【推荐1】When many people think about planting a tree, they do not realize that there are several things that they need to consider. You can’t simply just dig a single hole, throw the tree into that space, and expect it to grow without any disease.     1    

The first thing that you need to take into account is the time of year that you are looking to plant the tree in. Believe it or not, in order to plant a tree that will stay alive and be able to survive, you have to plant it at the time of year that is right for the tree.     2     The burning sun during these periods of time will cause a big amount of stress of the tree, which will then lead to its death.     3    

    4     You should choose a suitable region and climate for the tree. If you decide to plant a tree that is not a native of a particular climate, you need to consider different factors about the tree such as the growth habits of the tree and how much tolerance the tree has to different weather conditions.

    5     Sometimes in cases where people will be digging deep holes to plant a tree, they need to make sure that they are not digging around the phone lines that may be buried below the surface. Among other things, the hole determines if the tree can survive.

A．Normally you should never plant a tree in late spring or summer.

B．When digging a hole for a tree, you’d better dig as deep as possible.

C．You should then look at the place where you plan to plant the tree in.

D．The best time to consider planting your tree is around autumn or early spring.

E．The tree will not only be planted but will continue to grow well for years to come.

F．The next thing that you need to know is whether there are requirements where you’ll dig.

G．There are a few basic things that you need to do in order to make sure the tree grows healthily.

【推荐2】A butterfly's wings can have many jobs besides keeping the insect in the air. They may be called on to attract mates, to warn potential enemies to stay away, to do other animals or even to provide disguise（伪装）.

All of these roles, though, depend on their colouration—which is unchanging. This plays into the idea that butterfly wings are dead tissue, like a bird's feathers or a mammal's hair. In fact, that is not true. For example, in some species males' wings harbour special cells that release chemicals which attract females.

Nanfang Yu, a physicist at Columbia University, in New York, has been looking into the matter. One of his interests is the optical（光学的）properties of biological materials. That has led him to study butterfly wings in more detail. And, in cooperation with Naomi Pierce, a butterfly specialist at Harvard University, he has now shown, in a paper published this week in Nature Communications, that butterfly wings are, indeed, very much alive.

Initially, Dr Yu and Dr Pierce wanted to know how the insects keep their body temperatures up without their wings overheating.

Unlike birds and mammals, butterflies do not produce enough internal heat to metabolize（新陈代谢）. Instead, they rely on outside heat sources—usually the sun—to bring their bodies up to speed. But their wings, being thin protein membranes（膜）, have a limited thermal capacity. Those wings can therefore overheat quickly if the insects are exposed to the sunlight too long, or, oppositely, can cool down too rapidly if they are flying through cold air.

In their experiments, the two researchers used a laser（激光）to heat up spots on the wings of dozens of butterfly species. When the temperature of the area under the laser reached 40℃ or so, the insects responded within seconds by doing things that stopped their wings heating up further. These actions included a butterfly turning around to minimize its exposure to the laser, beating its wings or simply walking away.

1. What's Dr Yu's discovery about butterfly wings?

A．They contain dead tissue.

B．They are too thin to store heat.

C．They have different functions.

D．They react quickly to high heat.

2. Which of the following is True according to the text?

A．Butterflies metabolize completely with its internal heat.

B．Chemicals from butterfly wings help drive away threats.

C．The color of butterfly's wings keeps fixed.

D．The researchers achieved big in optical properties.

3. How can a butterfly stop its wings overheating?

A．By providing heat itself.

B．By flying through cold air.

C．By removing the source of heat.

D．By adjusting their heating surface.

4. What's the best title for the text?

A．A Research into Butterfly Wings

B．The Jobs of Butterfly Wings

C．Butterfly Wings:   Dead or Alive

D．Butterfly Wings Temperature Changes

【推荐3】Penguins in South Africa are being driven from their native environment because of noise from shipping activities.

The African penguins live on St. Croix island off the east coast of South Africa. The animals are already endangered. But a new study has found that African penguins are leaving their natural environment to escape noisy ship refueling operations. The island once held the world’s largest reproducing group of the animals. But the population has dropped sharply since South Africa started permitting ships in the area to refuel at sea six years ago.

Lorien Pichegru is acting director of the Coastal and Marine Research Institute at Nelson Mandela University, which led the study. She said that noise levels in the area had doubled since the refueling activities began. Scientists say high noise levels affect the ability of ocean animals to find and catch other animals for food. Noise also makes it more difficult for the animals to communicate with each other and map travel paths.

