1 . A television writer is responsible for writing scripts (剧本) for television shows. There are numerous types of shows to which a TV writer can contribute his or her talents.
Some television writers start out as assistants before working their way up to filling writing positions on shows.
A television writer might develop their material using a variety of methods. This involves researching and gathering information to ensure the show is accurate and true. A piece of advice given by professionals is to watch all kinds of TV shows. TV writers should note which ones are successful.
A formal college degree is usually not required to be a television writer as educational requirements vary by positions. Writing talent and practical work experience are generally considered just as valuable as a college degree. There are numerous opportunities to learn how to be a TV writer.
| A．Job titles of a TV writer can change. |
| B．The workplace of a TV writer can vary. |
| C．So they learn from them and accept suggestions to create better work. |
| D．It’s helpful to be located in cities known for their television production. |
| E．Many TV writers read books and begin self-study to improve their skills. |
| F．For instance, a TV writer can be a journalist, focusing on news programs. |
| G．Others may work in other areas, such as film or theater, before turning to television. |
2 . Help us create an eco-paradise
We are Ami + Elise. We live in a little corner of paradise, deep in the forest. We are seeking folks who would like to get involved and help us regenerate this small area of land (19 acres) to support a biodiverse ecosystem, grow food and help people rewild themselves. This project will need lots of help from both “skilled” and “unskilled” lovely people.
Help needed·Gardening ·Building ·General maintenance
·Farming ·Help with the eco-project
·Help in the house ·Animal care
Working Time & Meals
We ask for a minimum of 4 hours per day of your time in return for free stay and breakfast. We can also offer full board (膳食) for those who want to work a full day. We are very flexible and can adapt days/times for each helper as people will be coming for various amounts of time. We will host you at no cost and provide breakfast (at a minimum) and some vegetables from the garden when available.
AccommodationWe have a few different options for accommodation. Where you will stay will depend on availability at the time as we may have others here. In warm weather, we have a very basic outdoor shower and for the cooler months the shower in our home can be used. We will share some meals together and hope to make new friends and connect with like-minded people in the process, sharing our stories and skills with each other (probably round the campfire when the weather permits).
Getting hereThe closest airport is the Birmingham airport.
If you take public transport, our closest train station is Cynghordy (10 mins drive from us) or Llandovery (20 mins drive from us). We are happy to pick you up and drop you off at the station and shops when needed.
If you drive yourself, we’ll provide you with detailed directions as we are deep in the forest.
1. What kind of helpers does the project need?| A．People with various skills. |
| B．People good at training wild animals. |
| C．People fond of agricultural work. |
| D．People aiming to set up eco-projects. |
| A．By working 4 hours at least. |
| B．By putting in a full day’s work. |
| C．By helping with the gardening. |
| D．By setting flexible working hours. |
| A．They can be dropped off at the airport. |
| B．They can choose where they like to live. |
| C．They can share a room with like-minded people. |
| D．They can be picked up at the train station. |
3 . Electric vehicles are the eco-friendly choice for many people when purchasing a new car. But not everyone is in the market for a new automobile. Faced with this choice, many people have started looking for ways to convert (转变) their gas-powered cars and trucks into EVs. This makes sense since gas-powered cars contribute to climate change. But there’s concern about what will happen to all the gas-powered cars already on the road once car companies go fully electric, reported EcoWatch.
Converting gas vehicles to electricity isn’t yet common; however, it can be done, according to the US Department of Energy. It would require removing the entire combustion (燃烧) engine entirely, and replacing it with a battery pack, one or more electric engines, wiring, and more. So, as you can see, it isn’t an easy job. Luckily, according to Ecowatch, there’re companies that specialize in EV conversion, such as Zelectric Motors. The problem is that these companies can charge a lot for their services. EcoWatch reports that conversions can cost more than the price of a new electric car.
Treehugger recently published some guidelines for buying an EV conversion kit and converting your car yourself. According to the guidelines, the best types of cars to convert with electricity are those that are relatively light and use a manual transmission (手动变速器). Heavier cars can make the electric engine less efficient, and automatic cars use up too much power. Additionally, you also need a car that can stand the weight of the electric battery packs.
