1 . We often hear about schools cutting back on bus routes to save money, yet plenty of communities (社区) have their buses stopping almost as often as the mail truck. While the presence of sidewalks, and the safety of area roads, play a role in who gets house-to-house pickup or end-of-the-street pickup, Peter Mannella, director at the New York Association for Pupil Transportation says community culture can play an even larger role in the transportation situation.

For example: Several years ago, Bethlehem tried spacing out its stops, says Mannella. The parents were unhappy, expressed as much and, within three days, the routes were back to their original frequency. “You can say ‘We are going to save $100,000 by not stopping at every house,’ but parents don’t want their kids walking,” Mannella says. As you’d expect, this is especially true in bad weather or during winter.

As a student in the 1980s, we walked to our stops. The neighborhood wait-spot was a good quarter mile away. Parents didn’t make a fuss (大惊小怪), and no child was injured. In fact, the walking was good—it woke us up each morning. Not to mention, the sense of community that came with hanging out together each morning waiting for bus No. 23 to roll up and take us all to school.

Thing is a lot has changed since the 1980s. Too many people are texting and driving, making them as dangerous on the roads as drunken drivers. And, with reduced work forces at many companies, parents often work longer hours, meaning they aren’t around to guard their kids to and from stops like many parents did when we were growing up.

So I’ll give them an understanding pass on not wanting their children to walk a mile each way to get to and from school. I can’t agree with the complaints of having kids walk to a community neighborhood stop, though. If you worry they’re going to be cold, get them a hat. If you fear they may miss the bus, send them out the door ? Five minutes earlier.

1. What do we know about Bethlehem’s plan?

A．It ended up in failure.	B．It lasted for a long time.
C．It wasn’t put into practice.	D．It saved a lot of money.

2. What can we learn about students in the 1980s from paragraph 3?

A．They woke up early in the morning.

B．They were driven to school by parents.

C．They usually hung out with their neighbors.

D．They benefited by walking to a neighborhood stop.

3. Why are today’s parents unwilling to let their children walk to a neighborhood stop?

A．Drivers do not concentrate on driving.

B．The weather conditions are awful in winter.

C．Children might be late for school.

D．The house-to-house pickup is available.

4. What is the author’s attitude towards children walking to bus stops?

A．Doubtful.

B．Unconcerned.

C．Supportive.

D．Critical.

2 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（不多于3个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。

Nowadays, more and more high school students open their own micro blogs (微博) on the Internet. For one thing, it can provide a colorful platform to show their talent. For another, it is a useful way to release their pressure. And all these make it popular with high school students.     1     many parents and teachers hold a different view. They think that managing one’s micro blog will take a lot of time and energy,     2     should be used to study.

In my view, I am     3    (great) in favor of this activity. Today the Internet is playing     4     important role in our life. Therefore, as high school students of the Information Age, we need to make use of this     5     (value) tool to communicate. What’s more, opening and organizing micro blogs need various     6     (ability) such as writing, designing, being skillful at computer and so on. Only if we master those abilities can we make a successful micro blog.     7     a result, we improve ourselves while     8     (organize) our micro blogs. In fact, micro blog     9     (oneself) is of little harm. It is your attitude     10     matters.

3 . China’s livestreaming e-commerce industry has witnessed explosive growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, thus creating new growth opportunities for a wide range of businesses.

Cao lei, director of the E-Commerce Research Center at the Internet Economy Institute, said that while most e-commerce platforms have now hit bottlenecks in finding new customers, livestreaming provides an important channel for them to tap into customers living in fourth and fifth-tier cities as well as rural areas. “What’s more, livestreaming allows hosts to answer call-in questions from digital audiences in real time, which will enhance shopping experiences and attract more netizens to shop online,” Cao added.

The number of people likely to watch livestreaming e-commerce events is 388 million in 2020. The typical livestreaming e-commerce session involves celebrities promoting and selling goods while answering questions from an online audience, with everything taking place in real time via devices such as smartphones.

