1 . Planetary changes which will have an influence on many are drawing near because of the poor ecological state of the planet. Actually change has already begun through climate changes, but most humans haven’t noticed this yet. Climate change has begun to influence the world already and will begin to worsen within the next few years.
As the planet is under big geological (地质的) stresses, which are continuously increasing, it will in the future no longer be able to support its population. Shortage of resources, over-farming, lack of clean air, not enough clean drinking water and drought are some of the issues that will all play a much greater role in the near future.
Humans have caused large ecological destruction. The lifestyles of many people are changing at a fast speed; however, this will finally result in a shortage of some valuable resources. When this shortage begins to happen, people will no longer be able to have sustainable (可持续的) lifestyles.
It’s important to understand that everyone plays a role in the whole process of life. Each person’s decision can finally affect the future. These decisions, all combined, can have a very good effect on what the future will be like for humans. So the future depends on the choices we make at the present moment.
While more and more people are becoming aware of climate change and other environmental problems related to global warming, not all are fully understanding how far-reaching its effects will be. Unfortunately, most of the humans realize that the planet isn’t functioning well, but they don’t understand that this is creating a major problem for the future survival of humans.
So, every person should make the necessary changes to reduce their influence on the environment and help create a more sustainable future
1. What do we know about climate change from the text?| A．It is not casy for people to understand. | B．It is expected to become worse soon. |
| C．It is mainly caused by natural disasters. | D．It is well realized by most humans. |
| A．Resources humans are running out of. | B．Healthy lifestyles humans need to lead. |
| C．Problems humans will be faced with. | D．Geological changes humans have caused. |
| A．To call on people to contribute to a sustainable future. |
| B．To inform people the planet isn’t functioning properly. |
| C．To warn people of the danger of ecological destruction. |
| D．To tell people the right way to obtain enough resources. |
| A．The Causes of Planetary Changes | B．The Influence of Ecological Destruction |
| C．Ways to Build a Sustainable Future | D．Environmental Damage and the Human Future |
2 . In the first year of the twenty-first century, a man standing by a busy road in the middle of the United States gave away his life savings-$30-and walked away. He was 39 years old, came from a good family, and had been to college. He was not mentally ill, nor did he have any other problems: The decision was made by a man who knew exactly what he was doing.
In the following years since then, Daniel Suclo has not earned, received, or spent a single dollar. In an era when anyone who could sign his name could get a loan, Suelo applied for nothing. As public debt kept rising, he did not accept any type of help from the government.
Instead he went to live in a cave in Utah, where he picks fruit, takes old food that has gone past its sell-by date out of bins, and is often fed by friends and strangers. While the rest of us try to deal with loans, retirement plans, and bank accounts, Suel no fonger even has an identity card.
Daniel is not a typical homeless person. He often works - but refuses to be paid. Although he livs in a cave, he is extremely social, remains close to friends and family, and has discussions with strangers on his website which he checks at the local library. He has cycled far, traveled by asking for free rides through nearly every state in the United States, worked on a fishing boat, collected shellfish from Pacifc beaches, caught fish in streams in Alaska, and spent three months living in a tree after a storm.
“I know it’s possible to live with zero money,” Suelo declares. And he says you can live well.
1. What can be learned about the man from the first paragraph?| A．He was doing voluntary work. | B．He had given up hope in life |
| C．He had a hard time growing up | D．He was well aware of his actions. |
| A．He has gone into debt. | B．He has bought a house. |
| C．He has not used any money. | D．He has been to many countries. |
| A．By applying for a loan. | B．By gathering free food. |
| C．By farming fruit trees. | D．By accepting friend’s help. |
| A．He is shy. | B．He is lazy. | C．He is outgoing. | D．He is modest |
3 . Comfort food makes a person feel good. Food high in sugar or fat tends to improve moods by stimulating the brain’s reward system. So it makes sense that many of us may turn to food for comfort in times of stress. There’s some fascinating research that examines food as a source of comfort. However, the most interesting thing about this research may be that foods are far less comforting than we tend to believe they are.
