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。

The polar bear is found in the Arctic Circle and some big land masses as far south as Newfoundland. While they are rare north of 88°, there is evidence     1     they range all the way across the Arctic, and as far south as James Bay in Canada. It is difficult to figure out a global population of polar bears as much of the range has been     2    (poor) studied; however, biologists calculate that there are about 20,000-25,000 polar bears worldwide.

Modern methods     3     tracking polar bear populations have been employed only since the mid-1980s, and are expensive     4    (perform) consistently over a large area. In recent years some Inuit people in Nunavut     5    (report) increases in bear sightings around human settlements, leading to a     6    (believe) that populations are increasing. Scientists have responded by     7    (note) that hungry bears may be congregating(聚集) around human settlements, leading to the illusion(错觉) that populations are     8    (high) than they actually are. Of     9     nineteen recognized polar bear subpopulations, three are declining, six     10    (be) stable, one is increasing, and nine lack enough data.

3 . When you were trying to figure out what to buy for the environmentalist on your holiday list, fur probably didn’t cross your mind. But some ecologists and fashion (时装)enthusiasts are trying to bring back the market for fur made from nutria(海狸鼠).

Unusual fashion shows in New Orleans and Brooklyn have showcased nutria fur made into clothes in different styles. “It sounds crazy to talk about guilt-free fur-unless you understand that the nutria are destroying vast wetlands every year”, says Cree McCree, project director of Righteous Fur.

Scientists in Louisiana were so concerned that they decided to pay hunters $5 a tail. Some of the fur ends up in the fashion shows like the one in Brooklyn last month.

Nutria were brought there from Argentina by fur farmers and let go into the wild. “The ecosystem down there can’t handle this non-native species(物种).It’s destroying the environment. It’s them or us.” says Michael Massimi, an expert in this field.

The fur trade kept nutria in check for decades，but when the market for nutria collapsed in the late 1980s，the cat-sized animals multiplied like crazy.

Biologist Edmond Mouton runs the nutria control program for Louisiana. He says it’s not easy to convince people that nutria fur is green, but he has no doubt about it. Hunters bring in more than 300,000 nutria tails a year, so part of Mouton’s job these days is trying to promote fur.

Then there’s Righteous Fur and its unusual fashion. Model Paige Morgan says，”To give people a guilt-free option that they can wear without someone throwing paint on them-I think that’s going to be a massive thing, at least here in New York.” Designer Jennifer Anderson admits it took her a while to come around to the opinion that using nutria fur for her creations is morally acceptable. She is trying to come up with a label to attach to nutria fashions to show it is eco-friendly.

1. What is the purpose of the fashion shows in New Orleans and Brooklyn?

A．To promote guilt-free fur.

B．To expand the fashion market.

C．To introduce a new brand.

D．To celebrate a winter holiday.

2. Why are scientists concerned about nutria?

A．Nutria damage the ecosystem seriously.

B．Nutria are an endangered species.

C．Nutria hurt local cat-sized animals.

D．Nutria are illegally hunted.

3. What does the underlined word “collapsed” in paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．Boomed.

B．Became mature.

C．Remained stable.

D．Crashed.

4. What can we infer about wearing fur in New York according to Morgan?

A．It’s formal.

B．It’s risky.

C．It’s harmful.

D．It’s traditional.

4 . Washington, D.C. Bicycle Tours

Cherry Blossom Bike Tour in Washington, D.C.

Duration: 3 hours

This small group bike tour is a fantastic way to see a world-famous cherry trees with beautiful flowers of Washington, D.C. Your guide will provide a history lesson about the trees and the famous monuments where they blossom. Reserve your spot before availability — the cherry blossoms—disappear!

Washington Capital Monuments Bicycle Tour

Duration: 3 hours (4 miles)

Join a guided bike tour and view some of the most popular monuments in Washington, D.C. Explore the monuments and memorials on the National Mall as your guide shares unique facts and history at each stop. Guided tour includes bike, helmet, cookies and bottled water.

Capital City Bike Tour In Washington, D.C.

Duration: 3 hours

Morning or Afternoon, this bike tour is the perfect tour for D. C. newcomers and locals looking to experience Washington, D.C. in a healthy way with minimum effort. Knowledgeable guides will entertain you with the most, interesting stories about Presidents, Congress, memorials, and parks. Comfortable bikes and a smooth tour route(路线) make cycling between the sites fun and relaxing.

