1 . The insects are important to farmers. When a honeybee lands on a flower in plant, pollen (花粉) sticks to its legs. When the bee lands on another flower, some of the pollen falls off and fertilizes the second plant.
The act of spreading pollen is responsible for many fruits, vegetables, nuts and other crops. Yet about 30 percent of honeybees in the United States and other areas have died in recent years.
Mike Leggett is a researcher at the University of Maryland. He wants to learn why so many bees are dying. “The number of colonies (蜂群) that die every winter has been one in three. So on average 30 percent of the colonies have died every winter over the last six winters. And that’s a huge number.” His research team examined the pollen that honeybees carried to their homes. They found that the pollen contained high levels of 35 different pesticides (杀虫剂), which are chemicals used to protect plants. “Pesticides are used, and have been used, pretty widely, for centuries, to protect plants from diseases,” says Mr Leggett.
Keith Oh linger, a farmer and beekeeper in Maryland, has watched many of his bees die every winter. Mr Ohlinger thinks widespread bee death is caused by several things happening at once. But he does not feel sure that pesticides are a part of the problem, “I felt it was the result of a lot of little things. I didn’t feel that there was probably one smoking gun. But there’s a division (分歧) there, some people feel that it is just one thing.”
Honeybees are important to agriculture. This makes the search for an answer to their death very important for Mr Leggett’s team. As he knows, one in every three bites of food we eat is somehow pollinated by honeybees.
1. What could be a suitable title for the text?| A．Why Are Honeybees Important? |
| B．How Do Honeybees Make Honey? |
| C．Pesticides Might Harm Honeybees |
| D．Honeybee Protection in Maryland |
| A．Worried. | B．Happy. |
| C．Surprised. | D．Hopeful. |
| A．has become rich by keeping bees |
| B．cares little about the death of his bees |
| C．has never used pesticides on his farm |
| D．doubts whether pesticides have killed his bees |
| A．Agriculture. | B．Health. |
| C．Food. | D．Technology. |
2 . Throughout high school, I failed to volunteer as much as I had wanted. As a college student, I am still busy with maintaining my grades and staying involved in my school’s community, but I decided to get out of my comfort zone and volunteer for America Recycles Day. And this turned out to be an awesome experience.
The organization Ouachita Green put together this event, which allowed people from the Monroe area of Louisiana to bring in their recyclables, free of charge. Unfortunately, Louisiana is lacking in environmentally-friendly initiatives(倡议) so recycling is not offered to most people in our community. In contrast, it is required by law to recycle back in my home New Jersey. This truth astonished me, but more importantly, it encouraged me to seek change.
I meant to make a difference. Through joint efforts, my classmates and I ended up starting the Green Club at the University of Louisiana. It focuses on creating a green attitude within the university and the greater Monroe area. While working on it, I met a group of ambitious high school students, who shared the same concern about the environment as us. While talking, we decided that working together would benefit not only the organizations at our schools, but also the community as a whole. If we let the community know we are serious, there is an even better chance that we will succeed and influence others.
If you are hesitant to volunteer or help out with an event in your community, my recommendation is to go ahead and do it. Even if it may be out of your comfort zone, it is important to put yourself out there. At the end of the day, you miss all of the shots you don’t take.
1. What surprised the author greatly?| A．Louisiana’s lack of environmental laws. |
| B．Louisiana’s limited access to recycling. |
| C．New Jersey’s legal requirement of recycling. |
| D．New Jersey’s great advantage over Louisiana. |
| A．offer part-time jobs for high school students |
| B．appeal for an environmentally-friendly lifestyle |
| C．make university life in the Monroe area colorful |
| D．help with community events in the Monroe area |
| A．The need to co-operate. | B．The importance of recycling. |
| C．The possibility to succeed. | D．The drawbacks of seriousness. |
| A．praise themselves | B．force themselves |
| C．believe themselves | D．challenge themselves |
3 . Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense when you consider that he’s an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein’s jobs is defending an industry behind the plastic shopping bags.
Americans use more than 100 billion thin film plastic bags every year. So many end up in tree branches or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts(收银台). The bags are prohibited in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Eyeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are hiring scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people assume.
Among the bag makers’ argument: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to purchase paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they represent a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today.
The industry has also taken aim at the product that has appeared as its replacement: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags often require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.
Environmentalists don’t dispute(质疑) these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.
