1 . Direction: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A.increasing 　　　　B.defend　　　　 C.partially 　　　　D.depriving E.sharpened　　 　　 F.breaks 　　　 　G.endured 　　　　H.granting I.issues 　　　　　　J.activate 　　　　K.roughly

Flood-hit Venice’s shrinking population faces mounting problems

Venetians(威尼斯人) are fed up with what they see as inadequate responses to the city’s mounting problems: record-breaking flooding, environmental and safety threats from cruise ship traffic and the burden on services from over-tourism.

They feel largely left to their own devices, with ever-fewer Venetians living in the historic part of the city to    1    its interests and keep it from becoming mainly a tourist land.

The historic flooding this week---marked by three floods over 1.5 meters (nearly 5 feet) and the highest in 53 years at 1.87 meters(6 feet, 1 inch)---has    2    calls to create an administration that recognizes the uniqueness of Venice, for both its concentration of treasures and its    3    vulnerability.

Flood damage has been    4    estimated at hundreds of millions of Euros (dollars), but the true range will only become clear with time. The frustration goes far beyond the failure to complete and    5    78 underwater barriers that were designed to prevent just the kind of damage that Venice has    6    this week. With the system not yet completed or even    7    tested after 16 years of work and 5 billion Euros ($5.5 billion) invested, many are suspicious it will even work.

At the public level, proposals for better administering the city including    8    some level of autonomy(自制) to Venice, already enjoyed by some Italian regions like Trentino-Alto-Adige with its German-speaking minority, or offering tax    9    to encourage Venice’s repopulation.

Just 53,000 people live in the historic part of the city that tourists know as Venice, down by a third from a generation ago and dropping by about 1,000 people a year. That means fewer people watching the neighborhood, monitoring for public maintenance    10    or neighbors in need. Many leave because of the increased expense or the daily difficulties in living in a city of canals, which can make even a simple errand a hard journey.

2 . An art program is helping students at some of the lowest performing schools in the United States.

On June 8，much of the world ____ the United Nations World Oceans Day. The idea is to remind people how important the world’s oceans are to all life on Earth, to celebrate their beauty, and to bring attention to the ____ human activity has on the oceans.

This year, the theme is “Our Oceans, Our Future,” with special emphasis on finding solutions to plastic pollution, and ____ marine litter for a healthier ocean and a better future.

The world's oceans ____ nearly three fourths of the Earth's surface, and contain 97 percent of our planet’s water. They produce over half of our oxygen，help regulate our climate, absorb carbon dioxide，and support the greatest ____ of life on our planet.

Nearly half of all species on Earth depend on the oceans for survival, and for many of the rest, including people, the oceans ____ the quality of life.

The oceans are also ____ to the world’s economy, because they are key to transportation and recreation. As over 95 percent of the underwater area remains unexplored, it is nearly a ____ that their depths may hold the cure to many a disease, the ____ to many a problem.

And yet, as much as 40 percent of the world’s oceans are ____ affected by human activities that result in pollution, over-fishing, and loss of coastal habitats. Of particular ____ is plastic garbage. Some of it comes from ships that use our rivers, lakes and seas, and eventually ____ into the ocean. But about 8 million metric tons of plastic waste washes off land into the ocean each year.

Once there, it begins to ____ until it turns into small fragments known as micro-plastics. Plastics are a serious threat, because they degrade very slowly, trap sea creatures, damage habitats like coral reefs, and are ____ by marine animals. Researchers have documented the impacts of plastic on over 650 different marine species—including sea turtles, seals, whales, dolphins，porpoises, seabirds, and fish.

On World Oceans Day, we must remember that the health and safety of our oceans is our collective ____，one that we cannot afford to neglect. Only through good stewardship can we safeguard the health of our oceans, and ensure that the oceans continue to meet the needs of future generations.

1.

A．makes

B．observes

C．watches

D．establishes

2.

A．impact

B．energy

C．effort

D．attempt

3.

A．promoting

B．defending

C．preventing

D．protecting

4.

A．carry

B．wrap

C．involve

D．cover

5.

A．abundance

B．effect

C．influence

D．feature

6.

A．destroy

B．improve

C．damage

D．spoil

7.

A．accessible

B．indispensable

C．harmful

D．available

8.

A．certainty

B．doubt

C．phenomenon

D．symptom

9.

