1 . Addy Barrett, an 11-year-old girl from Maryland, the US, is a regular visitor to the zoo, and never gets tired of watching gorillas (大猩猩). “I really fell in love with these smart animals after reading a book about them,” Addy said. “I also learned they were being killed for unnecessary reasons. And I knew I needed to do something.”
Addy is now working to save her favorite animals. She has sold T-shirts and home-made cookies to raise money, and she hosts a party about the gorilla yearly.
Addy asked Meredith Bastian, a zookeeper, about the challenges that wild gorillas are facing and that many people ignore. Bastian said it’s because of habitat loss, climate change and the spread of disease. But there is also the problem of mining. “Some mines in Congo, Africa destroy gorillas’ habitats and make their living conditions worse,” Bastian told Addy.
Addy decided to start the Gorilla Heroes project. She has held fundraisers (筹款活动) hoping to start a conversation on the risks to gorillas. The animals, which are native to Central Africa, are endangered. There are fewer than 900 mountain gorillas and about 100,000 western lowland gorillas in the world. So far, Gorilla Heroes has raised more than $11,000. Addy was recently named a winner of the 2019 Gloria Barton Prize for Young Heroes for her work.
Addy hopes to get close to a gorilla in the wild, but she can’t because she is too young. So for now Addy is sticking to raising money for gorillas.
1. What can we learn about Addy?A.She seldom goes to the zoo. | B.She works hard to save gorillas. |
C.She writes books about gorillas. | D.She volunteers for a zoo project. |
A.The importance of wild gorillas. |
B.The measures for protecting wild gorillas. |
C.The pleasant environment for wild gorillas. |
D.The reasons for wild gorillas becoming endangered. |
A.It is quite dangerous. | B.It includes many professions. |
C.It is well recognized. | D.It has made a difference worldwide. |
A.Proud and childlike. | B.Able and generous. |
C.Talkative and interesting. | D.Easy-going and humorous. |
2 . Landslides occur when large amounts of wet debris (碎片), including rocks, earth, and trees, slide down a slope (斜坡). They may occur as a result of fires, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, storms, or human activities. Landslides are particularly dangerous because they strike suddenly, move at extremely high speeds, and travel long distances. Although landslides are often difficult to predict, you can prepare for a landslide.
1. Keep yourself alert and awake. Landslides can occur quite suddenly, so you need to be ready to take action at a moment’s notice. Many landslide-related deaths occur while people are asleep.
2.
3. Contact local officials about past landslides. Landslides tend to happen in the same area where they have occurred before.
4. Make an emergency kit (工具箱).
A.Notice unusual sounds. |
B.Go to a public shelter. |
C.Here are some tips which can help you. |
D.Talk to local officials about landslides in your area. |
E.In the event of a landslide or other emergency, choose a place. |
F.If you are with other people, work together to keep one another awake. |
G.An emergency kit contains the essentials that your household will need during an emergency. |
3 . Plastic straws (吸管) have been a major problem in global discussions of environmental damage. Maybe because of their small size, the production cost of straws is low. In many countries, straws are offered freely after buying soft drinks. Therefore, plastic straws are one of the most used plastics and pollutants in the world.
The plastic straw is light and small. Due to their small size, plastic straws are often eaten by sea animals. Environmentalists have shown that the death of many sea animals is caused by eating plastic straws. The other damaging characteristic of plastic straws is that they are made of materials which cannot degrade. That means the materials cannot be changed into small harmless (无害的) ones.
The most effective way of dealing with the environmental pollution caused by plastic straws is the reuse or banning (禁止) the use of plastic straws. Being plastics, the straws can be made new items. Many organizations around the world change used straws into new products. In Africa, local communities collect used plastic straws and use them to make mats and bags. Another way of dealing with environmental pollution caused by plastic straws is placing a ban on their production and use. Experts advise governments to ban using plastic straws to save the environment. A few countries in the world such as Rwanda, Macedonia, China, Kenya have already banned the use of plastic bags and are expected to include plastic straws and bottles. But it will be a long way to do this effectively.
