1 . 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. double          B. intense          C. pressures       D. stock          E. agriculture       F. trapped G. withdrawal     H. availability   I. drive             J. expanding     K. rising

Throughout history, people have fought bitter wars over political ideology, national sovereignty and religious expression. How much more     1     will these conflicts be when people fight over the Earth’s most indispensable resource water? We may find out in the not-too-distant future if projections about the     2     of water in the Middle East and other regions prove correct.

Less than three percent of the planet’s     3     is fresh water, and almost two-thirds of this amount is     4     in ice caps, glaciers, and underground aquifers too deep or too remote to access. In her book, Pillars of Sand-Can the Irrigation Miracle Last, Sandra Postel outlines three forces that     5     tension and conflict over freshwater. Using up the water “resource pie”. In India, the world’s second-most populous nation, with over 1 billion inhabitants, the rate of groundwater     6     is twice that of recharge, a deficit higher than in any other country. Although water is a renewable resource, it is not a(n)     7     one. The freshwater available today for more than 6 billion people is no greater than it was 2,000 years ago, when global population was approximately 200 million. (The current U.S. population is 287 million.)

Global     8     accounts for about 70% of all freshwater use. In five of the world’s most water-stressed, controversial areas the Aral Sea region, the Ganges, the Jordan, the Nileland and Tigris-Euphrates population increases of up to 75% are projected by 2025. With the fastest rate of growth in the world, the population of Palestinian territory will more than     9     over the next generation. Most experts agree that, because of geography, population     10     and politics, water wars are most likely to break out in the Middle East, a region where the amount of available freshwater per capita will decrease by about 50% over the next generation.

2 . Almost all animals sleep, but do they dream? We certainly can't ask animals if they dream, but we can at least ________ the evidence that they might. There are two ways in which scientists have gone about this seemingly ________ task. One is to look at their physical behaviour during the various stages of the sleep cycle. The second is to see whether their sleeping brains work similarly to our own sleeping brains.

The story of how we ________ how to look into the minds of sleeping animals begins in the 1960s. Back then, reports began to appear in medical journals describing people acting out ________ in their dreams. This was curious, because during so-called REM sleep(rapid eye movement), our muscles are usually paralysed.

Researchers realised that causing a similar state in ________ could allow them to explore how they dream. In 1965, French scientists Michel Jouvet and J F Delorme found that removing a part of the brainstem, called the pons, from a cat's brain ________ it becoming paralysed when in REM. The researchers called the condition "REM without atonia" or REM-A. Instead of lying still, the cats walked around and behaved aggressively. This hinted they were dreaming of ________ from their waking hours.

________ movement is not the only way of looking into dreams, though. Researchers can now ________ look into the electrical and chemical activities of brain cells in animals while they sleep. In 2007, MIT scientists Kenway Louise and Matthew Wilson recorded the activity of neurons in a part of the rat brain called the hippocampus, a structure known to be involved in the formation and encoding of memories. They first recorded the activity of those brain cells while the rats ran in their mazes. Then they looked at the activity of the very same neurons while they slept. Louise and Wilson discovered similar patterns of firing during ________ and during REM. ________ , it was as if the rats were running the maze in their minds while they were sleeping. The results were so clear that the researchers could infer the rats' precise ________ within their mental dream mazes and map them to actual spots within the actual maze.

Does the behaviour of cats in science experiments actually ________ dreaming? Do rats have any subjective awareness that they' re running their mazes in their minds while they nap? We can say with a reasonable amount of ________ that the physiological and behavioural features of dreaming in humans have now been seen in cats, rats, and other animals. Yet what it's actually like to ________ a dream if you' re not human remains a mystery.

1.

A．foresee

B．cover

C．strengthen

D．observe

2.

A．disconnected

B．endless

C．uncomfortable

D．impossible

3.

A．made for

B．took over

C．worked out

D．turned down

4.

A．dialogues

B．ideals

C．movements

D．meanings

5.

A．animals

B．dreams

C．humans

D．changes

6.

A．imagined

B．prevented

C．appreciated

D．witnessed

7.

A．disasters

B．activities

C．successes

D．failures

8.

A．Physical

B．Accidental

C．Harmonious

D．Independent

9.

