1 . THE GLOBAL WASTE TRADE IS ESSENTIALLY BROKEN

Cut into hillside in northern Malaysia stands a large, open-air warehouse. This is a recycling factory, which opened last November. On a very hot afternoon in January, Shahid Ali was working his very first week on the job. He stood knee-deep in soggy, white bits of plastic. Around him, more bits floated of the conveyor belt and fell to the ground like snowflakes.

Hour after hour, Ali sorts through the plastic jumble moving down the belt, picking out pieces that look off-color or soiled-rejects (废品) in the recycling process. Though it looks like backbreaking work, Ali says it is a great improvement over his previous job, folding bed-sheets in a nearby textile factory, for much lower pay. Now, if he eats simply, he can save money from his wages of just over $l an hour and send $250 a month to his parents and six brothers and sisters in Peshawar, Pakistan, 2,700 miles away, “As soon as I heard about this work, I asked for a job,” says Ali, 24, a bearded man with glasses and an easy smile. Still, he’s working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. “If I take a day off, I lose a day’s wages,” he says.

In the warehouse, hundreds of bags are stacked more than 60 feet high-each stuffed with plastic wrappers and bags thrown away weeks earlier by their original users in California. The fact that the waste has traveled to this distant corner of the planet in the first place shows how badly the global recycling economy has failed to keep pace with humanity’s plastics addiction. This is an ecosystem that is deeply dysfunctional, if not on the point of collapse: About 90% of the millions of tons of plastic the world produces every year will eventually end up not recycled, but burned, buried, or dumped.

Plastic recycling enjoys ever-wider support among consumers: Putting yogurt containers and juice bottles in a blue bin is an eco-friendly act of faith in millions of households. But faith goes only so far. The tidal wave of plastic items that enters the recycling stream each year is increasingly likely to fall right back out again, casualties of a broken market. Many products that consumers believe (and industries claim) are “recyclable" are in reality not, because of hard economics. With oil and gas prices near 20-year lows, so-called virgin plastic, a product of petroleum feed-stocks, is now far cheaper and easier to obtain than recycled material. That unforeseen shift has yanked the financial rug out from under what was until recently a practical recycling industry. “The global waste trade is essentially broken,” says the head of the global plastics campaign at Greenpeace. “We are sitting on vast amounts of plastic with nowhere to send it and nothing to do with it.”

1. What is the author’s attitude towards Shahid Ali?

A．Critical.

B．Merciless.

C．Indifferent.

D．Sympathetic.

2. What most probably causes the problem of global waste recycling?

A．The prices of oil and gas have been increasing.

B．Tons of wastes travel so far before being recycled.

C．Recyclable products are not really recycled.

D．Governments don’t support the recycling industry.

3. What does the italicized word “dysfunctional” mean in the passage?

A．Out of stock.

B．Far from pleased.

C．Full of energy.

D．Out of order.

4. What is the author’s purpose of writing this article?

A．To illustrate how plastic waste has been recycled in the world.

B．To warn people that the global waste trade is essentially broken.

C．To analyze the relationship between consumers and factories.

D．To solve the conflict between the recycling industry and governments.

2 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

The Lights of Aurora

On the night of 2 September1859, the dark sky over Europe and North America was suddenly full of light! The light did no come from the sun or the moon and it had a strange colour. The light moved across the sky,     1     (come) and going, like clouds in a strong wind in the United States, a man in Boston was using the telegraph to speak to a man in Portand 160km away. They both turned off the electricity for the telegraph, but     2     could still speak to each other for the next two hours. The electricity was coming from the light in the sky. How was this possible? And what was the light in the sky?

The light is called the aurora. Usually, you can see it only at the very north of the earth,     3     it is called aurora borealis or Northerm Lights, or at the very south, where it is the aurora australis or Southern Lights. But in 1859, something happened in the sun — a very large storm — and it moved the aurora across the middle of the earth. We do not think that his ever happened before 1859, and we know that it     4     (not happen) since then.

