1 . You’ve heard that plastic is polluting the oceans — between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? Artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, forcing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.

At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called “Strawpocalypse,” a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168,000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source (来源) of plastic pollution, but they’ve recently come under fire because most people don’t need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that’s part of Von Wong’s artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.

In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate (说明) a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload’s worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled “Truckload of Plastic,” Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10,000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they’d been dumped (倾倒) from a truck all at once.

Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.

1. What are Von Wong’s artworks intended for?

A．Beautifying the city he lives in.	B．Introducing eco-friendly products.
C．Drawing public attention to plastic waste.	D．Reducing garbage on the beach.

2. Why does the author discuss plastic straws in paragraph 3?

A．To show the difficulty of their recycling.

B．To explain why they are useful.

C．To voice his views on modern art.

D．To find a substitute for them.

3. What effect would “Truckload of Plastic” have on viewers?

A．Calming.	B．Disturbing.
C．Refreshing.	D．Challenging.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Artists’ Opinions on Plastic Safety

B．Media Interest in Contemporary Art

C．Responsibility Demanded of Big Companies

D．Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures

2 . Early fifth-century philosopher St．Augustine famously wrote that he knew what time was unless someone asked him．Albert Einstein added another wrinkle when he theorized that time varies depending on where you measure it．Today's state-of-the-art atomic（原子的） clocks have proven Einstein right．Even advanced physics can't decisively tell us what time is, because the answer depends on the question you're asking．

Forget about time as an absolute．What if，instead of considering time in terms of astronomy,we related time to ecology？What if we allowed environmental conditions to set the tempo（节奏） of human life？We're increasingly aware of the fact that we can't control Earth systems with engineering alone，and realizing that we need to moderate（调节）our actions if we hope to live in balance．What if our definition of time reflected that？

Recently，I conceptualized a new approach to timekeeping that's connected to circumstances on our planet，conditions that might change as a result of global warming．We're now building a clock at the Anchorage Museum that reflects the total flow of several major Alaskan rivers，which are sensitive to local and global environmental changes．We've programmed it to match an atomic clock if the waterways continue to flow at their present rate．If the rivers run faster in the future on average，the clock will get ahead of standard time．If they run slower，you'll see the opposite effect．

The clock registers both short-term irregularities and long-term trends in river dynamics．It's a sort of observatory that reveals how the rivers are behaving from their own temporal frame（时间框架），and allows us to witness those changes on our smartwatches or phones．Anyone who opts to go on Alaska Mean River Time will live in harmony with the planet．Anyone who considers river time in relation to atomic time will encounter a major imbalance and may be motivated to counteract it by consuming less fuel or supporting greener policies．

Even if this method of timekeeping is novel in its particulars，early agricultural societies also connected time to natural phenomena．In pre-Classical Greece，for instance，people“corrected”official calendars by shifting dates forward or backward to reflect the change of season．Temporal connection to the environment was vital to their survival．Likewise，river time and other timekeeping systems we're developing may encourage environmental awareness．

When St．Augustine admitted his inability to define time， he highlighted one of time 's most noticeable qualities：Time becomes meaningful only in a defined context．Any timekeeping system is valid，and each is as praiseworthy as its purpose．

1. What is the main idea of Paragraph 1？

A．Timekeeping is increasingly related to nature．

B．Everyone can define time on their own terms．

C．The qualities of time vary with how you measure it．

D．Time is a major concern of philosophers and scientists．

2. The author raises three questions in Paragraph 2 mainly to________．

A．present an assumption	B．evaluate an argument
C．highlight an experiment	D．introduce an approach

3. What can we learn from this passage？

A．Those who do not go on river time will live an imbalanced life．

B．New ways of measuring time can help to control Earth systems．

C．Atomic time will get ahead of river time if the rivers run slower．

D．Modern technology may help to shape the rivers’ temporal frame．

4. What can we infer from this passage？

A．It is crucial to improve the definition of time．

B．A fixed frame will make time meaningless．

C．We should live in harmony with nature．

D．History is a mirror reflecting reality．

3 . Slowness has been a sweeping trend in sustainability. Slow food celebrates local produce and traditional cooking methods; slow fashion is made with a focus on people and the planet. You may have even heard of the slow city, a campaign to restore local cultures and turn cities back to their natural environments.

