1 . As a boy in the 1960s, David Wagner would run around his family’s farm with a jar held in his hand, catching shining fireflies out of the sky. But that’s all gone; the family farm is now paved over with new homes and lawns. And Wagner’s beloved fireflies have largely disappeared.

In late 2017, a German study showed the total local flying insects had fallen by 80% in three decades. The New York Times published a masterful feature on the decline of insect life in late 2018. The Guardian wrote that “insects could disappear within a century”.

“Not going to happen,” says Elsa from North Carolina State University. “They’re the most diverse group of organisms on the planet. Some of them will make it.” Indeed, insects of some sort are likely to be the last ones standing. Any event sufficiently catastrophic to destroy the world of insects would also endanger other animal life. “If it happened, humans would no longer be on the planet,” says Corrie Moreau from Cornell University.

According to the studies, the major cause of the decline in insects is habitat loss. Next up is pollution from the pesticides and fertilisers. Parasites (寄生虫) and diseases are also playing a role. For instance, the spread of the varroa mite (大蜂螨) is contributing to the decline of honeybees. Finally comes climate change. Insects in tropical regions may be already suffering declines as a result of global heating.

But insects play a critical role in ecosystems. Insects serve as the base of the food web, eaten by everything from birds to small mammals to fish. If they decline, everything else will as well. They also provide invaluable “services” to humanity, including plant pollination (传粉). About three-fourths of flowering plants are pollinated by insects, as well as the crops that produce over one-third of the world’s food supply. Another service: Waste disposal and nutrient cycling. Without insects like dung beetles (屎壳郎) breaking down and removing animal and plant waste, “the result s would be unpleasant”.

1. What’s the bad news for David Wagner now?

A．He is unable to catch the fireflies.

B．He has moved away from his family farm.

C．His favorite insects have disappeared largely.

D．His family farm has been covered by new houses.

2. What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Some kinds of insects will survive.

B．Some kinds of insects will become stronger.

C．Some kinds of insects will be the most diverse group.

D．Some kinds of insects will no longer be on the planet.

3. Why is the varroa mite mentioned in paragraph 4?

A．To explain why insects disappear.

B．To illustrate how insect habitat is lost.

C．To describe a fact that diseases cause the decline.

D．To support the idea that parasites cause the decline.

4. What may be talked about in the following paragraph?

A．What the unpleasant results are.	B．Why the ecosystems are critical.
C．What we should do to protect insects.	D．What the future world will be like.

2 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What will the weather be like in the Northeast of England?

A．Dry and cold.

B．Warm and windy.

C．Misty and rainy.

2. What will the temperature be in Wales?

A．Around six or seven degrees.

B．Around three or four degrees.

C．Around ten or eleven degrees.

3. What will the weather be like in the Midlands?

A．Hot.

B．Fine.

C．Windy.

4. What will the lowest temperature be in Northern Ireland?

A．Minus ten.

B．Minus five.

C．Minus four.

3 . How do the cat and the dog get along?

A．In a friendly way.

B．They often fight against each other.

C．They don’t seem to like each other.

4 . 听下面一段独白，回答小题。
1. What did Jeff Masters say about models used to predict floods?

A．They were based on short-term records.

B．They were not enough to help handle a new climate.

C．They reflected climate changes over the past decade.

2. Which state was hit by Hurricane Ida?

A．Oregon.

B．Washington.

C．Louisiana

3. How much rainfall was predicted in New York on June 12th, 2022?

A．3 to 6 inches.

B．6 to 9 inches.

C．9 to 10 inches.

4. What effect did the Yellowstone floods cause?

A．Over 600 homes were damaged.

B．Roads and bridges were shut.

C．Some people died.

8 . The most beloved bird in history may very well have been a 29-year-old pigeon by the name of Martha. It was the early 1900s, and Martha was at the height of her fame. Perched on her humble roost at the Cincinnati Zoo, she was an object of fascination to the thousands of visitors who lined up just to catch a glimpse. Martha may not have looked the part of an animal celebrity, but she was hardly average—in fact, she was the very definition of one of a kind. After the death of her companion George in 1910, Martha had become the world’s last-living passenger pigeon.

There was a time not long before when her kind accounted for more than a quarter of the birds in North America and may have been the most abundant bird species on the planet. Passenger pigeons used to travel at 60 miles an hour in flocks a mile wide and 300 miles long. Witnesses compared them to a train rumbling through a tunnel.

Ironically, the passenger pigeons’ very abundance may have spelled their doom. An agricultural pest and reliable source of protein, they became easy targets for hunters who killed them in the tens of thousands. In a matter of decades, a bird that once numbered in the billions was reduced to a few, and then, eventually, to one.

Martha, who’d grown up in captivity, had no offspring of her own. At 1 p.m. on September 1, 1914, Martha fell from her perch, never to rise again—one of the rare occasions in which historians could identify the exact moment of a species’ extinction.

Of course, the real tragedy was that the loss of the passenger pigeon was neither surprising nor unique. For as long as the Earth has sustained life, it has also seen the permanent disappearance of life forms, the dinosaurs being a particularly extreme example. But Martha’s high-profile death trained national attention on an alarming new trend. Close to a thousand animal species alone have died off in the last 500 years, and the trend is only getting worse.

1. What caused the extinction of passenger pigeons?

A．The loss of their habitats.	B．The worsening of global warming.
C．The burning of fossil fuels.	D．Their nutritional value and threat to farming.

2. Why are dinosaurs mentioned in the last paragraph?

A．To illustrate we can do nothing to stop species extinction.

B．To show the extinction of a certain species is not a rare case.

C．To explain human activities are to blame for species extinction.

D．To stress immediate measures should be taken before it is too late.

3. What is the author’s attitude towards the new trend of species extinction?

A．Optimistic.

B．Confused.

C．Relieved.

D．Concerned.

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．The most beloved bird George died.

B．Birds are the best friends of human beings.

C．The tragic loss of the last passenger pigeon.

D．The most abundant bird species are endangered.

9 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Bathed in warm sunshine, the newly restored Jingfu Ge,     1     is part of the Summer Palace in Beijing, is like an elderly person     2     a youthful face. It possesses the solemnity and magnificence of a royal building, and the gentle elegance of time.

After a yearlong work, the ancient building was reopened, enabling     3     public to see the results during a special open day on Oct 30.

Located on the eastern ridge of Wanshou Mountain in the Summer Palace, the building was initially a two-story pavilion     4     (construct) during the reign of Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong from 1736 to 1796,     5     known as the Tanhua Pavilion.     6     (fortunate), it was burned to the ground by Anglo-French forces in 1860, and it     7     (rebuild) between 1891-93 during the reign of Emperor Guangxu. Historical records show that Empress Dowager Cixi often went there     8     (appreciate) the views and the weather, and received foreign envoys and their family members in the building, which was not far from     9     (she) residence in the Summer Palace.

This round of     10     (restore) covered the main hall and the surrounding courtyard, with the aim of minimizing interference with the building and not changing its original facade and features.