2 . 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.

Wildlife in Decline

The populations of Earth’s wild vertebrates (脊椎动物) have declined by 58% over the past four decades, according to the Living Planet Report 2016 published by the World Wildlife Fund.

Climate change and activities such as deforestation and poaching (偷猎) are in large part     1     (blame) for the decline. If the trend continues, by 2020, the world     2     (lose) two-thirds of its vertebrate biodiversity. “Sadly, there is no sign yet     3     this rate will decrease,” the report says.

“Across land, fresh water and the oceans, human activities are forcing wildlife populations to the edge,” says Marco Lambertini, director-general of WWF International.

The Living Planet Report is published every two years. It aims to provide an assessment of the state of the world’s wildlife. The 2016 study included 3700 different species of birds, fish, mammals, amphibians and reptiles around the world. The team collected data from more than 3000 sources, including government statistics and surveys     4     (carry) out by conservation groups. They then analyzed     5     the population sizes had changed over time.

Lambertini said some groups of animals had done worse than others. “We do see particularly strong declines     6     the freshwater environment. For freshwater species alone, the decline stands at 81% since 1970. This is related to the way water     7    (use) and taken out of freshwater systems, and also to the fragmentation (分裂) of freshwater systems through dam building, for example.”

The report also highlighted other species, such as African elephants,     8     have suffered huge declines in recent years, and sharks, which are threatened by overfishing.

    9       all the terrifying facts, however, some conservationists say there is still hope. “One of the things that I think is the most important is that these wild animals haven’t yet gone extinct,” said Robin Freeman, head of the Zoological Society of London. “On the whole,     10     are not dying out, and that means we still have opportunities to do something about the decline.”

5 . 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.

Nothing would have made me happier than knowing the International Olympic Committee has awarded the 2022 Winter Olympic Games to Beijing at its 128th session in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

Fourteen years ago, I was in Moscow covering the IOC's 112th session in Moscow,     1     I witnessed Beijing's successful bid for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Seven years later, I covered the 2008 Olympic Games as an accredited journalist.

Indeed, Beijing got a facelift, in many aspects, as the 2008 Games' host. As it becomes the first city ever       2     (host) both the Summer and Winter Olympics, I couldn't help wondering     3     to expect from the Games this time? Here is my wish list:

Permanent blue skies

Efforts to curb pollutions ahead of the 2008 Games dramatically improved the air quality in Beijing, at least for a while. I still remember how clear the sky was during the 2008 Paralympic Games that opened two weeks after the Olympic Games     4     (end) . Sadly, pollution continued to haunt Beijing afterwards,     5     a large extent neutralizing the 2008 efforts.

Once again, expectations are high     6     staging the Winter Olympic Games will push Beijing to reduce pollution and improve the air quality more sincerely and effectively.

Such efforts will not only be made in Beijing but in neighboring Hebei province and Tianjin municipality as well,     7     suggested by a development action plan to integrate the three places. Hopefully, blue skies will become a regular feature even after the Games.

Better transportation

Although Beijing is the host city of the 2022 Winter Games, Chongli county of Zhangjiakou in Hebei will host some of the snow events. I was there once a couple of years ago for skiing, and I had to spend 10 long hours on a congested winding road in the mountains on my way back because the highway was closed after heavy snow.

The nightmarish experience stopped me from making     8     attempt to go skiing in Chongli,     9     I believe boasted the best facilities for winter sports in North China at that time. It is a pleasure to learn that a high-speed railway linking Beijing and Zhangjiakou is in the works,     10     (shorten) the travel time from an average 4 hours to 50 minutes.

6 . 听下面一段材料，回答以下小题。
1.

A．How natural disasters turn out to be to developing nations.

B．How the studies on natural disasters is conducted.

C．How powerless humans appear to be in face of natural disasters.

D．How the negative impacts of natural disasters can be reduced.

2.

A．By training rescue teams for emergencies.

B．By taking steps to prepare people for them.

C．By changing people's views of nature.

D．By relocating people to safer places.

3.

A．How preventive action can reduce the loss of life.

B．How courageous Cubans are in face of disasters.

C．How Cubans suffer from tropical storms.

D．How destructive tropical storms can be.

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

China’s National Treasure

Pandas are in danger of extinction at present, with only 1,900 remaining in the world. The scientific name of the giant panda is actually called the cat bear, the number of which is very scarce. It is one of the most precious animals in the world and belongs to the protected animals at the national level. Its body color is black and white. Giant pandas are unique to China, very cute. The existing major habitats are in the surrounding mountainous areas such as Sichuan and Shanxi in China. The giant panda has a very powerful function: digesting bamboo. We all know that bamboo is mainly cellulose (纤维素), and most animals can’t digest it except giant pandas. The giant panda’s hometown is in the mountains southwest of China, green bamboos and springs everywhere. Therefore, the giant panda’s main food consists of bamboo and spring water.

