1 . Common water plant could provide a green energy source. Scientists have figured out how to get large amounts of oil from duckweed, one of nature’s fastest-growing water plants. Transferring such plant oil into biodiesel (生物柴油) for transportation and heating could be a big part of a more sustainable future.

For a new study, researchers genetically engineered duckweed plants to produce seven times more oil per acre than soybeans. John Shanklin, a biochemist says further research could double the engineered duckweed’s oil output in the next few years.

Unlike fossil fuels, which form underground, biofuels can be refreshed faster than they are used. Fuels made from new and used vegetable oils, animal fat and seaweed can have a lower carbon footprint than fossil fuels do, but there has been a recent negative view against them. This is partly because so many crops now go into energy production rather than food; biofuels take up more than 100 million acres of the world’s agricultural land.

Duckweed, common on every continent but Antarctica, is among the world’s most productive plants, and the researchers suggest it could be a game-changing renewable energy source for three key reasons. First, it grows readily in water, so it wouldn’t compete with food crops for agricultural land. Second, duckweed can grow fast in agricultural pollution released into the water. Third, Shanklin and his team found a way to avoid a major biotechnological barrier: For the new study, Shanklin says, the researchers added an oil-producing gene, “turning it on like a light switch”by introducing a particular molecule (分子) only when the plant had finished growing. Shanklin says, “If it replicates (复制) in other species-and there’s no reason to think that it would not — this can solve one of our biggest issues, which is how we can make more oil in more plants without negatively affecting growth.”

To expand production to industrial levels, scientists will need to design and produce large-scale bases for growing engineered plants and obtaining oil — a challenge, Shanklin says, because duckweed is a non-mainstream crop without much existing infrastructure (基础设施).

1. What can people get from duckweed firsthand?

A．Plant oil.	B．Stable biodiesel.
C．Sustainable water.	D．Natural heat.

2. What does paragraph 4 mainly convey?

A．Options for renewable energy.

B．Reasons for engineering genes.

C．The potential of revolutionary energy source.

D．The approach to avoiding agricultural pollution.

3. What is the decisive factor to mass-produce the plant?

A．Industrial levels.	B．Unique design.
C．Academic research.	D．Basic facilities.

4. What would be the best title for the text?

A．Duckweed Power	B．Duckweed Production
C．Genetic Engineering	D．Genetic Testing

2 . 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。

On March 31, the Eiffel Tower celebrated its 130th anniversary since it opened.     1    (original) planned to last only 20 years, the people of Paris wisely decided to keep it standing,    2     (recognize) its importance. Millions of people     3     (visit) the tower so far, according to its official website.

The tower was created by the French engineer Gustave Eiffel and was first intended as the main entrance     4     the 1889 World’s Fair. It was built in a little over two years and faced criticism from some locals initially. However, it quickly captured the attention of fair visitors, attracting more than two million people. It also had a     5     (practice) use as a radio antenna during World War I.

Visitors today can choose to climb 1,665 steps or take one of the original elevator cars    6     (reach) the top. At the top of the tower,     7     the tower’s administrative office is located, guests can enjoy a drink at the champagne bar on the top floor.

Today, the Eiffel Tower is a symbol of France, representing a feeling of pride and thankfulness. It is a global icon that can bring together people from different     8    (background). The tower is not only     9     popular tourist destination but also a widely recognized symbol, a     10     (believe) held by many who appreciate its enduring charm.

3 . A kitchen garden produces vegetables for delicious, healthy meals. It doesn’t have to be right outside the kitchen door, but the closer it is, the better.     1    , the more likely it is that you will get tasty things out of it. Just a few steps are needed for what you want.

    2    . The most important recommendation is start with what you like to eat. This may go without saying, but I have seen first-year gardens that don’t reflect the eating habits of their growers. One of the easiest and most rewarding and popular kitchen gardens is a simple salad garden. It can produce multiple harvests in most parts of the country.

Planting a garden: where, when and how. Make a garden plan of what will be planted, where, when and how.     3    . It means you should know what they like in terms of space, water, soil fertility (肥力) and soil temperatures.

When and how much to water your garden. Vegetables are made mostly of water.     4    .You’ll want to water them lightly every day or two. If nature isn’t providing that amount of rain, you’ll need to water by yourself or with a drip irrigation system.

Garden maintenance: keep an eye on it. Sun and rain willing, fast growers such as radishes (萝卜) and salad greens will begin to produce crops as early as 20 to 30 days after planting. Check on them regularly so you get to harvest them before someone else does.     5    .

