2 . The Silk Road is arguably the most famous long-distance trade route of the ancient world. This passage connected Europe in the West with China in the East, and allowed the exchange of goods, technology, and ideas between the two civilizations. Although merchants could make huge profits travelling the road, it was not without risk.

The main Silk Road started in Chang’an (known today as Xi’an), the early Han capital. Travelers commencing their journey from this city could take a northern route that would take them across China’s northwestern provinces. After this, they would face the Gobi Desert, arguably the greatest danger of the Silk Road.

The Gobi Desert, the largest desert in Asia, consists mainly of rocky, hard earth. This feature made it easier for traders to travel across, compared to sandy deserts like the neighboring Taklamakan Desert. Like other deserts, the Gobi Desert is dry and hot, and therefore the biggest challenge travelers faced was obtaining enough water for themselves as well as for their camels.

So, rest stops were created along the route, allowing travelers to rest, eat and drink. These places also promoted the exchange of goods, and even ideas, amongst the travelers who stopped there. Usually, the rest stops were placed within a day’s journey of each other. In this way, travelers could avoid spending too much time in the desert, which would make them targets for robbers, another danger of the Silk Road.

Once through the Gobi Desert, travelers would continue their journey into Iran, Turkey, and finally Europe. While this part of the journey may have been less dangerous, it is not entirely without its perils (风险).

1. The underlined word “it” in the first paragraph refers to _________.

A．making huge profits	B．traveling the Silk Road
C．exchanging goods and ideas	D．connecting different civilizations

2. Why was the Gobi Desert easier to cross than other deserts?

A．The desert’s surface was easier to walk on.

B．Camels for transportation were easier to find.

C．It was smaller and could be crossed in less time.

D．There were more natural water sources available.

3. What can we guess about the rest stops in the Gobi Desert?

A．Travelers were offered free accommodation.

B．They were located around the edges of the desert.

C．They were shared by travelers from different countries.

D．Exchanging goods and ideas there was entirely without risk.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The origins of the Silk Road.

B．The benefits of the Silk Road.

C．The difficulties faced by Silk Road travelers.

D．The cultural exchanges among Silk Road travelers.

6 . 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。

In most Chinese tea villages, March is the time of year when locals start to pick and process tea. The     1     (usual) quiet villages suddenly become busy centers of activity, as people take out special tools and prepare     2     tea processing. In some villages, local people hold traditional ceremonies,     3     (thank) heaven for its blessing. The price of tea     4     (pick) in March is extremely high because it is fresh and contains multiple trace elements. China     5     (be) famous for tea production since ancient times. Of the goods transported and traded along     6     Old Silk Road linking China to the Middle East and Europe, the importance of tea     7     (match) only by silk. China produces Oolong, black, green, white, yellow and dark―also known as post-fermented (发酵). The Oolong, green and black     8    (vary)are most notable for their high quality. Most of China’s tea villages are found in remote    9     (mountain) areas in the south and southwest of the country,     10     the beautiful scenery is often hidden under clouds.

7 . Until recently, several lines of evidence — from fossils genetics, and archaeology — suggested that humans first moved from Africa into Eurasia (the land of Europe and Asia) about 60,000 years ago, quickly replacing other early human species, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, that they may have met along the way.

However, a series of recent discoveries, including 100,000-year-old human teeth found in a cave in China, have clouded this straightforward statement. And the latest find, a prehistoric jawbone at the Misliya Cave in Israel dating back to nearly 200,000 years ago, which is almost twice as old as any Homo sapiens (智人) remains discovered outside Africa, where our species was thought to have originated from, has added new and unexpected twist.

The find suggests that there were multiple waves of migration across Europe and Asia and could also mean that modern humans in the Middle East were interacting, and possibly mating, with other human species for tens of thousands of years. “Misliya breaks the mould (模式) of existing assumptions of the timing of the first known Homo sapiens in these regions,” said Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London. “It’s important in removing long-lasting-constraint (限制) on our thinking.”

