1 . “The number of sightings has fallen during lockdown, although pigeons are increasing”, reports Mark Bridge, an editor of BBC Gardeners World Magazine. He notes that sightings of some of Britain’s best-loved garden birds have fallen, blaming the reduction on fewer hedges (篱) and over “tidy” gardening.

The annual review by BBC Gardeners World Magazine found that blackbirds, house sparrows, blue tits (蓝山雀) were spotted less often than in previous years. Sightings of blackbirds were reported by only 85 percent of interviewees last year, down from 90 percent in 2018. The number of interviewees reporting sightings of house sparrows fell from 79 percent to 75 percent in the same period, with a similar decline from 80 percent to 75 percent for blue tits.

Lucy Hall, the magazine chief editor, said, “while watching wildlife has been a great distraction from the pandemic, this decline in common UK bird species is a huge concern.” Hall said that reasons for the decline included the reduction of hedges as people smartened their living surroundings. “More hedges are coming down,” she said. “People are also transforming front gardens for parking. So the sorts of habitats we’ve provided... are being ripped out.”

“As an old Chinese saying goes, when the water is too clear, there are no fish. ‘Birds’ need as lightly messy space,” she said. “They need leaf litter, a bit of rotting wood at the back of a hedge. If you haven’t got a caterpillar, the blue tit has nothing to feed on. The good news is we can all do something to help make a big difference whether it’s filing bird feeders or installing bug boxes and log (原木) piles.”

While some species were in decline, others appeared to be going well. The number of interviewees seeing feral pigeons was up by eight percentage points to 59 percent since 2018. Common gulls were also up, while robins were the birds seen by the greatest number of interviewees at 91 percent.

1. Why are the data used in Paragraph 2?

A．To prove the decrease of sighting of birds.

B．To challenge Mark Bridge’s finding.

C．To interpret the outcome of the lockdown.

D．To blame the review by BBC Gardeners World Magazine.

2. What does the underlined phrase “ripped out” mean in Paragraph 3?

A．Made use of.	B．Under destruction.
C．Under control.	D．Made up for.

3. What might be beneficial to the situation of the falling sightings of bird-number?

A．To feed birds on caterpillars.	B．To pile logs on bug boxes.
C．To arrange extremely messy space.	D．To offer insects in feeding boxes.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Wildlife is spotted less often than before.

B．Beloved birds take flight from tidy gardens.

C．The pandemic contributes to the decreasing birds.

D．Living surroundings are now smartened by Brits.

2 . 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 Lion Rock mountain stands not only as one of the most famous scenic spots in Hong Kong,     1     has become a spiritual symbol representing the persistent efforts of ordinary Hong Kong people     2     (live) a better life.

The Lion Rock spirit has also     3     (deep) touched those outside Hong Kong, such as Cui Xiaodong,     4     ink artist and director of the Yan Huang Art Museum in Bejing. “The mountain stands like a giant, symbolizing the industrious and persistent spirit which, over the past decades,     5     (pull) people in Hong Kong together through hard times. It is a recollection of the youth and vigor (活力) of a generation of people in Hong Kong     6     struggled to make the city what it is today.” he says.

Cui created Lion Rock in Hong Kong, a colored ink painting. In his painting, Cui depicts (描绘) the cliffs of the Lion Rock, surrounded by blooming trees and     7     (overlook) the city’s skyscrapers. Made earlier this year, the painting is now     8     show at Greater Bay Area in the Eyes of Artists, a display marking the 25th anniversary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The     9     (exhibit) displayed there hail (向……致敬) the ecological diversity of the area and also presents to the audience     10     (success) reformative accomplishments since 1997.

3 . Microbiologists have designed a sustainable way to remove polluting microplastics from the environment by using bacteria. Initial design as it is, it paves the way for sustainably lowering plastic pollution levels and stop the “plastification”.

Bacteria naturally tend to group together and stick to surfaces, and this creates a sticky material called “biofilm”. Researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) want to use this adhesive bacteria character and capture microplastics in polluted water to form an easily disposable and recyclable blob(团) .

Sylvia Lang Liu, microbiology researcher at PolyU and lead researcher on this project, together with his team, has engineered a bacterial biofilm, which can fix and absorb microplastics floating around in the water, and make them sink to the bottom of the water. Then the researchers can separate the microplastics from the bacteria traps and get them ready to recycle.

Microplastics are the plastic fragments, usually smaller than 5mm, which are accidentally released into the environment during production and breakdown of grocery bags or water bottles, or during everyday activities such as washing synthetic (合成的) clothes or using personal care products with scrubbing microbeads in them. Microplastics are visually tiny, making it challenging to develop effective solutions to trap, collect, and recycle them.