There are few environmentally friendly and biodegradable productions to take the place of plastic straws. These productions include paper straws, bamboo straws. However, such straws are usually expensive as their production cost is high. It’s still a question whether they can entirely take the place of plastic straws.
1. Why can people be free to use plastic straws?A.They are very cheap. | B.They are light and small. |
C.They are dangerous. | D.They are easy to use. |
A.Cut up. | B.Because of. | C.Go on. | D.Break out. |
A.It’s not difficult to ban using plastic straws. |
B.Many countries have stopped using plastic straws. |
C.Experts advise people to stop producing plastic straws. |
D.Some Africans change plastic straws into new products. |
A.It is a must to use them. |
B.It’s not easy to reuse them. |
C.There are still some problems to be solved. |
D.There are some other kinds of cheaper straws. |
4 . For hundreds of years, America’s wilderness has been reduced due to growing cities, leaving outdoors lovers like hunters with fewer chances. By around 1900, too much hunting drove America’s deer nearly into extinction (灭绝), less than a half-million deer, from 45 million in 1450.
Law-makers began to make rules to protect deer and keep ecological balance (生态平衡). And it did make a big difference. By 2000, the deer population had come up to 38 million. Those days, millions of deer lived side by side with humans and could freely find enough food resources.
Gradually, the number of deer was increasing too rapidly, which was not good for both the animals and people. City hunting plays an important role in keeping ecological balance, particularly in places where the animals sometimes cause major problems.
“City deer hunting is a management practice used in many cities and suburban areas across the United States,” says Jason Andrews, program manager of the Urban Deer Hunt in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In the early 2000s, a high number of car accidents were caused by deer. And there was also significant vegetation degradation (植被退化) in many cities. Many possible solutions were researched by the city government. Some suggested hunting deer and other wild animals, but others were against that practice.
In the end, researchers determined that the most effective and sustainable (可持续的) population management solution would be hunting with bows. “City deer hunting is popular in cities that have too many wild deer as well as wooded areas,” says Andrews. “In Cedar Rapids, all parts of the city have right habitats to keep deer population, thus hunting is allowed. I must note that hunting is only allowed on private lands. No parks or any other public grounds can be hunted.”
1. What can we learn from paragraph 1?A.The deer population was dropping rapidly. |
B.Some cities grew smaller in the country. |
C.The number of deer dropped to 1,450. |
D.The deer population grew up by 45 million. |
A.They failed to be carried out in the US. |
B.They were quite successful. |
C.People had different attitudes towards them. |
D.They were made by Jason Andrews. |
A.Stones. | B.Guns. | C.Branches. | D.Bows. |
A.Ways to Protect the Environment |
B.The Number of Deer in the US |
C.People’s Attitude to Deer Hunting |
D.America’s Rules for Deer to Keep Ecological Balance |
5 . JP Morgan Chase, the world’s biggest fossil fuel funder, has noted in an internal report leaked to Extinction Rebellion that the company “cannot rule out catastrophic outcomes where human life as we know it is threatened.”
Most of the science inside the report is not shocking to the casual reader, but the analysis is most concerned about climate change caused by fossil fuel. These include possibilities like the sudden collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which would send sea levels more than 10 feet higher than current levels and displace millions of humans. Another terrible case is that the melting permafrost sends more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causing more warming, and in turn more the melting of ice sheets, and carbon emissions. Of course, these are already happening. The real danger behind the motivation for this internal report lies in the possibility that the Earth’s climate could reach a tipping point.
Many believe the emergence of the internal report should serve as proof convincing enough for world leaders to take collective and decisive action. However, the attitude of many world governments towards the development of fossil fuel can surely make the global situation even worse for future generations now.
