【推荐2】Scientists say a huge percentage of bird species are in danger because their habitats, or homelands, are disappearing.

Traditional migration (迁徙) paths take birds through countries that are not protecting the places for birds to stop, rest and feed. The scientists studied the migration or flight paths of almost 1,500 species. They decided that 91 percent of them passed through dangerous areas.

The major danger for migratory birds is development. Buildings and pavements have covered the places where birds stop and feed as they move from one part of the world to another. One of the scientists who worked on the study says “Many of these important places have been lost to land reclamation because of urban, industrial and agricultural land expansion”.

The problem, according to scientists, is that many of these small birds die along their migration paths because they don’t have a safe place to feed and rest. There is no place to restore (恢复) their energy for the next part of their journey. Countries in North Africa, Central Asia and those along the coasts of East Asia are having the most difficult time in protecting land. The scientists say these countries do not have enough areas that are safe for birds. One species that doesn’t exist now is the Eskimo curlew. “Our world gets poorer every time we lose a species,” one of the scientists says.

The researchers say countries need to work together and come up with safe stopping areas for birds that pass through their boundaries. For example, one country might have preserved safe zones for migrating birds. But a neighbor country might not. A bird might die.

One scientist who is not connected with the report tells Los Angeles Times that while some habitats are changing, more work can be done to make urban areas safe for birds.

He says small changes, like planting more native plants or keeping cats out of the areas birds would be likely to use, could make a big difference.

1. The disappearance of the bird habitats is mainly caused by ________.

A．development	B．the change of climate
C．filling seas to grow grain	D．the loss of land and water

2. What do the underlined words “land reclamation” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Abusing the farming land.	B．The disappearance of good land.
C．Causing the land quality to get worse.	D．Making land suitable for farming or building.

3. Many birds die on the way of migration mainly because they ________.

A．are harmed by humans	B．are killed by other animals
C．have to take a long journey	D．have no safe place to rest and eat

4. According to the researchers, how can we protect the migrating birds?

A．By keeping fewer cats or dogs.

B．By stopping the urban development.

C．By helping change the birds’ migration paths.

D．By preserving the local ecological environments.

【推荐3】Scientists have recently discovered the world’s largest known field of sea grass. They did it using videos shot by some extraordinary helpers. The work should help protect the sea grass, and also shows off a powerful way to explore the ocean.

As a shelter for many sea creatures, sea grasses are flowering plants that normally grow in shallow waters near coasts. They grow in thick fields, known as seagrass meadows (海草床), which help clean the ocean water. More importantly, they are called “ocean lung”. They help in the fight against the climate crisis. That’s because they store huge amounts of carbon—the major source of global warming. Damaging these seagrass meadows can release this pollutant again, making things worse.

Considering the urgent need to protect seagrass meadows, scientists are eager to know about their size and number. However, the meadows can be hard to spot from above, either because the water is too deep or not clear enough. And the ocean is so huge that it’s hard to study them by diving. So scientists decided to have tiger sharks help the research.

Tiger sharks are inborn fast swimmers, and spend a lot of time in seagrass meadows. Between 2016 and 2020, the researchers attached cameras and other trackers to the fins of seven tiger sharks, and then let them go again. The cameras were designed to fall off after hours and float to the surface. Tracking signals helped find the floating cameras and collect the videos the sharks had taken while traveling for miles. Moreover, other tools were used, including satellite images, as well as images taken by divers and boats.

Putting all this information together, the scientists learned that the waters around the Bahamas are home to the largest seagrass meadow ever discovered. And the meadows cover at least 25,500 square miles, and could be as large as 35,500 square miles.

Different from previous studies, the program discovers how useful large underwater animals can be in helping to learn more about life under the sea. Oliver Shipley, a scientist from the team, says animals like tiger sharks are going to take us to new places that we didn’t know existed.

1. Why do seagrass meadows urgently need protection?

A．Damaging them will worsen climate crisis.

B．They determine the cleanliness of ocean water.

C．Sea creatures can’t survive without their shelter.

D．Their existence balances the underwater ecosystem.

2. How did tiger sharks help the scientific research?

A．By tracking signals scientists sent.

B．By bringing back cameras with videos.

C．By carrying the recording equipment around.

D．By spending a lot of time in seagrass meadows.

3. What is the highlight about the research according to the text?

A．Leading scientists.	B．Advanced theories.
C．Multiple experimental tools.	D．Unusual research assistants.