1. What has Steven Stein been hired to do?| A．Help increase grocery sales. |
| B．Recycle the waste material. |
| C．Stop things falling off trucks. |
| D．Argue for the use of plastic bags. |
| A．Bans on plastic bags. |
| B．Effects of city development. |
| C．Headaches caused by garbage. |
| D．Plastic bags hung in trees. |
| A．They are quite expensive. |
| B．Replacing them can be difficult. |
| C．They are less strong than plastic bags. |
| D．Producing them requires more energy. |
| A．Plastic, Paper or Neither |
| B．Industry, Pollution and Environment |
| C．Recycle or Throw Away |
| D．Garbage Collection and Waste Control |
1.活动形式及内容；
2.注意事项；
3.其它。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Smith,
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
5 . Drive through any suburb in the U.S. Today, and it’s hard to miss the recycling bins that have become companions to America’s trash cans. Recycling has become common, as people recognize the need to care for the environment. Yet most people’s recycling consciousness extends only as far as paper, bottles, and cans. People seldom find themselves facing the growing problem of e-waste.
E-waste rapidly increases as the techno- fashionable frequently upgrade to the most advanced devices, and the majority of them end up in landfills (垃圾填埋地). Some people who track such waste say that users throw away nearly 2 million tons of TVs, VCRs, computers, cell phones, and other electronics every year. Unless we can find a safe replacement, this e-waste may get into the ground and poison the water with dangerous toxins (毒素), such as lead, mercury, and arsenic. Burning the waste also dangerously contaminates the air.
However, e-waste often contains reusable silver, gold, and other electrical materials. Recycling these materials reduces environmental problems by reducing both landfill waste and the need to look for such metals, which can destroy ecosystems.
A growing number of states have adopted laws to ban dumping e-waste. Still, less than a quarter of this waste will reach lawful recycling programs. Some companies advertising safe disposal in fact merely ship the waste to some developing countries, where it still ends up in landfills. These organizations prevent progress by unsafely disposing of waste in an out- of- sight, out- of- mind location.
However, the small but growing number of cities and corporations that do handle e- waste responsibly represents progress toward making the world a cleaner, better place for us all.
1. What can we infer from the first paragraph?| A．Many Americans now have access to recycling bins. |
| B．E-waste cannot be put into trash cans in the U.S. |
| C．Most Americans have realized the dangers of e-waste. |
| D．Most of America’s trash cans are made of recycled material. |
| A．pollutes. | B．heats. |
| C．absorbs. | D．reduces. |
| A．It’s important. | B．It’s unsafe. |
| C．It’s acceptable. | D．It’s uncommon. |
| A．To tell us how to recycle e-waste. |
| B．To talk about the future of e-waste. |
| C．To discuss if it’s necessary to recycle e-waste. |
| D．To encourage us to deal with e-waste properly. |
1.悠久的历史和博大精深的文化；
2.众多的名城和名胜古迹；
3.可口的美食和便利的交通，如高铁和共享单车。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3.开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
参考词汇：博大精深的 broad and profound
Dear Mike,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
7 . Spider monkeys have long, thin arms with hook-like hands that allow them to swing through the trees. They do not have opposable thumbs (对生拇指).
The brown-headed spider monkey has a prehensile (缠绕性的) tail, which means it can grasp and can be used like a fifth leg to grab trees. During the day, the spider monkey searches for fruits, which make up the main part of its diet. They will also eat flowers, seeds，leaves, and small insects during the dry season when fruits aren’t available. They spend most of the daylight hours climbing and swinging through the high branches of trees.
The brown-headed spider monkey lives in a large community of about 20 to 100 male and female monkeys. They split into smaller groups for feeding. Females usually give birth to only a single baby each year or two. Young monkeys are carried on their mothers’ stomachs until about 16 weeks old. Then they are strong enough to ride on their mothers, backs. All brown-headed spider monkey babies are born with pink faces and ears.
Spider monkeys hug each other and wrap their tails around each other. They are very intelligent and have strong memories. They were named spider monkeys because they look like spiders as they hang upside down from their tails with their arms and legs swinging. Their genus (属) name is Ateles, which means “imperfect”. This refers to the fact that they don’t have thumbs.
Hunting the brown-headed spider monkey is now barred in Ecuador, a country in northwestern South America, but humans have killed them for their meat for hundreds of years.
1. Spider monkeys live mostly on .| A．insects | B．fruits |
| C．flowers | D．leaves |
| A．They have five legs. |
| B．They live in small groups. |
| C．Their tails can take their weight. |
| D．Their genus is the same as spiders. |
| A．Permitted. | B．Forbidden. |
| C．Encouraged. | D．Ignored. |
| A．In a large community. |
| B．In trees with high branches. |
| C．On their mothers’ backs. |
| D．On their mothers’ stomachs. |
8 . As a result of pollution, Lake Erie, on the borders of the USA and Canada, is now without any living things.
Pollution in water is not simply a matter of “poisons” killing large numbers of fish overnight, Very often the effects of pollution are not noticed for many months or years because the first organisms（生物体）to be affected are either plants or plankton. But these organisms are the food of fish and birds and other creatures. When this food disappears, the fish and birds die too. In this way a whole food chain can be wiped out, and it’s not until dead fish and water birds are seen at the river’s edge or on the seashore that people realize what is happening.