Slow design developed from the larger slow movement. Although the term was only recently introduced, the idea of thoughtful design looks back to a time when buildings and furniture were made with great craftsmanship (手艺) and by hand-before the mass-produced throwaway furniture took over. You can think of the term “slow” as a celebration of timelessness: both the timelessness of a piece and the timelessness of the relationship between that piece and its owner.

One example of slow design today is what’s been dubbed the brown furniture revival (复兴). Brown furniture refers to the heavy wooden furnishings that were popular in your grandparents’ day but suddenly fell out of style at the turn of the century. Brown furniture is often associated with dark woods, such as trees like mahogany, walnut, and teak, that take decades to reach maturity and true craftsmanship to transform into functional pieces.

Today’s furniture industry is dominated by the $13.1 billion-and-growing global ready-to-assemble(RTA) furniture market. RTA furniture is usually constructed from low-quality fiberboard, which lasts a small part of traditional furniture’s lifespan (寿命).The weight of furniture landfilled in 2018 was 9. 7 million tons, 4. 5 times what was landfilled in 1960.

In a less direct way, the idea of timelessness also lends itself to a lower environmental impact. Besides their demonstrated physical durability, slow materials and design are meant to outlive trends and never be thrown out simply because they’re out of style.

As second-hand shopping becomes more appealing to today’s young generation-because of its low environmental impact and affordability-the brown furniture of yesteryear is making a comeback.

1. Why is the first paragraph written?

A．To explain a new term.

B．To present the topic of the text.

C．To provide background information.

D．To highlight the importance of slowness.

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

A．Known as.

B．Mistaken for.

C．Compared to.

D．Connected with.

3. What can be inferred about RTA furniture?

A．It is out of date.

B．It has a long lifespan.

C．It is heavy and expensive.

D．It has bad effects on the environment.

4. What is good news for the brown furniture revival?

A．Grandparents are buying new furniture.

B．The brown furniture will soon be mass-produced.

C．The young generation favors second-hand shopping.

D．Materials for slow design furniture are more available.

4 . Directions: After reading the passage below,fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Your Cat Might Not Be Ignoring You When You Speak

Every cat owner has a story to tell of being blanked by their cat. We call to our cat, it turns away, and some of us might be left     1     (wonder) why we didn’t get a dog. But your cat may be listening after all. More than that, it     2     (care) more than you may think.

A study by French researchers     3     (publish) last month in the journal Animal Cognition found that not only do cats react to what scientists call cat-directed speech — a high-pitched (高音的) voice similar to     4     we talk to babies — they react to who is doing the talking.

“We found that hearing their owners using a high-pitched voice, cats reacted more than when hearing their owner speaking normally to another human adult,” said Charlotte de Mouzon, an author of the study. “But it actually didn’t work when it came from a stranger’s voice.”

    5     studies involving dogs, analyzing cat behavior is difficult, which is part of why humans understand them less. Cats are often so stressed by being in a lab     6     meaningful behavioral observations become impossible. And forget about trying to get a cat     7     (sit) still for an M.R.I. scan (核磁共振扫描) to study its brain function.

So the researchers for the latest study went to the cats’ homes and played recordings of different types of speech and different speakers. At first, there was concern from Dr. de Mouzon and her team for lack of reaction from the cats, but upon analysis of the film recordings, delicate reactions     8     (notice). “It could be just moving an ear or turning the head to the speaker or even freezing what     9     were doing,” Dr. de Mouzon said.

In the study, there were a few cases     10     cats would approach the speaker playing a voice and meow. “In the end, we had really clear gains in the cat’s attention when the owner was using cat-directed speech,” Dr. de Mouzon said.

5 . Human beings have somehow managed to engineer the night to receive us by filling it with light. This kind of control is no different from the feat ( 壮 举 ) of damming a river. Its benefits come with_________ — called light pollution — whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design. _________ lighting washes out the darkness of night, altering light levels and light rhythms to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have_________. Wherever man-made light spills into the natural world, some aspects of life-migration, reproduction, feeding-is affected.

For most human history, the phrase “light pollution” would have_________. Imagine walking towards London on a moonlit night around 1800, when it was Earth’s most populous city. Nearly a million people lived there, _________ candles, torches and lanterns, as they always had. Only a few houses were lit by gas, and there would be no public gaslights in the streets or squares for another seven years. From a few miles away, you would have been more likely to_________ London than to see its dim collective glow.

We’ve lit up the night as if it were a(n) _________ country. As a matter of fact, among mammals (哺乳动物) alone, the number of species active at night is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet attracting them to it. The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being_________ by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms, circling and circling in the thousands until they drop.

