1 . 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。

Hurricane Katrina has been one of the strongest storms that affect the coast of the United States during the last 100 years. Once a hurricane starts it can     1     ( move ) around by powerful winds. They vary from class 1 to class 5. Hurricane Katrina has been the     2     (bad) storm in the past decade in the US, having reached class 5, which has caused lots of damage.

Some scientists claimed that global warming was     3     ( blame ) for the power of Hurricane Katrina due to the fact that it is warming the oceans. Hurricane Katrina had a strong effect on the US coast. The area     4     ( affect ) is almost the size of the UK. New Orleans suffered from     5     ( severely ) damage after the hurricane. Most of the city was     6     water from flooding, including expressways and bridges. Almost 2 million people     7     ( lose ) their power and had to wait several weeks for it to be restored. It was     8     disaster for the city. Help came from all over the United States. Many people went down to New Orleans to volunteer. Others started charity events to fund the     9     ( reconstruct ) of the city. It was because of all people’s efforts     10     the city began to breathe again.

2 . While the human world is suffering from the novel coronavirus outbreak, our planet is actually showing certain signs of “recovery” from the damage caused by human activity. According to the BBC, new satellite images released by the European Space Agency showed that levels of air pollutants and greenhouse gases have “fallen sharply” in major cities in Europe and the United States ever since the lockdown started.

This is what happened after recent discoveries in Antarctica. An international team of 89 scientists found that the ice in Greenland and Antarctica is melting six times faster in the 2010s than it was in the 1990s. And in February, Argentina’s Marambio research station in Antarctica recorded a record high temperature of 20.75 ℃ on the continent.

So what exactly will happen if the temperature keeps rising and the ice keeps melting? A third study might give you an idea. A team of scientists drilled a hole into the seafloor in west Antarctica and extracted (提取) material from underground, in which they found traces of roots, spores and pollen—typical products of a rainforest—that dated back 90 million years ago. In other words, Antarctica was very likely a rainforest back when the dinosaurs walked on Earth. But given the fact that the South Pole has four months of darkness during winter—even millions of years ago—scientists believe that the rainforest could only exist if the greenhouse gas concentrations were extremely high back then to keep the continent warm when there was little or no sunlight.

“We didn’t know that this Cretaceous (白垩纪的) greenhouse climate was that extreme,” Johann Klages of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and a co-author of the research told the Guardian. “It shows us what carbon dioxide is able to do.”

Ice or no ice, Antarctica will be—and has always been—fine with extreme changes. The human world, however, may not be.

Now, during the coronavirus lockdown, we’ve seen the changes resulting from less human activity. Hopefully, we’ll hold on to those changes—not for Antarctica or the planet, but for ourselves.

1. What does Paragraph 1 mainly tell us?

A．Our planet is returning to its original state due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

B．The lockdown of major cities contributed to the decrease of greenhouse gases.

C．The novel coronavirus has a positive effect on the human beings.

D．The novel coronavirus outbreak resulted from human activity.

2. What do we learn from the third study?

A．Typical products of a rainforest were dug out in Antarctica.

B．Traces of dinosaurs living in rainforests were spotted in Antarctica.

C．There was a good possibility of high greenhouse gas concentrations in Antarctica.

D．There used to be enough sunlight for the rainforest in the Cretaceous Antarctica.

3. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A．Human activity doesn’t threaten life in Antarctica.

B．The ice in Antarctica is melting faster in the 2010s than now.

C．We should reduce carbon dioxide emissions for our own sake.

D．The lockdown can be carried on to slow down global warming.

4. What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To encourage us to defeat the novel coronavirus.

B．To explain the effects of greenhouse gases.

C．To draw our attention to ecosystem in Antarctica.

D．To call on us to reduce human impact on the environment.

3 . UK physicist Isaac Newton once said, ''Nature is pleased with simplicity and nature is no dummy (傻子). '' Indeed, Mother Nature can provide almost everything human beings need if we follow her rules. But if we break the rules, she is likely to be cruel and lash out at us.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia (新型冠状病毒肺炎, NCP) in China and some other countries at the beginning of this year is an example. According to Xinhua News Agency, the new coronavirus is similar to a virus found in a bat in 2017 and probably has an intermediate host (中间宿主). It's believed that the virus originated from the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, Hubei province, where live wild animals were sold.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Dr Peter Daszak, president of the US-based health organization EcoHealth Alliance, said, ''This outbreak is a lesson for us. On a global scale, human population density, wildlife diversity, and land use change are what drive new pandemics (流行病). ''

In ancient times, people needed to rely on nature to survive so they held it in awe (敬畏). For example, the American Indians believed that humans are a part of nature and nature is a part of humans. Chinese ancients always pursued the harmony between nature and human beings.

