1 . 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 |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
2 . There was a time when a trip to the supermarket in the United States often ended with a seemingly simple question from the cashier, "Paper or plastic？"Well, which type of bag would you choose？
While both types of bags have some influence on the environment, it has long been supposed that paper bags are kinder. They are made from a renewable source, are broken down easily, burn without giving off thick smoke and can be recycled. However, the producing process behind paper bags uses more energy than that of plastic ones. How can this be true？
Studies show that paper bag production requires four times as much energy as plastic bag production.
And the amount of water used to make them is twenty times higher. Besides, the influence on forests is very serious. It takes about fourteen million trees to produce ten billion paper bags, which happen to be the number of bags used in the United States yearly. In terms of recycling, the idea that paper bags are more environment friendly than plastic ones can be quickly discarded. Research shows it requires about 98% less energy to recycle plastic than it does to recycle paper.
Even though paper bags might be more harmful than plastic ones, plastic still seems to be considered as the more harmful of the two by governments. In Ireland, for example, a tax has been introduced to discourage the use of plastic bags. People have to pay 22 cents for every plastic bag, and as a result, their use has dropped quickly.
There’s no doubt that it makes more sense to reuse these bags. However, we don’t seem to be doing that at present. That may be because they fall apart quickly. If so, cloth bags are a better choice, but still, their production also has a bad influence on the environment. So what to do? How should we answer the question of “Paper or plastic?” It seems that we first need to ask ourselves one more general question: “What can I do to help the environment?”
1. The question at the end of Paragraph 1 is used to ________.| A．introduce points for discussion |
| B．tell readers how to save money |
| C．express the author's doubts |
| D．show the kindness of the cashier |
| A．take more time to break down |
| B．require less energy to recycle |
| C．need more water to produce |
| D．have less influence on forests |
| A．share | B．put forward |
| C．discuss | D．give up |
| A．Paper or cloth? |
| B．A new bag or your own one? |
| C．A small bag or big one? |
| D．Paper or plastic？ |
3 . Have you ever wondered what wild animals do when no one is watching? Scientists have been able to record the “private” moments of wildlife with leading-edge technology. Low-cost, dependable and small modern cameras are of big help.
Cameras placed in hard-to-reach places have taken videos of everything from small desert cats to later snow loving felines (猫科) in the northern Rocky Mountains. These cameras are important tools to learn new information on wildlife.
Some videos help scientists see the effects of climate change. For example, the desert animal javelin and the tree-loving coatimundi have been caught on cameras north of their normal home. This could mean global warming is enlarging their living area northward.
Researchers use cameras along with global positioning systems, or GPS. They attach GPS devices (设备) to mule deer and antelope in and around Yellowstone National Park. Then they can record their movements, or migrations (迁移) . These cameras can be left in very rural (荒野的) areas for days, weeks or even month. They can provide information on how many animals are moving over a given period of time.
Rural video can show details about animal behavior, such as the calls made by migrating. Also some cameras record animal life and show everything from bison in Saskatchewan, Canada, to the underwater weed forest off California’s Channel Islands.
However, rural cameras have their problems too. Animals such as wolverines and bears sometimes attack them. Scientists do not know if the attacks are the result of anger or interest. Also, the devices have become popular tools to help hunters look for animals. Some people argue that it is unfair to use the cameras that way. Even with such problems, rural cameras are clearly an important scientific tool in researching wild animals.
1. Which of the following helps scientists know about climate change?| A．How active animals are. | B．What animals eat. |
| C．Where animals go. | D．When animals move. |
| A．Under water | B．In the field |
| C．On GPS devices. | D．On wild animals. |
| A．They affect animals' search for good. |
| B．They make wild animals puzzled. |
| C．They make animals attack one another frequently. |
| D．They might bring danger to animals. |
| A．Cameras Record Animals in the Wild | B．Every Coin Has Two Sides |
| C．Animals No Longer Have Secrets | D．An Invention Makes Animals Mad |
4 . A scientist locked himself in a small air-tight plastic tent with 200 plants to see if they could change CO2 into oxygen (氧气) fast enough to keep him alive.
Kurtis Baute locked himself in a 3m by 3m tent in his brother’s backyard in British Columbia, Canada. He hoped to find out if by surrounding himself with plants, the CO2 he breathed out could be changed into oxygen to allow him to survive in the locked tent for at least three days. Unfortunately, he had to give up the experiment after only 15 hours, as CO2 levels reached a dangerous point where he risked suffering brain damage.