Some cars that are mentioned as good candidates are Nissan Sentra, Ford Escort, and Honda Civic. While conversion kits can also be costly, if you have a newer vehicle you want to keep, it’s a viable solution.
Still, perhaps the best thing the world can do to create less environmentally harmful transportation is to move away from cars to begin with. EcoWatch reports that Mark Watts, the director of C40 Cities, a group of city mayors trying to make their cities more eco-friendly, said that active travel, walking, biking, etc. is the way to go. So, the next time you turn the key on your gas-powered car, consider the fact that one day you could be pressing a button on a clean, electric-powered vehicle or walking instead.
1. What does the author think of the practice of changing gas-powered cars into electric ones?| A．It is urgent but successful. | B．It is hard and labor-consuming. |
| C．It is expensive and unnecessary. | D．It is meaningful but complicated. |
| A．Temporary | B．Practical. | C．Universal. | D．Unique. |
| A．Maintaining electric vehicles regularly. |
| B．Prohibiting the use of gas-powered cars. |
| C．Replacing a trip by car with active travel. |
| D．Reducing the fuel consumption of vehicles. |
| A．Will electric cars be available to most people globally? |
| B．Will conventional cars be replaced by electric vehicles? |
| C．Can conventional cars be converted into electric vehicles? |
| D．Can electric cars make eco-friendly transportation possible? |
4 . Street lights can change the amount and quality of sleep that pigeons (鸽子) get at night, affecting their energy in the morning. “More and more studies show how light pollution is affecting animal behavior,” said Anne Aulsebrook, a researcher from the University of Melbourne. “One of the most common and well-documented things light pollution seems to do is cause animals, particularly birds, to change the timing of their behavior.”
Aulsebrook said she chose pigeons because so much was already known about their sleep compared to other birds’, and plenty of them were in captivity (圈养) to study. They set up experiments exposing the birds to darkness one night, switching on the lights the next night and turning them off the following night.
Using sensors that recorded brain and muscle activity, the team found that the pigeons slept for about 10 hours with the lights off. With the lights on, their sleep dropped to about six hours. Quality of sleep was also affected. The pigeons didn’t seem to recover from the loss of rapid-eye movement sleep the night before, slept less intensely the following night and woke up more often. Comparing amber (琥珀色) light to white light, the team found the tone made no difference in sleep patterns.
“If we had to choose, I’d still go with warmer, amber colors,” she said. “The other simpler solution is to turn the lights off.” Other efforts to reduce light pollution include shielding (给……加防护罩) lights, directing them, dimming them or using sensors to turn them on only when people are around.
“More research needs to be done to understand the effects of sleep loss on birds,” Aulsebrook said. “We know that sleep is really important to humans. We experience how important sleep is when we don’t get enough of it,” she said. But there hasn’t been much research in this area on birds. “I think the next big step is looking at whether we can measure these costs of reproduction (繁殖) in these birds if they’re not getting enough sleep,” she said.
1. Which is a proven influence of light pollution on birds?| A．Making them more active. |
| B．Changing their biological clock. |
| C．Increasing their tendency to attack. |
| D．Improving their environmental adaptability. |
| A．There is a personal preference for them. |
| B．There’ll be easily available data on them. |
| C．They are the most commonly seen birds in life. |
| D．They have typical sleep patterns for research. |
| A．Lights’ influence on birds’ sleep varies from color to color. |
| B．Birds tend to be more nervous in the light conditions. |
| C．Lights do great harm to pigeons’ sleep. |
| D．Pigeons have an irregular sleeping habit. |
| A．Objective. | B．Doubtful. | C．Optimistic. | D．Subjective. |
5 . I’ll admit it — when someone asks me how I’m doing, the first word that usually comes out of my mouth is “busy”. It seems that “busy” has become the new normal.
According to Emily Fletcher, founder of Ziva Meditation, the desire to keep busy is an essential part of being human. “We love feeling important and needed, which is what ‘busy’ provides us with,” she said, adding that packed schedules are considered a necessary part of achieving big dreams. “It is well known that the intense race has some built-in promises. The harder you work now, the bigger the payoff in the future.” As a result, we fill our days with work and social commitments.
