1 . When I was eight, I wanted a toy and needed $10 to buy it. But, as usual, I was broke. I decided to ask my 11-year-old sister, Kathleen, for a loan. She agreed to
“Compound interest — what’s that?” I asked.
“Well, interest is the
“Sure. I get it,” I said. Though truthfully, I was getting
Kathleen lent me the money, and I
Several months later, on Christmas morning, my sister and I each found a $20 bill in our stockings. I was just putting it into my pocket when Kathleen stopped me.
“Sorry, that’s mine. I’m
“Huh?” Then I remembered the loan. “Hey! How can it be that much? I only borrowed $10.
“True,” she said, “but
I refused to
| A．hand | B．lend | C．give | D．pay |
| A．limited | B．exact | C．extra | D．same |
| A．satisfied | B．confused | C．frightened | D．encouraged |
| A．sold | B．made | C．fixed | D．bought |
| A．put off | B．took up | C．ended up | D．started off |
| A．relying | B．focusing | C．carrying | D．collecting |
| A．interest | B．cost | C．tax | D．salary |
| A．announce | B．promise | C．prove | D．believe |
| A．annoyance | B．regret | C．relief | D．delight |
| A．questioned | B．explained | C．learned | D．explored |
2 . Making use of the wind, the water or, for more than half of all plant species, animals, plants disperse (散播) seeds far and wide. Frugivores — animals such as gibbons that feed on the fleshy fruits of plants — eat and then excrete (排泄) seeds away from the original tree. The African savanna elephant can carry seeds up to a record-breaking distance of 65 kilometres. This ability to shift geographical ranges will be crucial to plants when it comes to surviving climate change. However, just like all gibbon species, the African savanna elephant is endangered, its population down by 60 percent over the past 50 years.
Researchers in Denmark and the USA have published a new study into how the loss of seed-dispersing animals could affect the resilience (恢复力) of forests and other natural ecosystems. They found that, historically, the decline of seed-dispersing animals has had the greatest influence on plants across the temperate (温带的) regions of North and South America, Europe and southern Australia. “Our temperate ecosystems have lost a lot of the natural seed-dispersal function that they would have had,” explains Evan Fricke, lead author of the study, referring to large mammals that were once widespread in these regions.
Nevertheless, the poor conservation status of many seed-dispersing tropical animals puts plants in regions such as Southeast Asia and Madagascar most at risk today. Without the preservation of such animals, global seed dispersal could decline by a further 15 percent. “The direct implication of this decline is that many plant species will be unable to keep pace with a changing climate,” says Fricke. “That means the potential loss not only of plant biodiversity but of the ecosystem functions that those plants provide.”
As wildlife is lost, plants can no longer adapt and survive and forests become less sustainable, which reduces the amount of carbon they can store. They also lose their ability to support wildlife. Whole ecosystems are disrupted. The conclusion, Fricke says, is clear: we must conserve currently endangered species and restore the populations of important seed dispersers. “Independent of climate change, rewilding has the potential to benefit our ecosystems, but in a changing climate, it has the added benefit of increasing the climate resilience of those ecosystems,” he says.
1. The author mentions the African savanna elephant in Paragraph 1 to ________.| A．provide a solution | B．predict the ending |
| C．express an opinion | D．highlight the problem |
| A．They are vital and endangered. |
| B．They are being well conserved. |
| C．They are unrelated to whole ecosystems. |
| D．They are widespread across the temperate regions. |
| A．Seed-dispersing animals play an important role in preventing climate change. |
| B．The loss of seed-dispersing animals has hardly affected temperate regions. |
| C．Rewilding can promote the climate resilience of our ecosystems. |
| D．Plants disperse seeds by way of animals excreting them. |
1. 表示安慰；
2. 给出建议。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
Skyscrapers (摩天大楼) are the ultimate symbol of urban life. By 2050, almost 80 percent of the earth’s population could live in cities. The human population could increase to 9.1 billion people yet the amount of land available for farming will be the same. How to meet the increasing food needs of our planet could be a big problem.
Vertical farms, where urban farmers could grow crops in environmentally friendly skyscrapers, could be the solution. In spite of concerns over high costs, experts want to make these urban farms a reality and use these skyscrapers to grow crops. They believe that we can increase food production by changing our thinking from out to up.