Microplastics are not easily biodegradable (生物降解的), so they stick around for long and absorb and accumulate poisonous chemicals. They spread into wastewater and into the oceans, endangering marine animals and eventually threatening human health, Microplastics had been found in more than 114 species living in the water and also salt, lettuce, apples, and more in 2018 according to the International Maritime Organization.

“This is an innovative application of biofilm engineering l0 address the plastio pollution crisis,” said Dr Joanna Sadler, researcher at University of Edinburgh, who was not involved in this study. “One of the biggest challenges in dealing with microplastics is capturing such small particles. Liu and co-workers have denmonstrated an elegant solution to this problem, which holds great potential to be further developed into a real-world wastewater treatment technology.”

1. Which of the following best explains the underlined word “adhesive” in Paragraph 2?

A．Floating.

B．Sticky.

C．Diverse.

D．Visual.

2. Why are microplastics hard to capture?

A．They are visually too small.	B．They are hard to biodegrade.
C．They continue to exist for long.	D．They are poisonous chemicals.

3. What can be learned from the last paragraph?

A．Small particles are essential to address water pollution

B．Biofilm bas been widely used to settle plastic pollution.

C．Sadler thinks little of the biofilm engineering application.

D．Biofilm application is promising for wastewater treatment.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Microplastic removal.	B．Uses of bacteria.
C．Wastewater treatment.	D．Plastic pollution.

4 . Nature and culture are often seen as opposite ideas. What belongs to nature cannot be the result of human activities and, on the other hand, cultural development is achieved against nature. However, this is not the only opinion on the relationship between nature and culture. Studies in the development of humans suggest that culture, whether taken as an effort against nature or a natural effort, is part of the development of the human species (物种).

Several modern writers saw the process of education as a struggle (斗争) against human nature. We are born with wild natures, such as eating and behaving in a disorganized way or acting selfishly. Education uses culture as a way to get us out of our wildest natures; it is thanks to culture that the human species could learn to adapt (适应), progress and raise itself above and beyond other species.

Over the past century and a half, however, studies in the history of human development have shown that the formation of culture is part of the biological adaptation. Consider, for example, hunting. It seems to be an adaptation, which allowed humans to move into new and different areas, opening up the opportunity to change living habits. At the same time, the development of weapons (武器) is related to that adaptation — from rocks and stones to a set of hunting tools, and from hunting tools to rules relating to the proper use of weapons. Hunting also seems to be responsible for a whole set of bodily abilities, such as balancing on one foot. Just think of how this very simple thing is closely related to dance, a key expression of human culture. It is then clear that biological development and cultural development are closely tied.

The transmission of culture seems to be directly related to what’s in our blood. Just as snails carry their shell, so do we bring along our culture. However, culture is also passed on among people of the same times or among people belonging to different populations. We can learn how to make jiaozi even if we were born from Russian parents in Paris just as we can learn how to speak English even if none of our family or friends speaks that language.

1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．Culture belongs to human nature.

B．Education pushes the human species to progress.

C．Humans are supposed to be well organized.

2. Why does the writer talk about hunting in Paragraph 3?

A．To suggest some possible ways of changing living habits.

B．To stress the importance of tools in humans struggle for life.

C．To show how culture develops as humans adapt to the environment.

3. The word “transmission” in Paragraph 4 probably means “____________”.

A．spread

B．system

C．spirit

4. What is the writer’s opinion on the nature-culture relationship?

A．Nature and culture are different but connected.

B．Culture depends much on nature to progress.

C．Nature follows the unwritten rules set by culture.

5 . 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。

Home to large numbers of both wild and caged elephants, India’s elephant protection laws are among the strictest    1     Asia. Elephants have been considered the highest level of legal protection for wildlife. Poaching (偷猎) , trading and trafficking are     2     (strict) forbidden, with heavy fines and prison sentences of up to seven years.

China has been making efforts     3     (protect) its small population of elephants since the 1980s. Local authorities in areas with elephants such as Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province, have not only tried to move human populations away from elephant habitats     4     worked with private insurance companies to protect farmers’ crops against damages     5     (cause) by the animals.

The 2016 amendment (修订) to China’s Wildlife Protection Law of 1988 ensures that wild animals should     6     (provide) with the necessary conditions. According to a report by Xinhua News Agency, the population of elephants in China nearly doubled between the 1980s and 2021 to about 300.

In 2020, group of 14 elephants hiked 500 km from     7     (they) home in Xishuangbanna all the way to the suburbs of the provincial capital, Kunming. The journey puzzled scientists and attracted the attention of a global audience,     8     followed the journey to see that the animals played in mud and     9     (sleep) together, as well as destroying crops and stealing food across the province.

