人教版（2019）高中英语必修第二册Unit 2 单元测试（2）

    More than two thirds of the world's polar bears will be wiped out by 2050, according to a shocking new study. By then, scientists say, global warming will have melted 42 percent of the Arctic sea ice. By 2100, only a very few of these important creatures will be left.

    The report has been produced by the US Geological Survey. The scientists have publicized their findings in the hope of influencing US Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, who has been asked to put polar bears on the US endangered species list.

    Polar bears depend on floating sea ice as a platform for hunting seals, which are their main food. Without enough ice, polar bears would be forced to go onto the land, where they are killed by hunters, and would be unlikely to adapt to the life on the land in time. Experts say few little bears would survive and the stress could make many females unable to get pregnant.

    The team of American and Canadian scientists spent six months studying bears: on the ground, from spotter planes and in the lab, using computer models. Some team members fear the result is even worse for the bears than what their report says. They say the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere in the world and much faster than their computer had been forecasting, Satellite observations have showed that the ice has decreased to an all-time low.

    However, not everyone in the scientific community believes that global warming is happening on such an alarming scale. Another investigation has found that polar bears are still being hunted by wealthy "sportsmen" who want their skins and heads. At least ten international companies offer bear-hunting trips.

    The British are known for their sense of humor. However, it is often difficult for foreigners to understand their jokes. The main point to remember is that the British often use understatement.

    Understatement means saying less than you think or feel. For example, if someone gets very wet in a shower of rain, he might say, "It's a little damp (潮湿的) outside." Or, if someone is very impolite and shouts at another person, someone else might say, "She isn't exactly friendly." Understatement is often used in an unpleasant situation or to make another person look silly. Understatement plays an important part in British humor.

    Another key to understanding British humor is that the British like to make fun of themselves as well as others. They often laugh about the silly and unpleasant things that happen to our everyday life when someone accidently falls over in the street. They also like to make jokes about people from different classes of society. They like to make jokes about their accents, the way they dress and the way they behave. What's more, the British love to watch comedies (喜剧) about people who do not know how to behave in society. The comedies series Mr. Bean is a good example of this kind of humor.

    Mr. Bean is the character created by British actor Rowan Atkinson in 1990. Mr. Bean doesn't talk often, and instead he uses his body movement and facial expressions to make people laugh. Perhaps what makes Mr. Bean so funny is that he does things that adults in the real world cannot do. Mr. Bean is popular in many countries around the world because you do not have to speak English to understand the humor. Because of this, many people have become familiar with the British sense of humor.

Where do the turtles go?

    Every summer, thousands of endangered green sea turtles climb onto beaches around the world. Each mother sea turtle produces 100 or more eggs in a hole, and covers the hole with sand before she swims away.

    Two months later, the eggs hatch, and the baby turtles climb out of the sand and swim into the ocean. They don't reappear until they have grown as large as dinner plates. Until now, no one knows where the baby turtles go or what they do.

    "If we don't know where these little turtles are, we can't protect them," says Kim Reich, who helps solve part of the mystery.

    Her teacher, Karen Bjorndal, has studied green sea turtles for more than 30 years. Every year, Bjorndal goes to the Bahamas Islands. Many young sea turtles come here to live and eat at the end of their childhood.

    These turtles are the only sea turtles that live as plant eaters. In fact, their name may be a result of what they eat. The turtles don't look green but they do have green fat. Scientists learned that the turtles eat green sea plants, which may turn their fat green.

    Between 2002 and 2004, Bjorndal caught 44 green sea turtles in the Bahamas. After testing them, she found something to support the 20-year-old idea: baby green sea turtles eat meat before they turn to a diet of plants. In fact, they eat animals that live in the open ocean.

    Scientists still need to find where exactly green sea turtles grow. We now know that baby green sea turtles are out in the open ocean, but the open ocean is a big place.

    "It is really a problem," says Bjorndal. The discovery may help us do a better job of protecting this sea animal.

Top Tips for Better Writing

    There are many different types of writing, such as essays, letters and speeches. Whatever your reason is and whatever your style is, there are some universal tips that will help you improve your writing:

Be clear about your purpose

    The most basic question to ask yourself before you start is why you are writing. In an essay or assignment, your purpose is to convey information and draw conclusions. But if you are writing a business report, you may want to make recommendations.

Start with a plan

     The result is often disjointed writing with parts that don't connect. Whatever you are writing, creating a clear plan is the first step to get your message across quickly and in the most effective way.

Guide readers through what you write

    Your task is to help readers understand your message quickly and precisely. Each sentence, each paragraph should be relevant to what comes before and what comes after. You should use connected words and phrases to show these connections.

