1 . It took brave European explorers less than 300 years, between 1420 and 1713, to establish that all the seas of the world formed an enormous and continuous ocean. This discovery encouraged them to _____ into areas which hadn’t been charted until then. With the discovery of new lands, new trade routes were _____. In many parts of the world, colonies and settlements were established and many odd-looking products were brought back to _____, arousing great interest and _____ wealth.

It was probably the irresistible desire for wealth that _____ persuaded Europeans of the fifteenth century to _____ their legendary dangers and explore further out into the open seas. They were also _____ by the love for their countries. Many explorers wanted to serve their kings and countries as well as gain personal _____ from their exploring.

The most effective way of gaining wealth was through _____. Silk, gold, silver and ______ stones, and more importantly spices, such as gingers and peppers, were the most profitable trade goods in Europe. Spices were of the greatest ______ because they enabled the Europeans to make their winter diet of salted meat more delicious. These items were ______ mostly from the East by a difficult overland route. The Italian ______, who bought goods from the Arabs of Alexandria, controlled the trade along this route. Other countries of the Mediterranean ______ the wealth which this trade generated and they were ______ to discover new routes which would allow them to share in it.

1.

A．sail

B．walk

C．fly

D．drive

2.

A．set back

B．set off

C．set up

D．set against

3.

A．the East

B．the Mediterranean

C．Europe

D．Italy

4.

A．inheriting

B．creating

C．saving

D．losing

5.

A．frequently

B．hardly

C．frankly

D．eventually

6.

A．recognize

B．risk

C．realize

D．foresee

7.

A．discouraged

B．praised

C．forced

D．inspired

8.

A．business

B．benefit

C．fame

D．rights

9.

A．trade

B．war

C．conquering

D．bargaining

10.

A．precious

B．rough

C．hard

D．smooth

11.

A．interest

B．efficiency

C．value

D．practice

12.

A．exported

B．imported

C．robbed

D．occupied

13.

A．soldiers

B．explorers

C．pioneers

D．merchants

14.

A．lost

B．won

C．possessed

D．envied

15.

A．disappointed

B．available

C．anxious

D．reluctant

2 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once, note that there is one word more than you need.

A. associated     B. relaxation        C. outlook       D. urged     E. harmony     F. motivated G. exaggerating     H. contrary        I. track          J. equivalent     K. convinced

In 1865 The Great Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted looked out over the Yosemite Valley and saw a place worth saving. He     1     the California legislature to protect it from crazy development. Olmsted had already designed Central Park City; he was     2     that beautiful green spaces should exist for all people to enjoy. “It is a scientific fact,” he wrote, “that the occasional observation of natural scene of an impressive character…is favorable to the health and vigor of men and especially to the health and vigor of their intellect.”

Olmsted was     3     ; his claim was based less on science than on intuition. But it was intuition with a long history. It went back at least to Cyrus the Great, who some 2500 years ago built gardens for     4     in the busy capital of Persia. Paracelsus, the 16^th century German-Swiss physician, gave voice to that same intuition when he wrote, “that art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician.” In 1798, sitting on the banks of the River Wye, William Wordsworth marveled at how “an eye made quiet by the power of     5     ” offered relief from “the fever of the world” . American writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Muir inherited that     6     along with Olmsted, they built the spiritual and emotional case for creating the world’s first national parks by claiming that nature had healing powers.

There wasn’t much evidence then—but there is now:     7     by large-scale public health problems such as obesity, depression, and persuasive nearsightedness, all clearly     8     with time spent indoors. Strayer and other scientists are looking with renewed interest at how nature affects our brains and bodies.

In England researchers from the University of Exeter Medical School recently analyzed mental health data from 10000 city dwellers and used high resolution mapping to     9     where the subjects had lived over 18 years. They found that people living near more green space reported less mental distress, even after adjusting for income, education, and employment (all of which are also correlated with health). In 2016 an international team overlaid health questionnaire responses from more than 31000 Toronto residents onto a map of the city, block by block. Those living on blocks with more trees showed a boost in heart and metabolic health     10     to what one would experience from a $20000 gain in income. Lower mortality and fewer stress hormones circulating in the blood have also been connected to living close to green space.

3 . We humans have always been obsessed with reaching higher, building taller, and touching the sky. In effect, we have been building towers and buildings each taller than the other. Today, we will look at four of the tallest buildings in the world.

Burj Khalifa

Since it opened on January 4, 2010, the Burj Khalifa has been the tallest building in the world. The United Arab Emirates broke world records in the 21st century for building a needle-like, 162 story skyscraper in Dubai. A public observation deck called “At the Top” is located on the 124th floor. The top floor is home to a private VIP club, closed to anyone except members.

