1 . Antarctica(南极洲)’s melting ice, which has caused global sea levels to rise by at least 13.8 millimeters over the past 40 years, was thought to primarily come from the unstable West Antarctic Ice Sheet(WAIS). Now, scientists have found that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS)—considered largely unaffected by climate change—may also be melting at an unexpectedly rapid speed.
The WAIS, whose base is below sea level, has long been considered the most likely to break down. Besides gravity, a deep current of warm water slips beneath the sheet, melting it from below until it becomes a floating shelf at risk of breaking away. In contrast, extreme cold and a base mostly above sea level are thought to keep the EAIS relatively safe from warm waters.
But as greenhouse gases warm much of the planet, driving stronger polar winds, some scientists think warm water carried by a circular current will start to invade East Antarctica’s once unassailable ice. A cooperation of more than 60 scientists last year, published in Nature, estimated that the EAIS actually added about 5 billion tons of ice each year from 1992 to 2017.
Eric Rignot of the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues combined 40 years of satellite imagery and climate modeling and found that overall Antarctica now sends six times more ice into the sea each year than it did in 1979, with the majority coming from West Antarctica. But East Antarctica was responsible for more than 30% of Antarctica’s contribution to the 13.8-millimeter sea level rise over the past 40 years. “The more we look at this system the more we realize this is fragile,” Rignot says. “Once these glaciers become unstable there is no red button to press to stop it.”
Rignot hopes the study brings greater attention to a part of Antarctica that has traditionally been understudied. Helen Fricker, a glaciologist (冰川学家) in California, agrees. “We need to monitor the entire Antarctica and we just can’t do that without international cooperation.”
1. What is the new finding of scientists?| A．The east Antarctica is losing ice at an increasing rate. |
| B．The west Antarctica is melting six times faster than in 1979. |
| C．5 billion tons of ice is added to Antarctica each year. |
| D．The sea level has risen by 13.8 mm over the past 40 years. |
| A．A base mostly over sea level. | B．The force of gravity. |
| C．The invasion of a warm current. | D．Extremely low temperature. |
| A．Fragile. | B．Unattackable. |
| C．Mild. | D．Unstable. |
| A．Satellite imagery. | B．Global monitoring. |
| C．Worldwide climate modeling. | D．Worldwide combined efforts. |
2 . Where there are people, there are chickens. One result of a huge chicken population is a huge amount of chicken feather, which are normally burned or treated as rubbish, polluting the environment.
Ryan Robinson, a biology graduate from Imperial College London, believed there would be a different solution for this feathery waste. Therefore, along with designer Elena Dieckman, he has discovered a way to turn feathers into an insulating (绝缘的) material for buildings or a packing material for food or medicine. The pair has formed a start-up, called Aeropowder, to try and turn their invention into a commercial product. They believe the new material could have a range of uses.
“Currently feathers are mainly transformed in this country to a low-grade animal food called feather meal. Feathers can also be burned or thrown away. And these methods do not make use of their amazing natural properties (特性).” says Robinson.
It turns out that feathers are quite a wonder material. “Feathers are insulating due to their structure, which are hollow fibers,” says Robinson. Extra air in the fibers means less heat transfer. “What has been surprising is how well the material has performed, and we hope to continue to make it better and better. “The current form of Aeropowder’s material looks much more like a fattened brick of feathers. It’s flexible and light.
Aeropowder isn’t the first to try to find a further use for this very common waste product. In 2011, researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the US suggested that chicken feathers should be used to help produce a kind of environmental plastic. The next challenge will be to find a way for this material to be made close to where the chickens are, rather than sending it far away to a processing plant.
“There is still work to be done to get our material tested with early adopters,” Robinson says. “But in the long term, we wish to become the world experts in feather-based materials.”
