1 . There is widespread agreement that climate change threatens our existence. But in our rush to address this challenge, our efforts mustn’t heighten another, more immediate one: the global decline of biodiversity. We are losing species at 1,000 times the natural rate. If we stay on this track, we risk losing up to half of them by the middle of the century.
Sadly, the singular focus on solving climate change has led to people ignoring biodiversity. The alarming result is that many climate efforts unintentionally quicken nature’s destruction. Take the huge need for solar farms for an example. If not located properly, they’ll impact ecosystems and habitats. In Virginia, for example, more than half of solar facilities are being built on forested land rather than areas such as rooftops or parking lots. The state’s push for solar development could lead to the deforestation of nearly 30,000 acres annually.
There is a real risk that badly planned renewable infrastructure (基础设施) will have a greater impact on biodiversity than existing fossil fuel infrastructure. Thus, we need to chart a path that doesn’t address one environmental challenge by creating others.
Indeed, with practical choices, we can do the opposite, using nature to address climate change. Consider carbon removal. Research shows between 2001 and 2019, forests around the world seized more than twice the amount of carbon dioxide that they emitted (排放) — absorbing more than the combined annual emissions of the US and UK. Nature is also critical in setting the adaptation necessary to prepare for increasingly severe weather shocks, such as the role of mangroves (a kind of tree) in absorbing floods.
Governments must think differently, employing better infrastructure planning at all levels. A report from The Nature Conservancy shows careful siting can reduce the effects of the clean energy infrastructure by 70%compared with siting as usual practices. For instance, solar farms can be put on already degraded land.
It would be a tragic irony if, in our efforts to tackle climate change, we end upbringing a big and immediate crisis in the natural world.
1. What is the effect of building solar farms on forested land in Virginia?| A．It damages the forest. | B．It boosts local economy. |
| C．It reduces human’s living space. | D．It protects the environment. |
| A．Increasing funds for clean energy. | B．Using technology to remove carbon. |
| C．Locating clean energy projects carefully. | D．Prioritizing renewable energy totally. |
| A．climate change will contribute to more severe issues |
| B．focus on climate change makes people ignore land use |
| C．efforts to solve climate change speed up biodiversity loss |
| D．the development of clean energy quickens climate change |
| A．Pessimistic and critical. | B．Factual and concerned. |
| C．Subjective and dismissive. | D．Humorous and optimistic. |
2 . I once had a strange relationship with money. I always made more money than most people of my age did. But it still stressed me out, and I felt like I never had enough. After coming across The School of Betty, a platform that enables women to create relationships with their money, I found myself inspired to do a no-spend month challenge. The result? I saved more than $1,000. It was like finding money in my winter coat pocket after a long summer.
The most eye-opening thing a no-spend challenge can do for you is shedding light on the emotions and the behaviors you have around your money that have become a habit. Most individuals don’t realize they are spending out of habit and based on their emotions. Figuring out the causes and knowing I was able to save a good sum of money in only 30 days, I set out to do a longer challenge — three months.
As for the first challenge, I was only allowed to buy essentials, which meant my normal bills — lighting, phone, car insurance, gas, oil and groceries. But in my 90-day challenge, I further removed all of the extras — no new clothes, no new shoes, and no lunches at restaurants. I allowed myself one night out with friends per month — to avoid going crazy — but I stuck to a budget. This also allowed me to see what type of experience was worth my money and what type was wasting my money.
90 days later, my jaw hit the floor when I totaled my savings: I was almost $4,000 richer. The rewards were more than financial: I was able to distinguish between my needs and my wants. The process enabled me to spot purchases driven by emotions. Even better, I shifted the way I valued money: The money I spent socializing with friends felt far more valuable than the pleasure of purchasing, say, two new sweaters.
1. How did the author feel after the first no-spend challenge?| A．Stressed and regretful. | B．Surprised and wonderful. |
| C．Tired but content. | D．Awful but encouraged. |
| A．Because of their unintentional habits. | B．Because of their social communication. |
| C．Because of their heavy pressure of work. | D．Because of their basic needs. |
| A．She hung around with friends weekly. | B．She saw essentials as a waste of money. |
| C．She enjoyed her friends’ company. | D．She bought nothing in ninety days. |
| A．To share personal experiences. | B．To advertise a platform. |
| C．To support an argument. | D．To advocate healthy lifestyles. |
3 . Going through social media can quickly convince you that everyone’s life is more interesting than yours. During a particularly adventurous week on Instagram some months ago, I saw waterskiing in Maui, and swimming with wild pigs in the Bahamas. Wild pigs! I started googling flights to new places, imagining adventures. Then I ordered food from the place I eat at every week and … felt bad about not trying somewhere new.
