Dozens of cities line the Grand Canal. The Yangzhou section is very complex. Yangzhou has a network of waterways, where
One of the greatest values of Yangzhou's section of the canal
The canal
The Grand Canal's Yangzhou section hosts rich cultural heritage
2 . “This used car is beginning to be a pain,” I thought to myself. First , the battery had
Now here I pulled in my car. I
I reached the traffic light and saw I wasn’t
There is no
| A．died | B．run | C．disappeared | D．changed |
| A．survey | B．notice | C．problem | D．comment |
| A．judged | B．used | C．combined | D．replaced |
| A．searched for | B．forgot | C．dropped off | D．felt |
| A．worthwhile | B．different | C．creative | D．meaningful |
| A．nice | B．steady | C．regular | D．hurried |
| A．lost | B．concerned | C．alone | D．wrong |
| A．willing | B．eager | C．joyful | D．confident |
| A．anxiously | B．patiently | C．carefully | D．firmly |
| A．disappointed | B．confused | C．admiring | D．understanding |
| A．refused | B．followed | C．protected | D．bothered |
| A．watched over | B．depended on | C．looked at | D．appealed to |
| A．familiar | B．fresh | C．unique | D．strong |
| A．complicated | B．related | C．special | D．random |
| A．love | B．forgiveness | C．choice | D．promise |
3 . Have you heard the news? Climate change is impacting the way our world works. Whether you believe it is a human-made condition or a natural cycle doesn’t matter at this point.
Record-breaking heat struck the Pacific Northwest in June. When the first heat dome (热穹顶) formed in 2021, it sent temperatures through the roof in places where there is no air conditioning in homes. Portland and Seattle both reached more than 108°F, with the former topping out at 116°F.
What can we do to make changes? It starts by switching from the burning of fossil fuels. By reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that reflects heat and sunlight, we can dissipate (消散) the heat more easily.
We’re running out of time to act. Things will keep getting worse until changes are made.
| A．We know the world is getting warmer. |
| B．Long-term drought advances the problem. |
| C．It will take all of us to battle this problem together. |
| D．In July, another heat dome formed in Northern California. |
| E．Once summer comes along, 100 degree days begin to appear. |
| F．It’s not just during the day that we need to worry about things. |
| G．Climate change can also cause some regions to be abnormally cool. |
4 . The truest explanation of recycling involves taking a material, melting(融化) it down, and turning it back into itself over and over. This can be done with glass and metal, which can both be remelted and reformed into bottles or cans forever. This is a closed-loop(闭环) system, so it’s very desirable. On the other hand, some materials slowly degrade(降解) over time, meaning they can be reformed maybe once or twice, but after a while the chemical composition of the original substance has changed and it can no longer be turned back into what it once was. This is called downcycling(降级回收).
The downcycling of plastic is one of the serious issues surrounding this material. For example, plastic water or soda bottles are seldom turned back into bottles. The other is the fact that plastic never biodegrades(生物降解). Many materials newspaper included, will biodegrade at the end of their lives. When paper enters the environment, given exposure to the air, it breaks down, leaving the world undamaged. Plastic, on the other hand, photodegrades(光降解), and this is very concerning. As discussed earlier, in the process of photodegrading, wind, sun, and water break plastic down into smaller and smaller particles(颗粒) that will cause great damage to the ocean ecosystem.
Finally, there is concern about heating food in plastic containers. Avoid reheating food in plastic containers in the microwave, and stop covering food with plastic wrap. Storing cool food in plastic containers isn’t as big a concern, but avoid heating food and plastic together to eliminate the possibility of plastic into your food.
So the disadvantages to plastic are that it can’t really be recycled in the true meaning of the term, it will never disappear from our environment because it can’t biodegrade, and it is a vehicle to deliver dangerous chemicals into our food chains.
1. What is a satisfying recycling system?| A．It’s easy to find alternative metals. | B．Its process is an open-loop system. |
| C．Materials can be reused over and again. | D．Composition of materials can be changed. |
| A．The threat to oceans. | B．The impact on foods. |
| C．The process of breaking down. | D．The pollution of the atmosphere. |
| A．Assess. | B．Remove. | C．Weight. | D．Reduce. |
| A．Positive. | B．Indifferent. | C．Negative. | D．Unclear. |
The topic of this programme is environmental
Even before I reached the tent, I knew there would be trouble. My little brother Andy was following me, with a sleeping bag, a flashlight, and his stuffed bear. My friends Wade and Bred think Andy would ruin everything. He would get scared in the middle of the night and have to be taken back to the house. They complained so much you'd think they were hospital patients instead of kids I'd invited for an outdoor sleepover.
Andy promised that he wouldn't ruin anything. He wormed his way into the tent and settled in the far corner. Night was settling in, too, with the woods around us fading toward black. The house, with its porch light, seemed a long way from us.
