1 . I need a new phone. Like many of us with older model iPhones, my battery life is just a few hours and I’ve stopped updating the operating system to extend the phone’s life. But I’m having a tough time making the final decision. It’s not the cost. It’s not the inconvenience either. It’s the environment.
Making smartphones, laptops, and other tech products takes a lot of resources. This is partly due to the carbon emissions from the producing process. Still, the most negative impact comes from the mining of the rare earth metals that make your phone work. If you’re reading this on your phone right now, you’re holding about 0.034 grams of gold, 0.34 grams of silver, and smaller amounts of other rare elements. These are tiny amounts, but consider the demand for smartphones around the world.
All of these rare elements have to be mined from inside the Earth, in places like China and some African countries. Mining is hugely environmentally destructive: forests are destroyed, the ground is disturbed, and water quality in the area takes a dive.
Now take these environmental risks, and combine them with the fact that the average lifespan (使用寿命) of a smartphone is just two years, the length of your contract with your cell phone company. After that, if you’re lucky, you get a “free” upgrade. Awesome, right? Sure, if you ignore the fact that the environmental impact of a new phone is about the same as using your old one for a decade.
It’s nearly impossible to live in the 21st century without contributing to the destruction of the environment and climate change. I am guilty as well — eat meat and occasionally fly. But that doesn’t mean that we should stop trying to do better, or ignore the consequences of our actions. I urge you to think carefully about your next smartphone purchase no matter what those Black Friday ads may be trying to tell you.
1. What does the author’s final decision refer to?| A．Going ahead with getting a new phone. |
| B．Taking action to help reduce pollution. |
| C．Updating your phone’s operating system. |
| D．Raising money for anew smartphone. |
| A．To reveal the consequences of making smartphones. |
| B．To analyze the causes of making new smartphones. |
| C．To emphasize the huge demand for smartphones. |
| D．To provide solutions to cutting smartphone use. |
| A．It is economical to upgrade your device. |
| B．The lifespan of smartphones is narrowed. |
| C．The upgrade comes at the expense of the environment. |
| D．Signing a contract spares users from economic pressure. |
| A．To push for environmentally friendly smartphones. |
| B．To discourage businesses from making smartphones. |
| C．To advise readers not to change smartphones often. |
| D．To demonstrate the negative effects of smartphones. |
Maria and Peter lived in a coastal city. The greatest pleasure in summer for them was to swim at their local beach after school. But one day they started to lose their enthusiasm for swimming in the waters. More often than not, they would find plastic bags thrown on the beach. Worse sill, as they swam in the water, some plastic bags would float around them and even stick to their legs when they walked to the shore.
They were upset and decided something needed to be done to stop the beautiful sea becoming consumed by waste.One weekend,Maria and Peter brought a big bag to the beach and determined to clean it up. Sweat streamed down from their forehead while they bent down and picked up the plastic bags. To their disappointment, after a day’s hard work, there were still many plastic bags lying on the beach or floating in the water. Going home with aching legs and arms, Maria and Peter were almost defeated by a strong sense of failure.
That night over dinner with their parents, the pair ate silently. Noticing their low spirits, Mother asked gently, “You two looked so down. What happened?”Exchanging glances with Peter, Maria replied in a low voice,“It’s those annoying plastic bags. We tried to clean up but it was just impossible.”Understanding the pair’s disappointment, their father patted them on the back and comforted,”Well, it’s really hard for just two of you to fix such a big problem.”“Just two of us.”complained Maria and Peter, looking at each other.Suddenly, an idea lashed through their minds, their eyes shining with excitement.“Yes,that’s the point! We should make more people aware of the problem and encourage them to take action!” the pair said in chorus.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Quickly finishing their dinner, the pair went upstairs and started planning.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Excited and nervous, they posted the video and article on WeChat.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . Cuckoos (布谷鸟) are masters of cheating. When it comes to raising young, they don’t spend the energy building a nest, protecting eggs or feeding children. Instead the female passes these roles on to other birds. They don’t raise their own young. Usually, they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, fooling other birds into thinking the cuckoo eggs are theirs.
To succeed in doing this, a female cuckoo watches over her chosen nest to observe feeding times. When the host parent leaves its nest in search of food, the cuckoo quickly lays her eggs among those already in the nest. Sometimes, she will even destroy and remove one of the host’s eggs to make room for her own.
Cuckoos are medium-sized birds with long tails, and often have gray or brown backs. When they hatch (孵化) and begin to grow in a host’s nest, the difference between the two can be obvious to an onlooker. Often the cuckoo is twice the size of its foster (收养的) parents, but still continues to receive food from them.
The cuckoo imposter (冒名顶替者) is usually the only baby bird that the host parent has to care for. This is because when the cuckoo hatches after around 11 days, it gets rid of all the other eggs in the nest. It will lift each egg onto its back before throwing them one by one over the edge of the nest. Even then, the non-biological parent will continue to treat it as one of its own.