A．Choosing garden crops

B．Getting ready for garden site

C．The easier it is for you to get into the garden

D．So you need to ensure your plants have enough water

E．You show an interest in how to produce multiple harvests

F．To do this, you need to get familiar with all kinds of crops

G．Besides, protective barriers and organic products can prevent pests and diseases

4 . 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。

As the Internet calls him, Terry Lauerman is     1     first of his kind, a professional cat napper (打盹的人). Terry has been in his local pet sanctuary for many years. And since he has started, he doesn’t plan     2    (stop).

Terry’s love for cats     3    (date) back to his younger years but he’d never quite been able to work with     4    (they) until he retired. He spent his free time     5    (volunteer) at this local shelter.

Terry would sometimes take a cat nap with a few of his cat     6    (friend). By taking a nap so     7    (comfortable), Terry has actually done more for the cat shelter     8    others. It started when the shelter began posting pictures of Terry’s napping breaks and he went viral (走红),     9    led him to encourage people to donate a few dollars for the cats. And it worked. Within days, a generous     10    (donate) of tens of thousands of dollars had been given to the shelter in his name.

5 . Not much trash and almost no plastic actually gets recycled. About a third of U.S. garbage gets recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent estimate. The rest goes to landfills, which release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and pollute their surroundings.

To make recycling easier, many U.S. cities don’t ask Americans to separate paper, glass, metal and plastic. ‘They just ask people to put anything recyclable into one bin and let waste plants do the sorting. But waste plants don’t catch everything. AI is now an essential tool for the world’s waste management leaders. Greyparrot, a tech company has already installed more than l00 AI trash spotters in about 50 sorting facilities.

Greyparrot’s device is, basically, a set of visual and infrared (红外线的) cameras hooked up to a computer, which monitors trash as it passes by on a conveyor belt and labels it under 70 categories, from loose bottle caps to books to aluminum cans. Waste plants could connect these AI systems to sorting robots to help them separate trash from recyclables more accurately. They could also use the AI as a quality control system to measure how well they’re sorting trash from recyclables. That could help plant managers adjust their production lines to cover more recyclables, or cheek that a bundle of recyclables is free of pollutants, which would allow them to sell at a higher price.

In the next few years, some recycling companies plan to retrofit (改良) thousands of material- recovery facilities with Al trash - spotting tools. Of these companies, Bollegraaf has built thousands of these facilities, including 340 in North America, accounting for a majority of the recovery plants in the world.

The trash-spotting computers could one day help regulators punish companies that produce tsunamis of non - recyclable packaging because the AI systems are so accurate that they can identify the brands on individual items. Putting the AI tools in thousands of waste plants can raise recycling percentage. If the needle can be moved by even 5 to 10 percent, that would be a phenomenal outcome for greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact.

1. What does the author want to show in paragraph 1?

A．People pay little attention to environmental protection.

B．Greenhouse gas is a major contributor to air pollution.

C．Americans show little enthusiasm for recycling.

D．All trash has not been recycled in the US.

2. How does Greyparrot’s AI system work?

A．By working with sorting robots.

B．By adjusting the production line.

C．By monitoring the conveyor belt.

D．By controlling cameras in a computer.

3. What can he inferred about AI tools in the last two paragraphs?

A．They are well received.

B．They are highly profitable.

C．They have unpredictable prospect.

D．They present a challenge for regulators.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．The Use of the Useless

B．AI Assistants in Recycling

C．A Pressing Trash Issue in US

D．AI Tools with Great Potential

6 . New findings suggest that when it-comes to learning, the snake may be quite a bit like humans. David Holtzman, a scientist at the University of Rochester, has found that snakes have a much greater capacity for learning than earlier studies had indicated.

Holtzman’s study challenged 24 snakes to escape from a black plastic container the size of a child’s pool. Cards mounted on the container’s walls and tape on its floor provided the snakes with visual and touchable signals to find their goal: holes in the container’s bottom that offer a dark, comfortable spot to hide.

Simply falling into a hole isn’t the only proof that the snakes are learning something, though. “Speed to find that goal is one of the measures which shows they’re learning,” Holtzman says. “On average, they take over 700 seconds to find the correct hole on the first day of training, and then go down to about 400 seconds by the fourth day of training. Some are actually very fast and find it in less than 30 seconds.”

Studies dating back to the 1950s interpreted snakes’ awkwardness with mazes(迷宫)as a poor reflection on their intelligence. “Early attempts to study snake intelligence were problematic because the studies used mazes as testing arenas(场地)-as though snakes might be expected to run through mazes in the same way mice run through mazes,” says Peter Kareiva, a professor of zoology. “Snakes do not encounter anything like mazes in nature, and they do not learn how to run mazes in laboratory conditions.”