Recent research about repeat and novel experiences suggests that we ought to reconsider those negative feelings associated with repetition. Ed O’Brien, a professor at the University of Chicago, launched a series of studies on this topic, “There’s a general belief that if you want to seem like an interesting, cultured person, the best thing you can do is to showcase that you’re open to new experiences,” he says. “That may be true, but I think we take for granted the value of really digging deep into one field.”
To test this hypothesis (假设), O’Brien and his team exposed all participants to the same stimulus (刺激), including museum visits, movies, and video games. Next, some people were asked to imagine repeating the experience, while others actually did repeat what they had done. The researchers found that on the whole, participants said that repeating experiences was often far more enjoyable than they had predicted.
There is joy in repetition partly because every human mind wanders. Consequently, we miss a good part of every experience. Repeating things can really be seen as another opportunity to actually experience something fully. O’Brien’s studies show that people are too quick to assume that they’ve seen all the layers even in those cases where they haven’t. It’s safe to assume there are more explorable layers in any experience. When we’re noticing new things in any experience, our brain becomes engaged. All we need to do is approach whatever task is at hand by searching for the things that we didn’t see in it the first time around.
1. Why does the author mention his experiences in Paragraph. 1?| A．To introduce the bad feelings linked to repetition. |
| B．To show novel experiences are more interesting. |
| C．To tell us a common belief about social media. |
| D．To present to us his new imagined adventures. |
| A．People were open to new experiences. |
| B．Imagination was exciting on the whole. |
| C．Repeating experiences made one bored. |
| D．Digging deep into one field was enjoyable. |
| A．By searching for the ignored elements. |
| B．By assuming we didn’t see all at first. |
| C．By approaching whatever task is at hand. |
| D．By keeping focused on every experience. |
| A．The joy of social media adventures. | B．The value of repetition in experiences. |
| C．The importance of trying new things. | D．The benefits of travel and exploration. |
4 . Perhaps a friend you’ve known for years has moved away. It’s normal to feel sad and frustrated at not getting to see him in the way you’d like to.
WRITE LOTS OF LETTERS
Seeing a note or card from someone they care about in the letterbox is a sure way to make your friend smile. While it’s good to keep in touch via technology, putting your thoughts down on paper shows how much you care and that you’ve set aside some time to think about them. It doesn’t have to be an essay.
SEND A CARE PACKAGE
SHARE A SHOW
Is there a TV series that you both love? While you may not be able to share a packet of popcorn and view it side by side, you could arrange to watch it at the same time and then talk on the phone about it afterwards, sharing your reactions and opinions.
| A．It’s the thought that counts. |
| B．But staying connected is possible. |
| C．It can also be an e-mail with photos. |
| D．Postcards are a lovely way to stay in touch. |
| E．This works well as a way of regularly staying in touch. |
| F．Once in a while, make a parcel filled with items that are meaningful to your friend. |
| G．Even when you live far apart from someone, they can still be a big part of your life. |
5 . The Smith’s home was always buzzing with activity, with Mrs. Smith seemingly at the
One day, little Johnny felt a surge of
From that day forward, Mrs. Smith started seeing the housework in a new
| A．bottom | B．top | C．corner | D．center |
| A．borrows | B．lends | C．holds | D．needs |
| A．bitterness | B．anger | C．courage | D．excitement |
| A．piped up | B．burst in | C．broke out | D．called off |
| A．shame | B．surprise | C．doubt | D．sorrow |
| A．choking | B．shaking | C．steady | D．jumpy |
| A．collecting | B．breaking | C．throwing | D．cutting |
| A．information | B．branches | C．money | D．groceries |
| A．coming across | B．washing over | C．taking away | D．turning off |
| A．notable | B．unique | C．quiet | D．crucial |
| A．role | B．light | C．chapter | D．setting |
| A．decorating | B．designing | C．building | D．maintaining |
| A．dramatically | B．significantly | C．immediately | D．certainly |
| A．fair | B．worthwhile | C．helpful | D．necessary |
| A．explore | B．accept | C．preserve | D．appreciate |
6 . Psychologists have defined nostalgia (怀旧) as a self-conscious and social emotion, bittersweet but mainly positive. It develops out of happy memories mixed with a desire for the past and the close relationships we had back then. Often, nostalgia involves sensory stimuli. For example, the smell of autumn leaves might cause an intense longing for your childhood home. Neuroscientists have found it’s a complex cognitive phenomenon involving many parts of the brain, including some that are involved in self-reflection, emotional regulation, and reward processing.
