1 . Why should mankind explore space? Perhaps the best answer lies in our genetic makeup as human beings. What prompted our distant ancestors to move from the trees into the plains, and on into all possible areas and environments?    1    . The wider the distribution of a species, the better its chance of survival.

Exploration also allows minerals and other potential resources to be located. Additional resources are always beneficial when used wisely, and can increase our chances of survival. Knowledge or techniques acquired through exploration, or preparing to explore, filter from the developers into society at large.     2    . Also, we have already benefited from other by-products, including improvements in earthquake prediction — which has saved many lives —   in satellites used for weather forecasting and in communications systems. Even non-stick saucepans and mirrored sunglasses are by-products of technological developments in the space industry!

    3    . The chances of a large comet hitting the Earth are small, but it could happen in time. Such strikes in the past may account for the extinction of dinosaurs and other species. Human technology is reaching the point where it might be able to detect the possibility of this happening, and enable us to minimize the damage, or prevent it completely, allowing us as a species to avoid extinction.

In certain circumstances, life on Earth may become impossible: over-population or wide spread diseases, for instance, might eventually force us to find other places to live. While the earth is the only planet known to sustain life, surely the adaptive ability of humans would allow us to inhabit other planets and moons. It is true that the lifestyle would be different, but human life and cultures have adapted in the past and surely could in the future.     4    .

A．The techniques may have medical applications which can improve the length or quality of our lives.

B．Space allows us to expand and succeed: for the sake of everyone on the earth, now and in the future, space exploration is essential.

C．The mysterious space objects varying in size have been fascinated scientists and scholars for years.

D．It appears that we are driven to ensure the success and continuation of not just our own genes, but of the species as a whole.

E．Therefore it still poses a problem for us human beings whether to explore the space at the cost of our own homelands.

F．While space may hold many wonders and explanations of how the universe was formed or how it works, it also holds dangers.

2 . My family lost everything in the little-known flood of Baton Rouge, Louisiana last year that the Red Cross called the “Worst US disaster since Hurricane Sandy.”

It began raining in mid-August. Then it rained some more, got more powerful, and didn’t stop for days. There was talk that the local rivers were going to crest (到达顶点)and cause some pretty serious flooding. We lived somewhat close to the Amite River, but our senior neighbors told us that our neighborhood hadn’t flooded in over 100 years.

Local news said that the nearby high school may get a little bit of water inside from the rising river. We thought we had a couple of days to plan on how we were going to shelter in place because of the weather forecast.

On the 13th of August I woke up, walked outside and headed toward the direction of the river. Some of the lower areas were collecting water but there was no standing water anywhere near my house or even my neighborhood. I went back home and told my wife we should probably get some supplies in case this got serious; that maybe we should even pack a car in case we needed to leave though I was fairly certain there was nothing to worry about.

About 30 minutes into slowly packing there was a loud banging on my front door. It was my wife’s cousin. I opened the door and she said, “What are you doing?! Get out of the house!” I looked behind her and noticed my entire yard underwater and the waterline only about a half-inch from going over my doorstep and into my house.

I was floored. The river wasn’t supposed to crest until the next day. I thought we had more time.

I yelled at my wife, “We have to get out of the house. Now!”

We packed up both our cars in about 10 minutes with only our most precious memories. Everything else we had built during a 10-year marriage was left behind. We evacuated about 5 miles east away from the river to my wife’s grandmothers.

After being there for about an hour someone came to the front door and said, “You guys ned to get out. The river is coming.”

Sure enough, her yard was flooding too.

We evacuated a second time in as many hours to her cousin’s house even further east. After only an hour we were told again that the river was on the way and we had to leave.

1. The author realized the arrival of the flood when ______.

A．the rain started to fall heavily and non-stop

B．the nearby high school was slightly affected

C．there was standing water in some lower areas

D．he was informed by his wife’s cousin at the door

2. What does the author mean by saying “I was floored” in the 6^th paragraph?

A．He was clam enough to cope with the flood.

B．He became trapped by the rising floodwater.

C．He was shocked by the early arrival of the flood.

D．He lost his temper with his wife for being unprepared.

3. From the story, what do we know about the author’s evacuation?

A．He didn’t take action immediately despite his neighbor’s warning.

B．He trusted the weather forecast so that he prepared himself in advance.