But are you really as busy as you think you are? Most career-driven people would probably guess they spend most of their time at work. But author Laura Vanderkam argues that that’s probably not the case.
In her new book, I Know How She Does It, she asked 143 mothers with six-figure jobs to record what they did for every hour of one week. Surprisingly, she found that these undeniably “busy” women worked only 44 hours a week on average and slept nearly eight hours a night, leaving 70 hours per week for other things.
So what gives? “This is just human nature: we overestimate (高估) the things we don’t want to do — work, housework — and underestimate the things we do want to do,” she says. “Psychologists also have found that negative events tend to stand out in the mind more than positive events.”
Simply tracking how you spend your time, says Vanderkam, is the first step to breaking free of the “busy” trap. “It’s a lot harder to lie to ourselves when we see where the time goes, right there in black and white.”
It is also necessary to recognize that you’re mostly in charge of how you spend your time and that you can choose differently. Another really important thing — Stop telling people how busy you are. Try and take a pause when someone asks “How are you?” to really check in and see what is going on, as opposed to relying on the “busy” line.
1. Why do people like to keep themselves busy?| A．They accept busyness as a normal part of life. |
| B．They hold that only a busy life is meaningful. |
| C．They believe that being busy promises success. |
| D．They just follow the examples of successful people. |
| A．They make work the center of their lives. |
| B．The work they do is relatively challenging. |
| C．They tend to underestimate their ability to work. |
| D．Work is something they have a low intention of doing. |
| A．By reducing the time we spend at work. |
| B．By spending less time chatting with others. |
| C．By understanding the negative effects of busyness. |
| D．By avoiding constantly emphasizing busyness. |
| A．To get people out of the bad habit of keeping themselves busy. |
| B．To reveal the different meanings of busyness in different times. |
| C．To make people understand the harm that busyness can do to us. |
| D．To uncover why people’s lives are busier and busier these days. |
6 . A visit to Antarctica is much more than a holiday. Remote and undamaged, any journey there is a unique adventure you’ll find nowhere else on earth.
As you cruise in style aboard Discovery, you will gaze upon majestic, icy peaks, giant icebergs and diverse wildlife that includes whales, seals, penguins and birds. You will sail through glassy bays and have the opportunity, weather permitting, to set foot on Antarctica’s shores and volcanic beaches. On all cruises, you will get as close to nature as you would on smaller ships, while enjoying a higher class of Discovery’s 4-star comforts.
Exciting cruises aboard Discovery
No single supplement on cabins
Voyage to Antarctica20 Days, departing 16 November 2023
From Lisbon across the Atlantic Ocean to Buenos Aires with stops in exotic settings like Funchal, Rio de Janeiro and Ushuaia
Now from £3575
Antarctica, Chile &Patagonia
18 Days, departing 16 December 2023
From Buenos Aires sail to Antarctica and depart the ship in Santiago
Now from£3145
Note: some sailings might be in reverse, from Santiago to Buenos Aires
Cape to Cape
23 Days, departing 7 February 2023
Leave from Buenos Aires and sail around Cape Horn, visit Antarctica and make your way to Cape Town, South Africa
Now from£2995
What’s included:
●All meals, entertainment and tips on board. Return flights to /from UK. Overseas transfers between airports, hotels and ship. Hotel stays in Buenos Aires and Santiago. Informative lecture programme, Landings ashore and small boat sightseeing.
●PLUS—Save an extra £500 per couple on early bookings before September 2023.
The priority of the cruises is to provide you with opportunities to learn about Antarctica’s fragile ecosystem. Lectures given by Dr. Peter Carey and his team will bring Antarctica to life. They will accompany you on your landings ashore and on small boat field trips （depending on ice and weather conditions）.
1. What activity is included on Discovery cruises?| A．Camping on the volcanic beaches. |
| B．Interacting with seals and penguins if possible. |
| C．Swimming through the waters filled with icebergs. |
| D．Setting foot on Antarctica’s shores if the weather allows. |
| A．February. | B．December. | C．November. | D．September. |
| A．extending luxury hotel stays |
| B．small boat sightseeing and landing ashore |
| C．learning about the environment of Antarctica |
| D．providing free meals and entertainment on board |
7 . Every year people retire (退休) to Florida, but there’s one retired couple from Michigan who said they are working harder than ever, and that they’re loving every minute of it. That’s because they’re impacting (影响) the lives of hundreds of children in their new community.
