1 . After astronaut Rusty Schweickart looked down at the Earth from space for the first time, he described a sense of awe that has become common to almost every space traveler since. “You realize that on that little blue and white thing there is everything that means anything to you, all history and music and poetry and art and death and birth and love, all of it on that little spot out there you can cover with your thumb.” No matter what country you’re from, you return from space with a feeling that our home is tiny, fragile, and something we need to protect.

Anyone who reads the new book Growth by one of my favorite thinkers will come with similar urgency. The author, Czech-Canadian profe Vaclav Smil, approaches things from a scientist’s point of view, but he reaches the same conclusion: The Earth is fragile and “before it is too late, we should launch the most fundamental task of making any future growth consistent with the long-term preservation of our planet.”

Before I get into how Smil came to this conclusion, I should warn you. Although Growth is a brilliant combination of everything we can learn from patterns of growth in the natural and human-made world, it’s not for everyone. Long sections read like a textbook or an engineering guidebook. And it has 99 pages of references!

The book covers everything from agriculture to steel production to smartphone use. Smil’s goal is to show that no matter what field you’re talking about, eventually you hit growth limits. As Smil writes, “My aim is to explain varieties of growth in evolutionary and historical perspectives and to appreciate both the accomplishments and the limits of growth in modern ivilization…”

I don’t agree with all of his analysis. In particular, I'm more optimistic than he is about the degree to which today’s renewable energy technologies carl be used, and the pace at which scientists and engineers will develop new clean sources. In my view, Smil underestimates our accelerating ability to model the physical world using digital technologies equipped with artificial intelligence.

But I've always felt that Smil’s great strength isn’t predicting the future, but documenting the past. There’s great value in that—you can’t see what’s coming next if you don’t understand what’s come before. Nobody sees the big picture with as wide an aperture(光圈孔径) as Vaclav Smil.

1. What does the underlined phrase “similar urgency” refer to in paragraph 2?

A．To protect our home is difficult.

B．It’s too late to protect the Earth.

C．The Earth means everything to us.

D．We need to protect the fragile Earth.

2. What’s the writing style of the book Growth?

A．Causal.	B．Academic.
C．Humorous.	D．Straightforward.

3. How does the writer of this article feel about the renewable energy technologies?

A．Anxious.	B．Objective.
C．Optimistic.	D．Pessimistic.

4. What information does the last paragraph intend to tell us?

A．Smil intends to document the history.

B．Smil sees the world from a great angle.

C．Smil shows great concern for the future.

D．Smil describes a promising future for us.

2 . 阅读下面短文，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。

There is no doubt that humankind dreams of making Mars our second home. However, sending people there will require all the skills, courage and     1     (intelligent) of the human race. While the Moon can be reached within days, it would take months to reach Mars,     2     (travel) through dangerous solar radiation. And even if the first settlers do reach Mars safely, staying alive will be     3    daily challenge, but as proved by the Biosphere experiment, not impossible.

As early as the 1980s, scientists were building Biosphere 2 in the Arizona desert. It consisted of a closed space    4     people, animals and plants could live together. The “closed” concept meant that the space was designed     5     (function) with its own oxygen, food and water, needing nothing from the outside world.     6     the two-year experiment was not a success, it did provide us with a better understanding of how humans might be able to live on another planet. More recently, scientists     7     (succeed) in growing a variety of plants in an environment similar to that on Mars. That     8     (definite) is a big step forward.

For now, human settlement of Mars is still     9     (decade) away. In the meantime, scientific research shows that the planet Earth is getting     10     (warm). This change is having a terrible effect on the biosphere.

3 . Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person, was just five when American astronauts stepped on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. However, he’s never forgotten the black-and-white footage from the historic moment. Since then, the moon has always been the center of his space dreams which are channeled through his spaceflight company, Blue Origin.

On May 9, 2019, at a meeting held in Washington, DC, Bezos came one step closer to achieving his dream of sending people there, when he presented a model of a lander, Blue Moon, designed to carry both humans and goods to the satellite.

Though details of how Blue Moon will be sent to space remain unclear, Bezos is confident it’ll be ready for its mission (使命) by 2024. He considers it unavoidable to settle in space given our ever-increasing population and fewer resources. Unlike those seeking a home on another planet, Bezos thinks humans will be living in orbital space settlements, which are similar to the International Space Station, except much bigger, each housing millions of people. Space taxis would make it easy for humans to travel between settlements.

But first we need to develop a cheaper way to travel between space and Earth. Bezos may have solved the problem partly by removing the biggest cost of spaceflights—single use rockets—with Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard rocket, which has made several trips to space and back since 2015.

