1 . According to the Solar Energy Industry Association, the number of solar panels installed(安装)has grown rapidly in the past decade, and it has to grow even faster to meet climate goals. But all of that growth will take up a lot of space, and though more and more people accept the concept of solar energy, few like large solar panels to be installed near them.

Solar developers want to put up panels as quickly and cheaply as possible, so they haven’t given much thought to what they put under them. Often, they’ll end up filling the area with small stones and using chemicals to control weeds. The result is that many communities, especially in farming regions, see solar farms as destroyers of the soil.

“Solar projects need to be good neighbors,” says Jordan Macknick, the head of the Innovative Site Preparation and Impact Reductions on the Environment(InSPIRE)project. “They need to be protectors of the land and contribute to the agricultural economy.” InSPIRE is investigating practical approaches to “low-impact” solar development, which focuses on establishing and operating solar farms in a way that is kinder to the land. One of the easiest low-impact solar strategies is providing habitat for pollinators(传粉昆虫).

Habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change have caused dramatic declines in pollinator populations over the past couple of decades, which has damaged the U.S. agricultural economy. Over 28 states have passed laws related to pollinator habitat protection and pesticide use. Conservation organizations put out pollinator-friendliness guidelines for home gardens, businesses, schools, cities—and now there are guidelines for solar farms.

Over the past few years, many solar farm developers have transformed the space under their solar panels into a shelter for various kinds of pollinators, resulting in soil improvement and carbon reduction. “These pollinator-friendly solar farms can have a valuable impact on everything that’s going on in the landscape,” says Macknick.

1. What do solar developers often ignore?

A．The decline in the demand for solar energy.

B．The negative impact of installing solar panels.

C．The rising labor cost of building solar farms.

D．The most recent advances in solar technology.

2. What does InSPIRE aim to do?

A．Improve the productivity of local farms.

B．Invent new methods for controlling weeds.

C．Make solar projects environmentally friendly.

D．Promote the use of solar energy in rural areas.

3. What is the purpose of the laws mentioned in paragraph 4?

A．To conserve pollinators.	B．To restrict solar development.
C．To diversify the economy.	D．To ensure the supply of energy.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．Pollinators: To Leave or to Stay	B．Solar Energy: Hope for the Future
C．InSPIRE: A Leader in Agriculture	D．Solar Farms: A New Development

2 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

My husband and I enjoy seeing life through the eyes of our children. It’s amazing to watch as they discover their world.

While we were outdoors last summer enjoying the sunshine, our oldest daughter, Kaytlin, called me to the doorway. Beneath the steps was a baby red squirrel.

We watched it from a distance, not wanting to disturb it or scare off its mother. But after a long wait—and looking all around our house for signs of a nest or a mother—we realized the tiny squirrel was lost.

Shaking terribly, he was weak, thin, and hungry. We tried to find an expert to help, but the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife website showed that there were no wildlife experts in our area. After some quick research, we concluded that the best way to give the squirrel a fighting chance was to care for him ourselves. So a trip to the local store for milk and supplies was in order. More research taught us how much to feed him, how to estimate his age, how and when to wean (断奶) him, and that we should let him go as soon as he could survive on his own.

Our daughters and I took turns in feeding “Squirt.” Kaytlin took on the most responsibility. She taught him to eat from a bottle, and she woke in the night for his feeds.

To our relief, Squirt soon became healthy and strong. Within a few weeks he became more active. He would chatter (吱吱叫) for his next meal, playfully go around the girls, and lie down on them for sleep. It wasn’t long before he was weaned onto solid food and reintroduced to the wild.

His first few visits to the great outdoors were funny. Just like a child, he would play in the grass some and then run back to Kaytlin for safety. Soon she had him climbing trees and finding nest material.

注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

One day in the trees, Squirt met up with a family of gray squirrels.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

One night, Squirt didn’t come back to our house and it rained hard.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 . 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。

The government has awarded $5 million to three different local nonprofit organizations. The money will     1    (distribute) over a four-year period and is aimed at helping approximately 1, 000 homeless people in the county of Arvada.

One agency,     2    (base) in Woodbridge, is expected     3    (receive) $1. 5 million. The agency director says that they will focus their resources on     4    (educate) the homeless. “We will probably build another school-home with this money,” he said. “A school-home is exactly     5     it sounds like. It is a school and a home. We have already built four school-homes throughout the county. We get the homeless off the street,     6     we educate them so they don’t have to return to the street. We teach them how to be gardeners, painters, carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, and air-conditioning repairmen.”

