1 . The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modern traffic and modern communication means. Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. One of the biggest problems is pollution. To pollute means to make things dirty. Pollution comes in many ways. We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it.

Man has been polluting the earth. The more people, the more pollution. Many years ago, the problem was not so serious because there were not so many people. When the land was used up or the river was dirty in one place, man moved to another place. But this is no longer true.

Man is now slowly polluting the whole world. Air pollution is still the most serious. It’s bad for all living things in the world, but it is not the only one kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us angry more easily.

Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. They stop people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city, and from putting dirty smoke into the air. Pollution by SO 2 is now the most dangerous kind of air pollution. It is caused by heavy traffic. We are sure that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution.

The earth is our home. We must take care of it. That means keeping the land, water and air clean. And we must take care of the rise in pollution at the same time.

1. ________, our world is becoming much smaller.

A．Because of the rise in pollution

B．Thanks to science development

C．Because the earth is being polluted day and night

D．Because the earth is blown away by the wind every year

2. Pollution comes in many ways. We can even hear it.   Here “it” means_________.

A．rubbish

B．noise pollution

C．air pollution

D．water pollution

3. Air pollution is the most serious kind of pollution because________.

A．it makes much noise

B．it makes us angry more easily

C．it makes our rivers and lakes dirty

D．it’s bad for all living things in the world

2 . A team of biologists recently studied rain-frogs in the forests of northern Ecuador. While doing so, they discovered a Mindo harlequin toad (五彩蟾蜍). The creature hadn't been seen alive in 30 years. The scientists couldn't believe their eyes.“The three of us spotted it,” Melissa Costales, a conservation biologist, said. Her partners were scientist Cesar Barrio-Amoros and guide Eric Oster-man.“ It took our brains a while longer than normal to recognize that we were watching an Atelopus mindoensis !”Their findings were published in the spring, in the journal Herpetology Notes.

Until recently, 13 of the 25 species of harlequin toads in Ecuador had gone unseen since the 1980s or early 1990s. Climate crisis is damaging their living conditions, and they can't find food that is suitable for them. Besides, people hunt for them to make money. However， scientists hold that most of them had been wiped out by a terrible disease called chytrid, which is especially harmful to the harlequin toad.

The Mindo harlequin is the latest harlequin toad species “to come back from the dead,” says Costales. Since 2003, eight other species have been found, three of them in Ecuador. Costales says the Mindo harlequin may have developed a resistance to the disease. That would explain the toad’s reappearance. And it could spell good news for other harlequins. Since discovering the first one, Cos-tales' s team has found five more. They were all tested for chytrid. None had the disease. But that doesn’t mean the survival of the species is guaranteed, Costales says. The harlequin toad is still endangered.

Costales is developing a conservation plan with a zoology museum in Ecuador. She wants to make sure the Mindo harlequin toad doesn’t fall back into dying out.“Each rediscovery gives us a second chance to develop better conservation strategies (策略) ,”she says.“Not every day do we have the opportunity to rediscover a species that we believed to be extinct.

1. How did Costales feel about the discovery of the Mindo harlequin toad?

A．It' s unexpected.	B．It's unattractive.
C．It's abnormal.	D．It's doubtful.

2. What is the key reason for harlequin toads' being killed?

A．Climate change.	B．Lack of food.
C．A dangerous illness.	D．Humans' behavior.

3. How many Mindo harlequin toads have the scientists found out?

A．3.

B．6.

C．9.

D．12.

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

A．A resistance to chytrid	B．Harlequin toad species
C．Animal experts’ hard job	D．An animal’s rediscovery

3 . Scientists have been studying Antarctica for over a century, but details as basic as what it looks like beneath all that ice have largely remained a mystery. Now, Earther reports that a team of scientists from Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and the UK has published the most detailed data on the continent’s subglacial topography（冰川下的地形）near the South Pole.

As they report in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, central Antarctica is home to three large canyons（峡谷）, one of which is deeper than the Grand Canyon and nearly as wide at some points. The researchers made the discovery by flying a plane with radar over the South Pole, a spot that isn’t covered by imaging satellites. They expected to find mountains beneath the ice sheet, but the wide canyons they found between the mountains came as a surprise.

Of the three canyons, two hadn’t been documented previously. The largest, the Foundation Trough, measures 218 miles long, up to 22 miles wide, and 6,260 feet deep, putting it up there with the planet’s most impressive canyons.

