1 . My family always had some sort of animal around, but none of them were truly mine. My parents didn’t permit me to _________ my own until I was seven years old. Finally, I was _________ to have my own _________, a fish called George. I said it was my responsibility to _________ it.

Every Friday I would clean out his bowl. I found myself _________ invitations to go somewhere immediately after school, because I would have to feed my fish first. Every day he would remind me that I was _________ and that I had someone depending on me.

One day, I came home from school and headed to my room to _________George. I found a _________ thing had happened. I _________ my bag and ran over to the bowl. I saw my best friend George floating around lifeless.

My mom walked into my room. I turned around as tears started to well in my eyes. “Mommy, George d…d…died.” With that __________ word I started crying uncontrollably. My mom came to my side as I hid my face in my pillows.

Suddenly, I realized that George hadn’t just __________ me. He had taught me what __________ meant. I learned it through feeding him and cleaning his bowl. This made me feel __________ . To my seven-year-old self, this was a great __________ . Slowly, a smile crossed my face. George was gone.__________ , the lessons he taught me would forever be carved into my memory.

1.

A．draw

B．imagine

C．have

D．share

2.

A．doubtful

B．excited

C．surprised

D．afraid

3.

A．toy

B．mind

C．time

D．pet

4.

A．take care of

B．make use of

C．get hold of

D．look forward to

5.

A．reading out

B．putting away

C．turning down

D．showing off

6.

A．replaced

B．recognized

C．affected

D．needed

7.

A．feed

B．save

C．impress

D．find

8.

A．basic

B．terrible

C．funny

D．familiar

9.

A．dropped

B．emptied

C．hid

D．checked

10.

A．common

B．last

C．extra

D．new

11.

A．left

B．reminded

C．defeated

D．chosen

12.

A．preference

B．independence

C．difficulty

D．responsibility

13.

A．safe

B．good

C．sorry

D．tired

14.

A．agreement

B．treatment

C．disappointment

D．achievement

15.

A．Otherwise

B．Besides

C．However

D．Therefore

2 . Avoiding loneliness

It doesn’t follow that you’re lonely just because you live alone, but there’s evidence that it can affect your health, increasing your risk of heart disease, cancer, and mental health problems.     1    . Acknowledging it and trying to understand what’s causing you to feel that way is the first step to doing something about it.

    2    . Instead of watching TV or checking your phone, go for a walk and chat with someone. Better still, offer to take a neighbor's dog for a walk—dog owners love other’ dog’ people!

Build your community online. The internet has the potential to bring like-minded people together.     3    . Try a neighbourhood app like Next Door or Nearcircles. You may take part in a fitness community (group workouts or a running club), a work community (co-working space), or a hobby community (a writers’ meetup). Your local library will also be able to help you find activities and what’s on near home.

Pick up the phone. Or make a video call. Don’t wait for family and friends to make the first move; get in touch for a chat and make it a habit.

Get involved.     4    . Helping out at the local food bank or charity shop will not only give you a warm, happy feeling, but you’ll also get to meet other volunteers—and it will give you something to talk about with friends.

Plan ahead. Everyone’s busy, so getting people together can take organisation and motivation.     5    .

A．Make time for people

B．Talk about your feelings

C．So, if at times you feel lonesome, don’t ignore it

D．Don’t be embarrassed at the causes of your loneliness

E．However, it needs to translate into meeting up in real life

F．Rather than unclearly suggesting meeting up, follow up quickly with a proposed date

G．Volunteering is good for physical and mental health, and allows you to connect with people

3 . The fruit-tree pinhole borer (针孔蛀虫), as its name implies, makes holes in fruit trees. It lays its eggs and raises its young in the galleries thus created . Yet the beetles (甲虫) do not feed directly on the wood they bore into. Instead, they devour fungi (真菌) that grow on the wood thus exposed.

Researchers have long suspected that this is a form of farming, because they have evidence that the beetles carry spores (孢子) of their preferred crop, R. sulphurea, into their smallholdings—in effect, sowing it there.

Observations of natural fruit-tree pinhole-bore r dwellings suggest that R. sulphurea grows in them more abundantly (大量地) than might be expected, given all the fungal competition around—but not why. To check whether the beetles are, indeed, weeding their crop, Janina Diehl and Peter Biedermann of the University of Freiburg did an experiment.

In the laboratory, they had mother beetles of the little wood bore restablish nests, in which the typical fungal gardens formed. But before the beetles had started laying their eggs, they collected all of the beetles and then returned half to their dwellings while leaving the other nests empty. Genetic analysis of the fungal gardens after 40 days showed that the presence of the beetles had greatly changed the fungal community. Twenty days after that, they sampled the gallery walls for fungi.

