1 . Throughout history, many species of animals have been threatened with extinction. When Europeans first arrived in North America, more than 60 million buffalo (水牛) lived on the continent. Yet hunting the buffalo was so popular during the 19th century that by 1900 the animal’s population had fallen to about 400 before the government stepped in to protect the species. In some countries today, the elephant faces a similar challenge, as illegal hunters kill the animals for the ivory in their tusks.

Yet not all animals with commercial value face this threat (威胁).The cow, for example, is a valuable source of food, but no one worries that the cow will soon be extinct. Why does the commercial value of ivory threaten the elephant. while the commercial value of beef protects the cow?

The reason is that elephants are a common resource, while cows are private goods. Elephants wander freely without any owners. The hunter has a strong motivation to kill as many elephants as he can find. Because illegal hunters are numerous, each has only a slight motivation to preserve the elephant population. By contrast, cattle live on farms that are privately owned. Each farmer makes great effort to maintain the cattle population on his farm because he harvests the benefit of these efforts.

Governments have tried to solve the elephant’s problem in two ways. Some countries, such as Kenya and Uganda, have made it illegal to kill elephants and sell their ivory. Yet these laws have been hard to put into effect, and elephant populations have continued to dwindle. By contrast, other countries, such as Malawi and Namibia, have made elephants private goods and allowed people to kill elephants, but only those on their own property.

With private ownership and the profit motive now on its side, the African elephant might someday be as safe from extinction as the cow. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle pointed out the problem with common resources: “What is common to many is taken least care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than for what they possess in common with others.”

1. Why does the author mention buffalo in paragraph 1?

A．To introduce a similar threat to elephants.

B．To provide an example of species extinction.

C．To offer an explanation for government policies.

D．To present the statistics of the buffalo in America.

2. Why do elephants face threats while cows are safe?

A．They are under different law protection

B．They attract different groups of hunters

C．They contain different commercial value

D．They represent different ownership types

3. What is paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．Bans on killing elephants for ivory

B．Effective laws for elephant protection.

C．Methods of making elephants private goods

D．Government policies on the elephant’s problem

4. What can we learn from Aristotle’s words?

A．People hold little regard for others’ property

B．People want to profit from common resources

C．People care more about their own possession

D．People tend to take what they own for granted

2 . Gone are the days when humans covered themselves with blankets to keep warm. It’s now the time to put glaciers under blankets to keep them cool because at the rate climate is changing, this seems like a good idea to keep them from melting.

A ski resort in the Swiss Alps, Switzerland uses blankets to protect the glacier from the warm climate. Gian Darms, who handles snow conditions at the ski resort told about this unique procedure and said, “We lay the fleece over the glacier like a natural protective shield.” The blankets are being used to cover the top of the 10, 623-foot Mount Titlis whose glacier has already melted in the last few decades and it is expected to disappear completely in the next 50 years due to global warming.

To diminish the effect of climate change, resort employees have taken it upon themselves to protect the glacier from the heat and for this process, they spend about five to six weeks every summer covering parts of the glacier with protective polyester fleece. This helps to reflect the sun’s energy back into the atmosphere and prevent the glacier from melting, while also preserving the already fallen snow on the glacier in the previous winter season. After the season passes, the employees remove the coating and use the collected snow to fill in any gaps in the glacier’s surface.

This practice has been going on for a while and the amount of the glaciers covered has increased to almost 100 ,000 square meters now. “We’ve been covering more and more glaciers in the last few years. Almost 30, 000 square meters more this year alone. We will have to cover more glaciers in reaction to the climate change,” said Darms.

The ski resort’s actions show the intense effect of climate change on glaciers which have been melting at rapid rates in the past few years. Many different resorts have also started covering their glaciers because if there are no more glaciers, then there is no more business for these ski resorts.

1. What does the Swiss ski resort use blankets for?

A．Keeping the glacier from melting.	B．Preventing workers from feeling cold.
C．Protecting visitors from strong sunlight.	D．Stopping visitors from destroying glaciers.

2. What does the underlined word “diminish” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Measure.

B．Reduce.

C．Accept.

D．Record.

3. What do Gian Darms’s words in paragraph 4 indicate?

A．The amount of the glaciers drops rapidly.	B．More ski resorts are gradually recovering.
C．Climate change is becoming more serious.	D．There is a better solution to global warming.

4. From which is the text most probably taken?

A．A travel brochure.	B．An advertisement.
C．A news report.	D．A geography text book.