John and Karan Byrd decided to start their own sports camp, Amazing Athletes and Super Soccer Stars.
“We were so excited to keep busy, healthy, keep our energy flowing, and do something instead of just coming down to Florida and playing golf,” said John.
“It’s bringing longevity (长寿) to our lives. I do believe that,” said Karan.
They even brought in a secret weapon (武器), their daughter Lauren. “Growing up with them, I was always doing something with them. We were at the park. We were at the pool. We were outside in the backyard jumping on the trampoline (蹦床),” said Lauren. “I mean you’re looking at two of my best friends here. These are my heroes in life.”
The Byrds visited up to seven Child Development Centers throughout Bradenton and Sarasota, and most recently Discovery Point.
“Once in a while at 6:30 in the morning Karan asks if we’re really teaching again and says, ‘I thought today was a day off,’” joked John.
The camp focuses on the fundamentals (基础) of 10 different sports and continues to build on them each week. “Some of the kids didn’t even feel comfortable with the ball coming toward them and now they want to be the first in line to catch the ball,” said John.
The Byrds hope to inspire other retirees moving to Florida to make an impact in their new community. “We will stay healthier and we hope to live longer while we are doing this and being retired so we really aren’t retired anymore,” said John.
1. What did the Byrds do after they retired?| A．They often played golf. | B．They went to Michigan. |
| C．They set up a sports camp. | D．They learned to play soccer. |
| A．Longevity is connected to exercise. | B．The Byrds are busy with their work. |
| C．Lauren agrees to her parents’ decisions. | D．The Byrds are very good with their daughter. |
| A．Exercise can make kids healthy. | B．The kids are showing positive changes. |
| C．Good habits don’t develop quickly. | D．The camp needs more forms of sports. |
| A．They will never really retire. | B．They will get a new job soon. |
| C．They will be an example to others. | D．They will not be afraid of getting old. |
8 . Diet can influence a person’s height, but only during childhood-until the age of 2 years. From the age of 2 to 12 years, stunted growth (发育不良) can be modified in some children, but not all of them. There is no scientific data currently available to suggest that an adult’s height can be increased through diet.
Calorie intake (热量摄取) from birth to about 2 years of age will influence the height of children. An article in The Journal of Nutrition monitored diet and socio-economic factors in more than 2,000 children, aged 2 to 12 years of age. The researcher found that each additional 100 calories in the diet was associated with an increased height of 0.13 inches in boys and slightly less in girls. The study concluded that beyond 2years of age, socio-economic status could have an impact on the height of children.
Malnutrition (营养不良) in children younger than 2 years old will cause stunted growth in comparison with their parents and well-fed brothers and sisters, but malnourished (营养不良的) children can “catch up” with proper nutrition (营养). The researcher found that about 63 percent of the children were classified as “stunted” based on height-for-age measurements set by the World Health Organization. With increased calorie and vitamin intake, 30 percent were no longer stunted by the age of 8.5 years, and 32.5 percent were no longer stunted at 12 years old.
Drinking milk has the greatest impact on the cognitive (认知的) and physical development of babies in their first year. A study examined the effects of drinking milk on the height and weight of 6,669 babies from six countries and found that drinking milk contributed to an increase in height of children.
1. What does the underlined word “modified” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Measured. | B．Experienced. | C．Improved. | D．Accepted. |
| A．Boys grow at a higher speed than girls on average. |
| B．Keeping a balanced diet is important to children’s health. |
| C．Economic conditions have decisive effects on a person’s height. |
| D．Ensuring children under 2 enough calories is important for their height. |
| A．By quoting data from studies. | B．By analyzing possible causes. |
| C．By explaining scientific terms. | D．By sharing his personal experiences. |
| A．Nutritious diets for children’s health y growth. | B．Instructions on how to raise children properly. |
| C．The determining factors in a person’s height. | D．The influence of diet on children’s height. |
9 . 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
10 . 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
