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. raise               B. involvement               C. enable               D. basic          E. constant        F. champions G. aftermath            H. engage               I. step                  J. educational            K. issues

Countless animal welfare groups, rescues and funds exist today which help animals on the     1    level—to get them out of harm’s way, fund their care and rehabilitation, and get them into caring homes or back into natural environments. On a more expansive level however, animal education foundations and charities are the     2    of promoting animal equality and compassion for all creatures, and helping us all to become more aware of our environment, and the animals that we share it with.

Animal education foundations as a whole are organizations that support animal health research, provide education to the public on animal welfare     3    , and foster the ideas of compassion and coexistence. They encourage public     4    in these humane interests, and in furthering public awareness in general. Some Foundations get involved in large-scale rescue or other local-level activity, but what these types of organizations do best is to     5    awareness, collect money through corporate, philanthropic and public donations, and fund groups that are actually out there working with the animals by rescuing, providing care and remedying their mismanagement, or by funding scientific studies that benefit animal welfare. Animal cruelty is a(n)     6    battle, with legitimate rescue groups and shelters rarely having enough money for their needs; many times it is an animal education foundation that will     7    in with a grant to help them in their missions.

Through the use of     8    material, media coverage and their support of other humane groups, animal education foundations exist to teach compassionate, humane care of all animals and to learn more about these creatures that share our world so that we can     9    them to live better lives. With a message that it is better to educate people how to prevent cruelty, than to deal with the     10    , these charitable foundations spread their messages far and wide, offering much food for thought, and providing a caring example of how all creatures and the environment should be treated so that people and animals can live together in harmony.

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.

A. overheated               B. considerably               C. plates               D. releasing          E. confident F. heading                  G. frequently                    H. extinction            I. damaging            J. attempt K. delivered

Last week’s United Nations report on the health of the planet and the services it provides made for very uncomfortable reading. It shows that humans are making a complete mess of things, destroying biodiversity and     1    ecosystems. The pressure we are placing on the planet through overexploitation of resources on land, sea and air is driving the Earth and its human cargo towards a catastrophic(灾难性的)end, one that will trigger a global mass     2    which may make the planet uninhabitable.

The sad thing is we can see this crisis     3    our way but don’t seem to be able to do anything to save ourselves. This isn’t just about climate change, although those who deny the human impact on climate may use similar arguments in a(n)     4    to undermine(暗中破坏)the UN report.

It may be portrayed(描述)as exaggeration or bad science, or an issue of dispute among the international team of scientists who compiled the report. Fake news. There is no dispute about the facts     5    , that at least a million species are now in serious decline or facing extinction. These species could disappear and if things continue as they are, another million more could follow.

We are shortening our odds     6    if you look at the UN report. We are damaging the web of life and the way that species interconnect and interact, but we don’t know to what end or how the damage we are causing will impact on ourselves. Are we     7    that humans would survive a runaway greenhouse effect for example? Would we be able to use technology to help us survive? But what of the social unrest(动荡)and migration that would follow a failure of crops in dry,     8    climates?

One direction we cannot turn to for help is planet Earth itself. It too evolves over geological[地质(学)的]time as the     9    that make up its surface ride across the planet. It makes mountains and creates inland seas. It kicks off environment-changing volcanoes and lets geology alter its surface. It doesn’t care if a species pollutes its oceans with plastic or tears down oxygen-     10    forests. It is life, in whatever form, that instead must adjust to accommodate changes in the planet that arise through natural causes or careless intervention.

3 . After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. captured               B. released               C. alive               D. competition               E. close F. adjusting               G. hunts                  H. typical             I. transformed               J. safety        K. shared

The Rebirth of an Ancient Craft: Eagle Hunting

   

When school is done on Fridays, Zamanbol, a 14-year-old eagle huntress, heads back home, finishes her homework and does her chores as     1    teenagers do anywhere. On Saturdays, she saddles up her horse, treks (艰苦跋涉) deep into snow-capped mountains and     2    wild beasts with a trusted partner: her trained bird of prey. She is part of a generation of nomadic (游牧的) youth who are embracing customs centuries old as they seek connection with their roots and the wild in a world being     3    by technology.

Just as Zamanbol began learning the craft at a young age, the training of the birds starts soon after an eaglet is     4    from the nest, often after a hunter has made a rugged (崎岖的) climb up a cliff. The resulting relationship between hunter and eagle is     5    and spans years; some last more than a decade, with a few hunters even talking about the eagle as if it were their child.