Vertical farms would have many advantages, experts say. The food would be grown with minimal effects on the environment. Unlike traditional farming, vertical farming would not force animals out of their habitats by taking over large areas of land, nor would it pollute the air with the use of heavy farming equipment. Those farms would also reduce the cost and negative effects of transporting food over long distances. These have been well recognized.
Growing prosperity has led to many people demanding that all foods are available all year round. Indoor farming could produce crops constantly and crops would not suffer from weather-related problems like drought or flooding. In addition, the use of agricultural chemicals for controlling insects would be minimal.
Experts agree that new farming practices are needed to support the planet’s need for more and more food at affordable costs, both to the farmer and to the consumer. Vertical farms may be a small-scale answer, but the best ideas could be yet to come.
1. According to this passage, what could be a big problem?2. What would be the advantages of vertical farming?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Vertical farms could meet people’s demand for available food all year round, because it could produce crops constantly and crops would not be affected by any problems.
4. In addition to vertical farms, what else do you think can help solve the food shortage? (In about 40 words)
5 . Emojis are everywhere. They offer effective and fun ways to interact with others. Used well, they can become an engaging and creative addition to communication.
One well-chosen emoji can replace many words of text.
Emojis are clear, colorful, and designed to convey a single message memorably — which has been shown to increase interest and engagement. They stand out among text, especially when the recipient is working quickly or on the move.
Many emojis mean the same thing to everyone, everywhere.
Emojis can help you to show your human side, making you seem friendlier and more approachable. What’s more, the brain reacts to images of faces, and to real faces, in a very similar way.
Alongside all the potential benefits of emojis that we’ve listed above, there are also dangers you’ll need to guard against.
| A．Here are some of the reasons why emojis are so popular. |
| B．Many employees in some western countries are using emojis at work. |
| C．An emoji is often easier and quicker to understand than a written explanation. |
| D．So they can break through language barriers, and promote easy communication. |
| E．For example, you could select an emoji of a house to set your status as “working from home.” |
| F．A poorly chosen emoji can cause problems, because some of the images are not universally understood. |
| G．For example, the crossed fingers emoji means good luck in some places, but it’s seen as an impolite sign in others. |
6 . A person could be forgiven for believing 20 years ago that the Internet would soon revolutionise academic publishing, because it became possible for publishers to spread scholarly work at the click of a button — much cheaper than the traditional subscription-based (订阅) model. Recognising the opportunity, many scholars and librarians started to advocate a new, open access model, in which articles are made freely available online to anyone. The result would be a true online public library of science.
However, more than two decades later, the movement has made little progress, and the traditional subscription-based model remains entrenched.
Fortunately, things are changing. A big shoe dropped when the University of California (UC) Libraries, on of the biggest library systems, declined to renew its contract with Elsevier, a leading scientific publisher. Elsevier wanted the libraries to pay two fees: one for its package of licensed journals and the other for the use of Elsevier’s open access model. UC Libraries wanted the licensed journals fee to cover the open access fee; they also wanted open access to all UC researches published in Elsevier journals. When the two sides couldn’t come to terms, the libraries walked away.
Actually, the open access revolution is more likely to be led by research funding agencies, who can use their purse power to promote open access. A team of funders, Coalition S, insisted that any research they fund should be published in a journal that makes all of its articles freely and immediately available to the public, which is called Plan S.
Now that some librarians and funders are flexing their muscles, what should academics do? The worst response would be to complain that Plan S deprives (剥夺) them of academic freedom. Some thoughtful academics might worry that a shift to open access would affect their promotion. After all, subscription journals are more familiar and more prestigious (有威望的) in the current system. However, if enough academics support open access, the system could reach a tipping point beyond which subscriptions no longer signal prestige. Reaching that point would take considerable time and efforts, but it is possible.
When the journal system started in 1665, it was kind of a form of open access. Journals allowed academics to learn openly from one another. It was only in the 1900s that the journal system became thoroughly commoditized (商品化). Now is the time to bring it back to its roots.
