1 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize in no more than 60 words the main idea of the passage and how it is illustrated. Use your own words as far as possible. 

Are we greening our cities, or just greenwashing them?

Architecture and urban design is chasing a green fever dream. Everywhere you look, there are plans for “sustainable” buildings, futuristic eco-cities and aquaponic farms on the roof, each promising to add a green touch to the modern city.

All of these are surely good ideas at some level. They are trying to repair some of the damage our lifestyle has done to the planet. But, despite the rhetoric of reuniting the city with nature, today’s green urban dream is too often about bringing a technologically controlled version of nature into the city and declaring the problem solved, rather than looking at the deeper causes of our environmental and urban problems.

One of the most striking examples is Apple’s “spaceship” campus now under construction in Silicon Valley. Though it seems to be sustainable and energy efficient—80 percent of its 175-acre site is preserved for landscaping, it is by any measure a huge, expensive and massively resource-intensive project. As a suburban white-collar workplace, it must include vast garages for 13,000 Apple employees. Thus, it will leave no smaller environmental footprint than a traditional office park.

Designing a perfect green building or eco-city isn’t enough to save the world. Although our buildings, like our cars, have been inefficient environmentally, architecture isn’t directly responsible for humanity’s disastrous environmental impacts. An economic system based on the destruction of nature is the real problem. No green building can help us repair the ecological damage we have caused, nor can any number of aquaponic farms bring us back to the real nature.

Instead of adding “nature” to the urban lifestyle, architects may work to design better relationships between our cities and nature, and to promote just relationships between the people in them.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 . Man’s Existential Dilemma

We always knew that there was something peculiar about man, something deep down that characterized him and set him apart from the other animals.     1     For ages, when philosophers talked about the the core of man they referred to it as his “essence”, something fixed in his nature, deep down, some special quality or substance. But nothing like it was ever found and man’s peculiarity still remained a dilemma. The reason it was never found, as Erich Fromm (艾瑞克·弗洛姆，精神分析心理学家和人本主义哲学家) put it in an excellent discussion, was that there was no essence, that the essence of man is really his paradoxical(悖论的)nature, the fact that he is half animal and half symbolic.

We might call this existential paradox the condition of individuality within finitude (有限性). Man has a symbolic identity that brings him sharply out of nature. He is a symbolic self, a creature with a name, a life history.     2     He can place himself imaginatively at a point in space and contemplate bemusedly his own planet. This immerse expansion, this competence, this self-consciousness gives to man almost the status a small god in nature.

    3     This is the paradox: he is out of nature and hopelessly in it: he is dual, up in the stars’ and yet housed in a heart-pumping, breath-gasping body that once belonged to a fish and still carries the gill-marks to prove it. His body is a material fleshy casing that is alien to him in many ways - the strangest and most unpleasant way being that is aches and bleeds and will decay and die. Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever.

The lower animals are, of course, spared this painful contradiction, as they lack a symbolic identity and the self-consciousness that goes with it. They merely act and move reflexively as they are driven by their instincts. They live in a world without time, pulsating, as it were, in a state of dumb beings. This is what has made it so simple to shoot down whole herds of buffalo or elephants. The animals don’t know that death is happening and continue gazing while others drop alongside them. The knowledge of death is reflective and conceptual, and animals are spared it. They live and they disappear with the same thoughtlessness: a few minutes of fear, a few seconds of anguish, and it is over.     4    

Quoted from Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death

A．But to live a life with the fate of death haunting one’s dreams makes a huge difference.

B．He is a creator with a mind that soars out the speculate about atoms and infinity.

C．Man’s body was a curse of fate and culture was built upon repression not because he was a seeker of pleasure, but because he was primarily an avoider of death.

D．Yet at the same time, man is a worm and food for worms.

E．Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

F．It was something that had to go right to his core, something that made him suffer his peculiar fate, that made it impossible to escape.

3 . How to Care for Your Tree

1. Water the newly planted tree. Once the tree is planted, water it and keep up a _________ schedule of watering.

Water the tree every day for several weeks to let the _________ get established in the surrounding soil. After this you can reduce the frequency of watering.

Water as necessary for the conditions in your area. _________ humidity into consideration to help you decide _________ to water your tree.

