Jane Brown sat carefully putting papers into a folder. She had been at the Gateway Nature Center’s office all morning and was tired of filing. She wanted desperately to work with the animals. She had been a weekend volunteer that whole school year and had done extensive research, reading books and websites on natural history. But her mom, who was the assistant director of the center, said Jane was still too young.
Suddenly, the quiet was broken by Amy bursting in. She had been a volunteer a bit longer than Jane and wandered around like she owned the place. “Hurry up, Jane,” she ordered. Jane willed herself to remain still and just smiled back.
Just then, Jane’s mother rushed into the room with Mr. White, the manager. “The hurricane is now approaching the Gulf Shore Preserve,” Mrs. Brown reported. “It needs help preparing for it. I have to go down there with the staff. We’ll take the bridge, so we shouldn’t be gone long. I need you girls to help Mr. White get the storm shutters (护窗) down in the aviary (鸟舍). Then, stay inside with Mr. White. Call me on my cellphone if there’re any problems,” Mrs. Brown directed as she rushed out. Jane was excited to have an opportunity to help the birds.
Amy announced she was now “in charge”. Jane smiled again, saying nothing. Mr. White and the girls worked quickly and were soon back inside. But when Mr. White called Jane’s mother, a worried expression crossed his face. “A storm has flooded the bridge, and they’re stuck there. Also, the storm is heading our way,” he said. Amy was frightened. After silently considering for a few seconds, Jane said calmly, “We should move the birds to the reptile house (爬行动物馆). It’s on higher ground.” Mr. White and Amy nodded. They rushed out of the building. Once inside the aviary, Jane watched Amy lunge (猛冲) from cage to cage.
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1.
Jane told Amy not to jump around so much because the birds would be scared by her sudden movements.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2.
After several hours, the storm stopped, and Mrs. Brown was able to return to the center.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________THE GROWING PROBLEM OF E-WASTE
The term e-waste is short for “electronic waste”. It refers to electrical or electronic products that are thrown away when they are no longer needed. These include computers, televisions, ovens, and basically anything else that runs on batteries or has an electrical cord.
E-waste has been a problem since the 1970s because of how difficult it is to separate things like metal and plastic from various products. Also, many electronics contain toxic materials that can pollute the environment if left in landfills. Over the past few decades, the problem of e-waste has only increased along with advancements in technology.
E-waste is now the fastest-growing waste stream around the world. The total amount of e-waste created every year is expected to reach 74 million tons by the year 2030. Currently, it’s estimated that only about 17 percent of global e-waste is properly recycled. However, the United Nations hopes to bring that number up to 30 percent by the end of 2023.
With more people using smartphones and computers every year, the problem of e-waste cannot be ignored. To increase the recycling rate of e-waste items, cities should consider adding special collection boxes at grocery stores or government offices. There should also be delivery or pick-up services for e-waste items. That way, these items can be sent directly to people who are able to properly take them apart and recover their useful components.
Despite current difficulties, e-waste has great recycling potential. In addition to the items thrown away, lots of people keep old devices that aren’t used anymore. As a whole, they add up to a lot of metals and minerals that can, and should, be recycled. If these components are recycled to make new products, there would be less of a need to dig for more around the world.
So, if you must replace your phone or computer, try returning the device to the manufacturer or dropping it off at an e-waste processing facility if there is one nearby.
1. What does “electronic waste” refer to?2. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?
3. Decide which part of the following statement is wrong. Underline it and explain why.
▶In order to reduce e-waste, people had better keep old devices that aren’t used anymore or drop them off in special collection boxes.
4. Apart from the ways mentioned in the passage, please share your way(s) to reduce e-waste. (About 40 words)
Construction of the Tower of Pisa began in 1173
Dean Schneider leaves his life in Switzerland behind and goes to Africa
The Zuojiang Huasha rock paintings, from South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,
The main painted area along the cliff (悬崖) has a width of about 170 metres and a
The paintings were originally thought
Helen and her family moved to a new location in the city. Helen was excited because most of her friends lived in the same street.
It was the first morning in their new house. She woke up early that day and went out on her balcony (阳台). She was expecting wonderful, lovely birds and beautiful greenery with fresh air, but instead it was the complete opposite. There was garbage right outside their front gate. There were no trees and instead of the sweet chirping (鸟叫声) of birds, there were annoying g traffic noises. Helen was angry. “What is this? Why can’t someone do anything about it?” she thought. She went inside the living room. She sat at the dining table, thinking about what she could do about the pollution in her locality.
