1 . Urbanization

Until relatively recently, the vast majority of human beings lived and died without ever seeing a city. The first city was probably founded no more than 5,500 years ago.    1    In fact, nearly everyone lived on farms or in tiny rural（乡村的）villages. It was not until the 20th century that Great Britain became the first urban society in history—a society in which the majority of people live in cities and do not farm for a living.

Britain was only the beginning.    2    The process of urbanization—the migration（迁徙）of people from the countryside to the city—was the result of modernization, which has rapidly transformed how people live and where they live.

In 1900, fewer than 40% of Americans lived in urban areas. Today, over 82% of Americans live in cities. Only about 2% live on farms.    3    

Large cities were impossible until agriculture became industrialized. Even in advanced agricultural societies, it took about ninety-five people on farms to feed five people in cities.    4    Until modern times, those living in cities were mainly the ruling elite（精英）and the servants, laborers and professionals who served them. Cities survived by taxing farmers and were limited in size by the amount of surplus food that the rural population produced and by the ability to move this surplus from farm to city.

Over the past two centuries, the Industrial Revolution has broken this balance between the city and the country.    5    Today, instead of needing ninety-five farmers to feed five city people, one American farmer is able to feed more than a hundred non-farmers.

A．That kept cities very small.

B．The rest live in small towns.

C．The effects of urban living on people should be considered.

D．Soon many other industrial nations became urban societies.

E．But even 200 years ago, only a few people could live in cities.

F．Modernization drew people to the cities and made farmers more productive.

G．Modem cities have destroyed social relations and the health of human beings.

2 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

I wake up to the sound of the wind buffeting the cloth of my tent. Even though the sun is    1    (bright) shining, telling whether it is morning or night is impossible. I’m above the Arctic Circle,    2    in summer the sun never sets. I’m in the remote far north of Sweden in Sarek National Park,    3    place with no roads or towns.

Around 9,000 years ago, reindeer began to arrive at Sarek’s mountains. Following the reindeer    4    (be) the Sami people, who made this territory their home. In 1909, Sarek was made a national park    5    (keep) the land in its natural state.

For hundreds of years,    6    (look) after reindeer was a way of life for the Sami. Today, most Sami have houses in villages near Sarek and live a modern life just    7    their neighbours and enjoy their    8    (tradition) as before.

After breakfast, I pack my bag and set out again. Being in such a    9    (beauty) and wild place makes me feel    10    (bless) to be alive.

3 . If you live in a town or city on the edge of a desert or coastline where sand dunes form, you might understand the threat they can have. It’s, sometimes, a piece of cake for them to cover roads, buildings, farms and other man-made developments with their unpredictable movements. Thus, figuring out how they move is important for preventing some natural disasters.

Now scientists have discovered that dunes have been secretly moving in ways we never knew before. There are different explanations on dune interaction, however, Karol Bacik, first author on the new dune study, and his colleagues have found a new one for dune movement. The researchers employed high-speed cameras to observe how dunes separated by distance can act as if they’re connected.

It turns out, currents flowing over sand dunes can carry “information” to other dunes downstream in the form of swirls(旋涡). For instance, as wind or water flows over the top of a dune, it slightly moves. This can generate “swirls” on the back of a downstream dune and push it in a direction opposite the movement of the front dune.

It’s the first time that researchers were able to provide causal explanations for some of these strange, previously unpredictable movements. The team also hopes to get out of the laboratory and into the real world, to see if their models can be applied to dune movements in complex natural systems. They plan to use satellite images over large deserts to track groups of dunes over long periods.

Perhaps they can start to alter the dune marching orders in the near future. Imagine being able to tell a dune field exactly how you want it to move. That’s the idea that this research might one day make possible.

1. We can learn that the purpose of the study is to _________.

A．stop the sand dunes from moving around

B．figure out the track of sand dune movements

C．prove the interaction of dunes with each other

D．examine a model of sand dunes in the real world

2. What does the underlined word “one” in Para. 2 refer to?

A．A study.

