1 . "It can't be done．" Boyan Slat heard this over and over when he first proposed a way to clean   up millions of tons of plastic polluting our oceans． Almost anyone else would have given up in frustration and despair． But 20﹣year﹣old Slat hasn't： been discouraged but committed to his dream． "Human history is basically a list of things that couldn't be done， and then were done，" he says．Today， slat and his team at The Ocean Cleanup are well on their way to proving the critics wrong． Good news for the planet．

（1）_______

Slat， who grew up in the city of Delft in the Netherlands， was on a diving trip in Greece three years ago when he was deeply impressed by plastic， "There were more plastic bags than fish，" he says． "That moment I realized it was a huge issue and that environmental issues are really the biggest problems my generation will face．"

That fall， Slat， then 17， decided to study plastic pollution as part of a high school project． Soon， Slat learned that no one had yet come up with practical way to clean up this massive garbage patches． Most proposed solutions involved "fishing" up the plastic using ships equipped with nets﹣which， as Slat discovered， would likely take more than 1，000 years， cost too much， let off too much sea life along with the trash．

Slat proposed an alternative that mostly avoided these problems﹣a solar﹣powered system using a floating plastic tube which will go around the garbage and trap it is 600 meters long， A big screen hangs down from it， about three metres into the water． Wind， waves and ocean currents will push the trash toward the tube． （Fish can swim under the screen） A ship will pick up the trash and take it back to the shore to sort and recycle it into oil and other products． Best of all， Slat predicted his system could clean up the North Pacific Garbage Patch between California and Hawaii where a lot of floating garbage exists， within five to 10 years．

（2）________

The following， Slat entered the aerospace engineering program at the Delft University of Technology and officially announced his ocean cleanup concept at TEDx Delft． But nothing much moved forward，

Slat found himself continually absent﹣minded in classes， looking for ways． to improve his concept． "It wouldn't let go． I finally decided to put both university and my social life on hold to focus all my time on developing this idea． I wasn't sure if it would succeed， but considering the scale of problem I thought it was important to at least try．" He says．

With this family's blessing， Slat began in earnest organizing a team of volunteers and employees for The Ocean Cleanup， which now numbers about 100．

（3）_______

In answer to opposition， Slat and his team raised ＄100，000 from a crowdfunding campaign and began testing a 40﹣meter collecting barrier near the Azores Islands last March． In June， they released a 500+ page possibility study．

Over the next three to four years， Slat will push toward a fully operational large﹣scale project by testing a series of longer and longer barriers． He's currently seeking to crowd fund ＄2 million to finance it． Incidentally， The Ocean Cleanup is also working on a plan to stop plastic from washing into the oceans in the first place． "It's just the other problem that is equally important．" Slat says． "It's something everyone is able to help with， and we also have some technologies in the pipeline．"

As for school， Slat doesn't miss it ﹣ except maybe for the social﹣part， which he hopes to （恢复） a bit once his team takes on more of the workload． " I don't have time for things like that right now， but I really can't complain． I can imagine doing something more fun than being able to have an idea and then actually making it into a reality．" he says．

1. What is the function of the first paragraph？

A．An introduction to the main topic．

B．An overview of the whole article

C．The background information of the story

D．Raising a problem for later solution

2. Which of the following shows the correct order of the three missing subtitles？
a． But is it possible？
b． Drowning in plastic
c． An idea wouldn't die

A．a﹣b﹣c

B．c﹣b﹣a

C．b﹣a﹣c

D．b﹣c﹣a

3. What inspired the boy to study plastic pollution？

A．One of his high school projects．

B．Others' opposition to his proposal．

C．Humans' failure in cleaning up the ocean．

D．The shockingly heavy plastic pollution in ocean．

4. What can we say about Slat's design？

A．It is powerful but only used in California and Hawaii

B．It is huge but causes great damage to sea lives

C．It makes full use of natural forces and is friendly to nature．

D．It was welcomed by all the public and worked very well．

5. Which of the following quotes best displays Slat's strong will and confidence？

A．"Human history is basically a list of things that couldn't be done， and then were done．"

B．"That was the moment I realized it was a huge issue and that environmental issues are really the biggest problems my generation will face．"

C．"I finally decided to put both university and my social life on hold to focus all my time on developing this idea．"

D．"It's something everyone is able to help with， and we also have some technologies in the pipeline．"

6. What does the author mainly do in this article？

A．Explain a creative idea

B．Introduce a fascinating person．

C．Describe a social phenomenon

D．Praise a point of view

2 . Overcoming extreme cold, cruel ice and people dismissing him as mad, Slovenian Davo Kamicar became the first person to ski non-stop down Mount Everest.

After a dramatic fall over almost sheer cliffs of snow, stones and ice, 38-year-old Kamicar emerged in his base camp after five hours of skiing. “I feel only absolute happiness and absolute tiredness,” he said.