Where do the substances which pollute the water come from? There are two main sources of sewage（污水）and industrial waste . As more detergent（洗涤剂）is used in the home, so more of it is finally put into our rivers, lakes and seas . Detergents harm water birds, dissolving the natural substances which keep their feathers water - proof. Sewage itself, if not properly treated, makes the water dirty and prevents all forms of life in rivers and the sea from receiving the oxygen they need. Industrial waste is even more harmful as there are many highly poisonous things in it, such as copper and lead（铅）.
So, if we want to stop this pollution, the answer is simple: sewage and industrial waste must be made clear before flowing into the water . It may already be too late to save some rivers and lakes, but others can still be saved if the correct action is taken at once.
1. Pollution of water is noticed________.| A．when the first organisms are affected |
| B．when a good many fish and birds die |
| C．when poisonous things are poured into water |
| D．as soon as the balance of nature is destroyed |
| A．water | B．fish |
| C．poison | D．oxygen |
| A．Organisms |
| B．Plants and plankton in the water |
| C．Waste water from cities |
| D．Industrial waste made clear before flowing into the water. |
| A．realize the serious situation clearly |
| B．put oxygen into the river |
| C．make the waste material harmless before flowing into the water |
| D．make special room in the sea for our rubbish |
9 . At most schools, “going green” means generating less trash or making an attempt to recycle. But at New York’s Riverdale Country School, it means being encouraged to run and even jump in the hallway. That’s because the school was the first to install the specially-designed Pavegen floor tiles in America.
The tiles use kinetic energy (动能) expanded by the kids and transform it into electricity that can be used to power classroom lights, science projects and charge electronic devices. The first US installation of Pavegen tiles near the school’s student center is thanks to 14-year-old Zach Halem, who managed to convince the officials to purchase them.
Besides providing fun green energy, the tiles also serve as a learning tool. Every time a student steps on one, a brightly-lit LED board provides instant feedback (反馈信息) on how much energy was generated. Depending on the force, every step results in between one to seven watts — enough power to light an LED street lamp for about 30 seconds.
Made largely from rubber and other recycled materials the tiles are invented by the 26-year-old British industrial designer Laurence Kembell-Cook. While new to the US, they have been installed in numerous places in Europe, ranging from a London underground station to a marathon track in Paris. However, it was not until Pavegen started getting popular in London schools that Laurence realized that his invention not only saved energy, but was also fun!
Though the young inventor will not give too many details about the technology behind this green tile, he says that it is very different from other kinetic energy harvesting systems.
Whatever the secret, let’s hope more US schools decide to install these fun tiles. In fact, why stop at schools? These tiles could be installed everywhere, from sidewalks to homes. Then we could all be “green” and have fun! Who knew that was even possible?
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．American students are encouraged to run and jump as much as possible. |
| B．“Going green” means generating less trash or making an attempt to recycle. |
| C．New York’s Riverdale Country School took a different way to go green. |
| D．New York’s Riverdale Country School is the first US school to try new ways to go green. |
| A．His original motive to invent the Pavegen tiles was to save energy. |
| B．He believed his invention would be popular with students. |
| C．He keeps all the technology behind this green tile a secret. |
| D．He persuaded the school to install Pavegen tiles. |
| A．Science. | B．Architecture. | C．Education. | D．Agriculture. |
10 . In Canada you can find dogs, cats, horses, etc. in almost every family. These are their pets. People love these pets and have them as their good friends. Before they keep them in their houses, they take them to animal hospitals to give them injections(注射) so that they won’t carry disease. They have special animal food stores, though they can get animal food in almost every kind of store. Some people spend around two hundred Canadian dollars a month on animal food. When you visit people’s houses, they would be very glad to show you their pets and they are very proud of them. You will also find that almost every family has a feeding place for birds in their garden. All kinds of birds are welcomed to come and have a good meal. They are free to come and go and nobody is allowed to kill any animal in Canada. They have a law against killing wild animals. ①If you killed an animal, you would be punished. If an animal happened to get run over by a car, people would be very sad about it.②
People in Canada have many reasons to like animals. One of them might be that their family ties are not as close as ours.③ When children grow up, they leave their parents and start their own life. Then the old will feel lonely, but pets can solve this problem. They can be good friends and never leave them alone.
1. The passage mainly talks about____ .| A．how to keep disease from pets | B．pets in Canada |
| C．how to take good care of pets | D．life of the old in Canada |
| A．the pets are sick |
| B．the pets are wild |
| C．they want to stop them from getting sick |
| D．they want them to sleep on the way home |
| A．they don’t love their parents any more |
| B．they can only find jobs far from their parents |
| C．their parents houses are too small |
| D．they wouldn’t depend on their parents any more |
| A．People buy animal food only at the animal food stores. |
| B．Pets eat better than people. |
| C．Almost every family has a birdcage in his house. |
| D．Any bird can come to the bird feeders to eat. |
