1 . A volcano is an opening in the Earth’s surface. Through that opening, red-hot rock and hot gases escape. This can be a sudden and thunderous puff of ash and gas, or it can be a continuous flow of lava (岩浆) destroying everything in its path. The danger of a volcano may explain why its importance are often ignored. They exist for hundreds of thousands of years, and the gases they release come from the inside of our planet. They are probably the very gases that created Earth’s atmosphere (大气层) billions of years ago. Both awful and amazing, volcanoes have much more to offer than other geographical events.

Volcanic regions are hotbeds of biodiversity. The lava islands of the Galapagos in the Eastern Pacific are textbook examples in action. As lava hardens and begins to erode (风化) over the course of years or centuries, the nutrients and minerals from the volcanoes create rich soil.Some of the world’s most productive regions for farming, such as in Indonesia and Central build up underground aquifers (含水层). For example, without the Tibesti and its five volcanoes in the north of Chad and in southern Libya, the eastern Sahara would be even drier.

Volcanoes also produce geothermal energy, which makes up significant shares of electricity supply in a growing number of countries, including EI Salvador, Kenya and New Zealand. The most common type of volcanic rock, basalt (玄武岩), is capable of permanently trapping (卡住) carbon dioxide. This will make volcanoes an important player in the game of catching and storing carbon. Long viewed as a fearsome enemy of humankind, volcanoes may yet become a savior.

1. What is the text mainly about?

A．The definition of volcanoes.

B．The value of volcanoes.

C．The danger of volcanoes.

D．The type of volcanoes.

2. What can we say about the Earth’s atmosphere and volcanoes?

A．They are both made up of gases.

B．The Earth’s atmosphere comes from volcanoes.

C．They formed in the same time period.

D．There might be some connection between them.

3. What does the example of lava islands of the Galapagos show?

A．The cause of a volcano.

B．The procedure of a volcanic eruption.

C．The contribution of volcanoes to rich soil.

D．The influence of biodiversity on volcanoes.

4. What does the underlined this in the last paragraph mean?

A．Carbon dioxide.

B．The most common type of volcanic rock.

C．Basalt’s being the most common type of volcanic rock.

D．Volcanic rocks’ ability to permanently trap carbon dioxide.

2 . Abel Cruz is an industrial engineer living in Lima, the capital of Peru, which is located in the central coastal part of the country, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. When Abel Cruz was a boy,his weekly routine was to climb down a valley in the foothills of the Peruvian Andes to get the family’s water from a spring.

“It was downhill from the house, far away and steep,” he says.

The Peruvian Andes are under the weather influences coming both from the Pacific Ocean and from the jungle and traditionally there is a “dry” and “rainy” season. Recent climatic changes have made the dry seasons even drier and longer.

Cruz began dreaming up better ways to collect water. He noticed that some plants, for example, capture (捕获) rain and mist with their wide leaves. Eventually, he struck upon the idea of a fog net, a concept that he would go on to share around the world.

Each vertical (垂直的) net is 215 square feet of man-made resin (树脂). Micro-droplets (滴液) of water gather together and then fall down into collection tanks. One net can collect 50 to 100 gallons per day. Locals can carry back the water in small containers like buckets for their small farms.

Working in Lima, Peru, with support from the Creating Water Foundation, Cruz has installed (安装) more than 3,600 nets on the bare hillsides around the city to capture fog coming from the Pacific Ocean. This should help bring relief to the city of more than 9 million, which tends to have little rainfall and suffers from frequent lack of water. “The planet has less and less fresh water,” Cruz points out, “because the glaciers (冰川) that are natural water collection tanks are disappearing. So, we must find a way to store and save water for times of drought.”

1. Which of the following can best describe Abel Cruz’s work of getting water from a spring?

A．Tiring.	B．Entertaining.
C．Unnecessary.	D．Economic.

2. What is the nature (本质) of Cruz’s way?

A．Capturing rain with wide leaves.

B．Gathering fog droplets with big nets.

C．Turning resin into water droplets.

D．Carrying water into collection tanks.

3. Which of the following is the most important for Cruz’s invention to function well?

A．The net is man-made.

B．The collection tanks are made of resin.

C．The net is vertically installed on the hillsides.

D．Locals must carry water in small containers.

4. What causes Cruz to invent his way?

A．His concerns over world’s lack of water.

B．His engineering experience.

C．Support from Creating Water Foundation.

D．His geographic knowledge on his home country.

3 . What does the term “dinosaur” actually mean? What Beatles’ song stayed in the US singles chart for the longest? Who was the president of the United States when Uncle Sam first got his beard?

