1 . Rainforests are home to a rich variety of medicinal plants, food, birds and animals. Can you believe that a single bush（灌木丛）in the Amazon may have more species of ants than the whole of Britain! About 480 varieties of trees may be found in just one hectare of rainforest.
Rainforests are the lungs of the planet-storing vast quantities of carbon dioxide and producing a significant amount of the world's oxygen. Rainforests have their own perfect system for ensuring their own survival; the tall trees make a canopy（树冠层）of branches and leaves which protect themselves, smaller plants, and the forest animals from heavy rain, intense dry heat from the sun and strong winds.
Amazingly, the trees grow in such a way that their leaves and branches, although close together, never actually touch those of another tree. Scientists think this is the plants' way to prevent the spread of any tree diseases and make life more difficult for leaf-eating insects like caterpillars. To survive in the forest, animals must climb, jump or fly across the gaps. The ground floor of the forest is not all tangled leaves and bushes, like in films, but is actually fairly clear. It is where dead leaves turn into food for the trees and other forest life.
They are not called rainforests for nothing! Rainforests can generate 75%of their own rain. At least 80 inches of rain a year is normal-and in some areas there may be as much as 430 inches of rain annually. This is real rain-your umbrella may protect you in a shower, but it won't keep you dry if there is a full rainstorm. In just two hours, streams can rise ten to twenty feet. The humidity（湿气）of large rainforests contributes to the formation of rainclouds that may travel to other countries in need of rain.
1. What can we learn about rainforests from the first paragraph?| A．They produce oxygen. | B．They cover a vast area. |
| C．They are well managed. | D．They are rich in wildlife. |
| A．Heavy rains | B．Big trees. |
| C．Small plants. | D．Forest animals. |
| A．For more sunlight. | B．For more growing space. |
| C．For self-protection. | D．For the detection of insects. |
| A．Life-Giving Rainforests | B．The Law of the Jungle |
| C．Animals in the Amazon | D．Weather in Rainforests |
2 . The huge Florida wetland known as the Everglades is a slow﹣moving river 80 kilometers wide but only a few centimeters deep. People call the Everglades a "river of grass" because sawgrass covers most of it. Sawgrass is not really grass. It is a plant that has leaves edged with tiny sharp teeth that can easily cut through clothes ﹣and skin!
Travel in the Everglades is difficult. You cannot walk through shallow water because the sawgrass will cut you. The water is too shallow for regular boats. So， we use an airboat. An airboat is a flat， open boat. Like an airplane， it has a big propeller to move it. The propeller is fixed on the rear of the boat. It makes a loud noise but it does the job. The boat skims along the water's surface. Although we can still get lost in an airboat， at least we are above the alligators （短吻鳄）.
For a long time， dangers have threatened the Everglades. Around 1900， some people felt this precious wetland should be drained（排干）. They said it was just a big swamp and not good for anything. In the 1920s， there was a land boom in Florida. People wanted to build homes everywhere， including in the Everglades. They built canals， levees， and other water systems that stopped the rivers flowing into the Everglades. Factories were built near rivers that flowed into the wetland. These factories poured poisonous waste that damaged the environment of the everglades.
People are now working to preserve the Everglades National Park for the future. Right now one big problem is the paperbark tree. This tree is an invader from Australia.
Paperbark trees soak up a lot of water. In the early 1900s，people brought them to Florida because they thought they would help drain the Everglades. However， the invaders adapted too well. Paperbark trees have taken over hundreds of thousands of acres of the everglades and killed other trees. Scientists are cutting down these trees or spraying them with herbicides to kill them.
1. What possibly cause（s） airboats to get lost in the Everglades？| A．The sawgrass. |
| B．The vast river. |
| C．The alligators. |
| D．The shallow water. |
| A．Because they can move faster. |
| B．Because their noise frightens the alligators. |
| C．Because they have flat bottoms. |
| D．Because they carry more passengers. |
| A．By cutting down trees |
| B．By building factories. |
| C．By growing sawgrass. |
| D．By digging water channels. |
| A．Seeds. |
| B．Poisons. |
| C．Crops. |
| D．Paints. |
3 . Deep in the middle of Sri Lanka, a massive column of rock reaches out from the green tropical forest. It is 660 feet tall and features frescoes (壁画), graffiti, and landscaped gardens.