“I could probably survive in the tent for three days,” Baute wrote on his website. “But my goal is not to just ‘not die’. My goal is to end this project without developing brain damage or just generally causing lasting harm to my body. But as it turns out, that’s exactly what he risked as the 200 plants he took with him into the tent couldn’t meet his needs. Clearly, a cloudy sky prevented them from receiving all the sunlight they needed to perform photosynthesis (光合作用), so they couldn’t recycle CO2 fast enough.
“Plants are great at taking in CO2 and they love it. Since it wasn’t a bright and sunny day, they weren’t getting the light they needed, which meant CO2 just kept rising. I had to give up the experiment as that continued.” the young experimenter said.
15 hours into the experiment, Baute reached the set danger point and then ended this experiment. Still, he called the experiment a “huge success” as his main goal was actually the terrible effects of climate change and CO2 emissions. “The conclusion about my experiment is that if CO2 is too high, I’ll escape, which is just everyday experiences for many people on this planet. Everyone deserves clean air, but not everyone has it,” he wrote.
1. Why did Kurtis Baute stay in the tent for only 15 hours?| A．The tent is too small for him to stay too long. |
| B．The environment in the tent is dangerous for him. |
| C．CO2 in the tent couldn’t be changed into oxygen. |
| D．He couldn’t survive in the locked tent any longer. |
| A．His health condition. | B．His wrong decision. |
| C．Too much CO2. | D．The cloudy weather. |
| A．Disappointing. | B．Surprising. |
| C．Satisfying. | D．Interesting. |
| A．A test to show the importance of clean air |
| B．Surviving in the tent |
| C．The set danger point |
| D．Making people know the use of plants |
5 . To raise money for wildlife conservation, Mozambique in Africa will allow sports hunting. The plan is to sell 80 hunting permits a year at $11,000 each for elephants and about 60 permits for lions at $4,000 each. The government will collect most of the profits, but 20% will go to the communities in the conservation areas.
Critics fear legal hunting can destroy Mozambique’s fragile elephant population.
Here are two primary school students to share their views.
A 9-year-old girl from Beaufort, South Carolina supports the idea. She thinks that hunters kill animals without contributing a single dollar to conservation. But if hunting were permitted, they might pay for the chance to get a big-game trophy（战利品）.
However, a 10-year-old girl from Atlanta, Georgia disagrees. She thinks that if sports hunting were allowed, endangered species could become extinct.
| A．That would be a permanent loss for the mankind. |
| B．Is this the best way to save animals from extinction? |
| C．Well-regulated sports hunting can benefit the conservation of listed species. |
| D．Illegal hunters have already wiped out nearly half of the country’s elephants. |
| E．The money raised from legal hunting would contribute to protecting the wildlife. |
| F．So instead of raising money by hunting, the country should build more wildlife preserves. |
| G．The money could also be used to buy more protected lands where animals can wander freely. |
6 . Valencia is in the east part of Spain. It has a port on the sea, two miles away on the coast. It is the capital of a province that is also named Valencia.
The city is a market center for what is produced by the land around the city. Most of the city's money is made from farming. It is also a busy business city, with ships, railways, clothes and machine factories.
Valencia has an old part with white buildings, colored roofs and narrow streets. The modern part has long, wide streets and new buildings. Valencia is well known for its parks and gardens. It has many old churches and museums. The university in the center of the city was built in the 13th century.
The city of Valencia has been known since the 2nd century. In the 8th century it was the capital of Spain. There is also an important city in Venezuela named Valencia.
1. Valencia is the capital of _______.| A．Spain | B．Venezuela | C．Valencia | D．Uganda |
| A．farm products | B．parks and gardens |
| C．clothes and machines | D．ships and railways |
| A．shops | B．factories | C．white buildings | D．wide streets |
| A．Spain and Britain | B．Venezuela and Britain |
| C．Spain and Venezuela | D．Spain and Vietnam |
7 . When Columbus ‘sailed the ocean blue in 1492’ he wasn't looking for America, he was searching for a route from Spain to China; America just got in the way.
The Spanish were after the riches of Asia: silk, dates, spices. Until later adventurers discovered how to sail to the Far East, trade with China depended on the Silk Road. The trade between China and Europe brought huge wealth, so the Spanish had a strong desire to find a new way to the East. Eventually a way appeared; as sea traffic developed from the 17th Century onwards, the overland route diminished.
Now China is seeking to revive(复兴)the Silk Road and is preparing to invest 4 trillion pounds in new roads, rail links, oil pipelines and other basic facilities. It is hoped that goods can be shipped westwards by land far more quickly and economically than by sea.
But the plan is also to attract more tourists. Actually, China does pretty well for tourists already; it's the world's fourth most visited country. Two cities — Beijing and Shanghai—possess the tourism business, with significant interest in destinations such as Xi'an and Chengdu. While Beijing is modern, cities such as Lanzhou and Dunhuang have one foot planted firmly in old China.
