1 . While some say school safety depends on guns, cameras or alarms in classrooms, Mark Gomer and Kristi Schiller think specially trained dogs should play an important role in preventing violence in schools.

Gomer’s for-profit company has sent a gun-and-drug detecting dog to patrol (巡查) the halls of an Ohio high school, while Schiller is launching a nonprofit program in Houston to give schools the trained dogs for free.

Gomer’s first full-time safety dog is a three-year-old Dutch shepherd named Atticus, who is reported to duty this school year at Oak Hills High School in Green Township in southwest Ohio. The dog was trained at the school before the summer break, said Gomer, co-owner of American Success Dog Training in Bridgetown, Ohio. Atticus has won over students, parents, teachers and district Superintendent Todd Yohey, who initially worried what people would think of him spending $10,000 on a dog. Gomer has talked to a lot of parents and faculty, and they are saying it was money well-spent, he said.

For her part Schiller is looking to provide safety dogs to schools free of charge. She hopes her new initiative, program “K9S4KIDS”, does for schools what her program “K9S4COPS” did for police departments. She has placed more than 60 dogs with agencies in three years. “These dogs are extremely social, yet highly qualified warriors that are accustomed to going straight to the source of a threat or shooter and disengaging the suspect armed with the weapon,” said Schiller.

As the programs get up and running, questions remain about possible health problems and distractions the dogs can cause.

A school safety expert said those are concerns parents and schools will have to work out. Ken Trump, president of the Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services consulting firm, discussed the issue in general because he was not familiar with either program.

He said the dogs would have to be extremely social to deal with students’ initial excitement “Kids are going to like those dogs,” Trump said, “There are concerns to work around, but with the right dogs and right handler and the right policies and procedures, they should be very beneficial. The dog might be a distraction in the beginning, but they will become part of what students expect to see when they go to school.” “There is so much these dogs can do,” said Ted Dahlin, a deputy who serves on the K9S4COPS board of directors. “If I were going to pick a school to make trouble, it would be one that I knew didn’t have a dog.”

1. Which of the following statements is TRUE about Gomer’s program?

A．Atticus is only welcomed by students.

B．Atticus is provided to the schools free of charge.

C．The main job of Atticus is to patrol a school in Houston.

D．Parents and faculty think the money spent on Atticus is worthwhile.

2. Schiller’s comment on the dogs she provides indicate that ________.

A．dogs have a sharp sense of threat and danger

B．she is confident that the dogs are helpful in schools

C．dogs are a kind of helpful, loyal and qualified animal

D．even suspects armed with weapons are afraid of dogs

3. We can conclude that Ken Trump ________.

A．believes that dogs can be part of students’ school life

B．is a school safety expert supporting one of the programs

C．doesn’t approve of students’ attitudes about dogs in schools

D．agrees that the concerns outweigh the benefits of the program

4. What Ted Dahlin has said implies that ________.

A．he is not going to make trouble in schools

B．having a dog strengthens a school’s safety

C．he likes dogs and really wants to have one

D．more should be considered for planning a crime

2 . As a botanists who studies our cultural relationship with plants, I am forever fascinated with what draws people to gardening.

Admittedly, connecting with the natural world might seem like an obvious motivation, and undoubtedly it is a key part of the attraction.    1     If they were, we’d abandon any attempts at design, planting or care and watch how walls of weeds slowly gave way to the mass of bushes. But that wouldn’t be gardening, of course, because for all their diversity, the one thing that all gardens have in common is how unnatural they are.    2     Dazzling plants, watch features and glorious blooms is all interconnected well beyond what would naturally occur. Whether it is green lawns created in the driest deserts or a tropical paradise on a stormy North Atlantic island, they are all about shaping the natural world to fit our idea of what it “ should” be.

As I work on my tiny terrariums (玻璃花园) on dark February nights, something magical happens to my brain.     3     In a world that has become increasingly uncertain, people are often fuelled by the same psychological desire: the instinctive need to have a bit of control amid chaos.

As our world becomes more and more unpredictable and often frightening, gardening seems to be able to appeal to and reach out to a whole new generation, often against all odds.

Of course, gardening in’ t the only thing people turn to. The rise of culture conflicts and fix at ion on body image have also been widely documented as being driven by a psychological need to feel a degree of certainty, control and safety. However, I can’t help but think of these alternatives:     4    

A．In reality gardens are anything but natural.

B．What are the things they have been attracted to?

C．They are idealized landscape with all the mud, pests and dead plants edited out.

D．How much better a place the planet would be if gardening was our outlet for this need!

