2 . When the sand began kicking up and hitting our faces, I started to worry that maybe we had made a mistake.

That afternoon, my dad had stood on the deck（露台）of our home and laughed as our neighbors packed up their cars and headed inland. They left to spend the night in motels or at friends’ homes that were out of range of approaching summer storm.

Challenging the weather that threatened to damp our spirits, we lit a fire on the beach. Dad told jokes and we had a good time. When it was 6:30 p.m., all laughter disappeared. Our eyes were drawn to the sky. A tornado（龙卷风）was headed straight for us! In a flash, we were all on our feet. The wind started screaming and now we were running to the cottage. My mom stopped next to the front door. “Where can we go?” She shouted at my dad.

Most cottages on this part of Lake Michigan had been built without basements. Ours was no exception. The huge windows and the cottage itself wouldn’t offer safety from high wind.

“Follow me!” my dad yelled. We crawled（爬）beneath the deck, pressing ourselves against the foundation of the cottage. Between the deck supports, we watched the approaching storm in silent terror.

My dad shouted, “Hold on!” and something else I couldn’t hear over the screaming wind. I think he was praying. By the time it reached our cottage, it was nothing more than a strong wind. The rest of the storm lasted for an hour and then simply blew away.

“Next time, we’ll stay inland at Grandma’s. Okay?” my dad said.

1. What did the family do before the storm came?

A．They sat on the deck.	B．They stayed on the beach.
C．They packed up the cars.	D．They visited their neighbors.

2. Where were they running when the tornado was headed for the family? They were running ________.

A．to the motels	B．to the their friend’s home
C．to the cottage	D．to the beach

3. What does the underlined sentence “Ours was no exception.” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．Our cottage had got a basement.	B．Our cottage hadn’t got a basement.
C．We hadn’t expected to get a cottage.	D．We had expected to get a cottage.

4. What does the text mainly talk about?

A．How the family survived the tornado.	B．What to do in face of a tornado.
C．How important it is to build a basement.	D．How a father protected the family.

3 . When you think of the Arctic, you imagine an icy land of pure white snow, which is considered to be the last really clean place     1    (leave) on Earth. Yet plastic trash has now reached the remote regions of the Arctic and the Alps. A team of     2    (scientist) has discovered large quantities of microplastics(微塑料) — very small pieces of plastic waste — in the Arctic snow. While microplastics have been found in sea-water, drinking water, and even in animals over     3     past several years, this is the first study to show microplastics in snow,     4     indicates it is an airborne pollutant that must be paid attention to. 

The researchers state that microplastics in snow suggest that microplastics may be in the air that we     5    (breath). Therefore, it is really important     6    (assess) if microplastics also reach lung tissues.

Previous research has found that they flow over long distances and into our oceans,     7    (damage) ecosystems along the way. They start in our wastewater, when we wash clothes     8     plastic fibers. The wastewater then flows into rivers and out to sea, where they     9    (eat) by sea animals. If people then eat these animals, it means that we’re     10    (probable) eating the plastic as well.

4 . An extraordinary new restaurant in Semarang, Indonesia is on a mission (使命) to support locals trapped in poverty, many of whom are earning less than $25 a month, by providing them with an alternative way to pay for their food.

The Methane Gas Canteen, run by husband and wife team Sarimin and Suyatmi, is located in an unexpected place for an eatery — Jatibarang Landfill. The landfill is a mountain of purifying waste, where poor locals spend their days collecting plastic and glass to sell. Meanwhile, the couple, who spent 40 years collecting waste before opening the restaurant, is busy cooking.

What makes the restaurant unusual, aside from its location, is that no cash is required to pay for meals. Poor people have the option to pay for their food with recyclable waste instead of cash. Sarimin weighs the plastic customers bring in, calculates its worth, and then deduct that value from the cost of the meal, giving any extra value back to the customer. The scheme is part of the community’s solution to reduce waste in the landfill and recycle non-degradable plastics.

“I think we recycle 1 ton of plastic waste a day, which is a lot. This way, the plastic waste doesn’t pile up, drift down the river and cause flooding,” said Sarimin in an interview with Channel News Asia. “It benefits everyone.”

The restaurant seats about 30 people and serves meals that cost between $0.40 and $0.80 each. Since opening the canteen Sarimin and Suyatmi have seen their daily income more than double to $15 a day.

“I’m happy to see our customers enjoying their meals,” Sarimin told NHK World. “The poor must also have the right to enjoy healthy eating. I want to give them that chance as much as possible.”

1. What do we know about Jatibarang Landfill?

A．An unusual restaurant for people to eat free meals.

B．A mountain where the locals live on selling waste.

C．A place where poor locals collect waste to sell.

D．A plant where waste is recycled.

2. Why did Sarimin and Suyatmi open their restaurant?

A．To double their daily income and profit.

B．To prove waste is a valuable thing.

C．To provide food for locals trying to survive.