Almost everyone experiences nostalgia, although its object tends to vary throughout life. One survey conducted by the psychologist Krystine Irene Batcho found younger people felt more nostalgia for pets, toys, and holidays than did older people, who felt it more strongly for music.
Nostalgia was originally viewed as an emotional disease when it was first defined in the late 17th century. Perhaps because it often occurs when people are experiencing negative moods or having bad experiences. Loneliness can be a trigger (诱因), as researchers found in 2008. Another is bad weather.
However, despite its association with negative emotions, nostalgia does not cause or exacerbate unhappiness. Rather, nostalgia has a uniquely protective power against unhappiness, and brings relief from a negative mood. Psychologists writing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2006 found that causing nostalgia in experiments strengthens people’s social bonds, boosts their positive feelings about themselves, improves their sense of life’s meaning, lowers an existential reaction to the idea of death, and raises optimism. Besides, nostalgia’s emotional intensity allows the joy of the past to overpower the unpleasantness of the present, which helps us forget about the bad times for a while.
Scholars aren’t sure exactly how nostalgia works. Perhaps because it’s so powerful and complex, nostalgia has received wonderful treatment from poets and writers. “The past is hidden somewhere outside the realm (领域), beyond the reach of intellect,” Marcel Proust, one of the greatest French novelists of the 20th century, wrote.
1. What is most likely to lead to nostalgia in the elderly?| A．A cute dog. | B．An expensive toy. | C．A happy holiday. | D．An old song. |
| A．Relieve. | B．Worsen. | C．Defend. | D．Cover. |
| A．It removes people’s fear of death. | B．It lessens the positive perception about the self. |
| C．K offers temporary escape from the sad present. | D．It intensifies people’s doubt about life’s meaning. |
| A．Nostalgia: A Defense Against Unhappiness | B．Nostalgia: A Trigger for Happiness |
| C．Nostalgia: A Treatment for Depression | D．Nostalgia: A Social Emotion in Life |
7 . Polar bears normally feed on ringed seals that they catch on ice floes (浮冰) offshore. But as the ice disappears in a warming world, many bears are spending greater amounts of time on shore, eating birds’ eggs, berries and grass. However the animals rapidly lose weight on land, increasing the risk of death. The polar bear has become the victims for global climate change, but the reality of the impact on this species is complicated.
Increasing global temperatures are now seen as their biggest threat. That’s because the frozen Arctic seas are key to their survival. The animals use the sea ice as a platform to hunt ringed seals, mostly in late spring and early summer. But during the warmer months many parts of the Arctic are now increasingly ice-free.
To understand how the animals survive as the ice disappears, researchers carried out a study, where they followed the activities of 20 polar bears during the summer months over a three-year period. As well as taking blood samples, and weighing the bears, the animals were fitted with GPS-equipped video camera collars. This allowed the scientists to record the animals’ movements, their activities and what they ate.
In the ice-free summer months, the bears adopted different strategies to survive, with some essentially resting and conserving their energy. The majority tried to search for vegetation or berries or swam to see if they could find food. Both approaches failed, with 19 of the 20 bears in the study losing body mass, by up to 11% in some cases. On average they lost one kilogramme per day. “Regardless of which strategy they were trying to use, there was no real benefit to either approach as far as being able to prolong the period that they could survive on land,” according to lead author Dr Anthony Pagano, from the US Geological Survey in Alaska.
“It is likely that polar bears will disappear from areas where sea ice will be lost in future, but difficult to say just when and where,” said Jon Aars from the Norwegian Polar Institute who was not involved in the study.
1. Why is global warming seen as the biggest threat to polar bears?| A．Polar bears can not survive in warm environment. |
| B．Polar bears can not find bird’s eggs, berries, and grass. |
| C．There are fewer ringed seals in warm environment. |
| D．There are fewer ice floes for polar bears to hunt for food. |
| A．To record the polar bears’ health condition. |
| B．To figure out how the bears survive without sea ice. |
| C．To observe the daily activities of these polar bears. |
| D．To fit the bears with GPS-equipped video camera collars. |
| A．The bears haven’t found ways to live on land. |
| B．It’s efficient for the bears to rest and conserve energy. |
| C．All the bears in the study lose weight greatly. |
| D．The bears can not survive without ice floes. |
| A．A science fiction. | B．A book review. |
| C．An entertainment magazine. | D．An environmental journal. |
Nowadays thanks to the Internet, modern pets are getting online. It sounds crazy, but about 17 percent of British pets have their own social media accounts!