If you are planting fruit or nut trees for a small home orchard, continue to water weekly for the _________of the tree, as your crop depends on consistent irrigation. You’ll also want to fertilize fruit and nut trees monthly, or _________ package directions.

2. Use mulch (覆盖物). Considering adding a layer of mulch _________ your tree to help keep moisture in and weeds out.

Cover the planting hole with 1-3 inches of shredded hardwood or leaf mulch. Keep the mulch at least 12 inches away from the trunk _________ it may cause the trunk to rot.

Mulching around the tree will _________ the tree from trampling and lawnmowers, __________ are two activities that commonly kill young trees.

3. Prune the tree if necessary. If there are any broken, dead, or diseased limbs on your tree,   __________ them gently with knife. If there is nothing wrong with the tree, there is no need to prune it until after the first growing season.

4. Enjoy the tree as it grows over the years. Appreciate its __________ and beauty and thank yourself for adding another tree to the world. You won’t regret it and __________ you properly care for it, the tree can grow long time!

You’ll need to make sure that you water your plant to keep it thriving. You want to achieve __________ of giving it enough water to penetrate (穿透) the roots while not drowning it.

Watering your tree with a steady stream from a garden hose for about 30 seconds should be sufficient. The soil should feel moist at all times and mulch will help retain the moisture.

Check soil moisture by digging about 2 inches below the surface and then use your __________ to test if the soil is moist. If it is, you don’t need to water.

1.

A．native

B．particular

C．regular

D．positive

2.

A．twigs

B．barks

C．trunk

D．roots

3.

A．Give

B．Take

C．Think

D．Look

4.

A．when

B．why

C．how

D．what

5.

A．life

B．color

C．shape

D．beauty

6.

A．related to

B．due to

C．owing to

D．according to

7.

A．around

B．across

C．beside

D．along

8.

A．so

B．and

C．or

D．if

9.

A．protect

B．provide

C．plant

D．grow

10.

A．for which

B．which

C．that

D．on that

11.

A．water

B．remove

C．treat

D．handle

12.

A．color

B．landscape

C．shade

D．scene

13.

A．as long as

B．even if

C．in spite of

D．in terms of

14.

A．unity

B．fact

C．chance

D．balance

15.

A．ruler

B．finger

C．hand

D．stick

4 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. express       B. concerns        C. accompaniment        D. rise        E. approaching        F. specific G. portions       H. remain       I. growing       J. obviously        K. particularly

Exploring the growth of plant-based dairy

Plant-based milk is the largest plant-based group in North America. It grew five per cent last year, with sales of plant-based dairy products     1    $2billion.

There are many reasons for the popularity of plant-based milks. As well as a(n)    2    in the number of vegans (素食主义者) and plant-based diets due to health and moral grounds, environmental     3    are also driving uptake with supporters claiming that plant milk has a lower greenhouse gas footprint than dairy production-although the overall picture is highly complex and the figures are questioned by the dairy industry. An apparent increase in the level of lactose intolerance (乳糖不耐受) in developed countries is also helping to increase demand.

The range of plant-based milks also allows for consumers to     4    their tastes and identities as cafés and restaurants open up after lockdown. As one industry analyst said earlier this year, “To choose your     5    type of plant-based milk in Starbucks seems to be a way of identifying yourself.”

While dairy milk has long been seen as a drink or a meal     6    -for example, being used as the material to make food or with cereal (谷物)-here are increasing signs thatplant-based drinks     7    those with a thicker, more yogurt-like texture (质地) or those sold in individual     8    -are being seen as a healthy snack. Research by the Brisan Group suggests that up to a third of these products are viewed as a snack, and 61 per cent are viewed as “a treat.”

Globally soy milk products     9    the most popular and they accounted for 29.5 per cent of income globally in 2019. Coconut-based drinks are one of the fastest     10    parts, predicted to increase 8.6 per cent between 2020 and 2027. Across all types of plant milk, plain flavours have the highest sales, accounting for 71.1 per cent of the total value.

5 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. prevented              B. stubbornly              C. banning              D. attention              E ignore F. fortunately              G. overlooked              H. track              I. extend              J. solution              K. bowing

Climate protests drew millions around the world in September. Many of the Democratic presidential candidates have rolled out ambitious plans to cut carbon while making the economy greener. And yet a leading cause of climate change remains persistently     1    : clothing.

