1 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What will the weather be like tomorrow afternoon?

A．Sunny.

B．Snowy.

C．Rainy.

2. What does the woman advise the man to do?

A．Visit his friends another day.

B．Stick to his plan.

C．Stay at home.

3. How does the woman hope to spend her Saturday?

A．Training.

B．Relaxing.

C．Learning.

4. Where are the speakers?

A．In Birmingham.

B．In Worcester.

C．In London.

2 . A dog can be a person’s best friend, or so the theory goes. But that relationship can be tested when a dog begins barking at an empty comer of a room, at a door, or anywhere where there doesn’t appear to be any activity at all taking place. Is the dog hallucinating? Is it communicating with ET? Or does it simply want to drive its owner crazy?

According to the American Kennel Club, the most common explanation for dogs’ barking without reasons is that it’s not really unprompted at all. Dogs are, obviously, equipped with superior hearing, including the ability to detect sounds that are higher in pitch. It is said a dog could be reacting to a noise that a person wouldn’t be able to hear. If a dog barks seemingly for no apparent reason at night, it might be because the noise nearby is lessened and some barking of other dogs become more clearly. Because dogs are territorial, one dog barking can turn into many others to guard themselves.

Dogs are also able to see better in the dark than humans thanks to their ability to get more light into their retinas (视网膜). If a dog is reacting to what looks to you like an empty backyard at night, it’s possible that something has caught their attention, be it a wild animal, a leaf, or a stranger.

That’s not to say that dogs only bark because of their cute senses. Some dogs might bark out of boredom in which case more exercise or play time is probably needed. They might also be trying to get their owner’s attention.

The AKC recommends that owners avoid scolding their dogs for barking, since they’re simply trying to remain alert, instead, you can try calming the dog to let them know you’re aware of their concern. If they tend to bark while gazing out a window, you can also try to pull the curtains. If you suspect the source is an audio cue, some white noise, like a television or radio can help.

Less often, chronic barking might be a sign of cognitive issues. If barking is persistent and no fugitive is hiding out in your bushes, then you might consider a trip to the vet.

1. According to the passage, which factors won’t make dogs barking at nothing?

A．Its madness.

B．Its visual sense.

C．Its acute hearing.

D．Its boredom.

2. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?

A．A dog barks in order to make friends with other dogs.

B．The surrounding noise being lessened will make a dog frightened.

C．A dog can react to a noise as acutely as a person.

D．A dog always has the awareness of its domain.

3. What should the owner do with the dog’s barking from the AKC’s recommendation?

A．Leaving it alone.	B．Scolding it seriously.
C．Comforting it.	D．Playing some soft music.

4. This passage is probably taken from?

A．an experiment report	B．a mental discovery
C．a school textbook	D．a science fiction

3 . 你校最近开展了一次消防演练活动，请你为校英文报写一份主题为“Focus on Fire Safety, Cherish Life”的新闻报道，内容包括：
1. 活动目的；
2. 活动过程和感受。
注意：1. 写作同数应为80个左右。
2. 参考词汇：灭火器 fireextinguishers; 消防栓 fire hydrants
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4 . 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。

My parents were always against me owning my own pet, afraid of the mess it would make or that I would quickly lose interest in taking care of it, but we made a compromise: I could volunteer at a local pet shelter on the weekends to test my sense of responsibility and dedication. That was how I first came to volunteer at the Avondale pet shelter and—more importantly—where I met my future best friend, Chocolate.

One hot August afternoon, my boss Charlie told me that they were bringing in a young black Labrador Retriever and that I’d be its primary caretaker. An hour after our conversation and in came Chocolate—a beautiful dog with shining brown fur and amazing blue eyes. At about 3 months old, I expected him to be a lot more energetic and playful, but he immediately backed and lay down at the back of his pen (围栏).

I asked Charlie what was the matter with him. He replied that Chocolate had a genetic problem which caused him to be born with a short tail, leading potential owners to think there was something wrong with him; so the breeder felt that they had no choice but to give up the puppy to the shelter.

He was overlooked and underappreciated. I felt very angry at the thought that an otherwise healthy dog could be thrown away so easily. At the same time, I felt a deep sympathy for this dog who had been cheated out of the love and attention he deserved. It was at this moment that I resolved to give Chocolate as much love and attention as I could while working as a volunteer.

