1 . 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.

Owning a Pet Is Good for Your Health

Pets in America are incredibly well loved: according to a 2015 Harris poll, 95% of owners think of their animal as a member of the family. About half buy     1     birthday presents. And it’s a two-way street. People who have pets tend to have lower blood pressure, heart rate and heart-disease risk than those who don’t. Those health benefits may come from the extra exercise that playing and walking     2     (require), and the stress relief of having a steady best friend on hand.

Scientists are now digging up evidence     3     animals can also help improve mental health, even for people with challenging disorders. Small     4     the studies are, the benefits are impressive enough that clinical settings are opening their doors to animal assisted interventions — pet therapy, in other words — used alongside conventional medicine. “    5     (think) of an animal in a hospital used to be one of the great no-no’s,” says Alan Beck, director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University, citing the fear of causing infection. “Now, I don’t know of any major children’s hospital     6     at least some kind of animal program.”

The rise of animal therapy     7     (back) by increasingly serious science showing that social support — a proven antidote to anxiety and loneliness — can come on four legs, not just two. Animals of many types can help calm stress, fear and anxiety in young children, the elderly and everyone in between.

More research is needed     8     scientists know exactly why it works and how much animal interaction is needed for the best results. But     9     (publish) studies show that paws have a place in medicine and in mental well-being. “The data is strong,” Beck says. “If you look at     10     animals do for people and how we interact with them, it’s not surprising at all.”

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

Venice—The Risk of the Disappearance of an Entire City

Venice is a stunning oddity. It is a city built atop around 120 islands, crisscrossed by 177 canals, and is best explored via the use of its 391 bridges. But the city is not well recently. Indeed,     1     drastic measures are taken, the city’s days could be numbered.

This is far from hyperbole(夸张): Venice is at very real risk of     2     (consume) by the sea. In worst-case scenario, the city could disappear beneath the waves by 2100. Meanwhile, many of its building are sinking     3     being damaged by the wakes of boats. It is also routinely overwhelmed by tourists, while its local population is in continual decline.

Globally, a lot of cities    4     (hit) by similar problems of sinking land and rising sea levels in Venice. Low-lying Jakarta(雅加达), for example, is in such a terrible situation that it is being replaced     5     the capital city of Indonesia by Nusantara, a city not yet even built.

In November 2019, Venice suffered its second-worst flooding. It created headlines around the world, with onlookers     6     (astonish) by the incredible images of Saint Mark’s Square, one of the city’s lowest lying areas, covered in feet of water.

The tide reached a peak height of 187cm above sea level,     7     (result) in more than 80% of the city being under water. A state of emergency was declared, and there was an estimated €1bn euros worth of damage.

The worst ever flooding event, which happened in 1966,     8     (see) water levels rise to 194cm above sea level, and is thought     9     (damage) at least three quarters of the city’s shops, businesses and studios.

    10     a gap of over 50 years separated these events, recent trends suggest that we won’t have to wait half a century to see another disastrous flood. Since water levels started being officially recorded in 1923, they have reached 150cm or more on only 10 occasions, but five of those have been in the last three years.

3 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。1.

A．To fight against violent action.

B．To explore new ways of studying animals.

C．To stop animal being used for medical research.

D．To highlight the protection of endangered animals.

2.

A．It might be the most efficient way to free animals

B．The damage done in this case might not be so terrible.

C．It might not be such a serious crime in the eyes of the law

D．The cost of setting up the lab might discourage the firm from doing so.

3.

A．Evidence was found that no actual animal cruelty did happen

B．Evidence was found that the scientists didn’t obey certain rules.

C．The scientists couldn’t afford to find animals again for the research

D．The scientists were believed to have been involved in illegal action.

4.

A．It is not their original intention.

B．It does bring them much trouble.

C．It has made their life difficult.

D．It is what they apologise for.

4 . Global surface temperatures last month were 2.25 degrees warmer than the 20th century average of 60.1 degrees, breaking previous records, from August 2016, by more than half a degree, according to NOAA researchers. “That to me is a really huge _______ from one record to the next,” said Ellen Bartow, a physical scientist with NOAA’S National Centers for Environmental Information.

The report _______ what millions of people have experienced in recent months, including record-breaking heatwaves that have touched almost every corner of the globe. Asia, Africa, North America and South America had their warmest August on record, as did the Arctic, Europe and Oceania — a region that _______ Australia - had their second-warmest August on record, the report said.

It wasn’t just the land that _______ : August set a record for the highest monthly sea surface temperature abnormally—1.85 degrees above average. The warming oceans _______experiencing its fourth continuous month with the _______ shrinking sea ice, with Antarctica sea ice extent on record. Globally, sea ice extent in August was about 550,000 square miles less than the previous record low, set in August 2019.

“We’ve seen unheard-of warmth in the global ocean, and that’s definitely alarming because its effects _______ beyond just the scope of the ocean,” Bartow-Gillies said. “Not only are you _______ marine habitats, but you’re affecting storm creation, you’re creating more instability in some areas, and you’re creating flooding events in other areas. There’s a whole host of _______ that come along with these warmer ocean surface temperatures that we’re seeing.”

