1 . On January 22, a massive iceberg broke off from Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf. Scientists say the iceberg was expected to break off and the event isn’t connected to climate change. But the size of the iceberg is hard to imagine.

The iceberg, known as “A81”, is extremely large. It covers an area of about 600 square miles (1,550 square kilometers).

Antarctica, the world’s fifth largest continent, is covered with a layer of ice and snow that’s roughly 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers) thick. As snow falls, it piles up in the center of Antarctica in a huge layer of ice. Over time, the weight of this ice and snow creates slowly moving rivers of ice called glaciers, which push out towards the sea.

When the glaciers reach the sea, they slowly push out beyond the edge of the land, forming huge “ice shelves”, These are massive sections of ice that spread out over the sea, floating on the water below. Antarctica’s largest ice shelf, the Ross Ice Shelf, is about the size of France.

From time to time, the edges of the ice shelves break off. This is a natural process, called “calving”. Though calving events are a normal part of the ice shelf in Antarctica, one expert describes huge calving events like this one as “spectacular”,

Unlike an ice shelf, sea ice isn’t attached to Antarctica’s land. It’s a layer of ice that floats on the surface of the sea. The sea ice is there year-round. It grows larger in the cold winters, and smaller as it begins to melt in the summers.

It’s now summer in Antarctica, and scientists say the sea ice is disappearing “unusually” rapidly. Last year, with temperatures warmer than normal, Antarctica set a record for the lowest amount of sea ice ever recorded. Scientists say Antarctica’s sea ice could set a new record low again this year.

1. Why have a lot of icebergs broken off from Antarctica in recent years?

A．Because of climate change.

B．Because of human activities.

C．Because of their extremely big size.

D．Because of the amount of iceberg.

2. What does the underlined word “calving” probably refer to in paragraph 5?

A．Giving birth.	B．Breaking off.
C．Coming together.	D．Cutting down.

3. What is the scientists’ attitude towards the changes of sea ice in Antarctica?

A．Doubtful.

B．Objective.

C．Optimistic.

D．Worried.

4. What is probably the best title of this text?

A．Massive Iceberg Breaks from Antarctica

B．Scientists Say the Iceberg Was to Break Off

C．Antarctica’s Sea Ice Could Set a New Record

D．The Sea Ice Disappears“Unusually”Rapidly

2 . Animal populations across the world have been reduced by 69% in less than 50 years, according to a new scientific report. The report’s authors are calling for urgent action to restore the natural world.

The Living Planet Report (LPR) is produced every two years by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London. The most recent report, released on October 13, 2022, shows that almost 70% of the world’s monitored wildlife was lost between 1970 and 2018. The report is based on research from 195 countries around the world. Data was collected from almost 32,000 populations of 5,230 species.

Although the average global loss of wildlife is 69%, the rate is greater in the global south. Latin America and the Caribbean in particular have seen the sharpest fall, having lost 94% of their wildlife since 1970. Across the world, the biggest drop was in freshwater populations of wildlife — including almost 1,400 species of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles — which have decreased by 83%.

The report identifies several causes for wildlife loss, including hunting, farming, the loss of forests, pollution and climate change. However, the report also promotes solutions, such as designing less destructive food production systems, urgently protecting the Amazon rainforest, limiting the use of fossil fuels, and creating new laws to protect our natural environment.

Commenting on the report, Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, called the figures “terrifying”, and said “we need to restore nature and not simply halt its loss.” In December 2022, world leaders are meeting in Montreal for the 15th UN Biodiversity Conference, also known as COP 15. The authors of the LPR say that this is an opportunity for a global plan to deal with wildlife loss and restore nature. “Government leaders must step up at COP 15,” said Lambertini. “The world is watching.”

1. What does the author mainly want to show by listing the numbers in the first three paragraphs?

A．The causes of the urgent situation.

B．The detailed process of the research.

C．The severity of wildlife loss worldwide.

D．The drop in freshwater populations of wildlife?

2. According to the report, what is a possible solution to population decline of wildlife?

A．Stop hunting and farming.

B．Ban the production of wildlife food.

C．Offer legal protection of natural environment.

D．Replace the fossil fuels with renewable energy

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

A．Accept.

B．Stop.

C．Fear.

D．Suffer.

4. What is Lambertini’s attitude towards wildlife loss?

A．Objective.	B．Indifferent.
C．Ambiguous.	D．Concerned.

3 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

It’s reported that about 10% of the global population do not have clean water. The water crisis has serious effects on people’s health, education, and     1     (finance) situation and on the stability of their community.

Water     2     (use) to keep clean and keeping clean is the key to good health. For example, a simple cut to a child’s leg can be treated by washing it, to avoid infections.     3     clean water, that simple cut can become a serious medical condition.

Children who spend a lot of time collecting water are less likely     4     (attend) full time education. Chances are that those students aren’t able to study to the level     5     (require) to go to college or university. The problem is     6     (particular) bad for girls, who tend to be the family’s members     7     (walk) a long way to collect water.

