1 . 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。

High on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau     1    (lie) China’s “water tower” Sanjiangyuan. It is home to the headwaters of China’s three rivers: the Yellow River, Yangtze River, and Lancang(Mekong) River. It is the three rivers     2     provide water for about half the population of China. However, human activities are putting this ecosystem     3     risk. Hopefully, though, we can repair this damage. In 2016, the Chinese government established Sanjiangyuan National Park in Qinghai province. The park,     4    (schedule) to open in 2020, has increased the area’s green coverage and attracted more wildlife. The local government has also made great effort to improve biological diversity. The success of Sanjiangyuan will mark the start of a     5    (green) future. With Sanjangyuan     6    (take) the lead, nine other regions in China     7    (choose) by a field conservation station to carry out projects over the past three years,     8     will form a national park system together. The idea of a national park system is still new in China, but    9    (it) realization is urgent. After all, building an ecological civilization bears great       10    (important) in the development and progress of human civilization.

3 . The River Thames has some of the highest recorded levels of microplastics for any river in the world.

Scientists have estimated that 94,000 microplastics per second flow down the river in places. The quantity is larger than that measured in other European rivers, such as the Danube and Rhine. Tiny bits of plastic have been found inside the bodies of crabs living in the Thames.

Researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London, are calling for stricter regulations on the labelling and disposal of plastic products. They warn that careless disposal of plastic gloves and masks during the coronavirus pandemic might make the problem of plastic pollution worse.

“Taken together, these studies show how many different types of plastic, from microplastics in the water through to larger items of debris physically altering the foreshore, can potentially affect a wide range of organisms in the River Thames,” said Prof Dave Morritt from Royal Holloway, “The increased use of single- use plastic items, and the inappropriate disposal of such items, including masks and gloves, along with plastic- containing cleaning products, during the current COVID-19 pandemic, may well make this problem even worse.”

Many forms of microplastics were found in the Thames, including glitter, microbeads from cosmetics and plastic debris from larger items. Most of the microplastics came from the break-down of large plastics, with food packaging thought to be a significant source. “Flushable” wet wipes were found in high abundance on the shoreline forming “wet wipe reefs”.

Study researcher, Katherine McCoy, said, “Our study shows that stricter regulations are needed for the labelling and disposal of these products. There is great range to further research the impacts of microplastics and indeed microfibres on Thames organisms.”

1. What did the researchers mainly suggest?

A．Stricter regulations should be made.	B．People shouldn't eat crabs for a while.
C．People should cut the use of plastic gloves	D．Plastic masks shouldn't be thrown away carelessly.

2. Where did most microplastics found in the River Thames come from?

A．Wet wipes.	B．Food packaging.
C．Cleaning products.	D．Single-use plastic masks.

3. What is the best title for the text?

A．Wildlife Being Threatened by Microplastics.	B．Forms of Microplastics Found in the Thames.
C．River Thames Severely Polluted with Plastic.	D．Inappropriate Disposal of Single-use Plastics.

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

A．Science.

B．Environment.

C．Health.

D．Education.

4 . As people get older, the types of friends they have tend to change. As young adults, humans have a lot of friends. With age, they often prefer to spend their time with just a few close, positive individuals. Researchers long believed that this change was unique to humans, but a new study finds that chimps also have similar tendencies.

One explanation for the humans to get picky about social connections has to do with awareness of our limited life span. “People monitor how much time we have left in our life and choose emotionally-fulfilling relationships in old age,” says one of the study's lead authors Alexandra G. Rosati, a psychologist at the University of Michigan. As people age, they don’t want to be surrounded by a large group of negative friends, but would prefer to be near a handful of optimistic individuals.

Rosati and her colleagues were curious whether chimps would show similar features even though they don’t seem to be aware of their upcoming death. Researchers used 78, 000 hours of observations made over 20 years from the Kibale Chimpanzee Project in Uganda. The data looked at the social interactions of 21 male chimps between 15 and 58 years old. The researchers only studied male chimps because they show stronger social bonds and have more social interactions than female chimps.