It’s said that your personality
The British are well known as a nation of animal lovers. In the UK, 52% of owners describe their pet as their “best friend”,
In the 1800s, people started using the word “pet” to describe the emotional connections,
9 . On some late November dawn, I find myself draw n to the leisurely pursuit of baking a loaf of bread. Not by hand, but by following the bread machine’s step-by-step instructions.
But on this morning, three hours later, all I’ve got is a problem. I’d forgotten to insert the mixing blade into the bottom of the bread barrel. The result: a pile of unmixed dough that neither looks nor tastes like bread. Complaining, I dump the dough and prepare to start a new one.
I reach for the flour, only this time — I fall far short of the necessary four cups. I’ve got one cup at most, along with a freshly emptied flour bag. No matter, I think. I’ll simply drive to my parents’ house to borrow a bit of theirs. Upon my arrival, I decide not to wake them. Instead, I cat burgle my way through their front door, silently search through their cabinets, and discover their own bit of flour supply. I steal all of it and return home so that I might begin again the leisurely pursuit of baking bread.
I follow the instructions, and then, I consider the whole experience before breakfast. How I managed to turn a one-second oversight into an hour-long adventure that cost me more time and money than any loaf of bread could ever be worth. Somewhere, an apron reads, “Baking is my therapy.” I want the one that reads, “Baking sends me to therapy.”
As my bread machine bread begins to rise, I’m struck by an inconvenient truth: had I done nothing that morning, I’d have managed a more favorable outcome.
Meanwhile, I notice something new: the mixing blade works intermittently rather than continually, meaning that for the bread to rise to its full potential, it requires both motion and rest. Work has its place, but so must leisure. The recipe calls for both.
1. Why did the writer fail the first time in the baking?| A．He left out a key step. | B．The flour has run out. |
| C．The bread machine broke down. | D．The dough doesn’t taste like bread. |
| A．He went out to buy some. |
| B．He borrowed some from a friend. |
| C．He got some from his parents by himself. |
| D．He found another bag of flour in his own house. |
| A．How to bake bread |
| B．An unforgettable experience |
| C．Work has its place, but so must leisure |
| D．Breaking bread: A morning adventure in baking |
| A．Practice makes perfect. | B．Well begun is half done. |
| C．Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. | D．All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. |
10 . I tried not to look down. My palms (手掌) were sweating. All I could concentrate on was the man below who was keeping the ladder steady. The tiny people waved up at me, but I couldn’t see them clearly.
When I got to the top, some sort of supernatural force brought my feet to the edge of the platform. I was going to slip off the board. The line holding me was going to break, and I was once again going to be thrown to death. Down was the only direction my eyes would go.
I begged to go back down the ladder, but the stupid man tried to convince me. The tiny dots below shouted encouragingly, saying they would run with me as I flew. I was going to slide off that platform. I couldn’t think; the tears stopped my brain. Why wouldn’t he let me go back? The message replayed in my mind, “You’re going to die…”
Like a blown-up balloon, I was let go just before it could be knotted at the bottom. I went in every direction, tension escaping from my body as I fell. The breeze hit my face and cooled my sweaty body. I could see clearly now, and I was flying.
Today, I am still terrified of heights. It would be nice to say that I conquered my fear and found something I loved. I owe my zip line (飞索) experience to the Englishman who pushed me off the platform. I am grateful for the experience because I love adventure. Trying new things has always appealed to me. Some of the most rewarding experiences I have had, like flying, have come out of conquering what at first appears to be frightening and impossible. While my days of aerial escapades are over, I look forward to the future and the question of fear of flying and will continue to create questions wherever I go.
1. How did the author feel when he was on the ladders?| A．Exhausted. | B．Frightened. | C．Annoyed. | D．Excited. |
| A．To teach him to fly. | B．To push him to death. |
| C．To develop his courage. | D．To test his ability to climb. |
| A．everyone can enjoy flying well |
| B．trying difficult things is his favorite |
| C．looking back on the old days is awful for him |
| D．something that seems impossible can be conquered |
| A．The author’s zip line experience. | B．The author’s difficulty in life. |
| C．The author’s failure in adventure. | D．The author’s dreams about his future. |
