3 . We see a woman swimming at night in a dark sea. Suddenly, she is pulled underwater. She surfaces, cries in fear, then disappears forever. This is the opening scene from the 1975 film Jaws, showing a shark attack. It tells the story of a great white shark that attacks and kills swimmers. Jaws was a great success, attracting huge audiences and winning many awards. It strengthened people’s long-held idea of the great white shark as a dangerous animal.

People have always been scared of sharks, but Jaws made things worse. It made people frightened of sharks, especially of the great white shark. Many people who saw the film started to believe that sharks were bad animals that ate humans. Some people stopped swimming in the sea, afraid of the horrible creature from the film. Other people started fishing for sharks, killing as many as they could. After 1975, the number of large sharks around America fell quickly, and soon fell around the world. This was not only due to fear of sharks, but also finning. Finning is a type of fishing where sharks are caught and their fins (鱼鳍) cut off. The sharks are thrown back into the sea where they die slowly and painfully. The fins are used in shark fin soup. Finning kills millions of sharks a year.

Finning would have an unexpected effect upon Peter Benchley, the man who wrote the book the film Jaws was based on. In 1980, Benchley was diving when he came across an awful sight. It was an area where fishermen were finning, and the sea floor was covered with dead sharks. Benchley saw sharks being killed and this caused a deep change in him. He came to see people as a danger to sharks, rather than the other way round. From that day on, he fought to protect sharks. He admitted that his book was wrong about sharks. “Sharks don’t target humans,” he said. Experts have proved that sharks do not see people as food. Today, as we learn more about sharks, more people than ever want to protect them from extinction.

6 . On 20 December, in Newdale, a series of huge waves caused by an undersea Earthquake raced across the ocean near Goldshore. Worse still, it _________ thousands dead. Gold shore Beach was the only local beach to _________ the disaster without any loss of life. A10-year-old girl, Sabrina Andron, helped around100 people escape danger with her _________ of tsunamis.

The day began like any other on Gold shore Beach. People were walking, running or simply sitting on the sandy beach, _________ the warm sea air and enjoying the soft _________ that brushed their hair. Sabrina was one of the happy tourists until she noticed something _________. “The water was like the bubbles (气泡) on the top of a beer,” she later explained. “It wasn’t _________ and it wasn’t going in and then out. It was just coming in and in and in.” It hit her that these were the _________ of an upcoming tsunami, which Sabrina had just learnt about in a Geography lesson.

Sabrina was _________, but she soon kept her head. She warned her parents of the __________ , though at first they just thought she was __________ . However, Sabrina was certain that a terrible disaster was __________ and kept asking her parents to talk to a safety officer. To her great relief, the officer __________ realized the coming danger. The beach was rapidly __________ of people, just before the huge waves __________ into the coast.

First-time visitors to Chengdu may find it to be a city with rich cultural heritage. The emblem(标志)of a gold leaf,     1     (feature)four flying birds surrounding the sun, can be seen everywhere in the city. The emblem, which represents Chengdu,     2     (choose)as the symbol of China Cultural Heritage by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 2005.

After the discovery of the Sanxingdui Ruins in the city of Guanghan in 1929,     3     was believed to be one of Sichuan`s most important archaeological finds, a 3,000-year-old gold-leaf sunbird was unearthed at the Jinsha Ruins in 2001. In 2018, Chengdu made the decision     4     (become)a world cultural city. In recent years, Chengdu`s efforts to globalize have accelerated,     5     a series of major international cultural and sports activities have been held, laying the foundation for it to build itself into a world-famous tourist city.

Chengdu’s     6     (attract)range from giant pandas     7     the poetic legacy of the Du Fu Thatched Cottage.     8     (hide)in thick greenery, the Temple of Marquis Wu was built as     9     memorial hall in honor of Zhuge Liang and now China’s personification of loyalty and wisdom. The city also offers a museum including a cottage modelled after the poetic descriptions of Du Fu, one of the greatest poets     10     (historic)in China, emphasizing his influence on Chinese literature.

8 . Life was not kind to a sweet Boxer-Pit Bull mix. Dog fighting had cruelly taken away his left ear. In 2019, the 4-year-old arrived at a shelter in North Carolina and was then named Van Gogh. Christy Langley explains he was named after the famous painter “not because he is an artist, but because he is a work of art”. What Langley couldn’t predict was that Van Gogh would actually go on to be a successful artist.

Gartner owns a shelter that helps dogs in shelters that are at risk of being put down. She saw Van Gogh and immediately knew she needed to help him. So, she took Van Gogh in from North Carolina in June 2022. Gartner started telling everyone about the friendly and lovely dog on Facebook, Pet Finder, and Rescue Me, but no one responded.

After months of searching for a new owner, Gartner had a new idea. Why not take Van Gogh’s name literally? Gartner explained, “He certainly had the name and the ear for it.” Gartner got to work, putting some paint on a canvas(油画布), wrapping it in a plastic bag, and coating it with peanut butter(花生酱)as a tasty treat for the pup. It only took five minutes for Van Gogh to lick the plastic-coated canvas clean and for a work of art to be created.

They worked on paintings for about a week and then, Gartner invited people to an outdoor art gallery event on October 23, 2022. Sadly, only two people showed up. The next day, Gartner put out a post on Facebook that she felt bad only two people showed up, and said the rest of the paintings were still waiting for their owners. Suddenly, Van Gogh’s pieces were hot items. After two minutes, the paintings were sold out and Gartner raised around $1, 000 for her rescue. The biggest success of all, though, was that on the last day of the silent sale, Van Gogh was finally adopted(收养).

Located at the western part of Hangzhou, just under 5km away from the West Lake, Xixi National Wetland Park distinguishes itself as     1     exceptional urban place. This park is a pioneering example of how urban life combines agriculture with culture, making it a     2     (real) unique destination. Along with Xihu and Xiling famous, respectively, for their natural scenery    3     cultural heritage, Xixi National Wetland Park is one of the celebrated “Three Xi’s of Hangzhou”.

    4    (cover) a vast area, the park consists of three causeways(堤道) and features ten famous sights. Nearly 70% of the park is occupied by river ports, ponds and small lakes,     5     explains a wetland environment. These waterways cross the park, dividing it into distinct     6     (section): the east, the west, and the central part.

So far, the government     7     (establish) ecological protection zones as well as a sightseeing zone.     8     addition, visitors can explore the Wetland Science Exhibition Hall at the park’s main entrance conveniently.

The Xixi wetlands is an area of unmatched peace and quiet — filled with history and natural     9     (beautiful). The only true thing that can be said of the Xixi wetlands     10     (be) that if you haven’t seen them, you haven’t really seen Hangzhou.

10 . Tsunami is a natural disaster, which is a Japanese word that means “sea wave”. A tsunami is a huge sea wave that forms mainly in the Pacific Ocean area. People die and property is destroyed when a tsunami hits land. What causes these dangerous sea waves? Sometimes, tsunamis are caused when earthquakes take place underwater. Then, water begins to move up and down from the top of the ocean right down to the bottom. Waves begin to form, and each wave is called a tsunami.

A tsunami is less than one meter high and can move at a speed of almost 800 kilometers per hour while it is far out in the ocean. But the tsunami rises much higher and moves more slowly as it comes closer to land.

The weather bureau (气象局) warns people over the radio and television when a tsunami is heading for land. These warnings have helped save many lives.