Other places featured include Xi'an, the former capital of China, where you can come face to face with the Terracotta Army built to protect China's first emperor in the afterlife. From Lanzhou tour members take the train to Jiayuguan, China's western gateway and a key location on the Silk Road.
There is also a fourday coach journey along the original Silk Route through the Xinjiang region to Kashgar. Along the way, at Kurla, you can visit the ruins of the Iron Fortress.
1. What does the underlined word “diminished” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Discovered. | B．Disappeared. |
| C．Disturbed. | D．Displayed. |
| A．To rebuild the ruins of the Iron Fortress. |
| B．To construct new roads and other basic structures. |
| C．To make transportation westwards faster and cheaper. |
| D．To draw more inland tourists' attention to the western gateway. |
| A．It is nothing but a trade route. |
| B．It may destroy some cities' ancient style. |
| C．It attracts foreign investment of ￡4 trillion. |
| D．It promotes the tourism industry of China. |
| A．The charming of the Silk Road |
| B．The function of the Silk Road |
| C．The origin of the Silk Road |
| D．The future of the Silk Road |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用(\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词。
2．只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
As is well-known that birds are our friends. But the large number of birds have been killed for food. The other day I was walking in the woods while a shot was heard. Hearing the shot, the bird in the trees flew to all directions. A bird was injured badly and looked sadly. Finding the bird injured, so I decided to take it home. At home I take good care of it. When it recovered, I returned itself to the woods. I hope something should be done to prevent birds from killed.
9 . Eating too much fatty food, exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease. But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately：the air you breathe.
Previous studies have linked high exposure (暴露) to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problems，but two analyses now show that poor air quality can lead to heart attack or stroke (中风) within as little as a few hours after exposure. In one review of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants (污染物) were up to 5% more likely to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure. A separate study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)considers to be of “moderate” (良好) quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure.
The authors of both studies stress that these risks are relatively small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure. However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices. So stricter regulation by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health.
1. The text mainly discusses the relationship between ________.| A．heart problems and air quality |
| B．heart problems and exercising |
| C．heart problems and smoking |
| D．heart problems and fatty food |
| A．relatively high | B．extremely low |
| C．relatively low | D．extremely high |
| A．Eating fatty food has immediate effects on your heart. |
| B．The EPA conducted many studies on air quality. |
| C．Moderate air quality is more harmful than smoking. |
| D．Stricter regulations on pollutants should be made. |
| A．inform | B．persuade |
| C．describe | D．entertain |
The idea that bottled water is safer for humans may not be true. The Natural Resources Defense Council of America said, “There is no promise that because water comes out of a bottle, it is cleaner or safer than water from the tap.” Another New York City-based action group added that some bottled water is “really just tap water in a bottle—sometimes more clean, sometimes not.”
It is not proven that bottled water is better than tap water. Nick Reeves from the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management said, “The high mineral content (含量) of some bottled water makes them not good for feeding babies and young children.” Also, most bottled water doesn’t have fluoride (氟化物), which can make teeth stronger. Kids are drinking more bottled water and less fluoridated tap water, and some say that’s behind the recent rise in bad teeth.
Storing is another problem. Placed near heat, the plastic bottles can produce bad chemicals (化学物质) into the water.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used worldwide to bottle water each year. The plastic can take between 400 and 1,000 years to break down.
In terms of energy use, plastic bottles are also not cheap. One report said that if water and soft drink bottlers had used 10 percent recycled materials in their plastic bottles, they would have saved about 72 million gallons of gas.
So, if you are worried about the effect of bottled water on the Earth, you can take the following steps.
● Drink from your tap. Unless your government warns against this, it should be fine.
● Get a container (容器). Carry your tap water in a steel or a lined drinking container, and clean it between uses.
● Keep it cool. Don’t drink from a bottle that has been sitting in the sun, don’t store it near chemicals, and don’t reuse plastic bottles.
● Choose glass containers over plastic if possible. When finished, recycle!
1. What is the main idea of the article?
| A．Drinking tap water is the only choice for people. |
| B．Glass containers are better than plastic bottles. |
| C．Plastic bottles are harmful to the environment. |
| D．Bottled water may not be as good as we think. |
| A．They break down in less than 300 years. | B．They can be used for many other things. |
| C．They are a risk to the environment. | D．They are cheap to make. |
| A．no problem for the environment | B．more expensive than tap water |
| C．always safer than tap water | D．better for babies |
| A．There are a lot of problems storing tap water. |
| B．Bottled water can be just tap water in a bottle. |
| C．It may be better for your teeth. |
| D．It may contain fluoride. |