Researchers found that wild chimpanzees share a similar pattern. “They interact with others in more positive ways as they get older. Younger adults, in contrast, show more aggression and were more likely to form one-sided relationships where their partner did not reciprocate. ”says Rosati. For example, the older chimpanzees would sit close to their long-time companions and groom (给……梳毛) each other, while younger chimps had more one-sided relationships where they would groom a friend, but the action wasn't returned. The study was published in the journal Science.

“This aging pattern may be the result of shared changes in our abilities to manage our emotions with age,” Rosati says. “This shared pattern between chimpanzees and humans could represent an adaptive response where older adults focus on important social relationships that provide benefits and avoid interactions that have negative consequences as they lose competitive fighting ability.”

1. Why do humans change their preference for friends in old age?

A．They don’t like making new friends.

B．Their friends pass away one by one.

C．They adapt to the changes in nature.

D．They know their life is running out.

2. What is the purpose of Paragraph 3?

A．To show the study was done scientifically.

B．To show how scientists tried to prove their assumption.

C．To show how hard it was to observe the chimps.

D．To show male chimps are unaware of upcoming death.

3. What does the underlined word “reciprocate” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．Repay their kindness.	B．Take care of them.
C．Get along well with them.	D．Sit close to them.

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

A．People Prefer Positive Partners in Old Age

B．Positive Bonds Benefit Chimps in Many Ways

C．Aging Chimps like Us Get Picky About Friends

D．Chimps Share Similar Tendencies with Humans

5 . What makes people so special? Tool use, self-consciousness, language, and culture are high on the list, but in fact all of these characteristics can be found elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Humans and apes are close relatives, so it is perhaps not surprising that chimpanzees use tools or that gorillas (大猩猩) have a sense of fair play, even rejecting carrots (which they normally accept) when they see their neighbors getting grapes. But the qualities that we often think of as uniquely human exist not just on land, but in the ocean as well.

Among the invertebrates, octopuses (八爪鱼) are known for their intelligence, even exhibiting evidence of playfulness, tool use, and personality. But these skilled predators live alone and consequently lack culture. Dolphins, on the other hand, are large-brained, long-living, social- group-based predators, and it is here that we find the greatest similarity to human-like culture and awareness.

Culture depends on the ability of animals to pass on things they have learned to others. Many animals have culture in this sense, but what sets dolphins apart is what they pass on. Some bottlenose dolphins hold sponges in their mouths that they use as tools to sweep for fish hiding on the ocean floor. This ability is handed down through generations (especially in females), with some families — grandmother, mother, and daughter — all feeding in this highly specialized way.

Another characteristic that dolphins share with humans is their ability to recognize themselves in a mirror. When facing a mirror, most animals behave as though they are interacting with another individual. Even in humans, the ability to recognize that the image in a mirror is oneself does not occur before the age of 18 months. Dolphins not only recognize themselves, but if a black mark is put on the body of a dolphin, it will spend extra time at the mirror to look at the mark.

1. The example of gorillas rejecting carrots shows they ________.

A．are not easy to fool	B．prefer fruit to vegetables
C．have a special taste for food	D．have an awareness of equality

2. What do octopuses lack compared with dolphins?

A．Cooperation.	B．Intelligence.
C．Tool using ability.	D．Fun-loving spirits.

3. What makes dolphin culture special?

A．They tend to hunt in groups.

B．Their hunting skills are passed down.

C．Their learning environment is favourable.

D．Their families are typically female-controlled.

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．Dolphins enjoy looking at their own reflection in the mirror.

B．Dolphins are as intelligent as a typical 18-month-old human baby.

C．Dolphins are generally regarded as the most advanced non-human species.

D．Dolphins’ ability to recognize their own reflection is a higher-order mental skill.