These are not just questions from a particularly difficult public test.     1     After asking a group of twenty-four volunteers these questions, they asked each of them to rate how much they cared about the answers to each question, from “low-curiosity” to “high-curiosity”. And then they let the questions stay in the minds of the participants (参与者) for a while. The answers, by the way, are “terrible lizard”, Hey Jude’ and Abraham Lincoln.)

    2     For one thing, the researches assumed that when people were curious about something, they remembered the details better. They were right. The study showed that people were 20 percent more likely to recall an interesting fact.

But what was perhaps more surprising was what was going on in people’s brains at the point that they recalled these facts.     3     They seemed to receive a hit of dopamine (多巴胺). Dopamine is one of our feel-good hormones and activates the part of the brain responsible for learning and forming memories. So, for the study participants, appealing to their curiosity made them feel good.     4    

Making full use of your curiosity is an important method for building adventure into your life.     5     It also allows us to focus longer. After thorough researching the biographies of some of history’s most pioneering minds, from Leonardo da Vinci to Steve Jobs,the writer Walter Isscson summarized his findings thus: ‘Being curious about everything not only makes you more creative. It enriches your life

A．Curiosity doesn’t simply make our lives more enjoyable.

B．They are used by researchers in a pioneering experiment.

C．Feeling good is a normal thing, not something unusual.

D．When given a brain X-ray examination, their brain activity was quite different.

E．They are three of the most interesting questions worldwide.

F．The researchers tried to figure out what effect curiosity had on people’s minds.

G．They in turn become better at receiving information.

4 . The wind was blowing from all directions. Another Iowa storm was _________.

Alice ran into the farmhouse on the hill above Honey Creek. Thunder rattled (咯咯作响) along as she looked out the window to the railroad tracks below. They _________ her of father, a railroad man. Alice loved hearing the trains rumble (轰隆) _________ over Honey Creek Bridge. Every day she heard the trains’ sounds and knew their _________, when they would arrive and when they would leave.

The windows of the little house continued to rattle as the storm invaded the night. She watched the stream rise higher — almost _________ the tracks of Honey Creek Bridge. Suddenly, Alice heard a loud crash. She knew that something must have gone wrong with the _________

Taking her lantern, Alice slid down the _________ hillside to the washed-out bridge. She would have to make her way through the dark woods to the Moingona train depot (中转站). There she could get help and stop the Atlantic Express, but first she had to _________ the Des Moines River Bridge.

As Alice finally reached the bridge, the wind _________ her lantern, nearly 700 feet of bridge lay ahead. __________ and shaking, Alice got down on her hands and knees and began to crawl (爬).

When she was halfway across the bridge, lightning showed a giant tree in the river rushing towards her. Luckily, the tree __________ its course and she felt its spray (喷扫) of water. Finally, Alice __________ her way across and ran to the train depot. Breaking through the door, she shouted something about __________ the Atlantic Express, then fell down to the floor.

Alice’s story did not go __________. Newspapers spread her story. And Alice received a medal for her __________ along with a lifetime train pass.

1.

A．approaching

B．exploring

C．disappearing

D．recycling

2.

A．warned

B．reminded

C．convinced

D．informed

3.

A．ups and downs

B．back and forth

C．in and out

D．far and wide

4.

A．changes

B．directions

C．schedules

D．measures

5.

A．flashing

B．attaching

C．shocking

D．touching

6.

A．bridge

B．train

C．stream

D．valley

7.

A．untidy

B．muddy

C．empty

D．ugly

8.

A．replace

B．repair

C．cross

D．check

9.

A．break out

B．put out

C．give out

D．find out

10.

A．Excited

B．Interested

C．Tired

D．Moved

11.

A．escaped

B．reached

C．blocked

D．changed

12.

A．inched

B．lost

C．signaled

D．marched

13.

A．stopping

B．finding

C．driving

D．taking

14.

A．wrong

B．ahead

C．unpunished

D．unnoticed

15.

A．wisdom

B．generosity

C．patience

D．courage

6 . 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。

There once was a little village situated in the rich area of New Delhi, Just beyond the village lay a pond, which was a deep dark blue in the middle. Beautiful plants grew all over it. All the children in the village loved the pond. They frequently came to swim and play with water in it. During the summers, the cool water would refresh them from all the dust and heat, and even prevent them from getting immersed (沉溺于) in social networking apps like We Chat or Whats App.“It’s so nice and beautiful,” they would all say.

Then, one day, the villagers began to send the water from the pond into small channels leading to the nearby fields. These channels looked like tiny streams, and they called them irrigation (灌溉) channels, saying that it would help the growth of the plants in their fields to become taller and greener. After some time, the plants did grow taller and stronger. However, the pond was no longer as deep as before; it became shallow.

