1 . You look up at the sky on a clear and dark night, you’ll see more stars than your eyes can count. Most of these stars have planets, similar to our own, orbiting them. With so many celestial bodies floating out in space, you can’t help but question whether other forms of life exist in the universe. And if that’s the case, is it possible to contact them?
Science is still somewhat divided on this issue. Currently, no evidence exists to suggest that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. Yet with an estimated one trillion planets in our galaxy alone, it seems highly likely that Earthlings aren’t the only intelligent creatures out there. Some claim that life can only develop under perfect circumstances, and Earth is perhaps the only example of this. Other scientists object to this claim, and point out that even on Earth, life can find a way under the most extreme circumstances.
Some people believe that aliens have already visited our planet, but this information is being kept secret by governments. The most famous incident of this kind occurred in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. On that date, many residents reported seeing an unusual flying disc streak through the sky, before it crashed in a field. When the military heard about the crash, they quickly sealed off the area. A few hours later, the army base announced that it had recovered a flying disk. Shortly after, this statement was retracted and it was said that it was a weather balloon that crashed. However, years later one local mortician even claimed that the military had him secretly perform an autopsy on a dead alien body.
Others believe that there certainly are other life forms out there, but the distance between us is too great. Even if we could somehow create a spaceship that travels at the speed of light, it would still probably take several lifetimes to reach them. Then again, we might never have to do this if aliens reach us first.
1. Why do some scientists think there is life on other planets?| A．Because an unusual flying disc was ever witnessed. |
| B．Because life exists despite extreme conditions as those on the Earth do. |
| C．Because the government’s statement seemed suspicious. |
| D．Because there are a great number of planets in the universe. |
| A．Examined again to guarantee the correctness. | B．Emphasized again to persuade people. |
| C．Formally taken back what has been said. | D．Seriously criticized due to poor evidence |
| A．Are we alone in the universe? | B．Is it possible to contact aliens? |
| C．Intelligent life in the universe. | D．Planets floating out in space. |
| A．Objective. | B．Humorous. | C．Cautious. | D．Anxious. |
2 . We’re shopping online more than ever now, including various personal care and food items. Of U.S. Internet users, one-third do it at least once a week. Seeing your limited toilet paper (TP), you might pull up your smartphone and after a few taps have a fresh order of TP set to arrive in a day, maybe even less, and all done right from the toilet seat.
But this type of shopping — numerous small, quick-to-ship orders placed through e-tailing companies like Amazon — might be the worst for the environment, according to a recent study in Environmental Science & Technology. With their current business model of free shipping and fast delivery, greenhouse gas emissions linked with transporting “fast consumer goods” are high. “The online-only retailers are growing rapidly,” says lead author Sadegh, a scientist at Radboud University in the Netherlands.
Previous analyses haven’t agreed on whether online or in-store shopping is better. In fact, some studies have found that online shopping has a lower impact, because it saves the emissions associated with driving your car to the store (95 percent of Americans drive to go shopping). But this benefit can vary, or even disappear, depending on how fast we want that TP to arrive. And if you’re shopping in real life, factors like how you transport those items, how far you travel, and how much you buy at once all affect the carbon footprint of your purchase. “There have been some contradicting results, with some saying online shopping is better and some saying traditional shopping is better,” says Sadegh. So he tried to settle the debate with an approach that showed how likely one option was to be better than the other.
Sadegh and his team compared three shopping styles: traditional in-store shopping, online ordering from a physical store (which they called “bricks and clicks”), and ordering through an online-only retailer. Nearly two-thirds of the time, bricks and clicks shopping resulted in fewer emissions per item than in-store shopping — and was better than online shopping 97 percent of the time. In-store shopping had fewer emissions than online — only 81percent of the time.
