1 . As a capital city full of art and history, London is an important political centre and a huge financial marketplace. Whatever you think about London, visiting as a tourist is very different from living there. Each part of London has its own character. Some parts are richer than others, or more industrial, or have better housing.

Let’s start with the centre, the “Square Mile”. This is the oldest part of London. In the past, it was where all financial business was done. Not many people live here, but 300,000 people work here every day.

Moving west, we come to the West End. This busy shopping and entertainment district is bursting with things to do. Take a walk down Oxford Street, and you will see big department stores like Selfridges and Harrods. Rents here are very high; a one-bedroom apartment may cost around 1,000 pounds a week. Further away is West London. This area is more residential(住宅的)and very fashionable.

The East End contains the Port of London, which historically is where many immigrants first arrived. Waves of French, Belgians, Jews, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have all lived here. This makes the culture of this area very various. London won the bid to hold the Olympics in 2012, so many Londoners hope that housing, education and employment for many people in this area will improve.

It is difficult to be general about London. The city is made up of a " collection of villages”, each area with its own character and community. Put them all together, and you have London, an international capital.

1. Which of the following descriptions about Square Mile is NOT true?

A．It is the oldest part of London.

B．It is the center of London.

C．All financial business was once done there.

D．300, 000 people live there.

2. Tom, an American, wants to go shopping in London. He had better go to         .

A．the East End	B．the West End
C．the Port of London	D．the Square Mile

3. According to the passage, Harrods is                .

A．a department store	B．a residential area
C．a famous square	D．a small village

4. What can we infer from Paragraph 4?

A．The East End is richer than other parts of London.

B．There must be many ships in the East End.

C．People living in the East End have good housing.

D．Most Londoners are satisfied with their government.

2 . An earthquake is a trembling or shaking of the ground caused by the sudden release(释放) of energy stored in the rocks below the surface. Generally, earthquakes last only seconds. Strong ground shaking during a medium（中等的） to large earthquake generally lasts about 10 to 30 seconds. Aftershocks（余震）can occur once in a while for weeks or even months.

Many people think that there is an “earthquake season” or a kind of “earthquake weather”. As a matter of fact, there isn’t. Earthquakes can occur at any time of the year and at time of day or night. Earthquakes occur under all weather conditions-sunny, wet. or cold without any special weather tendency(倾向).

Also, you don’t need to worry that the ground will open up and swallow people when earthquakes occur. Open ground cracks may form during an earthquake, for example, to land sliding or ground falling. However, such cracks tend to be open gaps (they don’t “ swallow”) that a person could stand in afterwards.

The safest place in an earthquake is an open field because buildings and falling objects can injure or kill you. If you are indoors, when you feel the ground start to shake, take cover immediately under a table or strong piece of furniture, placing something between falling objects and yourself. Don’t attempt to use the stairs or an elevator to get out of the building.

1. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Earthquakes usually last 10 to 30 seconds.

B．After a big earthquake, there are many more quakes.

C．Cracks in an earthquake are very dangerous.

D．What usually injures people during an earthquake are falling buildings.

2. The reason why there isn’t “earthquake weather” is that ____________.

A．an earthquake only lasts seconds and doesn’t happen frequently.

B．an earthquake can happen at any time and in any kind of weather.

C．when an earthquake happens is related to the weather

D．earthquakes don’t change with the seasons

3. The underlined word “swallow” in Paragraph3 probably means “___________”?

A．take sb. / sth. in	B．make sb. frightened
C．make room for sb. to stand in	D．make the ground slide

3 . Not only does the use of plastic water bottles hurt your wallet, it also increases pollution and wastes energy and water. Only 23% of all plastic in America ends up in a recycling bin, meaning over $ 1 billion worth of plastic is treated as rubbish a year. Recently, Skipping Rocks Lab has invented a kind of water bottle called Ooho.

It is a convenient, clear water bottle that can either be drunken or eaten. To drink it, you can either peel off the membrane (薄膜) or tear a hole in the membrane with your teeth to pour the water into your mouth. To eat it, you simply put the whole bottle in your mouth. One problem the scientists have run into is how to ship large amounts of Ooho bubbles(水泡) without arriving with a very wet truck. However, they have attempted to package units of individual bubbles together inside a larger and thicker membrane. It is targeting large outdoor events, such as marathons, music festivals, and sporting events, where tons of plastic bottles are used, and frequently left behind as litter. And too much plastic is sure to do harm to the environment, which could account for their purpose of such a new invention.