E．Much like agriculture, gardening is a universal human desire coded into our cultural DNA.

F．The calmness created by owning a tiny green space under my control has a powerful effect on my mind.

3 . The Last Straw?

Every second, the world uses 160,000 plastic bags — that is a total of over five trillion per year. Up to 99 percent of these plastic bags hang around for at least 1,000 years and pollute Earth. And yet, plastic bags are hardly a necessity in our lives. Of all the changes we could make to create a more sustainable lifestyle, a total ban on plastic bags should be simple.

At the beginning of 2021, Shanghai put in effect a ban on all plastic bags in shopping malls and supermarkets, as well as a ban on non-degradable plastics in many other areas. Over the years, individuals and companies have worked to replace plastic items, such as cups and straws, with paper ones.     1    .

Customers complain that paper straws often become soft and break before they can finish their hot drinks. Experts, however, have repeatedly stressed plastic substitutes (替代品) are not the ultimate solution, and that our consumption habits need a bigger change.

In college, one of my environmental science professors promoted a type of waste-free living. She carried around a small glass jar with her, and in it was all her trash she collected for the entire year. She was able to do this by bringing her own cup to Starbucks, her own bags to the shops, and never buying anything that came wrapped in plastic. Her food waste also became compost.     2    .

Plastic bags are incredibly easy to forget about when they become increasingly common.     3    . Once they are in the trash, we take it for granted that they are someone else’s problem. The sad fact is that plastic bags break down into microplastics which then get mixed into the air, soil and water, and eventually end up in plants, animals, and our very own human bodies. So what are you going to do about them?

A．Clearly she demonstrated our ability to live a completely healthy life without creating a great deal of plastic waste.

B．Plastic bag litter has even caused great problems in some areas.

C．If they’re free to use and easily disposed of, they’re a mere tool that we don’t have to think about.

D．Some of these decisions have been met with criticism.

E．Unfortunately, such a high level of pollution doesn’t come without consequences.

4 . Chemists in mid-1500s Nuremburg had discovered that bird droppings were a rich source of saltpetre, a vital ingredient in the making of gunpowder. As a consequence pigeon droppings used to be almost as valuable as silver. Understandably, by the middle of the following century, there were an estimated 26,000 pigeon houses in Britain.

The practice of keeping the pigeon was introduced to Britain by the Romans. The Normans kept pigeons in specially constructed niches in castles and courtyards. When the pigeon houses in Britain were built, they were a vital source of meat and feathers. The latter were particularly prized as a source of warmth. Droppings gathered from the pigeon houses was a rich fertilizer, too.

The pigeon house was not only a source of food and revenue in medieval times, but also a status symbol. The privilege of building or owning pigeon houses was reserved for the rich. Towards the end of her rule, Queen Elizabeth I decided to open pigeon-breeding to the free market. Then, pigeon houses sprang up all over the countryside.

The number of pigeon houses across the British countryside was not universally welcomed. Each day the birds flew off to feed themselves on other people’s crops. By the middle of the 17th century, the problem of pigeons was so great that people feared that the destructive pigeons would turn England into a desert.

Luckily, an agricultural revolutionary, Charles Townsend, had introduced the turnip to Britain around 1700, keeping farm livestock fat enough to eat through the dark winter months. Later, vast quantities of natural saltpetre were discovered in Chile and California. Keeping pigeons went out of fashion.

Now, the homeless pigeons flew off to find somewhere else to live. One species discovered that Britain’s rapidly growing towns and cities were full of the sort of rock-faces they liked to rest on—humans called them “buildings”. Over time they’d become the wild urban pigeon that we know today.

1. Which of the following people in Britain would be least likely to keep pigeons in the late Middle Ages?

A．Fruit growers.

B．The nobles.

C．Gunpowder makers.

D．The miners.

2. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Farm livestock used to be too thin for lack of food in the dark months in Britain.

B．Townsend revolutionized agricultural development in Britain around 1700.

C．The Normans set an undesirable example of raising pigeons for the British people.

D．England was once faced with the threat of disappearance because of pigeons.

3. According to the passage, why are there so many pigeons in the cities in Britain today?

A．Because people think it a sign of status and keep them to show off.

B．Because pigeons like to stay on hard surfaces which can be abundantly found in cities.

C．Because pigeons find enough food supplies when tourists and citizens feed them in squares.

D．Because the government encourages pigeon raising as a profitable investment.

4. Which is the best title of the passage?

A．A brief history of pigeon houses in Britain.

B．From function to fashion — the pigeon houses in Britain.