B．An interaction.

C．An explanation.

D．A dune.

3. Which of the following can we know from the passage?

A．A sand dune communicates with another only by currents.

B．Swirls on the back of a dune are the power to move itself.

C．Some strange dune movements have got causally explained before.

D．Researchers think it unnecessary to study further on the dune models.

4 . 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。

A team of over 30 Chinese surveyors left the base camp at Mount Qomolangma for a higher spot    1    its journey to the peak Wednesday as part of the country’s mission to remeasure the height of the world's highest mountain.

China has started a campaign to measure the height of Mount Qomolangma ,    2    is known in the West as Mount Everest. The remeasurement of the peak’s height is a part of China’s latest large-scale comprehensive    3    (science) survey of Qomolangma, and the 1st Gendetic Surveying Brigade under the Ministry of Natural Resources and the China Mountaineering Team are the parties carrying out the project    4    (collective).

Preparation of the project    5    (launch) in early March, with 53 surveyors from the 1st Geodetic Surveying Brigade getting    6    ( station) near Qomolangma to carry out adaptive climbing and training in other technical    7    (skill), and they are going to the survey on the summit of the mountain.

    8    (ensure) the accuracy of the measurement, and-to work it in    9    more effective way, experts were invited to assist in the technical design and planning of the project from the beginning. The technical innovation and breakthrough applied in the latest survey include the    10    (apply) of the BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System and advanced domestic surveying and mapping instruments.

5 . Ever since the University of Bologna in Haly was founded in 1088 as the first modern university, most people have associated great universities,with major cities.    1    

Colleges and universities in the U.S.,though, have followed a different pattern. To be sure, leading universities such as the University of Chicago and Columbia University in New York City call major urban centers home.    2    In some cases, the university is, for all practical

purposes, the whole town.

    3     Many early colleges and universities were founded by religious (宗教的) groups that sought to educate students far from the distractions of city life. When Harvard University was founded in 1636 by Congregationalist Church ministers, Cambridge, where the university is now located, was quite separate from Boston. Moreover, when the U.S. began building a network of public universities in the 1860s to bring agricultural and technical research and know-how to the westward- spreading frontier, most were located in small towns.     4    

Given the huge diversity of U.S. higher education, the message for international students shopping for a great university is doubled.    5    Don't be put off if you have never heard of the city or town where a school is located. Top-rated colleges and universities located in lesser

known places may amaze you in an unimaginable manner with their high quality and a significant number of their international students.

A．Bloomington is also a great college town.

B．Think the Sorbonne in Paris or Peking University.

C．Set your sights beyond the most well-known schools.

D．One reason: there were no major cities there at the time.

E．There was no better recipe for popularity than small campuses.

F．Part of the explanation for this lies in America's distinctive history.

G．But many are located in cities and towns most people have never heard of.

6 . In many countries of the world, people can confidently tell you the meaning of their town or city, but most people who live in Manchester, Oxford or Birmingham would not be able to explain what the name of their city means. The name of every British town and city, however, has a long history.

Two thousand years ago, most people living in Britain were Celts. Even the word “Britain” is Celtic. Then the Romans arrived and built camps which became cities called “castra”. This is why there are so many place names in England which end in “-chester” or “-caster” – Manchester, for example.

The Romans never reached Wales or Scotland, and many place names there are Celtic (凯尔特语的). For example, Welsh place names that begin with “Llan” come from the Celtic word for church.

After the Romans left Britain, it was attacked by tribes (部落) called the Anglo-Saxons who were from the area of Europe that is now Germany and Holland. Without the Roman army, it was impossible to protect the country from these people. The names of their villages often ended in “-ham” or “-ton”. Some got their name from the leader of the village, so Birmingham, for example, means “Beormund’s village”.

The Anglo-Saxons were farmers and the landscape was very important to them, so we have villages called Upton (“village on a hill” – a good place to build a village) and Moreton (“village by a lake”, where floods could make life tough). Place names that end in “-ford” (a place where you could cross a river) also describe the location of Anglo-Saxon villages.