The team has been working for the past two years to develop the technology and materials needed to produce Ooho; they have recently applied a patent for their new advancements. The price for an individual bubble or a unit of bubbles has not been set yet, but they cost about two cents to create a unit, which is cheaper than plastic bottles. It has appeared at events in London, San Francisco, Boston, at conferences, festivals, and so on.

Ooho is catching many people’s attention and has raised over $ 1 million and gained 1,000 investors in only three days. It is mostly being sold at events at the moment to keep the consumer’s interest while the production machine is getting up and running. It is quickly making a rise,so keep an eye out this year for these bottles of the future.

1. How is most plastic dealt with in America?

A．It’s sold.	B．It’s recycled.
C．It’s buried.	D．It’s wasted.

2. Why did the team invent Ooho?

A．To make a profit for a company.	B．To protect the environtnent.
C．To make people eat as they drink.	D．To reduce the cost of plastic bottle.

3. What can we infer about Ooho from the text?

A．It is easy and safe to ship it in large amounts.

B．It has become popular since it began to be sold.

C．It might be sold at a lower price than plastic bottles.

D．It cost the team a lot of money to develop the technology.

4. What does the author really want to say in the last paragraph?

A．Ooho is to be a success in the future.

B．Ooho is being supported by smart people.

C．Ooho is taking the place of plastic bottles now.

D．Ooho is being produced to attract more investors.

4 . Birds enjoy a relatively slow rate of extinction but a new study suggests that rate might be severely underestimated(低估). Even worse, if human actions continue, bird extinction rates could skyrocket and 12 percent of the known bird species(物种) could be dying out by the end of the century.

Presently there are 10,000 known bird species — most identified after 1850 — and an estimated 130 of those have become extinct since 1500, setting the extinction rate at about one species every four years.

But according to Stuart Pimm of Duke University, this rate fails to take into account three key points: The continual identification of extinct bird species from fossil remains; numerous "missing" species not yet declared extinct; and the fact that present extinction rates were not calculated using the proper baseline date for when the species was first described.

Taking these points into consideration, the extinction rate is closer to one bird species per year, says Pimm, the leading author of the study. And the rate could be three times as high as that if not for recent bird preservation efforts.

In previous centuries, bird extinctions took place mainly on islands as Polynesian peoples expanded into the Pacific or Europeans took over the Americas, wiping out birds along the way.

In recent years, scientists are seeing an increased number of extinctions on continents, again because of human activities. Habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species, and climate change combine to harm many bird species. Before human influence, the estimated rate of bird extinctions would have been only one species per hundred years, researchers estimate.

Bird extinction rates are slower than for most animals, mainly because humans do more harm to other species and people take special efforts to protect birds. Still, if the present trends continue, the researchers estimate that the bird extinction rate will continue to climb to as many as 10 species per year,

1. The underlined word "skyrocket" in the first paragraph means

A．fly high

B．appear soon

C．increase quickly

D．change regularly

2. According to Pimm, the extinction rate of birds is____________.

A．one species per hundred years

B．one species every year

C．three species per year

D．ten species every year

3. What can we infer from the fifth and sixth paragraphs?

A．Humans have started destroying bird habitat in recent years.

B．Humans are doing more harm to animals than to birds.

C．Humans have made no effort to protect birds.

D．Humans are responsible for the bird extinctions.

4. What might be the best title for the passage?

A．Humans' Fighting against Bird Extinction

B．Humans' Responsibilities for Bird Protection

C．Bird Extinction Rates Far Worse Than Realized

D．Bird Extinction Occurring on Islands and Continents

5 . There was a time when a trip to the supermarket in the United States often ended with a seemingly simple question from the cashier: “Paper or plastic?” Well, which type of bag would you choose?

While all types of bags have some influence on the environment, it has long been supposed that paper bags are kinder. They are made from a renewable source, break down easily, burn without giving off thick smoke and can be recycled. However, the producing process behind paper bags uses more energy than that of plastic ones. How can this be true?

Studies show that paper bag production requires four times as much energy as plastic bag production. And the amount of water used to make them is twenty times higher. Besides, the influence on forests is very serious. It takes about fourteen million trees to produce ten billion paper bags, which happens to be the number of bags used in the United States yearly. In terms of recycling, the idea that paper bags are more environment-friendly than plastic ones can be quickly discarded. Research shows it requires about 98% less energy to recycle plastic than it does paper.