Taipei 101

Featured in many videos, the tallest building in Taipei, China, is famous for its unique shape and awesome fireworks display every year. It houses lots of hotels, offices, apartments, and an observatory deck. There’s an outdoor round observatory square on the 91st floor of the building, at 392m above the ground, it’s now the third highest open-air observation deck in the world.

Shanghai World Financial Centre

The Shanghai World Financial Centre, is a soaring glass skyscraper with a distinctive opening at the top in Pudong District, Shanghai, China. The construction of this building began in 1997, but due to the crisis in Southeast Asia, it temporarily halted and resumed in 2003. Its final height is 492 metres and has 101 floors.

International Commerce Centre (ICC)

The ICC building, completed in 2010 in West Kowloon, is the tallest building in Hong Kong, China, and one of the world’s tallest skyscrapers at 484 metres. Original plans were for an even taller building, but zoning laws prohibited the construction of buildings higher than the surrounding mountains. The design of the skyscraper was revised (修改) and plans for a pyramidal-shaped top were abandoned.

1. What do Burj Khalifa and Taipei 101 have in common?

A．They have observatory decks.

B．They are open for half a day.

C．They are famous for their unique shapes.

D．They have the same number of floors.

2. Which building is shorter than was designed to be?

A．Shanghai World Financial Centre.

B．Burj Khalifa.

C．International Commerce Centre.

D．Taipei 101.

3. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．There’s an outdoor round observatory square on the 92nd floor of Taipei 101.

B．The top of ICC building is the shape of pyramid.

C．It took longer time than expected to finish Shanghai World Financial Centre.

D．Everyone can visit the top floor of Burj Khalifa.

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.

Throughout the world, only 15% of the material that are used to make clothing is properly recycled, according to the Alle SacUrthur Club, an organization in Liverpool, UK, that boosts the circular economy. Most clothing waste—an     1    (estimate) 82 million tonnes from the fashion industry alone-produced every year ends up buried or burnt.

    2    (handle) all that waste, methods to recover and reuse the material are intended as an active response to the future risks by researchers and start-up companies. Much of their focus is on chemical recycling,     3     the material is broken down into its building blocks and applied to create new materials, including fibres that     4     (weave) into new clothes. The challenges lie in     5     (develop) the processes for such treatment. They have to be practical, but they also have to be at least as cost-effective as simply making new fibres.

    6     the natural cellulose fibres from cotton, some other materials include human-made cellulosic fibres. They are derived from wood-pulp cellulose and may be used to produce materials such as viscose (rayon) and a similar material called lyocell.

A change in the manufacturing process is being applied to the textile-waste problem by Essen, a start-up in Seattle, Washington.     7     the company has fundamentally devoted to the process is that it uses discarded textiles, instead of wood, as the source of its cellulose. It has also adjusted the process to produce a fibre that the firm’s co-founder and president Christo Stan says is superior to     8     other cellulosics and cotton, and that can be recycled more times.

Although there are abundant technical challenges, the main barrier     9     widespread textile recycling could be economic, says materials engineer Lijiang Jiang at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Atlanta. “Most of the materials are not that invaluable,” Jiang says. So cheap it is to produce polyester, cotton and other fabrics     10     there’s little profit margin unless the recycling processes themselves are very inexpensive.

5 . Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity has used up nature’s annual resources. In 2020, Earth Overshoot Day fell on August 22, three weeks later than 2019’s date of July 29 as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns, meaning that humanity consumed less resources than last year.

According to research conducted by Global Footprint Network, an international research organization, COVID-19- related lockdowns resulted in a 9.3% reduction in humanity’s ecological footprint compared with the same period last year.

However, we would still need 1.6 Earths to keep up with our current use of ecological resources.

While Mathis Wackernagel, president of Global Footprint Network, called this year’s data “encouraging,” he called for further progress to be made “by design, not by disaster.”

CEO of Global Footprint Network Laurel Hanscom adds, “Sustainability requires that both ecological balance and people’s well-being be ensured over the long-term, therefore this year’s sudden Ecological Footprint reduction cannot be mistaken for progress.”

According to the research, Australia used up its resources in the first half year during its 2019/ 2020 forest fire season.

Wackernagel says, “We’re using up the future to pay for the present. We’ve only got one planet and that’s not going to change.”

The research organization says that sustainability of a society depends on the sound management of ecological resources. To do this, we need to change the way we produce our food, we move around, how many children we have and how much land we protect for wildlife. Reducing our overall carbon footprint by 50% would push the date back 93 days, cutting food waste in half, 13 days. And if we push the date back by 5 days each year, humanity would be using less than one planet before 2050.