“Time for ghost stories!” Brad announced as soon as I'd closed the tent. He told a story about vampires （吸血鬼）, but it only made us fall over laughing. When it was Wade's turn, he told a story of three guys who were camping in a tent. He described our situation exactly-except for Andy. When he was describing a terrifying creature, somewhere outside, a branch snapped （发出咔嚓声）。The hairs on my arms shot straight up. “These guys were crawling into their sleeping bags, right?” Wade continued. “When out of the darkness rang this terrible cry.” And out of the woods behind us there was a cry! High-pitched, frightening, and strange. The hairs on my head shot straight up!
“What was that?” Bred asked as the cry came again. We all looked at each other in horror, speechless. Wade suggested someone should go out to check, but no one dared. “What if it's something trapped or hurt?” Andy said anxiously. We focused our flashlights on Andy, whom we'd forgotten, sitting in the corner with his arms around his bear. Andy would adopt every lost or hurt animal in the world if Mom would let him.
注意：1.续写的词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答
“I'm going to see.” Andy ran out of the tent and disappeared in the darkness.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Andy said it was a baby monkey caught between branches, and it was crying for its mama.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . Craig grew up on “a gentleman's farm” in Colorado with horses, cows, and chickens. When he was 18, Craig was already running some of the businesses. He planned to earn a business degree in college, but on a fateful trip to Florida, he visited a friend who worked as a grounds-keeper at a zoo. “I just wanted to say hi, but he showed me around, and in the back, I saw lions and tigers in these cages that were so small that you 'wouldn't want to keep a dog in them,” he says. The animals were surplus(过剩)and would likely be euthanized(使安乐死).
When a sad Craig returned to Colorado, he called the Denver Zoo about taking the animals, but Denver's zookeepers also had a surplus. Then it occurred to him: Perhaps he could bring the animals to the family farm. He was only 19, but he studied local regulations and formed a nonprofit organization. He next wrote zoos nationwide offering to help if they planned to euthanize animals.
After about five years, he bought a second, larger property before moving to the shelter's current location northeast of Denver. The goal, he says, is to provide the animals with plentiful space and to treat them with dignity and respect. “We have prides of lions that live together, just like they would in the wild,” he says. “They're wandering free and playing and doing what they want. We just give them medical care and food.”
Craig opened the shelter to visitors in 2002. Although he was originally unwilling, Craig now sees it as an opportunity to educate more people. “We want the public to know, if they hear about some guy driving around in his Ferrari with a tiger or a lion, they should say, What are you doing? That animal is going to end up dead or in some dirty roadside zoo.” The shelter receives 150,000 guests a year. Given his goal of treating the animals with respect-the shelter prohibits feeding and hands-on human contact -visitors observe the animals from a 30-foot-high, 1.5-mile-long elevated walkway.
1. What made Craig decide to help animals?| A．The need to run his farm. |
| B．The influence from his friend. |
| C．The concern for animals to be euthanized |
| D．The plan to earn a business degree from a college. |
| A．To draw visitors. |
| B．To play with animals. |
| C．To live a comfortable life. |
| D．To offer animals more space. |
| A．By riding a car. |
| B．By taking an elevator. |
| C．Through contact with animals. |
| D．From the passage above the ground. |
| A．Admirable. | B．Well-paid. | C．Boring. | D．Appealing. |
8 . Aristotle was among the first thinkers to become interested in the red snow on Mount Parnassus in the 4th century BC. The Greek philosopher owed the colour to hairy worms living in freezing conditions at high altitude. The phenomenon has puzzled scientists ever since. Now a team of French researchers find that snow is getting redder all the time.
The red is indeed produced by organisms in the snow - not by hairy worms, but by microalgae(微藻类)that inhabit ecosystems up to 3, 000 metres above sea level. The microalgae that are green and invisible in the winter become loaded with pigments(色素)in the summer which protect them from the sun, turning the snow reddish. It's when the sun's rays become strong that the microalgae create a protective layer of red molecules(分子) that are like a sun cream.
The researchers say on their website, “The appearance of ‘red snows’ seems to be more and more frequent at high altitudes, as well as in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.” One explanation for the spread of red snows could be global warming, the scientists say. Microalgae capture carbon dioxide when exposed to light, turning it into organic matter and placing it at the foundation of ecosystems in soil, water and snow. With climate change, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing. “It is therefore expected that certain microalgae respond positively to this increase, behaving as markers of climate change,” the website says.
Yet scientists are unsure about what impact the microalgae have on melting glaciers and snow. They suspect that because the red pigments absorb the heat they are accelerating environmental change. “Even if it is fantastic to see microalgae developing in the snow, one of the consequences is... the disappearance of their environment,” the researchers added.
1. What caused the red snow according to the Greek philosopher?| A．High altitude. | B．A kind of worms. |
| C．The microalgae. | D．The freezing conditions |
| A．To generate a sun cream. |
| B．To be loaded with pigments. |
| C．To attract people's attention. |
| D．To defend themselves from the sun. |
| A．It can contribute to global warming. |
| B．It can indicate the rise of carbon dioxide. |
| C．It increases carbon dioxide in ecosystems. |
| D．It disappears from the Arctic and Antarctic regions. |
| A．Red snow sends a warning. |
| B．Microalgae grow in red snow. |
| C．Microalgae stand climate change. |
| D．Red snow dances at high altitude. |
9 . British sculptor Jason Taylor has made it his mission to use his talent to conserve our ecosystems by creating underwater museums. Over the years, the environmentalist has put over 850 massive artworks underwater worldwide. On February 1, 2021, Taylor launched his latest work---The Underwater Museum of Cannes.