As they had hoped and expected, R. sulphurea was much more abundant in beetle-tended galleries than in those without residents. In the former, it made up half of the fungal mass extracted. In the latter, less than a third. These beetles are indeed weeding their crop.

“Further research into how exactly the beetles suppress the growth of weed fungi could alsoprovide worthwhile insights for human agriculture, which is struggling with weed resistance, for example,” says Biedermann. “It’s highly exciting for us to see how nature has been doing this for 60 million years. We humans can still learn something from these mechanisms.”

1. What does the underlined word “devour” in paragraph 1 mean?

A．Sow.

B．Tend.

C．Eat.

D．Move.

2. In which aspect were the two groups of nests different?

A．The number of the mother beetles.	B．The presence of the beetles.
C．The quality of food fungi.	D．The types of weed fungi.

3. What did Diehl find about the fruit-tree pinhole borer?

A．They weed crops.	B．They feed on fruit.
C．They live in groups.	D．They lay eggs in trees.

4. What can be learned from Biedermann’s words?

A．The research findings are of little value.

B．Measures should be taken to protect the beetles.

C．Fungi cause much damage to human agriculture.

D．Further research to the beetles might benefit farmers.

4 . THE BOB BAKER MARIONETTES COME TO YOU!

Book a marionette (牵线木偶) show to come to your backyard, neighborhood park, school, or simply anywhere there’s fun to be had! For over 55 years, the Bob Baker Marionettes (BBMT) have been taking their show on the road, and they can’t wait to come to YOU! We have several choices to suit any size celebration or event.

One-Man Show ($350)

·25-minute performance

·A single performer and 12 marionettes perform a set variety show of endless joy!

·Space Required: 10 ft × 15 ft

Two-Man Show ($650)

·25-minute performance

·Two performers and 25 marionettes help you create amazing memories!

·Several theme options (主题选项): Something to Crow About, The CIRCUS, and Hallowe’en SpOoKtAcUlAr!

·Space Required: 15 ft ×20 ft

Notes:

·Please make your show request at least 3 weeks in advance.

·For all show options, the travel fee is included for the first 25 miles! Distances over 25 miles from our Highland Park location will incur (带来) an additional travel fee of $50 flat.

All shows are self-contained. The show is done to a pre-recorded tape. We’ll bring the speaker system; we just ask for a power outlet (电源插座). After the show, we pride ourselves on showing off the historic and beautiful marionettes, and answering questions from our audience!

For Birthday Celebrations, our marionettes will bring a gift to celebrate the birthday person, and sing “Happy Birthday” along with the audience!

READY TO BOOK A BOB BAKER TRAVELING SHOW? Please send us a message!

1. How much should people pay for a two-man show performed 30 miles from BBMT?

A．$350.

B．$400.

C．$650.

D．$700.

2. What should people prepare to enjoy a Bob Baker traveling show?

A．A square room.	B．A power outlet.
C．A tape recorder.	D．A speaker system.

3. What can a birthday person do at his birthday celebrations?

A．Try out the marionettes.

B．Sing with the marionettes.

C．Get a present from the marionettes.

D．Choose his favorite marionettes to perform.

5 . There is a five-and-a-half-mile bike path sitting in the middle of an eight-lane highway(八车道公路), topped with a solar panel(太阳能板) that lights up the streets below in South Korea. But this is not an ordinary bike path. It started as an idea to produce clean energy while giving people a place to exercise at the same time. South Korea built this eco-friendly bicycle lane that connects the cities of Daejeon to Sejong in 2014.

The 13-foot-wide path set in the middle of a highway is unique in South Korea, where most bicycle paths are built next to walkways. But what really makes the path stand out is its one-of-a-kind feature—a solar panel-lined roof. Several other city governments in South Korea have built bike roads with solar panels, but this particular road in Sejong remains the longest and the only one set in the middle of a highway.

With 7,502 solar panels fixed at intervals(间隔空间) of about 30 inches, the paneling covers 3 miles of the 5.5-mile cycling highway and is capable of producing an average of 2,200 MWh of eco-friendly electricity every year that powers many of the streetlights and electronic displays in Sejong. The Korea Western Power Co., Ltd. is in charge of checking and repairing the solar panels to keep up the power efficiency(效率).