1. What led to less resource consumption in 2020?

A．COVID-19 lockdowns.	B．Improved awareness.
C．The forest fire season.	D．Sound management of ecology.

2. What is Laurel Hanscom’s attitude towards this year’s data?

A．Negative.	B．Critical.
C．Cautious.	D．Positive.

3. What can we learn from the figures of the last paragraph?

A．We have reduced carbon footprint by 50%.

B．The more children we have, the wealthier our life are.

C．The way we travel around doesn’t make any difference.

D．Good management of natural resources has a positive effect.

4. What’s the best title for this text?

A．To reduce carbon footprint of food.

B．Using less resources in 2020 than last year.

C．To encourage humans to use resources slowly.

D．COVID-19 lockdown being good for development.

6 . How to save planet earth

Have you ever held a product in your hands and considered the existential weight of your purchase? Beyond each price tag hides a ripple effect. It expands from soil to water ways, grocery aisle to kitchen plates, factories to fulfillment centers and mail slots to landfills. This global impact has become less hidden in the past decade, and ignoring the people downstream from us has grown increasingly difficult.

We’re more aware than ever of the mark our consumption leaves on planet Earth, which now sustains nearly 8 billion people. Somehow, humans are still pumping more than 30 gig a tons of carbon dioxide(CO₂)per year into the atmosphere, despite the mountain of evidence that CO₂ is the top contributor to greenhouse gases causing global warming.     1    We know we need to do better, but we feel helpless and overwhelmed. Let’s call this the eco-essential crisis; it applies on a deeply personal level for most environmentally aware humans, and on a global scale.

Climate journalist and author Tatiana Schlossberg says even a simple trip to the supermarket can feel paralyzing in 2021. “I want to buy the local thing, but it’s not organic. Or, maybe it’s in a plastic box,” she says. In her 2019 book Inconspicuous Consumption, she ventures way beyond the store aisle and into the web of less apparent ways that humans are damaging Earth. For example, your internet use is tied to extensive carbon emissions and energy consumption.     2     The world is more complicated than that.

In fact, being a good citizen on planet Earth with climate concerns, you’ve likely asked or agonized over this question: What should I do?     3     So, we took this question to five people who have immersed their careers, research and writing in the realities of climate science.

One of their most consistent insights may surprise you: Consumer responsibility misses the mark. “One of the major failings of the environmental movement is having everyone focus on these small things that everyone can do.” says Ayana Elizabeth Johnson-a marine biologist and co-host of the podcast How to Save a Planet.     4     There are just more meaningful and long-lasting ways to expend your energy in the climate fight. Most of them involve organization and collective action.

“Individuals join together to collectively have far more power changing the system than they can as individuals,” says Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

A．That doesn’t mean it’s none of your business.

B．these experts propose other key steps that every human can take toward a better future.

C．Similar challenge apply to use of plastics and consumption of meat and other goods.

D．Part of the challenge with the environmental movement is the astonishing list of things we need to change.

E．The solution to this problem, however, is not for you to stop using the internet, according to Schlossberg.

F．It’s easy to get lost in the storm of supposed answers around social media, the latest data sets and “ego-friendly” marketing campaigns.

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

A. respectively       B. vision                 C. rebounded       D. decoupling       E. respectably F. promoting          G. commitments       H. emitters          I. peak                 J. remaining            K. urgent

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the Asean (东盟) region are estimated to increase in the same period, based on the latest Nationally determined contributions (NDC) targets up to 2030.

To keep the Paris Agreement temperature goal within reach, Dr Beni Suryadi, Centre for Energy Manager at the Asean Secretariat, stated that ASEAN needs to achieve     1    emissions as soon as possible after 2030 and net-zero GHG emissions as soon as possible after 2050.

However,     2    of the growth in GDP and energy-related CO2 emissions is observed only in a handful of the Asean member states.

“It is vital to reduce energy intensity through lower energy demand and further energy savings and to reduce emission intensity by     3    renewable energy expansion,” he said.

“Current policies need to be enhanced to achieve the NDC targets. The     4    under the NDCs will provide Asean with a better perspective of the need for a more ambitious course of action on mitigation（缓解） in the future. Ambitious energy policies can significantly reduce GHG emission and helps our     5    towards low carbon economies and climate resilient nations.”

Earlier in his presentation, Dr Beni highlighted, “a brief record-breaking drop in climate change – causing carbon emissions during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. However, nowadays we continue to hear the news and read reports that say that global emissions have already     6    to near pre-pandemic levels”.