However, the report doesn’t mention other banks, or even JP Morgan itself, even though these institutions are often the ones blamed in enabling this crisis, according to a Gizmodo report. “Changes are occurring at the micro level, involving shifts in behavior by individuals, companies and investors,” says the Extinction Rebellion report. It goes on to suggest that these micro-level changes “will push emissions in the right direction,” but says nothing about government oversight, or actions that many believe is necessary to reverse the current course of the climate crisis.
It’s still half way even though one has made 90 miles out of a 100-mile journey. Humans may still fail the journey if they doesn’t persist to the last. Therefore, something will have to change at some point if the human race is going to survive.
1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly tell us about fossil fuel?A.It may cause catastrophic outcomes. |
B.It has nothing to do with climate changes. |
C.It kills millions of humans every year. |
D.It has sent sea levels 10 feet higher. |
A.Ambitious. | B.Approving. | C.Constructive. | D.Opposed. |
A.It’s never too late to act actively. |
B.Many hands make light work. |
C.A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. |
D.A job half-done is still a job left unfinished. |
A.A government report. | B.A science fiction. |
C.A news report. | D.A health magazine. |
6 . Floods, storms and other natural events kill thousands of people every year.
Hot weather is dangerous for people who weigh too much, and for people who drink alcohol.
Doctors say people can do many things to protect themselves from the dangers of extreme heat.
A.So does extreme heat. |
B.Stay out of the sun, if possible. |
C.Jump into a swimming pool in a hurry. |
D.Extreme heat does great harm to human beings. |
E.Much worse, many people die from hot weather each year. |
F.It also increases dangers for people who must take medicine. |
G.Over the past month, the northeastern United States has been very hot. |
7 . The tornado came without any sign——the sky was blue and the sun had been out. My husband Jimmy ran upstairs to find me in our third-floor bedroom. No sooner had we found coverage of the tornado than it was on top of us. The bones of the house shook, and the power went out. The wind began to roar through the house. We had three flights of steps to navigate to get to the relative safety of the first floor. Because the closet down there was installed underneath a brick staircase, it seemed like the most solid place in our house to wait things out.
I didn’t know how or if we would make it down the steps. It felt as if there were no floor underneath me as the wind lifted me off my feet. I gripped the handrail (扶手) and tried to move forward, but this intense pressure held me in place. In those seconds of stillness, I could hear everything around me rattling.
As we reached the last flight of steps, our front door blew out. Pieces of glass that looked like broken ice flew everywhere. Suddenly, a three-foot-long tree branch whipped through the door frame. It flew over our heads, missing us by inches. Had we been one step up, it would have gone through us and caused serious injuries. The back wall of the house followed suit and tore off into the darkness outside.
Instantly I reached the closet, Jimmy pushed me (down to the closet floor, but he couldn’t get inside himself because of the wind.I gripped Jimmy’s arm as the tornado sucked the door open and tried to bring Jimmy with it. My knees were full of glass, but at that moment, I felt no pain. If I had let go, Jimmy would have flown right out and into the bay.“Hold on! Hold on!” he yelled. But there was nothing in this closet to hold on to.
All of a sudden, Jimmy lifted off his feet like people in tornadoes do in the movies. I thought he was gone. And then everything stopped. He landed on his feet. At those first quiet moments, I couldn’t believe it was over. Jimmy said he’d go outside to check. “No,” I said. “Don’t leave me.”
Our neighbor says the storm lasted four minutes. At that time, four of the twelve houses in our community were completely destroyed. Of the houses left standing, ours suffered the most damage. However, none of us were severely injured.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?A.The tornado came on a rainy day. |
B.During the tornado the first floor was safer. |
C.Before the tornado, the author was sleeping. |
D.The brick staircase was destroyed by the tornado. |
A.By giving concrete descriptions. | B.By offering specific examples. |
C.By making striking comparisons. | D.By quoting complex conversations. |
A.The door was tightly closed. | B.Jimmy flew right out. |
C.She struggled to hold Jimmy’s arm. | D.The glass made her feel much pain. |
A.Frightened but relieved. | B.Amazed and excited. |
C.Regretful but hopeful. | D.Disappointed and worried. |
8 . What were you doing when you were nine years old? Making crafts from a Klutz book? Kicking around a soccer ball? Designing a business plan to deal with plastic pollution and relieve childhood poverty? Zymal Umar showed us the latter. The Pakistan’s youngest businesswoman has started a project entitled Zee Bags, which aims to reduce plastic pollution by providing an environmentally-friendly alternative to plastic grocery bags.
