1 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. magical       B. cultural       C. meets          D. built          E. strong     F. damaged G. entrance       H. views        I. calendar        J. ranked        K. lit

A long red bridge stretches out across water. It runs across the Golden Gate. This is not the     1     to some sacred land, but it is just as     2    . The Golden Gate is where San Francisco Bay     3     the Pacific Ocean, and at night the scene of the bridge     4     up over the water takes your breath away.

Welcome to San Francisco, a place famous for its beautiful parks, hilly streets and lovely beaches. But the bridge is undoubtedly the most well-known symbol of the city. Before its completion in 1937, the bridge was considered impossible to build because of the foggy weather, powerful winds, and     5     ocean currents in the city. However, despite the difficult conditions, the bridge was built in no more than four years. Its total length is nearly 2 kilometers.

San Francisco     6     first on Lonely Planet’s list of the best cities to visit in 2013. According to the world’s largest travel publisher, it came top as a result of its     7     mix.

According to the census, 21 percent of the city’s population was made up of Chinese people. San Francisco’s Chinatown is the largest outside of Asia and the oldest in North America. Two traditional festivals, the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, are the biggest events of the year on the city’s     8    .

If yellow cabs are a key part of New York city life, then the cable car is San Francisco’s equivalent. The first cable car came into public service in 1873, and the slow and noisy vehicle has been a symbol of the city ever since. The cable car network was once     9     by a serious earthquake but, luckily, it has now recovered and provides better     10     than the subway.

2 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. force       B. ideal   C. blossoms   D. importing   E. floating F. cultivation   G. dried   H. floated     I. unlikely     J. consume   K. absorb

Visitors to the New Orleans Cotton Exposition of 1884 saw a new tropical plant that had been brought from Venezuela. The new plant    1    on the surface of a pond or stream, supported by an air-filled bladder in the stalk of each leaf. Each plant bore clusters of very beautiful orchid-like    2    .

Some exposition visitors obtained cuttings of the plant to take home with them because they wanted the beautiful, pale-violet flowers    3    on their garden pools. They got what they wanted. and more, for the water hyacinth(水葫芦)escaped from    4    and soon became a troublesome weed. Today, it chokes many streams and rivers in the southern United States, from Florida west to Texas.

Water hyacinths grow very quickly, covering the surface of a stream from bank to bank. One plant can produce 1,000 more plants in less than two months. The plants often form a tangled mass so thick that a boat can't     5    a way through it.

In the United States, a great deal of money has been spent on projects designed to control water hyacinths. Poisons will kill the plants and dredges can scoop them out of the water, but they soon reappear. Some scientists have suggested establishing the manatee, or sea cow, in the affected regions. The manatee is a large aquatic mammal that can    6    up to 100 pounds of vegetation a day, and it will eat water hyacinths.

But since the manatees are endangered, it is    7    that they will provide a permanent solution. Therefore, scientists are trying to discover uses for the water hyacinth. Some researchers are experimenting with using    8    water hyacinths as livestock feed. Others are experimenting with using these plants in water purification systems because water hyacinths can    9    many chemicals, including industrial wastes.

Today, people try to be more careful about    10    alien plants than they were in 1884. Even so, no way has yet been found to control this beautiful plant and other plant pests, such as milfoil, which clog so many waterways.

3 . Directions; Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. webs   B. occasionally   C. pick     D. continuously   E. feeding   F. belong G. bite     H. generally     I. dropping   J. exceptions     K. trap

The world is full of many tiny creatures besides insects. There are snails and slugs that creep along the ground, worms that dig holes underground, and many more. Some, like insects,    1    to a huge group of little creatures called arthropods, which also includes spiders and other arachinids, centipedes, and woodlice.

Spiders are found in almost everywhere in the world. They are most plentiful where there is plenty of vegetation, but you can encounter spiders in the darkest cellars and down the deepest mines, as well as high on mountains. Spiders are hunters,    2    mainly on insects and other arthropods though a few large “bird-eating” species, or tarantulas,    3    eat lizards and small rodents. Unlike other hunting animals, spiders    4    have poor eyesight. They usually have eight simple eyes, not the compound eyes of insects, and hunt by “listening” to vibrations in the ground, which they    5    up with their legs. Jumping spiders, with wolf spiders and ogre-faced spiders being    6    , have very keen eyesight.

Different species of spider have different methods of catching prey. Many weave silken nets called    7    . Some are simple tube-shaped webs inside holes, others are elaborate orb webs. The web is usually sticky, so any insects flying into it are stuck fast.

Spiders such as tarantulas and sun spiders destroy their victims with their powerful fangs, but most species use their poisonous    8    to kill or disable their prey. Some spiders, such as the black widow and funnel-web spiders, have a bite so poisonous that it can be fatal to humans.

Not all species of spider make webs. Some catch their preys by    9    a silk net on them. Others, such as the Australian trapdoor spider,    10    their prey from a hole with a carefully-fitting and well-masked flap. Hunting spiders follow their preys secretly and leap on them from a distance.

4 . Direction: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

Red grouper(石斑鱼) are known for a few key characteristics — their color, which can     1    from pink to bright orange; their tastiness, whether they’re grilled or fried; and their predation (掠夺行为) method, in which they       2     sea creatures and swallow them whole.

But their least-known characteristic might be the most valuable of all: They operate as underwater architects,     3     the seascape for numerous other forms of underwater life. That surprising discovery is     4     scientists and policymakers to readjust their approach to preserving the ocean’s natural order — and heightening tensions with those who fish for a living or as a hobby.

A team of scientists, led by Florida State University’s Felicia Coleman, recently found that the red grouper off Florida’s east and west coasts have created entire ocean       5    by digging large holes in the sea’s sandy bottom. In the same way beavers     6    dams, red grouper dig and maintain distinct holes whose rocky surfaces provide a place for coral, sponges and other marine life to gather.

This new understanding is changing the way federal and state authorities manage ocean habitats and is creating a completely new crack with fishermen. “The people who are in control want to     7     fishing as much as possible,” said Bob Jones, executive director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association. He added that the recent discoveries about red grouper amount to an “excuse they can use to restrict fishing,     8    or recreational.”

But to many researchers, fishery officials and even some fishermen, the fact that fish act as environmental engineers provides a compelling reason to protect them from exploitation.

“If you     9     that fish, it puts into motion a whole chain of events,” said Don deMaria, who used to fish for red grouper near Key Largo, Fla., but no longer does. “There’s a whole lot of other animals that are     10    . I’m not saying you can’t catch them. But you can’t do it to the extent we’ve been doing for the last 20 years.”