1 . Chemists in mid-1500s Nuremburg had discovered that bird droppings were a rich source of saltpetre, a vital ingredient in the making of gunpowder. As a consequence pigeon droppings used to be almost as valuable as silver. Understandably, by the middle of the following century, there were an estimated 26,000 pigeon houses in Britain.

The practice of keeping the pigeon was introduced to Britain by the Romans. The Normans kept pigeons in specially constructed niches in castles and courtyards. When the pigeon houses in Britain were built, they were a vital source of meat and feathers. The latter were particularly prized as a source of warmth. Droppings gathered from the pigeon houses was a rich fertilizer, too.

The pigeon house was not only a source of food and revenue in medieval times, but also a status symbol. The privilege of building or owning pigeon houses was reserved for the rich. Towards the end of her rule, Queen Elizabeth I decided to open pigeon-breeding to the free market. Then, pigeon houses sprang up all over the countryside.

The number of pigeon houses across the British countryside was not universally welcomed. Each day the birds flew off to feed themselves on other people’s crops. By the middle of the 17th century, the problem of pigeons was so great that people feared that the destructive pigeons would turn England into a desert.

Luckily, an agricultural revolutionary, Charles Townsend, had introduced the turnip to Britain around 1700, keeping farm livestock fat enough to eat through the dark winter months. Later, vast quantities of natural saltpetre were discovered in Chile and California. Keeping pigeons went out of fashion.

Now, the homeless pigeons flew off to find somewhere else to live. One species discovered that Britain’s rapidly growing towns and cities were full of the sort of rock-faces they liked to rest on—humans called them “buildings”. Over time they’d become the wild urban pigeon that we know today.

1. Which of the following people in Britain would be least likely to keep pigeons in the late Middle Ages?

A．Fruit growers.

B．The nobles.

C．Gunpowder makers.

D．The miners.

2. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Farm livestock used to be too thin for lack of food in the dark months in Britain.

B．Townsend revolutionized agricultural development in Britain around 1700.

C．The Normans set an undesirable example of raising pigeons for the British people.

D．England was once faced with the threat of disappearance because of pigeons.

3. According to the passage, why are there so many pigeons in the cities in Britain today?

A．Because people think it a sign of status and keep them to show off.

B．Because pigeons like to stay on hard surfaces which can be abundantly found in cities.

C．Because pigeons find enough food supplies when tourists and citizens feed them in squares.

D．Because the government encourages pigeon raising as a profitable investment.

4. Which is the best title of the passage?

A．A brief history of pigeon houses in Britain.

B．From function to fashion — the pigeon houses in Britain.

C．Profitable pigeon houses in Britain.

D．Pigeon houses in Britain as valuable as silver.

3 . As wildfires have intensified in recent years, scientists have begun to catalog the ways the massive events influence weather — but so far, all have looked at either enormous or relatively small scales.

But during 2018’s destructive fire season in California — at the time, the worst on record — Jiwen Fan started to wonder: Could the ever more frequent and intense fires raging in the western United States affect weather not just right next door, but as much as 1500 miles downwind?

Major weather patterns in the U.S. tend to travel from west to east along with the prevailing winds. Fan noticed that just a few days after California’s Carr Fire kicked off in mid-July — shockingly early in the expected fire season — a massive days-long storm struck the High Plains states like Wyoming and Colorado with flooding rains, baseball-sized hail, and 90-mile-an-hour gusts. The storm caused over $100 million in damages. Was it possible the two were connected?

Her team had the exact right tools to investigate the question. First, they dug through 10 years of weather and fire data to find examples of other big conflagrations (大火) occurring right before major storm events. The pairing was actually quite rare. That’s because storm season in the Central U.S. is centered around early summer; in the past, that season was winding down by the time wildfire season increased in August and September. But wildfires have been igniting earlier and earlier, pushed forward by climate change-driven drought and heat. Since 2010, the team found several big central storms that coincided with major Western fires.