1. Why was “ordering TP on the smartphone” mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．To state convenience of TV shopping. |
| B．To show importance of smartphones. |
| C．To encourage people to purchase TP online. |
| D．To stress people’s frequency of online shopping. |
| A．It requires more energy to produce these products. |
| B．Its current business model generates more greenhouse gas. |
| C．It causes people not to care much about the environment. |
| D．Its packaging of goods produces numerous harmful waste. |
| A．Traditional in-store shopping. |
| B．Online ordering from a physical store. |
| C．Ordering through an online-only store. |
| D．Driving to shop in huge supermarkets. |
| A．By analyzing causes. | B．By listing theories. |
| C．By making comparison. | D．By giving examples. |
3 . The sound coming from Taronga Zoo Sydney in Australia may sound like the cries of a human baby.
Echo is a superb lyrebird (琴鸟), an Australian bird named for the shape of its tail.
Seven-year-old Echo can mimic the sound of a fire alarm and the “leave immediately” announcement at the zoo, Leanne Golebiowski, a bird expert at Taronga Zoo Sydney said
Male lyrebirds use their mimicking talents mainly for mating. During their breeding sea-son, male lyrebirds can be heard singing for up to 4 hours a day. Their songs consist of a lot of different bird calls that they have picked up from their surroundings.
| A．However, don’t be alarmed. |
| B．The female should stay with him. |
| C．The number of lyrebirds is on the increase. |
| D．The tail looks like an instrument known as a lyre. |
| E．Obviously, he has been working on his craft during lockdown. |
| F．About a year ago, Echo started practicing baby cries, she said. |
| G．But sometimes their mating songs include other non-bird sounds. |
4 . Paper bags remain an option in grocery stores and are preferred by many consumers for convenience.
Ten billion paper bags are used every year in the United States alone.
Paper bags are mostly made from original wood pulp (木浆) because recycled pulp is not strong enough, so their production begins with cutting down trees.
| A．It takes 14 million trees to meet this demand. |
| B．But experts advise using plastic bags instead of paper bags. |
| C．Paper bag production harms the environment in two ways. |
| D．They can be reused as garbage bags or for groceries several times. |
| E．Paper bags and plastic bags have their own strengths and weaknesses. |
| F．The production of a paper bag requires four times as much energy as a plastic bag. |
| G．Some people assume they are less damaging to the environment than plastic bags. |
5 . Canada has reintroduced some bisons (北美野牛) to the country’s oldest national park in Banff, Alberta, officials said on Monday, more than 130 years after the North American animal last appeared on the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies.
The protection team moved a group of 16 bisons into enclosed grassland in Banff National Park in the west of the province last week. The group will stay under observation in the Panther Valley until next summer, when the animals will be released into the full 1,189 sq km reintroduction zone in the park’s eastern valleys.
Parks Canada said bisons were once main grazers (plant-eaters) and that bringing them back would recover their missing role in Banffs ecosystem. “This would be one of only four bison groups in North America that would be fully interacting with their predators (meat-eaters) and shaping the ecosystem as they did over a hundred years ago,” said Karsten Heuer, the bison reintroduction project manager. Those predators will include wolves and bears native to the park.
Ten pregnant female bisons and six young bulls were disease-tested before being driven 400 km across Alberta by truck. Since the Panther Valley is not easy to reach by road, officials attached the containers by a long line to a plane and flew them in one at a time for the last 25 km.
Vast bison groups of up to 30 million animals once lived freely across North America. The animal was nearly hunted to extinction, and park keepers estimate bisons have not grazed in Banff National Park since before it was set up in 1885.
1. Why did the protection team move bisons into enclosed grassland?| A．To observe them. | B．To protect them. |
| C．To cure diseases. | D．To change their habits. |
| A．To reshape Banff’s ecosystem. |
| B．To help the bison population expand. |
| C．To make the oldest national park worth visiting |
| D．To recover their predators’ role in the ecosystem. |
| A．Deadly diseases. | B．Cruel hunting. |
| C．Natural predators. | D．Worsened ecology. |
| A．To show how to protect bisons. |
| B．To describe the living condition of bisons. |
| C．To explain how to transport bisons to Banff. |
| D．To inform readers of bisons returning to Banff. |
6 . From littering the highest mountain peak to the deepest sea, we have messed up the environment and not left a single spot clean. Plastic pollution was also the theme for the last year’s Environment Day, but has anything changed?
