1 . A month after Hurricane Katrina, I returned home in New Orleans. There lay my house, reduced to waist high ruins, smelly and dirty.
Before the trip, I’d had my car fixed. When the office employee of the garage was writing up the bill, she noticed my Louisiana license plate. “You from New Orleans?” she asked. I said I was. “No charge,” she said, and firmly shook her head when I reached for my wallet. The next day I went for a haircut, and the same thing happened.
As my wife was studying in Florida, we decided to move there and tried to find a rental house that we could afford while also paying off a mortgage (抵押贷款) on our ruined house. We looked at many places, but none was satisfactory. We’d begun to accept that we’d have to live in extremely reduced circumstances for a while, when I got a very curious e-mail from a James Kennedy in California. He’d read some pieces I’d written about our sufferings for Slate, the online magazine, and wanted to give us (“no conditions attached”) a new house across the lake from New Orleans.
It sounded too good to be true, but I replied, thanking him for his exceptional generosity, that we had no plans to go back. Then a poet at the University of Florida offered to let his house to me while he went to England on his one-year paid leave. The rent was rather reasonable. I mentioned the poet’s offer to James Kennedy, and the next day he sent a check covering our entire rent for eight months.
Throughout this painful experience, the kindness of strangers has done much to bring back my faith in humanity. It’s almost worth losing your worldly possessions to be reminded that people are really nice when given half a chance.
1. The garage employee’s attitude towards the author was that of .| A．unconcern | B．sympathy |
| C．doubt | D．tolerance |
| A．He was a writer of an online magazine. |
| B．He was a poet at the University of Florida. |
| C．He offered the author a new house free of charge. |
| D．He learned about the author’s sufferings via e-mail. |
| A．the author’s family was in financial difficulty |
| B．rents were comparatively reasonable despite the disaster |
| C．houses were difficult to find in the hurricane-stricken area |
| D．the mortgage on the ruined house was paid off by the bank |
The fresh thin air, snow-covered mountains and graceful animals running on the plains are
My guide is Zhaxi, who works at the Changtang National Nature Reserve. “We’re not trying to save the animals,”he says. “Actually, we’re trying to save
During the 1980s and 1990s, the population of Tibetan antelopes dropped by more than 50 percent, as hunters were shooting antelopes to make
As
Only when we learn to live in harmony with nature
A girl named Dina was born in California in 1932. After
Even though some of the gorillas were
4 . When we rescued her, we didn't know Serenity was pregnant until we saw her newborn on the ground. We stood at a short distance to
We instantly stepped
As the
We saved Serenity from a slaughterhouse (屠宰场) and thank goodness we did because a few weeks later she gave
| A．predict | B．celebrate | C．attend | D．deliver |
| A．suddenly | B．shortly | C．immediately | D．finally |
| A．experienced | B．expected | C．operated | D．known |
| A．wonder | B．relief | C．surprise | D．fear |
| A．forward | B．in | C．down | D．back |
| A．care | B．distance | C．food | D．water |
| A．killed | B．parted | C．taken | D．frightened |
| A．days | B．months | C．hours | D．years |
| A．relaxed | B．amazed | C．excited | D．disappointed |
| A．close | B．simple | C．occasional | D．rare |
| A．way | B．hand | C．expression | D．birth |
| A．originally | B．temporarily | C．deliberately | D．unwillingly |
| A．taking in | B．bringing in | C．making up  | D．giving away |
| A．cruel | B．silly | C．wise | D．ridiculous |
| A．doctor | B．owner | C．father | D．family |
5 . Rainbow-coloured rubbish is the colourful waste created by a Swedish city with an unusual recycling(回收利用） system. Like many cities in Sweden , Eskilstuna has an excellent recycling record . It met the EU's 2020 target of recycling 50% of waste many years ago.
Almost everyone who lives here follows strict recycling rules at home. People are expected to sort their household waste into seven separate categories, including food, textiles, cartons and metal. But what really makes the system stand out is the bright colour code.
The reason for this becomes clear at the city's recycling plant. The bags arrive all mixed up because they're collected altogether, once two weeks from outside people's houses. But thanks to those bright colours, scanners can choose the bags and separate them without difficulty. The food waste in green bags is processed on site into mud to make biogas, which powers the city's buses. One of the benefits of this method of recycling is that there is less cross-pollution,so more of the recycled waste can actually be used to make new things.
Like the rest of Sweden, Eskilstuna is devoted to sending zero waste from its citizens to landfill. Waste that cannot be recycled is burnt at a local plant to generate electricity. This reduces dependence on fossil fuels like coal and oil , but does create greenhouse gases .
As countries around the world try to improve their recycling systems, some may look to Eskilstuna as an example to follow-as long as they think they can persuade their citizens to get busy sorting rubbish at home .
1. Why are bright colours used in Eskilstuna's recycling system?| A．To reach the target of recycling 50% of waste. |
| B．To reduce the citizens' burden of sorting rubbish. |
| C．To make rubbish easy to separate and reeycle. |
| D．To collect different kinds of rubbish separately. |
| A．It is used to produce electricity. |
| B．It is sent directly to landfill and buried there |
| C．It is processed at once to make biogas . |
| D．It is mixed with other waste to make new things. |
| A．Persuade citizens to use as few fossil fuels as possible. |
| B．Not create greenhouse gases unless necessary. |
| C．Use the bright colour code to sort the rubbish. |
| D．Talk people into sorting household waste properly. |
| A．A diary. | B．A magazine. |
| C．A novel. | D．A guidebook. |
6 . New research led by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has revealed that the spiny pollen (带刺花粉) of plants in the sunflower family can reduce infection of a common bee parasite (寄生生物) by up to 94 percent. The sunflowers'spiny pollen can destroy a parasite called C. bombi (熊蜂短膜虫), which has been significantly reducing bumblebee populations.
