1 . There are several reasons to use canvas (帆布) grocery bags or reusable grocery bags made from other materials. Some environmental organizations have been pushing for the use of such bags.
From an environmental aspect, canvas grocery bags are better choices than paper or plastic bags.
Plastic grocery bags have a number of environmental disadvantages. When plastic grocery bags end up in the natural environment, they can cause a wide range of problems. Animals may choke on or be caught in such bags.
As anyone who has had a bag broken open in the parking lot knows, it can be very upsetting to lose a lot of groceries to a poorly-constructed grocery bag.
| A．Many grocery stores carry canvas grocery bags. |
| B．Canvas grocery bags have uses beyond the grocery store. |
| C．Instead, you only have to buy a canvas grocery bag once. |
| D．What’s worse, plastic can stay in the ocean for thousands of years. . |
| E．They point out reusable bags can be a small change with a big difference. |
| F．Canvas is more environmentally friendly to produce than paper or plastic. |
| G．However, canvas grocery bags can hold much more weight than regular ones. |
2 . To create “Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape”. Alejandro Duran gathers plastic trash that is washed up on the beaches of Sian Karan, Mexico’s largest federally-protected reserve. The site is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Yet every day, plastic pollution from around the world is washed up onto its shores. These materials inspired Duran to create a series of environmental art pieces, which he re-cords with photos and videos.
Duran was born in Mexico City and is now based in Brooklyn. He said that he had been collecting materials and creating photographs for the past five years, and the work was ongoing. “The project will tell me when to stop.”
Each piece can convey a vastly different mood, from the calm greens of soda bottles to the playful rainbows of toothbrushes. “I’m making art,” said Duran. “It comes from the context and my moods. You can’t say only something dark.” The work reflects and plays with natural forms, exploring how humans influence the environment. The colorful and playful images can be much attention-grabbing. “Beauty is a hook (钩子) to attract people’s attention,” said Duran.
In addition to promoting awareness of the plastic pollution problem, Duran is also involved in educational programs and helps to organize beach clean-ups. He has also made a study of the types of products that are washed ashore in Sian Ka’an, and has identified objects from 50 different countries. Although there’s no way to know where or how these objects were dropped into the sea, their labels show the global nature of the problem.
1. What does Alejandro Duran do with the trash?| A．He moves it away. | B．He collects and burns it. |
| C．He turns it into a form of art. | D．He puts it together for people to see. |
| A．He will stop the project soon. | B．It’s hard to carry on the project. |
| C．He will go on with the project. | D．The project is important to him. |
| A．recycle the trash | B．change his career |
| C．clean up the beach | D．raise public awareness of pollution |
| A．Plastic pollution in the ocean. |
| B．An artist creating environmental art. |
| C．The global nature of the pollution problem. |
| D．Mexico’s largest federally-protected reserve. |
3 . Honeybees are in trouble. While they’ re crucial for promoting biodiversity and producing food for healthy human diets, honeybees face many threats, including habitat loss, climate change, air pollution and disease-causing organisms.
But now, there’s hope for helping honeybees fight back against one of the many stressors they face, a deadly infectious disease known as American foulbrood. To fight the disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved for use the world’s first honeybee vaccine (疫苗), developed by Dalan Animal Health.
Bacteria called Paenibacillus larvae cause American foulbrood, which kills honeybees while they are in the pupal (蛹的) or pre-pupal stage. Until now, there was no “safe and sustainable” way to prevent American foulbrood. The only treatment involved antibiotics (抗生素), which are expensive, have limited effectiveness and take lots of time and energy for beekeepers to apply. To stop the spread, beekeepers are often forced to burn infected bees. That makes the vaccine a game changer.
“Our vaccine is a breakthrough in protecting honeybees,” says Annette Kleiser, CEO of Dalan Animal Health. “We are ready to change how we care for insects, impacting food production on a global level.”
Beekeepers will mix the vaccine, which contains dead P. larvae bacteria cells, into the food that worker bees eat. Then, when the worker bees produce their milky royal jelly (蜂王浆), the queen will eat it and the vaccine. Then, the vaccine will protect her developing offspring from the disease.
Under a conditional license from the USDA, Dalan Animal Health now plans to distribute limited amounts of the vaccine to commercial beekeepers. From there, they hope to offer it for sale throughout the U.S. sometime this year.