“You wouldn’t believe     7     success that we have had. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, our office air-conditioning went out. My secretary called a repairman. To our surprise, the repairman     8    (be) one of our first homeless students. He now owns his own air-conditioning business, plus two houses, two cars and a boat! He has a dozen employees. He’s doing better than I am. He fixed our air-conditioning     9     free. I think I might sign up for the air-conditioning class     10    (I). ”

4 . There has been a very serious decline in the numbers of shallow-water fish as a result of overfishing. People still want to eat fish, so the fishing industry must look at other sources, especially the deep waters of the Atlantic.     1    

Conservation measures will have to be put in place if these deep-sea fish are to survive. Research on five such species shows that numbers have declined by between 87 percent and 98 percent.     2     Many species could well disappear completely if the present trend continues. These are species that have been swimming in our oceans for hundreds of millions of years.

The problem is emphasized by the fact that the decline in numbers happened in less than twenty years. Deep-sea fish take a long time to reproduce and normally live for many years.     3     The average size of such fish also declined, with one species showing a 57 percent decline in average size. This is of particular concern, as large fish tend to produce more offspring than small ones.

    4     The deep-sea species have been caught as if they were the fast-breeding (快速繁殖) fish like sardine and herring. It is like killing elephants as if they reproduced at the same rate as rabbits.

The damage done by overfishing goes beyond the sea environment. Millions of people make a living in the fishing industry.     5     Measures must be taken to not only conserve ecosystems, but also sustain livelihoods and ensure food security.

A．Billions of people rely on fish for protein.

B．Many people now choose not to eat deep-sea fish.

C．Unfortunately, their reproduction rate is very low.

D．This puts them in the category of “critically endangered”.

E．None of these facts has been taken into account by the fishing industry.

F．Overfishing is a major cause of decline in populations of ocean wildlife.

G．This has resulted in a sharp decline in the numbers of many of the species caught.

5 . For years, David James, who studies insects at Washington State University, had wanted to examine the migration (迁徙)patterns of West Coast monarch butterflies (黑脉金斑蝶). The route the butterflies travel has been hardly known because the populations are too small to follow. For every 200 monarchs tagged (打标签)by a researcher, only one is usually recovered at the end of its trip, James says, and finding even 200 in the wild to tag is unlikely. Knowing the route is vital to conservation efforts, but James had no way to figure it out- until he got a phone call from Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

The prison was looking for new activities to improve the mental health of those serving long-term sentences. So James began working with prisoners to raise monarchs through the whole process of their transformation. The adult insects were then tagged and released from the prison. Over five years, nearly 10, 000 monarchs flew from the facility. Elsewhere in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, researchers released another few thousand.

The tags included email addresses, and soon after the first butterflies took off, James started receiving messages from people who had spotted them. The butterflies, the reports confirmed, wintered in coastal California. Twelve of them landed at Lighthouse Field State Beach in Santa Cruz. Several more headed to Bolinas and Morro Bay.

The work helps researchers identify ideal places to plant milkweed and other vegetation that are important to the life cycle of West Coast monarch butterflies. It also brought out the gentler side of some of the prisoners. “They were very worried that they were going to harm the butterflies, ”James says. Watching the monarch change their form also touched the men. “This butterfly changed, ” James recalls prisoners telling him, “and maybe we can too. ”

1. What was hard for David to do in his study?

A．Gain financial support.	B．Hire qualified workers.
C．Build a new laboratory.	D．Find enough monarchs.

2. Why are the butterflies tagged before being released?

A．To guarantee their safety.

B．To enable them to fly longer distances.

C．To track their travel routes.

D．To distinguish them from other species.

3. What makes the prisoners feel that they can change?

A．The patience the butterflies showed.

B．The hardship the butterflies underwent.

C．The transformation of the butterflies.

D．The devotion of James to the butterflies.

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．The impact of the research.

B．The findings of James’ study.

C．The release of the prisoners.

D．The life cycle of the butterflies.

6 . My mother is 92. Unless I have to be out of town, each week I take my mother to do her _______ and visit the doctor, providing _______ and transportation. During the week, however, she likes to go to a nearby store to _______ some small things she needs.

Last week she walked up to the store, but when she went to pay for her groceries, she was _______ about three dollars. The only _______ to pay for the groceries was to take off the _______ she could do without: a bottle of rubbing alcohol (医用酒精) and a bar of soap. By taking off these, she was able to _______ the new total to the amount of cash she had with her.

At this store, people _______ and then go off to the side to _______ their own groceries. My mother was putting her groceries into shopping bags when a ________ came up to her and said, “Here are the things that you ________ .” handing her the rubbing alcohol and the ________ . My mother, who is never speechless, was speechless. She ________ for the woman’s name and address so that she could ________ her. The woman told her it was her ________ .

My mother was so ________ by her gesture that she decided to go back to the store and give the cashier (收银员) a five-dollar bill to keep on hand ________ the same happened to someone else if they didn’t have enough ________ for all of their groceries.