To investigate how sunflowers help bumblebees resist C. bombi, the researchers separated the spiny outer shell of the pollen from the chemical metabolites (代谢物) in the pollen’s core. They then mixed the spiny pollen shells of sunflowers, with the chemistry removed, into the pollen fed to one group of bees.
Another group was fed wildflower pollen with sunflower metabolites and no sunflower shells. The researchers discovered that the bees that ate the spiny sunflower pollen shells had the same response as bees feeding on whole sunflower pollen. These bees had a markedly reduced risk of C. bombi infection compared to those fed sunflower metabolites.
Bumblebees, which are vital pollinators of crops and wildflowers, are experiencing a rapid decline in their populations worldwide. Habitat loss due to urbanization and agricultural intensification is the greatest threat to bumblebees. Climate change is also taking a toll on bumblebees. As temperatures rise, bumblebees are forced to move further north to cooler climates, which can affect their ability to find food and nesting sites. Pesticide use is another significant threat to bumblebees. These chemicals are harmful to them and can damage their navigation and immune systems, leading to reduced reproductive success. Bumblebees play a vital role in maintaining healthy and diverse ecosystems. Understanding how sunflowers protect bees from disease could help us identify other flowers that have similar protective properties. Through this, researchers can work towards developing new strategies to help conserve bumblebees.
1. How does the spiny pollen of sunflowers benefit bees?| A．It protects them from predators. | B．It improves their sense of smell. |
| C．It can be used for their nest building. | D．It helps them resist parasite infections. |
| A．By collecting data. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By referring to previous studies. | D．By surveying experienced farmers. |
| A．Habitat loss. | B．Climate change. | C．The use of pesticides. | D．Environmental pollution. |
| A．It offers a way to increase sunflower yield. |
| B．It draws public attention to the role of ecosystems. |
| C．It provides a new idea for protecting bumblebees. |
| D．It allows people to distinguish between different plants species. |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，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：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及修改均仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Dear David,
How have you been lately? You said you want to know about the Great Wall. I’m happily to tell you about them here. The Great Wall was build more than two thousand years ago. It is 8,851.8 kilometers long, six to seven meters high but four to five meters wide. The Great Wall, that represents the long history of China, is great wonder created to protect the ancient Chinese people. Now the Great Wall have become one of the most famous attractions in China, and it attracts a large number of visitor from all around the world each year.
I hope you can come to China to visit the Great Wall on one day. I’m sure you will love it.
Yours,
Zhang Hong
If you go out to the fields at night in spring or summer, you can hear frogs singing here and there. It seems as if they were
The frog is a good and useful creature
The cause that is responsible for the rapid reduction of frogs is that
Something must be done as soon as possible
For protecting endangered neighbors, pandas make unreliable umbrellas.
Like many undergraduate biology students, Wang Fang was taught that pandas are a prime example of
In fact, the story is much
Panda conservation, on its own,
All of those efforts focused simply not on other species,
10 . In the 12th century, physician Ibn Zuhr conducted some animal research to assess the surgical procedures that could be applied to humans. Since then, animal testing has been considered the most efficient way to develop new drugs. New medical treatments and drugs are tested on animals first to determine their effectiveness or safety levels before they are finally tested on humans. However, it remains controversial whether it is morally right or wrong to use animals for experiments.
The use of animals for medical purposes is seen to be necessary by many scientists. Researchers usually begin their trials using rats. If the tests are successful, further tests are done on monkeys before using human beings. For testing, such tiered(分层的) rounds are important because they reduce the level of error and negative side effects. Some argue that animal testing has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments and there is no adequate alternative to testing on a living, whole-body system. Moreover, there are regulations for animal testing that limit the misuse of animals during research. They serve as evidence that animals are well taken care of and treated well instead of being intentionally harmed.
However, some other experts and animal welfare groups have opposed such practice, considering it as inhumane(不人道的) and claiming it should be banned. According to Humane Society International, animals used in experiments are commonly subjected to force-feeding, radiation exposure, operations to deliberately cause damage and frightening situations to create depression and anxiety. They also hold the view that animals are very different from human beings and therefore are poor test subjects. Drugs that pass animal tests are not necessarily safe. Animal tests on the arthritis (关节炎) drug Vioxx showed it would have a protective effect on the hearts of mice, yet the drug went on to cause about 27,000 heart attacks before being pulled back from the market.
It’s safe to say that using animals for tests will continue to be debated in many years to come. Despite the benefits of animal testing, some of the concerns need to be addressed with adequate regulations to ensure that animals are treated humanely.
1. Why is animal testing considered necessary?| A．Rats are more similar to humans than monkeys. |
| B．Other testing alternatives may not replace animals. |
| C．Animal testing can show every side effect of drugs. |
| D．Animal testing has been in practice since the 12th century. |
| A．Eating poisonous food. | B．Being killed deliberately. |
| C．Breathing in polluted air. | D．Having unnecessary operations. |
| A．animal testing helps find the cure for arthritis |
| B．some drugs need to be withdrawn from the market |
| C．animals cannot necessarily produce accurate results |
| D．a drug should be tested many more times before its release |
| A．Scientists should reduce the number of animals used in research. |
| B．Experts should try hard to determine whether animal tests are harmful. |
| C．Relevant organizations should show more concern about the animals’ welfare. |
| D．The authorities should issue new laws to guarantee animals’ rights during research. |