With a “hope” to change things, a 150 feet long and 12 feet high “Wall of Hope” has been constructed using 15,000 discarded bottles collected from various sources such as streets and roads in Mussoorie and the surrounding region, which encourages the tourists to keep the surroundings clean.
Mussoorie attracts armies of visitors from neighboring cities every month so that it sometimes gets choked by over-tourism. But then, people hardly paid attention to the “saving the environment” cried these days. So, in order to convey this message in a meaningful and beautiful way, the locals of Mussoorie came up with this unique concept to remind travelers of the litter they leave behind.
The wall was built by over 50 volunteers that are basically school and college students who stepped forward to help bring this idea to life. For establishing this, plastic bottles of different shapes, sizes, and colors have been collected and fixed in this wall. Seeing their tireless efforts, the village locals also joined in later to help turn this project into a success story and then it spread like wildfire. They are actually admiring this new addition to the landscapes of Mussoorie, saying that the town looks even more beautiful now!
The wall was designed by Subodh Kerkar, founder of the private art gallery Museum of Goa. Talking to Hindustan Times, Kerkar said, “The wall will draw structural strength from steel pillars (柱子) being fixed two feet deep into the ground. The structure is completely rain and wind proof. I hope the wall will inspire a sense of beauty and will add color to the peaceful background of the hills.”
1. What is the function of the question mentioned in Paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic of the passage. |
| B．To remind readers of the climate change. |
| C．To show the theme of the Environment Day. |
| D．To stress the bad effect of plastic pollution. |
| A．Abandoned. | B．Decorated. | C．Broken. | D．Donated. |
| A．It was made of certain equal- sized bottles. |
| B．It was designed by some college students. |
| C．It attracts fewer tourists to visit Mussoorie. |
| D．It raises tourists’ environmental awareness. |
| A．Towering and less known. | B．Common and well-received. |
| C．Unique and far reaching. | D．Huge and money consuming. |
7 . A mother, Carrie Cort, 51, from Sussex, and her nine-year-old son were named the UK's most environmentally friendly family after winning an award for their environmental achievements.
Now every aspect of her life is environmentally friendly, from her son Adam's birthday parties to her clothing, and she recycles everything from used pens to milk bottle tops. ''Changing our family lifestyle to a green one has saved us around £ 11, 000 every year, which has given us more financial stability, " Carrie says. "Living green has made us healthier and I feel younger now. It is fun to see what you can make with unwanted or broken things. Growing your own food is great exercise, which is good for wildlife, and the food is much more nutritious and tastier."
“My concern for the way we humans are treating the planet was really aroused in 2008 when Adam was born. When he arrived, I suddenly had this huge, greater awareness of the planet we're bringing our children into though I learnt something about it in university." She began going to talks, reading books, watching documentaries and attending green meetings in order to educate herself in the details of green living.
Carrie set up the local campaign group Sussex Green Living six years after her son's birth. Later, she gave up her high-powered job, as she ran a video company with her brother, to do her job full-time. Today, she organizes talks and workshops. She runs a repair cafe, where people can bring everything to be fixed. Her recycling program helps people reuse wastes. Toothpaste tubes, for example, are turned into purses by an organization. My goal is to inspire more people to lead greener, more environmentally friendly lives, to enable us to live in greater harmony with nature, now and for future organizations. I achieve this by various Sussex Green Living communication programs and working with other organizations who have the same goals and values."