In 2016, South Africa’s Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) offered the country’s first offshore refueling operator’s license to Aegean Marine. Later, it gave two licenses to SA Marine Fuels and Heron Marine. An order to grant no new licenses has been in place since August 2019. It will only be lifted after an environmental study is completed by port officials. The study is expected next year. Oil-covered penguins were found in 2019 in Algoa Bay after an oil spill from ship-to-ship refueling. Environmental groups have called for the activities to be banned in the bay.

Pichegru said penguins in the area were already struggling to reproduce because of a series of issues, including industrial fishing operations. She added that the refueling activities did not kill all the penguins. “It was just the thing that made the whole ecosystem out of place and then the penguins couldn’t adapt to that,” she said.

1. Why are African penguins leaving their native habitat?

A．To get out of oil pollution.

B．To hunt for more food.

C．To get away from shipping noise.

D．To escape the hot weather.

2. What directly caused the decrease of the penguins’ population?

A．The refueling activities.

B．The loss of their reproducing ability.

C．The reduction of their habitats.

D．The continuously rising sea levels.

3. What does the underlined word “grant” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Ban.

B．Cancel.

C．Limit.

D．Issue.

4. What did Pichegru mainly talk about in the last paragraph?

A．Measures of saving the penguins.

B．The penguins’ promising future.

C．The penguins’ present situation.

D．Reasons for the penguins’ extinction.

【推荐1】Anyone who commutes（通勤）by car knows that traffic jams are an unavoidable part of life. But humans are no alone in facing potential backups.

Ants also commute— between their nest and sources of food . The survival of their habitats（栖息地）depends on doing this efficiently.

When humans commute, there's a point at which cars become dense（稠密）enough to slow down the flow of traffic, causing jam. Researchers wanted to know if ants on the move could also get stuck. So they regulated traffic density by building bridges of various widths between a colony（群体）of Argentine ants and a source of food. Then they waited and watched, trying to find out at what point they are going to have a traffic jam.

But it appears that that never happened. They always managed to avoid traffic jam. The flow of ants did increase at the beginning as ants started to fill the bridge and then levelled off at high densities. But it never slowed down or stopped, even when the bridge was nearly filled with ants.

The researchers then took a closer look at how the behaviour of individual ants impacted traffic as a whole. And they found that when ants sense overcrowding, they adjust their speeds and avoid entering high-density areas, which prevents jams. These behaviors may be promoted by pheromones, chemicals that tell other ants where a path is. The ants also manage to avoid crashing into each other at high densities, which could really slow them down.

Can ants help us solve our own traffic problems? Not likely. That's because when it comes to getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, human drivers put their own goals first. Individual ants have to be more cooperative in order to feed the colony. But the research could be useful in improving traffic flow for self-driving cars, which can be designed to be less like selfish humans —and more like ants.

1. What does the underlined word "this" in paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Commuting.

B．Finding food.

C．Surviving,

D．Avoiding jams.

2. How did the researchers control the traffic density of the commuting ants?

A．By observing closely.	B．By finding out the dense points.
C．By controlling the widths of their path	D．By regulating the numbers of the colony.

3. How can ants avoid traffic jam according to the research?

A．They follow a special route.

B．They level off at high densities.

C．They never stop or slow down on the way.

D．They release natural chemicals to adjust speeds.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph about the finding?

A．It can help solve traffic problems.

B．It is not what researchers expected.

C．It shows the importance of good teamwork.

D．It is of no use to the development of self-driving cars.

【推荐2】     We all remember seeing hitchhikers(搭便车的人), standing by the side of the road, thumb sticking out, waiting for a lift. But it is getting rare nowadays. What killed hitchhiking? Safety is often mentioned as a reason. Movies about murderous hitchhikers and real-life crime have put many drivers off picking up hitchhikers. That no single women picked me up on my journey to Manchester no doubt reflects the safety fear: a large, strangely dressed man is seen as dangerous.
       But the reason may be more complex: hitchhiking happens where people don’t have cars and transport services are poor. Plenty of people still hitchhike in Poland and Romania. Perhaps the rising level of car ownership in the UK means the few people lift hitchhiking are usually considered strange. Why can’t they afford cars? Why can’t they take the coach or the train?
       Three-quarters of the UK population have access to a car; many of the remainder will be quite old. The potential hitchhiking population is therefore small. Yet my trip proves it’s still possible to hitchhike. The people who picked me up were very interesting-lawyer, retired surgeon, tank commander, carpenter, man who live in an isolated farmhouse and a couple living up in the mountains. My conclusion is that only really interesting people are mad enough to pick up fat blokes in red, spotted scarves. Most just wanted to do someone a good turn; a few said they were so surprised to see a hitchhiker that they couldn’t help stopping.
       The future of hitchhiking most likely lies with car-sharing organized over the Internet, via sites such as hitchhikers. org. But for now, you can still stick your thumb out(actually, I didn’t do much of that, preferring just to hold up my destination sign) and people-wonderful, caring, sharing, unafraid people-will stop.
       In the UK, with its cheap coaches and reasonable rail service, I don’t think I’ll make a habit of it. But having enjoyed it so much, I’m ready now to do a big trip across Europe and beyond. In the 1970s a female friend of my wife’s hitchhiked to India. How wonderful it would be to have another go, though Afghanistan might be a challenge. I wish I’d got that tank commander’s mobile number.
1. The author tried to hitchhike but was rejected by single women drivers because_____________ .