The federal agriculture agency awards conditional licenses to products that meet an emergency, situation, limited market, local situation or special circumstance. The USDA requires products that receive these types of licenses to be pure and safe, and have a reasonable expectation of effectiveness. Generally, conditional licenses come with restrictions and cover a limited period of time. Once that period ends, the agency evaluates the product’s effectiveness to determine whether to renew the conditional license or award a regular product license.
1. What’s the function of the first paragraph?| A．To stress the importance of honeybees. |
| B．To lead to the topic of the passage. |
| C．To list the threats honeybees face. |
| D．To arouse readers’ interest. |
| A．Because it has changed the way we care for insects. |
| B．Because it’s the only treatment for American foulbrood. |
| C．Because it breaks through the limitations of the former treatment. |
| D．Because the previous treatment has no effectiveness. |
| A．Queen bees. | B．Worker bees. |
| C．Adult bees. | D．Young bees. |
| A．They promote the commercial success of honeybee vaccine. |
| B．They guarantee the full effectiveness of products. |
| C．They can be renewed with no strings attached. |
| D．They are in effect within a period of time. |
Jane Brown sat carefully putting papers into a folder. She had been at the Gateway Nature Center’s office all morning and was tired of filing. She wanted desperately to work with the animals. She had been a weekend volunteer that whole school year and had done extensive research, reading books and websites on natural history. But her mom, who was the assistant director of the center, said Jane was still too young.
Suddenly, the quiet was broken by Amy bursting in. She had been a volunteer a bit longer than Jane and wandered around like she owned the place. “Hurry up, Jane,” she ordered. Jane willed herself to remain still and just smiled back.
Just then, Jane’s mother rushed into the room with Mr. White, the manager. “The hurricane is now approaching the Gulf Shore Preserve,” Mrs. Brown reported. “It needs help preparing for it. I have to go down there with the staff. We’ll take the bridge, so we shouldn’t be gone long. I need you girls to help Mr. White get the storm shutters (护窗) down in the aviary (鸟舍). Then, stay inside with Mr. White. Call me on my cellphone if there’re any problems,” Mrs. Brown directed as she rushed out. Jane was excited to have an opportunity to help the birds.
Amy announced she was now “in charge”. Jane smiled again, saying nothing. Mr. White and the girls worked quickly and were soon back inside. But when Mr. White called Jane’s mother, a worried expression crossed his face. “A storm has flooded the bridge, and they’re stuck there. Also, the storm is heading our way,” he said. Amy was frightened. After silently considering for a few seconds, Jane said calmly, “We should move the birds to the reptile house (爬行动物馆). It’s on higher ground.” Mr. White and Amy nodded. They rushed out of the building. Once inside the aviary, Jane watched Amy lunge (猛冲) from cage to cage.
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1.
Jane told Amy not to jump around so much because the birds would be scared by her sudden movements.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2.
After several hours, the storm stopped, and Mrs. Brown was able to return to the center.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Sticking together was always important to my family — especially after my dad left us. I didn’t always talk to my mom about my feelings, because she was busy tending our farm. I talked to my sister, Alana, and I talked to Sister Belle — that’s what we called our cow. She was definitely part of my family, and we loved her very much.
Later on, as we needed to move, we had to sell our farm and all the animals, including Sister Belle. We wanted her to go to someone who would love her like we did, and we thought it was an answer to our hope when a man called. He told he could only pay 300 dollars, but that he had lots of pasture (牧场) and a large barn (畜棚). That afternoon, we went to his place. It looked really nice, and we were happy that we had found the right home for Sister Belle.
The next day we delivered Sister Belle to her new owner. I could feel tears stinging my eyes, but I convinced myself that Sister Belle would be better off in her new home.
A week later, while we were having our moving sale, a neighbor came up telling us she had seen our cow before the cow went to auction (拍卖会). My mom couldn’t believe it and asked who was sell ng the cow. When knowing who it was, I felt sick. We had trusted him, and just a week later he was selling Sister Belle away to make a profit!
We drove to his house. When he answered the door, mom told him what the neighbor had said and he shut the door right in our faces. Alana was crying, and my mom was begging him to sell Sister Belle back to us. But he wouldn’t open the door.