D．To help settle the issues of poverty and trash.

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

A．Increase	B．Replace
C．Remove	D．Equal

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．An unusual way to pay for meals.

B．A local mission to help get rid of poverty.

C．A different scheme to reduce waste.

D．A new restaurant getting double income.

5 . Businesses are witnessing a difficult time, which has in turn produced influence on consumers, desire to go green. However, shoppers are still laying stress on environmental concerns.

Two thirds of customers say that environmental considerations inform their purchases to the same degree as they did a year ago, while more than a quarter say that they are now even better aware of the environmental effect on what they buy.

This may help to influence how shops store goods on their shelves. And the companies should still make efforts to become more environmentally friendly. Two out of three people think it is important to buy from environmentally responsible companies, with about one in seven saying that they had even decided to take their custom elsewhere if they felt a company’s environmental reputation was not good enough.

Harry Morrison, chief executive (主管) of the Carbon Trust, sympathizes: “I understand this situation where survival is very important now. But from environmental considerations, the clock is ticking — we don’t have much time. In addition, cutting carbon has an immediate effect as costs drop and a medium-term benefit for the brand.”

Larger companies have an extra motivation to look at reducing their carbon footprint, as new rules next year will require businesses to buy carbon allowances to make up for their emissions (排放). Those that have taken early action will have a head start. More than two thirds of consumers are not clear about which companies are environmentally responsible. This suggests that firms that are able to relay clearly their message to the public will be in a pole position to attract shoppers.

The Carbon Trust believes that it can help by informing customers about the good work companies are doing. “When companies are granted (授予) the standard, they can use a logo (标识) in all their marketing which makes it clear that they are working towards cutting emissions,” Mr. Morrison said.

1. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．Businesses are finding ways to send their message to the shoppers.

B．Companies will soon get information about cutting carbon emissions.

C．Firms are making efforts to encourage customers to keep goods at home.

D．Firms are urged to cut carbon emissions by shoppers, environmental awareness.

2. The underlined word “inform” in Paragraph 2 probably means “      ”.

A．affect	B．change
C．disturb	D．reject

3. According to Harry Morrison, businesses       .

A．will benefit from cutting carbon emissions

B．should buy carbon allowances for shoppers

C．are required to make up for their carbon emissions

D．have encouraged shoppers to take their custom elsewhere

4. We can learn from the passage that businesses will       .

A．have a strong desire to reduce costs

B．use the same logo in their marketing

C．gain advantages by taking early action

D．attract more shoppers by storing goods

6 .

Whenever human populations have lived in forest areas, they have always cut down trees which they used for a number of purposes, for housing and ships and served as a source of heating fuel and timber. Growth of cities often meant expansion into forest areas, while even more trees were removed to provide space for agriculture. With the growing demand for paper, vast quantities of trees have also been cut down for paper production. These factors, along with many others, have been contributing to a dangerous phenomenon known as deforestation.

In the last 5,000 years, humans have reduced forest from roughly 50 percent of the earth’s land surface to less than 20 percent. Most of this original, or old growth, forest cover is concentrated in three large areas: the Canadian and Alaskan boreal forest, the boreal forest of Russia, and the tropical forest of the northwestern Amazon Basin and the Guyana Shield. These areas comprise almost 70 percent of the world’s remaining original forest cover. In most places, the rate of deforestation is increasing, with the alarming result of 16 million hectares disappearing worldwide every year.

Loss of forest does not just mean the decline of natural resources. There are several other factors that make deforestation seriously harmful to both the human and natural worlds. One of them is changes in the global climate. For example, forest clearance is releasing substantial volumes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere as vegetation is burnt or decays. It has been suggested that this is a significant factor in global warming. Moreover, about 10 percent of the world’s tree species are in danger of extinction as a result of deforestation. Deforestation also threatens biological diversity through the destruction of wildlife habitats, which endangers a number of animal species and leads to their potential disappearance. Species are particularly easy to extinction in tropical rainforests because many species have few individuals per unit area, which makes reproduction more difficult. Finally, since forests play an important role in storing water and stabilizing soil, deforestation and the resulting change in land use cause soil erosion(腐蚀) and other forms of land degradation.

1. The passage discusses all of the following EXCEPT the ________.

A．causes of deforestation	B．consequences of deforestation
C．management of deforestation	D．rate of deforestation

2. The word “diversity” in the last paragraph probably means “________”.

A．variety	B．expansion
C．development	D．advantage

3. Why does the author mention fuel and timber in Paragraph 1?

A．To explain the rate of deforestation.

B．To compare them with housing and ships.

C．To show the dangers of deforestation.

D．To illustrate the causes of deforestation.

4. Which of the following sentences summarizes Paragraph 3 best?

A．Deforestation threatens biological diversity.

B．Deforestation has many harmful consequences.

C．Deforestation causes changes in global climate.

D．Deforestation should be stopped.