Also, cuckoos have developed to produce eggs that are similar in color to their main hosts’. This reduces the chances of eggs being attacked. Female cuckoos have been known to take host birds’ attention away after laying their eggs by producing a noise similar to Eurasian sparrowhawks, scaring birds away from returning to the nest and allowing time for the cuckoo to make her escape unnoticed.
1. What do mother cuckoos usually do when it comes to raising their young?| A．Attend to eggs. | B．Build a new nest. | C．Depend on other birds. | D．Learn feeding skills. |
| A．Other cuckoos. | B．Baby cuckoos. | C．Birth parents. | D．Host parents. |
| A．It usually hatches out earlier than the other eggs in the nest. |
| B．It throws all the other eggs out of nest with its mother’s help. |
| C．It often makes a noise to scare other birds away from the nest. |
| D．It looks much larger than other eggs in the nest before hatching. |
| A．How cuckoos fool other birds. | B．How cuckoos protect their children. |
| C．How cuckoos destroy others’ nests. | D．How cuckoos produce eggs in host nests. |
1. When will the first storm arrive?
| A．Today. | B．This weekend. | C．Next week. |
| A．New York City. | B．Saint Paul. | C．Boston. |
| A．People traveling on foot. | B．People driving on the road. | C．People celebrating by the water. |
| A．Sunny. | B．Snowy. | C．Windy. |
5 . Beavers (河狸) are famous for building impressive dams in streams. They have a rare ability to transform the landscapes they live in. This is primarily because beavers need to use their dams to hide from predators (捕食者) like bears, wolves, and river otters. Beavers live in dome-shaped constructions within the ponds that can only be accessed by underwater entrances. Inside, they are safe from threats. Besides, they can also store food inside and keep warm in winter.
Beavers build dams up to 5 meters high, and the largest one, in Alberta, Canada, is 850 meters long. Most dams are built from pieces of wood, with stones at the base and a sealing layer of mud and plants on the upstream side. The dams are thicker at the bottom with a shallow slope on the upstream side, meaning that the weight of the water pushes down on the dam, keeping it in place and allowing it to hold back large volumes of water. Their engineering work is so effective that beaver dams can last for decades.
Beaver dams can promote the creation and development of stable wetland ecosystems, one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, which serve as the home of rare and endangered species. In addition, the dams can help water flow to the newly created ponds, thus, preventing flooding in areas downstream of the rivers where these dams are built. They also protect the land from soil erosion (侵蚀, 腐蚀) and block pollutants in the water flow downstream into major water bodies.
However, Ph. D. student Robert Needham, from the International Centre for Ecohydraulics Research at Southampton, expressed a great deal of his concern about the possibility of beaver dams blocking the upstream and downstream migration (迁移) of Atlantic salmon (鲑鱼) and trout during their reproduction seasons, as well as affecting habitat (栖息地) quality. Thus, people should control the construction of beaver dams, especially in human-inhabited areas, near agricultural fields and pasture lands.
1. What is the main reason for beavers to build dams?| A．Keeping warm in winter. |
| B．Storing food for later use. |
| C．Protecting themselves from predators. |
| D．Saving their habitats from river flooding. |
| A．The living environment of beavers. |
| B．The features of beaver dams. |
| C．The methods of building beaver dams. |
| D．The introduction to the largest beaver dam. |
| A．River pollution poses a big danger to beavers. |
| B．Beaver dams have great ecological(生态的)significance. |
| C．Stable wetland ecosystems are important to dam construction. |
| D．Beaver dams serve as the place of reproduction for some species. |
| A．People may be disturbed by too many beaver dams. |
| B．Beaver dams make many sea animals leave their habitats. |
| C．Farmers could benefit a lot from beavers engineering work. |
| D．Beaver dams promote an increase of some species in the Atlantic |
6 . There are few natural sounds more uplifting to my spirit than the bright and cheering calls and songs of black-capped chickadees (山雀). One of my morning routines is to step outside the house and listen for the voices of black-caps.
There is something comforting to me in black-caps’ presence.
After I’d moved into a house on Anchorage’s Hillside, I placed a makeshift feeder on my home’s back.
Within days, a whole new world opened up as woodland neighbors I’d never known, or even imagined, joined the black-caps at my feeders: red-breasted nuthatches, common redpolls…What was remarkable was that all of those species were common residents of the Anchorage area.
My newfound interest in birds grew quickly, surprising even me.
| A．Nature always amazed me in its own way. |
| B．Yet in prior days and years, I had no idea. |
| C．Black-caps are a sign of good environment. |
| D．Within a day, black-caps accepted my invitation to dine. |
| E．Black-caps have had a special place at the top of my affections. |
| F．What started as mere curiosity flowered into a consuming passion. |
| G．And much more often than not, they are heard before they’re seen. |
7 . Some 15 years ago, in the beautiful Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, an organic (有机的) farmer separate his cows among two fields, one of which was near the beach. Overtime, Joe Dorgan noticed that his cows by the ocean were in better shape than other cows. They were producing more milk, had fewer diseases and were highly reproductive. They seemed to be all-around happier animals.
