1 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What can be seen from space?

A．The smoke in the Arctic.

B．The wildfires in Scandinavia.

C．The melting ice in Greenland.

2. Where are 400 fires out of control?

A．In Greenland.

B．In Alaska.

C．In Siberia.

3. What caused more fires in the Arctic?

A．Strong winds.

B．More lightening strikes.

C．High temperatures.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．The Arctic fires.

B．The habitat loss.

C．The death of animals.

2 . My family always had some sort of animal around, but none of them were truly mine. My parents didn’t permit me to _________ my own until I was seven years old. Finally, I was _________ to have my own _________, a fish called George. I said it was my responsibility to _________ it.

Every Friday I would clean out his bowl. I found myself _________ invitations to go somewhere immediately after school, because I would have to feed my fish first. Every day he would remind me that I was _________ and that I had someone depending on me.

One day, I came home from school and headed to my room to _________George. I found a _________ thing had happened. I _________ my bag and ran over to the bowl. I saw my best friend George floating around lifeless.

My mom walked into my room. I turned around as tears started to well in my eyes. “Mommy, George d…d…died.” With that __________ word I started crying uncontrollably. My mom came to my side as I hid my face in my pillows.

Suddenly, I realized that George hadn’t just __________ me. He had taught me what __________ meant. I learned it through feeding him and cleaning his bowl. This made me feel __________ . To my seven-year-old self, this was a great __________ . Slowly, a smile crossed my face. George was gone.__________ , the lessons he taught me would forever be carved into my memory.

1.

A．draw

B．imagine

C．have

D．share

2.

A．doubtful

B．excited

C．surprised

D．afraid

3.

A．toy

B．mind

C．time

D．pet

4.

A．take care of

B．make use of

C．get hold of

D．look forward to

5.

A．reading out

B．putting away

C．turning down

D．showing off

6.

A．replaced

B．recognized

C．affected

D．needed

7.

A．feed

B．save

C．impress

D．find

8.

A．basic

B．terrible

C．funny

D．familiar

9.

A．dropped

B．emptied

C．hid

D．checked

10.

A．common

B．last

C．extra

D．new

11.

A．left

B．reminded

C．defeated

D．chosen

12.

A．preference

B．independence

C．difficulty

D．responsibility

13.

A．safe

B．good

C．sorry

D．tired

14.

A．agreement

B．treatment

C．disappointment

D．achievement

15.

A．Otherwise

B．Besides

C．However

D．Therefore

3 . What does the woman’s cat do when it sees mice?

A．It stays still.

B．It acts friendly towards them.

C．It tries to catch them.

4 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What probably happened around Fountain Hills during last winter?

A．All animals died off.

B．It didn’t rain much.

C．Many chemicals were used.

2. Why did a lot of bees disappear?

A．They were eaten by birds.

B．They were dying off themselves.

C．They were killed by the government.

3. What do the scientists offer to do?

A．To bring bees to the town.

B．To tell people the importance of bees.

C．To teach farmers how to grow food better.

5 . The opening of California’s commercial crab season, which normally starts in November, is delayed once again to protect whales searching for their prey (猎物) along the coast.

California has been affected by a marine heat wave since May. The Blob, as this mass of warm water has become known, is squeezing cooler water preferred by whales and their prey close to shore, where fishermen set their traps. This crowding can lead to tangle (缠结) between whales and fishing equipment, endangering the animals’ lives and requiring rescue missions.

In a new study, scientists say they can now use global temperature models, commonly used in climate science, to predict up to a year in advance when hot ocean temperatures raise the risk of tangles between whales and fishing equipment.The tool analyzed in the new study, called the Habitat Compression Index, works by feeding sea-surface temperature measurements into an equation (方程式) that estimates the likelihood of whale habitat shrinking closer to shore.Regulators and fishermen agree that the new forecasting research could help them walk the tightrope between protecting whales and protecting local livelihoods (生计).

