1 . 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。

Today’s skiers are used to relying on ski lifts at resorts to take them to the top of a mountain before     1     (experience)the addictive thrill of skiing down the mountain.     2    , in some snow-covered villages in Altay prefecture (辖区) of Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, it’s common in winter to see local herdsmen, with boards     3     (attach) to their feet, climb the snowy slopes without any other forms of assistance.

The pair of boards are wrapped with horsehide(马革),     4     serves a double purpose. Remarkably, the horsehide not only can provide friction (摩擦) to prevent skiers from slipping while going up, but also helps them slide more     5     (smooth)down the slopes.

According to rock carvings uncovered in the area by archaeologists, such     6     (ski) have served for around 12,000 years     7     a means of transportation for the snowfield inhabitants of Altay. The fur skiing boards gradually lost     8     (they) popularity in recent decades after paved roads linked houses to the outside world.

However, Altay plans to protect and promote its skiing culture. The local government department     9     (want) to pass its skiing tradition to future generations. The prefecture is working     10     (develop)the area as a popular destination for skiers and snowboarders. As a result, the ancient fur skiing boards and the craft of making them have found a new lease of life in modern times.

2 . Across vast areas of the tropics (热带地区) from Southeast Asia to Africa, forests have been cut down in recent decades, but at least in some areas reforestation efforts have been made to take in carbon (碳).

It remains to be seen, however, whether these newly planted forests will manage to survive in the face of changing climate, which will bring more intense heat, lengthened droughts, and occasional wildfires.

To find out, scientists from the University of Hong Kong decided to run hundreds of computer models to explore various results under different conditions. The key aim of the study was to see if carbon stored in these regrown forests would remain locked up, and they have found this will likely be the case even under the most severe climate conditions.

“Our computer models show in many parts of the tropics reforestation is worth it, because these new forests should be able to survive until the end of the century and continue to store extra carbon from the atmosphere in the process,” explains Jed Kaplan, a professor at the university.

However, the role of newly planted forests as a carbon collector in the tropics will have only a limited effect on climate change, especially because many existing forests in the tropics will struggle in the face of rising temperatures and are already losing their ability to store carbon, “Massive tree planting won’t be enough to avoid climate disaster, but it can play a role. And if done with biodiversity and the people who call these forests home, reforestation can have many benefits,” says Alexander Koch, the other author of the study.

“So far we have only been able to look at carbon, but other aspects such as biodiversity in restored forests are also impacted by climate change. Assessing those impacts will be the next step,” he adds.

1. What is the discovery of the study?

A．Changing climate will bring about many natural disasters.

B．Reforestation is of great benefit to biodiversity in the tropics.

C．Regrown forests will store carbon even in the face of climate change.

D．The chance of newly planted forests surviving tough conditions is slim.

2. What’s Jed Kaplan’s attitude towards reforestation?

A．Worried.

B．Doubtful.

C．Disappointed.

D．Favourable.

3. What can be inferred from paragraph 5?

A．Reforestation is useless in stopping climate change.

B．More measures should be taken as well as reforestation.

C．The carbon in the atmosphere will increase in the future.

D．Existing forests can no longer take in carbon from the air.

4. What can we learn about the study?

A．It takes all the factors into account.	B．It still needs to be further improved.
C．It fails to achieve the expected result.	D．It provides a way to avoid climate change.

3 . Some people have come up with a creative solution with monster-inspired (以怪物为灵感的) art works to deal with the flood of cicada (蝉) shells that have cropped up across the country.

The species, Brood X, have come to states across the eastern and southern U.S. A lot of cicadas deposited their shells in states including Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Normally, people have no choice but to deal with the shells wherever they go. However, a recently rediscovered art piece from 2018 has encouraged others to copy it.

Alex from Michigan created a big monster-inspired art work out of dozens or even hundreds of cicada shells. The monster took inspiration from old Japanese monster movies and shows, like Godzilla, Ultraman or Super Sentai— the show that Power Rangers is based on.

The interesting art work led to similar works from other artists. Albert, a student of University of Maryland, created a copy of a monster in Xenomorph. He said, “We are taking action! Getting ready for the coming risk of cicada shells with some art inspiration from Alex’s creations and other cicada shell artists will be there.”

The art is so unbelievable that FOX ran a fact-check on the art. The result is “yes”. People are harvesting hundreds of cicada shells to make monster-inspired art works.