    Your aim in writing is to communicate ideas and information to other people, and you must keep that in mind with every word and sentence you write. Constantly ask yourself who you really write the information for.

Write for the ear, not for the eye

    Once you've finished a draft of your speech, practice reading it out loud.  Revise it, so you are more comfortable giving your speech. You want to sound natural, no matter what the occasion is.

A. Write for readers, not yourself

B. Write for the aim, not for the words

C. It sounds robotic, and employers hate it.

D. Far too often people write without a plan.

E. You'll hear anything that sounds awkward.

F. Whatever it is, keep your purpose in mind at all times to avoid going off topic.

G. To do this, it is necessary to show them clearly how the different parts relate to each other.

    With supper finished, it was our time with Dad. Cindy, Tom and I climbed onto our couch. We all 1 Mom to turn on the old tape player.

    Dad had been piloting airplanes in Vietnam for the Air Force for a year. Through the year, our family received at least one 2 a week from Dad. Mom played a part to us every day. Every day when Mom turned on the tape player, Dad 3 by asking each of us how our 4 had gone and what we had done. 5 to the tape machine as if he could hear every word, each of us told him about our 6. Because Mom wrote down our responses, Dad was kept 7. In the following tape, he 8 our good deeds and 9 corrected our errors. After 10 told Dad their tales, he read to us from the book Mom had sent.

    The day Dad was to 11, all of us were playing around the 12. Then the gate in the fence opened. A tall man in a 13 walked through the gate.

    My eldest sister jumped off the diving board and ran towards the man. Mom ran behind. The man embraced Mom and kissed her.

   14 by the scene, Tom and I looked at each other. Soon, the tall, uniformed man arrived at the pool's edge and smiled 15 at us. With the innocence of a four-year-old girl, I looked up and 16, "Are you my father?"

    He burst into tears, knelt down, 17 us into his arms and said, "Yes, I'm your father." 18 I heard his voice, I 19 him as my father because it was the same 20 that I heard so frequently on tape.

    The polar bear is found in the Arctic Circle and some big land masses as far south as Newfoundland. While they are rare north of 88°, there is evidence they range all the way across the Arctic, and as far south as James Bay in Canada. It is difficult to figure out a global population of polar bears as much of the range has been (poor) studied; however, biologists calculate that there are about 20,000-25,000 polar bears worldwide.

    Modern methods tracking polar bear populations have been employed only since the mid-1980s, and are expensive (perform) consistently over a large area. In recent years some Inuit people in Nunavut (report) increases in bear sightings around human settlements, leading to a (believe) that populations are increasing. Scientists have responded by (note) that hungry bears may be congregating (聚集) around human settlements, leading to the illusion (错觉) that populations are (high) than they actually are. Of nineteen recognized polar bear subpopulations, three are declining, six (be) stable, one is increasing, and nine lack enough data.

1）工作内容：进社区宣传；照顾流浪动物等；

2）志愿者要求：有爱心，时间灵活；

3）报名方式。

注意：

1）词数80左右；

2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

3）参考词汇：动物保护协会Animal Protection Association; 流浪动物stray animals

Dear Mike,

Yours,

Li Hua

    In 1945, a 12-year-old boy saw a beautiful brooch (胸针) in a shop window that set his heart racing. But the price—five dollars—was too high for Reuben Earle. Five dollars would buy almost a week's food for his family.

    Reuben couldn't ask his father for the money. Everything his father made through fishing went to his mother, Dora. Slim and beautiful, she was the center of the home, the glue that held it together. The housework was never-ending, and she struggled to support their five children but she was happy as her family and their well-being were all she cared about.

    Nevertheless, he opened the shop's weathered (风化的) door and went inside, standing proud and straight in his flour-sack (面粉袋改做的) shirt and washed-out trousers, he told the shopkeeper what he wanted, adding, "But I don't have the money right now. Can you please hold it for some time?"

    "I'll try," the shopkeeper smiled. "People around here don't usually have that kind of money to spend on things. It should keep for a while."

    Reuben respectfully touched his worn cap and walked out. He would raise the money and not tell anybody, for he thought Mum would get surprised when she saw that brooch. On hearing the sound of hammering from a side street, Reuben suddenly had an idea that he could raise money by selling the used nail bags (装钉子的袋子). People built their own buildings in Bay Roberts, using nails bought in bags from a local factory. Sometimes the used nail bags were thrown away at the construction site, and Reuben knew he could sell them back to the factory for five cents a piece.

    That day he sold two nail bags and hid the money in a rusty soda tin.

注意：

1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；

2）至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；

3）续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；

4）续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。

Paragraph 1:

    Every day after school, Reuben started his plan.

Paragraph 2:

    Finally, the time came!