1 . Caño Cristales is a famous river in Colombia known as the “river of five colours”. It is also considered by many as the most beautiful river in the world.

Located in the Serranía de la Macarena National Park in Colombia, the river is made up of several waterfalls, rapids and plenty of pools. With a length of around 62 miles, it lies entirely within the national park.

From January to May, Caño Cristales looks like any other river. There is a bed of rocks covered with moss (苔藓) below a cool, clear river. However，between June and early December the most amazing change takes place there. During this time, the river becomes a mix of colours, including yellow, blue, green, orange and red. And it is the most beautiful from July to October.

At first, people thought the colours might be man-made. However, this rainbow-like river is formed completely naturally. The colours are the result of a rare plant in the river which changes its colours according to how much sunlight it receives.

The plant is beautiful but weak. This makes it easily damaged. Within the park, there are a lot of human activities that may cause damage to the river. Normally from mid-December to May, the river is closed to tourists to give the area’s ecosystem a break. Also, during the dry season there is not enough water to support life in the river.

Anyway,Caño Cristales stands out as one of Colombia’s most popular natural attractions, drawing thousands of tourists every year.

1. To enjoy the most beautiful view of the river, you can visit it in________.

A．January

B．April

C．June

D．October

2. Why does the river have so many colors?

A．Because the river is artificial.

B．Because there is a rainbow in the river.

C．Because a plant in the river can change its colours.

D．Because there are lots of colourful rocks in the river.

3. What can you learn about the river from the text?

A．The river is colourful all the time.

B．The river is closed most of the year.

C．The beauty of the river can be damaged easily.

D．Life in the river doesn’t need much water to support.

4. Where is the text probably taken from?

A．In a geography magazine.

B．In a business newspaper.

C．In a science report.

D．In a storybook.

2 .     1     They create carbon dioxide and shade. They provide shelter to animals and insects. The wood they provide is used for buildings and other products we humans use and need.

Trees are so important that some people have made it their goal to protect them. We can call these people ‌“tree hugger”. It describes people who support the protection of forests. Today, the term ‌“tree hugger” describes a person who is an environmentalist.     2     For example, someone who wants to save a rare butterfly species or cut greenhouse gases could also be described as a tree hugger.

However, calling someone a ‌“tree hugger” is not always seen as a praise.     3     ‌“Tree hugger” described someone who was overly concerned about protecting trees, animals and other parts of the natural world.

Some tree huggers do go to extremes to protect trees. Take, for example, an American woman named Julia Lorraine Hill. For 738 days from December 10, 1997 and December 18, 1999, Hill lived in Luna, a Redwood tree in northern California’s Humboldt County. Luna is huge, measuring nearly 61 meters tall and about 12 meters across, which has stood in Humboldt County for more than 1,000 years.     4     So, Hill did what any extreme tree hugger would—she moved in! As the website explains, Hill’s main goal was ‌“to bring international attention to the importance of protecting and restoring natural resources.” So, we can safely call Hill a tree hugger.     5    

A．Trees give so much to the world.

B．Human beings should all protect trees.

C．In earlier times, in fact, it was used as an insult(辱骂).

D．And I’m sure that she would consider that the highest of praises.

E．They want to protect nature and the environment - but not just the trees.

F．Nowadays, the environmental problems are more serious than in the history.

G．But that did not stop the Pacific Lumber Company from wanting to cut it down.

3 . The African penguin lives on St. Croix island off the east coast of South Africa. A new study has found that they are leaving their natural environment to escape noisy ship refueling (补给燃料) activities.

The African penguins once mainly raised babies on this island. But the population has dropped sharply since South Africa started permitting ships in the area to refuel at sea six years ago, the study found.

Lorien Pichegru is acting director of the Coastal and Marine Research Institute at Nelson Mandela University, which led the study. She said the organization had found that noise levels in the area had doubled since the refueling activities began. Scientists say high noise levels affect the ability of penguins to find and catch other animals for food. Noise also makes it more difficult for them to communicate with each other and map travel paths. ‌“This year we are at 1,200 breeding pairs at St Croix from 8,500 pairs in 2016,” Pichegru said.