It was once thought that light pollution only affected astronomers, who need to see the night sky in all its glorious clarity. Unlike astronomers, most of us may not need a_________ view of the night sky for our work. __________, like most other creatures, we do need darkness. __________ darkness is pointless. It is as essential to maintaining our biological welfare as__________ itself; the price of modifying our internal clockwork means it doesn’t operate as it should, causing various physical discomforts. So fundamental are the regular rhythms of waking and sleep to our being that__________ them is similar to altering our center of gravity.

In a very real sense, light pollution causes us to__________ our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best__________ against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way — the edge of our galaxy — arching overhead.

1.

A．consequences

B．achievements

C．agreements

D．circumstances

2.

A．Randomly-designed

B．Well-designed

C．Poorly-designed

D．Economically-designed

3.

A．appealed

B．adapted

C．objected

D．amounted

4.

A．come under criticism

B．made no difference

C．come into effect

D．made no sense

5.

A．making do with

B．fed up with

C．identifying with

D．overflowing with

6.

A．visit

B．greet

C．feel

D．smell

7.

A．independent

B．disconnected

C．unoccupied

D．excluded

8.

A．exposed

B．captured

C．dismissed

D．frustrated

9.

A．clear

B．comprehensive

C．traditional

D．critical

10.

A．Subsequently

B．However

C．Therefore

D．Similarly

11.

A．Reviewing

B．Embracing

C．Denying

D．Regulating

12.

A．light

B．rhythm

C．status

D．dawn

13.

A．emerging from

B．withdrawing from

C．messing with

D．coinciding with

14.

A．keep track of

B．lose sight of

C．catch hold of

D．let go of

15.

A．measured

B．neutralized

C．undergone

D．supervised

7 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Japan Releases Nuclear Wastewater into the Pacific. How Worried Should We Be?

Japan has started releasing wastewater into the ocean. But this isn’t the kind of wastewater     1     flows from city streets into stormwater drains. It’s treated nuclear wastewater used to cool damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,     2     (strike) by an earthquake over a decade ago.

Since the accident, over 1.3 million tons of nuclear wastewater     3     (collect), treated, and stored in a tank farm at the plant. That storage space is about to run out, the Japanese government says, leaving no choice other than     4     (begin) dumping the wastewater into the Pacific.

Japan’s discharge plan involves incrementally (递增地) releasing it over the next three decades, although some experts say it could take longer, given the amount still     5     (produce). Some of Japan’s neighbors are criticizing the plan as unilateral and dangerous. On May 15, South Korea’s opposition leader ridiculed Japanese leaders’ claims that the water is safe enough to drink: “    6     it is safe enough to drink, they should use it as drinking water.”

Now, American scientists are raising concerns that marine life and ocean currents could carry harmful radioactive isotopes (同位素) —also called radionuclides—    7     the entire Pacific Ocean.

“It’s a trans-boundary and trans-generational event,” says Robert Richmond, director of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory at the University of Hawaii. “    8     released into the ocean off of Fukushima is not going to stay in one place.”

The radionuclides could be carried by ocean currents, especially the cross-Pacific Kuroshio current. Marine animals that migrate great distances could spread them too. No     9    (worrying) as carriers, Richmond says, are phytoplankton—free-floating organisms that are the basis of the food chain for all marine life and can capture radionuclides from the Fukushima cooling water. When swallowed, those isotopes may “accumulate in a variety of fish, marine mammals, and humans.”

Richmond and Buesseler say that     10     they’ve been allowed access to much of the same data as the IAEA, they remain suspicious. “The root of this problem is that they are moving already with a plan that has not yet shown that it will work,” Buesseler says. “They’re saying, ‘We can make it work. We’ll treat it as many times as it takes.’ If you want to put a nickname on this plan, it’s ‘trust us; we’ll take care of it.’”

8 . Climate experts have warned about the many ways a warming planet can negatively affect human health. ________ global temperatures are predicted to increase by 1.5℃ by the 2030s, that risk is becoming increasingly real.

One long-held prediction that appears to be coming true — according to the results of a study recently published in Nature Scientific Reports — is how climate change might enhance ________ of bacteria that thrive and spread through warm sea waters and cause an infection with a particularly high ________ rate.