The rock is known as Sigiriya and holds a special place in the island's cultural history.
It was established as the stronghold of a king over 1,500 years ago, and today the Sigiriya complex stands as one of the earliest preserved examples of ancient urban planning.
Located in the Central Province, the column of rock is somewhat central to the country. The rock is known as Sihagiri, meaning "Lion Rock", a nod to the giant animal carved from stone which greeted visitors at the entrance.
In 476 BC. King Dhatusena ruled over Sri Lanka. One of his illegal sons, Kashyapa, wanted the throne (王位). Kashyapa overthrew Dhatusena and drove his brother Moggallana to Southern India. Kashyapa crowned himself king in 477 BC.
King Kashyapa chose Sigiriya as his palace because its position was an advantage to the defensive stronghold, offering fantastic 360-degree views. Plans to build a city quickly unfolded and after several years, the Sigiriya complex had become a business center for the new King.
Sigiriya was both a palace and a fortress (堡垒); the overall complex featured five gates and measured just under 3 km by just over 1 km. The site plan consisted of a fort，an upper palace on the top of the rock,and lower palaces at ground level. The king also constructed gardens throughout，and for protection a river with walls surrounded the complex.
Frescoes decorate the western side of the rock, along with the mirror wall, a brick face covered in a highly-polished white plaster. When new, the wall was said to be able to produce Reflections.
Over time the Mirror Wall became a graffiti board, covered in verses written by visitors. Known as "Sigiri Graffiti", some of the messages date to the 8th century CE.
1. It is implied in the passage that Sigiriya was built to ______________.| A．preserve the culture of Sri Lanka | B．prove the ancient urban planning |
| C．keep the King from being attacked | D．protect the green tropical forest |
| A．have a reflection before the Mirror Wall |
| B．leave comments on the Mirror Wall |
| C．draw beautiful paintings of girls on the wall |
| D．be lost in thought before the Mirror Wall |
| A．Its entrance is carved like a lion. | B．Its gardens are at ground level. |
| C．Its western side is a mirror. | D．Its palaces are on the top of the rock. |
| A．The giant lions in Sri Lanka. | B．The pearl of the Indian Ocean. |
| C．The Lion Rock of Sri Lanka. | D．The mirror wall in a rock. |
4 . Record fires sweeping across the Amazon recently have been making the headlines as scientists and environmental groups are worried that they will worsen climate change crisis and endanger biodiversity(生物多样性）。
As the largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon is often called"the lungs of the world”. It is also home to about 3 million species of plants and animals, and 1 million local people. The vast area of rainforest plays an important role in the world's ecosystem because it absorbs heat instead of reflecting heat back into the atmosphere. It also stores carbon dioxide and produces oxygen, ensuring that less carbon is released, reducing the effects of climate change.
＂Any forest destroyed is a danger to biodiversity and the people who use that biodiversity," Thomas Lovejoy, an ecologist at George Mason University told National Geographic."The great danger is that a lot of carbon goes into the atmosphere,"he stressed."In the midst of the global climate crisis, we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity.The Amazon must be protected,"UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.