The study recently appeared in the publication Science of the Total Environment. The researchers said the study is the first to explore the effects of ocean traffic noise pollution on a seabird.

Nelson Mandela University’s study collected some data to estimate underwater noise from passing ships. Oil-covered penguins were found in 2019 in Algoa Bay after an oil spill from ship-to-ship refueling. Environmental groups have called for the activities to be banned in the bay.

Pichegru said penguins in the area were already struggling to survive because of a series of issues, including industrial fishing activities. She added that the refueling activities did not kill all the penguins. However, ‌“It was just the thing that made the whole ecology tip over and then the penguins couldn’t cope with that,” she said.

1. What has the new study found about penguins?

A．They have difficulty in raising babies.	B．They can get used to noisy ships easily.
C．Their population is on the increase.	D．They are forced to leave the natural environment.

2. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．The value of Lorien Pichegru’s job.	B．The importance of ship refueling activities.
C．The ability of Penguins to find food.	D．Bad effects of noises on Penguins.

3. What might Pichegru agree with?

A．The penguins should be put in control.

B．Fishing activities should be greatly encouraged.

C．Refueling activities should be strictly managed.

D．The penguins should develop their survival abilities.

4. Where is this text most likely from?

A．A diary.

B．A guidebook.

C．A textbook.

D．A magazine.

4 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入1个单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The planet is facing a crisis. Overuse of resources, like fossil fuels,     1     (combine) with high levels of consumption of goods and the resources needed to make them, is taking our environment to a     2     (break)point.

We live in a disposable culture where we want to keep up     3     the latest trends, but at what cost? Forests     4     (cut) down and minerals mined for objects that will be used for a short amount of time and then thrown away.

Our consumption habits have a direct impact on the planet that we live on, and the lives in different parts of the world. Unsustainable     5     (consume) and production of material goods and food products leads to climate change, which in turn     6     (affect) countries in poverty.

Those methods are     7     (serious)damaging the environment. If we continue     8     (produce) and consume at current rates, using the same methods we will also be affected and it will lead to destructive consequences,for parts of the world already feeling the effects of climate change.

Although we may be from different countries, speak different languages     9     have different cultures, the planet does not recognize the differences we see in each other. Something     10     happens in one part of the world can have great effect on another part of the world many miles away from the event.

5 . A large body of evidence shows that exercise strengthens our brains. In studies, active people generally have more gray matter. Gray matter is made up of the brain’s essential, working neurons(神经元). Fit people also tend to have healthier white matter, which supports and connects neurons. Partly as a consequence of these, exercise is strongly linked with lower risks of dementia(痴呆) and other memory problems with age.

But exercise may increase exposure to air pollution and previous studies have shown the opposite effects of air pollution on the brain. So, what happens then?

Some researchers looked at thousands of middle-aged adults from the UK Bio-bank. The researchers characterized their physical activity patterns depending on the amount of physical activity collected from the devices researchers asked them to wear. They then evaluated air pollution levels where the people lived, asked the participants to complete brain scans, and finally, compared them. Researchers found that exercise was linked to excellent brain health for people in areas with little air pollution. But the beneficial associations almost disappeared for exercisers living in areas with even moderate(中度的) air pollution. They had less gray matter and more unhealthy white matter than people living and exercising away from pollution, even if their workouts were similar.

Extending these findings in a follow-up study, the same scientists found that the more people exercised, the less likely they were to develop dementia over time—provided their local air was clear. When it was moderately polluted, though, they had an increased long-term risk of dementia, whether they exercised or not.

These studies increase the urgency for developing more-effective regulations related to air quality. Public policy could be used to address people’s exposure to air pollution during exercise. For example, since a great amount of air pollution comes from traffic, promoting running or bicycling along paths far from heavy traffic may be more beneficial.

1. What does the author intend to tell us in the first paragraph?

A．The reasons behind dementia.

B．The benefits of workouts on brains.

C．The working process of our brains.

D．The exercise suitable for people with dementia.

2. Why did the researchers ask the participants to wear the devices?

A．To record their daily routine.