A．revolution

B．contribution

C．resolution

D．distribution

10.

A．hardly

B．barely

C．nearly

D．heavily

11.

A．importance

B．concern

C．value

D．priority

12.

A．makes its way

B．loses its way

C．fights its way

D．goes its own way

13.

A．break out

B．break down

C．break into

D．break through

14.

A．digested

B．disliked

C．enjoyed

D．swallowed

15.

A．source

B．resource

C．responsibility

D．wealth

3 . Dolphins learn special foraging(捕食) techniques from their mothers and it's now clear that they can learn from their buddies as well.       1     It turns out that they learn this skill by watching their pals do the job. The discovery, reported in the journal Current Biology, helps reveal how groups of wild animals can transmit learned behaviors and develop their own distinct cultures.

"Dolphins are indeed very clever animals. So it makes sense that they are able to learn from others," says Sonja Wild, a researcher at the University of Konstanz in Germany.     2     This study, however, shows that dolphins are also motivated to learn from their peers in addition to mimicking their mothers.

The bottle-nose dolphins that live in Shark Bay, Western Australia, have been studied for decades, and scientists have identified over a thousand individuals by looking at the unique shape and markings of their dorsal fins. Researchers know what families the dolphins belong to, and keep track of their close associates.

Wild and her colleagues have closely examined how dolphins learn particular strategy for catching fish---one that involves using the empty shells of large sea snails. A dolphin will chase a fish to one of these shells, and then they insert their beak into the shell, bring the whole thing up to the face. After that, they shake it up above the water surface to drain the water out of the shell until the fish basically falls into their open mouth.

Whether or not dolphins caught fish in this way didn't seem to be explained by how many shells were lying around their hunting area, nor whether a dolphin was genetically related to another dolphin that knew how to do it.     3     Previously, it's been shown that humpback whales seem to learn hunting techniques from their peers in a similar way.

The new observations of wild dolphins learning from their peers is "exciting, "says Diana Reiss, a dolphin cognition researcher at Hunter College, CUNY, "It tells us about the source of some these behaviors. It seems like they're not relying on just learning from mom when they're out there. They seem to be observing others, watching what they're doing and acquiring it from others in their social group."

Being able to learn from peers may help animal populations survive in a changing environment.     4     "In unstable environments that are changing, it's more beneficial to kind of look around and see what others are doing" says Wild, "and maybe adopt their behavioral innovations that may be more adaptive to the new environmental conditions."

A．The best explanation is that dolphins learned this method from a close associate.

B．Research shows that this behavior gets passed down almost exclusively through the maternal line.

C．Young dolphins spend years in close association with their mothers and naturally tend to adopt their mothers' ways

D．Because while knowledge from previous generations has been tested by time, certain behaviors may become less useful if conditions change.

E．Take, for example, the clever trick that some dolphins use to catch fish by trapping them in seashells.

F．Based on this assertion, we can't discount the possibility that they innovate individually on their own.

4 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Zoos are hugely popular attractions for adults and children alike. But are they a good thing?

Critics of zoos would argue that animals often suffer physically and mentally as a result of being caged. Even the best artificial environments can’t match the space, diversity and freedom that animals have in their natural habitats. This deprivation causes many zoo animals to become stressed or mentally ill. It is common that marine parks often force dolphins and whales to perform tricks. These mammals may die decades earlier than their wild relatives, and some may try to commit suicide.

On the other hand, by bringing people and animals together, zoos have the potential to educate the public about conservation issues and inspire people to protect animals and their habitats. Zoos also carry out important research into subjects like animal behavior and how to treat illness. One of the most important modern functions of zoos is supporting international breeding programs, especially those for endangered species. A good zoo will enable these species to live and breed in a secure environment. Furthermore, as the number of some wild species drops, there is an increasing danger of populations becoming too genetically similar. Zoo-bred animals can be released into the wild to increase genetic diversity.

However, opponents of zoos say that the vast majority of breeding programs do not release animals back into the wild. Extra animals are sold not only to other zoos and circuses but also to hunting ranches in the US or South Africa, where some people are willing to pay a lot of money for the chance to kill an animal in a fenced enclosure.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 . Edgar Degas, J. M. W. Turner and other painters captured centuries of atmospheric records as they decorated canvases with sunset scenes.