The discoveries are significant on their own, but the real purpose behind the research is to better understand how the West and East Antarctic Ice Sheets will react to rising temperatures. Human-caused climate change has destabilized some of the continent’s ice, and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet especially has been slowly crumbling（崩塌）into the sea. If patterns continue, the coastal glaciers supporting the large ice sheets could fall down, causing sea levels to rise a minimum of 10 feet. If this happens, the canyons could be a major factor in the speed and direction of ice flow from central Antarctica to the coast.

The event isn’t likely to happen in the near future, but further study of Antarctica’s topography will help scientists to better predict when it might.

1. According to the text, the researchers found the new canyons ________.

A．as planned	B．by accident
C．in the sea	D．with satellites

2. What can be known about the canyons according to paragraph 4?

A．They are likely to affect ice flow.

B．They cause ice sheets to crumble.

C．They stop ice flowing into the sea.

D．They help to cool ice sheets down.

3. What does the author think of the further study of Antarctica’s topography?

A．It’s confusing.	B．It’s quite easy.
C．It’s meaningful.	D．It’s challenging.

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

A．Rising Temperatures Cause Sea Levels to Rise

B．Massive Canyons Are Found Beneath Ice Sheets

C．Antarctica Still Remains Unknown to the Public

D．Antarctica’s Topography Will Be Predicted Soon

4 . It sounds like something from the field of science fiction — a space exploration into vast outer space, heading towards the Red Planet While we're not quite ready to put a person on it, the question we ask today is: why are so many countries interested in going to Mars?

The space race saw the USSR(the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and USA compete to achieve firsts in spaceflight. The USSR released Sputnik 1, an artificial satellite, before anyone else, and the US landed on the Moon first. Now it appears that Mars is the body of desire. While to be the first nation to land on it is an obvious draw, there are other reasons why we want to get there.

One of these could be the survival of our species. You only have to look at the fossils of the dinosaurs to see the benefit of finding another habitable planet. While Mars doesn't have the right conditions to call it home just yet, there's always the concept of terraforming-changing the environment of a planet to suit our needs.

However, not everyone agrees. Leading astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has said the concept of changing habitability of another planet because of the damage we have done to Earth makes no sense when we can simply terraform Earth.

It seems that the main reason at the moment is the search for alien life. It has long been believed that, at one time, Mars was abundant with life. Now seemingly dead, the potential fossils could answer questions about our own evolution and that of our planet. One theory is that bacterial life on our planet didn't start here, but was brought here via asteroid from Mars.

One benefit supported by scientists like Neil deGrasse Tyson is that landing on Mars may inspire more people to become interested in science and astronomy. Surely inspiring a new generation to visit the stars is reason enough.

1. What achievement did the USSR make in the space race?

A．It was the first country to put a person on the moon.

B．It was the first nation to launch an artificial satellite.

C．It was the first country to land on the surface of Mars.

D．It was the first nation to send the dinosaur fossils into space.

2. What attitude does Neil deGrasse Tyson take to the idea of terraforming Mars?

A．Curious.

B．Ambiguous.

C．Thrilled.

D．Negative.

3. What benefit of heading to Mars does Neil deGrasse Tyson support?

A．Rescuing the species on the earth.	B．Looking for life in outer space.
C．Understanding humans' evolution.	D．Increasing young people's enthusiasm about space.

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．Why Do We Desire To Leave Earth?	B．Why Do We Attempt To Go To Mars?
C．Can We Settle Down On Other Planets?	D．Should We Stop Searching For Alien Life On Mars?

5 . 阅读下列材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或用括号内单词的正确形式。

Located in southwest Hangzhou, Longmen is a small town which is full of ancestral shrines(祠堂), halls, pagodas, trees, and bridges from the Ming and Qing     1    (dynasty). It is also home to the     2    (large) settlement of descendants of Sun Quan, who ruled the Kingdom of Wu during the Three Kingdoms Period. More than 90 percent of the 7,000 people     3     (live) here are surnamed Sun. The town covers     4     area of two square kilometers and it is located south of Fuchun River     5     north of Shan River, 38 kilometers away from Hangzhou's city center. It is located at the foot of Longmen Mountain and Longmen River     6     (run) through it.

The name Longmen means “a gate for dragons“ in Chinese and comes from a     7     (poet)written by Yan Ziling,     8     traveled there during the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD25- 220). The ancient town's architecture gives it a unique charm, and goods can only    9     (buy) and sold on an old street that is 1,500 meters long and 3 meters wide, keeping the street     10    (busily) at all times.

6 . Scientists have discovered an underwater coral tower near the Great Barrier Reef(大堡礁) that’s taller than New York’s Empire State Building. It’s the tallest underwater structure discovered in over 120 years.

