1 . When you turn on the tap (水龙头) in your house, water comes out. This water has _________ a long way. This water comes from rain in the sky. The _________ that water arrives to the tap in your house is called the “water supply”.

Most of the water on the earth is in the _________. This water has a lot of salt in it. We cannot drink this water. Salt water makes us ill. But when the sun shines, it _________ a part of the ocean. This water rises up to make clouds in the sky. The more water rises up, the heavier and larger the clouds become. The clouds will get so heavy and large that they will change colour from white to _________. The water will fall down into rivers and lakes _________ rain and travel back to the sea. This is called the “water cycle”. We use half of the rain water _________ falls over the earth.

There are parts of the world where there is _________ fresh water. In the Arab countries, salt water can be made safe to drink. This is done by freezing or boiling it. The salt is left _________ and the clean water is then taken off. This process (过程) is very __________, but in some areas this is the only way to get clean drinking water.

1.

A．pulled

B．jumped

C．rushed

D．travelled

2.

A．way

B．path

C．method

D．condition

3.

A．stream

B．ocean

C．river

D．lake

4.

A．takes in

B．gives off

C．heats up

D．cools down

5.

A．purple

B．grey

C．blue

D．pink

6.

A．on

B．with

C．as

D．in

7.

A．it

B．that

C．this

D．what

8.

A．few

B．much

C．enough

D．little

9.

A．behind

B．alone

C．forward

D．off

10.

A．rapid

B．cheap

C．simple

D．expensive

2 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What is the conversation mainly about?

A．How bees find the direction.

B．How bees provide food for others.

C．How bees share information with each other.

2. How does the bee show the food is nearby?

A．By going around in circles.

B．By pointing toward it.

C．By flying fast.

3. What do we know about the man?

A．He is a student.

B．He is studying biology.

C．He is interested in insects.

3 . A Natural History of the Future

Over the past century, humans have made great technological achievements with which we have found ways to control nature. From river dams (大坝)to huge one-crop fields, we continue to try to change nature for our goals so much that it seems we may be in danger of influencing it seriously.

In A Natural History of the Future, biologist Rob Dunn thinks that nothing could be further from the truth: rather than asking whether nature will let us live, we’d better ask whether we will let nature last. Although we try our best, or worst, to control the biological world, life has its own laws, and no matter what man does, he cannot change them.

Explaining several basic laws of ecology (生态), Dunn shows why life cannot be stopped. We grow one single crop on the field, only to find new life appearing to attack them. We throw away poisonous (有毒的) waste, only to find microbes (微生物) taking it over. And even in the London Tube, we have seen a new type of mosquito appear to take advantage of a place that is clearly not fit to live. Life will not follow our plans. Instead, Dunn shows us the future of living things and the challenges that the next generation may face.

A Natural History of the Future sets a new standard for understanding the different kinds of life and our future as a kind of creature.

Weight: 478g

Size: 223 ×146 ×33mm

Price:£ 25.00

Ways to Buy: They can be got in bookstores and online.

1. What does the author think of humans’ scientific achievements?

A．They help humans beat nature.

B．They do good to nature in many ways.

C．They may change nature too much.

D．They are developed too slowly.

2. Which of the following agrees with the idea in the book?

A．Living things like poisonous waste.

B．Life will be out of control in the future.

C．Life can live in any living conditions.

D．Living things have their own rules to follow.

3. Who may be most probably interested in the book introduced in the text?

A．Historians.

B．Naturalists.

C．Businessmen.

D．Artists.

4 . The Alps’ glaciers (冰川) are on track for their highest mass losses in at least 60 years of record keeping, data shared with Reuters shows. By looking at the difference in how much snow fell in winter, and how much ice melts in summer, scientists can measure how much a glacier has shrunk in any given year.

Since last winter, which brought relatively little snowfall, the Alps have gone through two big early summer heatwaves—including one in July marked by temperatures near 30ºC in the Swiss mountain village of Zermatt. During this heatwave, the elevation (海拔) at which water froze was measured at a record high of 5,184 meters—at an altitude higher than Mont Blanc’s—compared with the normal summer level of between 3,000 - 3,500 meters.

Most of the world’s mountain glaciers are shrinking due to climate change. But those in the European Alps are especially vulnerable (脆弱的) because they are smaller with relatively little ice cover. Meanwhile, temperatures in the Alps are warming at around 0.3ºC per decade—around twice as fast as the global average.

If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the Alps’ glaciers are expected to lose more than 80% of their current mass by 2100. Many will disappear regardless of whatever action is taken now, thanks to global warming baked in by past emissions, according to a 2019 report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Swiss residents worry that the glacier losses will hurt their economy. Some ski resorts of the Alps, which rely on these glaciers, now cover themselves with white sheets to reflect sunlight and reduce melting. Swiss glaciers feature in many of the country’s fairy tales, and the Aletsch Glacier is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site. “Losing the glaciers means losing our national heritage and our identity,” said hiker Bernardin Chavaillaz.

