1 . Rain Collection

What do you like to do on a rainy day —sit inside and listen to the pitter-patter on the roof or splash outside and feel the cold drops on your face? Whatever you choose, rain is vitally essential in the nature.

    1     It fills rivers and lakes, slowly sinks into the earth, nourishes our plants, and keeps the land alive and beautiful. In the past, people obtained their water from rain, wells, or nearby rivers. Now, many of us live in places where water is piped in, sometimes from far away. Removing so much water from nature and sending it to great distances harm the living things that also need that water.

As climate change heats up the planet and causes extreme weather, more places face water shortages.     2     . One easy place to look for more water is the sky!

Humans have collected rain since ancient times.     3    . They are tapping into this clean and rich source of water provided by nature. By harvesting the rain we can reduce the amount of water we take from rivers and out of the ground.

Even in dry climates, there is a lot of potential rainwater that can be effectively harvested and utilized. This rich yet often overlooked resource has the potential to significantly contribute to water conservation efforts, especially in regions facing water shortages. Just one inch of rain falling on a medium-sized house produces over 600 gallons of water.    4    .

Nowadays, rainwater is still used as a primary supply in many places in the world, like Vietnam and Hawaii. In places with piped-in water, rainwater is not commonly used, but this is changing. Rainwater harvesting is getting more popular since it’s easy to do and helps create water security.

A．Large roofs can, hence, collect greater amount of water.

B．Rainwater can also be used for fountains and ponds.

C．We all deeply depend on the nourishment of rain.

D．To secure future water supply, we need new sources.

E．Now, many people are returning to this practice.

F．Rainwater is clean but it gets dirty from the roof.

2 . 假设你是明启中学的李明。近期你校将组织一场关于“是否支持动物表演”的辩论赛，引起了同学们的广泛关注。请用英语写一篇短文表达你的观点。(字数：100-120)
文中应包含以下内容：
1.你是否支持动物表演；
2.你支持或反对的理由。
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

The First Space Cat

In a few weeks, space scientists will celebrate a remarkable event — the 60th anniversary of the launch of the first cat into space, an astronautical success that has never been repeated.

In the early 60s, dogs and monkeys were the animals usually used by scientists to find out exactly     1    dangerous the conditions were in outer space. And they were also used to assess if humans     2     survive trips beyond the edge of Earth’s atmosphere.

A total of 14 street cats     3     (gather) at France’s space agency for selection as cat astronauts, but the cats were not given names on purpose in order to prevent scientists from becoming too fond of them. The cat selected to travel to space was simply known     4    C341. C341 flew on a French rocket in October 1963, taking it to a place     5    no cat had gone before.

Then,     6    the news of its flight was announced on 18 October 1963, the French press decided this cat had to have its name. They picked “Felix” after a cartoon cat character, only     7     (discover) that C341 was female, so her name was then adjusted to “Felicette” as a result. In putting Felicette in one of its rockets, France added a new species to the list of animals that scientists     8     (send) into space before. Previously, two garden spiders, Anita and Arebella, had been taken to the Skylab     9    (orbit) around the moon.

“In the 60s,     10    (concern) about the possible danger for a human to be in outer space, scientists and engineers primarily undertook animal space flights to see if they suffered or their lives were threatened by the weightlessness or increased radiation or other effects they might experience up there,” said astronomer Jake Foster at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. “The fact that they did not fail paved the way for humans to begin journeys into space.”

4 . Flamingos (火烈鸟) make long friendships

When it comes to making friends, humans often seek people with similar interests and personalities.     1    . The long-legged birds can form friendships that last for years, and they depend on their friends for support when they fall out with rivals.

Scientist Dr Paul Rose had already spotted that flamingos seemed to form narrow exclusive circles.     2    . To find out why flamingos befriend some but not others, they studied both Chilean and Caribbean flamingos living in a nature reserve in Gloucestershire, England.

Each bird wore a ring around one leg with a unique code to tell them apart. McCully spent months studying their behaviour and built a personality profile for each flamingo. She found that confident, aggressive flamingos walked proudly around in their friendship groups, while the quieter birds carefully avoid those individuals.     3    .

McCully and Rose found that for the Caribbean birds, personality seemed to matter more in friendships than it did for Chilean flamingos. Caribbean birds were more likely to defend their friends and the confident ones had much larger social groups than the quieter birds. The researchers found this surprising because in many ways, including body shape and how they search for food in the wild, the two species are very similar.

    4    . In that case, all personality types are represented and each flamingo has the chance to find a like-minded friend. McCully and Rose said, “If humans require friendships to be happy, is it really such a great leap to think that flamingos might need the same?”

A．Their long-lasting relationships are important for survival in the wild.