Although Chocolate was reluctant and shy at first. eventually through enough treats and play he slowly came around and warmed up to me. Soon enough, whenever I came around his pen to let him out for his turn of walks and play, Chocolate was always excited and jumping with joy.

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:

As time passed by, the connection between Chocolate and I grew stronger and stronger.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:

One day, Charlie said Chocolate must find a home soon or he would be removed.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 . When photographer Chris Jordan first stepped onto Midway Atoll (中途岛) in 2009 to document “overwhelming” levels of ocean waste, little did he know that his striking image of a dead albatross (信天翁) chick would go viral and change the world’s response to the plastics crisis.

After hearing about an island covered in thousands of dead birds with stomachs full of everyday plastic items, he was determined to “find a unique way to photograph these birds indicating the severity of this environmental tragedy”. Though he never expected his images would go viral, his photos soon began appearing in magazines and newspapers all over the world. “Many people emailed me, expressing concerns and wanting to go to the island to save the albatrosses, but the plastic is not coming from this island. It’s a systemic problem,” says Jordan.

A recent report by WWF projects that plastic production is expected to more than double by 2040, resulting in plastic waste in the ocean four times by 2050. In 2010, 8 million tonnes of ocean plastic waste were from sources on land. That is the weight of some 650,000 double decker buses.

Jo Ruxton, the maker of the film A Plastic Ocean, says, “What makes Jordan’s photos resonate(共鸣)with people is that they recognize things in their daily use, and it’s when we see things that we actually use that makes people relate.”

“Every time I was with birds as they were dying, tears just poured. The grief was incredibly intense. Happily, things are improving — bans on everything from plastic micro beads in toothpaste to carrier bags have since come into force in various countries around the world. But for solutions, I believe the heart of this crisis lies in society’s disconnection between actions and their impacts on the environment and that a re-connection with nature and a raw appreciation for the world around us is what really drives positive change.” says Jordan.

1. What initially drives Jordan to Midway Atoll?

A．To support the ban on plastic items.	B．To record the environmental tragedy.
C．To create resonating images of plastic waste.	D．To photograph the amazing scenery of the island.

2. Which of the following can best describe Chris Jordan?

A．Reliable and determined.	B．Generous and responsible.
C．Creative and sympathetic.	D．Adventurous and intelligent.

3. What is the key to solving the environmental crisis according to Jordan?

A．Carrying out stricter bans on plastic products.

B．Strengthening education on environmental issues.

C．Advising using environmentally friendly materials.

D．Reestablishing the link between humans and nature.

4. What can be the best title for the passage?

A．The Photo: Making the Plastics Crisis Personal

B．The Method: Dealing with Marine Plastic Pollution

C．The Campaign: Restoring Our Relation with Nature

D．The Initiative: Fighting Against the Environmental Disaster

6 . “You’re as stupid as a goat.” It is a common insult (侮辱) in Nigeria. Recently a study published in Animal Behaviour suggested that’s just not true.

Alan McElligott, associate professor of animal behavior and welfare in City University of Hong Kong conducted a study in cooperation with Marianne Mason, an expert in the cognitive (认知的) abilities of goats in England.

In the experiment, a speaker was hidden to play a recording of a human saying “Hey, look over here!” with two versions—a happy one and an angry one. When the study’s 27 goat participants entered the pen one by one, the speaker would play either the positive or negative version 9 times in a row. At first the goats would respond by looking up and even looking for the source of the sound. But after a few repetitions, they would just stop paying attention. Then the speaker switched to play the opposite version three times. 71% of those disinterested goats lifted their ears and looked up in the direction of the sound. Among those newly engaged goats, some started to investigate the source of the sound longer than in the initial stages of the experiment, suggesting they noticed the emotions had changed.

The finding is a case in point of the intelligence of goats. Actually, experienced goat farmers have already known that their livestock (家畜) are discriminating listeners and respond well to kind treatment. So why do such a study if that’s already known? “By showing this ability in goats, we’re trying to move the needle in terms of opening people’s eyes to the cognitive abilities of livestocks. Our overall goal is to get people to think about animals in a different way, to treat them a little bit better.” says Mason. The two researchers hope that people will start to understand these livestocks deserve to be nicely treated, especially as we are using them for our milk products and meat.

1. What did Alan McElligott and Marianne Mason work together on?

A．The intelligence of goats.	B．Social abilities of animals.
C．Distinctive behavior of goats.	D．Animal welfare in HongKong.