Mr Ogg, a commercial fishing boat captain, describes himself as a conservationist who doesn’t want to see whales harmed.“Fishermen have a big motivation to protect the natural environment,” he said, “because that’s where they make their living.” Previously, the challenge was adapting to changing conditions and fishing regulations on short notice, especially for smaller business owners and their crews.“One of the biggest problems we had was the unpredictability,” Mr Ogg said, “We were living from week to week then.”

Though scientists have shown the Habitat Compression Index can now forecast months in advance, state officials would probably wait to see conditions in real time before making decisions about the crab fishery, said Ryan Bartling, an environmental scientist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

1. What do the whales come to shore for according to the first two paragraphs?

A．Safety.

B．Shelter.

C．Leisure.

D．Food.

2. What does the underlined phrase “walk the tightrope” probably mean?

A．To take a risk.	B．To join in an act.
C．To strike a balance.	D．To walk on a rope.

3. What’s the state officials’ attitude towards the tool in the study?

A．Supportive.

B．Indifferent.

C．Cautious.

D．Pessimistic.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．How climate data gives whales room to swim

B．What causes the decrease in whale population

C．Why global temperature models are in great need

D．Whether to protect whales or the local livelihoods

6 . The fruit-tree pinhole borer (针孔蛀虫), as its name implies, makes holes in fruit trees. It lays its eggs and raises its young in the galleries thus created . Yet the beetles (甲虫) do not feed directly on the wood they bore into. Instead, they devour fungi (真菌) that grow on the wood thus exposed.

Researchers have long suspected that this is a form of farming, because they have evidence that the beetles carry spores (孢子) of their preferred crop, R. sulphurea, into their smallholdings—in effect, sowing it there.

Observations of natural fruit-tree pinhole-bore r dwellings suggest that R. sulphurea grows in them more abundantly (大量地) than might be expected, given all the fungal competition around—but not why. To check whether the beetles are, indeed, weeding their crop, Janina Diehl and Peter Biedermann of the University of Freiburg did an experiment.

In the laboratory, they had mother beetles of the little wood bore restablish nests, in which the typical fungal gardens formed. But before the beetles had started laying their eggs, they collected all of the beetles and then returned half to their dwellings while leaving the other nests empty. Genetic analysis of the fungal gardens after 40 days showed that the presence of the beetles had greatly changed the fungal community. Twenty days after that, they sampled the gallery walls for fungi.

As they had hoped and expected, R. sulphurea was much more abundant in beetle-tended galleries than in those without residents. In the former, it made up half of the fungal mass extracted. In the latter, less than a third. These beetles are indeed weeding their crop.

“Further research into how exactly the beetles suppress the growth of weed fungi could alsoprovide worthwhile insights for human agriculture, which is struggling with weed resistance, for example,” says Biedermann. “It’s highly exciting for us to see how nature has been doing this for 60 million years. We humans can still learn something from these mechanisms.”

1. What does the underlined word “devour” in paragraph 1 mean?

A．Sow.

B．Tend.

C．Eat.

D．Move.

2. In which aspect were the two groups of nests different?

A．The number of the mother beetles.	B．The presence of the beetles.
C．The quality of food fungi.	D．The types of weed fungi.

3. What did Diehl find about the fruit-tree pinhole borer?

A．They weed crops.	B．They feed on fruit.
C．They live in groups.	D．They lay eggs in trees.

4. What can be learned from Biedermann’s words?

A．The research findings are of little value.

B．Measures should be taken to protect the beetles.

C．Fungi cause much damage to human agriculture.

D．Further research to the beetles might benefit farmers.

7 . 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。

My sister-in-law Carol said she’d already picked out a kitten for me. I agreed to go with her… just to look. I made no promise to take one home. After all, only two months had passed since I lost my beloved calico cat, Mandi. Maybe I needed to be pet-free for a while.