Washington Capital Sites at Night Bicycle Tour

Duration: 3 hours (7miles)

Join a small group bike tour for an evening of exploration in the heart of Washington, D.C. Get up close to the monuments and memorials as you bike the sites of Capitol Hill and the National Mall. Frequent stops are made for photo taking as your guide offers unique facts and history. Tour includes bike, helmet, and bottled water. All riders are equipped with reflective vests and safety lights.

1. Which tour do you need to book in advance?

A．Cherry Blossom Bike Tour in Washington, D.C.

B．Washington Capital Monuments Bicycle Tour.

C．Capital City Bike Tour in Washington.

D．Washington Capital Sites at Night Bicycle Tour.

2. What will you do on the Capital City Bike Tour?

A．Meet famous people.	B．Go to a national park.
C．Visit well-known museums.	D．Enjoy interesting stories.

3. Which of the following does the bicycle tour at night provide?

A．City maps.	B．Cameras.
C．Meals.	D．Safety lights.

5 . Color is fundamental in home design—something you’ll always have in every room. A grasp of how to manage color in your spaces is one of the first steps to creating rooms you’ll love to live in. Do you want a room that’s full of life? Professional? Or are you just looking for a place to relax after a long day?     1    , color is the key to making a room feel the way you want it to feel.

Over the years, there have been a number of different techniques to help designers approach this important point.     2    , they can get a little complex. But good news is that there’re really only three kinds of decisions you need to make about color in your home: the small ones, the medium ones, and the large ones.

    3    . They’re the little spots of color like throw pillows, mirrors and baskets that most of us use to add visual interest to our rooms. Less tiring than painting your walls and less expensive than buying a colorful sofa, small color choices bring with them the significant benefit of being easily changeable.

Medium color choices are generally furniture pieces such as sofas, dinner tables or bookshelves.     4    . They require a bigger commitment than smaller ones, and they have a more powerful effect on the feeling of a space.

The large color decisions in your rooms concern the walls, ceilings, and floors. Whether you’re looking at wallpaper or paint, the time, effort and relative expense put into it are significant.     5    .

A．While all of them are useful

B．Whatever you’re looking for

C．If you’re experimenting with a color

D．Small color choices are the ones we’re most familiar with

E．It’s not really a good idea to use too many small color pieces

F．So it pays to be sure, because you want to get it right the first time

G．Color choices in this range are a step up from the small ones in two major ways

6 . Monkeys seem to have a way with numbers.

A team of researchers trained three Rhesus monkeys to associate 26 clearly different symbols consisting of numbers and selective letters with 0-25 drops of water or juice as a reward. The researchers then tested how the monkeys combined—or added—the symbols to get the reward.

Here’s how Harvard Medical School scientist Margaret Livingstone, who led the team, described the experiment: In their cages the monkeys were provided with touch screens. On one part of the screen, a symbol would appear, and on the other side two symbols inside a circle were shown. For example, the number 7 would flash on one side of the screen and the other end would have 9 and 8. If the monkeys touched the left side of the screen they would be rewarded with seven drops of water or juice; if they went for the circle, they would be rewarded with the sum of the numbers—17 in this example.

After running hundreds of tests, the researchers noted that the monkeys would go for the higher values more than half the time, indicating that they were performing a calculation, not just memorizing the value of each combination.

When the team examined the results of the experiment more closely, they noticed that the monkeys tended to underestimate(低估) a sum compared with a single symbol when the two were close in value—sometimes choosing, for example, a 13 over the sum of 8 and 6. The underestimation was systematic: When adding two numbers, the monkeys always paid attention to the larger of the two, and then added only a fraction(小部分) of the smaller number to it.

“This indicates that there is a certain way quantity is represented in their brains, ”Dr. Livingstone says. “But in this experiment what they’re doing is paying more attention to the big number than the little one.”

1. What did the researchers do to the monkeys before testing them?

A．They fed them.	B．They named them.
C．They trained them.	D．They measured them.

2. How did the monkeys get their reward in the experiment?

A．By drawing a circle.	B．By touching a screen.
C．By watching videos.	D．By mixing two drinks.

3. What did Livingstone’s team find about the monkeys?

A．They could perform basic addition.	B．They could understand simple words.
C．They could memorize numbers easily.	D．They could hold their attention for long.

4. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?

A．Entertainment.

B．Health.

C．Education.

D．Science.

7 . Baggy has become the first dog in the UK—and potentially the world—to join the fight against air pollution by recording pollutant levels near the ground.

Baggy wears a pollution monitor on her collar so she can take data measurements close to the ground. Her monitor has shown that air pollution levels are higher closer to ground level, which has helped highlight concerns that babies and young kids may be at higher risk of developing lung problems.

Conventional air pollution monitors are normally fixed on lampposts at about nine feet in the air. However, since Baggy stands at about the same height as a child in a pushchair（婴儿车）, she frequently records pollution levels which are much higher than the data gathered by the Environment A gency.

The doggy data research was the idea of Baggy's 13-year-old owner Tom Hunt and his dad Matt. The English youngster noticed that pollution levels are around two-thirds higher close to the ground than they are in the air at the height where they are recorded by the agency. Tom has since reported the shocking findings to the government in an attempt to emphasise that babies are at higher risk of developing asthma（哮喘）.

Matt Hunt said he was "very proud" of his son because “when the boy gets an idea, he keeps his head down and gets on with it, and he really does want to do some good and stop young kids from getting asthma."

“Tom built up a passion for environmental protection at a very early age," Matt added. “He became very interested in gadgets（小装置）. About one year ago, he got this new piece of tech which is like a test tube. One Sunday afternoon, we went out to do some monitoring, and he said, why don't we put it on Baggy's collar and let her monitor the pollution？'So we did it."

Tom said, "Most of the time, Baggy is just like any other dog. But for the rest of the time she is a super dog, and we are all really proud of her."

1. With a monitor on her collar, Baggy can ____________.

A．take pollutant readings	B．record pollutant levels
C．process collected data	D．reduce air pollution

2. What can we learn from the Baggy data?

A．High places are free of air pollution.

B．Higher pushchairs are more risky for kids.

C．Conventional monitors are more reliable.

D．Air is more polluted closer to the ground.

3. What is Tom's purpose of doing the research?

A．To warn of a health risk.	B．To find out pollution sources.
C．To test his new monitor.	D．To prove Baggy's abilities.

4. According to the passage, which word can best describe Tom Hunt?

A．Modest.

B．Generous.

C．Creative.

D．Outgoing.

8 . When a leafy plant is under attack, it doesn’t sit quietly. Back in 1983, two scientists, Jack Schultz and Ian Baldwin, reported that young maple trees getting bitten by insects send out a particular smell that neighboring plants can get. These chemicals come from the injured parts of the plant and seem to be an alarm. What the plants pump through the air is a mixture of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds, VOCs for short.

Scientists have found that all kinds of plants give out VOCs when being attacked. It’s a plant’s way of crying out. But is anyone listening? Apparently. Because we can watch the neighbours react.

Some plants pump out smelly chemicals to keep insects away. But others do double duty. They pump out perfumes designed to attract different insects who are natural enemies to the attackers. Once they arrive, the tables are turned. The attacker who was lunching now becomes lunch.

In study after study, it appears that these chemical conversations help the neighbors .The damage is usually more serious on the first plant, but the neighbors, relatively speaking, stay safer because they heard the alarm and knew what to do.

Does this mean that plants talk to each other? Scientists don’t know. Maybe the first plant just made a cry of pain or was sending a message to its own branches, and so, in effect, was talking to itself. Perhaps the neighbors just happened to “overhear” the cry. So information was exchanged, but it wasn’t a true, intentional back and forth. Charles Darwin, over 150 years ago, imagined a world far busier, noisier and more intimate (亲密的) than the world we can see and hear. Our senses are weak. There’s a whole lot going on.

1. What does a plant do when it is under attack?

A．It makes noises.	B．It gets help from other plants.
C．It stands quietly	D．It sends out certain chemicals.

2. What does the author mean by “the tables are turned” in paragraph 3?

A．The attackers get attacked.

B．The insects gather under the table.

C．The plants get ready to fight back.

D．The perfumes attract natural enemies.

3. Scientists find from their studies that plants can ________.

A．predict natural disasters

B．protect themselves against insects

C．talk to one another intentionally

D．help their neighbors when necessary

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．The world is changing faster than ever.

B．People have stronger senses than before

C．The world is more complex than it seems

D．People in Darwin’s time were imaginative.

