We produce 500 billion of plastic bags in a year worldwide and they are thrown away polluting oceans, killing wildlife and getting dumped in landfills where they take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Researchers have been unsuccessfully looking for a solution.

The 16-year-old Canadian high school student, Daniel Burd, from Waterloo Collegiate Institute, has-discovered a way to make plastic bags degrade(降解) in as few as 3 months, a finding that won him first prize at the Canada Wide Science Fair, a ＄10,000 prize, a ＄20,000 scholarship, and a chance to revolutionize a major environmental issue.

Burd’s strategy was simple: Since plastic does eventually degrade, it must be eaten by microorganisms (微生物). If those microorganisms could be identified, we could put them to work eating the plastic much faster than under normal conditions.

With this goal in mind, he grounded plastic bags into a powder and concocted(调制) a solution of household chemicals, yeast(酵母) and tap water to encourage microbes growth. Then he added the plastic powder and let the microbes work their magic for 3 months. Finally, he tested the resulting bacterial culture on plastic bags, exposing one plastic sample to dead bacteria as a control. Sure enough, the plastic exposed to the live bacteria was 17% lighter than the control after six weeks.

The inputs are cheap, maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide.

“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have piles of plastic bags falling on top of me. One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags. The answer: not much. So I decided to do something myself.” Said Daniel Burd.

1.Daniel Burd won first prize at the Canada Wide Science Fair because      .

  A. he found a new kind of microorganism

  B. he contributed much to environmental protection

  C. he found a way to degrade plastics in shorter time

  D. he could encourage microbe growth in an easier way

2. Daniel Burd exposed one plastic sample to dead bacteria to      .

   A. make the live bacteria work better      B. test how effective his method was

C. know which bacteria worked faster      D. control the temperature in the process

3.

Maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because       .

  A. plastics can get hot easily           B. microbes can produce heat themselves

  C. much carbon dioxide is produced     D. the temperature can be controlled

4. Daniel Burd got his idea from       .

  A. his school textbook          B. the failure of researchers

  C. his everyday work           D. the practice of other people

完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）

     I was in the kitchen making lunch when I saw my six-year-old son, Billy, walking toward the woods. I could only see his back. He  56   to be walking with a great effort, trying to be as  57  as possible.

    A few minutes after he disappeared into the   58  , he came running toward the house again. I went back to making sandwiches,   59   that whatever task he had been doing was completed. Moments later,  60  , he was once again walking slowly toward the woods.

      61  curiosity, I walked out and followed him on his journey. He was  62   both hands in front of him as he walked, being  63   not to spill the water he held in them. I secretly walked   64   behind him as he went into the woods and I saw the most amazing  65  .

    Several large deer loomed in front of him. Billy walked right up to them. I almost  66   at him to get away. A huge male deer with elaborate（精美的）antlers was   67   close. But they didn’t even move as Billy   68  . And I saw a small deer lying on the ground, obviously suffering from   69  and extreme heat, lift its head  70   to drink the water cupped in my beautiful boy’s hands.

    It was on this day that I learned the true lesson of  71  . You know, we hadn’t had any rain for three months and our crops were   72 . As the tears that rolled down my face began to hit the ground, they were suddenly   73   by other drops. I looked up at the sky. It was  74   God was moved to weep. The rain came that day and saved our farm, just like the  75  of one little boy who saved another.

A. happened    B. seemed   C. managed  D. intended

A. quickly    B. secret   C. smoothly D. still

A. distance   B. yard C. woods    D. park

A. wondering   B. thinking    C. studying D. doubting

A. eventually B. actually         C. however  D. therefore

A. Within B. Out of       C. Beyond   D. In spite of

A. holding B. waving       C. surrounding D. cupping

A. careful B. worried  C. eager    D. prepared

A. away   B. close    C. out  D. off

A. scene  B. story    C. view D. game 

A. fought  B. signed   C. screamed D. waited

A. hardly B. dangerously      C. easily   D. nearly

A. ran away   B. turned out  C. knelt down   D. settled down

A. hunger  B. disease  C. thirst   D. injury

A. in turn    B. in silence       C. with appreciation    D. with difficulty 

A. suffering  B. supporting       C. sharing  D. depending

A. dying  B. reducing     C. harvesting   D. growing

A. hidden B. covered  C. joined   D. caught

A. when   B. as if    C. because  D. that

A. wish    B. dream    C. action   D. expectation

    Schools across the country are turning green. So-called green schools are built from recycled and environmentally friendly materials. They are designed to use less energy than traditional school buildings. In the next few years, Southern California alone plans to open 150 green schools. Studies have shown that there are good reasons to go green, including good air quality that cuts down on asthma(哮喘)attacks and airborne germs that can cause illnesses. Students learn better in classrooms that have natural light and ideal temperatures. Green schools have lower energy bills. Go On, Get Green

     Here’s how to save energy and help the environment.