1. What does the underlined word “entrenched” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?| A．Unpopular. | B．Unfixed. | C．Unchanged. | D．Unknown. |
| A．The number of published researches. |
| B．The charge for open access model. |
| C．The duration of the contract. |
| D．The way of payment. |
| A．Academics think open access model will help them get promoted. |
| B．Publishers are willing to abandon the subscription model gradually. |
| C．Establishing a true online public library of science requires joint efforts. |
| D．Open access model will soon take the place of subscription-based model. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Indifferent. | C．Doubtful. | D．Supportive. |
7 . When I was little, my dad would let me sit beside him o the porch while he painted. He would tell me how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you’ve got magic.
I understood what he was saying, but I never felt what he was saying until one day when I was up in the sycamore tree to rescue a kite stuck in the branches. It was a long way up, but I thought I’d give it a shot. I started climbing. Then I looked down. And suddenly I got dizzy and weak. I was miles off the ground! But the kite was still beyond my reach. I caught my breath and forced myself to concentrate on the kite as I climbed up.
When I had the kite free, I needed a minute to rest. That’s when the fear of being up so high began to lift, and in its place came the most amazing feeling that I was flying. Just soaring above the earth, sailing among the clouds.
Then I got to notice how wonderful the breeze smelled. It seemed like sunshine and wild grass and rain! I couldn’t stop breathing it in, filling my lungs again and again with the sweetest smell I’d ever known.
I never got over the view. I kept thinking of what it felt like to be up so high in that tree. I wanted to see it, to feel it, again. And again.
It wasn’t long before I wasn’t afraid of being up so high and found the spot that became my spot. I could sit there for hours, just looking out at the world. Sunsets were amazing. Some days they’d be purple and pink, some days they’d be a blazing orange, setting fire to clouds across the horizon.
It was on a day like that when my father’s notion (观念) moved from my head to my heart. The view from my sycamore was more than rooftops and clouds and wind and colors combined.
1. Why did the author climb up the sycamore tree?| A．To practice climbing skills. | B．To get a trapped kite. |
| C．To prove her courage. | D．To play in the tree. |
| A．well-planned and interesting | B．adventurous but rewarding |
| C．competitive and imaginative | D．unusual but painful |
| A．she could enjoy more than good views |
| B．her father encouraged her to do so |
| C．it could help her to concentrate |
| D．the tree had the sweetest smell |
| A．The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. |
| B．Beautiful things don’t ask for attention. |
| C．Positive action leads to happiness. |
| D．Practice makes perfect. |
8 . If you’re an English learner or an English speaker looking to widen your vocabulary, a good dictionary app is a must.
Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster is a well-known and highly trusted dictionary. The app provides quality definitions, audio pronunciations and usage examples. It even lets you search for words by speaking them! This feature is perfect when you hear a word you don’t understand but aren’t sure how it’s written.
Oxford Dictionary of English
The Oxford Dictionary of English app is a comprehensive and reliable resource for English language reference. The app provides clear and concise definitions, along with audio pronunciations and example sentences. You can also access synonyms, antonyms and word origins. Additionally, the app offers offline functionality, allowing you to access the dictionary even without an internet connection.
Vocabulary.com
The Vocabulary.com dictionary app is excellent for English learners because it has very easy-to-understand definitions. The site says it’s “as if your favorite teacher were explaining it to you.” Each definition has explanations of what the word means and also when and how you would use it. It even turns learning into a game by letting you earn points!
FluentU
FluentU takes real-world videos and turns them into personalized language learning lessons. It uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the English language and culture over time. You’ll learn English as it’s spoken in real life. The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It even reminds you when it’s time to review!
1. Merriam-Webster app can help English learners ________.| A．find right words to speak perfect English |
| B．search for a word even without an internet connection |
| C．learn difficult words by practicing more and reviewing |
| D．look for a word when they are unsure about its spelling |
| A．Merriam-Webster. | B．Oxford Dictionary of English. |
| C．Vocabulary.com. | D．FluentU. |
| A．To recommend useful dictionary apps. |
| B．To give suggestions on English learning. |
| C．To offer advice on how to use a dictionary app. |
| D．To introduce the sources of English vocabulary. |
It’s a tragic story that
When I hurried to the store, I saw that the books were already being packed into
