1 . Urban swans might be born with a daredevil gene that makes them less fearful of humans, compared with their rural colleagues.
A study has found swans living in cities tend to be bolder and it is at least partly determined by a gene called DRD4. Birds with this gene could therefore be better adapted to settling in more populated areas, while more timid（胆怯的）swans would escape to less inhabited regions.
It could help to explain why swans in public parks and on urban rivers have a reputation for being so aggressive towards humans - they are simply not afraid of us.
Biologists from some universities in Australia, tracked and collected blood samples from black swans living in two wetlands near cities. One group of swans lived in a recreational urban park, while the other occupied a waste-water processing site out of town. The two areas were less than 20 miles apart. Later, from 2011 through 2013, the researchers started systematically scaring the swans at both sites. The researchers approached the birds and calculated how close they could get before they flew away. As expected, they noticed that while rural swans started flying away if a human was closer than 119 meters, the scientists could come as close to urban swans as 39 meters before taking off.
Analyses of the blood samples, in fact, showed that 83 per cent of the less cautious swans presented the same genetic DRD4 variation（变异)while rural swans have different genetic makeups resulting in more wariness(谨慎，小心）.
The researchers conclude that swans with the bold variation of the gene might choose to live in urban environments, as they tend to be less bothered by human presence.
1. The underlined word in paragraph 1 means__________.| A．timid | B．cautious |
| C．bold | D．stubborn |
| A．The rural swans carry more DRD4. |
| B．The urban swans are more friendly. |
| C．The urban swans are less scared of people. |
| D．The rural swans are aggressive towards humans. |
| A．a kind of blood. | B．a kind of food. |
| C．a kind of genetic variation. | D．a kind of swan. |
| A．The living habit of swans. |
| B．The living environment of swans. |
| C．The contribution of the biologists. |
| D．The process and result of the research. |
Today, enjoy the highlights of Shanghai, China's most
1.目前汽车带来的空气污染和交通堵塞等问题；
2.骑自行车的益处，如节能环保、有利健康等。
参考词汇：低碳生活（low-carbon life）；节能（energy saving）；有毒排放（poisonous emission）;交通堵塞（traffic congestion）
注意：1. 词数100左右；2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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4 . Some unwelcome visitors from North America have been turning up in the waters off the coast of Great Britain.
North American lobsters (龙虾) have been found in the North Sea (between Great Britain and Northwest Europe), far from their own habitat. The lobsters usually live along the eastern coast of Canada and the United States.
It is impossible that the lobsters could have made the 5,600-kilometre journey on their own. They were probably brought to Britain and then got away from containers. Some of the lobsters that were caught had elastic bands (松紧带) holding their legs shut, like lobsters that are kept in containers in stores or restaurants.
Many may have been “set free” from some ships passing through the area. Sometimes passengers order a live lobster from a tank in the dining room and then ask the waiter to throw it overboard instead of cooking it.
According to official records, 26 North American lobsters have been caught in waters off Great Britain since 1988. However, it is believed many more have been found but not reported.
It is against the law to let North American lobsters come into British waters. If they settle down in European waters, it would be bad for the local lobsters. The
two live in the same place and eat the same food. But North American lobsters are larger, stronger and more aggressive (好斗的) than European lobsters, and they produce young more quickly.
As a result, they could take food and space away from the local lobsters, and from other types of shellfish that live in the same area. These lobsters may also carry diseases that could harm the local lobsters.
1. Those unwelcome lobsters _____.| A．could travel 5,600 km a day on their own |
| B．used to live in waters off Great Britain |
| C．would soon disappear in British waters |
| D．might have escaped on the way to Britain |
| A．They are growing too fast to be kept under control. |
| B．Shellfish often take away their food and space. |
| C．They are easily harmed by North American lobsters. |
| D．People become ill easily if they eat these lobsters. |
| A．discuss | B．report |
| C．advertise | D．introduce |
5 . The koala(考拉) is possibly one of the best known Australian animals, and is found in four states: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
The word “koala” comes from an Australian word meaning “no drink”. Sometimes people call them “koala bears” but koala is not a bear. It belongs to a special group of Australian mammals, called marsupial(有袋类). Female marsupials have a pouch where the baby animals live after they are born.