B．He teamed up with Fiona McCully, a scientist in animal behaviour.

C．The scientists conclude that it’s important to keep flamingos in a large flock.

D．According to a recent study, so do flamingos.

E．This avoidance may serve to prevent the fights.

F．New research shows that flamingos with brighter colors tend to be more aggressive.

5 . One summer midnight several years ago, standing outside a wooden cabin in Michigan River, I looked up. The sky was filled with thousands of stars, the sight of which was almost enough to make me, a non-believer, offer a word of ___________ up into the star-filled sky. But to whom? Perhaps to Johan Eklof, author of The Darkness Manifesto.

As a bat scientist, Eklof’s work on bats requires a specific kind of darkness—the ___________kind, unpolluted by light. But this category of darkness is ___________. In the 1980s, Eklof tells readers, two-thirds of the churches in Sweden’s southwest housed bat colonies. Not any longer. “Today, forty years later, research I’ve done with my colleagues shows that this number has been reduced by a third, ___________ light pollution and other factors. Because the churches are all ___________ like carnivals(嘉年华) in the night,” he writes. “We are surrounding ourselves with light.”

Excess light is incredibly ___________ to the complex eco-systems nocturnal (夜间活动的) animals inhabit. It ___________ away the bats that Eklof studies. It frightens light-sensitive moths, leaving them easily ___________ to predation(捕食) or flying endlessly into lights that will never return their love. Baby turtles crawl away from the shoreline toward the lights of distant coastal cities and reef fish eggs go unhatched. Birds do not migrate ___________ and even they forget to sing. Modern advancements such as LED lights could significantly reduce some of the worst impacts, but they have not. At least, not yet.

It is worth mentioning that middle-aged writer like Eklof can ____________ for a darker world — for darkened campuses and unlit parking lots. But darkness is not safe for everyone. We need to address the social issues that make lighted places so ____________ in the first place.

The bottom line: We can change if we want to. Some of the solutions to light pollution— motion-detecting lights, shielded lights that do not ____________ light upward, artificial light with wavelengths that is similar to natural light—are already within our grasp, if we just ____________ them. “We could just turn it all off, but I guess we don’t want to,” said Eklof in a recent interview. “____________, it’s vital we find a middle way.”

Right now it is hard to know what that middle way might look like. In 50 years, every city could be equipped with an array of programmed and ____________ low-impact LED lights. Or we might have completely forgotten what darkness is—the sky filled with little moons.

1.

A．honour

B．gratitude

C．optimism

D．determination

2.

A．artificial

B．brilliant

C．faint

D．absolute

3.

A．achieved

B．distracted

C．enhanced

D．threatened

4.

A．resulting from

B．bringing about

C．judging by

D．contributing to

5.

A．decorated

B．restored

C．lit

D．faded

6.

A．effective

B．sensitive

C．positive

D．destructive

7.

A．scares

B．blows

C．pulls

D．turns

8.

A．accustomed

B．subject

C．available

D．restricted

9.

A．on duty

B．in turn

C．on time

D．in public

10.

A．stimulate

B．advocate

C．negotiate

D．account

11.

A．challenging

B．appealing

C．demanding

D．outstanding

12.

A．absorb

B．stretch

C．transform

D．reflect

13.

A．reach for

B．apply to

C．long for

D．adapt to

14.

A．Therefore

B．Furthermore

C．However

D．Instead

15.

A．fundamentally

B．scientifically

C．environmentally

D．economically

6 . As wildfires have intensified in recent years, scientists have begun to catalog the ways the massive events influence weather — but so far, all have looked at either enormous or relatively small scales.

But during 2018’s destructive fire season in California — at the time, the worst on record — Jiwen Fan started to wonder: Could the ever more frequent and intense fires raging in the western United States affect weather not just right next door, but as much as 1500 miles downwind?

Major weather patterns in the U.S. tend to travel from west to east along with the prevailing winds. Fan noticed that just a few days after California’s Carr Fire kicked off in mid-July — shockingly early in the expected fire season — a massive days-long storm struck the High Plains states like Wyoming and Colorado with flooding rains, baseball-sized hail, and 90-mile-an-hour gusts. The storm caused over $100 million in damages. Was it possible the two were connected?

Her team had the exact right tools to investigate the question. First, they dug through 10 years of weather and fire data to find examples of other big conflagrations (大火) occurring right before major storm events. The pairing was actually quite rare. That’s because storm season in the Central U.S. is centered around early summer; in the past, that season was winding down by the time wildfire season increased in August and September. But wildfires have been igniting earlier and earlier, pushed forward by climate change-driven drought and heat. Since 2010, the team found several big central storms that coincided with major Western fires.

