1 . When I imagine my future, I see myself as an adult who is confident in my abilities, doing a job I love and living my life
I will feel happy in the future because I will learn more about life and
Thinking this way gives me the
| A．responsibly | B．importantly | C．differently | D．uncomfortably |
| A．interests | B．experience | C．convenience | D．changes |
| A．habits | B．hobbies | C．ideas | D．chances |
| A．form | B．develop | C．expect | D．decide |
| A．notice | B．find | C．change | D．solve |
| A．Turn to | B．Devote to | C．Thanks to | D．Lead to |
| A．smarter | B．worthier | C．worse | D．cuter |
| A．warn | B．ignore | C．monitor | D．understand |
| A．want | B．remind | C．ask | D．order |
| A．learning | B．communication | C．work | D．transport |
| A．benefits | B．advances | C．promises | D．challenges |
| A．hours | B．days | C．minutes | D．weeks |
| A．that | B．it | C．which | D．what |
| A．enhancing | B．entertaining | C．engaging | D．encountering |
| A．inspiration | B．motivation | C．appreciation | D．impression |
2 . When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s, we had a milkman delivering milk to our doorstep. His name was Mr. Basille. He wore a white cap and drove a white truck. As a 5-year-old boy, I couldn’t take my eyes off the coin changer fixed to his belt. He noticed this one day during a delivery and gave me a quarter out of his coin changer.
Of course, he delivered more than milk. There was cheese, eggs and so on. If we needed to change our order, my mother would pen a note — “Please add a bottle of buttermilk next delivery” — and place it in the box along with the empty bottles. And then, the buttermilk would magically (魔术般) appear.
All of this was about more than convenience. There existed a close relationship between families and their milkmen. Mr. Basille even had a key to our house, for those times when it was so cold outside that we put the box indoors, so that the milk wouldn’t freeze. And I remember Mr. Basille from time to time taking a break at our kitchen table, having a cup of tea and telling stories about his delivery.
There is sadly no home milk delivery today. Big companies allowed the production of cheaper milk, thus making it difficult for milkmen to compete. Besides, milk is for sale everywhere, and it may just not have been practical to have a delivery service.
Recently, an old milk box in the countryside I saw brought back my childhood memories. I took it home and planted it on the back porch (门廊) . Every so often my son’s friends will ask what it is. So I start telling stories of my boyhood, and of the milkman who brought us friendship along with his milk.
1. Mr. Basille gave the boy a quarter out of his coin changer to __________.| A．show his magical power | B．pay for the delivery |
| C．satisfy his curiosity | D．please his mother |
| A．He wanted to have tea there. | B．He was a respectable person. |
| C．He was treated as a family member. | D．He was fully trusted by the family. |
| A．Nobody wants to be a milkman now. | B．It has been driven out of the market. |
| C．Its service is getting poor. | D．It is not allowed by law. |
| A．He missed the good old days. | B．He wanted to tell interesting stories. |
| C．He needed it for his milk bottles. | D．He planted flowers in it. |
William N. Brown was a young airman in the U.S. Air Force when he first became interested in China. Driven by
In the beginning, William’s father strongly objected his move to China,
4 . “Human activity has wiped out two-thirds of the world’s wildlife since 1970,” CNN reported on September 10, 2020. Later that month, the Guardian reported that “40 percent of the world’s plant species are at risk of extinction”. Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich and his colleagues argued that “the ongoing sixth mass extinction may be the most serious environmental threat to the persistence of civilization”. Around the same time, the Daily Mail warned that “human civilization stands a 90 percent chance of collapse within decades due to deforestation”.
These horrible calculations and projections come from authoritative-sounding reports issued by international agencies, conservation groups, and peer-reviewed scientific journals. But is the future of wild nature and human civilization really so poor?
