1 . Plastic is everywhere in our modern world. Its toughness makes it an extremely useful material from household items to vehicle parts, but that same toughness makes it hard to break down for recycling or disposal (处理). However, Japanese scientists at the University of Tokyo have developed a new plastic material that can be broken down more easily and can self-heal and remember past shapes.

Based on a kind of plastic called an epoxy resin vitrimer, which is brittle (脆性的), the new plastic boasts a huge range of advantages. Once scratched with a knife, it can completely patch itself up after being heated to 150 ℃ for just 60 seconds. When shaped into the shape of a crane, then flattened, it can fold itself back into the crane shape by being heated up. It does all of this much faster than others of its type.

The new plastic can also break down easier. Even if it’s discarded (丢弃) into the environment, it still poses less of a, problem than other kinds of plastic, which the team demonstrated by placing it in seawater for 30 days. It biodegraded by 25% and released molecules (分子) that are essential food for marine life.

The new plastic is more resistant to breaking. It can also repair itself, and can recover its original memorized shape. It even biodegrades safely in a marine environment, according to Shota Ando, a researcher of the study.

The material can be used in a variety of applications, “Infrastructure materials for roads and bridges are often composed of epoxy resins mixed with compounds such as concrete and carbon,” said Ando. “By using the new plastic, these would be easier to maintain as they would be stronger and healable using heat. Unlike conventional epoxy resins, this new material is hard but stretchable, so it could also be expected to strongly bond materials of different hardness and stretch.”

1. What is the author’s purpose in writing paragraph 1?

A．To introduce the topic of the text.	B．To show the disadvantages of plastic.
C．To highlight the importance of plastic.	D．To indicate his views on previous plastic.

2. What do the underlined words “patch itself up” mean in paragraph 2?

A．Change itself.

B．Shape itself.

C．Repair itself.

D．Burn itself.

3. What do we know about the new plastic?

A．It is safe for animals in the ocean.	B．It can provide nutrition for animals.
C．It can change its shape when frozen.	D．It is more brittle than previous plastic.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Research Of New Molecules	B．An Interesting Scientific Study
C．The Widespread Application Of Plastic	D．A New Environmentally Friendly Plastic

2 . Landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom has designed a new green roof on the Rangsit Campus of Thammasat University, about 25 miles north of central Bangkok, Thailand. Her imaginative work challenges the common thinking that urbanization has a negative impact on the planet, whether flooding, excess (过度的) energy use, disrupted (扰乱) biodiversity or the heat island effect.

The 236, 806-square-foot structure, which opened in December 2019, includes a flood water management system and Asia’s largest rooftop organic farm. It combines modern landscape architecture with traditional agricultural knowledge, creating a green and friendly environment.

The green roof, containing an H-shaped landscape, looks like a futuristic hill with a brick building beneath it. The hill features a complex pattern of zigzagging terraces (之字形梯田) of planted beds, leading all the way down to the bottom. When rainwater hits the roof, it flows down the zigzags while being absorbed by the soil in the beds, The excess water is directed into four storage ponds — with a capacity of up to 3 million gallons. The process slows down the flow speed of rainwater runoff compared to a normal concrete rooftop. This keeps the area from flooding during heavy rains.

The roof’s terraces are filled with organically grown crops, including a drought tolerant variety of rice, many local vegetables and herbs. The farm can supply the canteens on campus with a large amount of rice, herbs and vegetables a year. The food waste is composted (把……制成堆肥) to fertilize the farm, and water from the storage ponds is used to water plants, creating an entirely localized and circular system.

The farm serves as an outdoor classroom and a source of local jobs, too. Farmers offer workshops on sustainable agriculture and nutrition as part of the university’s sustainability curriculum. “Students and community members are invited to participate in seasonal seeding, harvesting, and so on,” says Voraakhom. “The urban farm is training a new generation of organic farmers with real-world skills. It also promotes a sense of community.”

1. What can we say about Voraakhom’s work?

A．It’s short-lived.	B．It’s creative.
C．It’s demanding.	D．It’s time-consuming.

2. Why is the rooftop designed to be zigzag?

A．To store more water.

B．To plant diverse vegetables.

C．To slow the speed of water flow.

D．To make it look more attractive than other buildings.

3. What can be inferred about the farm from paragraph 4?

A．It uses food as fertilizer.	B．It benefits the environment.
C．It improves students’ lifestyle.	D．It produces vegetables and fruits.

4. What does the author want to show by mentioning the outdoor classroom?

A．Students can learn hands-on knowledge on the farm.

B．Farmers working on the farm can become professors.

C．The farm prevents government from offering people jobs.

D．The farm harms the relationship between university and community.

3 . Scientists have known for years that plants respond to sounds around them. For example, flowers make sweeter nectar (花蜜) to the sound of buzzing bees. But now scientists in Israel have shown that plants also seem to be doing some “talking”.