1. How did Carrie feel about her environmentally friendly lifestyle?| A．Unwanted. | B．Unhealthy. | C．Expensive. | D．Economical. |
| A．After winning an award. | B．After giving birth to her son. |
| C．After being stuck in poverty, | D．After attending green meetings. |
| A．She made good preparations for living green. |
| B．She recycled what people ignored for fun. |
| C．She does daily exercise by growing food. |
| D．She majored in planet protection in university. |
| A．Her repair cafe and workshops. |
| B．Her own programs and cooperation with others. |
| C．Her well-paid job and her brother's support. |
| D．Her independence of realizing her green dream. |
8 . A series of severe thunder storms struck our area recently. Heavy rains, strong winds, and lots of lightening had
I quickly took my dogs outside. Huge and
Life does have its
| A．reserved | B．caused | C．witnessed | D．indicated |
| A．cutting down | B．throwing away | C．picking up | D．looking for |
| A．ready | B．excited | C．upset | D．embarrassed |
| A．expectations | B．details | C．signals | D．warnings |
| A．heading our way | B．coming to mind | C．coming into effect | D．taking its place |
| A．constant | B．alarming | C．temporary | D．normal |
| A．disappeared | B．mattered | C．changed | D．boomed |
| A．anywhere | B．outdoors | C．somewhere | D．indoors |
| A．hall | B．house | C．balcony | D．room |
| A．shone | B．circled | C．spread | D．traveled |
| A．bothered | B．followed | C．targeted | D．allocated |
| A．result | B．trick | C．darkness | D．battle |
| A．mixed | B．replaced | C．combined | D．surrounded |
| A．promise | B．sign | C．story | D．share |
| A．nature | B．society | C．design | D．chance |
| A．instead | B．therefore | C．though | D．somehow |
| A．match | B．present | C．thoughts | D．storms |
| A．safer | B．better | C．quieter | D．warmer |
| A．amazed | B．concerned | C．upset | D．good |
| A．give | B．put | C．drive | D．send |
9 . Are plants intelligent？Science is beginning to think so. In 2013, The New Yorker published an article that set the plant sciences world on fire, forever changing the way both the public and researchers looked at and studied the plant kingdom. The “Intelligent Plant” was previously unheard of.
Communication: A lot of evidence suggests that plants, trees in particular, can communicate with one another
Learning:
Memory: As research and experiment continue into the plant memory, people can’t help but ask the question “how can something without a brain have memories？” Studies have determined that plants can indeed learn and create memories.
Figuring out the “plant brain” question is the logical next step. As more research comes in, the more it seems to indicate plant intelligence as a very real possibility.
| A．Can plants be taught？ |
| B．Can they remember things in general？ |
| C．This communication occurs through underground networks. |
| D．It makes no sense to research plants communication methods. |
| E．They can display their memory recall through learned response. |
| F．The following behavioral characteristics are from the experiments. |
| G．Therefore, the plant biology community claimed it was completely baseless. |
10 . Doing a bit of research before you sort your trash can make all the difference. Recycling rules differ from one city to another. Here are a few ways to help you do it better.
■Don’t put your recyclables in a plastic bag
It’s not that we don’t have the technology to recycle plastic bags, but it is risky to recycle them because the bags are so lightweight and flexible that they end up getting caught in the recycling equipment!
Your best option is to bring your plastic bags to a drop-off recycling center where it has the right equipment to recycle them.
■You can recycle plastic caps together with bottles
In the past, we were told to separate the cap from the bottle when recycling. Bottles are made from # 1plastic while their caps #5 plastic. They are at different melting temperatures and need to be processed separately. But now, advanced machines have made it easier to separate bottles and caps.
At present, what you need to do is leave the plastic bottle cap on the bottle and ensure the bottle is free of all liquids before throwing it into the bin.
■You can’t recycle a pizza box
Although cardboard itself is recyclable, pizza boxes are not. Why? It all comes down to the oil. When you place oily cardboard into a recycling bin, you run the risk of polluting clean, recyclable things. And an entire pack of polluted recyclables can cost more.
But if only a small part of your box is oily, pull that piece off the box and throw just that piece away while the rest of the box can then be recycled.
1. Why can’t we place recyclables in a plastic bag when sorting trash?| A．It will cause more pollution. |
| B．The equipment may fail to work. |
| C．Plastic bags are not tough enough. |
| D．No technology is available to recycle plastic bags. |
| A．Collect them into a specific bin. | B．Put them into different machines. |
| C．Separate the caps from the bottles. | D．Empty the bottles and re-cap them. |
| A．The oil on it. | B．Lack of proper facilities. |
| C．Its harmful materials | D．Different melting temperatures. |