When we got there, three of the four kittens remained in the litter. Carol picked up one and handed it to me. The beautiful face and white fur on the right side of her nose reminded me of a clown-like mask. How could I resist? Then another kitten, with an evenly balanced white face, jumped into my lap and purred.

Driving home in my British sports car proved difficult with two mischievous kittens. One clung to my left arm and shoulder, watching the fast-moving scenery outside. The other paced back and forth from my lap to the passenger’s seat, making it hard for me to shift gears. Both mewed in a loud duet(二重奏) of protest. Of course, I hadn’t brought a cage. I had not planned to take home a kitten — or two.

The clown-like-masked female earned the name Squeakette with her tiny voice squeaking about each new discovery as she explored her new home. The male, lacking only a black tie in his formal clothes, took the name Sebastian for my favorite composer, Johann Sebastian Bach.

A few weeks later, a neighbor helped me carry down my six-foot artificial Christmas tree from the attic(阁楼). I thanked him with a batch of cookies, and then set up the tree in the comer of my living room.

Sebastian and Squeakette knocked it down before I opened the box of decorations. After setting it upright, I straightened the few bent wire branches back into place. As I checked for any other damage, a quick flash of black-and-white fur passed by me. Up they went, branch by branch. The tree danced around as the two kittens took turns climbing it together. Sebastian made it to the top a moment ahead of Squeakette.

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

He lunged at me from the top, paws stretched out like wings.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2

Sensing their interest, I found a smaller Christmas tree for them.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8 . Several security guards of residential compounds in Beijing and workers were seen shoveling snow and some parked vehicles were covered by thick overnight snow. The first snowfall of winter arrived in Beijing early Monday, covering the Chinese capital with a mantle (披风) of white overnight and plunging (使……下降) the city into freezing temperatures, with even colder weather coming this week in northern China.

Snowfall reached 5.8 mm on average by early Monday, with the highest snowfall of 10.2 mm recorded in Fangshan district, Beijing Meteorological (气象的) Service data showed. Beijing typically sees its first snow of the season between late November and February, or even none at all. More snowfall is expected this week, with temperatures seen further sliding to as low as -20°Celsius. The Chinese capital last saw such similarly extremely cold weather on Jan. 7, 2021, when the temperature dropped to -19.6℃.

The cold snap (寒潮) in Beijing this week, compared with the autumn-like conditions a week ago, mirrored the sharp swings in temperatures recently. In October, Beijing experienced one of its warmest Octobers in decades in a year of weather extremes.

On Monday, the government warned of road icing in large parts of the city of nearly 22 million, with authorities shutting some expressways or partially closing sections. By 10 a. m. local time, 62 out of a few hundred flights had been cancelled at the Beijing Capital Airport. Railway authorities enforced speed limits on lines connecting Beijing and Guangzhou in southern China, causing delays in some passenger trains. By 7 a. m. Monday, more than 180 bus routes in Beijing had been suspended.

The official Beijing Daily reported that vegetable stocks were enough, hitting this year’s highest daily market volume of 23,800 tons, as merchants stocked up (备货) ahead of time. Huang, a Beijing resident working in the internet sector, said the snow in Beijing came early. “Normally, it doesn’t snow until the Spring Festival,” Huang said, referring to the start of the Lunar New Year, which typically falls in January or February.

1. Which of the following is not used to show the seriousness of the snowfall in paragraph?

A．By listing out numbers.	B．By illustrating a viewpoint.
C．By citing data from the authority.	D．By making comparisons.

2. What contrast in weather conditions did Beijing experience as mentioned in the article?

A．From hot summers to mild winters.

B．From dry conditions to heavy rainfall.

C．From autumn-like conditions to a sudden coldness.

D．From constant snow to unexpectedly warm temperatures.

3. Which of the following word is close to the meaning of “enforced” in paragraph 4?

A．introduced

B．obeyed

C．happened

D．improved

4. What positive measure did merchants in Beijing take in anticipation of the snowfall?

A．Organized community support groups.	B．Increased storage of essential supplies.
C．Created emergency shelters for the homeless.	D．Offered discounts and sales to boost business.