C．He and his wife brought some supplies and valuable belongings with them.

D．He was forced to leave the temporary homes again and again to avoid danger.

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

A．Mutual Support in Disasters	B．Baton Rouge Flooding
C．How to Survive a Flood	D．Methods of Predicting Floods

3 . At Cleveland Bridge, in Bath, a long line of traffic is building up. Although the Georgian structure was praised for its handsome Greek Revival style by Nikolaus Pevsner, an architectural master, it was built for horses, not cars. Repairs will close the bridge for several months, causing bigger jams and more pollution in a city where air quality is already a cause of concern.

Bath is an extreme example of a tradeoff faced by much of the country. Britain has the oldest housing stock in Europe, with one in five homes more than 100 years old. Period features are prized and often protected by law. Yet as efforts to cut carbon emissions intensify, they are clashing with attempts to preserve heritage. It is a “delicate balance” says Wera Hobhouse, Bath’s MP “What is the public benefit of dealing with the climate emergency, versus protecting a heritage asset?”

Two years ago, Bath was among the first British cities to declare a “climate emergency” when it also promised to go carbon-neutral by 2030. Yet Bath also wants-and is legally required to preserve its heritage. With Roman remains and Georgian streets that spread across the Avon Valley in shades of honey and butter, the city is designated a world heritage site by UNESCO. About 60% of it is further protected by the government as a conservation area, more than 5.000 of Bath’s buildings-nearly 10% of the total-are listed as being of special architectural or historical interest, making it a criminal offence to alter them without permission.

Many of the features that make Bath’s Georgian buildings so delicate also make them leaky. Buildings of traditional construction make up 30% of Bath’s housing stock but account for 40% of domestic carbon emissions, according to the Centre for Sustainable Energy, a charity. British homes are rated for energy efficiency on a scale from A to G; most traditional buildings in the city are an F or G.

Transport is another area where climate and heritage clash. Bath’s 17t-century streets lack room for bike lanes. Joanna Wright was recently booted out of her role as Bath’s climate chief after proposing that North Road, which leads to the university, should be closed to traffic. In two years she was unable to install any on-street electric-vehicle charging points, partly because of the “nightmare" of getting permission to dig up old pavements.

All this means going carbon neutral by 2030 looks hard, but the city is at least beginning to make compromises. In March it launched the first “clean-air zone” outside London, charging drivers to enter central Bath. A trial has made 160 electric motoreycles available to hire. And local opinion seems to be shifting in favour of sustainability. “The discussion has moved dramatically towards considering the climate emergency,” says Ms. Hobhouse.

1. What problem does Bath face?

A．It is getting more and more crowded due to the repairs that are under way.

B．Its historical significance makes it hard to reform it into an eco-friendly city.

C．It refuses to admit that the climate emergency is already a cause of concern.

D．Its promise to go carbon-neutral by 2030 wins no support from the city residents.

2. The percentage mentioned in the underlined sentence (paragraph 4) is intended to _________.

A．question the validity of the A-G scale

B．highlight the long history of Bath’s buildings

C．emphasize the buildings are not energy efficient

D．illustrate the features that Bath’s buildings share

3. It can be inferred from paragraph 5 that Joanna Wright _________.

A．failed to perform her duties well

B．managed to dig up some old pavements

C．succeeded in building bike lanes in Bath

D．removed charging points from Bath’s streets

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Wera Hobhouse doesn’t care much about the public benefit.

B．Traditional buildings in Bath are not accessible to tourists now.

C．Local people in Bath used to favour heritage over sustainability.

D．Bath has been leading the way in constructing a carbon-neutral city.

5 . Here’s how the Pacific Northwest is preparing for “The Big One”. It’s the mother of all disaster drills for what could be the worst disaster in American history. California has spent years preparing for “The Big One”— the inevitable earthquake that will undoubtedly bring about all kinds of damage along the famous San Andreas fault. But what if the fault that runs along the Pacific Northwest delivers a gigantic earthquake of its own? If the people of the Cascadia region have anything to do with it, they won’t be caught unawares.

The region is engaged in a multi-day earthquake-and-tsunami drill involving around 20, 000 people. The Cascadia Rising drill gives area residents and emergency responders a chance to practice what to do in case of a 9. 0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami along one of the nation’s dangerous and underestimated faults.