C．Profitable pigeon houses in Britain.

D．Pigeon houses in Britain as valuable as silver.

5 . The Man Who Ate his Boots is a fascinating account of expeditions that went wrong. The book examines the 19th century search for a route to Asia by way of the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean. Author Anthony Brandt describes the many attempts by both land and sea that ended in failure and tragedy, including the 1845 expedition led by Sir John Franklin. Brandt shows how these brave, yet sometimes foolish, explorers could have avoided starvation, frostbite, and even death if they had copied the survival techniques of the local Inuit people. Some of the more surprising details the book reveals include:

IGLOOS The explorers, despite repeatedly watching the Inuit build igloos, insisted on using canvas tents. Tents freeze in sub-zero temperatures and give little protection to anyone inside them. If they had learned to build igloos, the explorers would have been warm even in the worst Arctic weather.

SEALSKIN If the explorers had worn sealskin and furs like the Inuit, they wouldn’t have suffered from the frostbite that was common among them, but rare among the Inuit.

DOG TEAMS Why didn’t the British use dog teams to pull their sleds? Pulling sleds themselves was a tradition among many explorers right into the early 20th century. It cost Scott and his men their lives on their return from the South Pole in 1912.

The British did get something right, however, when Captain Edward Parry grew salad vegetables in boxes on board his ship. It was known that fresh vegetables and fresh meat prevented scurvy (坏血病)，although at that time the reason for this (vitamin C) had not been discovered. Parry’s men wouldn’t have been as healthy if they hadn’t eaten the salads.

1. In The Man Who Ate his Boots’ the author mainly ________.

A．introduces some foolish explorers

B．focuses on some unsuccessful expeditions

C．analyzes the Inuit people’s survival techniques

D．explores the advances in equipment used for expeditions

2. According to Anthony Brandt, what should the explorers have done?

A．They should have learned more about how seals survived in cold water.

B．They should have set up more canvas tents to keep themselves warm.

C．They should have helped the Inuit people build igloos.

D．They should have used dogs to pull the sleds for them.

3. It can be inferred from the passage that________.

A．Edward Parry found a way to prevent scurvy by accident

B．Edward Parry’s successful voyage was a rare case at that time

C．Edward Parry was the first captain that grew salad vegetables on board

D．Edward Parry’s men could have been more healthy if they took vitamin C

6 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. luckily   B. alerts C. established   D. entrances   E. contact   F. habitat G. measures     H. wandered     I. studying     J. rewards     K. enjoy

Fifteen wild Asian elephants that left their     1     in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve(保护区)in Yunnan province have so far not caused any trouble in the provincial capital(省会), Kunming, thanks to local authorities’ effective measures. By Thursday afternoon, the herd(兽群)had moved to Shuanghe county, Jinning district in Kunming’s outskirts, according to the Yunnan Forestry and Grassland Administration, which has     2     a special work team under the guidance of the provincial government.

Provincial forestry police have followed the elephants’ movements round the clock, using drones(无人机)and cameras. Experts from both the national and provincial forestry departments are advising on     3     to control the elephants. Police and firefighters in Kunming are working to prevent the elephants from coming into     4     with residents. Trucks(卡车)and digging equipment have been put in place at the     5     of villages to try to stop the pachyderms’(厚皮动物)entry.

A woman from Ganhe village, where the elephants     6     around for several hours on Thursday, told local media that they had received     7     from the village committee. “All my family members moved to the second floor of our house on Wednesday. We were very nervous last night, but     8     no one was hurt,” she said.

Although it’s not known when the elephants left the Xishuangbanna reserve, experts believe they may have started roaming(徜徉)last year and are now about 500 kilometers away from the reserve.

The Asian elephants, which are listed as endangered(濒危的)on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species,     9     Class-A protection status in China, the same level afforded(给予)the giant panda. Yunnan is the only home to wild Asian elephants in China and has 300 of the animals. However, more than two-thirds of the population live outside nature reserves, said Chen Mingyong, a life sciences professor at Yunnan University who has been     10     wild elephants for decades.

7 . 听下面一段独白,回答以下小题。
1.

A．Because they track human activities through the agency of sound.

B．Because sound helps them locate food and avoid danger.

C．Because they use sound to stay away from offshore construction.

D．Because they take advantage of sound to find living creatures.

2.

A．Noise pollution.

B．Plastics.

C．Overfishing.

D．Light pollution.

3.

A．Humans are making oceans too noisy.

B．Masking is a helpful to the existence of marine animals.

C．Sound travels very far underwater.

D．Noise from humans threatens marine animals.