9 . For the first time in about 100 years, a rare bird called the takahē is walking freely along the Lake Whakatipu Waimaori Valley in New Zealand after 18 captive birds were released into the wild. The area is also home to a Maori tribe called Ngai Tahu, which has spent years campaigning for the birds to return to their land. The Maori are New Zealand’s Indigenous people (first people known to live there), and they consider the takahē bird to be “taonga”, meaning a treasure.

Takahē are large, round, flightless birds with red legs, and they have lived in New Zealand since prehistoric times. Like many New Zealand birds, takahē evolved to be flightless because there were no mammals to compete with. When Europeans arrived in New Zealand, however, predators such as cats and ferrets were introduced and killed off many flightless birds. Takahē were declared extinct in 1898, but a small number of the birds were discovered in 1948 in a remote part of the Murchison Mountains.

Since then, conservationists have been trying to restore the takahē population in captivity. They gathered the bird’s eggs in order to keep the chicks safe from predators. The chicks were raised by volunteers, who fed them while wearing sockpuppets on their hands to imitate the parent birds. There are now about 500 takahē birds in captivity. Several pairs of adult birds have been released into the island’s sanctuaries and national parks. Experts will monitor them to see how they adapt to their new environment. If everything goes well, they hope to release seven more birds this month and 10 young birds next year.

Ta Tipene O’Regan, an elder of the Ngai Tahu tribe, helped to release the birds. He told The Guardian newspaper, ”There are few things more beautiful than to watch these large birds running back into lands where they haven’t walked for over a century. ”O’Regan said, “It’s an absolute joy. ”

1. As for Maori people, takahē are ______.

A．valuable

B．dangerous

C．adaptable

D．entertaining

2. What caused takahē flightless according to Paragraph 2?

A．Big bodies	B．Long time captivity.
C．Native people’s protection.	D．No competitors.

3. What does the underlined word “chicks” refer to in Paragraph 3?

A．Eggs.

B．Predators.

C．Baby birds

D．Parent takahē.

4. Which is probably the best title?

A．Native Birds back in the Wild	B．A Big Joy of Maori Tribes
C．Rare Eggs Protected by Volunteers	D．Distinct Mammals in New Zealand

10 . 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。

In the grip of a cold wave, with temperatures plummeting below minus 10 degrees Celsius, the plateau county of Jishishan in Northwest China’s Gansu province was jolted from its slumber midnight Monday by a 6.2-mngnitude earthquake, causing death,     1    (destroy) and panic.

According to a local villager Ding Xiaolong, he was asleep at home when the quake struck. He felt     2    (fortune) for being able to escape, but he also conveyed deep sadness for his friend who was currently working in the coastal city of Xiamen,     3    (locate) more than 2,000 kilometers away.

“I received a call from him after the quake, asking me to check on the situation of his family,” Ding said, adding that he rushed to their house, only to discover that it     4     (level), to the ground, with four people buried underneath.

    5     Ding’s efforts to gather over 20 people for help, it proved futile(徒劳的) as it was already too late. All four members of his friend’s family bad lost their lives.

As of 10 am Tuesday, a total of 105 were confirmed     6    (die) in Gansu and 11 in the neighboring Qinghai province, with hundreds injured.

Members of the Gansu branch of the Blue Sky Rescue Team,     7     Chinese civil relief Group(小组), have set up dozens of tents in the public square of Date village. Local officials have provided warm water for the affected residents     8    (consume) and use for preparing instant noodles.

In Dahejia township,     9     the temperature plummeted(速降) to 16 degrees Celsius below zero, over 140 medical staff at a local hospital word occupied treating the injured people. According to first person     10    (account), the loved ones of many of these patients were untraceable in the aftermath of the earthquake.