1 . 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。

I occasionally would think of my dad. I flashed to Dad holding the handlebar and jogging alongside my bike until I felt ready to ride on my own. I saw him pulling up to my broken-down car at night and doing a quick fix. I thought of the hug we shared at my wedding. But what impressed me most was the grass cutting days. Dad was always full of advice，and he taught me one of the big lessons one summer was about having a strong work ethic.

Memories came flooding back. When my brother and I were growing up, we mowed yards during the summer to earn pocket change. Dad was our salesman. He told our neighbors about our service and offered a price they could not refuse. My brother and I got﹩10 per yard. However, I later found out that our friends were charging $20 or more for the same amount of work.

Every time we headed out to mow lawns, Dad was there to watch. I used to wonder why he came with us. He stood supervising our work in the heat when he could have been inside relaxing with air conditioning and an icy drinking. My dad always watched over us and instructed strictly, until we finished our job as he satisfied. Sometimes his tough and cruel attitude really made my brother and me annoyed.

One day we were cutting our next-door neighbor’s yard. She always waited until the grass was knee-high to call us over. To make maters worse, we had an old lawn mower. This particular afternoon, I was finishing up and was tired and sweaty.

I was just about to cut off the lawn mower when I saw Dad pointing to one piece of grass. I ignored him and kept walking. Dad called me again and yelled, “Hey, son. You missed a piece.” I frowned, hoping he would let it slide and let me go home. But he kept pointing and shouting.

Paragraph 1：

Tired and disappointed, I went back to cut that piece of grass.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2：

The lesson my dad taught me stayed with me:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 . 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。

It’s a wildlife expedition (远征) that has captivated (使着迷) the globe: a herd of 16 elephants trekking (跋涉) more than 300 miles from their home in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve. The herd’s trek began in March last year when 16 elephants     1     (see) moving from the reserve. Nobody is clear why the herd set out on this unprecedented (前所未有的) trek. Some suggest environmental degradation may have pushed them;    2     believe they are simply lost. An expert in elephant psychology believes that they likely left because of habitat loss and increasing human disturbance,    3     may have led to decreasing availability of food and water.

“We can’t ignore the effect of rapid development of the local economy on the loss of wildlife habitat,”    4     well-known expert on Asian elephant migration wrote on his Weibo page. “Clear waters and green mountains are as     5     (value) as mountains of gold and silver. A healthy and complete ecosystem is the cornerstone of sustainable economic development.

China’s wild elephants     6     (double) in number to more than 300 since the 1990s, but their habitat has shrunk     7     nearly two-thirds over the same period. Though China has extremely harsh penalties for those     8     (catch) killing elephants, the combination of these factors     9     (mean) that the potential for human-elephant conflict will only rise. It’s     10     (extreme) challenging for them to coexist.

The big fear is that the intensity of conflict between humans and elephants can start as just a nuisance and quickly grow to the point where people or elephants get killed.

3 . I was with my father at a clinic near his home for a routine blood test. An elderly woman came in and sat on a ________ room chair. She settled into the seat opposite my dad and smiled at him and he smiled back ________. He was 77 years old and had been living with Alzheimer disease for several years. It’s a disease that ________ your loved ones, slowly, day by day and the memory loss is painful and ________.

After a while, she started singing the tune My Heart Will Go On. Since Alzheimer disease also has a(n) ________ to damage a person’s patience, I couldn’t help thinking that this little woman was playing with fire. Her singing began gently. I glanced at Dad to see his ________. His smile was gone, and he was ________ right at her. I couldn’t read his expression initially, but it seemed to be something like ________. I wondered if he was lost somewhere in his memory, or maybe he was trying to figure out whether this was someone he should ________. Slowly, the woman’s singing got louder and her eyes closed with ________. Now Dad looked a little shocked. Still, I watched nervously, noticing the ________ of an angry outburst and was considering my options on how best to ________ in. Instead, his face changed, and the tension ________ in his eyes. He no longer looked confused.