B．To monitor the local air quality.

C．To help know their exercise patterns.

D．To warn them of healthy problems.

3. What can we learn from the studies?

A．Memory problems should be cured.

B．The structure of the brain is complicated.

C．People face many risk factors for dementia.

D．More rules against air pollution should be made quickly.

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

A．Air quality has to be improved urgently.

B．Most people do exercise in a wrong way.

C．Air pollution may reduce benefits of exercise.

D．People with diseases should do more exercise.

6 . 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。

In the heart of modern Beijing is the Forbidden City. It served as the political center of ancient China between 1420 and 1912 and now it is     1     world famous museum.

The Forbidden City     2     (build) by Emperor Yongle, the third Ming ruler,     3     moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijng in 1403. Sources say it took a million     4     (worker) to build it between 1406 and 1420. Legend has it that the Forbidden City was redesigned to have 9, 9991/2 rooms. Half a room is missing to avoid     5     (upset) the God of Heaven. The maincolors of the Forbidden City are yellow and red. The walls, doors, and windows were     6     (most) painted in red, a symbol of     7     (happy) in Chinese culture.

The English name “Forbidden City” is a translation of the Chinese name Zijincheng. In the past, it was forbidden to ordinary people and that is     8     the Forbidden City is so named. After the Qing Dynasty, it was made a     9     (nation) museum-the Palace Museum and was open to the public. As one of the world’s largest cultural museums, the Palace Museum holds more than a million rare and valuable works of art. So do find a chance     10     (visit) it some day!

7 . The San Diego County Water Authority has an unusual plan to use the city’s scenic San Vicente Reservoir (水库) to store solar power so it’s available after sunset. The project could help unlock America’s clean energy future.

Perhaps ten years from now, if all goes smoothly, large underground pipes will connect this lake to a new reservoir, a much smaller one, built in a nearby valley about 1100 feet higher. When the sun is high in the sky, California’s abundant solar power will pump water into that upper reservoir. It’s a way to store the electricity. When the sun goes down and solar power disappears, operators would open a valve (阀门) and the force of 8 million tons of water, falling back downhill through those same pipes, would drive machines capable of producing 500 megawatts of electricity for up to eight hours. That’s enough to power 130, 000 typical homes.

“It’s a water battery!” says Neena Kuzmich, Deputy Director of Engineering for the water authority. She says energy storage facilities like these will be increasingly important as California starts to rely more on energy from wind and solar, which produce electricity on their own schedules, without considering the demands of consumers.

Californians learned this during a heat wave this past summer. “Everybody in the state of California got a text message at 5:30 in the evening to turn off their appliances,” Kuzmich says. The sun was going down, solar generation was disappearing, and the remaining power plants, many of them burning gas, couldn’t keep up with demand. The reminder worked:People stopped using so much power, and the grid (电网) survived.

Yet earlier on that same day, there was so much solar power available that the grid couldn’t take it all. Grid operators turned away more than 2000 megawatt hours of electricity that solar generators could have delivered, enough to power a small city. That electricity was wasted. There was no way to store it for later, when operators desperately needed it.

1. What is the function of Paragraph 2?

A．To present the importance of a reservoir.	B．To recall a situation in recent ten years.
C．To introduce the usage of solar energy.	D．To explain a way to store electricity.

2. What may Neena Kuzmich agree?

A．The reservoir serves to store energy.	B．Californians need little solar energy.
C．People used to waste too much energy.	D．New storage ways are environmentally friendly.

3. Why was a text message sent to everyone in California?

A．To stop people working.	B．To warn people of danger.
C．To tell people the sunset time.	D．To remind people of lack of energy.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．Scenic San Vicente Reservoir	B．San Diego County Energy Plan
C．Water Batteries to Store Solar Power	D．Machines to Store Water in California

8 . 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。

China is much more concerned about livelihood projects. Another project of     1    (channel) water from China’s Yangtze River to the Hanjiang River     2     (begin) construction in June this year. With a total     3     (invest) of 59.8 billion yuan, the project is a supplement to the middle route of the country’s South-to-North Water Diversion Project.