Even though paper bags might be more harmful than plastic ones, plastic still seems to be considered by governments as the more harmful of the two. In Ireland, for example, a tax has been introduced to discourage the use of plastic bags. People have to pay 22 cents for every plastic bag, and as a result, their use has dropped quickly.

There’s no doubt that it makes more sense to reuse these bags. However, we don’t seem to be doing that at present. That may be because they fall apart quickly. If so, cloth bags are a better choice, but still, their production also has a bad influence on the environment. So what to do? How should we answer the question of “Paper or plastic?” It seems that we first need to ask ourselves one more general question: “What can I do to help the environment?”

1. The questions in Paragraph 1 are used to          .

A．express the author’s doubts

B．tell readers how to save money

C．introduce points for discussion

D．show the kindness of the cashier

2. Compared with plastic bags, paper bags        .

A．need more water to produce

B．require less energy to recycle

C．take more time to break down

D．have less influence on forests

3. The underlined word “discarded” in Paragraph 3 probably means “       ”.

A．shared	B．given up
C．discussed	D．put forward

4. Which question does the author probably hope the cashier will ask?

A．Paper or cloth?	B．Paper or plastic?
C．A small bag or big one?	D．A new bag or your own one?

6 . The Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was enlisted in the World Heritage by the UNESCO in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, the Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands and mountains, stretching about 6,700 kilometers from east to west of China. With a history of more than 2,000 years, some parts of the Great Wall are now in ruins or even entirely disappeared. However, it is still one of the most appealing attractions around the world.

No one can tell for sure when the building of the Great Wall was started, but it is popularly believed that it originated as a military fortification(要塞) against intrusion by tribes on the borders during the earlier Zhou Dynasty. Late in the Spring and Autumn Period, some states extended the defence work to prevent the attacks from other states.

It was not until the Qin Dynasty that the separate walls were connected to form a defensive system by Emperor Qin Shi Huang. After the emperor unified the country in 214 BC, he ordered the construction of the wall. It took about ten years to finish and the wall stretched from Gansu Province to Jilin Province. The wall not only served as a defence in the north but also symbolized the power of the emperor.

Further construction also experienced several dynasties. The present Great Wall in Beijing is mainly remains from the Ming Dynasty. Today, the Great Wall has become a must-see for every visitor to China. Few can help saying “Wow” when they stand on top of a beacon tower and look at this giant dragon. It has become a national pride of Chinese people.

1. The underlined word “appealing” probably means “______”.

A．huge	B．attractive
C．ordinary	D．moving

2. In the Qin Dynasty, ______.

A．the construction of the Great Wall was finished in 204 BC

B．the emperor wanted to invade other minor states

C．the defensive system of the Great Wall was separated

D．the Great Wall began its way from Jilin Province

3. According to the passage, the Great Wall _______.

A．is from the west to the east	B．is as long as 6,700 miles
C．was built in several dynasties	D．was begun in the Qin Dynasties

4. The best title for the passage probably is _______.

A．History of the Great Wall	B．Culture of the Great Wall
C．Construction of the Great Wall	D．Projection of the Great Wall

7 . Researchers find that    1    large amount of African dust can blow all the way across the Atlantic Ocean and fall on North and South Americas.

African dust storms can harm air quality    2     the ocean. But new research by scientists from some countries     3     (show) the storms also can do some good.     4    is found that an average of 28 million metric tons of Saharan dust falls in South America’s Amazon River basin each year. Scientists say the dust is an important    5    (provide) of fertilizer. “Yes, it’s    6    (surprise) because of the huge amount of dust and phosphorous(磷),     7     is a nutrient that plants need    8    (grow),” one of them says.

In fact, the phosphorous    9    (fall) from the sky is about the same as the amount that rivers carry out each year. The thick rainforest and the desert dust     10    (join) together on one small planet.

8 . Forest are amazing and so are the animals that live in them. We enjoy watching TV shows about bears, bats or monkeys. We know a lot about their lives: how they find food or what they do at different times of the year. But what about smaller animals that are more difficult to see or film?

Many small animals that live in forests are very important for the soil. A French scientist, Francois Xavier Joly, is studying one of them — the millipede(千足虫).

The importance of leaves

When the leaves begin to die in fall, they turn from green to yellow and fall from the trees. As they decompose on the ground, nutrients(营养物质) are returned to the soil and carbon dioxide to the air. Life in the forest needs these nutrients. Without them, plants could not grow and there would be no food for animals such as the millipede.