When her song ended and the waiting room became ________, the woman opened her eyes. My dad was still looking directly at her. “That was beautiful,” he said. ________, she smiled and said, “Thank you.”

1.

A．living

B．waiting

C．fitting

D．consulting

2.

A．secretly

B．gratefully

C．slightly

D．coldly

3.

A．steals

B．destroys

C．cheats

D．panics

4.

A．limited

B．regular

C．temporary

D．merciless

5.

A．expectation

B．standard

C．tendency

D．symbol

6.

A．performance

B．response

C．gesture

D．message

7.

A．rushing

B．laughing

C．pointing

D．staring

8.

A．confusion

B．desperation

C．blankness

D．caution

9.

A．worry about

B．hear of

C．date with

D．call on

10.

A．purpose

B．strength

C．emotion

D．respect

11.

A．instruction

B．outcome

C．effect

D．possibility

12.

A．step

B．check

C．give

D．join

13.

A．increased

B．filled

C．eased

D．divided

14.

A．delightful

B．silent

C．bright

D．harmonious

15.

A．In public

B．In turn

C．In relief

D．In return

4 . No doubt that humans have widely changed, developed, and exploited (开发) much of the natural world for our own ends. But how much of the land surface remains free of our often-harmful influence?

In a new study, scientists compared figures from four different sets of data using different kinds of methods and classification (分类) systems to answer this question. On average, the researchers say roughly half (48 to 56 percent) of the world’s land shows “low” influence of humans. While the figures may inspire many—stressing the vast expanse of significantly untouched lands that can still be protected through conservation measures—the study also shows just how much of the Earth has already been occupied and used by humans.

In fact, only about a quarter (20 to 34 percent) of the planet’s ice-free land surface shows “very low” signs of human influence, the researchers say, and the parts of the planet that we have left alone up until now constitute (构成) some of the least livable places on Earth. In other words, whether through urbanization, forestry, agriculture or other means, humans have applied the most influence on biodiverse land that presented ripe and easy opportunities for immediate human needs; in contrast, roasting deserts in the world’s hottest places, or frozen wastelands in its coldest spots, have been ignored.

Even so, the researchers say the results shown here give us a strong, clear marker that we can use to help structure existing and future conservation efforts by preventing disturbance on existing low influenced areas, meanwhile, recovering areas for conservation in land that has already been exploited too much.

“The encouraging takeaway from this study is that if we act quickly and decisively (果断地), there is a slim window in which we can still conserve roughly half of the Earth’s land in a relatively untouched state,” says biologist and lead author of the study, Jason Riggio.

There’s a chance, right now, to draw a line in the sand, and say “no more”.

1. Why was the new study carried out?

A．To find out why humans exploit nature.

B．To figure out the land free from human influence.

C．To prove humans are harmful to nature.

D．To clarify the Earth is not occupied by humans completely.

2. Which places are influenced most by humans?

A．Woodless lands.	B．Ice-free lands.
C．Places with biodiversity.	D．Places with warmth.

3. What can we do based on the research?

A．Make use of the unlivable area through different means.

B．Remove the influence on the previous disturbed area.

C．Attempt to have no bad effect on the “untouched” land.

D．Reconstruct the overexploited land with forest and agriculture.

4. What’s the writer’s attitude towards the untouched land?

A．It should be urbanized immediately.	B．It should be covered with plants.
C．It should be free from humans and animals.	D．It should be undisturbed and preserved.

5 . 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。续写的词数应为150左右。

I’m standing on the shoulder of a not-busy-enough road outside of Cortland, New York trying to hitchhike(搭顺风车)back to campus seventy-five miles away, deep in a sophomore slump(二年级低迷期). I haven’t been to classes in two weeks and I’m considering dropping out.

I hold up a cardboard sign with “Oneonta” on it.

“Hey, buddy,” someone shouts in a brown car across the road heading in the opposite direction. “You go to college in Oneonta?”

“Yes, ” I say. “Oneonta State.”

