2 . 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.

Mentally and Intellectually Harmful

Last month, the Indian Medical Association declared a public health emergency in New Delhi because of high levels of air pollution. Schools were shut and emergency traffic restrictions put in place.

New Delhi is far from alone. Our research into the    1     of air pollution in China shows that, in addition to the more obvious physical price, air pollution can also have serious negative effects on mental health and cognition (认知),    2     reducing a person’s happiness and their scores in verbal and mathematical tests.

Such harmful mental effects have serious negative consequences for livelihoods and human capital development, suggesting that development    3     should go beyond the traditional focus of boosting GDP in the developing world.

India's recent pollution emergency is the most    4     incidence(发生率)of dangerous air pollution, but smoggy skies have been a cause of growing    5     in most developing countries.

Major cities across the developing world---from Thailand to Brazil, to Nigeria---    6     experience pollution at several times the WHO safe limits. In fact, 98% of cities with more than 100.000    7     in low and middle-income countries fail to meet the WHO’s air quality guidelines.

India’s extreme levels of air pollution are well recognized, and examining the effects provides clear warnings for other countries seeking fast growth through rapid industrialization.

We used nationally     8     longitudinal (纵向)surveys on mental health and cognition, matched with daily air quality data for the time and place of interviews, to see what pollution does in a given time to individual happiness and cognitive performance. Because each person in our survey was     9    multiple times, we can control for the effect of individual characteristics on the outcome variables.

We found that worsening air quality led to a decrease in happiness that day    10    to about 10 percent of the reduced happiness one would experience form a negative major life event such as divorce.

5 . The Zebra Finch: An Owner’s Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet
The zebra finch, a native of Australia, is a popular domestic pet in the United States. The bird has many attributes (特性) which allow it to be kept at home, though there are also a few negative aspects. The attributes are nest-building, breeding and a lively attitude. The potential negatives are over-breeding and the wildness of the birds.
One of the main attributes of zebra finches is their ability to breed. ________________________ Once you have two birds, male and female, you will soon have six, as they breed quite easily and have strong babies, usually four at a time. An added attribute is their ability to build their own nests. You can place branch in their place along with some kind of structure, and they will create a nest on their own. It’s very pleasant to see the ways males and females divide some labors and share others, and the babies grow up quickly. Overall, zebra finches are energetic birds, and they can make every place where they live delightful lives.
On the negative side, they will breed and in-breed. Often, in-breeding does little harm and does not cause genetic defects (缺陷), as happens more often in other species. However, no one can tolerate just any population level. One has to either remove their nests altogether, which basically removes their personal living place, or check for eggs regularly once a week (the gestation period is 13 days, so even a one-week neglect can lead to births). Eggs can be replaced with false plastic eggs, and this prevents females from laying too many. If they do lay too many, they will die from mineral loss. Since these birds do not tame well, removing eggs can be an unpleasant process of repeatedly invading their personal space.
Overall, it is unfortunate that zebra finches are inexpensive birds due to their high level of breeding. They require considerable care to live happy lives. The best care-takers are true avian fanciers — people who have appropriate space for the nests and enough time to allow them to nest-build and breed without over-breeding.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Zebra finches over-breed by nature and its consequent ill effects.

B．Only people who love birds can take care of Zebra finches.

C．Domestic zebra finches require a lot of care to live happy lives.

D．Zebra finches never become completely tame.

2. By saying “They are the rabbits of the domestic bird world”, the writer means that both   rabbits and Zebra finches ______.

A．have good ability to breed	B．are difficult to be raised
C．live delightful lives	D．share responsibilities

3. In paragraph 3, the word “gestation” probably means ______.

A．the period when eggs remain fresh

B．the time when finches build up their nest and lay eggs

C．the time required for the parents to create a nest

D．the time required for baby birds to develop and to be born

4. According to the passage, attributes of domestic zebra finches include ______.

A．their rareness and easiness to be tamed

B．their nest-building, sharing of responsibilities and delightful personalities

C．their in-breeding, which does not cause as much genetic harm as in other species

D．the fact that they are from Australia and have difficulty in adapting themselves

6 .

Whenever human populations have lived in forest areas, they have always cut down trees which they used for a number of purposes, for housing and ships and served as a source of heating fuel and timber. Growth of cities often meant expansion into forest areas, while even more trees were removed to provide space for agriculture. With the growing demand for paper, vast quantities of trees have also been cut down for paper production. These factors, along with many others, have been contributing to a dangerous phenomenon known as deforestation.

In the last 5,000 years, humans have reduced forest from roughly 50 percent of the earth’s land surface to less than 20 percent. Most of this original, or old growth, forest cover is concentrated in three large areas: the Canadian and Alaskan boreal forest, the boreal forest of Russia, and the tropical forest of the northwestern Amazon Basin and the Guyana Shield. These areas comprise almost 70 percent of the world’s remaining original forest cover. In most places, the rate of deforestation is increasing, with the alarming result of 16 million hectares disappearing worldwide every year.

Loss of forest does not just mean the decline of natural resources. There are several other factors that make deforestation seriously harmful to both the human and natural worlds. One of them is changes in the global climate. For example, forest clearance is releasing substantial volumes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere as vegetation is burnt or decays. It has been suggested that this is a significant factor in global warming. Moreover, about 10 percent of the world’s tree species are in danger of extinction as a result of deforestation. Deforestation also threatens biological diversity through the destruction of wildlife habitats, which endangers a number of animal species and leads to their potential disappearance. Species are particularly easy to extinction in tropical rainforests because many species have few individuals per unit area, which makes reproduction more difficult. Finally, since forests play an important role in storing water and stabilizing soil, deforestation and the resulting change in land use cause soil erosion(腐蚀) and other forms of land degradation.

1. The passage discusses all of the following EXCEPT the ________.

A．causes of deforestation	B．consequences of deforestation
C．management of deforestation	D．rate of deforestation

2. The word “diversity” in the last paragraph probably means “________”.

A．variety	B．expansion
C．development	D．advantage

3. Why does the author mention fuel and timber in Paragraph 1?

A．To explain the rate of deforestation.

B．To compare them with housing and ships.

C．To show the dangers of deforestation.

D．To illustrate the causes of deforestation.

4. Which of the following sentences summarizes Paragraph 3 best?

A．Deforestation threatens biological diversity.

B．Deforestation has many harmful consequences.

C．Deforestation causes changes in global climate.

D．Deforestation should be stopped.