Low standards of education make     8     much more difficult for people to get jobs that are both well-paid and safe. If there is no money from     9     (employ), it’s difficult for communities to develop their water supply and sanitation (卫生).

Water is often a source of argument and even wars. The stability of a whole region or even a country can be in danger because of a shortage of clean water. To decrease the influence of the water crisis, the United Nations has a Sustainable Development Goal     10     specifically refers to water and sanitation.

4 . The physiological (生理的) processes associated with a psychological stress response produce changes in human breath and sweat that dogs can detect with an accuracy of 93. 75%, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Clara Wilson of Queen’s University Belfast, UK, and colleagues.

In the new study, the researchers collected samples ( 样 本 ) of breath and sweat from non-smokers who had not recently eaten or drunk. Samples were collected both before and after a fast-paced maths task, along with self. reported stress levels and objective physiological measures: heart rate (HR)and blood pressure (BP). Samples from 36 participants who reported an increase in stress because of the task, and experienced an increase in HR and BP during the task, were shown to dogs within three hours of being collected.

Four dogs of different kinds had been taught by researchers to match smells in a discrimination task. Then at testing, dogs were asked to find the participant’s stress sample (taken at the end of the task) while the same person’s relaxed sample (taken only minutes before, prior to the task starting) was also in the sample group.

Overall, dogs could detect and perform their alert (警觉的) behavior on the sample taken during stress in 675 out of 720 trials, or 93. 75% of the time, much greater than expected by chance. The first time they were exposed to a participant’s stressed and relaxed samples, the dogs correctly alerted to the stress sample 94. 44% of the time. Individual dogs ranged in performance from 90% to 96. 88% accuracy.

Clara Wilson, the lead study author, explains, “The findings show that we, as humans, produce different smells through our sweat and breath when we are stressed and dogs can tell this apart from our smells when relaxed using what they do best— smelling— even if it is someone they do not know. ”The study made us more aware of a dog’s ability to use their nose to “see” the world, which could be useful when training service dogs and therapy dogs.

1. What can we learn about the participants in the new study?

A．They are nondrinkers.

B．They are nonsmokers.

C．They suffer from high blood pressure.

D．They think a lot about the pressures of life.

2. What did the researchers do to the dogs before testing them?

A．They fed them.	B．They named them
C．They trained them.	D．They measured them.

3. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Dogs can pick up on human emotions.

B．Dogs can’t detect humans’ stress levels.

C．Dogs can tell our stress from our smells.

D．Dogs can perform visual discrimination tasks.

4. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?

A．Science.

B．Entertainment.

C．Education.

D．Health.

5 . 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。

The COVID-19 pandemic (流行病) reduced global greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent this year, released by the Global Carbon Project on Friday.

“The amount fell by 2.4 billion metric tons    1    the current level of 34 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)”, said the study    2    (publish) in the journal Earth Systems Science Data. “The drop occurs    3    (chief) because people are staying home and traveling    4    (little) by car and plane, and emissions    5    (expect) to jump back up after the pandemic ends”, the research team said. The data show that ground transportation makes up about one-fifth of emissions of carbon dioxide. Though the record    6    (drop), the world on average put 1,075 metric tons of CO2 into    7    air every second. The scientists of the study said that long-term emissions trends would be heavily influenced by how    8    (country) power their pandemic recovery plans.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday appealed for ambitious climate action,    9    (say) 2021 must be the year    10    the world leaps forward into a net-zero emissions future.

7 . Billionaire Sir Christopher Hohn expects the greatest “demand disruption (中断)” for oil since the 1970s shock to cause an increase in renewable energy investment.

He said high oil prices are “a positive thing” for the climate as the energy crisis results in a “dramatic speed-up” in decarbonisation (碳减排). “The whole world should now be focused on seeking alternatives, whether they’re renewables or hydrogen fuels. All of these things are far more economic.”

He pointed to the recent boost of EU (欧盟) for renewable energy funding, as part of a plan to reduce imports of gas. Even as oil and gas companies obtain record profits from the high prices at present, Hohn said climate-focused investors will ultimately benefit from the energy price shock.

“The oil price increase leads to plans for accelerated decarbonisation,” said Hohn. “I personally believe that we’ll have demand disruption as we had in the 70s, and that there will be a dramatic acceleration in decarbonisation. I actually view it as a positive thing.”

Hohn has pressured companies to give shareholders a vote on their climate plans. Spanish airport operator Aena and aircraft manufacturer Airbus improved their emissions (排放) tar-gets as a result. Hohn has also pushed for stricter regulation on corporate climate promises. “Corporate decarbonisation isn’t going to happen through voluntary methods,” Hohn said.

Hohn is also backing a new rating agency that will grade company emissions strategies, through his charity, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. The Climate Action-plan Rating Centre (Climate-Arc) will analyse public company data and publish climate plan ratings.