When Zymal was on a shopping trip with her parents three years ago, she was shocked by the number of plastic bags on the streets. Depressed by the plastic pollution, she was reminded of the severe consequences our habits have on the environment. Then, she noticed a shopkeeper handing out newspaper bags. And at that moment, Zymal knew she had to act. Since then she has created beautiful, unique reusable newspaper bags for hundreds of customers.
It’s amazing to see this youngster using her brains and business skills for good. And she should certainly feel proud of the work she is doing. After all, plastic grocery bags are killing thousands of marine animals every year through their contribution to plastic waste. According to The Earth Institute, over one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide annually—that’s about two million bags used per minute around the world.
And those bags certainly don’t disappear into thin air. Instead, they end up in our oceans, putting approximately 700 marine species in danger of extinction due to the threat from pollution. And plastic bags are just one of the many forms of plastic trash that ends up in the oceans—in fact, an astonishing 8. 8 million tons of this material make their way from land to the oceans every single year.
But with Zee Bags, we’re all empowered to make more thoughtful choices about our trash production. And Zymal’s amazingness doesn’t stop there—the profits from her sales go towards helping poor children.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?A.How Zymal felt about her shopping trip. |
B.How Zymal learned about plastic pollution. |
C.How Zymal was received by the shopkeeper. |
D.How Zymal was inspired to create her bags. |
A.To praise Zymal for her great efforts. |
B.To urge readers to stop using plastics. |
C.To stress the seriousness of plastic pollution. |
D.To show the rich knowledge of the author. |
A.She is amazing in every aspect of her life. |
B.She has concern for the disadvantaged. |
C.She urges everyone to be eco-friendly. |
D.She earns a lot of money from her business. |
A.Caring. | B.Determined. |
C.Confident. | D.Optimistic. |
9 . Beijing is a rather strange city to many western people. One of my foreign friends told me that when he came to Beijing, at first he couldn't understand why most people wear masks when spring comes to Beijing. He thought people wanted to keep their appearance a secret. Well, one of the symbols of spring coming to Beijing is that more and more people start wearing masks. The reason for it is the arrival of so called “sandstorms”.
It is said that each year sandstorms hit Beijing 4 to 5 times. The sand is brought to Beijing by wind from the western part of China. Tons of soil and dust travel hundreds of miles and blanket Beijing's streets, parked cars and apartment buildings. You would be amazed to see the ground has turned yellow overnight. The storm is so violent that you do not want to have a conversation with your friend on the road. If you open your mouth and then you close it, you may have the raw taste of sand in your mouth.
People in Beijing hate those storms. Sandstorms make the traffic jam in rush hours even more unpredictable, because the drivers have to drive slowly in order to have a clear view of the road conditions. Young students also hate sandstorms because whenever there is a sandstorm, they are not allowed to have any activities outside the classroom. It is so boring to sit in the classroom all day and the youngsters are so eager to go out and do some sports.
It is said that the closest desert is only 80 kilometers away from the city center.There is definitely much more to do for the local government to deal with the environmental problem.
1. Why do people in Beijing wear masks in the spring?A.Because they are rather strange. |
B.Because there are serious sandstorms. |
C.Because their appearance are not beautiful. |
D.Because they want to keep their face a secret. |
A.Dry. | B.Cross. | C.Destroy. | D.Cover. |
A.Drivers clean the road. | B.They hold some activities. |
C.Youngsters go out to do sports. | D.Students stay in the classroom. |
A.People in Sandstorms | B.How to Prevent Sandstorms |
C.Sandstorms in Beijing | D.What to Do in a Sandstorm |