The new project is expected     4     (enhance) the water allocation (分配) capacity of the Hanjiang River Basin to     5     (far) ensure water supply to the dry north. The South-to-North Water Diversion Project transfers water from China’s water-rich south     6     the dry north through the middle, eastern and western routes. The middle route, the most prominent one due to     7     (it) role in feeding water to the nation’s capital, begins at the Danjiangkou eservoir in the Hanjiang River in central province of Hubei and runs northeastward to Beijing and Tianjin. It started supplying water in December 2014.

China has stepped up the water project construction. 10,644 new water projects     8     (value) at 414.4 billion yuan started construction in     9     first five months of the year. The money     10     is invested in the country’s water project construction will be over 800 billion yuan this year, according to the official data.

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。

The world witnessed what was described     1     “Chongqing speed” in people’s united action in China’s Chongqing that put out over 10 forest fires in less than 10 days.

On August 17, a historic heat wave caused forest fires     2     (break) out in the mountain city. Under the leadership of China’s emergency management authorities, great efforts from firefighters, police and tens of thousands of volunteers     3     (pay) off and all open fires were completely put out on August 26.

In the following days, numerous stories, pictures and videos regarding this fire rescue     4     (share) on China’s social media. A video that showed a herringbone (人字形) of yellow flame of fire and a line of white light coming from the headlamps on the rescuers in the night view was     5     striking that it became     6     instant hit.

    7     put out the fire was a “Great Human Wall” that was formed by the organization and support personnel under the mountain, the transport teams     8     (deliver) materials along the way, and the firefighting troops on the mountain top.

Among them, Generation Z, classified as those born in the mid-90s to early 2000s, played a     9     (remarkable) important role in the whole rescue work. These young group rushed to the frontline of the fire scene without any hesitation, demonstrating the hope and strength of China’s young generation with their bravery, wisdom and     10     (cooperate).

10 . Honeybees rely heavily on flower patterns not just colors when searching for food, new research shows.

A team led by the University of Exeter tested bee behaviour and built bee’s-eye-view simulations (模拟装置) to work out how they see flowers.

Honeybees have low resolution vision, so they can only see a flower’s pattern clearly when they are within few centimeters. However, the new’ study shows bees can very effectively distinguish between different flowers by using a combination of colour and pattern.

In a series of tests, bees rarely ignored pattern, suggesting colour alone does not lead them to flowers. This may help to explain why some colours that are visible to bees are rarely produced by flowers in nature.

“We studied a large amount of data on plants and bee behaviour,” said Professor Natalie Hempel, from Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour. “By training and testing bees using man-made patterns of shape and colour, we found they relied flexibly on their ability to see both of these elements. Showing how insects see colour and learn colour patterns is important to understand how pollinators (传粉者) may, or may not, create evolutionary ‘pressures’ on the colours and patterns that flowers have evolved (进化). Our findings suggest that flowers don’t need to evolve too many different flower colours, because they can use patterns to vary their displays so bees can tell them apart from other flowers.”

One typical feature identified in the study is that the outside edges of flowers usually contrast strongly with the plant’s leaves while the centre of the flower does not have such a strong contrast with the leaf colour. This could help bees quickly identify colour differences and find their way to flowers.

While flowers may be beautiful to humans, Professor Hempel stressed that understanding more about bees and the threats they face meant we need to see the world “through the eyes of a bee and the mind of a bee.”

1. What does the new research focus on?

A．The source of bees’ food supply.	B．The way of bees finding flowers.
C．The effect of bees’ poor eyesight.	D．The evolution of bees’ behavior.

2. What does Hempel think of flowers trying to evolve more colours?

A．It’s not a must.	B．It’s a pressing need.
C．It’s beyond belief.	D．It’s a temporary solution.

3. What’s paragraph 6 mainly about?

A．An explanation of the research intention.

B．Dramatic changes in the research strategy.

C．Conflict between different research outcomes.

D．Supporting evidence for the research findings.

4. What aspect of research into bees did Hempel highlight?

A．Research data.	B．Research methods.
C．Research objects.	D．Research frequency.