1 . More than 40 percent of Antarctica’s ice shelves have reduced in the past 25 years, potentially accelerating sea level rise by allowing more landice to flow into the ocean.

    1     They play a critical role in slowing the flow of ice on land into the ocean by essentially acting as a wall and surround nearly the entire coastline of Antarctica. When ice shelves thin or retreat(消退), ice on the land can flow into the ocean more quickly and accelerate sea level rise.

Healthy ice shelves naturally retreat and grow over time. An ice shelf is continuously flowing and advancing but will also lose mass through melting or calving, which is when its front breaks off into the ocean.    2     But the large portion of steadily shrinking ice shelves shows this natural cycle is off.

In West Antarctica, the Getz Ice Shelf experienced some of the biggest ice losses, shedding 1.9 trillion tons of ice over the study period. Most ice shelves in East Antarctica however, increased in volume or stayed the same.     3     Region is protected by a band of cold water at the coast, which helps keep nearby warm water at bay. Even so, the study still showed pockets of shrinking ice shelves, and researchers are still investigating the reasons.     4    

The current ice shelf data set is not long enough for researchers to definitively make climate change connection yet, but it would be a ” remarkable coincidence if the natural variability in ice shelves were just that much larger.     5     But we don’t need to hit it before seeing an effect on the planet.

A．Then it can gain ice from the land and grow again

B．Ice shelves are massive floating sections of ice extending from glaciers on land.

C．The east is not as exposed to the warm water like the other side of the continent.

D．The thinning of the ice shelves has shown up in the surrounding environment, too.

E．Ice shelves not just the big ones, are. steadily losing mass over time with no sign of recovery

F．One theory is that the warmer water on the western side could be slowly coming in the region.

G．Additionally, climate models predict ice shelves will steadily shrink in a warming world as observed, eventually hitting a tipping point for ice sheet collapse.

2 . There is hot, and then there is hot! Extreme heat is a period of high heat and humidity with temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit for at least two to three days. Extreme heat is responsible for the highest number of annual deaths among all weather-related hazards (危害).

It’s not your imagination. Summers have been getting hotter and hotter with extreme heatwaves occurring earlier and more frequently. But why is this happening and can we better predict heatwaves in advance to give people time to prepare?

“Climate change is here and it’s already been changing human behavior and causing significant influence in the society. As global temperatures rise, historically excessive (过高的) temperatures are more likely to occur.” says Craig Ramseyer, an assistant professor who studies climate modeling in the department of geography at Virginia Tech.

Ramseyer says heatwaves are the most concerning because of the lack of attention they normally receive. “Hurricanes, tornadoes, and flash floods drive more media attention because of the natural attraction with the visual impact of those types of hazards. However, heat does not tend to be as attractive and it becomes very difficult to communicate the danger to the public,” said Ramseyer. “Around the world, more deaths occur due to extreme heat than from hurricanes, flooding, and drought combined. It impacts the most helpless of our citizens who do not have enough access to air conditioning, water, and other important resources.”

Since the Earth is running warmer than it used to, Ramseyer says that when these heatwave-related weather patterns take place, it results in higher extreme temperatures than we used to experience 30 years ago.

“As a global community, we need to decrease carbon emissions as soon as possible. We have rapidly developing technologies that are going to help advance the process, but the faster the better, there is no time to waste.”

1. What can we learn from the article?

A．Extreme heat is a No.1 death cause.

B．People are suffering more extreme heat.

C．A 100-degree heat is an extreme heat.

D．Extreme heat is getting better over the years.

2. What will Ramseyer possibly agree with?

A．Climate change will soon affect human behaviors.

B．High temperatures happened frequently in history.

C．Air conditioning and water can stop the extreme heat.

D．Garbage sorting can less advance the climate change.

3. Why is extreme heat lack of attention?

A．Extreme heat can be stopped by technology.

B．People have enough time to solve the climate problems.

C．The danger of extreme heat is not easily transferred to the public.

D．Heatwave-related weather patterns will decrease in the future.

4. What’s the article mainly about?

A．Complaints about extreme heat.	B．Prevention of extreme heat.
C．Characters of extreme heat.	D．Technologies behind extreme heat.