Professor Lilach Hadany and her team at Tel Aviv University set up microphones to record tomato and tobacco plants under different conditions. Their recordings showed that the plants made ultrasonic (超声波的) sounds.

When the researchers adjusted their recordings so that humans could hear them, they heard sharp clicking noises. Plants clicked hardly at all when they had enough water. But as their soil got drier, they clicked more and more. When scientists cut off a stem (茎) from the plants, the plants also clicked more. But the clicking wasn’t the same as when the plants needed water.

It’s not clear how the plants make the sounds and whether the plants are making the sounds on purpose. But the plants are definitely making noises, and creating much more noises when they’re stressed (not enough water, stem cut off) than when they’re not.

The researchers trained an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to identify the different kinds of clicking sounds. The system was able to tell the difference between plants that needed water and plants with cuts about 70% of the time. The result suggests that researchers may one day be able to use a plant’s sounds to figure out when it is having trouble, and what trouble it is having. That could be very helpful to farmers.

The new discovery raises many more questions. One important question is: Do plants make sounds to communicate with each other? Other research has shown that plants do seem to communicate in some ways. Plants being attacked by insects send chemicals into the air. Soon, nearby plants (that haven’t been attacked yet) start to make other chemicals that don’t taste good to insects. It’s possible that the ultrasonic sounds could work in a similar way.

1. What do the researchers find in their recordings?

A．Plants’ stems click less when they are cut off.

B．Plants click harder if they have enough water.

C．Plants make more noises when they are thirsty.

D．Flowers make sweeter nectar to the sound of bees.

2. What can we learn about the plants from paragraph 4?

A．There are still some unknown issues.

B．Not all of them are able to make sounds.

C．There are ultrasonic sounds around them.

D．They make less noises when they’re stressed.

3. What is the purpose of the AI system created by the researchers?

A．To help farmers drive away insects.

B．To identify people who are in trouble.

C．To show the growing process of plants.

D．To distinguish types of clicking sounds.

4. What might the author continue talking about?

A．Methods for plants to protect themselves.

B．Other questions raised by the new finding.

C．When plants communicate with each other.

D．Under what conditions plants attract insects.

4 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

With global events like the UN Climate Change Conference     1     (bring) sustainability (可持续性) into public focus, readers are expecting libraries to introduce more sustainable     2     (measure). They try to reduce their electricity usage and buy equipment from providers     3     are struggling to protect the environment. So far,     4     number of the libraries that have already taken steps to reduce their carbon footprint has been increasing.

Devices like monitoring tools can     5     (apply) to identify areas of a library that are frequently unoccupied. The Jean Anderson Morgan Student Center, for example, is taking advantage     6     the tools throughout its library study rooms. Up till now,     7     (significance) improvements have been made in reducing its energy usage. Bulb costs have     8     (obvious) declined, with fewer replacements needed in low occupancy areas.

Fixing automated equipment that runs on minimal electrical power is libraries’ another effort     9     (operate) more sustainably. Sophisticated self-service machines are now able to     10     (simple) the process of loaning and returning books without causing a big increase in a library’s electricity bill.

5 . We all love butterflies. Their beautiful wings attract us, and their presence lights up our garden. Well, that’s our view of butterflies, but have you ever wondered what plants think of them?

The butterflies’ eggs lie on the underside of the leaves. The eggs themselves don’t damage plants. However, upon coming into contact with the eggs, the plants become oversensitive. It means that once a plant recognizes a pest, it will cause death in the contacted plant part. When these dead leaves or partial leaf parts break away from the plant, the eggs on them fall off. Along with the hypersensitivity response, plants also produce something special, which can attract animals to cat the eggs, thus preventing damage in the future.

After the baby butterflies come out of their eggs, the caterpillar (毛虫) stage begins. Most caterpillars feed on the leaves of the plants, damaging some of the plants in your own garden. Incredibly, they are major plant pests that bring about major losses to farmers. The next stage is pupa (蛹). The caterpillars begin their change into an adult. They don’t depend on the energy that the leaves provide. Finally, they become adult butterflies that have wings and move from one plant to the other. They feed on the sweet liquid produced by flowers.

While on their search for food, the butterflies carry pollen (花粉) on their body. They are key pollinators that place pollen from one flower to another in ecosystem. Plants that have flowers will create some special features to draw these pollinators’ attention. Certain plants have flowers giving off smells that can charm butterflies when they are looking for a mate. Some plants even have flat flowers to assist butterflies when landing.

Butterflies aid in pollination during their final adult stage. Thus, they change into beneficial insects to plants. This change makes butterflies an important friend of plants, despite being a hated enemy in previous life cycle stages!

1. How does a plant respond to butterflies’ eggs?

A．It tries to get rid of them.	B．It tries to appeal to them.
C．It grows a little better with them.	D．It protects them from being eaten.