“The main goal was to bring attention to the fact that our oceans need our help,” Taylor told Dezeen. “Ocean ecologies have been destroyed by human activity in the Mediterranean over the past few decades, and it is not obvious what is taking place when observing the sea from afar.”
The Underwater Museum of Cannes contains 6 sculptures featuring local residents of various ages. They range from Maurice, an 80-year-old fisherman, to Anouk, a 9-year-old student. Towering over 6-feet-tall and weighing 10 tons, the faces are sectioned into two parts, with the outer part like a mask. The mask indicates that the world’s oceans appear powerful and unbeatable from the surface but house an ecosystem that is extremely fragile to careless human activities.
Though the waters surrounding the sculptures now appear a pristine blue, the seabed was filled with old boat engines, pipes, and other human-made trash when the project began about four years ago. Besides removing the trash, Taylor also restored the area’s seagrass. Just one square meter of the seagrass can generate up to 10 liters of oxygen daily. The seagrass also helps prevent coastal erosion and provides habitats for many ocean creatures.
“The idea of creating an underwater museum was to draw more people underwater and develop a sense of care and protection,” Taylor told Dezeen. “If we threw unwanted waste near a forest, there would be a public outcry. But this is happening every day in our surrounding waters and it largely goes unnoticed.”
1. What are the underwater museums intended to do?| A．To make huge profits. | B．To raise awareness of protecting the ocean. |
| C．To show Jason Taylor’s talent. | D．To draw attention to endangered sea animals. |
| A．To popularize the features of the locals. |
| B．To remind people to protect themselves. |
| C．To reflect people’s protection of the ocean. |
| D．To stress the sensitiveness of the ecosystem. |
| A．How the project was started. | B．How the seagrass was restored. |
| C．What recovery effort the project made. | D．Why the surroundings were improved. |
| A．The situation of the ocean is easily ignored. |
| B．The destruction caused to the ocean is noticeable. |
| C．Forests play a more important role in ecosystems. |
| D．People have zero tolerance to damage done to nature. |
10 . Shining just 12 light-years from Earth, the star Tau Ceti so resembles the sun that it has appeared in numerous science- fiction stories and was the first star astronomers ever searched for signs of intelligent life, half a century ago. In 2012 Tau Ceti grew still more interesting when astronomers reported five possible planets somewhat larger than Earth circling closer to the star than Mars orbits (围绕……运动) the sun—one of which is in the star’s habitable zone. Newly released images taken by the Herschel Space Observatory provide even more insight about Tau Ceti’s solar system: greater detail about its dust belt.
Dust arises when asteroids and comets (小行星和彗星) crash into one another, so its location reveals where these dust- creating objects—which are too small to be seen directly—orbit a star. In Tau Ceti’s case, “it’s quite a wide dust belt,” says Samantha Lawler of the University of Victoria in British Columbia. As her team reported in November, the belt’s inner edge is roughly two to three astronomical units (AUs) from the star, which is the position of our own sun’s asteroid belt. (An AU is the distance from Earth to the sun.) Tau Ceti’s dust belt extends out to 55 AU, which would be just beyond our system’s main Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, the zone of small bodies whose largest member is probably Pluto. Presumably full of asteroids and comets, Tau Ceti’s dust belt most likely lacks a planet as large as Jupiter, Lawler says. The gravity of such a massive planet would have driven away most small space rocks.
Within a year a new series of radio telescopes in Chile called ALMA should provide a sharper view of the disk, especially of its inner edge. The ALMA images will help astronomers confirm whether the star’s five proposed planets are indeed real. If the disk overlaps the planets’ hypothesized (假设的) orbits, then they probably do not exist; they would have kept away most asteroids near the star, removing the source of dust.
If those planets do exist, however, Lawler’s team suggests that Tau Ceti’s planetary system may resemble what our solar system would have looked like had the four giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune- never formed: small planets orbiting close to the star, and nothing but asteroids, comets and dust beyond.
1. According to astronomers, the five possible planets of Tau Ceti________.| A．resembled Earth in size |
| B．functioned like a solar system |
| C．were located in Tau Ceti’s habitable zone |
| D．were nearer to Tau Ceti than Mars to the sun |
| A．It is narrower than the asteroid belt in our system. |
| B．The bodies inside it are all smaller than Jupiter. |
| C．The gravity of Tau Ceti makes it get denser. |
| D．It is over 55 astronomical units in width. |
| A．they don’t move into the dust belt while orbiting Tau Ceti |
| B．they have kept away most asteroids and comets |
| C．they don’t crash into any asteroid or comet |
| D．they can be seen clearly by ALMA |
| A．is useful because it stops asteroids or comets crashing into the star |
| B．makes Tau Ceti different from the sun because it extends farther |
| C．is interesting because it keeps other planets away from Tau Ceti |
| D．plays a role in helping decide whether the five planets are real |