The Cascadia Earthquake Zone is big enough to compete with San Andreas (it’s been called the most dangerous fault in America), but it’s much lesser known than its California cousin. Nearly 700 miles long, the earthquake zone is located by the North American Plate off the coast of Pacific British Columbia. Washington, Oregon and Northern California.

Cascadia is what’s known as a “megathrust” fault. Megathrusts are created in subduction zones(俯冲带)— plate tectonic(板块构造)boundaries where two plates converge(相交). In the areas where one plate is beneath another, stress builds up over time. During a megathrust event, all of that stress releases and some of the world’s most powerful earthquake occur. Remember the 9. I earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean off Sumatra in 2004? It was caused by a megathrust event as the India plate moved beneath the Burma micro-plate.

The last time a major earthquake occurred along the Cascadia fault was in 1700, so officials worry that another event could occur any time. To prevent that event from becoming a severe disaster, first responders will join members of the public in rehearsals that involve communication, evacuation, search and rescue, and other possible situations.

Thousands of casualties(伤亡人员) are expected if a 9. 0 earthquake were to occur. First, the earthquake would shake metropolitan areas including Seattle and Portland. This could cause a tsunami that would create damage along the coast. Not all casualties can necessarily be prevented - but by coordinating across local, state, and even national borders, officials hope that the worst-case situation can be prevented. On the exercise’s website, officials explain that the report they prepare during this rehearsal will inform disaster management for years to come.

For hundreds of thousands of Cascadia residents, “The Big One” isn’t a question of if, only when. And it’s never too early to get ready for the inevitable.

1. What does “The Big One” refer to?

A．A gigantic geological fault in America.

B．A large-scale drill to prepare for disasters.

C．A massive and destructive natural disaster.

D．Mass destruction caused by the earthquake.

2. What is the purpose of the Cascadia Rising drill?

A．To prepare people for a major earthquake and tsunami.

B．To increase residents’awareness of upcoming disasters.

C．To teach people now how adapt to post-disaster life.

D．To cope with the aftermath of a possible earthquake.

3. What happens in case of a megathrust earthquake according to the passage?

A．Two plates merge into one.	B．A variety of forces converge.
C．Boundaries blur between plates.	D．Enormous stress is released.

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．A large-scale drill is supposed to prevent deaths in the earthquake.

B．San Andreas fault once delivered a 9. 1 earthquake in the Indian Ocean.

C．No massive earthquake is expected to strike Califomia in the near future.

D．Disaster-relief efforts at different levels may help reduce possible losses.

6 . 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.

Meet the Islands

Located 86 km north-east of Bougainville in the South Pacific, the Carteret Islands of Papua New Guinea are composed of low-lying islands     1     (distribute) in a horseshoe shape, with a total land area of 0.6 square kilometers and a maximum elevation of 1.5 meters above sea level.

The Carteret Islands are believed     2     (inhabit) for more than one thousand years. Few places are as calm, peaceful and beautiful as the seaside here on a calm day. People are very     3     (welcome), gentle, and calm. There’s no phone network, shops, computers, roads, cars, or motorbikes. Food is cooked on open fires. People here live sustainably. They don’t overfish or pollute, making no contribution to the warming of our planet. However, they are feeling the consequences of the climate change.

Now, as the land     4     (swallow) by the rising sea, the islanders are faced with an uncertain future. Storms and high tides wash away homes, destroy vegetable gardens and pollute fresh water supplies. The trees on the island are also being impacted by the saltwater. The beach exists     5     fertile soil once did.     6     the coral and seagrasses die, so do the breeding areas for fish. Many seawalls have been built     7     with little success. The islands have gradually become uninhabitable.

The Carteret islanders are labelled as the world’s first official climate-change refugees, as they are forced to abandon their homelands     8     food shortages, rising sea levels, sinking shorelines, and the dangers of storms and tides. In front of     9     is the choice whether to stay and watch the islands shrink and slowly disappear or try to rebuild their community somewhere else. Yet, the relocation is not a move embraced by most, and some are unhappy living away from their home, and have returned after struggling to adapt. On the other hand, relocation will be a great challenge to the preservation of the identity and culture of the Carteret islanders.

The Carteret Islanders’ story illustrates how small island states and coastal communities fall victim     10     rising sea levels caused by climate change. The Carteret Islanders, with a carbon footprint among the lowest in the world, will be among the first to have to leave their homes because of rising seas caused by emissions from other nations.