So, whoever you are, thank you for the random act of ________ that not only helped my mother out, but ________ too.

1.

A．exercise

B．housework

C．cooking

D．shopping

2.

A．reward

B．medicine

C．company

D．shelter

3.

A．return

B．collet

C．order

D．buy

4.

A．short

B．cautious

C．wrong

D．concerned

5.

A．aim

B．way

C．advice

D．reason

6.

A．weight

B．things

C．mask

D．glasses

7.

A．raise

B．add

C．bring

D．switch

8.

A．show up

B．call in

C．check out

D．sit down

9.

A．store

B．select

C．deliver

D．bag

10.

A．stranger

B．cashier

C．friend

D．doctor

11.

A．looked for

B．talked about

C．threw away

D．put back

12.

A．receipt

B．soap

C．cash

D．bottle

13.

A．asked

B．waited

C．cared

D．searched

14.

A．repay

B．trust

C．recognize

D．help

15.

A．luck

B．chance

C．gift

D．turn

16.

A．surprised

B．amused

C．touched

D．convinced

17.

A．in case

B．even if

C．as though

D．so that

18.

A．energy

B．money

C．space

D．time

19.

A．faith

B．courage

C．kindness

D．honor

20.

A．made her day

B．changed her mind

C．caught her eye

D．met her demand

7 . Dr. Smith of New York works at a center for children who can’t learn well. One day a father brought his son to him for________ at his office.

The father told Dr. Smith about his son. “My son has ________ in learning and can’t even play baseball. He isn’t doing well because he doesn’t try. I have done everything for him. I have even shouted at him. But nothing ________. ”

After Dr. Smith tested the boy, he ________ his father. He asked the father to sit in front of a ________ and then gave him a pencil and a piece of paper. There was a ________ on the paper. He asked the father to look only in the mirror and ________ the lines of the star with the pencil. The father made the same ________ anyone makes. Every time he ________ the pencil, it went the wrong way. The father’s face became red.

At this ________ the doctor shouted at him, “Hurry up! Why are you ________ so long? You can’t do such an ________ thing! You don’t know left from right!” These ________ made the father very angry.

“Now you can ________, can’t you?” The doctor said to him. “Your son has felt just like that all the time. You scolded (训斥) him too often, so he didn't try any more. He was afraid of making mistakes. ”

________ the father understood everything. He put his face down. Now he felt so sorry.

1.

A．testing

B．acting

C．teaching

D．playing

2.

A．confidence

B．interest

C．experience

D．difficulty

3.

A．returns

B．helps

C．appears

D．remains

4.

A．waited for

B．searched for

C．believed in

D．called in

5.

A．mirror

B．television

C．painting

D．desk

6.

A．face

B．line

C．number

D．star

7.

A．remove

B．follow

C．cross

D．cut

8.

A．decisions

B．choices

C．mistakes

D．patterns

9.

A．touched

B．dropped

C．moved

D．sharpened

10.

A．speed

B．corner

C．end

D．point

11.

A．staying

B．taking

C．preparing

D．writing

12.

A．easy

B．important

C．obvious

D．exciting

13.

A．ideas

B．words

C．questions

D．instructions

14.

A．relax

B．leave

C．understand

D．promise

15.

A．Interestingly

B．Absolutely

C．Suddenly

D．Unfortunately

8 . We all know that unpleasant feeling when we’re talking about something interesting and halfway through our sentence we’re interrupted. But was that really an interruption? The answer depends on whom you ask, according to new research led by Katherine Hilton from Stanford University.

Using a set of controlled audio clips (录音片段), Hilton surveyed 5, 000 American English speakers to better understand what affects people’s perceptions of interruptions. She had participants listen to audio clips and then answer questions about whether the speakers seemed to be friendly and engaged, listening to one another, or trying to interrupt.

Hilton found that American English speakers have different conversational styles. She identified two distinct groups: high and low intensity speakers. High intensity speakers are generally uncomfortable with moments of silence in conversation and consider talking at the same time a sign of engagement. Low intensity speakers find it rude to talk at the same time and prefer people speak one after another in conversation.

The differences in conversational styles became evident when participants listened to audio clips in which two people spoke at the same time but were agreeing with each other and stayed on topic, Hilton said. The high intensity group reported that conversations where people spoke at the same time when expressing agreement were not interruptive but engaged and friendlier than the conversations with moments of silence in between speaking turns. In contrast, the low intensity group perceived any amount of simultaneous (同时) chat as a rude interruption, regardless of what the speakers were saying.

“People care about being interrupted, and those small interruptions can have a massive effect on the overall communication,” Hilton said. “Breaking apart what an interruption means is essential if we want to understand how humans interact with each other.”