Why does the aurora happen? And why can we only see it at the top or bottom of the earth? The aurora is made by something     5     (call) the ‘solar wind’( wind from the sun). We cannot see this wind, or touch it. It is a wind of particles that travel away from the sun at the time at about 400 kilometers a second. Most of the particles never touch the earth. The earth has a kind of ‘wall’ around it that defends it     6     these particles. This wall is called the earth’s magnetic field, and it pushes the particles away on either side. But the earth's magnetic field has two “windows” in it: the magnetic north, and the magnetic south. At these places. the earth’s magnetic field turns down into the earth. And some of the particles from the solar wind come through these magnetic ‘windows’. These solar particles crash is to the particles that are already in our sky. And     7     this happens, we see the beautiful lines or clouds of light of the aurora.

Alaska is a good place     8     (see) the auurora borealis, and you can also go to places like Iceland, Siberia, the north of Greenland, Norway, Sweden, and Scotland to see the aurora australis, go to the south of Australia, Tasmania, or New Zealand.

People travel thousands of kilometers to see the aurora, and they can never be sure     9     it will happen. But     10     do see it says that they will never forget it.

3 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

The Mystery is No Mystery

The area of ocean between Florida, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda, known as the Bermuda Triangle, is the source of much mystery. Over the centuries, reports of ships and planes disappearing     1     a trace have seized the public attention, leading the zone     2     (nickname) “The Devil’s Triangle.” Suggested causes for these mysterious disappearances range front supernatural powers to underwater alien bases. However, there is a more basic question to ask: Do more craft really disappear in the Bermuda Triangle than in any similarly trafficked area? The answer,     3     it turns out, is no.

The Bermuda Triangle covers a vast 700,000 square-kilometer swathe of ocean. Close to the equator(赤道)and near the United States, it is a particularly busy patch of sea with heavy traffic. According to Lloyd’s of London and the U. S. Coast Guard,     4     you were to compare the number of disappearances to the large quantity of ships and planes that have passed through the Bermuda Triangle, you would find that there     5     (be) nothing out of the ordinary about the area.

These days, new theories are being put forward, with a bit of scientific truth to them. Some have attributed Bermuda Triangle disappearances to explosive releases of methane (甲烷) gas,     6     (trap) as methane hydrate inside water molecules beneath the cold seabed of the deep ocean. Such blowouts could potentially release a giant amount of gas that could cause the sea to bubble like it was boiling, which could possibly sink ships because the resulting bubbles would be much     7     (thick) than the water on which large ships normally float. The gas could also rise into the sky,     8     (produce) a mixture of five to 15 percent methane which could explode on contact with the engine exhaust of a hot airplane.

The only problem with this theory is that scientists won’t be able to tell with much certainty if this is a factor       9     the ocean floor is mapped in greater detail. It remains to be seen     10     they will succeed in their attempt to clear up the Bermuda Triangle “mystery” this time around.

4 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A.applauding     B. entry-level     C. struck       D. fascination       E. back-seal          F. stuck G. stand          H. promoter        I. hook          J. dominant            K. empowered

The nature is part of us. Therefore, it holds a mysterious     1     for me. In my memory, the valley was quiet and calm, only to see the wheat all over the mountains waving together in rhythm when the wind blew through, like a ballet troupe. The sun rose every morning as usual, sweeping across the valley and ultimately falling behind the peaks. The snow that falls in winter always melts in spring, bringing new hope to this nature where everything was pleasant and beautiful.

Led by fate, I have became an environmentalist and had the honor of being invited to address students about my green lifestyle for a long time. The students were surprised at my lifestyle and maybe they thought my lifestyle was no longer suitable for modern life. Fortunately, they were still listened to whole lecture, saluting or     2     me——to some extent the applause implied their encouragement to me. As I began to interact with them under the stage, I was     3     by kids’ lack of knowledge of nature so that they had little knowledge of protecting environment.

After the address, I put up a stand in the     4     offering green food, hoping them interested in it to get the     5     experiencing a first-hand feeling of the green lifestyle no one shows any interest in. So I decided to team up with the concert     6     to run a campaign: “anyone who can answer a(n)     7     environmental question is qualified to attend the concert. Soon the music can     8     them coming here”.

