1 . The Last Straw?

Every second, the world uses 160,000 plastic bags — that is a total of over five trillion per year. Up to 99 percent of these plastic bags hang around for at least 1,000 years and pollute Earth. And yet, plastic bags are hardly a necessity in our lives. Of all the changes we could make to create a more sustainable lifestyle, a total ban on plastic bags should be simple.

At the beginning of 2021, Shanghai put in effect a ban on all plastic bags in shopping malls and supermarkets, as well as a ban on non-degradable plastics in many other areas. Over the years, individuals and companies have worked to replace plastic items, such as cups and straws, with paper ones.     1    .

Customers complain that paper straws often become soft and break before they can finish their hot drinks. Experts, however, have repeatedly stressed plastic substitutes (替代品) are not the ultimate solution, and that our consumption habits need a bigger change.

In college, one of my environmental science professors promoted a type of waste-free living. She carried around a small glass jar with her, and in it was all her trash she collected for the entire year. She was able to do this by bringing her own cup to Starbucks, her own bags to the shops, and never buying anything that came wrapped in plastic. Her food waste also became compost.     2    .

Plastic bags are incredibly easy to forget about when they become increasingly common.     3    . Once they are in the trash, we take it for granted that they are someone else’s problem. The sad fact is that plastic bags break down into microplastics which then get mixed into the air, soil and water, and eventually end up in plants, animals, and our very own human bodies. So what are you going to do about them?

A．Clearly she demonstrated our ability to live a completely healthy life without creating a great deal of plastic waste.

B．Plastic bag litter has even caused great problems in some areas.

C．If they’re free to use and easily disposed of, they’re a mere tool that we don’t have to think about.

D．Some of these decisions have been met with criticism.

E．Unfortunately, such a high level of pollution doesn’t come without consequences.

2 .    Mothers have long known that their home workload was just as heavy as paid work.Now，the new study has shown that if they were paid for their parental labours，they would earn as much as ￡172,000 a year.The study looked at the range of jobs mothers do，as well as the hours they are working，to determine the figure.This would make their yearly income ￡30,000 more than the Prime Minister earns.
How much would a mother earn a year if working as the Prime Minister?

A．￡30,000.	B．￡142,000.
C．￡172,000.	D．￡202,000.

3 . So far, the world has relied on wood, oil, coal, and natural gas to produce energy for heating, lighting, transportation, and manufacturing. Since the 1950s, world consumption has been increasing persistently. In the year 2000, 80 percent of commercial energy was generated from the combustion of fossil fuels, and every day, 50 million barrels of oil are reined (支配) and converted to gasoline and other fuels. In addition to the rapid exhaustion of fossil fuels, the consequences of high consumption rates are pollution and global warming.
How long has the world been in high speed of burning fossil fuel for energy?

A．For half a century.	B．For nearly sixty years.
C．For over 70 years.	D．For more than a century.

4 . They swim lovely along the shore, looking for underwater greens to feed on. But these days, along Florida’s western coast, something is mixing with the sea grass that manatees(海牛) like to eat. And it’s making them sick - even killing them.

The word “them” (in the 1^st paragraph) probably refers to “________”.

A．underwater greens	B．algae
C．manatees	D．endangered animals

5 . To tease apart these features of emotion regulation, Varma designed an experimental situation in which they put participants into an “emotion induction (引导)” treatment. Participants read a story that was intended to cause a negative emotion such as a hit-and-run car accident or the death of your dog.

The underlined phrase “tease apart” (Para 3, Line 1) is closest in meaning to _________.

A．identify

B．combine

C．emphasize

D．dominate

6 . The population of rare Atlantic puffins in Maine, US, took a hit this year, as the number of chicks to survive a tough summer collapsed. The state’s coastal bays and the Gulf of Maine are among the fastest warming large water bodies on the planet, making the puffins’ fate a test-case for how climate change could disrupt marine ecosystems worldwide.

The phrase “took a hit” (in the 1^st paragraph) probably mean “________”.

A．suffer heavy losses	B．escape bad fortune
C．increase on a large-scale	D．decline moderately

7 . The first thing we notice about new people are their faces.The next time we see these people, we remember them because we remember their faces. This seems like a simple process. However, scientists found that it is not such a simple process. The section of the brain that is responsible for face recognition seems to work differently for different people. Some people have great difficulty remembering and recognizing faces, while others almost never forget a face.
The first paragraph is mainly about ___________.

A．the way to improve one’s face-recognition skills

B．the fact that some people have face-recognition problems

C．the simple process of the brain to recognize others’ faces

D．the importance of face recognition in human communication

8 . Unselfish behavior was considered more morally right than selfish, but both behaviors were judged to be more moral and less deserving of punishment if the majority exhibited them than if they were uncommon. The commonness of the selfish behavior also affected the participants’ willingness to themselves pay to punish selfishness.

It can be concluded that the participants in the experiments are punished if ________.

A．they can’t play “public goods game”

B．invest the money to benefit group members

C．they behave differently from the majority

D．they keep the money for themselves

9 . Mars, the distant red planet, carries China’s great dream in spaceflight as well as the numerous puzzles of curious people: Why do humans explore Mars? Will humans really emigrate to Mars? What will the everyday life be like on Mars if humans really live there? Shanghai Astronomy launched its original situational exhibition “Living on Mars” — to reveal the secrets of Mars and solve visitors’ puzzles about the life on Mars.

Time: October 15, 2021 to March 2, 2022 (closed on Mondays, except national holidays)

Location: B1 Temporary Exhibition Hall

Where can this passage most probably be found?

A．In a travel brochure.	B．In a science magazine.
C．On an art show poster.	D．On a museum website.

10 .

The condition is simple. Learn something new, and within a short period of time you’ll forget much of it. Repeat a learning session a day later, and you’ll remember more. Repeat a session two days after that, and you’ll remember even more. The key is to steadily increase the time intervals between relearning sessions.

Forgetting is an essential part of learning. Relearning strengthens earlier memories. Relearning creates different context and connections. According to Carey, “‘Some breakdown’ must occur for us to strengthen learning when we revisit the material. Without a little forgetting

According to Ebbinghaus’ chart, we conclude that ________.

A．the best time to avoid forgetting is the sixth day after learning

B．we usually forget most of what we’ve learned on the sixth day

C．forgetting really exists almost in the whole process of learning

D．what has been learned will be forgotten completely in any case