1 . For nearly a decade now, Merebeth has been a self-employed pet transport specialist. Her pet transport job was born of the financial crisis(危机)in the late 2000s. The downturn hit the real estate (房地产)firm where she had worked for ten years as an office manager. The firm went broke and left her looking for a new job. One day, while driving near her home, she saw a dog wandering on the road, clearly lost. She took it home, and her sister in Denver agreed to take it. This was a loving home for sure, but 1, 600 miles away. It didn’t take long for Merebeth to decide to drive the dog there herself. It was her first road trip to her new job.
Merebeth’s pet delivery service also satisfies her wanderlust. It has taken her to every state in the US except Montana, Washington and Oregon, she says proudly. If she wants to visit a new place, she will simply find a pet with transport needs there. She travels in all weathers. She has driven through 55 mph winds in Wyoming, heavy flooding and storms in Alabama and total whiteout conditions in Kansas.
This wanderlust is inherited from her father, she says. She moved their family from Canada to California when she was one year old, because he wanted them to explore a new place together. As soon as she graduated from high school she left home to live on Catalina Island off the Californian coast, away from her parents, where she enjoyed a life of sailing and off-road biking.
It turns out that pet transporting pays quite well at about $30, 000 per year before tax. She doesn’t work in summer, as it would be unpleasantly hot for the animals in the car, even with air conditioning. As autumn comes, she gets restless—the same old wanderlust returning. It’s a call she must heed alone, though. Merebeth says, “When I am on the road, I’m just in my own world. I’ve always been independent-spirited and I just feel strongly that I must help animals.”
1. Why did Merebeth changed her job?| A．She wanted to work near her home. |
| B．She was tired of working in the office. |
| C．Her sister asked her to move to Denver. |
| D．Her former employer was out of business. |
| A．make money. | B．try various jobs. |
| C．be close to nature. | D．travel to different places. |
| A．She has chances to see rare animals. |
| B．She works hard throughout the year. |
| C．She relies on herself the whole time. |
| D．She earns a basic and tax-free salary. |
2 . The measurable threat to the environment has been worsened by the spread of COVID-19 that increases the need for plastic protective equipment. Most plastic is made from fossil fuels. Millions of tons of greenhouse gas are released from the development of these resources and plastic production and burning.
The end life of plastic is just worrisome. Less than 10% of the plastic produced has been recycled. Even more of it has been burned. But the vast majority of plastic has been buried inland, and it is increasingly polluting the environment. We hear mostly about ocean plastic and the harm done to sea creatures that mistake plastic bags and bits for food. But microplastic is even more worrisome. Plastic doesn't break down biologically but instead breaks down into tiny particles（a very small piece of something）, which have been found in every corner of the planet, on land and in the air, in drinking water and food sources.
Yet the public has not given this global environmental disaster the attention it requires. Instead, they have viewed single-use plastic—which makes up about 40% of plastic used each year—as a litter issue that can be solved through better recycling and waste management. That attitude must change because the recent global breakdown of the market for recycling has made it clear that it has never been, nor ever will be, able to keep up with plastic trash use.
California has been the forerunner of plastic waste reduction—it was the first state to ban single-use plastic bags and may be the first state to transform the way goods are packaged. The state also came close to passing an act which would have required that products sold in plastic packaging in the state have a proven recycling rate of 75% by 2032. California, though influential, can't solve this crisis alone. The US has long been producing a great amount of plastic trash and it should engage in reducing the use of plastic as well.
1. Why does the author mention the release of greenhouse gas in paragraph 1?| A．To show the harm of plastic |
| B．To warn of the climate change. |
| C．To call for the development of fossil fuels. |
| D．To highlight the importance of plastic equipment. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Tolerant. |
| C．Curious. | D．Opposed. |
| A．A pioneer. | B．A failure. |
| C．An objector. | D．A predictor. |
| A．Microplastic Products Are Harmful |
| B．Waste Recycling Is an Urgent Matter |
| C．Plastic Waste Pollution Is a Wake-up Call |
| D．Global Environmental Disasters Are Increasing |
3 . Have you ever gazed at a test question and wondered where on earth it came from? You’re just certain the teacher has never covered the information, because it isn’t in your notes.
As you can imagine, college lectures can be much longer and more detailed than the lectures you receive in high school. For this reason, many college students deal with the potential problem of missing critical information by developing a personalized form of shorthand (速记).
Developing shortcuts in your writing is not a new idea, of course. The trick is to develop a good system and to do it well.
★Develop a list of the most commonly used words and make shortcuts for them.
★Practice your course-specific shorthand at the beginning of the term when your text is still new and you’ re curious and excited about the information. Find a few interesting passages and practice writing them in shorthand
★If possible, find a study partner to read the passages to you.
★ Time yourself for each passage you practice. Pretty soon you’ll start to build up speed.
| A．To do that, you have to practice. |
| B．Find the common terms for the passage. |
| C．We miss things when we take class notes |
| D．Look through the textbooks for each course |
| E．That sounds much more complicated than it really is. |
| F．You can get the real experience of taking notes during a lecture in this way |
| G．Then, you discover that some of your classmates did record the information in their notes |