Data from uncontroversial mainstream sources strongly indicate that both humanity and the natural world are likely to be flourishing rather than collapsing at the end of this century. Humanity is becoming an urban species, and that’s good for the environment, since urban dwellers generally use less electricity, produce less globe-warming carbon dioxide, and have smaller land footprints than people living in the countryside. By 2100, it is estimated that 85 percent of people will be city dwellers, which would leave only 1.2 billion still living in the countryside. That means more space for the wildlife and less pollution from the agriculture.
The global tree-covering area increased by 865,000 square miles between 1982 and 2016. The researchers found that gains in forest area in the mild, subtropical and northern climatic zones are offsetting declines in the tropics. The Maryland researchers owe much of that increase to “natural afforestation on abandoned agricultural land”. “Furthermore, forests in mountainous regions are expanding as climate warming enables trees to grow at higher altitudes,” they added.
Humanity does face big environmental challenges in the coming century. But the scientific and economic evidence shows that most of the trends are positive or can be turned in positive direction by human wisdom. Rather than an age of extinction, the 21st century promises to be an era of environmental renewal.
1. Why does the author mention the reports in Paragraph 1?| A．To give examples. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To make a contrast. | D．To support his opinion. |
| A．No one will choose to live in the countryside. |
| B．More space will be available for the wildlife. |
| C．Neither humanity nor the natural world will develop quickly. |
| D．Urban residents will do more walking than those in the countryside. |
| A．The expanding and disappearance in forest area aren’t evenly matched. |
| B．The forest area in the mild, tropic and northern zones is increasing. |
| C．There are more forests in mountainous regions due to the climate warming. |
| D．The plan of “natural afforestation on abandoned agricultural land” is unfavorable. |
| A．The Bright Future of Humanity |
| B．The Challenges in the Coming Century |
| C．Better Environment, Better Future of Human |
| D．21st Century: An Era of Environmental Renewal |
5 . A four-wheeled pod shaped like a space capsule on riverside roads trundles slowly among people who run, walk, cycle and lead dogs. At a maximum speed of 10 mph, the car beeps as it moves regularly between the Inter Continental Hotel in the west of the peninsula and apartment blocks in the east.
The biggest surprise about the vehicle is not its futuristic appearance but how it is controlled. While current safety rules require a human to monitor the vehicle’s performance and step in to avoid crashes, the pod largely drives itself. It is one of several experiments worldwide aimed at exploring how autonomous vehicles might mesh with city transport systems. All are looking at how a technology being developed mainly for US highways can work in the more confined, chaotic space of city streets.
At the heart of these efforts is an attempt to work out whether driverless vehicles will ease or worsen the impact that private car travel has had on many cities following the highway-building craze of the mid-20th century.
Some fear the technology could prompt more journeys by private motor vehicles rather than more space-efficient public transport. If the technology provides comfortable, stress-free, private journeys, it might also prompt people to commute daily from further afield, generating yet more traffic.
Experts concerned about such impacts on behaviour argue it is vital that the roll-out of autonomous vehicle technology goes hand-in-hand with a rethink of how it is used.
David Begg, a former chairman of the UK’s Commission for Integrated Transport, accepts that autonomous vehicles will use road space more efficiently but says the problem remains that cars take up too much space for the people they carry. On average, most vehicles contain little more than one person — the driver.
“There’s no doubt autonomous vehicles can allow us to squeeze more vehicles into a given amount of capacity because they’re bumper-to-bumper and side-by-side,” prof Begg says. “Unless we can increase vehicle occupancy up from 1.1, we’re moving too much fresh air and not enough people.”
1. What do we know about driverless vehicles?| A．Driverless vehicle travels at an average speed of 10 mph. |
| B．Driverless vehicle drives itself to a great degree. |
| C．Driverless vehicles’ appearance is the same as common cars. |
| D．Most driverless vehicles contain more than one person. |
| A．deserted | B．tidy. | C．straight. | D．narrow. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．concerned | C．Positive. | D．Sympathetic. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Health. | C．Education. | D．Science. |
