1 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Venice—The Risk of the Disappearance of an Entire City

Venice is a stunning oddity. It is a city built atop around 120 islands, crisscrossed by 177 canals, and is best explored via the use of its 391 bridges. But the city is not well recently. Indeed,     1     drastic measures are taken, the city’s days could be numbered.

This is far from hyperbole(夸张): Venice is at very real risk of     2     (consume) by the sea. In worst-case scenario, the city could disappear beneath the waves by 2100. Meanwhile, many of its building are sinking     3     being damaged by the wakes of boats. It is also routinely overwhelmed by tourists, while its local population is in continual decline.

Globally, a lot of cities    4     (hit) by similar problems of sinking land and rising sea levels in Venice. Low-lying Jakarta(雅加达), for example, is in such a terrible situation that it is being replaced     5     the capital city of Indonesia by Nusantara, a city not yet even built.

In November 2019, Venice suffered its second-worst flooding. It created headlines around the world, with onlookers     6     (astonish) by the incredible images of Saint Mark’s Square, one of the city’s lowest lying areas, covered in feet of water.

The tide reached a peak height of 187cm above sea level,     7     (result) in more than 80% of the city being under water. A state of emergency was declared, and there was an estimated €1bn euros worth of damage.

The worst ever flooding event, which happened in 1966,     8     (see) water levels rise to 194cm above sea level, and is thought     9     (damage) at least three quarters of the city’s shops, businesses and studios.

    10     a gap of over 50 years separated these events, recent trends suggest that we won’t have to wait half a century to see another disastrous flood. Since water levels started being officially recorded in 1923, they have reached 150cm or more on only 10 occasions, but five of those have been in the last three years.

2 . We Have a Painter to Thank for Yellowstone

Before artist Thomas Moran set foot in the park, it was seen as a hellish place. After, it was marketed as a wonderland.

Before Thomas Moran arrived, Yellowstone in the popular imagination was a harsh, wild place pocked with hellish geysers(间歇泉). After the painter’s work was finished, Yellowstone was established as a national park and marketed as a wonderland.

In 1871 Moran and photographer William Henry Jackson had joined the first U.S. government survey of the region. For two weeks Moran filled a sketchbook with the landscape’s most stunning sights. The survey results, Jackson’s photos, and Moran’s watercolors—the first color illustration of the area—were presented to Congress that fall. “The photographs were proof that what the artist was showing really existed,” says Eleanor Harvey, senior curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

In March 1872 lawmakers officially made Yellowstone a national park, the world’s first. By April, Moran had transformed some of his sketches into a 7-by-12-foot painting. The gold-splattered valley and billowing Lower Falls of “The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone” fascinated the public. “It is too grand and wonderful for words,” declared the Ladies’ Repository that August, “and none can ever be a judge of its wonders from any engraving or photograph in mere black and white.”

Though Moran later painted Lake Superior, the Grand Canyon, and the Rockies, his reputation was so attached to Yellowstone that he took to signing his paintings “TYM”.

1. It can be inferred from the passage that ________ must be one of the appealing sights in Yellowstone National Park.

A．Alice-in-Wonderland .	B．Smithsonian American Art Museum.
C．The Grand Canyon.	D．Lake Superior.

2. It can be concluded from paragraph 2 & 3 that ________ is the best way to demonstrate the charm of Yellowstone.

A．writing

B．engraving

C．photos

D．watercolors

3. According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?

A．Yellowstone has always been a wonderland from the public’s perspective.

B．Yellowstone is the first national park across the world.

C．The signature on the paintings of Moran later paintings probably stands for Thomas Yellowstone Moran.

D．Moran’s paintings helped inspire Congress to establish the Yellowstone region as a national park.

3 . Twenty years ago, the Urban Land Institute defined the two types of cities that dominated the US landscape: smaller cities that operated around standard 9-5 business hours and large metropolitan areas that ran all 24 hours of the day.

In recent years, many mid-sized cities have begun to adopt a middle-of-the-road approach incorporating the excitement and opportunity of large cities with small cities’ quiet after midnight.     1     What is underlying this new movement in real estate, and why do these cities have so much appeal?

18-hour cities combine the best of 24-hour and 9-5 cities, which contributes to downtown revitalization. For decades, many downtown cores in small to mid-sized cities were abandoned after work hours by workers who lived in the suburbs.     2     This generated little commerce for downtown businesses in the evenings, which made business and generating tax revenue for municipal upkeep difficult. With the rise of a new concept in urban planning that aims to make life easier and more convenient, however, increasing popularity for urban areas that caused the real estate pushes, in major cities like San Francisco or New York, has inspired a type of forward-thinking urbanity in smaller cities.

Transforming downtown areas so that they incorporate modern housing and improved walkability to local restaurants, retail, and entertainment — especially when combined with improved infrastructure for cyclists and public transit — makes them appeal to a more affluent demographic.     3     Access to foot traffic and proximity to transit allow the type of entertainment-oriented businesses such as bars and restaurants to stay open later, which attracts both younger, creative workers and baby boomers, nearing retirement alike.

These 18-hour cities are rapidly on the rise and offer great opportunities for homeowner investment. In many of these cities such as Denver, a diverse and vigorous economy attracted to the urban core has offered stable employment for residents.     4    

A．Because of their smaller size, most keep hours that allow people to enjoy themselves, then have some quiet after midnight.

B．These 18-hour cities are beginning to make waves in real estate rankings and attract more real estate investment.

C．Analyzing and comparing cities using the lens of this basic divide gives interesting context to how investment capital flows and housing prices have shifted.

D．These adjustments encourage employers in the knowledge and talent industries to keep their offices downtown.

E．The right urban mix has propped up home occupancy, increased property values, and attracted significant investment capital.

F．Movement out of city centers was widespread, and downtown tenants were predominantly made up of the working poor.