7 . For most birds, eyes are essential to life on the fly. _________ when studying how birds might adapt to our quickly changing world, ornithologists (鸟类学家) have largely overlooked eye size in favor of traits such as wing length and beak shape. Now, though, a lost “treasure trove” (宝库) of avian (鸟的) eyeball measurements offers a new view.

In 1982 University of Chicago graduate student Stanley Ritland carefully _________ the eyeballs of nearly 2,800 species. He never published his data, but Ian Ausprey, a graduate student at University of Florida, has just given it a second look. His analysis _________ previous work in Peru showing that smaller-eyed birds adapt better to changing habitats.

“We’re able to show strong correlations between eye size, the type of _________ the birds use, as well as their food-searching behavior,” Ausprey says. Ritland’s measurements indicated an inverse relation between eye and _________ size. Birds with smaller eyes tended to be _________, traveling across many habitats; larger-eyed species had _________ ranges, concentrated around the equator (赤道) and often covered by dense forest shade. The study suggests that smaller-eyed birds can _________ handle varying light levels as they travel, whereas larger-eyed birds struggle with bright light outside of their dim woodlands.

Ausprey had already seen this _________ in Peru’s mountainous cloud forests. In these biodiversity hotspots, he says, “eye size is __________ related to how birds respond to agricultural disturbance.” Larger-eyed birds tend to __________ from brightly-lit agricultural and deforested landscapes; smaller-eyed birds adapt. The new study __________ Ausprey’s Peru observations to a wider variety of birds elsewhere, including parrots and woodpeckers.

Allison Shultz, an ornithologist involved in the research, praises it for highlighting the importance of birds’ light __________. Her own work has found a link between bird coloration and environmental light, and she looks forward to future research exploring how light pollution and deforestation might further shape bird eyes. “I’d be very curious if we’re actually seeing eyes __________ to better match newer light environments,” Shultz adds.

Ausprey says the study underscores the importance of __________ habitats across the light-availability spectrum (光谱), especially areas of dense rain forests, to protect birds with eyes of all sizes from habitat loss.

1.

A．So

B．Yet

C．Instead

D．Even

2.

A．measured

B．observed

C．tracked

D．recognized

3.

A．rejects

B．opposes

C．supports

D．overthrows

4.

A．habitat

B．tool

C．direction

D．source

5.

A．body

B．city

C．prey

D．range

6.

A．picky

B．stationary

C．migratory

D．inflexible

7.

A．looser

B．tighter

C．wider

D．longer

8.

A．roughly

B．carelessly

C．routinely

D．effortlessly

9.

A．play out

B．pull out

C．take out

D．hold out

10.

A．logically

B．strongly

C．indirectly

D．negatively

11.

A．survive

B．recover

C．reproduce

D．disappear

12.

A．compares

B．owes

C．expands

D．contributes

13.

A．exposure

B．level

C．nature

D．distinction

14.

A．enlarging

B．dropping

C．evolving

D．lifting

15.

A．locating

B．disrupting

C．adapting

D．conserving

8 .

“Black Blizzard(暴风雪)”by Maurine V. Eleder This suspenseful story follows two young girls, at home alone, when a dust storm arises. Despite their young age, Betty and Mary Ann quickly take action when the severe dust storm hits. They begin taking measures to block the dust from coming into the house, which would make the air unbreathable. Although they are frightened, they take comfort thinking they can just wait out the storm inside their home. Unfortunately, Betty realizes her beloved horse is caught out in the “black blizzard.” One wrong move in the blinding storm, and Fancifoot could injure himself- or worse. Betty faces the difficult decision of leaving her younger sister to brave the storm or risking Fancifoot’s life to remain in safety Teachers could use this text to teach the history of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s or to teach thescience behind the causes and effects of soil erosion.