In fact, the report comes after a series of severe natural ________ that span the globe. This week, a Mediterranean storm caused serious flooding in Libya, killing more than 11,000 people. In Canada, wildfires burned through more than 42 million acres of forests this summer, and several are still burning. ________ global warming was not the singular cause of any of these disasters, heating of the Earth continues to ________ the likelihood of extreme weather events and wildfire worldwide.

“The scientific evidence is ________ —we will continue to see more climate records and more intense and frequent extreme weather events impacting society and ecosystems, until we stop ________ greenhouse gases,” read a statement from Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which also ________ that this summer was the hottest on record.

1.

A．distance

B．jump

C．travel

D．flight

2.

A．confirms

B．emerges

C．quotes

D．argues

3.

A．holds

B．touches

C．surrounds

D．includes

4.

A．boiled

B．cooled

C．stricken

D．disappeared

5.

A．contributed to

B．suffered from

C．resulted from

D．devoted to

6.

A．slowest

B．lowest

C．highest

D．fastest

7.

A．enlarge

B．discharge

C．extend

D．undertake

8.

A．creating

B．saving

C．remaining

D．disturbing

9.

A．issues

B．debates

C．events

D．proposals

10.

A．floods

B．disasters

C．storms

D．earthquakes

11.

A．Though

B．Because

C．Unless

D．When

12.

A．damage

B．destroy

C．decrease

D．increase

13.

A．irresistible

B．unchangeable

C．inaccessible

D．unbearable

14.

A．conveying

B．releasing

C．relieving

D．dismissing

15.

A．predicted

B．expected

C．doubted

D．determined

5 . Directions: After reading the passages 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.

Fresh warning sounded on plastics problem

Walk along any beach in the world, no matter how isolated, and you will see plastic of some kind washed up on the shoreline,     1    (offer) a reminder of the reckless throwaway culture of the present-day world.

Lately, a study     2     (sound) a fresh warning on the damage caused to the marine ecosystem due to discarded plastics, which eventually has a bearing on human health due to the seafood we consume.

In a paper     3    (title) “A Growing Plastic Smog” published on March 8, 2023 in the peer-reviewed research journal Plos One, researchers called on governments around the world     4    (take) sweeping action to address the “unprecedented plastic pollution” of the world’s oceans.

The plastics break down over time into minute particles that cannot be detected by the naked eye, but find their way into the marine ecosystem and into the seafood humans consume. No one knows for certain     5     the long-term damage will be to marine life and humans, but the study placed much of the blame on the plastics industry for failing to recycle or design for recyclability. “    6     eaten, microplastics can severely damage an animal’s internal tissues. Globally, we have reached a situation     7     we can no longer ignore the plastic pollution pandemic that is infecting our oceans,” he said.

“This research shows us that beach cleanups and citizen science projects that focus on the environmental fate of plastics have little impact on solving the enormity of the plastic problem. Marcus Eriksen, lead author of the study, said in a statement that the findings were a “stark warning     8     we must act now at a global scale”. “We’ve found an alarming trend of exponential growth of microplastics in the global ocean since the millennium, which     9    (expect) to reach over 170 trillion plastic particles,” said Eriksen, adding that the exponential increase in microplastics across the world’s oceans makes     10     necessary to “bring in an age of corporate responsibility for the entire life of the things they make”.

6 . Directions: Complete the following passages 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．award             B．house             C．hit                    D．namely             E．specifically             F．grabbed G．traded             H．gang                    I．bar                    J．principled             K．transmission

American authorities arrested Masphal Kry, an official in Cambodia’s forestry administration, last November when he was heading to an international meeting about trade regulations for endangered species in Panama. Prosecutors accused him of conspiring with a smuggling ring. The contraband (违禁品): monkeys,     1     long-tailed macaques. His     2     allegedly grabbed wild macaques in Cambodia’s national parks and bribed officials to label them as captive-bred. Fake papers allowed Vanny Bio Research, a Cambodian pharma company, to ship these unfortunate primates (灵长类动物) to America for use in research. Mr Kry is facing trial in Florida’s Southern District Court. The federal government funds seven National Primate Research Centres (NPRCs), which     3     in total around 20,000 primates, not only macaques but also baboons and marmosets. These centres then     4     primates to labs across America. NPRCs have fulfilled only a third of requests for untested-on macaques in 2021 and prices have soared. Before the covid-19 pandemic a rhesus macaque cost $8,000; by 2022 they had     5     $24,000. Another species, long-tail macaques, is probably per pound currently the most expensive     6     wildlife, says Lisa Jones-Engel, a science adviser at PETA, an animal-rights group.

Getting lab monkeys from abroad became harder during the pandemic. Chinese authorities banned the export of all primates in early 2020. The Chinese government wanted to     7     the country’s wildlife trade, which is thought to encourage the     8     of pathogens—like sars-cov-2—from animals to humans.