3 . Early last summer, I bought some yam（山药）roots for food but days later, a tuber （块茎）left was sprouting（发芽）. Thinking it was a waste of money to throw it away, I _____ the tuber into a flower pot hoping that it might take root and ______ something that could be put on the dinner table.

In the following months, I ____ the tuber regularly. Thankfully, the _____ yam grew well. Soon it was autumn, and I decided to ______ .

I pulled out the leaves of the yam and began to dig with my fingers carefully for I knew the yam could ______easily. Suddenly my fingers __ the yam root. When almost no __ was left, I tried to pull the root but failed.

In ______   , I turned the pot over. Half of the yam root had grown through one of the three holes ______

The whole tuber, _____ two parts, one in and one out of the pot, was in the _____ of a handwritten L. Unlike ordinary yam roots, the part outside the pot was not round—it was _____ , looking like a hand of an old farmer who works hard to make a ______ . The very end of the part outside the pot was _____ . Obviously, the skin must have been rubbed off during its __ with the heavy pot. The very tip of the unusual part seemed to be bleeding.

The sight filled me with ______ . Then and there my opinion of the plant _____ . I came to understand that the tuber, though ______ wounded, had struggled hard. Such was a yam, an ordinary-looking plant with ________characteristics.

1.

A．cooked

B．ruined

C．buried

D．cut

2.

A．remove

B．produce

C．replace

D．protect

3.

A．bought

B．threw

C．watered

D．ate

4.

A．abandoned

B．forgotten

C．injured

D．potted

5.

A．perform

B．attempt

C．harvest

D．withdraw

6.

A．stand

B．grow

C．fall

D．break

7.

A．touched

B．pulled

C．crashed

D．killed

8.

A．earth

B．root

C．air

D．plant

9.

A．excitement

B．shame

C．puzzlement

D．terror

10.

A．in the sky

B．on the top

C．in the bottom

D．under the ground

11.

A．picking out

B．consisting of

C．giving away

D．taking down

12.

A．color

B．form

C．voice

D．size

13.

A．flat

B．long

C．rough

D．weak

14.

A．choice

B．contribution

C．wish

D．living

15.

A．skinless

B．endless

C．useless

D．stainless

16.

A．negotiation

B．struggle

C．cooperation

D．relationship

17.

A．victory

B．regret

C．envy

D．respect

18.

A．strengthened

B．changed

C．disappeared

D．remained

19.

A．barely

B．temporarily

C．purposefully

D．seriously

20.

A．tough

B．steady

C．common

D．gentle

4 . Street pavements burst open, houses flattened, and entire villages were destroyed in what’s being described as one of the worst flood disasters to hit Western Europe in more than two centuries. As reported, more than 165 people died, while dozens of others remain missing after a record rainfall caused rivers to overflow into towns and streets across western Germany, Belgium, as well as parts of the Netherlands, Switzerland and northern France. In Liège, Belgium’s third-largest city, water from the Meuse river overflowed Thursday evening into parts of the city center, causing city officials to call for residents (居民) to evacuate the area or seek higher ground.

By the weekend, fears that a dam could burst were calmed, as the water levels in the river began to go down. But many different pieces of debris (碎片) flowing through the river from nearby villages—including parts of homes, street signs and car tires—served as a reminder that it would take weeks and months to fix the damage in the surrounding villages. This may be the worst flooding disaster our country has ever known,” said Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, who declared Monday a national day of mourning (哀悼). Additional search-and-rescue teams have been brought in from France and Italy to help locate the missing and assist with the cleanup.

In western Germany, the death rose to at least 143 people. Firefighters, meanwhile, say they carried out more than 1, 000 search-and-rescue missions, which became harder by the fact that the floods had cut power lines, disabling cellphone towers. We don’t know the number yet’ but there will be many. Germany’s interior minister, Horst Seehofer, said the country must prepare much better in the future, adding, “This is a result of climate change.”

1. What disaster hit Western Europe?

A．A flood.	B．A hurricane.
C．A fire.	D．An earthquake.

2. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “evacuate” in paragraph 1?

A．Search for.

B．Escape from.

C．Approach to.

D．Benefit from.

3. What measure did the government take?

A．Reviving the power line.	B．Setting a national holiday.
C．Preparing the next election.	D．Searching for the missing people.

4. What can we infer from Horst Seehofer’s words?

A．The natural risk becomes more severe.