The researchers who discovered the reef were on a year-long trip aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research ship Falkor, where they were working to map the sea floor around Australia.

The scientists used a special underwater robot called SuBastian to help them explore and develop 3D maps. In late October, as part of their exploration, the team came across the tower. It’s known as a “detached reef”, since its structure isn’t attached to the Great Barrier Reef, but rises on its own from the sea floor.

At the bottom, the tower is nearly a mile wide. But from there, it becomes much more narrow, rising 1,640 feet and stopping just 130 feet below the surface of the ocean. The lower is one o£ eight similar towers near Northern Australia’s Cape York Peninsula. The other seven towers were discovered in the 1880’s.

“It’s a big reef not to have known about,” said Tom Bridge, “What it highlights is how little we know about the ocean, even the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef is bigger than many European countries and that only a small part of it is made of the shallow water reefs it’s famous for.”

Overall, the Great Barrier Reef is struggling. Recent studies have shown that about half of its corals have died in the last 25 years, in part because of rising ocean temperatures due to the climate crisis. Over the last year, the Falkor’s scientific team has discovered 30 new kinds of sea creatures. In March, they discovered what they believe is the longest sea creature ever recorded. The animal is called a “siphonophore” and it’s 150 feet long.

1. What did researchers do by Falkor around Australia?

A．Seek for coral lowers.	B．Make a map of sea floor.
C．Research unknown species.	D．Film the Great Barrier Reef.

2. What do we know about SuBastian?

A．It’s the most advanced underwater robot.

B．It contributes to the discovery of the tower.

C．It is suitable to detect building structures.

D．It reports important discoveries under water.

3. What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．The shape of the tower.	B．The history of the tower.
C．The position of the tower.	D．The information of the tower.

4. What can we infer from the text?

A．Europe used to ignore the Great Barrier Reef.

B．Climate crisis is ruining the Great Barrier Reef.

C．Tom Bridge has been researching the Great Barrier Reef.

D．More research should be done on the Great Barrier Reef.

7 . 当今世界地震频发,房倒屋塌、人员伤亡的现象时有发生。如何才能避免伤亡、把损失降到最低呢?假如你是李华,请给你的美国朋友Tom写一封信,简要谈一下你面对地震时的具体做法。
要求:1.词数100左右;
2.可以适当发挥,以使行文连贯。
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8 . Driving to a friend’s house on a recent evening,I was attracted by the sight of the full moon rising just above my friend’s rooftops.I stopped to watch it for a few moments,thinking about what a pity it was that most city people,myself included,usually miss sights like this because we spend most of our lives indoors.

My friend had also seen it.He grew up living in a forest in Europe,and the moon meant a lot to him then.It had touched much of his life.

I know the feeling.Last December I took my seven-year-old daughter to the mountainous jungle of northern India with some friends.We stayed in a forest rest-house with no electricity or hot water.Our group had campfires outside every night,and indoors when it was too cold outside.The moon grew to its fullest during our trip.Between me and the high mountains lay three or four valleys.Not a light shone in them and not a sound could be heard.It was one of the quietest places I had ever known,a bottomless well of silence.And above me was the full moon,which struck me deeply.

Today our lives are filled with glass,metal,plastic and fibre-glass.We have televisions,cellphones,heaters,ovens,air-conditioners,cars and computers.

Struggling through traffic that evening at the end of a tiring day,most of it spent indoors,I thought:before long,I would like to live in a small cottage.There I will grow vegetables and read books and walk in the mountains.I may become an old man there,and wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled and measure out my life in coffee spoons.But I will be able to walk outside on a cold silent night and touch the moon.

1. The writer felt sorry for himself because .

A．there was too much pollution

B．he usually missed the full moon sights

C．he didn’t adapt to modern inventions

D．there were too many accidents on the road

2. What impressed the writer most in the mountainous jungle of northern India?

A．No modern equipment.

B．Complete silence.

C．The nice full moon.

D．The high mountains.

3. In Paragraph 4,modern things are mentioned mainly to .

A．show that the writer likes city life very much

B．tell us that people greatly benefit from modern life

C．explain that people have few chances to enjoy nature

D．show that we can also enjoy nature at home through them

4. The best title for the passage would be .

A．Touched by the Moon

B．The Pleasures of Modern Life

C．A Bottomless Well of Silence

D．Break away from Modern Life

9 . Many people know that trash is a big problem on planet Earth. What many people don’t know is that trash has become a problem in outer space too.       1    

Statistically, there are more than 22,000 pieces of junk in space around the earth. And these are just the items that we can see from the surface of the earth by telescopes or radars.     2    

Objects, like bits of old space rockets or satellites, move around the planet at very high speeds, so fast that even a very small piece can break important satellites or become dangerous to people, particularly astronauts. If the tiniest piece of junk crashed into a spacecraft, it could damage the vehicle. That’s because the faster an object moves, the greater the impact if the object collides with something else.