1. Why did Ryan begin to search for the solution for feathery waste?| A．To produce environmental plastic. | B．To make big business profits. |
| C．To find better building materials. | D．To avoid its polluting the environment. |
| A．It can keep the house warm. | B．It is easy to be made into bricks. |
| C．It is enough. | D．It helps heat spread quickly. |
| A．Ryan: an expert in feather-based materials |
| B．Feather meal: a new kind of animal food |
| C．Chicken feathers: a wonder material |
| D．Aeropowder: a new processing plant |
1. What happened to the man?
| A．He almost drowned himself. |
| B．He got wet in a storm. |
| C．He caught a cold. |
| A．Wash his clothes. | B．Go to see a doctor. | C．Take a hot shower. |
4 . Chinese knot is an ancient folk art form in China, simple
Chinese knot
Today, people are fond of Chinese knot for its
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：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词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。
The problem of “white pollution” was caused by using plastic is becoming increasingly serious, on which plastic shopping bags play an important role. In China, about three billions plastic shopping bags are consumed every day, that results in a great waste of resources and heavy environmental pollution. Lucky, the government has put a nationwide ban on the use of free plastic bags, demand that no stores or supermarkets should provide customers with free plastic bags. The rule will undoubtedly reduce use of plastic bags or promote the awareness of environmental protection. It was highly suggested that everyone turns to cloth bags and shopping baskets.
| A．Less than 24 hours. | B．24 hours and 37 minutes. | C．37 hours. |
7 . Based on new analysis, we are rapidly approaching major climate change and the effects on society and the environment could be quite severe. Geographers predict that within the next eighty years, current world climate zones could shift and some could completely disappear. Polar regions will get colder while tropical regions will get even hotter, forcing animals to migrate (迁徙) north.
Climate changes like these could lead to the spread of diseases. Tropical storms and hurricanes will not only increase but may also become more intense. If the changes come too quickly, animal and plant species may not be able to adapt fast enough and could disappear.
According to Science Daily, a new study predicts that by the year 2100, many of today’s familiar climates will be replaced by climates unknown in today’s world. It is urgent that we reduce the risks of these far-reaching consequences for the whole world. The planet itself has been showing signs of change. In 2004, a serious tsunami created by a major earthquake killed thousands in Sumatra and in 2008, thousands died in China because of another severe earthquake. Egypt was hit in 2009 with a major earthquake and Haiti was devastated in 2010 by yet another massive earthquake.
Within just the last few months, new reports from around the world have been coming in and most agree that our climate situation is much worse than previously thought. At this point, it doesn’t matter what is causing it, but rather, what can be done about it. What’s more, our world is getting more and more unstable every year. There is war and threat of war everywhere. Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and serious.
However, other planets are experiencing global warming as well as our own and some scientists believe there may be some connection between this. No one knows anything for sure at this point because there is simply not enough data.
1. What is the major function of paragraph 1?| A．To arouse the reader’s concern. |
| B．To introduce the theme of the whole passage. |
| C．To summarize the whole passage. |
| D．To state how climate changes. |
| A．To show major changes are taking place on the planet. |
| B．To remind people to prevent future earthquakes. |
| C．To show the damage earthquakes caused. |
| D．To tell us more earthquakes will happen in the future. |
| A．Animal and plant species may not be able to adapt fast enough and could disappear. |
| B．It could lead to the spread of diseases. |
| C．Current world climate zones could shift and completely disappear. |
| D．Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and serious. |
| A．Animals and plants won’t die out as long as climate changes slowly. |
| B．There’s enough data for us to predict the future of climate change. |
| C．The world is getting more unstable because of animal migration. |
| D．The earth is not the only planet that is experiencing climate change. |
8 . Rainforests, it turns out, are not created equal. Take the Amazon rainforest, an area that covers about 7 million square kilometers. But within that huge expanse are all kinds of ecological zones, and some of these zones, says Greg Asner, are a lot more crowded than others.
“Some forests have many species of trees,” he said, “others have few. Many forests are unique from others in terms of their overall species composition…” And all of these different small areas of forest exist within the giant space that is the Amazon Rainforest.