Sometime later, a factory appeared near the village, letting out a lot of thick black smelly smoke and released (排放) many chemicals into the pond. As these chemicals traveled from the pond through the channels to the fields, many plants died. The pond turned black and produced an awful smell, causing the children to lose their desire to get close to it anymore. They couldn’t even think of splashing water and playing in it as they used to. “It is so dirty.How can we play in it?” they said. Then came the burning hot summer. The pond dried up entirely, without a single drop of water remaining. The beautiful plants surrounding it died too. The once lively village now looked ugly, its beauty lost forever, leaving only memories of what once was.

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

The children decided to do something to make a difference.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Over time, their efforts, especially what they did through the apps, took effect.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7 . 假如你是李华，你的初中同学兼英文笔友James听说你在刚刚结束的高中英语读写比赛(Reading for Writing Contest)中获得了一等奖，特发邮件来表示祝贺并向你咨询参赛事宜，希望你推荐一本适合的小说作为下一届参赛读物。请你写一封回信，内容包括：
1.推荐合适的小说；
2.阐述推荐该小说的理由。
注意：
1.词数80左右；
2.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear James,

Thanks for congratulating me!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

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。

He could still remember the day when he first met her.

It was a bright morning     1     (fill) with the sweet smell of flowers in the air. While    2     (walk) along the path, he saw a girl sitting under a tree, reading a book. Her longhair flowing in the breeze, she seemed like an angel. The book she was reading,     3     classic, caught his attention. He really had a strong desire     4     (talk) to her, but he didn’t have the courage. Finally, after gathering up all his     5     (brave), he walked towards her. “Excuse me, but can I join you?” he asked. She looked up, and her big eyes,     6     were like shining stars, met his. A smile appeared on her face. “    7    (sound) great!” she replied. For the next few hours they talked and laughed about everything, sharing their stories and dreams     8     particular.

He thought that maybe this was the beginning of something wonderful, something he had been waiting for all along.     9     he didn’t know that this moment     10     (become) a memory he would hold dear for the rest of his life.

－Adapted from “Wuthering Heights”

9 . When we wake up, how many of us think of what we want to do today? Almost all of us.

How many of us think of improving at what we do or focus on personal growth and development? Not many.

As Josh Waitzkin, a talented chess player and martial arts world champion, said in his book The Art of Learning, “We focus so much on the result that the details of the learning process are lost on us.”

Why is the process of learning so important? If we are getting the result,why do we have to learn or do things in a better way?

My point: Life is a marathon, not a sprint (冲刺). You have to keep running. You have to build the base of the house strong enough so that it could bear every earthquake or storm. And believe me, bad days come.

That base is the process of learning. Learning is more important than the result. And those who understand this always win.

Many of us, me included, do not realize the importance of this process. When I used to code (编程), rather than understanding the root cause of a code break, I was more interested in just fixing the issue. The next time a similar issue occurred, I worked from scratch again. I didn’t learn anything from the first time and ended up spending even more time later on the same thing.

If you were a designer but didn’t understand how 3D objects could be presented in 2D, you might look at someone else’s sheet and get the work done. But what about the next time? And the next time?

If we don’t do something properly — it could be worse than not doing it at all. But if we focus on the learning process, we could be faster and better for any future problems.

1. If you think of what you want to do today after you wake up, it means you are focusing on        .

A．the result

B．the learning process

C．your personal growth

D．building the base of your life

2. What does the author say about bad days in life in paragraph 5?

A．They are the root cause of failure.

B．They can be avoided with careful work.

C．We don’t need to worry too much about them.

D．We should be prepared for them.

3. What does the underlined phrase ”worked from scratch“ most probably mean?

A．worked very hard

B．lost my interest

C．started from the beginning

D．solved the problem very fast

4. What is the best title of this article?

A．Why the Process of Learning Matters More Than the Result.

B．Why the Result Are Often Focused on.

C．If You Want to Succeed, Please Learn from Others.

D．If You Can’t Get a Good Result, Please Stop.

10 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What was the speaker’s first job at the zoo?

A．A director.

B．A cleaner.

C．A spokesman.

2. Which animal once attacked the speaker?

A．A lion.

B．An elephant.

C．A tiger.

3. What is the topic of this announcement?

A．The zoo is increasing in size.

B．The zoo is making profits.

C．The zoo is closing soon.

4. Who has donated funds to the zoo?

A．The government.

B．The zoo’s partners.

C．The zoo’s visitors.