Traci Mann, a professor of psychology, and colleagues conducted a series of study with college students. The researchers examined how much comfort foods actually improve moods. They provided students with one of the three foods that they had indicated were their top, personal comfort foods. After producing a negative mood by having them watch movie clips designed to increase their sadness, anger and anxiety, the researchers offered the students their comfort food.
They had to assess (评估) how they felt before and after they were supposedly comforted by ice cream, pizza or whatever they had indicated they typically ate to feel better. All of the students completed the study on two separate occasions: once when they were able to eat their comfort food and once when they were able to eat another food they liked, but they wouldn’t call it a comfort food. The researchers found that comfort food did improve students’ moods — but only by a little bit and not more than the other food they liked.
In another study, comfort food was compared to no food at all, and students’ moods seemed to improve even when they didn’t eat anything — most likely just due to the passage of time.
The take-home message from the studies? While the comfort food may make the person feel better for the time being, it does little to address emotional problems. Of course, everyone can indulge (纵情) in a comfort food from time to time, but overall, aim for these instances to be the exception rather than the rule.
1. Which aspect of comfort food do Traci Mann’s studies focus on?| A．The means by which it affects moods. | B．Its role in reducing negativity. |
| C．The extent to which it lifts moods. | D．Its impact on physical health. |
| A．By comparing students’ feelings on different occasions. |
| B．By observing students’ different reactions to foods. |
| C．By analyzing questionnaires about comfort foods. |
| D．By collecting data about people from all walks of life. |
| A．To explain a rule. | B．To introduce a concept. |
| C．To present a fact. | D．To make a suggestion. |
| A．Feeling Negative? Try Comfort Food | B．Comfort Food May Not Work Wonders |
| C．The Science Behind Comfort Food | D．Comfort Food Tends to Be Unhealthy |
4 . Three Most Culturally Significant Miao Festivals
Miao New YearIt is celebrated at different time of the year in different regions, usually in the period from the ninth to the eleventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar and lasting 5 to 15 days. During the festival, Miao people dress up intraditional costumes and there are large parades. The locals celebrate by beating drums (鼓), dancing to the music of husheng, horse racing and sometimes horse fighting or bullfighting.
The Lusheng FestivalThe largest Lusheng Festival is held in Kaili. It is celebrated from the l6th to the 20th of the first lunar month. During the festival, Miao people from surrounding villages all come together in traditional dress. The men play lusheng while the women dance. They believe that this ceremony will bring a good harvest and good health in the coming year. However, the festival is not simply about playing lusheng. It also features other activities typical of Miao people, such as singing. bullfighting, and horse racing.
The Sister’s Meal FestivalHeld from the 15th to the 17th of the third lunar month, it is the most popular festival with young men and women of Miao people. Before the festival, Miao girls go to the mountains to gather wild flowers and leaves, which are then used to make colored dye (染料). When the festival begins, Miao girls meet by the river banks to make “sister’s rice”. They dye the rice blue, pink, yellow and white to represent spring, summer, autumn and winter.
When the men arrive, each of them singles out the woman he loves and sings to her. The woman responds to the song by giving the man a cup of rice wind and the sister’s rice. If the rice is offered with a pair of red chopsticks, it means the woman returns the man’s love. If only one chopstick is offered, it is a polite refusal.
1. What can be learned about Miao New Year?| A．It celebrates the beginning of spring. | B．The date for celebration varies with the region. |
| C．Its celebrations range from concerts to parades. | D．It takes at least 15 days to prepare and celebrate. |
| A．They have the same origin. | B．They have similar celebrations. |
| C．They both celebrate crop harvest. | D．They last the same amount of time. |
| A．It is an occasion for love. | B．It allows them to dye rice for fun. |
| C．It features many sports activities like wrestling. | D．It is an opportunity to show their singing talents. |
5 . The world’s elderly population is increasing. The number of older people - those aged 60 years or older - is expected to double by 2050 and is growing faster than all younger age groups across the world. That comes with an increasing need for caregivers who can provide24-hour care, not only at hospitals or nursing homes, but also at private homes.
