even for a baby, than done. But how does a baby know what is important and what is not?

“Let’s take a good example: learning to talk. What we see as always is that babies who are about to say their first word begin to investigate a few weeks before how to use their mouths to talk. Instead of looking at the eyes in faces, they study carefully for weeks the mouths of the people who talk to them. So they are in a constant state of maximum learning capacity!”

“Babies build their knowledge. They are like little scientists who like to see their idea challenged. For example, they learn very quickly that objects fall down and don’t just disappear. And this is why they love bubbles (泡沫) so much: they do float up and then disappear!”

1. What is the surprising conclusion about children?

A．They explore the world purposefully.	B．They are attracted to all information.
C．They are breathtakingly fast learners.	D．They possess exceptional intelligence.

2. What does the underlined word “that” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Studying further.	B．Observing the world.
C．Learning strategically.	D．Understanding information.

3. Why can bubbles fascinate babies greatly?

A．They make little scientists’ life colorful.	B．They challenge babies’ existing cognition.
C．They prove what babies have just learned.	D．They float up quickly and don’t just disappear.

4. Which word can best describe baby learners according to the author?

A．Confident and optimistic.	B．Observant and capable.
C．Consistent and persistent.	D．Dynamic and responsible.