Antarctica(南极洲)’s melting ice, which has caused global sea levels to rise by at least 13.8 millimeters over the past 40 years, was thought to primarily come from the unstable West Antarctic Ice Sheet(WAIS). Now, scientists have found that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS)—considered largely unaffected by climate change—may also be melting at an unexpectedly rapid speed.
The WAIS, whose base is below sea level, has long been considered the most likely to break down. Besides gravity, a deep current of warm water slips beneath the sheet, melting it from below until it becomes a floating shelf at risk of breaking away. In contrast, extreme cold and a base mostly above sea level are thought to keep the EAIS relatively safe from warm waters.
But as greenhouse gases warm much of the planet, driving stronger polar winds, some scientists think warm water carried by a circular current will start to invade East Antarctica’s once unassailable ice. A cooperation of more than 60 scientists last year, published in Nature, estimated that the EAIS actually added about 5 billion tons of ice each year from 1992 to 2017.
Eric Rignot of the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues combined 40 years of satellite imagery and climate modeling and found that overall Antarctica now sends six times more ice into the sea each year than it did in 1979, with the majority coming from West Antarctica. But East Antarctica was responsible for more than 30% of Antarctica’s contribution to the 13.8-millimeter sea level rise over the past 40 years. “The more we look at this system the more we realize this is fragile,” Rignot says. “Once these glaciers become unstable there is no red button to press to stop it.”
Rignot hopes the study brings greater attention to a part of Antarctica that has traditionally been understudied. Helen Fricker, a glaciologist (冰川学家) in California, agrees. “We need to monitor the entire Antarctica and we just can’t do that without international cooperation.”
1.What is the new finding of scientists?
A. The east Antarctica is losing ice at an increasing rate.
B. The west Antarctica is melting six times faster than in 1979.
C. 5 billion tons of ice is added to Antarctica each year.
D. The sea level has risen by 13.8 mm over the past 40 years.
2.Which factor leads to the EAIS’s melting fast?
A. A base mostly over sea level. B. The force of gravity.
C. The invasion of a warm current. D. Extremely low temperature.
3.Which of the following best explains “unassailable” underlined in Para. 3 ?
A. Fragile. B. Unattackable.
C. Mild. D. Unstable.
4.Which way does Helen Fricker specially advocate?
A. Satellite imagery. B. Global monitoring.
C. Worldwide climate modeling. D. Worldwide combined efforts.
Recently, many e-commerce platforms, including Didi Taxi, Ctrip, Fliggy, JD ad Taobao, have been uncovered that they are cheating their frequent customers. Their ways are pretty clever. When there are new users or conservative old users, they will give a quite appealing price to attract them into registering and buying goods. However, their big data is not that friendly to the stable users and frequent visitors. The system always offers them higher price for the same products or service. How does this happen? According to the data analysis, the system knows clearly that although they feel the price is high, they will finally pay the bill. By collecting and analyzing users’ profiles, buying habits and other information, big data recommends the same products to different users with different prices.
Companies also try other ways to make money, making online consumption far more worrying. For example, video websites always offer 120 seconds’ advertisements, which drives people crazy. And even if you pay for the membership to get rid of the ads, you have to “enjoy” 15-second “private” ads. By broadcasting them, companies make huge profits --- second to the membership fees. Also, owning 100Mbps network, you still put up with the slow speed when you are downloading a song. You have no choice but to become a VIP when you seek high quality services. Users seem to be lambs(羊羔) among wolves. Even though they say,” Since you have money, I’ll charge you more”, we can’t do anything about it.
It pains us that we haven’t figured out a way to deal with the problem. The only thing we can do is replacing our iPhones with Android phones if we want to buy a membership card, and applying for new accounts if we want cheaper hotels. Not finding a way to fight back, we can’t do anything but accept them passively.
1.How does big data serve companies according to the text?
A. By being kind to all users.
B. By giving a discount to stable users.
C. By attracting new users by analyzing their shopping habits.
D. By recommending the same products with higher prices to regular users.
2.What do we know from the third paragraph?