1. What happened to the elevation at which water froze in the Alps?

A．It remained unchanged.	B．It increased sharply.
C．It reached a new low.	D．It dropped noticeably.

2. What’s the main purpose of paragraph 3?

A．To show temperatures are rising in the Alps.

B．To prove climate change leads to heatwaves.

C．To explain why the Alps’ glaciers are in danger.

D．To predict what will happen to the Alps’ glaciers.

3. What did Bernardin Chavaillaz express in the last paragraph?

A．His advice on protecting glaciers.	B．His confusion in finding his identity.
C．His concern over the loss of glaciers.	D．His interest in improving the economy.

4. What would be the best title for the text?

A．Glaciers in the Alps Are Disappearing Rapidly

B．Climate Change Is Presenting a Threat to the Alps

C．Summer Heatwaves Hit the Alps More Frequently

D．Measures Are Needed to Protect the Alps’ Glaciers

5 . Arctic sea ice has been steadily decreasing since the beginning of satellite records in 1979, but a new study comes with a chilling prediction: By the end of this century, Arctic sea ice may disappear during the summer, which could drive polar bears and other ice-dependent species to extinction (灭绝).

The “Last Ice Area” is a region containing the oldest, thickest Arctic ice. It spans an area of more than 1 millon square kilometers from the western coast of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago to Greenland’s northern coast. When scientists named the 4-meter-thick ice region, they thought it would last for decades.

But now, under both the most optimistic and pessimistic scenarios (情形) for warming linked to climate change, the sea ice will severely thin by 2050. The most optimistic scenario, in which carbon emissions (排放) are immediately curbed to prevent the worst warming, could result in a limited part of the ice surviving in the region. In the most pessimistic scenario, in which emissions continue at their current rate of increase, the summer ice—and the polar bears and seals that live on it—could disappear by 2100, researchers reported in a new study.

“Unfortunately, this is a massive experiment we’re doing,” study co-author Robert Newton, a senior research scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said in a statement. “If the year-round ice goes away, entire ice-dependent ecosystems will break apart, and something new will begin.”

As carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases increasingly contribute to the warming of the atmosphere, the past 15 years has brought the lowest 15 sea-ice extents (范围) in the satellite record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Worse still, the NSIDC reports that the amount of older, thicker Arctic ice that has survived at least one melt season is at a record low. A more noticeable decrease in ice coverage could have a serious effect on the lives of the creatures that live on, or under, the shifting ice network, including photosynthetic algae, tiny crustaceans, fish, seals, narwhals, bowhead whales and polar bears.

1. What will be a great threat to the ice-dependent species in the Arctic according to the study?

A．The cold weather.	B．The increasing competitors.
C．The loss of their natural living environment.	D．The serious pollution of the ocean water there.

2. What does the underlined word “curbed” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Recorded.

B．Controlled.

C．Determined.

D．Predicted.

3. What does the author intend to express in the last paragraph?

A．His concern about the Arctic creatures’ future.

B．His surprise at the great amount of Arctic ice.

C．His curiosity about the reasons for low sea-ice extents.

D．His doubt about the obvious decrease in ice coverage.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Small Ice Coverage Has Negative Effects	B．Polar Bears Could Become Extinct
C．Greenhouse Gases Lead to Global W arming	D．“Last Ice Area” Is on the Decrease

6 . Earth is in the middle of an insect crisis, with thousands of species declining over the past several decades. Scientists have often blamed habitat loss or pesticide (杀虫剂) use. But a new study of butterflies in the western United States has found that warmer fall weather may be an equal, if not more, of a factor.

Over the past four decades, more than 450 butterfly species have declined at an average rate of nearly 2 percent a year, according to a study published in Science. It's already known that the western monarch butterfly has plummeted in population by 99.9 percent and was recently denied protection by the U.S. Endangered Species Act. But the study revealed lesser-known species, like the Boisduval's blue and California's state insect, the California dogface butterfly, are heading toward extinction.

"The influence of climate change is driving those declines, which makes sense because they're so widespread," says study leader Matthew Forister. To reach their troubling findings, the researchers combined databases of butterfly counts conducted by scientists and amateur insect enthusiasts at 72 locations in the western U.S. To focus on the contribution of climate change, the researchers made sure to include locations that were relatively undisturbed by agriculture and human development to limit the influence of other threats to butterflies such as habitat loss and pesticides.

