1 . Everyone knows that the population of the world is the largest ever. As more and more people are born and grow to an older average age than previous generations, everyone on the earth has a responsibility to feed this ever-growing population.

One possible solution to this is vertical farming, While humans have farmed and worked the land as long as history has recorded events, how much humans' farming has changed! From hands to ancient tools to animals to advanced machinery, the agricultural scenes have changed greatly over the centuries.

Now new and improved farming methods have been considered and studied to keep up with demand. With vertical farming, food is grown vertically by using existing buildings or shipping containers.

Unlike traditional farming that relies on Mother Nature, vertical farming often relies on CEA technology, also known as Controlled Environment Agriculture. With this approach, humans affect light, temperature, gases and more, thus controlling the environment in which plants grow.

The technology used in vertical farming is just expanding into greenhouses, where light and temperature are man-controlled. The final goal of vertical farming is to produce the most possible crops with the least possible space.

Vertical farming has many advantages. There are some other benefits as well.

With more and more humans living in heavily populated areas, vertical farming allows humans to be prepared for the future with continued population growth and increased movements to cities.

In vertical farming, since the environment in which plants grow is controlled by humans, farming can happen all the year round and is not dependent on seasons and weather. It can possibly use 95% less water than traditional farming. Besides, it is easier to produce organic crops in such a controlled environment, and farm chemicals will not be needed to protect the plants. This means less pollution in the environment.

1. What does paragraph 1 mainly show?

A．The need to feed an increasing population.	B．The importance of protecting the earth.
C．The struggle to control the population.	D．The responsibility of previous generations.

2. What makes vertical farming possible?

A．The change of weather.	B．New advances in research on high-quality soils.
C．More favorable air conditions in higher places.	D．The birth of CEA technology.

3. What is special about vertical farming compared to traditional farming?

A．It needs no light.	B．It uses much less water.
C．It relies more on the seasons.	D．It needs more farm chemicals.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Vertical Farming Is the Future	B．Traditional Farming Comes to an End
C．Traditional Farming's Methods and Measures	D．Advantages and Disadvantages of Vertical Farming

2 . To The Strand’s family and friends,

The Strand’s task has always been simple. It is to get good ________ in the hands of readers. For over 93 years, the   ________ my grandfather founded has become so much more than just a bookstore---The Strand has become a community center, welcoming all book ________ with open arm.

In order to ________ The Strand as a business, with no income and no clear idea as to when we can   ________ our door, we have had to temporarily fire(解雇) the most of our workers. Due to the rapid ________ of COVID-19, we make the ________ to close our doors a week before the government order, as we felt it was unsafe for our ________ and community.

This is the first time in our ________ that we have had to have a layoff (裁员). All of our workers have been ________ for the week and we are paying out any vacation. We are also working with our union and our providers to extend(延长) health insurance as long as possible. We know that it is our booksellers that make The Strand so ________, so our goal is to ________ this so we can rehire(重新雇佣) every employee as soon as possible.

We won’t ________ now. We have put forward a request to the Governor’s office in order to regain our ability to start online and phone orders as ________ as possible. We strongly believe that our books are a very important resource(资源) the world could ________ use right now.

1.

A．goods

B．articles

C．books

D．letters

2.

A．school

B．hospital

C．community

D．bookstore

3.

A．writers

B．lovers

C．sellers

D．posters

4.

A．keep

B．find

C．collect

D．change

5.

A．repack

B．repay

C．reopen

D．repair

6.

A．spread

B．loss

C．recovery

D．control

7.

A．decision

B．suggestion

C．belief

D．comment

8.

A．designers

B．workers

C．employers

D．managers

9.

A．question

B．service

C．history

D．reply

10.

A．served

B．greeted

C．charged

D．paid

11.

A．strange

B．comfortable

C．normal

D．popular

12.

A．get through

B．get back

C．play with

D．keep off

13.

A．show off

B．give up

C．pick out

D．come out

14.

A．much

B．soon

C．well

D．often

15.

A．finally

B．almost

C．really

D．never

3 . When it comes to the most famous 20th century painters of the United States, Grandma Moses should be mentioned, although she did not start painting until she was in her late seventies. As she once said to herself, “I would never sit back in rocking chair, waiting for someone to help me.” No one could have had a more active old age.

She was born on a farm in New York State, one of five boys and five girls. At 12, she left home and was in domestic service until at 27 she married Thomas Moses, the hired hand of one of her employers. They farmed most of their lives, first in Virginia and then in New York State, at Eagle Bridge. She had ten children, of whom five survived; her husband died in 1927.

Grandma Moses painted a little as a child and made embroidery（刺绣) pictures as a hobby, but only changed to oils in old age because her hands became too stiff(僵硬的) to sew and she still wanted to keep busy and pass the time. Her pictures were first sold at the local drugstore and at a market and were soon noticed by a businessman who bought all that she painted. Three of the pictures were exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, and in 1940 she had her first exhibition in New York. Between the 1930’s and her death, she produced some 2,000 pictures: careful and lively portrayals of the country life she had known for so long, with a wonderful sense of color and form. “I think really hard till I think of something really pretty, and then I paint it,” she said.

1. What can we learn about Grandma Moses?

A．She painted oils as a child.

B．Her marriage life was not happy.

C．She still led an active life when she was old.

D．She stopped painting in her late seventies.

2. Which of the following words can best describe her life?

A．Easy-going& active.	B．Hardworking& creative
C．Outgoing& confident.	D．Reserved& independent

3. What does the underlined word “portrayals” in the last paragraph mean?

A．Descriptions.

B．Stages.

C．Surveys.

D．Directions.

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．How she loves art since she was a little girl.

B．Why she began her career as a painter.

C．How she became a successful painter.

D．Why she was the most famous painter in the United States.

4 . 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。

Food waste is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and fruit and vegetables are especially problematic, as about 52% of them go bad before     1    （eventual） reaching consumers. But one Malaysian company has come up     2     a simple solution(解决方案)to this problem — a tiny sticker that keeps fruit from     3     (go) bad for up to weeks.

You've probably seen stickers on fruit before,     4     not like the ones created by the Malaysian company. Those common stickers are typically     5     (use) only to provide consumers with     6     (inform) about the growers and how the fruit was grown, but Stixfresh has a completely different purpose. It contains something special and all-natural that slows down the ripening(成熟)process, keeping the fruit fresh and juicy for much     7    (long).

Stixfresh founder Zhafri Zainudin says that he thought of the idea for the stickers after visiting a friend     8     ran a fruit store. The man was worried about losing money every day because of bad fruit, but he knew that there was no way to stop nature from taking     9     (it) course. The Malaysian businessman worked with many     10     (university) to develop and test his sticker.

At first, Stixfresh stickers were only used to lengthen the shelf-life of mangoes, but the company later worked on other fruit, like dragon fruit, star fruit, apples and pears.