4. Which is the most suitable title for the text?

A．Man and Nature Work Together	B．A Novel Way to Explore the Sea
C．Sea Grass: An Undervalued Plant	D．Ocean Lung Measured by Natural Explorers

【推荐1】Anti-smoking ad campaign

Every year millions people around the world die because of smoking. Every pocket of contains poisonous chemicals that can lead to lung cancer and heart disease. This costs countries a lot of money and causes great damage to the welfare of the people. There are huge numbers of smokers in Asia. This is why anti-smoking is chosen as the subject of our ad campaign.

The target audience is high-school teenagers. Our main aim is to discourage young people from smoking. Our research shows that health and future is what young people care about. We will educate them about the bad physical effects of smoking and how smoking affects those people around them. We will explain all the advantages of not smoking, such as saving money which can then be spent on other things. Our interviews also indicate that young people are concerned about what is cool and what their friends like. We will show how smoking is not cool or attractive, because it makes people smell terrible, and gives them bad teeth, skin and fingernails. If we can convince young people not to start, they might then urge their parents and other people to give up smoking, too.

Our campaign will start on 31 May, World No Tobacco Day. We will put large posters around the school with our logo and slogan. Our website will provide students with more information about smoking. We will also publish an article in the school magazine informing students about the dangers of smoking, and we will organize an essay competition as well. Our slogan: Smoking kills!   

Many people think that smoking is cool or enjoyable, but they are not fully aware of the damage that it does to their health. This is why we choose this picture as our logo. We want to shock people into realizing that many smokers die all too soon from illnesses and diseases related to smoking.

1. What is one of the reasons for anti-smoking according to paragraph one？

A．Smoking will not cause lung cancer deaths and other related disease.

B．Website will provide students with  information about smoking.

C．The welfare of people may be positively affected.

D．There is a large number of smokers in Asia.

2. What is the main aim of the anti-smoking campaign？

A．To prevent young people from smoking.

B．To inform continuous improvement efforts by school.

C．To attract widespread media attention around the world.

D．To educate people about the bad physical effects of smoking.

3. On which day will the campaign start？

A．On 31 May.	B．On 30 May.
C．On 30 March.	D．On 31 March.

4. Why do they choose the picture—‘Smoking kills’ as their logo？

A．Because they have organized a competition for this logo.

B．Because many people think smoking cool or enjoyable.

C．Because people have realized the damage smoking does to their health.

D．Because people are fully unaware of harm smoking causes to people’s health.

【推荐2】This was the first real task I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. As I searched the name, I found that there were two famous people having the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts（花生）, while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice; let the coin decide. I flipped(掷) a coin and Ah! Tails (背面)! My report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.

Weeks later, I stood in front of the classroom and proudly read my homework. But things started to get strange. I looked around the room, only to find my classmates with big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes and my stone-faced teacher. I was completely lost. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”

Oh well, I dropped the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American War of Independence.” The whole world became quiet! How could I know that my teacher meant that George Washington?

Of course, my subject result was awful. Sad but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to the headmaster Miss Lancelot, but she said firmly: No re-dos; no new score. I felt that it was not fair, and I believed I deserved a second chance. So I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, I sat in the headmaster’s office again, but this time a completely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the terrible moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster told me I was good enough to skip(跳过) the 6th grade and started the 7th grade next term.

1. The task I received was to find information about ________.

A．uses for peanuts

B．American War of Independence

C．George Washington

D．my headmaster Miss Lancelot

2. _______ helped me decide what my report would be about.

A．The Internet	B．My classmates
C．My grandpa	D．A coin

3. People in the class acted strangely because ________.

A．I was too proud of my homework

B．I mistook what the homework was about

C．the whole world suddenly became quiet

D．the teacher’s face turned to a stone

4. I ________ after I failed the subject

A．worked harder to prove my ability

B．started to study from the 7th grade

C．was so frightened at the awful result

D．was given a second chance to redo the work

5. We can infer(推断) from the passage that ________.

A．the headmaster didn’t like the writer at all

B．the writer’s classmates felt sad at his mistake

C．the writer knew little about American history

D．the writer’s grandpa was a very wise man

6. Which of the following proverbs can best describe the main idea of this story?

A．Seeing is believing.

B．Where there is a will, there is a way.

C．One is never too old to learn.

D．A friend in need is a friend indeed.

