2 . Nowadays, it sounds difficult to stick to a vegan diet, especially with many popular dishes containing meat or other animal products.     1     According to Huffpost, more than 1 million people in the United States are vegans. In the UK, about 542,000 people have chosen veganism over the past decade.

    2     One reason may be that people want to protect the environment. Producing meat and dairy products is known to be stressful for the environment. According to BBC News, another reason is that many of today's young people believe it wrong to kill animals for food.

What is veganism on earth? For many people, veganism simply means eating no meat cheese or eggs.     3     For example, leather is used to make shoes and clothing. Every year more than a billion animals, from cows to horses to snakes, are killed to make leather products from their skins.     4     The sports brand Puma, for example, has made shoes out of pineapple leaves. Tesla, the US car maker, is said to be removing animal-based leather from its seats.

Are you interested in protecting animals and saving the environment?     5    

A．So what drives this growth in veganism?

B．If so, you might want to give veganism a try.

C．Humans do not need to eat animals to survive.

D．Recently many brands are looking for other materials.

E．Yet in recent years, veganism has become a popular lifestyle.

F．But going animal-free also applies to fashion and manufacturing.

G．So you may want to think it through before deciding to be a vegan.

3 . Well, to pick up where we left off last time, I believe all of you know now how plastics developed. But a piece of sad news, every year about 8 million metric tons of plastic is thrown into our oceans. That's as much as a truckload of plastic waste every minute. As you may know, plastic waste chokes and hooks turtles and seabirds. Worse still, plastic pieces are often mistaken for food by marine (海洋的)animals. Tiny pieces of plastic are even blocking the stomachs of marine creatures and fish.

According to Plastic Oceans, packaging accounts for just over 40% of total plastic usage. Annually approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. More than 1 million bags are used every minute. 14% of all litter comes from beverage containers (plastic bottles). Sadly, a plastic bag has an average “working life” of 15 minutes. Over the last 10 years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century. Plastic takes 500 years to break down. Once it enters our environment, it stays there.

This is why it is important to stop using plastic items that we use for about 15 minutes before we dispose of it. Hopefully, we can help put an end to plastic pollution by choosing not to use single use plastic items, such as plastic bags and straws. And this July, people around the world will take a pledge(请愿)to live a plastic free life. You can either give up the top four ——straws, bottles, bags and coffee cups or you can refuse as much single use plastic as you can every day. Another way to help reduce the problem is to take part in beach clean-ups. On the first Saturday of every month Clean C, an initiative that gets volunteers to clean up our beaches, hosts beach clean-ups on beaches across Cape Town. You can find details of upcoming events on their website.

1. What was probably talked about last time?

A．The history of plastics.	B．The creation of plastics.
C．When plastics was made.	D．How plastics was created.

2. What can be inferred from the second paragraph?

A．Plastic packaging is still on the rise.

B．Plastic bottles are the most serious global problems.

C．Plastics can break down within centuries.

D．Single-used plastics contributes to ocean pollution.

3. The underlined phrase “dispose of” can be replaced by ________.

A．take control of

B．go in for

C．get rid of

D．watch out for

4. What is the writing purpose of the text?

A．To appeal to factories to stop making plastics.

B．To call on people to refuse plastic pollution.

C．To organize activities to clean up the beaches.

D．To gather volunteers to protect the marine animals.

4 . Scientists have designed a set of eco-friendly tableware made from sugarcane (甘蔗) waste and bamboo to serve as a potential alternative to plastic cups and other plastic containers. Unlike traditional plastic products, which can take as long as 450 years or require high temperatures to break down, this eco-friendly material only takes 60 days and is clean enough to hold your morning coffee or dinner takeout.

“To be honest, the first time I came to the US in 2007, I was shocked by the available one-time use plastic containers in the supermarket,” says corresponding author Hongli (Julie) Zhu of Northeastern University. “It makes our life easier, but meanwhile, it becomes waste that cannot decompose (分解) in the environment. Can we use a more sustainable material?”

To find an alternative for plastic-based food containers, Zhu and her colleagues turned to bamboos and one of the largest food-industry waste products: sugarcane waste. Winding together long and thin bamboo fibers with short and thick bagasse fibers to form a tight network, the team shaped containers from the two materials that were mechanically stable and biodegradable.

The researchers added alkyl ketene dimer (AKD), a widely used eco-friendly chemical in the food industry, to keep the molded tableware waterproof, ensuring the strength of the product when wet. The green tableware is not only strong enough to hold liquids as plastic does, but also starts decomposing after being in the soil for 30-45 days and completely loses its shape after two months.

The next step for the team is to make the manufacturing process more energy efficient and bring the cost down even more, to compare with plastic. Although the cost of cups made out of the new material ($2,333/ton) is two times lower than that of biodegradable plastic ($4,750/ton), traditional plastic cups are still slightly cheaper ($2,177/ton).

1. What's the purpose of the passage?

A．To resist plastic products.

B．To encourage recycling in life.

C．To advertise a set of tableware.