Koalas have soft, thick, gray or brown fur on their backs. The fur on the stomach is white. The Koala in the south have thicker fur than those in the north because of the cold winters. However, the koalas in the northern part live in warm to hot weather most of the year, so they have thinner fur.A koala has a large nose and round ears. Koalas don’t have tails. Adult koalas weigh between 7kg and 14 kg.
Koalas spend nearly all their time in the trees. They sleep most of the day, but feed and move from tree to tree mainly at night.The reason koala sleep for much of the day is because their food, eucalyptus(桉树) leaves, are so hard that they need a lot of energy(能量;精力)to digest. Sleeping saves energy.
Each koala has a home made up of several trees that they visit regularly. They normally do not visit another koala’s home trees except that a male is looking for a female to mate with.
1. Which of the following statements is NOT true about the name “koala bear”?| A．The name was given by the native in Australia |
| B．The word “koala” is an English word |
| C．The name describes one of its living habits |
| D．The name is partly wrong. |
| A．House | B．Cave | C．Bag | D．Nest |
| A．The thick fur can protect them from the colder weather |
| B．It’s always hot in summer in the north |
| C．It’s always cold in the winter in the south |
| D．They have to move to the north in the winter |
| A．Their foods are poisonous |
| B．Their food needs too much energy. |
| C．They want to save energy for the activities at night |
| D．They can’t get enough water from their leaves |
1.表达对贵阳面临的噪音问题的担忧；
2.分析造成该问题的原因（如车辆增加、城市建设等）；
3.提出适当建议。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Mayor,
Recently, the environmental protection department has issued a report
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Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
At the end of the year, it designs events to help children celebrate Christmas without increasing the amount of waste they create. Hanna Seligmann works for the foundation. “So let’s figure out what is in our bag of trash.” She shows adults and children how to reduce waste during the holiday gift-giving season. “You can sort it as a cardboard item or you can sort it as a plastic item.” “We encourage using things that are already in your house like newspaper, old magazines, using a gift within a gift.” Urging people to recycle is important in the Washington, D.C., area, because Potomac River, one of the most famous rivers in the country lies there.
“Over time we realized that really just doing trash cleanups was the symptom of the problem, not getting to the root cause. And so it was just a little over a decade ago that we started the initiative (倡议) itself.” says Seligman.
The Trash Free Potomac Watershed Initiative is an effort by the Alice Ferguson Foundation to support clean agricultural methods. It includes educational programs teaching children about the kinds of pollution that can enter the watershed.
One activity is called the Trash Timeline Game. It teaches children that the things they throw away do not decompose, at the same rate. For example, paper dissolves in about four weeks. An apple core may take two months to rot. A metal can take up to 100 years.
1. The Alice Ferguson Foundation ________.| A．devotes itself to keeping citizens engaged in going green |
| B．deals with relationship between people |
| C．teaches people how to form groups |
| D．concerns itself about children’s holidays |
| A．buying plastic items |
| B．celebrating Christmas |
| C．figuring out how much waste was produced |
| D．educating people to reduce less waste while enjoying Christmas |
| A．Environmental education. | B．Doing trash cleanups. |
| C．Saving water. | D．Celebrating holidays less. |
| A．Give off. | B．Break down. | C．Come out. | D．Pack up. |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
A city, whether big and small, should be clean. Only when we live in a clean city we live a happy life. As we know, a clean city, that disease may be reduced and people’s health may be better, are good both for our mind and body. No one believes people lived in a dirty city with waste everywhere can live happy. However, for more and more people moved into our city, it is not easy to keep our city clean. Beside, some factories will pour waste into the air, the river and onto the ground, making it is hard to keep our city clean. To make our city the better place to live in, we still have a lot to do.