Greek Scientists worked with an artist to confirm that the ratio of red to green in sunset painting, both old and new, increased when particles filled the air, such as after major volcanic eruption（火山喷发）or dust storms. The atmosphere physicists also found a gradual shift in artistic sunset hues over centuries, possibly due to ever-increasing air pollution during the Industrial Revolution.

An earlier study, led by atmospheric physicist Christos Zerefos of the Academy of Athens in Greece, discovered that the amount of red relative to green in sunset descriptions increased after eruptions, including Tambora, Indonesia in 1815, Coseguina, Nicaragua in 1835 and Krakatau, Indonesia in 1883.

Zerefos’ team analyzed 554 paintings created between 1550 and 1990. For up to three years after eruptions, sunsets reddened as sunlight bounced off dust and gas from the volcanoes. The latest study, also by Zerefos, used improved scanning and analysis techniques to confirm the earlier results.

A modern painter, Panayiotis Tetsis, unknowingly repeated the artistic atmospheric observations of classical masters. In the artists’ description of sunsets light over the Greek island of Hydra, the color ratio shifted towards red in paintings done both before（June 19,2010）and after（June 20,2010）a dust cloud from Sahara Desert filtered the sunset’s light.

Zerefos’ team connected the timing of classical paintings’ red shift to other records of the atmosphere trapped in ice cores from Greenland, in the recent study published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. The ice cores recorded spikes（尖刺）in sulfur-containing chemicals likely from volcanoes. These spikes corresponded in time to artists’ increasingly dark red sunsets.

The comparison of ice and art also revealed a slow shift in the coloring of the sunset. As the factories of Europe roared into production in the 19th and early 20th century, painting described a steady increase in the red to green ratio. The ice cores recorded a steady rise in airborne particles from industrial pollution during the same time.

1. The underlined word“hues”in the second paragraph probably means_____.

A．angles	B．colors
C．locations	D．times

2. What do we know about Zerefos’ research from the passage?

A．Both modern and ancient artists describing sunset are involved in the research.

B．It confirmed an obvious increase in the ratio of green to red in sunset paintings.

C．The shift from green to red also existed in the records of ice cores trapped items.

D．The team used traditional techniques to confirm the earlier results of the research.

3. How did Zerefos’ team confirm that atmospheric records kept by painters were reliable?

A．By analyzing classical paintings.

B．By connecting time to color.

C．By comparing art with ice.

D．By working with an artist.

4. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

A．A modern research of ancient art and ice with pollution.

B．Art Masterpiece and pollutants trapped in ice cores.

C．An increase in the ratio of red to green in paintings.

D．Art Masterpiece Recorded Centuries of Pollution.

6 . Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

The Ban on Trading Ivory(象牙) is Unfair but Necessary

As in some countries elephant population have recovered, there are competing proposals about how absolute the ban on elephant trading should be. Countries seeking a modest relaxation have a strong case to make. But it is not strong enough. The ban must stay.

Understandably, countries that have done a good job protecting their elephants feel this is unfair.     1     And the real burden of all this is borne by poor local people who are in competition with wildlife for resources, and sometimes in conflict with it—elephants can be destructive. People and governments, so the argument goes, need to have an economic stake(利害关系) in the elephants’ survival. The ivory trade would give them one.

To understand why these reasonable-sounding proposals should be rejected, consider what

has happened to elephant numbers since some legal trade was authorised, when Botswana, Namibia and South Africa were allowed in 2007 to sell a fixed amount of ivory to Japan.     2    

   A survey conducted in 2014-15 estimated that elephant numbers had fallen by 30% across 18 countries since 2007.

    3     In better-resourced national parks, drones are used to make it easier for park keepers to spot illegal hunters. DNA testing of ivory can identify where they came from, and thus whether they are legal. As prices of the technologies fall and countries get richer, both technologies are likely to spread.

The objection to trade in products of endangered species is not moral. When the world is confident that it will boost elephant numbers rather than wipe them out, the ivory trade should be encouraged.     4     And until it does, the best hope for the elephant—and even more endangered species, such as rhinos(犀牛)—lies not in easing the ban on trading their products, but in enforcing it better.

A．Regrettably, that point has not yet come.

B．Elephant numbers started falling.

C．The existence of even a small legal market increases the opportunities for illegal trade.

D．They point out that they have devoted huge resources to the elephant.

E．In the long run technology can help make trade coexist with conservation.