They focused on a 2018 storm. Using a weather model that added in the effects of heat and smoke emitted from the burns, they simulated days-long storm event in several different ways. As the real situation had been, with massive fires burning in the West; as if those fires didn’t exist; and another set of experiments that included and excluded the effect of some smaller local fires that had been burning at the time.

The differences were dramatic: The combined impact from the faraway western fires and the local ones boosted the occurrence of heavier rainfall — where more than about 0.8 inches of rain fell in an hour — by 38 percent. The outbursts of big hail, with hailstones larger than two inches — nearly the size of a baseball— happened 34 percent more in the fiery conditions. But the far-off fires had a much larger effect.

“The impact is very significant,” says Fan. “That was a little surprising.”

1. What’s the study of Jiwen Fan and her team mainly about?

A．The effect of conflagrations on the weather of other areas.

B．The scale of all the conflagrations.

C．The number of all the conflagrations that happened in 2018.

D．The cause of the California’s Carr Fire.

2. Why was it rare for Fan’s team to pair big conflagrations with major storm events?

A．Because they were in lack of labor to dig through all the data.

B．Because storm season in the Central U.S. isn’t in line with the wildfire season.

C．Because wildfires usually take place in the early summer.

D．Because wildfires are pushed forward by big storms.

3. How did Fan and her team conduct their study?

A．They invited other experts to do experiments with them.

B．They interviewed a lot of local people and analyzed the data they collected.

C．They simulated storm event in different ways by using a weather model.

D．They observed the real situations and calculated thoroughly.

4. What does the last sentence “That was a little surprising.” imply?

A．The number of the big wildfires was beyond the team’s expectation.

B．The size of the hailstones was definitely incredible.

C．The occurrence of heavy rainfall shocked Fan’s team.

D．The conflagrations did have great effect on the occurrence of storm in other areas.

4 . China becomes a world leader in clean technology by fighting environmental pollution, sharing experience.

Erik Solheim, former executive director of the United Nations Environmental Programme, said he is __________ with China’s phenomenal achievements over the past decade in fighting environmental pollution and climate change, and in its march toward __________ development.

This is very __________ to his Twitter followers. Solheim’s latest tweets include one about China ranking first globally in planted forests and forest coverage growth, __________ a quarter of the world’s new forests in the past decade; one about China producing 60 percent of global solar energy last year and 80 percent of solar panels; and another highlighting the fact that 80 percent of the world’s new offshore wind capacity was installed in China last year.

He believes that it’s time for the rest of the world to __________.

For Solheim, who is also the former Norwegian Minister of the Environment and Minister of International Development, China’s achievements on the climate and environmental fronts all started with its fight against__________.

“People wanted to see beautiful skies over their cities,” he told China Daily. “The __________ fast reduction in air pollution in Chinese cities over the last decade shows how fast China can act. This has now spilled over into renewable energy, nature protection, electric mobility, tree planting and a lot more. Today, China is the world leader in all __________ technologies.”

The latest __________ from China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment prove Solheim’s observations that the country is rapidly switching to a more sustainable path.

Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu told a news conference on Sept 15 that the country’s toughest measures and greatest progress on the ecological and environmental front have occurred in the last decade.

He said that __________ painstaking efforts to combat pollution, clear waters and blue skies have become more commonplace.

While poor air quality used to be a source of frequent public complaints, the average __________ of hazardous airborne PM2.5 particles dropped from 46 to 30 micrograms per cubic (立方的) meter between 2015 and last year.

About 87.5 percent of days last year were rated as having good air quality, up 6.3 percentage points from 2015, making China the country with the biggest __________ in air quality in the world.

In the last decade, the __________ of water at or above Grade III in the country’s five-tier water quality system rose 23.3 percentage points to 84.9 percent, close to the levels in developed countries. Carbon intensity, or carbon emissions per unit of GDP, has declined by 34.4 percent, with coal __________ for 56 percent of total energy consumption, compared to 68.5 percent a decade ago.