However, as human beings master more knowledge and make more advanced tools, people try to change and even conquer nature. They use more land to make buildings, genetically modify (改变) plants, capture some wild and rare animals to suit their own needs. In this process, humans gradually lose contact with nature and even throw it out of balance. For example, cutting a large number of forests means carbon dioxide must build up in the atmosphere and it contributes to global warming.

Although we don't know for sure what first caused the NCP outbreak, Brian Lamacraft at Medium said it's time for people to ''reflect on our relationship with our planet'' and ''reconnect with this world and everything that we've been given''.   After all, according to US poet Gary Snyder, ''Nature is not the place to visit. It's our home. ''

1. What does the phrase ''lash out at'' in Paragraph 1 probably mean?

A．punish	B．control
C．test	D．challenge

2. What lesson did Daszak think human beings should learn from the NCP outbreak?

A．Bats are one of the most dangerous wild animals.

B．It's impossible to prevent new pandemics globally.

C．We should stop the wildlife trade around the world.

D．Humans should live peacefully with nature.

3. What is the main idea of Paragraph 5?

A．How human beings become their own masters.

B．How human activities cause global warming.

C．How human beings break the balance of nature.

D．How humans use technology to improve their lives.

4. What is the author's purpose in writing this article?

A．To reflect on the NCP outbreak.

B．To explain what led to the NCP outbreak.

C．To describe experts' predictions on new pandemics.

D．To compare ancient and modern attitudes toward nature.

4 . Hashtag, a pet dog as a gift from a friend to     1     (bright) up my day, saved my life — not once, but twice.

My husband and I had been expecting the exciting     2     (arrive) of him for months before Hashtag came into our home in the winter. I was struggling with depression and suddenly I had something else     3     (require) my attention. I had been overcome by negative thoughts completely, but now I had     4     sense of purpose. I couldn’t give up. Once realizing that, I became     5     (energy). I focused on giving him training and affection, and walking with him. Finally, I got over my depression 18 months later. There’s no doubt     6     Hashtag played an important role in my recovery. Then, last December, we     7     (sleep) deeply when a fire started in our living room. Barking downstairs     8     (unusual), Hashtag woke us up and allowed us     9     (grasp) the seriousness of our situation.

Within moments, we were standing outside. There’s no telling what could have happened     10    Hashtag’s warning. I don’t have the words to describe how grateful I feel for the warning to him.

5 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。

The Burj A1 Arab is a luxury hotel in Dubai. It stands on a man-made island     1    (locate) just off Dubai’s coast, and is connected to the mainland by means of a private bridge. The amazing building is one of the tallest hotels in the world. It was designed to look like the sail of a “dhow”，     2     type of Arabian boat. Tom Wright, the designer of the hotel, said he wanted the Burj A1 Arab to be a symbolic     3     (construct) for Dubai like the Eiffel Tower is for Paris.

The Burj A1 Arab has 202 rooms as well as six award-winning restaurants. One of these restaurants, the A1 Muntaha,     4     (offer) fantastic views of Dubai, because it is 200 metres above sea level.

Guests     5     decide to stay at the Burj A1 Arab can look forward to     6     (receive) extremely good service. From the moment you check in to the moment you are dropped off at the airport, the hotel’s staff take care of everything.

    7    (fortunate), entry into the Burj A1 Arab is not allowed unless you are a hotel guest. But don’t worry; views of the outside of the hotel are as     8     (impress) as views of its inside. So, if you ever visit Dubai, be sure     9     (take) a photograph of the Burj A1 Arab. It is     10    a doubt one of the most beautiful hotels in the world!

6 . Though plastic shopping bags are cheap and useful, they cause widespread pollution. Now, we may have an unlikely helper to help clean up our garbage — a small wax worm.