Asia has a long history of harmonious relations between humans and elephants. Elephants are respected in societies across Asia, specifically in India and China. As our big friends still remain weak, how can the two     10     (Asia) countries with great civilizations come together to save them?

6 . Around a bend (拐弯处) on a narrow trail that runs deep into the forest of Gabon’s Loango National Park, Kamaya comes into view. The huge silverback gorilla (大猩猩) coolly watches _______ arrive, then goes back to his meal.

Seated on a _______ branch, the 150-kilogram beast greedily pulls more _______ from the tree to his mouth with a _______ but powerful movement before slowly climbing down the trunk. Soon he falls asleep calmly.

After two years of a total _______ due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Parks Agency has decided to restart _______ observations of Gabon’s gorillas,_______ the iconic (标志性的) species will serve as a“loss leader” to _______ ecotourism.

That Kamaya and his _______ of about 10 members are so used to humans is the ________ of long labors by a team of scientists who also ________ data.

They work to make ________ to protect a species ________ with extinction and to ________ foreign tourists. Spending one hour with Kamaya and his family costs $500, on top of charges for ________ to the site and accommodation.

Loango Park, which ________ more than 155,000 hectares of the thickly ________ country, offers rich reward for a 4-5-hour road ________ from Port-Gentil, the second city, followed by the track and a ________ stage by boat.

Though expensive, the price is much lower than that paid to see the mountain gorillas in Uganda or Rwanda. It also gets income to manage protected areas that ________ a safe place for the animals.

1.

A．monkeys

B．hunters

C．visitors

D．masters

2.

A．small

B．new

C．long

D．strong

3.

A．water drops

B．leaves

C．flying birds

D．insects

4.

A．slow

B．quick

C．risky

D．violent

5.

A．punishment

B．construction

C．research

D．shutdown

6.

A．personal

B．public

C．distant

D．special

7.

A．doubting

B．convincing

C．hoping

D．denying

8.

A．inspire

B．decide

C．honor

D．please

9.

A．company

B．school

C．family

D．club

10.

A．decision

B．courage

C．feeling

D．result

11.

A．collect

B．create

C．send

D．share

12.

A．games

B．praise

C．money

D．respects

13.

A．destroyed

B．threatened

C．tightened

D．distinguished

14.

A．attract

B．comfort

C．assume

D．astonish

15.

A．solution

B．explanation

C．access

D．damage

16.

A．loads

B．covers

C．buys

D．affects

17.

A．clouded

B．fogged

C．flowered

D．forested

18.

A．journey

B．task

C．march

D．care

19.

A．regular

B．final

C．usual

D．busy

20.

A．replace

B．refuse

C．experience

D．provide

7 . English is the most widely spoken language in the world. And of the roughly 1.5 billion speakers globally, the vast majority speak it as a second language. So where are the world’s best non-native English speakers? According to a new report by EF Education First, an international education company, Northern Europeans are the most fluent. Middle Easterners are the least proficient (精通的).

The index (指数) is based on the results of a free online test taken by 2.3 million volunteers in 100 countries. Nearly six in ten of this year’s test-takers were female. Women have always performed better than men, but this year men closed the gap somewhat.

In Europe, the powerhouse economies perform surprisingly badly: only Germany makes the top place of “very high proficiency” countries. France is next, while Spain and Italy are continuously falling behind. A study by a Spanish research institute reported the bad news: 60% of adults say they speak no English at all. The fact that Spanish is a global language in its own right (the language declares 400 million native speakers) is probably the cause. If you speak Danish, you need another language to take part in global culture; speaking French or Spanish (or Arabic) means hundreds of millions of people to talk to without English.

Asia is the region of greatest diversity (多样性). Only Singapore makes the top level, but the Philippines, Malaysia, and India are not far behind. China is further back but still in the second level, a few places ahead of Japan. Struggling in the bottom places are a group of South-East and Central Asian countries like Cambodia and Kyrgyzstan. This relates with another factor: the company repeatedly finds that English skills are highly related with connections and openness to the rest of the world.

1. Which is the best title for the text?

A．Where are the world’s most non-native English speakers?

B．Where are the fewest non-native English speakers?

C．Where are the world’s best non-native English speakers?

D．Where are the last non-native English speakers?

2. What can we know about the online test?

A．Half of this year’s test-takers were female.

B．Nearly 1.38 million of this year’s test-takers were female.

C．Women and men equally performed this year.

D．The gap between female and male is getting close year by year.

3. Why 60% of Spanish adults say they speak no English at all?

A．Spanish is a global language itself.	B．400 million Spanish speak English.
C．Spanish is easy to understand.	D．English fails to attract them.