To help minimize additional space junk, countries around the world have agreed to limit the time their space tools stay in orbit to 25 years. Each tool must be built to fall safely into the earth’s atmosphere, or the mass of gases that surround the earth, after that.       3    

Many scientists are also proposing different ways to clean up space junk. The Germans have been planning a space mission with robots that would collect pieces of space trash and bring them back to Earth so that they can be safely destroyed.

“In our opinion the problem is very challenging, and it’s quite urgent as well,” said Marco Castronuovo, an Italian Space Agency researcher who is working to solve the problem.       4     Many of these objects are tools that help people use their cell phones or computers.

“The time to act is now; as we go farther in time we will need to remove more and more fragments,” he says.

A．In the upper parts of the atmosphere, it will burn up.

B．There are also millions of smaller pieces of junk that we can’t see.

C．Blowing up older satellites with a missile may create thousands of smaller pieces!

D．One reason that it’s urgent is that countries are sending more and more objects into space.

E．When two objects in space collide, the two objects break into many smaller pieces.

F．Years of space exploration have left tons of “space junk” in orbit (轨道) around the planet.

10 . Animal Rights

Every conscious being has interests that should be respected. No being who is conscious of being alive should be devalued to thinghood, dominated, and used as a resource or ______. The key point of the idea known as animal rights is a movement to extend moral consideration to all ______ beings. Nobody should have to demonstrate a specific level of intelligence or be judged beautiful to be given moral consideration. No being should have to be useful to humanity or capable of accepting “duties” in order to be extended moral consideration. ______, what other animals need from us is being free from duties to us.

Animal rights is about letting animals live on their own terms. It can be written into our laws, but is not an actual list or bill of rights as we have for human society. It begins with our promises not to act like ______ of others. Animal rights is about justice ─ treating animals fairly.

Why is animal rights _____? It is because we humans often act as though we are the only beings on the planet. Although we depend on other animals for our very survival, humans are the only animals that have upset the balance of nature. There are lots of ways that humans ______ animals. We domesticate them and use them for food, even though our nutritional needs can be completely supplied by a(n) ______ diet. Although other materials are available, we use animal’s skin and other body parts for clothing, furs, hats, boots, jewellery and even pet toys. Humans can talk about it but animals cannot. All animals wish to experience life in its fullness. Unlike many animals who have to kill to survive, humans do not. Why should humans cause ______ to other beings when it’s not necessary?

As we do, animals protect their children; they feel fear; they warn each other of dangers; they play. We might differ from other animals in some ways, but that doesn’t give us the right to ______ them down, take their lands, pollute their waters, or use them for our conveniences. Animals also experience pain and it’s not difficult to observe ______ of pain in the way a conscious being reacts to it. We take advantage, cause distress, and act ______ when we use animals for amusement. Lots of pets are ______ on the streets when their owners no longer find it convenient or affordable to keep or care for them.

Whether we admit it or not, it’s a prejudice to think we are ______ to animals and that it is our right to control them, which can only make people act mean, hateful or neglectful. However, each of us has within us the power to ______. We can adopt a different attitude, one that reshape our destiny. This will have wonderful effects on the planet’s other communities, for life is ______ avoiding suffering. It is interacting, singing, pursuing joy. We humans can learn to live responsibly, with respect, kindness and love.

1.

A．companies

B．goods

C．insects

D．providers

2.

A．active

B．conscious

C．intelligent

D．strange

3.

A．Indeed

B．Moreover

C．Nevertheless

D．Otherwise

4.

A．followers

B．friends

C．masters

D．tutors

5.

A．necessary

B．reflected

C．respected

D．revolutionary

6.

A．distinguish

B．keep

C．exploit

D．raise

7.

A．animal-free

B．eco-friendly

C．low-salt

D．well-balanced

8.

A．conflict

B．confusion

C．isolation

D．misery

9.

A．calm

B．chase

C．pull

D．put

10.

A．signs

B．symbols

C．symptoms

D．performances

11.

A．differently

B．similarly

C．gently

D．unfairly

12.

A．abandoned

B．chosen

C．oppressed

D．spoiled

13.

A．accessible

B．appealing

C．reasonable

D．superior

14.

A．change

B．dominate

C．persist

D．proceed

15.

A．contrary to

B．more than

C．owing to

D．rather than