The worm’s hidden skills were discovered by accident. About two years ago, Federica Bertocchini, a developmental biologist at the Spanish National Research Council and an amateur beekeeper, was cleaning out bees’ nest that had been filled with worms. She removed the worms and put them in a plastic bag while doing the cleaning. After finishing, she went back to the room where she had left the worms, and found they had escaped from the bag. When she checked, she saw that the bag was full of holes.

Realizing she may have made an important discovery, Bertocchini teamed up with other researchers to conduct further research. They began by placing 100 worms on some plastic bags and discovered that over a 24-hour period, the worms managed to chew through 92 milligrams of plastic. The researchers make an appropriate judgment that at this rate, the group of worms could   degrade (降解) an average-sized 5.5-gram plastic bag within a month. To rule out the possibility that chewing was causing the degradation, the researchers spread the soft wet substance inside the body of some recently dead worms on a sheet of plastic. Sure enough, even the liquid was able to eat through the material, confirming that the worms have plastic-digesting enzymes (酶).

While the news is certainly encouraging, not everyone is convinced. The Michigan State University’s Ramani Narayan believes the tiny pieces of microplastics released by the plastic-eating worms would pick up harmful substances and transport them up the food chain, causing, even more, harm to the environment and human health. Susan Selke, director of Michigan State University School of Packaging, is concerned that the worms will not be able to survive in an oxygen-free landfills where large amounts of waste material are buried under the earth.

However, Bertocchini is not planning to transport worm armies to landfills. Instead, the researcher wants to identify the enzyme that helps degrade the plastic. The researcher says, maybe we can find the molecule (分子) and produce it on an industrial level, rather than using a million worms in a plastic bag.

1. What did the experiment of using dead worms find out?

A．Worms’ chewing may cause the degradation.

B．A plastic-eating chemical exists in wax worms.

C．Dead worms are effective in dealing with plastic.

D．It takes a long time for worms to degrade plastic.

2. What is Ramani Naravan's attitude to Bertocchini's finding?

A．Objective

B．Convinced

C．Questioning.

D．Optimistic.

3. What might Bertocchini focus her later research on?

A．The structure of plastic-degrading enzymes.

B．The use of other worms in disposing plastic.

C．Wax worms’ adaptability to the landfill environment.

D．The chance of producing wax worms on a large scale.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Can wax worms save the environment?

B．Wax worms have an appetite for plastic.

C．Why do wax worms have plastic-eating skills?

D．Hungry worms join the fight against plastic pollution

7 . 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。

    1     (locate) in the north-east of Italy, Venice is known as “The Floating City”. It is made up of over 100 small islands, which are connected by waterways and bridges.     2     (fortunate), water is also putting Venice in great danger. Saltwater is slowly damaging the bases of Venice’s buildings. The Floating City is, in fact, sinking.

More problems are caused by floods,     3     usually hit the city each winter. But these floods could now be a thing of the past thanks to a new flood     4     (prevent) project. Venice lies in     5     middle of a lagoon, and rain and strong winds cause seawater to travel through the natural gaps to Venice. Dozens of gates     6     (build) to hold back the sea until now. Each of these gates is 20 meters wide,     7     the longest about 30 meters long. In the event of a big rise in the water level, the gates will be raised     8     (separate) the city from the sea.

But only time will tell     9     this project is the right solution. The important thing is that action is being taken to protect this unique city for future generations. And if it works, it means a longer,     10     (dry) future for Venice.

8 . A new study recently found that elephants in central African forests can encourage the growth of slow-growing trees and increase the ability of the forest to store carbon.

“As a tree, there’s a trade-off you can’t have it all,” explained Fabio Berzaghi, who led the study. “You either invest in growing fast, or in building a lot of structure with carbon to be more resistant.” Elephants prefer to eat fast-growing trees in more open spaces. As they feed and walk, they cause damage to these species, knocking over trees or breaking off branches, which results in an ecosystem that favors large, slow-growing hardwood trees. “As the elephants thin the forest, they increase the number of slow-growing trees and the forest is capable of storing more carbon, ” said Stephen Blake, one of the paper’s authors.