3 . “A lot of the time when climate change is discussed in mainstream media, people are asking ‘can humans overcome this?’, or ‘what technology can solve this?’. It’s high time we recognized that animals also have to adapt to various changes. We know some animals change their skin colors to escape from natural enemies or due to environment pollution,” says Ryding. “The climate change that we have created is putting a lot of pressure on them, and some species try to adapt by shapeshifting (变形). ”

Strong shapeshifting has particularly been reported in birds. Several species of Australian parrot have shown, on average, a 4%—10% increase in beak (鸟喙) size since 1871, and this is positively linked with the summer temperature each year. North American dark-eyed juncos, a type of small songbird, had a link between increased beak size and short-term temperature extremes in cold environments. There have also been reported changes in mammalian species. Researchers have reported tail length increases in wood mice and leg size increases in masked shrews (鼩鼱).

“The increases in some body parts size we see so far are quite small—less than 10%—so the changes are unlikely to be immediately noticeable,” says Ryding. “However, some body parts such as ears are predicted to increase.”

Ryding intends to investigate shapeshifting in Australian birds firsthand by 3D scanning museum bird specimens from the past 100 years. It will give her team a better understanding of which birds are changing their body parts and why. “Shapeshifting does not mean that animals are coping with climate change and that all is ‘fine’,” says Ryding. “It just means they are adapting to survive it—but we’re not sure what the other ecological consequences of these changes are, or indeed that all species are capable of changing and surviving. ”

1. What may cause animals’ shapeshifting according to Ryding?

A．Human hunting.	B．Climate change.
C．Natural enemies.	D．Polluted surroundings.

2. What method does the author mainly use to develop paragraph 2?

A．Giving examples.	B．Cause-effect analysis.
C．Making comparison.	D．Process analysis.

3. What can we know from Ryding’s words in the last paragraph?

A．Animals can well adapt to changes and survive.

B．Influence of animals’ shapeshifting is uncertain.

C．Rdying will research into bird museums in Australia.

D．All adaptations of animals to climate change are beneficial.

4. In which section of a newspaper can we find the text?

A．Technology.

B．Health care.

C．Environment.

D．Education.

4 . Ice Ages

Have you ever heard the phrase “ice age”? It refers to a long period of time when glaciers and ice sheets cover large parts of the Earth. We are actually living in an ice age right now! This ice age began about 2.5 million years ago. Today, large areas of ice cover regions of Antarctica, the Arctic, and Greenland.

The climate changes multiple times during an ice age. It switches between glacial periods and interglacial periods. During glacial periods of an ice age, temperatures are much colder than they are today. Ice sheets and glaciers expand, covering more of the planet. These periods can last tens of thousands of years. The last glacial period started about 120,000 years ago and ended about 11,500 years ago. During interglacial periods of an ice age, the average global temperature increases. Ice sheets and glaciers get smaller. The climate is warmer and wetter than it is during glacial periods. We are currently living in an interglacial period. It started about 11,500 years age—when the last glacial period ended.

Scientists don’t completely understand what causes ice ages. But they do believe that one important factor is the amount of light Earth receives from the sun. When the northern part of the world receives less sunlight, temperatures drop—it gets colder, and more water freezes into ice. This can lead to the start of an ice age. When the northern part of the world receives more sunlight, temperatures rise—it gets warmer and ice sheets melt. Consequently, an ice age ends. However, there are other factors, too, including changes in the water flow of our oceans. Scientists are working to learn more about how different factors may cause an ice age to begin and end.

The current ice age we’re in is not the first the Earth has experienced. At least five major ice ages have occurred throughout Earth’s history.

1. What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To announce a recent scientific discovery.

B．To describe how ice ages come about.

C．To explain why the Earth’s climate is changing.

D．To encourage people to concern about the environment.

2. How are glacial and interglacial periods different?

A．The north part of the earth receives less sunlight during glacial periods.

B．It is warmer during an interglacial period than a glacial one.

C．Interglacial periods normally last longer than glacial periods.

D．More of the Earth is covered by ice during an interglacial period than a glacial one.

3. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．That the temperature falls.	B．That glaciers get smaller.
C．Global climate.	D．Northern part of the world.

4. What is the author most likely to write about in the missing 5th paragraph?

A．The changes of the ocean water in glacial periods and interglacial periods.

B．Scientists’ new researches on factors making an ice age begin and end.