【推荐3】

New books this month
The Long Night This is David Reilly's first book. David became a write after teaching English for several years. Maha is a nurse in northern Australia. She works in a small hospital. One day a baby is so ill that Maha has to drive all night to get her to the nearest big city. They have a lot of problems getting there and…	Hard work This exciting story is Joanna’s twentieth. Hard Work is about Sombat. He works with his father, a carpenter, in Thailand. They work long, hard hours making tables and chairs, but they do not have any money. Then one day a man dressed all in black buys the most beautiful table in the shop…	Hospital or Cinema Marcie Jacome, who studies English in London, wrote this story earlier this year. Tina is a young Indian woman whose dream is to become a doctor. She goes to London to study English and medicine, but one day she meets a man who asks her to go to the USA with him to become a film star... What will Tina do?

1. The Long Night was written by ______.

A．David Reilly	B．Maha
C．Joanna	D．Marcie Jacome

2. The story of Hard Word happened in         .

A．Australia	B．Thailand
C．India	D．England

3. From the passage we can see Tina is        .

A．a doctor	B．a film star
C．a writer	D．a college student

4.         is about a difficult journey.

A．Hospital or Cinema	B．Hard Work
C．The Long Night	D．Harry Potter

5. The passage above is         .

A．an ad	B．a story
C．a novel	D．a diary

【推荐1】There is a famous story about British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was writing a poem when he was interrupted by a knock at the door.

This was an age before the telephone. Someone was delivering a message. When Coleridge got back to his poem, he had lost his inspiration. His poetic mood had been broken by the knock on his door. His unfinished poem, which could otherwise have been a masterpiece, would now never be more than a fragment (片段).

This story tells how unexpected communication can destroy an important thought. That brings us to the invention of the cellphone.

The most common complaint about cellphones is that people talk on them to the annoyance of people around them. But more damaging may be the cellphone’s disruption (中断) of our thoughts.

We have already entered a golden age of little white lies about our cellphones, and this is by and large a healthy, protective development. “I didn’t hear it ring” or “I didn’t realize my phone had shut off” are among the lies we tell to give ourselves space where we’re beyond reach.

The notion of being unreachable is not a new concept — we have “Do Not Disturb” signs on the doors of hotel rooms. So why must we feel guilty when it comes to cellphones? Why must we apologize if we decide to shut off the cellphone for a while?

The problem is that we come from a long-established tradition of difficulty with distance communication. Until the recent mass use of cellphones, it was easy to communicate with someone next to us or a few feet away, but difficult with someone across town, the country or the globe. We came to take it for granted.

But cellphones make long-distance communication common, and endanger our time by ourselves. Now time alone, or a conversation with someone next to us which cannot be interrupted by a phone, is something to be cherished (珍惜). Even cellphone devotees, myself usually included, can’t help at times wanting to throw their phones away, or curse the day they were invented.

But we don’t and won’t, and there really is no need. All that’s required to take back our private time is a general social recognition that we have the right to it.

In other words, we have to develop a healthy contempt (轻视) for the rings of our own phones. Given the ease of making and receiving cellphone calls, if we don’t talk to the caller right now, we surely will shortly later.

A cellphone call deserves no greater priority than a random word from the person next to us. Though the call on my cellphone may be the one-in-a-million from Steven Spielberg — who has finally read my novel and wants to make it his next movie. But most likely it is not, and I’m better off thinking about the idea I just had for a new story, or the slice of pizza I’ll eat for lunch.

1. What is the point of the story about the poet Coleridge?

A．To direct readers’ attention to the main topic.

B．To attract readers’ attention to read his poems.

C．To show how important inspiration is to a poet.

D．To emphasize the disadvantage of not having a cellphone.

2. Why does the writer mention the “Do Not Disturb” sign?

A．To encourage us to use the cellphone as much as we can.

B．To persuade us not to worry about the ring of the cellphone.

C．To inform us that the cellphone is not to be disturbed in our life.

D．To ask us to make an apology when we don’t answer the cellphone call.

3. What does the underlined word “it” (Paragraph 7) most probably refer to?

A．answering a call from afar

B．talking to friend next to us

C．using the cellphone to chat with friends

D．communicating to keep the long-established friendship

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Cellphones require more attention than any other invention.

B．We sometimes throw the phone away when it is too disturbing.

C．The writer would rather continue his own work than be interrupted by the ring.

D．We should give priority to the cellphone as it has brought us so much convenience.