Scientists collected field measurements in the Congo Basin and used a computer model to predict how elephants would affect forest structure, and carbon storage potential in the long term. The data confirmed that when elephants are present, the forest contains larger trees and higher abundances of species with high wood density. Conversely (相反地)，should forest elephants go extinct, leaving those slow-growing trees struggling to compete with fast-growing species, it would result in a 7 percent loss of above-ground biomass (生物总量). As a result, central African forests could lose up to three billion tons of carbon, potentially accelerating climate change.

The sad reality is that humans are doing their best to rid the planet of elephants. “This study comes at a time when forest elephants are threatened as never before,” said Iain Douglas Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants. “It is shocking that just as we are beginning to understand how elephants might have a key role in Africa in storing carbon, they are under real threat of extinction.” One limitation of the study, Mr. Berzaghi said, is that we do not know how much carbon has already been lost because of the elephants’ decline. But it does seem certain, he added, that putting a stop to illegal hunting and restoring forest elephant populations would bring climate benefits.

1. What can we infer about slow-growing trees in Paragraph 2?

A．They are elephants’ favorite food.	B．They are easily hurt by elephants.
C．They can help forests store carbon.	D．They may reduce elephant populations.

2. What would happen without elephants living in central African forests?

A．Climate change would possibly be sped up.

B．The forest structure would remain unchanged.

C．The forests would lose more fast-growing trees.

D．Larger trees would defeat fast-growing species.

3. What did Mr. Berzaghi suggest people do?

A．Lead a low-carbon life.	B．Evaluate the carbon loss.
C．Stop destroying forests.	D．Protect forest elephants.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Humans and Nature Live in Harmony

B．Elephants Disappear in Parts of Africa

C．Climate Change Affects Forest Structure

D．Elephants Defend Against Climate Change

9 . Great Activities for Nature Lovers

Hiking

One of the easiest and most accessible ways to get close to nature is by setting out on a good old fashioned hike. Hiking generally doesn't require any fancy equipment or special skills, just a piece of map and a thirst for adventure. This activity can be as relaxing as you make it.

Backcountry Camping

Why limit yourself to just a day hike when you can have a full weekend for a longer adventure? Backcountry camping involves packing your tent，sleeping gear ,food, and water on your back to set up camp in a remote location. I you’re an experienced hiker and camper ,this is an excellent way to test your survival skills and explore the wilderness.

Mountain and Road Biking

Unlike long hikes through the woods , biking allows you to cover more ground and travel farther in nature. Mountain biking typically involves riding up and down steep slopes , between trees , and over rocks. If this sounds too intense or your tires aren't suited for rugged terrain( 地形) , consider taking a road bike on paved trails through forest preserves or along country roads.

Gardening

Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to travel beyond your own backyard to experience the beauty of nature every day. If your personality is less adventurous or your mobility restricted, consider planting a garden to grow your own vegetables , fruit , herbs，or flowers. There's something truly satisfying about mixing up a salad with fresh ingredients you grow yourself. One of the best parts about spending time in gardening is that it doesn't have to break your budget and anyone can do it.

1. W hat do hikers need for hiking?

A．Practical skills.	B．Necessary equipment.
C．A useful map.	D．A relaxed mood.

2. W hat's NOT the advantage of gardening according to the text?

A．You don't need to go far to enjoy the beauty of nature.

B．It gives you a sense of satisfaction when cooking with fresh ingredients.

C．It doesn't take any energy or money to do it.

D．I’s easy to start it for anyone who likes it.

3. Which of the following can take you to travel farthest?

A．Hiking.	B．Backcountry Camping.
C．Mountain and Road Biking.	D．Gardening.

10 . 课文填空

This means that after a while your body becomes     1     to having nicotine in it. So when the drug leaves your body, you get withdrawal symptoms. I remember feeling bad-tempered and sometimes even in pain. Secondly, you become     2     through habit. As you know, if you do the same thing over and over again, you begin to do it     3    .

There is no doubt that the earth is becoming warmer and that it is human activity     4     has caused this global warming rather than a random but natural     5    . All scientists     6     to the view that the increase in the earth’s temperature is due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil to produce energy.

Having experience quite a few earthquakes in Hawaii already, I didn’t take much notice. I was about to go back to sleep     7     suddenly my bedroom became as bright as day. I ran out of the house into back garden where I could see Mount Kilauea in the     8    . There had been an     9     from the side of the mountain and red hot lava was     10     hundreds of meters.