“Wait a minute,” the driver says. He turns his car around and pulls to the shoulder in front of me. I walk over to the driver’s window and see a woman holding a baby sitting beside him.

“It’s getting late,” he says. “Traffic’s thinning out.” He glances at his watch and turns to the woman next to him. They exchange a knowing look.

“Get in,” he says. “We’ll drive you.”

“Are you sure?” I ask. “You were headed in the other direction.”

“We’re just out for a ride,” he says. “We don’t mind driving you.”

I walk to the passenger’s side of the car and climb in. I can’t believe it. This man is going to drive me an hour and a half out of his way and then drive back again.

“I’m Aaron,” he says. “This is my wife, Sylvia, and my son, Zack.”

“Hi,” I say. “I’m Dave.”

I settle in as Aaron and Sylvia decide on the route. They agree quickly, and we’re off.

“So what are you taking in college?” Aaron asks. The question is innocent, but I know it will lead to others.

“English,” I say. “Secondary education.”

“So you’re going to be a teacher?”

“Yes.” I am surprised how quickly and definitively(决定性地)I answer.

“That’s fantastic!” he says. “Did you hear that, Sylvia? Dave’s going to be a teacher.”

“I did,” she says. “Aaron’s dream was to be the first in his family to go to college, but he couldn’t afford to go.”

“You have quite an opportunity,” Aaron says. “Your future is bright.”

Paragraph 1:

As we drive on, Aaron asks me about my college life.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:

I watch the car until the tail lights disappear.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 . 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。

AIDS is caused by a virus called HIV. The immune system of those who have AIDS     1     (become) so weak as to lose the ability to fight mild sicknesses. The virus is spread     2     three ways — it can be passed on through unprotected sex, through blood and from a mother to     3     (she) child. But HIV cannot be spread by     4     (mere) touching someone with AIDS. We should acquire more knowledge about AIDS, which has ruined many people’s lives. In an African village lives a boy named Ajani     5     mother has just died of AIDS, the same disease that took his father. Fortunately, he did not get HIV from his mother who had access     6     Prescription AIDS medicines when she was pregnant. Ajani wants to be a doctor when he grows up. He believes that education as well as medical treatment is the key to     7     (stop) the disease in the future. AIDS is not just     8     African problem but a serious problem around the world, including China. Something must     9     (do) to stop the disease. Chinese government has opened labs to monitor the disease.     10     (nation) help has also been very important, such as the United Nations. Let’s work together to end AIDS.

7 . Every year, my high school’s Chinese club sponsors an event to celebrate Chinese New Year called “China Night.” During the evening, we show _________ Chinese culture with various booths (摊位) featuring activities like Chinese yoyo, calligraphy, and chess. There is also a finale with _________ that include dragon/ lion dances, songs, and classical Chinese instruments.

For this year’s event, I played cello (大提琴) in a string quartet (弦乐四重奏). We _________ famous scores (插曲) from Chinese cinema such as Raise the Red Lantern and To Live. Quartets remind me of Chinese dragon dances. Each player is _________ in the quartet just as each dancer contributes to the dance performance. The whole could not _________ without individual effort. Performing gave me a great sense of _________: not only was I playing music from my culture, but I was _________ it with others.

During one particular break, I told my friends to meet me at one of the _________ booths. My friends are quite _________, with ethnicities (种族渊源) from Germany, Russia and India. I was excited to see my friends __________ some traditional Chinese foods, although I __________ how they might react. As they tasted the mooncake, their facial expressions changed from caution to __________. They really enjoyed tasting Chinese foods. Perhaps more than any other __________ during the evening, this gave me a deep sense of pride in my culture.

Through attending China Night, I was surprised to see how enthusiastically my community __________ Chinese culture and how everyone was so __________ to trying new things.

1.

A．ancient

B．famous

C．traditional

D．initial

2.

A．arts

B．exhibitions

C．fairs

D．performances

3.

A．played

B．enjoyed

C．read

D．practiced

4.

A．skilled

B．important

C．eager

D．positive

5.