A．randomly

B．reluctantly

C．unconsciously

D．humanely

10.

A．sleeping

B．running

C．recording

D．studying

11.

A．To sum up

B．By comparison

C．For example

D．In other words

12.

A．location

B．prediction

C．moment

D．nature

13.

A．account for

B．rely on

C．qualify as

D．differ from

14.

A．doubt

B．certainty

C．specification

D．memory

15.

A．explain

B．explore

C．experience

D．experiment

3 . We should all have at least one fire extinguisher somewhere in our home, but it’s not enough to simply keep one under the kitchen sink. If there is a fire, your safety — and the safety of your home — depends on knowing how to use that fire extinguisher correctly. In case your fire extinguisher has been sitting around collecting dust, here’s everything you need to know before brushing it off and fighting a fire in your home the right way.

Choose the right fire extinguisher

The first thing you need to know is the different classifications of fires. Most household fires fall into one of the following categories:

Class A: Fires fueled by solid combustibles like wood, paper, and cloth.

Class B: Fires fueled by flammable liquids such as oil and gasoline.

Class C: Fires started or fueled by faulty wiring and appliances.

Class D: Fires started or fueled by cooking oils, animal facts, and vegetable fats.

All fire extinguishers are labeled to indicate which classes of fire they are designed to combat. Most household fire extinguishers are considered multipurpose and labeled for use in A, B, and C classes. Class K extinguishers are heavier duty and will need to be bought separately. Household fire extinguishers are also rated for the size of fire that they can safely handle. The higher the rating, the larger the fire the extinguisher can put out. Higher-rated extinguishers are often heavier.

Steps for proper extinguisher use

Once you understand the different types of fire extinguishers and their uses, you need to be able to properly operate one.

Step 1: Identify a clear exit/escape route

Before operating the fire extinguisher, make sure you have a clear evacuation path. If you cannot put out the fire, you’ll need to make a safe exit. Also, make sure everyone else is being evacuated from the building.

Step 2: Call the fire department

Even if the fire appears manageable, you should always have the fire department on the way. Once firefighters arrive, they can double-check whether the fire has been completely extinguished.

Step 3: Stand back

Face the fire and keep your back to the clear exit. You should stay between 1.8 and 2.5 meters away from the flames as you prepare to operate the fire extinguisher.

Step 4: Operate the extinguisher

It can be difficult to think clearly during an emergency. Thankfully, there is a long-standing acronym(首字母缩略词)— PASS — to help you recall the steps involved in operating your fire extinguisher.

P: Pull the pin (保险销) on the fire extinguisher.

A: Aim low. Point the nozzle at the base of the fire instead of the flames.

S: Squeeze the handle or lever to discharge the extinguisher.

S: Sweep the nozzle back and forth until the flames are extinguished.

Step 5: Keep an eye on things

After the flames appear to be out, continue to watch the fire area to make sure it doesn’t reignite. If the fire does start up again, repeat the “PASS” process.

Step 6: Get to a safe place

Once the fire is out, or if you are unable to put it out, leave the scene. Find a place out of reach of the fire.

1. According to the passage, what is the top priority in a fire emergency?

A．Find out how to escape.	B．Operate a fire extinguisher.
C．Call the fire department.	D．Escape and leave everything behind.

2. The following pictures show the four steps of the “PASS” process. According to the passage, what is their correct order?

A．③②④①	B．④②③①
C．③④①②	D．④③①②

3. According to the passage, after a fire appears to have been extinguished, we should _________.

A．leave the fire area at once	B．repeat the “PASS” process
C．inspect the fire area carefully	D．have the fire department on the way

4 .

A．The summer this year is terribly hot.	B．Last summer was even hotter.
C．Hot weather helps people lose weight.	D．Light was stronger this morning.

5 . The colours of beautiful feathers are often borrowed. Flamingos, for example, owe their pinkness to chemicals called carotenoids that are made by bacteria known (confusingly) as blue-green algae. The birds, when feeding, both ingest these bacteria directly and consume small crustaceans (甲壳纲动物) that themselves live on such bacteria､Blue-footed boobies obtain their eponymous colour similarly, via the fish they eat.