Already, caregiving robots are programmed to ask questions a nurse would ask and can keep an eye on patients for falls. These robotic assistants are expected to become increasingly marketable and reach 450,000 by 2045 because of the expected caregiver shortage in the United States.
“Unluckily, the hard structure of present caregiving robots prevents them from a safe human-robor interaction, limiting their assistance to only social interaction and not physical interaction,” said Ramses Martinez, an assistant professor in Purdue’s College of Engineering. “After all, would you leave babies or old people in the hands of a robot?”
Recent advances in material science have enabled the production of soft robots with deformable (可变形的) bodies or the ability to reshape themselves when touched, but today the complex design prevents the use of this technology at home.
However, Martinez and other researchers have developed a new design method which shows promise in enabling the production of soft robots using a 3-D printer.
The design process has three steps. First, a user makes a computer-added design file with the shape of the robot. The user then paints the file to show which directions the different joints of the soft robot will move. It takes the computer a few seconds to change the computer-aided design model into a 3-D soft machine that can be printed using any 3-D printer.
“The soft machines move like humans. Their ability to change their body structure and movement to adapt to a wide variety of cnvironments will improve caregiving greatly,” says Martinez.
The researchers are looking for partners to test and bring their technology to the market.
1. What does the underlined word “That” in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．The younger age group | B．The group of older people |
| C．The population across the world. | D．The growth of the elderly population |
| A．They can’t offer safe physical interaction. | B．They can’t communicate with patients. |
| C．They can’t watch patients for falls. | D．They can’t provide 24-hour care. |
| A．It is hard for users to understand. | B．It has brought the robots to the market. |
| C．It works with a ppescial kind of 3-D printer | D．It makes the production of soft robots simpler. |
| A．The robot industry in the future. | B．The development of caregiving robots. |
| C．Robots for the elderly created with 3-D printers. | D．Effects of population ageing around the world. |
6 . The topic of China’s “slash youth” has fueled heated debate on social media recently, drawing attention to the diverse pursuits of the younger generation.
The slash youth, which could also be called slashers or slash-generation — means those who refuse to be defined or bound by just one personal identity. They are keen to present themselves as multiple and sometimes distinct identities, such as a nurse and model, a teacher and stand-up comedian, and an engineer and band player. Rather than material comforts, they pursue meaningful achievement.
A diverse career can enable them to develop new experiences and talents as well as social and professional networks, leading to greater flexibility in life and work, recognition and satisfaction.
A study on “slash youth” published in the China Youth Research magazine analyzes the background of this phenomenon: with part of modern society’s structured organization and stability norms (规范) broken, flexible labor markets and structural unemployment have emerged, dispelling the sense of job security of the young people in employment. Young people also face the dilemma of self-actualization (自我实现), including the sense of powerlessness, lost sense of value and lack of self-identity in the profession, which forces them to re-find the meaning of work.
“The ‘slash life’ shows that our society is becoming more and more diversified and inclusive, and it welcomes everyone’s self-fulfillment,” said Shi Yanrong, an associate researcher from Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences. “Young people no longer have to rely on work and money for their sense of self-worth. They tend to create their own identities.” The researcher added that against the background that people have multiple interests and are willing to pay for these interests nowadays, the “slash life” of the youth would drive the growth of a new economy, just as animation culture affected the market.
1. What attracts younger generation to pursue multiple identities?| A．Meaningful self-fulfillment. | B．Public concern. |
| C．Booming job market. | D．Material comforts. |
| A．Highlighting. | B．Stimulating. | C．Removing. | D．Increasing. |
| A．It inspires young people’s creativity at work. |
| B．It enables young people to earn high incomes. |
| C．It reflects the increasing tolerance of the society. |
| D．It increases people’s confidence in young generation. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Dismissive. | C．Disapproving. | D．Ambiguous. |
7 . Four astronauts headed to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday where they will oversee the arrivals of two new rocketships during their half- year stay.