At one stage he had to speed over stretches of ice that collapsed and broke underneath him and could have sent him falling into the deep crevasses (裂缝) that dot the mountain.

The descent (下落) had been seen by many as insanely dangerous. The Darwin Awards website, which documents deaths which are foolhardy, urged people to log on to Internet broadcasts of the attempt. “Keep your eyes peeled for a live Darwin Award,” it said.

However, the only body to make the news was the corpse (尸体) of an unknown mountaineer which Kamicar zipped past as he descended, one of an estimated 120 corpses, thought to litter the slopes.

“This mountain is always full of surprises. Seeing a dead man out there was a really shocking experience,” he said.

Thanks to strategically placed cameras on the mountain and one attached to his safety helmet, hundreds of thousands of people witnessed his descent on the Internet, which was one of the record highs ever. During the run more than 650,000 hits were registered on his expedition website jamming it for a time as others tried to access the site.

Weather conditions were so severe that Kamicar had to abandon plans to rest on the summit before attempting to descend. Instead, suffering from fatigue, as soon as he reached the top he put on his skis and flung himself back down the mountain.

Dealing with the mountain had already cost Kamicar two fingers when a previous failed attempt saw him get frostbite as a fierce storm lashed the peak.

Kamicar comes from a skiing family and took part in his first Himalayan skiing expedition in 1989. Since then, he has been tireless in raising funds and sponsorship for more expeditions, with Everest as the permanent goal.

1. Davo Kamicar made history by ________.

A．skiing down Mount Everest without rest

B．descending Mount Everest within the shortest time ever

C．attracting largest number of audience online for his descent

D．becoming the first to film his descent down Mount Everest

2. The underlined word foolhardy in the passage is closest in meaning to ______.

A．sudden and hard to accept	B．taking unnecessary risks
C．attracting public attention	D．working hard to fool others

3. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．Kamicar saw about 120 dead bodies littering the slope.

B．The broadcast of his descent online was cancelled because of the website jam.

C．Kamicar’s family had a tradition to conquer Mount Everest.

D．This was not Kamicar’s first attempt on Mount Everest.

4. Which of the following may be the best title for the passage?

A．Mad man skis down Everest	B．Darwin Award for Davo Kamicar
C．Extreme sports hero slides to a record	D．Body of mountaineer found on Everest

3 . 听第10段材料，回答小题。

1. When will the Burj Dubai be completed?

A．In 2010.

B．In 2009.

C．In 2008.

2. Where is the center of the tallest buildings at present?

A．In Europe and the Middle East.

B．In North America and Asia.

C．In Asia and the Middle East.

3. Why do people build so many tall buildings?

A．Tall buildings are wonderful to look at.

B．Tall building save more resources.

C．People like to live in tall buildings.

4. What is the height of the Empire State Building?

A．About 400 meters.

B．About 200 meters.

C．About 300 meters.

4 . 听第10段材料，回答小题。
1. When were the speaker and his friends caught in a storm?

A．The second night.

B．The fifth night.

C．The last night.

2. What was the weather like on the last day?

A．Rainy.

B．Cloudy.

C．Fine.

3. What do we know about the speaker?

A．He was persuaded into the trip.

B．He walked 100 miles in one week.

C．He was disappointed at the trip.

5 . 听第7段材料，回答小题。

1. What is the weather like these days?

A．Hot.

B．Cold.

C．Rainy.

2. Where is the typhoon expected to come from?

A．The mainland.

B．The western Pacific.

C．The man's city.

3. When is the typhoon likely to come to the speakers' city?

A．Tomorrow morning.

B．Today.

C．Tomorrow evening.

6 . What was the weather like last Saturday?

A．It was sunny.

B．It was raining all day.

C．It turned fine in the afternoon.

7 . The name sounds funny but the idea is no joke: it’s a personal toilet called the pee-pool, Anders Wilhelmson, a Swedish architect, is the inventor of the pee-pool.
He became interested in the idea of sanitation after taking part in a research project on the social and political development of cities. One of the most common problems he found in developing countries was the lack of toilets. He wanted to do something to help, so working with others, he started the project in 2005, and the next year started a company called Peepoolple.
The toilet is a single-use bag made of environmentally friendly plastics. The inside is treated with urea(尿素), a chemical commonly used as fertilizer. The hotter the weather, the more quickly the waste turns into what is needed by plants. The sanitation process can be as soon as a couple of hours or as long as two to four weeks, you can just bury it in a pot and grow whatever you like.
The company expects to start selling the bags in August in Kenya and Bangladesh, but it is just beginning production and sales in Nairobi now. Full production could reach about half a million bags a day and people may be able to buy the pee-pool in countries Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc.
The United Nations says more than two and a half billion people around the world do not have good sanitation. Many have no choice but to use the outdoors, which is not only bad for the environment, but also harmful to people’s health. Each year, poor sanitation leads to three fifths of those people getting an infectious disease which on average causes one out of 1,000 patients to die.
Jack Smith, the founder of the World Toilet Organization, says “This is quite an unacceptable situation given the fact that we are living in the modern world, and strangely, many of them own televisions, phones but have no toilet.”
1. What was the original purpose of Anders Wilhelmson in starting the company?

