1 . A leading company in the field of boat engines that run on electricity is working on a new type of bright-orange propeller (螺旋桨) made from reused plastic. This initiative is designed not only to cut down on the release of harmful gases from their future boat engines but also to help clean up the plastic mess in our oceans.

According to a study by a group that cares about nature from 2022, a very small part of the huge amount of plastic trash made by people in the US in 2021 was changed into something new. The best year for recycling was 2014, but since then, things have gotten worse. This company wants to change that and says a lot of plastic trash ends up in our rivers and lakes, and then in the oceans.

While some people are working on picking up plastic from the water, this company wants to stop plastic from getting into the water in the first place. They want to make it so that using recycled plastic is a viable solution to make new products and it makes financial sense.

To do this, the company has set up a special team called the Advanced Engineering Team. Their job is to find new ways to make things that are good for the environment. One of their first jobs is to make a new kind of propeller that is good for the planet by using plastic that has already been used. The project director said, “Usually, when we start using new materials, we use just a little bit of recycled stuff. But we decided to do more. We made our test propellers all from plastic that was found in the ocean, and they did really well in our tests.”

The leader of the company, who cares about the environment, says they're working on away to reuse plastic many times. They want to turn trash into something helpful. It's important that people are willing to buy products made from recycled plastic. The company believes that using recycled materials won't affect the quality of what they make.

1. What does the author intend to do in paragraph 2?

A．Introduce a new topic for discussion.	B．Highlight plastic waste issues in the US.
C．Clarify some problems by using figures.	D．State some unknown facts to researchers.

2. What does the underlined word “viable” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Former.

B．Workable.

C．Related.

D．Traditional.

3. What is the project director's attitude toward the propellers?

A．Pessimistic.

B．Skeptical.

C．Approving.

D．Objective.

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

A．Recycled Plastic for Propellers	B．The Future of Sustainable Propellers
C．A New Initiative in Car Engine Technology	D．Innovations in Plastic Recycling for Engines

2 . 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。

Max, ten years old, was loved by us all in our family. This cute yellow dog used to play with me on the front verandah (走廊). But whenever my dad put two fingers to his lips and did whistle, Max would immediately rush to him with his tail wagging (摇摆). Such a harmonious life continued until we had to go abroad to find a treatment for my mom’s serious disease.

To take better care of my mom, we had no choice but to leave Max at home. And Sandy, my dad’s friend, was to be Max’s guardian (监护人) while we were overseas. Six weeks after our departure, however, my dad received a call from Sandy saying that Max had run away. His face got pale as he heard this news.

Sandy had advertised constantly on ABC radio and other newspapers. Despite many “sightings”, the dog was never found. But our family thought that my dad held a secret hope that Max was still alive.

Eight months later, we returned and my dad immediately began to search for Max. One day, he had a call from 375 kilometres away. An elderly lady living on her own in the suburb of the town was putting food out “for a very old yellow dog”. In the night the food disappeared. This had been going on for weeks. As she told on the telephone, it was “just glimpses of a yellow dog in the shadows” of her disused tennis court.

That was enough for us to set off in my dad’s low-slung Jensen car. It was hardly the right vehicle for the rough roads we travelled that day.

Five and a half hours later, we found the tennis court. Sadly, the elderly lady told my dad that the dog hadn’t been around today yet for the food was still there. Hearing that, Dad looked around the tennis court. It had long been deserted and overgrown with weeds. But he noticed a path hidden in the bush.

注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。

Without hesitation, Dad then led me to search around for Max.

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Back to the court in vain, Dad finally did his special whistle.

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3 . 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 splendid history of Chinese ceramics (陶器制品), there is a name that shines brilliantly — Jingdezhen. This ancient porcelain capital     1     (carry) the glory and heritage of a thousand years of porcelain culture.

Jingdezhen was formerly known as Xinping and got its name because the porcelain ware made for the court in Jingde Period of Song Dynasty     2     (name) “Made in Jingde Period”. Since then, the reputation of Jingde has spread through the country, becoming related with Chinese ceramics. The     3     (vary) of porcelain produced here is vast and of superb quality. For example, the elegant and delicate Ying Ching porcelain with     4     (it) mixture of blue and white colors resembles a painting from a fairyland.

During the Ming and Qing     5     (dynasty), Jingdezhen became the center     6     the national porcelain industry, attracting countless skilled craftsmen to contribute talents and their porcelain-making techniques,     7     promoted Jingdezhen porcelain to unprecedented heights in terms of craftsmanship shape and decoration.

Today, Jingdezhen still maintains its     8     (lead) position in the Chinese ceramics industry. Stepping into Jingdezhen is like entering a living epic of ceramics. The ancient kiln fire’s (窑火的) exquisite craftsmanship     9     generations of creativity have     10     (joint) formed the glory and heritage of this millennium porcelain capital.