The only difference he could see between the two kinds was that the happier ones could reach the beach and were eating seaweed. So Dorgan carried seaweed across the road for his land-locked cows to see if it would make a difference. Before long, those cows were catching up with their seaside ones. He then sold his farm to start a new company, North Atlantic Organics, selling organic sea plant products to local farmers.
He knew he was on to something big. But he had no idea that what he had noticed about his cows’ new diet was about to give the world a potentially significant weapon in the fight against climate change.
One of the scientists, Rob Kinley, was researching ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (排放) in animals by changing their diet.
On average, one cow can give off the same amount of greenhouse (温室) gas as one car. About 15 percent of global greenhouse gases are made up of methane from animals when digesting (消化) the food. With Dorgan’ s seaweed mix in hand, Kinley started measuring emissions from the cows. What he discovered was an 18 percent reduction in methane emissions compared with non-seaweed-eating cows.
It was a moment of light, and a global search for an even more efficient (高效的) seaweed began. The potential for the seaweed to reduce the world’ s greenhouse gas output is great, and the hope is that cows will be feeding on Future Feed — the commercial product developed by CSIRO, Meat and Livestock Australia, and James Cook University — by the end of 2022.
1. Why is the story of Joe Dorgan and his cows mentioned?| A．To raise a doubt. | B．To lead to the topic. |
| C．To praise a farmer. | D．To respond to the problem. |
| A．A dangerous food harmful to the animals. |
| B．A dangerous food harmful to the humans. |
| C．A kind of chemical harmful to the food. |
| D．A kind of chemical harmful to the environment. |
| A．One cow can be as bad as one car for the environment. |
| B．Animals give off more greenhouse gases than expected. |
| C．Seaweed-eating cows are friendlier to the environment. |
| D．Non-seaweed-eating cows give off 18% lower greenhouse gas. |
| A．A Potentially Significant Weapon in the Fight against Climate Change |
| B．An Unusually Smart Farmer in the Fight against Global Greenhouse Gas |
| C．The Specially Efficient Seaweed in the Fight for More Milk from the Cows |
| D．The World-changing Research in the Fight for More Commercial Future Feed |
8 . Didga, the skateboarding cat
I have three cats. Didga is the most eye-catching. In terms of skills, there is no cat in the world that can be
I’ve been an animal-trainer for 40 years. Everyone said cats can’t be trained. Thus, I wanted to
I went to an animal shelter (动物收容所). As I was walking through, a kitten
Before long, Didga
However, training with cats isn’t
In 2017, Didga accomplished a tough task to perform 24 different tricks in
Didga has
| A．used | B．equal | C．blind | D．devoted |
| A．prefer | B．press | C．prove | D．prevent |
| A．fell | B．followed | C．left | D．travelled |
| A．hesitation | B．money | C．recognition | D．response |
| A．rose | B．added | C．tended | D．adapted |
| A．hopefully | B．passively | C．willingly | D．energetically |
| A．care | B．company | C．protection | D．help |
| A．horrible | B．hard | C．slow | D．smooth |
| A．matters | B．pays | C．spends | D．takes |
| A．individually | B．immediately | C．luckily | D．eventually |
| A．Skiing | B．Swimming | C．Skateboarding | D．Surfing |
| A．appealed | B．connected | C．attached | D．compared |
| A．over | B．under | C．beyond | D．below |
| A．shown | B．had | C．caused | D．made |
| A．bring up | B．bring about | C．bring out | D．bring back |
9 . I adopted (收养) Didga as a twelve-week-old kitten, and now she’s nearly 11. In 2017, Didga
I’ve been in the animal-training
I started searching for
Didga knows a handful of tricks that took over a year to
The psychology of training a cat is fascinating. Because I understand how animals think and learn, I can adjust (调节) to the cat’s abilities. If Didga doesn’t like it, I stop or go in a
I started some social accounts to teach people to have a better relationship with their
Didga has
| A．invented | B．performed | C．knew | D．directed |
| A．memory | B．dream | C．business | D．emergency |
| A．trained | B．challenged | C．exchanged | D．judged |
| A．responsible | B．precious | C．independent | D．potential |
| A．as | B．if | C．although | D．because |
| A．away | B．ahead | C．back | D．up |
| A．left behind | B．gave away | C．picked up | D．put aside |
| A．learn | B．observe | C．imagine | D．accept |
| A．floor | B．house | C．wall | D．board |
| A．plan | B．feeling | C．test | D．choice |
| A．appreciate | B．teach | C．recommend | D．miss |
| A．normal | B．possible | C．different | D．right |
| A．trainers | B．bosses | C．neighbors | D．cats |
| A．changed | B．copied | C．saved | D．replaced |
| A．steps | B．levels | C．attitudes | D．values |
“The Great Wall symbolizes the firm backbone of China, while the Grand Canal is the bloodline
With
China Daily reported that urbanization (城市化) has led to garbage and other waste being piled up on the waterway by residents, and others have even built illegal