A．they were not heading towards Manchester

B．they thought most hitchhikers were dangerous

C．hitchhiking had been forbidden and they didn’t want to break the law

D．he was a strong man in strange clothes who seemed dangerous

2. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A．That some people refuse hitchhikers may reflect the safety fear.

B．Car ownership levels are lower in Romania than in the UK.

C．40% of UK people don’t have access to cars.

D．Increased car ownership has reduced the need for hitchhiking.

3. The “fat blokes in red, spotted scarves” in Paragraph 3 most likely means         .

A．murderous hitchhikers

B．friendly and talkative hitchhikers

C．typical hitchhikers

D．strange hitchhikers like the author

4. According to the author, future hitchhikers are more likely to                 .

A．visit websites and find people to share cars with

B．stand by roads with their thumbs sticking out

C．stick out signs with their destinations written on

D．wait for some kind people to pick them up

5. From the last paragraph, we know that the author                    .

A．frequently hitchhikes in Britain

B．plans to hitchhike across Europe

C．thinks public transport is safer for travel

D．is going to contact the tank commander

【推荐1】At first, I didn't recognize the symptoms that we all had in common. Friends mentioned that they were having trouble concentrating. It wasn't burnout—we still had energy. It wasn't depression—we didn't feel hopeless. We just felt somewhat joyless and aimless.

It turns out there's a name for that: languishing.

Languishing is a sense of inactivity and emptiness. It feels as if you're muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield.

In psychology, we think about mental health on a spectrum from depression to flourishing. Flourishing is the peak of well-being. Depression is the valley of well-being. Languishing is the neglected middle child of mental health. It's the emptiness between depression and flourishing—the absence of well-being. You're not functioning at full capacity. Languishing dulls your motivation, disrupts your ability to focus, and greatly increases the possibility that you'll cut back on work.

Part of the danger is that when you're languishing, you might not notice the dulling of delight or the decreasing of drive. You don't catch yourself slipping slowly into aloneness; you're indifferent to your indifference. When you can't see your own suffering, you don't seek help or even do much to help yourself.

So what can we do about it? People who became more focused on their work managed to avoid languishing. Interrupted attention is an enemy of engagement and excellence. To go beyond languishing, give yourself some uninterrupted time. It clears out constant distractions and gives us the freedom to focus. And try starting with small wins by focusing on a challenge that matters to you—an interesting project, a worthwhile goal, Or a meaningful conversation.

We still have a lot to learn about what causes languishing and how to cure it, but naming it might be a first step. It could help to defog our vision, giving us a clearer window into what had been an unclear experience. It could remind us that we weren't alone: languishing is common and shared.

By acknowledging that so many of us are languishing, we can start giving voice to quiet despair and lighting a path out of the emptiness.

1. Which definition best suits the word “languishing”?

A．Feeling exhausted and without hope	B．Becoming weaker or failing to improve
C．Making someone want to achieve something	D．Going beyond the usual limits of something

2. Which of the following can be described as languishing?

A．Seeking help when you are suffering	B．Realizing that you are not alone in despair
C．Giving yourself some uninterrupted time	D．Being indifferent to your lack of enthusiasm

3. What could psychologists do to help solve the problems of languishing?

A．Give people more freedom	B．See it as depression
C．Name it clearly	D．Remove it from a spectrum

4. Why is it significant to know languishing is common and shared?

A．We can let the silent despair speak up and find a way out

B．We can continue to learn more about languishing

C．We can see it as basically the same as depression

D．We can study it as the complete opposite of flourishing

5. Which can be the best title of the passage?

A．Languishing—a common symptom	B．Languishing—a mental health problem
C．Concentrating—a way to avoid languishing	D．Quieter despair—danger of languishing

【推荐3】For some people,music is no fun at all. About four percent of the population is what scientists call “amusic.” People who are amusic are born without the ability to recognize or reproduce musical notes(音调). Amusic people often cannot tell the difference between two songs. Amusics can only hear the difference between two notes if they are very far apart on the musical scale.