The clothing and footwear industry is responsible for 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Without intervention (干预), the industry’s impact on the climate is on     2     to increase by almost half by 2030.

Clothes are easy to     3     because they are made far away and have throughout history been made by low-paid laborers. But clothing affects every other environmental problem we care about. A cotton T-shirt requires thousands of gallons of water to make. And when the polyester or nylon clothes get washed, they junk up our oceans with microplastic pollution.

But     4    , some clothing companies are waking up to the climate crisis. A growing number of brands are     5     to grass-roots pressure and consumer surveys that show that sustainability and ethics are top concerns for young shoppers.

But fashion can’t go green by itself. It won’t even make a dent (凹痕) in the problem without international cooperation and mainstream     6    .

The clothing industry, like most industries, is also     7     reliant on fossil fuels. They’re used to fire up boilers in textile mills, to make the pesticides dumped onto cotton fields and to produce the gobs of chemicals that dye and finish fabrics. Getting clothing off oil will not be easy.

Consumers have an important part to play in making fashion sustainable. We can work to     8     the life of all clothes by switching more of our purchases to secondhand and online resale, renting for special occasions, and repairing clothes instead of throwing them away.

We need activists, journalists, scientists and academics who focus on sustainability to include clothing in their work. And we need government action and innovative policy that addresses the global impact of the stuff we buy. For example, France has passed a bill     9     the destruction of unsold clothing.

But first we need all people who care about climate change to understand that they’re part of the problem and the     10    , just by wearing clothes.

6 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

What Can One City Do?

People around the world are concerned about global warming and are talking about ways to stop it. The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States, is doing more than just talking. Cambridge wants to become a world leader in energy-efficient buildings.

Today, Naema Omar is improving her 80-year-old house in Cambridge. To keep the heat inside in the winter, she is filling the space inside the walls with insulation(绝缘). Insulation is usually made from chemicals, but in her house, she is using     1     new - insulation made from recycled blue jeans and other clothes. She has also put in a new type of light called an LED lamp    2     uses only a tiny amount of electricity. The light-bulbs in it last for 20 to 30 years before needing     3     (change).

But eco-friendly insulation and lighting are much more expensive than the usual kind     4     many people in Cambridge can’t afford them. A group called Cambridge Energy Alliance (CEA)     5     (work) to solve this problem. They want to help every resident and business in the city conserve energy. People can ask the group to come and look at     6     they can make their house or office building eco-friendly. The CEA then makes them a plan to save 15 to 30 percent on heating, gas, water, and electricity. Then the group help people borrow money to pay for the improvements. The money that people save by being     7     (efficient) should be enough to pay back the loan.

It was ten years ago that the city of Cambridge decided to try to reduce its carbon emissions. More than 80 percent of the carbon dioxide     8     (produce) in Cambridge comes from buildings - not from cars     9     successful, the program will not only save a lot of energy but also make new jobs for local people. Workers    10     (need) to put in insulation, install better doors and windows, and make other energy improvements on buildings. The CEA hopes that their program will be an example for other cities.

7 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

On Horseback Among the Eagle Hunters

A. bond        B. covered        C. outwardly        D. demanding       E. famed F. currently        G. deserted        H. traditionally        I. accessing        J. extent K. tending

Nine-year-old Dastan, the son of a Kazakh (哈萨克族) eagle hunter, rode his pony alongside mine, running effortlessly without a saddle (马鞍) and giggling at my attempts to show my pony some affection. Surrounding us was the vast,     1     landscape of the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia, with a dusting of snow heralding the arrival of winter.

I spent almost three years living and working in northern Iraq, where I     2     the country’s efforts to defeat the Islamic State (伊斯兰国). In October 2019, I began working on a personal photography project. My goal was to explore the relationships between animals and the people whose livelihoods depend on them. To start, I flew to western Mongolia to meet and photograph the iconic Kazakh hunters, horsemen and animal herders (牧人).

Deep in the Altai Mountains, the Kazakh people have for centuries developed a special     3     with golden eagles. Alankush, an eagle hunter, said he looks after his eagle “as if she were a baby.” The ancient custom of hunting with eagles on horseback is     4     passed down from father to son and is considered a great source of pride.