A．move

B．exist

C．combine

D．break

6.

A．pride

B．humor

C．security

D．responsibility

7.

A．discussing

B．replacing

C．appreciating

D．sharing

8.

A．food

B．phone

C．ticket

D．book

9.

A．strange

B．friendly

C．shy

D．different

10.

A．sell

B．try

C．bring

D．cook

11.

A．predicted

B．argued

C．worried

D．imagined

12.

A．seriousness

B．satisfaction

C．calmness

D．puzzlement

13.

A．change

B．difficulty

C．achievement

D．experience

14.

A．abandoned

B．considered

C．accepted

D．discriminated

15.

A．open

B．free

C．easy

D．careful

8 . Last weekend, I said goodbye to another dear old friend. We had 12 fine years together, but our relationship was becoming dysfunctional(不正常的). Unwanted emissions and serious health problems were the final straw, leaving me with no choice but to make a trip to the knacker’s(收废汽车者的)yard.

I am now car-free for the first time in 20 years, and it feels strange. When I gave up meat, I did so mainly for environmental reasons, and I didn’t miss it at all. I would like to say the same about my car, but I can’t. It was first and foremost a financial decision: keeping the old car on the road was getting too expensive.

But doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is still doing the right thing — I now have a chance to rethink how I move myself and my family around, and can try to find a more environmentally friendly means of transport.

Going car-free is, I think, a lifestyle change that many of us are going to make over the next few years, as car ownership becomes increasingly unnecessary, expensive and socially unacceptable. However, it is easier said than done. Now my car is gone. I still need to get around. But how? I already cycle to work and use public transport when appropriate. But there are some occasions when a car seems to be the only way.

I won’t buy one: I have joined a car-share program and will use taxis more often. I will hire a car if I need to drive a long distance. But then I am still travelling in fossil-fuelled cars(燃油汽车), like when I quit meat and ended up eating more cheese. I fear I may have swapped one environmental problem for another.

I am also afraid to think about the ultimate fate of my car. I have just offloaded more than a ton of metal, plastic, rubber, fabric, electronics, oil and petrol that will end up in a landfill. There are millions of similar vehicles in the UK alone that will have to go somewhere.

Maybe I am overthinking it. According to Charlie Wilson, a climate scientist at the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, getting rid of a private car is no doubt a positive step to reduce CO₂ emissions.

He points to research by the OECD’s International Transport Forum. “They showed that moving from a private vehicle fleet(车队)to a shared vehicle fleet can greatly cut the number of vehicles you need to deliver the mobility that we need and want. If that vehicle fleet is electrified, you can also bring CO₂ emissions close to zero.”

So in other words, just get rid of your car.

1. What do we know about the author’s car?

A．It was old.	B．It was green.
C．It was his first car.	D．It was a second-hand car.

2. What do the author’s giving up meat and saying goodbye to his car have in common?

A．He did both for the wrong reasons.	B．He thinks both help him save money.
C．He considers both are right decisions.	D．He did both out of concern for the environment.

3. What does the author fear?

A．He may have to spend more on travel.

B．His lifestyle might be changed completely.

C．He might get bored with public transportation.

D．His decision may fail to help the environment.

4. What does Charlie Wilson say?

A．It is wise to do away with old private cars.

B．It is very easy to deal with old private cars.

C．Electric cars are the solution to traffic problems.

D．The OECD plays a key role in promoting car-sharing.

9 . It is likely that anyone who pays attention to fitness trends has heard the term “muscle confusion”. It was invented and popularized in the past decade by the creators of various weight-training programs, particularly P90X.

P90X advises participants to adjust their routines all the time, threading in different combinations of exercises and rarely, if ever, repeating any particular workout. The theory for the inconstancy is that unfamiliar routines should perplex our bodies and muscles and prevent them from getting into a settled state or reaching a training plateau (a time of little change after a period of progress). Instead, our muscles supposedly will respond to the unfamiliar demands of the workouts by continuing to adapt.