They focused on a 2018 storm. Using a weather model that added in the effects of heat and smoke emitted from the burns, they simulated days-long storm event in several different ways. As the real situation had been, with massive fires burning in the West; as if those fires didn’t exist; and another set of experiments that included and excluded the effect of some smaller local fires that had been burning at the time.

The differences were dramatic: The combined impact from the faraway western fires and the local ones boosted the occurrence of heavier rainfall — where more than about 0.8 inches of rain fell in an hour — by 38 percent. The outbursts of big hail, with hailstones larger than two inches — nearly the size of a baseball— happened 34 percent more in the fiery conditions. But the far-off fires had a much larger effect.

“The impact is very significant,” says Fan. “That was a little surprising.”

1. What’s the study of Jiwen Fan and her team mainly about?

A．The effect of conflagrations on the weather of other areas.

B．The scale of all the conflagrations.

C．The number of all the conflagrations that happened in 2018.

D．The cause of the California’s Carr Fire.

2. Why was it rare for Fan’s team to pair big conflagrations with major storm events?

A．Because they were in lack of labor to dig through all the data.

B．Because storm season in the Central U.S. isn’t in line with the wildfire season.

C．Because wildfires usually take place in the early summer.

D．Because wildfires are pushed forward by big storms.

3. How did Fan and her team conduct their study?

A．They invited other experts to do experiments with them.

B．They interviewed a lot of local people and analyzed the data they collected.

C．They simulated storm event in different ways by using a weather model.

D．They observed the real situations and calculated thoroughly.

4. What does the last sentence “That was a little surprising.” imply?

A．The number of the big wildfires was beyond the team’s expectation.

B．The size of the hailstones was definitely incredible.

C．The occurrence of heavy rainfall shocked Fan’s team.

D．The conflagrations did have great effect on the occurrence of storm in other areas.

7 . China becomes a world leader in clean technology by fighting environmental pollution, sharing experience.

Erik Solheim, former executive director of the United Nations Environmental Programme, said he is __________ with China’s phenomenal achievements over the past decade in fighting environmental pollution and climate change, and in its march toward __________ development.

This is very __________ to his Twitter followers. Solheim’s latest tweets include one about China ranking first globally in planted forests and forest coverage growth, __________ a quarter of the world’s new forests in the past decade; one about China producing 60 percent of global solar energy last year and 80 percent of solar panels; and another highlighting the fact that 80 percent of the world’s new offshore wind capacity was installed in China last year.

He believes that it’s time for the rest of the world to __________.

For Solheim, who is also the former Norwegian Minister of the Environment and Minister of International Development, China’s achievements on the climate and environmental fronts all started with its fight against__________.

“People wanted to see beautiful skies over their cities,” he told China Daily. “The __________ fast reduction in air pollution in Chinese cities over the last decade shows how fast China can act. This has now spilled over into renewable energy, nature protection, electric mobility, tree planting and a lot more. Today, China is the world leader in all __________ technologies.”

The latest __________ from China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment prove Solheim’s observations that the country is rapidly switching to a more sustainable path.

Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu told a news conference on Sept 15 that the country’s toughest measures and greatest progress on the ecological and environmental front have occurred in the last decade.

He said that __________ painstaking efforts to combat pollution, clear waters and blue skies have become more commonplace.

While poor air quality used to be a source of frequent public complaints, the average __________ of hazardous airborne PM2.5 particles dropped from 46 to 30 micrograms per cubic (立方的) meter between 2015 and last year.

About 87.5 percent of days last year were rated as having good air quality, up 6.3 percentage points from 2015, making China the country with the biggest __________ in air quality in the world.

In the last decade, the __________ of water at or above Grade III in the country’s five-tier water quality system rose 23.3 percentage points to 84.9 percent, close to the levels in developed countries. Carbon intensity, or carbon emissions per unit of GDP, has declined by 34.4 percent, with coal __________ for 56 percent of total energy consumption, compared to 68.5 percent a decade ago.

China has has legislated or revised roughly 30 laws and regulations, some of which focused on water resource protection, including the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law, which was modified in 2017, and the Yangtze River Protection Law, which __________ last year.

1.

A．confused

B．impressed

C．obsessed

D．connected

2.

A．available

B．accessible

C．sustainable

D．substantial

3.

A．evident

B．attractive

C．invisible

D．unique

4.

A．donating

B．contributing

C．manufacturing

D．distributing

5.

A．fall behind

B．put forward

C．look up

D．catch up

6.

A．pollution

B．environment

C．ecology

D．emission

7.

A．probably

B．inevitably

C．incredibly

D．traditionally

8.

A．biological

B．advanced

C．far-reaching

D．green

9.

A．study

B．figures

C．technologies

D．innovation

10.