SpaceX’s Falcon rocket was launched from Kennedy Space Center, carrying NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps and Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin. The astronauts should reach the orbiting lab on Tuesday. They will replace a crew from the US, Denmark, Japan and Russia, who have been there since August.
“When are you getting here already?” space station commander Andreas Mogensen asked via Twitter, after three days of delay due to high wind. SpaceX Launch Control termed it “fashionably late”. There was almost another postponement Sunday night. A small leak in the seal of the SpaceX capsule’s hatch caused a last- minute flurry (忙乱) of reviews, but it was thought safe for the whole mission.
The new crew’s six- month stay includes the arrival of two rocketships ordered by NASA．Boeing’s new Starliner capsule with test pilots is due in late April. A month or two later, Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser, a mini shuttle, should arrive. It is for delivering supplies to the station, but not passengers yet.
Epps, who is from New York, is the second Black woman assigned to a long station mission. She said before the flight that she was especially proud to be a role model for girls, especially for Black girls, demonstrating that spaceflight “is an option for them, and that this is not just for other people”.
Also new to space are Dominick, a Navy pilot, and Grebenkin, a former Russian military officer. Barratt, a doctor on his third mission, is the oldest full- time astronaut to fly in space. He turns 65 in April. As for his age, he said before the flight, “As long as we stay healthy and fit and engaged, we’re good to fly.”
1. Why were the four astronauts sent to the ISS?| A．To train test pilots for Starliner. | B．To monitor the new rocketships. |
| C．To deliver supplies to the station. | D．To replace the crew on the station. |
| A．The leak in the capsule. | B．Bad weather conditions. |
| C．An interview with the media. | D．Repair work on the rocket. |
| A．He worked as an officer in the army. | B．He was a full- time astronaut from Russia. |
| C．He performed the task for the first time. | D．He was in charge of the space program. |
| A．Females are capable of investigating space. |
| B．Age is a decisive factor in space tasks. |
| C．Her work makes her a role model for girls. |
| D．Space technology is a great challenge for girls. |
8 . An experiment in Botswana suggests that painting eyes on the rear ends (臀部) of cows may help protect them from large animals like lions. Protecting cows could also in turn protect the lions from farmers.
Large predators (食肉动物) like lions are under pressure. Much of the land they used to live in has been taken over by humans. Many are even hunted. One serious threat to large predators comes from farmers, who often shoot or poison them after losing farm animals to their attacks. This has long been a problem in the Okavango Delta.
The Okavango Delta is an area where the Okavango River empties out. With its waters spreading out over thousands of square miles, the area is an important location for various wildlife. In the area, there are many small farms, with between 6 and 100 cows. Lions are the biggest threat to cows in the area.
Scientists from the University of New South Wales wondered if painting pictures of eyes on the cows’ rear ends might protect them. Working with over 2,000 cows in the Okavango area, the scientists tested their ideas in a four-year study. The researchers separated the cows into three groups. They painted large eyes on the rear ends of one group of cows. The second group got simple Xs. The final group got nothing.The eyes worked well. Of the 683 cows with eyes painted on them, none were killed in the four-year period.Fifteen of the 835 cows with nothing on their backsides were killed. The scientists were surprised to learn even Xs seemed to give the cows protection. Only 4 of the 543 cows with Xs were killed.
Though the results show a simple way to protect cows from lions, the scientists pointed out that the method may have weaknesses. The researchers aren’t sure the fake (假的) eyes would work so well if all of the cows had them. Also, over time, predators might learn to ignore fake eyes. Still, for now, it seems like a cheap way to protect cows in the area.