Back home, my mother started calling a lot of auctions and finally found one that had a record of our cow, and told us the cow would be auctioned off the next morning.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The next day we arrived at the auction early.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Therefore, we decided to join in the auction.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Helen and her family moved to a new location in the city. Helen was excited because most of her friends lived in the same street.
It was the first morning in their new house. She woke up early that day and went out on her balcony (阳台). She was expecting wonderful, lovely birds and beautiful greenery with fresh air, but instead it was the complete opposite. There was garbage right outside their front gate. There were no trees and instead of the sweet chirping (鸟叫声) of birds, there were annoying g traffic noises. Helen was angry. “What is this? Why can’t someone do anything about it?” she thought. She went inside the living room. She sat at the dining table, thinking about what she could do about the pollution in her locality.
The next day at school, she went into her class and asked loudly, “Who’s fed up with stinking garbage?” This caught many students’ attention. “Who’s fed up with air pollution and the diseases spread by it?” This time many students answered, “Me!” Helen smiled and then said, “We must clean our surroundings. So help me get rid of the garbage. Help me pick it up! That’s the best thing we can do. We will all go to other classes and ask if they want to join us. I am sure as long as we work together, our community will become a better place!”
In the break time, they all went to other classes, and by the end of the school day, Helen had gathered almost 25 students ready to help her. The day before cleaning, the students took out their pocket money and bought garbage bags, masks and gloves.
注意：1. 续写词数应为120左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The big day came and the students gathered at the school gate.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Soon the headmaster knew what the students did.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . Pictures of the bird called the red siskin appear on Venezuela’s money, on products and in school books.
But the small song bird is disappearing from the wild. It has become the victim of reducing forests and hunters who want to sell their bright red feathers. That threat has brought together an international team. They hope to save the bird. The plan is to have farmers plant organic coffee plants which are covered with branches that make good nesting places for the birds.
Once found in the millions, as few as 300 red siskins remain in Venezuela. “They don’t have many years left, unless we do something right now,” said Miguel Arvelo.
Fanners who meet the project’s rules will win the right to sell their beans with “Bird Friendly” labels. They will be able to set prices for such “high quality” products that can be five times higher than legal prices set by the government.
The male siskin is valued for its red feathers and black head. Breeders cross them with yellow pet birds to create babies with colourful feathers. Protection under Venezuelan law has not prohibited hunters from catching the birds to sell on an illegal international market. Poor Venezuelan families often catch and sell the birds. The money they receive can feed their children for months, said biologist Jhonathan Miranda.
At the same time, a red siskin breeding centre is being built at a private zoo in Venezuela. There, 200 birds are expected to be born next year. Scientists keep the places where the birds live a secret to protect them from hunters. They permitted some reporters to photograph a small number of birds at one of those secret places. Twelve or more of the small, red birds flew into sight just as the sun appeared.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen so many birds together,” said Miranda. “It gives us hope.”
1. What do Miguel’s words in the third paragraph suggest?| A．The red siskins can’t live longer. | B．It is urgent to save the red siskins. |
| C．Organic coffee plants will die soon. | D．Coffee farmers do the right thing now. |
| A．To make them plant less coffee crops. | B．To increase their coffee production. |
| C．To provide red siskins with good habitats. | D．To allow some sunshine into the coffee fields. |
| A．They produce coffee beans of high quality. | B．They have a ban on their coffee planting. |
| C．They enjoy the right to feed birds with beans. | D．They can sell their coffee at a higher price. |
| A．Saving red siskins by planting coffee plants | B．Helping Venezuelans plant more coffee crops |
| C．Preserving the endangered species in Venezuela | D．Building a breeding centre for red siskins |
8 . People love to hate on pigeons (鸽子) for the way they mess up parked cars or rush to food scraps on the sidewalk. But with more than 300 species of wild pigeon found on Earth-many of them amazing it’s time to truly understand the animal. “Pigeons are biological wonders,” says Rosemary Mosco, author of A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching. “They can take off almost vertically (垂直地). They see colors we can’t, hear sounds we can’t, and find their way across hundreds of miles using ways we don’t fully understand,” she says. “They’re the world’s most overlooked birds.”