D．To introduce a kind of green tableware.

2. What's Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．Julie Zhu's first travel to the US.

B．The convenience of plastic containers.

C．The harm plastic does to the environment.

D．The background of designing the new tableware.

3. Why is AKD added to the new product?

A．It helps resist water.

B．It reduces the cost.

C．It makes the tableware cleaner.

D．It shortens the manufacturing process.

4. What can we learn about the new tableware?

A．It's made from bamboo and sugar.

B．It takes less time to break down.

C．It's cheaper than plastic containers.

D．It will replace plastic containers completely.

5 . 你校正在组织英语作文比赛，请以Garbage classification makes a better life为题，写一篇短文参赛，内容包括：
1.垃圾分类的重要意义
2.呼吁全校同学参加
注意：1.字数100左右，内容包括主要要点。
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

6 . Could looking through trees be the view to a greener future? Trees replacing the clear glass in your windows is not a work of science fiction. It's happening now.

Forest Products Laboratory researcher Junyong Zhu together with colleagues from the University of Maryland and University of Colorado has developed a transparent wood material that may be the window of tomorrow. Researchers found that transparent wood has the potential to outperform glass currently used in construction in nearly every way.

While glass is the most common material used in window construction, it comes with quite a few bad consequences. Heat easily transfers through glass and amounts to higher energy bills when it escapes during cold weather and pours in when it's warm. Glass production used for construction also comes with a heavy carbon footprint. Manufacturing emissions alone are approximately 25,000 metric tons per year, without considering the heavy footprint of transporting the glass.

The innovation was developed using wood from the balsa tree, which is native to South and Central America. The team treated balsa wood to an oxidizing bath, where the wood is kept in a bleach solution at room temperature to remove the light-absorbing substance from the structure. The wood is then penetrated （注入）with a synthetic polymer called polyvinyl alcohol （PVA）, creating a product that is virtually transparent. So the transparent wood is created, which is far more durable and lighter than glass.

Switching to transparent wood could prove to be cost efficient as well. It is approximately five times more thermally efficient than glass, cutting energy costs. It is made from a sustainable, renewable resource with low carbon emissions.

With all of these potential benefits for consumers, manufacturing and the environment, the case for transparent wood couldn't be clearer.

1. What is the main problem with glass used in window construction?

A．It is inefficient in letting heat out.

B．It is inconvenient to transport.

C．It causes a high ecological price.

D．It scarcely reflects light and heat.

2. What does the underlined part "a bleach solution" refer to?

A．A way to make colors fade.	B．A liquid to make objects pale.
C．A container to store liquids.	D．A process to solve problems.

3. What do the researchers probably agree with?

A．Innovation is the vitality of scientific housing.

B．Things are not always what they seem.

C．There are more ways to the wood than one.

D．There is nothing permanent except change.

4. What is the author's attitude toward transparent wood?

A．Skeptical.

B．Ambiguous.

C．Appreciative.

D．Conservative.

7 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。

It is normal to get new textbooks for the new term, but in fact, the     1     (consume) is huge, and so is the waste.

Last year, about 2.8 billion school textbooks     2     (sell) with consumers spending a total of 20 billion yuan. If these textbooks were reused for one year, the money saved could be enough for building around 40,000 primary schools in poor areas.

Many college     3     (graduate) sell the textbooks they have accumulated over the years     4     an average price of 1 yuan per kilogram. These textbooks are mostly used to produce     5     (recycle) paper, but the cost is even higher than     6     of raw paper as the processing procedure is complicated.

Publishing houses and textbook distributors do not agree to the idea of     7     (reuse) textbooks. Also, there is no unified (统一的) platform and service support system for the second-hand textbook trade, which leads to     8     (reliable) supply chains.

Fortunately, some online platforms make it easier to get second-hand textbooks. On Kongfz.com, the turnover of second-hand textbooks has seen an increase by over 30 percent     9     (annual) in the past three years. According to Sun Yutian,     10     is in charge of the platform, the total sales of second-hand textbooks this year have already exceeded (超过) 14 million yuan. Second-hand books are more affordable and they are also of good quality.

8 . Last year, the bushfires in Australia burned more than 12.35 million acres of land. At least 25 people were killed and 2000 homes destroyed. According to the BBC, that was the most casualties(伤亡) from wildfires in the country since 2009. The University of Sydney estimates that 480 million animals have died in South Wales alone.

Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst and climate researcher at Berkeley Earth, said warmer temperatures and extreme weather made Australia more susceptible to fires and increased the length of the fire season. "The drier conditions combined with record high temperatures in 2019 created main conditions for the disastrous fires. Australia's fires were worsened by the combination of those two. 2019 was the perfect storm for being the warmest year on record for Australia and the driest year on record for Australia," Hausfather added on Friday.

Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, said warmer ocean temperatures are also contributed to more variable weather around the world. Trenberth believes that global warming contributed to energy imbalances and hot spots in the oceans, which can create a wave in the atmosphere that locks weather patterns in places, causing longer rain events in Indonesia, for example, and at the same time contributing to drought in Australia. He said that once an area experiences drought conditions for two months or more, it increases the risk of fires catching and spreading. Those changing weather patterns due to global warming make drought events longer.

Climate experts stress that climate change is not the only factor in the severity(严重) of wildfires. How land is managed can also impact the amount of fuel available for fires. Practices like controlled bums and other factors can impact the risk to people and property, such as warning systems and the type of development in a given area. Changing those policies has great potential to limit future damage from wildfires along with changes to how fire management resources are dispatched(派遣).

1. What are the numbers about in paragraph 1?

A．The causes of Australian fires.	B．The results of Australian fires.
C．The damaged areas of Australian fires.	D．The property destruction of Australian fires.

2. Which of the following best explains ''susceptible to" in the second paragraph?

A．Very quickly to adapt to.

B．Very seriously to focus on.

C．Very likely to be influenced by.

D．Very easily to be protected against.

3. What can we infer from Trenberth’s research?

A．Longer dry weather contributes to global warming.

B．Global wanning is also a main cause of the bushfires.

C．Warmer ocean temperatures leads to the fires directly.

D．The imbalanced energy leads to the temperature rising.

4. What does the author intend to do in the last paragraph?

A．To stress the effects of Australia fires.

B．To show the methods for land management.

C．To predict the seriousness of Australia fires.

D．To provide some advice about reducing fire damage.

9 . A new railway design is allowing the latest high-speed rail line to pass through national natural reserves while causing only minor effect to local wildlife.

The Xi’an-Chengdu high-speed rail is the first bullet train to cut through the Qinling Mountains, in Shaanxi province, which are home to many rare wild animals including the giant panda, golden monkey, crested ibis and golden takin.

It is one of three major habitats for the wild giant panda, with about 345 of China’s 1,864 wild giant pandas living there, according to the fourth National Survey on Giant Pandas released in 2015. The railway will also pass through a major Tianhuashan Mountain reserve, a giant panda habitat.

＂When researching the railway route, we avoided laying tracks more than 1,500 meters above sea level, where the majority of wildlife gathers,＂ said Lai Wenhong, an engineer from the China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group, who is in charge of the railway’s environmental design.

More than 90 percent of the railway through the Qinling Mountains is tunnels and bridges, said Liu Shuangjin, general chief designer of the line’s Shaanxi section from the China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group.

＂The advantage of tunnels is to reduce vibration(震动) when a train passes by,＂ Lai said.

The average depth of the tunnels is 400 meters, and the deepest is 1,000 meters. Bridges are constructed to link tunnels. Protective things have been placed at the mouths of tunnels in the Qinling Mountains to keep wild animals from falling. During operation, trains are forbidden from using horns in wildlife habitats.

The line also passes through the Yangxian county reserve, home to crested ibis, a rare bird. The 4-meter-high mesh(网状物) on the sides of bridges higher than 10 meters will prevent the birds from flying into the path of trains, which is safer for the birds and the trains.

1. The Xi’an-Chengdu high-speed rail passes through the following reserves except __________.

A．the Qinling Mountain reserve	B．the Yangxian county reserve
C．the Taihang Mountain reserve	D．the Tianhuashan Mountain reserve

2. What animals is the Tianhuashan Mountain reserve set up mainly for?

A．The golden monkey.	B．The giant panda.
C．The crested ibis.	D．The elephant.

3. Why are so many tunnels built on the Xi’an-Chengdu high-speed rail?

A．To protect endangered wildlife.	B．To lower the cost of construction.
C．To reduce the distance of the line.	D．To connect different bridges.

4. What’s the best title of the passage?

A．Rail design keeps wildlife safe

B．More national reserves are set up

C．The railway’s environmental design is important

D．The Xi’an-Chengdu rail is under construction

10 . Floods are one of the most common disasters in the US. Some floods develop slowly. But flash floods   can develop quickly, sometimes in just a few minutes and without any signs of rain.    1    It carries rocks and can sweep away most things in its path.

If a flood is likely in your area, you should:

Listen to the radio or watch television for information. If there is any possibility of a flash flood, move at once to higher ground.    2    

If you have time to prepare, you should:

Make your home safe by bringing in outdoor furniture. Move necessary items to an upper floor.     3    Do not touch any electrical equipment if you are wet or standing in water.

If you have to leave your home right away, remember these tips:

Do not walk through moving water.    4    If you have to walk in water, walk where the water is not moving. Use a stick to check the ground in front of you.

    5     If flood-waters rise around your car, give up the car and move to higher ground if you can do so safely. Otherwise you and the car can be quickly swept away.

A．Do not drive into flooded areas.

B．Do not wait for instructions to move.

C．20 cm depth of moving water can make you fall.

D．Turn off all pieces of electrical equipment.

E．Flash floods often have a dangerous wall of water.

F．Maybe you know floods, earthquakes, sandstorms, and so on.

G．During recent years, floods have caused billions of dollars in damage each year.