I’M a New York City firefighter. Every day, I see terror — sometimes even death. But the day I found Scarlett was different. That day I saw life. And love.
We were responding to a call about a burning garage. Outside, I heard the sound of cats crying. I couldn’t stop — I would have to look for the cats after the fire was put out.
It took a long time to finally bring the big fire under control, but we did it. No one inside was hurt.
At that point I was free to investigate the cat noises. There was still a lot of smoke and heat coming from the building. I followed the meowing(猫叫) to a spot on the sidewalk near the front of the garage. There, crying and huddled(挤作一团) together, were five terrified kittens. They must have been inside the building, as their fur was badly singed(烫烧).
I left the five kittens in a box on a neighbor’s porch(门廊).
I wanted to find the mother. It was obvious that she had gone into the burning garage and carried out all of her babies, one by one — unbelievable.
We finally found her. She was badly burnt: her eyes were blistered (起水泡), her paws(爪子) were blackened, and her fur was singed all over. You could even see her reddened skin beneath the burned fur. She could barely move. I picked her up, and she relaxed in my arms as much as her pain would allow. Sensing her trust, I shed a tear. I was determined to save this brave little cat and her family.
The vet told me they would observe the kittens and their mother overnight, but they weren’t optimistic about the mother’s changes.
About a week later, I found out she was going to live. One of the technicians suggested we name her Scarlett, because of her reddened skin.
Knowing what Scarlett endured(忍受) for her kittens, it melted my heart to see her reunited with them. She touched each of them again, nose to nose, to make sure they were all safe. She had risked her life five separate times — and it had paid off. All of her babies had survived.
As a firefighter, I see heroism(英雄事迹) every day. But what Scarlett showed me that day was the kind of bravery that can only come from a mother’s love.
1. Which of the following is TRUE according to the article?
| A．The author went to rescue the cats as soon as he heard them crying. |
| B．The firefighters put out the big fire quickly and no one was hurt. |
| C．The mother cat moved all of her five babies to a safer place despite the fire. |
| D．The author didn’t find the cats until the smoke and heat were gone. |
| A．He refused to watch someone else die in his work. |
| B．He was impressed by the mother’s strong love and courage. |
| C．The cat’s story had made many people concerned. |
| D．It had taken much time and effort for him to save them. |
| A．Objective. | B．Admiring. | C．Excited. | D．Optimistic. |
As soon as she recovered, Hill traveled to California. There she saw ancient redwood trees, which are the largest trees in the whole world. The wood from redwood trunks is very hard. So the Pacific Lumber Company cut down many of the huge redwoods to use for construction. There are not many forests of these trees left. Many environmental activists want to protect the remaining trees. The redwoods are very important to the environment.
In 1997 Hill learned a group called Earth First was working to protect a particular group of trees. They decided to send someone up into a redwood tree, hoping this would stop the company from cutting the trees down. Julia Butterfly Hill volunteered.
Hill lived in the tree for over two years without ever coming down. Her home was a 6-by-8-foot tree house, 180 feet up. It is always cold and wet in a redwood tree. There were even very serious winter storms while Hill was in the tree. The wind and cold almost knocked Hill out of the tree. But she did not fall — she survived.
Finally, after years of arguing, the company decided to protect Luna, the tree Hill lived in. They signed an agreement to never cut down this huge redwood tree or the trees around it. When Hill put her feet on the earth again, she began to cry. But from that moment on Hill hasn’t stopped working to protect the environment.
1. Julia Butterfly Hill traveled to California _____.
| A．to find a new job |
| B．to build a tree house |
| C．with the hope of joining Earth First |
| D．in expectation of doing something meaningful |
| A．because they might fall over at any time |
| B．because they had great economic value |
| C．to protect other trees in the forest |
| D．to make space for constructions |
| A．comfortable | B．cool | C．tough | D．satisfying |
| A．She has a sense of social responsibility. |
| B．She failed to protect the redwood tree. |
| C．She built a new house in the forest. |
| D．She is a self-centered woman |
