1 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages 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.

A professor of public health at UCLA says that pet ownership might provide a new form of health care. As far back as the 1790s, the elderly at a senior citizens’ home in England     1    (encourage) to spend time with farm animals. This helped patients’ mental state more than the cruel therapies     2     (use) on the mentally ill at the time. In recent years, scientist have finally begun to find proof     3     contact with animals can increase a sick person’s chance of survival and has been shown     4     (lower) heart rate, calm upset children, and get people to start a conversation.

Scientists think that animal companionship is beneficial     5     animals are accepting and attentive, and they don’t criticize or give orders. Animals have the unique ability to be more social. For example, visitors to nursing homes get more social responses from patients when they come with animal companions.

Not only do people seem     6    (anxious) when animals are nearby, but they may also live longer. Studies show that a year after heart surgery, survival rates for heart patients were higher for those with pets in their homes than those without pets. Elderly people with pets make fewer trips     7     doctors than those without animal companions, possibly because animals relieve loneliness. Staying with animals is believed to create a peaceful state of mind,     8    (result) in a favourable environment for everyone.

Research confirms that the findings concerning senior citizens can be applied to restless children. They are more easy-going when there are animals around with, with     9     company they tend to calm down more easily. They involve     10     in playing with animals and the presence of animals comforts them greatly.

2 . Each year, backed up by a growing anti-consumerist movement, people are using the holiday season to call on us all to shop less.

Driven by concerns about resource exhaustion, over recent years environmentalists have increasingly turned their sights on our “consumer culture”. Groups such as The Story of Stuff and Buy Nothing New Day are growing as a movement that increasingly blames all our ills on our desire to shop.

We clearly have a growing resource problem. The produces we make, buy, and use are often linked to the destruction of our waterways, biodiversity, climate and the land on which millions of people live. But to blame these issues on Christmas shoppers is misguided, and puts us in the old trap of blaming individuals for what is a systematic problem.

While we complain about environmental destruction over Christmas, environmentalists often forget what the holiday season actually means for many people. For most, Christmas isn’t an add-on to an already heavy shopping year. In fact, it is likely the only time of year many have the opportunity to spend on friends and family, or even just to buy the necessities needed for modern life.

This is particularly, true for Boxing Day, often the target of the strongest derision(嘲弄) by anti-consumerists. While we may laugh at the queues in front of the shops, for many, those sales provide the one chance to buy items they’ve needed all year. As Leigh Phillips argues, “this is one of the few times of the year that people can even hope to afford such ‘luxuries’, the Christmas presents their kids are asking for, or just an appliance that works.”

Indeed, the richest 7% of people are responsible for 50% of greenhouse gas emissions. This becomes particularly harmful when you take into account that those shopping on Boxing Day are only a small part of our consumption “problem” anyway. Why are environmentalists attacking these individuals, while ignoring such people as Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who has his own￡1.5bn yacht with a missile defence system?

Anyway, anti-consumerism has become a movement of wealthy people talking down to the working class about their life choices, while ignoring the real cause of our environmental problems. It is no wonder one is changing their behaviours—or that environmental destruction continues without any reduction in intensity.

1. It is indicated in the 1st   paragraph that during the holiday season, many consumers .

A．ignore resource problems

B．are fascinated with presents

C．are encouraged to spend less

D．show great interest in the movement.

2. It can be inferred from Paragraphs 2 and 3 that the environmentalist movement .

A．has targeted the wrong persons

B．has achieved its intended purposes

C．has taken environment-friendly measures

D．has benefited both consumers and producers

3. The example of Roman Abramovich is used to show environmentalists’ .

A．madness about life choices

B．discontent with rich lifestyle

C．ignorance about the real cause

D．disrespect for holiday shoppers

4. It can be concluded from the text that telling people not to shop at Christmas is .

A．anything less than a responsibility	B．nothing more than a bias
C．indicative of environmental awareness	D．unacceptable to ordinary people

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

A drop in the sun’s radiation can cause cold winters in parts of North America and Europe, scientists say, a finding that could improve long-range forecasts and help countries     1     for storms.