Vibrio vulnificus (创伤弧菌) flourishes in salty or brackish waters above 68℉. Infections are currently rare in the U.S., but that’s likely to change. Using 30 years of data on infections, scientists at the University of East Anglia in the U.K. found that Vibrio vulnificusis ________ from its historic Gulf Coast range, with more Northern states reporting infections as waters become warmer.

“We’re seeing the core ________ of infections extending to areas that traditionally have very few and very rare cases,” says Elizabeth Archer, a Ph.D. researcher and ________ author of the study. “But these areas are now coming into the main area of infections.”

Based on the latest data on how much the world’s water and air temperatures will rise, the scientists predict that by 2081, Vibrio vulnificus infections could reach every state along the U.S. East Coast. Currently, only about 80 cases are reported in the U.S. each year; by 2081, that could go up to over three-fold, the authors say.

Such a proliferation could have serious health consequences. Vibrio vulnificus kills approximately 20% of the healthy people it infects, and 50% of those with weakened immune systems. There is little evidence that antibiotics can ________ the infection, but doctors may prescribe them in some cases. People can get infected either by eating raw shellfish like oysters or by exposing small ________ to waters where the bacteria live, which can lead to serious skin infections.

Warming sea temperatures aren’t the only reasons behind the rise of Vibrio vulnificus. Hotter air also draws more people to the coasts and bays, bringing them into closer contact with the bacteria.

“The bacteria are part of the natural marine environment, so I don’t think we can ________ it from the environment,” says Archer. “It’s more about mitigating infections by increasing ________ of the risk.”

To alert people to the growing threat, ________ systems are needed to track when concentrations of bacteria start to rise, similar to currently available pollen and pollution alarm.

Vbrio vulnificus is so ________ to temperature changes that concentrations could bloom after even a day of warmer water, so consistent monitoring and alerts are critical, says Iain Lake, professor of environmental epidemiology at University of East Anglia and senior author of the paper.

Lake says the expansion of Vibrio vulnificus is concerning for public health since the bacteria are now invading waters closer to heavily ________ areas, such as New York and Philadelphia. “Everyone can get a Vibrio vulnificus infection,” he says. “But the more ________ there is between warmer waters and people, the more the bacteria can move into populations ________ the elderly and those with other health conditions, who are more vulnerable to infections.”

1.

A．Even if

B．Except when

C．The instant

D．In case

2.

A．numbers

B．ranges

C．coverages

D．concentrations

3.

A．failure

B．fatality

C．survival

D．acid

4.

A．ranging

B．varying

C．expanding

D．shifting

5.

A．distribution

B．launch

C．community

D．sample

6.

A．principle

B．lead

C．principal

D．hit

7.

A．boost

B．accelerate

C．contain

D．remove

8.

A．harms

B．damages

C．injuries

D．wounds

9.

A．relieve

B．dissolve

C．resolve

D．erase

10.

A．conscience

B．awareness

C．panic

D．alert

11.

A．monitoring

B．processing

C．managing

D．delivering

12.

A．sensible

B．vital

C．vulnerable

D．sensitive

13.

A．populated

B．dense

C．paralleled

D．bordered

14.

A．reaction

B．interaction

C．intervention

D．relativity

15.

A．rather than

B．except for

C．such as

D．other than

9 . The Amazon is warming three times faster than the global average

It is perhaps the most ironic symbol of the life on our planet. The Amazon is the world’s largest and most bio-diverse tropical rainforest and a huge trap for carbon dioxide. The harms of _________ in this vital resource are old news. But now, the time on the clock is running out. It seems that the world’s biggest rainforest is about to turn into the world’s biggest environmental _________. “We are about to collapse,” says Luciana Gati at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. “We are in a(n) _________, we need action now.”

Gati has spent years _________ the Amazon from the air. She believes we are as little as five years from a point of no return, where rainforest begins to turn into dry land. It is also the point at which billions of tons of carbon would be _________ into the atmosphere. “It’s a nightmare,” she says.

That nightmare situation is the well-known Amazon _________ point, where the ecosystem can no longer cope with the damage of the forest cutting. Like a domino game, one brick falling will _________ the whole tower to collapse in a heap.

Warnings that this is approaching have now taken on extreme urgency. The rate of deforestation has increased sharply and is fast approaching the theoretical _________. In September, a group of more than 200 experts, including Gatti, released an assessment of the situation. The conclusion: we are on the _________ of disaster.

Scientists first began to seriously worry about a potential Amazon tipping point in about 2000, when some studies warned that a combination of climate change and deforestation could cause the rainforest to __________.