As a result, songs sound like noise to an amusic. Many amusics compare the sound of music to pieces of metal hitting each other. Life can be hard for amusics. Their inability to enjoy music sets them apart from others. It can be difficult for other people to identify with their condition. In fact, most people cannot begin to grasp what it feels like to be amusic. Just going to a restaurant or a shopping mall can be uncomfortable or even painful. That is why many amusics intentionally stay away from places where there is music. However, this can result in withdrawal and social isolation. “I used to hate parties,” says Margaret,a seventy-year-old woman who only recently discovered that she was amusic. By studying people like Margaret, scientists are finally learning how to identify this unusual condition.

Scientists say that the brains of amusics are different from the brains of people who can appreciate music. The difference is complex, and it doesn't involve defective hearing. Amusics can understand other nonmusical sounds well. They also have no problems understanding ordinary speech. Scientists compare amusics to people who just can't see. certain colors.

Many amusics are happy when their condition is finally diagnosed(诊断). For years, Margaret felt embarrassed about her problem with music. Now she knows that she is not alone. There is a name for her condition. That makes it easier for her to explain. “When people invite me to a concert, I just say,” No thanks, I'm amusic,'“says Margaret. “I just wish I had learned to say that when I was seventeen and not seventy.”

1. Which of the following is true of amusic?

A．Listening to music is far from enjoyable for them.

B．They love places where they are likely to hear music.

C．They can easily tell two different songs apart.

D．Their situation is well understood by musicians.

2. According to Paragraph 3, a person with “defective hearing” is probably one who ___________.

A．dislikes listening to speeches

B．can hear anything nonmusical

C．has a hearing problem

D．lacks a complex hearing system

3. In the last paragraph, Margaret expressed her wish that __________.

A．her problem with music had been diagnosed earlier

B．she were seventeen years old rather than seventy

C．her problem could be easily explained

D．she were able to meet other amusics

4. What is the passage mainly concerned with?

A．Amusics' strange behaviours.

B．Some people's inability to enjoy music.

C．Musical talent and brain structure.

D．Identification and treatment of amusics.

【推荐1】Are you a media addict who would go mad after two hours without TV, friend requests, exciting online games and your mobile—or would you easily survive?

Recently, university students around the world were asked to volunteer in a global experiment called Unplugged. It was designed to see how young people would react if they were asked to observe a total media ban by unplugging all forms of media devices for 24 hours.

Unplugged is being run by Dr Roman Gerodimos, a lecturer in Communication and Journalism at Bournemouth University. The experiment is now over but he doesn't yet know the full findings. However, during the experiment, Dr Gerodimos said there were already signs of how much the exercise affected volunteers. He said: “They’re reporting withdrawal symptoms, overeating, feeling nervous, isolated and disconnected.”

During their 24-hour painful experience, three of the experiment’s guinea pigs had to endure one intrusion from the media: a BBC reporter plus cameraman who followed them around for the day. They were asked to write down 100 lines about their day offline, but of course, they all waited until the next day when they had access to their laptops.

Elliot Day wrote: “Today, my whole morning routine was thrown up into the air. Despite being aware of the social importance of the media, I was surprised by how empty my life felt without the radio or newspapers.”

And Charlotte Gay wrote: “I have to say the most difficult item for me to be without has been my mobile; not only is it a social tool, it's my main access point of communication.”

Earlier in the year, a UK government study found that in the UK we spend about half our waking hours using the media, often plugged into several things at once. And a recent study by Nielson found that on average, US teenagers send and receive over 3,000 texts per month-that's about six texts per waking hour.

So, with technology continuing to develop at an alarming rate, how much time will you set aside for sleep in the future?

1. What's the purpose of the first paragraph?

A．To ask for information.	B．To entertain the readers.
C．To lead to the topic.	D．To present an idea.