China has has legislated or revised roughly 30 laws and regulations, some of which focused on water resource protection, including the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law, which was modified in 2017, and the Yangtze River Protection Law, which __________ last year.

1.

A．confused

B．impressed

C．obsessed

D．connected

2.

A．available

B．accessible

C．sustainable

D．substantial

3.

A．evident

B．attractive

C．invisible

D．unique

4.

A．donating

B．contributing

C．manufacturing

D．distributing

5.

A．fall behind

B．put forward

C．look up

D．catch up

6.

A．pollution

B．environment

C．ecology

D．emission

7.

A．probably

B．inevitably

C．incredibly

D．traditionally

8.

A．biological

B．advanced

C．far-reaching

D．green

9.

A．study

B．figures

C．technologies

D．innovation

10.

A．thanks to

B．despite

C．regardless of

D．other than

11.

A．height

B．length

C．concentration

D．weight

12.

A．obstacle

B．improvement

C．contribution

D．cultivation

13.

A．quality

B．flavor

C．deposit

D．proportion

14.

A．accounting

B．making

C．looking

D．applying

15.

A．took effect

B．took place

C．took to

D．took in

6 . All About Qatar

Location: Qatar is part of Asia and is in the Middle East.

It is in the northern hemisphere.

It is a peninsula (a strip of land sticking out into the ocean) surrounded by the Gulf. It has a land border in the south to Saudi Arabia.

Capital City: Doha

Official Language: Arabic. English is also widely spoken.

Currency: Qatari Riyal

Government: Qatar is an absolute monarchy. which means there is only one leader who is called an Emir. The Emir has the final say in all matters to do with governing the country.

Religion: Most Qataris are Muslim.

Flag: The flag of Qatar is maroon and white with a jagged line in between the two colours.

Climate: Qatar is warm all year round and gets very hot in summer. Temperatures can reach 50 degrees centigrade! Hardly any rain falls at all.

Sandstorms are common in Qatar.

Physical Features: Qatar is approximately 100 miles long from north to south and 50 miles from east to west. The land of Qatar is mostly barren, low plains which are covered in sandy desert.

Wildlife: There is hardly any vegetation in Qatar apart from desert shrubs and grasses. In the north there are some farming areas which produce crops including dates, tomatoes and melons. Animals like goats and camels are raised too.

·The most popular sport in Qatar is football and the country has many beautiful football stadiums.

·Qatar is the host for the 2022 FIFA football World Cup.

·Qatari cuisine uses lots of fresh fish, rice and spices.

·Coffee is a very popular drink in Qatar.

·Qatar is a wealthy country due to the large deposits of oil underneath the land and natural gas (which is mostly mined off-shore).

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

A．sandy

B．poor

C．fertile

D．rich

2. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．Powerful as the Emir is, there is still something he can’t decided.

B．There is hardly any animal due to the lack of vegetation.

C．It is an island with border to Asia.

D．In Qatar, people communicate in Arabic and English.

3. Where does the passage most probably come from?

A．A travel review.	B．A tour instruction.
C．A newspaper.	D．An official introduction

7 . They, stretching along the shore, swim quite lovely, looking for underwater greens to feed on. However, in these days, something is mixing with the sea grass that manatees(海牛)like to eat along Florida’s western coast. And it’s making them sick-even killing them.

It’s a poisonous form of algae, which is usually called “red tide” because of its color. Algae are plant-like organisms that live mainly in water. Most are harmless, but red tide is an exception. When it gets mixed in with the grass and the manatees eat it, they get so sick that they can’t even swim.

“They’re basically paralyzed(瘫痪的), and they become unconscious,” said Virginia Emonds, an animal care manager. Manatees are mammals and they need to surface often to breathe in air. If a manatee is paralyzed, it can’t swim and will drown.