Food on the forest floor

Some living things, like mushrooms, break the leaves into smaller pieces and eat them. In a few months there is nothing left of them. But for mushrooms, not all trees are the same. Mushrooms prefer some types of leaves to others. This means that some leaves take much longer to be broken down than others. Sometimes it takes years. So what happens to these? This is where the millipede can help.

More on the menu

The millipede also likes leaves and it eats any type. But when it has finished, it produces waste. This waste then becomes the food of mushrooms. When mushrooms eat leaves they choose only certain types but when they eat waste, they will eat any kind. This is how the millipede turns dead leaves into food for others and helps life continue.

So next time you are walking through a forest, remember that something may be having a meal right under your feet.

1. According to the passage, what can we learn about the millipede?

A．It can often be seen on TV shows.

B．It mostly feeds on the nutrients in the soil.

C．It is too small to be noticed by people.

D．It lives under mushrooms in the forest.

2. What does the underlined word "decompose" in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Break down.

B．Dry up.

C．Dig in.

D．Make out.

3. What does the author want to tell us by mentioning mushrooms?

A．The millipede eats mushrooms in the forest.

B．The millipede helps to provide food for mushrooms.

C．Mushrooms play an important part in helping millipedes out.

D．Mushrooms decide what types of leaves the millipede will eat.

4. According to the author, the millipede is ________.

A．poisonous

B．rare

C．unimportant

D．amazing

9 . Small and round transparent water bottles filled with natural water could help provide a solution to London's plastic waste problem, according to Skipping Rocks Lab, the company in the British capital that produces them. They added that the balls have been made of plant and seaweed extracts and will decompose（分解）after four to six weeks if not consumed.

With many cities struggling to get rid of vast numbers of used plastic water bottles, the ‘Ooho’ has begun to meet the thirst of consumers in San Francisco and London. A report published last Thursday said more than 4,000 plastic bottles had been removed from the River Thames in a month last year, proving the scale of the waste problem.

"We think Ooho may not be the solution for all the applications that plastic bottles have, but definitely for short term consumption it could be a solution," said Rodrigo, the founder of Skipping Rocks Lab. In a trial near London Bridge last Wednesday, Ooho drew a mixture of surprise, amusement and delight among those who sampled them. London's city assembly said Ooho was a step forward. "It could be part of the solution but not the only solution. You also need to be able to refill bottles at railway stations for example," said Leonie Cooper, the Chair of the assembly's environment committee.

The company aims to target, among other consumers, marathon runners, who will be able to eat the Oohos mid-race without concerns about the environment. It is also considering sealing alcohol for a whole new market. "People see these small round bubbles and they just think ‘shots’. So that's definitely something we're looking at," said Skipping Rocks Lab Chief Operating Officer Lise. "We have sealed alcohol, we want to perfect it, and hopefully this will be the great change of the future."

1. ‘Ooho’ can help solve the plastic waste problem because ________.

A．it is small and transparent	B．it is filled with natural water
C．it is made of plant and seaweed	D．it can disappear some time later

2. How is Rodrigo's comment on ‘Ooho’?

A．Subjective.	B．Unreal.
C．Objective.	D．Ridiculous.

3. In which column can we find the text?

A．Technology and Invention.	B．Health and Medicine.
C．Industry and Economy.	D．Tourism and Development.

10 . It was a short flight from Shanghai to Xi’ an. Xi’ an is one of the four great ancient capitals of China     1     over 3,100 years of history. Its ancient walls date from the Ming Dynasty and are the best     2    (preserve) in the world. There are bicycles for people to hire. It is     3    (amaze) to ride along the walls to survey this fascinating city.

The Tang Dynasty Music and Dance show is not to be missed, but my favorite is an art gallery,     4    we can enjoy some beautiful artwork and learn how to write Chinese characters.

Most tourists make     5     way to Xi’ an to see the life-size terracotta warriors (兵马俑) and we were no     6     (difference). The collection, which shows the armies of the first Emperor of China,     7    (remain) hidden until 1974 when they were discovered by a farmer sinking a well. Walking among the statues is forbidden unless you are a VIP — but there are plenty of souvenir     8     (shop) in which tourists can buy the replicas（复制品）of them.

All too soon it was time     9    (leave). I really enjoyed my stay in Xi’ an. It is indeed a place of interest worth     10     second visit.