The next day at school, she went into her class and asked loudly, “Who’s fed up with stinking garbage?” This caught many students’ attention. “Who’s fed up with air pollution and the diseases spread by it?” This time many students answered, “Me!” Helen smiled and then said, “We must clean our surroundings. So help me get rid of the garbage. Help me pick it up! That’s the best thing we can do. We will all go to other classes and ask if they want to join us. I am sure as long as we work together, our community will become a better place!”
In the break time, they all went to other classes, and by the end of the school day, Helen had gathered almost 25 students ready to help her. The day before cleaning, the students took out their pocket money and bought garbage bags, masks and gloves.
注意：1. 续写词数应为120左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The big day came and the students gathered at the school gate.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Soon the headmaster knew what the students did.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . This week I watched an international news program and saw what looked like most of the planet—the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia—painted in bright oranges and reds. Fahrenheit (华氏温度的) temperatures in three-digit numbers seemed to burn all over on the world map.
Heat records have burst around the globe. This very weekend, crops are burning, roads are bending and seas are rising, while lakes recede, or even disappear. Ice sheets melt in rising heat, and wildfires attack forests. People are dying in this heat. Lives of all kinds are threatened, in cities, fields, seas, deserts and forests. Wildlife, farm animals, insects and human beings are in pain.
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says there is more deadly heat in our future because of climate change caused by our species on this planet. Even with advances in wind, solar and other alternative energy sources, and international promises and agreements, the world still derives about 80% of its energy from fossil fuels, like oil, gas and coal, which release the carbon dioxide that’s warmed the climate to the current temperatures of this hot summer. The WMO’s chief, Petteri Taalas, said this week, “In the future these kinds of heatwaves are going to be normal.”
The most alarming word in his forecast might be: “normal.” I’m of a generation that thought of summer as a sunny time for children. I think of long days spent outdoors without worry, playing games or just wandering. John Updike wrote in his poem, “June”:
The sun is rich
And gladly pays
In golden hours,
Silver days,
And long green weeks
That never end.
School’s out. The time
Is ours to spend.
There’s Little League,
Hopscotch, the creek,
And, after supper,
Hide-and-seek.
The live-long light
Is like a dream...
But now that bright, “live-long light,” of which Updike wrote, might look threatening in a summer like this.
The extremely hot weeks that we see this year cause one to wonder if our failures to care for the planet given to us will make our children look forward to summer, or fear another season of heat.
1. What does the underlined word “derive” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?| A．Get. | B．Reduce. | C．Waste. | D．Save. |
| A．alternative energy is the solution to climate change |
| B．the heatwaves are caused by the advanced technology |
| C．agreements need to be signed to deal with climate change |
| D．use of traditional energy is responsible for the heatwaves |
| A．To describe the beauty of summer. |
| B．To indicate the end of happy summers. |
| C．To compare different feelings about summer. |
| D．To suggest ways for children to spend summer. |
| A．What leads to a hot summer | B．Children are afraid of summer |
| C．Burning summers are the future | D．How we can survive a hot summer |
8 . South Africa’s viniculture industry employs around 270,000 people, producing some of the world’s most sought-after wines. But not all jobs are best left to humans. In some cases, it’s better to get your ducks in a row, and then put them to work.
Outside Cape Town on the banks of the Eerste river, Vergenoegd Löw, the Wine Estate, has repurposed a centuries-old practice by gathering a group of ducks to keep its vineyards free of pests. “I call our ducks the soldiers of our vineyards,” says managing director Corius Visser. “They will eat aphids, they will eat snails, they will eat small worms—they keep (it) completely pest-free.”
The species, the Indian runner duck, is flightless, with a peculiarly upright stance and highly developed sense of smell. The duck troops are employed on a 14-day circuit through the vineyards, eating and fertilizing the ground as they go.
The ducks’ “annual leave” takes place during the harvest (they’d eat the grapes). During this time they search for food on open farm pasture, swim in a nearby lake and undergo selective breeding, says Visser.
Duck eggs are consumed in the vineyard restaurant, but never the ducks themselves—“that would be like eating a colleague,” Gavin Moyes, the estate’s tasting room manager, said in a 2020 interview.
Inspired by ducks used to remove pests from rice paddies in Asia, the winery calls on the services of some 1,600 ducks as part of its effort to make wine production more sustainable. “The world is moving away from more conventional farming to (being) a bit more organic,” Visser explains. “For Vergenoegd, it’s a big goal … to have less influence on the Earth, the soil and the environment.”
As a pioneering winemaker with industry influence—vines have been grown on the estate since the late 17th century—Vergenoegd Löw is hoping to convince others to adopt its approach. Visser says the vineyard plans to sell 750 ducks to other vineyards and replenish numbers by breeding the birds.