A．thanks to

B．despite

C．regardless of

D．other than

11.

A．height

B．length

C．concentration

D．weight

12.

A．obstacle

B．improvement

C．contribution

D．cultivation

13.

A．quality

B．flavor

C．deposit

D．proportion

14.

A．accounting

B．making

C．looking

D．applying

15.

A．took effect

B．took place

C．took to

D．took in

8 . 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.

A.   banned F.   regularly

B. imperfect G. reusing

C. delivered H. throw

D. growing I. victim

E. embrace J. relatively

K. keep

Tips for More Sustainable Living

Making some small changes to your routine can pay off big in various ways:helping the planet while saving your time, money, or both. You will be surprised by how big a difference you can make with     1     little effort. Here’s some suggestions:

Give up throwing certain items. Your coffee grounds, and used tea leaves can be fertilizer (肥料) instead of being thrown in the trash. If you don’t have access to a fertilizer factory, you can hire a company to    2    pick up your leftover food for a fee.

Try to     3     the ugly. The fruit and vegetables that are odd-looking or    4     are actually good to use. It is easy to hide them in soups and yogurt. Don’t     5    away from these foods at the store and do sign up to have them    6     straight to your door through service such as Misfit Market, which offers ugly produce at discounted prices.

Forget fast fashion. The average American throws away 82 pounds of fast fashion clothing each year. Thankfully, there’s a(n)     7    number of companies that prioritize sustainability, producing fewer but longer-lasting articles, often made with organic fabrics and eco-friendly dyes. When clothing is truly at its end, consider     8     it as cleaning duster.

Don’t get cheated. Because of the consumer trend toward more eco-friendly products, many companies make exaggerated (夸张的) claims about their own efforts. For instance, a brand might boast that its products are free of a certain chemical, even though that chemical has been     9     for decades. This is called green-washing. Avoid falling    10    to it by looking for certifications such as “Fair Trade Certified” or “Rainforest Alliance Certified.”

9 .

A．The summers are even hotter in Hong Kong.

B．He wishes that he were in Hong Kong last summer.

C．It is difficult to compare the summers in different places.

D．Hong Kong is the hottest place in the world.

10 . This Halloween, scare off evil spirits while protecting the earth!

1. Create home-made costumes

Apart from the fact that they’re expensive, flammable and mostly unoriginal, shop bought Halloween outfits are a terrific burden on the environment. From the much-too-high amount of water that is used to create them to the seven million costumes that will be thrown straight into the bin, and the microfibres released into the water from the ones that do get washed there are PLENTY of reasons against shop buying.

And let’s be frank, home-made costumes are far more unique and fun to create. For the scariest costume we could possibly imagine, why not dress up as the earth on fire?

2. Be considerate with your pumpkins

Pumpkins are a wonderful Halloween tradition but can be more damaging to the environment than you’d originally think. Harmful pesticides and fertilizers are used during farming and the nature of their large-scale production means they can be transported over vast distances Similarly, how you dispose of them once you’re done determines how big an impact they have.

Don’t let their delicious innards go to waste and instead make a yummy pumpkin treat, even go so far as to save the pumpkin seeds either for you or the birds. Then, once your carved pumpkin is past it’s best, make sure to compost (制成堆肥) it rather than throwing it in the bin-this will prevent the release of methane as it breaks down.

3. Scare yourself silly at home

Rather than travelling to far-flung places, keep the frights closer to home.

Halloween party to get everyone together and encourage car-pooling or the use of public transport.

Read scary stories and create a Halloween hunt in your garden for children to run around and find treats.

4. Make your own trick-or-treating goodies

If you’ve taken on the American tradition of trick-or- treating, why not whip up a few Halloween treats of your own? Apart from being tastier and more fun to look at, they’ll also reduce your consumption of packaging and likely will have a lower carbon footprint. Suggest to any neighbours that they might do the same, and if you go trick-or-treating yourself, be sure to use a reusable carrier.

1. What can we do to help the environment during the Halloween according to the passage?

A．Making use of the pumpkin innards to make fertilizers for your garden.

B．Going to the local shop to buy some costumes and recycling them after using.

C．Throwing a Halloween party with your friends out of town.

D．Inviting your neighbors to taste your home-made treats.

2. What impacts of the tradition of pumpkins are not mentioned in the passage?

A．Harmful pesticides.	B．High carbon footprint.
C．Damage to birds.	D．Harmful gas emission.

3. Which one of the following titles suits the passage best?

A．What to do to celebrate the Halloween traditionally

B．Why is it important to have an eco-friendly Halloween

C．How to have a Halloween beneficial to the environment

D．How to celebrate the Halloween to cheer yourself up