Livestreaming is increasingly gaining popularity as a new online shopping platform among Chinese netizens, creating a huge market worth more than 970 billion yuan ($149.9 billion) in 2020. E-commerce giant Alibaba’s Taobao Live has taken the lion’s share of livestreaming, as 68.5 percent of consumers use the service, according to a survey conducted by the China Consumers Association. Douyin and Kuaishou have taken second and third spots, respectively. Other large Chinese Internet and e-commerce players like JD.com have also thrown their hats into the ring.

Livestreaming has become a key means for brands to gain awareness and boost sales, and for smaller operators such as farmers to have better access to consumers, especially during the pandemic period.

1. What contributes to better shopping experiences in livestreaming?

A．Interaction between hosts and customers.	B．Participation of some popular guests.
C．Convenience to buy goods at any place.	D．Discount price of products.

2. What’s the main idea of the third paragraph?

A．The e-commerce giants in livestreaming.	B．The influence and effect of livestreaming.
C．The present situation and ways of livestreaming.	D．The reasons why livestreaming is so popular.

3. What do the underlined words in paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Exchange hats for a ring.	B．Throw away their hats.
C．Participate in the game.	D．Ring other e-commerce players.

4. How did we get the ranks of popularity of diverse livescreaming platforms?

A．By making comparison.	B．By doing experiments.
C．By giving an explanation.	D．By making a survey.

4 . A group of wandering wild elephants have become an overnight Internet focus in China and global. The group first captured the attention of the locals in March 2020. after they suddenly left their home in the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve.

While the original group was made of 16, two of which decided to return home after a week. The rest have continued their journey northward, stopping only for a short break in November 2020 to allow a newly born calf (幼兽) and its mother to rest.

Since leaving the reserve, the elephants have walked over 310 miles. Along the way, they have got into farms for food and water, walked through urban streets, and even paid a visit to a car shop and a retirement home. Thanks to the alarming eye of the government officials no animals or people have been hurt. However, they have destroyed more than $1 million worth.

Researchers are not sure why the elephants decided to leave or where they are headed. While elephants are known to leave their habitats in search of food, this is the longest moving of wild elephants recorded in China. Because of the extreme distance traveled, some doubt that the elephants may be lost. However, other scientists think the elephants were forced to move due to deforestation. Successful protection efforts have almost doubled the elephant population in the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve and the surrounding regions. However, their natural habitat has been continuously reduced to make room for agricultural development.

We’ve seen elephants expanding their range for decades now, as their populations increase, and they search for more food for the growing group, Becky Shu Chen, a scientist at the Zoological Society of London, told The Washington Post.

The wandering elephants’ search for a suitable home has not gone unnoticed by the millions of locals that eagerly follow their daily movements on social media Adam Chang, assigned to deliver food to the elephants, says, “Before this meeting, I just felt curious about animals. Now, I think I would volunteer in animal rights groups to preserve those giant creatures.

1. How many elephants went northward in China?

A．16

B．14.

C．17

D．15

2. What does the underlined word “they” refer to in the third paragraph?

A．The calves

B．The officials

C．The elephants

D．The scientists

3. What might have caused the elephants wandering out of their habitats?

A．They didn’t have enough food	B．They had no sense of direction
C．The leader of the group led the wrong way	D．People grew crops to attract the elephants

4. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Some wild elephants went northward.

B．China made great progress in protecting.

C．Animal protection and agricultural development are contradictory.

D．China’s wandering wild elephant group attracts the world’s attention.

5 . 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。

One night,     1     winter, a bear came into the city in Vancouver Canada. It walked through the city streets past houses, shops and offices. Then it     2    (find) some food in bins outside a restaurant and started eating. In the morning, someone saw the bear and called the police. The police came with a vet from the city zoo. They put the bear in a lorry and took it to the mountains outside the city.     3    (fortune), the bear was safe. But     4     happens in other countries when big animals come into cities? In Vancouver it is unusual       5    (see) a bear, but in some cities you can see big animals on the city streets every day.