Since then , I have been considering why kids today do not have the same deep appreciation for nature that I do. One of the significant factors may be that the former rural civilization has been replaced by the urban civilization. In the past, the poor played the     9     role in the nature, so they cleared the wasteland, planted crops and reproduced civilization. With the massive invasion of industrialization and urbanization, people were forced to move away from nature. The struggle between tradition and modernity, the confrontation between humans and nature has led people to believe that they are the masters of the universe. Is this really the case? It is time to think about who     10     us to destroy nature.

5 . The misery of my bike commute in Calgary, Alberta, is the river valley hill. It’s not particularly steep, but at about a mile long, I rarely climbed up without arriving with sweat. Studies have shown the prospect of arriving at work sweaty is one of the biggest _________ to getting would-be bike commuters out of their cars. That’s especially true in a city like Los Angeles, where _________ may face long routes , hills or hot streets with a lack of shade.

“Pedelec”, or pedal electric-assisted bikes like the one I rode, can end that worry. They look and act like traditional bicycles, but their motors make pedaling much easier when required. Sometimes called the most energy-efficient motorized mode of transportation ever built, they’re also incredibly green. The biggest barrier may be the outdated attitude that sees bikes only as a recreational athletic opportunity rather than a practical _________ option.

At a time when cities across North America are struggling to combat crippling traffic and reduce climate emissions, e-bikes have the _________ to ease the both problems. And yet ridership has yet to truly _______.About 152,000 e-bikes were sold last year in the U.S., a figure that would be more than 5 million if Americans used them at the same rate as western Europeans.   

Many of the barriers to e-bike _________in North America are legislative. Patchwork rules treat e-bikes more like mopeds than traditional pedal bikes in some jurisdictions,meaning they are _______from bike lanes and from boarding public transportation.

Few places on the continent, _________, are better poised to break through barriers than California. Legislation was approved last year to encourage e-bike use, by legally differentiating the cycles from mopeds. In an attempt to head off worries about turbocharged machines flying down sidewalks and bike lanes at unsafe speeds, the law classifies bikes into different tiers to _______ lower-speed e-bikes, which top out at 20 mph, from faster-moving “speed pedelecs”, which are restricted from protected bike paths.

Amid these legislative ________, e-bikes have become more accessible to consumer. Finding them in bike shops isn’t as __________ as it once was, and their cost has fallen as the price of lithium-ion batteries has dropped. Today, a decent e-bike, while still __________, is comparable in price to a high-end mountain bike. After years of ____________over mixing pedal and motor power, cycling advocacy organizations also are finally throwing their support behind e-bikes. Dave Snyder, the executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition, __________ the state’s new legislation based partly on the __________that e-bikes help out those who“just can’t ride as far or as fast as they need to”.

1.

A．advantages

B．processes

C．barriers

D．complements

2.

A．riders

B．builders

C．customers

D．volunteers

3.

A．production

B．communication

C．facilities

D．transportation

4.

A．routine

B．potential

C．temporary

D．major

5.

A．make of

B．carry on

C．bring up

D．take off

6.

A．adaptation

B．adoption

C．adjustment

D．justification

7.

A．proved

B．alerted

C．banned

D．authorized

8.

A．however

B．unless

C．meanwhile

D．anyway

9.

A．originate

B．combine

C．separate

D．satisfy

10.

A．factors

B．benefits

C．limits

D．damages

11.

A．proper

B．critical

C．sensational

D．difficult

12.

A．expensive

B．distinctive

C．sensitive

D．intensive

13.

A．trouble

B．concern

C．power

D．scale

14.

A．favored

B．folded

C．referred

D．gifted

15.

A．appeal

B．address

C．amount

D．advocate

6 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the sentences in the box. Each sentence can only be used once. Note that there are two sentences more than you need.

When Leakey and Jane begin a study of wild chimpanzees on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, British authorities resist the idea of a young woman living among wild animals in Africa. They finally agree to Leakey’s proposal when Jane’s mother Vanne volunteers to accompany her daughter for the first three months.

On July 14, 1960, Jane and Vanne arrive on the shores of Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in western Tanzania.