Investors often struggle to analyse corporate climate plans. “Because though some organizations declare their commitment to environmental protection, they actually do the opposite,” Hohn said, “I expect a large proportion of companies will get graded F if they’re not doing enough. Even companies with net zero emissions targets have failed to set out plans about how to reach those goals. The impact is going to be a bit like, ‘the emperor has no clothes’.”

1. Why are high oil prices a positive thing according to Hohn?

A．They will reduce energy demand.

B．They will bring economic benefits.

C．There will be a shift to clean energy.

D．There will be a reduction in energy imports.

2. What does Hohn argue for in paragraph 5?

A．Climate regulation should be stricter.

B．Decarbonisation should be voluntary.

C．Emissions targets should be debated.

D．Climate plans should be informed to the public.

3. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．The method of avoiding being graded F.

B．The suggestion about helping investors.

C．The method of reaching zero emissions targets.

D．The suggestion about reducing carbon emissions.

4. Which would be the best title for the text?

A．Energy crisis—a hard nut

B．Energy crisis—a wake up call

C．Energy crisis—a cruel circle

D．Energy crisis—a cause of economic depression

8 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Tom was a fishing amateur. He once came to a wet place in the roadless forest to fish with his friends William and Tony. They put up their tent upon the top of a pine-clothed mountain and then began fishing. However, none of them was successful fisherman. They were either made lazy by the sun or wet by the rain. After two days of fishing, they got nothing. Finally they ate the last bit of bacon and smoked and burned the last fearful corncake. If they didn’t get anything to eat, they would have to starve.

Immediately Tom volunteered to stay and hold the camp while the remaining two should go miles away to a farmhouse for supplies. Hearing Tom’s suggestion, the two friends gazed at him jokingly. “ There is only one of you-be careful, for bears may appear and keep you company!” Tom didn’t take what they said seriously. Then the two men disappeared down the hill in the known direction of a distant wooden house.

Night came, but the two men did not return. Tom sat close to his companion, the campfire. He lit a cigarette and felt a thousand shadows were about to come towards him. Suddenly he heard the approach of something unknown, rackling the small branches and rustling (使沙沙作响) the dead leaves. Feeling a bit scared, Tom rose slowly to his feet. His cigarette dropped from his mouth and his knees shook with fear. “Hah!” he shouted in a loud voice in the hope of scaring his opponent away. A roar (咆哮) replied and a bear paced into the light of the fire.

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。
Paragraph 1:

Tom supported himself upon a tree and observed his unexpected visitor.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:

Tom breathed a sigh of relief

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10 . “If the world ends one day, these collections will bring hope of a new beginning to life on Earth,” said Li Pei, a staff member at the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, or GBOWS, in Yunnan province.

Founded in 2007, GBOWS is a research and preservation facility for rare and endangered plants and animals. It is the largest in Asia in terms of species.

According to China Daily, GBOWS has preserved 85,046 seed types from 10,601 species and 60,262 biosamples of 2,203 wild animal species and domestic animal breeds.

“The number of seed accessions is close to that of the world’s biggest seed bank — the Millennium Seed Bank in the United Kingdom,” Li said.

With two in five plant species at risk of extinction, she said it is a race against time to protect the nation’s incredible plant life.

So how does the bank work? Scientists collect endangered and useful wild species and send them to the seed bank. For future study, collectors have to record details of the plant, including where it was found, its size and the number of individual plants in the habitat.

Once the seeds arrive at GBOWS, they’re dried and preserved in a room with 15 percent humidity. Next, they’re cleaned and separated from pieces. After that, X-rays confirm that the seeds are undamaged and no insects are hidden inside. The seeds are then frozen, stored in glass bottles and placed in huge freezers at -20℃ for long-term storage. Each container has a barcode that can be scanned to enable scientists to view information about the seeds inside.

The bank in Yunnan works with international partners on collecting backup (备份) samples, exchanges and research. It holds 2,176 sets of seeds from 45 countries and regions, with each set containing thousands of individual seeds.

“As China has rich and unique biological resources, we aim to further enhance our collections and conduct deeper research, in expectation of contributing more to biodiversity conservation, not only in China but the world,” Li Pei said.

1. What does the underlined word “extinction” mean in Paragraph 4?

A．Disappearance.

B．Collection.

C．Movement.

D．Development.

2. How does GBOWS work for the seeds?

A．The seeds are kept in containers made of plastic.

B．The seeds are put under very hot and wet condition.

C．The seeds are dried before being cleaned and separated.

D．The seeds are confirmed just by human eyes to ensure their healthy condition.

3. Which of the following statements is an accurate description of GBOWS?

A．2176 seeds are held in it.

B．All the seeds held in it are from China.

C．Only endangered wild species are collected in it.

D．Its number of seeds is close to the Millennium Seed Bank’s.

4. According to the passage, what is Li Pei’s attitude about GBOWS?

A．Indifferent.

B．Disappointed.

C．Hopeful.

D．Critical.