1 . 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.

A trail of hot springs dot the northern Kapong District. For tree worshipers, it's a site best described as awesome. Visitors can enjoy the ancient hot springs,     1     (understand) their therapeutic properties from knowledge     2     (pass) down from one generation to another. Rain, drizzle and cloudy skies are typical in Phang Nga, making secluded places even more mesmerizing in scenery.

Visit Phang Nga for a few days and you will immediately realise that once     3     (overlook) things turn out to be hidden gems and one     4     have planned for more time to enjoy them all. The ever-famous Phang Nga bay is in fact best seen not from the middle of the bay, but instead from the     5     (elevate) shores of Samed Nang Chee. You can’t pick the best weather,     6     even on partly cloudy days, the magnificent natural limestone structures of the bay is simply spectacular.

If you've heard about the trading routes of the Thai south and the Malay peninsula, you will notice a remnant of this direct link between Phuket (普吉) and Phang Nga (攀牙).     7     the major trading hub of Phang Nga in the old days, the district of Takua Pa boasts a small but untainted stretch of an old Sino-English community. These original century-old shophouses are “so authentic” here a local told me, it can overwhelm Phuket people with nostalgia.

However, the town centre of Phang Nga is not Takua Pa, though. The story has it     8     back in 1809, the Siam-Burmese wars drove people down to Phang Nga bay，hence the new settlement that has now become the province's municipal seat. It's still small in size, but with newer natural charms. Mountains     9     (surround) Phang Nga with the most magnificent limestone peaks     10     create wonderfully amazing signature views. Driving through the town's small parallel streets and looking up, one can only marvel at Mother Nature. Perpetual rain and misty mornings to virtual greenness --- Phang Nga people will ensure you get all that.

2 . A therapy-animal trend attracts the United States. The San Francisco airport uses a pig to calm tired travelers. Universities nationwide bring dogs (and a donkey) onto campus to relieve students during finals. And that duck on a plane? It might be an emotional-support animal prescribed by a mental health professional.

The trend, which has been gaining popularity hugely since its initial stirrings a few decades ago, is strengthened by a widespread belief that interaction with animals can reduce distress whether it happens over belief physical contact at the airport or in long-term relationships at home. Certainly the groups offering up pets think so, as do some mental health professionals. But the popular embrace of pets as furry therapists is causing growing discomfort among some researchers in the field, who say it has raced far ahead of scientific evidence.

Earlier this year in the Journal of Applied Development Science, an introduction to articles on “animal -assisted intervention” said research into its effectiveness “remains in its infancy.” A recent literature review by Molly Crossman, a Yale University doctoral candidate who recently wrapped up one study involving an 8-year-old dog named Pardner, cited a “vague body of evidence” that sometimes has shown positive short-term effects, often found no effect and occasionally identified higher rates of distress.

Overall, Crossman wrote, animals seem to be helpful in a “small-to-medium” way, but it’s unclear whether the animals deserve the credit or something else is at play.

“It’s a field that has been sort of carried forward by the beliefs of practitioners” who have seen patients’ mental health improve after working with or adopting animals, said James Serpell, director of the Centre for the Interaction of Animals and Society at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. “That kind of thing has almost driven the field, and the research is playing catch-up. In other words, people are recognizing that stories aren’t enough.”

Using animals in mental health setting is nothing new. In the 17^th century, a Quaker-run retreat in England encouraged mentally ill patients to interact with animals on its grounds. Sigmund Freud often included one of his dogs in psychoanalysis sessions. Yet the subject did not become a research target until the American psychologist Boris Levinson began writing in the 1960s about the positive effect his dog Jingles had on patients.

But the evidence to date is problematic, according to Crossman’s review and others before it. Most studies had small sample sizes, she wrote, and an “alarming numbers” did not control for other possible reasons for a changed stress level, such as interaction with animal’s human handler. Studies also tend to generalize across animals, she noted. If participants are measurably relieved by one golden retriever, that doesn’t mean another dog---or another species--will arouse the same response.

1. According to the passage, what makes the therapy-animal trend more popular?

A．It has been in existence for no less than twenty years.

B．Mental health professionals have managed to cure patients with animals.

C．It is widely assumed that staying with animals can make people happier.

D．There is much related research to show that animals do good to some patients.

2. Molly Crossman is quoted in the passage to ____

A．illustrate more scientific evidence is needed that animals are effective therapists.

B．highlight the importance of practitioners’ beliefs in the field of animal therapies.

C．question Srepell’s view that animals deserve the credit in helping patients.

D．criticize people for their taking human-animal stories too seriously.

3. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Animal-assisted intervention turns out to be of more use than people think.

B．It is hard to see how many reasons there are for people to benefit from animals.

C．Research findings relating to one breed of dogs may not apply to another breed.

D．Small sample sizes can sometimes produce reliable effects in human-animal studies

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．More evidence found for dog-human relationship

B．Potential effects dogs have on patients

C．Therapeutic animal: nothing new

D．Good dog, good therapist?

3 . Mapping Antarctica

Antarctica was on the map long before anyone ever laid eyes on it. Nearly 2,400 years ago, ancient Greek philosophers such as Aristotle believed that a great continent must exist at the bottom of the world. They though it was needed to balance out the continents at the top of the world. In the 1500s, mapmakers often included a fanciful continent they referred to as Terra Incognita(Latin for “unknown land”) at the bottom of their maps. But it was not until the 1800s -----after explorers had sighted and set foot on Antarctica----- that mapmakers got down to the business of really mapping the continent, which is one—and—a –half times rhe size of the U.S..

While the coastline could be mapped by ships sailing around the continent, it took airplanes—and later, satellites---to chart Antarctica’s vast interior(内陆). That job continues today. And it is a job that still require a mapmaker, or cartographer, to put on boots and head out into the wild.