Giant pandas are often referred to as living fossils. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, it was the peak period of giant pandas. This is of great scientific value for studying and protecting biodiversity and environmental changes on the earth. Long, long ago, the climate of the earth became colder and colder, many ice cubes formed on the earth; plants could not grow, and many animals were frozen or starved to death. The giant panda alone survived in the deep valleys of the mountains and became a treasure of the animal world. The giant panda still retains the characteristics of ancient animals. Therefore, the giant panda is not only popular with adults and children in terms of appearance, but also becomes a living fossil for biologists to study ancient creatures.

The status of giant pandas has been politicized. Giant pandas can be seen in almost all the major countries in the world. The giant panda has become a witness of friendship between China and foreign countries. For decades, wherever the giant panda goes, a panda whirlwind will blow. With its charmed figure and natural cuteness, the Chinese giant panda attracts numerous fans around the world, and at the same time plays the role of friendship ambassador in China’s foreign exchanges, becoming one of the most famous symbols in China.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8 .

A．No one goes out on weekends.	B．People couldn’t bear the heat.
C．The traffic condition has improved.	D．The road here is being repaired.

9 . Some plants get so hungry that they eat flies, spiders, and even small frogs. What’s more amazing is that these plants occur naturally (in special environment) in every state. In fact, they’re found on every continent except Antarctica.

You’ve probably seen a Venus’ flytrap. It’s often sold in museum gift stores, department stores, and even supermarkets. A small plant, it grows 6 to 8 inches tall in a container. At the end of its stalks(茎) are specially modified leaves that act like traps. Inside each trap is a lining of tiny trigger(触发) hairs. When an insect lands on them, the trap suddenly shut. Over the course of a week or so, the plant feeds on its catch.

The Venus’ flytrap is just one of more than 500 species of meat-eating plants, says Barry Meyers-Rice, the editor of the International Carnivorous(食肉的) Plant Society’s Newsletter. Note: Despite any science-fiction stories you might have read, no meat-eating plant does any danger to humans.

Dr. Meyers-Rice says a plant is meat-eating, only if it does all four of the following: “attract, kill, digest, and absorb” some forms of insects, including flies, butterflies, and moths. Meat-eating plants look and act like other green plants ---well, most of the time.

All green plants make sugar through a process called photosynthesis(光合作用). Plants use the sugar to make food. What makes “meat-eating” plants different is their bug-catching leaves. They need insects for one reason: nitrogen(氮). Nitrogen is a nutrient that they can’t obtain any other way. Why almost all green plants on our planet get nitrogen from the soil, “meat-eating” plants can’t. They live in places where nutrients are hard or almost impossible to get from the soil because of its acidity. So they’ve come to rely on getting nitrogen from insects and small animals. In fact, nutrient-rich soil is poisonous to “meat-eating” plants. Never fertilize them! But don’t worry, either, if they never seem to catch any insects. They can survive, but they’ll grow very slowly.

1. According to the passage, carnivorous plants ________.

A．only grow in wild field	B．are rare to see
C．are as common as flies	D．cannot grow on Antarctica

2. We can conclude from the third paragraph that ________.

A．carnivorous plants are dangerous

B．carnivorous plants are fictional

C．carnivorous plants occasionally eat books

D．carnivorous plants are harmless to humans

3. In the eyes of the author, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．Carnivorous plants cannot grow in acid soil.

B．Carnivorous plants can grow in nutrient-poor soil.

C．Carnivorous plants will die if they cannot catch any insects.

D．Carnivorous plants can get nitrogen from nutrient-rich soil.

10 . Directions: 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.

Mentally and Intellectually Harmful

Last month, the Indian Medical Association declared a public health emergency in New Delhi because of high levels of air pollution. Schools were shut and emergency traffic restrictions put in place.

New Delhi is far from alone. Our research into the    1     of air pollution in China shows that, in addition to the more obvious physical price, air pollution can also have serious negative effects on mental health and cognition (认知),    2     reducing a person’s happiness and their scores in verbal and mathematical tests.

Such harmful mental effects have serious negative consequences for livelihoods and human capital development, suggesting that development    3     should go beyond the traditional focus of boosting GDP in the developing world.

India's recent pollution emergency is the most    4     incidence(发生率)of dangerous air pollution, but smoggy skies have been a cause of growing    5     in most developing countries.

Major cities across the developing world---from Thailand to Brazil, to Nigeria---    6     experience pollution at several times the WHO safe limits. In fact, 98% of cities with more than 100.000    7     in low and middle-income countries fail to meet the WHO’s air quality guidelines.

India’s extreme levels of air pollution are well recognized, and examining the effects provides clear warnings for other countries seeking fast growth through rapid industrialization.

We used nationally     8     longitudinal (纵向)surveys on mental health and cognition, matched with daily air quality data for the time and place of interviews, to see what pollution does in a given time to individual happiness and cognitive performance. Because each person in our survey was     9    multiple times, we can control for the effect of individual characteristics on the outcome variables.

We found that worsening air quality led to a decrease in happiness that day    10    to about 10 percent of the reduced happiness one would experience form a negative major life event such as divorce.