Data from the National Institute for Space Research(INPE)show that the number of forest fires in Brazil quickly increased by 82 percent from January to August a year ago.A total of 71,497 forest fires were registered in the country in the first 8 months of 2019,up from 39,194 in the same period in 2018,INPE said.＂We estimate that the forest areas in the Brazilian Amazon have decreased something between 20 and 30 percent compared to the last 12 months," Carlos Nobre, a researcher at the University of Sao Paulo, told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
Brazil owns about 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest,whose degradation(恶化）could have severe consequences for global climate and rainfall.The extent of the area ruined by fires has yet to be determined, but the emergency has gone beyond Brazil's borders.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The great role of the Amazon rainforest. |
| B．The effects of consistent climate change. |
| C．The causes of the decreasing biodiversity. |
| D．The results of the Amazon rainforest fires. |
| A．To explain the process of the research. |
| B．To present the bad influence of forest fires. |
| C．To prove the great importance of the rainforest. |
| D．To show the emergency of protecting the rainforest. |
| A．The dry weather leads to the rainforest fires. |
| B．The biodiversity makes the rainforest unique. |
| C．The rainforest fires result in serious consequences. |
| D．The global climate crisis brings more rainforest fires. |
| A．Climate and life. |
| B．Nature and geography. |
| C．Humankind and society. |
| D．Science and technology. |
5 . Today we know Antarctica as an extreme environment containing ice and snow. But new research provides evidence that the area was very different in the past.
The evidence was found inside a piece of earth sediment(沉积物) collected by researchers from a depth of about 30 meters below the ocean floor off the coast of Antarctica. In the sediment, they found forest soil estimated to be about 90 million years old. This would have been in the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs were the main land animals.
Johann Klages is a geologist, working in the Institute's Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in Germany. He said an examination showed that the material formed on land, not in the ocean.
The researchers estimate that the area – about 900 kilometers from the South Pole – had average yearly temperatures of about 12 to 13 degrees Celsius. During the warmest summer months, average temperatures likely reached between 20 to 25 degrees Celsius. The average yearly temperature in that area is about 40 degrees below zero Celsius.
The examination results showed “a dense network of roots that spread through the entire soil layer,” the Helmholtz Center said in a statement.
The dark brownish-gray soil included fine dirt particles and hard clay, as well as substances linked to at least 65 different kinds of plants, the study found. Klages put that the plants included trees, ferns and flowering plants and while no animal remains were found, there were likely dinosaurs, flying reptiles and many insects in the environment.
The researchers said that the rainforest environment in Antarctica was especially surprising because each year, the area experiences a four-month polar night when there is no sunlight to fuel plant life.
1. According to the passage, we can learn that ________.| A．dinosaurs were from Antarctica |
| B．Antarctica was always extremely cold |
| C．the ocean floor is made up of sediment |
| D．the area has been experiencing climate changes |
| A．No animals left. |
| B．No fertilizer to fuel plants. |
| C．Roots spreading through the soil. |
| D．The rainforest experiencing polar night. |
| A．Science. | B．Entertainment. | C．Society. | D．Fiction. |
| A．Antarctica, Once a Warm Rainforest |
| B．Earth Sediment Found in Antarctica |
| C．Antarctica - an Extreme Environment |
| D．New Antarctica Found by Researchers |
Rain forests slightly farther away from the equator remain just as warm,but they have a dry season of three months or more when little rain falls.Tree leaves fall during this dry season and new leaves grow when the wet season or monsoon(雨季) begins.Thus these areas are known as the “monsoon forest”.
Another type of rain forest grows on tropical mountains.It is often called the “cloud forest” because clouds often hang over the trees like fog.
The rain forest is the ideal place for the growth of many different trees.Most of them depend on animals to eat their fruits and spread their seeds.When the fruits are eaten,the seeds inside them go undamaged through animals’ stomachs and are passed out in their droppings.The seeds lying on the forest floor then grow into new trees.
1. The climate of the rain forests near the equator is _______.
| A．mild,wet and windy | B．hot,rainy and foggy |
| C．hot,wet and cloudy | D．warm,wet and sunny |
| A．tree leaves are green all the time in the monsoon forest |
| B．there is a dry season in the cloud forest on tropical mountains |
| C．clouds help the plants in the rain forest near the deserts to grow |
| D．the formation of climate in the rain forest has little to do with the trees |
| A．animals | B．droppings | C．fruits | D．winds |
| A．a travel guide | B．a story book |
| C．a technical report | D．a geography book |