9 . A very dangerous situation happened in California last week. More than 12 wildfires broke out in the state. Most of them began on October 8, in Northern California. They grew rapidly. The fires were made bigger by winds of up to 50 miles per hour and dry air in the area.

At least 20 people have been killed, the state government said. About 200 have been injured. At least 3,500 homes and businesses have been destroyed. About 50,000 people have been required to escape. Many left in a hurry, without time to take their personal things. “All the good stuff(东西)—I’m never going to see it again,” Jeff Okrepkie said. He escaped from his Santa Rosa home. It was destroyed soon after he left.

The fires burned through parts of eight counties(郡，县). These include Sonoma and Napa. The areas are important to California’s economy(经济). They are home to many of the state’s vineyards(葡萄园) and wineries(酿酒厂). In 2016, California’s wineries made more than $57 billion.

October is when wildfires usually produce the most ruins in California. But it is unusual for so many fires to start at once. Up to now, the government has not given a cause for any of the fires, many of which were still burning.

1. Why did the fires grow quickly?

A．Most of the fires began in October.	B．12 fires happened at the same time.
C．The state government didn’t do anything.	D．High-speed wind and dry air.

2. How many people have to leave their homes?

A．50,000.

B．200.

C．3,500.

D．20.

3. What is the biggest loss for California’ s economy?

A．Homes have been destroyed.	B．Wineries have been burned.
C．People have to leave their homes.	D．Many people have been injured.

4. What is the cause of the fires?

A．The high-speed wind and dry air.	B．Many fires started at once.
C．October produces the most ruins.	D．The cause is not explained.

10 . Give yourself a test. Which way is the wind blowing? How many kinds of wildflowers can be seen from your front door? If your awareness is as sharp as it could be, you’ll have no trouble answering these questions.

Most of us observed much more as children than we do as adults. A child’s day is filled with fascination, newness and wonder. Curiosity gave us all a natural awareness. But distinctions that were sharp to us as children become unclear; we are numb(麻木的）to new stimulation(刺激), new ideas. Relearning the art of seeing the world around us is quite simple, although it takes practice and requires breaking some bad habits.

The first step in awakening senses is to stop predicting what we are going to see and feel before it occurs. This blocks awareness. One chilly night when I was hiking in the Rocky Mountains with some students, I mentioned that we were going to cross a mountain stream. The students began complaining about how cold it would be. We reached the stream, and they unwillingly walked ahead. They were almost knee-deep when they realized it was a hot spring. Later they all admitted they’d felt cold water at first.

Another block to awareness is the obsession(痴迷) many of us have with naming things. I saw bird watchers who spotted a bird, immediately looked it up in field guides, and said, a "ruby-crowned kinglet" and checked it off. They no longer paid attention to the bird and never learned what it was doing.

The pressures of "time" and "destination" are further blocks to awareness. I encountered many hikers who were headed to a distant camp-ground with just enough time to get there before dark. It seldom occurred to them to wander a bit, to take a moment to see what’s around them. I asked them what they’d seen. "Oh, a few birds," they said. They seemed bent on their destinations.

Nature seems to unfold to people who watch and wait. Next time you take a walk, no matter where it is, take in all the sights, sounds and sensations. Wander in this frame of mind and you will open a new dimension to your life.z.xxk

1. According to Paragraph 2, compared with adults, children are more ____________.

A．anxious to do wonders

B．sensitive to others’ feelings

C．likely to develop unpleasant habits

D．eager to explore the world around them

2. What idea does the author convey in Paragraph 3?

A．To avoid jumping to conclusions.

B．To stop complaining all the time.

C．To follow the teacher’s advice.

D．To admit mistakes honestly.

3. The bird watchers’ behavior shows that they __________.

A．are very patient in their observation

B．are really fascinated by nature

C．care only about the names of birds

D．question the accuracy of the field guides

4. Why do the hikers take no notice of the surroundings during the journey?

A．The natural beauty isn’t attractive to them.

B．They focus on arriving at the camp in time.

C．The forest in the dark is dangerous for them.

D．They are keen to see rare birds at the destination.

5. In the passage, the author intends to tell us we should __________.

A．fill our senses to feel the wonders of the world

B．get rid of some bad habits in our daily life

C．open our mind to new things and ideas

D．try our best to protect nature