6 . On Saturday 24 August 1918, it was raining cats and dogs and thundering over a city called Sunderland on the northeast coast of England. The storm lasted for only about ten minutes. People were surprised to see that it was not just rainwater falling from the sky. There were fish falling down, too! People came out to find out what was happening. They could not believe their own eyes. There were thousands of fish — sand eels— lying on the ground. They were about seven centimeters long, and all were frozen solid.

Sand eels swim together in large groups, often in sandy water, and are often found in large numbers in the North Sea, which reaches out to the east of Sunderland. How was it possible for these sand eels to fall from the sky and land on Sunderland?

Scientists believed the heavy thunderstorm that afternoon may have caused a waterspout. Waterspouts can be formed when strong winds move quickly in a circle over water. They are so powerful; anything less than one meter in length can be taken into them and forced into the clouds. The clouds carry whatever has been taken into them for long distances — sometimes over 150 kilometers. It’s very cold up there and everything soon freezes solid.

For hundreds of years there have been reports of small animals being taken into the sky through waterspouts. In 2009, dead tadpoles rained down on the city of Nanao in Japan. In 2012, fifty kilos of prawns fell from the sky over Sri Lanka. In 2017, fish fell on the coastal city of Tampico In Mexico.

It must be a very strange experience to see fish raining down on you. It would probably hurt if one fell on your head! With climate change, global warming and many reports of terrible natural disasters, will the time ever come when it may really begin to rain cats and dogs?

1. What was the rain like on 24 August 1918?

A．It was very heavy.	B．It fell around England.
C．It lasted quite a long time.	D．It caused many human deaths.

2. What do we know about the sand eels that landed on Sunderland?

A．They were few in number.	B．They came in different sizes.
C．They were still alive when landing.	D．They probably came from the North Sea.

3. What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Clouds.

B．Waterspouts.

C．Strong winds.

D．The waters of the sea.

4. In the end, what does the author probably care most about?

A．Our health.	B．Our environment.
C．The wild animals.	D．The news reports.

7 . Rivers are the veins of the Earth, transporting the water and nutrients (营养物) needed to support the planet’s ecosystems, including human life. While many nutrients are essential to the survival of life, there is one element transported by water in rivers that holds the key to life and to the future of our planet — carbon.

Carbon is everywhere and understanding the way it moves and is either released or stored by the Earth system is a complex science in itself. Carbon starts its journey downstream when natural acid rain, which contains carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,   melts minerals in rocks. This helps transform carbon dioxide to bicarbonate (碳酸氢盐) in the water that then flows in our rivers. This is a very long process, which is one of the main ways carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere. Carbon is transported by rivers to oceans and once that carbon reaches the ocean, it is stored naturally in deep sea sediments (沉淀物) for millions of years.

As carbon travels down a river, different processes may impact whether it continues to flow downstream or whether it is released into the atmosphere. For example, human engineering, like extensive dam construction, will result in dramatic changes to how water and sediments travel down the river. Some carbon that fails to reach the sea may return to the atmosphere in some way, which causes more warming.

Earth’s climate is closely related to the carbon cycle. We all know about the essential role of plants in consuming carbon dioxide, but do we know enough about rivers? Changing the chemistry and the course of rivers may have significant impacts on how they transport carbon. Remember: wherever we live, we all live downstream.

1. Where is the carbon in rivers originally from?

A．The atmosphere.	B．The rocks.
C．The acid rain.	D．The upstream areas.

2. Why is human engineering mentioned in Paragraph 3?

A．To show how important to life carbon is.

B．To explain how necessary it is to build dams.

C．To show how a natural process is interrupted.

D．To explain how humans fight global warming.

3. What does the author want to convey in the last paragraph?

A．We’d better move upstream to live.

B．We should protect plants along rivers.

C．We’d better seek more help from plants.

D．We should be cautious about river management.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．What Humans Do with Rivers

B．How Rivers’ Transporting Carbon Counts

C．What the Carbon Cycle Means to Us

D．How Living Downstream Affects the Earth

8 . 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（不超过3个单词）。

Can you imagine kangaroo meat as     1     source of meat for Australians? Kangaroo meat     2     (eat) by aboriginal Australians.     3     time went by, with more and more people moving to the cities, the meat became less popular. However, there     4     (be) a push to bring it back to dinner tables lately. This is     5     (large) due to the benefits of the meat.