Twelve hundred years ago, the Vikings came to England from Scandinavia. They traded with the Anglo-Saxons but lived in their own villages. These often ended in “-by” or “-thorpe”. The name “Kirkby” means “a village with a church” and Scunthorpe was the village of a man called Skuma.

Finally, in 1066, England became Norman – the Normans gave us the place name “grange”, which means farm.

And how about London? Experts cannot agree. The Romans called the city Londinium, but they were not the first inhabitants (居民). People once believed that the United Kingdom’s capital city got its name from the castle (城堡) of a King called Lud, but this is very unlikely. Our best guess today is that the name comes from a Celtic word meaning a fastflowing river. Like a number of British place names, its history is lost in time.

1. The origin of British place names is unfamiliar to many local people because of ______.

A．the death of ancient languages	B．their lack of interest in the names
C．the long lost history of the names	D．the frequent changes to the names

2. According to the article, Stratford-upon-Avon is most likely a town built______.

A．beside a river	B．near a castle
C．on a hill	D．with a church

3. Which of the following shows the correct order of the arrival of inhabitants in Britain?

A．The Celts — The Romans — The Vikings — The Normans — The Anglo Saxons

B．The Celts — The Romans — The Anglo Saxons — The Vikings — The Normans

C．The Romans — The Celts — The Vikings — The Anglo Saxons — The Normans

D．The Romans — The Anglo Saxons — The Celts — The Normans — The Vikings

4. According to the text, where did the name for London come from?

A．It is short for Londinium.	B．It’s from the term for a river.
C．It is puzzling and hard to confirm.	D．It comes from the castle of a King.

7 . Ireland’s Achill Island has always been a popular European tourist destination. However, since last April, the small island of just 2,600 residents has gained worldwide fame thanks to the magical reappearance of a beach that was washed away over three decades ago.

The chain of events began in 1984 when residents of Dooagh, one of the five settlements on the island, awoke to a surprising sight: their beautiful sandy beach had been washed away by strong Atlantic storms. There were only rocks and rock pools left. For over 30 years, only small amounts of sand returned to the once unspoiled shores. The area’s tourism industry slowly declined, and the handful of beachside hotels, pubs, and restaurants gradually closed as well.

Then around Easter last year, something magical happened - an unusual ten-day tide blanketed the bare 300-meter long rock beach with hundreds of tons of soft golden sand. Scientists suspect that the sand had been gathering offshore for months and was transported to the beach by the high winds and powerful waves.

The locals are delighted to have their beach back, especially as it is attracting thousands of visitors wishing to witness the power of nature, with their own eyes. However, Sean Molloy, manager of Achill Tourism, cautions against going into the cold waters just yet, saying, “Because of the sand coming in, we don’t know how safe the beach is now because currents ( 洋流 ) could be changed and it’ ll take a little bit of time.” He instead recommends visitors enjoy the soft sand and leave the swimming to the dolphins that frequent the area.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Dooagh Beach has pulled a disappearing and reappearing act. It disappeared in the 1890s, for over 30 years, before returning in 1927. However, the locals are optimistic that this time around, the beautiful sand is here to stay.

1. What has made Achill Island famous worldwide recently?

A．An unusual storm.	B．The decrease in the number of residents.
C．The return of its beach.	D．The building of a new tourist destination.

2. What happened to Dooagh in the past three decades?

A．Tourism went down gradually.	B．Restaurant developed slowly.
C．Storms attacked frequently.	D．Rock pools disappeared completely.

3. What should tourists avoid according to Sean Molloy?

A．Spoiling the shores.	B．Getting into the rock pools.
C．Playing with dolphins.	D．Swimming near the beaches.

8 . The Hope Diamond is one of the world’s most famous jewels. It was in the possession of a series of people: kings, bankers, rich women and thieves, before its arrival 60 years ago at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

As a rare blue diamond, it has a complex social history, to be sure. But, far more so is its geological history, researchers say in a new report. This is the first time anyone has come up with a fact-based study or model for how blue diamonds form.