2. What do we know about the experiment?

A．The 27 goats paid no attention to the voice all the time.

B．The majority of goats noticed the change of the emotions.

C．The speaker kept playing the positive version throughout the experiment.

D．The goats kept responding to the source of the sound in the initial stages.

3. Which is closest in meaning to the underlined words “move the needle” in paragraph 4?

A．Adjust a study goal.	B．Shift the public’s attention.
C．Make a positive change.	D．Change the original structure.

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．The background of the study.	B．The main purpose of the study.
C．The farmers’reactions to the study.	D．The wisdom of some goat farmers.

7 . Any schoolchild knows that a whale breathes through its blowhole. Fewer know that a blowhole is a nostril (鼻孔) slightly changed by evolution into a form more useful for a mammal that spends its life at sea. And only a dedicated expert would know that while toothed whales, such as sperm whales, have one hole, baleen (鲸须) whales, such as humpback and Rice whales, have two.

Even among the baleen whales, the placing of those nostrils differs. In some species they are close together. In others, they are much further apart. In a paper published in Biology Letters Conor Ryan, a marine biologist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, suggests why that might be. Having two nostrils, he argues, helps whales smell in stereo (立体空间).

Many types of baleen whales eat tiny animals known as zooplankton (浮游动物), which they catch by filtering (过滤) them from seawater using the sheets of fibrous baleen that have replaced teeth in their mouths. But to eat something you first have to find it. Toothed whales do not hunt by scent. In fact, the olfactory bulb—the part of the brain that processes smell—is absent in such creatures. But baleen whales still have olfactory bulbs, which suggests smell remains important. And scent can indeed give zooplankton away. Zooplankton like to eat other tiny creatures called phytoplankton (浮游植物). When these are under attack, they release a special gas called dimethyl sulphide, which in turn attracts baleen whales.

Most animals have stereoscopic senses. Having two eyes, for instance, allows an animal to compare the images from each in order to perceive depth. Having two ears lets them locate the direction from which a sound is coming. Dr Ryan theorized that paired blowholes might bring baleen whales the same sorts of benefits.

The farther apart the sensory organs are, the more information can be extracted by the animal that bears them. The researchers used drones to photograph the nostrils of 143 whales belonging to 14 different species. Sure enough, baleen whales that often eat zooplankton, such as the North Atlantic right whale, have nostrils that are farther apart than do those, such as humpback whales, that eat zooplankton occasionally. Besides allowing them to breathe, it seems that some whales use their blowholes to determine in which direction dinner lies.

1. What do we know about whales’ nostrils according to the first two paragraphs?

A．They are adapted ones.	B．They are developed merely for smell.
C．They are not easy to detect.	D．They are fixed universally in numbers.

2. What plays a role when baleen whales hunt zooplankton?

A．The teeth that baleen whales have.

B．The smell that phytoplankton send.

C．The sound waves that zooplankton create.

D．The chemical signals that zooplankton give off.

3. How is the concept of stereoscopic senses explained in paragraph 4?

A．By quoting a theory.	B．By using examples.
C．By making contrast.	D．By making inferences.

4. What is the position of nostrils related to according to the last paragraph?

A．The sense of smell.	B．The possibility to attract food.
C．The ability to locate food.	D．The ability to communicate.

8 . 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。

Lǎozìhào refers to the old and famous shops, which have always been reliable and trustworthy and still enjoy     1     irreplaceable position in people’s minds since long time. Not only do they represent high quality and good reputation, they have also become an indispensable part in     2     (people) daily life.

These famous and time-honored shops, eg, Quanjude and Tongrentang,     3     (locate) in Qianmen, the center of Beijing, all have represented the highly developed     4     (commerce) culture of old Beijing.

But these shops are more about businesses; they are also a historical and cultural phenomenon. He     5     has never tasted a roast duck will regret his whole life--such common sayings have made Quanjude a     6     (represent) of Beijing. Many other similar two-part allegorical sayings among the folks have also     7     (vivid) revealed the very characteristics of these old shops.

Nowadays, with the rapid development of economy and fierce competition in modern society, some Lǎozìhào shops have been keeping pace     8     the times and carrying forward their brands through continuous reforms and innovations. That’s why they    9     (stand) the test of time and survived in competition, while some others have faded into the history due to their inability     10     (adapt) to the rapid changes in modern social life.