Big animals usually come into cities to find food. In Cape Town in South Africa baboons(狒狒) come into the city when they are driven by     6    (starve). Human food is very bad for the baboons’     7    (tooth) because it has a lot of sugar. Now, there are Baboon Monitors working in Cape Town.     8    (they) job is to find baboons in the city and return them to the countryside.

In Berlin in Germany, pigs sometimes come into the city for food. They eat flowers and plants in parks and gardens. Sometimes they eat vegetables from gardens    9     they walk in the street, causing accidents. Some people like the pigs and they give them food and water to drink. Other people do not like the pigs and they want the government and the police to stop them       10    (enter) the city.

6 . So many things can obstruct you seeing your loved ones in person, from busy schedules to long distances to a rather unexpected severe disease. Fortunately, due to modern technology, the people we miss are often only a phone call or text message away. But if you're someone who's more likely to type out messages than verbal ones, you may want to reconsider.

A new study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, found that communication interactions that included voice, like a phone call or video chat, created stronger social bonds than communication through typing, like text messaging or email.

In the study, researchers used various experiments to measure connectedness. In one, they asked 200 people to make predictions about what it would be like to reconnect with an old friend by email or by phone and then appointed people at random to do one or the other. Although people expected that a phone call would be more awkward, hearing someone's voice actually made the experience better and they didn’t feel awkward. In another experiment, it was found that both forms of voice communication—whether video or audio only—made the strangers feel significantly more connected than when they communicated via text.

Sabrina Romanoff, a Harvard trained clinical psychologist, says people tend to text or email instead of calling because of convenience, as they see it as a controlled form of communication where they can “correspond information exactly in the way they intend without unexpected additions by the other person.”

Romanoff says that each party is more present in the phone call, and therefore, able to understand the meaning behind the content without ruminating on the endless possible meanings behind words and punctuation. “In reality, a text message can make it hard to determine the true meaning behind a conversation, but a phone call is actually more convenient when considering the real effects of the message.”

1. What may help you to see your friend living in another country immediately?

A．The busy work	B．Long distances
C．An unexpected severe disease	D．A phone call or text message

2. What can we learn about the study?

A．Only one experiment was done for the study.

B．Less than 200 people took part.

C．In another experiment, the result of the former test was proved.

D．The participants still thought phone call was more awkward after the test.

3. What is the reason for people preferring a text message to a phone call?

A．People can convey meanings more precisely without being interrupted.

B．People think a text message is more formal than voice communication.

C．People hate to hear the voice of the people they connect with.

D．People do not believe what others said in the phone.

4. What does the underlined word in the last paragraph refer to?

A．changing slowly

B．thinking deeply

C．standing quietly

D．disagreeing strongly

8 . Oceans hold a lot of mystery, even for people who study them. But it’s no mystery why they’re in trouble. We’ve been using them to hide our waste, such as pouring oil, plastic, and poisonous chemicals into them for decades. We’ve over exploited (剥削) many fish stocks to levels so low that they can no longer be harvested.

Oceans are also a primary source of protein for millions of people worldwide. If we want to continue to enjoy what oceans provide, we need to do everything we can to protect them and the life they support. We should ensure the seafood we eat is sustainable.

Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to be able to catch their own fish, which means having sustainable options at the store is critical. As public and companies awareness about the risks caused by overfishing and uncontrolled sea farming expansion has grown, food tradesmen in Canada have developed sustainable seafood policies and commitments.

Seafood Progress, an online resource, is designed to help provide rewards to tradesmen and information to seafood lovers. It makes it easier for consumers in Canada to find out tradesmen’s policies on sourcing sustainable seafood, whether they’re sticking to those policies and how they’re performing compared to their peers.

But tradesmen must do more to ensure their seafood products are environmentally sustainable and socially responsible. This means expanding the scope of their commitments to cover all seafood products they sell, in all their stores. It also requires continuing to work with suppliers and producers to improve practices and make sure the sustainable seafood supply meets consumer demand.

It’s no mystery that if we want to continue to eat fish, we must do it responsibly. Seafood Progress has invited seafood tradesmen, suppliers and consumers to join in pushing to this goal.