2. When do butterflies cause the greatest damage to agriculture?

A．In the period of egg-laying.	B．In the period of pupa.
C．In the period of caterpillar.	D．In the period of adult.

3. What does the author intend to do in paragraph 4?

A．Describe the process of pollination.

B．Show how flowers attract butterflies.

C．Stress the importance of pollination.

D．Explore how adult butterflies develop.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Why do flowers need butterflies’ pollination?

B．How do plants defend themselves from pests?

C．Are butterflies’ life cycles similar to the plants’?

D．Are butterflies beneficial or harmful to plants?

6 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Placed among the busy streets of Washington, D. C. is a large public garden that many Americans have never heard of. The U. S. National Arboretum (植物园) includes     1     collection of flowering plants called azaleas, a field of native plants named ferns, and flowering trees in the dogwood tree area. The garden     2     (establish) by Congress in 1927. It plays a leading part in researching and developing plants like trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses.

Government scientists are in charge of the 180-hectare area. Their main goal is     3    (strengthen) the U. S. economy by making sure an important kind of agriculture,     4     (call) the nursery industry, continues to perform well. The most recent numbers from the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) show that the ornamental and landscape plant industry creates billions of founds in sales each year.

The arboretum is home to one of the     5     (large) collections of preserved seeds in the world. The National Arboretum Herbarium (植物标本)     6     (house) around 700,000 ex-ample seeds. They include seeds from plants that the USDA considers as     7    (economical) important. Scientists collect many genetically different seeds within a kind of plant from both native and non-native plants. The reason     8     collecting that data is that scientists protect plants from harmful situations like climate change, changed environments, or other new and possible risks.

While the scientists do their work, the public     9     (explore) plants is free to visit the arboretum. Though many people may not know it, the arboretum has had a hand in developing a number of plants     10     are part of American landscaping.

7 . One Christmas Eve, our birder friend called us with a request. “Do you have room in your car for a (n) _______ snowy owl (雪鸮)? The hospital in Saskatoon will take it. It just needs a _______ there.” My family couldn’t have been more _______. A snowy owl? Of course! Isn’t Christmas about giving a hand to those _______?

He dropped off the bird in a cardboard box and _______ the box with a piece of cloth. After my husband gathered our children around, we _______. A few minutes later, our three-year-old daughter _______ in the back seat. Our two sons, 8 and 11, played together, _______ my husband drove and I, in the front, was bathed in Christmas peace.

Once or twice, our oldest son _______ this scene and said, “Dad, the owl’s sticking its head out”. “Don’t________.” my husband replied “It’ll be fine.” Not far from Saskatoon, my daughter in the back woke up crying I ________ and picked her up ________, my son shouted, “Dad, the owl’s out!” I was ________ to hear that and saw the owl knocking on the window with its head, in a desperate struggle for ________.

I bent over my daughter to ________ her as my husband pulled off the road. To our ________, the bird stopped struggling for some reason. My husband took the ________ to return the bird to its box then, he sat in the back seat to take care of the box. I took the ________ as our car was running toward the hospital. It was ________ for us to get there safe and sound. What a (n) ________ Christmas!

1.

A．male

B．injured

C．single

D．healthy

2.

A．ride

B．home

C．friend

D．ticket

3.

A．confused

B．relaxed

C．worried

D．excited

4.

A．in debt

B．in peace

C．in need

D．in shape

5.

A．washed

B．covered

C．checked

D．marked

6.

A．took off

B．gave up

C．set off

D．showed up

7.

A．fell asleep

B．passed by

C．settled down

D．came alive

8.

A．though

B．because

C．until

D．while

9.

A．ignored

B．interrupted

C．remembered

D．witnessed

10.

A．talk

B．refuse

C．touch

D．panic

11.

A．turned around

B．ran away

C．stood up

D．dropped in

12.

A．Finally

B．Generally

C．Suddenly

D．Gradually

13.

A．happy

B．shocked

C．quiet

D．discouraged

14.

A．justice

B．honour

C．warmth

D．freedom

15.

A．protect

B．stop

C．warn

D．observe

16.

A．sorrow

B．embarrassment

C．relief

D．amusement

17.

A．trouble

B．opportunity

C．message

D．challenge

18.

A．wheel

B．car

C．test

D．risk

19.

A．necessary

B．impossible

C．fortunate

D．interesting

20.

A．important

B．disappointing

C．difficult

D．unforgettable

8 . Spiders don’t have ears like we do, and many have poor eyesight. But they can sense vibrations (振动). Instead of eardrums that turn soundwave pressure into signals for our brains, spiders hear using tiny, sensitive hairs that move in response to sounds.