B．Cities are rarely damaged by floods.

C．The disaster happened due to climate change.

D．The terrible disaster caused much loss.

5 . 为鼓励学生净化环境，做零废弃的实践者，最近你校学生会将组织一次英语演讲比赛。请你用“Living with zero waste”为题写一篇演讲稿，内容包括：
1.你对零废弃的理解；
2.目前所面临的环境；
3 .倡议两三个相关的零废弃实践活动。
注意：
1.词数100左右；
2.开头和结尾已为你写好。
My fellouu friends,

It is a great honour to have the chance to share my view on “Living with zero”waste”.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Take action from now on! Thank you!

6 . Nature is all about relationships: the interconnected links between the living and lifeless, and how they harmonize beautifully into a whole that might not be immediately apparent to us humans, as the complexities of the world sometimes escape the grasp of our relatively short-sighted understanding. Perhaps that's why the urgency of the climate crisis and other environ-mental issues don't truly hit home for some; because that important data is presented in a dry, factual way that doesn't touch the deeper parts of our collective soul, in a way that would move us to realize what is being lost.

Clare Celeste is an environmentally-minded artist creating artworks that aim to highlight the precious biodiversity of the planet. Using paper that is complexly cut and then hand-assembled piece by piece, Celeste forms imaginary landscapes of plants and animals that are folded or pressed between glass.

Growing up in Brazil, Celeste says that her earliest childhood memories were of green, tropical ecosystems slowly being eaten up by the rapid expansion of nearby cities.

Celeste said, “When I made a series of combinations, I realized that many of the species in the illustrations had already gone extinct. Humans have wiped out 68 percent of all our planet's biodiversity since 1970, so working with old illustrations can be very heartbreaking as much of the diversity in these beautiful old illustrations has been wiped out by human activities.”

Celeste explains some of the motivations behind this series of paper works: “I wanted to convey the beauty of our planet's plants and animals, while also introducing a more architectural or human-made element with the geometric (几何图形的) patterns. Having grown up in Brazil, I was surrounded by dense urban spaces that often had rich jungle growth just wanting to break through the concrete architecture. I suggest we go back to our love: our love of nature, of our children, of future generations. Because when we love something deeply, we are required to act—to save it when it is threatened.”

1. What can we infer from the first paragraph?

A．People are connected with each other.

B．People find data on nature boring to study.

C．People can't solve the climate crisis on their own.

D．People don't fully understand environmental issues.

2. What did Celeste remember about her childhood?

A．Cities were rich in green plants.

B．Buildings were decorated with plants.

C．Urbanization destroyed the local biodiversity.

D．Nature was a mixture of natural artworks.

3. What can be inferred from Celeste's words in paragraph 4?

A．Most species die without adapting to environment.

B．Humans feel painful at the loss of species.

C．Her paper cuts represent the extinction of species.

D．Human activities have severely damaged biodiversity.

4. What motivates Celeste to create her works?

A．The desire to protect the biodiversity.

B．The desire for a good childhood memory.

C．The idea of imagining landscapes.

D．The hope of preserving natural beauty.

7 . Doing your laundry with cold water can help save the planet, and maybe save you some money along the way. That’s the message from Tide in a newly launched campaign to decarbonize laundry. The goal is for consumers in North America to do three out of every four loads of laundry with cold water instead of hot by 2030, up from about half today. That would eliminate the power consumption required to heat cold water.

If this goal is met, it will have the same impact on greenhouse gas emissions as removing about a million cars from the road for a year. “There is no tradeoff. You will save 150 a year in energy costs, your garments will last longer. And by the way, you’re helping to save the planet,” Shailesh Jejurikar, CEO of Procter & Gamble’s fabric and home care division, said in an interview. “It’s a beautiful win-win-win if we get this right.”

“This is going to be the defining decades for where we end up on climate change,” Jejurikar said. “If we don’t get this situation under control in the coming years, we are going to pay the price. There is a need to act now.” Beyond its focus on cold-water washing, Tide set a new goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions at its factories in half by 2030. That’s in addition to the progress it already has made cutting emissions by three-quarters over the past decade as the brand adopted 100% renewable energy at its manufacturing plants. Tide also plans to reduce its carbon footprint by using 100% recyclable packaging for all products by 2030 and by teaming up with Silicon Valley startup Opus12 to capture carbon from its factories.