9 . In the Seychelles archipelago (塞舌尔群岛) in East Africa, flooding and erosion (侵蚀) caused by rising sea level pose an incoming threat to the country’s many low-lying islands. At the same time its mangrove forests (红树林), which serve as a vital aspect against these impacts, are disappearing: Approximately 70% of Seychelles mangroves have been destroyed since the late 1700s due to human-driven development and agriculture as well as soil erosion from sea-level rise.

Today the Seychelles Government is working with local community leaders to restore the mangroves, and not just for protection against rising sealevel. Research shows that these forests can store about 2.5 million tonnes of CO₂ (equal to taking 500,000 cars off the road for a year), directly helping to fight climate change. They also provide a breeding ground for fisheries, a sector that contributes one-fifth of the country’s GDP, benefiting local communities’ livelihood and helping to protect the islands’ lively biodiversity (多样性).

While the concept of using nature to benefit both lives and lands is by no means new, global interest in “nature-based solutions” has skyrocketed in recent years. Many now see nature-based solutions as a key approach for addressing not only climate change but a range of social, environmental and economic challenges — from biodiversity loss, food security and air pollution to disease control and declining local economies.

Yet there remains widespread debate about what exactly constitutes a nature-based solution as well as how to best include these strategies into broader climate and conservation efforts. This indetermination has contributed to significant under-investment: It’s estimated that to limit temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees C (degrees F), hold back biodiversity loss and control land degradation (恶化), annual investments in nature-based approaches must be three times by 2030.

As nature-based solutions continue to rise on the global agenda, building a more consistent understanding around the concept and its implications will be key to raising support for effective, extensive solutions that benefit both people and the planet.

1. What do the first two paragraphs focus on?

A．The diversity of economy in East African.

B．The environmental protection in East Africa.

C．The disappearance of mangroves in East Africa.

D．The operation of nature-based solutions in East Africa.

2. Which of the following words can best describe nature-based solutions?

A．Novel.

B．Effective.

C．Ruinous.

D．Uncertain.

3. What is the aim of the nature-based solutions in 2030?

A．500,000 cars are taken off the road.

B．Yearly investment increases by double.

C．The temperature rise is limited to below 2.7℃.

D．A conference on nature-based solutions is held.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．What Exactly Are Nature-based Solutions?

B．Why Are Nature-based Solutions on the Rise?

C．How Can Nature-based Solutions Help Fight Climate Change?

D．What Are the Potential Weaknesses of Nature-based Solutions?

10 . I have discovered that I have a second shadow these days as I go outside. This one, however, has four legs instead of two. It is my daughter’s adopted, black cat: Miss Alice. Every time I go out the door she is waiting on my front porch, meowing to be petted. Then she follows me down the hill to my car sometimes running in front so she can get in my way for even more petting. And when I finally return home she is there asking for attention again.

It wasn’t always this way. The very first time I saw Miss Alice she was hiding under my house just having had a family of kittens. When I looked under there I got an angry hiss (嘘声) from her, warning me I was in for a clawing if I got near her kittens. It took a lot of time, patience, kindness, love, and cat food from my daughter to tame her. At first she didn’t want to be touched at all. Then she would only allow an occasional petting. Now my daughter can pick her up and carry her up the road to her house like a little baby. It still makes me smile to see how my daughter’s loving, caring and sympathetic spirit tamed this wild cat and made her as lovable as the most affectionate dog.

I guess that is the power of love. It can heal a hurting heart. It can save a broken spirit. It can uplift a sunken soul. It can free you from fear. It can transform your life. It can even take a violent, wild cat and turn her into a puppy dog in a cat suit.

Embrace (拥抱) the love in your own life then. Welcome the love of your family and friends into your life. And let your own love flow through everything you think, everything you say, and everything you do.

1. What do we know about the cat from the first paragraph?

A．It enjoys staying with the author.	B．It tends to be in the author’s road.
C．It is often ignored by the daughter.	D．It gets well along with the daughter.

2. What does the underlined word “tame” probably mean in Paragraph 2?

A．Feed her up.

B．Make her mild.

C．Arrange for her.

D．Dress her up.

3. What makes the author still smile?

A．The lovely dog.

B．The daughter’s love.

C．The cat’s babies.

D．The harmonious family.

4. What message does the text convey?

A．Where there is life, there is hope.

B．A friend in need is a friend indeed.

C．Love is life in its fullness like the cup with its wine.

D．Do what you fear, and fear that nature will fade away.