7 . As the pandemic makes clear, cities are possibly humanity’s greatest invention, but cities with huge populations also make us easily suffer from the rapid spread of disease. Yet humans aren’t the only species that face this problem. Honeybees have lived social lives for tens of millions of years, making them some of the most experienced in the battle against infection. And over time, natural selection has given them quite a few impressive strategies for reducing transmission within bee groups.

However, these strategies are not enough to prevent every threat. Honeybees are battling their own global disease, for which they were totally not prepared. A parasitic mite (寄生螨) originally existed only in the groups of Asian honeybees, but later jumped to infect Western honey bees. Today, it has spread to every region where honeybees are kept except Australia and a handful of remote islands, quickly becoming a global disease of the bees.

If left untreated, a group of bees will typically die from the mites within two years. These infections, plus farm chemicals and poor nutrition, have forced beekeepers to struggle to keep their bees alive. Of the 2.6 million honeybee groups in the US, over half of them have parasitic mite.

And that’s only the count of those bees that are tested and reported; the actual numbers are likely much higher. Beekeepers have still managed to slowly increase the number of groups they keep, on average, but at a much higher cost.

Western honeybees did not grow with parasitic mite, and the Western bees lack the behavioral features those Asian honeybees have, like permanently burying the members infested by parasitic mite and, perhaps the most extreme strategy, where the bees are so sensitive to parasitic mite that they completely die as soon as infected, sacrificing themselves to prevent the mite from reproducing.

1. What might be the consequence of the invention of cities?

A．It makes the pandemic clear to humans.	B．Humans are easy targets of quickly spreading diseases.
C．Cities have more population than ever.	D．The spread of disease becomes faster and faster.

2. What can be learned about honeybees from the text?

A．They have lived with infection for millions of years.

B．They are not prepared for the pandemic like humans.

C．Asian honeybees are facing a parasitic mite from the west.

D．Natural selection offers them strategies to protect their species.

3. What’s the main trouble beekeepers are facing?

A．How to prevent the honeybee groups from dying.

B．How to calculate the exact number of honeybee groups.

C．How to cut down on the cost of increasing honeybee groups.

D．How to help honeybees with parasitic mite.

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

A．A special spreading disease	B．Asian bees and Western bees
C．The pandemic and city population	D．Honeybees are struggling with their own disease

8 . On August 1, 2023, new rules went into effect in the United States that make it against the law to sell most incandescent (白炽的) light bulbs.

Incandescent light bulbs have been common since the late 1800s. They use electricity to create light by heating a metal wire, which glows. Over 90% of the electricity used by the bulbs goes into making heat — not light.

Since 2005, countries around the world have been banning incandescent bulbs. That’s what’s happening in the US. The new rules don’t actually make incandescent bulbs illegal. They just say that light bulbs that are sold must be able to create a certain amount of light (45 lumens) with a certain amount of energy (l watt). Most incandescent bulbs can only create about 15 lumens with 1 watt.

These days, the best way to replace incandescent bulbs is with LED light bulbs. These bulbs can create about 75 lumens with 1 watt of electricity. And they can last 25 or more times longer than incandescent bulbs.

Though the rule just took effect at the beginning of August, it was first created in 2007. Since then, the rule has been delayed many times, usually for political reasons. In the early 2000s, LED bulbs cost more money than they do today, and weren’t nearly as good. But in recent years, people have been switching over to LED lights, even without the rule. The lights have become more and more popular, since they use less energy and save people money by lasting longer.

The new rules will also help the environment. Over the next 30 years, LED bulbs are expected to help prevent a huge amount of pollution in the US — about as much as would be used by 28 million homes in one year. That will be an imperative step in tackling the climate crisis.

1. Why does the author mention incandescent light bulbs in Paragraph 2?

A．To explain how they work.	B．To show they used to be important.
C．To show they aren’t good lighting sources.	D．To explain how light is usually made.

2. What do the new rules in America mean?

A．New incandescent bulbs will be invented.	B．Using incandescent bulbs has been prohibited.
C．No more incandescent bulbs will be produced.	D．Incandescent bulbs should be mostly replaced.

3. What is shown about LED bulbs?

A．They’re great replacements for incandescent bulbs.	B．They’re cheaper than incandescent bulbs.
C．They’re widely used all over the world.	D．They’re unknown to many Americans.

4. What does the underlined word “imperative” in the last paragraph probably mean?

A．Workable.

B．Important.

C．Interesting.

D．Challenging.

9 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What is the main topic of the notice?

A．Leaving school early.

B．Canceling school tomorrow.

C．Stopping students from driving home.

2. What is the current snow depth?

A．5 cm.

B．10 cm.

C．20 cm.

3. Where should students wait for the school buses?

A．In the cafeteria.

B．In the classroom.

C．At the school gate.

4. What will be talked about next?

A．School schedules.

B．Safety suggestions.

C．Driving instructions.

10 . What event did the man participate in?

A．Waste recycling.

B．Beach cleaning.

C．Tree planting.