1 . The tradition of giving gifts didn’t start with the modern holidays we celebrate. Many ancient cultures celebrated holidays with the exchange of gifts. People who love to give gifts often can’t wait until it’s time for the recipients to open their gifts. If you’ve ever been given a gift, you know that part of the fun is the curiosity that builds as you wonder what the gift is.

The wish to hide the identity of a gift until just the right moment led people to wrap gifts long, long ago. Historians believed wrapping gifts in paper probably started not long after paper was invented thousands of years ago.

Wrapping paper like what we use today, though, is a much more recent invention. More than 100 years ago, gifts were usually wrapped in heavy brown paper. Before that, cloth was often used. The technology to mass-produce wrapping paper didn’t come along until the early 1900s. The first American gift wrap company— Hy-Sill Manufacturing Inc. — was founded by Eli Hyman and Morris Silverman in 1903. It wasn’t as easy to wrap presents back then as it is today, though, because adhesive tape (胶带) wasn’t invented until 1930.

Over the years, wrapping paper has developed into what we see in stores each holiday season. But scientists say that the United States alone produces an extra 5 million tons of waste over the holidays, most of which is from wrapping paper and shopping bags. To cut down on this waste, some people carefully unwrap presents, so that the wrapping paper can be reused. Others have started to use reusable gift bags instead of wrapping paper.

1. What is the interesting part of people giving a gift?

A．Hiding their gifts and their feelings.

B．Giving the recipients a surprise.

C．Letting the recipients open gifts at once.

D．Following a century-old tradition.

2. What can we learn from Paragraph 3?

A．People didn’t know wrapping paper until 1903.

B．Heavy brown paper has been used to wrap gifts for 100 years.

C．Technology made wrapping paper widely available.

D．Adhesive tape was first created by gift wrap companies.

3. What do scientists worry about?

A．The future of reusable gift bags.

B．The waste produced by Americans.

C．Wrapping paper’s influence on the environment.

D．People’s admiration for wrapping paper.

4. What does the text mainly tell us?

A．The popularity of wrapping gifts.

B．The start of wrapping gifts in paper.

C．The problems caused by wrapping paper.

D．The story behind wrapping paper.

2 . 假如你是李华，在今年的世界地球日（每年的4月22日，是一个专为世界环境保护而设立的节日，旨在提高民众对于现有环境问题的意识，并动员民众参与到环保运动中，通过绿色低碳生活，改善地球的整体环境。） ，联系生活实际，请以“How to Live a Green Life”为题，在校英语报投稿，谈谈如何在日常生活中过一种绿色生活。词数100左右。

How to Live a Green Life

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3 . The Chicago Fire of 1871 was the worst disaster of the 19th century.

The fire is said to have started one evening in Mrs. O’Leary’s barn (牲口棚) on the West Side of Chicago. Several hours after she milked her cow, it kicked over an oil lamp, and the cow started the fire. We do not know if the story is true, but we do know that the fire began in a barn on the West Side.

The fire spread quickly because of the wooden buildings, a strong wind, and a dry season. The fire lasted 27 hours and spread to all parts of the city. Other cities sent 25 fire companies to help put out the fire. Federal troops (联邦军队) were also used to help fight the fire and keep order, too. At last rain put out the fire.

There was a lot of damage. 90,000 people were homeless, and 18,000 buildings were destroyed. Property damage (财产损失) was almost 200 million dollars. In addition, about 300 people died.

People from all over the world helped Chicago by sending food and clothing. Within a month, 4,000 cottages (小屋) with two rooms had been built. In a few years, Chicago was completely rebuilt.

1. Which parts of the city were hurt by the fire?

A．The West Side.	B．The South Side and the East Side.
C．The North Side.	D．All sides.

2. How many people lost their lives in the fire?

A．90,000.

B．18,000.

C．almost 200.

D．about 300.

3. People who stayed in Chicago after the fire showed__________ .

A．courage

B．fear

C．weakness

D．laziness

4. What helped to spread and to end the fire?

A．A cow.

B．Firemen.

C．The weather.

D．Carelessness.

4 . China is one of the countries with the most serious natural disasters in the world. There are many kinds of disasters, with wide distribution, high frequency and heavy losses. In the background of global climate change, major natural disasters occur from time to time.     1     It makes China face even much severe and complex situation. In order to rase the awareness of disaster prevention and minimize the losses, warnings and instructions are give to the public.     2     Let’s have a look.

Fire

When a fire breaks out, smoke threatens mostly.     3     Roll on the ground if you find your clothes on fire. It is too dangerous to take the elevator in this situation, so it is better to use a bundle of rope and safely slide down from the balcony. Jumping off the building blindly will cause serious injuries.