Holtzman also found a few age-based differences in the signals the snakes use. Young snakes appear to be more adaptable and resourceful, using a variety of clues to find their way to the exit.But their elders seem to rely much more heavily on visual clues. “Actually, one of the amazing findings from our studies is that snakes do use vision in locating places,” says Holtzman. “They don’t just rely on the chemical clues picked up by sticking their tongues out, as many snake biologists assume.”

1. What is the function of the cards and tape?

A．To direct the snakes to the exits.

B．To protect the snakes from bright lights.

C．To cover the holes at the container’s bottom.

D．To make the container a comfortable spot to stay.

2. What do the data in paragraph 3 show about the snakes according to Holtzman?

A．They are skillful escapers.	B．They are good learners.
C．They communicate with each other.	D．They adapt to environments quickly.

3. What was the problem with early attempts to study snake intelligence?

A．They chose the wrong testing arenas.

B．They failed to do tests in laboratory conditions.

C．They referred to studies dating back to the 1950s.

D．They compared snakes with a different kind of animal.

4. What astonishes Holtzman about snakes?

A．They rely on sight to find their way.

B．They leave chemical clues everywhere.

C．The young beat their elders in many ways.

D．Their tongues are unable to recognize chemical clues.

7 . 当下，正值踏春赏花好时节，贵州各地迎来了大量游客，然而旅游中不文明行为时有发生。假设你是学生会主席李华，请你用英语给你校学生写一篇倡议书，呼吁大家文明出游。内容包括：
1.不文明出游的现象;
2.对文明出游发出倡议。
注意：1.可以增加细节，以使行文连贯;
2.词数80词左右;
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8 . Djukic is a biology and chemistry student at John Carroll University. She never thought that one day she would be in a classroom where an English teacher asked her to play a board game in order to learn about climate change.

Debra Rosenthal is the professor of the class. At first, Djukic said she was uncertain about Rosenthal’s board game idea. “I was just like: ‘this is interesting, but how much are we actually going to take away from it?”

Rosenthal thought her students would gain a greater understanding about how their own ideas and experiences affect climate change. Students do not compete against each other. They work together to choose the best plan of action. The game is different from board games such as Monopoly, where the goal is to win. Rosenthal said she hoped the games would give students a chance to talk about climate change in a new way.

“By playing the games, it’s a way to be social, to engage in conversation. There has to be a lot of energy around the table. It’s very collaborative. And in the game that I chose to play, they really were able to work together and try to come up with a solution so that the planet was not destroyed.”

During the class, she said, students laughed, disagreed and had to call for votes as a way to decide how to move forward in the game. Djukic said it was a “way to have fun...while also learning about such a serious subject.”

The games are global, Djukic said. That is because she and her classmates said they were able to see how one player’s decision about agriculture affected another player on the other side of the world.

She said the games showed her that “in the game of climate change and the climate crisis, no individual wins.” “It’s either we all suffer from this, or we all somehow collaborate to work our way out of this and turn the clock back on climate change.”

1. What is the purpose of Rosenthal’s class arrangement?

A．To inspire the competition among students.

B．To entertain the students with the board game.

C．To stress the damage caused by climate change.

D．To encourage student’s viewpoints about climate change.

2. Which best describes the board game according to paragraph 4?

A．Cooperative

B．Competitive

C．Creative

D．Exclusive

3. What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs?

A．Agriculture is of vital importance to the world.

B．The world is a community of shared future.

C．Man with strong will can conquer nature.

D．Climate change is a tough problem to solve.

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

A．Climate change calls for teamwork.

B．Climate change leads to global impact.

C．A board game helps students understand climate issues.

D．A good teacher gives students lifelong benefits.

9 . The streets and roofs of cities all absorb heat, making some urban areas hotter than rural ones. These “urban heat islands” can also develop underground as city heat spreads downward, and subway tracks and other subsurface infrastructure(基础设施) also constantly radiate warmth into the surrounding earth.

A new study of downtown Chicago shows underground hotspots may threaten the very same structures that give off the heat in the first place. “Without anyone realizing it, the city of Chicago’s downtown was deforming,” says study author Rotta Loria, an environmental engineer.

Humans aren’t the only potentially affected. “For a lot of things in the subsurface, it’s kind of ‘out of sight, out of mind’,” says Grant Ferguson, a geologist. But the underground world is full of creatures that have adapted to subsurface existence such as insects and snails. As the temperature rises because of climate change and underground urban development, scientists are keeping eyes on the potential implications for underground ecosystems.