A. Membership can rid you of all the ads.
B. Only by being a VIP can you get a better service.
C. The slow download speed is due to your poor network.
D. Advertising income is the biggest income for video websites.
3.What is the author’ attitude towards the chances of finding a way to fight back?
A. Uncertain. B. Casual.
C. Negative. D. Positive.
4.What is the main idea of the text?
A. The big data provides helpful information to users.
B. We have to accept online consumption as it is.
C. There exist many online consumption traps.
D. Regular customers are richer.
Temples have existed for thousands of years. They are the proof of cultures and civilization that existed many years ago.
Gobekli Tepe, Turkey
Located on a hilltop in southwestern Turkey where it snows a lot in winter, the Gobekli Tepe is considered the world’s oldest temple. It is nearly 11,000 years old. There are carvings on the rock statues, mainly of lions, foxes, snakes, cranes and wild ducks, as well as scenes of people hunting. Because heavy snow makes it hard to get to the top of the hill, visitors are not recommended to go there in winters.
White Temple, Thailand
Immediately upon entering White Temple, you will realize this contemporary, unconventional temple stands out, even in a country dotted with temples. The White Temple is incredibly different and unique in its architecture, art and design. In fact, it is designed in a very modern way. This temple is all white. It is very hot in summer in Thailand, so going to White Temple in other three seasons is a wise choice.
Sagrada Familia, Spain
This symbolic Barcelona building is famously unfinished. It is said to be finished by 2026, but no body believes it. However, visitors believe its incompleteness is part of its charm, which sets it apart from other temples in the world. You will have to wait in a long line if you visit Sagrada Familia in summer holiday. Visitors are not that many in spring and winter.
Kinkaku-ji, Japan
This temple is absolutely the most popular one in Japan. Whether you visit during the fall when there are red leaves against the golden wall, in winter when the gold is topped with pure white snow, in spring with cherry blossoms, or in summer allowing you to smell the earthy smell after rain – there is never a bad time to visit this beautiful temple.
1.Which temple will you choose to go if you are a fan of modern architecture?
A. Gobekli Tepe. B. White Temple.
C. Sagrada Familia. D. Kinkaku-ji.
2.What makes Sagrada Familia special according to the passage?
A. It is unfinished. B. It is all white.
C. It is the oldest temple. D. It is untraditional.
3.Which temple is favorable to go all year round?
A. Gobekli Tepe. B. White Temple.
C. Sagrada Familia. D. Kinkaku-ji.
假定你是李华，你们学校的外教Jerry寒假不回国，你写信邀请他去你家一起过除夕，内容要点如下：
1. 时间：2月4日；
2. 活动安排。
参考词汇：The New Year’s Eve
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Jerry,
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Cars are everywhere. In big city and small towns, the preferred method of transportation is the automobile. People can get to where they need to go quickly and easy, and it has given a new kind of freedom to many people who may not have experienced it ago. But is driving really the best thing for our society? I argue that it is not. First, pollution was a serious problem, and more cars only make them worse. There is just not way to reduce pollution without decrease the number of cars on the road. Second, cars are very dangerous. Traffic accidents are responsible tens of thousands of deaths every year. Finally, cars are so expensive for most people to afford. However, that doesn’t stop low-income families from spending the most of their money to pay for the family car.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
People today take lots of photos. Some photographs are really memorable. They either capture important events, such as birthday parties or weddings,1. show beautiful places. Years later, people may look at these special photos to remember 2. past.
However, how did people record important moments without cameras long ago? Some people told 3. (story) about old times, and others wrote down 4. they remembered. There were also a lot of people 5. (make) special drawings to help them recall important moments. Among those people were Native Americans of the Lakota tribe.
Every year, Lakota leaders decided which event was most important. A Lakota 6. (art) was then asked to draw a special picture of that event. Because each year’s picture was decided on during the winter, the drawings became 7. (know) as winter counts.
For a long time, winter counts were drawn on animal skins. Later, the drawings 8. (do) on paper. The pictures told the history of the tribe. Each year, the newest winter count was added 9. the Lakota collection of pictures from 10. (early) times. That helped people keep track of the years. Today, winter counts are important records of the Lakota’s past.