“While we are grateful to learn that the economy is reviving and we see economic activities taking place everywhere, there is a(n)     7    need for us to limit the growth of emissions. Global GHG emissions continue to rise, at a time when they need to be rapidly falling.”

At the global level, he said, “It is recorded that almost three-quarters of the GHG emissions come from energy use; almost one-fifth from agriculture and land use; and the     8    eight per cent from industry and waste”.

He also noted that the electricity and transport sectors start out as and remain the biggest     9    of GHGs and air pollution in Asean.

“If the Asean member states do what is needed to fully achieve their own national energy efficiency and renewable energy targets, as well as their climate commitments, Asean’s total energy- related GHG emissions in 2040 will be 3,002 MtCO2-eq, 28 per cent lower than in the baseline scenario.

“Power generation remains the largest sectoral contributor, accounting for about 40 per cent and 46 per cent of total GHG emissions from energy in 2025 and 2040,     10    .

“Furthermore, if Asean fulfilled its regional aspirational targets on the energy efficiency and renewable energy, Asean will be able to reduce GHG emissions more sharply to only 2,264 Mt CO2-eq in 2040,” he said.

8 . Directions: Read the following three passages. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Public Opinion Counts

Modbury is a typical small town of the south of England with a population of about 1,600. Typical, that is, apart from the fact that there are no plastic carrier bags in the town. None. Plastic bags have been well and truly dumped!

The removal of the plastic bags was the brainchild of Rebecca Hosking, Modbury resident and documentary-maker. Filming a documentary in the Pacific Ocean, Rebecca was horrified at the effects of plastic bags on the wildlife off Hawaii. Among other things, she saw seabirds fatally trapped in plastic bags that don’t biodegrade. When Rebecca returned to her hometown, she discussed this problem with people, including the shopkeepers and everyone supported her suggestion to make the town plastic bag free.

But for Rebecca’s concept, Modbury would still be an unremarkable little place. Now, however, shoppers take re-usable cotton bags shopping with them, or they buy biodegradable corn starch ones on the shops. The shopkeepers now wrap their goods in paper. To prove that the townsfolk are not only committed to reducing plastic waste, they organised a mass beach clean-up last year. Dozens of volunteers came to the beach on the appointed day to clean it up, taking the rubbish that visitors throw away and recycling it. And the greatest part of that rubbish was... no, not plastic bags, but plastic bottles.

Becoming the first town in Europe to ban plastic bags, Modbury is now harvesting the rewards of fame — reporters and camera crews from newspapers and TV channels across the world are coming to this mild town to find out its secret. And, contrary to some of the initial reports, it is a normal town, trying to live life in a slightly different way. As one resident put it. “We’re ordinary people, but we want to make just a little difference.”

9 . Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

Throughout the centuries, pink has assumed a range of guises (表现形式). The way it is sensed by society has also changed over the years.

In the West, pink first became fashionable in the mid-1700s, when European aristocrats (贵族) were dressed in pink as a symbol of class. Madame de Pompadour loved the color so much that, in 1757, French porcelain manufacturer Sèvres named its new shade of pink “Rose Pompadour” after her.

Pink was not then considered a girls’ color — infants of both genders were dressed in white.     1     The color’s more recent association with femininity (女性气质) started around the mid-19th century, according to Valerie Steele, editor of the book Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color. She explained, “Men in the Western world increasingly wore dark colors, leaving brighter options to females     2    . ”

By the turn of the century, pink had entered the mainstream — and its status shifted in the process. The advent of industrialization and mass production led to comparatively cheap dyes (染料). Pink went from luxury to working class.

Its guises continued to change throughout the 1900s.     3     By the 1950s, pink had become more gender-coded than ever. The branding and marketing in post-war America that used it as a symbol of super-femininity, strengthened a “pink for girls, blue for boys” stereotype.

Pink did not regain its popularity until the 1960s, when public figures such as Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe adopted it as a mark of luxury. In more recent decades, pink has also been accepted as a color of protest and awareness for various communities. For example, it has become internationally equivalent to the fight against breast cancer, in the form of a pink ribbon.

“Pink is going through a generational shift,” Steele said. “    4     There’s a shared recognition that pink can be pretty and powerful and feminine. We’re redefining pink.”

A．Pink became an expression of delicacy.

B．The color was in fact, often considered more appropriate for little boys because it was seen as a paler (浅的) red, which had manly implications.

C．Pink was regarded as simple, because of its association with women, who have been traditionally looked down upon.

D．Society is increasingly moving away from the idea of it as a childish color.

E．French designer Paul Poiret created dresses in pale pinks, pushing the shade back into the field of high fashion.

F．Society decides what colors mean.