Pigeons are unbelievably complex and intelligent animals. They are one of only a small number of species to pass the “mirror test” a test of self-recognition. They can also recognize each letter of the human alphabet, differentiate between photographs, and even distinguish different humans within a photograph. Besides, pigeons are known for their outstanding navigational abilities. They use a range of skills, such as using the sun as a guide and an internal “magnetic compass (指南针)”. A study at Oxford University found that they will also use landmarks as signposts and will travel along man-made roads and motorways, even changing direction at crossroads. Pigeons also have excellent hearing abilities. They can detect sounds at far lower frequencies than humans are able to, and can thus hear distant storms and volcanoes.
Despite the social idea as dirty and disease-ridden, pigeons are actually very clean animals and there is very little evidence to suggest that they are spreading disease. Pigeons and humans have lived in close relationship for thousands of years. Although pigeon droppings are seen by some as a problem in modern society, a few centuries ago they were seen as extremely valuable. They were viewed as the best available fertilizers (肥料) and armed guards would even stand by pigeon houses to stop others taking the droppings.
1. What can we know about pigeons from paragraph 1?| A．They do great harm to people. |
| B．They are still unknown to people. |
| C．They are the world’s most amazing birds. |
| D．They have abilities beyond people’s imagination. |
| A．The ability to see colors. |
| B．The ability to detect sounds. |
| C．The ability to guide directions. |
| D．The ability to recognize photographs. |
| A．Pigeons’ hearing. | B．Pigeons’ differences. |
| C．Pigeons’ qualities. | D．Pigeons’ intelligence. |
| A．Pigeons are dangerous. | B．Pigeons are priceless. |
| C．Pigeon waste is valuable. | D．Pigeon waste is poisonous. |
According to a new study, penguins didn’t originate in Antarctica, as scientists
The study suggested that penguins originated in Australia and New Zealand 22 million years ago, not in Antarctica as
Then the opening of the Drake Passage—the body of water
These findings also support the theory that king and emperor penguins are the “sister groups” to all other penguin families,
Today, the flightless birds can
10 . Mr. Asada is just one of many growers in Shizuoka, one of Japan’s largest wasabi-growing(山葵种植)regions, who must face rising challenges from global warming and the effect of untended forests. Already. these hazards have gradually weakened the centuries-old culture of wasabi in the area and damaged the future of one of the area’s most important agricultural products and its tourism business.
Over the last decade, the number of wasabi produced in Shizuoka has dropped by close to 55 percent, according to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The wasabi that comes in tubes and packets is actually a mixture of wasabi and horseradish(辣根)—or includes no wasabi at all. These days. almost only expensive restaurants have access to fresh wasabi. giving their customers a chance to experience the unique flavor and traditional culture of wasabi.
Wasabi plants grow up in spring water that flows down from the mountains, helping to improve their flavor and sweetness. Over time. local growers say, the spring water has worsened in quality due to a large number of cypress trees which grow like crazy in the untended forests.
Global warming has upset the balance even further. The delicate wasabi plants, which take more than a year to be full-grown, do best in conditions no higher than about 70 degrees Fahrenheit. In recent years, heat waves in Japan have regularly pushed temperatures into the 90s and even above 100 degrees. causing more stems to rot.
Government researchers and local growers have started to experiment with crossbreeding in an effort to develop better wasabi varieties that will grow strong even in the rising heat. The challenge is that. unlike with other crops such as cucumbers or tomatoes. getting seeds and growing seedlings from wasabi requires advanced technology. Most growers rely on specialized companies to clone seedlings in labs and greenhouses. Crossbreeding new varieties needs difficult pollination(授粉)efforts, and most of all. time.
1. What’s the meaning of the underlined word “hazards” in paragraph 1?| A．signals | B．adventures |
| C．threats | D．measures |
| A．It is popular in Japan. | B．It likes high temperature. |
| C．It is damaged by the cypress trees. | D．It will develop into new species very soon. |
| A．They attempt to get seeds from wasabi. |
| B．They make efforts to develop species standing the heat. |
| C．They depend on companies to clone seedlings. |
| D．They help complete the process of pollination. |
| A．Wasabi under severe threats | B．Global warming risks wasabi |
| C．Wasabi—a popular food choice | D．Researchers and growers are saving wasabi |