C．Something about the major ice ages occurred throughout Earth’s history.

D．The effects on human life caused by glacial periods and interglacial periods.

5 . For humans, adapting to climate change will mostly be a matter of technology. More air conditioning, better-designed houses and bigger flood defenses may help lessen the effects of a warmer world. Animals will have to rely on changing their bodies or their behaviour. In a paper published inTrends in Ecology & Evolution, a team led by Sara Ryding, a professor in Australia, shows that is already happening. In some species of Australian parrot, for instance beak (喙) size has increased by between 4% and 10%since 1871. Similar trends are seen in species of mice and bats growing bigger ears, tails, legs and wings.

All that fits nicely with evolutionary (进化的) theory. “Allen’s rule”, named after Joe Allen, who suggested it in 1877, holds that warm-blooded animals in hot places tend to have larger appendages (附加物) than those in mild areas. Such adaptations boost an animal’s surface area relative to its body volume, helping it to get rid of additional heal. Fennec foxes, meanwhile, which are native to the Sahara desert, have strikingly large ears, especially compared with their Arctic cousins.

Ryding’s team combined data from different species in different places. Now that they have little in common apart from living on a warming planet, climate change is the most reasonable explanation. Since any evolutionary adaptation comes with trade-offs, it is unclear how far the process might go. Bigger beaks might interfere with feeding, for instance. Larger wings are heavier, and bigger legs cost more energy to grow.

Honestly, studying a broader range of animals will help firm up exactly what is happening. For now, at least, the increase is small, never much more than 10%. That may change as warming accelerates. Every little bit of avoided future temperature increases results in less warming that would otherwise stay for essentially forever.

1. Why do some species grow bigger parts of their body?

A．They are following the new trends.

B．They have to adapt to warmer climate.

C．Scientists need them to do experiments.

D．Larger parts tend to help them feed well.

2. Where may warm-blooded animals have bigger body parts?

A．In mild areas.	B．In hot places.
C．In the Arctic.	D．In deserted regions.

3. What do we know about the change in animals from the last two paragraphs?

A．It comes at a cost.

B．Its cause is definite.

C．It happens in the same habitat.

D．Its process will end soon.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Living on a Warming Planet

B．Measures to Remove Heat

C．Pioneering Research on Animals

D．Evolution to Survive Heat

6 . 根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

The Effects of a Warmer World Are Visible in Animals’ Bodies

For humans, adapting to climate change will mostly be a matter of technology. More air conditioning, better-designed houses and bigger flood defences may help mitigate the effects of a warm world.     1     In a paper published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, a team led by Sara

Ryding, a phd candidate at Deakin University, in Australia, shows that is already happening. Climate change is already altering the bodies of many animal species, giving them bigger beaks, limbs and ears. In some species of Australian parrot, for instance, beak size has increased by between 4 % and 10 % since 1871.

All that dovetails (吻合)nicely with evolutionary theory. “Allen’s rule”, named for Joel Asaph Allen, who suggested it in 1877, holds that warm-blooded-animals in hot places tend to have larger appendages (附属物) than those in less hot regions.    2     For example, Fennec foxes, which are native to the Sahara desert, have strikingly large ears, especially compared with their Arctic cousins.

Ms Ryding examined museum specimens, comparing their bodies to those of their modern counterparts. She is not the first researcher to take that approach.     3     All sorts of other factors, from changes in prey to the evolving reproductive preferences of males or females, might possibly have been driving the changes. Her team combined data from different species in different places.Since they have little in common apart from living on a warming planet, she says, climate change is the most reasonable explanation.

    4     Researchers have already seen changes in the geographical range of many species, from insects to fish. Another evolutionary rule-of-thumb, Bergmann’s rule, holds that animals in hotter places tend to have smaller bodies, another way to boost the ratio between surface area and volume. Other animals may alter their behaviour as well as their bodies, such as by seeking shelter at hot times of the day.

Studying a broader range of animals will help firm up exactly what is happening. Much of Ms Ryding’s data concern birds, with less information available for other taxa (类群). But it seems clear that the world of the future is not just going to be hotter than humans are used to.    5    

A．And there are other ways to adapt, too.

B．The animals living in it will look different, too.

C．Larger wings are heavier, and bigger legs cost more energy to grow.