But the question of how underground hotspots could affect infrastructure has gone largely unstudied. Because materials expand and contract with temperature change, Rotta suspected that heat coming from underground could be contributing to wear and tear on various structures. To understand how underground temperature difference has affected the ground’s physical properties, he used a computer model to simulate(模拟) the underground environment from the 1950s to now—and then to 2050. He found that by the middle of this century, some areas may lift upward by as much as 0.50 inch or settle by as much as 0.32 inch, depending on the soil makeup of the area involved. Though these may sound like small displacements, Rotta says they could cause cracks in the foundations of some buildings, causing buildings to fall.

Kathrin Menberg, a geoscientist in Germany, says these displacement predictions are far beyond her guesses and could be linked to the soft, clay-heavy soils. “Clay material is particularly sensitive,” she says, “It would be a big issue in all cities worldwide that are built on such material.”

Like climate change above the surface, underground changes occur gradually. “These effects took decades to develop,” Ferguson says, adding that increased underground temperatures would likewise take a long time to dissipate on their own. “We could basically turn everything off, and it’s going to remain there, the temperature signal, for quite a while.”

But Ferguson says this wasted heat energy could also be reused, presenting an opportunity to both cool the subsurface and save on energy costs. Still, this assumption could fail as aboveground climate change continues to boost underground warming. However slowly, this heat will gather beneath our feet. “It’s like climate change,” Rotta Loria says. “Maybe we don’t see it always, but it’s happening.”

1. The author quotes Rotta Loria in Paragraph 2 mainly to _______.

A．make a prediction	B．highlight a finding
C．draw a conclusion	D．raise an assumption

2. What can we learn from this passage?

A．“Urban heat islands” extend underground to spare ecosystems.

B．Surface climate change contributes to the reuse of underground heat.

C．Underground temperatures mirror the ground’s physical characteristics.

D．Buildings may collapse as a potential consequence of underground heat.

3. What does the underlined word “dissipate” in Paragraph 6 probably mean?

A．Show.

B．Stay.

C．Develop.

D．Disappear.

4. What does the author intend to tell us?

A．Underground climate change is a silent danger.

B．Humans fail to notice the dramatic climate change.

C．Cooling the subsurface helps control urban heat rises.

D．Researching underground heat helps save on energy costs.

10 . When astronauts land on Mars, a couple of decades from now, perhaps, they’ll need to find a way to communicate-with each other, with equipment on and around the planet, and with mission control back on Earth. Despite living so far from home, they’ll no doubt want to connect with loved ones, or stream their favorite shows or music.

But setting up a Wi-Fi connection to Earth’s internet won’t be a choice. Earth is simply too far away—around 55 million to 400 million kilometers, depending on where the planets are in their orbits. We will need another strategy.

Establishing good communication equipment is essential for human missions to Mars. Researchers are testing ways to upgrade existing networks, along with some far-out alternatives. For example, NASA’s Psyche mission, which lifted off in October with the job of exploring an asteroid (小行星) between Mars and Jupiter, will also test the communication using lasers. Lasers could carry far more data than the radio waves that have been used from the earliest days of space travel.

There is no strategy which can get rid of the time lag in communications between Earth and Mars; a message moving at the speed of light takes anywhere between 4 and 24 minutes for a one-way trip. In other words, a quick ping to mission control is out of the question, not to mention a WhatsApp call home.

There’s also the issue of solar conjunction (聚合), says Parfitt, when the sun comes between Earth and Mars. This happens for a couple of weeks every two years or so, cutting off communications between the planets. The last one took place in November.

But new approaches could open possibilities that make communications on Mars more like what we experience here on Earth. At least one research team has wondered: What if Mars had its own internet?

1. What discourages Mars to have a net connection to Earth?

A．The Earth is too far to reach.	B．The Earth is hard to identify.
C．The current strategy doesn’t work well.	D．Many planets are blocking the signals.

2. What writing skill is used in paragraph 3?

A．Raising a question.	B．Giving an example.
C．Listing numbers.	D．Comparing facts.

3. What do we know about the communications between Earth and Mars?

A．Laser carries less data than the radio waves.	B．There is no such thing as time lag.
C．It takes only four minutes for a single trip.	D．The process could sometimes be cut off.

4. What is going to be talked about in the following paragraph?

A．The possible mission of the astronauts on Mars.

B．The communication among the astronauts on Mars.

C．The possibility for Mars to have its own network.

D．The opinions given by experienced astronomers.