Scientists have known for a long time that the sun has an 11-year cycle during which radiation from the sun reaches a(n)     2     then falls. But detecting a clear link of the cycle to the weather has proved much     3    .

“Our research notices a link between solar activities and regional winter climate,” lead author Sarah Ineson of the UK Met Office told the reporters in an email.

Her team focused on the data from the recent minimum solar radiation period during 2008-10, which was a(n)     4     calm period for the sun but at the same time,     5     winters in the U.S and Europe were recorded which brought troubles to many businesses and made people’s lives difficult.

The researchers found that a reduction in radiation from the sun can affect wind patterns,     6     cold winters.

“While radiation levels won’t tell us what the day-to-day weather will be, they provide the exciting     7     of improved prediction for winter conditions for months and even years ahead. These predictions play an important role in long-term weather planning,” Ineson said.

Ineson’s team used the data in a complex computer to     8     long-term weather patterns. It successfully reproduced what scientists had observed happening in the upper atmosphere during changes in solar radiation. More study was needed, though. The key     9     in the experiment lay in the satellite data used, because it spans (跨度) only a few years.” So there are still questions concerning whether the current research results are accurate and whether they can be     10     to other solar cycles,” she said.

4 . By the end of the century, if not sooner, the world’s oceans will be bluer and greener thanks to a warming climate, according to a new study.

At the heart of the phenomenon lie tiny marine microorganisms(海洋微生物) called phytoplankton. Because of the way light reflects off the organisms, these phytoplankton create colourful patterns at the ocean surface. Ocean colour varies from green to blue, depending on the type and concentration of phytoplankton. Climate change will fuel the growth of phytoplankton in some areas, while reducing it in other spots, leading to changes in the ocean’s appearance.

Phytoplankton live at the ocean surface, where they pull carbon dioxide(二氧化碳) into the ocean while giving off oxygen. When these organisms die, they bury carbon in the deep ocean, an important process that helps to regulate the global climate. But phytoplankton are vulnerable to the ocean’s warming trend. Warming changes key characteristics of the ocean and can affect phytoplankton growth, since they need not only sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow, but also nutrients.

Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a scientist in MIT’s Center for Global Change Science, built a climate model that projects changes to the oceans throughout the century. In a world that warms up by 3℃, it found that multiple changes to the colour of the oceans would occur. The model projects that currently blue areas with little phytoplankton could become even bluer. But in some waters, such as those of the Arctic, a warming will make conditions riper for phytoplankton, and these areas will turn greener. “Not only are the quantities of phytoplankton in the ocean changing. ” she said, “but the type of phytoplankton is changing.”

And why does that matter? Phytoplankton are the base of the food web. If certain kinds begin to disappear from the ocean, Dutkiewicz said, “it will change the type of fish that will be able to survive.” Those kinds of changes could affect the food chain.

Whatever colour changes the ocean experiences in the coming decades will probably be too gradual and unnoticeable, but they could mean significant changes. “It’ll be a while before we can statistically show that the changes are happening because of climate change,” Dutkiewicz said, “but the change in the colour of the ocean will be one of the early warning signals that we really have changed our planet.”

1. What are the first two paragraphs mainly about?

A．The various patterns at the ocean surface.

B．The cause of the changes in ocean colour.

C．The way light reflects off marine organisms.

D．The efforts to fuel the growth of phytoplankton.

2. What does the underlined word “vulnerable” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Sensitive.

B．Beneficial.

C．Significant.

D．Unnoticeable.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Phytoplankton play a declining role in the marine ecosystem.

B．Dutkiewicz’s model aims to project phytoplankton changes.

C．Phytoplankton have been used to control global climate.

D．Oceans with more phytoplankton may appear greener.

4. What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To assess the consequences of ocean colour changes.

B．To analyse the composition of the ocean food chain.

C．To explain the effects of climate change on oceans.

D．To introduce a new method to study phytoplankton.