F．One animal, as so often in the past, will attract much of the attention: the African elephant.

7 . It is one of the greatest mysteries of nature. In case you haven’t noticed, all living things follow very definite, individual rhythms, all as regular as a clock, but what makes them regular?

Though many scientists maintain that these rhythms are the result of some outside force like gravity or radiation or both, the results of most scientific researches agree with other scientists who believe that each living thing has its own built-in biological “time clock.”

Take the mystery of migration for example. Scientists can’t really explain why many species of birds migrate in the autumn even though the temperature is still summery. The birds just seem to snub the comfortable weather that they are having. When a certain time comes, they travel south by the thousand. In spring time, they migrate northwards when though there probably is snow still covering the ground when they finally arrive. Something said “go”, and they did.

Animals that hibernate are obeying individual time clock, too. When their clock indicates the time to take a winter’s nap, they do, and nothing can stop them. At a certain time in the spring, they wake up and come out regardless of the weather outside.

Plants appear to have yearly rhythms, such as the sprouting(发芽)of seeds, and they also have daily rhythms. Notice sometimes that plants raise their leaves in daylight and lower them at night.

If you live along the California coast, you can easily observe a demonstration of this mysterious clock functioning regularly. There, from February to September, the highest tides occur exactly every fourteen and four-fifths days, and during these high tides, but at no other time, small silvery fish called grunions surf-ride a wave to the beach. There the female deposits her eggs in the sand and the male, fertilize them; then both hitch a wave-ride back to the sea. Exactly fourteen and four-fifths days later, never before or after, the tiny eggs hatch, and the high tide carries the new habits out to sea.

1. According to the passage, the mysterious rhythms result from ________.

A．the influence of gravity on living species

B．the effect of radiation on living species

C．the influence of a mysterious outer force on living species

D．the internal mechanism inside the living species

2. The underlined word “snub” in the third paragraph probably means ________.

A．fight	B．ignore
C．symbolize	D．criticize

3. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?

A．Hibernating animals are obeying an internal time clock.

B．The positioning of the leaves of some plants is due to the daily rhythms.

C．The internal clock functioning is demonstrated in the reproducing habits of grunions.

D．The yearly hibernation is more because of the weather influence than the biological functioning.

4. The passage is mainly about ________.

A．the rhythms of life	B．the reasons of mysterious hibermation
C．strange behaviors of species	D．the timing for different events in the world of species

8 . Directions: Read the following two passages. Fill in each blank with one proper word or the proper form of the given word to make the passage coherent. Make sure that your answers are grammatically correct.

Athens----- the name brings to mind buildings with tall, white columns and statues of Greek gods and goddesses. Museums take visitors back to the time of ancient Greece. When     1     (visit) the city, visitors feel like they are in the middle of a history lesson.

The history of Athens is tied to mythology. The god     2     came up with the most valuable legacy for humans was to give the city its name. Poseidon and Athena each wanted the honor. Athena produced     3     olive tree------ the symbol of peace and wealth. Poseidon offered a strong horse needed for war. The gods decided Athena’s gift would better serve the people, and the city became     4     (know) as Athens.

The Acropolis, or “ high city”, stands on a hill overlooking the city. Western civilization’s most important ancient monument was built by Pericles, the leader of Athens from 461-421BC. He spared no expense when he constructed the buildings of the Acropolis. He used only the     5     (good) materials, architects and artists. His artists created huge statues of marble (大理石) and covered them     6     gold and jewels.

More treasure of ancient Greece lies in the National Archeological Museum. Opened in 1874, the museum contains the best collection of Greek art in the world. It is crammed with treasures ------ more     7     visitors can see in a single visit. Visitors can view treasures from all the ancient civilizations that controlled the city     8    history.

9 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. hiding       B. viewing       C. fed        D. immediately        E. enabled        F. figure G. largely     H. attack          I. prefer       J. balancing             K. fit

If you have ever had a cat, or have watched one of the many funny cat videos online, you'll know that cats have a mind of their own. A lot of the things they do are hard to understand—they like to climb up tall furniture,    1    themselves in small spaces and attack small objects for no reason at all.

Now scientists have managed to    2    out what exactly is going on in the brains of our little friends.

According to Tony Bufflington, a veterinarian and professor at Ohio State University in the US, cats' strange behavior    3    comes from their way of life back in the wild.