D．Animals will have to rely on changing their bodies or their behaviour.

E．But it is hard to prove that climate change was the cause of an anatomical (结构上的) change.

F．Since any evolutionary adaptation comes with trade-offs, it is unclear how far the process might go.

G．Such adaptations boost an animal's surface area relative to its body volume, helping it to shed excess heat.

7 . For millions of years, Arctic sea ice has expanded and shrunk in a rhythmic dance with the summer sun. Humans evolved in this icy world, and civilization relied on it for climatic, ecological and political stability. But now the world comes ever closer to a future without ice. The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that 2019’s minimum arctic sea ice extent was the second lowest on record. Arctic summers could become mostly ice-free in 30 years, and possibly sooner if current trends continue. As the northern sea ice declines, the world must unite to preserve what remains of the Arctic.

Although most people have never seen the sea ice, its effects are never far away. By reflecting sunlight, Arctic ice acts as Earth’s air conditioner. Once dark water replaces brilliant ice, Earth could warm substantially, equivalent to the warming caused by the additional release of a trillion tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere and declining sea ice threatens wildlife, from the polar bear to algae that grow beneath the sea ice, supporting the large amount of marine life.

To avoid the consequences the scientific community should advocate not just for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, but also for protecting the Arctic from exploitation. The Antarctic shows the way. In the 1950s, countries raced to claim the Antarctic continent for resources and military installations. Enter the scientists. The 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year brought together scientists from competing countries to study Antarctica, and countries temporarily suspended their territorial disputes (争议). In 1959, 12 countries signed the Antarctic Treaty to preserve the continent for peaceful scientific discovery rather than territorial and military gain.

Sixty years later, we must now save the Arctic. A new Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary (MAPS) Treaty would protect the Arctic Ocean as a scientific preserve for peaceful purposes only. Similar to Antarctica, MAPS would prohibit resource exploitation, commercial fishing and shipping, and military exercises. So far, only 2 non-Arctic countries have signed MAPS; 97 more need to sign on to enact it into law. Scientists can help—just as they did for the Antarctic—by giving statements of support, asking scientific organizations to endorse (支持) the treaty, communicating the importance of protecting the arctic to the public and policy-makers, and above all, by convincing national leaders to sign the treaty. In particular, Arctic nations must agree that recognizing the arctic as an international preserve is better than fighting over it. In 2018, these countries successfully negotiated a 16-year moratorium on commercial fishing in the Arctic high seas, demonstrating that such agreements are possible.

Humans have only ever lived in a world topped by ice. Can we now work together to protect Arctic ecosystems, keep the northern peace, and allow the sea ice to return?

1. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．wildlife relies on sea ice for food and water.

B．The Arctic would be ice-free in 30 years.

C．Sea ice slows down the global warming.

D．The melting of sea ice releases CO2.

2. The Antarctic is mentioned in the passage in order to ________.

A．remind readers of the past of the Antarctic

B．propose a feasible approach for the Arctic

C．stress the importance of preserving sea ice

D．recall how the Antarctic Treaty came into being

3. The word “moratorium” (in paragraph 4) is closest in meaning to ________.

A．battle	B．ban
C．memo	D．protection

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Antarctic: a Successful Comeback?	B．Sea Ice and Global Warming
C．Arctic: the Earth’s Future	D．Life Without Ice?

8 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填写适当的内容(1 个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

Climate change has been a hot topic nowadays. There is little doubt     1       the Earth is getting warmer and warmer. Evidence has shown that it has had     2       (great) affected the Earth’s ecology,     3       (cause) both serious damage and human death. Thus, it is our     4       (responsible) to take immediate measures to deal with it.

Although I     5       (turn) down by Captain Shackleton, I decided to go aboard his ship secretly. I hid myself in the cupboard on the ship. After I was discovered three days later, Captain Shackleton hired me     6     a steward to serve meals for the crew. I felt very honored to work for Shackleton,     7    a reputation as an explorer was widely recognized.

    8     (understand)Western art better, we need to spend some time looking at the development of Western painting over the centuries. During the Middle Ages, there were many famous artists, Giotto di Bondone was a     9     (represent). He began to care more about real people instead of religious contents.

    10    , his paintings were set apart from the paintings in the early stage of the Middle Ages.