1. What’s the cause of oceans’ being in trouble according to paragraph 1?

A．The ever-changing of the global climate.

B．The mystery that people haven’t studied.

C．The over exploitation and use of the oceans.

D．The continuous decrease of fish stocks.

2. What can Seafood Progress do for consumers?

A．Provide rewards to them.

B．Urge them to stick to policies.

C．Provide them with enough seafood.

D．Let them know about tradesmen’s policies.

3. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Millions of people rely on oceans for protein.

B．People fail to note the consequence of overfishing.

C．Seafood Progress helps American customers to be informed about tradesmen’s policies.

D．Tradesmen can sell seafood products without limit.

4. How can seafood be sustainable?

A．Through expanding seafood production.

B．By protecting all the tradesmen’s profit.

C．By making policies to control seafood consumers.

D．By joint efforts of people involved in seafood.

9 . 阅读短文，在空白处填入1个适当单词或括号内单词的正确形式（最多不超过3词）

A man looking at his Smartphone while walking across a railway     1    (have) a close knock on Oct 22. He was so     2    (absorb) in his Smartphone that he didn’t see a train approaching until it brushed past him, throwing him to the ground. This should serve     3     a warning that people should be aware of their surroundings, especially when     4    (cross) roads.

    5    (lucky), the man survived, but the incident forced the driver     6    (stop) the train. An 18-minute delay followed the incident,     7     led to a break in the running of other trains on the route.

The Smartphone     8    (addict) has spread like an infectious disease. It’s evident that it will do great harm to society. What’s even     9    (bad), some addicts become impatient with relatives and friends.

Some people blame the Smartphone     10     the tragedy, yet in fact people’s weakening self-control and self-discipline are to blame.

10 . For many kids, the Internet is at their fingertips. From computers to smart phones, a web of information is open to them. According to a new report from the Pew Research Center, about three out of four kids aged 12 to 13 connect the Internet using a mobile device from time to time. Many younger kids are online too.

Julian Zeitlinger, 9, from New Jersey, uses his computer to watch videos and play games. To keep him safe online, his parents monitor his web use and discuss Internet safety with him. “I ask my parents if something is wrong,” Julian says.

Mobile devices offer more ways than ever to share personal information. The information can be dangerous in the wrong hands. A study found that 62% of children aged 8 to 17 have had an unpleasant online experience.

Have you ever had to enter a parent’s e-mail address when signing up for a website? That safety net is there because of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The law says sits for kids under 13 cannot collect personal information, such as a phone number or full name, unless their parents agree.

This July, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will update COPPA for the first time since the law was created in 1998 when there were no smart phones. “The nature of the way kids get online has changed,” FTC lawyer Phyllis Marcus said. When the changes take effect, COPPA will apply to mobile devices and newer forms of advertising. It will expand what falls under “personal information” to include videos, photographs and services that give user location.

COPPA doesn’t cover everything that can go wrong online. That’s why kids and parents need to know what to look out for and to stop and think before sharing information online. “There is a misunderstanding that if a site is following COPPA, it is totally safe,” says privacy expert Shai Samet. He runs kidSAFE, which checks whether a site meets kidSAFE standards and is safe. “It’s important that kids know how useful the Internet is but that it also can be dangerous if you are not careful.” he adds.

1. Julian’s parents check his web use to make sure ________.

A．he doesn’t watch too many videos	B．he doesn’t play computer games
C．he stays safe on the Internet	D．he controls his online time

2. How does the author explain children’s unpleasant online experiences?

A．By describing his own experiences.	B．By presenting research.
C．By showing differences.	D．By using examples.

3. People often hold the wrong idea that ________.

A．formal websites are always safe	B．the Internet is becoming safer and safer
C．COPPA can ensure their complete online safety	D．daily checks prevent future online problems

4. What’s the main purpose of the text?

A．To ask parents to look out for their kids.	B．To state children’s online safety.
C．To offer tips on online safety.	D．To introduce an online law.