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．Asia is the region with the best non-native English speakers.

B．China is the second place with the best non-native English speakers.

C．Countries in South-East and Central Asian are less open in Asia.

D．Countries in South-West and Central Asian line in the bottom places.

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。

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.

9 . Unique and distinct to Rwanda, milk bars make many of our communities get together. They are places to meet for breakfast or lunch. They are also places to socialize with people of different backgrounds. While it is difficult for strangers to understand these local milk bars, they reflect a little-known truth about how intrinsic cows and milk are to Rwandan culture.

Pascal Kubwimana, a taxi-moto operator who has been coming to Kuruhimbi almost every day for two years, says he is not going anywhere. “I love the milk here,” he said, washing down his bread and beans with a litre of hot milk. “It helps me feel good all day when I have it for breakfast. I even take some home in the evening. My children love it.”

With around 70% of Rwanda’s population engaged in agriculture, cows are an economic advantage as well as a symbol of wealth and social status in rural areas. In fact, cows are held in such high regard here that it’s common to include the animal into your child’s name. Many traditional Rwandan dances are also inspired by cows. In the Umushayayo, which is often characterized as a sort of Rwandan ballet, women imitate the gentle movements of cows while showing their beauty and grace. And in the Ikinyemera, Igishakamba and other dances, men and women stretch their arms upward to represent cow horns.

In Rwanda, when you want to wish someone well, you say “gira inka” (may you have a cow) or “amashyo” (have thousands of cows), and you’ll hear the response, “amashongore” (have thousands of female cows). When you want to express profound gratefulness, you say “nguhaye inka” (I give you a cow).

1. What can people do in milk bars according to paragraph 1?

A．Wear unique clothing.	B．Learn to prepare lunch.
C．Communicate with others.	D．Drink free specially-made milk.

2. What can we infer about Pascal Kubwimana from paragraph 2?

A．He is fond of the milk bars.

B．He usually gets help from the barkeepers.

C．He often takes his children to the milk bars.

D．He dislikes staying too long in the milk bars.

3. What is the third paragraph mainly about?

A．The large population of Rwanda.	B．The traditional dances in Rwanda.
C．The importance of cows in Rwanda.	D．The agricultural development of Rwanda.

4. What is the main purpose of people’s saying “nguhaye inka” in Rwanda?

A．To wish someone well.	B．To convey deep thanks.
C．To congratulate someone.	D．To respond to someone’s question.

10 . As the sun neared the horizon, Ali began his nightly walk through the sandy streets of Timbuktu in Mali. Covered in robes of indigo, he passed through the streets of Timbuktu and continued out into the sand dunes, just beyond the city’s western suburbs.

Ali was a teenager when he first saw the city that would later become his home. “I couldn’t believe the lights!” he remembered. Members of his family still live a semi-nomadic (半游牧的) existence out in the desert. But when he became an adult, drought and the need to earn a living drove Ali into Timbuktu, where he set up a business as a guide for tourists who wanted to explore the Sahara. His heart remained in the desert even when he had to be in the city. He refused to get a fixed-line telephone in case he came to depend upon it. When he had no clients, he would escape to the desert, spending months at a time camping out, drinking tea with friends and sleeping under the stars.

As a guide, Ali made friends from around the world, and he visited some in Europe. It was, to him, an alien world, just as Timbuktu remains for many around the globe. “The first time I was in Europe, I saw water just lying on the ground. Everything moved at a speed that was unthinkable in the Sahara. I thought ‘these people are crazy’. In the desert we have infinite time but no water,” he said. “In Europe, you have plenty of water but no time.”

When travelers wanted to see more of the Sahara, Ali took them to Araouane, a sand-drowned town 270 km north of Timbuktu. And yet for the tourists who visited there, the town was undoubtedly more to it than that. There was something there that produced a feeling similar to excitement. It was the awe of vast skies and big horizons.

1. What did Ali do daily when the sun would set?

A．He took a night walk.	B．He chatted with neighbors.
C．He took a photo of the sun.	D．He bought some food in a store.

2. How did Ali feel when first seeing the city?

A．Confused.	B．Amazed.
C．Frightened.	D．Moved.

3. What can we learn about Ali from paragraph 2?

A．He established a travel company.

B．He explored the Sahara Desert on his own.

C．He lived a semi-nomadic life with his wife.

D．He escaped from Sahara Desert with his friends.

4. What does the underlined part “these people are crazy” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．People in Europe waste so much time.

B．People in Europe always let water running.

C．People in Europe are curious about everything.

D．People in Europe are always busy with their life.