Cole Kelleher is familiar with that. He is a cartographer with the Polar Geospatial Center(PGC), which is based at the University of Minnesota and has a staff at McMurdo Station. PGC teamed up with Google to use the company’s Trekker technology to capture images of Antarctica for the Internet giant’s popular feature, Street View. A Trekker camera, which is the size of a basketball, is set about two feet above a backpack. The camera records image in all directions. “It weighs about 50 pounds. I was out for two and a half days, hiking 10 to 12 hours each day,” says Kelleher. It was hard work, but really an incredible experience.” According to Kelleher there are plans to use the technology to create educational apps for museums.

The PGC staff at McMurdo Station provides highly specialized mapmaking services for the U.S. Antarctic Program. For one project, Kelleher used satellite images to map huge cracks in the ice. That helped a team of researchers know whether they could safely approach their field camp on snowmobiles. Another recent project was to help recover a giant, high—tech helium(氦气) balloon used to carry scientific instruments high into the atmosphere. These balloons are launched in Antarctica because there is no danger that they will hurt anyone when they fall back down to Earth. Using satellite images, Kelleher and colleagues created maps of where the balloon could be found.

Antarctica may no longer be Terra Incognita, but it still holds countless mysteries. Cartographers and the maps they make will continue to be essential in helping scientists unlock those secrets.

1. From the passage, we can infer that Antarctica was on the map in the 1500s when________.

A．mapmakers knew it was much larger than the U.S.

B．Aristotle named the continent Terra Incognita

C．no one had ever seen or been to the continent

D．it was such an interesting continent as was often referred to

2. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A．It needs much work for the mapmakers to head out into the wild.

B．The interior can only be mapped by planes and satellites.

C．It is relatively easy to map Antarctica’s coastline by ship.

D．Antarctic is a vast but still mysterious continent.

3. The Polar Geospatial Center (PGC) works with Google initially_________.

A．to capture images of Antarctica for Street View

B．to test the company’s Trekker technology

C．to create educational apps for museums

D．to hike for an incredible experience

4. The fourth paragraph mainly talks about _______.

A．satellite images which are used to map huge cracks in the ice

B．a high-tech helium balloon for carrying scientific instruments

C．how to safely approach the researcher’s field camp and the balloon

D．the specialized mapmaking services provided by the PGC staff

4 . Nature Therapy

We need the tonic of wildness... At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.

—Thoreau

One major difference between our current lifestyle and those of our evolutionary past is an increasing _________ from natural settings with increased urbanization. But does this change have a major impact on our mental health? ________ , a remedy for ill health or low spirits, if the means were available, would be to send someone to the quiet of the country or seashore and away from the bustle of city. The popularity of vacations to beautiful national parks, camping, outward bound, and even breaks for a picturesque walk in a ________ greenspace to clear the mind would speak to some empirical(经验主义）________ that nature does soothe the savage beast. And recently, scientists have been studying the idea of nature therapy with a bit more seriousness than a dashed-off prescription (处方）for a ________.

We are now far _________ from the natural world of our ancestors.... more than 50% of people live in urban areas (increasing to >70% by 2050) increased urbanization is associated with increased levels of mental illness, particularly anxiety and depression. Growing up in a setting correlates with a _________ severe stress response, and exposure to greenspace _________ correlates to a positive effect on well-being in a large two-decade study. Images and sounds of a natural environment can decrease stress in people exposed to negative stimuli. A large survey of mental health and neighborhood greenspace in Wisconsin showed significant correlation between the _________ of nature and lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. There are many studies showing a similar relationships between nature exposure, relaxation, and well-being. But how does exposure to green space help us relax and ________, exactly?

Dr. Gregory Bratman’s group at Stanford has published a couple of papers following a small group of healthy volunteers told to for a 5 kilometer walk in the San Francisco Bay area. Half walked along a busy street while the other half went for a/an ________ walk with beautiful views of the mountains and the bay. The nature walk compared to walk along a busy street. Later, the same researchers did MRIs and measured blood flow in brain areas of healthy people who went on a 90 minute walk in the same urban vs. more natural setting. They found that the nature walkers had ________ activity in a particular brain region, the subgenual prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain is associated with rumination, or worrying on the same issues over and over, a problem described often in depressive and anxiety disorders.

So there we have it in a world and environment where our brains are working overtime and we think and ________ ideas and worry, exposure to nature seems to get us out of our heads, with likely positive longitudinal benefits. In the hyper-urban world to come, designing accessible, safe _________ may help the mental health of the population, and preserving our natural landscapes to be enjoyed by our descendants will continue to be a national must. ________, a prescription for a nice weekend hike could have some real measurable brain benefits.

1.

A．resistance

B．isolation

C．interruption

D．distance

2.

A．Currently

B．Generally

C．Historically

D．Fortunately

3.

A．local

B．imposing

C．fascinating

D．standard

4.

A．assistance

B．evidence

C．belief

D．approach

5.

A．cycling

B．swimming

C．adventure

D．hike

6.

A．removed

B．rid

C．driven

D．dropped

7.

A．more

B．less

C．similar

D．negative

8.

A．dominantly

B．lively

C．merely

D．significantly

9.

A．exposure

B．link

C．availability

D．necessity

10.

A．tolerate

B．unwind

C．swing

D．resolve

11.

A．causal

B．earnest

C．upright

D．scenic

12.

A．reduced

B．increased

C．intensified

D．balanced

13.

A．turn on

B．get over

C．draw on

D．roll over

14.

A．communities

B．facilities

C．greenspaces

D．transportations

15.

A．In a word

B．For instance

C．In the meantime

D．In particular