In recent generations, many Kazakh families have migrated from the countryside to the country’s urban areas. This is partly because of the difficulties in     5     health care, education, social services and employment opportunities. Among those who have stayed, the ancient practice has provided an additional source of income from the visitors who pay to see the     6     birds in action.

Training and caring for golden eagles is just one aspect of an animal herder’s life. Others include training young horses,     7     sheep, and butchering meat. The daily demands of a traditional herding family’s life can leave little time for additional education. In response to their physically     8     lifestyles, parents who work as herders often send their children to boarding schools. They hope that their children will secure a more comfortable future. Paradoxically, such parental ambitions may result in the eventual disappearance of a culture and way of life that has survived for generations.

    9    , documenting the traditional ways of life in western Mongolia stands in contrast to my time spent photographing scenes of conflict and suffering in Iraq. The two subjects, however, share a common theme: the human struggle not just to survive, but to build a better future for oneself and one’s family. Despite the differences in the surroundings and the     10     of the challenges faced by the people I met, I felt a connection with the Kazakh horsemen, through our mutual affection for horses.

8 . How Much Exercise Your Dog Really Needs

Is a walk around the block or playing fetch in the backyard enough for your pooch? If your dog could talk this is what she would tell you.

You’re barking up the wrong tree

Family tree that is. Hundreds of years of breed-specific genetics run through your dog’s veins, and it’s best to cater to their genetics for optimal mental and physical health.     1    . On the other hand, some toy breeds, such as the Shih Tzu and Pekinese, prefer snuggle time over leash time—these breeds were bred to be lap dogs for royalty. Here’s your official guide for picking the best dog for your family.

I gotta move!

Sorry, a quick game of fetch while you sit on the sofa or letting your dog out in the backyard to do her business doesn’t hit the mark. And if your fur baby isn’t getting enough exercise, you’ll notice it in weight gain.     2     Sore joints lead to decreased mobility so that it can be a vicious cycle. Also, a lack of exercise can cause a ho-hum attitude towards toys and training, and serious health conditions like and diabetes. Does your pooch need to lose a few pounds? Start with these proven weight loss tips for your chunky fur baby.

But keep an eye on my states

    3     “You need to monitor and listen to your pet during walks and runs to make sure they’re not having trouble, ”says Jennifer Freeman, DVM, PetSmart resident veterinarian, and pet care expert. If you notice your furbaby seems totally exhausted, is panting heavily, has an altered gait, or his tongue is limp and dangling, it’s time to dial it back. And if he seems really out of it after a walk or playtime, pull back on the amount of exercise for next time. Find out the signs your “healthy” pup is sick.

Could we stop and smell the roses today?

No doubt, walking is a tried and true way to exercise your dog (and great for you too), but the same ole walk is nothing to howl over. Walking can serve a dual-purpose when mental stimulation is offered. “Allow your dog to sniff the ground, the bushes, trees, etc. and use the walk for training opportunities like checking in, recall, and sitting at the crosswalks,” says Erin Askeland, a certified canine behavior consultant and at Camp Bow Wow. Remember, dogs sleep between 12 to 14 hours a day and most spend their day relaxing, especially if they are left at home alone during the day or crated.     4    .

A．Just like with humans, extra weight strains your pooch’s heart and joints.

B．Here are some smart ways to keep your pooch occupied while you’re at the office.

C．For example, dogs that were bred to herd, pull carts, or hunt will need more exercise because historically, their days were filled with activity and their bodies were made to move more often.

D．Puppies seem to have limitless energy and play longer and faster than older dogs, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready for all types of exercise.

E．Some dogs easily tire while others have a “can’t-stop-won’t-stop” attitude so you’ll have to watch for signs of overexertion.

F．It’s important to provide mental exercise for your pup in addition to the physical.

9 . At first, the grains of rice that Ingo Potrykus held in his fingers did not seem at all _________, but inside, these grains were not white, as ordinary rice is, but a very pale yellow — thanks to beta-carotene (胡萝卜素), a building block for vitamin A.

For more than a decade Potrykus had _________ creating a golden rice that could improve the lives of millions of the poorest people in the world, strengthening their eyesight and their _________ disease.