Carotenoids, though, are dual-use molecules. Besides giving these birds colours, they also help to stimulate the immune system. If a bird has some health issues, its immune system will thus use up some of its carotenoid stock defending against these interlopers, and its colour will suffer. If it is in good shape, by contrast, most of the carotenoids it consumes will be used to create colour. This is a difference that potential mates notice and act on, as dozens of experiments have proved. But a study just published in Naturwissenschaften has gone beyond these observations and shown that bright feather is also an indicator of a healthy digestive system.

Wild animals live in a world of constant food scarcity. Squeezing every last calorie and nutrient molecule from what they eat is crucial to their survival. Since carotenoids are obtained as part of this digestive process. Tuul Sepp of Arizona State University and her colleagues wondered if feather brilliance might therefore be a reliable signal of the efficiency with which a bird draws goodness from its food.

To assess that she turned to a test called the “acid steatocrit”. This involves collecting an animal’s faeces(排泄物) mixing them with perchloric acid to liberate the fat molecules within, centrifuging(使离心) the mixture and then measuring the thickness of the fatty layer which has accumulated at the top. The thinner this layer, the more efficiently the animal in question has been digesting any fats it has eaten. Since most carotenoids are bound to fatty molecules called lipoproteins, Dr Sepp reasoned that those birds which the test suggests are collecting fats efficiently from their food will also be brightly coloured.

To investigate this idea, she and her colleagues collected 36 male house finches—birds known for having brilliant red breasts. They photographed their captives and held them in cages for a short time, in order to collect some faeces from each. They then ran the images of the birds ‘breasts through a computer to analyse how red they were, and studied a sample of each bird’s faeces using the acid stratocrat test.

The result was that there is indeed a correlation between the brilliance of a bird’s breast and the efficiency of its fat digestion. If Dr Sepp’s computer can see this, it seems likely female house finches can, too—and will thus have yet another reason to pick the mates with the prettiest feathers.

1. By “The colours of beautiful feathers are often borrowed” the writer means that ________.

A．the colour of birds’ feathers fades with age

B．birds prefer to eat food that look colourful

C．birds’ feathers get colour after they are born

D．the colours of birds’ feathers are a sign of disease

2. Healthy birds have bright feathers because ________.

A．more carotenoid is consumed to create colour

B．their immune system produces more carotenoid

C．they are more likely to defend against certain disease

D．their potential mates are more likely to see bright colours

3. We can infer from Dr Sepp’s experiment that the male house finches that are redder ________.

A．have a less strong digestive system

B．appeal less to female house finches

C．are more able to separate fatty molecules

D．digest fat collected from food more efficiently

4. What can be concluded from the passage?

A．Female birds choose mates based on their act.

B．Birds with poor digestion are literally off colour.

C．Faeces are a useful indicator of birds’ immune system.

D．How efficiently birds process food remains to be studied.

10 . Directions: After reading the passages 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)

Concerns about microplastics are not new. They’ve been growing for more than a decade. Over the past two years, however, many creative solutions     1     (emerge)to address the problem on a local level, ranging from hoovering beaches to shooting bubbles up from river bottoms. Still, experts say there’s a need for a huge, coordinated effort     2     we want to curb the global issue: The world produces 400 million tons of plastic annually, and much of that material breaks down into tiny pieces that now pollute our planet.

The term microplastics was coined in 2004 by marine ecologist Richard Thompson after he discovered tiny bits of plastic littering British beaches. Since then, scientists have found microplastics—fragments less than 5 millimeters wide-nearly everywhere: in the deep sea, in Arctic ice, in the air. Even inside us.

A 2019 study in Environmental Science Technology estimated humans take in up to 100, 000 bits of plastic each day. It’s not just the physical presence of plastic inside the body     3     poses a potential problem; plastic’s chemical additives might affect different species’ tissues and organs, according to a 2021 study in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. However, there is disagreement in the literature as to how much microplastics     4     (harm)species, including humans. Some say larger pieces may pass right through our bodies while the     5     (tiny)pieces could enter our cells. More research is needed.

For a global view of this vast issue, some scientists in 2020 created a public database to track plastic removal innovations. For example, Hong Kong Polytechnic University researchers presented     6     unique idea in April at the Microbiology Society’s Annual Conference: a bacteria biofilm that could attract and trap microplastics at a wastewater treatment plant,     7     they flow into rivers and oceans.