Prof. Hershkovitz, who led the work at Tel Aviv University said, “What Misliya tells us is that modern humans left Africa not 100,000 years ago, but 200,000 years ago. This is revolution in the way we understand the evolution of our own species.” He also added that the record now indicates that humans probably travelled beyond the African continent whenever the climate allowed it. “I don’t believe there was one big departure from Africa,” he said. “I think that throughout hundreds of thousands of years humans were coming in and out of Africa all the time.”

The discovery means that modern humans were potentially meeting and interacting during a longer period with other ancient human groups, providing more opportunity for cultural and biological exchanges. It also raises interesting questions about the fate of the earliest modern human pioneers. Genetic data from modern-day populations around the world strongly suggest that everyone outside Africa can trace their ancestors back to a group that left around 60,000 years ago. So, the inhabitants of the Misliya Cave are probably not the ancestors of anyone alive today, and scientists can only guess why their branch of the family tree came to an end.

1. What does the underlined word “they” refer to in Paragraph 1?

A．Early human species living in Europe.

B．Neanderthals and Denisovans.

C．People first moving from Africa into Eurasia.

D．Ancient people living in Africa all the time.

2. What does the Misliya discovery suggest?

A．Our ancestors were powerful and kind of aggressive.

B．Our ancestors left Africa much earlier than thought.

C．The origins of modern humans are from Europe.

D．Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans once lived together.

3. What can be learned from Prof Hershkovitz’s words?

A．Climate was a big factor in human migration from Africa.

B．There was a large-scale human migration from Africa.

C．Human migration was occasional in Africa 200,000 years ago.

D．The Misliya find is against our understanding of human evolution.

4. What can we infer about those living in Misliya 200, 000 years ago according to the last paragraph?

A．They were ancestors of people living in China.

B．They left evidence for their mysterious disappearance in history.

C．They probably contributed little to present-day people genetically.

D．They could be traced by their remains left on their travelling route.

8 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入一个适当的单词或括号中单词的正确形式。

An island off the coast of Cape Cod is open to the public for the first time in 300 years. Sipson island    1    (own) privately since 1711, when it was sold to White settlers. Now, the new Sipson Island Trust,with the help of a local non-profit, hopes to renew and care for the island,    2     (use) the Native American values to see land    3    a gift for all to use.

It is really important for us to be able to communicate the     4     (important) of its history,and teach the values of those that lived on the island before 1711. President Blough told CNN.

The 24-acre island, which opens on Saturday ,    5    (locate) just off the coast of Cape Cod in    6    area known as Pleasant Bay,     7    is of critical environmental concern. When it was for sale,there were a number of conservation organizations who wanted to find a way to raise the money to protect it,preserve it,and make it    8     (access)to the public, Blough said.

Now it is    9     (full)open to the public. Visitors are encouraged to access the island from the eastern shore,     10    only shallow boats under 22 feet can land due to the sensitive ecosystem in the water.

9 . By the end of the century, if not sooner, the world’s oceans will be bluer and greener thanks to a warming climate, according to a new study.

At the heart of the phenomenon lie tiny marine microorganisms(海洋微生物) called phytoplankton. Because of the way light reflects off the organisms, these phytoplankton create colourful patterns at the ocean surface. Ocean colour varies from green to blue, depending on the type and concentration of phytoplankton. Climate change will fuel the growth of phytoplankton in some areas, while reducing it in other spots, leading to changes in the ocean’s appearance.

Phytoplankton live at the ocean surface, where they pull carbon dioxide(二氧化碳) into the ocean while giving off oxygen. When these organisms die, they bury carbon in the deep ocean, an important process that helps to regulate the global climate. But phytoplankton are vulnerable to the ocean’s warming trend. Warming changes key characteristics of the ocean and can affect phytoplankton growth, since they need not only sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow, but also nutrients.

Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a scientist in MIT’s Center for Global Change Science, built a climate model that projects changes to the oceans throughout the century. In a world that warms up by 3℃, it found that multiple changes to the colour of the oceans would occur. The model projects that currently blue areas with little phytoplankton could become even bluer. But in some waters, such as those of the Arctic, a warming will make conditions riper for phytoplankton, and these areas will turn greener. “Not only are the quantities of phytoplankton in the ocean changing. ” she said, “but the type of phytoplankton is changing.”

And why does that matter? Phytoplankton are the base of the food web. If certain kinds begin to disappear from the ocean, Dutkiewicz said, “it will change the type of fish that will be able to survive.” Those kinds of changes could affect the food chain.

Whatever colour changes the ocean experiences in the coming decades will probably be too gradual and unnoticeable, but they could mean significant changes. “It’ll be a while before we can statistically show that the changes are happening because of climate change,” Dutkiewicz said, “but the change in the colour of the ocean will be one of the early warning signals that we really have changed our planet.”

1. What are the first two paragraphs mainly about?

A．The various patterns at the ocean surface.

B．The cause of the changes in ocean colour.

C．The way light reflects off marine organisms.

D．The efforts to fuel the growth of phytoplankton.

2. What does the underlined word “vulnerable” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Sensitive.

B．Beneficial.

C．Significant.

D．Unnoticeable.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Phytoplankton play a declining role in the marine ecosystem.

B．Dutkiewicz’s model aims to project phytoplankton changes.

C．Phytoplankton have been used to control global climate.

D．Oceans with more phytoplankton may appear greener.

4. What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To assess the consequences of ocean colour changes.

B．To analyse the composition of the ocean food chain.

C．To explain the effects of climate change on oceans.

D．To introduce a new method to study phytoplankton.

10 . The Nazca Lines are a series of large ancient geoglyphs (地画) in the Nazca Desert, in southern Peru. It is ranging from geometric patterns to drawings of different animals and stylized human-like forms. The ancient lines can only be truly taken in from high in the air, leaving generations puzzled as to how these precise works could have been completed long before the documented invention of human flight.

The Lines were first spotted when commercial airlines began flying across the Peruvian desert in the 1920,s. Who built them and what was their purpose? Are they roads, star pointers, maybe even a gigantic map? If the people who lived here 2,000 years ago had only a simple technology, how did they manage to construct such precise figures? Did they have a plan? These markings are like a vast puzzle.

The Nazca Lines are the most outstanding group of geoglyphs in the world. There are also huge geoglyphs in Egypt, Malta, United States (Mississippi and California), Chile, Bolivia and in other countries. But the Nazca geoglyphs, because of their numbers, characteristics, dimensions and cultural continuity as they were made and remade throughout a certain history period, form the most impressive archeological (考古学的) group.

The Nazca plain is unique for its ability to preserve the markings upon it, due to the combination of the climate (one of the driest on Earth, with only twenty minutes of rainfall per year) and the flat, stony ground which minimizes the effect of the wind at ground level. With no dust or sand to cover the plain and little rain or wind to erode (腐蚀) it, lines drawn here tend to stay drawn. These factors, combined with the existence of lighter-colored subsoil beneath the desert surface, provide a vast writing pad that is suited to the artist who wants to leave his mark eternal.

1. What can we know about the Nazca Lines from the first two paragraphs?

A．They were built as a big map.

B．They were formed by nature.

C．They are ancient lines in caves.

D．They are huge markings in a desert.

2. How many factors make the Nazca Lines the most impressive?

A．One.	B．Two.
C．Three.	D．Four.

3. Why are the Nazca Lines well preserved?

A．Because of the wind at ground level.

B．Because of the existence of soft soil.

C．Because of the climate and geography.

D．Because of the thick sand on the top.

4. What does the underlined word “eternal” probably mean?

A．Non-stop.	B．Ever-lasting.
C．Real-life.	D．High-end.