1. What is the biggest possible benefit of proecting cows?| A．Improving farmers’life quality. |
| B．Balancing the local ecosystem. |
| C．Controlling the number of predators. |
| D．Saving lions from environmental pollution. |
| A．To draw attention to cows’ safety. |
| B．To introduce possible threats to cows. |
| C．To give the reason for choosing this place. |
| D．To show the problem of the location. |
| A．Cows’ eyes could scare lions away. |
| B．Xs could protect cows from lions too. |
| C．Many of the cows with Xs were killed. |
| D．Some cows with nothing on backsides were killed. |
| A．Cows can be protected from lions |
| B．Fake eyes protect cows from lions |
| C．Fake eyes are used to protect animals |
| D．Animals are closely related to each other |
9 . You know the feeling — your ears start to warm up, your tongue goes numb, you start sweating and taking deep breaths. You know eating something spicy would be painful, but you choose to do it anyway. Are humans just masochistic (受虐狂的), or is there something else going on? The answer lies in both science and history.
Let’s start with the science. Spicy isn’t actually a taste like salty, sweet, sour and bitter — it’s a sensation(感觉). This sensation is caused by a chemical compound in chili peppers called capsaicin (辣椒素). When we eat foods containing capsaicin, our bodies are tricked into thinking the temperature is rising. In trying to temper the burning sensation, our bodies release endorphins, which control pain and, at the same time, give a feeling of pleasure.
This is what is happening chemically, but there is also a conscious side to choosing spicy food. Dr. Tamara Rosenbaum, a cognitive neuroscientist, explains that this is because we are rational beings — we know that the burning sensation of chili does not physically harm us. Furthermore, we get pleasure from the other ingredients(成分) chili is generally cooked and eaten with — including fat, sugar and salt.
This masochistic relationship with capsaicin has been long, starting in the Andes of South America, where chili peppers originate. Humans were among the few mammals on Earth that developed a taste for capsaicin. Archeological evidence suggests that humans started cultivating chili peppers about six thousand years ago. Human intervention(介入) changed the chili pepper to suit human tastes and needs — including the pepper’s color, size and capsaicin content — helping to explain the many different types of chili peppers now available.
Fast-forward to today, and our love affair with the chili pepper is going strong. We eat around 57.3 million tons of peppers globally each year, and chili is a key ingredient in traditional dishes from Mexico to Korea. Maybe we are masochistic, after all.
1. What does science say about people eating spicy food?| A．People can get necessary nutrients from it. |
| B．People are unaware of the potential harm. |
| C．People are addicted to capsaicin in chilies. |
| D．People can take pleasure from the pain. |
| A．It cannot be digested easily. | B．It is more delicious than others. |
| C．It doesn’t really hurt the body. | D．It isn’t fit for human consumption. |
| A．It is common worldwide. | B．It is long-standing and deep. |
| C．It impacts food culture greatly. | D．It distinguishes people from animals. |
| A．Why Do We Eat Spicy Food? |
| B．What Makes Chili Peppers Hot? |
| C．How Do Chili Peppers Conquer the World? |
| D．Does Eating Spicy Food Have Health Benefits? |
10 . Scientists from the UK recently visited the Arctic, the northernmost region of Earth, to test out a method of “refreezing” its ice. The Arctic is extremely cold, but the ice is melting due to global warming. Over the past 30 years, the oldest and thickest parts have shrunk by as much as 95%. This is a concern because the melting ice causes sea levels to rise.
In January, a research team traveled to Cambridge Bay, in Arctic Canada.
The plan is for people who live in the region to measure the thickness of the ice over several weeks.
| A．Experts are exploring other ideas too |
| B．It also causes the seawater under it to freeze faster |
| C．This also limits the environmental impact of the study |
| D．It also makes the planet warmer because the dark water absorbs the Sun’s heat |
| E．They cut a hole in the ice and used a pump to bring seawater from under the ice up to the surface |
| F．The pump used by the scientists is powered by green hydrogen, a gas produced using renewable energy |
| G．The team hopes to add about three feet of ice in order to stop it from melting completely during the summer |