A．To protect the local environment.

B．To earn a lot of money from the project.

C．To do research on the social development.

D．To help solve the problem of lack of toilets in developing countries.

2. What can be learned about the pee-pool from the passage?

A．It can be used over again.

B．Its sanitation process doesn’t last long.

C．It works better in summer than in winter.

D．It should be buried in a pot after being used.

3. In which place can people buy the Pee-pool now?

A．Nairobi.

B．Kenya.

C．Sweden.

D．Bangladesh.

4. The fifth paragraph is written mainly to tell us that ________.

A．poor sanitation may cause many problems

B．many people don’t care for the environment

C．many people get ill from using the outdoors

D．quite a number of people die from poor sanitation

5. The underlined word “This” in the last paragraph probably refers to ________.

A．the outdoors being damaged

B．many places being short of toilets

C．many people having TVs and phones

D．many people getting an infectious disease

8 . A strange army of giants stands around the edges of a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. Or at least that's how it might appear. The figures lining Easter Island are actually huge stones carved to look like hulking(笨重的) human figures. The statues have “guarded” these coasts for centuries. But not even the islanders are sure how they got there. Join scientific detectives as they investigate this historical mystery.
The Mystery
Nearly a thousand giant stone figures stand side by side on Easter Island, now a part of Chile. Called moai (MOH-eye) by the locals, the statues can weigh more than 80 tons—about as much as ten whales—and some stand as tall as a three-story building.
Scientists think islanders began creating the moai some 800 years ago to honor their ancestors. In land, scientists found a volcanic crater and dug out ancient tools there used to carve figures from the volcanic rock. But the crater(火山口) is far from where most of the statues now stand. And scientists know the people didn't have wheels or animals to move the rock giants.
So how did the stone figures travel as far as 11 miles from the crater to the island's coasts? Some ideas are pretty wild—people have suggested that the moai walked by themselves, or even that space aliens beamed down to lend a hand. Scientists struggled to Easter Island to find out the truth.
The Detectives
"Heave-ho!" cry a group of scientists as they pull on ropes tied to a huge statue. The investigators are seeking clues about the moai in one of Easter Island's green valleys. Wondering if the islanders could have transported the statues upright with just rope and muscle power, they wrapped three strong ropes around the forehead of a ten-foot-tall moai copy. With several people pulling each rope, they're able to rock the 10,000-pound figure side to side, moving it forward with every tug(拖拽). "The statue's shape makes this movement fairly easy," team leader Carl Lipo says.
In the past, researchers have tried other moving methods. One group tied rope to the top and base of an actual moai and attempted to drag it forward with twisting motions. Another team laid a real 13-foot moai onto a giant log and pulled the log forward. All the experiments shared one result: The investigators got serious pain!
The Evidence
Although various scientific sleuths (侦查) found ways to move the moai, researchers still don't agree on what really happened. Some of these techniques might have only worked over short distances and on flat land. Others would have damaged the moai.
Many people think the statues were laid horizontally on wooden sleds which were dragged with rope across log tracks. "This would have been the safest way to move the moai," archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg says. "It explains why hardly any are damaged."
But the truth may never be revealed.(Experts are pretty sure, though, that aliens weren't involved.)After all, the islanders stopped making the statues at least 300 years ago, later hundreds of islanders left the island or caught deadly diseases brought by explorers. Many of the moai's secrets disappeared with them. Today the only remaining witnesses to the events are the moai themselves. And the lips of these stone-faced giants are sealed.

1. How many possible ways of moving the rock giants are mentioned in the passage?

A．Three.

B．Four.

C．Five.

D．Six.

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

A．The moai was created by the islanders 800 years ago to wish for good luck.

B．Some of the rock giants were damaged while being moved to where they are now.

C．All the witnesses to the secrets of the moai were infected with deadly diseases and died.

D．The statues were made of volcanic rocks with some handmade tools by the locals.

3. The underlined word "horizontally" in the last but one paragraph probably means ________.

A．temporarily on the ground

B．parallel to the ground

C．steadily on the ground

D．vertical to the ground

4. What is the best title of this passage?

A．Investigation Under Way.

B．Mystery of the Stone Giants.

C．Ways of Moving the Stone Giants.

D．The Unrevealed Truth.