A few years later, a team of Brazilian scientists put numbers on it. They __________ that in central, southern and eastern parts of the Amazon, a loss of 40% of the forest cover from pre-industrial levels, or 3°C warming would reduce rainfall so much that the rest of the forest would die of __________ and turn into a dry land in less than a decade.

The scientists have since __________ that prediction, partly due to the global warming that has happened since 2000. The Amazon is already 1.2°C warmer than it was in pre-industrial times and is warming three times faster than the global __________. At that rate of warming, between 20 and 25% deforestation would be enough to dry up the land and destroy the Amazon completely.

“Either way, we would be wise not to exceed 20%”, says a scientist, “for the commonsense reason that there is no point in __________   the precise point of limit by tipping it.”

1.

A．fertilization

B．elimination

C．deforestation

D．frustration

2.

A．program

B．disaster

C．protection

D．regulation

3.

A．evolution

B．spotlight

C．condition

D．emergency

4.

A．measuring

B．observing

C．protecting

D．criticizing

5.

A．released

B．melted

C．turned

D．supplied

6.

A．tipping

B．disappointing

C．awarding

D．tapping

7.

A．build

B．turn

C．cause

D．make

8.

A．problem

B．prediction

C．aspect

D．limit

9.

A．base

B．edge

C．surface

D．track

10.

A．dry out

B．run down

C．pay off

D．rise up

11.

A．boasted

B．insisted

C．estimated

D．instructed

12.

A．thirst

B．starvation

C．cold

D．disease

13.

A．digested

B．revised

C．encouraged

D．previewed

14.

A．strategy

B．climate

C．average

D．system

15.

A．diagnosing

B．instructing

C．inquiring

D．discovering

10 . A few years ago, the City Council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved fishbowls. The sponsors of the measure explained that it is cruel to keep a fish in such a bowl because the curved sides give the fish a distorted view of reality. Aside from the measure’s significance to the poor goldfish, the story raises an interesting philosophical question: How do we know that the reality we perceive is true?

Physicists are finding themselves in a similar trouble to the goldfish’s. For decades they have been pursuing an ultimate theory of everything—one complete and consistent set of fundamental laws of nature that explain every aspect of reality. It now appears that this pursuit may generate not a single theory but a family of interconnected theories, each describing its own version of reality, as if it viewed the universe through its own fishbowl. This concept may be difficult for many people to accept. Most people believe that there is an objective reality out there and that our senses and our science directly convey (传达) information about the material world. In philosophy, that belief is called realism.

In physics, realism is becoming difficult to defend. Instead, the idea of alternative realities is a mainstay of today’s popular culture. For example, in the science-fiction film The Matrix the human race is unknowingly living in a simulated (模拟的) virtual reality created by intelligent computers. How do we know we are not just computer-generated characters living in a Matrix-like world? If—like us—the beings in the simulated world could not observe their universe from the outside, they would have no reason to doubt their own pictures of reality.

Similarly, the goldfish’s view is not the same as ours from outside their curved bowl. For instance, because light bends as it travels from air to water, a freely moving object that we would observe to move in a straight line would be observed by the goldfish to move along a curved path. The goldfish could form scientific laws from their frame (框架) of reference that would always hold true and that would enable them to make predictions about the future motion of objects outside the bowl. If the goldfish formed such a theory, we would have to admit the goldfish’s view as a reasonable picture of reality.

The goldfish example shows that the same physical situation can be modeled in different ways, each employing different fundamental elements and concepts. It might be that to describe the universe we have to employ different theories in different situations. It is not the physicist’s traditional expectation for a theory of nature, nor does it correspond to our everyday idea of reality. But it might be the way of the universe.

1. What does the underlined word “distorted” in Paragraph most probably mean?

A．Original.

B．Accurate.

C．Distant.

D．False.

2. What does Paragraph 2 mainly tell us?

A．The need for a complete theory.	B．The lasting conflict in physics.
C．The existence of the material world.	D．The conventional insight of reality.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Nature’s mysteries are best left undiscovered.

B．An external world is independent of the observers.

C．People’s theories are influenced by their viewpoints.

D．It is essential to figure out which picture of reality is better.

4. According to the passage, the author may agree that ________.

A．various interpretations of the universe are welcomed

B．physicists have a favorite candidate for the final theory

C．multiple realities can be pieced together to show the real world

D．there is still possibility to unify different theories into a single one