1. What does Hilton’s research focus on?

A．What interruptions mean to people.

B．Whether interruption is good or not.

C．How to avoid getting interrupted.

D．Why speakers interrupt each other.

2. What do participants of the study need to do?

A．Record an audio clip.	B．Answer some questions.
C．Listen to one another.	D．Have a chat with a friend.

3. What do low intensity speakers think of simultaneous chat?

A．It’s important.	B．It’s interesting.
C．It’s inefficient.	D．It’s impolite.

4. What can we learn from Hilton’s research?

A．Human interaction is complex.

B．Communication is the basis of life.

C．Interruptions promote thinking.

D．Language barriers will always exist.

9 . For lots of kids, toddlerhood (幼儿期) is an important time for friendship. Studies show that the earlier kids learn to form positive relationships, the better they are at relating to others as teenagers and adults. Playing together also helps these kids practice social behaviors, such as kindness, sharing, and cooperation.

Even so, how quickly your child develops into a social creature may also depend on his temperament(性格). Some toddler s are very social, but others are shy. In addition, the way that toddlers demonstrate that they like other children is markedly different from what adults think of as expressions of friendship. Research at Ohio State University in Columbus found that a toddler’s way of saying “I like you” during play is likely to come in the form of copying a friend’s behavior.

This seemingly unusual way of demonstrating fondness can result in unpleasant behavior. Regardless of how much they like a playmate, they may still grab his toys, refuse to share, and get bossy. But experts say that this is a normal and necessary part of friendship for kids this age. Through play experiences, toddlers learn social rules. That’s why it’s so important to take an active role in your toddler’s social encounters by setting limits and offering frequent reminders of what they are. When you establish these guidelines, explain the reasons behind them.

Begin by helping your child learn sympathy (“Ben is crying. What’s making him so sad?”), then suggest how he could resolve the problem (“Maybe he would feel better if you let him play the ball.”). When your child shares or shows empathy(同理心) toward a friend, praise him (“Ben stopped crying! You made him feel better.”).

Another way to encourage healthy social interaction is by encouraging kids to use words- not fists-to express how they feel. It’s also important to be mindful of how your child’s personality affects playtime. Kids are easy to get angry when they’re sleepy or hungry, so schedule playtime when they’re refreshed.

1. What does it indicate when toddlers copy their playmates’ behavior?

A．They are interested in acting.	B．They are shy with the strangers.
C．They are fond of their playmates.	D．They are tired of playing games.

2. What does the author suggest parents do for their kids?

A．Design games for them.	B．Find them suitable playmates.
C．Play together with them.	D．Help them understand social rules.

3. What is the function of the quoted statements in paragraph 4?

A．Giving examples.	B．Explaining concepts.
C．Providing evidence.	D．Making comparisons.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．How Children Adapt to Changes	B．How to Be a Role Model for Children
C．How Your Baby Learns to Love	D．How to Communicate with Your Kid

10 . I was halfway across Indiana headed home to Kentucky when my car broke down. My phone was ______, too. I managed to get to a gas station, but it was Sunday in the early fall, and there was no ______ on duty. I was working my way through university then and had little money for ______ the car.

I sat alongside my car for several hours trying to ______ the heat when an older gentleman ______ to fuel his car.   He asked about my car, and I ______ my predicament (困境). To my ______, the gentleman told me that he had a daughter my age, and then he opened his trunk and ______ a tool set.

Right then and there, this total ______ examined my engine, explaining as he worked that my spark plugs (火花塞) hadn’t been charged for so long that they were ______ to function.   After about an hour, he ______ that my car was safe to finish the trip.

______ came at the hands of a stranger. ______ his clothes, working on a hot September afternoon, this man ______ a college student from disaster, just because she could have been his ______ .

1.

A．busy

B．loud

C．dead

D．secure

2.

A．mechanic

B．policeman

C．manager

D．guide

3.

A．washing

B．parking

C．purchasing

D．maintaining

4.

A．feel

B．beat

C．absorb

D．produce

5.

A．promised

B．refused

C．stopped

D．volunteered

6.

A．solved

B．noticed

C．escaped

D．explained

7.

A．surprise

B．regret

C．amusement

D．disappointment

8.

A．called up

B．pulled out

C．put down

D．threw away

9.

A．liar

B．beginner

C．stranger

D．loser

10.

A．free

B．ready

C．uncertain

D．unable

11.

A．pronounced

B．agreed

C．discovered

D．doubted

12.

A．Tiredness

B．Kindness

C．Loneliness

D．Carefulness

13.

A．Folding

B．Drying

C．Soiling

D．Mending

14.

A．saved

B．called

C．judged

D．banned

15.

A．friend

B．daughter

C．coworker

D．customer