That idea has some appeal and many supporters but little independent scientific backing. So, for a new study, which was published in PLOS One, a group of of researchers from Spain and the United States who long had been interested in the impacts and specifics of resistance training decided to try to confuse a few muscles and see what would happen.

They divided 19 healthy young men who already lifted weights into two groups, after testing their muscles’ size and strength and completing an online questionnaire about their interest in and motivation for exercise.

Then one group began a standard, weight-training routine, performing the same exercises in the same order each week. The other group, though, did a different workout each session, picking exercises randomly from a database of 80. These routines continued for eight weeks at a university gym, after which the men returned to the lab for new muscle tests and a repeat of the online questionnaire.

The researchers then compared results and, quite unexpectedly, found that it is no easy job to make muscles feel confused since overall the men’s gains in muscular size and strength were almost exactly the same. Our muscles are not discouraged or bored by unvarying routines, says Brad Schoenfeld, a co-author of the study.

There was one notable difference between the groups, however. Those men completing the ever-changing workouts reported showing more enthusiasm for exercise at the study’s end than the other group. “The differences in drive scores at the end were significant,” he says, suggesting that “from a purely motivational standpoint, variety matters.”

1. The underlined word “perplex” can be replaced by ______.

A．pull

B．relax

C．strengthen.

D．confuse.

2. What was the major difference between the two groups during the research?

A．Whether their workouts varied.

B．Whether they received two muscle tests.

C．Whether exercises were completed at a gym.

D．Whether they lifted the same amount of weight.

3. What did the researchers conclude from their study?

A．It is simple to confuse our muscles.

B．Men dislike ever-changing workouts.

C．Regular exercise makes one feel enthusiastic.

D．Changing workouts helps improve motivation.

4. Which would be the best title for the text?

A．Will P90X benefit health?	B．How can muscles be built?
C．Will muscle confusion work?	D．How should workouts be done?

10 . I have been the senior digital producer at News Corp since August 2018. At the completion of my Bachelor’s degree in Journalism at the University of Queensland, I joined the Sunshine Coast Daily as a journalist. After five years with the paper, I moved to Yahoo7 as a news producer. In 2017, I took up a new role at SBS as its evening news editor. Then I joined News Corp.

As a content producer at News Corp, not a day is the same, which is something I love about my job as it’s never boring. It’s certainly taught me to be flexible as it includes a constant mix of reporting and producing news stories. One minute I’ll be reporting on the national or world issue of the hour, and the next I’ll be focused on making our print stories sing online.

While working hard as a digital producer, I’m sad to see readers’ unwillingness to pay for quality journalism online. There are plenty of fantastic Australian journalists working hard to bring issues to the surface, and many put their reputations on the line to do so. It’s sad that the attitude now is that news should always be free.

Of course among all the resources there’s some fake news. Fake news keeps me on my toes! I always fact-check everything — for my own work and when doing others’ job for a short time. I always take the extra five minutes to do the proper research I need. It will save me time and trouble in the long run.

Finally, a great story must be easy to read and without errors from start to finish, and have the strongest possible headline and photo to sell it. If you’ve worked hard on a story and want to make sure it’s read, think smart and spend time building it properly for online publication. If you spend hours on a story and then rush the last step, you’re wasting your time as no one will see it.

1. What was the author’s first job after graduation like?

A．It required lots of nighttime work.	B．It lasted for only a couple of months.
C．It fitted in with her major at university.	D．It was concerned with digital production.

2. What can we learn about the author’s job at News Corp?

A．She has quite flexible working hours.

B．She has to move between different tasks.

C．She has to report the same issues over and over.

D．She focuses more on print stories than online stories.

3. What does the author expect of the readers?

A．They should be more polite.	B．They should be more patient.
C．They should be more thankful.	D．They should be more generous.

4. What does the underlined part “keeps me on my toes” in the last but one paragraph mean?

A．Lets me get mad.	B．Makes me watchful.
C．Gets myself into trouble.	D．Lets me work with others.