2. About Dr. Roman Gerodimos' experiment, we know that ________.

A．volunteers felt uncomfortable in it	B．volunteers didn't want to eat anything
C．the experiment was still going on	D．volunteers were allowed to take their laptops

3. The underlined expression “thrown up into the air” most probably means ________.

A．went on normally	B．was completely disturbed
C．turned out perfect	D．finished just as usual

4. Which of the following can best serve as the title of the passage?

A．Surviving without the Media	B．Unplugging Your Life
C．Valuing Social Communication	D．Setting Aside Time for Sleep

【推荐2】Researchers in the field often use camera traps to remotely photograph the lives of animals. These stationary cameras have a sensor that is triggered(启动，引发) by heat or movement, letting researchers monitor animals without disturbing them.

The traps can be used for months at a time, sometimes catching hundreds of thousands of images. But these images, and the valuable information they reveal, typically just sit on researchers’ hard drives, unavailable to anyone else, according to Jorge Ahumada, a scientist at environmental nonprofit Conservation International. So he launched Wildlife Insights, an online platform where researchers could share their photos. His idea is to encourage teamwork between biologists and wildlife conservation organizations, and bring camera trap footage(片断) to the fore of conservation efforts.

The site uses Artificial Intelligence designed by Google to overcome a key problem with these kinds of photos: camera traps produce an astronomical number of images to manually analyze, says Ahumada, many of which are blank images where the camera was triggered by its surroundings and not by wildlife. Manually sorting and deleting these photos is a laborious task.

To get around that, after someone uploads footage to the Wildlife Insights database, its AI checks if the image was taken from a camera trap and automatically removes all blank images. If there is an animal in the image, the AI will identify the species.

As well as collecting and reviewing the photos, the platform will provide analytics that could reveal trends in species’ population for different projects. That information could help researchers understand whether a species is increasing its range or if its numbers are dwindling.

While open access is key, the platform has taken steps to make sure this information doesn’t get into the wrong hands. “You will have to ask Wildlife Insights for permission to get the locations of the images,” says Ahumada. “We will manage this process carefully because we know that poachers(偷猎者) could use this information to find endangered species.”

1. What’s the purpose of Wildlife Insights?

A．To raise money for wildlife protection.

B．To monitor wildlife in an undisturbed way.

C．To encourage researchers to set camera traps.

D．To make camera trap images available to the public.

2. What key problem does the AI help to deal with?

A．Sorting wildlife images quickly.	B．Tracking the photographed species.
C．Analyzing the origins of blank images.	D．Checking the performance of camera traps.

3. What does the underlined word “dwindling” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Puzzling

B．Doubling

C．Dropping

D．Missing

4. Why is Wildlife Insights careful about its data?

A．To protect the privacy of uploaders.	B．To avoid the illegal use of them.
C．To charge fees to stop poachers.	D．To ensure the accuracy of them.

【推荐3】While Google, Bing and Yahoo dominate (居……之首) adult search engine choices, they are not always the best choice for students. The sites on this list are good search engines that students can rely on.

Fact Monster

Homework help is always on hand with Fact Monster (www.factmonster.com). It is mainly fit for students aged from 7 to 12. There are also all kinds of games, spelling tests and more for kids to improve their study and have some fun.

Ask Kids

Ask Kids (www.askkids.com) is a great site for students to safely find the information they need from the web. Besides being a useful and safe search engine, Ask Kids also has a useful picture and video search function that allows students to find pictures or videos that may be useful to their information search.

SortFix

SortFix (www.sortfix.com) is one of the useful search engines for students because it provides relevant, organized search results. It does this by analyzing the keywords in the search results, and giving the searcher the ability to focus on, or remove, certain keywords. It is a useful search engine if you are not sure what information you want to find, or if you are tired of finding irrelevant (不相关的) results in your searches.

Wolfram Alpha

Created Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram Alpha (www.wolframalpha.com) can calculate things that it would take a hundred or more individual websites to do. It uses a set of ways to answer questions directly that you type into the search box, which is different from other websites. You can find everything from the nutritional value of an apple to the real-time position of the International Space Station. An Apple app is offered so that you can add it to any iPod Touch devices. It is best suited for older students.

1. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To recommend four useful apps.

B．To advertise four interesting websites.

C．To list the top four popular websites in the US.

D．To introduce four student-friendly search engines.

2. If you keep getting the results you don’t want, which will you probably use?

A．Fast Monster.

B．Ask Kids.

C．SortFix.

D．Wolfram Alpha.

3. What’s special about Wolfram Alpha?

A．It offers answers directly.	B．It provides games for kids.
C．It focuses on solving maths problems.	D．It is intended for astronomy enthusiasts.