Light Savers

     Turn off the lights in a room when it is not in use. This bright idea can produce big savings on energy costs. Some schools use sensors that automatically shut off the lights when there is no motion in a room.

Heat Smart

     Your school’s thermostat(温度调节器)should be set to 78℃in warm weather and 68℃in cooler weather. The temperature can be even farther from the comfort zone at night and on weekends, when no one is using the school building.

 Reuse, Recycle

     Reuse paper, cans, bottles and batteries. Use both sides of notebook paper. Carry a lunch box rather than a paper bag. Recycle whatever you can reuse.

Don’t Drip(滴水)

     Leaky taps can waste large amounts of water. A small, steady flow can add up to hundreds of gallons a year. Report drips if you see them.

What is the best title for the passage?

      A. Green Schools.    B. Reusing and Recycling.    C. Light Savers.   D. No Dripping.

Some schools are called green schools because ______.

     A. they are built from new materials          B. they are painted green

C. there are more trees in these schools        D. they are built from recycled materials

All of the following are advantages of a green school EXCEPT __________.

A. the air quality of the school is great

B. the temperature is comfortable

C. the school has lower energy bills than a traditional school

    D. it is more beautiful than a traditional school

In a green school, students will ________.

     A. use both sides of their notebook paper    B. not use lights at all

C. use paper bags to carry food            D. get sick more easily

For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

In 1867 the United States faced the task of rebuilding after the destruction of the Civil War, so it looked westward for the raw materials needed to fuel industrial growth. Geological surveys and mapping journeys were set forth to explore this        1 territory. These groups, in turn, hired mapmakers, scientists, cooks, drivers, and doctors. They also hired painters and photographers as part of the teams. Painters needed few supplies, making it relatively easy for them to travel in the wilderness, ____2____ photographers were not so lucky; they had to transport a fully stocked darkroom on the __3____.

Until the late 1870s, most photographers used the __4___ wet-collodion process. The first step was to wash a clean sheet of glass with a sticky mixture of collodion and chemicals, (collodion or "gun-cotton" was a recent medical discovery used to cover wounds because the viscous (粘性的) solution turned into a protective film when dry.) After it was washed, the plate went into another bath that the picture was __5___ getting darker; Finally, the glass negative (底片) was washed clean with fresh water. __6__ a photograph from the negative had to wait until the photographer went back to the studio. The ___7___ of the negative depended on the size of the camera. Some negatives could be as large as 20 by 24 inches.

Imagine the __8____ of taking photographs in the 1860s and 1870s in the remote western wilderness! Photographers went over Rocky Mountains and through rushing rivers. They were __9____ in the terrible desert heat, with cameras, sheets of glass, and vats of chemicals. Bad weather, equipment failures, and accidents were frequent problems. They persevered, but success in creating a negative did not ___10___ the production of a photograph; plates still had to be ___11___ transported back to the studio before the image could be printed on paper. A photographer could carry 120 pounds of many miles to         ____12____ a magnificent view only to have the easily broken plate        ___13___ in transportation.

__14___, once photographers were successful, the results were superb and much admired. Photographs were put on exhibition, and people bought albums filled with pictures by Timothy O'Sullivan, Carleton Watkins, and William Henry Jackson. Jackson's photographs of Yellowstone's

natural wonders, along with the paintings of fellow Thomas Moran, even helped ___15___ Congress to preserve thousands of acres of this land in 1872 as the nation's first national park.

The southwest of Australia has been named as one of 25”hot spots” for future species extinction(灭绝)because of global warming.A new study says global warming will become a top cause of extinction across the world,with thousands of species of plantsand animals likely to be wiped out in the coming decades.
According to the study,global warming ranks among the most serious threats to the planet’s biodiversity and,under some conditions,may be more than that due to deforestation.This study provides even stronger scientific evidence that global warming will result in catastrophic(灾难性的)species losses across the planet.Last month,a UN study said humans were responsible for the worst extinction and urged extra efforts to reach a UN target of slowing the rate of losses by 2010.
Scientists disagree about how far global warming is to blame compared with other human threats such as deforestation,pollution and the introduction of some species to new habitats.But the new study looks at the 25 “hot spots”—?areas? that contain a big concentration of plants and animals—and predicts that 11.6 percent of all species,with a range from 1 to 43 percent,could be driven to extinction if levels of heat trapping gases in the atmosphere were to keep rising in the next 100 years.
The range would mean the loss of thousands of species.The study gave a wide range because of uncertainties, for instance, about the ability of animals or plants to move towards the poles if the climate warmed. Rare plants,tortoises or birds found only on the southern tip of Africa cannot move south because the nearest land is thousands of miles away in Antarctica.
【小题1】According to the passage,which of the following about Australia is TRUE?