Female eagles, larger and stronger than males, are used almost exclusively in the hunt. Once grown to about 15 pounds, the eagles ride with their hunters on horseback into the mountains, where they are     6    to scan the landscape for prey, typically foxes and rabbits. But wolves are the true prize, even if the hunters fear for their birds’     7    when they go in for the dangerous, and brutal (野蛮的) kill.

Eagle hunting almost vanished in the last century. It was kept     8    by the Altai Kazakhs in western Mongolia in Bayan-Olgii Province, where at least 400 ethnic Kazakhs have formally registered as eagle hunters.

Now, for perhaps the first time in its history, the art, and its essential role in Altai Kazakh culture, is being     9    with outsiders. Hunters come together for the Golden Eagle Festival, held around early October, to compete with each other in a two-day gathering open to tourists.

A popular 2016 documentary film about Aisholpan, a young eagle huntress who won the festival’s hunting     10    in 2014, helped bring the Altai Kazakh culture to international attention.

4 . 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. projects               B. affected               C. issuing               D. dependence     E. urgently F. prolonged             G. miraculously        H. restore               I. former            J. vanishing          K. inaction

UN Report: World Could Lose Coral Reefs by End of Century

According to a recent United Nations Environmental Programme report, reefs worldwide are in danger of     1    by the end of this century, under the pressures of ocean warming and coral bleaching (漂白).

Using a new generation of climate models employed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the report     2    that Cayman’s reefs could be experiencing annual severe bleaching by 2035.”In the face of     3    , coral reefs will soon disappear,” Leticia Carvalho, head of the United Nations Environmental Programme’s Marine and Freshwater Branch, said following the     4    of the report in late December.

Coral bleaching occurs when corals react to rising water temperatures by expelling (排出) the microscopic algae (微藻) living in their tissues. Although the     5    coral may appear white and lifeless at this point, it is still alive and can     6    its algae if conditions improve and the water temperature drops. However, the UN report points out that the loss of the algae puts the coral under increased stress, and if the bleaching persists, the coral will die. With     7    bleaching that continues over several years, the corals have no opportunity to recover.

The latest report offers two possible scenarios of what happens next—a “worst-case” one involving continued global use and     8    on fossil fuels, and a “middle-of-the-road” one in which countries exceed their current pledges (誓言) to cut back on fossil fuels and limit carbon emissions by 50%. Under the     9    scenario, all of the world’s reefs will bleach by the end of the century. If jurisdictions (管辖区域) do manage to achieve the “middle-of-the-road” scenario, severe bleaching could be delayed by 11 years, to 2045. It means we really need to do it even more     10    and take more action because it’s even worse than what we thought.

5 . 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. form        B. mineral        C. hardens        D. surrounded        E. primarily        F. trap G. wore        H. integrated        I. piles        J. perfectly        K. surface

Natural Domes

A dome is a curved formation or structure. It is shaped like half of a sphere. Imagine cutting an orange in half, and placing it cut-side-down on a table. This is the shape of a dome, although most domes in nature are not     1     rounded.

Some natural domes develop when magma(岩浆)from deep within the Earth pushes up    2     rock layers. This type of geologic dome can     3     as magma intrudes between two layers of sedimentary rock. The magma creates a dome or triangle shape as it pushes the other layers apart. The hardened magma that forms this type of dome is called “laccolith”.

Lava domes form as magma     4     atop volcanic vents(火山口). In the Chaitn Volcano in Chile, an ongoing eruption that began in 2008 is forming a lava dome next to another one that filled the crater when the volcano erupted 9, 400 years ago.

Another kind of natural dome is shaped    5     by weathering and erosion, which cause curved sheets of rock to separate from a large rock mass. The Cima Dome in the MojaveDesert, in the U. S. state of California, was once a mountain. Over time, weathering and erosion     6     away the mountain and smoothed it into a rounded dome.

Salt domes result when rock salt rises through overlying sedimentary rock. Salt    7     up as ancient seas dry up over time. Eventually, sediments form over this layer of salt. Salt is less dense than most other rocks, and it slowly moves upward toward the surface, forming a dome-shaped hill. One of the most famous salt domes is Avery Island, in the U. S. state of Louisiana. Avery Island is a salt dome     8     by low-lying swamps(沼泽地)of the Mississippi River delta. Eventually, these salt domes can break through the surface rock layers. Actually, salt domes are important sites for industry. Salt is a valuable     9     used in the production of plastics, pesticides, preservatives, and fire extinguishing equipment. Moreover, Salt domes     10     oil between layers of rock so that oil wells can drill into it and extract oil.