1 . In the US, tornadoes(龙卷风） are responsible for 80 deaths and more than 1,500 injuries each year. Although they happen quite frequently, tornadoes are difficult to predict. Why? Tornadoes develop from storms, but only some storms are likely to become tornadoes. Scientists don’t know where and when a storm will touch the ground and turn into a tornado. Today, the warning time for a tornado is usually just 13 minutes.

Time Samaras is a storm chaser. His job is to find tornados and follow them.When he gets close to a tornado, he puts a special tool called a turtle probe on the ground. This tool measures things like a tornado’s temperature, humidity (湿度), and wind speed. With this information, Samaras can learn what causes tornadoes to develop. If meteorologists(气象学家) understand this, they can warn people about tornadoes sooner and save lives.

How does Samaras hunt tornadoes? It’s not easy. First, he has to find one Tornadoes are too small to see using weather satellites. So Samaras can’t rely on these tools to find a tornado. Instead, he waits for tornadoes to develop. Every May and June, Samaras drivers about 40,000 kilometers across an area known as ToknownTornado Alley, looking and hoping to spot a tornado.

Once Samaras sees a tornado, the chase begins. But a tornado is hard to follow. Some tornadoes change direction several times—for example,moving east and then west and then east again. When Sanaras finally gets near a tonrnado, he puts the turtle probe on the ground. Being this close to a tornado is terrifying. Debris (碎片) is flying in the air . Then wind is blowing at high speed. He must get away quickly.

The work is risky, even for a skilled chaser like Samaras. But danger won’t stop his hunt for the perfect storm.

1. What do we know about tornadoes?

A．They can be predicted by satellites.	B．They usually come down in winter
C．The warning time for them is very short .	D．They often develop into storms.

2. A turtle probe is used to                 .

A．predict tornadoes	B．collect information about tornadoes
C．chase tornadoes	D．decrease the power of tornadoes

3. The third paragraph is mainly about                 .

A．how tornadoes develop	B．how the turtle probe works
C．how powerful Tornado Alley is	D．how Samaras chases a tornado

4. According to the text ,the job of a tornado chaser is                 .

A．difficult and dangerous	B．stressful and troublesome
C．mysterious and interesting	D．exciting and popular

2 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入一个适当的单词或者括号内单词的正确形式。

As we head towards midwinter all seems quiet in the garden, but now is the perfect time for     1     (plant) a tree. Are you worrying about not having the space? Are you gardening on concrete? There     2     (be) a simple solution     3     the problems: grow a small tree in a pot. This is often overlooked, so in an effort     4     (change) that, here is a list of the best species for pot growing,     5     will work well in even the tiniest of the city gardens.

The most     6     (common) suggested candidate for this treatment is an olive (橄榄树)—and with good reason. They are evergreen and have character from a young age.

If you want something     7     (usual), I’d give dwarf eucalypus     8     try. Eucalypus kybeannensis is much slower growing than its cousins, creating an airy treetop of fragrant leaves on trees just 5m tall.

Finally, if bright     9     (colour) are more your thing, you can choose Cercis canadensis “Forest Pansy” (加拿大红叶紫荆). It is clothed all summer in rich and heart-shaped leaves with bare branches     10     (decorate) with pink flowers in the spring.

3 . Directions:After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage 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.

Time to Learn How to Sort

Whatever we don’t want ---- no matter whether it’s eggshells, newspapers, soda cans or old socks ---- it’s all garbage. And garbage goes to the garbage bin. There seems to be     1    wrong with that. But do you really know how to throw away garbage properly?

China     2     (promote) garbage sorting for over a decade, but for the majority of the public the concept hasn’t sunk in. Shenzhen issued a new regulation. It says residents will be fined up to 100 yuan and organizations 1,000 yuan for not sorting rubbish     3    specific groups.

“It’s evident that the government is determined to push this forward,” said Zhang Ning, a program officer     4    (serve) in a Beijing-based public welfare organization. “But I’m afraid the regulation will prove to be counter-productive because garbage sorting has never been achieved by merely imposing severe punishments.”

A recent survey found that 49.5 percent of the respondents said they still don’t know how to sort garbage,     5    45.5percent just can’t be bothered to do it. “Lots of citizens     6    (confuse)about what’s recyclable and what’s general waste. For example, it’s scarcely known that tissue is non-recyclable because it’s too moisture-prone and usually too polluted     7     (recycle).” said Zhang, a representative.

According to Zhang, 70 percent of garbage is a“     8    (misplace)resource”. For instance, a ton of waste steel can be refined into 0.9 tons of usable steel, and a ton of kitchen waste is able to produce 0.3 tons of organic fertilizer.

But all of this is based on the condition     9    the garbage is categorized properly. And the behavior of households     10    the sorting process initially starts ---- is the key. Garbage sorting is a chain effect. Misconduct at the very beginning will make all the following efforts go in vain.

Garbage sorting is a complex issue and takes patience. So next time when you throw away what is called “garbage”, do it in the right way.