“Tornado Coming!” by Dick Donley If your students love the nail-biting tale “Black Blizzard,” they’ll love “Tornado Coming!” as well. Because this story includes a tornado, a young kid, a small dog, and a strange neighbor, you might be reminded of another tale you’ve read before. However, there are no talking scarecrows(稻草人) or flying monkeys in this story! Matt is home alone with Buster when he hears the siren(警报)warning of a tornado. Mentally ticking through the safety tips he learned in school, Matt heads for the storm cellar (防风地窖)with the tornado forming at his back. With only moments to spare, Matt realizes he must leave his little dog in the safety of the storm cellar to run to the aid of his unpleasant neighbor, Mrs. Laney. After the storm passes, Matt doesn’t wake up to find himself in Australia; however, he does find himself in a pretty odd place. This text weaves helpful tornado safety measures throughout a narrative story. For a creative follow-up activity, teachers could assign different natural disasters to small groups for research. Then, groups could use their research and the model text “Tornado Coming!” to incorporate safety tips within their own short stories about their assigned natural disaster.

1. The target readers of this passage are teachers who ______.

A．want to help students learn about natural disasters

B．take an interest in stores related to natural disasters

C．have the need to equip children with safety measures

D．are looking for inviting and inspiring children’s stories

2. We can learn from the texts that______.

A．Betty and Mary are too young to fight against the storm alone

B．Betty is torn between saving Fancifoot’s life and protecting Mary

C．Matt offers Mrs. Laney timely help at the cost of losing his little dog

D．Students can add safety tips for other natural disasters to “Tornado Coming!”

3. What do the two books have in common?

A．Both involve a natural disaster, little kids, an animal and a neighbor.

B．They touch upon the theme of caring for others and self-reliance.

C．Helpful safety measures are highlighted in the narratives.

D．The main characters suffer pain and face a dilemma.

9 . The water off the coast of northwest Greenland is a glass-like calm, but the puddles (水坑) on the region’s icebergs are a sign that a transformation is underway higher on the ice sheet.

Several days of unusually warm weather in northern Greenland have caused rapid melting, made visible by the rivers of meltwater rushing into the ocean. Temperatures have been running around 60 degrees Fahrenheit — 10 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year, scientists said.

The amount of ice that melted in Greenland between July 15 and 17 this year alone — 6 billion tons of water per day — would be enough to fill 7.2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Each summer, scientists worry that they will see a repeat of the record melting that occurred in 2019, when 532 billion tons of ice flowed out into the sea. An unexpectedly hot spring and a July heat wave that year caused almost the entire ice sheet’s surface to melt. Global sea level rose permanently by 1.5 millimeters as a result.

Greenland holds enough ice — if it all melted — to lift sea level by 7.5 meters around the world. The latest research points to a more and more threatening situation on the Northern Hemisphere’s iciest island.

“Unprecedented (史无前例的)” rates of melting have been observed at the bottom of the Greenland ice sheet, a study published in February found, caused by huge quantities of meltwater flowing down from the surface. This water is particularly concerning because it can destabilize the sheet above it and could lead to a massive, rapid loss of ice.

And in 2020, scientists found that Greenland’s ice sheet had melted beyond the point of no return. The rate of melting in recent years exceeds anything Greenland has experienced in the last 12,000 years, another study found — and enough to cause measurable change in the gravitational field over Greenland.

At the East Greenland Ice-core Project — or EastGRIP — research camp in northwest Greenland, the work of scientists to understand the impact of climate change is being affected by climate change itself.

Aslak Grinsted, a climate scientist at the University of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute, said that they have been trying to get flights into the camp but the warmth is destabilizing the landing site.

Before human-caused climate change kicked in, temperatures near 32 degrees Fahrenheit there were unheard of. But since the 1980s, this region has warmed by around 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit per decade — four times faster than the global pace — making it all the more likely that temperatures will cross the melting point.

1. The passage is mainly written to ________.

A．alert people to the rapid melting of Greenland’s ice sheet

B．arouse people’s awareness of protecting the environment

C．inform people of the large amount of ice Greenland holds

D．reveal to people the cause and effect of the rise in sea level

2. What does “a transformation” in the first paragraph refer to?

A．Climate change.	B．A rise in sea level.
C．Global warming.	D．The melting of ice.

3. What can be learned about the ice that melted in 2019?

A．It repeated a record melting of the ice sheet several years ago.

B．Its amount was the largest ever and lifted sea level permanently.

C．It was enough to fill 7.2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.

D．Its melting rate was so rapid as to result in an unexpectedly hot spring.

4. It is implied in the passage that ________.

A．climate change is a result of human activities

B．the study of climate change is being made easier

C．the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet is reversible

D．temperatures increase 1.5°F or so each decade globally