_________ imagining golden rice was one thing and creating one quite another. Year after year, Potrykus and his colleagues ran into one _________ after another until success finally came in the spring of 1999.

At that point, he tackled an even greater challenge. The golden grains _________ pieces of DNA borrowed from bacteria and flowers. It was what some would call Frankenfood, a product of genetic engineering. As such, it _________ a web of hopes and fears.

The debate began the moment genetically engineered crops (GM crops) were first sold in the 1990s, and it has _________ ever since. First to start major protests against biotechnology were European environmentalists and consumer-advocacy groups. They were soon followed by their U.S. counterparts (相对应的人事物).

The hostility is _________. Most of the GM crops __________ so far have been developed to produce a plant that is not harmed by chemicals used to kill weeds (杂草) in the fields. These genetically engineered crops are often sold by the same large, multinational corporations that __________ the weed-killing chemicals that farmers spray on their fields. Consumers have become suspicious (怀疑的).

The benefits did seem small __________ golden rice was developed. It is the first strong example of a GM crop that may __________ not just the farmers who grow it but also the consumers who eat it. In this case, those include at least a million children who die every year because they are weakened by vitamin-A deficiency (缺乏) and an additional 350,000 who go blind.

Many people __________ poverty and hunger look at golden rice and see it as evidence that GM crops can be made to serve the greater public good. They see a critical role for GM crops in feeding the world’s ever-increasing population. As former U.S. President Jimmy Carter put it, “Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy; __________ is.”

1.

A．typical

B．special

C．local

D．white

2.

A．dreamed of

B．come in handy

C．been reminded of

D．broken up

3.

A．attempt at

B．effort to

C．resistance to

D．majority of

4.

A．But

B．And

C．While

D．Since

5.

A．surprise

B．obstacle

C．norm

D．opposition

6.

A．achieved

B．stressed

C．overlooked

D．contained

7.

A．was caught in

B．was alive with

C．be conscious of

D．was honored by

8.

A．announced

B．maintained

C．escalated

D．applied

9.

A．brilliant

B．understandable

C．discharged

D．rewarding

10.

A．introduced

B．reminded

C．respected

D．overlooked

11.

A．toss and turn

B．give and take

C．produce and sell

D．demand and supply

12.

A．until

B．after

C．although

D．when

13.

A．feature

B．mark

C．build

D．benefit

14.

A．worried about

B．ashamed of

C．filled with

D．admired for

15.

A．terror

B．misery

C．starvation

D．crisis

10 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. claimed     B. evacuate     C. fabrics     D. regular     E. significantly     F. sink G. rainstorms     H. similar     I. initially     J. swallowing     K. thought

“It was a wave of water,” says Oulimata Sambe. She points out the still-sodden(湿透的) armchairs, muddy wardrobe and the water stain a metre and a half up the wall in her small house in Ngor, a fishing village within Dakar, the capital of Senegal. “I had two grandkids on my bed, I had to     1     them out of the window,” she adds. Not faraway, underpasses on Dakar’s scenic corniche(滨海路) became car-    2     lakes. Just weeks earlier another downpour had turned quiet streets in Dakar into raging rivers and collapsed a section of motorway.

    3     events regularly occur across the region. Recent flooding and landslides also killed eight people in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. In June flooding killed 12 people in Abidjan, the commercial capital of Ivory Coast. Floods in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital,     4     another seven lives. Even when they are not deadly, city floods ruin lives and livelihoods. Storm water recently flooded the biggest textile(纺织业) market in Kano, a city in northern Nigeria, destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of     5    .

Unusually heavy rains have become     6     more common over the past 30 years, leaving huge numbers of people at risk. In places this is partly because of deforestation. A recent study by Christopher Taylor of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, a research institute, and his coauthors found that afternoon     7     in deforested parts of coastal west Africa happen twice as often compared with 30 years ago. Their frequency went up by only about a third in places that kept their forests.

Yet     8     flooding of cities in west Africa is not only caused by heavier rain. Unplanned urbanization is also to blame. As cities have grown, builders have thrown up concrete walls with little     9     about providing drainage, making it harder for water to find a clear path to the sea. As ever larger areas have been paved over, there has been less exposed soil into which water can gently     10     away. And as cites get more packed with new arrivals, their few functioning drains get overwhelmed or clogged.