    1     The animals fled from Jane in fear. With patience and determination, she searched the forest every day, deliberately trying not to get too close to the chimpanzees too soon. Gradually the chimpanzees accepted her presence. Jane observes meat-eating for the first time October 30, 1961. Later, she sees the chimpanzees hunt for meat.     2    

On November 4,1961, Jane observes David Greybeard and Goliath making tools to extract termites (白蚁) from their mounds. They would select a thin branch from a tree, strip the leaves and push the branch into the termite mound. After a few seconds they would pull out the termite-covered stick and pick off the tasty termites with their lips. This becomes one of Jane’s most important discoveries.     3     On hearing of Jane’s observation, Leakey famously says: “Now we must redefine tool, redefine man, or accept chimpanzees as humans.”

Jane’s work in Gombe becomes more widely known and in 1962 she is accepted at Cambridge University as a PhD candidate, one of very few people to be admitted without a university degree.     4     “It would have been more scientific to give them numbers”, they say. Jane has to defend an idea that might now seem obvious: that chimpanzees have emotions, minds and personalities.

Jane in Africa National Geographic decides to sponsor Jane’s work and sends photographer and filmmaker Hugo van Lawick to document Jane’s life in Gombe. In August 1963, Jane publishes her first article in National Geographic, My Life Among Wild Chimpanzees.

A．But studying the chimpanzees of Gombe was not easy.

B．Until that time, only humans were thought to create tools.

C．These observations disprove the widely held belief that chimpanzees are vegetarian.

D．So she learns to be a secretary and works for a time at Oxford University typing documents.

E．However, Jane loves the toy and names the chimpanzee Jubilee, carrying it with her everywhere.

F．Some scholars and scientists give Jane a cold reception and criticise her for giving the chimpanzees names.

7 . Why is the fish in danger of dying out?

A．Because of over-fishing.

B．Because of water pollution.

C．Because of a natural disaster.

8 . In the rich countries of the West, the electric vehicle revolution is well underway. Climate-conscious consumers drive Teslas or Polestars for reasons of morality and fashion. Poorer countries are also experiencing a wave of electrified trend. In Bangladesh, electric three-wheeler taxis, known as tuk-tuks, are rapidly replacing gas-powered ones on the streets. Such electric vehicles are climate friendly, cost effective, and help reduce air pollution.

Yet a glance under the hood (引擎盖) of these vehicles reveals a poisonous secret: each tuk-tuk runs on five massive lead-acid batteries, containing almost 300 pounds of lead in total. Every year and a half or so, when those batteries need to be replaced and recycled, about 60 pounds of lead leak into the environment. Battery recycling, often at small-scale unregulated factories, is a highly profitable but deadly business.

Lead is dangerous, and any exposure to it is harmful to human health. Lead that has entered the environment hurts people on an extraordinary scale. The numerous ways lead enters air, water, soil, and homes across the developing world — and the enormous damage it does to human health, wealth, and welfare — causes one of the biggest environmental crises in the world yet receives little attention.

The World Bank estimates that lead kills 5. 5 million people per year, which would make it a bigger global killer than AIDS, malaria, diabetes, and road traffic deaths combined. On top of the shocking deaths, the social burden of lead poisoning is extraordinary, as is its contribution to global inequality — our research on the cognitive effects of lead poisoning suggests that it may explain about one-fifth of the educational achievement gap between rich and poor countries.

But unlike many challenges faced by developing countries, lead poisoning is a problem that is fixable with some attention and a relatively modest financial investment. Better monitoring, research, and rules can help protect children all over the world from the dreadful effects of lead poisoning and reduce the massive global costs it brings.

1. How does the author describe the lead problem in paragraph 2?

A．By making a comparison.	B．By analyzing hidden causes.
C．By listing convincing numbers.	D．By explaining its working principle.

2. What can we learn from the text?

A．Lead enters rich countries in various ways.

B．Lead poisoning may make poor societies poorer.

C．Exposure to lead doesn’t necessarily harm someone.

D．Lead leaking has caused great panic in both countries.