“Solar panels in public equipment are part of a trend(趋势) in clean energy,” Kim Geun-ho, a researcher from the Green Energy Institute said. “At the beginning stage, solar power generation was mostly built in vast farmland and mountainous areas. It moved on to public equipment rooftops, and finally evolved to play the role of a shelter and power generator at the same time, in this case, a roof on top of a bike road.”

“This is the fastest bike road I can take from my home in Daejeon to my workplace in Sejong,” said Park Yoon-soo, who has been going to work every day using the solar panel bike road for the last two years. “I have always appreciated the solar panel roofs because they become good shade under strong sunlight, and a roof when it rains.”

1. For what purpose was the bike path built?

A．To try out an idea.	B．To get clean energy.
C．To solve traffic jams.	D．To encourage less driving.

2. What makes the bike path different from other ones with solar panels?

A．Its width.	B．Its solar panels.
C．Its location.	D．Its energy output.

3. What does the underlined word “evolved” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Survived.

B．Happened.

C．Waited.

D．Developed.

4. What does Park Yoon-soo think of this bike path?

A．It is convenient.	B．It is energy-saving.
C．It is a good place to relax.	D．It is money-saving high tech.

6 . Being resilient isn’t about avoiding misfortune, but rather how we respond to it. Resilience means “doing well in the face of risk or misfortune,” says Suniya Luthar, co-founder of Authentic Connections, a company that helps teach resilience and well-being.

    1    . “We all get depleted (筋疲力尽) from time to time, and the big epidemic has almost emptied the resilience of nearly everyone, at one time or another,” says Ann Masten, a professor of child development at the University of Minnesota.

Even if you consider yourself resilient, you may need a booster dose (21128 剂量) in especially hard times.     2    .

Nurture (培育) relationships

    3    , says Michael Ungar, author of Change Your World: The Science of Resilience and the True Path to Success. When misfortune strikes, a supportive friend with good listening skill can make a big difference. And if you want your friends and family to support your resilience, remember to support theirs too.

Find a sense of purpose

    4    , Ungar says. Your sense of purpose doesn’t have to come from school or work; it can also come from hobbies or volunteer projects, like growing a backyard vegetable garden or cleaning up litter in a neighborhood park.

Don’t try to banish (消除) misfortune completely

Resilience usually refers to how we deal with serious misfortune, Masten says, but our reactions to big problems may be inspired partly by the many small problems we face in daily life. “    5    . And gradually our adaptive systems will be improved,” she says.

A．To build resilience, experts suggest the following

B．Recently we’ve all needed to draw on our resilience

C．Everyone starts out with a different level of resilience

D．Set up and maintain a support network before you need it

E．Take some time every day to care for your mind and your body

F．When somebody needs you, you just deal with stress much better

G．Everyday stress probably helps us learn how to deal with bigger challenges

7 . 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。

Have you ever wondered what life is like now     1     (compare) to, say, the 1980s or the 1990s? I went to ask some people I know who were adults in the ‘80s and 90s’, and the answer I got was that “Overall, life is a lot     2     (good) now!” This didn’t really surprise me. I mean, these days we’ve got mobile phones and the internet and so on — but     3    (actual) those weren’t the things they talked about.

So what did they talk about? For     4     start, we don’t have to work physically hard since now there are a lot of things like dishwashers for housework. Then there’s the matter of how, these days,     5     is possible to work at home — it’s mainly     6    (computer) that have made this possible. Not only that, there’s a lot more     7     (equal) now. It’s easier for all people, whatever their social background, gender (性别), colour and so on, to have equal access     8     a variety of career opportunities.

That said, it’s not all a matter of improvement. Quite a few people told me that they feel more stressed these days because they rely a lot on technology and they are always     9    (anxiety) about security on the internet. Plus, we spend a lot of our time     10     (use) smartphones. One person said, “Wouldn’t it be great to be off the grid (不上网) for a few days?”

8 . 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 Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) said a large atlas moth (皇蛾)     1    (find) on a garage (车库) was identified as the first atlas moth ever documented in the United States.

The department said     2     university teacher took place photos when he found the large moth resting on the wall of     3    (he) garage on July 7. State officials     4    (careful) examined the photos and     5    (confirm) the insect was an atlas moth, one of the world’s largest species of moth.

Atlas moths are native     6     the tropics (热带地区) and have never been documented in the United States.

“This is an     7    (attract) type of insect because it is so large,” said Sven-Erik Spichiger from the agriculture department. “Even if you don’t keep an eye out for insects, this is one that people will get their phones out and take a picture of — they are that striking.”