The group looked at 42 blue diamonds, including one from South Africa that recently sold for $25 million in 2016. Researchers could tell where the stones were formed based on the very small minerals trapped inside.

Diamonds are a hard, clear form of pure carbon called a crystal (结晶). They form under extreme heat and pressure. Blue diamonds crystallize alongside water-bearing minerals that long ago were part of the floor of the sea. But these minerals were pushed deeper underground during the movement of the Earth’s plates.

Scientists already knew these diamonds received their blue color from the element boron (硼). The study says that boron had once been in ocean water but was eventually pushed into the seafloor rock. Over millions of years, the boron continued to move deep underground.

Many diamonds appear colorless. Often, however, they have some yellow color. Still others have a light brown, pink or green color. About 99 percent of all diamonds form somewhere between 150 to 200 kilometers underground, a far shallower birthplace than their blue relations. “These diamonds are among the deepest ever found,” Carnegie Institution for Science geochemist Steven Shirey said of the blue diamonds.

The public can see the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.

1. By saying the underlined part in Paragraph 2, the researchers mean the blue diamond ________.

A．was formed in extreme weather

B．has a very complex forming history

C．has a far-reaching influence in society

D．used to be very popular among rich people

2. How could researchers know the blue diamonds’ birthplaces?

A．By observing their colors.

B．By studying their structures.

C．By referring to where they were found.

D．By examining tiny substances in them.

3. What makes the diamonds appear blue?

A．The water.	B．Extreme heat and pressure.
C．A special matter.	D．The seafloor rock.

4. What is special about blue diamonds compared with diamonds of other colors?

A．They contain several colors.

B．They form in much deeper underground.

C．They come into being in a different way.

D．They are found near the earth’s surface.

5. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The social status of the Hope Diamond.

B．The discovery of the Hope Diamond.

C．The formation of the blue diamond.

D．The diversity of diamonds.

9 . 语法填空

Antarctica is the coldest continent on Earth. It's also among the driest.     1    (cover) about 14 million square kilometers around the South Pole, it is the fifth     2     (large) continent in the world. A high mountain range, the Transantarctic Mountains,     3     (run) from east to west, cutting the continent into two. There are    4    (volcano) too, but they are not very active. Antarctica holds about 90% of the world's ice, and most of its fresh water is in a frozen state, of course. Approximately 98% of the surface is covered     5     (permanent) by the ice cap. On average it is around two kilometers thick, but in some places it reaches a     6     (deep) of about five kilometers. Strong winds driven by gravity blow from the pole to the coastline, while other winds blow round the coast. It is difficult     7     (imagine) a more inhospitable place.

Yet Antarctica is full of wildlife, which has adapted     8     its extreme conditions. But the Antarctic winter,     9     involves a period of over three months of complete darkness, as well as the extreme cold and lack of rainfall, means that few types of plants can survive there. Only two types of flowering plants are found,     10     there are no trees on the large continent.

10 . When you think of the Arctic, you imagine an icy land of pure white snow, which is considered to be the last really clean place     1    (leave) on Earth. Yet plastic trash has now reached the remote regions of the Arctic and the Alps. A team of     2    (scientist) has discovered large quantities of microplastics(微塑料) — very small pieces of plastic waste — in the Arctic snow. While microplastics have been found in sea-water, drinking water, and even in animals over     3     past several years, this is the first study to show microplastics in snow,     4     indicates it is an airborne pollutant that must be paid attention to.

The researchers state that microplastics in snow suggest that microplastics may be in the air that we     5    (breath). Therefore, it is really important     6    (assess) if microplastics also reach lung tissues.

Previous research has found that they flow over long distances and into our oceans,     7    (damage) ecosystems along the way. They start in our wastewater, when we wash clothes     8     plastic fibers. The wastewater then flows into rivers and out to sea, where they     9    (eat) by sea animals. If people then eat these animals, it means that we’re     10    (probable) eating the plastic as well.