More than 200 cities across the U.S. are experiencing warmer fall seasons. In Arizona, for instance, fall temperatures have risen by 0.2 degree Fahrenheit every decade since 1895. As for why warming falls are so harmful, it may be connected to butterflies' hibernation-like diapause (像冬眠般的滞育) in the fall. Warmer temperatures could be forcing the insects, most of which live around a year, to stay awake longer and starve. In other words, they're "getting old and fragile and dying sooner".

Given that butterflies are key pollinators (传粉者), such declines predict bigger problems for plants and even whole ecosystems, Forister adds. "The climate effects will almost certainly affect many other insects, including bees." And these effects will "damage" efforts to protect and restore butterfly habitat.

1. What does the underlined word "plummeted" mean in Paragraph 2?

A．Recovered slowly.	B．Decreased sharply.
C．Escaped suddenly.	D．Evolved rapidly.

2. What did the researchers do in Paragraph 3?

A．They ruled out the effects of human activities.

B．They tried to protect the habitat of butterflies.

C．They refused to use amateurs' science data.

D．They identified other threats to butterflies.

3. How do warming falls affect butterflies?

A．They affect butterflies' natural life cycle.

B．They slow down butterflies' aging process.

C．They cause butterflies to lose more habitats.

D．They force butterflies to compete for survival.

4. What is the main purpose of the text?

A．To discuss the importance of butterfly species.

B．To suggest a way to fight against climate change.

C．To introduce new methods of studying butterflies.

D．To present a new factor in a species population decline.

7 . Leg over leg, a furry brownish — black spider pulls on a single silk thread, tightening the frame of its web. It pulls and pulls and it waits. Minutes pass, sometimes hours. Then, when an unsuspecting insect flies by, the spider releases the thread, springing itself and its satellite-shaped web toward its prey. All of this happens in the blink of an eye.

Those eye-watering numbers led Georgia Tech chemical engineer Saad Bhamla to wonder: How are these tiny spiders achieving such fast movements? Then he started to investigate. He checked the literature and found only a few papers. The papers were decades old and only described the slingshot motion, not the speeds or G-forces the spiders experienced. So Bhamla enlisted the help of his assistant, Symone Alexander, and together they “went out hunting for spiders in the Amazon rainforest,” Alexander says.

After locating one of the spiders, which measures roughly 2 millimeters in length, the researchers would set up portable high-speed cameras with special lenses and record its motions. Then, either Alexander or Bhamla would snap their fingers to get the spider to launch itself through the air. Only later did the pair learn that a human finger-snap closely matches the frequency of a buzzing mosquito and that seemed to be the only frequency that set the spiders' spring off. “It's just amazing that we can snap our fingers and get this magical thing,” Bhamla says.

Analyzing the footage, Alexander and Bhamla could watch exactly how the spider adjusted itself on the tension line at the front of its web. The speed and acceleration of this spider are impressive, but so is the fact that, unlike most web-building spiders, it's actively hunting, Bhamla says. “It's changed the function of its web, “ he says. “Instead of waiting for something to bump into it, the spider is going after things . . . actually catching flying insects in midair.”

1. What does the underlined word “prey”refer to?

A．The web.	B．The thread.
C．The insect.	D．The spider.

2. What does the first paragraph mainly describe?

A．How a tiny spider achieves such fast movements.

B．How a tiny spider catches an unsuspecting insect.

C．What a tiny spider does to tighten the frame of its web.

D．Why a tiny spider uses the thread to launch itself to hunt.

3. What did the researchers do to capture the motions of the spider?

A．They checked quantities of literature before their hiking.

B．They snapped their fingers acting as a buzzing mosquito.

C．They set up portable high-speed cameras with normal lenses.

D．They watched and analyzed the spider's footprints on the web.

4. Where is this text most likely from?

A．A diary.	B．A guidebook.
C．A magazine.	D．A science fiction.

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。

Geography is the study of the relationship between people and the land. Geographers compare and contrast     1     (variety) places on the earth. But they also go beyond the individual places and consider the earth as a   whole. The word geography comes from two Greek words: ge，the Greek word for "earth" and graphein,     2     means "to write". The English word geography means "to describe the earth". Some geography books focus on a small area like a town or city.     3     deal with a state, a region, a nation, or     4     entire continent. Many geography books deal with the whole earth. Another way     5     (divide) the study of geography is to distinguish between physical geography and cultural geography. The former focuses on the natural world; the latter starts with human beings and studies how human beings and their environment act     6     each other. But when geography is considered as a single subject,     7     branch can neglect the other.A geographer might be described as one who observes, records, and explains the    8     (differ) between places. If all places look alike, there would be little need for geographers.

We know, however,       9     no two places are exactly the same. Geography,   then , is a point of view, a special way of     10     (look) at places.