    8    (researcher) said they are now trying to find out if the moth is part of a population in Washington. They are asking anyone     9     discover s a similar insect     10    (report) it to pestprogram@agr.wa.gov .

“We hope residents will help us learn if this was a one-off escapee or whether there might be a population in the area,” the department said.

9 . “When one door closes,” the saying goes, “another door opens.” For one _______ dog, it appears that saying is also suitable for doggy doors.

A dog named Sheldon took part in a program to _______ a service dog. Unluckily, he couldn’t quite make the _______. Whenever he would _______ something interesting, Sheldon’s concentration flew out of the window and all he wanted to do was _______ the source.

But the very thing that made him a failure as a service dog meant he was likely _______ for another dog job. Sheldon was sent to the State Farm Arson Dog Program, where his sensitive (灵敏的) nose soon put him _______ the class for detecting the accelerants (探测肋燃剂) used to light illegal fires.

_______ John Tadlock of the Saginaw fire department, after his _______ Sheldon went on to become the department’s best accelerant detection dog.

In his first ________, Sheldon and his partner Tadlock were called to a car shop to look into some cars that had been ________ under suspicious (可疑的) circumstances. After three days, no one had been able to figure out how the fire got started — but the cause wasn’t ________ to Sheldon. “I put him to ________. It took him about 30 seconds to give me an alert (警报),” Tadlock said. Sheldon found the evidence with no ________.

For a dog with a super sense of smell, we guess whether you’re tailing bad guys or hunting for a job, it’s always best to follow your ________.

1.

A．old

B．special

C．lucky

D．sick

2.

A．help

B．visit

C．teach

D．become

3.

A．difference

B．mistake

C．grade

D．change

4.

A．find

B．taste

C．smell

D．hear

5.

A．hunt down

B．return to

C．learn about

D．depend on

6.

A．sorry

B．perfect

C．famous

D．responsible

7.

A．in the front of

B．at the bottom of

C．in the middle of

D．at the top of

8.

A．Playing with

B．Paired with

C．Agreeing with

D．Faced with

9.

A．graduation

B．recovery

C．birth

D．death

10.

A．course

B．race

C．case

D．program

11.

A．sold

B．built

C．stolen

D．burnt

12.

A．confusing

B．interesting

C．clear

D．important

13.

A．sleep

B．work

C．flight

D．risk

14.

A．fear

B．choice

C．difficulty

D．experience

15.

A．nose

B．head

C．plan

D．dream

10 . When Hurricane Ian hit Florida, Karen Lauder refused to leave her home because she was wrong about the intensity(强度) of the storm. Karen is 84 years old and depends on a wheelchair to get around because she is missing a leg. Her son, Johnny Lauder, tried repeatedly to get her to leave, but she refused.

Johnny and his whole family live within a few blocks of one another. They kept in touch with Karen as the storm continued violently(猛烈地) outside, watching the water rising dangerously all around them. When Karen reported that the water in her house had reached her bottom, Johnny knew he had to take action.

First, Johnny ensured his sons and their pets were taken care of. Then, he jumped out of a window and began to swim. Johnny used to work as a rescue swimmer. He is obviously a strong swimmer, but the flood water was filled with dangerous materials. There was also a strong current (水流), and he had to swim against it for most of his trip to Karen’s. As he made his way through the water, Johnny stopped periodically to snap selfies(自拍) to show his worried family that he was okay.

Johnny was racing against the clock. He knew he only had a short period of time to get there before the water rose above Karen’s head. It took him 40 minutes to swim four blocks. The sound of Karen shouting inside was music to his ears!

“If it would’ve been 20 minutes later, she wouldn’t be here,” Johnny said.“She’s never been happier to see me.”

Karen is now safe, although she is in the hospital being treated for infections(感染) she got in the water. The family have all lost everything they owned, including their houses, but they’re grateful just to be here.

1. Why did Karen decide to stay in her house when Hurricane Ian came?

A．She had nowhere to go.

B．She was too old to move.

C．She thought the storm was not violent.

D．She lost her wheelchair and was unable to leave.

2. Why did Johnny take selfies along the way to Karen’s home?

A．To record his swimming trip.	B．To show off his swimming skills.
C．To warn other rescuers of danger.	D．To report his safety to his family.

3. How did Johnny’s family keep in touch in the storm?

A．By shouting.	B．Over the phone.
C．Through e-mail.	D．With other’s help.

4. How did Johnny feel when he heard Karen shouting?

A．Curious.

B．Frightened.

C．Confused.

D．Relieved.