To encourage future space dreamers, the company’s recently built a free online club that will keep members informed of its progress and challenge them to find solutions to help humans and save earth. It invites students of all ages to draw or write how they imagine humans living and working in space on a self-addressed, stamped postcard and send it to the “Club for the Future” by July 20, 2019. The first 10,000 postcards will be sent to space aboard the New Shepard rocket later this year. When it returns to Earth, the postcards, stamped “flown to space,” will be returned to their owners.

1. What does Paragraph 1 mainly talk about?

A．An impressive historic moment.

B．The beginning of Bezos’ space dream.

C．The exciting news of sending man to space.

D．Bezos’ secret of becoming the wealthiest person.

2. What will be orbital space settlements like in Bezos’ eyes?

A．Overpopulated.	B．Solar-powered.
C．Energy-hungry.	D．Conveniently accessible.

3. What may contribute greatly to the low cost of travelling to space?

A．Space taxis.	B．Single use rockets.
C．New Shepard rocket.	D．Orbital space settlements.

4. What’s the purpose of the free online club?

A．To help humans and save earth.

B．To challenge students of all ages.

C．To build a new way of sending postcards.

D．To encourage future space dreamers.

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(不多于3个单词)。

Li Qiang was taking up the prize to travel to 3008 AD. It was his first time that he     1    (travel) to space. So he was unsettled for the journey. Luckily, his guide, Wang Ping, was also his friend and gave him much help.

    2     (transport) by Wang Ping’s parents’ company, he arrived in the future in a time capsule. At first, he found it hard     3     (tolerate) the new surroundings and his head ached     4     lack of fresh air. Wang Ping hurried him to a small room for     5     rest and then they each collected a hovering carriage driven by computer. Soon Li Qiang could fly as     6     (swift) as Wang Ping.     7     he lost sight of Wang Ping because of too many carriages     8     (fly) by in all directions. Wang Ping was swept up into the center of them. After a while Li Qiang caught up with him.

Arriving at a strange-looking house, Wang Ping showed Li Qiang into a large room. The wall of the room was made of trees. The leaves of the trees provided     9     with much-needed oxygen. After having a meal and a bath, Li Qiang found himself     10     (exhaust) and then he slid into bed.

5 . As anyone who freelances (做自由职业) knows, there are lots of advantages of working at home alone. But there are drawbacks too, like the potential loneliness. No wonder co-working spaces are becoming so popular, they permit self-employed individuals to feel like they are part of all office environment, while making them get some work done too. But renting a co-working space does cost money.

Now a Swedish project is aiming to change that by turning people’s under-used homes into temporary co-working spaces, available to freelancers for free. Hoffice was started by freelancers Christofer Gradin Franzen and Johline Zandra about a year ago in Stockholm when they invited a few people into their home office to work together. It was a great success, and the project has since spread to a number of cities in Europe, North and South America, Australia, India and Japan. Anyone can sign up and offer their home space as a free co-working space, or go find a Hoffice near them.

On a Hoffice day, everyone arrives and starts work at a certain hour. After 45 minutes，everyone gets up to take a break, stretch, do qigong or yoga for 10 to 15 minutes. Afterwards，people can gather around again, and re-state their intentions and goals for the rest of the work day, as a way to motivate each other. Meals can be eaten together at a certain hour, potluck-style (家常饭) or by bringing their own lunch.

This process creates an encouraging and supportive work environment. As some freelancers describe, “By working at Hoffice, we give ourselves and each other the gift to spend our days in a social working environment, where we are extremely productive without ignoring our other human needs. We also make sure to give ourselves and each other what we need to feel calm, happy, inspired and creative during the working day.”

So Hoffice is not just about sharing space; it’s also about a free exchange of ideas. And perhaps the best thing is that Hoffices are free to use.

1. Hoffice was started to________.

A．change people’s attitude to work	B．encourage people to be more social
C．provide a co-working space for free	D．improve people’s working conditions

2. What’s the main idea of Paragraph 3？

A．How a Hoffice day works.	B．How people respond to Hoffice.
C．What people share at Hoffice.	D．What Hoffice means to people.

3. Some freelancers’ descriptions of Hoffice suggest that they________.

A．work longer than before	B．benefit a lot from the working style
C．expect more people to join them	D．can’t be separated from each other

4. What do we know about Hoffice according to the text?

A．It is suitable for people from all walks of life.

B．It has created many new job opportunities.

C．It has been around for quite a few years.

D．It is becoming increasingly popular.