As of Monday, the current red tide outbreak has killed at least 184 manatees since the beginning of this year. That has already beaten Florida’s record-high number for manatee deaths in a single year-and we still have nearly nine months to go!

The experts aren’t sure when the red tide outbreak will end. So many more manatees are in danger. The situation has gotten so desperate that Florida zoos have rescued at least a dozen manatees. You can find manatees anywhere from Brazil up to Florida-and throughout much of the Caribbean Sea.

In fact, the manatee is officially considered an endangered species. Thanks to the US government’s protection, Florida’s manatee population has grown to approximately 5,000 in recent years. But the red tide is threatening their survival. Some experts suspect that pollution from farms even might be fueling the red tide outbreak, because fertilizer that’s used on farms often winds up in water. And when that fertilized water runs off into the Gulf of Mexico, it makes things grow faster-just like on land.

1. The word “them” (in the first paragraph) probably refers to “______”.

A．endangered animals	B．manatees
C．algae	D．underwater greens

2. We can learn from the passage that the red tide______.

A．has caused damage to most of the underwater greens

B．serves to cultivate farm lands

C．destroy manatees’ ability to surface to breathe

D．give rise to 184 manatees’ deaths every month

3. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A．The current situation of manatees in Florida.

B．The potential cause of the expansion of the red tide.

C．The fatal effect of the poisonous red tide on manatees

D．The researchers’ efforts to prevent the red tide from spreading.

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The red tide has been changing the manatees’ habitat.

B．The red tide has been posing a threat to the manatees.

C．The manatee is officially an endangered species.

D．More efforts should be put to save the manatees.

8 . Thanks to their evolutionary ancestry, domestic cats are, actually by their nature, more independent than dogs. Our cats, whose wild ancestors didn’t enjoy living in social groups as dogs do, _______, during the process of domestication, gradually developed the capability to form social relationships not just with other cats, but also with people.

Although independent cats may not _______ upon people to gain security as dogs do, they show affection for their guardians and seem to attach importance to the _______ of their human companions. Their strong attachment to humans is partly _______ by their experiences of being cared by people as a kitten. Cats behave towards humans in the exactly same way that they respond to their feline friends, so the secret of whether your cat feels _______ to you lies in their behaviour.

Cats have successfully gained an edge for their outstanding ability to communicate with other cats over long distances and even when no longer _______ present. Our pet cats have _______ this “supersense” and depend heavily on this form of communication. Particularly, cats use scent to identify members of their social group or family, by sharing a group scent profile. Cats have specific scent glands on their flanks, head and around their ears, and often rub their heads against people and objects that are familiar and _______. The soft sensation you feel against your calves is actually your cat _______ you as a friend and is a huge compliment.

One of the most signs that your beloved pet is keen on you, is the way your cat greets you. When cats greet members of their social group, they ________ to show signals to indicate friendship and a desire to move closer. Also, Cats show these signals to humans. Rolling over and________ their vulnerable under belly to you is another distinct gesture that a cat has ultimate faith in you.

Besides, your cat might also be secretly signalling their affection by changing the way they look at you. When cats ________ strange humans or other cats they aren’t familiar with, they usually greet them with an ________ stare. But they are more likely to slowly blink at cats they have a good relationship with. Research indicates slow blinks are ________ a positive emotional state and can be a sign of trust, contentment and affection, ________ to a genuine human smile.

1.

A．however

B．meanwhile

C．besides

D．otherwise

2.

A．put

B．rest

C．calculate

D．stick

3.

A．company

B．edge

C．resolution

D．affection

4.

A．weakened

B．affected

C．worsened

D．strengthened

5.

A．distanced

B．perceived

C．bonded

D．appealed

6.

A．physiologically

B．physically

C．psychologically

D．realistically

7.

A．ignored

B．abandoned

C．overlooked

D．possessed

8.