3. What can be done to solve lead poisoning in developing countries?

A．Fixing these used batteries.	B．Putting certain effort and money.
C．Prohibiting the illegal use of lead.	D．Reducing the cost of recycling lead.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．The Impacts of Lead Poisoning on Human Health

B．The Outcomes of Using Electric Vehicles

C．The Ways to Solve Lead Problem

D．The Global Lead Poisoning Crisis

9 . The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre has recently “rediscovered” an ancient shark skeleton that has been sitting in the museum’s collection for nearly 50 years. Could this shark be a part of a newly discovered ancient shark species?

This fossil’s original discovery was in 1975 on a farm just west of Morden, Manitoba. The skeleton was brought into the museum and was forgotten within the ever-growing fossil collection. The skeleton was hidden in the collections room for over 40 years and the center just recently found the fossil in its storage around eight years ago.

Adolfo Cuertara, the director of the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, explained that “It’s a very special shark for many reasons. It’s highly possible that we are talking about a new species.” Although the shark has not been given a scientific name yet, the museum has unofficially named the skeleton, “Dave”, in honor of the farmer on whose land the skeleton was found.

After the fossil rediscovery, Dave was exhibited at the fossil center museum. Dave is around 15 feet long and is one of the largest well-preserved shark skeletons in the entire world. Within the paleontology (古生物学) world, complete shark fossils are extremely rare due to their soft cartilage (软骨结构) which disintegrates as they age. Dave’s shark species are filter feeders with no teeth, who receive their nutrition by absorbing it out of the water. Cuertara emphasizes Dave’s uniqueness by explaining, “The shape of the jaws and the skull and the kind of structures that it has, because the preservation is really amazing, is telling us that it is probably going to be a new species. The problem is now we need scientific papers and scientific research and this paper is underway.”

The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre is hopeful that more scientific research will provide more information on Dave’s ancient shark species. For now, Dave is currently on display at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre and the museum has the exhibit up to date with their current information.

1. Where probably could you find this article?

A．Science textbook of college.

B．Advertising brochure of museum.

C．Discovery column of magazine.

D．Bulletin board of animal world.

2. What does the underlined word “disintegrates” mean in the fourth paragraph?

A．Die away.

B．Break down.

C．Build up.

D．Lie down.

3. What evidence made scientists believe Dave is a new shark species?

A．The structure of skull and jaw.

B．The preservation of jaw and the skull.

C．The uniqueness of no teeth structure.

D．The rare soft cartilage.

4. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre displays Dave ancient shark species.

B．Dave’s shark species is a new species of ancient shark.

C．Canadian Museum rediscovers a new ancient shark species.

D．Dave’s shark skeleton is in honor of the farmer who rediscovered it.

10 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

The First Space Cat

In a few weeks, space scientists will celebrate a remarkable event — the 60th anniversary of the launch of the first cat into space, an astronautical success that has never been repeated.

In the early 60s, dogs and monkeys were the animals usually used by scientists to find out exactly     1    dangerous the conditions were in outer space. And they were also used to assess if humans     2     survive trips beyond the edge of Earth’s atmosphere.

A total of 14 street cats     3     (gather) at France’s space agency for selection as cat astronauts, but the cats were not given names on purpose in order to prevent scientists from becoming too fond of them. The cat selected to travel to space was simply known     4    C341. C341 flew on a French rocket in October 1963, taking it to a place     5    no cat had gone before.

Then,     6    the news of its flight was announced on 18 October 1963, the French press decided this cat had to have its name. They picked “Felix” after a cartoon cat character, only     7     (discover) that C341 was female, so her name was then adjusted to “Felicette” as a result. In putting Felicette in one of its rockets, France added a new species to the list of animals that scientists     8     (send) into space before. Previously, two garden spiders, Anita and Arebella, had been taken to the Skylab     9    (orbit) around the moon.

“In the 60s,     10    (concern) about the possible danger for a human to be in outer space, scientists and engineers primarily undertook animal space flights to see if they suffered or their lives were threatened by the weightlessness or increased radiation or other effects they might experience up there,” said astronomer Jake Foster at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. “The fact that they did not fail paved the way for humans to begin journeys into space.”