C When the Christ Child was born, all people, animals, trees, and other plants felt that great happiness had come into the world. Every day people came to see the sweet Babe and they thought that they would like to give presents to the Child. The Palm( 棕榈树 )said, “I will choose my biggest leaf and place it as a fan to wave soft air to the Child.” The Olive said, “I will sprinkle sweet- smelling oil over him.” “What can I give to the Child?” asked the Fir. “You? You have nothing to offer. Your needles would stab the Babe, and your tears are sticky”, said the others. This made the poor Fir very unhappy indeed, and it said, sadly, “Yes, you are right. I have nothing that would be good enough to offer to the Christ Child.” Now, quite near to the trees stood an Angel, who heard what they said. He was moved to pity the Fir and decided to help it. High in the dark of the heavens the stars were beginning to winkle, and the Angel begged some of the little ones to come down and rest upon the branches of the Fir. They were glad to do this, and their silvery light shone among the branches just like Christmas candles. To its delight, the Fir Tree saw the face of the Babe with a happy smile as he looked upon the twinkling lights. The Christ Child did not forget the lovely sight, and from then on, he ordered that on his birthday a Fir Tree should be placed in every house, which might be lit up with candles to shine for the children as the stars shone for him on his first birthday. Was not the Fir Tree richly rewarded? Surely there is no other tree that shines on so many happy faces! 8. Why did people visit the Child? A. They wanted to get some presents from him. B. They wanted to ask him for help. C. He brought happiness to the world. D. He liked to play with them. 9. What made the Fir unhappy? A. Having nothing to give to the Christ Child. B. Stabbing the Christ Child with its needles. C. Having sticky tears sticking the Christ Child. D. Wanting to get some stars from the heaven. 10. What can we learn from the third paragraph? A. The Fir asked the stars to help it. B. The Angel was very kind and helpful. C. The Babe invited the stars to come down. D. Some big stars came down and help the Fir. 11. What conclusion can we draw from the last paragraph? A. The Fir shone every house with little stars. B. The Fir gave some candles to the Christ Child. C. The Christ Child is quite satisfied with the Fir. D. The Christ Child lit up candles for the children. D The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report stating that the world is quickly running out of time to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. To get there, the world would have to cut current emissions by 45 percent by 2030. That sounds absurdly unlikely. But before we give in to despair, we should remember that the technology to address climate change is going along at high speed. The largest source of U.S. carbon emissions is transportation, and a Green New Deal for motor vehicles would be quite straightforward. The reason is simple: With some subsidies( 补 贴 ), electric cars and buses are now cost- competitive with fossil-fuel vehicles. Electric buses have made the greatest speed into the market, because they are a logical choice for electrification. By the end of 2018, electric vehicles were displacing about 280,000 barrels of oil demand per day—about 84 percent of which was due to buses. But the electric car market is also reaching maturity , with appealing designs, longer range, and a quickly-expanding rapid charging network in many countries . It's worth emphasizing that most of the infrastructure( 基础设施 )necessary to recharge electric vehicles already exists . People often tend to assume that we would need to replace every gas station, but virtually all homes and businesses already have an electrical connection which can be easily improved for fast charging. All that is needed to go fully electric is enough battery capacity and fast charging stations to deal with long trips. Now America would have to repair its electricity production, freight rail, shipping, and so on to fully decarbonizes( 脱碳 )the transportation sector , which taken together will be considerably more difficult than simply extirpating fossil fuel vehicles from the market. But greening America's vehicle would be straightforward, relatively cheap, and a huge stride forward on climate. The politics of climate change are so fearful that despair can seem logical, but the first step to achieving a tough goal is the confident belief that it can be done. And this particular step wouldn't even be that tough. 12. How’s the goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 Celsius according to Paragraph 1? A. Reasonable. B. Safe. C. Realistic. D. Impossible. 13. How can electric vehicles compete with fossil-fuel ones? A. By getting financial support from government. B. By running at the greatest speed. C. By changing the way of transportation. D. By making consumers make logical choices. 14. What should we do to promote electric cars now? A. Replace as many as gas stations. B. Solve the problem of long trips. C. Build more infrastructures for recharging. D. Make businesses have electrical connections. 15. Which of the following best explains “extirpating” underlined in paragraph 5? A. Repairing. B. Producing. C. Moving. D. Forbidding.