A．comforting

B．exhausting

C．enduring

D．charming

9.

A．demanding

B．approaching

C．identifying

D．defining

10.

A．prepare

B．tend

C．wish

D．contribute

11.

A．exposing

B．committing

C．attaching

D．pushing

12.

A．knock

B．bump

C．encounter

D．stare

13.

A．unknown

B．undecided

C．unblinking

D．uncertain

14.

A．associated with

B．addicted to

C．adjusted to

D．assumed to

15.

A．critical

B．similar

C．grateful

D．decent

9 . 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.

10 . Why we should spare parasites

Growing up, Chelsea Wood dreamed of becoming a marine biologist and studying large, exciting animals like sharks. Instead, she later found herself peering through a microscope at the organs of a snail. She had often plucked snails off rocks and collected them in buckets, but she had never looked inside of one. Seen through the microscope, they are surprisingly charming. “I couldn’t believe that I’d been looking at snails for as long as I had and missing all the cool stuff,” says wood. “I just totally fell in love with them.”

Nearly half of all known animals are parasites. One study projects that a tenth of them may be doomed to extinction because of climate change, loss of their hosts, and deliberate attempts at eradication. Though it seems few people care — or even notice.

    1    . But most parasites have evolved not to kill their hosts, and not all of them even cause noticeable harm to them.

Scientists warn of dire consequences if we continue to ignore the dangerous situation of parasites. Not only are some of them useful to humans [such as medicinal leeches, still employed in some surgeries], but they also play crucial roles in ecosystems, keeping some populations in check while helping to feed others.

Some experts say there’s an aesthetic argument for saving them.     2    . They’ve evolved clever means of survival, from becoming a fish’s tongue to controlling the minds of cockroaches.

We’ve barely begun to identify all the parasites. “That’s just not something that we’ve prioritized,” says Skylar Hopkins, an ecologist at North Carolina State University. So, Hopkins pulled together a group of scientists interested in parasites, and they started sharing what they knew.

Since parasites rely on other species, they can be easily hurt, Take, for example, the endangered pygmy hog-sucking louse. It only lives on another species that is itself endangered, the pygmy hog, which is disappearing fast. Then there’s the California condor louse. In the 1970s, desperate to save the California condor, biologists began raising them in captivity. Part of the protocol was to delouse every bird, on the assumption that parasites were bad for condors, though it’s not clear that they actually were.

While the death of parasites might seem like no big deal, ecologists caution that wiping them out could end up dooming the planet.     3    . Big predators would lose out too. Many parasites move into their next host by manipulating the host they’re in, which drives that host into a predator’s mouth so that the predator can be fed.

Even human health wouldn’t entirely benefit from wiping out parasites. The human immune system evolved alongside a group of parasites, and if we were to kill them off, our immune systems would then began attacking ourselves.

However, scientists aren’t out to save all parasites. The Guinea worm, for instance, should not be spared. It grows inside a person’s abdomen, causing harm to one’s health.

If anyone would want to get rid of all parasites, you’d think it would be Bobbi Pritt. As medical director for the Mayo Clinic’s human parasitology lab, Pritt identifies harmful parasites found all over the country and in every body part. Yet even Pritt has a soft spot for parasites. As a physician, she favors wiping out parasites that cause disease and suffering.     4    .

Ultimately, we do not want a war against all of them, because there’s still so much we don’t understand.

A．Without parasites keeping them in check, the populations of certain animals would explode.

B．Beyond their aesthetic or scientific importance, parasites are an integral part of the biosphere.

C．Parasites are sometimes rejected by the scientific communities that study the animal world because they rely on a host.

D．“But as a biologist,” she says, “purposefully trying to make something extinct just doesn’t sit well with me.”

E．Therefore, she has committed herself to finding more effective approaches to eliminate all harmful parasites.

F．If you get past their “gross” appearance, you may find parasites’ way of living strangely charming.