Previously, researchers had measured how a single thin piece of spider silk moved in response to sounds in the air. They found that the web silk itself is really good at detecting sounds. In a new study, Ron Miles from Binghamton University and his co-authors provided the first evidence that spiders can pick up sounds in another way through their webs.

To study hearing in animals, researchers placed orb-weaving spiders, which are known to make large, wheel-shaped orb webs, in a specially designed quiet room. They tracked how the spiders reacted to different sounds played on a loudspeaker Depending on how loud the sound was, spiders stretched, turned or raised their forelegs. Researchers noticed that the spiders turned their bodies toward the sound, suggesting they knew where the noise originated.

The ability to use a web like a giant extended ear could help spiders detect prey (猎物). If an insect is flying nearby, for instance, “That’s going to cause the web to vibrate because of the sound,” Miles said “That kind of gets the spider’s attention.”

Spiders might even use their webs to tune in to a variety of sounds “We suspect that the spider is actually able to sort of adjust the tension in the web in order to pick up certain frequencies,” Miles said.

Most microphones today work by sensing pressure and turning it into an electronic signal. But in the natural world, “spiders aren’t sensing pressure.” Miles said “Most animals don’t hear that way, they sense the motion of the air” Future microphones, like those used in hearing aids, could be designed with this in mind.

1. What did the new study find?

A．Spiders do not have eardrums.	B．Spiders indeed have poor eyesight
C．Spiders rely on sensitive hairs to hear	D．Spiders can use their webs to detect sounds

2. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．How the study affected spiders.	B．How the study was conducted.
C．How loud the sound was in the study.	D．How spiders made the web in the study.

3. How might the spider identify different sounds according to Miles?

A．By shifting its position on the web.	B．By sensing different levels of pressure.
C．By changing the tension of its silk.	D．By making full use of different parts of its body.

4. What is the significance of the discovery?

A．It could help improve microphones.

B．It could bring attention to spider web-making.

C．It could highlight the role of electronic technology.

D．It could heighten public awareness of insect protection.

9 . 假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下面画一横线，并在其下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词。
2.只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。

During the summer break, I became a community volunteer to protecting the environment for one week. On the first day, I got up very earlier to kick off my seven day volunteer trip. As soon as I put on my volunteer clothes, I got straightly to work. While I was walking to the entrance of a residential area, I saw a man throw a cup on the ground. I immediately went to talk to her and said, ”Hi, sir. I’m volunteer. Can you throw it into the bin?" To my surprise, he just looked at me, turn around and left, leaving me feeling very embarrassed.

Later on, I had to guide people on how to classify their garbage and put it on the different categories of dustbins. There were some residents which did not have such a strong awareness of garbage classification. Besides, I also handed out leaflets on environmental protection to passer-by. That week’s experience was something I would consider it a highlight in my life, as I have helped to serve society as a whole.

10 . Ekaterina Sky is a wildlife conservation (保护)artist. She began her art journey at the School of Fine Arts in Yaroslavl, Russia. There, she completed a fine arts program, which gave her the background she needed to become a conservation artist. She also received a scholarship to the Art School of Museum of Tel-Aviv. There, she expanded upon her knowledge and skills, learning to create her own unique style. She combined her love for animals and art to create the works we see today.

Ekaterina painted pictures at wildlife reserves and rescue centers, in high schools and in visitors’centers. She painted a piece for the Burning Man festival, choosing to paint primates(灵长类动物的)eyes since they are closely related to humans. This piece gave her the confidence to start a world tour, as she had never painted a picture that size before.

Ekaterina went on a tour to different countries worldwide, painting pictures of various endangered species. She hoped that her paintings would encourage viewers to look deeply into their own lifestyles and question how they might harm animals. She said, “We all can make a difference if we look at ourselves as a small piece of a greater whole.”

With each picture, she made the audience look directly into the animals’ eyes. She painted pictures to encourage people to show more compassion and care to animals and raise awareness of the importance of efforts in wildlife conservation. “As I believe, we connect through our eyes, which are windows into our soul, and I believe that when we get to meet someone’s soul, we don’t have a heart to hurt them,” she said.

1. What does paragraph 1 mainly tell us about Ekaterina Sky?

A．Her art works.	B．Her unique drawing skills.
C．Her love for animals.	D．Her road to a conservation artist.

2. Why does Ekaterina Sky paint primates’ eyes for the Burning Man festival?

A．The painting gave her confidence.	B．Primates are closely related to humans.
C．She’d like to make more money.	D．She wanted to expand on her skills.

3. What does the underlined word “compassion” in the last paragraph probably mean?

A．Pity.

B．Blame.

C．Motivation.

D．Gratefulness.

4. What are Ekaterina Sky’s art works intended for?

A．Reducing garbage thrown by tourists.	B．Introducing various animals worldwide.
C．Drawing attention to endangered animals.	D．Advertising the school she graduated from.