Mud-rock flow

Rainstorm may cause mud-rock flow, an it’s really dangerous to stay downstream. When you try to escape from it, instead of going along the bottom of the ditch, it is much wiser to climb up the mountain horizontally quickly. Please escape from ditch when selecting camping field. It’s important to check the weather when going into the mountain

Flood

    4     We could use a wooden bed or table to make a raft and tie it to a big tree with a safety.   rope. We have to prepare food and warm clothes to get through it.

Lightning strike

On cloudy and rainy days, a lightning strike may happen.     5     Of course, you also should stay away from iron tower poles. We need to pay attention to it even when we stay at home. Close the doors, windows and cut off the power.

A．Cut off the power and shut off water sources.

B．Please don’t stand under the tree in such kind of weather.

C．Try to find a higher place, but staying on a roof isn’t a good choice.

D．First you need to take shelter, then find a gap under the table or bed.

E．Losses caused by natural disaster in China are continuously increasing.

F．They also play a part in popularizing the knowledge and self-rescue skills.

G．In that case, please cover your nose and your mouth with a wet towel.

8 . Away from the bright lights of the city, if you look up at the night sky you will see an ocean of bright stars. But in the illuminated (灯火通明的) concrete (混凝土) jungles we humans have built ourselves, it’s a different story.

This year, Earth Hour was observed on March 26. The annual tradition, started by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, was created to raise awareness for climate change. Those celebrating turn off all their electrical appliances (家用电器) for one hour. It also draws attention to another serious problem that the world is currently facing — the threat of light pollution.

Light pollution happens when too much man-made light harms nature. Scientists have found that it is especially harmful to nocturnal (夜间的) animals. These creatures rely on the natural light cycle provided by the movement of the sun to help coordinate (协调) their sleep cycles. When this is disturbed by constant bright lights from man-made structures, it can seriously disorientate (使……失去方向感) the animals and harm their physical health. “Wildlife species have evolved on this planet with biological rhythms — changing that has profound effects,” said Travis Longcore, a biogeographer with the Urban Wildlands Group in Los Angeles, US. A lack of darkness at night can also cause difficulties for animals in other ways.

Newly hatched (孵化) baby sea turtles rely on the brighter horizon over the ocean to guide them from the beach to the sea. However, with artificial lights next to the oceans, the small animals are easily led away from the right path. “Hatchlings are attracted to lights and crawl (爬行) inland, or crawl aimlessly down the beach, sometimes until dawn (黎明), when predators (天敌) or birds get them,” said Michael Salmon, a biologist at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.

Artificial light has caused a “drastic (激烈的) change” to the natural environment of animals, research scientist Christopher Kyba told the International Dark-Sky Association. “Predators use light to hunt, and prey (猎物) species use darkness as cover,” Kyba explained. If a predator has such an extra advantage in hunting its prey, this can lead to an imbalance in the ecosystem as the hunted species are no longer able to maintain their population when they become over-hunted.

1. Why was Earth Hour created?

A．To raise awareness of air pollution.

B．To call on people to get closer to nature.

C．To draw public attention to environmental issues.

D．To reconsider the necessity of electrical appliances.

2. How does light pollution affect nocturnal animals?

A．It slows their evolution.

B．It changes their sleep cycles.

C．It lessens their dependence on the sun.

D．It reduces their difficulties caused by darkness.

3. What does them refer to in the paragraph 4?

A．baby sea turtles

B．predators

C．birds

D．artificial lights

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．The controversy over artificial lights.

B．Animals that benefit from artificial lights.

C．The impact of artificial lights on ecosystems.

D．The dangers of an imbalance in the ecosystem.

10 . 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。

Two years ago, we were having a fairly     1     (type) night of Texas thunderstorms. My house was quiet. The television was off, and I was reading a book. It was dark out. Our radio is a little white box with a huge antenna (天线) that I     2     (program) to our area. I keep it on all the time and just turn it up when the weather looks bad, so, that night it had been going off, the sharp honks (喇叭声)     3     (follow) by severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watch alerts. Then, a warning became a tornado on the ground, in the middle of my city of     4     (million) of people.

I was already shouting at my family to throw them into our closet     5     my phone and the alarms went off. For     6     brief few minutes, the tornado was approaching the highway and was heading     7     (direct) towards our part of town. I had planted the radio into a nearby outlet (插座), hoping that the batteries were fresh enough     8     case the power went out. As the twister shifted directions and headed northeast, we sat still in the closet for a while longer, listening to the radio and     9       (check) our phones. Had the power gone out and a cell tower been cut off, that radio could have been the only thing keeping us informed. Astonishingly, no one     10     (kill) in that storm, despite numerous tornadoes touching down.