So Asner, using the signature technique called airborne laser-guided imaging spectroscopy, began to map these different zones from the air. “By mapping the traits of tropical forests from above,” he explains, “we are, for the first time, able to understand how forest composition varies geographically.”
The results show up in multicolored maps, with each color representing different kinds of species, different kinds of trees, the different kinds of chemical they are producing and using, and even the amount of biodiversity, the animal and plant species that live within each zone.
Armed with this information, Asner says decision-makers now have “a first-time way to decide whether any given forest geography is protected well enough or not. If not, then new protections can be put in place to save a given forest from destruction.”
Asner says the information is a great way for decision-makers to develop a “cost-benefit ratio type analysis.” Conservation efforts can be expensive, so armed with this information, government leaders can ensure they are making the most of their conservation dollars by focusing on areas that are the most biologically diverse or unique.
The next step, Asner says, is to take his project global, and to put his eyes even higher in the sky, on orbital satellites. “The technique we developed and applied to map Peru is ready to go global.” Asner said. “We want to put the required instrumentation on an Earth-orbiting satellite, to map the planet every month, which will give the best possible view of how the world’s biodiversity is changing, and where to put much needed protections.
1. Unequally-created rainforests refer to the fact ______.| A．how crowded they are |
| B．where they are located |
| C．when they came into being |
| D．what kinds of species they have |
| A．The cost to conserve forests. |
| B．The chemicals needing for certain forests. |
| C．The forest areas needing special protection. |
| D．The number of animals living in a forest. |
| A．To send a satellite to map the world. |
| B．To track the change of biodiversity in the world. |
| C．To develop technology for mapping the globe. |
| D．To advertise his project around the world. |
| A．Using eyes in the sky to map biodiversity. |
| B．Making a map of big forests in the world. |
| C．Learning about the biodiversity of Amazon forest. |
| D．Protecting the forest from being destructed. |
保护环境是人类永恒的话题，如何保护环境就成为人类最重要的任务之一，人人应该有责任保护环境保护我们这个地球家园。请以“How to Protect the Environment”为题写一篇短文，阐述我们应该如何从身边做起来保护环境
提示：1. 环境的现状：越来越糟糕，自然灾害(natural disasters) 越来越多，地震的危害严重威胁到了人类的安全；
2. 好的环境能给人类带来健康和快乐，改善环境意味着保护人类自己，提高生活质量
3. 环境保护的具体建议：要点自己拟定
注意： 1 语句准确、流畅，内容要点完整
2 可根据实际情况适当发挥
3 字数：100个左右。
10 . My husband, Tom, has always been good with animals, but I was still amazed when he befriended a female grouse (松鸡). It’s
This grouse came into our lives in
Tom saw the
One day, as Tom was working, Mildred came within a few feet of him to watch. Tom
Apparently, she didn’t like to be
As spring went and summer came, Mildred started to
When hunting season opened, we put a
| A．interesting | B．reasonable | C．impossible | D．unusual |
| A．though | B．because | C．unless | D．until |
| A．spring | B．summer | C．autumn | D．winter |
| A．got | B．kept | C．noticed | D．imagined |
| A．naturally | B．certainly | C．normally | D．surprisingly |
| A．crazy | B．curious | C．concerned | D．cautious |
| A．shy | B．awkward | C．friendly | D．elegant |
| A．careful | B．tired | C．fond | D．sick |
| A．supposed | B．realized | C．hoped | D．pretended |
| A．ignored | B．observed | C．amazed | D．disturbed |
| A．put | B．back | C．set | D．take |
| A．game | B．work | C．place | D．man |
| A．give up | B．come out | C．turn over | D．fly by |
| A．Eventually | B．Suddenly | C．Constantly | D．Presently |
| A．chance | B．dream | C．picture | D．sense |
| A．comfortable | B．guilty | C．anxious | D．familiar |
| A．lantern | B．sign | C．gun | D．loudspeaker |
| A．drivers | B．farmers | C．hunters | D．tourists |
| A．just | B．yet | C．thus | D．also |
| A．In fact | B．For long | C．On the contrary | D．By the way |