That forced American companies to rely on less     9     South-East Asian suppliers. Many scientists believe poaching is prevalent across Cambodia. In February, the Department of Justice subpoenaed Charles River over 1,000 juvenile macaques the pharmaceutical company had bought from Cambodia; the DoJ suspected they were     10     in the wild then exported. These primates are now in Texas and Maryland but also in dilemma: they cannot be tested on, nor can they be flown back to Cambodia.

8 . 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.

The Mystery is No Mystery

The area of ocean between Florida, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda, known as the Bermuda Triangle, is the source of much mystery. Over the centuries, reports of ships and planes disappearing     1     a trace have seized the public attention, leading the zone     2     (nickname) “The Devil’s Triangle.” Suggested causes for these mysterious disappearances range front supernatural powers to underwater alien bases. However, there is a more basic question to ask: Do more craft really disappear in the Bermuda Triangle than in any similarly trafficked area? The answer,     3     it turns out, is no.

The Bermuda Triangle covers a vast 700,000 square-kilometer swathe of ocean. Close to the equator(赤道)and near the United States, it is a particularly busy patch of sea with heavy traffic. According to Lloyd’s of London and the U. S. Coast Guard,     4     you were to compare the number of disappearances to the large quantity of ships and planes that have passed through the Bermuda Triangle, you would find that there     5     (be) nothing out of the ordinary about the area.

These days, new theories are being put forward, with a bit of scientific truth to them. Some have attributed Bermuda Triangle disappearances to explosive releases of methane (甲烷) gas,     6     (trap) as methane hydrate inside water molecules beneath the cold seabed of the deep ocean. Such blowouts could potentially release a giant amount of gas that could cause the sea to bubble like it was boiling, which could possibly sink ships because the resulting bubbles would be much     7     (thick) than the water on which large ships normally float. The gas could also rise into the sky,     8     (produce) a mixture of five to 15 percent methane which could explode on contact with the engine exhaust of a hot airplane.

The only problem with this theory is that scientists won’t be able to tell with much certainty if this is a factor       9     the ocean floor is mapped in greater detail. It remains to be seen     10     they will succeed in their attempt to clear up the Bermuda Triangle “mystery” this time around.

9 . In an ideal world, people would not perform experiments on animals. For the people, they are expensive. For the animals, they are stressful and often painful. That ideal world, ______, is still some way away. People need new drugs and vaccines. They want ______ from the toxicity（毒性） of chemicals. The search for basic scientific answers goes on. ______, the European Commission is moving ahead with proposals that will ______ the number of animal experiments carried out in the European Union, by requiring toxicity tests on every chemical ______ for use within the union’s borders in the past 25 years.

Already, the commission has ______ 140,000 chemicals that have not yet been tested. It wants 30,000 of these to be examined right away, and plans to spend between $4 billion — $8 billion doing so. The number of animals used for toxicity testing in Europe will thus, experts reckon, quintuple (翻五倍) from just over l million a year to about 5, unless they are saved by some dramatic ______ in non-animal testing technology. Animal experimentation will therefore be around for some time yet. But the search for substitutes continues.

A good place to start finding ______ for toxicity tests is the liver--the organ responsible for breaking toxic chemicals down into safer molecules that can then be eliminated from body. Two firms, one large and one small, told the meeting how they were using human liver cells removed incidentally during surgery to test various substances for long-term toxic effects.

PrimeCyte, the small firm, grows its cells in cultures（士音养基） over a few weeks and doses them regularly with the substance under ______. The characteristics of the cells are carefully ______, to look for changes in their microanatomy（组织学）. Pfizer, the big firm, also doses its cultures regularly, but rather than studying ______ cells in detail, it counts cell numbers. If the number of cells in a culture changes after a sample is added, that suggests the chemical ______ is bad for the liver.

Other tissues, too, can be tested ______ of animals. Epithelix, a small firm in Geneva, has developed an ______ version of the lining of the lungs. According to Huang Song, one of Epithelix’s researchers, the firm’s cultured cells have similar microanatomy to those found in natural lung linings, and ______ in the same way to various chemical messengers. Dr. Huang says that they could be used in long-term toxicity tests of airborne chemicals and could also help identify treatments for lung diseases.

All this suggests that though there is still some way to go before drugs, vaccines and other substances can be tested routinely on cells rather than live animals, useful progress is being made.

1.

A．fortunately

B．sadly

C．ironically

D．technically

2.

A．protection

B．identification

C．isolation

D．interaction

3.

A．However

B．Indeed

C．Instead

D．Furthermore

4.

A．increase

B．decrease

C．prohibit

D．specify

5.

A．tested

B．created

C．assessed

D．approved

6.

A．outlined

B．imposed

C．identified

D．released

7.

A．diagnoses

B．advances

C．proofs

D．appearances

8.

A．alternatives

B．breakthroughs

C．possibilities

D．implications

9.

A．suspicion

B．control

C．way

D．investigation

10.

A．monitored

B．studied

C．analyzed

D．classified

11.

A．relevant

B．numerous

C．individual

D．measurable

12.

A．in question

B．in principle

C．in practice

D．in reality

13.

A．successfully

B．independently

C．occassionally

D．collectively

14.

A．useful

B．constant

C．mature

D．artificial

15.

A．operate

B．function

C．respond

D．enhance