Jejurikar said P&G does want to get to zero emissions in its factories, but added that how people use Tide products has 10 times more impact than what happens in its plants. “We are trying to give them chance to take their ordinary daily actions, and make them have an extraordinary impact,” Jejurikar said.

1. What can we learn from the passage?

A．We need to heat cold water before laundry.

B．Tide will remove a million cars from the road.

C．Hot water laundry could save energy and protect the planet.

D．Cold water laundry might increase by a quarter in North America.

2. Which word can be used to replace “tradeoff” in Paragraph 2?

A．advantage.

B．need.

C．hesitation.

D．emission.

3. Which measure has been taken by Tide to cut greenhouse emission so far?

A．Advertising for its new products.

B．Using 100% recyclable packaging for all products.

C．Adopting completely renewable energy in its factories.

D．Cooperating with a new High-Tech company to recycle carbon.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Cold Water Laundry—An Eco-friendly Campaign

B．Advanced Technology Being Applied to Cars

C．The Vital Decades for Climate Change

D．Cutting Emission to Protect Our Planet

8 . Biologists from Boise State University have been making noise in the forests of the western American state of Idaho. They are making noise to study the value of quiet in nature. They want to know how people and animals react to noise pollution.

The researchers placed outdoor speakers on the side of a half-kilometer-long part of a road in the Boise National Forest. For two years, they played the sounds of passing cars through the speakers. Professor Jesse says they found the sounds caused migratory （迁徙的）birds to flee. The birds also failed to gain weight.

Recently, researchers played sounds of machines that are used to remove natural gas from the ground. That sound is heard in natural gas fields throughout the American West. Professor Barber says these experiments are designed to help researchers learn the effects of noise pollution on birds, insects, bats, and people.

"We are testing the idea that these things are coupled -- that as the soundscape gets louder, wildlife suffers. But that also feeds back on to how much people get out of that experience, how much they value it, and thus how much they are willing to protect that same place."

The research team also studied a group of volunteers who watch birds for fun. Mitch Levenhagen is a graduate student in the research team. He measured how much the artificial noise lessened the ability of the birdwatchers to recognize recorded bird songs.

The birdwatchers said the artificial noise affected their ability to recognize bird sounds more than they thought it would. Birdwatcher Jim Lyons said the experiment caused him to value quiet more.

"I moved out of the city to a little place in the country where I wanted it to be quiet. I greatly value that. It is hard to find those places more and more. There are lots of ways to mitigate（减轻） sound. But it is trade-off. There is always a cost. And it comes down to people's values. What do we value more." said Volunteer Janice Engle.

1. What is the purpose of carrying out the research?

A．To prevent people making any noise in their daily life.

B．To find out the effect noise has on humans and animals.

C．To call on many more people to protect the environment.

D．To encourage people to keep quiet while they are in nature.

2. By playing sounds of machines, the researchers try to make the findings ________.

A．impressive

B．unique

C．instructive

D．convincing

3. What have some volunteers realized after the experiment?

A．The great importance of quiet in nature.

B．The big price humans will pay for health.

C．The great value of a sharp sense of hearing.

D．The necessity of protecting wildlife in nature.

9 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。

Global warming refers to the fact that the earth's atmosphere is warming near     1     (it) surface — in other words, it's getting hotter. Some scientists say it is human activity     2     has caused global warming. However, there are other theories as well.

One popular theory relates to the “greenhouse effect”. Gases that make up the atmosphere are similar to     3     greenhouse because they allow sunlight     4     (pass) through, and then trap much of the heat from     5     (escape). This naturally occurring phenomenon,     6     is called greenhouse warming, keeps the earth's surface     7     (warm) than it would be.

While scientists agree that human-produced compounds (化合物) like carbon dioxide and others are being released into the atmosphere, some argue it's not clear how this results     8     the changes in temperature.

Global warming can     9     (great) affect human life on many levels. Scientists have made great     10     (contribute) to finding out how long the earth has been warming, at what rate it is warming, and what factors are causing it. These answers may better prepare people to handle its effects.

10 . 课文填空

To their credit the four countries     1     work together in some areas（eg, the currency and international relations）, but they will have very different institutions.

England is the largest of the four countries, and for,     2     it is divided roughly into three zones. . . You find most of the population     3     in the south, but most of the industrial cities in the Midlands and the North of England. Although, nationwide, these cities are not as large as     4     as China, they have world-famous football teams and some of them even have two!