【推荐2】ELECTRICITY IS AT THE CORE OF MODERN LIFE. DESPITE THIS, THE FULL STORY OF THIS REVOLUTIONARY FORCE HAS REMAINED UNTOLD-UNTIL NOW.

Simply Electrifying offers the comprehensive story of one of mankind's most important journeys: from a time when only a few could even imagine a world with electricity to today when, for most of us, a world without electricity would be unimaginable.

Since the birth of the modern science of electricity 265 years ago, mankind has built a great structure to produce, deliver, and use electricity, thanks to a combination of pioneering science, innovative technology, wise business strategy, and pervasive (到处存在的) economic and environmental regulation.

Simply Electrifying brings to life the stories of the people that made it all possible- from early pathfinders like Benjamin Franklin, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, and Albert Einstein to innovators such as Samuel Morse, Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla. In modern times, business strategists and economic and environmental regulation driven by many, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rachel Carson, and even President Barack Obama, have shaped how we use and understand electricity in important ways. Today, Elon Musk and others are on the edge of again changing the way we think about and interact with it.

Simply Electrifying is painstakingly researched and beautifully written, showing us how both profit-makers and policy-makers must use a wide-angle lens to truly understand the past and predict the future.

1. According to the passage, the book Simply Electrifying is written to tell us ______.

A．pioneering science of electricity

B．the significant journey of electricity

C．the people who invented electricity

D．the research which was about electricity

2. Why is President Barack Obama mentioned in the book Simply Electrifying?

A．Because a policy maker is usually a top dog that can arouse the readers' interest.

B．Because a policy-maker can help promote the better use of electricity.

C．Because policy-makers can decide the future of the market.

D．Because policy-makers can control the economy through electricity.

【推荐3】Should we focus on our goal, or on the process?

What happened to Brenda Martinez, a US Olympic runner, may provide us with the answer. She lost her balance in the 800-meter run and failed to qualify for the Olympics. Instead of focusing on her failure, she prepared to win in the next race. “I just quickly let go of what happened in the 800m and got back to my routine, to focusing on all the little things I could do that would give me the best chance of running well later in the week,” she told New York Magazine. She said it was this mindset that led to her winning third place in the 1500-meter race about a week later to qualify for the Olympics in Rio. Instead of attaching herself to the goal of making the Olympic team, she concentrated on the process.

There is a problem with setting goals. Researchers from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern found that overemphasizing goals based on measurable outcomes often leads to risk-taking, unethical (不道德的) behavior and reduced motivation. Their results were published in a Harvard Business School report titled Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting.

When you become overly focused on achieving the goal, you may lose sight of your original purpose for accomplishing the goal in the first place. Another danger is actually completing the goal without setting a plan for what’s next. For example, some marathon runners experience what’s called the “post-race blues”. Achieving your goal may cause you to drop the good habits that got you there in the first place. Dieters often experience this in what’s called “yo-yo dieting” when they drop down to a desired weight, but then gain all the weight back when they resume (重新开始) their bad habits.

“After you set a goal, it’s best to shit your focus from the goal itself to the process that gives you the best chance of achieving it and to judge yourself based on how well you complete that process,” columnist Brad Stulberg wrote on the website The Cut.

Ultimately, changing your attention from goals to process will cause you to achieve little victories on your way to accomplishing long-term goals. Amy Cuddy, a Harvard Business School psychology professor, wrote that focusing on this process “leaves you with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, regardless of the measurable outcome”.

1. Why is Brenda Martinez’s experience mentioned in Paragraph 2?

A．To show opportunity favors the prepared mind.

B．To describe how important it is to set big goals.

C．To suggest learning from failure can bring success.

D．To show how focusing on the process can lead to success.

2. According to Paragraph 3, overemphasizing goals could bring about________.

A．the use of unfair means	B．ignoring the whole picture
C．overestimating the setbacks	D．being stressed by the risks involved

3. With the examples in Paragraph 4, the author intends to show that________.

A．we can’t focus on the goal too much

B．we must keep in mind why we set the goal

C．we should resume our habits when completing the goal

D．we should accept it is normal to feel down after success

4. What are the last two paragraphs mainly about?

A．Ways of judging a goal.	B．Ways to set long-term goals.
C．The best chance of achieving goals.	D．Benefits of focusing on the process.

5. The author supports his view ________.

A．by making a comparison	B．by reasoning with examples
C．by giving statistics	D．by doing an experiment