Some curious people, such as Alice and Mary, are learning to make a cicada statue (雕像) of the monster Baltan in Ultraman step by step. Some people have taken a normal approach and simply create art inspired by cicadas. In New Jersey, people create life-size painted cicadas on sidewalks.

1. Why did the American people make monster-inspired art works?

A．To solve the problem caused by cicada shells,

B．To create a kind of interesting art work.

C．To help cicadas go to the whole country.

D．To copy the movies and shows of monster.

2. Which can explain the underlined word “deposited” in paragraph 2?

A．Found.

B．Left.

C．Destroyed.

D．Changed.

3. What’s Albert’s attitude to the art form?

A．Unfriendly.

B．Uncertain.

C．Curious.

D．Positive.

4. What does the author want to tell us in the last paragraph?

A．Many cicadas are leaving the cities of America.

B．It’s difficult for people to make the statue of Baltan.

C．The solution has become popular among American people.

D．American people are competing with each other in art works.

4 . A “watch” is the collective noun for nightingales. The term comes from the way nightingales sing from dawn until dusk and into the hours of darkness, keeping watch. It is one of the Britain's best loved but most endangered songbirds, which arrive in spring from West Africa, bringing with them a beautiful song that has inspired poets and musicians from many cultures that the birds have caused over the centuries.

The male nightingales start singing as soon as they return and continue into early June. Rested in the bushes, male nightingales remain unnoticed while their song passes into dark ness to enchant female nightingales and indirectly appeal to human listeners. This combination of performance, beauty, romantic love and night action creates a mythic power that makes nightingales unique among songbirds.

What does a nightingale sound like? Its tune may appeal to human senses but “song” feels like a shorthand description of what the nightingale actually does. The sound comes from the syrinx, an instrument similar to our throat but closer to the bird's heart and which produces an extraordinary range of high and low frequency notes. The nightingale's daytime song is beautiful enough, but as darkness falls and other birds fall quiet, “great jagged   sticks of lyrical music are thrown into the summer night sky”, in the words of poet Simon Armitage and broadcaster Tim Dee in their book, A Poetry of Birds.

The song is also very loud. Ornithologist Tim Birkhead recalls being kept awake all night by a nearby nightingale. At 90 decibels, he could feel its song resonating in his chest. Computer recordings of birdsong can detect sounds of less than one tenth of a second. Human ears can't pick them out but female birds certainly respond to these “sexy-syllables”. Although we don't fully understand the nightingale song, it is one of the most celebrated bird songs in the world, and you can hear it in the UK for a brief period in spring-our guide to the best places to hear a nightingale sing this spring.

1. Why are nightingales called “watch”?

A．Because of the artists' love for them.	B．Because of the way of their singing.
C．Because of the beauty of their songs.	D．Because of the human desire for their arrival.

2. What does the underlined word “enchant” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Threaten.

B．Enhance.

C．Guard.

D．Attract.

3. What does the author want to show by quoting from A Poetry of Birds?

A．Nightingales' songs stand out at night.	B．Nightingales are very quiet at daytime.
C．Nightingales' songs are similar to humans’.	D．Nightingales have the same senses as humans.

4. What will the author most probably talk about next?

A．Why nightingales are under threat.	B．How to record nightingales' sound.
C．When nightingales return to Britain.	D．Where to hear nightingales in Britain.

5 . 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。

Every day we use energy. We use it for cooking, for heating and for lighting our cities. The energy comes from many different     1     (source). It can come from the sun, wind and water, but the energy we depend on the most comes from deep inside the Earth. These include coal, oil, and natural gas.

These fuels come from the remains of plants and animals. It takes millions of years     2     (make) them. However, with the world’s population     3    (grow), more and more of these fuels are dug up from the ground. Yet these fuels are non-renewable. When they     4    (use) up, they will be gone forever.

We need to have a strong sense of     5    (responsible) and it’s high time for us to think about     6     we can help save energy and preserve these fuels.

What about turning off anything     7     (electricity) we are not using? That’s a start! We can also recycle things such as newspapers, cans, bottles, and plastic—including plastic bags. Plastic bags start out as either oil     8     coal, and one big city can use millions of plastic bags in a year. When we use recycled things, it takes less energy     9     making something new.

Cars consume a lot of fuel, but there     10     (be) a variety of measures that car owners can take to preserve fuel. Try asking your family whether we can take a bus or walk instead of using the car.