Kangaroo meat is lean(脂肪少的) and has less than 2% fat.     6     addition, the BBC noted that kangaroos produce less methane (甲烷) than other     7     (animal), so they are considered to be more environmentally friendly.

However, despite all these benefits, most Australians still refuse     8     (eat) it. Also, it may make     9     (they) feel strange to eat kangaroo. Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, a popular TV series, is another reason     10     they may feel uncomfortable eating the meat.

9 . 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。

New Yorkers were shocked in early December when a creature as big as a school bus     1     (surface) from the Hudson River. Over the next three days,     2    humpback whale (座头鲸) swam by several popular tourist    3    (destination), where a journalist took photos of the animal seemingly waving its tail at Lady Liberty.

Scientists say NYC0089, which hasn’t been spotted in several weeks, has likely returned to deeper waters south of the Hudson. Still, the    4    (frequent) of whale sightings in the broader area has gone up rapidly in recent years.

“With these numbers increasing     5    (sharp), it’s not surprising that you’re seeing them in some unusual places, says Brown—a biologist. ”Including the Hudson River and Staten Island.

Scientists say the    6    (rise) whale sightings are likely related to purer water and a brimming buffet of Atlantic menhaden, a fish favored by humpbacks, resulting    7    . landmark environmental regulations    8    (pass) in the 1970s as well as New York city cleanup efforts.

“Seeing more whales in this areas shows that the waters are cleaner    9    there’s more food here for these whales,” Brown says.“It is a sign that what we’ve been doing     10    (work), so we need to keep doing that — and more — to protect these species.”

10 . If you visit Uluwatu temple in Bali, be cautious. The long-tailed temple monkeys there are well-known thieves. Since a long time ago, they have made a living by robbing visitors of their possessions and then holding those objects until a ransom in the form of food is paid. But Jean-Baptiste Leca of the University of Lethbridge, in Canada, wondered whether these monkeys are cleverer still. Sometimes, they do not accept the first offer and hold out for more. He therefore asked himself whether they are able to assess how valuable an object is to its owner, and factor that into their negotiations.

Dr. Leca and his colleagues conducted their experiment by wandering around the temple with video cameras, recording the activities of the monkeys. Every time they saw a monkey show interest in a particular tourist? they recorded the interaction. To work out what was going on, they had first to establish the relative values of food rewards to monkeys, and of stealable objects to people.

To confirm which stealable objects are most valued by people, they divided them into six classes: empty containers, such as phone cases and plastic bottles; accessories (搭配物) such as hairpins and key rings; hats and shoes; spectacles and sunglasses; and electronics and wallets. They then observed how often victims bothered to bargain with the thief for the return of property belonging to different classes, and thus classified objects into low value, medium value and high value.

They found that monkeys do, indeed, have a complicated sense of what they are doing — at least, adults and sub-adults do. These animals have a preference for stealing high-value items, and will often hold out either for more rewards, or for better ones, if they are in possession of such items. But this is something that they have to learn how to do as they grow up. Young monkeys make no such distinctions, and sub-adults are less good at doing so than adults.

1. What is the purpose of Leca's research?

A．To prove monkeys are cleverer than men.

B．To find out what is valuable for monkeys.

C．To record the negotiations between monkeys.

D．To make sure monkeys can judge item values.

2. What does the underlined word "ransom" in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．Bilk.

B．Reward.

C．Tax.

D．Rent.

3. How are the values of objects classified in Paragraph 3?

A．By the material of objects.	B．By the preference of victims.
C．By the buying price of objects,	D．By the frequency of bargaining.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Young monkeys can evaluate items.	B．All monkeys prefer high-value items,
C．Monkeys have a simple sense of acts.	D．Monkeys' stealing is an acquired skill.