"Cats today still have many of the same instincts that    4     them to live in the wild for millions of years," he said in a TED Talk. "To them, our homes are their jungles."

In the wild, cats are hunters. Their bodies and great    5    abilities allow them to climb to high spots to better look at the environment. Even though they don't have to hunt anymore in human houses, they still keep the old habit of     6    the living room from, for example, the top of the refrigerator.

cats' hunting instinct is also what makes them    7    small things like keys and USB drives. In the wild, they hunt whatever they can get, and most of the animals they kill are small.

However, cats can also be prey. This explains why they like to stay in small spaces like drawers or washing machines—they are    8    , or they think they are doing so, from more dangerous animals. This is also why cats    9    a clean litter box; a smelly one could easily show enemies where they are.

But knowing how cats' minds work is not only useful for better understanding them. It may also help cats' owners to better meet cats' needs.

For example, owners could try to make climbing easier for cats by moving their furniture around. They could also use "food puzzles" to make eating feel more like hunting instead of just feeling    10    .

10 . A therapy-animal trend attracts the United States. The San Francisco airport uses a pig to calm tired travelers. Universities nationwide bring dogs (and a donkey) onto campus to relieve students during finals. And that duck on a plane? It might be an emotional-support animal prescribed by a mental health professional.

The trend, which has been gaining popularity hugely since its initial stirrings a few decades ago, is strengthened by a widespread belief that interaction with animals can reduce distress whether it happens over belief physical contact at the airport or in long-term relationships at home. Certainly the groups offering up pets think so, as do some mental health professionals. But the popular embrace of pets as furry therapists is causing growing discomfort among some researchers in the field, who say it has raced far ahead of scientific evidence.

Earlier this year in the Journal of Applied Development Science, an introduction to articles on “animal -assisted intervention” said research into its effectiveness “remains in its infancy.” A recent literature review by Molly Crossman, a Yale University doctoral candidate who recently wrapped up one study involving an 8-year-old dog named Pardner, cited a “vague body of evidence” that sometimes has shown positive short-term effects, often found no effect and occasionally identified higher rates of distress.

Overall, Crossman wrote, animals seem to be helpful in a “small-to-medium” way, but it’s unclear whether the animals deserve the credit or something else is at play.

“It’s a field that has been sort of carried forward by the beliefs of practitioners” who have seen patients’ mental health improve after working with or adopting animals, said James Serpell, director of the Centre for the Interaction of Animals and Society at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. “That kind of thing has almost driven the field, and the research is playing catch-up. In other words, people are recognizing that stories aren’t enough.”

Using animals in mental health setting is nothing new. In the 17^th century, a Quaker-run retreat in England encouraged mentally ill patients to interact with animals on its grounds. Sigmund Freud often included one of his dogs in psychoanalysis sessions. Yet the subject did not become a research target until the American psychologist Boris Levinson began writing in the 1960s about the positive effect his dog Jingles had on patients.

But the evidence to date is problematic, according to Crossman’s review and others before it. Most studies had small sample sizes, she wrote, and an “alarming numbers” did not control for other possible reasons for a changed stress level, such as interaction with animal’s human handler. Studies also tend to generalize across animals, she noted. If participants are measurably relieved by one golden retriever, that doesn’t mean another dog---or another species--will arouse the same response.

1. According to the passage, what makes the therapy-animal trend more popular?

A．It has been in existence for no less than twenty years.

B．Mental health professionals have managed to cure patients with animals.

C．It is widely assumed that staying with animals can make people happier.

D．There is much related research to show that animals do good to some patients.

2. Molly Crossman is quoted in the passage to ____

A．illustrate more scientific evidence is needed that animals are effective therapists.

B．highlight the importance of practitioners’ beliefs in the field of animal therapies.

C．question Srepell’s view that animals deserve the credit in helping patients.

D．criticize people for their taking human-animal stories too seriously.

3. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Animal-assisted intervention turns out to be of more use than people think.

B．It is hard to see how many reasons there are for people to benefit from animals.

C．Research findings relating to one breed of dogs may not apply to another breed.

D．Small sample sizes can sometimes produce reliable effects in human-animal studies

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．More evidence found for dog-human relationship

B．Potential effects dogs have on patients

C．Therapeutic animal: nothing new

D．Good dog, good therapist?