“I think the industry itself has the potential to engage more in experimental ways,” he adds. That requires money, and increasing the price point of South African wines could help fund Vergenoegd Löw and other vineyards’ green initiatives.
“If we can achieve that, we can then put back some of that (income) into our people, into our land, and become more sustainable,” Visser says.
1. What’s the function of the ducks in the vineyards?| A．To keep the vineyards free of pests. | B．To guard the vineyards from thieves. |
| C．To make the vineyards more attractive. | D．To provide eggs and meat for the vineyard restaurant. |
| A．help harvest the grapes | B．have a sharp sense of taste |
| C．fly around the vineyard freely | D．leave the vineyard at a certain time |
| A．More vineyards will have duck “soldiers”. |
| B．The price point of South African wines will fall. |
| C．The vineyards will depend more on conventional farming. |
| D．The winery will come up with more ways to experiment on ducks. |
| A．Efficient. | B．Advanced. | C．Challenging. | D．Green. |
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SG01: 8 Days Small Group Tour of Beijing—Xi’an—ShanghaiTour Type: Small Group of maxium 18 travelers, guaranteed departures with English and local guides
Accommodation: 7 nights at good 5 star hotels
Must-see sights in China: Mutianyu Great Wall—Forbidden City—Terracotta Army—the Huangpu River
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Must-see sights in China: the Confucian Temple—the Kong Family Mansion—the Inscription Exhibition Hall—Confucian Cemetery—the Nishan Sacredland—the Ming Ancient City Wall—the Confucius Six Classical Arts City
Accommodation: 1 night at good 5-star hotels, 2 nights at B & B Hotels
Price: From US $ 1829 US $ 1676
Popular Destinations in Africa
Africa owns a large variety of wildlife reserves, natural landscapes and amazing deserts.
SG30: 4 Days Egypt ToursTour Type: Small Group of maximum 12 travelers, guaranteed departures
Accommodation: 3 nights at good 5-star hotels
Must-see sights in Egypt: the Great Pyramids—the Great Sphinx—the Nile River
Price: From $1829 $ 1646
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Accommodation: Carefully selected camps & lodges in national parks
Must-see sights in Kenya: Nairobi—Amboseli Lake Nakuru—Lake Naivasha—Hell’s Gate
Price: From $ 3829 $3646
1. Which tour can have the most travelers?| A．SG01. | B．SG25. | C．SG30. | D．TKY 101. |
| A．Its tour type. | B．Its original price. |
| C．Its wild sights. | D．Its guide’s experience. |
| A．In Beijing. | B．In Qufu. | C．In Egypt. | D．In Kenya. |
10 . When a tiny glass frog sleeps, its body becomes so transparent that it almost cannot be seen. The frog’s glass-clear skin makes no shadows. Even the red blood disappears. It’s an unusual trick—most see-through animals live in water all the time, which don’t produce red blood cells.
But when the frogs are active, blood begins to flow again, forming a pattern of bright red that can be seen. So, scientists set out to discover what happens to all that blood.
In a new study, researchers found out how, while sleeping, a glass frog sends most of the red blood cells to its liver(肝脏). In the process, the liver grows in size by about 40% to accommodate the extra cells. Like its heart and some other organs, the frog’s liver is covered in a mirrored part, which reflects lights, that helps the frog hide itself from enemies.
“If these frogs are awake, stressed or under anesthesia(麻醉), their blood systems are full of red blood cells, and they are not transparent,” explains an expert. “The only way to study transparency is when these animals are happily asleep, which is difficult to achieve in a research lab.”
Luckily, there is an imaging technology which can check red blood cells without breaking the skin of frogs. The team used this technique on frogs while they were sleeping. They found the animals moved a shocking 89% of their red blood cells to their livers while sleeping.
How exactly these frogs can pack their red blood cells together without getting blood clots (血栓) remains a mystery. Most other animals’ blood becomes very thick if the cells bump into each other, which can help cure a wound or—in a worse situation—stop blood from flowing to important areas. Understanding more about how the frogs stay healthy while jam-packing their livers with red blood cells could help advance blood clot research in humans.
1. Why are the glass frogs unusual?| A．They are very tiny. |
| B．They can be nearly invisible. |
| C．They live in the water all the time. |
| D．They don’t produce red blood cells. |
| A．It takes in lights. | B．It expands in size. |
| C．It gets blood clots. | D．It functions like a heart. |
| A．To stop blood from flowing. |
| B．To check the red blood cells. |
| C．To measure the frogs’ movement. |
| D．To put the frogs to a proper state for study. |
| A．Blood clots cause many deaths for humans. |
| B．Scientists have learned the secret of glass frogs. |
| C．Further study will probably be made on glass frogs. |
| D．Packing red blood cells together is harmful to animals. |
